Author's Notes: Cue dramatic intro music...
WELCOME, EVERYONE, TO BOOK TWO!
So... obviously there were some delays in getting this out. The double-chapter thing was a part of it, as mentioned at the end of Book One. There was also the whole being hooked on video games, which delayed me for a good while early on... again, thank you Swords and Roses for the kick in the rear, even if it came a little late. It's always good to have reminders. ^_^
Anyway... aside from all that, I also dealt with a bit of writer's block when I started this chapter. Starting and ending stories is always the hardest part for me, and this one was more so because there were about four or five different ways it could have begun. (Mostly character perspectives. Overall plot would've been the same in any case) Honestly, I'm still not entirely thrilled with how it turned out. There's more I wanted to include, but it seemed a little... I dunno, excessive? Like it didn't really fit the dynamic and pacing of this first chapter and would've just been extra info tacked on the side that slowed things down.
Still, I'm definitely going to explore all of that in later chapters, once the pacing evens out a bit. It's a bit rushed here at the start, though I'll just letcha all read and see what I mean for yourselves. There's more to say, but these notes have filled enough space as it is, so I'm gonna end this here and save the rest for later chapters so you can get on with the reading. Enjoy!
Digital Hazard
Book 2: Kingdom Come
Chapter 1: Into the Dark
No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens? It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realize that they're so far over the line that they can't remember where it was.
One year.
As Hikari stood atop the roof of her school, staring out across the slowly mending city, she could almost imagine that nothing had changed. That Takeru would walk out that door, sit down next to her, and start telling stories of his time during the war. That she could go home and find Taichi busy catching up on his studies; walk into the Hunter base to see Masaharu still coordinating things, waiting for his replacement... or that she could go to the graveyard and find that memorial, still covered in the countless objects of sentiment that had been left behind behind the hundreds and thousands of people who grieved over the loss of their loved ones.
But no. Taichi wasn't home. He was in the headquarters of the Hunters, deeply entrenched in his officer training under the new head of the military branch. The whole of the Hunters had been once again reorganized, transferring Masaharu over to the civilian sector and demoting him. It was a welcome shift, fortunately, as it gave him fewer duties and thus more time to spend with his family.
The memorial had been long since taken down, though that wasn't a surprise given that it was a casket, and it ultimately required a proper burial. There was work being done on a new one, however, to mark the one year anniversary of the war's end coming in only a couple weeks.
"Hikari, it's time to go."
The girl sighed and turned, heading toward the door as she reached out one arm to her digimon partner. Gatomon had been serving as her personal timekeeper lately, what with her getting lost in thought so much. As the anniversary approached, she found herself thinking more and more about the past, wondering about Takeru, and considering everything that the future might hold.
War would come again. She knew it would. It was inevitable with the way things were, even without the foreboding warnings of Devimon's active schemes still running through the back of her mind. The only question was how, when, and where...
Stepping back inside, though, Hikari's mind returned to the present and her life as it was now. Going to class, hanging out with the weirdos, scaring the normals...
The latter two weren't deliberate, they just happened on their own. Most people, even many of those she considered friends, were still intimidated by her due to her past in the Hunters, plus the fact that she had a digimon feline sleeping in her backpack during classes. She'd almost had to transfer schools for that, at the wishes of both the students and teachers. Fortunately, former Director Ishida stepped in to set them straight.
Those that weren't scared, and particularly those who actually knew Gatomon and talked to her along with Hikari, were the weirdos. Miyako Inoue was probably the most extreme example... she was the closest Hikari had to a fan-girl, though she was more a Koushiro fan-girl in truth. She was both smart and obsessed with learning about digimon for a variety of reasons.
In the year that Koushiro had been gone overseas with Mimi and Sora, he'd set up a website and posted dozens of articles about digimon and the digital world. That website had become known as the foremost source of reliable knowledge on digi-world phenomena, to the point where it was actually considered an acceptable reference source for scientific journals, or so Hikari had heard... and Miyako had memorized every article.
Memorized. Every. Single. Article.
Yeah, that girl was a little crazy.
The other two notable weirdos were Daisuke Motomiya and Iori Hida. They were far more sane, though certainly not normal. Daisuke had his own personal obsession in studying the war against Myotismon. He had far from memorized it all, of course, since so much of it was still classified and there was so much misinformation floating around with all the truth.
He reminded Hikari of herself, in a way... the way she was before she became Digidestined. Wanting to join the war, to fight alongside the others... granted, there wasn't a war going on now, so the context was a little different, but the attitude was certainly there.
As for Iori, Hikari didn't know much about him. She didn't see a lot of him, and he didn't talk much. He wasn't exactly shy, just... quiet. Almost like Takeru, minus the death glare and cold-blooded vengeance streak.
So... basically, nothing at all like Takeru.
Hikari went through the motions of the day, drifting through her classes in a haze of boredom while Gatomon napped in her backpack. This workload was nothing compared to the information overload she had been run through during her SDZ training days.
Hikari lightly sighed to herself as her final class let out. Everything always goes back to that. Everyone, everything, everywhere, all the time. It always went back to the war.
She was almost as bad as Takeru...
"Hikari!"
Daisuke shouting down the hall after her was enough to distract her from her inner brooding. Normally it wouldn't be... with her mood, today was not a day she wanted to spend any time of humoring him and his war obsession. However, she caught something in his tone that sounded... different. Not his normal enthusiasm... was something wrong?
Glancing back, she noticed him hurrying- no, outright sprinting down the hall as fast as he could. What the heck? When he finally reached her he was breathing so hard he could barely even speak between his gasps for air.
"The heck? Daisuke, what are you so panicked for?"
"Was...! compuhh...! lahhhb...!"
His words were so lost in his harsh gasps that they were barely comprehensible. Hikari waved him silent for a moment, trying to get him to actually stop and catch his breath before he blurted out any more.
"You came from the computer lab? What happened, did all the servers just explode or something?"
He shook his head a few times, still breathing heavy as he reached into his pocket to grab something.
"This... came out... of the screen..."
And then he held out... something. It was an odd device, looked nothing like anything she'd seen in any of the computers at the school... and did he just say out of the monitor? That wasn't a piece of a- wait...
Grabbing it, she took a moment to inspect it as Daisuke continued.
"Was doing research... war stuff... then suddenly the computer just... the screen lit up like a rainbow... then this blue light shot out... right into my hands. Turned into that."
A beam of light...? Turned into... this. Small screen, two buttons... it looked completely different, but somehow she knew... instinctively, with the same instinct that had told her how to first contact her brother...
"...this is a digivice."
It took a moment for Hikari's brain to fully register the realization that had just passed her lips, along with all that it entailed. A new digivice meant a new digidestined... it meant that Daisuke was one, but the specifics weren't as important as the general fact. Digidestined weren't called for nothing. If someone new had just been chosen, there had to be a reason.
She was right. War was coming again. Right now.
Hikari shoved the digivice back into Daisuke's hand and immediately grabbed her own, pushing a button to call her brother.
"Taichi, we have a problem."
No response.
She glanced to her digivice, checking to make sure she'd hit the right button. It was connected... so why wasn't she getting any signal from the other end? Not even static or ambient noise, just... nothing. She quickly canceled the call and brought it back, thinking it might have been an error of some sort.
"Taichi! This is Hikari, respond!"
It wasn't.
Rather than panic over what might have happened to her brother, she switched to contacting the other digidestined, though she soon found that each of them was equally silent in reply. Yamato, Jou, Koushiro, Sora, Mimi... no one. Hell, she even tried Takeru. She hadn't seen him in nearly a year, but it was always at the least expected times that he appeared.
Not this time, though. Now, there was only silence.
Hikari looked up Daisuke long enough to read his expression, his uncertainty... he understood the implications of what was happening, at least. Something bad... but he had no idea what the hell to do about it. So it was up to her... okay, only one option.
"Come on!"
Hikari bolted down the hall and toward the exit, with Daisuke following close behind. She was abpout to make a run right across the city to the Hunter HQ, though upon exiting the school she was surprised to find a military vehicle parked outside and a man running toward them.
"Ms. Yagami!"
She took a second to take in everything about his appearance. Hunter. Officer attire. Likely arrived because they detected the digivice coming through. It would have had to passed through- wait... officer? Not standard soldier. He had to come from the base, but that drive would have been too long if they only just now detected something in the network. If he wasn't here for that, it meant something else was happening.
"What's going on?"
"Ma'am, I need you to come with me."
Ambiguous answer, but it still told her something. Trouble, obviously. No time to talk, they had to move...
"Where?"
Even a year later, it took no time to slip back into her military persona, a mask of pure professionalism covering her face. Former head of SDZ, she'd learned from the best...
"Hunter HQ. Emergency call order from Lieutenant Yagami. Koushiro has declared a state of emergency, class V-4."
Her mind processed through each of the terms the man gave in turn. A hunter emergency call order was designed specifically for the digidestined and gave the Hunters overriding authority to pull the children out of anything and call them back to duty. However, it was a universal order as well... which meant that the call was going out to everyone. Jou, Yamato... Sora and Mimi as well, though they were with Koushiro and he was apparently involved in giving the order. Even Takeru... assuming they could even find him.
And for an emergency. V-4... major threat of unknown nature. Something was happening, and right when Daisuke was sent a gift from the digital world... it didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant. Glancing his way, his expression was all it took for her to know he wanted in... he was ready to join this fight.
"Alright, but he comes too."
"Ma'am, the order was strictly for digidestined, I'm not authorized-"
Hikari grabbed Daisuke by the wrist, forcibly raising his hand and lifting his digivice up to the man's face, causing him to reel back for a moment, both in general surprise and because he didn't recognize whatever it was she was holding out to him...
"He has a digivice. He is digidestined. He's coming with us."
The man blinked and his words caught in his throat as he was apparently left speechless for a moment. A digivice? But that didn't... what?
It took the man several seconds to get his faculties back together, though once he did he promptly made a sharp gesture with his arm, back toward the vehicle. Figuring out this crap wasn't his responsibility anyway...
"Alright, come on!"
The trio rushed to the vehicle and took off almost as soon as they were in their seats. A quick glance to Daisuke showed he was somewhat unnerved by everything... being so suddenly thrust into the middle of a fight he didn't even understand yet. Even for someone who was eager for it, it was a bit overwhelming.
As for Hikari, she felt like she was home again. The last year had been one long, dull reversion to a boring life she didn't much care for. It wasn't that she disliked peace, just... she hated being idle. All that she had been doing in school felt like it was empty. She wasn't saving lives or changing the world... she wasn't really making a difference anymore. During the war she could, and she did...
...and now she was going to again.
Miyako threw open the school doors, catching only a glimpse of Hikari before she was climbing into an armored vehicle and speeding off.
"STOP! HIKARI, WAIT!"
"Where are they going?"
Iori muttered from behind her, confused as to what was going on. First those beams of light fly out of Miyako's computer and into their hands, turning into these... things, then Hikari runs off and flees in a military vehicle...
Miyako just shook her head, equally unsure and too winded to try talking at this point. Dang it... what the heck was happening around here?
"So now what are we gonna do?"
Miyako paused and took a moment to think. Good question. They still needed to contact someone who might understand this stuff, but they only knew one person, and she had just left...
"Maybe we could call Hikari's parents? They might be able to get in contact with her..."
"She just left in an armored car. Do you think they even know about this yet?"
Oh... dang it. That was a good point. They could always try calling her cell phone, but would she even answer at this point? She'd probably just ignore it if something serious was happening... a random call from her parents or friends wouldn't be given very high priority...
"You're looking for Hikari?"
Miyako spun to face the boy who was suddenly standing there. She vaguely recognized him, but she didn't know from where. Dark hair, blue eyes... actually kinda cute, but he was a little scary, too. His expression was intense. A little like Hikari when she talked about the war days, except... there was something else there. Something... sharper.
"Already found her. We just saw her leave in an armored car."
The boy turned and looked to the side, down the street where the car had sped off to, apparently pondering- wait, how would he know which direction they went if he didn't see it?
"Who're you?"
He turned and looked back, first to Iori from whom the question had come, then to Miyako for a moment before looking back to the younger boy.
"My name's Ken."
...Ken?
"Ken Ichijouji?"
Miyako's reaction was sudden and extreme. Her shock was evident all over her face, as she never would have imagined that she might actually meet this guy. She had heard about him through Hikari, but he wasn't digidestined. He was an outsider and an adviser whose role had ended with the war, so she assumed that he had simply disappeared into obscurity afterward, since little to nothing was said about him publicly.
"You know me?"
Ken's response was as different from Miyako's as it could be. His expression remained totally calm, unfazed by the girl's reaction. He glanced to Iori a moment, apparently curious as to how they knew about him, but before the question could be answered, Iori countered with one of his own.
"Do you know what this is?"
Iori reached out, handing the device to Ken, who proceeded to inspect it from all angles for several seconds. In spite of it all his expression never wavered... never gave even a hint of what he was thinking until he finally spoke.
"This is a digivice."
"Are you sure?"
Ken turned up to Miyako as she spoke, catching a glimpse of the object in her hand, a perfect copy of the one he held save the difference in color.
"Yes... I'm positive. Where did you get these?"
"They came out of my laptop."
"Two beams of light came out of the screen, right into our hands, and turned into these."
Iori elaborated for Miyako, causing Ken to fall into silence for a moment. Handing the digivice back he turned away and began pacing for several seconds, hands folded up in a prayer-like position in front of his mouth, evidently a pose he took when he was deep in thought.
"She's going to the Hunter HQ. There's a new war starting."
"How do you know?"
Miyako asked as Ken pulled out his phone and started tapping the screen rapidly, possibly sending a text or... maybe he was checking something.
"Because it's the only thing that makes- ...sense."
The boy paused mid-sentence, brow furrowing, apparently caught off-guard by something he saw on his phone. He quickly switched it off, though, giving neither of them any chance to see what it might be.
"What are you even doing out here?"
Iori suddenly cut in, apparently slightly paranoid about this boy. Granted, he was Hikari's friend, but it seemed a little odd that he would show up at exactly this time to meet them... too much of a coincidence. Miyako was going to try to defend Ken's presence, but before she could the boy replied with a rather surprising answer.
"I'm linked into the Hunter network. Three disruptions were detected coming through at this school. Not big enough to set off any alarms, which meant the Hunters wouldn't spot it right away, so I went to check it for myself."
"Why didn't you just alert the Hunters? Wouldn't that be dangerous for a normal human?"
"I'm not normal."
Ken answered pointedly, his gaze hardening at Iori for just a moment before softening again slightly.
"But to answer your question... I went to find Hikari first. I spotted you two running out here, shouting her name, so I followed."
"Wait a minute..."
Moyako suddenly cut in, interrupting the apparent face off the two boys were having, more preoccupied with their original concerns and, specifically, something Ken had said a moment before...
"So those blips or whatever... you think those were... o-our... digivices?"
She briefly stuttered through those final words, feeling the sudden weight of the realization hit her. Her... digivice. Her digivice. Her DIGIVICE! She... holy crap... this meant she was a digidestined! And Iori too!
"Based on what you said, I assume so."
"But... wait... you said there were three."
Ken nodded, glancing back to the school doors for a moment.
"Three were detected, but I don't know where the third one is. Hikari already has a digivice..."
"He went with Hikari."
Iori replied suddenly, earning a surprised look from both of the others. From Ken because it was completely unexpected, and from Miyako because she hadn't realized that before. She'd seen the other person, though only vaguely. Her attention had been so squarely on Hikari that she hadn't even noticed him until Iori brought him up. It made sense, too. Armored car, Hikari leaving... going to the Hunters. Why would she bring someone else along if they didn't have a digivice?
"Who?"
"I don't know. They were too far ahead. Looked like a boy, though, running out to the car with Hikari."
Ken glanced to Miyako, who nodded in assent. A boy leaving with Hikari... his mind immediately jumped to Takeru, but that boy wasn't around, and there weren't any others that would make sense... so the third one was already off to join the Hunters. Rather, the first one, as far as they would be concerned.
"So... do we follow them?"
Miyako inquired, glancing between the boys for their opinions. Iori showed some uncertainty, though she knew him well enough to understand why... it was quite a ways to the Hunter HQ from the school, and he had no desire to make that run.
Ken, on the other hand, very clearly shook his head. No experienced digidestined around, so he had to take control of the situation.
"No time. They're too far ahead by now. Let's head to my place. It's closer, and we can get in contact with the Hunters from there."
Ken pulled out his phone again and began tapping rapidly as he headed toward the street. Fortunately, both Miyako and Iori moved to follow him. He had been a bit unsure about the latter, given his previous paranoia, but apparently his answers so far had been enough to satisfy that, at least for now.
"I've got a ride coming to pick us up, two blocks down. It'll take us the rest of the way. Come on!"
The ride in question was Ayaka, Ken's mother. She didn't understand at first what was going on, but when her son sent a rather insistent text asking her to pick him up, she didn't ask questions, and by the time they got back to the apartment they gave all the answers she needed.
As for the apartment itself, it was nothing much to look at... pretty basic by all normal standards, at least until one stepped into the side room that had once been Osamu's bedroom. All his old possessions had long since been cleaned out, to be replaced by a mainframe of network of computers linked together. Looked like nearly a dozen in total, most of which were specialized for different tasks and all wired into a central terminal from where Ken could control everything.
He was plugged into the network, just as he had claimed before, getting all the same readings the Hunters were. He was also connected to their database, so he had access to their records, thus precluding any need to record anything for himself.
And that was just the surface of his system. Miyako couldn't even make sense of some of the stuff she was seeing on the screens, save that it vaguely resembled some of what she had read from Koushiro's website on various theories of data-based matter. It looked like Ken had constructed for himself a fully functioning data-lab in his family's apartment and was using it to operate several private R&D projects all on his own.
"This is what heaven looks like..."
She heard Iori sigh and Ken chuckle, but she didn't respond. She was too caught up looking over everything that Ken was apparently working on. So many projects, so much data... she could sit in here for weeks just studying everything he was doing and she'd be totally content... but her curiosity was interrupted by their more urgent and present state of affairs.
"They've declared a digital emergency."
Miyako's head snapped back toward Ken and she quickly moved to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder at everything he was investigating. He was in the Hunter network, currently looking over general information that was being disseminated among the Hunters. Special emergency order, class V-4... standard emergency order currently awaiting confirmation from Hunter Command.
"What's all this mean?"
Miyako could understand the basics due to her computer knowledge, but the specifics of military protocol were beyond her, so all of this was just letters and numbers without someone to elaborate.
"Standard emergency orders are given by Hunter Command. Special Emergencies are those called by the digidestined."
Ken answered quickly, still working through the files to locate more specific information on the emergency in question.
"What does V-4 stand for?"
"Class and level. Classes are A, D, V, and X. A for analogue world, D for digital. V is an unidentified threat and X is a threat to both world. Levels indicate the level of severity, from one through eight. Four is the highest level a digidestined can declare without approval from Hunter Command. It's also the lowest level that requires sending an immediate emergency call order to assemble all the digidestined."
Miyako was doing her best to absorb all the information, though between what she was seeing and hearing at the same time, it was giving her brain something of an overload. Fortunately, though, Iori seemed quite capable of understanding all the pertinent details, though he was also listening more than watching.
"Aren't the digidestined our best defense? Why can't they declare a level eight emergency?"
"Level one. Eight is the lowest threat level... and it's more a matter of protocol than anything. Since the war ended, multiple countries have been assembling their own Hunter armies, and all the Hunters are connected to some level or another. Level three indicates a risk on a national level, with the potential to escalate to a multi-national problem. When an emergency is declared at that level, all Hunter forces around the world have to be immediately alerted, and you can just imagine the political ramifications of that. Not to mention the paperwork... they don't want to do that unless they're sure the threat is really that big."
"Any information on what the threat is?"
Ken shook his head at Miyako, who was now half-kneeling behind him, her head practically on top of his shoulder as she tried to keep up with his rapidly skimming the network for information. Damn, that boy was a fast reader...
"Not yet. Though there was a video call made between the HQ here and a Hunter team in... Dallas, Texas. United States..."
"Wasn't that one guy in America?"
Iori asked, turning to Miyako, who had to take a moment to consider just what he was asking. That one- OH! That's right!
"Koushiro! Yeah, said on his site they'd be in America for several weeks. Coming back around on their world tour, I think... was supposed to get back here the week of the anniversary thing."
Ken paused, his expression freezing as his mental gears worked for a moment. Then his fingers started moving like lightning, rushing through the maze of the network to find... yes. Saved a copy of the video call, as per standard protocol. He loaded it quickly, though he promptly jumped right to a section near the end of it...
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out why they ended the call. It was barely ten minutes, and ended nearly half an hour ago. If Koushiro was advising, they should still be on- wait a second..."
There, found it. He paused as they all listened to a moment to Koushiro laying out the plans. Disconnect, rush to the airport, get on a plane to start back home... they'd reconnect the call once the trio was in flight.
"That explains it... how long do you think that'd take?"
"With the military helping them through? Not long..."
"They're going to reconnect soon, then."
Ken simply nodded, switching some of the settings in his computer to alert him when the next call was made. Miyako said little else, preferring simply to watch and soak in everything she could from watching this boy work. He wasn't Koushiro, but that was almost better for her. Though he was arguably just as smart, she felt like he was more at her level, so it was easier to just watch and learn without the distraction of having to work through her minor case of hero worship...
Iori was even more quiet, having said nothing since he first mentioned Koushiro being in America. He was watching, but he was more observing Ken himself than what he was doing on the computer. The older boy was good, but he was also unnerving... the fact that he had access to so much despite not being a Hunter or digidestined made Iori slightly suspicious, whether or not he was trying to be a help to them.
"How did you manage to get so much access to the Hunter net?"
"I helped create it."
The one good thing about Ken's replies were that they were immediate and automatic. A liar would've had to stop and think through his reply more, which indicated to the boy that he was telling the truth. Iori wasn't a genius by any stretch, but he was clever, and he knew people... his grandfather had made sure to teach him to be wise in his dealings with people, which was why he was often so quiet. He wasn't actually shy at all, but he'd been taught time and time again to listen more and talk less...
One should always be ready to teach, but one cannot teach what they do not know. Therefore one must always endeavor to learn. There is never a time nor place, neither an action nor an experience where one cannot derive a lesson from it, provided one is open-minded enough to grasp that which the lesson seeks to teach.
That was the maxim of his grandfather, and he had heard it enough times to know it by heart. Iori's grandfather was odd in many ways, most notably his obsession with prune juice, but he was still the wisest person the boy knew, and the one he sought to take after more than any other.
"Do you have a plan?"
Ken paused and slid his chair over from one console to the next, connecting to something that neither of his guests recognized. Certainly not the Hunter network.
"Threat aside, the biggest issue we have right now is the two of you... three if you count the other one. You have digivices but no digimon, and I'm willing to bet that, wherever they are, it's in the digital world. So... first we're going to wait. Hikari's going to HQ and Koushiro should be calling soon. We can coordinate our plans together and then figure out what we need to do..."
It was fortunate that they had an escort ready as soon as Hikari arrived at the base. The halls were packed with people rushing back and forth. Officers, technical personnel... and a lot more soldiers than she would have expected. Perhaps they had all been recalled to active duty... it would explain why they were all so busy. They had to mobilize, and with no clear idea of the nature of the threat, they didn't know how much – or how little – time they might have to prepare for a potential invasion.
Hikari saluted a few of the officers as she passed. Most recognized her, of course, but only a few stopped to actually acknowledge her. She had a good idea of why... she didn't know them all the ones that stopped, but she at least vaguely recognized most of them. A lot of former SDZ and a few standard Hunters from the last war.
That only served to make this place feel more alien, though. Taichi had mentioned that they had gotten a lot of new people after the war... not a few had retired from their military service after the trauma of the war, and most of those remaining had been transferred to new Hunter bases built across the country. Then they even expanded the Odaiba HQ on top of that... by now the majority of personnel were new, aside from the unusually large number of SDZ officers that Hikari noticed were still around.
She glanced back occasionally to make sure Daisuke was keeping up. Fortunately, the officers around them were being careful to make sure they didn't get separated – even if most of them didn't know why the boy was even there to begin with. That was useful. Pretty much the only useful thing they did for Hikari, as she remembered the layout of the building well enough that she could have easily found her way on her own.
Taichi was waiting for them in the command room, as expected. He was working with various technical specialists, collecting information on something or other...
She'd have to get the story on that later. As soon as Taichi looked up and noticed her he rushed to her side and gave her a gigantic hug... usually those were only reserved for when he was worried about her. Not that she minded; she had been worried about him as well. This was the first time she'd failed to contact him with her digivice and she had admittedly feared the worst, at least for a little while.
Then the boy's attention turned to Daisuke.
"Who's this?"
Hikari glanced back, pondering for a moment how best to introduce him. The boy was inside the heart of Hunter operations, so he needed a damn good excuse... oh well. Best to go the direct route.
"Taichi, Daisuke. Daisuke... digivice."
The latter boy blinked in confusion for a second before he realized what she was asking for. Taichi was confused too... and that only increased once the boy pulled out his digivice – a completely new type, no less – and showed it to him.
"What... the hell?"
Like Hikari had before, Taichi quickly grabbed the device for inspection. Hikari could forsee the billion and one questions that were about to appear and she made sure to cut them off before her brother had a chance to ask them.
"I tried to call you on my digivice. It didn't work."
"Gonna guess you tried to call Hikari first, before you sent that officer our way?"
Gatomon added, pulling herself out of the girl's backpack and onto her shoulder where it was easier to see everyone from.
Taichi glanced up, pausing a moment before nodding.
"Tried to call everyone after I got word from Koushiro that something was wrong. He tried the same thing before me. Had to get help from a Hunter base in America just to make contact."
"So none of the digivices are working, then..."
The feline muttered and Hikari reached up to idly scratch the back of her partner's head as she pondered what that meant for the conflict that was apparently approaching.
"Hikari, what-"
"Tai, I don't have answers. Our digivices don't work, so now Daisuke has a new kind. That's all I know, and as far as I'm concerned, that's enough. We can figure out the rest later. Right now, we need to know what's going on. I heard that Koushiro called a V-4 emergency."
Taichi sighed lightly and nodded, handing the device back to Daisuke before leading them toward the main command table. It was showing a large grid, apparently a geographical map. Hikari recognized it as a map of one section of the digital world, although... something was wrong. Most of the data was missing. The topography was present, but that was it. No specific data on anything else except for a single point. It was like...
They were blind. No way to detect anything. Their digivices also didn't work, which meant... they were effectively isolated in the human world. Whatever was happening in the digital world, they had no way of knowing without going there themselves, which was basically suicide given what their enemy was apparently capable of.
"I'll give you the short version. Koushiro is in Dallas, in the US. He got a transmission from the digital world. Scrambled. Took him about ten minutes to filter it out, and when he did he found it was from a group of 'resistance' members led by Pumpkinmon, with the help of Wizardmon. Apparently they've been trying to contact us for weeks."
"Resistance against what?"
Gatomon answered immediately, her attention suddenly seized the moment Taichi mentioned her best friend, now fighting a new war that she'd known nothing about... had she known where he was in that very moment, she'd have just as well skipped the conversation and gone straight to rescue him, even knowing how stupid and reckless that might be.
"Something or someone called the Digimon Kaiser. We don't have any details yet... right now we're rushing to save everyone we can and mobilize the Hunters. Koushiro tried to pull the resistance members out of the digital world, but whatever was there was interfering with his digivice. He couldn't get a gate open."
"So what are we doing to help them?"
Gatomon looked like she was borderline feral. Fortunately, Hikari's petting and scratching worked to soothe her slightly. Not that Hikari herself was feeling much better... she knew just how much they all owed Wizardmon. However, she also knew how little they could do right now, so they had to keep cool heads until they could actually act...
"Wizardmon and their team are back on the move for now. Koushiro and the others are all on their way here. They're going to contact us again as soon as they're in the air. Our top three objectives are to reunite the digidestined, find a way to connect to the digital world, and then start mobilizing a counter-attack."
"Any ideas how we're going to do that last one?"
"Right now our best intel is coming from Pumpkinmon and Wizardmon. That's why step two is so important. Get them here where they're safe, find out what they know, then get us there. The rest is all standard protocol. Identify weak points, make guerrilla attacks, assist any other resistance... we can't plan better until we know the specifics."
While Taichi and Hikari talked, Daisuke merely listened, feeling a bit behind on this whole digidestined thing. He felt like he was totally out of his element... and worse, even though he may have technically been a digidestined given his possession of a digivice, he clearly didn't carry the respect of one. He was just an outsider, and would probably stay that way until he could somehow prove himself...
"What's this?"
Daisuke cut in during a lull in the conversation, pointing to the marker near the middle of the map.
"Contact point. It's where Wizardmon and his team were when they called Koushiro."
"Any information about the surrounding area?"
Hikari was once more back in control of the conversation, pushing Daisuke to the background. Not that she was trying to... she simply understood this world far better than he did, and she was too focused on their present concerns to think about his feelings at the moment.
"A little, but according to the resistance our intel is useless. Things have changed a lot from what we know, but we can't get any specifics until we have a chance for an extended debriefing."
Hikari nodded to herself. Once again, that meant that getting the resistance into the human world, which was impossible for the moment. Damn it, she hated being powerless like this...
"Taichi, are you the one in charge here?"
Gatomon cut in unexpectedly, causing Hikari to glance around at the realization that... wait a minute. She was right. His superior, whoever it was, wasn't present. What the heck?
Taichi sighed heavily – never a good sign.
"I don't know... my direct superior, Commander Kaiba, went to have a meeting with the Director. It was supposed to be ten minutes, tops."
Hikari's eyes went wide a moment, first in surprise, then confusion.
"And they're still in there?"
What the heck? They were in the middle of an emergency, what could be the start of a massive crisis of unknown scale, and they were wasting time like this? Taichi simply shook his head lightly, clearly frustrated.
"The Commander doesn't get along well with some people, especially in the civilian branch... I'll tell you more later. Right now we don't have a lot of time to waste talking."
Hikari nodded lightly. Right... Koushiro first. Hopefully they could work out their initial war plan for taking on this so-called Kaiser, as well as figure out what to do with this new digidestined she had found... politics and the rest of that BS could wait until later.
Miyako and Iori sat at a side console, reviewing some of the records he had saved from back in the war. Most of it was general information that they already knew about the digidestined, particularly about digivices and digimon evolution.
None of that was very secret, but the actual specifics had been kept from the public for various reasons, not the least of which being that the Hunters still didn't understand the science of most of it. People tended to think that now, after the fighting was over, they had everything figured out. In truth, more than half of what they had encountered was still a mystery, including the rifts, the crests, and the connection between the children and their partners.
Still, some video recordings of the actual process of digimon evolution, plus some of the recorded conversations he'd had with some of the children, gave the pair some practical knowledge that would make everything easier to work into once they managed to find their own partners.
"Miyako, Iori!"
Ken called back across the room, drawing them quickly back to his own console, which seemed to indicate something was happening. Link in progress... mobile target? Miyako didn't actually understand what that meant until two faces suddenly popped up on the screen, both of which would be recognized instantly by anyone in the country: Taichi Yagami and Koushiro Izumi.
"Our team is airborne, our connection is secure. How's your end?"
Clearly Koushiro only saw Taichi, else he'd likely have questioned what the rest of them were doing in the call. Ken was intercepting the signal and watching it while he worked on getting himself plugged in.
"Everyone's been contacted. Jou will be arriving tomorrow, after he packs up and ships his whole life back over here. Yamato's moving a bit slow, but he's been stuck watching his sister lately. Not that it really matters since we can't do a damn thing until we can actually reach the digital world..."
"Wait, isn't Yamato an only child?"
Miyako muttered as the two continued to converse, glancing down to Ken who was bent over partially under the desk, apparently messing with wires or... something.
"Two siblings, a brother and a sister. The sister is only a couple months old. His brother, Takeru, is digidestined, and was a major player in the war."
Miyako threw a sideways glance to Iori, who shared her confusion. They each knew the names of the destined children, and there was no 'Takeru' among them... strange that they wouldn't have mentioned his existence publicly, but stranger still that Hikari had never mentioned him either...
Still, she wasn't going to question it now. She needed to pay attention to the others and focus on this whole... thing that was about to happen.
"What about Hikari?"
"She's here with me. She also brought a friend..."
"...a friend? Takeru?"
Taichi moved to the side and Hikari sat down, shifting slightly to the side so that she was covering only half the screen. Meanwhile Ken sat up and returned to his screen, getting back to working his magic inside the network. Neither Miyako nor Iori failed to notice that name be mentioned again, but still... nothing specific was said about him yet.
"Nope, not today. A little introduction is in order here... Koushiro, meet Daisuke Motomiya. Generation two digidestined."
Iori and Miyako, of course, recognized instantly the face of the boy they'd seen talking to Hikari dozens of times in the past. Koushiro was far more surprised, though... doubly so when the boy held up a device that matched the pair with Ken.
"Is... is that a digivice?"
"Far as we can tell. If not, we don't know what it is..."
"Oh, damn it..."
Ken muttered, breaking in to the middle of the exchange between Hikari and Koushiro and looking clearly less than pleased.
"We can't connect to the call."
"What? Why?"
Iori asked, though Miyako had a vague idea already... granted, she didn't know all the ins and outs of Ken's work inside the system, but she had a guess...
"The call is on a secured channel. Connecting us to it would set off every red light in the system."
Bingo.
"How? Can't you just... trick the computer or something, like you've been doing?"
"I have sub-processes installed in the network that let me slip by, but they're mostly for monitoring everything. I never installed anything to let me interrupt their calls because I never needed to... I've always tried to stay anonymous. I never wanted anyone to see my face before."
"Wait... but they already know who you are."
"The digidestined know who I am. Most of the Hunters still don't know I'm in the network, though... unless Taichi told them, which I doubt since I haven't had any of their tech guys catch me yet."
Iori was suddenly nervous again. All of this cloak and... well, not dagger. More like cloak and... hard drive? Whatever. It bothered him... he preferred being open and up front about everything, especially if they were going to be working with the digidestined and the Hunters. Secrets like this... he never knew them to be helpful in the long run.
Miyako shushed the boys quickly and went back to focusing on the call. Hikari had explained what happened with Daisuke getting his digivice, which was nothing they didn't already know from their own experience, but now they were getting to the important part...
"Alright... we don't know much, but I'm going to go over everything we do know. First, though... Hikari, I need you to show Daisuke how to open a connection to the digital world. I'm going to try to monitor it from here. I need to see something..."
Hikari nodded and moved aside from the computer to what was apparently another terminal off-camera. Her voice became somewhat non-distinct, but Miyako didn't worry too much. They could get a walk-through for the steps to that later, and they inevitably would have to now that they're digidestined and all... the intel mattered more.
"Wait, what the..."
Koushiro went to typing rapidly as Hikari returned to her side of the camera, and within a few seconds Ken was rifling through the system, trying to locate whatever it was Koushiro was monitoring.
"Did he find you?"
Iori muttered and Ken shook his head lightly, skimming through several lines of code that the others couldn't make sense of.
"No... but I think I know what he did find."
A side screen opened, showing a grid-map of the digital world and a blinking marker in the middle of a forested area.
"Daisuke's digivice is connecting to something in the digital world. Signal source unknown... I can track the location, but... I have no idea what's sending it. I don't recognize any of this data."
Koushiro had a unique expression for once... puzzlement. He was rare that he encountered something completely unknown and unexpected. Even those times when he arguably did, he usually had some kind of context by which to analyze it, but here... nothing. New digivice, new enemy, and totally blind...
"Could it be his digimon?"
"It's... possible? However, these readings... they're nothing like any digimon I know, so either it's a completely new kind of digimon, or it's something else entirely."
"Not very reassuring..."
Miyako watched over Ken's shoulder as he reviewed the data, following along with everything that Koushiro and Hikari were talking about. Even if they couldn't join in, they could at least keep up with what was happening.
"What about you?"
She muttered, glancing down to Ken, whose eyes were fixed squarely on the block of data on one side of the screen.
"...I don't have the slightest clue."
Okay, so same on both sides. No real surprise... Koushiro was a genius, after all. If Ken was able to figure out something he couldn't understand, he'd undoubtedly be a lot more famous than he was...
"So what? New digivice, new digimon... does it really matter? We gotta go to the digital world either way, and my digivice is telling me that's where to start. Might as well just go and see."
Daisuke's sudden, somewhat boisterous statement caught everyone in the conversation off-guard, save for Taichi, who was apparently standing in the background behind his sister... laughing? Well... chuckling anyway.
"You sound like me from four years ago..."
And by the look on his face and the fact he was laughing it was clear he didn't altogether take pride in that fact, though Daisuke apparently didn't catch that fact right away.
"Awesome."
"It wasn't a compliment..."
The older boy sighed before straightening his posture, military style, and kneeling down beside his sister to get his face back into the camera.
"...he's right, though. The battle's in the digital world so we have to go, one way or another. We might as well do it now... not like our resistance friends have a lot of time to spare. Since his digivice was able to connect to the digital world, can I assume that he can cross over with it?"
"Better, actually... his digivice can apparently filter out the signal interference and open a gate. As long as you're with him, you should be able to go through as well."
Taichi nodded, though Koushiro quickly caught his attention before he got too ahead of himself. A year in military training had helped him cool his head, but he was still a charger at heart...
"Wait. Taichi... by now I'm sure you realize that if the signal is interfering with our digivices then it's possible that you may not be to make much use of it in the digital world. Tracking hostile signals will likely be impossible, and I have no idea what problems it might cause for digimon evolution."
"I know that... but Daisuke doesn't know the digital world. He needs someone with him who does. We don't know what we're facing yet, and until we do it's too dangerous to send a rookie into the digital world alone."
It was clear by Daisuke's shift in posture that he didn't like the idea of being called a rookie, but he didn't say much about it, possibly because he was in the middle of Hunter HQ and didn't want to stir up too much of a scene with all the military types around...
"We should be fine. I'm going, too."
Hikari muttered, earning a happy purr from the friend on her shoulder. No way she was sitting back and watching with her best friend in danger in the other world...
"Hikari-"
"Gatomon is adult level. Agumon is only a child. She's the strongest digimon we have on our side for now – you know I need to go with you."
Silence. Taichi sighed, and then... more silence. Looks like that argument was over before it began. But then, by now they all knew better than to argue with a stubborn Yagami, especially one who had been trained by Takeru...
"Daisuke, you take lead and follow your digivice's signal. I'll follow up behind and guard our flank. Taichi's in charge of this mission, so we do everything he says until we get back to the analogue world. Got it?"
Daisuke nodded and the trio turned back to the computer to see Koushiro doing something on the side.
"Alright... we don't have any intel on that area except what Daisuke is picking up, so you should probably assume the worst until you can see what's happening with your own eyes. I'll work on getting back in contact with the resistance. On that note... Taichi, we got sidetracked and I wasn't able to go over any of our general intel, so you'll need to fill them in on what we know-"
"Already done."
Taichi cut in and Koushiro nodded, continuing without missing a beat.
"We'll also need to go over the network records soon to identify where Daisuke's digivice came through, just in case there are any others out there. If so, we'll need to find where they are now."
Miyako wanted to grab the monitor and shake it wildly while shouting that they were right! Freaking! THERE! But... that wouldn't have done then any good, so she was forced to sit back for now and watch as the others finished their conversation and cut off the call, leaving them in silence for about... two seconds. Then Ken was firing up and moving things forward again.
"Miyako, Iori, I'm setting up twin connections to the digital world from two different terminals. I want you to try to connect, right now."
Both of them were slightly confused, both by the suddenness of his request and the nature of it. Why did he need two separate connections? If they were going to be joining the others, why not just the one? Still, the intensity in his eyes and the speed of his fingers on the keyboard told them not to argue, so they went over to the aforementioned terminals and used their digivices to try to connect. As they did so, two new blips appeared on Ken's map.
"What- wait... what are those?"
"Those... are the signals that your digivices are connecting to. I had a hunch that they wouldn't be in the same place as Daisuke's. Looks like I was right."
Suddenly the map and all that work was put aside and Ken pushed his chair over to another terminal. A few strings of code were entered in, then he was back to the first, entering a quick chain of commands.
"What are you doing?"
"Slipping under the network and calling Koushiro from outside the secure sector."
It took Miyako a few seconds to catch up mentally and Iori far longer, though he didn't fret over it much. She was the smart one, after all. He didn't care about knowing all the little details of a plan so long as he fully understood everything that was expected of him. Well... that and knew that he could trust the people he was working with.
After a few seconds a new screen popped up and Koushiro's face came up a moment later. A look of confusion covered his features, though that turned quickly to surprise.
"What... Ken? What the heck are you doing? Why are you calling me?"
"To help. I was in the network, managed to intercept your second call with Taichi and hear what's going on. Since the others are all on their way to the digital world, I figured I should call you instead, before you wasted a bunch of time on a pointless search."
Koushiro went silent for a second, clearly confused again. As his mind worked through what Ken might have meant, the boy reached forward to adjust the camera on the computer, moving it back and sideways a bit to widen the angle of the shot so that Koushiro could see the ones standing near him.
"I already tracked down the digivice's signal when it came through the network. There were three pings in the network. These are the other two; classmates if Hikari – Miyako and Iori."
Miyako smiled wide and held up her digivice and Iori quickly followed suit, if only to give confirmation that they were actually who they said they were. Miyako was practically giddy from the fact that they were actually talking to the super-genius who she idolized, even considering everything that was happening. Iori was considerably less energetic, though he was happy to actually be talking to a digidestined face-to-face... he didn't feel quite so deceptive now.
Koushiro was quiet for a few seconds, running through everything in his mind before he replied. Everything was happening so fast... he occasionally needed to just stop and take a look at the entire situation to be certain that he wasn't missing anything important.
"You're sure there was only three?"
"So far. I'll send you a copy of my data so you can double-check. While you were talking to Hikari and the others, I also had these two ping the digital world with their digivices. Got two new signals."
"Show me."
The two took a minute to... well, as far as Miyako could tell, they were trying to synchronize something between their computers. From the fact that the map came up when they finished, she assumed it had something to do with their digi-world connection.
"Hmm... data pattern similar to Daisuke's. Still nothing to show what they are, though... they're pretty spread out, too."
"That's why I called you and not Taichi. No point in sending them along if there's nothing for them there."
"True enough. We'll likely- wait... hold on a minute."
"What's up?"
"I need to double-check something... gimme a nano."
Miyako let out a tiny, almost inaudible squeak that Ken could only assume was the sound of a repressed fangirl squee... and that Iori didn't need to assume, because he knew it was. He'd heard Miyako use the term 'nano' a hundred times in that same context. Now he knew where she picked it up from... likely something from his website.
"Huh... one of these signals is fairly close to where the resistance said they would be moving to try to evade the Kaiser."
"Wait, who's the Kaiser?"
Iori cut in, making sure to halt the conversation before Koushiro and Ken ran away on some long, technical dialogue and left the rest of them in the dark.
"Oh, right... you don't know what's going on. Alright, let me fill you in..."
And so he did. There wasn't a lot to go with, but that was somewhat comforting for Iori as it meant there wasn't a thousand minor facts they'd have to memorize before they could act. Simplicity... he liked simplicity. Not because he was dumb or anything, but simply because he knew that the simpler things were, the harder it was for some random event to go wrong and screw over all their plans.
Miyako, on the other hand, was worried by their lack of knowledge. They had no idea who or what the Kaiser was, what he or she had planned, their methods of attack, the extent of their power and influence... they basically knew jack-all except that the Kaiser was dangerous, the digidestined were fighting blind, and those two facts were likely connected. Not the best place to start...
"So... am I assuming you want to rescue this resistance group as soon as possible?"
Ken muttered, hands once more folded in that thinking pose. Koushiro nodded, though he clearly didn't look eager to make the attempt.
"It seems our best option... if we wait too long they'll move out of range and we'll have to meet up with them later. It's definitely not safe, though. There's no backup that can go with them, and sending two rookie digidestined into a war zone blind and without any help is a sure way to get them hurt... or worse."
"Is there any way we can stay in contact?"
Miyako figured that they had to have some way to talk to each other. Three years of war and they hadn't even developed that? Not likely...
"With each other, sure. Your digivices can be used for long-term communications, but our digivices aren't working, so they can only link to each other, not to any of us."
Oh. That... would definitely be a problem. Miyako almost let herself slump down slightly in defeat before Ken stood up and headed over to a large, locked chest in the corner.
"Ken? What- Miyako, what's Ken doing? I can't see him."
"He's... getting something. I don't know what."
A minute later the boy returned with what looked like several sets of headphones... heavily modified headphones, plugged into devices that they didn't even remotely recognize.
"Comm systems. I developed these over the past year, using raw data from the digivices."
"You made radios that work like digivices?"
Koushiro asked as Ken moved forward so show the comms more clearly to him over the camera. When the question was asked, though, the second boy laughed and shook his head for a moment.
"Of course not. I'm nowhere close to developing anything that advanced. Engineering living data is still years away, but the spatial principles they use... those I can work with."
There was a pause before realization flashed across Koushiro's face.
"Interdimensional communications. A way to stay in contact with them from the human world without using digivices... clever. But the interference is universal. You'll likely have trouble establishing a good connection."
"You were able to filter out the interference when you talked to the resistance team. If you send me a copy of your data, I might be able to adapt it to these things. Won't be perfect, but it should be enough that we can at least advise them on where to go."
Koushiro pondered for a moment. It wasn't hard to tell what he was thinking based on his expression... still a bad plan. Dangerous, reckless... barely even viable, but... it was possible, and if one of them could locate their partner...
"...are you two up for this?"
Miyako thought for a moment, suddenly unsure. Just talking about it, she had been fine, but now that she was actually being asked to step out there into the fire, to put her life on the line, and with no backup...?
She glanced to Iori. He seemed equally uncertain, but after a moment that hesitancy faded and he turned to face Koushiro at the computer.
"We were given digivices for a reason. We have them, and we know where we need to go. I don't know what the Kaiser is going to do, but I know that the longer we go without fighting back, the stronger he'll become. If we can go now... then let's go now."
Both Koushiro and Ken were quiet for a few seconds. For someone so small and innocent looking, the boy seemed awfully courageous. One might almost chalk that up to ignorance... maybe he just didn't know what he was getting himself into? But he'd heard perfectly fine over the last few minutes of conversation just what he was walking into, and he had lived through the three years of the war...
For Miyako, Iori's confidence was a godsend. It gave her the boost she needed to harden her nerves and be willing to take that first step. Besides... she couldn't well let herself be overshadowed by the boys, could she? Daisuke was brazen and reckless, Iori was quiet and confident... if Miyako couldn't match them with her own energy and spunk, she'd just be burden... and she was NOT going to be a burden.
"Alright... I won't be able to help much from here. Ken, I'm putting them in your hands. Your orders are to first find one of your digimon partners and then try to locate the resistance team in the area. If anything goes wrong or trouble appears, withdraw immediately. No unnecessary risks, no heroism. Survival is your number one priority. Understood?"
The two nodded in tandem, feeling as though they had suddenly been recruited into a private army... but that was necessary for now. Until they knew how to survive in the digital world they had to take everything as seriously as possible.
Ken and Koushiro spent several minutes exchanging data, with the latter offering advice on how to adapt his own work to Ken's comm devices. Once that was all finished, the call was cut off and Ken turned to the pair to instruct them on the initial plan. The first thing they needed to do upon arriving in the digital world was hide so he could have time to filter out the interference. Then they would be ready to head for the signal from whichever digivice was receiving it.
The full preparation time took nearly half an hour, but even then neither of them felt as though it was long enough. They were about to take their first steps into the digital world, and they were doing it alone. Destiny had just dropped an immense responsibility into their laps, and they were going to have to live up to it without any help from the first generation of digidestined... and against an enemy who had managed to render that same generation incapable of fighting back, no less.
A year before, that generation proved that they were up to the challenge that they had been given, after three long, bloody years of war. Now they were going to find out if the three new arrivals were up to that same task.
Then Ken informed them that his preparations were complete. The gate was ready, and the digital world was waiting...
Time to begin their fight.