Digimon Re: Adventure Chapter 5:
Noon was setting in at Sora's neighborhood. Taichi was walking with Meiko back to Sora's place, all the while Agumon and Meicoomon carried the pizza box with each other's help. Eventually arriving on the scene were Yamato and Garurumon with the two of them carrying additional pizza boxes, some side orders, and beverages for everyone for when they got back.
"Taichi, you're running on next to empty, so I figured I would help and-" Yamato brought up, as he noticed the girl with Taichi, and noticed her condition and attire. "… Oh…" Yamato said, as Taichi remained quiet due to how sleepy he felt at the moment. Literally all Taichi could think about after getting Meiko introduced to everyone was to fall asleep.
"So… Taichi… Who is this?" Yamato finally asked, as Taichi looked over him and sighed; thankful the three were almost back at Sora's.
"She's somebody I found living in an alleyway on the way back. Let's just get back to Sora's before we do formal introductions, though… alright?" Taichi asked, as his tone sounded heavily exhausted. As the trio were walking back, Taichi was late to seeing Takeru and Hikari walking into Sora's house before he, Yamato, and Meiko would arrive. "By the way, why did you decide to follow after me?" Taichi asked.
"Dude, you just said you had been awake for 50 hours before you left to get us food; the boxes would've been heavy for you alone, and even if Agumon evolved you would've been too tired to maintain his evolution to carry everything with. So I decided to come and help out with it once I made sure my younger brother was staying out of trouble." Yamato told Taichi, as Taichi yawned.
"Is he the one named Takeru I've been hearing about from Hikari?" Taichi asked, as Yamato nodded.
"Yes, why?" Yamato asked, all the while he looked over at Meiko with her nervous walking with the group, as Meicoomon looked over at both Taichi and Yamato with concern.
"If you two don't mind, could we please save the talk with personal information for later? Meiko's beginning to feel a little uncomfortable with you whatever the hell you're talking about." Meicoomon brought up, as Taichi and Yamato looked at each other and nodded.
"We're almost there either way, literally about to step into the front door." Taichi said, as he walked up to the front door and knocked on it. "Hey, guys? Could we have some help out here?" Taichi asked, as answering the door was Jou and Gomamon.
"Need help carrying things in? Or just-" Jou was bringing up, before taking notice of Meiko. "… Oh… Oh my… Taichi what happened to her?!" Jou asked, as Taichi yawned a sigh out as he helped with Yamato getting some of the boxes of pizza and side orders off of Garurumon's back.
"I'll explain once we're inside; when everything is all covered, I'm heading to sleep like I should've been a dozen or so hours ago." Taichi said, as Jou nodded as he also helped Taichi and Yamato carry stuff in.
Once they everything was inside, everyone began to quietly eat once everyone had a chance to grab a piece of what they would like from the orders Taichi had placed for everyone. Taichi didn't exactly have much of a chance to think of what everyone would like, but they didn't argue with the mostly plain cheese or the cheese and pepperoni topped pizzas he ordered, or even the side order breadsticks and cheese sticks he got either way. The soda also helped considering at the very least, it wasn't alcoholic in nature.
"Thank you for getting this for us, Taichi." Sora's mother spoke up, as she was serving everyone who was waiting on food to be served still. Taichi, yawning a bit, spoke up to thank her.
"Thanks… But, er, if you don't mind, could I at least help introduce somebody to everyone else while we're trying to calm down?" Taichi asked, as he looked over towards Meiko and Meicoomon; both of them were rather hungrily eating in a hastier fashion than the others were; even Agumon had more table manners than these two showed. Everyone else, though, did at least pay attention towards Taichi's words.
"Guys, friends, companions; this is Mochizuki Meiko and her Adult Level Digimon named Meicoomon. I've known about the two of them since I was 8 years old, and this is the first time I've seen either of them in 13 years." Taichi introduced for Meiko and Meicoomon, as Meicoomon stopped eating enough to help with the introduction a little.
"My apologies for the manners here, but back when Taichi had briefly seen us, I was just a Digimon called 'Meimon' back when he first found us. I would imagine Taichi would've done his best to have helped us back then, but he was too young at the time to do anything more than help us find a foster home." Meicoomon spoke up. Meiko, finishing her current piece of pizza, swallowed nervously and looked at everyone else.
"Taichi tried his best to help us when he could all of those years ago, but, sadly, we had to flee the foster home when I turned 15 years old; they wouldn't accept Meicoomon now that she was an adult when I turned that old." Meiko spoke up, as everyone looked at her with concern, which somewhat freaked her out with how many eyes were gazing at her at once. Taichi, taking notice of this, snapped his fingers to get everyone's eyes off of her and towards him again.
"Koushirou, care to introduce everyone?" Taichi looked at his old friend, as Koushirou nodded.
"Yes, since I don't have much else to do, but first, how old is Meiko if I may ask?" Koushirou brought up.
"21." Meiko said, as Koushirou nodded.
"Right then; Meiko, everyone else here with three exceptions, as well as Sora's mom, are all 21 as well," He began, as he pointed towards people in the room with their Digimon, "Tachikawa Mimi with Palmon, Takenouchi Sora with Biyomon, Ishida Yamato with Gabumon, Yagami Taichi with Agumon, and myself, Izumi Koushirou with Tentomon." Koushirou introduced, as Mimi and Sora greeted Meiko with a simple wave and hello for now, as Koushirou looked over towards Takeru and Hikari.
"The youngest of the group are Takaishi Takeru with Patamon, and Yagami Hikari with Tailmon." Koushirou introduced, as Gatomon looked over and purred as Takeru and Hikari gave their greeting.
"Personally, though, you may call me Gatomon." Gatomon spoke up, as Meicoomon snickered. Koushirou, looking over towards Jou and the hungrily eating Gomamon, introduced him last.
"Over there is Kido Jou and Gomamon; whereas Takeru and Hikari are only 18 years old, Jou over there is 23." Koushirou finished, as Jou nodded.
"I do apologize if any of us are odd in behavior towards you; we're still getting used to the fact all of us are going to be seeing a lot of each other for a long while ahead." Jou said, as Meiko blinked.
"… Why would that be?" Meiko asked, as her digivice glowed with a bright energy all of a sudden; hers began glowing black and red, as the others held out their digivices which began to glow an array of colors as well, such as Taichi's glowing orange and blue, or Jou's glowing grey and indigo or Koushirou's with purple and maroon.
"That; that is why; we're all part of a group, according to the nature of this specific Digivices we have, known as the Chosen." Takeru brought up, as everyone looked at him with confusion.
"And what do the Chosen do?" Taichi asked with concern even though he was half asleep.
Meanwhile, though, a similar conversation was being had beyond reality itself; at the very border between the world of Digimon, and the real world of humanity.
"So, he's stronger than any of us could imagine, you say?" A voice spoke up in an area of nothing more than circuits and virtual wires scattered across a dark, blue void with various spheres of sorts; each of them labeled with an unknown language's terminology for specific types of locations and even whole worlds.
"It is true, Devimon; the Chosen are far stronger in this timeline than you could imagine them to be." GrandisKuwagamon spoke up; his wounds only just beginning to heal from his fight with Angemon, as his exhausted, heaving breathing indicated to Devimon that Angemon's beat down did more to him than what would've otherwise been obvious.
"… You got reckless, that's why you lost." Devimon spoke up, unfolding its wings to reveal a black, humanoid entity with long horns on the side of his head, numerous belts across his arms and legs, and an oddly tall frame for what was, on the surface, a mere Adult Level Digimon, as the numerous probing bots surrounding the two indicated his level to be. The bots scanned and repetitively spoke the names of anything they had scanned, bringing annoyance to GrandisKuwagamon as he lashed out with his armored arm claws and smashed one of them into the "ground".
"You know nothing of the true strength of an Ultimate Level, Devimon. I'm only coming back to you to inform you that if you mess with these "Chosen" as you call them, that you're going to die in a direct fight." GrandisKuwagamon spoke up, "After all, it is within my duties as a mercenary to ensure the safety of my clients; but who am I if I can't even reassure you knowing the beating Angemon alone gave me?!" He finished, all the while Devimon smirked a bit.
"Then, as corny as this sounds… how's about a deal?" Devimon inquired, as he brought up a contract before GrandisKuwagamon's face, prompting the Ultimate Level insectoid to read it through.
"'Give me the Evolution Disk'… And what if I refuse?" GrandisKuwagamon spoke, all the while his wary, suspecting tone shifted to a concerned one; chuckling pierce the seemingly private room, in the form of two separate, distinctly female and male voices, speaking in unison with each other as appearing in the room, taking GrandisKuwagamon by surprise as Devimon merely raised an eye.
"Chaosmon? How are you even alive in this zone?" Devimon asked, as he observed the humanoid being with a lion and dragon head for a right and left arm respectively. As the bots passed by, they scanned Chaosmon and repeatedly began screaming "ERROR" until they locked up and exploded upon so much as being near the aberration.
"Blame Flare and Tempest; they're both only allowing me to live because they feel it a sin to so much as speak to you, the cowards of a composite Royal Knight they both are. As much as I never understood their dynamic, I will say this; why is an Adult Level so heavily concerned about humans all of a sudden?" Chaosmon asked Devimon, to which Devimon was silent as was GrandisKuwagamon.
"Admit it, Devimon; you may be unofficially in charge of File Island due to being allied with Mugendramon, but your status as a threat comes solely from the fact you suck up to the machine to where he'll bail you out if absolutely necessary. You're hopeless without him." Chaosmon spoke, as Devimon leered towards Chaosmon. After a few seconds of silence, Devimon burst out into a slow, turning rapid laughter towards the immensely strong Digimon.
"You think that because Mugendramon alone is the only reason anyone fears me? I'd prefer you think again!" Devimon said as he lashed his long arms onto Chaosmon's shoulders, as his claws pierced through the separate cores on him as both of them short circuited with an electrical, red energy as Chaosmon's green eye turned into a soulless red gaze.
GrandisKuwagamon, slowly turning to begin to flee, was caught off guard when Chaosmon suddenly moved to hack off GrandisKuwagamon's legs with the large, bladed sword emerging from the lion headed right arm of Chaosmon, as GrandisKuwagamon was promptly vaporized by a blast of energy from the dragon headed left arm. As Chaosmon moved to deliver a finishing blow to his digicore, Devimon had stabbed in the way as Chaosmon's bladed arm had cut through him; despite that, however, it did not appear to harm Devimon in the slightest.
"Save your strength for now, Chaosmon; I'll deal with his remains myself." Devimon spoke, as he grabbed hold of GrandisKuwagamon's digicore and flew off with into one of the various worlds in the above "sky" like area of this zone. As Chaosmon growled, he could hear somebody cough which caused his red, soulless eye to turn back to its normal form; leaving Chaosmon coughing and hacking as he fell onto his knees.
Behind him stood a bipedal, Garurumon-like Digimon; heavily robotic, and carrying a multitude of guns and possessing a metallic, gold mane also made of metal. As it lowered its weapons and walked over towards Chaosmon's exhausted form, the Digimon lifted up the composition Digimon as Chaosmon gasped for air.
"He's hiding power, isn't he, Tempest?" Chaosmon asked, as the Garurumon-like Digimon, named Tempest, nodded.
"Same reason why he's so concerned over the Chosen as he is." Tempest spoke, as he helped Chaosmon onto his feet so he could stand properly. "He's paranoid of what his master would do if anybody else were to learn that he too is a reincarnation of a Legendary Digimon. Mugendramon may already be among those same Digimon in terms of power, but he would not approve of another like him on his side so easily." Tempest detailed, as Chaosmon looked away.
"… Where is Flare?" Chaosmon asked, as Tempest shrugged.
"She's probably busy… training. Why do you ask?" Tempest answered, and proceeded to ask due to how concerned Chaosmon sounded.
"You're lying; she's just as concerned regarding the 8 Chosen humans much like Devimon is, isn't she?" Chaosmon asked, as he moved to float up and approach a sphere which would lead him into the real world if he approached it enough. Tempest, meanwhile, raised his weaponry as a precaution.
"I recommend you sit your ass back down if you want the context as to who these humans are before you even remotely go there; if you die out there, you die forever." Tempest warned Chaosmon, as Chaosmon looked away from him and sighed as he floated back down to the glass-like floor to face Tempest.
"… Explain, runt." Chaosmon uttered, as Tempest's shorter height was made clearer here than anywhere else. Tempest, simply ignoring that remark, at least proceeded to explain either way.
"Very well, but let me just keep things simple and to the point since you'll need to leave soon or else the bots will quickly terminate you upon full detection." Tempest warned, before clearing his throat as he began to explain, "Many eons ago, the Legendary Digimon Huanglongmon carried 12 DigiCores on its back… however, other legends state that it instead used to carry 13 DigiCores; each of these DigiCores became half of the soul of a human throughout the generations, including the missing 13th. Much like the Royal Knight Alphamon, the 13th DigiCore represents the actual DigiCore of Huanglongmon itself and is considered a lost legend." Tempest said, as he commanded some bots to showcase data on five differing Digimon of different shapes.
"Huanglongmon was the ancestor of four others much like itself, each ruling over a different part of the worlds." Tempest said, pointing to an image of a quadrupedal, sauropod-like golden dragon. "Xuanwumon, ruled over the north," Tempest pointed to an image of a twin headed tortoise with a tree on its back, as the other images showed a four winged phoenix, an astral blue dragon, and a white and violet striped tiger. "Zhuqiaomon ruled the South; Qinglongmon ruled the East; and Baihumon ruled the West." Tempest spoke, as the images all pulled together the 12 DigiCores together and the hidden 13th DigiCore.
As the screens loaded, images of the 13 humans their souls shared with these Legendary Digimon appeared; the ones currently alive, to which Devimon were worried about, showed Taichi, Hikari, Mimi, Koushirou, Yamato, Jou, Sora, Takeru, and Meiko; four others were shown, but the bots could not identify them as none of them had Digimon associated with them yet, whereas the other 9 had Digimon associated with them to allow them to be found.
"The Chosen, as I've started, share half of their bodies with one of the DigiCores of the Holy Beasts; the one who shares the 13th DigiCore of the Holy Beasts, however, is one barely known to Digimon historians but is highly believe to be cursed due to past incidents involving these particular humans. In other words, Devimon does not fear the normal 12 of the group because of the fact he knows little of them of their abilities… but rather…" Tempest said, as he singled out the image of Meiko, to which the bot showcased no data on her outside of her partner Digimon Meicoomon.
"Devimon fears Meiko because he knows next to nothing of her; only vague information exists of the 13th, and every entity known to Digimon knows full well that for those whom we lack much knowledge on are considered the most dangerous in full potential, whether they realize it or not." Tempest finished, as Chaosmon nodded.
"So what do you have in mind?" Chaosmon asked, as Tempest still pointed his numerous guns towards him.
"Leave for the Real World and hide; wait things out and observe how Devimon chooses to approach this matter on his own." Tempest ordered, as Chaosmon nodded.
"As you command, Ambassador Tempest…" Chaosmon spoke, as he floated up to the sphere connecting to the real world. As his body vaporized into molecules, he was drawn into the real world as his body's remnants became drawn into the sphere. Tempest, meanwhile, watched as he heard loud footsteps approaching him in the form of a very humanoid, Greymon-like Digimon with a metallic helmet, clawed arm weapons, and an armored torso and legs.
"Did you wrap up with business?" A masculine, yet distinctly female voice asked Tempest from the Digimon.
"Yes, Flare; let's head back to the others." Tempest said, as he jumped up and flew off into the air. Flare, looking over towards the various spheres curiously, jumped into the air and flew off after Tempest without much of a second thought.
AN: If you're curious as to what Meimon, the Child Level Form of Meicoomon I mentioned here, looks like, then have a look over at my DeviantArt gallery and you'll find a picture of her in that form. Don't pay too much mind to the Digital Hazard on the design, though; it's mostly an in-joke between myself and my friends about how almost every source of conflict in tri. is because of Meicoomon.