3. Seeking The Path To Ultimate
Story Start: Eleven Months After Arrival
It took Daniel three weeks to fully recover from his attempt to Digivolve Luna to Ultimate. Though that's not to say that he stayed in the infirmary for that long. After two days of heavy sleeping, he had enough energy to be transferred into a wheel chair he typed into existence and he quickly got the hang of using it, though he did need Luna to gather things from shelves for him. Still, even after those two days and keeping his activities to a minimal, he slept for longer each night than he ever had before, the rest of the first week he actually slept for a full eight hours, the second was for five, and the third week he slept for three. It wasn't until the twenty third day after their digivolution attempt that he was back to sleeping only one hour a night.
Needless to say, the cost of Luna going to Ultimate for less than five seconds scared the hell out of the two, especially when they took into account that children were the normal partners to digimon. That kind of strain on a child's body was sure to kill them before the transformation even started. And the less said about what the power requirements for going to Mega probably were the better. And not every kid was going to be getting a crest in the future when, not if, humanity started pairing up with digimon globally. Daniel needed to find a way to make a digimon partner going Ultimate to be a viable option for those who weren't granted crests, if only so that way others could handle a Mega level threat by throwing dozens of Ultimates at it. It didn't help that he and Luna were currently the only human-digimon pair so far and they would have the exact same problem if they ever got ambushed by a higher tier digimon while out of their base.
The day after his sleeping pattern stabilized, Daniel threw himself into the problem. He copied the code of his Digivice several times and locked up the original so that he didn't accidently cause it to explode if his experiments went wrong. He then typed an experimental bunker that could contain any said explosions into existence a mile away from their home and began experimenting.
The first hurtle was figuring out how to enable a Digivice to accept power from an external source. Because he didn't have access to a crest, Daniel couldn't see how one would connect to a Digivice, and was in fact almost one hundred percent sure that such objects of power would need a Digivice to be specifically 'tuned' to one to be accessed so even if he did stumble upon one, there was little to no guarantee that he could even use the darned thing. So he started with a power source he already had access to, his geothermal power plant housed underneath the base. A quick bit of hacking later, and he had a one way power valve that would allow the energy to reach the new base but not damage the system if there were any unfortunate accidents. And oh, were there accidents.
It took Daniel twelve tries to even get the Digivice Copies capable of linking up to the generator without immediately frying their circuits or even exploding. Apparently, the Digivices didn't like using anything but the bio energies they were made to draw from their human owners and got touchy when made to do so. Two weeks of tinkering later though he managed to tweak it enough that he was willing to try and digivolve Luna to Ultimate. The result was a rather…enthusiastic…explosion from the Digivice Copy during the transition and a once more Ponymon. Thank Primus the thing had been behind no less than three sheets of thick bullet resistant glass when the test started. Luna had gone back to Champion form on her own even as she stared wide eyed at the scorch mark where the Copy had been.
A week of more tweaking later they gave it another try. There were no explosions this time but the Digivice Copy melted during the transformation and yet again, Luna was dedigivolved into her rookie stage.
Daniel let out a groan of frustration as he rubbed his hands over his face and said "This is getting ridiculous. If we can't get a proper digivolution out of a power source that's a stationary system, then how the hell will we be able to get one out of an easily portable one while out in the field?"
"Language, though We will admit that this is very frustrating." Luna said absently as she finished digivolving into Pegasusmon.
Daniel sighed as he dragged his hands down his face before he said "I'll give geo thermal one more try. If it doesn't work, then we'll have to come up with another power source."
Luna wished him luck before leaving to grab something to eat in order to make up for the energy she spent returning to her Champion form.
Time Skip: Two Months Later
Daniel was officially at the end of his rope. Geo thermal was a bust, Solar power only made a giant flash bang every time it was used, Steam power for some reason turned the Copy into a super charged humidifier, and Nuclear Energy damn near made a second sun. No matter what he tried, Daniel could not make the Digivice Copies accept an alternate power source.
Daniel was currently thumping his head in a soft but repeated motion on a desk he had typed into existence for that exact purpose an hour after that last test while Luna stared with concern between him and the rather impressive crater of bubbling reinforced concrete where the latest Digivice Copy had been. Daniel finally stopped the abuse to his head as he said "That's it, I can't go any further external power wise. Anything greater than Nuclear energy has the potential to completely wipe out the testing bunker, not to mention a good chunk of the surrounding area."
Luna considered that for a moment before she said "Then if thou cannot introduce a new power source, then maybe thou can find a way to increase the current one." As Daniel turned his head to look at her from a single eye, she continued "Thou have already found a way to increase your strength and agility tenfold have thou not?"
Daniel pulled his head away from the desk with a sigh and ran a hand over it as he said "Worth a shot, I guess. I'll start running calculations for how much bioenergy is needed for a five minute long digivolution and figure out how to increase my reserves."
Time Skip: Two Weeks Later
Daniel bit his lip as he stared at his Original Digivice. He had run a scan to see just what he could quantify when pushing his energy into it in order to make Luna digivolve and had used that scan to slowly but steadily tweak a few things in his own code. If his calculations were correct then Luna should be able to go Ultimate for exactly sixty seconds. If that happened and he didn't immediately conk out after the Digivolution then they would know that they were on the right track and he could proceed to further increasing his bio energy to the point where she could go for two minutes, and so on and so on. And if he got it wrong, well, that's what the medical gurney he was currently laying on in an upright position was for. Giving a deep sigh, he looked up at Luna and said "You ready for this?"
"As ready as We can be." Luna said with a resolute nod.
"Right then, test one." Daniel said before he began focusing and sending his energy into the Digivice. The room they were in was silent for a moment before the Digivice flared to life and Luna called out "Pegasusmon Digivolve to Alicornmon!"
Daniel had just enough time to see Luna's Ultimate form for five seconds before she suddenly dedigivolved and as he saw darkness rapidly take over his vision he said "Damn it, it's exponential after all." The next instant he was out cold and Luna allowed herself to utter curses under her breath as she slipped into a harness at the end of the bed and began pulling the gurney towards Daniel's room.
Three days later, Daniel was finally alert enough to hold a serious conversation with Luna. As he absolutely demolished a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs, a plate of three waffles already cleaned out to the side, he said "I'm not sure how much more I can tweak my bioenergy reserves. Modifying my skeletal and muscular systems is one thing, but for all I know, if I give my bio electrical systems the boost we need then when we leave the digital world my 'real' body might just simultaneously explode from energy over saturation."
Luna winced at that mental image and said "What about a possible external power source and energy converter combination like what thou planned with the Digivice?"
Daniel ignored his first instinct to shoot the idea down and instead considered it for a moment as he ate. Finally. when he had cleared the plate he gave one last swallow and said "It'd be even trickier than trying to get the Digivice to cooperate but it might be doable. I have absolutely no idea how we could safely test that though. It's not like I can just make a bunch of copies of myself to test on in order to avoid blowing myself up, that'd just be plain unethical if nothing else."
Luna frowned and said "Then it seems we must start very slowly. That or simply wait until We are strong enough to make the change by ourselves."
"That could take years, decades even before you could make the change stick long enough to be effective in a fight that would require that much force." Daniel pointed out with a frown as he crossed his arms.
Luna opened her mouth for a retort before sighing and closed it with a nod.
The two were silent for a while before Daniel sighed and stacked his plates. Rolling over to the dishwasher and putting his eating tools in, he said "I'll see what I can come up with. But if this doesn't work, then we might have to go look for some help."
Luna looked up in confusion and watched as he wheeled out of the room and asked "Help? Who could we ask help from?"
"I'm not the only one working on human-digimon partnerships, or at least I won't be for long." Daniel called back into the kitchen as he made his way to the portal that connected to the experiment bunker. Luna could only blink at that, before she cocked her head and said to herself "We thought he said to leave them alone unless they came to us first."
Time Skip: One Week Later
Daniel let out a yelp as his prototype converter zapped him. Luna stared at the afro the physics of the world they were in demanded his hair turn into for exactly five seconds before she snickered a few times against her will. Daniel didn't even bother shooting her a look as he pulled a comb out of a pocket with one hand and started typing with the other even as he said "That's the fifth time today, haven't you grown accustomed to that sight yet?"
"A little, after all We were rolling on the floor the first time." Luna said with a cheeky grin.
That did get Luna a flat look as he said "Loosened up over the past year or not, you're not that loose with your emotions yet Luna. You merely tapped the ground three times with your front left hoof and snickered ten times the first time."
"Only until We left to retrieve that snack thou wanted from the kitchen and We were by ourselves for a few minutes." Luna said, grin still in place.
"Noted." Daniel said with an upwards twitch of his mouth as he went back to work. Honestly, compared to how much trouble he had with the Digivice Copies, the converter prototype was being practically saint like. Sure, it had zapped him the aforementioned five times as he tried to get it to work, but compared to the dozens of melt downs/explosions it took before even getting to the first digivolution test, this was tame. Besides, better the joker buzzer levels he was dealing with now than the possibly electric chair levels that he would be dealing with later if he didn't fix whatever was going wrong first. And he WAS getting closer to figuring out what was wrong, by process of elimination if nothing else.
Daniel frowned slightly as he worked to 'untangle' one of the snags in the prototype's coding, the hacker's work transitioning to the converter's insides shifting around and changing just the slightest bit as he worked. Unlike the Digivice Copies, the converter prototype was roughly the size and shape of a small watermelon. Daniel was starting relatively big in order to work out all of the bugs easily before he began condensing the code into a much more portable device once he was sure it would work properly. This decision came from how hard it had been to get the small Copies to accept extremely high levels of power.
After a minute of careful consideration and typing, Daniel nodded and said "Alright, let's see if that worked." He once more hooked the converter up to the geo thermal power plant of the base before slowly placing his hand on it. He hissed as he felt a slight static shock and jerked his hand back but grinned as he said "NOW we're getting somewhere!" If he had bothered to glance over to Luna, he would have seen a very slight amount of disappointment in her eyes even as she smiled at the progress her partner was making.
Two Days Later
It was finally time. Daniel had made the last changes he needed an hour ago and they were FINALLY going to get Luna to remain Ultimate longer than just a few seconds. He had already tested that he could draw energy from the geo thermal plant and in turn send that energy into the Digivice once converted, they only needed to finish the process by sending it to Luna now.
Said Digimon took a deep breath as she once more stood in the testing area, giving a single nod to her partner to show she was ready. Daniel returned the nod as he said "Using Energy Converter Prototype in Order to Achieve Ultimate Stage Digivolution, Test One. In three, two, one."
There was a brief pause for a moment before the Digivice erupted in light, turning dark blue as a beam of light shot out of it and hit Luna who immediately threw her head back and once more yelled "Pegasusmon digivolve to…Alicornmon!" The light show ended and for the first time ever, Daniel finally had enough energy remaining to take in Luna's newish form. Daniel grinned as he began wheeling his wheel chair around her as he breathed out "Oh hello, beautiful." Luna blushed lightly under her fur at his praise but also couldn't stop the pleased grin on her muzzle.
Luna was in a word, majestic. She had gained an additional foot at the shoulder and her height was further extended by the royal blue horn that had softly glowing silver strands of metal spiraling down from its tip to the base. Her helmet was a lot less blocky, more streamlined, and looking like a piece of art a blacksmith would lovingly give his entire focus into every inch of his metal working, intricate patterns of the same silver threads going over the metal. It didn't stop at her head either, the elegant helmet leading to a just as elaborate neck armor set that her mane waved over like waves across a beach, and oh, what a mane it was. Daniel almost reverently reached a hand up and ran it through the expanse of star filled night sky, marveling at how it felt both solid and gaseous at the same time. Daniel continued his inspection with the small chest piece that had a diamond shaped Blue Sodalite gem in the center, the silver threads seeming to have originated from its own silver veins. The armor on her front legs had been similarly modified with small sodalites being the sources for other silver threads at the top center of each boot. Moving onto the wings, they had grown, now sporting an impressive sixteen-foot wing span, the feathers putting everything Daniel had ever seen before to shame, the three front feathers on the tips shimmering with the silver threads shifting over them in an ever-moving pattern and a quick examination showed that they were also metal, and the edges quite sharp as well. The fur that wasn't covered in armor was an almost indescribable deep blue that was incredibly soft to the touch and her tail matched the mane with how it shimmered much like an aurora borealis would, the stars in both shifting into dozens of constellations in a continuous motion.
Finishing his circuit, Daniel stared up at his partner from his wheel chair and grinned as he said "I know I said it before Luna, but it bears saying again, you are absolutely beautiful."
Luna gave a soft giggle before adopting a mock stern look and said "Flattery shall get thou nowhere Mr. Richardson." Said hacker couldn't help the laugh that escaped him when Luna couldn't hold the expression for long and instead grinned at him. Her grin turned to a slight frown of concern as she said "How are thou enduring the strain of maintaining this form?"
Daniel blinked once and looked down at the converter that was sitting on his lap next to his Digivice and said "Great, besides a small feeling like I've got a small stream running over my body I barely feel anything at all. My reserves are being refilled almost faster than they're being used." Looking back up at Luna with a grin, he said "Assuming we can make the converter more portable, I think we have a viable option for dealing with Ultimates until you can make this your default form."
Luna's grin returned before she gave a short nod to the Digivice and said "Shall we see what your Digivice has to say about We?"
"Yes we shall." Daniel said with an eager grin as he quickly rolled over to his laptop and put the Digivice in its docking port. When it brought up her stats, he let out an impressed whistle and said "I know each digivolution stage is exponentially more powerful than the previous one but this is still impressive. You're approximately a hundred times stronger as an Ultimate than as a Champion. It wouldn't surprise me if you could take on two Ultimates at once if you played your cards right. Moving on, you're still obviously a Holy Beast type Digimon, let's see, looks like your Rodeo Kick got upgraded to High Horsepower, isn't that the name of a Pokemon Attack? Hm, eh, whatever, your Equis Beam is now Lunar Beam, hm, wonder what that would be if you weren't a lunar based being, anyway, it's also an incredibly upgraded attack compared to before. Star Shower is still there though it too is more powerful, though you no longer have Golden Noose for some reason. It IS replaced with Celestial Bands though which wraps an opponent up in bands of celestial energy. Pegas Drop is upgraded to Sky Spear, obviously named with your new horn in mind. Needle Rain's a no show, not surprising given your new mane's look, but it is replaced with Celestial Wave, an attack that is an area of effect attack that can damage everything around you, and ooh, not only does it have a one-hundred-yard attack radius, it's also got an IFF ability that means only the targets you choose are affected by it, very nice!"
Luna allowed herself a single giggle as Daniel devolved from a serious adult to a kid with a new toy as he looked over that last one. A moment later, Daniel looked up from the information he was seeing and said "These are some very impressive abilities Luna. I think the most impressive bit though is the small note that you're now capable of magic now."
Luna perked up and quickly trotted over to look at his screen. She grinned at that and her horn lit up as she prepared to use a common spell to try it out. Her grin faltered though as the converter suddenly sparked worriedly before dying and she was suddenly a Ponymon again. Both she and Daniel gave the equipment a concerned look as she said "What happened?! It was doing just fine a moment ago!"
Daniel gently prodded the device with one of his tools and frowned as he said "I'm getting no more readings; your magic could have fried it like an electrical magnetic pulse." He opened up the outer casing and flinched as a bit of electrical smoke escaped. Seeing the insides, he said "Definitely fried them. I'll have to give the final model proper shielding to avoid that." Daniel turned a grin to Luna and said "Still, the fact that we actually got you to finally stay in Ultimate for longer than half a minute without a crest is incredible. I feel like singing 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now' from the top of the cliff the base is on."
Luna gave another giggle as she said "It certainly is quite an achievement, and now We are even more eager to be able to make Ultimate our default level."
Daniel nodded and said "Better be ready to increase your training Luna, we've got a long road ahead of us, but the destination will be well worth it."
END
Author's Notes: Hey guys, please take a look at my profile, there's a very important poll there that will majorly affect the story line of my Marching Beside the King story that WILL be closed when I start writing its second chapter.