- Shrine -
"We need a supply raid," Alice bluntly told to the assembled group of humans, pokemon, and digimon. "We have the basics to start ourselves off with, but we need to find some power generation equipment to get Hackware production going again."
"I do not understand the concern regarding power, can we not simply tap into the energy sources of the digital world?" Datamon asked bluntly.
"While it is not currently known what method naturally occurring digital worlds use to produce their power, the amount they produce is much more easily quantified," Anderson replied. "We have found enough nodes in this world for four dual purpose recharging and generation systems for Hackware. That is enough to support our current forces, but to be blunt, the snake eyed trainer's team alone could destroy our entire current Hackware force."
"The other issue is that I'm quite sure that tracking the power use of artificial digital worlds is how DSS found all of our old bases," Absol added. "If we try and set something up in one of them that draws too much power they will hit us hard." The Upload forces clearly understood this was an analysis of future disasters, but Datamon seemed unconvinced and HackBiyomon simply watched motionlessly.
"So we require more mundane resources to produce the required energy?" Datamon asked annoyed. "Repeated raids for fuel and atmospheric controls for such things are a major complication to future operations."
"We aren't about to go for some simple combustion generators," Alice said shaking her head. "We aren't on a camping trip here. We want field power cores, like research labs use out in the wilds."
"What is a power core?" HackBiyomon asked looking confused.
"Something I did not think humans could make," Datamon said thoughtfully. "You are not familiar with the topic of generators that use things other than fossil fuels?" he asked his new assistant.
"I do not think we had anything other than solar panels and windmills for that sort of thing. I guess nuclear reactors too," the bird digimon responded thinking hard. "What do you mean exactly?"
"Wait, if you know about them why wouldn't she have them?" one of the grunts asked.
"HackBiyomon has experienced an unusual transformation as a result of my attempts to restore her," Datamon said quietly, upset with giving up the information. "She is a duplicate of a human that once traveled to my own world." This statement caused the pink avian to grow slightly more dull eyed and still, while Absol frowned at the clarification. "As a result she has firsthand knowledge of our own human world."
"But you are familiar with the general idea? We have a stock of elemental stones and I think I know where to get a core that will run off a full set," Alice said pointing to a box set aside from one of the storage piles.
"So far we have not found a use for them in evolving Hackware," Anderson conceded. "I suppose powering the growth of new units would be a better use of them given that reality. My guess is you have found a new mining site extracting them?"
"A company that does prospecting for stones," she clarified. "They have a system they use to keep replacement parts in stock for their field teams using remote access terminals. I left it off the the lists of targets just in case because of that bit of a hole in their security, and it has everything we need to start over."
Datamon reacted to this statement by actually looking over the site around him carefully, noting the well stacked crates of general purpose supplies and construction materials for light prefabricated buildings. "You were already planning on what to do if you needed to evacuate again," he said after a moment.
"Digital world conversion capacity is the only thing we did not bring along," Anderson replied to that statement. "With the new Shrine class Stone evolution we should be fine with that as well."
"So we are going to make a digital world at their storage facility to attack from?" HackBiyomon asked confused.
"No, we would attack their digital storage system," Bob corrected.
"If they are using a digital world to store these materials why did you need the more advanced data manipulation digimon?" Datamon asked frowning.
"Digital storage as in turning stuff into energy and keeping it in a computer," one of the grunts contributed. "There doesn't need to be any place you actually can go to put stuff there."
Both of the digimon looked a touch disbelieving at this. "I think I can see now how you have found your way into digital worlds on your own now," Datamon replied sounding torn. "And also why the only digimon you are finding are so very primitive despite that. Your digital worlds are still young and minimally connected, like my own might have been in those first years before true digimon existed."
"Grant, glad to finally catch up with you," the researcher said when the fossil hunter answered the phone, the image showing the inside of Deepstone Labs behind him. "Really, Grant? You've already revived them?"
"Uh, not really, Walt," the former human replied scratching at his neck plates. "It is kinda a lot more complicated than that."
"Please tell me you didn't revive the pokemon and then immediately get yourself transformed into one somehow," his old coworker sighed. "It makes the jokes about the fossil awkward."
"Actually I evolved from holding onto the fossil in a teleportation thing," the Armaldo admitted nervously. "So I can't really revive it now, because it is a part of me."
"Well, that's even more awkward," Walt replied looking rather uneasy himself. "We might have, possibly, taken to calling that fossil 'Grant' after you predicted those things about where it was found."
"Oh, that reminds me, were you able to find the odd colored shell I put off to the side from the main pile?" Grant asked in a tone his teammates were now associating with him getting lost in the past.
"Alright, yes we did in fact revive a shiny pokemon from the specific fossil you somehow knew about," the researcher said slowly. "Although it is only stranger to hear that now that you look the part of the creature that had collected it."
"Did he phrase it just like that before too?" Quagsire asked more to confirm than anything while Kabutops whispered the word 'shell' thoughtfully.
"Like he was the one who had eaten the other pokemon back when the fossil originally lived?" Walt asked clearly not seeing who was speaking. "Yeah, he did, and it was strange then too. Honestly that's the main reason we started calling the thing 'Grant'."
"Um, the medical professional that has gone over my change might have suggested I am a reincarnation of an Armaldo," the fossil pokemon trainer admitted. "Possibly even of the specific one that you found the fossil of?"
"Okay, that answers a whole lot of questions we had about you," the researcher said after a long moment. "For one why you kept talking about what different fossils tasted like."
"Did you manage to bring any of those plants back yet?" Grant asked looking somewhat hopeful. "Those little red almost-berries went nice with Kabuto."
"With what?" Kabutops asked harshly walking over to poke the other fossil pokemon.
"Uh, Walt, we didn't get Kabutops' fossil from my shell pile, did we?" the Armaldo nervously asked.
"No, he is from actual Kabutops remains recovered at a different dig entirely," Walt answered sounding rather exasperated.
"Right, break it up you two," Quagsire said walking between the two Rock typed pokemon and clearly into the view of the video. "Is there any news on what's going on at the lab we should know?"
"Oh, Quagsire. Things are going fine, but we have had to find a new field team," the researcher said nodding. "One that fits in our budget."
"I have two problems with what you just said," the amphibian pokemon responded. "One is that getting us back apparently costs more than just replacing us, but the other is far more important. Why is my showing up able to talk a thing that calms you down?" she harshly asked not waiting for a reply before rubbing her face.
"Generally you were able to get your trainer to focus on projects," the human replied reluctantly. "Although I guess whatever translator you are using is letting you interact with people a bit better."
"Yeah, this place is a lot stranger than that," she responded sighing. "The three of us can actually speak human now."
"So, does that mean you are taking over as the trainer?" Walt asked prompting the Water/Ground type to end the call.
"And here we have the new evolution," MASTER DATAMON said to the group leading them to the new Hackware. The creature's main body was a massive floating block. It was split in half at the middle where it was the widest, the eight flat panels making up the majority of its surface tapering up and down from that to another split at its top and bottom with only half the width of it's center. Short pyramids capped the ends of its body by taking this smaller length down to a point. At each of the four corners along its central ridge were black circular eyes like those present on a Goliath. Floating beside and behind the main body were two smaller blocks of material, visually distinct from Stones but close in shape to the lesser Hackware it had evolved from.
"Vocal processing available," it said as a greeting. "Operations within acceptable parameters." Apparently this one could be understood by the humans as they reacted to this statement with some unease. HackBiyomon tried to keep her own discomfort with the resulting creature off her face, and a small sad part of her hoped that the lifeless look in her eyes helped with that.
"Good to hear," the tech woman, Alice, said to it. She was among the few who did not look uneasy and in fact looked quite happy with the result. "Are you capable of digital world conversion already, or do we need to work that out still?"
"Digital incarnation system is currently at 68.64% operational status. Estimated completion time 48 hours," the Shrine said without inflection.
"Perhaps I will be able to speed the process up a bit," MASTER DATAMON suggested. The bird digimon was WORRIED FOR him, as the way the developer, Mr. Anderson, had so casually created something that ONLY her MASTER had the skill to make was TROUBLING.
"The aid would be appreciated," Anderson said easily. "Although I had thought you would be busy with making sure your assistant was in top form for you going forward." The man turned to look at her calmly, with a face she could not read. "I suppose I could give her a checkup to see about her Hackware modifications while you worked on that to keep things moving nicely," he suggested.
Worried HackBiyomon turned to her MASTER to see his reaction. She felt a small sense of something like betrayal from his considering look, BUT NOT A VERY LARGE FEELING. "Yes, that should be fine. Perhaps you will have a better understanding of the physical transformation she has undergone," he responded with what she saw as a sinister smile DIRECTED AT THE HUMAN. "HackBiyomon, go along with him while I assist this digimon."
She OBEYED the order CALMLY, following the human over to the site he had setup outside to do his work while her MASTER took the Hackware to his lab building. "Don't look so down, Miss HackBiyomon," Anderson said making her flinch at how he had seen her emotion. "He is quite a brilliant person, and I am more than happy for the assistance with the Shrine. After all, another checking your work always results in better quality than doing everything alone."
"That is true," she admitted slowly while walking over to the smaller set of electronic devices that had arrived during the raid by the police. "What will you be doing to me?" she asked, more for her own fears than any of her MASTER's ORDERS.
"A simple scan to start off," he replied setting up the device. "Datamon lacks a type of any kind, unlike my own Hackware, and I want to make sure that combining your kind of digimon with those hasn't produced an unstable situation." A series of clicking noises then came from the machines and he motioned for her to step to the side slightly. She remained quiet as she did so rather than ask any of the questions that statement brought to mind, uncertain if she even wanted to know what the he had meant.
"Let's see, Viral attribute which is common enough with the creatures I have seen that I don't actually know the difference it makes," he confessed jokingly. "Looks like a solid Flying type, which is interesting as none of our current Hackware demonstrate that one." The bird digimon blinked at the confirmation that she had one of these 'types'. "The Dark type does show up in them, and you have most of that one," he continued more seriously. "That might require some stabilization."
"Stabilization?" HackBiyomon had to ask worried by the tone.
"So that you properly have the type, rather than this unusual almost type," he clarified. "The Flying type does not appear alone as far as I am aware, so it is potentially risky for you to not have this other type stable." He began to tap on the keyboard present causing the machines to shift slightly. "It should be a quick fix."
He then looked at her expectantly, and it took the clone a moment to realize that he was actually asking for her permission. Since she was made she could not really recall anyone doing that before. Uneasy with the implications, and still not up for a real explanation, she simply nodded and allowed him to continue. A red glow then appeared over her body, tickling at the crystal like parts of it in a way that almost felt like she could manipulate the strange sensation. Then there was a flash that removed the glow, and came with a strange lightening of her thoughts.
"What was that?" she wondered aloud, the words coming even easier than before. "Wait, did you change something else too?" she asked harshly realizing that MASTER DATAMON's control programs weren't functioning as actively. Simply that she could realize they were there was a massive change that had her CONCERNED FOR HER OBEDIENCE.
"Of course not," he replied sounding what she felt was too calm for what had to be a blatant lie. "I simply cleaned up the areas that related to your Dark typing." He met her eyes thoughtfully, like Absol had done when she was first met the strange creature. "At most there is some shifting of sensibilities to account for some features of that type. Absol should be able to tell you more about those concerns."
"Grant, we have an Officer Jenny here regarding your former humanity," A-0 informed the fossil pokemon shortly before the police woman arrived. "Officer, he's the Armaldo," the Porygon said to her nodding at him.
"You do mean he's the Armaldo's trainer right?" she asked hopefully while looking over the collected group, with the members of Grant's team who were able to fit inside of the Troubleshooter Lab clustering together around him.
"Uh, maybe?" the fossil fossil hunter said uncertainly. "I mean, Quagsire was registered only as my pokemon when I handed her the ball, and I don't know if it is enough to be the one holding it to count as being the trainer. I think you need the paperwork for that first."
"Well, there goes the hope that this was a prank," Jenny responded with a sigh. "So you evolved and need a new trainer card? Can I see your old one." The Rock/Bug pokemon nodded and handed over the small piece of plastic that had an image of his previous form proudly displayed on its face. The officer looked at the card, then the Armaldo, then back at the card again. "Just to be clear here, you are going with having evolved into a pokemon from being a human?"
"We have a video recording of it happening," Serperior pitched in, drawing the police woman's attention to him and his trainer. "Digital transfer held item evolution to be clear."
"How many of the pokemon here can talk?" she asked looking around the rather crowded room.
"I think we're down to me and four of the five Investigator pokemon that can't," Dugtrio replied, their voice translated by the machine in the center of the room. "We also have someone who isn't human, but can't speak pokemon."
"This is going to be worse than the Rayquaza trainer who flew so high into the clouds he turned into a bird," the Officer mumbled getting out a number of forms. "Let's see this video so I can confirm you are who you claim to be." This was a trivial task, although Quagsire groaned as it was allowed to continue to his capture. "Alright, that is a hassle for the paperwork."
"Dare I even ask why?" the amphibian pokemon questioned tiredly.
Officer Jenny looked at the latest talking pokemon. "One of the better examples I have of a trainer that is a pokemon, one who also has talking pokemon on their team, was a pair of twin Zorua," she admitted. "More accurately twin Zorua that wanted to be each other's trainers." Quagsire groaned again rubbing her face. "Which means that one of the actual example sets of paperwork I have here covers that possibility, and because he gave you his ball so obviously in that video you probably do count here."
"I take it you need a copy for records on this one?" Janice asked seriously.
"Yes, at least that much of the footage," the Officer told her, then seemed to really notice the presence of Investigator Roberts. "Even if it is part of an active investigation, we should be able to keep any critical information safe."
"What happens if the entire team ends up being trainers?" Dugtrio asked, getting a glare from his Water typed teammates. "Hey, Quagsire is already used to being the leader, and you're probably going to be one later anyway, Kabutops."
"Given the Zorua were both starting their journey it isn't technically an issue, although you have a bit of a mess to work out when using each other in regulated tournaments," Officer Jenny replied a hint uneasily. "However, our big issue is that your trainer clearly wanted to be captured by someone else. Which means I need to at least look into her becoming a trainer for him as a thing to do." She shuffled a bit nervously. "How is Quagsire as a leader compared to Grant?"
"She's kinda the one we've been listening to more than him for a while now," Kabutops uneasily said deliberately not looking at the Water/Ground type.
"Pretty good at it I'd say," Grant simply added without much care. "She's already helped me adapt to fighting now really fast."
"My sister's actual reason for calling you here was to deal with making sure turning into a pokemon doesn't suddenly make Grant no longer legally count as a person," A-0 cut in with a hint of annoyance.
"Honestly that is something that will have to be done case by case," the Officer replied bluntly. "I can update his trainer card regardless, but most places that would have had an issue with this will probably still be touchy about things even with that. Not that there are many that I know of where being a pokemon that can talk isn't enough to be treated as a person."
"Okay, now I'm thinking this is just the only thing Delta 2 found to help with the paperwork issue," Gazimon said shaking his head.
"Initializing conversion process," the Shrine said from the transport restriction pad he had created inside of his lab to help prevent their apparent foes from finding them using their exit points. Anderson's work was far more complete than Datamon had expected from some random human, and his new 'assistant' was even looking far more stable after whatever the man had done. It was grating to finally find someone who could keep up with him only after having lost everything that made it matter.
The machine digimon replayed that last thought three times while the conversion process went on in a desperate attempt to find the memories that led to that feeling. This was interrupted by the creature actually succeeding to change the mundane computer system they had it interface with into a brand new digital world. "It actually worked," he said in amazement. "You are capable of artificially generating entire digital worlds." From the nervous fluffing of HackBiyomon's feathers the hint of fear he was feeling might have crept into his voice.
"You didn't believe us? Our biggest problem right now is DSS has hundreds of artificial digital worlds they have been maintaining," Bob commented. "They are used to fighting stuff like Hackware, at least as far as that Serperior is concerned."
"No time to chat, Stones with me, Worms follow up, grunts get ready to strip the place," Alice cut in. "We don't know how fast DSS will react and we need those power generators. If it looks like it can make power grab it and send it. Shrine, keep the pad clear on this end." Three of the humans quickly moved to assist her along with a mix of the specified Hackware.
Well aware of the need for haste in these situations Datamon started preparing the Dark Network to cover the theft. "Give me a moment to get the connection secured," he told the assembled group as they moved to start transportation. As soon as he was done they left in a burst of red light.
Not long after the first piece of machinery appeared in a similar burst. He was slightly uneasy with the fact that it indeed was a power core rather than the more mundane generators humans should have, but it was now blatantly clear that this was not the human world he was familiar with at all. The machine in question seemed to be made to take elementally charged crystals and extract energy from them, a method that the machine digimon had seen in his own digital world before which worked best when using opposing elements at the same time. The Shrine quickly levitated the device to the side, where the remaining members of Upload got to work moving it outside for temporary storage while more resources arrived.
"So, Datamon, why do digital monsters say their file extensions?" the white furred menace questioned absentmindedly. "It seems a bit redundant to me."
"Perhaps if you had scanned a human before-" he began to reply heatedly while scanning Bob, only to freeze up for a moment at the results.
"I'm afraid I do not understand your confusion," Anderson supplied for once looking uncertain. "All but a very small number of conscious beings are monsters, so differentiating between things that are and are not monsters is a rare case. In our world the most common distinction is between 'pocket monsters' who can be contained in energy form easily, and other monsters that cannot. Humans typically fall into the second category."
"Humans from my world aren't monsters," HackBiyomon said with a great deal of confusion, which hopefully drew attention away from Datamon's own uncertainty with regards to this revelation.
"No my dear, they are not," he admitted, considering that aspect. "Which might go some way to explaining why your body changed shape, if a Biyomon is the monster form of your human self. Unfortunately I do not have the needed information to properly describe or specify what those humans are." Her failure of shape was now clearly a change in data that he had mistakenly thought the locals would be able to identify. However, with their humans being monsters themselves it became clear how using their own data to attempt to revive her instead changed her into a monster as well.
The two digimon were left to think about that reality as four more large machines and a couple of crates of supplies were transferred over. After the fifth generator arrived the Dark Network node that Datamon had created as part of his preparations for the transfers reported that the target digital world had been locked down for transport. "We have a problem," he stated just before the entire team sent through emerged onto the pad still carrying some smaller items.
"Mission successful," Alice said nodding as the group moved off the pad. "As long as this works to keep them from tracing the connection we are good."
"It is more than capable of preventing that," Datamon harshly replied to mask his worry over the data manipulation that was occurring at the target. He quietly connected to the node to scan for their foes while the others accepted his pronouncement and got to work moving the stolen generators. He was able to scan one team moving over to the node consisting of some oddly primitively shaped digimon that was maintaining the transport lockdown, a maybe-human monster, a blob made of plant matter, and the oddest one of them all, one of Etemon's Gazimon.
"What do you think about that?" the blob asked before the Gazimon raised his claw to stop the discussion before it started.
"No talking while this thing is still running," the digimon said and then like the brute it was slashed through the connection. Datamon could only frown at the loss of possible information, but the mission had been a success.
"Are you sure we won't need that?" Shawn asked as the thick cable leading from the large black box to nowhere dissolved. Roberts and Jack were off cataloging the losses and state of the digital world, while their team dealt with the digital security issue it presented, and Quagsire's team got their new trainer cards.
"We weren't sure if Upload was looking with their chargers when we got rid of them. I know Datamon is at best recording everything these see," Gazimon replied looking over at the device. "At worst he's still able to watch us. A-0, can you get anything out of it?"
The Porygon floated over and opened a pane, the pink square dulling to a grey color as it connected to the Dark Network node. "Very carefully, but it still looks like the same interference," it said unhappily as the digimon moved over to join the effort.
The rabbit like monster opened a pair of his own panes, which remained their typical black color after connection with no apparent issue. "Wow, he just restarted everything. Didn't even bother changing the access codes," the digimon said with a bit of a laugh. "I still have basic admin access, that might come in handy as long as he doesn't realize it until it is too late."
"So we get maybe a couple uses out of it?" Serperior asked moving over to see A-0's work while solidifying again.
"Depends on how arrogant he is and if he pays enough attention to what I'm doing. Like I said, I've already had to deal with this kind of interference, and I had this access back then too," Gazimon complained. "See, before the connection was lost it had this mess for the location data. The reference points are the wrong length and this bit here looks more like the kind of weird space warp the Administrators do all the time than an actual layout of the specified area." He then froze for a moment at his own words while the others looked at what he had specified.
"What's wrong Gazi?" Shawn asked his teammate after a moment, concerned by how he had stopped talking.
"We had little log books and reference guides to translate this stuff," the digimon said wide eyed. "Last time I saw these I wouldn't know where to begin with explaining what the information actually meant without one of those."
"You have been a good student as far as this kind of thing is concerned from my perspective," A-0 said trying to work out the problem with that change.
"Yeah, I guess so. I just didn't think I'd gotten so used to this kind of stuff I was that much better," Gazimon sighed, then looked thoughtful. "Wait, that might work."
"What is 'that'?" Serperior asked with a wide smile.
"Datamon is definitely going to try and reconnect with this if we leave it here," the digimon explained matching the sinister expression. "I've had to hide search histories before to keep my skin, I think with A-0's help and my Youkomon form I might be able to scrub most of what we do to this and make it look like I did a bad job."
"And we can hide a trace program of some kind inside the 'failed' attempt to clear the data," A-0 realized getting an excited nod from the rabbit monster.
"Exactly, if I can get some of our fragment of the Network up and running I can try and trace them using it," Gazimon said rapidly. "We'd probably still need multiple nodes to get it to work, but as long as I can keep the fragment I restart somewhere we can contain it shouldn't be too much of a risk on our end. Not like we're the ones trying to hide where we are."