AUTHOR NOTE: Please Read the Author Note on the first page if you have not read it yet.


Chapter 3

Digimon Maintenance Squad


"Lilithmon…?" Rei asked himself, staring at the woman before him.

Without a second thought, Lilithmon dashed at the winged monster. She winked at it. "Don't move."

The monster suddenly began to move awkwardly. Its limbs twitched and its wings stopped flapping, causing it drop from the air.

"Good boy…." Lilithmon held her golden hand out. "Nazar Nail!"

She stabbed forward with her hand, but the beast barely dodged the attack and flew back up into the air.

Lilithmon looked annoyed. "I guess Darkness Love isn't that effective against someone like you…"

"Chaos Wave!" The familiar purple blast fired from the monster's wings.

Lilithmon gracefully evaded the attack. She then held a hand up to her chin. "Phantom Pain…" She sighed out a thin purple mist.

When the mist touched the monster, it screamed in agony as its body was slowly decaying. It took one last glare of hatred at Lilithmon before it started to retreat.

Lilithmon sighed. "What a bore." She turned her head toward Rei.

Rei took a step back from the woman, but she was faster. Before he knew it, she already had a nail from her golden hand below his chin. She seemed to be only around 170 centimeters tall as opposed to Rei's 185 centimeters. This didn't make much of a difference however, since her imposing attitude was all she needed to strike fear into Rei.

With a small giggle, she lowered her golden hand and placed her normal hand on Rei's cheek, stroking him softly. "How different you look now that I'm in this form…"

Rei blinked a couple of times before he realized who this woman actually was. "Plotmon?"

She lightly shook her head. Her hand traveled behind Rei's head and pulled him closer so her mouth was right next to his ear. He could feel her breathing. "I'm Lilithmon now, handsome." She then pushed her lips onto Rei's.

Rei's cheeks flushed as she pulled back her head after the short kiss with a wicked smile, but then a look of shock spread across her face as her breathing suddenly grew heavy. She staggered backwards and eventually fell to the ground. Her body lit a bright white light and shrunk smaller and smaller. The light eventually disappeared and revealed an unconscious Plotmon.

Rei dropped to the ground, breathing heavily himself. His heart was racing. Whether it was from the kiss or whether it was from fear he did not know. It might have been a combination of the two. He shook his head to get his senses back together. After pocketing the device he pick up, he picked up Plotmon and walked over to Sheryl. He relaxed after confirming that she was still breathing. He left Plotmon lying next to Sheryl before walking over to the crater where the bird was. It was a pink bird with blue-tipped feathers. The golden rings it had were replaced by a single iron ring on its left leg. Rei carefully slid down the side of the hole to where the bird was and lifted it out of the crater by carrying it on his back. He placed the bird next to Sheryl and Plotmon. After catching his breath from hauling the bird, he looked around at the destruction. The ground was a mess. The school gates were smashed. Even part of the school building itself had a huge dent in it. He scanned across the windows and noticed there weren't any people left in the building.

They probably evacuated right when the attack started, he thought to himself.

Rei wasn't sure what to do now. Calling the police was probably the best option at the moment.

"Hello there."

Rei turned around to face a young man with short blonde hair and green eyes with glasses. He wore a blue shirt and white pants, as well as a black jacket with the letters 'D.M.S.' written on it.

He pulled out a device similar to the one Rei picked up, but it was turquoise instead of pink. "Would you mind looking here for a moment?"

A bright red light flashed into Rei's eyes, causing him to squint and stagger back. He held a hand over the device to block the light. "What's the big idea?"

The man showed an expression of shock and surprise, looking at his device and then back at Rei. He questioned himself about why there was no effect on the boy.

Pretending nothing major happened, he placed the device away. "Sorry about that. I'm William Hamilton." He held a hand out to shake Rei's hand.

Rei just looked at his hand, then back at his face. "What do you want with me?"

William gave a nervous laugh before retracting his hand. "Well, I'm a friend of the lady and the bird over there. I came to retrieve them."

"I see." Curiosity got the better of Rei as he asked, "What were those monsters? Especially that purple one; why did it come to attack us?"

William pressed his glasses to his face. "That…." He closed his eyes as if he was deciding on something. "Alright, I'll tell you, but not here. If you help me bring Sheryl back to our base, I'll explain things there." He looked over at Plotmon. "I'm assuming that's yours? We can get her treated as well."

Rei narrowed his eyes in doubt, but sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll come along."

Rei helped William carry Sheryl, Plotmon, and the pink bird onto his truck a few yards away. Rei sat at the passenger seat with Plotmon in his arms while Sheryl and the bird were in the back seats.

As William started up the engine, he looked at Rei. "That's a cute Digimon. Where'd you find it?"

Digimon. That word again. Plotmon used it to describe herself when they met. Rei looked at William for a moment before turning his head back to face the windshield. "She was in a box near a sidewalk."

"I see…," William said as he began driving.

"Digimon…," Rei started. "Were the monster and bird also Digimon?"

"Yes, they were. I'm not sure what that purple one was, but the bird you saw was Hououmon(Phoenixmon). She turned back into Piyomon(Biyomon) though."

Piyomon must be that bird sitting in the back seat, Rei deducted.

"I thought Digimon were all like Plotmon," Rei started to speak his mind for no reason. "But then after seeing that thing, as well as that bird…" He placed a hand near his lips. "Lilithmon too; without the horns she looked just like a normal woman."

"Lilithmon?"

"Plotmon turned into Lilithmon like how Hououmon turned into Piyomon," Rei explained.

William was even more perplexed. He questioned how this boy was able to evolve a Digimon without a Digivice.

The rest of the trip was fairly silent until they began driving in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, a panel of earth began to slant, revealing a hidden passageway within the ground. William drove into the hole. Within the hole was obviously manmade. It was a metal tunnel with lights attached to the walls. They eventually hit a clearing that looked like a parking lot. He parked the car and they carried the three unconscious members in through a glass door on what seemed to be just a wall. They walked through a couple metallic corridors before arriving to a room with beds and curtains. There were shelves with medicine as well as a couple of more complex beds with machines connected to them.

"This is the sickbay," William explained.

"Yeah, I'm not blind," Rei replied, placing Sheryl onto one of the beds.

"Oh, William, you're back."

Rei turned to see a woman near the doorway with short red hair and matching red eyes. She wore a red button blouse and black pants with a lab coat on. She gave off a very eerie aura around her, almost demonic.

"Morrigan," he smiled, "good timing." He pointed at Sheryl, Piyomon, and Plotmon. "I need you to treat these three."

She waved her hand. "Yeah yeah, I got it." She noticed Rei. "Who's the kid?"

"He was found at the battle site. He's the Plotmon's tamer."

"Ooh, fresh blood." She grinned, sending chills down Rei's spine. "Well, good luck, kid."

William made a gesture for Rei to come follow him. Rei obeyed and left Plotmon and the others to Morrigan's care. They continued along more corridors before arriving in a room with various consoles and a large screen on a wall. There was a woman sitting at the console and a middle-aged man sitting in a lone chair near the middle of the room. The most notable thing was that various monsters were walking around. There was a lion-human hybrid looking one near the man and a yellow one with a huge blue coat and a horn on its head serving tea to the woman. After all that has been going on, Rei automatically assumed these were all Digimon.

The man noticed William and Rei and rose from his seat. He was probably around his 50s and had a full gray beard to go along with his disheveled hair. He wore a longcoat done in the same fashion as William's jacket, but there were more medals and patches on it.

"Welcome back William. Did you manage to erase the memories of everyone who saw the battle?"

"Yes, I'm sure I got everyone, except this guy here." William patted Rei's shoulder.

The man looked over at Rei, scanning him from top to bottom. "I see…" He cleared his throat. "I'm Commander Robert Harlow of the Japanese D.M.S. Branch."

"…Rei Ichikawa. Student." Rei briefly introduced himself.

"Rei Ichi…zero and one. Just like binary." Robert found this amusing.

"I came because I was told there'd be an explanation about the Digimon fighting today."

Robert closed his eyes in thought. "Well, we're a bit busy at the moment trying to patch up that fight. Why don't you go the cafeteria and get something to eat and we'll get back to you in an hour or so."

Rei looked irritated, but agreed with a nod. William took Rei to the cafeteria, which looked exactly how one would expect a cafeteria to look. There were a couple of long tables with multiple chairs around each one. There was also a counter for ordering food.

"This base is pretty empty," Rei commented.

"Well, the Japanese branch was just created recently. We grabbed the few we could and ran over here. The only person in our team who's actually from here is Sheryl."

Who's not ever Japanese herself, Rei mused.

"You can grab something at the counter. I'm going to go for a bit." With a wave, William left the cafeteria.

Rei looked at the ordering counter, but decided to just sit down and wait.

"Oh, Rei."

He looked back to the doorway to see Sheryl, but she was in a pink shirt and black slacks with the same black jacket as William.

"Are you better now?" Rei asked.

"I just had the wind knocked out of me back there." She walked over to the ordering counter and came back in a few seconds with two cups in hand. She sat down across from Rei. "It's coke."

Rei nodded thanks before taking a sip of the carbonated drink. "Is that a uniform or something?" He looked at her clothes.

"Only the jacket; as long as we have that the rest of our clothes don't really matter." She took a sip of her own drink. "Um…sorry if this sounds rude, but why are you here?"

"That guy William said he'd explain more about the battle today to me, but hasn't done anything yet." He leaned back in his chair. "I've also met up with that old guy Robert. He said they were busy right now because of the battle and would talk to me later."

"That's…strange. Normally we'd just use the memory erase to wipe the minds of bystanders."

"It didn't work on him," William said. "I'm back, by the way." William walked toward them and sat in a chair next to Sheryl.

"Didn't work?" Sheryl seemed perplexed.

William ignored Sheryl. "Commander called you. Let's go back to the command room."

Rei downed the rest of his drink. "Lead the way."

The three of them proceeded back to the command room where Robert was waiting in his chair. He saw them enter, but didn't get up. He simply waved for them to come forward. They all did so.

"Rei," Robert said. "I want you to join the DMS."

"I'm not even sure what you guys do," Rei responded.

"William, if you will."

"Sure." William cleared his throat. "The Digimon Maintenance Squad, DMS for short, is a special group from the military to handle any and all Digimon-related problems. Our main objective is to keep Digimon a secret to the main public so they can live normal lives."

"Not interested," Rei promptly replied. "I don't want to be a soldier."

"You don't have much of a choice at the moment." Robert said. "You have witnessed Digimon, and for reasons unknown we cannot erase the memory of Digimon from your mind. Therefore the only way to keep you under control is to have you as a member of the DMS."

Rei gritted his teeth. "Bastard…"

"Just throw him in the brig or something till he gets rots." A high-pitched voice said from the door.

"Meilin…" Sheryl softly said.

In the door way was a little girl probably only around 140 cm tall. She had long blue hair in pigtails and green eyes. She wore a blue shirt and black slacks with the black jacket everyone else wore.

"There's no way I, Meilin Lee, am letting a guy like him join DMS on the drop of a hat!" She pointed wrathfully at Rei.