Resentment of the Archer [Adrian]

Rory pondered over Adrian’s question. He thought of what he knew about his former friend, and let them know what he knew of him.

“Well, when he was a classmate, he was something of a charmer, so he could have friends working with him in this, but he always liked to be the leader.” the Coronamon began. “And he learned from Mr. Owen’s classes too, he was near the top of Survival class wasn’t he?”

“That he was.” Owen said, clearly regretting giving this digimon the skills he needed to be this much of a threat. “And yes, that is the core of this mission, stand them down peacefully if you can. None of us want the wrong people to think that this school is an armed facility and give them an excuse to take it out in a concentrated attack. It is simply a place of learning.”

“Absolutely, Mr. Owen.” Rory said, horrified at the thought of what they’d do if they were forced into combat. “With dad here though, we should be able to at least show them that we don’t mean to fight to the death, just that we'll respond with enough force if they threaten us.”

Owen was satisfied that Adrian, Shoutmon and Rory understood what was going on here. “Alright then. Rail traffic for now is closed on the branch line while you do your sweep. Pay close attention to the bridges in the area, they’re the most likely targets for attacks on the railroad.”

When that briefing was concluded, Rory proceeded by foot along the track through the forest. It was lush and thriving for this time of the year, although with the autumn winds starting to blow in, some trees looked yellower than others. The branch line wound its way through a somewhat hilly terrain, a trackbed carved through the sides of hills under the heavy canopy of the Eastern Timberlands. Rory knew from his training that danger could be anywhere, but as the sounds of construction on the schoolhouse faded, it was almost peaceful here in the forest. Wind rustled the leaves above, some falling as the season took them.

It was the air of possible hostility that prevented Rory from relaxing, but, the presence of Shoutmon and Adrian reassured him so that he didn’t feel nervous.

“Heh, maybe we could go camping here sometime, dad.” he suggested, mainly to break the silence. “It’s a nice trail here. Good views, close to water, and right next to the school branch line.” Memories of several Survival field trips made him spot several suitable campsites for such a thing.

Rory knew that this line of pleasant conversation couldn’t continue for very long, especially now that he knew that his former friend was definitely an enemy. The Coronamon took a deep breath and answered his father honestly.

“He was once a friend.” he began, speaking in a monotone voice to hide the emotions he felt behind the words. “He joined Mr. Owen’s academy at the same time as me so we could learn things together, but, then things happened that he didn’t like and got jealous of. Like you, Mr. Owen and me getting to grow close to humans and he didn’t. He took it as an insult. W-we…” Rory stammered as he brought up bad memories, but took some breaths to regain his composure. “We fought pretty badly at one point. He demanded I give him the secrets to bonding with humans, given that I’m your son and you have a human partner… we hurt each other pretty bad, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it, I thought it would be the end of it when I broke his nose and he said we were through. But… I never thought he’d be as rotten as this, aiming to hurt innocents that just want to build a school.”

It took a few moments, but Rory realized he was weeping a little. He quickly wiped the tears from his eyes and looked up at Shoutmon.

“If we’ve gotta fight him, please let’s not kill him.” he asked. “He’s just being an enormous dickhead. I mean of course we’ve gotta stop him, he’s threatening a school for Jesmons’ sake. Just… not have it be his death sentence?”

As they travelled further, they were indeed close to a bridge through the heavy forest of the Eastern Timberlands that connected Rosewood with the school construction site. Rory thought that this was close to where his old friend would stake his attack position. And once again, he looked to his father.

“He’s misguided, jealous and foolish, so those are the things we have to deal with.” he said, thinking of what his mother Skye would assess about the situation. “So do you think we’re ready to confront him here?” he asked, turning to Adrian as well, given that the human might have an opinion about the situation as well.

Rory immediately felt embarrassed that he had let his true emotions slip, especially in front of his father. Dammit, he was supposed to keep such things under control, but that was too much to expect at the moment, being sent on a mission to possibly exterminate a former friend who had turned into such a monster that would sabotage the building of a school.

He appreciated both how strong and warm Shoutmon was, realizing he had rarely hugged him like this before. This wasn’t like a flirty hug he had with other digimon he was dating with, it was a parental hug. He rarely had these with his mother Skye either, so it was unusual for him, but it filled him with confidence at their task ahead.

“Thanks, dad, but don’t be sorry, at the time it was a problem I thought I could handle, and I did it in my own way, you or mom getting involved probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome.” Rory said in response, his voice discarding the monotone and he was able to speak with a smile on his face again, even if his eyes remained a little watery.

He also appreciated Adrian’s words, it enforced the feeling that digimon and humans can and should live among another. That they shared such experiences, it was a good thing what they were aiming for with harmony between humans and digimon. Yes, Rory had heard all the stories about how even though most humans were nice, the worst of them tended to become leaders, make horrible decisions and actions and bring about the worst outcomes possible, he was sure people like Adrian or his brother’s partner Serena would never be like that. “Yeah, cheers.” he said, wiping away his tears and turned back toward the tracks, feeling more determined.

Shoutmon promised he’d try not to kill him, but of course such a thing could not be guaranteed in combat. Rory understood with a nod. “Yeah, can’t save him from himself if it comes to it.” he replied, “...but maybe if we knock him about a bit he might be more willing to listen.” That seemed like a better route, if words failed, maybe some fisticuffs to clear his ears would work?

Rory agreed with the plan to take the lead over the bridge. The Coronamon did so, flicking his yellow scarf back over his shoulders and marched onto the wooden trestle structure. “Well, I’m here, Veemon!” he shouted out to the surrounding forest, over the rush of the river below. “We got wind of your plan, so are you gonna give up this bullshit or-”

The Coronamon’s speech was cut off when the wooden sleeper he was about to step upon shattered. He gasped and forced himself to fall backwards onto the previous one so as not to fall into the river below.

“Of course, they send you.” a deep but familiar voice spoke. Rory quickly got back to his feet as he saw what was approaching. An blue centaur-like digimon with black armor, wielding a glowing longbow with an arrow in place for shooting. “You do realize you’d be dead right now if I aimed three feet higher?”

Rory took a moment to compose himself, but he managed to do so. Shoutmon and Adrian had his back after all. “Yeah, I realize that.” he replied. “But the fact that you didn’t tells a tale in itself. Why didn’t you, Sagittarimon?”

“Because if I did, your dad would’ve immediately evolved to Mega thanks to his pet human and killed me.” Sagittarimon answered. “Don’t think I’m that stupid, you’re here to talk me down, aren’t you? If your school wanted to deal with me quickly then that fool dog Owen would be here instead of you.”

Rory held back a venomous response that probably wouldn’t have improved the tone of the conversation. He supposed saying ‘Wow, you playing a game where you bitch-talk everyone I care about?’ would be unproductive, so instead he did his best to keep his head cool, took a deep breath, and asked what he thought was the most important question.

“Why do you want to do this?” he asked Sagittarimon. “We know your plan, you want to destroy this bridge when a Trailmon full of supplies, humans or even students are crossing and kill them all. What brought you to this madness?”

“Madness?” Sagittarimon repeated, scowling. “You call my intentions madness?” the centaur-dragon digimon pointed in the direction of Adrian. “The true madness is letting people like him free to walk and shape the digital world as they please!”

“So your problem is with the humans.” Rory concluded. “And just how does building a school justify murder and terrorism?”

“It nips the noxious weed in the bud, that’s what it does!” Sagittarimon snarled in response. “It starts with this so called innocent school, and ends with people like him in 50 years’ time bringing ruin to the digital world, like they have with their own world!”

That line took Rory by surprise. His knowledge of the human world was quite limited, but thankfully with Adrian here there was a fully grown human to argue this point.

“That’s absurd, these guys don’t want to bring ruin to the digital world at all!” he said, hoping they would be able to argue that case with strong grounds.

Rory was glad for the catch from Shoutmon. Railway bridges weren’t designed for easy pedestrian crossing, and losing balance and falling to the river below was a genuine danger. "Thanks, dad" he breathed.

Thankfully Adrian did approach and make his statement to the other digimon. Rory thought it was perfectly reasonable. There were good things about both worlds, and really, the only thing that was preventing their harmony were assholes like Sagittarimon. And whatever humans were like him in the human world, not that Rory knew much about them. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to move Sagittarimon.

“Oh you naive fool, that’s how you humans have operated since your civilizations began.” he snarled, suddenly putting on a false, light, friendly tone. “Oh, hello new people, let’s live together in peace and harmony…” then his voice returned to the growl before. “Then your grey-haired elders decide to take and take until they hold all the power once their colonial subjects lower their guard and reveal their weaknesses, then you swipe in and seize it.” he then turned to Rory. “Ask your human friend for a history book, Rory, they’ve done this for thousands of years!”

Rory didn’t need to ask, he had learned a lot about human warfare from tales of friends and family. But Shoutmon had also raised a good point. “So your solution is this, to commit mass murder, right? You disgust me. To think I once called you my friend...”

“Hah! Scorn me all you like, Rory, you can’t change what’s going to happen one way or another.” Sagittarimon spat back. Rory was initially taken aback by these words. With both him and his father here, they could defeat Sagittarimon easily, but, here was the dragon-centaur digimon facing them on with confidence. Why was that? Did he have a plan for his own defeat? He had allowed himself to be caught after all… wait, there had to be a plan behind this. Given that Sagittarimon seemed to be ideologically driven, surely there was advice that the others that had filled him with this evil propaganda had also given him. Then all at once, he realized.

“...dead man’s switch.” Rory stated, his glare intensifying. “Even if we destroy you here, the bridge will be destroyed regardless. That’s why you’re so confident, right?”

Sagittarimon’s eyes widened momentarily, then narrowed in a sneer. “That’s right, Rory. While your mutt of a teacher is misguided in his love of humans, I knew he’d send overwhelming force the moment the whiff of our plan reached his nose. So even if you do manage to kill me, this bridge will blow when the next Trailmon crosses it.”

Rory’s fists shook momentarily, then he took a deep breath, calming himself. “Well then. I’ll just have to make you disable whatever mechanisms you have set up here myself.”

“Oh is that so?” Sagittarimon asked in a sneering voice. “Just by yourself? Not having daddy have his pet human evolve him to Mega and pin me down while you get some free punches in? You think that’ll make me break in what I’m aiming for here?”

“...just what is it that you’re aiming for here?” Rory asked, by now his expression matching his mother’s when she was at her most dangerous. Despite the flames on his forehead, tail and wrists, his eyes were colder than ice.

“The start of a chain reaction.” Sagittarimon replied, surprisingly fast. “Yes, some workers and a Trailmon might be destroyed, but your human friends will be outraged and send in their usual death squads, and I doubt your precious human-digimon school would be able to function with them around.”

“Death squads?” Rory repeated, blinking in confusion. “What the hell do you mean? Human death squads?”

“Oh? Have your human friends kept you in the dark about that?” Sagittarimon asked, clearly grinning under his face mask. “What their little organization DATS did to this world a while ago?”

“DATS…” Rory repeated, frowning. “They were dispersed last I heard of them, their human leader was even arrested.” he grew some confidence from remembering this. “If anything that’s proof the humans know better now from whatever it was they did from back then.”

“It’s proof that their most recent leader was a fool that acted too quickly.” Sagittarimon countered. “Their long term goals remain the same, to plunder the digital world and subjugate all digimon, thanks to the information that sycophants like you freely provide them.”

Rory had enough of this pointless argument, he was determined to put an end to it. “So then. If you think that’s the case, then let’s fight for it. Just you and me. Leave everyone else out of it.” he raised an eyebrow in an effort to try and provoke his former friend into this situation. “That’s how the noble old way of digimon work, right? One against one, not going the sneaky human way of teaming up against those that don’t agree with you.”

“Hah, you think you can beat me now?!” Sagittarimon shot back. “What’s the idea here? You throw me off this bridge with one of the tricks you learned from the blue mutt?”

“I’ll thank you to not call Mr. Owen that anymore.” Rory replied calmly. “And we can do this on solid ground if you prefer. Here’s the wager. If you beat me, no further construction will happen to the school and you’ll have your goal reached. But if I beat you, you’ll dismantle all and every means you have set in place to destroy this bridge, and you’ll never try something like this again. We got a deal?”

“Ah, a battle like the old ways. Now you’re talking like a true digimon.” Sagittarimon replied. “To think humans have even outlawed duelling in their world. This will be perfect, I get to defeat you fair and square, and with witnesses no less!”

Rory turned to Adrian and Shoutmon, hoping that they’d go along with this. The Coronamon felt that this was really something he needed to settle this way.

Sagittarimon addressed Shoutmon. “There are times when great changes demand sacrifice, and I’m prepared to do so to make this change happen!”

“And I’ll stop you!” Rory declared, trying his best to hold his temper. He would not lose it here. Many lessons with Owen and the experiences he had in his memory from Skye and Shoutmon had proven that would make things worse. “You’ve fallen, Sagittarimon, but here, I’ll stop you before you fall beyond redemption.”

“Redemption? What do you mean by that?” Sagittarimon asked.

“You haven’t killed anyone yet, even though you’re attempting to.” Rory pointed out, speaking in a gentler voice. “You can back down from this, right now if you want. Just tell us how you mean to destroy this bridge, and who put all these evil thoughts in your head. You will be held in custody for taking it this far, I won’t lie about that, but, just please, consider your best way out of this. I’m sorry for hurting you all that long ago, I shouldn’t have lost my temper…”

Sagittarimon by now was shaking a little. There was hesitation. Shoutmon then asked Rory if he was sure about this.

“I’m sure, dad.” Rory replied. “This is how it has to be. I have to stop him myself, if only to make up for the path I put him on.”

Rory was glad that Adrian backed him up in this, given that it was clear that it would take more than the words of a human to dissuade him. And while Shoutmon didn’t like standing on the sidelines, Adrian’s idea to go forward and warn any approaching Trailmon to not approach.

“That’s a good idea, they have to go slow in this area, you should be able to stop them in time.” Rory said, thinking that’d be a perfect job for Adrian and Shoutmon. “Oh, Adrian, you should wave your jacket on a clear stretch of track, trains know that a red flag is a sign to stop.” He then turned back to Sagittarimon. “So then. We’ll take this to your side of the bridge, if we’re gonna do this.”

“Fine by me.” Sagittarimon replied, and turned, somewhat awkwardly, Rory noticed. How could such a digimon have rigged this bridge to be destroyed? He didn’t seem particularly nimble, and even as a Veemon he didn’t do particularly well in the training courses for agility. But he had to focus now. He had no doubt that in his armor form he was strong. So once they were clear on the far bank, they opposed each other, ready for the fight.

“So, you ready?” Rory asked, keeping his voice and stance steady.

“Very much so.” Sagittarimon replied, and a glowing golden longbow appeared on his left claw. “You broke my nose once, Rory, I’m ready with bells on to do the same to you.”

Rory could tell that he wasn’t joking, he could see where he was aiming, straight at his face. If an arrow struck him there, he’d be destroyed on the spot. And given Sagittarimon had the advantage of ranged combat, Rory had to make sure to make his first move count. Sure enough, Sagittarimon drew his bow with an arrow formed, then fired, just as expected at his face. Rory was prepared for this, diving to the right, then when in a controlled roll, roared ”Shining Time!” and at once his body burst with strong flames, the orange turning blue, his fires intensifying.

“So you intend to finish this quickly?” Sagittarimon asked, readying another arrow, tracking Rory’s movements, then fired at what he thought would be his destination, but Rory instantly reacted by jumping in the air, his fire-wrists bursting with flames.

”Fire Stream!” Rory snarled, as blue flames spiraled up through his body into the air, coalescing in a cloud of fire, then burst forth a pillar of flame down on Sagittarimon, who grunted in pain from the attack. Rory landed, but knew things would go downhill fast. Sagittarimon quickly caught on that trying to shoot him as fast as he was was pointless, so he took advantage of Rory needing to catch his breath after his initial onslaught by stampeding toward him, aiming to close the distance and crush him with his massively bigger body. Rory tried to dodge-dive it, but his opponent changed trajectory easily and managed to stomp on his arm before he could clear it.

The pain was immense. Rory screamed in pain, he tried to move his fingers, but he couldn’t. A broken bone. But he had one thing left up his sleeve, recovering from the pain enough to clear his mind.

“You haven’t forgotten I can heal, right?” he asked, as me moved the healing ring on his tail to his arm. The bone mended, but was still fragile. His healing wasn’t yet strong enough to fully recover from an attack like that.

“Clever, but you won’t be able to do that forever.” Sagittarimon responded. Rory tried to hide that he acknowledged this fact to be true. Instead, he focused on the lessons Owen taught him, that he remembered from his parents, this was not over yet.

---

Meanwhile, it seemed that a Trailmon Mole had not received the memo that the route ahead was dangerous. He grumbled as he approached the speed sign to slow down before crossing the bridge over the river to the new School. Well, all that mattered for his paycheck was to get this crew of engineers and worker digimon there safely, so that’s what he would do.

Rory smiled back at his father. That he had this trust in him, it made him more confident that this would work. As Adrian and Shoutmon left the scene and their duel began, Rory tried his best to hold his ground, but it wasn’t easy against the giant armored dragon-centaur. Sagittarimon weighed about the same as a car and had broken his arm from simply stomping on it, but Rory’s healing abilities kept him in the fight.

“So is this your strategy? Flail about and heal yourself from whatever damage I inflict until I take pity on you?” Sagittarimon asked, almost lazily arming another arrow and fired it in Rory’s general direction without aiming. Rory could tell from his training that the arrow wasn’t aimed at him, so he stood his ground without flinching. “Well if that’s the case I might as well blow the bridge now and be done with this charade. As you say, I won’t kill anyone, but it sure will be inconvenient for you…”

“You will do no such thing!” Rory snarled, his fires glowing white, his tailring glowing. He knew this was his last opportunity to launch this attack, that he had learned from his mother. He drew energy not only from the sun above, but the earth below, blue-white streams of light erupting like snakes and converged on his opponent.

“W-what is this?!” Sagittarimon asked, having initially tried to turn around to the bridge, but found quickly that Rory’s attack was preventing him from moving.

“HOLY!” Rory snarled, and as though guiding the streams of light with his hands, clasped them together.

“Holy what-” Sagittarimon asked, then figured out what was happening an instant later. A razing, white-hot stream of energy engulfed him all at once, delivering enormous pain. Rory panted, satisfied that he had brought him to his knees, but he turned to glare with him with a look of utmost hatred. “You little bastard… you’ll pay for that!” he snarled, and launched another arrow at him. Rory was able to dodge it, but only just, he realized his chest was heaving from all the energy spent in these last few attacks, and the effects of his “Shining Time” ability that caused his attacks to be powered up had run out, his flames turning back to orange from the blue they were. He realized he was probably in a lot of trouble here, since his Holy attack hadn’t done as much damage as he hoped to his armored opponent.

---

The Trailmon Mole that was heading toward the bridge quickly paid attention to Adrian and Shoutmon. While he was focused on his paycheck initially, being warned that a bridge ahead wasn’t safe to cross was something that snatched his attention quickly. “The bridge?! Oh no! I can’t swim!” he thought as he applied his brakes. ”Oh, and the passengers I’m bringing along too, they probably won’t like it...”

Still though, he came to a stop in front of Adrian and Shoutmon.

“What’s the problem?” he asked, hoping they could come up with a fix quickly. If the Trailmon had to go back in reverse, he’d have to do annoyingly slowly. Then he saw the flashes of the fight happening ahead. “Oh… oh that’s not good.” traveling through a battlefield was definitely against the code of operations for Trailmons.

“Hey, wait a minute, you said somethin’ didn’t you?” a new voice spoke. A wooden golem digimon stepped down from the carriage that the Trailmon was pulling. “The bridge ain’t safe? How so? Oh, the name’s Arbormon, I’m the chief engineer here. I’m meant to be workin’ on the school today, but if the bridge ain’t safe, I can maybe help solve that.”

Arbormon paused as he saw the flashes of the fight ahead.

“...just as long as we stay clear of whatever’s happenin’ there.” he added.

---

Sagittarimon was seething with rage from Rory’s Holy attack. It brought him back to their days in school, where this little orange punk regularly dodged and parried his direct physical attacks and countered with magic tricks like this, and “Mr. Owen” declared Rory’s strategy to be superior. He spat venomous words at Rory in response.

“Trick you learned from mommy, eh?” he asked, turning back to face him. “Sanctioned by daddy, right? Oh, by daddy I assume “Mister Owen” rather than that red idiot back there?”

“You shut your fucking face.” Rory responded, surprised at his own outrage at this insult. Sagittarimon grinned with the knowledge he had got under Rory’s skin.

“What? So offended? Don’t lie to yourself, you think of ‘Mister Owen’ much more as your dad than Loudmon or whatever his name is.” Sagittarimon continued. "Face it, you think of yourselves as a lovely little fake human family when you're not."

“Don’t you…” Rory growled, trembling as he struggled to contain the rage he felt from those words. “Don’t you dare insult my family like that…” he would have attacked if he hadn’t been somewhat exhausted from launching his charged Holy attack, as well as the lingering pain from using a simple healing spell to mend a broken bone so quickly. But he could feel from the start not to react to these lies. He knew who his real parents were. Skye and Shoutmon. While Owen had been his teacher, he never thought of him as a father figure. Shoutmon was always there for him when he needed. He and Owen were friends, and Owen always kept a professional relationship with him, not like Shoutmon, who would fully give his familial love and care whenever Rory needed it.

”Focus that anger. Control it.” he could feel his mother’s data.

”And use it to kick that bastard’s ass!” he could feel his father’s data.

Rory took a deep breath, then as he exhaled, he felt something exceedingly warm pulse from deep within his digicore. He glared daggers at Sagittarimon.

“My parents are Skye and Shoutmon…” he said in a tempered, loud voice, and as he did so, the flame on his left wrist burst with yellow flame. “My brothers are Luneth and Gem…” the flame on his right wrist also burst with golden light. “My teacher is Mr. Owen…” the flame on his tail was the next to burst with this energy. “And my friends… everyone I’ve grown to love…” the flame on his forehead was the next to erupt with energy. “I WILL NOT LET YOU DESTROY THE THINGS WE CARE ABOUT!!”

Thoughts rushed through his mind, what would happen if Sagittarimon was allowed to succeed, the chain of devastation and despair that would follow. No. He couldn’t lose to a cause like this. All this emotion, he drew back into his core, and then he felt it. His body transforming, growing in both size and power. Such a display made Sagittarimon freeze in place, his red eyes wide with both horror and awe.


Sagittarimon was now the one to tremble, Rory’s heightened senses could hear the rattle of his armor as he did so.

“Scared now, are you?” he asked, his voice now a deep rumble. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. De-digivolve to your Rookie level, Veemon, and surrender on your own accord, or I’ll make you.”

“I… I can’t.” Sagittarimon replied, sounding hesitant as though he wanted to say more. He raised his bow again. “You might have digivolved, Rory, but that doesn’t mean you’ve won yet.”

“That’s a shame.” Rory said, flicking his tail. He saw that he still had the healing ring attached to it that he had inherited from his mother. “You’ll live to regret those words. You should fear digimon that know how to heal…” he narrowed his fierce blue eyes. “Because we know how to put you back together after we break you.”

From these words, Rory could swear he could see fear form on Sagittarimon's masked face.