"Elevator." Lucas said in a short, clipped tone as he picked up the briefcase holding Elecmon and pointed towards the other side of the room. As he and Leon piled in, Lucas slammed a finger into the 75th floor button, silently fuming at Dirk and Impmon. What the hell did they think they were doing? And for that matter, why the hell was everyone trying to misguidedly help with this? Dirk, Jordan, even Leon. It was great that he had friends that wanted to help him (and Jordan, for whatever fucking reason he had), but friendship went both ways. Would've been great if they had trusted him enough to let him handle this on his own.

As they reached the 75th floor, Lucas stepped out, motioning for Leon to follow behind him.

"No Biomerging unless we see an enemy Digimon. If you see Takeda, waste him. I don’t care how, just do it.” He said as they started to move forward...only to see Zei step out of a nearby service elevator. Lucas stopped for a moment, pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, and groaned. 

“Alright, that’s the third fucking person who’s dropped in on a perfectly workable plan today. I’m done. Where the hell is Dorumon? Is she not even with you?” He scowled, moving forward and slotting the keycard he took off his father into a nearby reader, opening the door into a long, ornate hallway filled with Japanese wall scrolls and samurai armor models. “This puts us down one. Leon, stay back and guard Zei in case anyone comes across you two. You see anyone come, human or Digimon, Biomerge and take them down. Less risk to you that way. I’m going on ahead. If I’m not back in five minutes or you hear fighting, follow after and finish Takeda off.” He said, leaving without waiting for a response. 

___

MirageGaogamon moved quickly through the wrecked top floor, noting to himself that it was empty besides himself and the shape he could make out through the smoke; this was going to make things easier.

The shape- Beelzemon, of course- was wading about, seemingly looking for something. Maybe somewhere he could descend lower into the building. Beneath his cowl, MirageGaogamon grit his teeth. He had to stop him before he made this even worse. 

Beelzemon had been a pain when he’d been on the other side of the conflict, but dear god he was even worse when he was on the same side. 

“Hold it-” He started off calm and steady towards the Demon Lord. As much as he would have liked to just club the moron over the head and drag him back to Siggy for a chewing-out, there was only so much power he could call on without causing a scene- if he went straight on the offensive to neutralize him, it would only make things worse. “Beelzemon, do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

“Get the hell outta my way,” Beelzemon snarled, ignoring MirageGaogamon as he continued to stride forward.

MirageGaogamon repressed the overwhelming urge to snarl back.
He’d been just angry before, but now he was furious- first the idiot charged straight in on the plan without a regard for stealth or practicality, and now he had the gall to treat him like a nuisance? 
A more impulsive individual might have just lost it there and let the Demon Lord have it. MirageGaogamon wasn’t quite so beholden to impulse; even as he held in a snarl, he kept talking levelly.

“I’ll ask you again. Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? Almost all of our planning just went up in smoke just like this building is. Your friends have this under control-”

“Screw you, asshole! I got this!” Beelzemon roared, extending his wings and dashing away. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” MirageGaogamon just about snapped as a large flash of light releasing itself from his body- as a long chain of light rushed out and wound itself around the Demon Lord’s leg.
“I don’t think so,” The Canine Knight growled, his composure crumbling as he was forced to enter his Burst Mode to even attempt to restrain Beelzemon, “Do you have any goddamn idea what could be hiding in this building? That Kimeramon could only be the half of it- the whole point of this operation was to get in, kill the human in charge of this all, and leave!”

If it wasn’t clear he was furious before, it was clear as day now- he’d been forced to go to Burst Mode after all, and he wasn’t even sure that was going to be any help for restraining a belligerent Demon Lord. That fury became even more evident when he gave the chain a powerful tug to drag Beelzemon towards him- 

And Beelzemon responded in turn by whirling around to point his arm cannon in MirageGaogamon’s face. 

“What, don’t you listen? I got this, idiot. Now lemme go or this goes up your ass.” 

With his composure crumbling, it took a lot of willpower to not just slide-evolve to MagnaGarurumon and threaten the same with his own cannon- but MirageGaogamon held. He’d already gone to his Burst Mode, he’d just have to weather whatever Beelzemon threw at him for now. Besides, every moment he kept the Demon Lord occupied was another moment he bought Lucas to get in and finish Takeda, so his efforts were hardly wasted yet.

[i]“Try me,”[/i] He finally snarled, his eyes filling with a disturbingly primal fury as he glared at Beelzemon, [i]“I faced down Imperialdramon, do you really think a little [b]shit[/b] like you intimidates me at all?!”[/i]

“Yeah? Well, ya know something?” Beelzemon snarled as energy began to gather in his arm cannon. [i]”So did I.”[/i] And he fired the Corona Blaster. The blast was left deliberately underpowered: enough to wound MirageGaogamon, certainly, but nothing near fatal. 

MirageGaogamon intuited as much; holding onto the chain, there was a rush of air as he flashed out of the broken wall of the 75th floor to dodge the attack, dragging the struggling Beelzemon along with him. The Corona Blaster wasn’t fast enough to get within a few meters of him-

But then he saw who it was on course to hit, and his breath caught in his throat.

[i]“Shit!”[/i] He snapped, as he saw the distinctive shape of Dorugamon move into the trajectory of the Corona Blaster, with another figure on her back; even with how underpowered it was, an attack like that would be nothing but bad news for the two Digimon.

Without even thinking, MirageGaogamon dived between the attack and the two lower-levelled Digimon; he was only conscious of the fact that he’d let go of Beelzemon when he found himself flying backwards with the chain dispersed back into an aura of light energy as he felt his body burn from the attack.

And without another word, Beelzemon turned back towards the building and dashed back inside, disappearing from MirageGaogamon’s sight. 

“Son of a bitch…” He grumbled to himself as he watched the Demon Lord escape back into the building. All he could hope for now was that his intervention had bought Lucas the time he needed to get to Takeda- going after Beelzemon now was just going to make things worse.

“Are you two alright?” He asked, his voice slurred from the pain of the attack as he floated towards Dorugamon and Ranamon; he didn’t even seem angry at their appearance, just resigned and concerned.