Round Three
The data transfer tunnels were a familiar sight, but travelling through them had become much faster than they had originally. The six Digidestined were on their way to Izzy's server. Their Digimon had already Digivolved to Champion level, ready to DNA Digivolve when they reached their destination.
Izzy's face appeared on the overhead screens.
"I've switched the server back on, so get ready."
"Let's do this," Davis grinned. He had already donned Tai's goggles in place of his sunglasses, which now hung from his breast pocket.
The screens above displayed 'Enter! 入ロ' and the tunnel terminated into a wide, bright void, filled with what looked like filing cabinets, bookcases, and safes.
"This is the inside of Izzy's server?" Cody remarked.
"I expected it to look more… geeky," Davis said.
"I heard that," Izzy commented. Davis winced, though he still bore a grin.
"We should find Infermon, and fast," Yolei suggested.
"Let's split up into three pairs," Ken said. "Keep with your DNA Digivolution partners just in case."
"Right!" everybody agreed, and they went their separate ways.
Ken, Davis, ExVeemon and Stingmon headed downwards, scanning for their target. Yolei, Kari, Gatomon, and Aquilamon headed up, while T.K., Cody, Ankylomon and Angemon circled the horizontal perimeter.
"It'd help if we knew what he was looking for," Davis remarked.
"I'm locking it down now," Izzy replied. "So far, he's not gone after the Kuramon quarantine or the Digital Gate project. He might be going for the Analyzer data. It's in the general area you're in."
"Davis, I can hear something!" ExVeemon said, indicating further ahead. They darted forward to find a desk with large book on top of it. The book had a lock on its cover.
And firing into the lock with its Spider Shooter, in an attempt to break into it, was Infermon.
"Guys, we found him!" Izzy called out. "He's attacking the Digimon Analyzer data!"
"Let's get him!" Davis said, clutching his D-3.
"Digivolve!" Davis and Ken cried out together, their Digivices glowing.
"ExVeemon…"
"Stingmon…"
"DNA Digivolve to… Paildramon!"
The giant Dragon Man Digimon flew forward, with Davis and Ken on its shoulders.
"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon flipped the cannons on its hips to face Infermon and opened fire. The volley struck Infermon, and it spun in place.
"You got him!" Davis cheered.
"Don't leave us out!" came another voice from behind. Paildramon turned to see Silphymon flying towards them.
"Static Force!" Silphymon extended its arms and fired off a volley of energy. The energy exploded against Infermon, flipping it the other way.
"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon shouted, joining the fight as it shot lasers from its eyes at Infermon.
Their target vanished in the cloud of smoke created by their attacks.
"Perfecto!" Yolei said.
"That was easy! We might not even need Imperialdramon for this!" Davis clenched his fists.
"Don't celebrate too soon," Izzy warned. "Our first fight with Diaboromon went the same way."
The smoke below the Digidestined cleared. Infermon stood, glaring straight at them.
"No way! It didn't even leave a mark!" Yolei cried out.
"Heheheheh…" Infermon chuckled.
"What's so funny, bug-face?" Davis growled. Infermon's only response was to leap up towards them and retract its head and legs into its shell. All three Digimon launched their attacks again, but this time, they glanced harmlessly off Infermon's outer carapace as it sped towards them.
"Watch out!" T.K. called. The three Digimon parted as Infermon sped between them, as if it had meant to collide with them. It spun in the air, releasing its legs and head as it landed on a filing cabinet. It braced, raising its head and opening its mouth to reveal a small cannon.
"Spider Shooter!" Infermon attacked, firing shells from its mouth aimed at its aggressors. The three Digimon dodged.
"Rggh! So much for being easy!" Davis gritted his teeth in frustration.
"We might need Imperialdramon after all," Ken said to Davis.
"Yeah," Davis nodded. "Paildramon! You know what to do!"
"You got it! Paildramon Mega Digivolve to… Imperialdramon!"
The gigantic dragon loomed even larger inside the digital space. Ken and Davis perched on its shoulders.
"Hoo-boy! We got this now!" Davis celebrated.
"Let's strike at the same time," T.K. suggested.
"Sounds like a plan!" Shakkoumon agreed.
"Silphymon, are you ready?" Kari asked.
"Let's do it!" Silphymon replied.
Imperialdramon flew high, targeting Infermon with the cannon on its back.
"Positron Laser!" it cried, firing a massive blast of energy from the cannon.
"Static Force!" Silphymon joined in.
"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon added his attack.
All three attacks combined and blew into Infermon, once again obscuring the spider-like Digimon behind a cloud of smoke.
"I think we got him this time!" Davis said. "No way he survived that!"
Watching the battle unfold from the Dark Ocean through a distortion portal, Dark Gennai laughed.
"Oh, this may be a diversion from my real goal, but he's not out of the fight yet," he chuckled.
"Hahahahaha…"
The laugh came from inside the cloud of smoke. It didn't sound like Infermon's laugh. It was much deeper, more sinister.
"Look…" Kari pointed. The smoke started to clear, and the silhouette of a Digimon could be seen. It wasn't Infermon's silhouette.
"Diaboromon…" T.K. said lowly.
"Hahahaha…" Diaboromon laughed as it creeped forward from the smoke cloud.
In Izzy's office, the monitor flooded with data.
"I don't believe it…" Tai stood behind Izzy, watching.
"We've underestimated him," Izzy folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. "This may not be the same Diaboromon as before, but he's just as durable."
"Can they stop him?" Tai asked.
"I hope so," Izzy replied. "I just want to know why he targeted the Digimon Analyzer data. It doesn't look like he wanted to consume it like the data he's consumed so far."
"Maybe he wants to destroy it?" Tentomon suggested.
"Yeah, but why? What purpose would that serve him? He's only attacking the original, not the ones I have backed up. He has to know there are backups. The only thing he could gain from it is to learn the weaknesses of our Digimon, or how their data structure works. He's not even tried going for the Kuramon storage, so what's his goal?"
"We can still beat him," Imperialdramon said through the computer.
"Leave it to us," Silphymon added.
"He won't get away with this," Shakkoumon finished.
"Hehahahaha…" Diaboromon continued laughing.
"Quit it with the laughing!" Davis yelled.
"He won't be laughing for long! Mega Crusher!" Imperialdramon flew up and fired a huge ball of dark matter at Diaboromon. Before it could strike, Diaboromon leaped out of the way like a frog.
"Static Force!" Silphymon fired energy at Diaboromon, but Diaboromon dodged again.
"Kachina Bombs!" Shakkoumon fired several clay discs at Diaboromon. Diaboromon spun in mid-air and blocked them all. It turned to face Shakkoumon and the cannon on its chest glowed.
"Look out!" T.K. and Cody shouted.
"Web Wrecker!" Diaboromon fired energy at Shakkoumon. Shakkoumon was too large and slow to dodge the attack, so it turned to protect its human partners. The energy exploded against Shakkoumon's back. Diaboromon fired another volley, blasting Shakkoumon repeatedly.
"Leave him alone!" Silphymon rushed forward, intending to ram Diaboromon. Diaboromon turned its attention to Silphymon instead. The smoke from Diaboromon's attack had cleared, leaving a dazed Patamon and Armadillomon behind.
"Patamon! Are you okay?" T.K. picked Patamon up.
"I'm okay, T.K.," Patamon replied.
"Armadillomon!" Cody called.
"Sorry, Cody, I couldn't dig my way out of this," Armadillomon said.
Above them, Silphymon chased Diaboromon, firing off occasional Static Force attacks. Diaboromon spun around to face its pursuer.
"Cable Crusher!" Diaboromon's arms shot forward, its hands flailing wildly. Silphymon did its best to dodge, but it got hit and fell towards the bottom on the digital space
"That's it!" Imperialdramon growled. "Now you've made me mad!"
Imperialdramon flew up towards Diaboromon. He began to glow.
"Web Wrecker!" Diaboromon fired its chest cannon again, striking Imperialdramon head-on.
"No way…" Tai sank into a chair. "We did need Omnimon…"
"Don't count Imperialdramon out just yet," Izzy continued typing away.
The smoke blew away. Imperialdramon had changed from its Dragon Mode into its Fighter Mode. Ken and Davis perched on Imperialdramon's shoulders.
"You're in trouble now," Davis grinned.
"Let's finish this!" Ken nodded.
"You got it!" Imperialdramon flew forward, raising its right arm.
"Positron Laser!" Imperialdramon fired. Diaboromon leaped aside deftly and returned fire with its Web Wrecker.
"We gotta slow him down!" Ken said.
"Yeah, but how?" Davis asked. "Don't think e-mails are gonna do it now."
As he said that, four figures shot past them. Davis and Ken looked upwards: Angemon, Angewomon, Aquilamon and Ankylomon were racing towards Diaboromon.
"We'll hold him down!" Yolei shouted.
"Then Imperialdramon can defeat him!" Cody continued.
The four Digimon zipped towards Diaboromon, catching him completely unaware. Aquilamon grabbed Diaboromon behind the shoulders, while Angemon and Angewomon grabbed it from the sides. Ankylomon took hold of one of Diaboromon's legs. The four Digimon forced Diaboromon around to face Imperialdramon.
"Do it!" T.K. shouted.
"Right!" Davis, Ken, and Imperialdramon said together. Imperialdramon flew towards the struggling Diaboromon. Once Imperialdramon got close enough, the dragon head on its chest opened up and a cannon extended out. It jammed the cannon right up to Diaboromon's chest cannon.
"Giga Crusher!" Imperialdramon fired straight down Diaboromon's chest cannon. The four other Digimon let Diaboromon go and it fell backwards, its body bulging. Smoke poured from both its cannon and its mouth, before its head exploded and its body fell to the bottom of the digital space. The Digimon hovered, staring down at Diaboromon's body, smoke still pouring from it.
The smoke suddenly turned black, and it blasted upwards.
"Watch out!" Imperialdramon shouted. They all evaded as the smoke stream circled around.
"Oh, dear, that wasn't supposed to happen…" Dark Gennai's shoulders sagged. His body shook, as if he was sobbing, but then he stood straight back up and laughed.
"You all fell right into my trap! That is exactly what I wanted you to do!"
Dark Gennai's laughter echoed into the darkness.
An alert flashed onto Izzy's screen.
"Oh, no…" Izzy's typing accelerated frantically.
"What?" Tai asked.
"Defeating Diaboromon unleashed a worm within the server!"
"Don't you have anti-virus?" Tai said.
"Of course, I do, but this worm's twinned with a virus that is somehow shutting it all down! If we don't do something, the entire server's going to be infected within minutes!"
Another alert went off.
"Somebody's breaking into the server, Izzy!" Tentomon said.
"Breaking in? Then we were right! They don't want to destroy the data… they're trying to steal it!"
A window opened up on the monitor, showing that there were files being copied. Izzy tried to cancel it, but the window popped back up.
"Guys, you're going to want to get out of there, I'm going to need to shut the server down!" Izzy said.
"You don't have to tell us twice!" came Davis' reply.
Within minutes, Davis and the group were back in Izzy's office. The monitors were flashing with red light as the virus worked within the server.
"How are you going to stop it, Izzy?" Davis asked. Izzy's response was to get behind the server rack and unplug the power cable. The screen went blank. As Izzy went back to his desk, he glanced at the dumbfounded expressions on everybody's faces.
"That was… erm…" Tai said.
"What? Sometimes, you've got no choice but to pull the plug." Izzy responded. "I'll have to reboot later, isolate the server and do a thorough clean of it, but for now, that will hold off the worm."
"That black cloud broke into the same file Diaboromon was trying to get into," Ken remarked.
"For Diaboromon to be deliberately looking for that information, only to unleash a worm that went after the same thing…" Cody said.
"Somebody sent Diaboromon in there on purpose," T.K. said.
"What did the worm steal?" Kari asked.
"Files on several Digimon," Izzy answered. "But… from what I saw, the files the worm chose to steal don't make much sense. Some of the data stolen was of Greymon, MetalGreymon, Kabuterimon and Angemon, but then it went after the data we had on Devimon, Monochromon and Airdramon as well."
Ken's expression darkened.
"Those Digimon…" Ken muttered.
"What?" Davis asked.
"They're the Digimon whose data I used to create Kimeramon when I…" Ken replied glumly. Yolei stepped forward and placed her hand on Ken's shoulder.
"Hey, you know that wasn't really you, right?" she said. Ken looked at Yolei.
"Regardless, if this is why they broke in, then it doesn't make sense," Izzy shook his head. "There has to be an easier method than sending a Digimon to attack a secured server."
"Unless they wanted us to notice," T.K. suggested.
"If they meant to draw our attention, then whoever sent Diaboromon meant to have us figure it out," Ken added.
"Come on, that's lame," Davis interjected.
"Not if they wanted us to find them," Cody responded.
"Why would they want us to find them?" Kari wondered.
"Yeah, do they want us to kick their butts that badly?" Davis chipped in.
"It could be a trap," Izzy mused. "Either way, we're backed into a corner. If somebody is after that data, and they're using it build a new Kimeramon, then we have to stop them."
Izzy stepped back to the server rack.
"I'm going to plug the server back in," he said, reaching behind to reattach the power cable. "We need to be able to track where the worm is sending the stolen data. We can't risk our own Digimon, since we don't know what the virus attached to it could do to them. We don't want another infection crisis on our hands. But we can send one of the Kuramon in storage attached to the data packets the worm is sending."
"Is that a good idea?" Tai asked.
"It's the only one I can think of right now, short of trying to write a tracking program and attaching that to it. It would be easier to tag a Kuramon and follow it upstream to wherever it goes. And we don't need to worry about these Kuramon becoming Diaboromon, because the original Diaboromon only made them capable of Digivolution in large groups."
The monitor flared to life, and Izzy got to work quickly as the virus reactivated. He decrypted the Kuramon storage, took one out, and attached it to the data that was being stolen. As expected, the Kuramon vanished quickly as the virus sent the stolen data to wherever it was going.
"Now, I need to get rid of the worm on the server," Izzy's fingered blazed over the keyboard.
Several small blocks of different colours materialized in Dark Gennai's hand, and he smirked darkly.
"This does put a smile on my face," he remarked, examining the data blocks. "Now I have everything I need to… hmm?"
Something else came through the distortion before it closed. A small Kuramon. It looked up at Dark Gennai, its one eye blinking.
"Ah, so that's how they think they can find me… well, I did plan on them finding me. After all, I'll need an audience for this performance. Let the Digidestined come, see if they can try and stop me… Heheheheh… Hahahaha!"
And that's the end of this chapter too!
I'm going to head this question off at the pass, because I'm sure somebody would ask it: why did I have Dark Gennai use Diaboromon and not Daemon? Simply put, for the plot I have in mind, Daemon would not do. Daemon is most certainly worthy of being the main antagonist of a story all by himself and not as a lure. Diaboromon, in contrast, has been the main antagonist twice already. To me, he fits what I was going for.
Next up: Izzy completes the trace, and the Digidestined head towards the one who sent Diaboromon after them in the first place. Tune in next time!