Chapter 10: The Last Digivice
Before Hikaru and Ryudamon followed the path the others took out of the sewers, they decided to follow a stray Bakemon that had fled after Soulmon's defeat. The Bakemon was aware that it was being followed and tried to get away until they had cornered it at a dead end.
"Stay back!" the Bakemon growled. "I'm warning you!"
"Calm down," Ryudamon replied. "We just have a few questions to ask you. I suggest you answer them truthfully, that is, unless you want to end up like your friends."
"Qu-Questions?" Bakemon stuttered.
At first, Bakemon thought he might be safe from Ryudamon and could get away, but after remembering what happened with Agumon and Veemon, he didn't want to take any chances.
On the surface, Nero, Ana, and their Digimon partners continued to look for the others. They had searched the entire city and were now back at the hotel.
"Where could they be?" Nero wondered, his tone making him sound very worried. "If anything happens to them it'll be my fault!"
"Lord Yggdrasil, look!" Dorumon shouted, pointing off in the distance.
Nero turned and saw a few familiar figures heading towards the hotel. It was Aimi and Alex, along with Agumon and Veemon. The two Digimon did not look like they were in the best shape of their lives. Nero and the others ran to greet them.
"Hey guys, what happened?" Nero asked.
Dorumon approached Agumon and Veemon. He was just about to ask what had happened to them when he suddenly covered his nose.
"Ugh, why do you guys smell so bad?" he questioned.
Agumon complained at the comment, but Veemon surprisingly did not. Dorumon was amazed by this, and even more curious when Veemon smiled back at him.
"Heh, I can digivolve, too now," he said, passing out immediately after.
Agumon realized that Veemon had wasted so much energy carrying him around, and after running around the city for most of the day, that the amount of food they both ate failed in comparison to the amount of energy they had expended.
After carrying Veemon back into Aimi and Alex's room, Ana and Guilmon introduced themselves to the rest of the group. Agumon, being the only one currently conscious who knew everything that happened, explained what had transpired.
"We're sorry," Agumon apologized.
"The important thing is that all of you are okay," replied Nero. "What concerns me is that the virus would send two attacks in the same day. We're leaving first thing in the morning; we can't stay here!"
"You mentioned a virus," said Ana. "What exactly do you mean?"
"That's right, I never did tell you, did I?" Nero realized. "Guess I should tell you the reason why I asked you here."
"Mind telling us too?" Hikaru asked, entering the room without knocking and receiving the attention of everyone else.
"Hikaru-sama, you could've knocked," Ryudamon sighed, following close behind.
"Hikaru?" Alex gasped.
"Alexandra Yamamoto?" Hikaru responded, remembering that he never got a clear look at her when he saw Veemon rescue her. "So you were the one Veemon was talking about!"
Ryudamon ignored the two and approached Nero. Somehow, she knew that he was Yggdrasil.
"Lord Yggdrasil, forgive our intrusion," she stated. "My partner there is Hikaru Kusanagi, and I am Ryudamon."
Ryudamon explained how they found the hotel by asking some local Digimon inhabitants if they had seen Agumon and Veemon with their human partners. They eventually found the hotel and asked Mikemon which room they were in. After everyone introduced themselves to Hikaru and Ryudamon, Nero told them about the virus, and how everything happened.
"So, this virus, you said it took on the form of a Digimon," Hikaru said after Nero had finished. "Do yu think it could have taken on the form of a Digimon called Belphemon?"
"Belphemon?" Nero questioned.
Dorumon winced at the sound of the name, he knew who they were talking about.
"We followed one of the Bakemon that had attacked your friends and asked who sent them. He said that they were only following Soulmon, whom had been hired by a Digimon known as Belphemon to take care of them."
"Belphemon…" Nero pondered. "That name does sound familiar."
"It's not him!" Dorumon announced.
Everyone turned to look at him, causing Dorumon to look at the ground with an ashamed expression on his face.
"What do you mean, Dorumon?" asked Nero.
"I never told you this, Yggdrasil, but when you sent me out to find the virus, I never actually encountered it," Dorumon explained. "In truth, I ran into a Digimon who claimed to serve the virus, the Digimon known as Belphemon. I couldn't even scratch him, he was so powerful, and he was the one that defeated me."
"So, you encountered Belphemon, not the virus," Nero sighed, receiving a nod from Dorumon. Nero took out his Digivice and began browsing through the menu. Nero pressed a button. "Data Analyzer, open! Code: Yggdrasil 0000001"
Nero's Digivice began to glow and a strange screen showing a list of Digimon appeared in holographic form.
"What are you doing?" Aimi wondered.
"This feature is called the Data Analyzer," Nero informed. "Right now it can't be accessed by normal players because I'm still working out a few bugs. There's a special password that you can use to access it. I haven't told anyone else this, but the password is your username plus your ID number. Once you enter it, you should be able to access what I have added so far. Now, as for the feature itself, the Data Analyzer allows you access any information on a Digimon your Digimon has encountered before. I personally have seen nearly every Digimon, but Dorumon has only seen so many, so I can currently only receive information on ones he has encountered."
Nero began searching through the list of names until he found Belphemon. He opened the profile page and saw Belphemon's picture in one box, his name in a box located at the top, and a box on the side that listed all of the information about him.
"Belphemon, a Mega-level Demon Lord-type Digimon of the virus attribute. His Lampranthus attack seems to be his most dangerous," Nero informed. "Yikes, no wonder you lost! I never imagined the virus would have Digimon this strong under its control!"
"So, we have to fight this thing?" Alex wondered.
"If we want to get to the virus, we'll probably have to!" Nero answered. "One things is clear, even at the Champion-level, Dorumon is no match for a Digimon this powerful. If we can get all of you to Ultimate, we might have a seldom chance of beating this guy!"
"Are you sure about that?" Ana asked. "If he's a Mega-level Digimon, and he's gotten stronger with the help of this virus, will even five Ultimate-level Digimon be enough?"
"Ordinarily, I'd say no," Nero admitted. "However, there are two factors on our side! First, Belphemon has a huge weakness that when exploited, will give us a chance. If we can exploit this weakness, Dorumon will just need to hit him with an Ultimate-level DAV attack. Even if he is a Mega-level, so long as he's infected by the virus, one hit from this attack should defeat him."
"What kind of weakness is this?" Ryudamon wondered.
Before Nero could answer, Veemon finally woke from his slumber. He sat himself up on the bed and looked around, noticing Ryudamon.
"Wh-What are you doing here?!" he exclaimed, pointing at Ryudamon.
"The same thing as you," Ryudamon answered.
"You mean passing out with your mouth wide open and sleeping in your own drool?" Veemon responded while wiping his chin, knowing that he had passed out earlier.
Everyone began laughing a bit while Ryudamon closed her eyes and clenched her right hand into a fist, the area just above her eyes twitching a bit. Even Dorumon laughed at the joke.
Meanwhile, in another sector of the Digital World, Sandar and Aaron were both riding in a ferry-type boat up towards the north. It was very dark, and Sandra was annoyed to still be awake. She did not want to fall asleep.
"This is your fault, you know!" Sandra growled at Dracmon.
"How is it my fault?" Dracmon whined.
"You're the one who got us kicked off the last ferry, and now we have to take this detour!" Sandra reminded.
"Hey, go easy on him," Aaraon told her. "You've got to admit, it was pretty funny."
"Aaron," Sandra sighed. "As much as I appreciate you coming to find me and taking me to the mainland, I'm going to have to ask you not to encourage him."
"I'm not hearing a 'no,'" Dracmon pointed out.
Swimmon swam alongside the ferry. Unfortunately, because she was almost always in the water she did not see what had happened. She could float on land, probably due to her enhanced abilities provided by Nero's programming, but without being drenched with water every now and then, she wouldn't last long.
In another sector, Conrad and Jill had arrived at a small oasis-like town just outside of the desert. They were currently located in a very shaky-looking inn. Conrad was trying to sleep, but Jill just wouldn't seem to let him. The room was small, and the beds were small moth-eaten cots that were set out. It was better than staying outside, where the temperature severely dropped at night.
"Thanks a lot, mister," she said.
"All right already, will you just go to sleep now?" Conrad groaned. "I'm sorry, but I'm really tired right now."
"We all are," Candlemon added.
"He's right, Jill," Veemon told Jill. "Let them sleep. You should get some rest as well."
"All right," Jill sighed.
Before they all knew it, every human currently in the Digital World had fallen asleep, as well as the partner Digimon.
It was about four o'clock on the morning when Brandon finally returned home. He had slept in the car for several hours and was no longer tired. He entered his house and headed immediately into his room, throwing his brown suitcase onto the floor. He blew some dust off his computer and had it leave the screensaver mode.
"Looks like I forgot to turn this off," he thought as he sat down. The Digimon game popped on-screen, with the new message icon flashing in the corner. He had several new messages. "Figures, all trade requests or messages from my friends."
He clicked on a small box in the corner that checked all of the messages and was about to click a "Delete Marked Messages" button. It was then that he noticed the one from Yggdrasil and instantly went over to click it.
"What's this?" he wondered.
Brandon clicked on the message and opened it up, reading it.
"What the hell is all of this?" he thought. "This has to be a joke!"
He was about to reject the message when he suddenly felt a strange feeling flow throughout his body. For some reason, he wanted to check it out. He glanced up at the date the message was sent and sighed.
"Then again, this message has been sitting in my inbox for a while now," he said. "This event could be over by now. I guess the least I could do is accept it."
No later than the second that Brandon clicked on the accept button, his computer monitor began to glow brighter than it ever had before. A Digivice popped out of the computer monitor and landed into his lap.
"N-No way!" he gasped as he picked it up and looked at it. "This can't be real!"
"It's about time!" a male voice shouted.
Brandon jumped back and looked around the room in attempt to find the source. After finding nobody, he then turned towards the computer monitor.
"Who said that?" he aasked.
"Me!" the voice exclaimed. "Your Digimon partner! It's been so long now, I thought you would show up!"
"M-My Digimon…partner?" Brandon stuttered.
"Yes," the voice answered. "Now hurry up and hold your Digivice up to the monitor so we can help out Lord Yggdrasil! Who knows what trouble they could be in right now?!"
Brandon slowly raised his arm when his dorr creeped open.
"Brandon, is that you?" a female voice asked. It was his mom. "It sounded like you were talking to someone."
Brandon quickly hid the Digivice behind him as he tried to think of a plan.
"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait a little bit longer," he said to the voice coming out of his computer.
Brandon rushed to the door to tell his mom everything was okay. He wondered how he was going to tell her that he was going on a trip to the Digital World, and right after they just got back from vacation too.
As morning dawned on the Digital World, Belphemon was furious as he became aware of the news.
"Soulmon, I thought you had it control!" he roared. "Next time, my plans won't fail! I'll just have to send my strongest out!! I'd go myself if the master didn't order me not to!"
"Belphemon!" and angry voice yelled, echoing throughout the castle.
Belphemon froze in place and turned his head slightly, setting his eyes upon the sight of a pillar of light that had appeared in the center of the room. He knew that the voice was none other than that of the virus.
"M-Master," Belphemon stuttered. "Wh-What is it?"
"I thought you'd have everything under control by now!" the virus growled. "Dorumon's neither standing by your side nor dead, and you failed to apprehend Yggdrasil or eliminate the others! My patience is growing thin! It's not like this was your first chance! However, that's not the only cause of my anger! What's worse is that you've allowed Dorumon to digivolve! Exactly how much stronger do plan on letting him get?"
"Forgive me, master," Belphemon replied. "I swear, I won't rest until I fulfill your wishes!"
"Where is BlackGabumon?" the virus questioned.
"He's probably sleeping right now, but I've had him train when he's not doing so," Belphemon replied. "I'll protect him as long as that is your wish, I haven't sent him on any missions!"
"That's good! Now I want you to go and train BlackGabumon yourself!" the virus ordered, receiving a shocked reaction from Belphemon. "I'm glad he been training, but I need him to get as much experience as he can as quickly as possible. You're the strongest in the area, so you train him! We must strike now while Dorumon is still only able to digivolve to the Champion level. Once you feel he's strong and stable enough, I want you to send him out to deal with Dorumon!"
"Yes, master," Belphemon grumbled, getting on one knee. "I understand. However, you know he won't take this lightly!"
"If you two would just learn to get along, this wouldn't be so difficult," the virus sighed, the pillar of light disappearing.
Belphemon stood up and a strange-looking Digimon approached him. It looked sort of like Agumon, only it was made out of black Lego blocks.
"You called, my lord?" the Digimon wondered.
"Go wake BlackGabumon!" Belphemon ordered. "There's work to be done!"
Meanwhile, Nero and the others checked out of the hotel after a good night's rest. The group prepared a small breakfast with some of the groceries Nero had bought and quickly took their leave of the city, taking one last gander back at it. Nero looked at his Digivice and saw the location of the other humans whom they had yet to meet up with.
"Let's head northwest," Nero announced. "There's a place there I want to check out."
