DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories (except where stated).
And here we are, with my Christmas present to all my readers. A tantalising and dark glimpse of the future, during the oncoming war. Don't expect many answers, if any at all, and expect more questions that will confuse you more than you are confused at present.
You have been warned.
Note: This story will require reading of all the books, up to the end of Gods at least, in order to understand it.
EXTRA DIMENSIONS
STORY FOUR
Acts of War
By Blazing Chaos
UNKNOWN DATE
Unknown Military Base
22:10 JST
The sound of gunfire resounded through the air, as screams inevitably followed. Mari winced, looking out from her hiding spot, inside a ventilation chute, at the guards standing over the dead bodies of those who had previous been civilian members of the resistance.
'They were innocents…this is disgusting, how has he managed to get people doing his every order like this?' she thought.
She crept forward, pulling a small machine gun from her leg. She frowned at the reality, he was using fear to control them, fear of what might happen if they didn't follow his orders to the letter. Many had died before, and many would die in future. She aimed at the four guards, war having trained her to be extremely accurate.
'Sorry…' she thought, as she pulled the trigger. The guards turned to her, before collapsing to the ground. Fear ran through Mari's eyes as she saw their deaths, the horror of their situation refusing to be desensitised. She looked down the hallway, dark and metallic, and stood up, climbing out of the vent. She walked carefully along the hallway, checking every joining hallway and doorway as she went. She turned a corner, and held her gun out instinctively when she saw a figure, before breathing a sigh of relief.
"Rey…" she greeted, putting her gun to her side. Rey smiled weakly, Rejimon on her shoulder, and nodded.
Rey wore her red shirt, blue jeans and her hazel eyes shone with determination, her D-Vice with a dim screen for subtlety on her wrist. She looked up to Mari, in her early thirties, wearing almost completely black military wear made of high-tech materials for fulfilling its bullet-proof specification. Rey was far too young to have a suit like this, and Mari refused to let her wear one regardless. Her mother wouldn't want to see her in the field of battle in any eventuality, in particular not this battle, which was the same reason for why Mari only let Rey take a handgun, similar to the one she had used all those years ago when she first met Ryder, and threatened DarkRenamon with the weapon.
"Did you manage to complete your mission successfully?" she asked. Rey nodded sadly. "We have to find the main experiment room, the equipment he is making his scientists work on could fuel the resistance to restoring peace once and for all…" she noted.
"Is Davis coming?" Rey asked.
"Yeah, if he managed to get out of Tokyo alive. Rey, now that I've found you, we're doing everything together, I'm not letting you out of my sight again."
Rey nodded. "What about David and…"
"They're fine. I love him, and I trust her with all my heart. He's got Dorumon by his side to protect him, and she will manage to succeed, I believe in her. We're meeting at Kyoto's resistance base in two days time; it'll be good to see her again."
Rey smiled bravely at Mari's spirit despite the situation. "I know who you really want to see again though…"
Mari's face turned emotional, and she frowned. "I wish…" she said quietly and sadly. "Now, we've got to get moving…" Mari said, as they walked along a corridor quietly, checking everywhere for any threats.
"Is Davis taking down the base's security?"
"Yeah, he has already taken down the main level of security, once he takes down the full level, we'll be able to get into the main lab."
"Any sign of any Artmon?"
"No, but we must be careful. Rejimon will need to be ready to fight, as will Veemon…"
They stopped outside a door, peering in. "This is the room…" Mari growled, seeing who was inside.
"I know you want to get back at him, I do too…but…we've got to stay hidden…" Rey told her. Mari nodded reluctantly, and they moved into a room behind them, quietly opening the door and peering across the corridor. The lights flickered in the room opposite, and a man walked to the door. Mari frowned, before ducking away from the window, at the sight of who it was. He was older than when the Tamers had first encountered him, but he was still clearly the same man.
'Kazuya…' Mari thought, as the hated man looked up and down the corridor.
"What happened to the security?" he asked angrily. Noticing no-one to answer, he stormed away, angered further as the fire alarm began to ring.
Rey glanced to Mari, and smiled. "He did it…" she said, the success buoying their spirits. Checking the corridor once again, they crossed and entered the laboratory, left unlocked carelessly by the chief scientist of their self-proclaimed 'Lord and Master'. Mari looked around the lab, looking for anything of interest. The lab was large, and papers were scattered about, with a few computers in places.
"Certainly not clean with his lab, is he?" Mari noted.
"How are we going to find anything here?" Rey asked.
"Let's see…Project Ragnarok, Colossus, Artificial…so many projects…" Mari noted, packing the papers into a small bag she carried.
"The security systems are completely disabled, Davis did a good job…"
Mari chuckled at Rey's observance of the cameras and systems, and her skills at it.
"Your brother would kill you if he saw what you were doing…" Mari joked, a morbid joke somewhat.
"Well, we all know he would, he hates me fighting in this war…" Rey replied, frowning.
Mari frowned. War had hardened them, jokes that would be the height of inappropriateness, beyond what even Terriermon would say, were now grim jokes said regularly, used to maintain sanity and withstand the horrors they witnessed, in the same way that many Doctors would to block out the heavy emotions of seeing someone in pain, dying a terrible death with no way to stop it.
The door opened suddenly, Mari and Rey turning to see Kazuya standing in the doorway. "Do you really believe that I am stupid enough to leave my lab for a simple security alert?" he asked. "Pah…the resistance is more pathetic than I thought…"
Mari spat with disgust, her eyes full of hatred. Rey looked the same, staring at this man who had collaborated with their 'Lord and Master' to do such things that wrecked their lives, along with the lives of everyone on the planet at the same time. Kazuya walked into the lab, and clicked his fingers, as three small box-like Digimon arrived out of the corridor, following him. The Digimon were faceless, shaped like cubes with rounded corners, and machine-like, with a small turret mounted on their front.
"Artmon, kill them…" he ordered, pointing to the targets. The turrets glowed, as Mari prepared her gun, and Rey went to tap her D-Vice.
"FIRE KNUCKLE!" yelled a voice from behind, as blasts of fire struck the Artmon, shaking them off course.
"Run!" Davis yelled, as Kazuya gritted his teeth, Rey and Mari running past him. Davis wore military camouflage wear, his hair now far less wild than it once was, the fact he was now in his thirties in the middle of a war affecting his cares about style. A D-Vice glowed on his wrist, as they raced down the corridor, the three Artmon chasing, Kazuya in tow. Mari flicked a switch on her gun, and turned quickly, aiming at the Artmon and firing several EMP bullets. The Artmon were flickered by the shot, and they fell to the ground, disintegrating into data. The others stopped, and they faced Kazuya.
"Stop right there!" Flamedramon told the man who was still running towards them, before he hesitated and stood still. Flamedramon held out his fist, flames glowing in them. Mari switched the gun back to its usual firing mode, and held it up threateningly.
"Why do you all continue to fight?" Kazuya asked. "It is hopeless, give in already…the resistance will fail soon enough…"
"I'm not going to let that happen!" Davis said determined. Kazuya laughed menacingly.
"You speak as if you have a choice!" he replied. Flamedramon growled, and looked to the ceiling.
"FIRE ROCKET!" he roared, breaking through the roof, the cold outside air of the night pouring in. "Get moving!" he told them. Rey nodded, as a pair of wings flew out of her back. She flew up, through the gap in the roof, as Flamedramon grabbed Mari and Davis and leapt up and out. Kazuya looked up at their escape with a look of hatred, and clicked his fingers once again, further Artmon arriving.
"After them!" he ordered, as the wall exploded. Davis had been keen to destroy the base in the process, and his device was now taking affect. Kazuya raced along a corridor, and out into the cold air via a fire escape, as his sector of the base began to explode, a sight that was hauntingly familiar. He quickly ran for his car.
Mari raced across the roof, gracefully leaping down at its edge. She groaned in annoyance at the chain link fence.
"The Artmon are coming!" Rey said, panicking and facing behind as Mari began to cut the fence with a pair of wire-cutters. "Hurry up!" she added again, as blasts hit the roof nearby.
"FLAME KNUCKLE!" Flamedramon shouted, fires taking down Artmon as they flew out of his fist.
Mari groaned as she dropped the wire-cutters, before picking them up and resuming her task.
"Guys, over here!" Davis yelled, and they looked up to see him standing by a jeep. Mari and Rey raced over, leaping into the vehicle as Davis took the wheel.
"FIRE ROCKET!" Flamedramon roared, burning through several Artmon on his trip to the jeep, which he landed on with a flip.
"Drive!" he told his partner, as Davis hit the pedal. The jeep raced into life, the alarms sounding in the base, as guards got into their vehicles and raced towards them. Davis swerved from left to right and back again, and aimed at the fence, sticking the vehicle into its fastest gear. Mari and Rey braced themselves for the shock, as Veemon dropped through the smashed back window, broken from an Artmon blast, blasts which continued to strike the rear of the vehicle.
The jeep tore through the fence and ran out into the open plane, hills running up and down around them, as lights followed, gaining on them.
"We've got to go faster!" Mari told Davis.
"It won't go any faster!" he replied. Rey frowned, and nodded to Rejimon, before climbing onto the roof via the hole in the window, and once again making her wings appear. Mari looked up in fear.
"Rey, no!" she yelled.
Mari held her hands out, and faced the base, her hands glowing reds and blues as energy swirled around them. "FINAL DESTINY!" she yelled, a huge wave of energy sweeping away from her hands. The cars and military vehicles chasing them exploded into dust, as did the base, bringing the deaths of hundreds of innocents drawn into this war in the process. Rey felt her energy seeping, and collapsed, as the vehicle slowed. She felt herself placed onto the floor, and opened her eyes to see Mari looking over her.
"Rey, are you okay?" she asked, concern in her voice.
"Yeah…" Rey replied, moving her head and her ruffled red hair. "I'm fine…" she replied. Mari smiled sadly.
Kobe
05:01 JST
"We'll have to walk the rest of the way…" came Mari's voice, gradually waking Davis and Rey from their long slumber. Davis and Mari had taken shifts in driving to Kobe, where they would go to the local resistance base. They had been lucky to avoid any Artmon spotting their vehicle, but they had gone mainly off-road the whole way. They decided not to risk it by driving in the city itself, and Mari had parked the vehicle on the outskirts. Davis and Veemon groggily climbed out of the vehicle, following Rey and Mari. Mari left the keys on the roof; it could be another soul's only chance to escape the next time it was used. She frowned, looking down the street. The dawn was sweeping over the land, and that meant that the members of the self-proclaimed Resistance would have to be careful, not least their Leader, Mari Stevens, proclaimed as their 'Lord and Master's' second most-wanted, inevitably after Rey Matsuki herself.
Mari knew the way to the base; she had been informed of the locations of every base in every city where there was one in the world, a lot of information to take in, but her experience of taking in such complicated military-style information as a young teenager until she met Ryder gave her the ability to memorise it. Most others, excepting the Angels themselves, were not given the information unless they were in the city themselves, where they would be escorted to the hidden base by a marshal. Some bases had sadly been lost, the base in Osaka a notable casualty of this, as an Artmon attack killed everyone inside, having been discovered through spies. Thankfully, once finding the base, most spies felt protected enough not to need to contact their master any more, but some were defiant enough, or scared enough, to still report back. Thankfully, the Osaka attack had been at a time when the Tamers and Angels were absent from the base, and they had had enough warning to escape some people, although still a far cry from the overall death toll.
Mari walked through the quiet morning streets, every third building showing signs of damage from the war. Most were empty now, their owners fleeing long ago, in a desperate attempt to escape slavery or death. Mari gritted her teeth, this was unbearable to see. Once, long ago, Ryder would have comforted her and made everything right again.
Those days were long gone. So was he.
Mari fought the wave of emotions, and walked along an alleyway, Davis, Veemon, Rey and Rejimon following soon after.
"So how did you make it out of Tokyo, not to mention getting in in the first place, alive?" Mari asked Davis.
Davis frowned, his usual optimism gone. "With extreme difficulty…they're struggling in there…they really are…"
"The Towers still stand?" Mari asked. Davis frowned and nodded.
"Inevitably, yes…he's not giving in any time soon…"
"He has the whole world in chains…when I get my hands on him; I'm going to killhim…" Rey decided, balling her hand into a fist.
They soon came to the remains of a train station, the entrance appearing abandoned. Checking the road for any sign of threats, they crossed the road and entered. The stairs had crumbled; the building seemed empty as they walked through it, every sound echoing. They reached a sign for toilets, and entered, seeing men and women's room signs to either side. In front of them, hidden behind a perception filter, was a room that looked innocuously like a cleaning cupboard, which they entered. Steps lead downwards, and they passed several marshals, as they entered a complex of doors and hallways, dug into the ground. The base was lit by various types of lighting, based on what could be salvaged. They based several families and those alone as well, all saddened but smiling bravely to see the three passing them, giving them hope. Mari smiled bravely to encourage that, as they reached the central chamber.
"Rey!" greeted a voice, and Rey smiled to see Kristy Nonaka, the Ninth Angel of Hope, approaching her after standing up from her seat. Of the 'adults', she was the youngest in the room, being in her mid-late twenties. "I'm glad to see you're safe…" she told the younger girl, pulling her into a hug.
"Thanks…" Rey replied, looking around the chamber. Izzy Koushiro, wearing a black suit and white shirt, worked at a computer, checking the remains of the internet, along with the mostly complete Digital Watch net, for what data they could find, Tentomon looking over his shoulder. Digital Watch had created a subnet in the past few years in order to facilitate better passing of messages without the sight of government officials, and it proved useful once the war began for coordinating the resistance. Very few used their real names regardless, if there were ever to be a leak, anonymity was the key. Regardless, practically all members knew the usernames of the ten Angels, the Tamers and all others of significance.
"Did Kazuya survive?" Davis asked Izzy. Izzy nodded.
"According to our Lord and Master, he escaped unscathed…" Izzy replied glumly.
"Can people stop calling him our 'Lord and Master'?!" Davis complained. Izzy sighed, continuing to use the computer.
Nearby, Joe Kido, wearing a white doctor's coat, was treating someone's injured knee, Gomamon watching. Henry Wong and Terriermon sat on chairs, Jeri Wong sitting on the floor with Elecmon on her head. All had matured, but some things never changed.
"So did you fail miserably then?" Terriermon asked cheerfully.
Mari chuckled, if there was one constant in the world after the loss of Calumon's cheerfulness when the war began, Terriermon's humour was it. "Of course not…" Davis replied.
Mari held out the papers from her bag to Henry, who looked at them with intrigue. "I managed to acquire these during the raid on the base, I hope they are of use…" she told him. Henry nodded, looking at the papers. "There are details of Project Ragnarok amongst them, I thought that we may be able to use them somehow…" she said, a glint of enthusiasm in her eyes.
"Don't get your hopes up…" Terriermon replied glumly.
"Terriermon!" Jeri complained. "There's every chance that Henry will find something, I believe we will find a way to win one day…"
"So do I but, you must have seen the world out there…half the world is starving. Practically everywhere on Earth is under his reign, and Artmon fly everywhere, keeping the slaves in line. The resistance is fighting back I know, but what can we do?" Terriermon asked.
"We can win!" Mari declared. "I swore on Ryder's fate that we would save the world from this, and I'm not going to give up this fight until I breathe my last breath."
The speech gave some confidence to those standing around in the central control centre, as some nodded. Kristy walked over to her.
"She's right…"
"But, we're talking about bringing an empire down here, it won't be easy…" Gomamon noted.
"Who said anything about bringing down an empire?" Kristy replied. "We just have to free them, and then everything can be sorted out so we can get things back to normal."
Kristy looked around at the glum situation, and the base, the whitewashed walls being depressing enough, not to mention the regular deaths of those who dared to leave the base, or had to leave it to keep the base alive.
"I hope…" she added.
THE END
And so, I completely screw with your heads, as a Christmas present. So many surprises and thoughts in this chapter, and all I can tell you to do is to keep reading. Please review, I'd like to see your response to this (and may do another similar story in future between later books).
Regardless, we still have a lot to see until this plot comes into the main, and it is going to be a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions.
Next time…
How will Rika react to the news? How will she tell her parents and, most importantly of all, Takato?
Find out in Dimensions Book Five: Demons.