Episode 2. - The Parasite, Centimon!
The lights in the station did not brighten the place up as much as the tamers had hoped. Some of the unused tunnels leading to other platforms that were out of service had no lighting at all.
Amy peered down at Laelapmon. Her partner was sticking close to her the whole time, a little nervous, but otherwise looking protective and alert.
"There's a terminal coming up, we might be able to download a subway map onto our D-Drives, it should allow us to get a better idea of where that digimon is." Joey stated as they headed down a flight of stairs.
Amy wanted to say something to break the silence that had fallen over the group, but it seemed like besides the obvious tension in the air, everyone was bracing themselves for the inevitable encounter.
A few times, Amy swore it felt like there was a soft shuffling sound down some of the tunnels, but put it down to mice scurrying about... and whilst there had been one or two mice rush past, the shuffling noise was not the same sound as the little scabbling of feet.
"There's the terminal... we must be at the Hub." Joey said, head over to the terminal and booting it up. Several options presented themselves that the average traveller would be interested in, such as time table, weather, time, news... things like that. But Joey was only interested in the map, which he brought up. "This shouldn't take more than a few seconds to transfer onto our D-Drives. We won't need to hook up with cables for this, since the D-Drive has a wireless function..."
Amy held up her D-Drive, the light from the screen providing better lighting than the dim lights in the hub. The map finished downloading in no time, just as Joey said.
Just as she was about to ask what should they do next, another tremor hit, this one rumbling close enough to make everyone feel very unsteady. Amy felt her stomach knot up in worry when the hub's lights suddenly cut out.
"Damn, it must have taken out the hub's electricity lines..." Joey muttered, after the tremors ceased. "Is everyone alright?"
"I'm fine..." said Amy quietly, though she didn't feel it. Laelapmon pressed herself against Amy's side, her chin resting on Amy's shoulder. She could feel Amy's nervousness, and was trying to give her a reassuring canine hug.
"Amy... I won't let anything bad happen..." Laelapmon said softly, rubbing her little nose against Amy's cheek.
"I know you won't, Laelapmon..." Amy replied, feeling bad that she'd let herself, even briefly, feel anxious... she was with the others. She had to have more faith in the group.
"Joey..." Manimon murmured, standing stock still. "Something isn't right..."
"What's wrong, Manimon?" Joey started up, before Manimon held up a paw indicating that the group should be quiet.
"There's... someone else down here... they're really close..." Manimon warned, keeping his voice low.
Amy and Laelapmon, as quietly as they could came and stood over with the boys. The hub was a circular room, with multiple tunnels; whatever was supposedly joining them could come at any angle.
"I didn't want to say anything..." Joey suddenly spoke, as the sound of footsteps in the distance became noticeable. "Something's been following us since before we entered, at first, I wasn't too sure, I thought it might have been nothing... but my tracker briefly picked up another digital lifeform..."
Amy's mouth suddenly felt very dry. Shielding her D-Drive's screen in a vain attempt to hide the light from exposing their position, she stared down at the screen and felt her blood run cold.
A second dot had appeared on the screen... and it was heading right for them.
"Don't panic... don't panic..." Joey whispered, addressing the group as a whole, "But we're going to have to split up... we need to run."
"Split up?" Amy asked, her anxiety increasing seemingly tenfold.
"We haven't got time to argue about this, any minute now, it'll be here-" Joey started, before getting cut off.
The tunnel they had just come down suddenly showed a large beastly figure running straight for them, it's eyes blazing a bloody shade of red, with something on it's head that resembled a skull.
The group felt as if Death itself had been given a form, and this form was hunting them down.
"RUN!" Yelled Manimon, and in a mad scramble, everyone dispersed.
Amy didn't stop to look back as she ran, Laelapmon keeping up but hanging back behind her protectively, even though her own nerves were getting shot to hell and back again.
She couldn't hear Joey or Manimon any more, and began to panic, her heart racing.
"Oh god, Laelapmon..." Amy cried, her legs becoming unsteady from nerves and fear and worry. "I... we shouldn't have run... what if it got Joey and Manimon...? What if it went after them...?"
"Amy..." Laelapmon called up, picking up speed now herself, "Amy... let's stop..."
Coming up to a split in the path between two stations, stations 4 and 5, Amy dropped to her knees.
"Amy... let's look at the tracker..." Laelapmon advised in a soft voice.
"Oh Laelapmon... I feel like such an idiot..." Amy felt terrible that in her haste, she'd forgotten to use the tracker. "I'm terrible at this..."
"No you're not, Amy..." Laelapmon said sadly, nuzzling her face against her tamer, "We didn't know this was going to happen... all of this only happened just today, even I'm scared... but as long as we're together, Amy... I'm not going to be scared... if he shows up, I'm going to give it my all to keep you safe."
"Laelapmon..." Amy murmured, hugging into Laelapmon tightly, "I'm sorry I'm so useless... I'll try to stop freaking out and worrying so much..."
"It's alright, Amy... I know you only worry, because you care about us... and that's not a bad thing..." Laelapmon said, resting her chin on Amy's lap and giving her a reassuring look.
However, their moment of respite only lasted a short while. Seeming to materialize out of the darkness, the black dog digimon, who seemed even bigger and more intimidating in these tunnels, appeared. It was too late to run away... they were trapped.
"I think we made it..." Manimon sighed, as he leaned up against the wall for support, panting from all the running.
"This is not good... Amy and Laelapmon are out of range, and that monster's dot had randomly vanished again shortly after we all ran from the Hub..." Joey said, gritting his teeth in frustration. This was not going to plan, and now he felt responsible for leaving Amy and Laelapmon in danger.
"This was a mistake... we're going back, Manimon. I've got to find them."
"Wait, Joey..." Manimon said, still gasping for breath where he wasn't use to running as hard as he had been. "What if the other digimon is still there? It looked so strong..."
"Regardless if it's still hanging about, we left them behind... why on earth did I suggest we split up? I... I had been betting on it coming after us. If it had been after us, surely, it would have showed up by now... so if it's not here, then it went after Amy and Laelapmon." Joey rubbed at his temples where he could feel his head pounding from stress, anxiety and frustration. "This is all my fault..."
"Joey... don't beat yourself up... they wanted to come and help us, and besides, Laelapmon will keep Amy safe, I'm sure of it. Just as you know I'll keep you safe... so stop worrying, alright? This ain't like you, Joe." Manimon said, straightening himself up. "If you still want to go back and check, then I'm game."
"Thanks, Manimon..." Joey sighed, managing to get himself back on track. "I only hope nothing bad happened to them-"
Suddenly, the biggest and loudest of tremors ripped through station 3, causing everything to shake and shudder about. The ceiling of the tunnel began to collapse, and Joey was forced to run for his life to avoid the ceiling coming down and nearly crushing him.
As he turned back, he realized the tunnel had been so heavily clogged with debris that it had cut him off from Manimon.
"MANIMON!" Joey yelled, rushing back after the shaking had stopped "MANIMON, PLEASE ANSWER ME!"
He began to pull and dig through the wreckage, but the whole pile was so unsteady that more threatened to come tumbling down, and he was forced to stop.
"Manimon..." Joey called out, this time a little weaker, as he felt his already tight throat tightening further to the point he felt choked.
"I'm... I'm alright, Joey..." Manimon's voice sounded from beyond the rubble, followed by few coughs from the dust which was still swirling around him. "But I don't know if I'll be alright for much longer..."
"Manimon! What's happened?" Joey called out, a horrible sinking feeling taking hold of him.
"Well... about that, Joey..." Manimon said, in a grim tone of voice. "I'm... not exactly alone, on my end, anymore... I have bad company..."
Pressed against the wall near to the now sealed off tunnel, Manimon stared up numbly into the gaping maw of Centimon, who had steadily been closing in like a cat cornering a small mouse the entire time.
"Don't come any closer!" Laelapmon barked up, her whole body tensed up defensively, where she now stood infront of Amy like a small shield, her tamer's only protection.
The big black dog stared down at Laelapmon with it's intense, red-hot stare.
"And what if I did?" was simply his response. "You would fight me, at your level?"
"I... I would try... if it means keeping Amy safe!" Laelapmon growled, every inch of her being bracing herself ready to fight.
"What do you want from us?" Amy asked weakly, feeling scared. She wanted so hard just to run away, but she made a promise, and promise or no promise, she would not leave Laelapmon behind.
"What do I want? For a start, I want you both to calm down." the big black dog digimon stated, before suddenly sitting down infront of them, perhaps to show that he was not as evil as they had perhaps been expecting. "Secondly, I had come down here to stop you from endangering yourselves, but in your foolish haste, you and your friends ran before I could stop you, and now you are all in a bad situation."
"A bad situation? What do you mean?" Amy asked, suddenly feeling sick for a different reason now, as she knelt down beside Laelapmon, stroking her ears in a bid to pacify her partner's tenseness.
"The digimon you and your friend are tracking is a very dangerous one. It's unlike anything you will ever experience." the dog digimon began. "It can not be reasoned with. It feels no emotion, no mercy, no pity, no remorse for those it hurts... and kills. It is a digimon driven only by the desire to fight, ceaselessly. And you and your friend, in your foolish bid to play heroics, stumbled into an area where it is in it's element."
"How... how did you know we were tracking it? How do you know how dangerous this thing is?" Amy asked, holding onto Laelapmon tightly, where she felt her heart sink at the thought of Joey and Manimon possibly being in danger.
"There is no other reason I can think of why two Tamers and their digimon would head to a closed train station, other than to track down a target. That is how I know." the black digimon mused, bowing his head slightly, the skull helmet on his head concealing his bright red eyes. "And I know how dangerous Centimon, the digimon causing the tremors, is, because I have been tracking it for a while now, and each time, it has escaped from me. It has been causing havoc across subways and sewers here for over a week or so, now."
"Amy... I think Joey and Manimon are..." Laelapmon whispered, her voice tight and husky where she had been growing very worried as the conversation went on.
"Please, mister digimon..." Amy asked, after seeing the big dog stand back up, ready to move off back down the tunnel. "Please, help us save our friends..."
"You shall address me as 'Barghestmon' if you insist on addressing me." the black dog stated, with his back to them. "And it is not my responsibility to shepherd and save every human stupid enough to put himself, knowingly, into the danger zone."
Amy suddenly felt anger boiling away inside her. Running ahead of him with Laelapmon, she blocked him off, staring into his red eyes. She didn't feel afraid anymore... just a grim determination.
"If you want to go back, you'll... you'll have to fight us." Amy began. She didn't care if Barghestmon thought her 'stupid', even if their power was not enough to stand a chance against him. "But Joey is my friend, and we came down here to stop the tremors. We didn't want to let him go alone... but he and Manimon are here because they wanted to help, to do the right thing, for the sake of the people that live here. Not for glory, not for heroics... but to do the right thing... and if Centimon keeps getting away from you, maybe rather than walk away from me, you'll take us with you, and help us... and let us help you stop this thing! And if you still think of us all as being foolish, so be it... but we're trying to do the right thing... and that's not a terrible thing to want."
Barghestmon paused, his expression an otherwise unreadable one. After mulling this over, he voiced his reply.
"I think you are very foolish... but perhaps also very brave. If you are willing to give yourself, every ounce of your being into this, then come along. But if you are not serious about this threat that is affecting this city, if you can not commit yourself to this... then go home. This is no place for half-hearted fighting."
"I have no intention of running away... not any more." Amy fired back, walking beside Barghestmon, with Laelapmon between them. "I'm not going to let something like Centimon just go around destroying things, and putting everyone I care about in danger."
"And if Amy is going to fight, so will I. Nothing is going to prevent me from helping Amy!" Laelapmon barked up, to show her support for her tamer.
"Very well... let's head back to where that terminal was, and go and find Centimon... and your foolish friends." Amy was about to say something in regards to that, but stopped, when she thought she saw the ghost of a smile on the big dog's face.
"Moon Fire!" yelled Manimon, dodging a swipe from Centimon's tail. A ball of silvery white flame charged at the tip of Manimon's horn, before he released it, firing it off into Centimon's face.
With a strange, unearthly shrieking hiss, the worm pulled back briefly.
"I've got it backed up, Joey!" Manimon called, perking up where he felt the tide was turning in his favour. "Moon Fi- AAAAGHH!"
Centimon had recovered quickly, his thick segmented tail whipping around to smash against Manimon, sending him flying into the wall.
"Manimon! You've got to get out of there, this is too dangerous!" Joey yelled, still desperately trying to shift through the rubble.
He checked his D-Drive, sweat pouring down his face, where he'd been desperately trying to break through to the other side, and from tension. Manimon's icon, which had a green pulsating aura around it to indicate full health, was now a worrying shade of yellow, the aura around the icon growing dimmer, with the pulse spreading from it beating faster, akin to a heart beat.
He checked the map again, to keep track of what was going on. Manimon's icon was jittering slightly in place, so he was still moving... he must be trying to get back on his feet, Joey thought.
The large dot representing Centimon was turning itself around to face Manimon.
Joey noticed a branching tunnel leading from that station further down the rail lines, and got an idea.
"Manimon, can you hear me? Run down the rail line, one of the tracks will bend off to lead to an area where they keep the trains if they break down, I'm going to try to get inside, meet me there!" he called, as he began to run. "And for the love of god... do not die."
He wished he didn't have to run like this, but this might be the only chance he had to get Manimon out of there and by his side.
"Dazzle!" yelled Manimon, after steadying himself. His head was pounding, and his vision was blurring, but he'd heard Joey enough to know what he had to do.
Light bright enough to match light levels with the sun suddenly filled the room as Manimon's horn gave off a bright, white light. Centimon howled in it's unearthly voice, as it became blinded from the flash. This was all Manimon needed to start speeding away down the train tracks after diving off the platform.
Joey burst up the stairs and into the hub, before running head first into Barghestmon's chest, where his eyes had been glued to the map screen and track on his D-Drive.
"Joey!" Amy yelled, appearing shortly after, from the tunnel behind Barghestmon, running over to help him up. "I'm so glad you're alright... we just came to help you!"
"What's going on? Where's Manimon?" Laelapmon asked, staring about worriedly after noticing the last member of the group was absent.
"There was a cave-in... tunnel collapsed... Manimon got trapped on the other side, something big is attacking him..." Joey gushed impatiently, "I told him to run down the train tracks and meet me at the carriage maintenance room, where the train carriages are taken when they break down, it's the room nearest to where Manimon and that thing are..."
"Centimon..." Barghestmon growled, startling Joey a little bit. "your partner is in grave danger. I do not have time to explain right now, young man, but for the moment, we are allies."
Joey seemed uncertain at first, but he did not have the time to consider if he could trust the dog that had startled them all into running off in the first place, right now.
"Follow me, we have got to get to the maintenance room, or... I don't want to think about what could happen to Manimon.." and with that, Joey tore off down another tunnel following the map on his D-Drive.
"NO! What the hell?" Joey pounded his fists uselessly against the thick security door that had halted their entry into the maintenance room.
The door, and entire room, was bomb proof. As well as train maintenance, any trains bearing suspicious packages were brought here to be inspected in case anything dangerous was on board. The only thing near by was another terminal, this one slightly different from the one back at the Hub.
"I doubt even I could break through something as reinforced as this..." Barghestmon commented. He prowled up and down the length of the gigantic, very thick door.
"Please try, Manimon is depending on this..." Joey begged, looking more and more desperate and upset and frustrated as worry began to tighten it's grip on him.
"I can not promise anything... but stand back." Barghestmon urged, and when everyone was at a safe distance, he focused as much power as he could on the door. "Mauthe Pyre!" he roared, his entire body setting alight with deep, dark flames, before he fired a stream of black and red flame at the security doors.
A wall of flame rose, rapidly engulfing the entire door, before Barghestmon ceased the attack. There were burn holes now appearing where the flames had blistered most of the metal, but metal thicker still lined further behind the layer Barghestmon had only managed to partly destroy.
"It's too thick, I would need a greater level of energy that isn't accessible to me right now to be able to do anything to that door, and trying at my current level, we would not have the time. It would take too long even trying to burn a small hole through. It's completely reinforced." Barghestmon sighed.
Amy had noticed a small vent, a little way back down the corridor... it was too small for a person of Joey's physique, and much too small for Barghestmon... but for someone with Amy's build, she was confident she'd be able to get through, and it would be no problem for Laelapmon.
"Laelapmon... could you help me get the vent grill off?" Amy asked. Seeing Barghestmon attack the door, surely something like a grill would be no problem.
Laelapmon looked at the grill, and took aim with her technique. Wind seemed to swirl around her form, and take the shape of white blades.
"Gale Blade!" Laelapmon called, her ears fluttering in the breeze that came seemingly from nowhere.
The white wind-knives burst forward and struck the vent, completely slicing it to pieces.
Amy didn't hesitate to kneel down and crawl through, with Laelapmon following.
"Amy? Where are you?" Joey called, turning from where Barghestmon and he had been trying to come to some form of agreement as to what they should do, and on seeing neither Amy or Laelapmon present, rushed back, completely passing by the vent.
Barghestmon padded after him, sniffing. He could pick up Laelapmon's scent on the ground, and noticed the vent that the dark had partially concealed from them.
"They went through here..." Barghestmon informed Joey, when he ran back, looking worried. "Obviously, they've gone through as a bid to reach Manimon..."
"AMY!" Joey yelled down the vent, but silence was all that met him. They must already have got through inside.
"All we can do is wait for word..." Barghestmon said quietly, turning back to the door. "I've tried all I can, but we will not get through that way."
"I'm... I'm going to try hacking the terminal..." Joey suddenly said, heading back over to the security door. He booted it up, and connected his D-Drive up to it. As an employee of Arch Angel, he'd learned a thing or two about accessing things he wasn't supposed to be able to get in, though he'd had his reasons for doing so, this would be the first time he would be hacking into something outside of Arch Angel.
Barghestmon simply stood behind him, watching carefully. He had a feeling this was not going to work.
Amy pushed the grill down, and crawled out into the vast open room, which hadn't suffered any damage from the tremors thanks to the reinforcements embedded into the room's structure. Laelapmon appeared shortly afterwards, shaking herself clean of dust and dirt.
Empty trains were left standing down respective lanes in the underground roundhouse, and some taken up onto raised platforms for fixing the undersides.
The ground rumbled underfoot, and Amy took cover behind a train, with Laelapmon pressed against her side cautiously. Peering around the side of the carriage, she could see the giant parasitic worm, Centimon, looming up, looking around restlessly. Manimon must be inside somewhere, hiding, she thought.
Amy placed a finger against her lips to signify they had to be quiet. Moving forward closer to Centimon using the carriages as cover. Just as they passed by the second train, two paws reached out and grabbed Amy, one covering her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Blinking after the shock passed, Amy noticed it was Manimon, who was pretty roughed up.
"I took shelter in here... he hasn't found me yet, but it won't be long, I guess... what are you doing here?" he whispered, getting them both inside the train, where they all laid low against the floor, trying to keep hidden.
"There's a thick security door, we couldn't get through... me and Laelapmon managed to get through a vent..." Amy whispered.
Laelapmon raised her ears ever so slightly.
"I can't hear anything... it's gone completely silent..." she looked over at Amy and Manimon worried, lowering her ears again, "this feels really unsettling..."
Amy crawled back over to the door, and peered out. There was nothing she could see either side of her that seemed off... until she felt like it was suddenly growing darker. Looking up, she just barely registered something coming down at her.
Pulling herself back quickly, Amy stared in horror as a two-pronged tail smashed down into the concrete, jamming itself in. Amy shuddered at what that might have done, had it hit her.
"Out! Everyone, out of the train!" she shrieked, barely able to think as she ran, trying to get the others out of the way.
The three managed to run only a short distance before Centimon pulled his tail free of the ground, head-butting the train they had just been standing in.
Laelapmon saw it coming, and for her, the world seemed to slow down. She threw herself at Amy, pinning the girl down on the floor, as the train soared over them; had she not done this, it may have hit Amy.
"Laelapmon..." Amy gasped, a little winded from her fall "thank you..."
"Damn! It's caught up with us!" Manimon shouted, as Centimon came thundering towards them at an alarming rate, stretching open its leech-like mouth in readiness.
"Sonic Boom!" Laelapmon yelled, firing of a concentrated burst of air like a cannon ball from her mouth, wind trailing from it as it rammed into Centimon. The loud booming sound giving off by her attack made it fly into a frenzy, as it whipped it's tail back and smacked Laelapmon flying into the side of a train.
Amy screamed and ran after her, temporarily forgetting about Centimon. She knelt down beside Laelapmon's side, not wanting to move her in case she caused any more damage. Laelapmon was shaking from the hit, her eyes not focusing straight and her head spinning.
"I-I'll be okay, Amy..." Laelapmon muttered weakly, attempting to get back up, stumbling and slipping, as Amy helped her up.
Centimon, still enraged from Laelapmon's attack, went to strike again.
Manimon saw this coming, and saw that the girls were not able to escape, selflessly rushed in, disregarding his own safety in order to save them. The segmented tail of Centimon wrapped around his little body, and began to tighten and cut off any attempt to move.
Amy screamed out, grabbing anything to hand, debris from the wrecked train, and throwing it at Centimon, but it did no good.
Laelapmon weakly tried to summon her Gale Blades, and even though it left deep cuts in Centimon's body, where streams of data particles began to burst, it was so far gone in it's anger that nothing would stop it from getting a kill in.
Manimon could do nothing except scream in agony.
Joey hadn't been able to crack through the coding that would open the door. The only thing he had accomplished was hacking into the cameras, and the intercom made for making announcements to all around the station.
Sweat poured down his face, but his skin was icy cold, and he'd gone pale staring at Manimon on the monitor, slowly being squeezed to death by Centimon.
"I... how can it be so strong...?" Joey breathed, his voice shaking. "I know digimon get through, all the time... this... this isn't the first time Manimon and I fought off a rogue digimon that got into the real world... why is this one so..." there were no words Joey could form to describe the horror he was feeling, seeing the murderous shine in Centimon's eyes, and how it would not stop at anything to fight...
"It is infected by a virus, a bad one that once a digimon falls prey to, once their mind is in the virus' grip, they can not be saved by normal means, and there is no solution that I found that could rid the host of the virus..." Barghestmon murmured, watching the screen. "Manimon is almost done for... but there is still something you can do, something only a Tamer can provide..."
Joey stared at Barghestmon, his expression one of desperation and misery.
"Tell me. Tell me what I have to do... I don't want Manimon to die..."
"Then, Tamer, you must send him your strength. Send him your hope... you must create a miracle for Manimon, and initiate the next phase of his growth." Barghestmon said, in a voice rather soft for something so intimidating looking.
"How do I do that?" Joey snapped, staring back at the screen. He could see Amy sobbing, holding onto Laelapmon, who was also in a rough shape, desperately using up all her energy in vain to try to get Manimon free. Manimon was laying limply in Centimon's hold, his eyes closed, almost like he'd given up... just seeing that look on his face was the most painful thing Joey had ever seen in his life, and it made him boil with rage at Centimon's destructiveness.
"Manimon..." Joey suddenly began to speak, through the loud speaker, as he clutched his D-Drive. "I'm so sorry... I couldn't find a way through the door... I couldn't save you..."
He reached out, and touched his hand against the screen, against Manimon's face.
"...You helped me out so much, and together, we stopped a lot of bad digimon... we weren't doing it because it was our job... we did it to keep people safe... this is the hardest fight we've ever had to fight through... and though it scares me, Manimon... I don't want to give up hope..."
Manimon felt his mind going dark, and everything around him seeming to grow faint... the only thing he could hear were Joey's words, which seemed to be audible deep inside his head, and inside his heart.
"We can't give up, Manimon... that's what you taught me, during the times when I first started work at Arch Angel, when I never thought I'd find the answers... you told me to keep going, because we'd barely begun... and our friendship is the same, Manimon... it's barely begun... I don't want to lose you to this!"
Joey suddenly felt his D-Drive vibrate and glow fiercely, as it reacted to his plea to reach Manimon. Staring at the screen, he saw Manimon's body begin to glow and change shape in a burst of light.
Centimon seemed to grow afraid of the piercing light, a light that was warm and strong. Recoiling back, it's hold on Manimon's body loosened.
Amy had to shield her eyes as she and Laelapmon stared up at what was happening.
"Manimon, digivolve to...!"
His voice rang out and echoed around the vast room, light filling up every inch, every nook and cranny. Nothing remained in shadow.
"DVERGAMON!"
Where Manimon once was, there now was something different. a brown and red rabbit digimon with a large black turbine for a tail, and sharp, powerful drills on it's arms now stood, with flaming exhausts on the end of it's ears.
"Moljnir Megaton!" Dvergamon roared, firing up his drill and then piercing it straight through Centimon's body, cutting it's tail clean off.
Centimon shrieked in agony and backed off. Suddenly, Barghestmon's voice could be heard on the loud speaker.
"Everyone, get out onto the tracks again, we're going to seal him inside the room."
Amy grabbed a hold of Laelapmon and carried her out as fast as she could over her back, Dvergamon rushing after them.
Centimon's tail still wriggled madly about, even though it had been separated from the rest of it's body. It made a mad dash after the trio, as the doors began to shut, with the warning siren blaring to signify the doors in action. Joey had managed to trigger the panic button to get the room to go into lock down mode.
Amy looked over her shoulder and gasped as the door hadn't closed enough to block Centimon, who was dragging itself at them where the loss of it's tail had affected it's balanced. It rammed it's head through the gap remaining to snap at them, before the heavy doors clamped down on it, bursting it's head apart in a cloud of data particles.
The three escapees let out a sigh of relief, and began heading back to station 3.
Dvergamon had cleared the rubble that had blocked him and Joey before, as the effect wore off, and he transformed back down to Manimon, staggering forward into Joey's arms from exhaustion.
"You scared me for moment back there, Manimon..." Joey murmured, managing to smile for the first time after all this time.
"I had you to guide me, Joe... thank you." Manimon said, in a voice showing genuine care, with no shred of his usual sarcasm.
"It'll be dawn by now." Barghestmon stated, as they began heading back up. "Your digimon need rest."
"Barghestmon... there's still a lot of things I'd like to know..." Joey said, when they got out.
"I want to know, too... me and Laelapmon intend to find out what's happening around here, and do our best to help..." Amy added.
"I understand, but for now, this is neither the time nor place for discussion. Go home and get rested." Barghestmon said. "Scan me with the D-Drives before you go, so you'll be able to identify me on your trackers for next time."
The tamers did as instructed, getting up his data, but both were too tired to check in-depth, not that Barghestmon seemed to care either way.
After Barghestmon departed off, Joey showed Amy another command for the D-Drive, "Digitize", which stored Laelapmon and Manimon back inside their D-Drives.
"After I set Laelapmon's, um, home up, inside the terminal, it will put her into auto-heal mode, and she'll recover her health, kind of like a recharge period." Joey said, after they got back to their apartments.
Amy watched as Joey set the terminal up, and Laelapmon wandered around the screen with curiosity, batting at the cursor with her paw.
"Can you try the lights for me?" Joey asked Laelapmon, just to make sure she'd been "installed" correctly.
"OK, Mr. Joey." Laelapmon replied, giving the lights in Amy's apartment a flash.
"Yeah, she's got in safe and secured. Let the system do the rest for her. I'll pop in tomorrow after work to see how you're getting on." Joey said, after getting out of the front door.
"Alright... thanks again, Joey..." Amy said, rubbing her arm a little, looking back at the terminal.
"Actually... I should be thanking you, Amy." Joey responded, looking aside slightly. "I'm glad you came with me... I thought, since me and Manimon do this for a 'living' and off-duty stuff when bad things go down, that we could handle it... but if you didn't come down, it might have ended badly... You covered Manimon for me, when I couldn't, right up to the end... thank you."
Amy didn't know how to reply to that, so she just smiled.
"I want to help out more in future... I'm going to be staying in Japan for a year, and if digimon attacks can get as bad as this, me and Laelapmon need all the help we can get... that Infected one... I guess we were just unfortunate that we started out at the deep end..."
"Yeah... most of the digimon me and Manimon faced aren't as bad as that, we haven't had to destroy too many of them, most of the time we just bring them into the holding cells and then deport them back to the digital world... but I suppose that's something for another day. Good night, Amy."
Amy saw Joey off down the corridor with a wave, "bye, Joey..."
The moment she closed the door, Amy retreated into her bedroom, and feeling very low, cried herself to sleep. Tomorrow, there was someone she had to see.
