Alright, it took me longer (and I mean a lot longer) to get back in the swing of things but have no fear for I have returned…or for those who do know me personally: fear me, if you dare. I'd hiss but it wouldn't have that much effect on this. That and I was told that if I tried any Puss n Boots impressions I would meet a painful end
So, this would be about the time I give the usual disclaimer and all that but its pretty obvious by now that if I owned the characters and all that crap, I wouldn't be in the need of a summer job right about now.
Still, I have no excuse for the rather long delay in updating this fic. The only explanations I have is that: University is a good place to go to lose all your will to live, and I am the laziest guy out there since Fat Bastard…just take off about 800 pounds. Oh and to all the complaints about the last chapter, I do not know what the hell happened to my writing format; all I know is that most of the parts indicating a scene change were deleted when I posted this. does NOT like Microsoft Word apparently so don't blame me, just blame me for my refusal to repost it and lose all my reviews.
Anyway, I'd like to thank all the reviews I have received, over 100 reviews if I'm not mistaken and that's only for 6 chapters so yay for me. Thanks to all the people who actually do want me to update and a thanks to my cousin who, as sarcastic and prone to the Dark Side as he may be (seriously give him force powers and he'll make Exar Kun run for it, not a joke, the kid would screw us all over), he still encouraged me to continue.
Chapter 7
The Price of Power
The city was destroyed. Weeks of continuous attacks by the entity known as the D-Reaper had caused most of the city to either disappear within its form or be destroyed due to the battles between the Pawns of the Reaper and the Military of the United Nations.
It was confirmed within a week of the first strike that the "Reaper", as they called it for short, was programmed to absorb anything with an electronic flow, thus causing to target every last living being on the planet due to the flow of their brain patterns. It also didn't help that every piece of electronic equipment it absorbed seems to increase its size and power, causing its pawns to grow in power and quickly overwhelm the troops sent to detain it.
So far, they managed to send probes within its dome, managing to get some of the data that was added to its original programming, giving the programmer Shibumi a chance to devise a way to slow it down, no matter how temporary as it was.
Of course that really was of no help to Beelzemon at the moment, a thought that briefly crossed his mind as he was thrown through one of the two remaining walls of an abandoned home, causing whatever miracle that was holding the ceiling up to collapse down on him.
Since the military was of no use right now, Hypnos took the initiative and brought in its last line of defense, a group of 10 year old kids. Laughable as it was for the ones heading the operation against the Reaper; they soon realized that with its growing power, only those children had the power to actually hold the line.
That pissed the Demon Lord off to no end, mainly because of in that group there were only 5 fighters competent enough to fight, and one of those couldn't fight for that long before losing all his energy. That and he had enough with being target practice.
Gritting his teeth as he braced himself under the rubble, Beelzemon managed to bring his arms up through the weight of the rubble and dirt covering his body, and with a roar of frustration, forced his arms up and away from him, rubble blasting away from his upper body. Now having enough room to struggle out of the rubble, an action that would've been simple to him if he wasn't so damn exhausted, he shakily got back to his legs, letting out a curse as he stumbled to his knees, sweat dripping down his face. Maybe a quick breather would do him some good.
A loud roar broke the silence, followed by a cry of pain. The Demon looked up and saw Sakuyamon disappear within a skyscraper. The damage it received over the past weeks finally taking its toll, Beelzemon could only watch in frustration as the building crumbled down over his partner, a large cloud of dust filling the air, causing his eyes to water as it enveloped him. He had to admit, even at full power, he'd have some difficulty getting out of that.
Cursing loudly, his break now done, he spat out some amount of data. He detested the Human World. Back in the Digital World, ones data quickly worked to repair damaged functions, but here it was slowed down considerably, making a normal Digimon more 'real' than they would like.
Looking around he could see Jeri cradling an unconscious Elecmon. He wasn't sure if he was out of it because of the dragon or because he ran out of energy, but he went out too quickly to have been of any proper use.
Beelzemon let out a bitter smile at that. Sometimes he just hated being the strongest in the group. Acting as if he wasn't just thrown around the entire block, he managed to stumble out into the open where the dragon could see him, thankfully only stumbling once. Taking a deep breath he twisted his neck to the side, letting out an audible pop. Doing the same to his arms, stretching them over his head and cracking them with a quick twist of his wrists, he looked up at the dragon and let out a feral grin. If he was going to be deleted, at least it wasn't by that pink mass of data absorbing blubber.
He took a look around the block, making a small motion to Jeri to get out of the area, and spread his legs apart, trying to find a comfortable position to stand in that wouldn't make him collapse.
Giving one last look around, he knew he was royally screwed. Henry and Ryo were out throwing a suicide charge at the Reaper in a last ditch offense to try put a virus within it…something to do with a red car. The red glider, the only thing that actually managed to hurt that dragon, was destroyed and absorbed long ago by that monstrosity, SaberLeomon's out of power and odds are Sakuyamon was as good as dead.
Knowing that its prey was as good as deleted, Megidramon slowly descended until it was floating a few meters above the rubble torn street, its face a twisted mockery of life, its exposed maw seemingly mocking him in a perverted version of a smirk. An added effect, Beelzemon idly thought, was the acid drool dripping out of its exposed teeth and onto the concrete.
It was taking its time, toying with its prey. The only reason the odd looking rat was still in one piece was because its master couldn't seem to make up his mind on what to do, almost as though he was fighting himself.
Taking a deep breath, Beelzemon stood his ground, his instincts screaming at him to run. Wincing a bit, he forced his third eye open, it having being swollen shut a few moments ago. Bitting back the pain that was trying to overwhelm him, he grinned at his death and took out his remaining gun.
Usually he'd come out with some statement of bravado or a witty remark, but right now, he was too damn exhausted to bother wasting his breath.
And with the loud crack of a shotgun and the roar of a creature that was never supposed to exist, the battle was joined once again.
"Ow! Damnit it you crazy broad I told you to be careful! OW! SON OF A…"
"Do be quiet." Renamon calmly told him as she unrolled another length of white bandages, ripping it off with a sharp yank of her teeth. Grabbing Impmon's arm, giving him a warning glance when he continued to curse and flinch, she wrapped the material over the ointment she applied to his right bicep and tightly tied it securely.
"I told you I don't need them." The Imp proceeded to grumble, deciding it to be wise to be quieter when the Kitsune bared the claws of her left paw at him.
"And Gourgon advised that it would be prudent to make sure you bandage your wounds, even if only for a few hours." She informed him, giving him a sharp whack on the back, causing him to nearly fall over flat on his face.
"Right, like I'm going to trust that weirdo."
"You don't trust anyone."
"Well he's definitely not trustworthy."
"Get over yourself, Imp." The Kitsune's eyes narrowed as once again she was dragged into this petty argument over their medic.
"What? I have a god damned point, wench." He snapped, standing up from his seated position in the middle of the warehouse. "We barely know anything about him, he wears those weird glasses, he owns his own private clinic which no ones seems to have ever heard of, he patches us up for free (to my knowledge anyway), and he's a god damn Frenchman."
"What do you have against the French?"
"Have you ever listened to one? That language is the most fucked up thing since Terriermon's new found enjoyment of spinach."
"I thought it was his strange fascination of human pornography."
Impmon trailed off, his eyes widening as he stared at the Kitsune in fake amazement "By the fires of the phoenix god, did you just crack a joke?"
"No, I am simply saying that in light of everything, you find Terriermon's fascination with pornography more disturbing than anything you've encountered, including Princess PurpleBum."
The imp let out a shiver at that memory "We promised to never speak of that again." He quietly said, quickly looking around to make sure no one was in hearing range. Letting out a barely audible sigh of relief, he straightened his shoulders again and put on his patented glare "I still think French is the most fucked up language out there."
"You do realize that most would consider Japanese a difficult language to speak right?"
"Don't start with me." He growled. Moving towards an area where a bunch of crates were all piled up on each other, he made his way up the wooden boxes and jumped out the open window they previously used to get in. Landing on the edge of the small structure, he hopped up on a lamp post, followed by the roof of a nearby house. Grumbling, he looked through the night towards the center of Shinjuku. Spitting out a few curses he started the long walk, not even flinching when Renamon fazed in next to him.
"What about that American we met three years ago. His Digimon spoke English and not a word of Japanese."
"That Digimon was a pussy." He grumbled "Couldn't even digivolve to champion."
Having enough with the argument, which sadly was a normal conversation for both of them, she opted to remain silent. Judging Rika's distance by the link she had with her D-Arc, she thought over the possibility of leaving the Imp in favor of joining company that wasn't as sour, but immediately tossed it aside, not trusting the imp to double back and search out the one that put him in his current condition.
"I could've taken him, you know." He suddenly spoke up. Looking down at him, she noticed his eyes were narrowed and his left hand, the only one he could actually feel at the moment, was balled into a fist.
"Yes, I don't doubt you could have, but you took the brunt of his attack. After something like that, you would have been hard pressed to actually pull off a successful fight."
"You insulting my skills?" He growled, glaring up at her.
"I am stating a fact." She responded, the coldness in her voice sharper than he could ever hope to attain.
"Still, I had the chance to take the freak out if you didn't stop me." He growled out, his bitter mood sounding more like sulking to the Kitsune's sensitive ears.
"That creature posed no threat once it reverted back to its rookie form, and if you killed it that soon after De-digivolving from mega, you would've killed its Tamer as well. And before you even say a word on the subject…" She added, narrowing her eyes at him as he opened his mouth to reply "You know as well as I that we can't afford to cause any more harm against the humans. They barely trust us as it is, and after that event with those Human Supremacists…"
"Human Supremacists…ya know they really could've come up with something more original to explain that they're nothing but a group of racist human fucktards that hate anything that isn't human and can talk."
"The D-Reaper did cause a lot of damage…"
"To Shinjuku!" He snapped turning around to face her, pointing a finger at her as though trying to intimidate her "The D-Reaper only destroyed Shinjuku and that blob of killer jello was created by them! They created it and it came after us before finding a way to this world and decided to screw them over!"
"Are you done?"
"No!" He all but roared, snapping his fingers repeatedly, lighting a fireball and extinguishing it repeatedly, the flame barely appearing before disappearing. "Those Bastards ought to be killed, each and every one of them. We never even did anything to them."
"You dismembered their leader!" She exclaimed. Ignoring her, he continued to walk, stopping in his tracks when she fazed in front of him. "By killing their leader you just fueled the fire, you didn't help our situation at all."
"He tried to kill Ai and Moko." He snarled "It was either them or him, and guess what toots, that wasn't even worth thinking over."
"Well they currently aren't in danger, so you don't have any suitable reason to kill anyone. Or are you still sore over the fact that this boy defeated you not once, but twice."
He narrowed his eyes, taking a few steps towards her, the fireball in his hand slowly growing in size. "He beat me once, and that was it."
She kneeled down until her face was almost level with his "Megidramon nearly killed all of us." Her voice held no sign of ill will towards the creature, simply stating a fact "But the fact that the one who created it sent it after you, not to defeat you, but to kill you, that seems to bother you the most."
"Watch it wench." He said through gritted teeth as a portion of the roof started to glow and radiate heat.
"There is more between this Takato and yourself than you let on."
Growling, he extinguished the fireball in his hand in favor of summoning his Demon's Fireball before she kicked him in the chin, lifting him off the ground and falling heavily on his back two feet away.
"Don't be foolish Impmon." She landed beside him, not making any move to help him up.
Bringing his hand up to rub at his chin, he stood up, glaring at her. For a brief moment he toyed with the thought of actually attacking her straight out but in the end decided against it since he was more or less out of energy and she was stocked up. He also had to grudgingly admit that his current form…wasn't the strongest to say the least.
"I still say we should go back and finish the job, that way your decision won't come back to bite us in the ass." He growled, resuming his walk towards city.
She didn't say anything and they both continued to walk in silence, occasionally jumping to another rooftop. It wasn't until the location changed from a run down storage area to a more suburban area, the warehouses now replaced by decent looking houses for those that could actually afford their own domain in Tokyo that Renamon finally came out of her thoughts.
"When we reached the woods, when the fight came to an end…" She said, the sudden noise in the silent neighborhood causing Impmon to jump a bit, his thoughts of sweet revenge temporarily put on hold. "Wasn't there an odd feeling around there?"
"You always get an odd feeling when there are virus's around." Said Impmon, giving her a mocking smile "Then again that's probably what happens to you data types, most likely a warning mechanism to get the fuck out of the general area. Which is really not such a bad idea, cause remember, when it comes to power, I'm one bad mother fuc…"
"I didn't mean you or the other child." She said, cutting him off, ignoring his glare and indignant protests to being compared to a kid. "There were other presences there, watching us, and I'm fairly certain that Digimon you were fighting sensed them."
"Please," scoffed Impmon, looking away, jumping down on one of the fences and leisurely making his way along it, biting back the urge to whistle. "If there were Digimon there, they were probably too afraid to escape, thinking it would catch our attention."
"Impmon, they didn't feel right, their power was…unfamiliar and it was no accident that I sensed them." She intoned, fazing in front of him, preventing him from moving on his current path "And until then, I had not felt the urge to flee in a very long time." She said, lowering her voice.
Impmon hesitated at that. As much as he loved to insult her, he knew that there was only one Digimon that every truly made her want to flee, not instincts telling you to flee, but the urge to just abandon everything and run. However that over sized bird would sooner rut with the D-Reaper than ever enter the Real World.
"So what are you trying to say?" He finally asked, bringing both hand to rest behind his head, and crossing one leg over the other, balancing himself on one foot.
"Watch over the boy, make sure he has no relations to them and be on the look out, you know as well as I that any Digimon that makes an effort to hide itself is not to be taken lightly.
"Neither were the Devas." Said Impmon in a mocking tone of voice "But then look how badly they beat your asses."
Ignoring him, Renamon turned around and started to walk away from him. Stopping a few feet away from him, she tilted her head back to look at him "There is a metting about to start within a few hours to discuss the latest turn of events, shall I let them know that you are coming?"
"No." he said, crossing his arms "I promised Ai and Moko I'd be home tonight and help them clean their house, get rid of old junk and whatnot."
The Kitsune inclined her head "Very well then." She then fazed away.
The arrogant smirk that usually adorned his face slowly faded as he scowled "Really wish she'd stop doing that." He grumbled as he started an easy run towards the place he could call home.
As consciousness slowly returned to him, Takato couldn't help but notice that he wasn't supposed to be floating in a sea of red. Groaning, he tried to turn around in the air to no effect.
Flapping his arms, he tried to make himself float upwards. Seeing as this was useless (that and he finally realized he could not for the life of him realize what was up and what was down) he finally stopped. As much as this was irritating, he couldn't help but think that the entire situation was rather sad since it was not his first time in this…realm.
Of course the past two or three times he'd been here had to do something with Guilmon in one form or the other, but this time there was nothing here that hinted at that.
So it has finally awakened
Takato immediately tried to twist around to find the source of the voice
It would seem that way.
"Okay who's there?" Shouted out Takato, twisting his head back and forth to try to find the source of the two different voices
We are here and everywhere
We are in the present, the past and the futures to come
Frustrated, Takato ran his hand over his face to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was living one giant cliché, he knew it.
"Alright, would you care to make sense of why I'm here then?"
You are here
Because we choose you to be here
"Alright then, why do you choose me to be here?" He said, nearly pulling his hair in frustration.
We are the balance of order and chaos
We have chosen you to bring back order
"Well that's just dandy and all but could you elaborate on that?" He asked, wondering if this was all just a bad dream.
You have been chosen by the fates to bring back proper order to your world.
Your world has fallen in a state of constant warfare with the Digital Realm, we have chosen you as one who has the potential to bring back the natural balance
"I'm sorry what? Balance? Potential?" he asked, not liking where this was going
We have observed your world and have deemed you as one of the being with the potential to bring proper order not only to your realm, but the digital realm
So in order to see if you are worthy, we have decided to put you through a test
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold it!" Shouted Takato, bringing one hand on top of the other in a time out gesture. "Test? You're saying that the worlds are being screwed up and instead of doing something about it you decide to put me through a test?"
It is the only way to know if you are worthy of the task we would appoint you with
A conflict is fast approaching that would open three paths for you to follow with only two possible outcomes.
"Why do I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this?" He grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and, to and outside viewer, starting to sulk.
One outcome will prove your worthiness, the other will end up with the destruction of your realm
"WHAT?" shouted Takato "You're asking me to do something to supposedly save the worlds and instead of telling me what to do your testing me with something that could destroy everything? How in hell is that supposed to work? What if I fail?"
If you fail then you would have proven that you are unsuitable for the task ahead and we will move on to the next potential candidate
"And how the fuck are you supposed to find another candidate if the world is destroyed?"
Do not ask for an answer that you can not understand
Our time here is at an end, it is time for you to awaken
"Wait, hold on, you can't just tell me this and suddenly abandon me, you hear me?" he shouted as everything started to fade around him "You can't just leave me like this, what the hell gives you the right to…"
He woke with a start, jolting upright, gasping loudly as his mind replayed the events that had seemingly occurred, all of it seeming to real to be a simple dream. Then the pain registered.
Going rigid in agony, he collapsed back on the bed, instinctively trying to hug himself, though he quickly found out that he could barely do even that.
Thrashing around in pain, it became too much for him and he rolled over on the bed and emptied his stomach on the floor, vaguely registered the small amount of blood that accompanied it.
"Sapristi, je déteste quand ça arrive." Muttered a man as he made his way to Takato, quickly bringing the restraints on the bed around him to prevent him from hurting himself anymore that and he already was "Courage, mon petit, courage." He mumbled as he took up a stick of morphine and stabbed it into Takato's leg, making sure to hold him down until the boy stopped thrashing around and fell back into the realm of unconsciousness.
Muttering to himself, he checked the boy's vitals and prepared a bag of pain killers beside his bed. His task done, he turned to observe Guilmon who was lying down on the floor, his ears drooping down.
"Easy there my friend." He said in heavily accented Japanese , one hand moving up to push the bridge of his glasses back on his face. "In a few hours the pain will pass and he will almost be back to normal." He said, giving the Dinosaur a small smile. "Don't worry; I have yet to lose someone to the perils of Biomerging."
Sighing at the lack of response, Jacque Gourgon got up from his seat and entered his office, closing the door behind him. Removing his glasses and pressing his thumb and index finger against his eyelids, he let out a heavy sigh before turning on a recording device.
"Thursday October 24th 2006, from Doctor Jacque Gourgon to Mizuno "Shibumi" Gorō.
I have just finished stabilizing Matsuda Takato after the events of him parting from his partner. As you observed a few years earlier, Shibumi, it seems that your theory on one's ability to Biomerge in the real world is still as fatal as you thought it would become. From my interactions with the Tamers Jenrya Li (or Henry Wong as some prefer to call him) and Nonaka Rika, it has been over 5 years since they had last attempted to Biomerge with their partners, the last attempt being made by one Akiyama Ryo on February 12th 2001 that nearly resulted in the boy's death. I was unsure whether this problem would last but apparently you were right in your observation.
"From what Alice McCoy told us, the sovereigns gave her a Digimon that would give the Tamers to merge with their own Digimon, essentially Dobermon turned their molecules into data, allowing them to break the laws of physics and become one with a digital being. However, if Alice's report is true, then Dobermon would have gotten this ability from the Pheonix God Zhuqiaomon. Knowing this creature's prejudice towards humans, it would be natural to assume that he only made this a temporary arrangement. Their ability to Biomerge should have been lost soon after the D-Reaper's destruction.
"However it would seem that there was an unexpected side effect. The data fused with the molecules of the Tamers gradually faded yet they kept their ability to merge. I have no idea how this is possible, this is more suitable to your field, Shibumi. I do know that when they now try to merge, their molecules are ripped apart and bonded with Digimon who are essentially, still mostly data. I have no idea how theyr survive the merging, maybe it happens too quickly to properly register, but when they return to their natural forms, the pain of being taken apart and put back together is painful enough to cause a few malfunctions in their bodies that I doubt anyone could properly treat.
"Usually after "De-digivolving", if you prefer to call it, they need immediate medical attention to stabilize their condition, though for some reason their bodies manage to heal at a rate that is simply not human. All they need to properly heal is the proper medical attention to make sure that the shear pain that it causes doesn't kill them.
"Which brings us to our young Matsuda. I don't know where he came from or how he could Biomerge, but it would seem that he did not know of the side effects, which would mean either he had never bonded before, it was his first time in years that he believed it necessary to merge, or that maybe the data that allowed him to Biomerge in the first place finally wore off. Personaly, Shibumi, I'm leaning more towards the second theory since from what Impmon told me, it is my belief that he's been capable of this for a while now.
"His heart failed twice, which I was thankfully able to stabilize and his bones were fractured all over, and if the scans I keep going over are true, they are healing up at a phenomenal pace. In fact within 4 hours it will seem that he never was damaged. Unexpected healing rate, a lot faster than Akiyama who took only two days to fully heal, Henry Wong took three and Rika Nonaka took a few hours longer than Mr Wong.
"Look Shibumi, I don't know where you are or what you think is coming, the fact is that Matsuda was lucky. Renamon can make her way anywhere in the city at amazing speeds and that was the only thing that saved him. The others were lucky that they were near hospitals when this first showed up.
"I stand by what I told you in the past, Shibumi. Those kids can not Biomerge without killing themselves afterwards."
And here you go. Long overdo, and I apologise.