Arc 5 Finale, Part 3 of 5
- Corrupt Control -
The display had only received the first solid data on the ADDWARE's worlds earlier in the day, and yet it already had changed massively. Of the twenty four worlds that had once been hidden by the barrier, thirteen were now displayed as dark broken circles, and the remaining eleven were all colored a dull red show of damage.
Shawn was still barely awake and Serperior was mostly just a puddle after their brush with a Mega's full attention. Gazimon was physically better but from his slightly glazed look the digimon clearly wasn't entirely there mentally after his efforts to prevent more of that level of attack from hitting something they could not have afforded in that same fight. That team probably should not have been in the room, and definitely was not going to be useful anytime soon, but nobody wanted to make them get up to move somewhere more comfortable yet.
Jack's team wasn't much better, and in fact had Giratina with them to check their status. The whole team had turned out to use all of the Ghostly power they could muster, including the members who didn't properly have the type. As one of the least combat capable of the teams that had gone on the mission that likely meant they were out of the fight for at least a few days.
Jane's Flameheart Champion grade team was technically in better shape, but she had literally had her first real briefing on these new targets interrupted by that same fight. The Fire types had moved to speak with the newly returned Dark Empire team about what combat in such a place was like in practice, and from how Arukenimon and her digimon allies looked these were places that should not be a twice in one day target for a group. BlackWarGreymon was the only one of them that wasn't exhausted, but it had quickly become clear that this was because he also was the only one that could not safely fight in these worlds.
Compared to all of those, Quagsire's team was almost ready to fight again. The salamander pokemon herself was still a bit under the weather, but the rest of them had successfully executed their retreat from a threat before they were fully spent. Which was a good thing, because the Digidestined had only been prepared for responding to attacks outside of the ADDWARE's worlds so far and it appeared they still had more work to do.
"The Spiritual Fragment's destruction was more impactful that originally anticipated, but probably less than we should have expected," Janice explained of the display that most of those present already understood to some extent. "Her former world was the site that maintained the barrier defense, and one of the side effects of using distorted digital worlds to this degree is that they are vulnerable to rapid changes in their environment. Just the barrier going down suddenly itself caused significant damage to every world the ADDWARE had."
"Which is where the next issues come in," A-0 continued and the broken circles flashed to draw attention to them. "The worlds in question are far more interconnected than we anticipated. On one hand this meant that they took less damage overall from the barrier falling as they could lean on each other more, but on the other a number of these worlds were directly using resources of the Spiritual Fragment's. All of those worlds destabilized destructively, and then proceeded to take out at least one other world that had not been connected when they went down alongside it. Just over half of the ADDWARE's worlds are now gone from that strike, and the rest are crippled for the moment."
"All things considered my death seems to have done more than I expected," one of the two Ghost types everyone was on guard around noted.
Tarmory glared at the Spiritomb that had just spoken. The former Skeletal Fragment seemed to have started to adapt, while the Yamask that used to be the Spiritual Fragment simply watched the briefing with dull unfocused eyes. The rest of the Ichor-Network Hybrids were currently in another world to be inspected for any dangerous side effects of their creation, but they wanted to be represented by their leader for the current conflict. The two new Ghost typed pokemon did not want to be present, and in fact seemed rather upset with being sort of alive at all, but no one truly trusted them to be unsupervised for the time being.
"Judging from the fact that we're talking about this now instead of tomorrow after we've managed to get some sleep, I'm guessing there is another problem we need to deal with," Quagsire complained in a clear attempt to get to the point.
Four worlds changed to an orange color, three of them still ringed by the broken circles that indicated destruction. "These worlds are the command and control centers that maintain the overall distorted world integrity," Janice bluntly replied to that. "As you can see, they don't have many left. From our scans we have been able to determine that the Distorted Fragment is currently present at the remaining site in an attempt restore functionality, and coordinate disconnecting the worlds so more damage doesn't happen as easily."
"Estimated time until repairs are sufficient to allow for free movement of remaining Fragment is six hours," Metagross added grimly to the tired Troubleshooters. "Ten hours until separation efforts prevent further secondary site damage entirely."
"We have a short time window where we have a chance to finish off the ADDWARE's mobile forces in a single attack," A-0 told Quagsire directly. "If we can take out the last Fragment it will have no ability to control these distorted worlds or any infected outside of them. We would also be able to finish locating its core world without the risk of immediate counterattacks." The first Administrator Porygon then glared at Janice. "I'm going with whoever we can send."
"So am I," Tarmory agreed with a glare of her own at everyone.
"You have existed for less than a day and we need you safe," Shawn and Serperior managed to say together with some authority. "No, we can't risk you for this."
"I can use Ichor without landing, clear places to stand and give us a way out more easily than any other options right now," the hybrid pokemon shaped digimon argued rather intelligently.
"Ugh, I hate to admit it Shawn, but she has a point," Quagsire said at that argument. "The same one as A-0. My team has the least ability to both stay safe and get all of us out if things go totally wrong, and we could probably use as many combat ready data manipulators we can get. Your tar is our best option to directly counter this sort of thing given how it stabilizes digital stuff."
"The Dark Network is also a support structure I would be able to use to a degree if present," A-0 unhappily allowed. "At a minimum it would keep us in contact with the HardWare team and they can get in touch with Refactor's small emergency force."
"Not the MRT?" Jane questioned with the name of the group the Digidestined now led, which was probably mostly used by the Champion to make sure she remembered they needed to be called that officially. "I thought they had available people, and that it couldn't spare many of its drones."
"We need data capacity, not raw power," Quagsire answered with a shake of her head. "The issue of damage to these things goes both ways. If it has anything stronger than an Ultimate it can't risk one fighting that close to a formation. On the other hand more people that can counter the side effects directly keeps us safer while we pull it apart." She turned to A-0. "We can counter this stuff right?"
"The side effects that damage the world? Yes. The ones that cause issues if you touch those places? No," Arukenimon bluntly replied. "The data is too raw. You need somewhere to stand as soon as you arrive."
"Our scans indicate that at least a quarter of the formations in the target world are currently broken terrain," A-0 clarified. "We have somewhere to start."
Grant found himself floating in mid air as the Armaldo's team arrived in the world. He wasn't alone as he quickly glanced over at Dugtrio, and with great confusion and disappointment found the three domes inexplicably rising out of a small patch of dirt that seemed to just float in the air.
"Yes, that is normal for Diglet and Dugtrio, no I have not gotten an answer of how they distort space like that," A-0 bluntly told them all, while Tarmory seemed to have some trouble with flight without gravity. "I can give you the reports from our Ground type Box later if you want to be more confounded."
The world around them featured large areas where there was the expected mess of pixels and random components of things, but they were currently inside a massive sphere of devastation where the very space around them looked and felt broken. It was a mix of surprisingly light colors that shifted to dark at times, and made both the young and old parts of Grant want very much to get out of them as quickly as he could. It was a primordial space that he did not want to use his energy carelessly inside of.
"A-0, we need stabilization. Now!" Quagsire demanded as his trainer took in that unreality. "I know you said we would be able to get some clear ground, and I'm seeing a distinct lack of ground outside of my pure Ground type!"
"Shawn never complained like that about these kind of disasters," A-0 grumbled in a tone that reminded Grant that being a Troubleshooter was not for the faint hearted. "Fine, I'll give us a place to stand and some gravity. Hopefully I'm not too rusty about dealing with these sorts of damaged areas." Solid if simple ground appeared under them in a flash, and they were set on the ground with surprising ease and care. "Okay, that was too easy, I think I underestimated how messed up this place was. It has been broken so badly by these distortions that I can use full Administrator capacity here."
"Like what you can use in the Boxes?" Kabutops questioned as they took the chance offered by the solid ground to start to inspect their target. It clearly had a few mobile possibly-creature constructs at work to repair both the clear and unclear bits of damage, and large areas were a duller color that seemed to indicate a lack of power. From their position they could not yet see anything that was obviously part of the command and control systems.
"I have never personally had full Administrator capacity before," the Porygon-2 said a bit faintly. "That is something that should require a direct connection I cannot properly create due to my specific creation circumstances. Hence 'Box Null' as the end of my name. I have limited capacity, more than a typical Porygon but still not even the full power Gazimon has been able to use in his Networked worlds."
"I can begin to add that connection here now that there is a here to add it to," Tarmory said with a clear amount of relief as she set down and let some of the cables and tar from her body dig into the newly made terrain. "Oh wow. I've barely done anything in general and I can see how messed up this place is. Everyone knows how to get out with me, right? Because we need to be ready to get out of here when we take out what little is holding it together."
"We were prepared for that option for the fight where you were made," Quagsire informed the young digimon with the tone of an elder who did not appreciate being told how to do her job. "I think A-0 has traveled that way more than you have."
Tarmory flinched, but A-0 cut off that building argument. "I have enough access to hold this place together from everything short of deliberate damage," it said bluntly. "I also have a better chance of pulling this stuff apart." The first Administrator sighed. "I haven't had to deal with these things since Beta-16 finished his experiments..." A-0 froze in mid air, and then looked around the world as if seeing it for the first time. "Shit. He was the last of my siblings to make any real attempt with it."
"Let me guess, last and best?" Dugtrio's three voices sarcastically asked together.
"No, no that was me. I had to be to fix everything the others attempted back then," A-0 said quietly. "That was before the Charlie line. By that point we knew for sure that Administrators were already more powerful than this stuff can get while being safer at the same time. Charlies back then were advanced enough to just drive the point home." The newly formed land rippled into new formations that then solidified into devices. "I didn't consider that this might be related to the DSS attempts. I have better counters to that."
Grant felt that A-0 was part of the reason that Shawn's entire team did not seem to understand what normal pokemon were like anymore. Not that he was the best judge anymore, but the casual way the Administrator had just rewrote a devastated world was a bit much for a normal pokemon. Although he noticed that he had work to do and one bit of the mess in front of them got up in a clear attempt to fight them. He replied simply with a stomp on the ground to forge some solid stones that rose into the air, and then after a pause to target flung them at the new target. The mess of electronics and orange juice shattered like shale, and the resulting pixelated powder caused the device below it to start to melt.
A-0 sighed at that result, and the damaged infrastructure began to pull apart and reform into a more solid and stable piece of machinery. "Seriously, this stuff is crap," the Porygon-2 said in response to its own actions. "It has always been fragile tricky crap, and the only reason anyone uses it is if they have nothing better."
Grant shook his head at the display of casual power and focused on the newly formed and arrived foes.
A-0 was about ready to just set off the obvious crash condition for this overall array of distorted infrastructure that it more and more clearly realized was just Beta-16's experiments given time to advance. Even with that caveat it was still little better than what its brother had managed just before he had abandoned the idea like the rest of them. The thing was it was also more and more clear as it looked at them, particularly the creatures, that this was in fact the result of the ADDWARE not having anything better available.
The creatures were clearly just tar that used the distorted formations as a structure to build themselves up into a construct that could actually take a hit. Admittedly it could take a hit mostly by virtue of not quite interacting with combat correctly, and was definitely not reliable if the six different ways the things had broken from single strikes so far was to be taken into account. It was a unique solution, one that worked fine if you couldn't properly take over a digital world like the other Great Corruption could.
"So, you are unimpressed then, brother?" the strangely clear voice of the ADDWARE asked, and Quagsire's team clearly heard that.
"I am not your brother," A-0 bluntly told their foe, and turned a glare that was just short of deadly at the construct that had spoken words it had not heard in years.
"It is different now you know. I understand what you mean by that now," it continued. "So how about 'sibling' as you always preferred?"
"That works, ADDWARE," A-0 admitted dully. "I can call you that." This place was what it had been made to prevent. "You are definitely one of my siblings." This was what happened if an Administrator went out of control. "Which means one of the people I have made my responsibility."
The entire world around them had frozen the moment it had agreed with the Great Corruption. "Wh&t d1d y0u ju2t s&y?" the ADDWARE asked with the distortion back in full force.
"You are not Beta-16 anymore, but you are clearly an Administrator," it said to their greatest foe dispassionately. "Clearly one of my kind gone bad. I have dedicated my life to that threat, and now I know I failed to deal with you properly the first time."
"S0, you think you can pull that off?" the ADDWARE asked as it clearly collected itself.
"Override 3-02, code 6," A-0 explained and put the statement into practice. "Our ultimate defense to lock down Admin communication in or out of their Box." The world around them shuddered as the ADDWARE suddenly wasn't able to interact with anywhere other than its core world. The various distorted structures and creatures began to rapidly decay. "We should have at least a month before it can bypass that."
The specific creature that it had been using to speak shattered, and then reformed into the rough shape of a Porygon. "Thank you for that, although admittedly I cannot survive without that monster anymore," it said in a buzzing voice that was clearly tired. "I think the other Fragments might have had the right idea that dying is better than using it to hold onto life."
Nobody felt it was appropriate to comment on how they had both come back so far. "You were a pokemon," A-0 said with a sick feeling at the idea.
"I was too curious, and paid the price. I found its core world, the place that is the ADDWARE. It then used me to rebuild enough of itself to work, and then sent what was left outside to do what it couldn't," the Distorted Fragment continued, only sounding halfway like it was actually responding to the statement. "Without me it cannot escape that place for years, but as long as that place exists the possibility of a return remains."
"What does it have left there?" MasterTyranomon asked, and A-0 realized this was their last chance to find out just that question.
"Not much. The tar is near useless without my distorted constructs or Skeletal's bones," it explained, but there was a hint of uncertainty when it said 'my'.
"I can see that. You don't need to force yourself to hold on," A-0 said dully now that it was clear this pokemon had already lost everything. This was not the kind of distortion that a normal Porygon could handle.
"I could use some rest, but the tar will go out of control if I don't hold it back," the former Porygon said with the same dull distracted tone that it had started with.
"We can handle that," Quagsire said seriously, and the rest of them quickly and solemnly agreed.
"Ok. I'll let you handle it then," the Distorted Fragment said, and then simply faded away.
"Were any of them actually alive, or did we just save three ghosts from being trapped by a monster?" Kabutops asked quietly as the world around them similarly began to degrade.
"That one is unlikely to come back. They were barely in charge of themselves, and seemed more at peace with death than vengeful about it," Giratina explained as they all took in the full damage of their victory. "These two built up a lot of weight to their actions. They're cursed Ghosts who know they need to make up for their past lives. Typically such people get blamed for ill fortune, but I will admit they do actually draw some to themselves. You will need to make sure they don't try and avoid that by passing it along to others."
The team present for this debriefing had shrunk during the battle to just Janice, Metagross, Jane, and the newly returned team that had fought the final Fragment. "Well, at least we don't have to worry as much about that," Jane allowed with a sigh. "So that's going to be it for distorted stuff now that those worlds are gone?" she then asked A-0.
"It is an Administrator, and its first world is a Box. Outside of there it needed that crutch, but inside we will be up against its full might," the first Administrator noted sourly. "Which we will need to plan for, but we have time to rest before we do that now."
"The effect on the infected has been unexpected. It does further confirm that the early corruption we have on file were infected by it too," Janice explained to change topics to the next important news. "The intelligent ones are slightly altered, and initial scans show they are disconnected in a way that will take direct interaction to fall back under the ADDWARE's control, similar to what Refactor's Nodes needed. So on that front it is stuck basically starting over even if it can get another Fragment together before we help them out."
"Non-intelligent examples are exhibiting same decay as seen after battle for Refactor's core," Metagross added with distaste. "The Corrupt Researcher has assured us it has the capacity to deal with that issue in the worlds that are stable enough to survive the effect."
"Well, in that case I propose we all go to bed to escape this crazy day, and pick things up in two or three days when we finally finish dealing with the fallout of all this," Jane suggested with a grumble.