Ayame's Chronicles- A Change on the Wind, Part 2
#9 of Ayame's Chronicles
In our last chapter, Takami's team was finally deployed into the digital world on their first real mission! However, it was meant for a more seasoned group... Takami showed his mettle when put to the wall, but can his two friends follow up, or will they perish earlier than the audience expects?
In another section of the forest, Suri is busy running through the various thickets of the forest; darting through tree trunks, sliding down steep hills and leaping over roots. Behind her are four large avian-digimon, all shooting flaming projectiles from the tips of their feathered limbs at every few wing beats. Suri quickly turns around to identify them with her digivice and then ducks right before a branch nearly smacks her in the face. "I would have to get stuck against four Birdramon... Just my luck," she mutters to herself. As if navigating the forest isn't hard enough, the Birdramon's attacks keep on igniting anything dry they touch, setting it ablaze and cutting off more and more of Suri's dwindling escape routes. "If only I could find a ...!" She spots a beam of natural sunlight light between a couple of trunks and dives through it, now coming out to the shore of a lake.
"Finally, an open area..." The Birdramon swoops over her, creating a powerful gust and reels around for another attack. Suri whips out her digivice from her belt. "Dorumon realize!" Dorumon appears in a swirl of data, fully aware of the compromising situation they were in.
"Okay, now that you lured them out, what next? I don't think they'll like to stick around for me to actually hit them from the ground..." Dorumon asks her while he turns towards the incoming opponents. He fires a few Metal Bursts, only causing them to swoop around and scatter.
"Just hold on, I have an idea!" Suri says while searching through her digivice for something. Another Birdramon swoops down to Dorumon, trying to grab him by his head. With a quick duck, he keeps all but a few hairs on his tail. "Oh, sure, take your time. I've got all day..." he yells worriedly, making sure not to take his eyes off all the talon-tipped feet eager to swipe at his head.
"Quit your complaining, I found it!" Suri holds out her digivice toward Dorumon, "Digi-modify: Hyperwing activate!" Dorumon blinks, feeling a strange surge of energy on its small wings on its back. Data amasses around them then joins together, making four large silver wings.
Dorumon smirks and yells out, "I think I can work with this," and leaps up in the air, giving his wings a couple flaps. Suri takes note of how awkward his flying is while attempting to dodge the Birdramon swooping by him. 'This is harder than it looks...'
'This is bad... he isn't used to flying like they are. We've only used Hyperwings for levitating and elevating, but never combat...' Suri thinks to herself while she clenches her digivice, mimicking a child watching lions toy with a baby antelope. Dorumon continues firing shots off at the Birdramon, only to have them dodge effortlessly. One of them decides to stop playing around with the inexperienced rookie and shoots out a Meteor Wing at Dorumon, the fireballs much bigger than the ones they were chasing Suri with. He barely dodges it by ascending over the radical cone of fire, only to be hit in the back by another one using Mach Grinder, slashing at him with its sharp talons. Dorumon starts to fall but saves himself by using his tail as a rudder. Each flap of his temporary wings is a stinging reminder of these champion levels' ability to rend him, as deep gashes adorn his back. It was too soon for him to take respite, for as soon as he stops moving, the remaining two Birdramon fire off simultaneous Meteor Wings from Dorumon's two sides. The colliding attacks create a small explosion in the air and finally a singed and smoking Dorumon plummeting towards the lake. 'This escalated... rather quickly. They were toying with me all along,' Dorumon thinks to himself as he slowly closes his eyes, unable to even focus on the rapidly approaching surface of the water.
Suri watches in horror as her partner plummets from the sky. 'No... he can't...' She clenches her digivice tighter.
'He has to...' Thoughts of Dorumon hitting the water and drowning from his inability to swim flood Suri's mind, that is, if he was even alive once he does.
'No...' Her hand not clenching her digivice is enveloped in a purple aura of code.
"D... Doru... DORUMONNNN!!!" A light foreign to her beams out from her digivice, shooting straight for Dorumon. Even if she can't fully hear it, her digivice both proclaims and displays one phrase on its screen: Digivolution
While falling, the light from Suri's digivice envelops Dorumon into a cocoon of data, his eyes bolting open, "Dorumon digivolve to...!" Within the storm, his form shifts, starting with his back. The tiny stubs of Hyperwings disappear, along with his original wings. Next his claws lengthen significantly, competing with Birdramon's and his fur shifts from a lavender to a deeper hue of blue and lavender. Finally, his wings reform, now much larger than before, giving him a wingspan at least as long as his body. Once his transformation is complete, the data storm around him explodes and he stretches his new wings, gliding along the lakes edge. "Dorugamon," he says in a deeper, yet calmer way.
Suri stares in amazement as he spins back up into the air and tackles one Birdramon out of their formation, startling them with his increased speed. While the Birdramon is still off guard, Dorugamon opens his mouth and opens his mouth, "Power Metal!" A ball of silver launches towards two of the Birdramon, piercing them both through the chest, reverting them into digi-eggs. He turns to the last pair and dashes toward them, only to turn upward before making actual contact. Before the Birdramon can even turn their heads around, Dorugamon managed to turn around and not only pierces their chests with his talons, but also slices downward, reverting them to match their companions as they wail in agony. With all of the enemies defeated, Dorugamon descends to land in front of his tamer, towering over her after his transformation. Suri's eyes water from the lack of blinking, for she had been staring ever since he digivolved. He smiles and licks her cheek to snap her back into reality, "Well don't just stand there and stare; say something."
Suri's arms wrap around his neck into a hug, which was extremely rare for her, this being perhaps his fourth hug ever since she's known him, "You idiot, I thought you were in deep trouble out there!"
"I was, until you helped me digivolve. And I have to admit, I am seriously liking the wings!" He flaps his wings for emphasis and causes her to giggle a little, "These things are awesome!"
"Glad you like them. Think they're strong enough to keep airborne while we search for the others from the sky?" She asks while moving around to hop on his back, still holding onto his neck.
"I think I can keep us from plummeting, at least for a bit," Dorugamon responds while leaping up and takes to the skies, scanning the forest from above.