Chapter 16: The First Child
Night fell over the continent of Mainframe. Its jungles emitted the sounds of insects that could be heard for miles. Night dwelling creatures foraged for food, hiding in the shadows as they did so. A pack of rodents scurry as a bright ball of light flies past them overhead. The ball shot light into every nook and cranny of the jungle, making it seem like day again.
The ball of light flew out of the jungle and continued towards a city. The city showed no signs of life, but one building in the center. The building stood above the rest. It's windows reflected the ball's light as the ball circled it. Several of the windows were lit and shadows went past them. The ball broke through one of the unlit windows. The glass shattered with a loud crash and triggered an alarm. Red lights twirled in all directions and a horn shouted an intruder alert.
- Deep within the tower -
The three tablets representing the Magi lit up as an alarm started. Balthesar, the one labeled 01 spoke, " Something has breached our security!"
Gasper, the one labeled 02, replied, "It's a type 4 anomaly. Unknown origin." He became silent as he brought up some data readings and a map of the floor it was on.
Melchior, labeled 03, examined the data and then watched the red dot move down the map, "It is head our way!"
Balthesar shut down the map, "Do not assume!" Balthesar activated a com-link, "Begin level 5 purge of target." He turned to Melchior, "Our little friend will never make it this far!"
Melchior brought the map of the floor back up. The red dot continued to weave through the maze of halls towards the Magis' chamber. Several other dots appeared and began to move towards the red dot. "Group zeta 3 has engaged the target."
- Hallway within compound -
A robotic type digimon scanned the ball of light in front of him with an infrared scope. He prepared his gun, "Be mindful, Gunrotomon! Do not allow it to touch you!" He armed his gun and began to fire.
The other gunrotomon followed their leader's commands and fired at the ball. The ball absorbed the shots and became brighter. It halted its advance down the hallway and sent a shockwave at the Gunrotomon. The gunrotomon froze as the shock wave hit them and their systems began to short out.
The lead Gunrotomon tapped his right arm, "This group zeta 3. The target is unaffected by our attacks." He turned and saw the ball charging at him. He tried to jump out of the way, but the ball was too fast and vaporized him entirely.
The remaining gunrotomon continued to fire at the ball, hoping to find a weak spot. The ball ignored the pests and continued to search for the Magi chamber. As it turned a corner, it ran into a large, armored digimon.
The digimon smirked, "End of the road. Armortankmon, attack!" Armortankmon hunched over to reveal a large cannon on his back. The cannon emitted a blue glow as it began to charge up. " Electro-bomb!" The cannon fired a black sphere at the ball. The sphere shot out lightning as it zipped at its target. The ball swung to the right to avoid the sphere and continued past Armortankmon. "Not so fast!" Armortankmon shouted as he opened his chest plates. "Armored drill bomb!"
A large missile with a drill shaped tip shot out of his chest. It met with the ball, but flew right through it. The missile crashed into the wall in front of it and began to drill through. The ball waited patiently as the drill dug deeper into the compound. As the hole got deeper, the ball entered after the drill.
It followed the missile into a room, where a group of Gunrotomon were waiting, "There it is! Open fire!" The Gunrotomon fired at the ball, but received the same results as the last group had. The ball continued after the missile, deeper into the compound.
- Magi chamber -
Balthesar voiced his anger as the red dot moved closer to their chamber, "Useless fools! Their quick actions have served only to quicken our intruder's advance!"
Gasper watched the red dot move through the walls as the drill dug deeper, "He will arrive within 43 seconds at his current rate!"
Melchior floated closer to the map, "We do not know if its intents are hostile."
Balthesar kept still, "No, but we cannot take any risks!"
Gasper floated backwards as the red dot appeared just outside their chamber, "It has arrived!"
Balthesar shouted, "Enough! Armortankmon! Detonate your drill missile at once!"
A loud explosion burst threw the wall as the drill missile was commanded to explode. Fire spat into the chamber through the hole that had been made. The once pitch black chamber was now glowing with the red light from the flames. Out of the flames, the ball of light emerged.
Balthesar floated to the other side of the map and moved towards the ball of light, "Interesting... It does not seem to be anything at all!"
Melchior moved to float behind, to the right of Balthesar, "His power readings are that of the First child's digimon."
Balthesar turned, slightly to his right, "The Koramon? Could it be?"
The ball shined ever brighter and made the black walls seem white. It twirled in its place and began to take a solid shape. Gasper scanned the ball as the glow became more intense, "It forming into a digi-egg!"
The glow gradually became darker as the egg took shape. Balthesar signalled some floating contractions over and had them grab the egg before it could drop. "If this is indeed the egg of the First child's digimon, why is it here?"
Gasper floated over to the egg, "The fates' core programming within the chosen digimon. If they fail to protect their master, then they return to their creators for reprogramming."
Melchior floated back to where the egg was floating to join his conrads, "But we are not its creator."
Gasper guided the machines to bring the egg to the center of the chamber. A light shined as it was turned on and illuminated a circular machine. The egg was placed into the machine and was scanned, "There is no doubt about it. This egg belongs to the first digimon." Gasper left the egg floating over the machine, "Perhaps it came to use because the fates were unreachable."
Balthesar floated over to Gasper and spoke with a lower tone than usual, "So, as the caretakers of the Digiworld, we must deliver this egg to the fates?"
Gasper's tablet gave a nodding motion, "Either that or we re-program it ourselves."
Melchior approached the other two, "Are you sure that is safe? We may have created the fates, but we dare not tamper with their work."
Balthesar turned to Melchior and began to glow brighter with rage, "Fool! We, ourselves were once fates! The three creators of the Digiworld! We needn't fear the fates!"
Gasper removed the egg from the machine and floated it over to the central computer, "Then the re-programming will commence."
- File Island -
Tai continued to walk through the forest. It had been nearly a day since he separated from the others, and he hadn't stopped walking since. He continually thought about WarGreymon's defeat and disappearance. The battle that had taken place afterwards was not much prettier. Clive and Kraymon were nowhere to be seen, and Myn paid the ultimate price to defeat LordDevimon. He came to a halt and removed the sword from the sheath he wore over his shoulder, "Why me, Myn?"
The sword began to hum and glow. It pulled itself free from Tai's hand and floated around him, "Because it was my destiny."
Tai flew back in shock and slammed into a tree, "Whoa! You can talk!"
The sword's glow became brighter each time it spoke and then dimmed when it stopped, "Of course I can talk. I exist through my sword. As long as you carry me with you I will appear in your place when danger arises."
Tai got up off of the tree and slowly walked up to the floating sword, "That's weird. So you're what allowed me to change into Myn?"
The sword remained silent for a while before answering, "Not exactly. You see, it had to be you. None of the other digidestined would have been able to make the transformation."
"Why is that?"
"Well..." The sword paused as if it were searching for the right words to say, "I too, was once the First child."
Tai dropped to his knees, "First child? Like me? A Digidestined?"
The sword lowered to Tai's level, "That's right. I was the first of the first children."
"Whoa! Hold it! What do you mean? First of the first children?"
"The Legacy of the Digidestined is only two generations long, but that will soon change." The sword floated higher, "You see, we can only be here, safely for a short time. As each generation of children ages, Their souls become too closely connected to the real world. If they do not return by the age of 19, they will be lost in the Digiworld, forever. Just like me and the other 7 first generation children."
Tai got back to his feet and scratched his head. It all seemed a bit too confusing to him. He thought about it for a while and then said, "So, there were Digidestined before me?"
"Yes, and we were better off than you. We had no digivices or crests, but the evil digimon were much weaker back then. Izzy has probably already explained the existence of the Digiworld to you, right?"
"It's created by data in the internet that has nowhere to go."
"That's right! Back when the 7 other digidestined and I were sucked in, there was only data on political figures and war machines. So you see what we were against."
"If it was so easy, why didn't you just go back afterwards?" Tai asked and crossed his arms.
"We were never able to find a way back. The gate to the real world was not fully constructed by the Fates until we had reached the age of 20."
"So it was too late..."
The sword's glow dimmed down to simulate a sad emotion, "Not entirely. I am able to return to the real world through the gates, but only for short periods of time."
"Who are the Fates?"
"The Fates are who created the Digidestined. You remember when Kari was taken over by another life-form in order to communicate with you?"
Tai nodded, "Yeah. Kari said something about things that couldn't take physical shapes in the Digiworld."
"That's right. Those are the Fates. However, Piedmon had devised a way to force them into a physical shape. He had done it to Gennai by implanting that strange sphere into him. The evil digimon have recently done such to several of the fates, so they have gone into hiding."
"So that's what happened to Gennai. How come he was able to fight Piedmon if he couldn't take a physical shape?"
"The Fates can project themselves through other life-forms, which is what Gennai had done."
Tai kept silent as he thought about what the sword was telling him. He tried to make sense out of it all, but he felt as if pieces were still missing.
"This must be an awful lot to take in. Don't worry about it. Right now we have more important things to do."
"Like what?"
"well, we must reunite you with your digimon of course."
"Of course. But finding him won't be easy."
Tai lost his cheerful mood, "How so?"
"Well, you can't search for him like you would a lost book. He exists with in you. In order to find him to must find yourself."
"What are you talking about? I have found myself!"
"Obviously not, or else Agumon's digi-egg would be here or maybe even Agumon himself."
"So all I have to do is find myself?" Tai asked with a sharp tone.
"Yes. You must realize your responsibilities as the First child."
Tai grabbed the sword by the handle, "And how do I do that?"
The sword shook free from tai's grip and came up to Tai's face, "Think about it! What is the place of the First of eight?"
Tai thought for a brief moment as he played around with some answers rattling around his head, "uh... The head?"
"That's right! So you better find the others!" The sword stopped glowing and flew back into the sheath on Tai's shoulder.
Tai flinched as the blade flew at him, but realized it was simply putting itself away. He recollected his thoughts and continued to walk, but in the other direction, "They must be across the desert by now." Tai sighed and started on his long Journey to find the secrets of the First Child's Destiny.