Everything happened a bit too fast for Dante to take in. A heavy pause hung in the air as MarineAngemon and Piximon visibly clammed up at his query, while a couple of the others mulled over the implications of what had been said. A moment later and the two Digimon erupted back into life, practically shouting at each-other so fast that they might as well have been two dogs fighting over a bone, before MarineAngemon seemed to lose it altogether and bolted.

"Bro, I’m sorry, but he is a psychopath! Bro!” Piximon shouted after their sibling before they too tore out of the clearing after him. Dante blinked, running the chaos of the last few moments back over in his mind.

The knot forming in his stomach tightened as his fears were confirmed. They knew what was responsible for the current crisis, and, if their reaction was any indication, were absolutely terrified of it and the looming possibility of it catching up to the group while the two of them were still present. Some of his question was unanswered- no way of knowing whether it was close or far, aware or not- but it ultimately mattered little. The major takeaway of it all was that they were absolutely not safe here.

... So as he looked up and saw all three of the other humans present begin to make their way out of the clearing, he made after them with a start.

"Hey! Don't leave me behind!" They may have been in danger, but that would only get worse if they drifted apart.
---
From the darkness between the trees, something watched the group as they went.

The sounds of commotion- the fight between the two siblings- had drawn them to the clearing and they been there since, the glow of two mismatched eyes dimming so that they remained concealed. What they had found was fascinating. The two digital monsters were of little concern, but before them laid an assortment of strange creatures, all seemingly so far from home; something in their memory stirred, but they soon quelled it, not willing to trust it just yet.

No, they couldn't know for sure if these were the ones. The thing's tricks had no rhyme or reason, and blindly trusting things to be as they seemed never ended well. But if they were...

The eyes faded fully into the darkness as the group went. Regardless of whether these humans were the ones they had spoken of, they would have to make sure they didn't stray too far...

The pair of fairy-like digimon had all but vanished into the thick undergrowth of the forest when two things happened. The first thing was a choked-off cry that sounded like it could’ve come from Marineangemon. The second was a short, terrified scream that sounded like Piximon.

The forest fell into silence. No breeze rustled the branches, no insect-digimon chirped to make their presence known, nothing. The clearing was out of sight, too late to retreat to. It was just the four humans and the two young digimon accompanying them.

Then something popped into existence in the middle of the group with an ear-splitting monotone screech, like the brakes of a crashing train.

“Hee hee hee... did I scare ya?”

The ‘thing’ was shorter than any of the humans - that much was clear, even as it reclined in midair, feet well off the ground. It was roughly human-shaped, but no human shared in its fuchsia skin, visible on the exposed parts of its arms and legs. All its colors were painfully bright, all but the bone-white mask it wore. Despite the mask only having one yellow eye, it felt like the being was observing them without issue. Around the height of its shoulders, a pair of intersecting records flitted about, spinning lazily. At its head, twelve glowing orbs floated, occasionally pulling away only to snap back into place - to the digimon, it made for a grisly halo. One hand held an unconscious Marineangemon by the arm like a ragdoll. The other hand had everyone’s digivices levitating above it. The being made a show of leaning forward, and its records began to spin more quickly.

“Say, you’re humans, aren’t you?” The mask hid its face completely, but its voice more than made up for the lack of facial expressions, conveying the blatantly false enthusiasm.

“That-
that’s great, that’s really something. I could just
tear you to pieces.” The being laughed for a moment, the sound cutting in and out, and then seemed to stare the group down. “Hey, why aren’t you laughing too? That was hilarious!” It gestured wildly as it spoke, flopping Marineangemon about and revealing the jagged purple crystal embedded in his side that hadn’t been when he’d spoken with the group.

“Don’t tell me you’re all boring!” It ceased reclining, rising upright and putting his hands to its hips. Marineangemon and the digivices involuntarily followed the movement. “Boring is boring.
I’d rather play.” It seemed to briefly glitch out of existence, only to reappear outside the group and begin circling them. On occasion, it seemed to ‘glitch’ lower, toes brushing the grass and making the grass sprout high and immediately wither, before returning to its original height in the air. “Wouldn’t you rather play too? There are so many games! And all the time in the world for them now!”