PAUSE FOR BOURGEOIS LEGALITIES "Digimon" and all characters and situations
contained within are copyrighted trademarks of Bandai, Saban Entertainment
and Upper Deck. Permission is hereby granted by the author to reproduce
this document unless you try to make money off of it; if so, please contact
me first at Calcite_McWhalen@hotmail.com. I may be a grown-up cartoon fan
but I do know my way around Title 17.
****
The Agenda, Part II
****
The President shook his head pityingly at the opponents marshaled before him, and with good reason; at first glance, none of them could offer him even a mildly interesting contest. The only one of the three other people in the room who could even return his stare without flinching away was the indigo-haired person standing in front of him, burning black energy saber at the fore. Of course that was entirely because this person, Ken Ichijouji, had been the Emperor of the entire digital world at one time. That sort of experience tends to harden a person. His hair, tied back in its customary tale, flipped back to his neck as he twisted his head slightly, allowing it to fall; a single set of matched scars fell down from his mouth, reaching down towards his neck but not quite making it. The President kept a careful eye on him, waiting for the man to make the first move.
The others were of no consequence. A small black man resided in the shadows, gathering up an unconscious Tachikawa in his arms. He was neither armed nor ready for any kind of close combat. Tachikawa herself was much like the others had been when he, the President, had forced them to reject their Sigils; she was in shock from the loss and immediate pain. Given time she'd wake up, get over the shock, and try to move on with her life. Also like the others, she'd find that there was no solace from what the President had done to her. Her guardian of sorts had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and, with Mimi in his arms, he had fled to the back of the room and into the nearby corridor.
The President turned back towards Ichijouji, flexing his newly anointed appendage as he did so. The claw he'd created out of his right arm was a bony, misshapen thing made up of two massive fingers and a single huge thumb, arranged so that the thumb fell between the two fingers. Each finger was roughly the size of the President's forearm had been. The claw was rooted to his shoulder - his right torso was pulled forward by its presence, merging with the demonic thing. The claw was a bone white in color. For his part Ichijouji had raised his saber slightly and started to advance.
Lifting the claw, the President charged towards Ken, sweeping his claw across the middle, intending to grab the guy but Ichijouji simply jumped up and over the President, swinging his saber straight down on the way over -
-- the President moved his head to the left, continuing his sweep with his claw over to Ken's new position --
-- which was ducked, Ken swinging his saber up and towards the President's face --
-- the President backpedaled sharply but Ken suddenly took the offensive, swinging left and right, forcing the President to back up again --
-- Ken suddenly swung his saber across, slicing at the claw --
-- and the President neatly blocked the blow with his claw, which neither shattered it nor cut it off.
Ken stepped back in surprise, sneaking a quick look at his saber as he did so; it was still there and glowing just the same as before, but the claw wasn't cut through at all, not even a mark to show the saber's contact. The President lifted the claw up, same as before, and rushed forwards --
-- Ken sidestepped the outreaching claw and swung his blade to the left --
-- the claw moved to block and, the President and the Regent saber to claw, Ken reached out and punched the President in the face with his other hand. The claw swept upwards at the impact, saber pushed the same way, and the President lashed out with his claw sideways to make some room between Ken and him, holding his suddenly bleeding nose with his left hand. A murderous expression flashed up onto the President face for a second, replaced a moment later by a smug sneer. The President's left hand suddenly flashed a deep green and when he pulled his hand away his nose had been restored.
Ken raised an eyebrow. "You absorbed the abilities that go with the sigil?"
"You could say that, Emperor," the President responded.
Ken snarled back, "I'll just have to hit you harder next time."
In the back, watching all of this and wearing a stupefied expression, Chardsy had been checking Mimi over; she wasn't bleeding and didn't seem to have been hurt at all, despite having a crystal ripped out of her body. Chardsy tried to come up with some reason why she'd have a crystal in her body to start with but couldn't move past the point that the red-haired beauty was right there, right then, laying on the floor directly beneath him. Shaking his head, Chardsy returned his attention to the battle, where Ken and the President were at it again, sword and claw-thing moving faster than he could see. His adrenaline was off and running but he knew better than to interfere -- he was so outclassed that trying to help was a fast way to a quick death, and might just get Ken killed too. He could only watch.
****
Stingmon's armored fist slammed down on a nearby piece of equipment. "Isn't there anything we can do?" Behind him, on the screen, was Datamon's projection of Ken's battle with the President, constructed from the audio input from the D-3 that was still on in Ken's pocket and from Ken's own body; he was so deeply connected with the digital world that with the right technology it could remotely track his every action. Most of the Administrators were inside the Command Center, watching the fight between Ken and
"I wouldn't worry too much about it, Sting," Piedmon said absently, watching the fight with an entertained expression. "I'd say that the home team's got this one in the bag; he may be able to use some digital world powers but he's not any kind of fighting match -- ooh, look at that!" On the screen, Ken had just skimmed the President's arm with his saber; the larger man had retreated clutching his wounded limb with the claw-hand.
Angemon nodded once from his corner of the Command Center. "Good. He hasn't taken any hits - skill's on his side yet!"
"He's too chivalrous," Piedmon countered, immediately playing the Devil's Advocate. "He should have pursued and cut the fool down. This isn't any kind of spar here; the President will kill him if he shows any kind of weakness."
"He won't show weakness," Stingmon said from his side of the room, "but I still wish I could be out there." His arm blades flexed in and out of their sheathes.
"Shut up," Datamon said, tapping keys intently. "We know how you feel. What's more important is finding out what the big guy out there took from that Chosen's body. The Regent's won this round." On the screen, the Regent had performed a quick double slash, catching the larger President across his left leg and hitting the claw again.
"No, he hasn't," Agumon said quietly. The others turned to him in surprise; even Biyomon, across the room, seemed surprised by the little dinosaur's proclamation. "That's a Nightmare Claw that the President has on his arm. The Regent may be more skilled and have better control, but the bad guy's much bigger, and he only needs on hit."
Angemon's face flickered once, and he turned to the computers behind him, entering in a few things. Stingmon watched him out of the corner of his eye.
"A fight between a Betamon and a Teddymon," Piedmon mused into the air. "I don't agree with that, though, and I find your lack of faith disturbing. The President won't hit him, not unless the Regent does something abysmally stupid."
Datamon, who'd been looking at the incoming stream of information in front of him, gasped a bit. "Does this qualify?"
****
Chardsy kept a loose eye on Mimi as he watched the battle rage on. As far as he could tell, Ken was winning; he'd hit the President a half a dozen times without being so much as scraped by the President's larger weapon. Still, Chardsy had cast a quick eye around and set his sights on a particularly large amplifier, in case things got a bit too out of hand. Mimi was still unconscious and didn't seem to be coming out of it anytime soon.
"Damn, he's good," Chardsy whispered to the prone Mimi while watching Ken make a quick pass with his sword-thing, turning the President's weapon while striking inwards, managing to scrape the slower President along one side, then jumping artfully away from the returning furious claw slash. His saber flew through the air in a perfectly controlled slash, driving away the President's attempt to follow up his attack. Then the President did something unexpected; he backed off somewhat, panting, and gathered himself again. Ken did not give him the opportunity to catch his breath; he charged in with a massive swing, forcing the President's claw down, and drove his saber forwards, but the President was fast enough and swung his claw back upwards, not only parrying the attack but forcing the Regent back a step, almost taking off his head with the returning sweep.
Coincidently, the President's flailing left hand happened to clip the streaming tail of Ken's hair, and the band fell off; much to Chardsy's amazement Ken's indigo hair didn't settle down, but rather rose up of its own accord, forming into a disorganized crown around his head, tinting itself dark blue as it did so. Chardsy's mouth dropped open slightly. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Unsurprisingly, Mimi didn't answer him.
Whatever it meant, it seemed to signify that Ken was getting very aggressive, because with the first sound out of either combatant - a barely audible snarl - Ken leapt to the offensive, sword swinging at all points, seemingly coming from ten directions at once. It seemed like the President was having a tough time, too, but he somehow managed to keep his head despite the ferocity of Ken's shattering new attack, ducking and weaving as much as his claw was moving.
****
"Damn - not now!" Piedmon ran another eye over the screens and shook his head sharply. "You called it, Datamon. The Spore's pulling power from the Regent. But why?" The screens displayed the current energy balance inside of the Regent; the balance would influence his feelings, but was also determined by them to a degree. Normally he was perfectly balanced inside of it - equally dark and light, equally dominating and kindly. Right now, he was considerably closer to the darkness side of things than usual. Over at his computer, Angemon tapped a few more keys, watching a list scroll by. Beside him, Datamon snapped his fingers.
"Of course - he's drawing on it to create the Saber!" Datamon tapped a few keys, and the relevant display came up on his monitor. "Here in the digital world the Spore must be able to... feed, or something like that, on the energy that just floats around. Out there, though," -- he waved a hand at the main display, which showed Ken smashing his fist into the side of the President's head -- "out there, there isn't any source of free-floating power for the Spore to eat --"
Suddenly, Stingmon shot to his feet. "The keeper!" he exclaimed. "That's what he meant!"
Agumon looked over at him. "Huh?" The others stopped what they were doing and gazed over at the suddenly active Stingmon.
"When he got ready to leave, the Keeper had one of the Migotomon deliver his D-3 straight to the capital," Stingmon explained. "She had a message for him; she said that the Keeper wanted him to keep a careful lock on how much he relied on his Spore. I didn't really understand, since he's had it under control for so long..."
Piedmon, greatly experienced in matters of darkness, got it first. "The device is changing him to suit its needs."
"Right." Stingmon spread his hands helplessly. "I'm open to suggestions, people."
Biyomon spoke first. "You're his partner digimon, Stingmon. It's your job to protect him, no matter what it takes." She flapped one wing, hopping over and landing on a railing next to him. "You have to reach out to him and tell him that what he's doing is wrong. It's hard, because he won't want to listen to you, but you have to keep at it."
Angemon glanced up from his computer search. "But how, Biyo?"
"Through the partner bond," she replied. The room became very quiet; the partner bond was a very close one, and observers would often comment on how Stingmon and the Regent would often seem to know what the other one was doing at any given time, but to suggest that it operated on such a direct level...
Stingmon gave her a long and searching look, which she returned by staring levelly at him. After a moment, he responded, "I'll do it, but you'll have to tell me how."
****
The world was finally in order for Ken Ichijouji.
In the heart of combat, everything is very black and white. There isn't any kind of gray zone or uncertainty in real combat; there are only simple, easily grasped concepts. Read: either one kills the other or the other kills the one. There isn't time for a lengthy debate or careful decision- making. In combat, there can be only one winner. That doesn't mean that a person can't think, but they're not going to spend time debating with themselves.
That's where Ken Ichijouji found himself. Having trained almost every day for such an occasion (and having been kept sharp by incidents) he found himself not having to think -- all he had to do was react, and take what shots he could. His saber flashed, seemingly attacking the President from all directions at once, and the older man was hard-pressed to keep up with him. It wasn't like he had a chance, whispered a part of Ken; he's too slow and weak to possibly compare. Ken found himself agreeing with the little voice. He adopted a feral grin and, creating a second, larger energy saber in his left hand, leapt to the attack again. He had all the power he could ever want, now -- he felt it flowing through him, bending to anything he wanted.
With two sabers at his command the President was no match for him. He simply batted the claw aside with one saber and struck downwards with another, carving a deep rent in the President's side and getting him to cry out for the first time. Ken spun around and took to the air, chuckling a bit, and brought both sabers down on the President's claw arm with enough force to spin him around like a top. Ken kicked out at the spinning President, sending him into the ground hard, laughing out loud as he did so. The President was prone on the ground, not moving, and Ken dismissed one saber while adding two feet of length to the other one, which flared with its black power, scorching the ground but not even giving Ken a warm feeling. He raised his giant blade to strike and --
And suddenly there was another voice in his head. A very familiar one, at that. "Ken, stop!"
He stopped swinging downwards. "Stingmon? Who gave you permission to be in my head?"
"That doesn't matter, Ken!" Stingmon's voice sounded worried and impatient. "You've got to calm down. Put away the saber for a moment and let's talk."
"Come again?" Ken asked. As he did he glanced at the fallen President; seeing him facedown and not moving he dismissed his second, elongated saber. It flickered away quietly leaving the room a bit darker.
"We need to chat for a moment."
"Make it quick," Ken bit out, grinning savagely down at the President. "I've got a job to finish."
Stingmon paused for a moment. "Look, when I taught you how to fight with sabers way back when, what were the cardinal rules that I drove into you?"
"How could that matter right now?"
"Just answer me. It'll be obvious when you do."
Ken shook his head, but answered anyway. "Here goes: force an opponent to defend so that you don't have to, keep moving -- "
"Wrong rules. I'm talking about conduct here, Ken."
He frowned. "That's pretty basic. Just respect the opponent's skill and never attack a person who can't fight back..." Ken trailed off after a minute, seeing where Stingmon was going with this. Still, Ken told himself, who was Stingmon to dare say anything about this? He couldn't possibly know what had happened. "You don't know the situation, Stingmon. Keep your opinions to yourself."
"My opinion doesn't matter. The rules of conduct do."
Righteous indignation mixed itself together with his own rushing feeling to form Ken's response. "This President person decided to rip the Sincerity sigil right out of that Chosen that my minion's watching over. He's violated any kind of honor I can imagine. I can't think of a better person to snuff out," he said, sneering down at the President's prone form.
"Minion?" Stingmon asked quietly. "Ken, listen to yourself." Ken thought back over what he'd just said, and then shook his head sharply. It felt like something was inside his head and it was buzzing mildly. Funny, he hadn't noticed it before.
"Slip of the tongue."
"Was it?"
"Of course..." Ken trailed off. The buzzing seemed to be much louder now. "Chardsy's my friend, and I owe him a lot for taking me in. He's no servant."
"Then why'd you call him one?"
"I told you, I just made a mistake. I am human, after all," Ken said with a trace of ancient bitterness.
"You don't make that kind of mistake, Ken." Stingmon sounded weary. "You're not yourself right now."
Despite himself, Ken stiffened. The last time Stingmon had said that was when he was still Wormmon, so long ago, when he had first come to the digital world. He'd tried to put the past behind him but it was part of him, so long as he stayed in the digital world, and he had found that he couldn't forget how he became what he was. "What do you mean?" he asked, as calmly as he could. Still, his voice wavered a bit.
"You know what I mean." Was his voice fading? Ken couldn't tell over the buzzing. "You haven't been watching yourself, and you got carried away."
Ken shook his head, trying to get the buzzing out... and then something clicked in the back of his head, filling him with a nameless dread. Deciding to ignore Stingmon for a moment he reached inward, questing, and eventually he found what he was looking for. 'Spore?'
'It's too much!' the little creature wailed. Ken got the distinct impression of a man in an ocean, being swallowed up. 'I can't store it all, and you're not using it! I'm gonna drown!'
With that simple check, Ken suddenly knew exactly what was going on; he'd been using the Spore for too long, and it ran out of power so it started to change his behavior so that he produced dark power for it; but when he stopped using it the power overwhelmed the little Spore. He looked around wildly, trying to find something large -- there! A pile of sandbags, evidently left over from constructions efforts. It would do. He reached within himself again, extending an arm and pulling on the energy. As he did he got a sense of how much power he'd created with his Spore's dubious help; the amount was enormous, far and away more than he'd ever generated without help. He suppressed a shudder, trying to forget how it was gathered. Ken grunted once, putting all his will into taking the dark energy he had and forcing it outwards --
Abruptly he was pushed backwards as the energy exploded out of his palm in the form of a glowing black ball laced with dark green strands and a light pink outline. It struck the sandbags solidly and detonated, knocking everyone around and dropping Ken to his knees, exhausted by the effort. His Spore settled itself back, making a more contented murmuring; the buzzing in Ken's head went away immediately. Dust and sand billowed everywhere in hazy clouds.
"Regent?!" a voice called out through his head -- Stingmon! "Are you there?"
Ken coughed over the clouds, trying to ignore the tingle in his right hand. "Yeah," he managed. "I think we're all still -- "
He cut off suddenly as a huge, looming form suddenly appeared out of the cloud, right above him; something swung down towards him and Ken gasped as he was caught and lifted into the air, sandwiched between two bony fingers and one giant thumb. He was held aloft for a brief second, staring into the bloodied but triumphant face of the President, but before he could marshal his wits the President's claw began to glow brightly and Ken had time for one brief moment of horrified realization before the claw exploded.
****
There was silence in the Command Center.
A moment before, Biyomon had been given a brutally crushing hug from the much larger Stingmon, while Piedmon had slammed one fist into the other palm. Angemon had given a sigh of relief and sagged in his chair. Agumon had merely nodded and Datamon hadn't bothered given the situation a second glance before returning to his precious computers.
Now, however, things were very grim. The Regent's connection with the digital world had been disrupted when the President had hit him with that exploding claw, sending the screen into an indistinct fuzz and the inhabitants into a panic, but it had become solid again a moment later leaving them an indifferent look at the Regent flat on his back in a tangle of cables and lighting equipment. A faint wisp of smoke was still rising from his body. Datamon insisted that he'd only been a bit burned and possibly given a concussion but he was being ignored by all of the others. Stingmon had probably taken things harder than the others, but Angemon and Agumon certainly didn't like things either. Datamon had kept an eye on the Regent's vital signs while watching the show. Biyomon had perched on Stingmon's left arm and was apparently trying to get him to focus, while Piedmon...
Piedmon sat there, grinning sardonically.
Agumon was the first to notice, but that wasn't entirely accidental; despite his conversion to the generally perceived forces of good Agumon always kept a close eye on Piedmon. "What's so funny?" the dinosaur demanded. All eyes turned to Piedmon, who was watching the screen and chortling.
"Irony is funny," the clown digimon managed over his chuckling. "The President just made the same mistake that the Regent did."
"How do you figure that?!" Stingmon shouted. He did, however, keep enough control over himself to not wave his arms and upset Biyomon's perch.
"Watch," Piedmon said. "It'll be obvious in a moment."
Angemon was the first to disengage his gaze from Piedmon's face, turning to watch the screen; the rest of them followed suit a moment later. On the screen, they could see the President standing up, with both arms human now; he replaced his jacket, shot his cuffs. All of the hits that the Regent had managed to land during the fight had been healed over. He took a moment to collect himself, and then started forwards toward the downed Regent.
He got about ten feet before the huge black piece of equipment slammed into him from his left side, sending him spinning into the ground. It was quickly followed up by both a second large device, which smashed into the downed President's left leg, and a black man, already laden with one body, who ran toward the Regent and hefted him onto his shoulder. The oddly dressed man didn't wait around for the President to rally, but ran for the hallway instead. In the Command Center Piedmon nodded his approval, his sardonic grin never departing his face, and reached for the microphone amid the staring and dropped jaws.
****
Chardsy ran. Burdened by both the relatively light Mimi and the not-so- light Ken he charged down the empty hallways under the stage, trying to make it back out to where he and Ken had first emerged. Along the way he'd dropped any pretense of trying to make sense of the situation. People with crystal things inside of them, the President of the evil Odaiba Group growing a giant claw-thing, this new digital world guy fighting back with some kind of weird black sword thing... it was too much to for Chardsy to try and understand right then. Running was more important.
But where to? There was no telling where a safe place could be found. Chardsy was relatively sure that he wasn't being followed, but the President ran a huge corporation; his men would be all over the place, just waiting for Ken and any of his accomplices to emerge before they brought the heavy end of the hammer down. Chardsy slowed down to a walk and ducked inside what looked to be a small equipment room as he considered his next move. He placed Ken in a sitting position next to a large box and gently set Mimi down. As Ken landed on the floor a little black device bounced out from Ken's pockets and slid over, stopping next to one of the machines. Absently Chardsy picked it up as he glanced around the room, looking for some kind of inspiration.
Briefly, his gaze passed over Ken. The guy didn't look too good; he had a large, ugly burn over his entire midsection and while it wasn't bleeding it was still smoking a bit. He'd passed out, probably from being tossed around the room, and Chardsy was pretty certain that he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. Unfortunately for Ken, Chardsy had no knowledge of first aid at all, outside of Band-Aids and the occasional Ace bandage, so cooling off burns was out of his league.
The only other thing that was lit up in the equipment room was a large black box that occupied the far corner of the room. It had a few backlit displays, one of which was marked by the inscription OD-EDR-3-1.45. The only other display was marked DRN: 60% TIME: 22:00 RNG: Omni. Chardsy took another look at it before the display clicked in his mind: it was an Odaiba Group draining reactor! He glanced at his watch and noted the time: 9:45 PM. That only gave him fifteen minutes! He looked around with a new sense of urgency.
The little black thing beeped. Chardsy glanced down at it but didn't spend any time looking closely; his mind was still trying to figure out how to escape. He ran over what equipment he had on him, but he was pretty sure that a watch and a few dollars weren't going to be of much use for either flight or waking up one of his passengers.
The little black thing beeped again, more insistently this time, and Chardsy glanced at it again. This time he saw the flashing button. How'd he miss that before? He slapped it and the higher of the two little screens on the device flickered, then cleared up abruptly to show a nightmare image on the screen; the face of possibly the most demented clown that Chardsy had ever dreamed, a painted and scarred face painted white and black. A pair of black eyes glittered out at him. It was all Chardsy could do to keep hold of the little device.
It got worse when the clown started talking. "Chardsy, is it?"
"Uh... yeah, that's me." Chardsy said tonelessly. He was feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole mess, and the demon clown wasn't helping matters any. "Who the hell are you?"
"Language, my boy. I am Piedmon -- " here he dipped his head slightly, " -- and I need you to do a few things if you'd like to see your friends there safe." Piedmon had a contemptuous way of speaking that set Chardsy on edge, and the brutal scowl that graced his features only added to the evil image that the clown radiated.
"Yeah? What the hell do you know?" Chardsy bit back, feeling a bit more centered.
"Quite a bit. I've been watching from here, you know," Piedmon replied matter-of-factly. "It's rather obvious that you won't make it too far at the rate you're going."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're sitting in an equipment room," Piedmon deadpanned.
Chardsy glanced around again. He was indeed sitting in an equipment room. "Good job," he shot back. "Whaddya want me to do?"
Piedmon brightened up a bit -- that is, his scowl lightened ever-so- slightly -- and he responded, "First, find a monitor." Chardsy glanced around wildly before he found one, sitting against a far corner. It wasn't plugged into either a computer or the wall. The reactor on the far side began to hum a bit; dismayed, Chardsy looked at his watch. It was 9:50.
"Found one, but it doesn't have any power," Chardsy answered. "We gotta do this quick. The Odaiba Group's all set to suck the life outta this whole area."
That actually got Piedmon to adopt a confused expression. "I don't follow you."
"They've got one of their reactor things set up in here, and if I know the Odaiba Group, this won't be the only one," Chardsy explained. "I guess that they've planned this whole thing out -- they'd get the crystal thing out of Tachikawa back there and then drain the crowd dry. Wait, that doesn't make sense; they can't push dark power on this scale, can they? Ken says that they gotta replace what they take."
"Save the brainstorming for later," Piedmon snapped. He had his scowl back out again, and it was no more pleasant this time. "Just find a plug for the monitor and get it turned on." It took Chardsy a moment to find an electric outlet in all the clutter, but he eventually switched it on.
"What now?" Chardsy asked.
Piedmon seemed to look behind him, but on the screen it wasn't very clear. After a moment's pause he turned around and looked towards Chardsy again. "You're going to have to wake the Regent up."
"Who?"
"The guy behind you."
Chardsy turned and looked at the fallen Ken. "He's kinda out of it."
Piedmon shook his head. "Congratulations. Still, you need to wake him up."
"Why?"
"He's the only one who can use that D-3!" Piedmon snapped. "You can only listen to what I tell you, but he's capable of using it to its fullest extent." Chardsy's lip twitched, but he walked over and prodded Ken gently in the side of his head. Nothing happened. Chardsy then reached over and pinched Ken's nose shut. After a moment Ken suddenly came to, thrashing as much as he was able, pushing Chardsy's fingers away quickly. He coughed for a moment, then looked around.
"What happened?" he managed to croak out, dazed.
"Later," Piedmon snapped from the D-3's miniature screen. "Right now you've got to open a portal here - the Odaiba Group's all set to drain the stadium right down to nothing."
Ken came as fully awake as he was capable; he sat up abruptly, then immediately fell backwards again, curling an arm around his burnt midsection. He coughed once, thickly, and then got himself under control again. "Okay. Chardsy, where's that Chosen from earlier?"
"You mean Tachikawa, right?"
"Yeah."
"Right behind you." Ken turned and saw the prone form of Mimi laid out against a nearby speaker. He nodded once and then held out his palm expectantly; Chardsy placed the D-3 into his hand, then turned and picked up Mimi just as carefully as before. His watch read 9:56.
He thrust it towards the monitor and said simply, "Open," and a swirl of light and colors reached out and sucked the three of them into the digital world.
****
"Get those Seals powered down, now!" Datamon roared into the mic. On the monitor now was the Pyramid complex, out in the Server desert, and the busy forms of Gazimon could be seen on the screen trying desperately to power down the six giant globes that kept the digital world safe from invasion. The usual humming that was coming from them was a bit lower than usual, but it wasn't nearly low enough to get anybody other than the Regent through the gates. Killing the Regent's incoming guests would be a very bad precedent to set.
"We're trying, boss!" one of the Gazimon wailed in the general direction of the camera. "They just can't come down this fast!" Datamon made a frustrated noise but let the guy off the hook, focusing instead on his own task. On a display mounted on his console he could see both a representation of the Seals' current effective overlapping zones and the Regent's party's progress. They were disturbingly close to the Seals and Datamon worked the keyboard, trying to find a way to cut down the Seals' levels fast enough.
The rest of the Command Center was quiet, watching the monkey robot work. Stingmon and Biyomon were still, one on the other's wrist. Piedmon kept pulling out swords and fiddling with them. Agumon was quiet, but every now and then he'd blow a miniature Pepper Breath into the air. Angemon would then raise his rod and stop the attack before it got too far. The tension in the room was palpable.
"It's not fast enough," Datamon whispered to himself, and indeed according to his displays it was not; the Regent's party was far too close to the Seals to allow them to come down. If he'd just had five more minutes - no, he wouldn't waste time wondering. He set himself to his task with a new spark and tapped furiously on his console's controls. Wait - an idea had just occurred to him; it wasn't pretty, but - "Gazimon! Recalibrate the Seals so that they are set to bounce rather than oscillate!" The team on the monitor suddenly stopped what they were doing and reacted, going to different controls and entering in new commands.
Abruptly the tip of his tail was nicked by something sharp. Datamon turned quickly and realized that Piedmon was holding a fifteen-foot-long sword; its tip was carefully held right in front of him. Despite himself, he paled a bit. "Care to explain?" Piedmon asked conversationally.
"Sure. If the Seals are set to bounce, they'll just knock the Regent's party around rather than kill them outright, and they'll have a smaller effective radius. Less dangerous, you know." That satisfied Piedmon who banished the sword immediately. Datamon turned back around, determined to both do his duty and regain his dignity.
"Get a few teams ready to receive them," Agumon said into the open air. "If he hits a Bounce Seal there's no telling where he'll end up." Angemon leaned over and started talking into the microphone he was seated next to. Datamon glanced down at his screen again and was suddenly galvanized by what it innocuously showed him.
"The Regent's right on top of the Seals!" Datamon shouted. "He's gonna hit at least one of them!"
****
All in all, Miyako was having an unusual week, even by her revolutionary standards. Having her friends captured and taken away was almost traumatizing. Breaking and entering into the Odaiba Group headquarters was certainly an adventure in and of itself. She was still having momentary flashbacks to Gatomon, her blotchy fur, the painful and avenging look in her eyes as she slashed out. Getting sent back to the digital world, the alternate dimension that she'd fought and failed to save, was almost the icing on the cake; that title was reserved for the fact that the digital world had somehow managed to throw the mantle of the Emperor off by itself. Now, she walked through the central complex of the digital world's government in a shambling daze. None of this should have been possible!
Aquilamon had run ahead, to consult with his assistants, and that was for the best as far as Miyako was concerned; she could see that he wasn't the same fawning Hawkmon that she'd lost so many years ago to Milleniumon's cruelty. No, he'd grown up in this odd new world and found his own place. He didn't need her any longer, and it hurt to admit that. It hurt to admit that the world didn't need her anymore. It'd run just as well with her as without. The very location she was in confirmed her own thoughts - a massive place that was too large and ornately detailed to have been built by human hands. Pillars and gold wrappings were the hallmark of the building.
As she was walking along thinking those thoughts, mired in gloom, she walked with her head down, long lavender hair spilling over the front of her face and obscuring her eyesight. It was probably because of her hair that she failed to see the odd distortion in the air until she was right on top of it. She drew back, surprised despite herself; the air in front of her seemed to shimmer, as if there was something there that was just out of her eyesight. She strained, trying to figure out what it was -
The shimmer abruptly coalesced into the outline of a vague figure. It was vague because it was moving through the air right at her, and before she'd had the presence of mind to move it crashed headlong into her, sending her sprawling down onto the floor with the mystery figure sliding off to her right side. She shook her head, trying to clear it, then glanced angrily at the figure to her right - and promptly forgot about everything, from the President of the Odaiba Group on down. For lying next to her, face in some sort of distress, was the lord and king of all of the hottest men that had ever lived. He had perfect indigo hair and a perfect solid build and just the right height and his face was built in just the right way and even though he had just appeared out of the air right in front of her and knocked her down she'd forgive him in a heartbeat!
Then reality came crashing back in, along with another two people who'd appeared slightly farther down the hall. One of them, a red-haired woman, had collapsed immediately; the other, a black guy wearing an odd combination of clothes, fell over but struggled back to his feet. Reality also appeared when Miyako realized that her hands, which she'd flung in front of her to push the hottie off, had somehow turned black. She took a closer look at the guy and sucked in a horrified breath when she saw an enormous burn of some sort, one that extended over his front and sides at his midsection but didn't quite reach his back. Whatever had given it to him had charred his shirt in the same area, putting holes in it. Miyako reacted immediately; she pulled out the flask that Bishojo, the Migotomon, had given her and, pulling the cork off, she doused the wound liberally with the stuff. It was thicker than water but not by much and after a moment she'd covered the entire area of the wound. She stepped back to see what would come about.
After a short moment something happened; all of the pain on the guy's face dropped off immediately while the burn began to recede, fading away and shrinking at the same time. Miyako's left hand reached up to rub her shoulder while she watched the formerly hideous burn simply go away, as if something had scolded it sharply. Which, in a way, was true. She was so focused on the guy and the gone burn that she didn't notice the black guy run over until he was right next to her. "Hey, what'd you just do? The dude's burnt!"
She gestured offhandedly, in a bit of shock herself. "See for yourself," she said faintly. The black man's staring was interrupted, however, by a sudden onslaught of loud digimon, pouring down the hallway towards them. She and her new companion were roughly pushed aside by a team of Kiwimon, bearing a pair of stretchers with their beaks, followed by a Wizardmon in very unusual garb; rather than the grays and blues of the rest of his brethren he was wearing a white doctor's coat over a turquoise outfit. The straw had had been replaced by a doctors' cap, still bearing the skull.
"Hey, wait a minute!" she yelled over their noise. "He's already fine! I fixed his burn right up!" The black guy took another long, jaw-open look at her. The digimon ignored her, with the exception of the Wizardmon, who floated up and looked her in the eye. The Kiwimon loaded the hot guy onto a stretcher, much to Miyako's dismay, along with the redhead.
"What did you use?" he asked, turning a critical eye on her.
"Uh, this stuff I got from a Migotomon," she said hesitantly. "She called it Essence of Light."
The Wizardmon nodded once, then turned to the Kiwimon. "Change of plans: to his chambers, rather than the ward. He'll need time to sleep off what this person has given him. The Chosen's still headed for the ward." The Kiwimon holding the man simply changed direction and continued scampering off with the stretcher. The Wizardmon turned in place and started floating away, following the Kiwimon bearing the redhead.
He stopped when Miyako yelled, "Wait! Who is that guy, anyway?"
"That would be the Regent of the digital world," he answered. "You both seem to be humans. If you'd like, you may follow me." Having said that he floated away, leaving Miyako and the black guy to pursue him.
****
He arrived without fanfare, simply walking in from the helipad, in the middle of the morning. Gatomon had been going over the reports from the energy collectors and didn't notice his quiet entrance until he'd entered the room. "Oh!" she said. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon."
"Neither did I," the President replied. "I had to cut my visit to America short."
"Really. The military representatives will be very upset at that," she said, but quieted at the look on his face. He only got that look when he was very displeased with something, and considering what he'd gone to do, there was only one thing that could have gone wrong. "Did you manage to extract the Sincerity power?"
As an answer he lifted a hand; like magic the Sigil, a smallish crystal glowing faintly green, manifested itself in his palm. "Yes, I got that." Having said that he walked over to a small cabinet mounted to the column that constituted the center of his office and opened it carefully. Inside, winking out at him, were four other crystals much like the one he held in his hand. On the far left was small crystal glowing silver: Knowledge. To its right was one that glowed a very light orange: Courage. All the way on the right was a third crystal, giving off a soft red light: Love. And in the middle, on the second row all the way to the right, was a fourth crystal, shining yellow: Friendship. The President deposited the green crystal he was holding into a slot on the left side of the second row. He took a step back, admiring their harmony of colors, then closed the cabinet.
"If you've got that, then what's the problem?" the little cat asked. She'd already seen her fill of Sigils and she wasn't as awed by them as the President was. Her question, however, did have the desired effect; it brought the President back down to Earth. He walked over and sat in his chair, behind the desk. Gatomon had her own chair.
"The problem is what the Emperor sent over," the President said softly.
Gatomon's eyes went wide. "You found out? What did he send?"
"Nothing. He came through himself!" the President declared. Gatomon pulled back, shocked and somewhat frightened.
"Here? As in on Earth? That's." she trailed off.
"That's crazy, I know. I don't know why he'd decide to take the first step himself." The President shook his head. "He's far more powerful than a mere human. I created a Nightmare Claw to defend myself with and he hit me a dozen times!"
"You're still alive," Gatomon pointed out.
"I had the Sincerity sigil to back me up. I healed over what he did to me, but he still managed to force my hand. I had to flee or be taken by the ED reactors."
"An excellent drain, by the way. We got more power in a few seconds there than we get off the entire East Coast in a month." Gatomon looked distinctly pleased, like the mythical cat that ate the canary. "We should do more of that sort of thing."
The President shook his head again. "It's tempting, I know, but the slower drain-and-replace style fits my agenda better than trying to drain them all at once." Gatomon remained silent. "Don't tell me you're still trying to guess my end goal?"
"I am a cat," she replied. "That's what I do."
"Don't bother."
"Will the Emperor throw a bone into your 'agenda'?"
The President paused, considering that. He had powers unbeknownst to Gatomon and he'd been using them during his fight with the Emperor. He could tell exactly what had happened with the darkness inside of the now mature Ichijouji and what had produced it. It was a Dark Spore, which had been one of the few creations of Milleniumon not completely devoted towards killing things. It was an energy battery, but when it ran out of power, it would force the host to supply the dark power necessary for it to continue storing power. If he got a grip on that Dark Spore, the President mused, then he would be able to complete his agenda easily. He could also discern the emotional change that had come over Ichijouji, but he swore to himself never to tell Gatomon that. It wouldn't do to have her want to show mercy.
Out loud, he said, "I think I can find a way for him to fit into my agenda quite nicely."
****
****
The Agenda, Part II
****
The President shook his head pityingly at the opponents marshaled before him, and with good reason; at first glance, none of them could offer him even a mildly interesting contest. The only one of the three other people in the room who could even return his stare without flinching away was the indigo-haired person standing in front of him, burning black energy saber at the fore. Of course that was entirely because this person, Ken Ichijouji, had been the Emperor of the entire digital world at one time. That sort of experience tends to harden a person. His hair, tied back in its customary tale, flipped back to his neck as he twisted his head slightly, allowing it to fall; a single set of matched scars fell down from his mouth, reaching down towards his neck but not quite making it. The President kept a careful eye on him, waiting for the man to make the first move.
The others were of no consequence. A small black man resided in the shadows, gathering up an unconscious Tachikawa in his arms. He was neither armed nor ready for any kind of close combat. Tachikawa herself was much like the others had been when he, the President, had forced them to reject their Sigils; she was in shock from the loss and immediate pain. Given time she'd wake up, get over the shock, and try to move on with her life. Also like the others, she'd find that there was no solace from what the President had done to her. Her guardian of sorts had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and, with Mimi in his arms, he had fled to the back of the room and into the nearby corridor.
The President turned back towards Ichijouji, flexing his newly anointed appendage as he did so. The claw he'd created out of his right arm was a bony, misshapen thing made up of two massive fingers and a single huge thumb, arranged so that the thumb fell between the two fingers. Each finger was roughly the size of the President's forearm had been. The claw was rooted to his shoulder - his right torso was pulled forward by its presence, merging with the demonic thing. The claw was a bone white in color. For his part Ichijouji had raised his saber slightly and started to advance.
Lifting the claw, the President charged towards Ken, sweeping his claw across the middle, intending to grab the guy but Ichijouji simply jumped up and over the President, swinging his saber straight down on the way over -
-- the President moved his head to the left, continuing his sweep with his claw over to Ken's new position --
-- which was ducked, Ken swinging his saber up and towards the President's face --
-- the President backpedaled sharply but Ken suddenly took the offensive, swinging left and right, forcing the President to back up again --
-- Ken suddenly swung his saber across, slicing at the claw --
-- and the President neatly blocked the blow with his claw, which neither shattered it nor cut it off.
Ken stepped back in surprise, sneaking a quick look at his saber as he did so; it was still there and glowing just the same as before, but the claw wasn't cut through at all, not even a mark to show the saber's contact. The President lifted the claw up, same as before, and rushed forwards --
-- Ken sidestepped the outreaching claw and swung his blade to the left --
-- the claw moved to block and, the President and the Regent saber to claw, Ken reached out and punched the President in the face with his other hand. The claw swept upwards at the impact, saber pushed the same way, and the President lashed out with his claw sideways to make some room between Ken and him, holding his suddenly bleeding nose with his left hand. A murderous expression flashed up onto the President face for a second, replaced a moment later by a smug sneer. The President's left hand suddenly flashed a deep green and when he pulled his hand away his nose had been restored.
Ken raised an eyebrow. "You absorbed the abilities that go with the sigil?"
"You could say that, Emperor," the President responded.
Ken snarled back, "I'll just have to hit you harder next time."
In the back, watching all of this and wearing a stupefied expression, Chardsy had been checking Mimi over; she wasn't bleeding and didn't seem to have been hurt at all, despite having a crystal ripped out of her body. Chardsy tried to come up with some reason why she'd have a crystal in her body to start with but couldn't move past the point that the red-haired beauty was right there, right then, laying on the floor directly beneath him. Shaking his head, Chardsy returned his attention to the battle, where Ken and the President were at it again, sword and claw-thing moving faster than he could see. His adrenaline was off and running but he knew better than to interfere -- he was so outclassed that trying to help was a fast way to a quick death, and might just get Ken killed too. He could only watch.
****
Stingmon's armored fist slammed down on a nearby piece of equipment. "Isn't there anything we can do?" Behind him, on the screen, was Datamon's projection of Ken's battle with the President, constructed from the audio input from the D-3 that was still on in Ken's pocket and from Ken's own body; he was so deeply connected with the digital world that with the right technology it could remotely track his every action. Most of the Administrators were inside the Command Center, watching the fight between Ken and
"I wouldn't worry too much about it, Sting," Piedmon said absently, watching the fight with an entertained expression. "I'd say that the home team's got this one in the bag; he may be able to use some digital world powers but he's not any kind of fighting match -- ooh, look at that!" On the screen, Ken had just skimmed the President's arm with his saber; the larger man had retreated clutching his wounded limb with the claw-hand.
Angemon nodded once from his corner of the Command Center. "Good. He hasn't taken any hits - skill's on his side yet!"
"He's too chivalrous," Piedmon countered, immediately playing the Devil's Advocate. "He should have pursued and cut the fool down. This isn't any kind of spar here; the President will kill him if he shows any kind of weakness."
"He won't show weakness," Stingmon said from his side of the room, "but I still wish I could be out there." His arm blades flexed in and out of their sheathes.
"Shut up," Datamon said, tapping keys intently. "We know how you feel. What's more important is finding out what the big guy out there took from that Chosen's body. The Regent's won this round." On the screen, the Regent had performed a quick double slash, catching the larger President across his left leg and hitting the claw again.
"No, he hasn't," Agumon said quietly. The others turned to him in surprise; even Biyomon, across the room, seemed surprised by the little dinosaur's proclamation. "That's a Nightmare Claw that the President has on his arm. The Regent may be more skilled and have better control, but the bad guy's much bigger, and he only needs on hit."
Angemon's face flickered once, and he turned to the computers behind him, entering in a few things. Stingmon watched him out of the corner of his eye.
"A fight between a Betamon and a Teddymon," Piedmon mused into the air. "I don't agree with that, though, and I find your lack of faith disturbing. The President won't hit him, not unless the Regent does something abysmally stupid."
Datamon, who'd been looking at the incoming stream of information in front of him, gasped a bit. "Does this qualify?"
****
Chardsy kept a loose eye on Mimi as he watched the battle rage on. As far as he could tell, Ken was winning; he'd hit the President a half a dozen times without being so much as scraped by the President's larger weapon. Still, Chardsy had cast a quick eye around and set his sights on a particularly large amplifier, in case things got a bit too out of hand. Mimi was still unconscious and didn't seem to be coming out of it anytime soon.
"Damn, he's good," Chardsy whispered to the prone Mimi while watching Ken make a quick pass with his sword-thing, turning the President's weapon while striking inwards, managing to scrape the slower President along one side, then jumping artfully away from the returning furious claw slash. His saber flew through the air in a perfectly controlled slash, driving away the President's attempt to follow up his attack. Then the President did something unexpected; he backed off somewhat, panting, and gathered himself again. Ken did not give him the opportunity to catch his breath; he charged in with a massive swing, forcing the President's claw down, and drove his saber forwards, but the President was fast enough and swung his claw back upwards, not only parrying the attack but forcing the Regent back a step, almost taking off his head with the returning sweep.
Coincidently, the President's flailing left hand happened to clip the streaming tail of Ken's hair, and the band fell off; much to Chardsy's amazement Ken's indigo hair didn't settle down, but rather rose up of its own accord, forming into a disorganized crown around his head, tinting itself dark blue as it did so. Chardsy's mouth dropped open slightly. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Unsurprisingly, Mimi didn't answer him.
Whatever it meant, it seemed to signify that Ken was getting very aggressive, because with the first sound out of either combatant - a barely audible snarl - Ken leapt to the offensive, sword swinging at all points, seemingly coming from ten directions at once. It seemed like the President was having a tough time, too, but he somehow managed to keep his head despite the ferocity of Ken's shattering new attack, ducking and weaving as much as his claw was moving.
****
"Damn - not now!" Piedmon ran another eye over the screens and shook his head sharply. "You called it, Datamon. The Spore's pulling power from the Regent. But why?" The screens displayed the current energy balance inside of the Regent; the balance would influence his feelings, but was also determined by them to a degree. Normally he was perfectly balanced inside of it - equally dark and light, equally dominating and kindly. Right now, he was considerably closer to the darkness side of things than usual. Over at his computer, Angemon tapped a few more keys, watching a list scroll by. Beside him, Datamon snapped his fingers.
"Of course - he's drawing on it to create the Saber!" Datamon tapped a few keys, and the relevant display came up on his monitor. "Here in the digital world the Spore must be able to... feed, or something like that, on the energy that just floats around. Out there, though," -- he waved a hand at the main display, which showed Ken smashing his fist into the side of the President's head -- "out there, there isn't any source of free-floating power for the Spore to eat --"
Suddenly, Stingmon shot to his feet. "The keeper!" he exclaimed. "That's what he meant!"
Agumon looked over at him. "Huh?" The others stopped what they were doing and gazed over at the suddenly active Stingmon.
"When he got ready to leave, the Keeper had one of the Migotomon deliver his D-3 straight to the capital," Stingmon explained. "She had a message for him; she said that the Keeper wanted him to keep a careful lock on how much he relied on his Spore. I didn't really understand, since he's had it under control for so long..."
Piedmon, greatly experienced in matters of darkness, got it first. "The device is changing him to suit its needs."
"Right." Stingmon spread his hands helplessly. "I'm open to suggestions, people."
Biyomon spoke first. "You're his partner digimon, Stingmon. It's your job to protect him, no matter what it takes." She flapped one wing, hopping over and landing on a railing next to him. "You have to reach out to him and tell him that what he's doing is wrong. It's hard, because he won't want to listen to you, but you have to keep at it."
Angemon glanced up from his computer search. "But how, Biyo?"
"Through the partner bond," she replied. The room became very quiet; the partner bond was a very close one, and observers would often comment on how Stingmon and the Regent would often seem to know what the other one was doing at any given time, but to suggest that it operated on such a direct level...
Stingmon gave her a long and searching look, which she returned by staring levelly at him. After a moment, he responded, "I'll do it, but you'll have to tell me how."
****
The world was finally in order for Ken Ichijouji.
In the heart of combat, everything is very black and white. There isn't any kind of gray zone or uncertainty in real combat; there are only simple, easily grasped concepts. Read: either one kills the other or the other kills the one. There isn't time for a lengthy debate or careful decision- making. In combat, there can be only one winner. That doesn't mean that a person can't think, but they're not going to spend time debating with themselves.
That's where Ken Ichijouji found himself. Having trained almost every day for such an occasion (and having been kept sharp by incidents) he found himself not having to think -- all he had to do was react, and take what shots he could. His saber flashed, seemingly attacking the President from all directions at once, and the older man was hard-pressed to keep up with him. It wasn't like he had a chance, whispered a part of Ken; he's too slow and weak to possibly compare. Ken found himself agreeing with the little voice. He adopted a feral grin and, creating a second, larger energy saber in his left hand, leapt to the attack again. He had all the power he could ever want, now -- he felt it flowing through him, bending to anything he wanted.
With two sabers at his command the President was no match for him. He simply batted the claw aside with one saber and struck downwards with another, carving a deep rent in the President's side and getting him to cry out for the first time. Ken spun around and took to the air, chuckling a bit, and brought both sabers down on the President's claw arm with enough force to spin him around like a top. Ken kicked out at the spinning President, sending him into the ground hard, laughing out loud as he did so. The President was prone on the ground, not moving, and Ken dismissed one saber while adding two feet of length to the other one, which flared with its black power, scorching the ground but not even giving Ken a warm feeling. He raised his giant blade to strike and --
And suddenly there was another voice in his head. A very familiar one, at that. "Ken, stop!"
He stopped swinging downwards. "Stingmon? Who gave you permission to be in my head?"
"That doesn't matter, Ken!" Stingmon's voice sounded worried and impatient. "You've got to calm down. Put away the saber for a moment and let's talk."
"Come again?" Ken asked. As he did he glanced at the fallen President; seeing him facedown and not moving he dismissed his second, elongated saber. It flickered away quietly leaving the room a bit darker.
"We need to chat for a moment."
"Make it quick," Ken bit out, grinning savagely down at the President. "I've got a job to finish."
Stingmon paused for a moment. "Look, when I taught you how to fight with sabers way back when, what were the cardinal rules that I drove into you?"
"How could that matter right now?"
"Just answer me. It'll be obvious when you do."
Ken shook his head, but answered anyway. "Here goes: force an opponent to defend so that you don't have to, keep moving -- "
"Wrong rules. I'm talking about conduct here, Ken."
He frowned. "That's pretty basic. Just respect the opponent's skill and never attack a person who can't fight back..." Ken trailed off after a minute, seeing where Stingmon was going with this. Still, Ken told himself, who was Stingmon to dare say anything about this? He couldn't possibly know what had happened. "You don't know the situation, Stingmon. Keep your opinions to yourself."
"My opinion doesn't matter. The rules of conduct do."
Righteous indignation mixed itself together with his own rushing feeling to form Ken's response. "This President person decided to rip the Sincerity sigil right out of that Chosen that my minion's watching over. He's violated any kind of honor I can imagine. I can't think of a better person to snuff out," he said, sneering down at the President's prone form.
"Minion?" Stingmon asked quietly. "Ken, listen to yourself." Ken thought back over what he'd just said, and then shook his head sharply. It felt like something was inside his head and it was buzzing mildly. Funny, he hadn't noticed it before.
"Slip of the tongue."
"Was it?"
"Of course..." Ken trailed off. The buzzing seemed to be much louder now. "Chardsy's my friend, and I owe him a lot for taking me in. He's no servant."
"Then why'd you call him one?"
"I told you, I just made a mistake. I am human, after all," Ken said with a trace of ancient bitterness.
"You don't make that kind of mistake, Ken." Stingmon sounded weary. "You're not yourself right now."
Despite himself, Ken stiffened. The last time Stingmon had said that was when he was still Wormmon, so long ago, when he had first come to the digital world. He'd tried to put the past behind him but it was part of him, so long as he stayed in the digital world, and he had found that he couldn't forget how he became what he was. "What do you mean?" he asked, as calmly as he could. Still, his voice wavered a bit.
"You know what I mean." Was his voice fading? Ken couldn't tell over the buzzing. "You haven't been watching yourself, and you got carried away."
Ken shook his head, trying to get the buzzing out... and then something clicked in the back of his head, filling him with a nameless dread. Deciding to ignore Stingmon for a moment he reached inward, questing, and eventually he found what he was looking for. 'Spore?'
'It's too much!' the little creature wailed. Ken got the distinct impression of a man in an ocean, being swallowed up. 'I can't store it all, and you're not using it! I'm gonna drown!'
With that simple check, Ken suddenly knew exactly what was going on; he'd been using the Spore for too long, and it ran out of power so it started to change his behavior so that he produced dark power for it; but when he stopped using it the power overwhelmed the little Spore. He looked around wildly, trying to find something large -- there! A pile of sandbags, evidently left over from constructions efforts. It would do. He reached within himself again, extending an arm and pulling on the energy. As he did he got a sense of how much power he'd created with his Spore's dubious help; the amount was enormous, far and away more than he'd ever generated without help. He suppressed a shudder, trying to forget how it was gathered. Ken grunted once, putting all his will into taking the dark energy he had and forcing it outwards --
Abruptly he was pushed backwards as the energy exploded out of his palm in the form of a glowing black ball laced with dark green strands and a light pink outline. It struck the sandbags solidly and detonated, knocking everyone around and dropping Ken to his knees, exhausted by the effort. His Spore settled itself back, making a more contented murmuring; the buzzing in Ken's head went away immediately. Dust and sand billowed everywhere in hazy clouds.
"Regent?!" a voice called out through his head -- Stingmon! "Are you there?"
Ken coughed over the clouds, trying to ignore the tingle in his right hand. "Yeah," he managed. "I think we're all still -- "
He cut off suddenly as a huge, looming form suddenly appeared out of the cloud, right above him; something swung down towards him and Ken gasped as he was caught and lifted into the air, sandwiched between two bony fingers and one giant thumb. He was held aloft for a brief second, staring into the bloodied but triumphant face of the President, but before he could marshal his wits the President's claw began to glow brightly and Ken had time for one brief moment of horrified realization before the claw exploded.
****
There was silence in the Command Center.
A moment before, Biyomon had been given a brutally crushing hug from the much larger Stingmon, while Piedmon had slammed one fist into the other palm. Angemon had given a sigh of relief and sagged in his chair. Agumon had merely nodded and Datamon hadn't bothered given the situation a second glance before returning to his precious computers.
Now, however, things were very grim. The Regent's connection with the digital world had been disrupted when the President had hit him with that exploding claw, sending the screen into an indistinct fuzz and the inhabitants into a panic, but it had become solid again a moment later leaving them an indifferent look at the Regent flat on his back in a tangle of cables and lighting equipment. A faint wisp of smoke was still rising from his body. Datamon insisted that he'd only been a bit burned and possibly given a concussion but he was being ignored by all of the others. Stingmon had probably taken things harder than the others, but Angemon and Agumon certainly didn't like things either. Datamon had kept an eye on the Regent's vital signs while watching the show. Biyomon had perched on Stingmon's left arm and was apparently trying to get him to focus, while Piedmon...
Piedmon sat there, grinning sardonically.
Agumon was the first to notice, but that wasn't entirely accidental; despite his conversion to the generally perceived forces of good Agumon always kept a close eye on Piedmon. "What's so funny?" the dinosaur demanded. All eyes turned to Piedmon, who was watching the screen and chortling.
"Irony is funny," the clown digimon managed over his chuckling. "The President just made the same mistake that the Regent did."
"How do you figure that?!" Stingmon shouted. He did, however, keep enough control over himself to not wave his arms and upset Biyomon's perch.
"Watch," Piedmon said. "It'll be obvious in a moment."
Angemon was the first to disengage his gaze from Piedmon's face, turning to watch the screen; the rest of them followed suit a moment later. On the screen, they could see the President standing up, with both arms human now; he replaced his jacket, shot his cuffs. All of the hits that the Regent had managed to land during the fight had been healed over. He took a moment to collect himself, and then started forwards toward the downed Regent.
He got about ten feet before the huge black piece of equipment slammed into him from his left side, sending him spinning into the ground. It was quickly followed up by both a second large device, which smashed into the downed President's left leg, and a black man, already laden with one body, who ran toward the Regent and hefted him onto his shoulder. The oddly dressed man didn't wait around for the President to rally, but ran for the hallway instead. In the Command Center Piedmon nodded his approval, his sardonic grin never departing his face, and reached for the microphone amid the staring and dropped jaws.
****
Chardsy ran. Burdened by both the relatively light Mimi and the not-so- light Ken he charged down the empty hallways under the stage, trying to make it back out to where he and Ken had first emerged. Along the way he'd dropped any pretense of trying to make sense of the situation. People with crystal things inside of them, the President of the evil Odaiba Group growing a giant claw-thing, this new digital world guy fighting back with some kind of weird black sword thing... it was too much to for Chardsy to try and understand right then. Running was more important.
But where to? There was no telling where a safe place could be found. Chardsy was relatively sure that he wasn't being followed, but the President ran a huge corporation; his men would be all over the place, just waiting for Ken and any of his accomplices to emerge before they brought the heavy end of the hammer down. Chardsy slowed down to a walk and ducked inside what looked to be a small equipment room as he considered his next move. He placed Ken in a sitting position next to a large box and gently set Mimi down. As Ken landed on the floor a little black device bounced out from Ken's pockets and slid over, stopping next to one of the machines. Absently Chardsy picked it up as he glanced around the room, looking for some kind of inspiration.
Briefly, his gaze passed over Ken. The guy didn't look too good; he had a large, ugly burn over his entire midsection and while it wasn't bleeding it was still smoking a bit. He'd passed out, probably from being tossed around the room, and Chardsy was pretty certain that he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. Unfortunately for Ken, Chardsy had no knowledge of first aid at all, outside of Band-Aids and the occasional Ace bandage, so cooling off burns was out of his league.
The only other thing that was lit up in the equipment room was a large black box that occupied the far corner of the room. It had a few backlit displays, one of which was marked by the inscription OD-EDR-3-1.45. The only other display was marked DRN: 60% TIME: 22:00 RNG: Omni. Chardsy took another look at it before the display clicked in his mind: it was an Odaiba Group draining reactor! He glanced at his watch and noted the time: 9:45 PM. That only gave him fifteen minutes! He looked around with a new sense of urgency.
The little black thing beeped. Chardsy glanced down at it but didn't spend any time looking closely; his mind was still trying to figure out how to escape. He ran over what equipment he had on him, but he was pretty sure that a watch and a few dollars weren't going to be of much use for either flight or waking up one of his passengers.
The little black thing beeped again, more insistently this time, and Chardsy glanced at it again. This time he saw the flashing button. How'd he miss that before? He slapped it and the higher of the two little screens on the device flickered, then cleared up abruptly to show a nightmare image on the screen; the face of possibly the most demented clown that Chardsy had ever dreamed, a painted and scarred face painted white and black. A pair of black eyes glittered out at him. It was all Chardsy could do to keep hold of the little device.
It got worse when the clown started talking. "Chardsy, is it?"
"Uh... yeah, that's me." Chardsy said tonelessly. He was feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole mess, and the demon clown wasn't helping matters any. "Who the hell are you?"
"Language, my boy. I am Piedmon -- " here he dipped his head slightly, " -- and I need you to do a few things if you'd like to see your friends there safe." Piedmon had a contemptuous way of speaking that set Chardsy on edge, and the brutal scowl that graced his features only added to the evil image that the clown radiated.
"Yeah? What the hell do you know?" Chardsy bit back, feeling a bit more centered.
"Quite a bit. I've been watching from here, you know," Piedmon replied matter-of-factly. "It's rather obvious that you won't make it too far at the rate you're going."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're sitting in an equipment room," Piedmon deadpanned.
Chardsy glanced around again. He was indeed sitting in an equipment room. "Good job," he shot back. "Whaddya want me to do?"
Piedmon brightened up a bit -- that is, his scowl lightened ever-so- slightly -- and he responded, "First, find a monitor." Chardsy glanced around wildly before he found one, sitting against a far corner. It wasn't plugged into either a computer or the wall. The reactor on the far side began to hum a bit; dismayed, Chardsy looked at his watch. It was 9:50.
"Found one, but it doesn't have any power," Chardsy answered. "We gotta do this quick. The Odaiba Group's all set to suck the life outta this whole area."
That actually got Piedmon to adopt a confused expression. "I don't follow you."
"They've got one of their reactor things set up in here, and if I know the Odaiba Group, this won't be the only one," Chardsy explained. "I guess that they've planned this whole thing out -- they'd get the crystal thing out of Tachikawa back there and then drain the crowd dry. Wait, that doesn't make sense; they can't push dark power on this scale, can they? Ken says that they gotta replace what they take."
"Save the brainstorming for later," Piedmon snapped. He had his scowl back out again, and it was no more pleasant this time. "Just find a plug for the monitor and get it turned on." It took Chardsy a moment to find an electric outlet in all the clutter, but he eventually switched it on.
"What now?" Chardsy asked.
Piedmon seemed to look behind him, but on the screen it wasn't very clear. After a moment's pause he turned around and looked towards Chardsy again. "You're going to have to wake the Regent up."
"Who?"
"The guy behind you."
Chardsy turned and looked at the fallen Ken. "He's kinda out of it."
Piedmon shook his head. "Congratulations. Still, you need to wake him up."
"Why?"
"He's the only one who can use that D-3!" Piedmon snapped. "You can only listen to what I tell you, but he's capable of using it to its fullest extent." Chardsy's lip twitched, but he walked over and prodded Ken gently in the side of his head. Nothing happened. Chardsy then reached over and pinched Ken's nose shut. After a moment Ken suddenly came to, thrashing as much as he was able, pushing Chardsy's fingers away quickly. He coughed for a moment, then looked around.
"What happened?" he managed to croak out, dazed.
"Later," Piedmon snapped from the D-3's miniature screen. "Right now you've got to open a portal here - the Odaiba Group's all set to drain the stadium right down to nothing."
Ken came as fully awake as he was capable; he sat up abruptly, then immediately fell backwards again, curling an arm around his burnt midsection. He coughed once, thickly, and then got himself under control again. "Okay. Chardsy, where's that Chosen from earlier?"
"You mean Tachikawa, right?"
"Yeah."
"Right behind you." Ken turned and saw the prone form of Mimi laid out against a nearby speaker. He nodded once and then held out his palm expectantly; Chardsy placed the D-3 into his hand, then turned and picked up Mimi just as carefully as before. His watch read 9:56.
He thrust it towards the monitor and said simply, "Open," and a swirl of light and colors reached out and sucked the three of them into the digital world.
****
"Get those Seals powered down, now!" Datamon roared into the mic. On the monitor now was the Pyramid complex, out in the Server desert, and the busy forms of Gazimon could be seen on the screen trying desperately to power down the six giant globes that kept the digital world safe from invasion. The usual humming that was coming from them was a bit lower than usual, but it wasn't nearly low enough to get anybody other than the Regent through the gates. Killing the Regent's incoming guests would be a very bad precedent to set.
"We're trying, boss!" one of the Gazimon wailed in the general direction of the camera. "They just can't come down this fast!" Datamon made a frustrated noise but let the guy off the hook, focusing instead on his own task. On a display mounted on his console he could see both a representation of the Seals' current effective overlapping zones and the Regent's party's progress. They were disturbingly close to the Seals and Datamon worked the keyboard, trying to find a way to cut down the Seals' levels fast enough.
The rest of the Command Center was quiet, watching the monkey robot work. Stingmon and Biyomon were still, one on the other's wrist. Piedmon kept pulling out swords and fiddling with them. Agumon was quiet, but every now and then he'd blow a miniature Pepper Breath into the air. Angemon would then raise his rod and stop the attack before it got too far. The tension in the room was palpable.
"It's not fast enough," Datamon whispered to himself, and indeed according to his displays it was not; the Regent's party was far too close to the Seals to allow them to come down. If he'd just had five more minutes - no, he wouldn't waste time wondering. He set himself to his task with a new spark and tapped furiously on his console's controls. Wait - an idea had just occurred to him; it wasn't pretty, but - "Gazimon! Recalibrate the Seals so that they are set to bounce rather than oscillate!" The team on the monitor suddenly stopped what they were doing and reacted, going to different controls and entering in new commands.
Abruptly the tip of his tail was nicked by something sharp. Datamon turned quickly and realized that Piedmon was holding a fifteen-foot-long sword; its tip was carefully held right in front of him. Despite himself, he paled a bit. "Care to explain?" Piedmon asked conversationally.
"Sure. If the Seals are set to bounce, they'll just knock the Regent's party around rather than kill them outright, and they'll have a smaller effective radius. Less dangerous, you know." That satisfied Piedmon who banished the sword immediately. Datamon turned back around, determined to both do his duty and regain his dignity.
"Get a few teams ready to receive them," Agumon said into the open air. "If he hits a Bounce Seal there's no telling where he'll end up." Angemon leaned over and started talking into the microphone he was seated next to. Datamon glanced down at his screen again and was suddenly galvanized by what it innocuously showed him.
"The Regent's right on top of the Seals!" Datamon shouted. "He's gonna hit at least one of them!"
****
All in all, Miyako was having an unusual week, even by her revolutionary standards. Having her friends captured and taken away was almost traumatizing. Breaking and entering into the Odaiba Group headquarters was certainly an adventure in and of itself. She was still having momentary flashbacks to Gatomon, her blotchy fur, the painful and avenging look in her eyes as she slashed out. Getting sent back to the digital world, the alternate dimension that she'd fought and failed to save, was almost the icing on the cake; that title was reserved for the fact that the digital world had somehow managed to throw the mantle of the Emperor off by itself. Now, she walked through the central complex of the digital world's government in a shambling daze. None of this should have been possible!
Aquilamon had run ahead, to consult with his assistants, and that was for the best as far as Miyako was concerned; she could see that he wasn't the same fawning Hawkmon that she'd lost so many years ago to Milleniumon's cruelty. No, he'd grown up in this odd new world and found his own place. He didn't need her any longer, and it hurt to admit that. It hurt to admit that the world didn't need her anymore. It'd run just as well with her as without. The very location she was in confirmed her own thoughts - a massive place that was too large and ornately detailed to have been built by human hands. Pillars and gold wrappings were the hallmark of the building.
As she was walking along thinking those thoughts, mired in gloom, she walked with her head down, long lavender hair spilling over the front of her face and obscuring her eyesight. It was probably because of her hair that she failed to see the odd distortion in the air until she was right on top of it. She drew back, surprised despite herself; the air in front of her seemed to shimmer, as if there was something there that was just out of her eyesight. She strained, trying to figure out what it was -
The shimmer abruptly coalesced into the outline of a vague figure. It was vague because it was moving through the air right at her, and before she'd had the presence of mind to move it crashed headlong into her, sending her sprawling down onto the floor with the mystery figure sliding off to her right side. She shook her head, trying to clear it, then glanced angrily at the figure to her right - and promptly forgot about everything, from the President of the Odaiba Group on down. For lying next to her, face in some sort of distress, was the lord and king of all of the hottest men that had ever lived. He had perfect indigo hair and a perfect solid build and just the right height and his face was built in just the right way and even though he had just appeared out of the air right in front of her and knocked her down she'd forgive him in a heartbeat!
Then reality came crashing back in, along with another two people who'd appeared slightly farther down the hall. One of them, a red-haired woman, had collapsed immediately; the other, a black guy wearing an odd combination of clothes, fell over but struggled back to his feet. Reality also appeared when Miyako realized that her hands, which she'd flung in front of her to push the hottie off, had somehow turned black. She took a closer look at the guy and sucked in a horrified breath when she saw an enormous burn of some sort, one that extended over his front and sides at his midsection but didn't quite reach his back. Whatever had given it to him had charred his shirt in the same area, putting holes in it. Miyako reacted immediately; she pulled out the flask that Bishojo, the Migotomon, had given her and, pulling the cork off, she doused the wound liberally with the stuff. It was thicker than water but not by much and after a moment she'd covered the entire area of the wound. She stepped back to see what would come about.
After a short moment something happened; all of the pain on the guy's face dropped off immediately while the burn began to recede, fading away and shrinking at the same time. Miyako's left hand reached up to rub her shoulder while she watched the formerly hideous burn simply go away, as if something had scolded it sharply. Which, in a way, was true. She was so focused on the guy and the gone burn that she didn't notice the black guy run over until he was right next to her. "Hey, what'd you just do? The dude's burnt!"
She gestured offhandedly, in a bit of shock herself. "See for yourself," she said faintly. The black man's staring was interrupted, however, by a sudden onslaught of loud digimon, pouring down the hallway towards them. She and her new companion were roughly pushed aside by a team of Kiwimon, bearing a pair of stretchers with their beaks, followed by a Wizardmon in very unusual garb; rather than the grays and blues of the rest of his brethren he was wearing a white doctor's coat over a turquoise outfit. The straw had had been replaced by a doctors' cap, still bearing the skull.
"Hey, wait a minute!" she yelled over their noise. "He's already fine! I fixed his burn right up!" The black guy took another long, jaw-open look at her. The digimon ignored her, with the exception of the Wizardmon, who floated up and looked her in the eye. The Kiwimon loaded the hot guy onto a stretcher, much to Miyako's dismay, along with the redhead.
"What did you use?" he asked, turning a critical eye on her.
"Uh, this stuff I got from a Migotomon," she said hesitantly. "She called it Essence of Light."
The Wizardmon nodded once, then turned to the Kiwimon. "Change of plans: to his chambers, rather than the ward. He'll need time to sleep off what this person has given him. The Chosen's still headed for the ward." The Kiwimon holding the man simply changed direction and continued scampering off with the stretcher. The Wizardmon turned in place and started floating away, following the Kiwimon bearing the redhead.
He stopped when Miyako yelled, "Wait! Who is that guy, anyway?"
"That would be the Regent of the digital world," he answered. "You both seem to be humans. If you'd like, you may follow me." Having said that he floated away, leaving Miyako and the black guy to pursue him.
****
He arrived without fanfare, simply walking in from the helipad, in the middle of the morning. Gatomon had been going over the reports from the energy collectors and didn't notice his quiet entrance until he'd entered the room. "Oh!" she said. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon."
"Neither did I," the President replied. "I had to cut my visit to America short."
"Really. The military representatives will be very upset at that," she said, but quieted at the look on his face. He only got that look when he was very displeased with something, and considering what he'd gone to do, there was only one thing that could have gone wrong. "Did you manage to extract the Sincerity power?"
As an answer he lifted a hand; like magic the Sigil, a smallish crystal glowing faintly green, manifested itself in his palm. "Yes, I got that." Having said that he walked over to a small cabinet mounted to the column that constituted the center of his office and opened it carefully. Inside, winking out at him, were four other crystals much like the one he held in his hand. On the far left was small crystal glowing silver: Knowledge. To its right was one that glowed a very light orange: Courage. All the way on the right was a third crystal, giving off a soft red light: Love. And in the middle, on the second row all the way to the right, was a fourth crystal, shining yellow: Friendship. The President deposited the green crystal he was holding into a slot on the left side of the second row. He took a step back, admiring their harmony of colors, then closed the cabinet.
"If you've got that, then what's the problem?" the little cat asked. She'd already seen her fill of Sigils and she wasn't as awed by them as the President was. Her question, however, did have the desired effect; it brought the President back down to Earth. He walked over and sat in his chair, behind the desk. Gatomon had her own chair.
"The problem is what the Emperor sent over," the President said softly.
Gatomon's eyes went wide. "You found out? What did he send?"
"Nothing. He came through himself!" the President declared. Gatomon pulled back, shocked and somewhat frightened.
"Here? As in on Earth? That's." she trailed off.
"That's crazy, I know. I don't know why he'd decide to take the first step himself." The President shook his head. "He's far more powerful than a mere human. I created a Nightmare Claw to defend myself with and he hit me a dozen times!"
"You're still alive," Gatomon pointed out.
"I had the Sincerity sigil to back me up. I healed over what he did to me, but he still managed to force my hand. I had to flee or be taken by the ED reactors."
"An excellent drain, by the way. We got more power in a few seconds there than we get off the entire East Coast in a month." Gatomon looked distinctly pleased, like the mythical cat that ate the canary. "We should do more of that sort of thing."
The President shook his head again. "It's tempting, I know, but the slower drain-and-replace style fits my agenda better than trying to drain them all at once." Gatomon remained silent. "Don't tell me you're still trying to guess my end goal?"
"I am a cat," she replied. "That's what I do."
"Don't bother."
"Will the Emperor throw a bone into your 'agenda'?"
The President paused, considering that. He had powers unbeknownst to Gatomon and he'd been using them during his fight with the Emperor. He could tell exactly what had happened with the darkness inside of the now mature Ichijouji and what had produced it. It was a Dark Spore, which had been one of the few creations of Milleniumon not completely devoted towards killing things. It was an energy battery, but when it ran out of power, it would force the host to supply the dark power necessary for it to continue storing power. If he got a grip on that Dark Spore, the President mused, then he would be able to complete his agenda easily. He could also discern the emotional change that had come over Ichijouji, but he swore to himself never to tell Gatomon that. It wouldn't do to have her want to show mercy.
Out loud, he said, "I think I can find a way for him to fit into my agenda quite nicely."
****