- True Intentions -

It was the first time that all of the Digidestined had been together since they first met DSS, and also the first time they did so in their own actual base. Their artificial digital office had plenty of empty spaces to try and hold a meeting of that many people and monsters, but after considering most of them it was clear the cafeteria was simply the only place they had that wouldn't need a lot of work to get enough seats around for everyone.

The field team was sitting at one of the tables together. The mixture of humans, digimon, and pokemon was definitely the oddest part of the group overall. T.K. and Davey were the only fully human members of that group, which considering one of them was originally a digimon wasn't entirely reassuring to the older members of the team. Cody's spiky body was the most impressive looking pokemon they had and his rather intimidating form was noticeably different from the others at the table. Kari couldn't keep her form stable between human and BlackGatomon, in fact she literally could not and they were working on a way to help with that issue. Davis was in a slightly better position, although that was only because the partially liquefied Flamedramon already had something to help keep his form stable if needed. Yolei by contrast was nearly human, only the impressive metal claws on her fingers saying otherwise. After that was the collection of monsters that were not transformed in some way among the younger group, including the unimpressed looking Hawkmon, the tired looking Patamon, the cheerful face of Armadillomon, the dozing Gatomon, and Sneasel. The Dark/Ice pokemon was out of place in how he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

The density of monsters and occasional humans at that table had prompted the rest of the Digidestined to spread out a lot more. The next most populated table could be easily described as 'the pokemon table'. Wizardmon had moved over to it after it became clear that things were a bit too crowded around Gatomon. Joe was actually human for once, but with how much time he'd spent as a pokemon it was easy to keep him in that classification. Gomamon looked rather tired in his place under the bench, while the digimon's Wishiwashi was floating along the far side of the table, taking up that entire side with the sheer number of floating fish. Palmon was currently staring at the newer kids, still a bit unnerved by the changes they had gone through while she had been gone. Finally next to her was the mix of sludge that made up both Mimi and her Grimer, the Digidestined of Sincerity had taken on her pokemon form to entertain the young blob while they waited for things to start.

The least crowded table consisted of just the smaller forms of Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon, and Biyomon. The four digimon had not been involved in much combat so far, and as a result Agumon was mostly talking about his work to deal with the refugee digimon along with DSS's Light-326 while the others got ready.

The final populated table had Tai, Izzy, Matt, and Sora. The first two of this last group were busy going over the sizable pile of paperwork they had assembled for this meeting, while the remaining two were simply looking at the collected examples of what had happened to the rest of the team with a bit of unease.

"Alright everyone!" Tai called out after another minute of going over documents. "I think we're ready to start." He then turned, and spent another long moment struggling to get the large display on a cart they had set up to display things like DSS typically tried to do. "The Digimon Emperor has just won his side a major victory." Images of Joe's crest, Dark Tyranomon, and the construct Mammothmon appeared on the screen. "The good news is that he paid for that victory. From what we know about his forces just constructing one of these Ultimate stage versions looks like it took more of his resources than the entire force of smaller constructs that was with them. Several sectors of the digimon world that were under his control have fallen to Upload forces, likely as a result of using them for this fight."

"It should not be understated that the loss of the Egg is still a big problem," Izzy said darkly while he inspected something he was holding. "Access to a Digi-Egg can make his already great improvements in troop quality even better. The robots he used to take the Egg of Reliability itself are far easier for him to make for their utility, and are the result of him having access to Upload's healing items. This is a far better source of information on how to improve than they were."

"What about Upload, how much worse are they getting?" Yolei asked pointedly. "They've had three of them for a while now. If the Emperor is so dangerous with just one why haven't they gotten worse?"

"I'm not entirely sure Upload is actually fighting us," Davis said uneasily to his teammate with a serious look on his flowing face. "These last few fights haven't really been any harder than what they started as, and that doesn't make any sense because we know we're getting stronger because fighting the Emperor is easier now, but Upload hasn't really gotten anything new."

"Honestly it looked to me more like they were trying to train you guys how to fight instead of actually fighting you," Sneasel grumbled from near the back of the group. "The same kind of holding back that Grim does at the Gym, only maybe a bit nicer than he usually fights."

"When you put it that way," T.K. said thoughtfully and then paused to get his wording right. "I think that when we first fought them they might have actually been mad that we were losing."

"Wait, you guys can't seriously be thinking that they're trying to help us, right?" Yolei asked her teammates harshly.

A loud thunk cut off the discussion and drew everyone's attention to Izzy, who had just hit his table with an Artificial Courage. "This is a device that was made to allow compatible digimon to armor digivolve, it has an internal energy store to increase the damage capacity of any digimon that uses one for that purpose noticeably, it can be used for evolution without a Digivice, and we have just discovered that they can also be used in place of an actual Crest for our digimon to reach Ultimate," he listed a bit tiredly. "And absolutely none of that is available to Upload as far as we can tell. The Hackware are actually incompatible with all of those features except the armor evolution, and even then they are only partially compatible. The design of these gemstones makes no sense at all, unless they were specifically made to be captured and used by us against our enemies." The Digidestined of Knowledge looked over the entire room darkly. "The only reason for these to work the way they do is if Upload deliberately made them to help us."

"Which is the same situation with the barrier around the digimon world," Tai added grimly. "And a lot of other things they do don't make sense for thieves, but do make sense for people pretending to be our enemies to stop Myotismon from coming back." These two explanations clearly revealed to the rest of the group that their leader and technical expert didn't think this was just idle speculation.

"So should we call your little sister now, or wait until they talk about it some more?" Joe suddenly asked Sora in a dry tone.

Everyone looked to the older girl, and found that she had a fairly unamused expression on her face. "HackBiyomon is just waiting for my signal to show up with Absol, and is probably as mad as I am about how this all went," Sora replied a bit caustically. "Although I would have liked to find a way to say it better."

There was total silence for a long moment after that, and then Matt groaned aloud. "Please tell me this isn't like your plan after we lost Tai," the Digidestined of Friendship said more than asked.

"When is she a clone of me from?" Sora replied testily. "Besides, what else were we supposed to do? If they just helped us outright then the Emperor would have been defeated in days and apparently Myotismon would have come back and beat us all."

Tai nodded at that while most of the others, Joe included, looked at least a little dubious about that prospect. "That's why the first thing they really did was put up the barriers, so he couldn't just come in before we were ready," their leader said seriously.

"While I know that they have been helping us, I'm not sure it is actually because they're good guys," Joe added unhappily. "DSS thinks that it is probably that they know they can't win while we can, so they plan to get away when Myotismon can't go after them anymore."

"So they know about this too?" Kari asked glumly, while the rest of the younger team was a mixture of shocked and uneasy with this revelation.

"HackBiyomon showed up at our house as soon as we were all transformed," Sora explained. "Janice spotted her there, and mom told me about what she said." The Digidestined of Love then cringed massively. "And I've been talking with her a lot. She's really upset with how we aren't doing better against them."

"That is such a pokemon thing to think," Mimi commented with a shifting of her mass that was almost shaking her head. "They get a bit silly about fighting people badly. How about you call her here so we can ask her directly?"


"Shawn," Jane said with a deadly serious tone as she returned from what was planned to be her final time covering for Quagsire. "When exactly were you all going to tell me about the full extent of your Corruption issues?"

"Uh, you're only here for the Digidestined world stuff aren't you?" the red eyed trainer asked as he looked to the other Troubleshooters for help with the sudden question. "We only had you help with that because Quagsire could handle the ocean better."

The Charizard looked over at her Stonescale, then at Shawn, and then at Janice. Then she looked like she discovered something annoying. "You are a Legendary pokemon," she said with a dull tone. "You are a Legendary pokemon that has been dealing with the problem this entire time," she added with a bit more emotion, as if she was realizing something significant. "One of the few things I was specifically warned about when I became a Champion was that Legendaries cannot properly judge how bad the problem they typically deal with actually is."

"There haven't been that many Champion stage Corruption issues, have there?" A-0 asked while Shawn and Serperior sputtered at that explanation. "The smaller ones shouldn't be that much of a problem with the basic training materials we've sent out."

Jane did not look impressed with this response either. "They are called 'Corruption' for a reason," she pointed out to emphasize that aspect to a group she was now sure had internalized that fact a bit too much. "Do you know threats that spread in that manner automatically merit a Champion's intervention when they get big enough? I'm fairly sure whoever you did tell about the problem hasn't figured out where it sits on that scale."

The Troubleshooters all now looked at her with serious and grim expressions. "Quagsire, what do you think about how bad it has been," Janice asked sharply.

"I started on this team with the Upload problem," the pokemon dully replied. "Compared to their swarms it isn't too bad right now."

"Shit," about half the team said simultaneously. "Upload had us up against some of the worst Corruption issues we've ever seen," Serperior specified. "If it is still that bad out in the wider world then the problem isn't that we haven't told you it exists, but that we didn't know it did."

"The issue isn't that they can sometimes fight like those League level digimon," Jane grumbled. "It is the whole 'alter you into more of them' problem. Which even the small ones can do. I want to hear the full details of that part, because I'm now thinking that you guys have been making lots of medical reports on that topic that are not getting to the right people in the League."


Absol landed lightly on the ground of the Digidestined base, and looked at the assembled team of kids that would hopefully win this war. HackBiyomon was fairly worried about this but-

"I have no idea how this meeting is going to go," the Wyrm hybrid realized aloud with a nervous laugh. The Digidestined all looked at him with considerable confusion for this outburst, although his friend merely sighed.

"That means it is going to be a disaster that doesn't help him," the bird digimon explained unhappily. "Or that it isn't going to be a disaster at all." Her sisters looked uneasy with that reality, while the rest of the group looked disbelieving.

Absol spent a moment trying to work out a good path to take, but between the lack of immediate disasters and the relatively short time he had been able to use his disaster sense again there was little information of use. "I'm fairly sure it isn't the first one, I doubt you were all truly prepared for this situation," he said a bit grandly to the team.

"We have a transport lock on this place to keep anyone who shows up inside. Our biggest issue with our enemies is getting them to stay still," Taichi explained dully. "We're all here, and you're outnumbered." Which explained a good number of the results Absol could see.

"We brought gifts?" HackBiyomon said, and for some reason that got a massive sigh from the older kids.

"Of course you did. Sora, why exactly didn't you stop her from making the mistake you did again?" Joe asked a bit harshly.

The older Takenouchi looked embarrassed by that question, but HackBiyomon clearly did not like her sibling being taunted. "Hey! If this was a dumb plan then it was my dumb plan! I don't care if Sora did something you think was like it before," the former clone shot back.

"And now the evil bird is defending Sora from Joe," Yolei said tiredly. "Why did my life end up this weird?" the otherwise human girl asked as she buried her face in her clawed hands

"Why does she have claws?" Absol asked uneasily. He had been fairly sure there wasn't too many long term issues with letting HackBiyomon turn them into digimon, although the number of outright non-humans at that table was a little concerning.

"Side effects from having energy," the Muk they had found somewhere said with her own dark look towards Joe. With that simple statement Absol suddenly had an entire world of disasters to check on.

"Well shit," he said aloud and buried his own head between his paws. "Can someone call DSS about that topic? Because there are a couple of places we're operating in your human world that might actually have some problems happening in the future if I don't find a path to containing them now."

"I have some expertise in that topic," Joe darkly complained, and then turned into a Floatzel. "So, what was your actual plan after the Emperor and Myotismon were beaten?"

"Uh," Absol considered his situation, and decided that honesty probably would help ensure this wasn't a total disaster in his book. "Well we kind of expected to let you guys 'finish off' our forces while we ran using another gate out of the universe."

"Did you guys leave all of your planners back in the pokemon world?" Yamato asked uneasily.

"Admittedly I did go for techs over strategists, but I kind of wanted people that would be more helpful," he nervously replied. The more criminal members of Upload shared the unfortunate habit of actually wanting to commit crimes, which was not very helpful when you needed to run fairly far first.

"Suddenly I'm wondering why it took so long for us to realize you guys weren't really fighting us," the Flamedramon blob digimon said, and Absol kind of wished he had a better idea of everything that had happened to the kids to know for sure if that was Davis or Veemon.

"Supposedly Absol here should have been helping them with doing just that," Koshiro said with a bit of a sinister tone. "Just like he could be leading us to his desired outcomes."

"Well, yeah. If you can see the future you see how you change things. Kind of like if you can see color you can see if fruit is good to eat or not," Absol easily said. "By the way, born colorblind. Not sure if that's normal for Absol though, didn't find out until I got merged with a Worm."

"He's mad because we had to shut his disaster sense down for him after that week because the big disasters we set off by arriving here were so bad," HackBiyomon told them bluntly, and ignored the glare he shot her to continue. "Apparently we didn't do the greatest job without him, but we should still be on track for a victory."

"There isn't a clean way for us to retreat anymore. We also have too many options for me to really say there is any set way things will go," he admitted. "So, since we're a bit desperate to avoid the worse outcomes, we're forcing the issue. You guys have a better idea of what you can pull off, and I can see the disasters that benefit me ahead of time. Let's try and find out which ones we all want to happen."


For a while after that the team had basically interrogated the two 'enemies' about everything they had been doing. The most uncomfortable result of that was the knowledge that Upload really didn't sound like they really wanted to be that evil. Admittedly even the clone of Sora didn't seem concerned with being good, and Absol definitely cared more about his friends than other people.

"That's Mimi?" HackBiyomon asked with horror as that small detail came up during the discussion. Mimi of course reacted by splattering the bird digimon with a good sized glob of toxic goo.

"Um, okay I have no idea how to properly apologize for this one," Absol said next, nearly earning him an attack as well while the rest of the Digidestined reacted with a bit of unease at the sudden burst of combat.

"Ugh, alright I could have put that better," the digimon-Hackware hybrid sighed while scraping sludge off her feathers the best she could, then looked up as Sora rushed over to check on her. "What?" she asked like suddenly being attacked wasn't important. "Sorry about saying it like that," the Upload bird told the sludge monster, and Mimi actually seemed to accept that reply. It was now fairly clear that Mimi had joined Joe and Cody in understanding pokemon a bit too well, and that apparently translated into being overly willing to fight but not being concerned with actually getting into a fight.

"They're antsy because they aren't used to pokemon," Joe chimed in just to confirm that while he was mostly distracted by the computer they had set up quickly so he could go over what data the Upload pair had brought about their holdings in the Digidestined's world. "Gomamon still hasn't gotten used to getting a bit wet."

"You can strip paint with how hard you hit me when I end up 'a bit wet'," his brother complained dryly. "Anyway I think that one isn't actually your fault. DSS can take the blame for turning so many of us into part pokemon."

"It's the red eyed trainer isn't it?" HackBiyomon asked while giving the Muk across the room an apologetic look. "The one with the snake who works with Gazimon."

"I might already be blaming Shawn for it, but he honestly just seems to have bad luck on that front," Tai grumbled. "I wish he didn't spread that bad luck around, but given how strong he can be we kind of need him." The leader of the Digidestined looked at the Upload pair seriously. "Kind of like how I don't like that you're fighting us, but it looks like we needed our real enemies distracted more."

"Great, glad we all agree on that topic," Absol said easily, and HackBiyomon actually laughed with amusement at that statement. "No, seriously everyone back at base is still complaining about doing this. We honestly were expecting one of the grunts to just start ranting at you guys about that problem."

"I was about ready to start ranting to you guys about that problem," his teammate added harshly as she finished cleaning herself off the best she could. "I came so close to just letting loose when I found out you were a Sandslash." She pointed at Cody sharply.

"You kind of did complain about me looking more like a villain than you did," Cody darkly replied. "That was actually really confusing to hear."

"The last Sandslash I met was named 'Red-Sands' and I'm really worried why they would be red," HackBiyomon said uneasily. "People don't usually have to reassure you that they are not going to kill you after someone introduces them."

"I'm fairly sure he was either a wild capture or just joking about that," Absol grumbled.

"Probably wild though?" Mimi asked critically, easily accepting the term. "I think I read something about wild Sandslash hunting for food using their sandstorms." Everyone turned to the uneasy looking Muk at that statement. "My friends there didn't really like thinking about that kind of thing, but I wanted to know what Cody would prefer to eat now, and there were reference books in the Pokemon Centers," she confessed sadly.

"Can I at least pretend he was joking?" HackBiyomon asked with a sigh.


"I think I've landed myself a long term assignment," Jane complained loudly while the medical expert she had brought in from the League continued to curse about just what had been in the Corruption files about their effects on pokemon. "You guys really saw one of these 'Champion' stage Corruption before this whole Upload issue?"

"Only one, and it was our biggest threat from them to date," A-0 harshly replied. "Charlie 11 did not survive that Corruption's attack." The Porygon 2 was not taking the reaction to their issues seemingly out of nowhere well. "I'm quite sure we did file a number of reports on that particular problem while we worked to get her Ice typed Box working again."

"They did," the League expert said from his pile of old reports that had been set aside at first because they didn't actually cover the digimon issue directly. "Unfortunately it looks like whoever read them only saw '3 Badge Trainer' and decided that the foe being 'League level' was an exaggeration." He removed one of the files to hand to the newest Flameheart Champion. "It doesn't literally say that, but reading between the lines is pretty clear."

"There has to be quite a few 3 Badge trainers who can take down a League level enemy," Shawn said sounding confused.

"First, it does note you only had one pokemon at the time and that seems to be part of the reasoning," Jane explained as she looked at the report. "Additionally it notes that a trainer that actually acts officially as a trainer 'should be able to find time to qualify for higher Badges'. I'm going to send a copy of your Legendary status report to whoever wrote this." She shook her head unhappily.

"Corruption incursions in Boxes or the digital worlds we're managing directly aren't really more common now than they were before Upload," Gazimon noted thoughtfully. "No new Champion stage threats, very few Rookies, and outside access points aren't showing any increase."

"Most of the League level threats we've been seeing are rogue defense programs," Quagsire specified. "And even then they are mostly 'rogue' because whoever owns the world doesn't quite know how to use them without setting them off." A rare uncertain expression came across her face. "Wait, Jane, please tell me you haven't just been attacking right off the bat."

"No, I haven't. If they can talk enough to matter then I've been at least attempting to talk," the Champion confirmed with a glance to her belt of pokeballs. "Admittedly the most dangerous Corruption do seem to be able to talk, but that at least buys time to figure them out. Apparently being smart enough to talk makes them like the sound of their voices."

The Troubleshooter Lab was silent for a moment save the shuffling of reports from the record person. "Just how many of the Corruption you've met have been able to talk?" Shawn and Serperior asked with a dark dual tone.


"So, what does everyone think?" Tai asked after they allowed the pair of Upload hybrids to leave.

"I'm not looking forward to suddenly dealing with a whole lot more refugees," Agumon grumbled. HackBiyomon had admitted that Upload had actually started that project first, and had suggested possibly combining the groups now that the Digidestined were aware of the deception.

"I think they might be doing a better job of helping than that Grim guy," Gatomon complained, clearly unhappy with both Upload and the Gym Leader. "At least they are actually fighting the Emperor with us."

The rest of the team shifted around uneasily. It had been unnerving how easily and calmly the two enemies had interacted with the rest of them. Sora would probably have been getting more unhappy looks if it wasn't for the fact that it really did seem like HackBiyomon considered her a sister. Additionally Joe was still the most disbelieving of Upload's desire to help the group, which was a bit odd given he'd apparently known almost the entire time.

"This isn't going to stop me from hearing people complain about both sides of this war, is it?" Sora grumbled. "My little sister is pretty good at not actually telling me anything useful when she does it, but I kind of wish she had less complaints every time she came home."

"Well, it isn't like we're going to be able to stop fighting them," Davis said grimly. "The Emperor probably wouldn't take us going easy on them well, and I don't want to think about his bosses. I really hate to admit it, but if we knew from the start I don't think I would have been able to do that." The molten Flamedramon shifted uneasily. "We probably would have given something away."

"They were serious," Yolei sighed. "They seriously think this is the best plan they could manage." She dug her fingers into her arms, and despite the slight looks of horror that many of the Digidestined had at this action it did not seem to result in her metallic claws cutting into her skin.

"Yolei, how tough is your skin now?" Kari asked lightly while looking at her own fur.

"What do you mean?" the other girl asked with genuine confusion as she looked at her seemingly unharmed limbs.

"I think that Upload turning out to be secretly helping us might be one of the less confusing things that's happening right now," Matt dryly said at that display. "Are you sure you're doing alright Mimi?"

"I didn't want to turn back while they were here," the Digidestined of Sincerity sighed as she became a human again. "I didn't entirely trust them, but didn't want to obviously be threatening them. Although HackBiyomon didn't need to be rude about it," she huffed.

"You hit her in the face with goo," Sora said with an unhappy confusion.

"Poisonous toxic goo," Joe specified, and the Digidestined of Love went from annoyed to angry in an instant. "Not that toxic," he added quickly. "Just a little stinging."

"Why am I worried that the pokemon issues are bigger than the fake enemy issues," Izzy said with a shake of his head. "We need to figure out what to do about the final Digi-Egg. Upload has it protected for now, but I'm not sure we can risk another attack on the site, or just have them hand it off."

"We don't really need to have the Digi-Egg to use those forms," T.K. argued, although not happily. "If Upload takes it out of the digimon world, then the Emperor shouldn't be able to get it too. Then they can just sneak it to us from their bases outside the digimon world to here, and we just don't use it so the Emperor doesn't figure out we have it."

"We need to start by actually getting a real way to talk with them," Tai said with partial agreement. "Sora, you can handle that right?"

"I've already been doing it some for DSS, so it should be simple enough to manage," she replied nervously.

"I've been doing more with that part," Joe complained lightly, and then sighed. "I'm fine being an overworked Floatzel, but I'd love to have less stuff on my plate."

"Wait, you're actually something called a 'float seal'?" Matt asked sharply, and the Water type pokemon sighed loudly at the implication that there was an issue with that.