The Beats Go On

Chapter 69: Digo Daring

🎸Chapter 69: Digo Daring

Immediately, everyone readied for a fight. The alarms woke the cacti up, and soon the whole place was hopping with them. The treeangle was just up ahead, but it was corrupted.

"How do we purify the treeangle?!" Ren shouted, with a sense of urgency.

"I think we need to start a fight with the corrupted cacti...the smaller treeangle piece they produce should then heal the larger treeangle!" Digo replied. 

The treeangle was never directly purified, it was usually purified as a result of something. If it COULD be purified via the machinery around it then great, but chances were there was a catch here.

"Right, but...how do we start a fight with them? Usually the field opens up by itself, right?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah...it IS odd..." El muttered.

"Maybe it's a strategy-based situation like those snakes from back when we were underground with Cho and Pepe!" Ina said. "We have to navigate around them and avoid taking damage without directly fighting them!"

"Good plan!" Coco huffed, "Now let's get to it!"

Despite the alarms blaring, the group could still hear a faint song in the background as they started to make their way across to the treeangle. They then noticed that the cacti were using that beat to move around, so they slowly picked up a pattern. Cacti leapt over each other, and the group was able to get under them with the right timing. Some were shooting projectiles, but the group got the hang of the beat quickly enough to avoid getting hit. Ren and Wendy were a little confused at first, but after watching the others do it, they slowly got the hang of it.

The group slid in between cacti as they tried to pounce on them, nobody getting caught. Heh, this would actually probably be one of the easier situations the group had done! It almost seemed like the music was overriding the alarms, and the group had turned this into a fun dance rather than an urgent mission. The cacti still tried to attack them, but they had the hang of it now. Wendy was grooving in as well, and Ren was able to steer his wheelchair out of danger.

"Alright, since we get to the treeangle, I say we look at the machinery around it to see what we can do!" El said.

"Oooh! Do we get to blow stuff up?!" Cas exclaimed excitedly.

He'd always wanted to do something like that, and if he got to do that to villains of all people, he'd enjoy it even more. 

"No, let's not..." Ina replied.

The group kept grooving to the beat as they walked onwards, the cacti becoming practically useless at this point. The group was still looking around the room for suspicious figures or areas, however. The last thing they needed was to get caught off guard by a trap, since that could possibly be a trick up the cactis' sleeves. They kept moving, the treeangle getting more into view.

They were so close to their goal now...

But they weren't paying attention to the rest of their teammates. Digo was starting to have close calls with some of the cacti, almost to the point where he didn't see one ambush him off-beat. The cacti grabbed ahold of him, and swiped him away from the group. Luckily, Coco turned around as Digo let out a yelp, and saw Digo being taken away. He quickly alerted the others , who paused where they were and got together to try and reach out to Digo and grab him back.

"DIGOOO!!" Coco cried as loudly as his lungs would let him.

But it was too late. Digo was carried away by the crowd and shoved under the treeangle as the corrupted cacti cheered wildly. It was almost like this was some sort of ritual. Two cacti with giant spiked gloves began to press the treeangle for its corruption fluid. Slowly but surely, the liquid began to drip down from the sides of the treeangle and towards the bottom point, where it was about to drop onto Digo.

"We have to get him out of there!" Ami exclaimed.

"No, we can't! It's too dangerous and we could risk corrupting ourselves!" Ren shouted back.

"But I can't just stand to sit and watch!" Coco screamed.

"You have no choice!" Ren barked.

Coco quickly looked around the area for anything to help him. He was desparate for anything at this point. Anything to stop the corruption of his partner.

"Maybe I can still-"

But it was already too late.

The drop of corruption hit Digo, and large amounts of cold smoke began billowing out from around the treeangle. The group covered their eyes and held their breath as it blew over, and they could hear the cacti slowly start to quiet down. What was going on? Was Digo hurt?

As the smoke faded away, the group could feel the air become a little less cold. The group slowly opened their eyes and released their breath, only to see a corrupted Digo hovering by where the treeangle was. His hair was more spiky, and he had a short ponytail on the back of his head. He also had two horns on either side of his head that pointed up. Digo held a guitar in his hands, which the group assumed was his weapon.

He looked down at them.

"Ah, I see we have some newbies to the crowd," Digo said simply, though you could tell his tone had changed from light and friendly to sinister and smug.

The corrupted cacti gathered around him, almost like fans to a singer. Slowly, cheers started to arise from them, and before the group knew it, they were yelling and whooping while jumping up and down. Surprisingly, they weren't attacking the group.

"Looks like we'll have a rather lively audience..." Digo chuckled.

The group looked up at him, with Coco hating what had happened the most. Digo turned towards the group and grinned smugly.

It looked like Digo was the one they were going to have to fight to free the large treeangle.

"And now, for our first song of the night..."