Chapter 11: Rogues and Heroes
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't bug.
A/N: In this chapter, you get to meet the resident Yamaki clone. Yep…
Chrysalimon launched several knife like appendages at Kyubimon, who either dodged or burned any that came too close. She realized she was going to need backup soon. Her hope came true when she saw Aquilamon come up behind Chrysalimon, launching its blast laser attack, consisting of numerous red rings of energy coming from its mouth, damaging the bladed cocoon. Aquilamon dropped down low enough for Eddy, Kevin and their respective partners to drop down.
Having Guilmon evolve would probably destroy the school, Kevin thought, noticing the rooftop battleground they were at. "Eddy, you can evolve Commandramon to Sealsdramon but I can't do that with Guilmon. Can you take care of this battle?"
Eddy nodded. "Heck yeah, man." Eddy thought it was kind of strange that Kevin would make him do this. It was almost as if he was prepping him for something. Then there's how he's been on edge for the past few weeks.
Of course, right now they had a rogue Tamer who's Digimon they needed to defeat. "Ready to go, Commandramon?" Eddy asked, holding up his digivice.
"Yeah!" The digivice began to glow and Commandramon evolved within a datasphere. "Commandramon Evolve! Sealsdramon!"
Sealsdramon proceeded to run toward the floating Chrysalis, slicing any knife-tipped cables that came his way. The Digimon was like a ninja, full of grace and power at the same time. Then it ran up to the blue Digimon and yelled out "Death Behind!" slicing the thing across the back. Stray data sprayed out from the back of the thing.
"Kyubimon!" Rachelle yelled out, Ingrid and Vallejo behind her. Vallejo had gotten up and out of the way once the fight got really bad.
The giant fox knew what to do, running toward its opponent and yelling out "Koenryuu!" jumping forward, spinning really fast and causing her body to turn into a swirling ball of blue fire with a dragon head. She struck Chrysalimon just as Aquilamon launched another Blast Laser, destabilizing the enemy Digimon and causing it to revert back to an egg.
Patterson, or was it Atkinson? stood there in shock. "This wasn't supposed to happen! I wasn't supposed to lose, especially not to some fat, ugly, uneducated, Latino with a wannabe ninja assassin! I'm too hot for this!"
"Gee, it's not that hot out," Eddy told him, confused, "I think you've got me confused with somebody else. As far as I know, my ancestors were in this country 300 years ago."
"Besides," Vallejo started, "What do you mean by uneducated Latin side? Are you insinuating that all Latinos are uneducated?"
"Well considering." Patterson got socked in the face. He finally looked at the culprit: it was Rachelle.
"Just so you know, I have a friend whose dad's from Uruguay and he's one of the smartest people I know," she told him. "You on the other hand are the most bigoted person I've ever met. Heck! I barely even know you."
"But, I'm hot!"
"So, beauty isn't everything. Besides, you're pretty face was tarnished by my punch, so you can't expect to trick any more simple-minded girls into your plans. Now if you ever come up to me again, then you can be rest assured that…" she trailed off as her body dissolved into static.
"Rachelle!" Eddy yelled, running toward her, but it was too late. She was already gone.
"No way, dude, she's in the Dark Ocean," Kevin realized. If that's what it is…
Eddy stood there, looking at the spot. Then he started to turn around, but as soon as he turned his head, he got socked in the face by Patterson. He fell to the ground and looked at the far skinnier guy.
"Oh, if the fat kid isn't feeling so well. I must say, Rachelle really knows how to pick ugly friends. Oh well, I've gotta move along now! Cha cha." The enemy proceeded to run towards the corner of the roof that didn't have anyone. Then, while he was a mere ten feet away from the edge, he tripped over some piano wire. "What in the name of-!"
As he got up, he felt some cuffs latch onto his wrists. He looked behind himself to see who it was: a bald black guy with thick round glasses. "You… You're supposed to be reeling from food poisoning!"
"Well, since I recovered this afternoon, I figured I might as well come over and take care of business. From the looks of it, you had quite the scuffle, vampire boy."
"Oh, why does everyone have to say that? Just because I look like a movie vampire doesn't mean I am one, for crying out loud!"
"Figures Fillmore would come and save the day," Ingrid said, after that looking at the spot where Rachelle had been. "Mostly…"
"I wonder how we can get her back," Vallejo mused.
Kevin looked on in shock. Here he was, he came to help but couldn't and he was powerless to stop yet another friend from getting sucked into a parallel world. "Dude," he muttered under his breath. They were going to have to figure out how to deal with this one way or another.
Rachelle found herself on the edge of a beach. The area didn't look at all familiar, though the lighthouse did remind her of the time she went to Mondo-A-Go-Go, with it being against the sea and everything, only instead of it being bright and colorful, it was dark and dreary. It reminded her of when she lived in Kent, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, as a little girl: lots of clouds and lots of rain… only it was more depressing.
She walked down the length of the beach. Then she saw someone. It was a figure sitting down in the sand, looking out at the sea. Rachelle walked closer and realized who it was. "Nazz?" She had known that Nazz had disappeared into thin air earlier that day, but she didn't expect it to happen to her.
Nazz looked at the brunette girl. "Rachelle? What are you doing here?"
"I don't know. We were fighting an enemy Digimon on the rooftop of a nearby school and I was chewing out an enemy Tamer when I ended up here." Rachelle sat down next to Nazz. "Where is here, anyway?"
Nazz got up and walked off. "Where are you going?" Rachelle asked getting up and following the blonde.
"I need to be alone."
As far as Rachelle knew, Nazz was alone all afternoon and evening. "Okay." Rachelle stopped for a second, and then kept on following. Eventually they walked by what looked like some sort of shanty beach side neighborhood and then they walked along the bottom of a cliff, getting their feet wet in the process. After that, they came across an underground tunnel.
"Oh, my gosh," Nazz said at the sight of a group of Digimon. They were all one species, a blue finned sea monkey, or at least what the sea monkeys were portrayed as looking like on the front of one of the boxes: half fish, half man.
Rachelle looked at her digivice. "Hangyomon. Perfect Level, Data Type." She then looked up at the Digimon, "What are you doing here? Are we in the Digital World?"
One of them walked forward. "We were at one point living here in peace, worshiping our god. Then the enemy of our god came and subjected us to his rulership and we can't anymore."
Rachelle was slightly bothered by the concept of this god that the Digimon worshipped. The only thing she had heard of along the lines of a god in the Digital World was Yggdrasil, and she hadn't heard anything about him being worshipped. Obviously, though, these Digimon were under attack by something. "So, like, what happened?"
"Many years ago, a Tamer came and fought our god, and our god defeated him, but because the Tamer had made a pathway here, other enemies came, subjecting us to these." The Digimon pointed out a dark spiral with digi-code on it. "Because of this, we can't evolve and we can't defend ourselves. Now another enemy is in the area, subjecting us to slavery."
Nazz could feel nothing but pity for the Digimon. "Don't worry, little dudes, we'll help you."
Rachelle looked at Nazz. "Okay, I hate to burst your bubble here, but there's just the two of us and we don't have our partners."
Nazz knew that Rachelle was right, however "Dude, that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try."
Well, at least she's not moping around all depressed anymore, Rachelle thought, trying hard not to crack a smile. The other day, just after Nazz's brother disappeared, they went shopping together. Rachelle knew Nazz was unusually quiet, and with her brother gone again it was understandable.
Suddenly, they heard a buzzing insect noise outside. "The enemy of our god has found us! Run!" the Hangyomon exclaimed. Suddenly they saw the source: a large grey beetle Digimon.
"Okuwamon, Insect Digimon, Perfect Level. So, Nazz, how do you think we should do this?" Rachelle asked.
"I don't know." She was powerless, but there was a hope inside of her that made her want to reach out to her friends for help. The Purity of that desire to help made her digivice start to glow light green. She picked it up and looked at it. Then she held it out in the direction of the ocean.
After the battle, the Tamers were in the X Middle School Safety Patrol's office along with the Digimon: Renamon, Guilmon, Sealsdramon, and Hawkmon. Outside the office, reporters were hanging out. Inside, they were finishing up the process of getting Patterson arrested and taken into custody. A police officer had him cuffed and led out of the room. It turned out he was wearing a mask and that his face was covered in terrible acne. Once he was gone, Vallejo decided to have a talk with the Tamers.
"So let me get this straight: you guys are a group of kids that just happened to get these things called Digimon and you call yourselves Tamers."
"Yeah, dude, that's right."
"So, why on earth does it have to be you guys? Why did you guys have to become Tamers?" he asked before sipping some steaming hot cocoa.
"Well… um… we don't know for sure," Kevin replied.
"Yeah, other than how my bro was a Tamer before me, we have no clue why or who chose us," Eddy said.
"Maybe it's this group of invisible beings from the Digital World, or the DigiGnomes or Ophanimon chose us," Ed said, giving away all of his suggestions based on ideas from the TV show.
"Dude, we don't even know what the hierarchy of the Digital World is. How are you even sure any of that stuff even exists?" Kevin asked Ed, who just shrugged.
"Now another thing: what the heck happened with Rachelle?" Vallejo asked, "She just… disappeared."
The Tamers had their ideas, ranging from the Dark Ocean to the Digital World with motives such as the Emperor trying out a new weapon to them being kidnapped by someone else in power over in the Digital World. From what Robert, Chaun and Rachelle told them, there are more governments in power in the Digital World than just the Empire, each with their own agenda. Then again, that was a year ago.
"We don't know at the moment, but we will do everything we can to help out." As Kevin said that, the door opened to the office. Vallejo eyed the person walking in along with two others who remained at the door. The person was an adult: tall and skinny with disheveled blond hair. He had sunglasses on despite it being at night.
"Unfortunately, Kevin Walter Douglas, you have no authority to be doing such a thing." Kevin looked back at the man.
"Huh? Who the heck are you?"
"My name is Trevor Cox and I am with the NSA program Somnus. We've been monitoring Digital Emergences for a while now." Sealsdramon looked at the man and growled. "You will all have to stay here. Understand this: I'm doing this for your protection."
"Yeah right," Eddy said, disbelieving.
"Unfortunately, Edward Skipper McGee, this situation has gotten out of control. Numerous children, members of your group of Tamers, have disappeared and we have taken notice of that. This is not a game. You of all people should realize that."
"Yeah?"
"Your own twin brother, for instance…" Kevin, Ed and all the Digimon looked at Eddy in surprise. "Then there's the case of Nadia Van Bartonshmeer and Rachelle Bueler. Not to mention James Wycliffe and Sarah, Edwin Horace Bates' sister. You know, by playing this game, you're adversely affecting everyone involved."
The Tamers stared at the man, unsure of how to act.
"Vallejo, your orders are clear. You are under no circumstances allowed to let these children out of this room. They're allowed one last visit with their Digimon." Cox walked toward the door and stopped by Renamon. "By the way, Renamon, we know you can teleport, so don't try anything." Renamon's eyes got wide and she looked at the man as he walked out the door, Ingrid coming in after him and shutting it.
"You can't let them do that!" Eddy told Vallejo.
"I have no choice."
"Oh, heck yeah you do! Why are you obeying that idiot, anyway? He's not your boss."
"Eddy!" Vallejo yelled before regaining his composure. "X Middle School is a government institution. If I go against the orders of the NSA, I'm effectively going against the orders of the school. End of story." The truth of the matter was that Vallejo felt really bad about doing that. Then again, there have been many times where he'd been forced to kick his best officers off the squad. He didn't like it, though said officers would always get things back to where they were supposed to be.
He wondered how things were going to be when he left, since he was in eighth grade. In some ways he wanted Fillmore or Anza to succeed him.
"Excuse me, Vallejo, but Anza and Tehama finished their reports," Ingrid said, putting the papers on the Jr. Commissioner's desk.
Vallejo just looked at them. "I'll go over them tomorrow."
"So, what's going on as far as the Tamers?" she asked.
Vallejo looked at her, then at Eddy. "You tell her, McGee."
"Some dirtbags at the NSA want to take our Digimon away," the once diminutive Ed said.
"Dude, why is the NSA even involved?" Kevin asked.
Ingrid was the one that answered: "The NSA specializes in cryptography, code-breaking, and gathering information from potential enemies of the United States. I remember reading a novel one time that was about a cryptographer who worked for them and used a supercomputer to crack codes. It's pretty interesting stuff. Maybe the supercomputer exists and they used it to find the Digital World."
"Cool," Ed said. "Maybe it's like Hypnos on Digimon Tamers."
"That would make sense," Ingrid responded. "I wonder how long those guys have actually known about Digimon. Hmm… It's one of those weird mysteries I guess. I doubt that those NSA guys are going to actually tell us."
Suddenly, a green light appeared on Eddy's chest. "What the…?" Eddy pulled out the source of that light: a crest.
"Dude, I thought that Kindness was your crest," Kevin said.
"It is! I just have this one with me because my bro stole one of the other ones." The green light caused a gate to open. "No way…"
"Oh man, this must be how we'll find the girls!" Kevin exclaimed. "You coming Guilmon?" he asked.
"You bet, Kevin!" the Digimon said, following his Tamer through the rift.
"Come on, Sealsdramon. Time's a wastin'!" Eddy exclaimed, running through the gate himself.
"Eddy, couldn't you at least be more careful!" Sealsdramon said, running though behind his Tamer.
"Hey giant chicken! We've got a world to save!" Ed exclaimed, grabbing Hawkmon.
"Why can't I follow you like the other Digimon?" the bird asked as he was carried through the gate.
"Might as well go through it myself, huh, Ingrid?" Vallejo asked. "Because I know I'm toast if they find out about this."
Ingrid shrugged as Renamon ran through the portal. "Hey, it's not as if we've got anything better to do."
After walking out the door of the Safety Patrol's office, Cox decided to make a phone call with a Bluetooth device attached to his ear. "Trish, Millie, any updates?" the blond agent asked.
"No sir," Trish replied, sitting in a chair that was hooked up to a crane in the middle of a spherical computer area. She was a Latina with somewhat dark skin and was wearing a white outfit and a visor over her eyes. She had a keyboard at her chair. "We've been picking up unusual anomalies but nothing that has any affect of the Real World."
"By the way," Millie started to say. She was Caucasian with black hair and had a similar white outfit on, "Symanski wants to know if you need any help detaining the Digimon."
Professor Symanski was a bit eager, wanting to test out his new program. The professor got on Cox's nerves, especially since he wasn't even an American citizen and yet he was working for the NSA's project Somnus. The professor's three children got trapped in the Digital World so he probably warranted some sympathy however the man struck Cox as arrogant. "No, as a matter of fact, we seem to be doing well in that department. I left one of the students in charge of keeping an eye on them."
"Okay, if you say so." Suddenly, an alarm sounded in Somnus' monitoring area. "Getting a bizarre reading. It's from that other Digital World. Getting a location of the gate. Cox! It's in the school."
Cox rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and proceeded to run back to the office only to see… nothing. He growled. "Great, too late. Now I'm wondering if accepting that idiot Symanski's proposition wasn't a bad idea."
"Sir, you're still talking through the phone."
Once again, he cursed his Bluetooth device.
The three tamers, four Digimon and two 'guests' found themselves on the beach between the ocean and a large tunnel. They noticed the large grey beetle stalking a couple of girls and a bunch of sea-monkeys with diving suits and knew to take action. "Rachelle's in danger! Renamon evolve!" the vixen yelled out, but to no avail.
"Guilmon?" Kevin asked.
"Guilmon evolve… um… Growlmon?" the dinosaur looked around. "Why can't I do it, Kevin?" the lizard asked.
"Ugh. Great. There must be something blocking evolution."
Eddy found it strange that his Digimon stayed at the Adult Level, but he wasn't complaining. "Come on, Sealsdramon, attack that thing with all you've got!"
"Got it, Eddy," The ninja-like cyborg Digimon said, pulling out a knife. "Death Behind!"
"The lighthouse, guys!" Ed yelled out.
"Huh? What about the lighthouse?" Eddy asked. He looked up at the building on the cliff to their left and thought it was weird. "You know, I can totally see Double D making a comment on how that's impossible according to the laws of physics."
"Yeah?" Ed asked. "So how are we going to destroy it?"
"Why do we have to destroy it?" Eddy asked.
"The lighthouse has a control spire in it and that's what's suppressing our evolution."
"Oh, I'm still not that far." Eddy knew what to do, though. "Hey, Ed, slash this."
"The Digimental of Love. I thought it was called a Digi-egg?"
"Oh, just slash it."
"How on earth did you think ahead like this," Hawkmon asked.
"I did some research on the various types of Digivolution online earlier today when we went to the bookstore and that struck me as something that could be useful."
Ed nodded, and then held the card over his head. "Digi-Modify! Armor Evolution!"
"Hawkmon Armor Evolve! Holsmon!" The armor Digimon was like a red quadruped eagle with white armor wings on its head.
"Come on Holsmon! Let's destroy the Control Spire!" Ed said, getting on the back of his Digimon.
"Um, Ed, I think they're called Dark Towers."
"I know what the show says!"
Holsmon grumbled as he flew over to the tower destroying it with its attack.
"Now, Guilmon!"
"Yeah! Guilmon Evolve! Growlmon!"
"Renamon Evolve! Kyuubimon!"
The two Adult Level Digimon aimed for the Perfect Level insect as it moved toward the Hangyomon, in pain because of Sealsdramon attached to its back. "You like that, huh?" Sealsdramon asked mockingly as it stabbed again.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" the Okuwamon asked in an accent that sounded vaguely Chinese. "Those things aren't even real Digimon!"
"Huh?" Eddy grunted. "That thing actually speaks?"
"Well of course, you idiot Imperial!"
"He's lying," the lead Hangyomon said. "We are Digimon!"
"Sure… uh-huh. So, here's the deal, let me at these guys and I'll leave you guys alone."
"How do we know you're not lying?" Nazz asked. "These guys aren't dangerous. They didn't hurt anyone!"
"You have no idea, missy." The Okuwamon marched forward, aiming toward the Hangyomon.
"Looks like we have no choice," Kevin said, "Growlmon, give him all you've got!"
"Exhaust Flame!" the dinosaur yelled, covering the back of the grey insect with his fireball.
"Come on, Kyuubimon!"
"Alright! Fox Tail Inferno!" Blue flames formed from her nine tails, launching at the insect.
"Death Behind!" Sealsdramon yelled, slicing ever more into the overgrown beetle, causing it to wreath in pain.
"Card Slash! Attack Plug-in A!" Eddy yelled, slashing his card through his Digivice and causing Sealsdramon to get stronger. Sealsdramon roared as he sliced deeper than ever before and jumped off the Digimon as it disintegrated and reverted back to an egg.
"Good job, Sealsdramon. Now, get those Dark Spirals off those things!"
Sealsdramon ran though the crowd of Hangyomon, slicing off the spirals. Another victory in the name of justice.
He hoped. The Hangyomon all the sudden changed shape, growing taller and thinner and turning into creatures of the darkness. "Come on, miss. You will make a fine queen for our god," one of them said, latching its arm around Nazz.
"What the, leave her alone!" Kevin yelled, filled with rage. Growlmon launched a fireball at the creatures, but they deflected the attack.
"On second though, our god wants the brunette instead," the lead creature said, grabbing onto Rachelle. "You will make a fine queen and you will produce an army."
"What?" the thought of what the creature said made Rachelle's skin crawl.
"He's here."
"Dude, who's here and what the heck are you things?" Kevin asked, more than a little freaked out.
"We are the Deep Ones. You seem like you would be a worthy slave." Suddenly tentacles grabbed Kevin from behind and pulled him into the ocean. Then some more tentacles came out, aiming for Rachelle. For a second, she thought she was caught, but then she opened her eyes to see Eddy right in front of her, being pulled into the water.
When Eddy saw the tentacles moving toward Rachelle, he didn't think about himself. He knew that something had to be done to stop those things from consigning Rachelle to a fate worse than death. So he ran. Time seemed to move slowly as he got in between Rachelle and the tentacles that latched onto him. He didn't know Rachelle real well, but he knew he was doing the right thing.
He remembered the dream he had about her.
He remembered when they first met.
He didn't care that they hadn't known each other very well; he just didn't want her to suffer because of his inaction.
His crest shined a purple light as his digivice started reacting to it.
SUPER EVOLUTION_
"SEALSDRAMON SUPER EVOLVE!"
Ingrid Third was surprised at the form of a giant Tank emerging from the data-sphere that Sealsdramon had enveloped himself in. Vallejo's order to stay a safe distance away definitely wasn't a bad idea.
Chaun and Edd were watching the Digimon Zero episodes that Chaun had found on the internet when his digivice vibrated. At first Chaun thought it was one of the other Tamers, but when he opened it up, he found a cryptic message:
"I know the location of the gate. Just come and find me in the Junkyard where it used to be and I'll tell you."
"What the…" was Chaun's response.
"This is… strange," Edd reacted.
"Also, you might want to get out of there. The feds are gonna come and get your Digimon if you don't. Get Robert too."
"What do you think?" Chaun asked.
"It seems that whoever it is that sent this knows something about what's going on. But why did they send it now of all times? The others are on a mission."
"I'm telling you because you are ready. One of your fellow Tamers just evolved his Digimon to Perfect."
This time the sender was known: Plank.
Next Chapter: The Tank
A/N: Not the best chapter I wrote, but it's decent. I hope you like it. Tell me what you think.
By the way, I'm going to ask a guest reviewer to review this when the arc ends in a couple chapters. After the characters go to the Digital World, I'm going to work up some character notes and bios to put on the Ed, Edd n Eddy Fanon Wiki. I have an article there already but it's not so great. If you feel like editing it, go ahead.