Chapter 32
"Kehihi! I must say I am truly enjoying this little spectacle that Obamon is providing us. Just watching those toys of hers run around like they can actually accomplish anything when they are nothing more than fools waiting for a punch line that is just a pie in the face."
"I must admit, ever since I heard about the kindly old lady in the woods I saw a wonderful opportunity to create chaos in the world, but I never assumed things would be taken this far. Truly some of my best work to date."
"Monsterizing an elderly lady to fatten up and devour her travelers is the best you can do? Oh, brother of mine you never cease to amuse me. Jester, you could take some pointers from him on how to come up with quality jokes and gags."
"My jokes are good! In fact their gut busting hilarious! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!"
"He who tries to be funny is only making a fool out of himself."
"What did you say?"
"Something that wiped that ever present grin from your face."
"You can belittle your brother all you want, but I refuse to be insulted by Mr. Perfect."
"And I refuse to be belittled by your brother or not."
"The fact that such petty remarks agitate you reveals weakness and immaturity."
"Why you!"
"Hold it! If we snap back we are only proving his point and if we try and come back at us with a snappy remark he's likely already got a counter for anything we say. I say we just save our energy for now and watch Obamon finish with her guests. That in itself will prove to my brother that I am not as weak as he believes."
"Yeah, you have a point. Let's do that and we can rub a pie in his face later."
"So, have you two come up with some childish counter yet or do you need a hint?"
"We're not going to say anything and prove your point. We're going to let Obamon make our point for us."
"Very good. After all, children should be seen, not heard."
"Why you!"
Snow and Drag ran with all their might out of the cavern as the massive foot stomped down on it hard, sealing it off with debris, but kept on pounding away relentlessly. The two ran as far from there as they could until they were barely able to feel the rumbling.
"How bad is he?" asked Drag, gently placing Zane on the ground, his body horribly beaten up.
"I'll give him a scan," replied Snow, placing his hands on Zane's body and using magic to detect all his injuries. "A bunch of fractures, but nothing seems broken. It looks like most of the injuries are mostly cosmetic."
"He got crushed by a massive foot," cried Drag. "How does anyone survive that with minor injuries?"
"He used his aura to shield him," answered Snow. "If not for that he would have been flat as a pancake. I remember from earlier he wasn't able to use his aura, but looks like he gained some use of it again. The problem now is his aura is unstable and it is going to do more harm than good if we don't do something quick."
"What can we do?" asked Drag. "Whatever it is whatever he needs we owe him too much to fail him now."
"Then turn around and let me rub your butt," instructed Snow.
"This is not the time for that?" argued Drag.
"Do you want to save him or not, Doggeh?" snapped Snow.
"I do," nodded Drag turning and letting Snow grope his butt for a bit.
"Ok, now let's get started," snickered Snow. "Give me your hands." Sighing, Drag placed his hands in Snow's and watched as Snow placed them on top of Zane before a strangling tingling sensation moved from Drag's fingertips up his arms to his entire body.
"What is happening?" asked Drag. "Feels like my strength is leaving me."
"Well it kind of is," explained Snow. "His aura naturally heals his body from injuries. If we can transfer enough of our power to fix his aura then he can heal on his own."
"Sounds simple enough," said Drag. "How much power do we need to give?"
"Seeing as Zane is naturally stronger than both of us, I'd say nearly all of it," replied Snow. "After that we'll all need time to rest. At least we're safe down here."
"Yeah, we can recover down here and regroup with everyone afterwards," stated Drag.
"Now get ready," warned Snow. "I was draining it slow so it tingled. I'm going to increase the power so this will hurt a bit."
"Gah!" gritted Drag as he felt his strength being zapped from his body and into Zane. He felt nearly ready to collapse when Snow let go of his hands and stopped the process, breathing heavily.
"That should do it," gasped Snow.
"But why isn't anything happening?" panted Drag. "He still isn't moving."
"It might not have been enough," admitted Snow. "We can only wait and see what happens."
They waited and watched, relieved greatly when they saw him gasp for air, then breathe more peacefully.
"He's alive! We saved him!" cheered Drag jumping for joy just as a gun fire echoed through the cave. As Drag's feet touched the ground again, he placed a hand on his cheek where it stung and felt a cut dripping a bit of blood.
"You had to move didn't you," grumbled Anikitty. "You ruined my shot, but looks like pesky power is temporarily disabled meaning now I can kill you." He caulked his gun and took aim again.
"Yure must've been following me," groaned Drag. "I'm out of power. How about you, Snow?"
"I can't even summon a slice of pizza," he admitted.
"Then take Zane and run," ordered Drag. "I'll handle Yure. This time I will turn him back to normal power or no power."
"You're so brave," cried Snow with admiration. "But rub for good luck?"
"Just get going," shouted Drag.
Sundae pelted chunks of ice cream at Glenn who was quick to block with his tree branches. Quick to seize an opening, Jokull played the card "Pyroxis, blazing rod of power." Aiming it at Sundae, he unleashed a hellish fire at the gorilla that scooped up the fire and converted it to ice cream as well.
"Now I taunt you because all your attacks are nothing to me," Sundae stated. "Then I attack you once again with a really powerful attack." Flinging the burning ice cream at Glenn and his tree shield, the flames quickly caught fire on it.
"I didn't think he could do that," cried Jokull.
"My weapon is not merely transformation," explained Sundae taking a taste of some of his leftover ice cream. "It is actually fusion. My ice cream scoops can make anything into ice cream, but keeps its key component if I want it to, of course. Uh, that is how I give an explanation right?"
"Something like that," groaned Glenn, breaking off the burning parts of his tree to save the rest of it. "Normally you wouldn't want to reveal all your powers to your enemies because then we can strike without worry."
"Oh, of course," he replied face palming. "I knew I was going to screw up at some point. Any chance you can just forget what I said?"
"Nope," Glenn answered branches bursting out of the ground and clinging tightly all over Sundae. The gorilla struggled to break free, but he couldn't even budge. "And now that we know what you can do, time to kill you and pillage your corpse of valuables."
"That's a bit much, robbing from a corpse, don't you think," commented Jokull.
"I'll split the ice cream scoops with you," replied Glenn.
"Deal," agreed Jokull, charging up Pyroxis to full power and aiming it at Sundae. Near max capacity, the dragon-shaped flame erupted out of it and flew at Sundae, swallowing his entire body and burning the earth black around him. Jokull's time expired on the card causing his rod to vanish immediately afterwards, but they smiled seeing the result of their work.
"Looks like that did the trick," said Glenn, approaching the spot where Sundae had been. "Not a trace of him left. Such a shame not even his ice cream scoops survived."
"That's a bit strange," thought Jokull scratching his chin. Suspicion quickly escalated the paranoia as he shouted at Glenn. "Get away from there! I don't think he's beaten just yet!"
"There where is he?" asked Glenn turning around as Sundae morphed out of the ground and picked him up with his ice cream scoop.
"He doesn't have a scratch on him," growled Jokull, charging forward, summon a mace from one of his cards. He swung it fast to build up its power before unleashing it at the gorilla. When it make contact with him it went through his body like it was made of sand. "What the heck is wrong with his body?"
"Heheheh," giggled Sundae happily. "I didn't reveal my special power to you so I got the drop of both of you. While my weapon fuses ice cream with whatever is scooped up I can eat the ice cream and gain that property myself. In this case, I was able to change my body to dirt and make that attack go right through me. It also helped me hide in the ground by melting into it. I also can do this." His body burst into flames as hot as the ones from Pyroxis. "Pretty neat huh, and let's not forget your friend here."
"What's going on?" groaned Glenn. "Why is it so hot?"
"Glenn?" called Jokull.
"Jokull?" moaned Glenn sitting up from the ice cream scoop, his body transformed into ice cream.
"He won't last much longer like this," explained Sundae plucking Glenn's puffball and swallowing it up. "If he melts, then there is no saving him. Come and get him if you think you can." A moogle puffball appeared atop Sundae's head.
"How dare you insult my friend by turning him into ice cream," snapped Jokull. "And how dare you insult ice cream by turning my friend into it. You have no honor! I'll never forgive you!"
As Snow carried Zane away to safety, he began to faintly recollect his fight against Dillon. As the massive yellow foot was coming down on him he was quick to use his aura to propel his body back and out of range of the stomp. Following up, he used his aura to propel him up to Dillon's paunch and he struck at him with the strongest aura sphere he could muster. It exploded on contact, but compared to Dillon's size it was incredibly insignificant.
"Pesky mosquitoes," grumbled Dillon swatting the air around him.
"Crap!" cried Zane, using his aura to fling his body out of reach of one hand coming straight at him and then again as the other hand came at him.
"Grah!" growled Dillon, swatting even wilder as he grew impatient to hit Zane as he speedily dodged his hands. Zane responded by moving just as fast, bobbing and weaving around them, but as a result he couldn't get a chance to counter. "You're making pissed!" Clapping his hands together with all his might, the force created a powerful shockwave in the air.
There was nothing Zane could do to avoid it as it forced him to the ground, but he managed to use his aura instead to reduce the damage as he cratered into the ground.
"Still not strong enough," he coughed. "But I won't give up."
"Zane..."
"Huh?"
"Zane..."
"Krystal is that you?"
"Zane... It is almost time. You will be ready soon."
"Ready? Ready for what?"
"And squish goes the buggy," derped Dillon smashing his foot down on him again.
"Crap," cried Zane too sore to dodge this time. Instead he erected a barrier to protect himself. The foot crushed down on him, but his shield held, but Dillon just kept up the assault, cracking aware at his defense. Zane continued to boost the shield to reinforce it despite the increasing strain it put on his body and his aura. "Can't give in yet. Everyone is counting on me. Krystal is too. I will survive this no matter..." Dillon brought his foot down once again, shattering the aura. Zane blacked out.
"Target is proving much more difficult to hit than anticipated for his size," observed Yure as he tried to getting Drag on the scope. "Changing tactics to close range pursuit."
"How long is it going to take to recover my strength?" cried Drag, his heart racing as he ran to get away.
"You can run and you can hide," called Yure. "But we both know that I can pursue you, I can find you, and now I can kill you."
"I don't want to fight you," pleaded Drag. "We're friends! Please don't do this."
"Friends?" laughed Yure. "Don't be ridiculous. The only ones I care about are my sister, Renamon, my brother Guilmon, and Obamama. I don't need anyone else, especially a fat, overweight, lizard like you!"
"What did you say?" stammered Drag, stopping in his tracks and turning around. "I don't care who it is, but nobody calls me a lizard! I'm a dragon!"
"A stupid dragon that loses his cool all too easy," added Yure already caught up to Drag claws drawn as he leapt at Drag and clawed at him.
"Faster than I remember you being," gasped Drag fumbling backwards from reflex. "But even without my magic you can't hurt me with just your bare claws."
"You think so?" asked Yure slashing at Drag's stomach and chest with his claws. Drag felt a sharp pain as his scales were scratched off his body with ease and his more vulnerable flesh was cut into. Swinging his arms in response, Yure trampolined off of Drag's body to dodge it, tactfully landing just out of reach.
"Ouch," groaned Drag seeing the cat scratches on his body. "How did you do that? You were never able to cut through anything tougher than paper before and now you just cut through dragon scales."
"Obamon didn't just give me a diaper full of deadly weapons," he boated. "I was given power to enhance my body. I can enhance my muscles to increase my speed and I can make my claws as hard diamonds to cut through anything and that's just for starters."
"I'm almost afraid to ask what else," panted Drag feeling woozy. "But I'm feeling weird after those scratches. What else was in those claws of yours? Some kind of poison?"
"That is correct," he answered. "But don't worry. It won't kill you. Cats are hunters by nature and I must say I've been enjoying the thrill of the hunt thus far. But to be a good sport, I'm giving you a ten second head start so you'd better run now while you can."
"Please, Yure!" begged Drag. "Don't do this!"
"Only eight seconds left," he commented.
"Damn it!" cried Drag as he turned and ran. "I can't do anything until I get my magic restored. I'll have to buy time as long as I can. Luckily, he is giving me a chance to run, but why do I have a terrible sense of dread?" As Drag kept running, he started seeing the cavern ahead of him widen more and more with each step and with each step he felt like he was making less distance than the one before it. Finally, he running came to a halt and he turned around to confirm the suspicion swimming in his head. At the sight before him he trembled. Yure was gigantic. No. Yure was normal, but Drag was tiny now, the size of a mouse!
"I never got the chance to play a game of cat and mouse before," Yure stated. "Try and make this entertaining before I eat you. Also, ten seconds are up." Yure gave chase and Drag returned to running, sprinting with all his might, a dozen of his footsteps now equaling one of Yure's.
"Snow?" yawned Zane as he finally began to come to his senses. "Is that you?"
"Yeah it's me," he replied. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired, but much better than I thought I'd be," he answered. "I thought I overloaded my aura, but it seems just fine now."
"You have Drag and I to thank for that," panted Snow. "We used our own strength to help you recover. You would still be catatonic or worse if we didn't treat you fast."
"Then I owe you both my life," he said.
"You saved us plenty of times in the past and as Drag said we owe it to you even more as our friend to help you."
"Thanks, but are you okay?" asked Zane. "We both put on a few tons since by the look of things, but you look especially worn out."
"Just a side effect from using my magic energy to restore your aura to normal," he explained. "I have begun recovering my strength, but until we recover enough we had best lay low. Luckily I see a way out of these caves."
"No. We shouldn't go outside," warned Zane. "It is too dangerous."
"It isn't any safer in here," replied Snow. "Yure found us and who knows who else could be in here. Best to be in an open space so we have more space to move in. We could get trapped down here and that'd be the end of us."
"It'll be worse to go out there," stated Zane as Snow exited the underground.
"We'll be able to recover faster with fresh air anyway," added Snow turning his head to Zane. "We just need to have faith we don't run into any enemies." His running was stopped short as he collided with something that he hadn't seen in front of him moments ago. "Where did this mountain come from?" Looking up, he got his answer as he saw it was not a mountain, but the side of Dillon's foot and way up above, the massive Armadillomon was looking down on them.
"Fe fi fo fat! I can see where you're at," he snickered lifting his foot high in the air. "And this time you'll go splat!"
"Sorry I didn't listen to you," said Snow. "At that size we don't stand a chance against him. Maybe we can run back underground."
Dillon's massive foot stomped down on the cavern opening and crushed it into rubble. "I won't make the mistake of losing sight of my prey again. And you too Snow? You are now a traitor to Obamon? You are now my prey too!"
"I didn't betray her," countered Snow. "The brainwashing over me was undone and we are going to do that same to you. As we are now, we are stronger than you could ever hope to imagine."
"What are you doing?" asked Zane. "We don't stand a chance at our current strength."
"I know that," admitted Snow quietly. "I'll throw everything I got at him and when I do you run for it."
"You'll be killed if you fight him now," argued Zane. "I was lucky to survive him before, but he won't be careless this time."
"And that is why you have to get out of here while you can," he explained. "When I was scanning your body I saw how messed up your aura was, but I could see beyond it, to something truly extraordinary. You're aura is growing stronger. It has been sleeping inside your body for a while ripening like a banana. Once it is ready to be peeled I can't even imagine how strong you'll be."
"Was that what Krystal was trying to tell me?" asked Zane. "When will my aura be ready?"
"Soon," answered Snow. "But it won't do us any good if you get killed before then. Your power could be the key to our survival."
"And that is why I can't leave you to die for my sake," stated Zane. "I won't leave you behind."
"Sounds like you two are having a real touching moment," said Dillon derp-faced. "But now you go smoosh for the final time." Lifting his foot up he prepared to bring it down on top of them.
"I'm really getting tired of him trying to step on me," sighed Zane.
