Chapter 6: The Real Monster
Black the QueenChessmon received a message from Ambassador White to continue on with the final match of day one. She complied with her husband's wishes and after informing the crowd that White would be absent, Black allowed Cruz to announce the final two competitors of the day.
First was Leon the Leomon whom Black knew White was quite fond of. Black herself liked the lion warrior quite a bit but her personal opinion of Leon didn't mean he could save the Digital World. Still though, she hoped for his victory. After reviewing the events with Tig-Rey the Fugamon over and over, Black truly believed Leon had the heart of a hero.
He would have to get by Coldfist the Frigimon regardless of her thoughts on him however. The hefty white snowman's face was unreadable as glossy black eyes and a solid black nose were the extent of his facial features; soft looking, yet thick, arms and legs shone a pure white as well. Two red, vertically aligned buttons were on his chest to complete the description of him. Even though Coldfist honestly didn't look all that impressive, he had made a name for himself in fighting competitions in different parts of the Digital World. Black hoped that Leon would not underestimate the large white bruiser.
Leon and Coldfist walked onto the battle platform and much to the delight of the crowd, as well as Black, they shook hands. Cruz flew up to his spot as the dome closed and announced the start of the final fight of day one.
"Ambassador White, it is good to see you again," said a lean humanoid lying down on a long bed meant to accommodate his height but still being a bit too short. "I never imagined saying that to the father of my girlfriend. Please come in. If you'll just give me a moment, I'll properly give you my report."
"Shirou, relax," ordered White as he took off his golden crown and took a seat in what would be the doctor's chair. "Just lay there and rest. Forget the formalities, just tell me what you've learned."
"Thank you, Ambassador," said the bi-winged angel digimon, his violet colored bandages lazily falling around his left arm and right leg as he returned to the more comfortable position. "Before I start though, have you already spoken with your daughter?" asked Shirou.
"Yes," answered White, "and she's healing nicely if that's what you're wondering."
Shirou gave a laugh. He might be bedridden but from the strength in his laugh, White figured it mostly for caution's sake. "Yes it was, thanks. Alright, now I feel comfortable beginning," stated the Pidmon as his face became a bit more somber under his mask. "The Gauntlet are far more important than what we initially thought. I'm sure Yellowtail already told you that they were forcing Digimon to Digivolve."
"Yes, and that it results in powerful Programs willing to do their bidding," confirmed White.
"Correct, Ambassador," said Shirou with a slight nod. "To expand on that, the Digivolution is specifically Armor. Armor level Digimon typically have strength in between champion and ultimates so you can see why this is so troubling."
White, clasped his hands together above his head. "Champions are the most common battle ready Digimon but they won't be enough to defeat Armor levels."
"Exactly," confirmed Shirou. "The chances of victory are lessened even more due to the fact that those forced to Digivolve are Programs who exist to serve their masters. There will never be a rebellion or a key traitor in their ranks such as Ambassador Freakshow was in the first war."
"So any mischievousness or heroism a Digimon may naturally possess, Program or not, is overwritten to merely obey those monsters."
Shirou nodded. "I'm afraid so, Ambassador. The Gauntlet didn't steal the Digimental from us in order to create a single powerful entity, they stole it in an effort to create a superior army."
White let out a long, tired, frustrated sigh. "Do you have any idea what their numbers look like? It doesn't have to be exact, an estimate will do."
"I unfortunately do not have a very clear idea," admitted Shirou, a little disappointment in his voice. "Plenty of young Digimon would be brought to The Gauntlet's lair each day that I was trapped. They've created a least a few thousand Programs by now. As for the members of The Gauntlet, I know that each of them keeps some of the Armor level Digimon as their own enforcers. Likely no more than twenty or so for each."
"Even that number is too large considering how much power each one possesses," said White. "I might have to call in a few favors to make sure you and your team make it back alive. Thank you for the report Shirou."
"Of course, Ambassador," offered Shirou with a bow.
"Now that business is out of the way, I'm curious about something. My daughter said you had changed, that -"
Shirou cut him off with his hands raised, "That's a shame, Ambassador, I was really hoping that she hadn't seen me."
"Thank the lost Yggdrasil that Shirou got ahead of himself," thought White. The angel before had been hiding something more than just an attitude change like White had initially suspected. "I'll give you one chance to explain, Shirou."
"I understand," the Pidmon said. "The Armored Army is an enormous threat but that's not where The Gauntlet's plans end. The artifact, that ancient DigiMental, it has the potential to do more than we ever thought." Shirou paused and concentrated a bit of power in his palms. He raised both arms to show White a ghostly blue orb giving off a cold chill, as well as a small black cloud giving off a sickly sensation. "This is what they did to me."
"They inverted your power, Shirou," said the startled White as he stood up. "How? Why? Shirou, do you know their end game?"
"Isn't it obvious, Ambassador?" asked Shirou, his voice almost a whisper. "Why defeat your opponent when you could bring them over to your side? The Gauntlet forces an Armor Digivolution but what about Digimon who are Ultimates, or what about the Megas in the Yggdrasil Council; you and the rest of the Ambassadors even. Corruption was clearly the next step and it's one we should have seen coming."
"Innocentus the Cherubimon?" asked White as his powerful brain started making the connections.
"That's correct, Ambassador White," confirmed Shirou. "Lord Innocentus was the first victim of the corruption process."
"Only one group was ever able to complete the process. This means that The Gauntlet works for the Seven Great Demon Lords, they want to perfect this corruption process for them." White began pacing back and forth, his digicore in a frenzy as he racked his brain for possible countermeasures or at least ways to slow down the process.
"They call it the F-Virus. The F means Fallen as a way to mock Angel Digimon" explained Shirou. "It's not ready yet, however. Much like the Program Through Armor Virus, or rather, the PTA Virus, The Gauntlet can only corrupt Champion Levels and lower."
White stopped pacing, his hands were behind his back and he was facing away from Shirou. In front of him, White could see Shirou's shadow and it was standing. More concerning however were the ragged, torn wings of the shadow.
"Shirou, have you had any alone time with my daughter recently?" asked White.
"No, I haven't, but I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually," laughed Shirou, the sound coming out cruel and distorted.
White put his crown upon his head once more and willed his golden jewel-topped scepter out of its pocket dimension and into his hand. He turned around to face Shirou, his cape flying off as he loosened it in preparation for a fight. White turned and what he saw was not the Angel Digimon his daughter had been in love with for the last several years. Instead it was a hand sized creature with a large eye as the prominent feature on its pink, spider-like body. White's scepter quickly went up as he attempted to defend himself from the small attacker.
"Despite its size, this Parasimon is a Mega Level and it was specifically breed for you by my new master," came the distorted voice of Shirou again. "The Goddess of Darkness will have you. Allow the Parasimon to take over your mind, Ambassador White!"
White continued to swipe at the small Mega but it was too agile and it kept finding a way to stay close to him. At that moment, White desperately wished he would have asked his wife to come with him instead of worrying so much about the tournament. He had to get out of the room and quarantine it. Raising his scepter, he used one of his favorite techniques.
"King Stick!" The gold diamond on top of the scepter shined and cast five strong beams of light all over the room. Where the light hit, a KingChessmon clone was created. "Attack him!" commanded White.
"To me, worm!" Shirou extended his arm and the Parasimon jumped off White and latched itself onto the angel's forearm. Shirou felt a small pain as the Parasimon made the connection, he felt the power of a Mega Level Digimon rush into him. "Pid Speed," he said in a calm voice before disappearing from sight. Before White could react, his five clones were tossed into the air by an unseen impact, disappearing into bursts of data. White himself was then tossed backwards and slammed into the ground from an invisible force above him. "You design these rooms to take damage don't you, Ambassador?" taunted Shirou as he stood over his downed opponent.
"Yes, of course," replied White, "after all, you never know when some idiot will do something that just makes you want to cut loose." White rose his scepter to unleash the energy he had been storing but a quick reaction from Shirou resulted in the scepter getting kicked out of White's hand.
"Too bad, little man," came the distorted voice drenched in wickedness. "Your wife is the warrior, not you." The evil angel lifted his foot before bringing it down hard on White's chest, knocking all the air out of him. Shirou brought his right hand up near his face and slowly, his fingers became sharp, elongated daggers.
"Please, Shirou, you must fight it," pleaded White, desperate to get out of this situation. All the measures possible to give healing Digimon the privacy they deserved were in these medical ward rooms and White was regretting every single one of them. "Shirou, think of my daughter, think of Yellowtail."
"My friends were right, she's too young for me," laughed Shirou, "I think I'll upgrade to your wife once you're out of the picture, Ambassador." Shirou's sharp fingers came down and stabbed into the eye guard of White's helmet as the Ambassador tried to threaten the angel.
White screamed in pain, he would have cried as well had his eyes survived. All White could do was grab at the powerful arm stabbing through his face. He smacked it and clawed at it and tried to pull it out but Shirou's arm wouldn't budge.
From Shirou's side he could see the red data blocks coming from White's face. Shirou was satisfied. He'd perfectly calculated the force he would need to inflict the perfect amount of damage. As much as he hated to give up the power of the Parasimon, Shirou was happy to give up the nauseating feeling of the Parasimon slowly eating away at his body.
"Go, Parasimon, climb in," ordered Shirou.
Just as he commanded, the pink-purple spider released its hold on Shirou's arm as he retracted his hand from White's face. The small Mega scurried down the arm's length and into the red data spewing wound of Ambassador White. The Parasimon's tentacles came out from the lids right around the eye and began to capture and pull back the damaged data. The Parasimon dug itself further into the skull of White. Finally, as it seemed to get comfortable, it finished pulling the data in and completed a new faceplate for the Ambassador. All damage gone and a fight having seemingly never taken place.
Back in the coliseum, Leon was being bombarded by ice and snow as his Frigimon opponent had created a concentrated blizzard to take advantage of the small field. Leon, much like Ghost the Stingmon before him, wanted to prove that Dragon was not the only powerhouse in the tournament and had as of yet, not launched a single attack. Leon stood at the very edge of the battle platform staring out into the crowd.
"You should pay more attention to your opponent," said the soft voice of Coldfist the Frigimon. "I've hit you six times with my Sub-Zero Ice Punch. I've already explained that I'm made of snow and so you can't do anything to hurt me." Coldfist was running back and forth behind Leon, the strong wind of the blizzard making it impossible to tell where his voice was coming from. "And you can't see me. I'm not even sure that you hear me." Coldfist let out a disappointed sigh. "Guess you're just not as good as I hoped."
Coldfist approached Leon, no longer going side to side and instead walking straight towards his exposed back. Though Leon couldn't hear the crowd outside, he could see how little the crowd seemed to care for his match. It seemed that everyone had given up on him. Leon smiled. He didn't think himself much of a hero, but turning things around at the last second was a fun idea and one that he could pull off. Leon smiled as he saw what he'd been waiting for in the reflection of the sponsor boards. It was a good thing that Cruz had explained that the dome allowed anyone outside to see the action inside perfectly.
"Sub-Zero Ice Punch," said the grinning beast man as he suddenly turned around and slammed his frozen fist into the Frigimon's gut.
The large snowman was stunned as the air was knocked out him. "H-h-how . . . did y-you know?" stuttered Coldfist.
"Your blizzard warmed up every now and then. That and you took forever in between each Ice Punch. I figured that if your snow body turned to ice from too much cold, you'd become vulnerable." Leon smiled wide, glad to find out he'd been right.
"M-my move, how?" asked Coldfist, acceptance of defeat clear on his bland face but confusion still audible in his voice.
"Natural talent," answered Leon.
The blizzard within the dome subsided and as Leon looked out into the many faces of the spectators, he knew he had impressed them all and won a few fans in the process.
"And the winner of the last match of the day is Leon!" announced Cruz to a raucous reaction.
Leon sneezed as he enjoyed the cheers.
"Alright, Shirou, my boy, thank you for your cooperation. I'll let you get some well deserved rest," said Ambassador White. "Make the best of it, you leave the day after tomorrow."
"Understood, sir. Believe me, getting rest sounds pretty good right now," called back a smiling Shirou.
White heard the soft swish of the doors as they closed behind him. "How troubling," he thought. Ambassador White felt that his conversation with Shirou had been short, after all, Shirou had always known how to be concise in his reports, but yet, more time had gone by than White would have expected. As he walked down the pale green corridors of the medical ward, White looked up at some of the holograms to see that Leon had made it to the next round.
"Too bad, Leon," said the Ambassador, "I just can't wait and give you the fair fight you were hoping for."
White approached the front desk of the medical ward and there he found a black PawnChessmon filing away papers.
"Excuse me, miss, do you have a moment?"
"Of course, Ambassador. What do you need?" asked the sweet sounding PawnChessmon.
"Please call my personal chambers and inform whomever answers to ready my conversation with the Yggdrasil Council," said White.
"As you wish, Ambassador," said the girl.
"Thank you, that is all." Ambassador White continued on his way down the hallway and out of the medical ward.
He had to return to the coliseum and make his big announcement. The finals were coming early. It would be Ghost versus Leon versus Dragon to determine the winner of the Champion's Tournament.