Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put them in. Everything else belongs to somebody else so just remember to give credit where it's due. Thanks to all my readers, hope you enjoy this latest chapter!
In So Much Trouble
"What exactly is this Digital World they're after going to?" Yami asked reluctantly, doing his best to cool his blood as his cold eyes met the former High Priest's. Right now all he wanted to do was open each of Seto's veins, one at a time until the bastard bled out but that would have to wait until later. By then maybe he could even devise something even more painful to suit the bastard's crime. Maybe Bakura's other side would have some suggestions.
"It's a world created by technology, like a holo program only more real in some ways and completely self sustaining." Seto explained, his eyes saying plainly that he knew exactly where Yami's thoughts were headed and wasn't worried in the least. After all, he had more important things to worry about. Like his woman going off and doing something stupid while he was too far away to do a damn thing about it. Oh but they were going to have a talk when he got a hold of her. When, not if. He refused to think in terms of if. "Renamon is her digimon, a computer created creature of sorts that she's very fond of." Seto continued, anticipating the next logical question for them to ask.
"But if it's just a holographic image then what's the big deal if it gets deleted?" Joey wanted to know, not getting why Rika seemed so hell bent on risking her life for this thing which wasn't even actually living. Who cared about a stupid hologram that was made up on codes and data? "I mean, couldn't they just save the image and then put it back into the program after whatever is going to delete it does?"
"If you knew anything about sophisticated technology then you'd know that this Digital World is no simple system. It's grown and mutated beyond anything its creators could have imagined in their wildest dreams. They don't even know how it exists, much less what supports it and allows it to continue to evolve and adapt the way it has. It should have shut down over a decade ago but it's so powerful that it was able to bridge the gap between itself and the Real World for a time, nearly taking over this world. It was covered up but from what my sources tell me the Digital World is home to some truly amazing things that are unique and irreplaceable, found only within its data. Renamon isn't a thing but a unique creation that can't be duplicated like some image on a screen. Those digimon are as real to their humans as if they were flesh and blood. That's why whatever is threatening her is going after Renamon in the first place. Because she means that much to Rika." Unfortunately.
"So what could they be facing in this world?" Pegasus asked, his eyes anxious as he watched Latoya stop Rika from decking one of the guards who ducked anyway, falling on his fat ass with a loud thud. Things were definitely not going well over there.
"I don't know, I've only ever been there once and the government and Hypnos guard the world like a mother hen. They only let the rest of us mere mortals know as much as they have to. It could be anything from some sort of computer virus to someone ordering their digimon to take on Rika's in a fight. A digital battle makes sense given past events."
"So these digimon have attacks and powers, like in the card game?" Yugi guessed, keeping a steady hand on Yami's shoulder, just in case. He'd never seen his other half this close to losing it completely before. It was a good thing Yami wasn't a pharaoh anymore, otherwise Kaiba would have been in a hell of a lot of trouble at the moment.
"Yes, they have attacks, levels and the ability to evolve through the help of their partner."
"So will they have abilities like the digimon when they enter this digital world?" Isis asked, chewing on her bottom lip as she looked from the screen to Seto questioningly. "Will they be able to defend themselves in this world?"
"That's what their digimon are for. They won't stand a chance without them." Was his grim reply. "In the digital world you're only as good as your partner."
"Then, as cruel as it is, I can only hope they don't get in." Yami said softly, his eyes turning to watch his younger sister intently. "As long as she remains safe, that's all that matters to me."
It took twenty minutes to convince the guards to let them in. Basically it came down to Alice being one of the head honchos' daughter and the fear of just what the two muscle bound men in the group would do to them if they continued to refuse entry. They did have ID after all, even if they didn't have permission to be at Hypnos at this hour. Very grudgingly allowing them to pass by the teens quickly rushed in with Alice running after them to keep up. "So want to tell me what the hell you're all doing here?" Alice wanted to know, running at Rika's side as she waved to a computer geek from her dad's division. The geek did a double take when he saw Henry and she couldn't blame him either. She was surprised the guards had believed Henry was the guy in his ID photo.
"Something bad is going to happen in the Digital World."
"And you know this how?" Last time she'd checked, everything had been as A Okay or at least as fine as it ever was in that world. But if Rika said there was something wrong...well there had to be a reason. Maybe the D-Arc had done something weird?
"It would take too long to explain." Was Henry's answer to that question as they all quickly got into the elevator. The stairs were enough to make the toughest person claustrophobic. Apparently new ones weren't in Yamaki's budget any time soon and their wasn't a person in the building who hadn't bitched about that fact. Nothing was likely to change either, or at least not until someone ended up as a huddled mass, driven insane by the hideous green colored walls and the too small steps that made you think you were going to fall at any moment.
"Well you're going to have to if you want to go there." Alice pointed out, crossing her arms in front of her as she sent Rika a look before turning her attention to the other three people in the group she didn't know. "And who are these guys anyway?"
"Latoya, Freya, Joshua, this is Alice, Alice this is them."
"Well you're just full of information today, aren't you?"
Arriving at the correct floor it didn't take long for Alice to be proven right. Her dad wasn't letting them anywhere near the portal that led to the Digital World until they could come up with a good explanation as to why he would willing risk Yamaki's wrath for them. Unfortunately, there was no way that telling him the truth was going to get him to take them seriously. Telling the truth was more likely to get them committed to some serious testing. Hedging around the truth wasn't helping much and they didn't have anything to prove their suspicions because it was just that, suspicions. A gut feeling that wasn't going to get them where they needed to be going.
"Look, if..okay when he throws a fit and tries to wring your neck you can blame it all on us." Henry assured his father's friend, his impatience beginning to show. They were so close and it was likely that ever moment from now on was going to count. Big time. "And I know this sounds nuts and that you think we're acting crazy but really, I swear we have a good reason. We can't tell you that reason but I swear it's a good one."
"I have a teenager, do you think I haven't heard that excuse before?"
"I resent that. My excuses are a lot better then the ones they're cooking up."
"You aren't helping, Alice." Suzi muttered before turning her very best puppy dog eyes on Alice's dad. "Please, Mr. McCoy? Pretty, pretty please? We'll take full responsibility and if we're wrong you can put all the blame on us and punish us however you see fit."
"Right..." Was his drawled response, heaving a sigh as he looked at the small group of teens who were all looking at him pleadingly. Well expect for the one in the very short skirt who looked like she was from the Middle East. She was looking at him in a way that a teenager shouldn't be looking at a man old enough to be her father. "Look." He continued, throwing his hands up in defeat. "It's not going to happen so just go home, okay? Come back in the morning and bug Yamaki into letting you go in."
"But that will be too late." Rika argued, her hands on her hips in fists. "Now you let us in or we're going to do it without permission. The difference is you can chose rather to be conscious or not when we do."
"Hey now." Friend or not Alice wasn't just going to stand around and let Rika threaten to knock her father out. "Watch it." Getting between her father and Rika Alice gave her friend a look that said plainly that Rika was in for one hell of a cat fight if she thought she could threaten her father like that.
"Now, girls." Oh dear God, that was all they needed. His daughter and Rika getting into a cat fight.
Their loud and simultaneous stay out of this was drowned out as alarms suddenly went off and a tech came running into the room, yelling that there was something seriously wrong happening in the Digital World. Everyone running out to follow him the techies already had it all on screen as everyone stared at what looked like huge, black, tornado like data streams that appeared to be deleting and absorbing everything they touched. All that was left behind them was patches of eerie green grid where a digital forest had once been. There was data floating everywhere from the digimon and the environment the streams were sucking up and the complete destruction and deletion that was going on was horrifying to see.
"Dear God, what the hell are those? A virus?" Mr. McCoy demanded to know.
"We don't know, Sir. All we know is that they came out of nowhere, are getting bigger and they're multiply."
"They are so not going to let us go now." Grimacing Suzi watched the techies run around, frantically typing away and yelling at each other as they sent various anti viruses and deletion programs at the black data streams without any success.
"Then we're just going to have to piss them all off even more." Rika stated before turning on her heels and heading out of the room, her destination clear. Everyone else running after her Alice wasn't far behind as soon as she realized they'd left. She caught up with them just as they'd breached the final barrier, Rika about to input the codes needed to open the portal.
"Are you nuts!" Alice yelled, gasping for breath as she burst into the room. "Do you know what Yamaki will do to you?"
"Right now, there are worse things than facing him." Henry said softly, his eyes pleading with her to understand. "Now go back and see if you can help your father. We can use all the help we can get at this point."
Opening her mouth to blast them Alice's eyes went huge as sudden beams of white light appeared all around them, everyone around her beginning to fade as if someone was running an eraser over them. She was just able to yell out a rather crude curse before they all disappeared in a flash, dissipating as though they'd never been there.
Reappearing in the Digital World they whirled around, taking in their new surroundings with shock. "Okay...I have no idea how we did that. Did you guys do that?" Rika asked, looking over at Latoya, Freya and Joshua questioningly, the three shaking their heads. "Well, we'll mull over it later. For now, lets find our digimon and see about stopping those damn data streams."
"We are in so much trouble." Alice muttered, following them since she didn't exactly have any other choice. "You guys so better be able to explain this later."
"Rika's the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess and we're all her servants who've been reincarnated along with her to prevent her from dying so that things don't go to hell in this time period too." Watching Alice's eyes go wide with shock Henry grinned as he ran full throttle beside Rika. "You wanted to know."
"What's scary is you actually sound serious."
"We are serious." Suzi called over with a laugh, winking at Alice. "See, we told you you wouldn't believe us."
"Oh God. My life is now in the hands of my friends who've obviously been into a liquor cabinet and lord only knows what else." Was her groaned response to that.
"You'll see." Was Mai's opinion, understanding that Alice wasn't the type to believe until she saw the truth with her own eyes. Unfortunately, Mai was pretty sure that was going to happen really soon as they saw several digimon, including the ones belonging to her friends, converging on them like a swarm of locus.
"Rika!" Landing with a soft thud in front of her Tamer Renamon looked tired and drawn. "What's going on? Do they know? Nothing we've done seems to effect these black streams, they simply absorb everything we throw at them. We didn't think Yamaki would send any of you." Not to mention there were people here she didn't know, as well as Alice who had no digimon partner to aid her in fighting. The girl's presence, along with the others who weren't Tamers made no sense to her.
"No time to chat, only time to biomerge." Was Rika's response as she held out her D-Arc, a warrior glint in her piercing violet eyes. "Renamon, biomerge activation." A green glow appearing she could distantly hear Suzi and Henry doing the same as they biomerged with their own digimon. "Renamon, biomerge to Sakuyamon." Standing in all her golden armor glory Sakuyamon nodded at her fellow Tamers before looking down at the other humans who could only stare up at them in fascination. "Those that can, run away. Joshua, Latoya, Freya, try to keep an eye on Alice and Mai for us."
"Time to kick some data stream bad guy ass." Suzi/Lopmon agreed in their biomerged form of Flormon, which resembled a girl wearing a brown and pink stripped cat suit with a large rabbit hat, complete with ears hiding the top half of her face, her huge ears trailing behind her..
"Lets go." Henry/Terriermon called out as MegaGargomon, looking rather like a huge robot green and white dog from a really bad eighties anime.
"You don't see that every day." Was all Latoya could think to say as Rika and Henry flew off in the direction of the streams while Suzi bounced behind them, running and leaping through huge sections of forest.
"Well, we can't just stand here." Joshua said firmly, a determined look on his face. "After them!"
Hovering along side Henry the two stared at the spinning black tornados coming towards them, leaving nothing behind but data particles and green grid showing through the blank canvass where there'd once been so much. "Well, lets see if this slows them down." Rika said softly as she zoomed down, landing on the ground about the length of a football field from where the swirling black masses approached. Lifting her staff she raised it high before bringing it down hard to the ground. "Talisman Sphere!" She ordered as she summoned a mystical golden spell symbol that was supposed to freeze anything that came into its vicinity. Casting the spell she watched, praying under her breath as the data streams hit her golden symbols, freezing as they began twirling around and around, unable to move for the time being. "Yes!"
"Can't be that easy." Henry commented as MegaGargomon and Flormon came to stand beside her. "We still need to get rid of them and that spell only holds them for so long right?"
"Well then, lets hit them with something that will get rid of them." Raising her gloved hands Flormon began a series of intricate hand signals, chanting under her breath as she was enveloped in a golden light. "Heaven's Fury Bolts!" She called out as she lifted her hands towards the sky, bolts of lightening shooting from the darkening clouds on cue to pierce the data streams without any visible effect.
"Mega Barrage!" Shooting missiles from all over his body they were simply absorb into the masses as his sister's attacks had been. "Dammit. It looks like Rika's spell is weakening too!"
"Fine, rub it in." Was Sakuyamon's sarcastic reply as she tried some attacks of her own with no success. Every attack they threw at it for the next two minutes did nothing until they had to stop because they were only wasting power with no results. "Any ideas?" Rika panted, watching the swirling continue to get faster and faster as her spell was worn down.
"No, and here comes our calvary!" Flormon commented as the group they'd left behind broke out of the trees to meet them on the barren ground they stood on. "Who wants to try and convince them to leave?"
"Do you really think they will?" Henry pointed out dryly, understanding his sister's point but knowing there was no way they were going to be able to convince any of the people in question to turn tail and run.
"Nope, but we should try. That way, when we're all dead, we can tell them we told them so."