Arc 5 Finale, Part 4 of 5
- Administrative Requirements -
The day after the battles against the three Fragments Gazimon needed to be reassured that his teammates should be fine if they slept through the day, while the digimon was clearly too tired to be up himself as well. Tyra and Crusher quickly was made clear to the more rested Troubleshooters that this had been the first time Gazimon had been in a place where "needs to rest more" was actually a valid excuse to get out of waking up sometimes, and also that he was still too exhausted to be able to fake a calm demeanor. DSS thankfully didn't have Investigators or Flameheart Champions around for the day it took to calm down a digimon that had lived through generations of sleeping in too long being a death sentence.
Jane returned two days after the battle with an initial list of high level trainers they might possibly get at one time. Shawn and Serperior were up and about enough to deal with her while the rest of the Troubleshooters had a calmer day to recover themselves. Jack's team wasn't seen for three days, and still looked terrible when they arrived.
A-0 had spent those three days fully focused on every problem its siblings had during that time in a clear attempt to take every excuse it could find to not think about the ADDWARE until it was forced to. Between the investigation into if any other Ghosts had formed in Box 113, which unfortunately had an answer of "yes there have been a handful over the years who had been quietly hidden from everyone by the inhabitants", and the followup to double check all of the other Boxes just in case found three cases other than the Ghost Box with the most notable being that the Poison type Box that had been actively exporting Grimer for a while.
"I think we might be able to get away with Charlie 13 being in charge of an afterlife," Janice complained at the complete news there. "In fact, compared to how Charlie 78 needs to stop being the region's largest supplier of sludge monsters it sounds like we could probably do worse than just an afterlife."
"For example, Alpha 10 has somehow broken their Box to the point where any physical item that is left there too long turns into a new pokemon," A-0 sighed. "We might be lucky the problem isn't already more widespread."
"I just got here, and I've already heard that you found some work for me this time," Mew said in a grumpy tone. "I've just managed to find out who can come just in case among the local Legendaries. The answer is that Dialga has informed me that he knows there are many ways this goes wrong in the long run. Which already was something I felt should have had more details left in it, because I have the feeling that he might not have understood which specific problem I was talking about."
"Yeah, Dialga is pretty bad about getting distracted by the bits that actually involve his timeline breaking," Giratina noted from a shadow. "Did you ask Palkia? She's usually better about that sort of thing."
"I didn't even ask Dialga," Mew complained. "I have a few locals who can maybe help, but no real combat types. One of those was a Celebi that asked your brother. Although now that I've specifically gone around looking for them I can say the local Legendary scene is stranger than I expected. Mostly Ice or Dragon typed for obvious reasons, but a good mix of others who I didn't think were found in this region."
"I think we might have both done the same work twice," Jane cautioned the Legendary pokemon. "I've been going over our stronger trainers, and quite a few of them have either Frozen Flames for their pokemon or Legendary pokemon who came with them from other regions."
"Oh. Well that explains why about half of them said they wanted to suggest this Charizard they just met might be a Legendary," the cat pokemon grumbled. Shawn and Serperior both snorted in surprised humor at that idea. "I personally don't buy it, especially if it is you because you're pretty normal."
"So, with that topic brought up what exactly is our plan for who is going to go in and work to destroy the ADDWARE?" Quagsire asked pointedly to cut off the interruption. Her team had spent the time since their own fight on normal Troubleshooter work, which had actually fallen close to the point it had been before they had joined DSS without ADDWARE influence. "Because I asked Beta 40 to give me an idea how she would fight us and I'm a bit worried that more might not be better in this situation."
"Considering I thought I was asking for a list of the best we could find instead of just a number that is very true," Janice agreed and turned from her console, with her wrapped aura sensors flopping from how quickly the current Lucario turned. The Troubleshooter Lead had once again gotten distracted enough to miss her medication on the day of the Fragment conflict, and had only held back from complaining about that due to everyone else being in worse shape. "We need options that can go in on their own, stay safe with minimal support, and handle their own attacks thrown back at them at best. In fact if we can swing it I want Gazimon and A-0 to work together to come up with a training scenario for us to run a couple of times before we launch the full attack."
Both the Charizard and the Mew looked quite embarrassed at that clarification, and then turned to each other. "Um, okay I can go over the list again for that," Mew said quickly and vanished from the room.
"That basically just leaves the Wendrago Champions, and they can spare any of them for one day at best," Jane admitted and shifted back to human form. "I mean overall, so if those training things are that important I might not have anyone."
"I'm mostly mad you didn't focus on just them to try and get us more than one day somehow, but we can't spare weeks for this," Janice sighed. "Honestly I'd feel better if we hit the place two days ago, but we just have the snake twins back."
"Don't say we're back yet," Shawn and Serperior said together. "That hit was worse than we expected and we need a plan just in case it has another Mega." Serperior rippled a bit to emphasize, as the snake pokemon had still not managed to get solid again since the fight.
"They are good to fight if they need to," TyranoGazimon cautioned the group. "However, Delta 2 says we should try and give them another two days at the very least. I agree with that, but there are some options I can suggest if it isn't possible."
"My sibling can be left alone for that much time," A-0 said a bit bluntly. "I've had the others double checking that particular override, and with the damage I detected it wouldn't be able to bypass it for at least a month even if it had another digital life form to turn into a new Fragment so it could do something with that bypass."
"Can't say it is the worst relative I've ever had," Gazimon half joked in a clear attempt to improve A-0's mood with a comparison of his own relation to the Administrator Porygon to what A-0 had just said about the ADDWARE.
"Dad, I do not want to know which old digimon qualified as worse than the ADDWARE, let alone how one counts as a 'relative'," Tyra complained and covered her face with her reptilian claw. "I already have to go over our data on what it has done, and I want some distance from that before I have to tackle your issues again."
"Suit yourself," Gazimon laughed. "I have some ideas how to use what I know about those bastards against this new one." A-0 looked slightly better at that declaration. "I think my team might be able to take at least some of the power over a Box away from its owner in an emergency." A-0 then looked thoughtfully at the rest of his team.
"Wait," Shawn said a bit desperately.
"Don't make us take over some of that side of tech support!" Serperior quickly added as he finally solidified.
The former Skeletal Fragment preferred their new form. Their shattered and ever fragmented spirit had been destabilized by bone before, but now their fossil keystone was a comfortably safe place to rest. They honestly wished they could just be a normal Spiritomb.
"Would you get a trainer?" Spiritual asked dully as she finally looked at her hauntingly blank mask. "We are pokemon now. We can... do whatever it is pokemon do for trainers."
"I wish to simply exist," Skeletal replied to the Yamask simply. To have time to piece themselves back together would be enough. "If that would aid in existence it would be valuable. However, it does not sound required."
"Skeletal," she tried to chastise them, and they huffed in a hundred voices.
"Could you call me Spiritomb instead? I wish for the time of being the Fragment to end," they said somberly. It was bad enough that there was the sort-of-weight of all those they had harmed on them. "To have death at least give us that."
"Sorry, Spiritomb," Spiritual responded and rubbed her mask. "I think this damn thing means I have a bigger desire to hold on to my past."
"Delta 5?" the ruler of their current world asked a newly formed pane from where the digital Giratina was sitting nearby to keep an eye on them. "Is there a problem, and if so why are you calling me instead of Janice?"
"I, um, have a question you might be able to answer better, Charlie 13. I've been keeping up to date on what has been happening with Charlie 11 because of, well," the gravely voice on the other end started to explain.
"Because you took over for Charlie 99," the Ghost/Dragon said sympathetically. "Has that helped?"
"Well, the thing is the questions Delta 15 keeps asking her kind of don't make sense," Delta 5 replied with nervousness. "They really don't make sense. So I really want to check that there is backup data on Administrator memories and such."
"Charlie 99 was scrambled so badly we didn't even get logs of what specific part of that disaster killed him so we could prevent it happening again," Charlie 13 dryly replied. "I know we don't have full memory files stored, but even if we did none of those would have survived that."
"Can you check if I'm a reincarnation then? Because I have been under the impression for longer than C-11's been dead that I was just using stored memory from him that was in the Box," the gravelly voice replied sounding rather small.
The Giratina turned to the two of them. "You two are on your own for a bit, don't break anything yourselves, but don't worry if the regulars do something. We're Ghosts after all," the Administrator said and surged out with a pool of black.
"What just happened?" Spiritual asked with complete confusion, and Spiritomb could only laugh at the sight of their effective sibling's confounded face. "I'm serious Ske-Spiritomb!"
"But not about something that isn't truly critical to our lives," they said in some of their voices, a bit less than half, while the others continued to laugh a bit more collectedly. "What has happened is strange, and unbelievable, but we are not at risk for the first time I can remember."
"I can't even remember what I was before I was a Fragment," she admitted and turned away from her death mask. "Were you in pain?" she asked with the clear implication that she had been.
"I tore my body and spirit every time I incarnated something from the tar of our dread master," Spiritomb admitted. "I am in considerably less with this new Keystone to support me, but it will take time to properly heal."
The Yamask looked at them carefully at that statement, as if she was for the first time seeing just what pokemon the former Skeletal Fragment had become.
"A-0, be reasonable, our stuff is too much of a mess for this kind of thing," Shawn argued as the main Troubleshooter team arrived in the specific world coated with Forest's Ichor that had been chosen as the core world for Basirablemon's forces.
"A bigger mess than what we typically have to fix when it is bad enough to merit that kind of response?" the Porygon-2 questioned with a bit of a laugh. "Not to mention we have only got more data on how it is one of our most applicable means of fixing corruption."
"With a side effect of occasionally turning them into yet more Ichor Dragons," Serperior complained with an apologetic nod at a number of said creatures that were resting nearby. "Which is its own problem even before we bring Mew's ideas on that front."
"You two might be a bit overprotective with them," A-0 said a bit more seriously. The three other Troubleshooters gave it a confused look at that statement. "I'm serious here, you aren't really letting them do much of anything right now. Gazimon's HardWare units have more to do."
"Not sure I like how someone else's product is being called 'mine' all of a sudden," Gazimon grumbled. "I've got just one that's directly tied to the Network, the rest are all stock models. These new hybrids are more 'mine' than those guys are and I'm sharing them."
"So, you haven't had time to look into the developments on that front yet?" his trainer then awkwardly dodged a question that had not been asked. "Because its been a couple weeks since the site that they came from finished being inspected to see what could be salvaged, and well..."
"I don't think they've shipped the hardware to us yet, but all the machines they could use and data have been removed. With the notable exception of the HardWare production units," Serperior finished. "So, they are going to be entirely yours soon."
"I thought they were doing better," Gazimon sadly said at that news and grimly turned towards a Ichor Hydra that had moved closer.
"They are, when they're working for you," A-0 attempted to reassure the digimon. "It isn't like the Warehouse life forms who can still do their original job, their home world is basically still just the broken remains of their most notable 'failure'. Honestly, I've been looking forward to you helping the force that has been staying there."
"Lords Basirablemon and Gazimon!" Tartioise said as they reached the location of the Hybrids to cut off that discussion. "I had been worried that you were not going to be able to make it again." The Blastioise based monster like most of the Ichor-Network Hybrids was mostly made of the thick tar Basirablemon made, with a core of cable muscles under that and their original bones as the base. Tartioise had the most visible original components as the cannon on their back and their thick shell had both counted as 'bone' for the Skeletal Fragment's final creation.
"I don't think they appreciate that title much," Tartops said in a tone that said it felt that them not appreciating the title was the problem in question. Despite Kabutops already being a bone thin pokemon this one still had a fairly thick layer of tar and cable over its bones. The result was what would have been a fairly bulky example of that species of pokemon.
Tarizard then burbled with annoyance at something, but the Charizard based hybrid did not bother to collect himself from the pile of disjointed parts and sludge he currently existed as to form a clear reply, and quickly returned to sleeping.
Tardramon looked nervously at Tarmory as the latter flapped over to them. The digimon based dragon looked nervously between her two siblings that had spoken clearly and the effective leader of their small group.
"Powerful one," Tarmory greeted A-0 instead of the other three. "Is there an issue?"
"We are preparing for the final battle against the ADDWARE, and want to determine how much Basirablemon's forces can help with that, yourselves included," A-0 answered happily as the other three present sighed at that specific wording.
"Do we have to?" Tarizard asked with just his jawbones collected together to speak with.
"Volunteers only," Shawn and Serperior firmly said together, and the pile of bones slumped down again lazily. "Although out of everyone here you five are the ones we would trust to be able to get out best if you needed to."
"Mostly because we've had targeting issues with the tar pool method in the past, but have a long line of successes with Dark Network emergency exits," Gazimon smugly added. "Admittedly some are from Team Upload's antics, but it is more accurate overall."
"Um, I'm not sure my targeting would be that good," Tardramon barely managed to say, but her serpentine-dragon body sank into the tar around her and she entirely stopped speaking the moment everyone turned to look at her in response to her comment.
Gazimon glanced at Tarmory curiously at that reaction, and got a silent shake of the bird's head in response to hold off on that topic. "Again, only volunteers for this one," he attempted to reassure the digimon regardless. "This is the serious one and I'd honestly hear someone say they can't help than have them just try when they aren't sure."
"Which is honestly the main reason we've decided to at least come here," Serperior noted. "We want to check on the dragons and figure out which of them can actually handle that and which we need on task to keep the rest here."
"Can I go with you guys instead of that?" Tardramon asked fearfully, and Tarizard burbled in agreement at that.
"A-0, I have news," Charlie 13 cut off their discussion with a sudden communication line from Box 199.
"The lack of a qualifier on that worries me almost as much as how you are in someone else's Box to tell me it," A-0 dully noted. "Have you figured out why Delta 5 is so bad at helping with the other Deltas in his situation," it added as more of a criticism with a nod at the now visible image of the currently Regirock shaped Porygon Administrator. Delta 5's Box was used mainly for short term contracts with trainers visiting from other regions, and he typically switched forms with each new user. Something he shared with the prior owner of the Box, Charlie 99.
"Reincarnations can sometimes mistake their past life memories for something else?" Delta 5 nervously admitted, and A-0 froze in mid air.
"Charlie 13, please tell me his issue is not that Charlie 99 somehow ended up messing with typical reincarnation and ended up reborn as his replacement?" the first Administrator Porygon questioned darkly.
"A-0, we know two reincarnations that were reincarnated before their past life even died," Shawn nervously said. "One of which still has both lives currently still alive." The red eyed trainer blinked at his own statement. "I don't think there is a clear way to say that quickly."
"I'm half tempted to go over every single human, pokemon, and whoever else we have here and check if they were anyone important in a past life," Charlie 13 said with a dark tone of his own.
"That probably is a bit too far," Gazimon nervously informed the Giratina shaped digital pokemon. "For one thing we have the sort of luck that it would only find us some brand new problems, but the bigger thing is that can probably wait until after the ADDWARE is gone."
"Put together an official request I can pick holes in, ask more questions about the current issue from Delta 5, and get back to me when we finish killing Beta 16's rotten undead remains," A-0 bluntly and darkly responded.
"We have finished getting Mega forms ready for emergency use," Tai cautiously allowed as he discussed their options with DSS. "So I'd prefer to have a bit of test period before we have to arrive to make sure we can hold those forms. Maybe have us come in after you've started?"
"We don't know how much firepower we will need yet, and won't until we have someone there to check," Janice agreed. "But worst case we might need as many as we can get to destabilize the world."
"Just to check, but this is supposed to be up against someone who can pull off what the Architect was doing to MaloMyotismon, right?" Matt asked with what Tai felt was the appropriate level of unease.
"It is a common Administrator Porygon skill," Janice dryly answered. "We've had to work around that before. Even LAS has pulled that on us. As long as you can handle being separated temporarily it should be fine."
"Have we mentioned that Shawn and Serperior are kind of scary?" Tai sighed. "Because I think it should be pointed out more often that what they call a normal threat is a bit much for most people. I know from the report Yolei gave from when we worked with your world's trainers on that topic that it isn't just us that think that."
"Admittedly we've had a lot more genuine Legendary pokemon and Champion trainers saying about the same thing," the Troubleshooter Lead admitted reluctantly. "And I guess I've mostly dealt with Boxes for most of my time working with digital worlds." The Lucario sighed sadly. "Which is why I'm worried that we will need a bit more firepower. The ADDWARE is sort of like an Administrator, but there are enough differences that I think we might need to go a bit farther."