The Butterfly Shift

Chapter 1

OOC is serious business

Rei Katsura had long lost track of how many times his goal had been pushed out of his reach.

Yet as he stood before the office of the CEO of L Corp, a sense of accomplishment filled him. Maybe it was the fact that for a short period of time, he held all the cards. Or potentially it was the sense that all the bullshit in this 'hunt' was now behind him.

"Ready to do this, Rei?" his partner, Hackmon inquired, with the hacker giving a nod. The hacking appmon then placed his left front paw on the door as magenta energy began to crackle around it. He then touched the door, the two watching it smoothly slide into its respective built-in spot as they took the room in.

Inside, everything was white. The walls were white, the floor was white, the desk was white and of course, the laptop was white. Strangely, the only thing that wasn't primarily white was the green shirt and cap on a white ram creature that was just floating there. Rei's gaze fell upon it, focusing in on the face of the appmon. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about it seemed to fill him with nostalgia yet regrets. As such, he grabbed hold of the appmon without a second thought and made his way over to the laptop. Strangely, Hackmon then shot his human a cautious glare.

"Why did you pick that sleepmon up?" Hackmon inquired as he watched Rei balance the appmon in his lap and type at the same time.

"There was something about him that seemed familiar…" Rei responded and slammed the 'enter' key down, only for a loud 'creak' to echo throughout the room. "Crap."

The floor then shattered, dropping the trio into what appeared to be a beautiful blackish blue void. White lines of HTML and Javascript zipped across the sky, of what function they could be executing remained to be seened. Gaseous clouds of what appeared to be Basic processed their outcomes and seemed ready to bring forth whatever outcome in due time.

"Good job, Rei." Hackmon remarked and attempted to hold one of his paws up to his head. "Not only did you manage to not get any data off of that laptop, you somehow managed to get attached to some random thing that Leviathan just left there."

Rei didn't answer and chose instead to stare down towards the sleepmon. While he wasn't quite sure what it was, the sleep appmon's face seemed to be shifting, attempting to match the various expressions that the hacker was making. And for a few brief moments, he forget that he was even falling at the time, instead pretending that he was back at his apartment's balcony making silly faces with Hajime. It were these sort of moments that he wished to have once more, amid what seemed to be a series of never-ending setbacks intent on preventing him from ever finding his brother.

"It'll be alright, little guy." Rei whispered as he and the sleepmon suddenly found themselves floating there. "No matter what happens, I'll keep you safe."

A rift then formed in front of them, with no sign of Hackmon.

"I'm sorry, Rei." a voice called out, only for the two to be shoved into the portal. "May we meet again."

Rei then turned around and found his partner currently fending off a barrage of tentacles coming from an unknown source.

"Hackmon!" the hacker screamed as the grip of the 'portal' began to pull him and the sleepmon in. Yet, his shout fell upon deaf ears. "No…"

He made one last glance towards his partner as the rest of his body and his new 'partner' were sucked through.

On the other side, the two found themselves in a dark room.

"It'll be alright. It'll be alright..." Rei whispered and took a deep breath, only to have a cough from someone to interrupt him. "Who goes there?!"
The beam of a flashlight then shifted over to him and the sleepmon.

"Just a nameless secretary carrying out her boss's orders." a voice explained as the light was refocused on a woman in her late twenties to early thirties. She was dressed in grayish black suit with a matching skirt and heels. "Now hand it over."
Rei gave his best stink eye, though he was certain that the woman couldn't see it. Even if she had, he doubted she would even respond.

"Oh well, have a blast." the woman taunted as Rei pulled his applidrive out, quickly slipping a chip in.

Load: Dezipmon!

In a matter of seconds, a man made out of zippers appeared.

"You call?" Dezipmon remarked and noticed the currently flashing woman. "I'll get to that."

Absorption Zip!

Dezipmon then opened his chest up and sucked the person in.

"Is that all?" the zipping appmon inquired and Rei shook his head. "Good night and sweet dreams."

With that, Dezipmon returned to Rei's band, leaving the hacker and the sleepmon to silence. Afterwards, he took a deep breath and returned his attention to Sleepmon.

"Hajime…" he whispered and wrapped his arms around the sleep appmon. "No matter what happens, I'll be there for you."

"Rei…"

For a few brief seconds, Rei thought he had heard a familiar voice. As tempted as he was to get a similar result to prove his theory, he decided to let it go for the moment and head to bed...