Digimon, Dr Kurata and digimon tamers is property of Bandai.

Nullspace, Matt, Exo-Gene inc and Balwak station are my property. Mark is the property of my co-author, Cydra.

C.P.S Chronicles: Digital Conspiracy

Chapter 2: 'Mouse Trap'

Osaka Park, Tokyo

"...And so me and Veemon got into an escape pod before the station exploded and we landed here," finished Matt. The others gave him incredulous looks and Rika said, "You can't possibly serious about that. There's no way that happened." Matt just stared. "I have a laser gun, I'm wearing a battle helmet…and me n veemon arrived via escape pod…do I need a sign saying 'Interstellar person?"

Henry was also sceptical, "Well, what did your spaceship and the space station look like?" Matt shrugged. "The Skyraid looks like a NASA shuttle and the Balwak looked like a Tyre…on a…stick." He said, his voice trailing off under the combined sceptical glares. "I think a 'interstellar person' could give a better description on spaceships and space stations," said Renamon. Matt transferred his own glare in Renamon's direction "I've only been one for a fortnight." he said before realising that statement wouldn't help his case one Iota. Here, at Matt's relief, Veemon piped up, "He wouldn't lie! Besides you've got my word, what's there to doubt?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah...he was a prisoner on that place...God knows what that wack job, Kurata was doing to him." He turned to Veemon and asked "What were they doing?" Veemon looked thoughtful for a minute and then said "I dunno." causing a group sweat drop from all present. "What do you mean 'I dunno'?" cried Matt, "They were torturing you and you had no idea what it was about?" He took a few breaths. "Doesn't matter anyhow…Kurata probably went down with the ship…good riddance to bad rubbish, I say." Matt turned back to the tamers and said "Er…is there anywhere me and Veemon can crash for a while? The NSC will probably send a team to investigate once I don't report but till then…"

The others looked indecisive that but Takato said, "Well, there's the tunnel Guilmon used to live in." Matt shrugged. "Sounds a good place…where is it?

Abandoned tunnel, Osaka park

Matt peered around the tunnel. "Seems as good a place as any. Thanks. I should only be under your feet for a few days after I call home." he said, tapping a few of the buttons on his left glove. The glove made a 'SHRRRAK' and let loose a shower of blue sparks. "Ooops." said Matt to himself and turned his back. The tamers could hear him muttering to himself. "Stupid cut price piece of wrist comp junk...WORK!"

"Having trouble with that?" asked Henry. "Nope," said Matt, "just need a little recalibration," and started banging it on the sides of the tunnel. The computer finally let loose a high pitched 'fweeee' noise and a final shower of sparks before its screen went dark. Matt glared at it like it had done it on purpose and kicked the wall in frustration. "Smeg." He said and winced as a loose rock in the wall decided that diplomatic moment to fall on his foot.

Matt would have let out a larger, more colourful stream of words, but he remembered there were children present. He turned to the tamers and said slowly "Err…it may be a bit longer then a few days…at least till I fix this." Showing his wrist comp as proof.

Exo-Gene Facility 'Lab 1' 30 miles south of Tokyo Harbour

Kurata was sitting in his replacement office. He had a very irritated look on his face and was drumming his fingers against the desktop. "I can't believe I have to use this dump to continue my plans. That little punk will pay dearly, him and that wretched lizard that's with him." Just then Mark entered the room and said, "Excuse me, sir." Kurata glared at him and said, "You better have a good reason to be in here or I'm stuffing you inside a 3&1/2 floppy disk."

Mark swallowed audibly at the threat and said, "Er, we've found something out in orbit. It's that mercenary's ship." "What use is that to me?" asked Kurata. Mark swallowed and continued, putting a USB into Kurata's computer. It showed a feed from one of the satellites Exo-Gene had monitoring. The view showed the Skyraid float by, shortly before its defence system shot the satellite rendering the view that of static. "It's almost fully functional...if it lands, that merc could get back to the NSC and say what's happening here."

Kurata frowned and said, "We can't allow that to happen. We aren't nearly ready enough to show open hostility to any government, let alone the NSC. I think you should get rid of it as soon as possible." Mark nodded and was about to walk out of the room when Kurata called, "Wait a minute! I have an idea!" Mark nodded and said "Its close enough for us to bring it in on auto...but why don't we just buy him off? He is a mercenary, after all."

Kurata nodded but added, "But let's not forget, he's also a Tamer, the Digivice proves it. That could complicate matters. We better send another Digimon in case things don't go our way." Mark nodded "We already have a Jump disk in place in the park...make enough fuss and he might turn up. I could have some men waiting for when he turns up...all that confusion...accidents can happen."

Osaka Park, Tokyo.

It turned out that one function of Matt's Wrist computer was still working…the alarm. It chose to give this fact at 7:30 am the next day. After a night sleeping on the concrete floor of the tunnel, matt was not a morning person, hitting it with a large stone before moaning. "Oh dear lord…its 7:30…I've never even seen 7:30…I wish I still hadn't."

Veemon stirred from where the small dragon digimon had chosen to sleep, mumbling something about killer tomatoes before dropping off again. Matt smirked, yawned a bit and got to his feet. "Might as well go get some grub…" he muttered before heading to the exit and out into the street. Unnoticed, he was spotted by a guy wearing a headset. "Er…captain? You're not gonna believe who just strolled by."

Matt approached a general store and went inside. Fortunately, he had an Earth-language translator (otherwise he wouldn't have been able to talk to the other Tamers) and he was able to convert his credits into Japanese Yen. As he was looking at some of the food, he felt something pressed into his side and heard someone say. "Don't move. I just want to talk." Said a familiar voice. Matt sighed. "Aren't you supposed to be dead? No. Don't answer that. It's too early in the morning." He said not turning.

Mark smiled slightly and said, "It appears your sense of humour hasn't changed much." "When you're in the mercenary business, your sense of humour's one of the most important things to have," said Matt, "It keeps you sane." Matt turned to look at Mark holding a barely visible laser pistol. "So...why aren't your rent-a-cop security shooting me up? I've nothing I want to say to you and your scumbag boss except 'Die'!"

Mark just grinned, saying "C'mon. This isn't your fight…surely you want to get out of here." Matt didn't reply, content just to glare at him. Mark pulled out an NSC credit chip from his pocket and showed it to Matt. "Here…triple what your contract for transporting personnel would have been. Just tell us where the digimons is and you can go."

Matt stared at the credit chip like it was a viper before looking up at Mark with a look of pure hatred. "You think after what I saw those goons on Balwak station were doing to Veemon that I'd simply hand him back to you and keep my mouth shut?" he said with barely concealed venom. Mark sighed and put the chip away. "Don't be a fool, Lynch. You think you can take on all of Kurata's division by yourself? You'll be wasted."

Matt simply glared before saying "You heard me. The answer is no deal. Get lost." Mark sighed, pocketing his laser before turning to leave. At the door he turned and said to Matt. "You have no idea what you're up against." Before leaving.

--

Matt was walking back to the tunnel with some food for him and Veemon, pondering on Mark's parting words and regretting thanks to the many images his imagination was throwing up when he got the horrible feeling he was being followed. He reached for his blaster and swore when he realised it was still in the tunnel.

Matt steeled himself and then turned around. There was nothing behind him. Matt sighed a bit in relief and said, "I don't scare that easily." He turned around and a face popped up right in front of him and yelled, "Boo!" Matt yelped and fell backwards.

Matt groaned and sat back up. Rolling on the ground with laughter in front of him was a small Digimon. It was mostly purple except for its red gloves and scarf, its white face, and the yellow mischievous face on his belly. It had large ears and a barbed tail. The mystery device beeped and displayed a profile for the newcomer. "Impmon, is it? What the smeg is the big idea?" he said with barely concealed fury. In his mind, a small debated was going, with the majority of his mind saying that he should let off some steam... starting with this new mon if its explanation wasn't shockingly good.

Impmon finished cackling and wiped some tears from his face. "You shoulda seen that look on your face," he said with a slight Brooklyn accent, "that was absolutely priceless." "Hope it's worth enough to pay your medical bills," growled Matt. He dove at Impmon who jumped over his head. "Stay still, you little gremlin." He yelled, turning and trying to grab Impmon again. "I have been shot at, dropped from orbit and attacked by a robot reject…I AM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD!" he yelled finally managing to grab Impmon by the leg, lifting him to eye level. "Can you fly?" he said with an evil grin.

Impmon looked nervous and said, "Well not in this form, but when I digivolve to-" Impmon was able to finish because Matt just punted him into a nearby duck pond. As Matt walked away, Impmon came back to the surface and spat the water out of his mouth. "Some people have no sense of humour," he grumbled.

--

Matt came back into the tunnel, muttering to himself to see Veemon getting up. "Hey, dude. Got us some grub." he said, putting the bag down and pulling a packet of crisps out of it before offering some to veemon. Veemon snatched the packet and rapidly devoured it before Matt could say anything. Matt looked at Veemon incredulously and said, "Something tells me you're hungrier than I thought." He pulled out a bottle of water and sat down opposite Veemon. "What do you remember about what they did?" he asked curiously. "From the looks of things, it wasn't any good at all."

Veemon looked up and shrugged. "I don't really know. It hurt, I know that for sure. They just appeared one day and grabbed me." Matt put down his water and said "Well…I'm not going to let them get their claws on you again…you got my word on that." He said. The ground shook and a distant 'thoom' was heard. "What was that?" said Veemon, looking up just as Matt's pager thing beeped, displaying some kind of compass function, the arrow pointing towards the ceiling. "Trouble. Explosions generally signal that." Matt said, getting up.

--

Mark arrived back where his men were setting up one of their homemade digimons traps, nicknamed Data Traps by Kurata's scientists. It was basically a small disk with a small satellite dish pointing skywards. A technician looked up and saluted. "Sir…traps set up and waiting…I personally don't like the rush job we did…we should have a backup in case."

Mark scoffed and said, "It's just a basic capture, won't take long. Although personally, I'd rather use this Digimon on that mercenary. How long until it bio-merges?" The Technician looked at his wrist computer. "Thirty seconds till he's in range his end." The data trap's dish slowly rotated to aim better and a lime green beam shot skyward with a whining voice. Almost immediately a thick fog began to appear above it. The technician looked at the readings. "Ok…he's en route…might take a minute…we don't want to attract that Hypnos groups attention."

Marks comm crackled as the squad watching the trap radioed in. "Sir…we gotta fix…looks like we gotta good catch. Trap is activating…what the he…?" the line abruptly went to static at the same time as a small explosion was heard

A pit seemingly opened in the ground and the Digimon flew out of it. It greatly resembled a cross between a sword and a mechanized mosquito without any legs and sparks of electricity for wings. Before the men could do anything, it flew straight through the trap, its blades going through like a knife through bread.

Several of Marks men fired a series of rounds off as the digimon circled before they were dispatched by a vacuum blast from it. The technician pulled himself up as the digimon flew further into the park. "I don't wanna say I warned you but..." He silenced under marks glare. "Then don't." said Mark coldly. His comm beeped again. "Mark? This is spotter 3…you're not gonna believe who we just saw come outta that abandoned tunnel we mapped out last night."

Mark's eyebrow rose as he listened. "Now we're getting reports of the other Tamers heading towards the park. Shall we try to intercept the Digimon?" "No," said Matt, "we keep those kids away and take care of it later." "Why sir?" asked spotter 3. Mark grinned and said, "Simple, it's heading straight for that tunnel."

--

Back at the tunnel, Matt peered out into the park before waving Veemon up. He wasn't taking chances and he trusted Mark as far as he could toss the guy. Outside a thick fog had formed that made it near to impossible to see more then a few feet. "What the heck? Weird weather…you ok?" he said noticing that Veemon had suddenly gone all alert.

"I'm not sure," said Veemon, "something about this seems awfully familiar." "How so?" asked Matt. "I think this is a digital field, which means that a Digimon has bio-emerged." "Oh," said Matt, trying not to sound nervous, "Do you think it's friendly?" But suddenly a vacuum wave came out of nowhere and sent them flying.

Veemon landed in a bush and matt ended up upside down against a bench. "Scratch that question." He moaned as he and Veemon got up. The offending digimons flew into sight for a second, causing Matt's device to display a profile like it had the previous night in the warehouse. "BladeKuwagamon…no wonder he's angry, having a name like that." Said Matt "Wonder what his beef is with us…not like we landed an escape pod on him."

"Most Digimon are a bit testy after bio-emerging," said Veemon. "That's a bit of an understatement," said Matt as BladeKuwagamon was trying to make a human shish kabob out of him. "Can't we discuss this in a non violent fashion?" he shouted, narrowly avoiding another of BladeKuwagamons 'Spark blade' attacks. He dived as the digimons fired another air knife attack at them. "Guess not…Where the hell are those kids? We could really use a hand."

--

The Tamers, however, were having trouble getting into the park. For some reason, there were armed men guarding the park and they seemed quite familiar with Digimon. Rika managed to knock them out with Myotismon's Sleeping Mist and they were able to get in.

A guy in camouflage gear walked out of the digital field as the last of the soldiers slumps snoring to the floor. "Now that was impressive." He said with a smirk. "It's a real shame I can't let you three go into that field…well…not yet anyway." He said.

"Get out of our way," said Takato, "You can't keep us out. You don't have a weapon or a Digimon." Mark laughed loudly and said, "You couldn't be more wrong. I'm my own Digimon." Mark grabbed a Digivice that was hanging off his belt and pressed a button. He was surrounded by digital light as he cried out, "Bio-hybrid Digivolve to..." The light faded, showing a large lizard-like Digimon with army gear, wires running down the sides of his body, and a tube on the back of his red helmet, "BioChameleonmon."

Almost immediately, Biochameleonmon leapt into the offensive, crying out "Tongue lashing!" and sending his tongue out to whiplash Renamon and Guilmon onto their backs before the digimons could get over the shock of seeing a human become a digimon before shimmering out of sight. Marks voice echoed apparently from nowhere as Guilmon and Renamon got up, saying "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

--

Meanwhile, Matt and Veemon's morning had not gone any better. Matt fired a few round s into BladeKuwagamon as the angry digimons dove at them for the umpteenth time, only for them to bounce off. "Dammit…I need a bigger gun." He said as he got up from where he'd dived to avoid the attack. "Shame that you don't have wings." He said cheerfully to Veemon.

Then a thought occurred to Matt. That shield appeared in front of Veemon when that card slipped through that device, could another card give him wings? Matt quickly looked through the cards he had for something like that. "No, no, no,..yes. Here we go." He said, flipping through the card deck till he found a card called 'Hyper Wing'. "Hope you dun like heights." He said to veemon, slashing the card. "Go get that overgrown bug."

Six glowing wings sprouted out of Veemon's back and he lifted off the ground. Veemon looked unsteady at first but quickly got over it. He dived towards BladeKuwagamon yelling, "Vee-Headbutt!" Matt cheered from the ground as BladeKuwagamon visibly winced from the impact of Veemon's and shook in mid air. He quickly began shooting a few more rounds in order to distract Bladekuwagamon from retaliating against Veemon. And was a bit more successful then he wished as the furious digimons shot at him, using its 'Spark Blade' attack, almost hitting him.

But then Veemon attacked with his Vee-Knockout that sent BladeKuwagamon crashing into the ground. It tried to get back up, but its blade was stuck in the ground. Matt got up from where he'd landed to see BladeKuwagamon struggling on the ground pitifully and felt sorry for it. It hadn't been the digimons fault it had been warped there. He walked slowly up to it, intent on stunning it and sending it back after he'd found the wormhole generator used to bring it, when it suddenly got free, scratching him and knocking him down. Just as he'd seemed screwed he heard Veemon cry 'VEE-KNOCKOUT!' and the BladeKuwagamon seemed to dissolve into data like the digimons in the warehouse had.

The data swirled around Veemon and assimilated into his body. "What was that?" asked Matt. "I was loading his data," said Veemon, "it gives me a boost for future fights." "I'm not sure I understand how that works," said Matt. "We'll talk about it later. Right now, I think I hear fighting on the other side of the park." Said Veemon Then the two of them ran off towards where the sounds of battle were.

--

Meanwhile, the tamers were trying to beat Mark/Biochameleonmon but were not having much luck, even with their digimons in champion form thanks to Biochameleonmons ability to cloak, pop out and attack, then re-cloak. Matt and veemon ran round the corner to see the fight. "Where's the bad guy?" said Matt and stopped as Biochameleonmon appeared for a second to tongue whip Gargomon from behind. "Oh…interesting." He said before pushing the visor on his helmet down.

He switched the settings on it to Thermal scan mode, causing everyone to appear as red spots on a green background, including BioChameleonmon. "Growlmon," called Matt, "he's right behind you." Growlmon lashed his tail and struck BioChameleonmon. Matt turned his head, tracking BioChameleonmon as he got up, still cloaked and went for Gargomon. "Gargomon. Heads up. He's to your right." Called Matt. Gargomon turned and yelled "GARGO BLASTER!" letting loose a barrage of energy bullets in the concealed digimons direction, this time removing the cloak.

Before BioChameleonmon could retaliate, he was run over by Kyubimon's Dragon Wheel attack. That last attack was too much and he reverted back to Mark. Matt burst into a grin, albeit the sort of grin that headed for drowning swimmers and had a fin on top. "Mark…so that's why you've got wonky eyes. Hah…don't you know military gene modifications are for losers?" he said.

Mark smiled back and said, "That's just the tip of the iceberg. Too bad you'll never find out more before you wreck." With that, he activated his local teleporter and vanished, seemingly dissolving into thin air along with the unconscious members of his team. Matt sighed, too tired to be annoyed that he knew marginally less about what Exo-Gene was up to then when he'd started. He looked up to see the tamers looking at the pager device on his belt. "Where did you get that?" asked Henry. Matt looked at the device and shrugged. "Some guy on a commerce station gave me it. You know what it is?"

"Know what is? I surprised you don't know what it is. It's a Digivice, like ours." The others showed their Digivices to Matt. "You really don't know anything about Digimon, do you?" said Rika. "Not really." "Then prepare for a crash course, Rika style." Matt suddenly felt very worried at those words and was suddenly reminded of the instructor from his mercenary training.

Exo-Gene Research Facility 'Lab 1'.

"You idiot. You had that mercenary right where you wanted him…and instead you picked a fight with the tamers. Now it'll be even harder to deal with him and get Specimen 15 back." Yelled Kurata at Mark, who had only returned a few hours ago, clearly furious.

Mark cringed as Kurata continued, "And you allowed let BladeKuwagamon's data get away. This entire mission was a complete failure. I hope you can think of something to make up for it real soon or you will find yourself in a very unpleasant situation." Mark summoned some courage and said. "He'll be looking for a way off-planet and back to NSC territory…and his ships almost in remote range…it'd make good bait for a trap."

Kurata looked thoughtful, "A trap, huh? That could work and it has a certain style that I like. Very well, I'll get some men on that, but we are not underestimating him again." Mark nodded. "No. Neither will I, sir."

Looks like Kurata has something nasty in store for Matt and Veemon…Read and review please and I will update once me and Cydra update our other story in the L&S section.