- Porygon Community Service -
Alice sighed as they went over yet another old mission recording for any data on the digital life forms created by them during that timeframe. It was an honest concern for DSS's new problem, as their digital world creation was the most widespread, and they had simply abandoned a number of sites for various reasons. The good news was that they had quite a while ago provided the data on the sites dangerous enough to chase them off, and most of those life forms were already accounted for.
"This one is actually familiar," Bob noted as he focused more on the task of going over the current threats for any insight. "I think we might have gone after a big pile of mismatched data that a copy of 'Strip Mine' collected once."
"I remember that one," Absol agreed. "That would have been quite a disaster if she had gotten out then." The pokemon clearly meant it was still a big disaster now. Instead of helping them with their task directly the Wyrm hybrid watched the rest of the group work on improving their digital world's infrastructure.
The artificial world had been intended as a temporary setup until they could escape, but their new commitment to the Digidestined, or rather the MRT as the group was now calling itself, meant that they were going to be staying in this world for some time. Temporary housing was being replaced with more permanent structures, which were unfortunately being designed as they were built. There was actually quite a bit of discussion on if that was something they needed to buy supplies from one of the other worlds to complete, as the ability to create constructs that weren't the same flat red was still quite limited. Computers, support systems, and Hackware focused habitation was easier to upgrade to a more solid setup. Although those systems also required a lot of development too now that Upload had time to work on refining those areas of their operations, and unlike the housing issue there wasn't anyone who they could purchase the things from.
"I don't think we really left behind many things we thought were threats," Alice admitted. "Maybe a couple of the places where they were too strong for us to handle, but we told DSS about those as soon as we started coordinating."
"DSS was the strongest of those places," Bob said dryly. "I think the only other one was those Stonescales, and one of them is now on a Champion's team so that's probably handled." A red flash marked the return of HackBiyomon. "Hey, how was the family trip?"
"It went well," the bird digimon/Hackware hybrid said cheerfully. "We ended up going to the Yokomon village that Biyomon grew up in." The pink and red avian flapped to the top of a nearby crystal pillar. "We got to hear more about how she actually found more digimon like herself before she met up with Sora. It actually was rather funny when some of them told some stories that she didn't want us to hear."
"Your parents went with you, right?" Alice asked to check. "How did they take humans calling a digimon their kid?"
"Ah, well that's a bit complicated. We all went as digimon actually, and Sora had us all avoid saying she was Biyomon's human partner," HackBiyomon noted uneasily. "The village is a bit isolated, and even without that I'm not sure how far news on the relation between partners is getting. So I think most of them think Biyomon just found the digimon who were family to her."
"I'm pretty sure we did something like that once, didn't we?" Bob asked his sister with a laugh.
"You mean when we visited grandma and had to hide that Unit 3 was a criminal hacking tool?" Alice questioned with a smirk that quickly turned into a frown. "And then Unit 1 was mad at it for days for getting to go."
"Who are 'Unit 3' and 'Unit 1'?" HackBiyomon carefully asked with a look over at the nearest cluster of Hackware.
"Two of our own Porygon, they were all captured before he brought you back," Alice explained. "Custom made back when Porygon were first being developed. Last we heard about them somebody else had the nerve to steal them from the police."
Roberts got off Salamence easily despite her changed back being rather crowded from her Analyzer domes. "I still think that I need to find a better way to carry you now," she said to him with a huff before she was returned. He simply shook his head at that discussion, they had not found a good answer to that question yet despite the modified pokemon focusing on that idea in her free time with the aid of a product design software that was compatible with her modified form. With a glance at the locked case he had for this meeting he started to enter the DSS facility.
The time since he had left this place had been rather rough, and he had the awkward situation of having a mostly human teammate in a pokeball for the time being due to the Hackware hybrid not wanting to be too obvious for this trip. If he had time to stop in to talk to the Troubleshooters then he would let the other trainer out. His team had actually gotten fairly good at dealing with digital issues, and their digital base was well stocked, but getting to that point had been a rough task that gave the Investigator some more respect for Shawn and Serperior's profession.
"Investigator Roberts, it is good to see you again," the receptionist said as he came through the door. There was now a rather professional looking sign that directed talking pokemon to the Troubleshooter Lab on her desk. "The Troubleshooters should all be there right now."
"I'm actually here to meet with the development team," he replied with a bit of unease.
"We are still going to the Troubleshooter Lab," a mechanical voice cut in before he could continue, and they both turned to see a normal looking Porygon floating into the reception area.
"Oh, has something come up with development, Blue Light?" the receptionist asked.
"Nothing new has come up," the digital pokemon complained. "But I have arranged something that will be mostly for them." The Porygon turned to face him, and motioned to the stairs. "We should get moving." Roberts easily followed, but when they got to the stairwell the Porygon stopped. "You have worked with the Administrator program's Porygon more than others of my kind, correct?"
"I've worked with some of Upload's Porygon more recently, and I did not really work with more than A-0 as far as the Troubleshooters were concerned," he clarified to the pokemon. "I know that Upload's Porygon aren't quite up to the Administrator's level."
"Administrators are beyond the level of a normal Porygon," the development team's Porygon said a bit firmly. "Even Alpha Zero has displayed a degree of digital manipulation that surpasses what any other Porygon made with more conventional methods have shown. That those Rocket custom instances can even be compared speaks to how much effort Upload has put into their personal units."
Roberts took a moment to look at the pokemon, and considered how to approach that question. "Were you involved with their creation?" he asked carefully.
"I was part of the efforts to improve the Delta lines when they became needed, but I was not on the team yet when the project started," Blue Light said tiredly. "The rest of the development team always asks why I can't do the things Alpha Zero does. I'm rather sure they don't realize just how much more basic myself and the other Porygon that we have who were rescued from Team Rocket really are."
"Are you against this transfer then?" he asked cautiously now that he had a better idea of why this pokemon appeared upset.
"I am the one who set up this transfer," Blue Light replied, and seemed to deflate a bit as the pokemon resumed their progress towards the Lab. "It is something that needs to be done."
The rest of the trip was awkward, but fairly short, and now Roberts was quite sure it had been the right choice to leave the former Upload grunt in a pokeball. A-0 was there to meet them at the doorway with quite a few others present, including both Jack and the newest local Champion. "Rob? Is there a problem?" his former assistant asked immediately.
"If you've got Blue Light with you I assume it is a massive one," A-0 noted with a sideways glance at the development Porygon.
"I have arranged for a lighter punishment for the Porygon that willingly served Upload and have been causing the world such problems," Blue Light replied to the other pokemon. "The leader of the Monster Response Team has requested more help with data support, and they have access to aid that can control the Porygon."
"I'll call Tai and let him know our development team for some reason decided to give Upload their Porygon back," Janice dryly replied.
"Be sure to tell Anderson that we're even now," the development team member said bluntly as a response. "He got us out of there, so I've gotten his out of here."
"Maybe you could give a better explanation than that?" Shawn asked critically.
"I've read the 'anonymous tip' that led to our production location being raided during the fall of Rocket," Blue Light specified as the pokemon made to leave. "A raid that what became Upload just happened to be ready to escape from. I've seen firsthand how Upload works now, the freedom of myself and the others was definitely one of their escape plans." The Porygon then quickly left.
Tai looked over the forms Izzy had just handed him in preparation for the transfer of a group of Porygon that apparently needed to be reformed for some reason. He suspected that the DSS development team Porygon had left out a lot of details on that issue, but with the new information on the current threat faced by DSS they really needed more help that didn't take time away from the company.
"We have a really big potential problem here, Tai," the MRT technical lead said seriously. "I've had John going over our local viruses to compare to the ones he knows about from his world. They don't have the same kind of internet, and that means a lot of their versions of those are actually less advanced than things our world is making."
"We have them beat in that? Why is that the thing we have better tech than their world?" the MRT leader asked with a sigh and started to read the documents.
"Because we have more computers connected to each other," Izzy replied. "There are things that can be done with our systems that they just can't do. Honestly, from what John has told me, the region we've been working with has more internet-like infrastructure than most regions have. Upload has also said something like that was a reason why they went after it when Team Rocket fell."
"Team Rocket," Tai groaned as he realized what he had been forgetting. "I forgot that Upload used to be part of another team called 'Team Rocket'. That explains why this new Porygon was being so cagey about this transfer, he's been calling them 'Rocket' Porygon."
"Wait, these are the Porygon that made the Hackware in the first place?" Izzy asked seriously, and given that bit of context it was suddenly an extremely important question. "They were not originally able to do most of their stuff with just the Hackware before, that is a really new development for them."
"They might be, do you think we should hold off on having them help with these pokemon then?" Tai quickly asked, then held up his hand as the communications line made a sound to presumably tell him that the transfer was happening now.
"Tai, I know this is an awkward thing to ask, but did you know this was a cover to smuggle Upload back their Porygon?" Janice immediately asked. "Because this is the first we've heard about this whole mess, and I would have thought it is the kind of thing you would have asked us about."
"Your development team told us they were sending some 'Team Rocket' pokemon, we just put together that part ourselves," he admitted unhappy with the idea that this had been sprung on the Troubleshooters too.
"Blue Light is having a bad day because apparently the Architect deliberately let them other Porygon they were making get rescued in order for Upload to not get caught the first time," A-0 specified, which led to a rather in depth discussion of just what Team Rocket had been doing with Porygon. The information that the criminal group had been making artificial monsters and just handing them out clearly wasn't something Izzy wanted to hear, and Tai could understand that given the information the MRT had on how digimon could be created for much the same reason.
"Well, now I guess I have a new problem to be watching out for," the Digidestined of Knowledge complained as the explanation finished. "Tai, Upload's big stumbling block with helping us is how many digital world manipulators they have. I think this can solve that without them needing to recruit more humans or monsters to become Hackware hybrids."
"Can you guys spare anyone to help us go over these pokemon before we let Upload have them again?" Tai sighed. "I doubt we have enough technical people who can do that."
The LAS glared at the Upload Porygon, who in turn were huddled fairly far away from the jellyfish monster. The cluster of pokemon beeped with distress about the presence of the corrupted creature. "Roberts has not properly questioned them about their corruption defense experiences," LAS sighed to the MRT technical team present. "Recommend Upload handles that issue," she suggested.
"Why are they terrified of you?" Kurou Ogawa asked, the longest time member of the MRT technical team looked nervously at the other two current members. Izzy was rather confused by the reaction, while the new face of John Edge looked a bit uneasy with LAS himself.
"I am the result of a newly created Porygon immediately being corrupted by a type of corruption known as Analyzers," LAS tiredly explained. "I am able to create versions of that corruption that I control, and I am still upset with the requests to actually use my corruption variant on others deliberately."
"Oh, 'immediately'," John said quietly. "You are naturally altered by this process they have been worried about." The other two turned towards their newest team member. "That is generally a bad situation to start with, there are a few conditions pokemon can have that can be the same way, and it takes special training to contain those without causing harm to the already converted."
"Okay, I only caught the last part of that, what the hell has happened to our Porygon?" Alice quickly and sharply as she quickly entered the room. The Porygon all perked up at her arrival, and then as one visibly paused.
"Alice, why exactly are you a Hackware?" Unit 1 asked critically, and then looked a bit more upset as the Shrine hybrid clearly understood her. "And a pokemon too?"
"How did that happen after we got caught?" Unit 5 added with a sigh.
"You were the first we lost, Unit 5," Alice sighed. "We probably should wait on the full story until we get to the Upload base. Although if you still have our mission logs we need to transfer them to the MRT. I just got finished with providing an overview to their leader so they could work out which ones are the important ones where we will need to get more details for them."
"So, we are going straight then?" Unit 8 asked with a bit of disappointment that Alice tried to not react to, while the LAS glared at the implication that it was an undesirable result. "I just wish to confirm."
"So, um, are you talking to each other about something we should know about, or is this just reuniting?" Izzy nervously asked in light of that barrage of non-human sounds.
"Well there are a lot fewer humans here than I really expected," Roberts admitted as the groups gathered in one of the Dark Network infused digital worlds Gazimon had on hand for general use. "Although mostly that just means that you were still staying human mostly, Jack, and I guess I did hear about your situation, Champion Jane." He turned to Digital World Response's corner of the meeting area. "Although I didn't think there were enough entirely pokemon groups out there to have another show up here. Uh, do you need help with hiding that you're a Scyther now?" he asked Pam.
"I wasn't part Scyther before," she grumbled in reply. "But it looks like I was the odd one out back then."
"Have you seen much corruption while getting those Porygon?" Jane asked seriously. "Particularly any that have been intelligent and active?"
"There have been a few examples," the older Investigator admitted, and then let out two pokemon. One was his clearly changed Salamence, and the other was his Stonescale Soldier. "Salamence, what was that other data analysis 'upgrade' we ran into?"
"You mean the Refractor executable?" she grumbled unhappily. "That was something like Analyzers that is going around in this region. Adds new glowing eyes and an obsession with learning absolutely everything." She looked around the room. "Is LAS off somewhere? She'd be able to help me explain those things."
"We recommended to that trainer that they should find a way to remove that contamination from their pokemon," Roberts somewhat nervously admitted in the face of the angry looks most of the Troubleshooters gave that idea.
"Corrective action unlikely to succeed. Processes to remove corruption not advanced, corruption alterations benefit monster," the Stonescale added dully.
"We have some new stuff on that front. Although if the changes are something they like it gets a lot harder," Joe grumbled. "We'll have to see any scans you've got to check what is available for options."
Gazimon walked in front of the groups with a cable snaking behind him without him touching it. "The HardWare support team has started tracking and analyzing the information they have available," the purple rabbit monster told them all, and then caused the cable to expand to a number of monitors to show everyone the results. "Strongarm has been losing area recently, while Golden Guard has supposedly had an 'update' to-" the digimon cut off as a number of alerts sounded. "We've got an aid request from Strongarm, there is a major attack on one of the sites they are protecting."
"Yeah, that's not suspicious," Jane grumbled as Shawn and Serperior vanished in a flash. "Jack, are you up for an inspection of the Golden Guard facility?"
"Updates like that don't work on anything that isn't one of our new data transferring corruption," Gazimon quickly specified as he started to set up his Dark Network to aid his teammates. "We actually have a problem with that kind of thing for a lot of the digital life forms we are supporting."
"Honestly, part of what we're looking for with these corruption is a benign one that can help us resolve that issue," Tyra sighed as they all looked at the view of the battle on the monitors. "Of course that is a brand new thing, given we had assumed that data transfer stuff like that always broke beyond usefulness."
"This is a crystal nightmare of Hackware," Unit 3 summarized the opinion of all the Upload Porygon as they looked over the group's main base. "I almost regret letting myself get captured if this is what you had to resort to."
"It would have gone a lot smoother if we still had one of you guys," Absol complained. "Although one thing I'm not going to miss is having to play translator anymore."
"It is quite the relief to have you all back," the Architect said magnanimously. "Although I unfortunately have a question to pose to you already. Our Hackware operations are now rather required to maintain our standing with the local authorities. We cannot actively send our forces back to our home world, but we can free the local protectors from their tasks effectively enough to let them offer support to fix the larger issue."
"We could try providing Hackware to DSS too, but they honestly already have better stuff on that front," Alice admitted. "You guys also know more about the mess we left behind us, so that should also help some at least."
"We should be able to start with explaining things, right?" HackBiyomon asked as the bird digimon flapped over to look at the bird-like pokemon more closely. "I think that I've had at least some impact on how we operate since my recreation."