Battle
“Maria,” said a panicked Ren. “Something’s coming. We gotta get out of here!”
A curse grunted out of Maria. She stabbed a finger towards the open door. “Get out! Help me!”
Ren stooped to reach for her but felt the door they were holding up come down with them. With a terrific heave the hinge broke with a terrible metallic screech and remained open at an obtuse angle. Ren grabbed the cabin frame and hauled themself out, first sitting on the door frame and then standing precariously on the car’s side. The evil digimon was closer. Its maw fell open and showed off a deep, orange glow like a furnace. Its big, ungainly head reeled back and hurled forth a great fireball that careened into an abandoned car. Tendrils of black smoke rippled up into a mushroom cloud. It was still several meters away and Ren could feel the heat coming off it.
Maria was sitting on the remains of the driver’s window, reaching her hand up. Ren grabbed it and hauled her like a fish from the water. While she dangled from their grip she turned her head and saw the approaching menace. “Shit! It’s a virus.”
“A what?”
“A virus!” she shouted as if they hadn’t heard and would’ve understood what that was. “I thought we got rid of them!”
And I thought this realm was going to be easy. “Apparently not.” Ren placed her on the street on the side of the car’s undercarriage. They hopped down and squatted to take cover. “What do we do?”
Maria shot them a look. “What do we do? We kick its ass, of course! Can’t let this thing blow up the whole city!”
Ren’s code fluctuated into a taut string of terror, the equivalent of blood running cold. “Uh… OK.” Maria was fidgeting with her digivice, activating buttons Ren had no idea the meaning of. Her hand was bleeding. She had to have been concussed from the accident. “We should get out of here! You’re hurt! Someone else on patrol can’t be that far away!”
Maria looked up at them with enough ferocity in her gaze to make them recoil with fear. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been hurt a hell of a lot worse than this! You know that.” Then, before Ren could stop her, she shot to her feet and ran around the car, straight towards the virus. “It’s gonna take a lot more than that to kill me!”
“Maria!” Ren ran after her. The moment they were out from behind the car there was an icy thrum of exposure to the virus’s attacks. Common sense told Ren to grab Maria and scram, but hard coding and battle instincts accelerated them into a sprint that went past their partner and into the heat of battle. No turning back. I’m in the thick of it now.
The virus spotted the coming challengers and let out a terrible cackle. Its leg tentacles swam into a frenzy, propelling it forwards with frightening speed. Those huge, psychopathic eyes put a bead on Ren. Ren didn’t stop or slow down, not with this much momentum trucking them along. I hope this body knows what it’s doing, because I sure don’t!
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 04 January 2026
