Arc 5 Finale, Part 2 of 5
- Corrupt Containment -
Arukenimon looked at the misty creature uneasily as her group arrived just in case this was some sort of trap. They had managed to confirm a partial loss of control over the ADDWARE infected outside of the barrier since the SkullKimeramon broke into a bunch of Forest's Ichor/Dark Network Hybrid digimon.
Those creatures were at least understandable. An unstable digimon had been split apart into smaller stable ones when the restorative nature of Basirablemon's tar had been assisted by the Dark Network's new version in that effort. Tarmory, which apparently was a bit less metallic than the bird pokemon she was based on somehow, had taken charge of those five corrupted entities. Tardramon was the only digimon based survivor, a former SkullAirdramon wing that now was just her own Champion digimon. Tarizard was a strange pokemon dragon like their own "League Champion". Tartops was similarly a familiar pokemon form, as it matched one of the Troubleshooters that fought alongside MasterTyranomon. Tartioise was a massive turtle monster, and apparently based on one of the few pokemon to genuinely have attached guns. An odd group, but not truly unusual by digimon standards.
The Spiritual Fragment wasn't even a digimon. It looked more like raw data fragments from a shattered digimon, and sounded like incidental noises, but both of those things were far too ordered to be anything but an entity. 'Ghost' honestly was the best description she had for the Fragment, and even that didn't fully capture how unnerved it made her.
"I cann0t h&ndle operat1ng at the l3vel I'm bein9 ord3red to," the creature's voice said with clear effort. "That g1ves us a ch&nce to get me out of this. Pr1ority has b33n given to maint&in defense on all the 0ther worlds, so the barr1er gen3rator it2elf cannot rec1eve enough cov3rage now. If y0u send in a sma1l group I can h3lp direct you to cr1tical structur3s inside, and with their destruction I can be freed from service to the ADDWARE."
"Our team has gone through the available training on working in a distorted environment," Oikawa said for her as the currently humanoid Megadramon took charge while she went over the available data. "Is the world strong enough to handle a Mega and three Ultimates?" He still sounded a bit awkward about including himself as a digimon, and she still had some regrets that he had to.
"From the first results of our scans all of those worlds can take that," Janice replied over a communication line that had been set up. "Apparently as a side effect of what it takes just for them to operate as they are. So don't count on that holding if you're going in to break the place. Send BlackWarGreymon back as soon as it starts to get unstable, and keep linked to an emergency exit of some kind. The whole place will go down before it is unsafe for an Ultimate, so your group should be able to handle a destruction mission to one without support."
"The re1nf0rcement p&tt3rns sh0uld surv1ve the d3struct1on of the t&rget comp0n3nts long en0ugh to 3nsure compl3te destruct1on," the Spiritual Fragment replied with what might have been annoyance. It was hard to tell between the distortion and unusual method of speech.
"Final confirmation, the Skeletal Fragment has been destroyed by its attempt to kill us," Gazimon interrupted them bluntly. "Specifically a suicide attack that appears to have been intended to destroy this world by making a Mega that could destabilize it. The quality of the Mega didn't matter, only the existence of one. If I hadn't been able to redirect those attacks we probably would have lost that one." The implication of his statement was clear, the last Fragment had tried to kill them by destroying the world around it.
"I d0n't w&nt blind trust, I w&nt your best targ3t removed," the Spiritual Fragment shot back. "If y0u can do 1t thoroughly 3nough to free me it w0uld be best, but just gon3 would be fine."
"It sounds to me like the ADDWARE's minions have a habit of betrayal," Arukenimon said to try and halt the argument, with a cautious look at the broken mist of data. "Can you actually manage that given how much control it seems to have over its victims?"
"We get that fr0m it," Spiritual agreed with her first point in a smug joke that did not amuse her. This Fragment reminded her of her own thoughts before her death. "As for contro1, I'm in even wor2e shape than Skeletal at base. It can't d0 much beyo#d what it alre&dy is with0ut destroy1ng me."
Mummymon made sure to catch her eye after that statement with a look that said he could see the similarity too, and Arukenimon knew they need to take this mission. If only to figure out how close this is to what they weren't able to escape from.
BlackWarGreymon held back as the rest of his group went over some last minute technical concerns before they took advantage of this target. "I was made to protect," he said to the obviously exhausted twin snakes, one leafy the other human shaped. The two halves of the Corrupt Protector looked at him a bit dully. "But it seems more and more that the critical things they need me to do is destroy."
"Sometimes in order to protect the things you guard you must destroy the things that threaten them," the pair said in a very formal tone that was clearly half joking, half serious, and entirely annoyed at this particular interruption to their attempt to recover. "In this case we all have lots of things to destroy to save all of our worlds."
"Sometimes you also need to do things you don't particularly like, because you are good at them and they need to be done," Gazimon agreed with his teammates equally tiredly. "I think most of us would love to just have some time to joke around right now, but there's a killjoy out there messing with things it should have just left alone."
"Sorry. I'm simply concerned," BlackWarGreymon attempted to apologize, and he was. Both about how he might grow too used to using violence as the solution to difficult problems, and more importantly about the risk this plan placed on his small group. "I have had issues with hitting too hard for all of my short life." His first real attack had caused damage to his allies, and some of that Oikawa was still recovering from after the older man's fusion with the other Spire digimon that had taken part of the hit.
"Ah, now that's a better concern," Serperior replied with a lot less anger. "Not having enough time to know how to tune your attacks down properly is a bigger problem when you are being told to break things carefully. Especially things around what you want to protect." The three Troubleshooters shot a look at the rest of his group, and the semi-liquid snake sighed. "But we don't exactly have time to help practically with that right now. Make sure to point that out to someone again when you get back."
BlackWarGreymon grimly nodded, secretly glad that his reply had worked to improve their opinion of his initial inquiry. He then quickly left them to recover and made his way over to Arukenimon. "Are there some larger things to break to start, or will I have to try and limit my missile launch systems again, but this time in actual combat?" Oikawa asked cautiously as he arrived, with a glance over to him that clearly meant the serpentine digimon understood that BlackWarGreymon also had that issue.
"Well, on one hand the first target is probably going to be the main amplification patterns," Mummymon clearly repeated an earlier part of the conversation BlackWarGreymon had missed. "Those are going to be pretty big, but on the other hand we have something we aren't supposed to be hitting that's a lot smaller and might be close to those."
"Specifically these blocks," Arukenimon noted and handed them each some odd looking pieces of paper with a cube that flickered between a slightly yellow grey and a slightly green one. "The colors are specifically 534541 and 424C45 if you can tell that level of detail, but the important thing is these are the low scale stabilizers that keep the formations from ripping each other apart. These need to remain intact as long as possible in order to prevent uncontrolled secondary detonations from attacking the structures next to them."
"How resilient will they be?" BlackWarGreymon asked uncomfortably. "From what we've discussed I probably shouldn't try and use melee attacks for these places." The list of bad outcomes there was longer than anyone was comfortable with. Even if being a Mega let him resist at least half of them that sill left dozens of horrible fates he personally needed to worry about.
"You, unlike the boss, don't have ranged options that can scale down enough right now," she replied with some annoyance. "We need you to be there just in case there turns out to be Ultimate or even Mega defensive systems or creatures available in these distorted worlds."
"A relevant threat," the Fragment said in her unreadable wispy voice. "My focus has been entirely on barrier operations and outside threats. I have minimal information on internal defense forces, and no access to any such units."
Arukenimon had to pause at the sight of the world they had just arrived at, and then quickly send a length of web up to BlackWarGreymon. "Do not land!" she shouted as she took in the sight and rapidly grabbed Mummymon with her larger legs to drag the both of them onto Oikawa's back.
The world below them was a mess of raw pixels in seemingly random configurations, intermixed with small incomplete objects that resembled actual physical things, but to her senses were just the side effect of the interpretation systems of a digital world being given junk data. The end result could be described as something like a factory complex made out of the fragments left behind by a tornado going through a mall that featured a particularly large furniture store. It also was the most unstable digital construct she had ever seen, and even with the preparations they had made to face these it still was worse than she felt she could have expected.
"Aru," Mummymon said unable to finish her name in the face of this scene that would assuredly feature in new nightmares for her. "None of this is stable enough for us to touch, how are we supposed to actually try and damage any of it." It was less a question and more a lament.
She quickly got out the small analysis computer that DSS had provided her with a week ago to get started on working on solutions to just that problem. "We need to clear out some space first," she replied, possibly with a bit more worry than she intended to reveal. "That set of chairs there is the center of the low level energy distribution system. It is a secondary system that looks to be in place to let the patterns share power in an emergency. We will need to be careful, but removing it should let us at least more easily spot where these things connect directly."
"Oh, so we just need to start with the trickiest part then," her partner sighed with clear understanding of what she had just told him. They needed to somehow make sure that breaking that formation didn't just shatter the entire place with them in it.
"A so1id pl&n. Give me a m0ment," the Spiritual Fragment suddenly added, and then there was a spark as the entire distribution system flickered from a bunch of junk pixels to the shape of half formed toasters. "There, em3rgency measure2 activated to prev3nt that sy2tem from caus1ng dir3ct damage to extend through it."
The scan did seem to show that, but it also clearly wasn't a pre-planned damage control measure. It might have been a sign that the Fragment was genuine about being on their side here. "Alright, Mummymon, carefully start blasting those toasters, everyone else keep on a lookout for anything that stands out," Arukenimon ordered as she moved on to analyzing what things tied into what. She could feel Oikawa tense beneath her as the mummy digimon opened fire with his rifle on the distorted landscape.
The first few shots missed the chairs she had first pointed out to hit the small river of toasters around them, but the whole mess shattered like glass as they impacted and caused the whole world to shake for a moment. Luckily that reaction was short lived, and the place stabilized quickly with only some damage to the other formations.
Yukio Oikawa the Megadramon could remember carrying Arukenimon and Mummymon like this before, which honestly scared the hybrid because those were not the memories that belonged to a creature that at the time had the name 'Yukio Oikawa'. The original control spire digimon had not been alive very long before it had been merged with the fatally wounded human host of Myotismon, but now it seemed to him that it had been alive enough to have some memories. Memories that belonged to him now, and indicated a bit more clearly that he was the fusion of both of those damaged creatures instead of just one of them repaired by parts of the other.
It did make it easier to deal with being distracted by those thoughts as he maneuvered around to give Mummymon good shots on the first few smaller targets. The Megadramon he was made from had not been very smart to start, and even distracted he was much more focused than it had been. So far they seemed to be mostly buying some time for Arukenimon to locate the real targets now that the largest threat had been destroyed relatively safely.
"I see movement," BlackWarGreymon noted as they shifted to the final pieces of broken glass-like toasters. "It looks like- Like... Well it is definitely moving towards us." Yukio agreed with that reaction, as the thing being noted was a mixture of various household appliances that seemed to change which specific appliance they were with every movement. After a moment a pattern of shifting did emerge, but it was unpleasant to watch long enough to try and figure out what each specific set meant.
"An Ultimate equivalent," Arukenimon dully noted. "BlackWarGreymon, wait for it to get to a clear space and take it out. Oikawa, can you hit that cluster of refrigerators? They are the local access control system, and that is causing some interference with our escape route."
Yukio looked at what she had pointed at, a large section of mostly broken pixels with a few refrigerator doors mixed in, and judged the overall size of the area that specifically had those door like structures mixed in. Three missiles quickly fired from just one of his arms, four would be too many for that target and it was hard to fire more from just one if he had used both. They exploded in the air just before the target and the fragmentation components of those particular munitions showered over what was hopefully just the target. Unlike the power system this one seemed to behave like it was made of solid metal for the first few seconds, and then it apparently turned into a more wood like substance as it shifted to look like a pile of fully furnished windows and caught fire mostly on the parts that looked like glass.
"Please, tell me we can figure out how this stuff behaves," he sighed, with the sound more of a rumble than a huff. "Because I don't have the first idea what to shoot that wit-" Naturally, he was interrupted by the structure's explosion as it changed into raw pixels and went up in a fireball.
"I think I understand why melee isn't an option at all," BlackWarGreymon complained as the other Spire digimon's target finally moved off the structures so the Mega's ranged attacks could safely target it. The energy sphere BlackWarGreymon created was on the smaller side, but still large enough to rattle the components closest to the mobile pile of broken data. The apparent Ultimate construct itself simply vanished inside the blast as it came apart into fragments that in turn disintegrated.
"I see more of those creatures," Mummymon noted as Arukenimon shifted to scan another location.
"Unfortunately an easier time for them to reinforce was a side effect of taking that out," the spider monster admitted with annoyance.
Some time later, as the last secondary data archive went down, Arukenimon considered how the Spiritual Fragment sounded fainter with every device they destroyed. Less distorted, but definitely more quiet and possibly even a bit exhausted. It had clearly gone past the point where they could still doubt the Fragment's side in this fight, but it did raise other concerns.
It made her think about what it would have been like if she had been under Myotismon's direct control, and how she might have reacted to that. It made her consider what the Dark Emperor had done while under her control. The way Spiritual directed them to destroy the components of this world weakened its overall function and structure, without any impact to the connections to the other digital worlds directly under the ADDWARE's control. The entire world had been neatly turned into a bomb, and Arukenimon was fairly sure at this point that this particular world was the Spiritual Fragment's body or at least something close to it.
"We are down to the final target," the Fragment said, barely audible and entirely free of the distortion that was typical of the ADDWARE. "The large crystal in the center will rapidly destabilize this world when it is destroyed." The Rookie sized white gemstone was the only part of this place that wasn't made entirely out of raw improperly formatted data. It also was clearly part of something else that had been heavily modified. "You will need to escape as soon as you strike it. Make sure to use one blow that will certainly eradicate it."
Arukenimon looked at BlackWarGreymon, her creation that so far as she was aware had avoided being a true killer, and then she looked at Oikawa, her creator who had similarly only faced unintelligent corruption so far. "I can handle that alone," she said aloud. "The rest of you can go back first to make the exit transport easier." She quickly tied a new line of web to the 'roof' of the world to avoid trying to find a safe place to stand. It wouldn't last for long, but she didn't need it to.
"I'll stay with you," Mummymon cheerfully agreed in a way she couldn't brush off as he jumped to rest on her back. "That way you can focus on just getting the two of us out." The others agreed with a bit of hesitation and let her send them. "I can handle a bit more blood on my hands, Arukenimon," her partner added far more seriously after they were gone. Arukenimon simply huffed at that and got the transport for them ready.
"So, you both know then," the Spiritual Fragment quietly admitted. "In that case thank you for freeing me in the only way that is possible." Arukenimon glared at the small fragments of data that had collected to speak for their final target. "If it makes it any better, try and think of me as already dead. My spirit has simply been bound by this monster, and I need help to have it freed."
"We're staying to do this because we're bad digimon," Arukenimon admitted as Mummymon took aim at the crystal. "You don't need to help us justify it." She then yanked the both of them out of the world before the rounds could even hit. Despite that she could still hear the crashing storm of entire worlds shattering as they landed in the Troubleshooter Lab.
She woke up to the sense of floating in a pool of water. Which was a problem, because she should be dead right now. Waking up again wasn't the plan. She kept her eyes shut and tried to listen to figure out what was going on.
"Oh, great, another new arrival out of nowhere," a strong voice complained to someone else. "Come on bone-Spiritomb, I have someone else to also tell this isn't an afterlife to. You there, Yamask with the... Blank mask? How did you end up with a blank mask?"
That question had been directed at her, and Yamask was a kind of pokemon. "What?" she asked, and her voice was clear and clean. Maybe a bit ghostly, but not the barely there whisper it had been before. Her eyes blinked open almost out of her control, and she could see the polygonal space she was now in. She could see the waterfall that fed the pool of water she was actually in, and in the distance at an angle that didn't make gravitational sense was a small floating island with its own impossible waterfall. "I'm what?" She could feel that she held something that was Her's with her tail, but she could not bring herself to look at it.
"Yamask, a Ghost typed pokemon that is notable for their golden masks that display their face in their prior life," a multitude of voices said in a tone that reminded her of the Skeletal Fragment on those rare days when they could both pretend they weren't just hand puppets for the ADDWARE.
She lifted her head to look at the speakers, carefully to only catch the edges of the golden mask she held. In fact she moved one of her arms to block that from her vision, and paused at the way it was smooth shadowy material. Solid and natural in a way she had never been before, even back before the ADDWARE took everything from her. It took a lot of effort to tear her gaze away from that sight to spot the blocky form of a digital Legendary pokemon, and a whirling ball of spiritual energies that emerged from a cracked block of fossil bone.
"Right, no more playing around," the Giratina said bluntly. "How did the two of you die, and how could that have possibly gotten you sent here of all places when you died? This is a business. I have security I need to maintain, and the last thing we need right now is our Ghost type Box turning into an afterlife."
"I attempted to become something too powerful for my old existence to handle," the Spiritomb noted uncomfortably, which didn't really explain anything.
"Hopefully I just blew up in a way that crippled the ADDWARE," she said just as unhelpfully, but that reply made both of them quickly turn towards her.
"Spiritual?" the Spiritomb asked, while the Legendary roared "ADDWARE?".
"Skeletal?" she asked the first of them with wide eyes. "But you died," she added dumbly despite the obvious indications that it was a prerequisite of their current species.
"Of course the damn Fragments come back before some of my siblings," the Giratina rumbled dangerously. "Alright. Janice we have an issue!" he added as a black pane opened into some kind of video call.