Chapter Fifty: Dystopia
File Island, 100 Years Ago
The woods were quiet; the only noise was the soft brush of a leaf against a young Tokomon trekking through the woods. The Digimon, a whitish oval shaped monster with stubs for legs, long and jagged ears, and large grinders, was alone and frightened; its only goal was to find its friends. Earlier they had been separated by a loud explosion a few miles away. Tokomon had fled in panic, not thinking about the others. Now it was really worried. They were defenseless in these woods; the Elecmon who was supposed to take care of them ran off to find some food for the group and never returned. His friend Nyaromon said that Elecmon was probably captured by the humans, but Koromon reassured him otherwise.
Just as Tokomon began to gather himself, he heard a branch breaking a few feet to his left. He quickly turned around and saw a sight that horrified him: Guardromon, the large humanoid digimon covered in brown and gold armor that made him seem as if he were combined with a submarine. The large metal Digimon stared down at him evilly, and a thin human at his side with spiky brown hair, kahki pants, and a black t-shirt with a yellow cross layed across it, had a careless look on his face.
"Get him, Guardromon", the human said with a glare. Tokomon tried to flee, but the Guardromon was too fast for him. He quickly snatched the small Digimon with his cold, steel hand and refused to let go. Tokomon struggled violently, but he knew it was hopeless. Guardromon then opened his right fist and revealed a thin, dark needle. It was so short that had Tokomon never seen it before, he might think it was harmless. However he knew the destructive nature of this needle, and what it did to the humans who were struck by it.
A crash suddenly rocked the forest. Guardromon had been knocked to his knees. Suddenly Tokomon was being swept up by some majestic creature, but the stress of the situation was causing the tiny in-training digimon to slowly fade away. "Thank you." Was the only thing he could mutter before passing out from exhaustion. All the while, the wolf-like creature dashed through the forests, his comrade weak in his arms. I need to correct this, he thought to himself. I need to stop this destruction. I need the Digidestined.
He stopped at a small cave behind a waterfall, where earlier in the day he had been confronted and defeated by Chrysalimon. Leopardmon felt humilitated by this defeat, but there was no way for him to do anything about it, as long as he was reduced to his champion strength. It was a miracle that he had been able to retain his form and memories at all thanks to the dark beacon, as every Royal Knight besides he had been reverted to data and sent to Primary Village as a digi-egg. Leopardmon pulled out a false stone panel in the wall while he was thinking these thoughts. He thought about how the councilmen were the first to go: Omega, Saka, Examon, and Paladin. Then how the guardians Craniamon, Veed, Magna, and Gallant had suffered through a slower and more painful degeneration, until they were baby digimon and eventually faded into data. Then the generals Dynas, Crusadermon, and Kentarous had died the same way while trying to restore peace and order to what was left of the world. At that time, all that were left were Scout and himself.
"Makuramon, are you there?" Leopardmon tapped the receiver he had pulled out of the crevice in the rock and was trying to make contact with the fourth plane of the digital world. "Makuramon, answer me!" He stared intently at the old radio, fiddling with the controls and seemingly trying to will it to work. While he did this, he thought back to how when both he and Scout had begun to show the symptoms of being affected by the dark beacon. At that point, Scout had a brave and selfless idea, that Leopardmon could not let him do. They discovered that the dark beacon was getting weaker, that it was fading away. Unfortunately almost all of the digimon in the digital world (with the exception of a few of their old friends such as Babamon) had degenerated to a digi-egg. The situation was quickly deteriorating, and the world was chaos without the leadership of the Royal Knights. One of them had to survive, and Leopardmon was a higher rank than Scout. At first Leopardmon had offered to do it, but then Scout conked him over the head and knocked him unconscious, so that he would be the one to make the sacrifice.
Then, on the fifth plane of the digital world, the grass field surrounded by an endless ocean, where a tall white castle served as the command center for the Royal Knights, Scout locked Leopardmon inside, and destroyed himself, letting his data cover the building in a protective shield. Leopardmon was safely inside, completely protected from the harmful radiation of the dark beacon. When it was gone, when the worst thing to happen to the digital world since the Dark Masters had finally faded away, Leopardmon tried to get up, but he found he couldn't. He had the strength of a rookie, but the body of a mega. Rookies could not lift megas, so he had to find a more inventive way of getting around.
"pffff-Leopard-pfffff-at-pfff-u?" A voice tried to contact the champion leveled knight.
"Makuramon! What took you so long to contact me?" Leopardmon asked in a hurried voice.
"Sign-pfffffffff-up. I can'-pffffff-you-pfffffff-ll."
"Makuramon, did you activate the key?"
"Wha-pffffff"
"The key, did you activiate it!?" he pleaded.
"Of cours-pff-I did, what kind of-pffffffffffffffffff-am?"
"Makuramon, we need the digidestined now! Things are getting a lot worse down-" He watched in horror as the signal went dead, and the static from the line disappeared. "Dammit!"
"Ugh…" The Tokomon he had set on a soft bed of leaves on one of his work benches then began to stir awake.
"Shh…" Leopardmon placed his hand calmly on the Tokomon's forehead, and it went back to sleep. "I didn't mean to wake you young one, rest now." He then turned around and banged on the receiver a little bit, then out of frustration cursed and threw the device across the room. He calmed himself down, and then walked calmly towards the sleeping Tokomon. "Sleep young one, for you will need it. You and your friends are now our only hope."
The Digital World, One Day Ago
"Did you see them?" Tai whispered into Patamon's large ear. They, T.K., and Agumon were walking with handcuffs on their wrists while a convoy of Mekanorimon, Tankmon, and one giant Gigadramon led them across one of the many long walkways stretching across the small ocean. Tai was referring to his and T.K.'s digivices, which had been commandeered when they were captured. One of the Tankmon was dragging a wagon full of supplies behind him, and Patamon had purposely slowed down so that he could get a better look at its contents.
"No. One of the Mekanorimon shoved me back here before I could see too far." Patamon groaned and whispered.
"Hey! What have I told you about talking?" The Gigadramon slowly flying directly in front of them grumbled. The ultimate was a terrifying sight even for Patamon and Agumon, who could have easily defeated him in their evolved forms. The monster was basically a massive sky dragon, with only two limbs (his arms) a torso and a head, the rest of his body was a long snake-like appendage. His arms, wings, and belly were completely metal, and his skull was covered in a MetalGreymon-like face plate.
"Sorry." Tai grumbled.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Said one of the Tankmon to their right, "We're here." He nudged to Gigadramon, who complied in moving his tail and letting the two digidestined and their partners see what lie ahead of them. They weren't surprised, but still in awe. The bridge ended a mile away from them, where it connected with a city sized round platform floating (or standing on pillars, for they couldn't see which) in the water. It was city sized for precisely that reason: there was a city filled with skyscrapers and factories resting on it.
"Welcome to your new home." Said Gigadramon.
"Do we get welcoming presents?" T.K. asked half jokingly and half antagonistically.
"Your gift is that I don't smack you into the water with my tail, now move." He patted his enormous appendage against the bridge, and the entire convoy returned to attention and marched down the walkway, until they were inside a huge, grey, dull city block full of buildings and skyscrapers that all looked the same to Tai, T.K., Agumon, and Patamon. There were no digimon around either, and the four of them found that odd. They marched for quite a while longer until they started up a flight of stairs that led to the only thing that was distinguished from the other buildings: a huge castle, surrounded by a golden fence and gate, was decorated in many lavish colors, ranging from all shades of reds and yellows to mixes of colors that the four didn't even know existed. A large silver plaque on the fence said "CASTLE OF MASTERS KAZU AND MACHINEDRAMON". This is where Gigadramon left them. He and most of the Tankmon and Mekanorimon marched off towards some other task they had to do, while two Tankmon stayed behind to (the first one's job) escort the four digidestined inside and (the second one's job) to keep the boy's digivices a safe distance from their owners while delivering them to Kazu. Once the rest of the convoy was gone, the one who had taken Tai and T.K.'s digivices from the wagon opened the gate and rolled inside, well ahead of the escort Tankmon, who waited until the other monster was actually inside the castle before taking his cargo in.
"I had no idea Kazu was so flamboyant." Tai said condescendingly. "Does he always paint his rooms like this?" When they got inside, they saw that it was also an abstract mingle of walls, celings, floors, and beams that snaked around the castle to only Yggdrasil knew where. It was painted all sorts of colors as well.
"Masters Yolei and Puppetmon did this," Tankmon explained, "Kazu was the only one who didn't care about what his castle looked like, and the immature one thought that his place could use a little color.
"I'm guessing he wasn't too happy when he saw what Puppetmon had done." Tai surpressed a chuckle.
"The master did not care." Tankmon said simply.
"Oh…" Tai dropped his condescending expression. "Well that just takes the fun out of everything doesn't it?" he said mostly to himself.
"Keep walking." Tankmon grumbled with more irritation this time.
"Yeah yeah I'm going." The four prisoners and their guard walked through the twisting corridors for a few minutes (Tai and T.K. were sure that Tankmon got lost a few times) and finally arrived at a grand door laden with golden framing that rose high above the two children's heads. Tankmon rolled to the door and knocked loudly with a gavel sitting near the floor. He heard a muffled voice within say something that Tai and T.K. thought was incoherent, but was apparently enough for Tankmon, because he then pushed the door open just enough so that he could fit inside (he was much wider than the children and they would easily have fit in his path.
"After you." He waved his hand to the door in a condescending manner, inditacting that the two children and their digimon partners were about to meet Kazu for the first time in… four days, give or take. They walked in with their heads held high and immediately sank them as close to the ground as possible when they saw Machinedramon.
"My master," Tankmon bowed to the human man-child sitting on an ordinary chair across the even more ordinary room. It was certainly tall, but there were just four walls, a ceiling, a floor, and Kazu's chair, nothing special. Except for Machinedramon. He wasn't the biggest digimon they had ever seen. Whamon easily dwarfed Kazu's metal partner. But he was fifty feet tall, which was menacing enough. He was basically a lizard, on his two hind legs, his front legs actually arms, and a ruthless toothy grin. Oh yeah, and he was made completely out of metal. His feet, legs, and chest were a simple but effective machine engine, his solid metal tail provided the digimon balance, one arm was a claw not unlike MetalGreymon's, with three metal claws protruding from a metal base, and the other hand was like Gigadramon's in that it was a solid gray triangular prism with three flexible claws on it. There were also two cannons on his back bigger than he was, and his skull was all one solid piece of metal. Suffice it to say, Machinedramon just looked like he was pure evil.
"Number 341 arrived here five minutes ago," Kazu barked at the Tankmon who was presenting his catch. "What took you so long 75?"
"Forgive me sir, but the changes Miss Inoue has made to your caste are most confusing to me. I have had trouble finding my way."
"I'm sure; leave us." He waved his arm, and the Tankmon pulled towards the door.
"What do you think he's going to do to us?" T.K. asked while leaning towards T.K. so he could lower his voice.
"Tai Kamiya, Agumon, Takeru Ishida, Patamon," Kazu addressed their names before telling them what their punishment would be.
"I guess we're about to find out." Tai murmured while Kazu was speaking.
"You are all enemies of the state," Said Kazu, "And as such you are not to be trusted with any valuable production that is done here, in case you were to attempt to sabotage us."
"I don't like where this is going." Agumon whined a little.
"Therefore you will hereby be sentenced to work in the factories that process and ration the food we give to our subjects, so that you may be deterred from committing traitorous acts against a group you've tried so hard to help."
"Well that doesn't sound so bad," Patamon murmured, "Maybe it'll be like working in a kitchen."
"Let's go maggots!" Kazu had waved Tankmon over, and he was now ordering them to march out of the building. They were marched out of the castle, through the gate, and down the road a ways until they reached a large building that looked to be some sort of warehouse. Tankmon knocked the door open and pushed the four destined inside.
"The Mamemon will tell you what to do," Said Tankmon before he closed the door. "Don't try anything stupid." Then he was gone.
"Does he really expect that we won't do anything stupid?" T.K. asked defiantly.
"He's just trying to do his job." Said Tai, to the other's surprise. "He's under constant threat of being destroyed by Kazu if he doesn't do what he is told to a t."
"Oh, right." T.K. had a slightly shameful look on his face.
"That Tankmon and the others like him are the same digimon we have to save, even if they don't deserve it."
"I don't believe it," A voice sounded in front of them. They all looked forward in the hallway (which was empty, except for a door at the end 30 feet away) to see a small, metal ball with a face and proportional armored arms and legs. "They actually caught the digidestined." He said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "I'm sorry."
"They won't have us for long." T.K. said cheerily. "Our friends will find us soon."
"I certainly hope that's true." The Mamemon sighed. "Come, we musn't bee seen talking casually, or they'll behead us for sure." He opened the door (the knob of which was lower to the ground than most) and walked into the rest of the factory. Tai, T.K., Agumon, and Patamon followed him into the factory, which was too complex to describe. The only thing that the four could completely identify were conveyor belts moving slowly, all of them with boxes of food (which said very simple things such as BEEF, JUICE, and FRUIT, in red, yellow, or orange boxes with a simple picture of the food on them. Besides the castle that Kazu and Machinedramon inhabited, this was the most color they had seen in the city besides black or grey. "You will collect the boxes of food on the conveyor belt and package them in these (he picked up a simple wooden crate) then once one is full you will pass it to your partner, who will nail it up and bring it to the wagons. You will repeat this process until the bell rings, then you will stop, follow the others to your cot, eat the food and drink that has been laid out for you, go to sleep, wake up, eat the food that has been laid out for you, and start the process again."
"What about lunch?" Patamon inquired.
"What's lunch?" Mamemon asked.
"Uh, nevermind."
"Tai and T.K., you two will be partners and work at station 23. Agumon and Patamon, you will work at station four." Mamemon spoke, and then walked off to do whatever his job was. The four were confused as to why Mamemon left them to find their jobs themselves, but soon realized that they were being watched by a force of Mekanorimon within the factory. They unwillingly parted ways (they couldn't say anything, but knew that the other group would find a way to get out of this mess) and started off towards different directions of the conveyor belt. Agumon and Patamon's "station" was two white lines marking off a part of the floor in front of the conveyor belt with a bunch of empty crates, some nails, and a hammer piled next to a door some ways behind it, which the digimon assumed was where Agumon (they decided he would be better at nailing things in) would take the crates down to the wagons. Tai and T.K. found the same things Agumon and Patamon did at their station, which included each of the stations next to them (and next to those the same thing throughout the entire length of the belt) two digimon working on collecting boxes of food and drink and taking them down the hallway.
The belt (which was only five feet wide) was filled with food, making the collector's job easy. All they had to do was grab a box or two and leave the rest of it to the digimon farther down the line. The box carriers had the toughest job, because they had to nail up the wooden crates and run them down to the wagon station (which was just a loading dock where the boxes were placed down on the floor for someone else to handle) and come back before the loader filled another box. Needless to say, the monsters worked for hours to the point where T.K. and Patamon were just annoyed about having to do this, but Tai and Agumon were exhausted.
"I don't think I can take this anymore…" Agumon gasped while falling to the floor in front of another box that Patamon had almost filled. "When does that freakin' bell ring?"
"The next shift change is in three hours," The loader across the conveyor belt from them stated. "After that we have twelve hours to eat our meals and then sleep, I'm sure you heard the rest. Patamon and Agumon looked up to see who had said that. A cylindrical metal digimon with computer components inside of his domed clear head and cord like arms and legs (with metallic hands and feet obviously) as well as a face on his metallic body replied.
"Datamon! You're alive!" Patamon cheered.
"Yes, I'm a Datamon, and I'm alive, what's so special about that?" He inquired.
"It's probably not the same one," Agumon said somberly to his excited friend, "If he were, he would have remembered us." (Agumon was referring to the fact that all digimon knew, which was until they reached the level in which they had previously died at, if a digimon was destroyed they would not remember anything about their past lives). "Thank's for telling us that information my friend." He nodded to the monster, who was giving them a curious look. Agumon then picked up the box that Patamon had filled and began work on hammering in the box (he groaned while doing this).
"Sorry for bursting out like that." Patamon scratched his head. He looked up at the monster to see that it was now wide eyed and staring directly at him.
"You're… partnered… with… T.K…?" He spoke slowly.
"It is you!" Patamon squeeled after gasping with happiness.
"Shh!" Datamon urged while surpressing a smile. "The Mekanorimon," He indicated with his eyes to the line of monsters arranged behind them.
"How did you get here?" Patamon whispered while he continued to work, albeit slower than before.
"I hatched from my digi-egg about 75 years ago, when Spiral Mountain wasn't very old. I joined up with one of the resistance forces, but about five years ago I was captured and brought here to work in this factory."
"Looks like they do that with everyone they meet." Patamon murmured.
"No. Machinedramon kills the megas." Patamon gulped at this. "What happened to you?" He then changed the subject. "I heard you defeated VenomMyotismon 100 years ago and then just disappeared."
"Koichi and Keramon kidnapped Kari and slipped into one of the data streams with her." Patamon explained. "We followed him, and he escaped to the internet."
"What's the internet?"
"I don't really know, but it is part of the human world, and we were there for 16 and a half hours fighting Diaboromon (that's Keramon's mega form) and then getting some sleep while waiting for another gate to open to the digital world. It didn't occur to us until we got back and the entire digital world was Spiral Mountain that since the internet was part of the human world that we would be gone for a lot longer than just 16 hours."
"So, to you it's only been-"
"Four days, give or take."
"Oh, Yggdrasil."
