Act 5: The Corrupt

- Finding all the Pieces -

Tai had just been face to face with the current leader of his home country alongside his digimon brother as part of his transition to fully operating the Monster Response Team, and it had been unclear if the people he had met with were actually aware that he was from Japan. All that the two of them had done was give a long presentation to explain what the local monster situation actually looked like, what had been happening recently with the war, and what they were planning on doing in the future. They'd been told at the end of that, by a number of very nervous looking members of the government, that they would be reviewing his data to develop some more practical questions, and then Jane had taken over to handle the other issue of relations with the Pokemon League.

That meeting was just the start of the new political issues the Digidestined faced now that he was the leader of a government organization himself. They were still trying to work out how to get all of the refugee digimon they could back, which was less than what they'd started with because some were staying in the pokemon only world for a variety of reasons. On top of those two problems Upload was still active in the digimon world because they were still having issues transferring the World Stones to Digidestined control, and their surviving actual enemies from the conflict were nervously setting up a 'Dark Empire' because of a variety of medical concerns.

The fight against Myotismon had only been the day before. The fact that Jane had set up the thing well before everything went wrong was the only reason he had gone to a meeting with that important of people so close to that mess. The Flameheart Champion had spent most of the meeting as a Charizard just to help drive home that monsters were real yet again, and along with Agumon he had managed to add that a city sized section of the digimon world had been reduced to a massive crater in order to stop the biggest threat of the war.

"I just got done with explaining this whole mess to the Prime Minister," Tai tiredly said as Kari looked at him and their brother with an upset expression as soon as they got back into the base. "What exactly has gone wrong that I can't even sit down yet?"

"I'm fine," his little sister replied a touch shortly. "I had more energy go through me than Ken did, but I'm perfectly fine." She flickered between human and BlackGatomon a couple of times as she complained about that, starting with the former before settling on the latter. "What could be so different about me that it let me do that?"

"You told us you knew you could manage it," Agumon said with an unhappy tone. "I thought it was part of that whole Dagomon thing that happened to you." Their little brother was once more in a suit, and Tai was still fairly sure that it only confused people to see a small dinosaur so dressed up.

"Well, that let me turn it into Light from Dark," Kari admitted. "But that isn't why I could handle that much power." She shifted nervously, and Tai could see behind her that Aiko was a bit unhappy that they were taking up the entryway. "I have more Light energy than any of those Mega forms. Ken burned out after just a fragment of three, I could have gotten half of us to Mega on my own, and I'd still have some to spare."

"Is this a 'worried about destroying a city' thing?" Tai asked with some concern. "Because I think we might need to make a presentation on dealing with that one for the whole team."

"I'm serious," Kari said with a huff.

"So am I, Ms. Hida is going a bit stir crazy with her earthquake issues for that exact reason," he clarified and started to walk to get them out of the way. "I think even Yolei has been worried about that sort of thing. Something about accidentally cutting through stuff." He quickly picked up the cat digimon after that more joking response. "Have you tried talking to any of the people from the pokemon world about this?" he asked and felt bad about going in that direction. "Because I hate to say it, but they know what is normal for that kind of thing more than we do."

"I shouldn't have to talk to people from another world to figure out why I'm different," she grumbled with her ears folded back along her head.

"Kari, I have to talk to people from another world just to figure out why I'm different," he said with a laugh. "I'm going to be doing that later today to try and work out how exactly I'm going to lead all of us. Heck, the way she tells it, Mimi has been more able to relate to people from the pokemon world than ours."

"But it s my fault," his sister mumbled, and his mood immediately darkened as he realized what she really meant. "If I didn't have this none of us would have had to be Digidestined."

"Kari, they grabbed us because we helped that Koromon," Tai sadly replied to that dark thought. "If you didn't have your Light then they would still have picked us because I got us into that. If that Koromon had appeared on another continent then they would never have even known you existed."

She was silent for the rest of the trip to his and Agumon's shared office, where she finally hopped down onto the floor. "You're sure about that?" his little sister asked quietly.

"We have the notes and everything," the Digidestined of Courage confirmed. "Gazimon actually pointed out a note where one of them complained about that," he joked a bit more darkly. "I wish that guy survived so I could let him know how much I hate that complaint."

"And so they could help us actually fix things," Agumon agreed with a bit of a grunt as the dinosaur struggled once again to get back out of the suit.

"Alright, these are the files the Emperor sent us about his construction machinery, these are the notes from the DSS development team on the stuff that was in our base to start, that pile there is the technical manuals for the next set of equipment the Pokemon League provided, and over there we have that new data drive Azulongmon was able to copy for us that might have some additional notes on the creation of Digidestined," Izzy explained looking over the area that had been set aside for the various captured devices he was using to make new things for the team.

"This looks like a year s worth of stuff to go over," Kurou Ogawa said with a mixture of horror and eagerness. "I'm not even sure I'll have time to look over my old readings again with better gear."

Izzy relaxed a bit at the better response than he'd been expecting. After so much time spent with people that merely accepted his technical inclination it was nice to have someone else around who got that sort of thing. "We never did double check the stuff you were tracking, did we?" the Digidestined of Knowledge noted. "How about we start with seeing just what you managed to get."

Kurou eagerly agreed, and they managed to even get his old machine running again after a couple of false starts. "Wow, I didn't realize that the MRT systems were this old," Izzy said with a cringe. The MRT had apparently been getting by with a computer that wasn't that much better than what he'd been using a year ago.

"Well, actually this is just the computer that survived," the tech said as it finished booting. "I had some really nice ones to start, and every once in a while we'd get a good one, but they'd all end up fried or glitchy after a while." The MRT technical expert then looked a little nervous. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I was getting too close. The 'energy' of digimon doesn't play very nicely with this kind of thing, and I can see now that you've been doing some fairly nice modifications to get your stuff to handle it."

"Really? That would fit with what I know about that kind of energy," Izzy replied and started to check the files. Then he frowned and checked them again. "Kurou, how exactly did you know it was that energy?"

"Mostly by tracking it... down," the adult explained, and then realized what exactly he was explaining.

"You've known how to track digimon energy this entire time, and we've been overlooking it haven't we?" Izzy asked tiredly, and pointed out a list of people associated with the digimon energy that had Yukio Oikawa listed as the tenth entry.

"In my defense, that list has never given me any results other than broken computers before," Kurou sighed.

Wormmon looked over the now landed command center of their base/palace. "So, we're still an evil empire," he said to try and work out how to deal with that.

"A Dark Empire," Dark Tyranomon huffed. "'Evil' implies that we're actively making things worse, instead of just being a bit meaner than the average digimon appreciates."

"I am an average digimon," the insect monster insisted, but both Ken and the dinosaur looked nervous about his resolve.

"You led an evil army," Ken noted with some unease. "I'm pretty sure more of our new subjects know your name than mine."

"Admittedly you don't actually use your name, Boss Man," the only one of them that seemed happy with this result noted. "Really you two are over thinking this whole thing. We're just going to be doing the same stuff as before, just with a lot less outright warfare to hold our territory."

"I'm fairly sure the key word there was 'less'," Wormmon sighed and looked to his partner for some help.

Only the Blossomon looked faintly interested in her argument. "Actually, I do have a number of technical projects I could leverage for this prospect," the plant digimon said thoughtfully. "The Digidestined do need assistance in that field and we need to stay in their good graces."

Wormmon looked at Ken's focus on devices, then the combat minded Dark Tyranomon, and then buried his face in his claws as he realized that between the three of them he was the one that was going to end up actually ruling a 'Dark' empire.

"Jeez, what's eating the two of you?" Sneasel asked upon seeing that his 'trainer' and 'teammate' were both just sitting on T.K.'s bed with a pair of dismal looks.

The Digidestined of Hope looked at him in response, with an expression of regret and discomfort. "Arukenimon and Mummymon turned against Myotismon right off the bat, the Emperor crippled himself to help us, and Upload's mad scientist leader went out of his way to make sure none of us got hurt," Patamon said dully. "That's literally every one of the bad guys we were fighting this time. We didn't even see the real enemy until just before we killed him."

One of the things Sneasel hated the most about the two he ended up with was how easily they just talked about killing. He had heard similar from some wild pokemon, and he did not like the idea that his trainer was half feral somehow. "Yeah? Is that a big deal here or something? Bad guys team up with you to fight worse guys," he said to cover his unease. "Or heck, I've heard a couple of stories about how particularly nasty pokemon end up really protective over their teams after they're caught. Sometimes they just need some help."

"They're all Dark," T.K. said seriously, and it didn't sound like a reply to what Sneasel had just said. "We needed help, and-" The kid cut off and shook his head. "Kari too, they're all Dark and it was because they were that they even could help with that."

"Pretty sure I'm missing the point, boss," Sneasel said. The pokemon really wasn't sure he understood what Grim and his trainer meant when they were talking about Darkness with each other, it sounded like T.K.'s version of it was a lot different than a Dark type's.

"I've been given a rather harsh demonstration of how Dark things can help us," his trainer said with a sigh.

"I'm pretty sure our problem is that you don't have any time to work with me," the Dark/Ice pokemon said dubious of this revelation. "I don't think you've been actually ignoring me just because I'm a Dark type." Sneasel didn't like how the two of them wouldn't meet his eyes. "Or maybe I'm the naive one here."

"It was mostly the time thing," T.K. confirmed. "But, I probably would have tried harder to get you something else to do if you weren't."

It hurt to hear, but just because it was a painful truth didn't mean it was a surprise.

"I'm not really used to being able to talk to the monsters," Nurse Joy noted with a chirp of agreement from the Chansey she had brought along with her.

"Honestly, I've only barely had experience with not being able to," Joe admitted as he finished the tour of their still fairly makeshift medical center. They had luckily not yet made the room to put an entire Megadramon, but the digimon/human hybrid group had not trusted DSS to check them out in Delta 2's Box either. So he still needed to go help with that checkup once he finished at least getting the nurse situated to handle any small stuff while he was busy. "I've not only been spending a lot of time as a pokemon myself, and even without that I ended up getting the ability to understand them."

"My cousin is in so much trouble for this," Joy grumbled and her pokemon sighed. "So, you don't have any problems with people that turn into pokemon?" she asked louder, and Joe simply gave her a dull look for a moment.

"Our main problem at the moment is that people, both human and digimon, keep ended up transformed into other things for one reason or another," he told her with a sigh. "How does that relate to you?"

"She, um, spent a couple of weeks with her mind switched with mine," the Chansey finally spoke, and he had even less idea what to do with a nervous pokemon medic that most of his friends couldn't understand. "We were treating a Legendary pokemon, and it had sounded like an honor up until I had to spend most of a month almost twice as tall and way too lanky."

"Did Chansey just tell you about the ocean obsessed Mew thing?" Joy asked with a flinch. "Because it wasn't my idea to pretend we weren't switched."

"It was, and I had no idea why she thought I could pull off being her," the pokemon countered. "She utterly failed at being me, and I didn't even need to understand her to tell."

Joe looked between the two of them for a moment. "Congratulations, you both fit in with our group. Welcome to the place where your world keeps sending people with that sort of background," he informed them with great regret. "I'm sorry to tell you that I'm going to be spending a lot of time in your world. I have an internship with the DSS Box medical facility, and I'm still just learning how to use all of this equipment. We're actually bringing you on to have someone here more regularly than I can be."

The two of them looked nervous about that prospect, but he did notice that they were looking at each other in a way that told him this was something to do with their own problems. "Well, you see," Nurse Joy started then faltered.

"The Mew wasn't the best at using the mind switch thing, and somehow got us stuck swapping back and forth every so often," Chansey bluntly explained. "In fact, we just switched back this morning and she had literally been planning on having me pretend to be the real Nurse Joy. I don't even have a proper name."

"She told you that we just switched back didn't she?" Joy asked nervously.

"So, Chansey, apparently we've been communicating with you for this past week?" Joe asked to focus on the part of that revelation that he took issue with.

The Megadramon curled his long tail around the large boulder and steadied himself with his wings. The patchwork rabbit had made him turn back and forth a few times, and while being a lizard man with cybernetic arms and legs was closer to humanity, Yukio Oikawa still had to face the reality that he was not a human anymore. The price for seeing the digital world in person was apparently to become one of its inhabitants.

"The leader of the Digidestined has offered me the chance to test and train their warriors in combat," the colossal form of BlackWarGreymon noted from above him. The Mega was one of the rare digimon that was actually larger than the serpentine former human. "They wish to have an opponent of my level to compare themselves to, and possibly to call upon if there is another threat."

"Is that something you wish to do?" Yukio asked with a rumble that was totally unfamiliar. The loss of his prior voice was another sharp contrast for his new self, and while his human form sounded closer, it still made it feel almost like his old self had actually died.

BlackWarGreymon looked vaguely confused by the idea of that question, and that reminded the new digimon that this massively powerful creature was only a couple of days old. "It appeals to me," the other lizard monster allowed after clearly having to think about a response. "However, I am unsure about how easy it appears to get such an opportunity."

Arukenimon and Mummymon were both simply watching them, but Yukio could tell they were nervous about everything now. "Sometimes things you think will be hard to accomplish end up easier than you imagined," he told the other digimon. "You should take the chance if it is truly something you enjoy."

"It would also give them some reassurance that we aren't going to cause problems for them," Arukenimon dully stated. The spider monster was possibly more upset with his transformation than he was, but given how she was responsible that mostly made sense.

"Maybe that would let us ask them if we can help too," Mummymon suggested uneasily. "Unless you have a plan on what to do, boss?"

Yukio took far too long to realize that for some reason the undead digimon still meant him. "I want to learn to use this body," he said shortly, and the uneasy looks his two former minions gave him was slightly discouraging. "It is mine now, I should know how to be a Megadramon if I am one."

"So, just to be clear, we're actually going to be trying this?" Yutaka asked the MRT public relations expert. The Lycanroc was clearly uneasy with the idea, but also had proven over his confinement to the base that he needed something to actually do.

Kichiro Ono looked exhausted and worried, which was pretty strange as far as The Teenage Wolves were concerned given he had not been directly involved in the conflict. "We need a controlled release of the knowledge that monsters are real," the artist said with a sigh. "Mr. Ishida has proven that people can at least handle the sight of monsters in public." He nodded at Matt's father and Skarmory, who were apparently both going to be helping to setup the concert to an extent. "One of our possible long term plans is to show monsters that aren't a threat."

"Wait, I thought we were only going to have Yutaka stay a wolf? Not that we were going to actually going to tell people he's a real monster," Akira nervously questioned. The bass player had been working mostly with his grandfather on sorting and reading documentation since the reunion of the band.

"I think that Mr. Ono means if he's spotted we don't outright deny it, even if we don't explain it fully," Takashi suggested. "Although it sounded like you want us to avoid too many wolf monsters at once," the keyboard player noted sourly.

"No, I'm fairly sure that is because Akira and I don't want to be werewolves for real," Matt grumbled.

"Your brother seemed to be fine with spending time as a monster," his father noted. "Although I'm not really ready for the picnic the Kamiya's are planning myself yet."

"What picnic?" the Digidestined of Friendship questioned. His father stopped moving for a moment and then shared a look with the metal bird pokemon on his shoulder. "Why does a picnic have anything to do with being a monster?"

"Well, it is only just being planned right now," Hiroaki Ishida nervously replied. "I'm sure they're going to take a while to get everyone to agree to be monsters at the same time."

"What exactly does it take to get an invitation to this picnic?" Takashi questioned even as Matt groaned about the prospect.

"At this rate I'm going to be the only human in this band," Akira grumbled.

Yolei paused for a moment to truly look around the dinner table at her family now that the conflict was over. Her mother and father looked relieved, and yet at the same time she could see that they were also looking at what their family was now. Her eldest sister Chizuru was basically the same as she had been before the monster stuff had started, and probably was quite intentionally staying that way.

"I just don't know what to do with them," Mantarou said with a clicking sound as the gears that made up his current arms rotated unhappily. "It is nice that they're eager to help, but this new energy warning means we can't really use those spheres for anything." He looked right at her. "Is it really that big of a problem?"

"I didn't think you had any of their storage spheres," Yolei noted unhappily and tapped her glass thoughtfully with a claw. "And we've already had three people get turned into pokemon because they got ahold of some typed energy. I'd be really upset if we traced the next problem back to the store."

"They sent a couple as part of a test to see if we could get them to work without that problem. We have only tested them so far, but the Warehouse digimon want more," her older brother defended himself. "I guess I just need to figuratively 'put my foot down'," the Hagurumon huffed as he went back to his own meal.

Yolei turned away from her older brother to look at the rest of the family, but realized as she did so that she had just been in a normal argument with him. Sure it was about monster stuff, but it felt the same as what they'd be upset with each other about before this all started. Similarly her middle sister, Momoe, was as usual complaining a bit about clothing issues. Technically at least.

"I can feel the feathers a bit while I'm wearing it, so it is annoying when they're set wrong," the WingGabumon argued to Hawkmon.

"Then you just need to preen it when it comes out of the wash," her little brother noted, and Yolei was happy to see he seemed to be doing alright being one of the family. "Honestly that sounds easier since you don't need to be wearing it when you do it."

"But then I'd have to not be wearing it for even longer," their sister countered.

Now that she had a moment to think about it, the metal clawed Digidestined felt that despite everything her family actually had in a way gone back to normal.

HackBiyomon did not have a plan for what she would do after Myotismon was defeated. The rest of Upload had a plan, but that plan had assumed that they were going to be chased out of the Digidestined's world.

"So, this is one of your own artificial digital worlds?" Sora asked nervously, while Biyomon poked at one of the scrolling displays that dotted the walls of the crystal landscape that coated the entire Hackware made world. HackBiyomon had not had her own plan, but she had thought she might go with the rest of Upload's. She had not planned for what to do if she got to keep the family that she still felt like she was stealing.

"Yeah, we only have three of them. This is the one we actually use a lot so it ended up sort of covered," she confirmed, and tried not to think about how she might have to explain that she had all but planned on just leaving when everything was said and done.

"It's different," Biyomon said uneasily. "Is it always this quiet?"

"When you aren't a hybrid it is," Alice confirmed before HackBiyomon could question her sister's question. "Honestly, back when we were a bigger and more criminal operation that was the number one complaint from the grunts. Half the reason we had the physical bases was that most of them couldn't take being around so many Hackware that didn't make any sound they could hear." The Shrine hybrid tech waited for HackBiyomon to give her a confused look before explaining more. "Most Hackware can only talk on their own comm system. Your sister here was remade with access, just like the Emperor got it from how he made himself into a digimon, so it makes sense that she doesn't really know they're quiet to everyone else." Alice then sighed. "Although being able to hear Hackware is its own sort of problem. We still mostly use them as disposable forces, and even though they seem fine with that, it is a lot harder to put up with them dying for you when you can hear what they're thinking."

"Is this supposed to be a guilt trip?" Sora asked her in a hushed tone, and frankly she didn't know.

"Alice works with the Hackware a lot," she quietly told her sister, and then realized a bit blankly that Sora actually was quite a few years older than her because of the time weirdness that came with traveling between distant worlds. "I think she misses some of the pokemon they worked with before too."

"They didn't bring them?" Biyomon asked, and HackBiyomon cringed as that meant she had been louder than she wanted to be.

"Our Porygon were captured in the raids before your sister was remade," Alice sighed. "They were just as bad about taking hits for us as the Hackware, so I think it is a problem with how we code them."