Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

5) Discoveries Anew

Hikari caught sight of a flash of darkness outside the window, and she let out a gasp. She was near the front of the group alongside Koushiro, Miyako, and their partners, giving her a clear view of the world outside the window. She glanced over in Miyako's direction, waiting for confirmation as to if her companion had seen what she had. 

The first person to take off running was Ken. He was stationed near the back of the crowd, and Hikari was willing to take that as a reassurance that she was not the only one who had seen the sudden flash. The rest of the Chosen Children followed him, and their trip to the Digital World was forgotten immediately. Hikari was glad that Miyako hadn't opened the gateway yet for them to pass through. If her suspicions were to be confirmed, then that meant that they were about to find another Digimon behind the recent rough events. 

Koushiro called something over his shoulder to his parents to say that they were going out, but Hikari didn't quite catch the details. Her heart was starting to pound incredibly quickly, and she had to force herself to come to a halt to thank Koushiro's parents for their hospitality before she took off for the door once again. She slipped into her shoes as quickly as she could manage before making her way to the stairs. They wouldn't all fit in the elevator, and she decided that the stairs would be the safer bet. 

When the Chosen Children arrived on the street itself, Hikari turned her face to the sky with a frown. She could have sworn that she saw something, and even if she couldn't pin down any details as it was, she was determined to figure out what it was that had caught her attention. Tailmon's ears twitched, and Hikari glanced down to her partner to see if she had found anything that stuck out as particularly strange. 

"There!" Tailmon suddenly exclaimed, one gloved paw pointing towards the sky where a Digimon with large dark wings was swirling overhead. Hikari's free hand came to her mouth, and she realized that she had unfortunately struck gold when she assumed that they were under attack from new outside force. 

"There's another patch of dark data on the wing!" Patamon cried out. He had taken flight from Takeru's arms at one point, and he was flapping his wings as he moved closer to get a better look at their foe. "We had better evolve to make sure that nothing bad happens!"

"Who even is that?" Miyako asked. Her expression had been overcome with stress, and Hikari had to say that she couldn't blame her friend for being worried in the slightest. She was concerned as well, and her stomach twisted itself into a knot on instinct. 

Hikari took this as a chance to examine the Digimon in more detail. It was a bird covered in purple armor from the hips up, and white pants coated its legs. Yellow claws stuck out at the bottom of its arms and legs, and it held tightly to a pair of swords that had been slid free of red sheaths that hung at its waist. The black wings that folded out from the bird's back were majestic and terrifying, and even among the shadowy outline of the wings, Hikari could see the data sticking out. 

"Karatenmon," Veemon explained from his place on the ground next to Daisuke. "I remember hearing about Karatenmon a while ago. Those swords are really dangerous, and you don't want to be cut with them!"

"Why don't we go on and take care of the situation then?" Yamato questioned as he looked down to Gabumon. He had taken his Digivice between his fingers at some point when Hikari wasn't paying attention, and determination was gleaming in his sapphire eyes. 

"He's flying. Unless we can ground him, we're going to need flying Digimon to fight him," Sora pointed out. She scanned the skies afterwards, a frown knitted tightly on her features. "I don't see any other Digimon in the area, so I believe that it's safe enough to assume that he's alone here."

"Let's get going then!" Daisuke cried out as he held out his D-3. Veemon was immediately consumed in a bright turquoise glow, and Hikari couldn't help but smile at the sight of Veemon's evolution.