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.
****
Contact
****
If there was one thing that distinguished the Capital building from its companions in the real world it was probably its scope. The Capital building had been designed by the Regent for governing the entire digital world, a place with astonishing variance in form and ability, and as such was suited to fit thousands of differing digimon. To accomplish this the building itself was enormous -- far more so than its compatriots in the real world -- and was staffed by digimon who numbered in the thousands. That meant that if a visitor didn't know where they were going, they'd be quite lost very quickly unless they had a guide.
Miyako had a guide, but the floating Wizardmon was moving quickly after the Kiwimon and their cargo, trying to see to his patient. She was having a devil of a time following the creature and it didn't help that everything from a giant Monochromon to a small army of tiny Mushmon had managed to interpose themselves between her and Wizardmon. As for the Wizardmon himself, he was a receding image of a white laboratory coat and messily tied hair who was certainly not slowing down for a pair of concerned humans. Just for that, Miyako resolved to keep up.
As for her newly acquired compatriot, the black man, he was winded -- apparently he'd been running earlier -- but it was obvious that it would take most of the digimon in the palace to stop him. Miyako had decided to follow the Wizardmon after her running friend revealed that the redhead the Kiwimon had hauled out of the atrium where she'd met both the black man and possibly the world's most attractive guy alive was actually a Chosen, like she was. That meant that she'd gotten in somehow, and if Miyako could figure it out she'd be out of this world and back home in a heartbeat. She was trying not to think about what could have happened in her absence but her mind kept running over the possible scenarios and they weren't good.
Lost in her musings for a critical second she missed it when the Wizardmon cut an abrupt right turn and charged off in a different direction. Fortunately the black man didn't pause a second and cut the same turn, giving Miyako something to follow. She chose that time, pulled up alongside him, to introduce herself. "I'm Miyako. Who are you?"
"Chardsy," he shouted over, not looking at her. "We gotta keep up -- they's sayin' Tachikawa's a Chosen or somethin', and that she's --"
He got about that far before Miyako finally reacted. "Mimi?!"
Chardsy looked over at her in surprise. "You know her?"
"We knew each other when we were kids," Miyako explained breathlessly. What was Mimi doing here? Miyako had tried to follow her music career, but with the hubbub of running a revolution she hadn't listened to much music lately. She could keenly remember feeling like Mimi was a kindred spirit to her, somebody who'd completely understand what she did and why she did it. Meanwhile Chardsy was looking a bit overwhelmed, shaking his head as he ran.
"What is it with this place?" Miyako looked over at him as they ran around a irate tripped Tyrannomon. How long were they going to have to run? "Everyone else knows each other."
"We came here a long time ago, when we were kids, but we left this place behind when... when bad things happened." Chardsy didn't comment on that. "Why'd they bring Mimi here?"
Chardsy's mouth twitched. "She got attacked by the Odaiba Group's President."
Miyako was able to keep running, but not by much. "What? Why?!"
"I don't know -- me and Ken were late to the party." Ken? Miyako thought that name sounded... familiar somehow. Where had she heard it before, in connection with the digital world? All of her memories from her past experiences in the digital world were oddly hazy when she tried to think about them, but the name Ken reached through the mists of her mind and stirred something ancient. A memory of a person, shrouded in the darkness of her mind... Miyako managed to keep her mind away from it, dismissing the odd sentiments.
Chardsy broke up her flash of memory to shout, "Quick, there he goes!" Miyako looked forward quickly enough to see the Wizardmon twist in mid-air and fly into an antechamber off of the main hallway. Dodging a curious Mekanorimon she cut to her left and pulled ahead of the tired Chardsy, making it to the chamber.
It was about what she'd expected -- a whitewashed medical ward of some sort, with the floating Wizardmon coasting into the back. Miyako ran over to the counter where a bored Gizamon was flipping through pages in a book. "Hey, wake up!"
The Gizamon gave a start, looking over at the panting and anxious Miyako, and put his book aside. "All this running today. Well, what -" He stopped suddenly, looking at Miyako and the approaching Chardsy with an expression that was nothing short of stupefied. Miyako sighed impatiently and, reaching over the counter, shook him hard. It worked. "Hey, you're both humans! Whoa! When have we had outside humans lately?"
That was not the reaction that Miyako was looking for. Losing patience quickly, she yelled, "I want to go see Mimi!"
That wasn't the reaction that he was looking for either.
"Let a human into the medical chamber? No way! That's expressly for-- " He cut off because Miyako had picked him up, all thirty pounds of him, and was staring him straight in the eye.
"Listen, you little rabbit-thing, I want to see Mimi and I want to see her now!" she bellowed at him, and dropped him back into his chair.
"I can't do that! I'd get fired for sure!" He was standing firm but his voice was wavering and he was looking wildly around himself for assistance. Miyako didn't notice what he was doing; her attention was focused directly in front of her on the Gizamon, and he wasn't going anywhere. Let him look.
"Uh, you might want to calm down," Chardsy whispered to her urgently, glancing around.
She spun around, intent on letting this guy know exactly where he stood, and stopped cold at the sight of a pair of tall, angry-looking Drimogemon staring her down. Both of them wore silver-lined blue rings on their left arms. One of them happened to be cleaning his nose drill with his left hand drill thoughtfully, the conflicting whirs driving home their point exactly.
"Oh, crap," Chardsy whispered out. Miyako found herself glancing from a suddenly smug Gizamon to a terrified Chardsy to the angry Drimogemon to the crowd her attack had gathered, and suddenly realized that she'd gone a bit beyond her rights here. "You just had to let him have it, didn't ya?"
Miyako's flicking glances finally found something for her to put her hope onto - Aquilamon! He was near the ceiling and diving fast, and with startled exclamations from both humans he landed right in front of them, standing between them and the two Drimogemon. Much to Miyako's surprise the Drimogemon pulled back at a glare from Aquilamon, nodding respectfully to him as they did so, and began to clear the crowd out. Aquilamon turned his piercing gaze on Miyako, but she beat him to the punch. "Where did you go?"
"I was looking for the Regent," he said. "His re-entry into the digital world didn't go according to plan."
"I'll say," Chardsy muttered.
"Don't worry about him," Miyako said, voice becoming slightly vague, eyes unfocusing slightly. "I already ran into him, and one of the digimon here had him sent to his chambers."
Aquilamon's head jerked up suddenly. "What? He was badly injured! He needs to be in the medical ward!"
"I took care of his wound," Miyako proclaimed. "It wasn't that bad, and the stuff that the Keeper's friend gave me worked just fine!" Aquilamon's eye twitched. "Now can you get this little rabbit out of my way?"
"I'd forgotton what you were like," he muttered to himself, but not quite quietly enough; Miyako heard him.
"What does that mean!" she demanded, hands on hips.
"Nothing," he said, quick to reassure her. "I just. missed you, a lot." The giant hawk glanced down at his feet, ashamed. "Being away from you for six years had dulled your voice in my mind a bit." His voice was soft, and Miyako felt her heart going out to the hawk. She ran a hand over his soft down, hidden under his stiffer armor feathers, and felt his powerful but tense muscles relax ever-so-slightly under her gentle touch.
"Who's your friend?" Chardsy asked brightly from behind her. She half-turned and, pulling her hand free from his feathers, motioned to Aquilamon.
"This is Aquilamon," she said. "He's the chief of police around here, and my partner digimon too," she added proudly. "Aquilamon, this is Chardsy. He came in at the same time as the Regent did."
Chardsy walked over to Aquilamon, extended a hand. "Hey. What's goin' on?"
"Not much," Aquilamon grunted back. "Pretty much the usual around here, except for this crazy Regent thing."
"That's gotta be rough. Feel like chillin' a bit after this blows over?" Chardsy said.
"Sure - I know this little hole-in-the-wall in town that's just --"
"Okay, now can we get inside?" Miyako asked impatiently, interrupting them. Inside, she was a bit put off; Aquilamon was HER partner digimon, thank you. For his part Aquilamon all but jumped getting to the Gizamon.
"Gizamon!" Aquilamon said. "I'd like to see the guest."
"I wish I could let you go through, believe me," the Gizamon replied, glancing at the still-irate Miyako. "For now, though, until the Regent himself gives orders otherwise, I can't let anyone in." Aquilamon drew back, nodding politely to the Gizamon, and strode down to the others.
"Well?" Chardsy asked.
"Sorry, but the brass's put the guest off-limits for now." Aquilamon shook his head, disgusted. "Stingmon's always been paranoid. Can't wait until the Regent gets off his ass so we can get somewhere."
Miyako managed not to stomp out her frustration on the marble floor. "Can't you get us in there anyway?"
"I don't like to fight losing battles, Miyako," he responded. "If I can't win, I'm not going to put my neck on the line." He held up a claw to stop her retort. "I'm a strong Adult-level, sure, but I'm just an Adult- level. The palace is swarming with them, not to mention that most of the Administrators are in town and they're all Perfect-level or Mega-level. I'd get demoted and they'd imprison the two of you."
Chardsy said, "That ain't cool," rather faintly.
Any further conversation between the three of them was forestalled immediately when Miyako turned around, trying to come with an answer, and caught sight of the armored figure of Angemon soaring across the open pavilion. To her the angel was enormous, all white feathers and shielded torso and outstretched rod and the raw beauty of the angel took her breath away. She couldn't tear her gaze away from him until he hit the ground with a light tap, a few feet in front of the little party.
Chardsy was about as stunned as Miyako was, but Aquilamon was quick to recognize his friend. "Angemon! What do you want?"
He didn't respond at first, just glanced over the party, his eyes eventually settling onto Miyako. He raised one delicately crafted eyebrow. Miyako was suddenly haunted by the distinct feeling that he was surprised, unpleasantly so, and that he didn't have any intention of being surprised, ever, until that very moment. At length, he switched his gaze over to Aquilamon. "How long?" he asked in a disapproving tone.
"Oh, about a day," Aquilamon responded conversationally. "She arrived over at the Keeper's Chamber and he arranged to fly her out here. I've been giving her the tour since then. What happened to the Regent, anyway?"
"Can't tell you in this company. However, I can cure that particular problem and fill you right in." Angemon turned his head slightly to the left and spoke into a shoulder-mounted communicator for a moment. As soon as he was done, a bright flash resounded throughout the halls of the palace, and when it had cleared Miyako had her view of a terrifically ugly digimon; one that was more blue brains and head than anything else. It looked over Miyako and Chardsy appraisingly, leering at them.
Aquilamon shook his head. "Must we? We could just ask them, you know."
"Stingmon's in charge," the angel answered wryly. "Boys and girls, this is Vademon." He indicated the digimon behind him. "He's going to ask you two a few questions."
****
The Regent was dreaming.
In his dream, he had been sent to the Real World on an improbable errand to investigate the lost Internet and found a drained world, one that had succumbed to the powers of darkness in the form of an evil corporation, the Odaiba Group. He dreamed that he found a new friend, a human, and a new quest: restore that broken world. He dreamed that he went to a - a concert, that was the word - and at this concert he met his match: the President of the evil Odaiba Group. He dreamed that he dueled the evil man and defeated him, only to almost fall to the darkness within himself. He dreamed that he loosed the darkness within himself in an attack that terrified even himself, and in his relief at getting rid of it he let his guard down. He dreamed that the evil President made him pay for that, and sent him into a wall with an exploding weapon.
He dreamed that he was falling, and the light above was growing dimmer; the darkness reached up with tendrils of itself, pulling him down into its inky expanse. He dreamed that while he couldn't escape himself the chains were effortlessly broken by... a beautiful angel? Yes, one of light, with dark flowing hair clad in a elegant gown of white; he couldn't make out her face. She latched onto his arms, pulling him up away from the darkness, toward the light above...
And Ken woke up.
He was lying in his bed, in his suite, at the Capitol Building. He wasn't wearing much and his hair was askew; he was without his equipment. He sat up, glancing around, and suddenly realized something: his torso wasn't burnt from the President's cruel grasp. In fact, his torso was looking remarkably whole. The scar he'd gotten last year calming down a Scorpiomon was gone, as was the one from three years ago when he and Piedmon had tried to spar. He shook his head at the memory; going toe-to- toe with a Mega was a foolish idea and he should have known better.
He took a quick glance around at his room. While he may have been the Regent, with the resources of an entire world at his beck and call, he hadn't seen any reason to abuse that for his own gain and as such the small room was more or less bare. He had a simple bed, and a simple dresser, and an adjoining bathroom; he also had, on one wall, a map of the entire digital world, laid out for specie location and resource allocation. He often spent a few moments in front of the map at the beginning of the day, trying to figure out how to solve the day's problems.
Ken took a moment to reminisce over the crazy dream. He didn't dream much anymore; his responsibilities oftentimes left him completely drained, able only to stumble into bed. He shook his head again, trying clear out the cobwebs, and found himself contemplating the angel. Beautiful, and not a digimon-type angel either; this one was a complete unknown to him. He found himself replaying the scene in his mind, being brought into the light, and forced himself to stop. It was probably just a human thing anyway, something he'd have to overcome when he did his job.
He tried to stand but his body just wouldn't allow it, and he collapsed back onto the bed. He wasn't in any kind of pain, but he certainly felt very weak. He sighed. It was no wonder why he had dreamed, now; the extended weakness after a major healing could only be the work of a vial of Essence of Light. That stuff was a potent healing agent but it just couldn't stand to see somebody in any kind of pain -- it had a minor sort of sentience -- and it would try to cure emotional pain as well. Only the Keeper made an effort to manufacture the potion and he didn't give the secret away to anybody. Inwardly, Ken sighed. He'd have to visit the Keeper and discharge the new debt he had made.
Ken thought: 'Spore?'
He didn't receive a response. Internally, he could sense the presence of the Spore, but it seemed to be all but drained to nothing by his last series of adventures. He glanced down at his hands, remembering the power and its corrupting nature. Ken knew exactly what had happened in the fight with the President; he'd given in to his darker side, and the Spore was a conduit for the Emperor to emerge. He shuddered, ever so briefly. He'd have to come up with a new way to do things. The Spore was getting to be too dangerous.
Ken's mental sorting was broken up by the door opening quietly and then flying open as Stingmon peeked his head inside. "Ken! You're already awake?"
"Yeah, I'm awake," Ken replied. "I'm still working on up."
It wasn't often that an eight foot insect almost crushed Ken with his weight, but that was exactly what happened as Stingmon charged into the room and swept up his partner human in an almost bone-crushing hug, ignoring Ken's muffled protests. "Azulongmon, Ken, don't do that to me! I thought you'd been killed or worse!"
"That's great," Ken managed to gasp out, "but I can't breathe!" Realizing what he was doing, Stingmon dropped Ken back onto the bed.
The insect then took a closer look at Ken. "You look like yourself now."
"I feel like it," Ken said. "I know how close I was, Sting." Stingmon didn't respond to that, preferring to just glance at Ken's face and then look away, worried. Ken spent a moment studying his partner's face. After eight years of being partners, through good times and bad, they had established quite the rapport for understanding what the other was doing and thinking, and Ken could tell that his partner was worried that he'd revert back to what he had been, once upon a time. Ken spent a long pause reassuring Stingmon with silence.
After a moment Ken asked, "How'd you contact me?"
"Biyomon instructed me in the ways of the partner bond," Stingmon said wryly. "I didn't know that I could use it to talk to you directly, but once I tried it the concept just came easily. I could do it any number of times, now."
"You stay out of my head," Ken said warningly. "I don't need anything else up there."
"No promises," Stingmon grunted out.
Ken cocked his head to one side. "Does it work both ways?"
Stingmon didn't even twitch. "You'd have to ask Biyomon about that."
"I don't think I need the help," Ken pressed. "If I recall correctly, you said that the concept is simple to understand. Since you've been in my head before I can just recreate the feeling and divine what I need from that." Stingmon was looking somewhat more nervous now. Ken had a flash of intuition -- "I don't know, though. I doubt that I'd find much beyond a certain pink bird..."
Stingmon's normally solid green face seemed to turn a darker shade of green, and he seemed taken aback. "Well, I do owe her a bit," the insect managed lamely.
Ken shook his head. "Good luck, partner. You're gonna need it; she's a heartbreaker. So, what's been happening here in the digital world since the last time we talked?"
Stingmon relaxed a bit, now that he was back on solid territory. "Oh, just about everything."
****
"You took the initiative," the President began, hands clasped in front of him, arms resting on his desk. In front of him stood one of his three Assistants, nervously picking at the sleeves of her red dress, glasses off and hat hung on the rack near the elevator entrance. Her silver hair was pinned up in a functional and otherwise unimpressive bun, a few uncooperative wisps hanging down across her face. She nodded, in response to the President's question.
"You decided, without any kind of instruction, to begin the extraction process on one Iori Hida," he continued. His eyes were darkly disapproving. "You believed that you understood my plans to the point where you could advance them without my instruction, or you've decided to create and further your own agenda."
Again, she nodded once.
The President looked down at his desk, gathering himself, then looked up again. "Were you not as successful as you were, by sheer chance, I'd have already consigned you to the bottom of the corporation. That does not mean that you will go unpunished." Her face, which had been slowly becoming smug, suddenly snapped into surprised. "You will not have any contact with the prisoners. You will, in fact, be escorting Kido Jyou once he leaves on his vacation, you will observe him carefully, and you will remain in contact with me at all times. You must remain undetected by Kido. Eventually I will give you additional instructions which you will act upon immediately. Do not fail me in this, Assistant. You are useful but not essential, and you know far too much to be allowed to roam freely across the world."
"But, sir," she responded desperately, "didn't I do what you were looking for?"
"The extraction process that I've developed is not something to be implemented by somebody who is ignorant of the process!" he thundered. "You don't know what the process is designed to do; how can you possibly assist it other than blind luck? The process is much more than simply making the person feel bad about themselves, Assistant!"
She remained mute. After a moment, the President said, "Take your hat and get on your assignment."
She departed quietly, neither storming nor cursing; she simply turned, took her hat down, and got into the elevator shaft. A moment after she left Gatomon jumped up from her resting place, beneath the President's chair, and landed easily on the President's desk. "That went well."
"I wish I could reward her," the President said quietly. "She did excellently at the task she set for herself. But her success was due to blind luck in her assumptions. That's too dangerous to use on the last one." He glanced at his clasped hands, then turned his gaze over to the waiting Gatomon. "I suspect that this won't do much for your character, but I do not have the time to work on Hikari. I need you to prepare her, and quickly."
Gatomon's ears perked up. "Really?"
The President's gaze turned piercing. "Try not to enjoy it too much, Gatomon. And don't bother with anything subtle. We don't have much time and out of all of the children Hikari has the most resistance to this sort of thing; a sort of psychic stamina, if you will. Use a sledgehammer's worth of her greatest fear and smash her resistance aside."
"Why do we have to hurry?" Gatomon said darkly.
"We have to hurry," the President explained as if to a child, "because I am convinced that the Emperor will come here after he is finished recovering and that he'll have a lot of his friends from back home with him. Humanity hasn't designed the defenses that can hold to an assault led by a vanguard of Perfect-level digimon. Four renegade Chosen will be of no use against them, either, which leaves us myself and you three Assistants. Those are not good odds."
Gatomon nodded. "We didn't get him at the stadium?"
The President shook his head. "It would seem that the Emperor was prepared. He opened a Gate and left about three minutes from when the draining hit."
"Alright, then," she responded, grinning ferally. "I'll take good care of her."
****
Miyako sat in the same chair she'd been in for the last fifteen minutes, head in hands, nursing one mighty headache. After what Vademon had done it was all she could do to just sit there and rock slightly. She could still conjure up the disorienting feeling of a foreign mind going through her memories, quickly and efficiently sorting them into coherent categories for his own study. According to Vademon he'd been quick. According to Miyako he'd spent the better part of the day in her head. He'd taken off a few minutes ago, newly gained information stored in a little disk in his hand, and had promised to send for somebody to take care of the headache.
A few moments earlier, Aquilamon had entered the room; he'd downsized to Hawkmon for his partner's sake and was currently doing his best to soothe her by holding her hands in his wings, relating a story of his career to Miyako. "So I happened across this gigantic Saberdramon, don't you know, and he's just in an awful state of affairs - his wings weren't working properly, from his fall. It's all I can do to lug the lug off to the nearest medical station. The frontier's not quite settled yet, and there's plenty of open space left out there - "
Miyako muttered something incoherent into the table. Hawkmon immediately broke off his monologue. "Miyako, are you quite all right?"
"No," she managed. "Do you know how scratchy your voice is? It's making my head hurt even worse!"
"It's the best I can do, my dear - my voicebox was injured during one of the larger battles we've had here for the land."
"You've fought a lot, then?" Miyako asked. Hawkmon glanced off to the side of the room, away from Miyako's eyes, but it seemed that for a brief second he was much older. Then he turned back to her, youth in his eyes again.
"We've had to on occasion, you know," he said. "Can't help it. For some time now, however, the Northlands where the Virus-types tend to gather have been carefully managed by Piedmon."
Miyako didn't take her eyes off of the table, but her voice softened. "Poor little thing. Fighting's not in you." She missed the flicker in Hawkmon's eyes. "Who's this Piedmon?"
"He's a Mega-level Virus type that the Regent stumbled across, trapped within a Gate of Destiny - a storage place for people, you might say. He broke the lock on it and allowed Piedmon outside. Piedmon then immediately took over the Northlands, fashioning for himself a tall tower to rule the place from. However, he kept in mind the fact that the Regent helped him out, and has been working with us for - well, it must be five years now."
Miyako finally pulled her head off of her hands. "I thought Virus- types were bad."
"They're just different, it turns out. More aggressive and less sensitive, but they're all digimon underneath. Why, the Regent's partner himself, Stingmon, is a Virus-type, and look how he is; he'd spoil the Regent if he was still a child."
"Is this Stingmon big, green, and look kinda like a wasp with two legs?" Miyako asked, suddenly slightly tense. Her eyes were not on Hawkmon but focused behind him.
"He does indeed, Miyako. That's quite the observation; how did you manage to guess that?"
"He's right there."
Hawkmon spun around, quick to his feet despite himself, and found himself staring at an obviously relaxed Stingmon. Even in his relaxed state he still appeared ready to kill; his armored torso upright, his arms always held carefully away from his body. Hawkmon knew that it was unlikely that Stingmon ever really lowered his guard when he wasn't near the Regent or anyone else he really trusted. Still, a relaxed Stingmon is a happy Stingmon, Hawkmon reminded himself, and a happy Stingmon is probably a happy Hawkmon. "Hello there, Stingmon. What would you like?"
Miyako sighed a bit and let her head drop back down. Of course they'd know each other; Hawkmon knew the entire world, as far as she could tell.
"Oh, just to drop by. How's she doing?"
"You never just drop by," Hawkmon retorted. "She's not doing well, incidently. Vademon sorted out her memories a half-hour ago, remember?"
"Yes, I do." Stingmon didn't sound too worried.
"What do you really want, Sting?"
"It's not what I want, Hawkmon. The Regent has requested to see our guest," Stingmon said, and he waved in Miyako's general direction.
Miyako had only been half-listening to the conversation when that little nugget of information came up, still stewing on Hawkmon. She perked up a bit, suddenly feeling both very nervous and just a tad bit excited. The Regent himself was very, very good looking, and he was obviously intelligent. In her mind things were beginning to look up, just a bit. Her friends might still be captured back on Earth, and she might be almost all alone in this place, but if the world's current ruler was both interesting and interested. hey, a girl could dream, couldn't she? Even if there was something vaguely wrong about him. She started paying quite a bit of attention.
"Why's that?" Hawkmon said.
"Vademon's scan, along with what Datamon was able to gather, has shown that something's seriously wrong in the other world. She's from the the other world and might be able to give a better perspective to the whole thing."
"Did the Regent actually agree to let a human get scanned by Vademon?" Hawkmon asked. Miyako's shoulders pulled towards each other, ever so slightly.
"Well... no. I did that. I thought it would be for the best!" Miyako's shoulders relaxed, but when she saw the perturbed look on Hawkmon's face -
"Hey, who exactly is the Regent, anyway?" Both of them stopped their glaring contest and turned their gazes on the suddenly attentive and straightened Miyako.
"You mean to tell me that you don't know who he is?" Stingmon replied, incredulous.
"I know the general stuff, like that he's in charge and running the digital world, but I don't really know anything about him," Miyako explained plaintively. Stingmon glanced over at Hawkmon, who shook his head slightly in response, then turned back to her.
"I'll agree to give you some history," the insect said, and sat down in a chair across from Miyako. "The Regent's real name is his to give out, but he's also a human. He came here six years ago, after you and your other Chosen were driven out. The Regent defeated both the Emperor and Milleniumon, and has been in charge since then. I happen to be his partner digimon." Miyako's left eye twitched and she suddenly slumped over, hard, her hands trembling despite themselves.
"Sure," she said mechanically, "I could see that the Emperor was gone, but... his monster too? That's crazy. Nothing could beat that thing when it was still Kimeramon!"
"He's gone," Hawkmon said, sighing a bit. "He's been gone for six years." Miyako shook her head slightly. She then sighed a bit.
"There's more," Stingmon said. "He's not just ruling because he feels like it. He's been ordained by the Four Gods of the digital world to watch over the land until the time comes. Then he'll step down from being the Regent, and he'll be able to be himself again." Hawkmon nodded his assent.
After a moment Miyako gathered herself, and stood up woozily. "I think I'll be all right. Which way do I go?"
Stingmon pointed down the hall. "Take the first staircase you see all the way up to the top, and his room's on the left-hand side. He'll probably meet you halfway, though."
"Let's go, Hawkmon," she said, extending an arm for him to hop on. He waved her off with one wing.
"I have a few issues with Stingmon here that need to be attended to, Miyako," he said. She nodded once, lips pursed, and walked off.
Stingmon glanced over at Hawkmon. "So, how long will you be able to keep this up?"
Hawkmon shook his head. "I thought that it'd be easier than this." Having said that, he was engulfed in a glow and digevolved to Aquilamon, tossing his wings out to the side. "I like my body and I like my job. I don't know how much longer I'll have to stay in my Hawkmon form before she's comfortable with me, and I tell you I don't like it at all."
"She's already seeing through part of it," Stingmon warned. "You'll have to tell her sooner rather than later."
Aquilamon sighed. "I know. I just wish she'd accept me as Aquilamon rather than her long-lost partner Hawkmon, but that's not going to happen, is it?"
****
Ken was out of his room, pondering life whilst looking over the capital, when she came up the stairs.
He was completely unprepared. It had been a long, long time since he'd had to talk to human girls, and he'd been contemplating just what he wanted to say, but this one just took his breath away, in a way that he had no idea she was capable of until she wandered up. Ken's self-discipline was second to none in the entire digital world, but even he was having problems looking away from her face, or her lavender hair, or how the glasses she wore caught the light and sent it right into her uncertain honey-colored eyes, or the rest of her. The way her outfit showed her figure, or the subtle sway in her stride; he wasn't prepared for any of this, not at all, and it took him a moment to rally.
"Hi," he said, extending a hand. "I'm the Regent, and I run this world." She took it slowly, lightly, and the contact between them seemed to send a spark up Ken's arm. What's wrong with me? he asked himself.
Releasing his hand, she glanced down and managed, "H-hi. I'm Miyako Inoue."
"So," he said, "you're from the real world. Well, if nobody else has said it, welcome to the digital world."
She conjured up a quick, nervous grin at that. "Glad to be here."
"I understand that I owe you quite a bit," he continued. "People tell me that you and a bit of medicine kept me from dying."
"Don't worry about it," she said, waving him off slightly. "Anybody would have done it."
"That doesn't change the fact that you did it. I owe you one, Miyako." And he grinned at her. It wasn't a planned grin; in fact, he'd been intent on staying serious and focused the whole time. But... it just sort of happened. Ken thought, I'm not losing it like this. No way.
The grin did seem to calm her down a bit, though. "No problem," she said, and smiled back. For a brief second, there didn't seem to be anything beyond her face, and he was - mesmerized? That was the word, yes. Mesmerized. But reality, and his earned discipline, quickly reasserted themselves.
"I'm curious," he said. "Chardsy's been up here earlier, and he was in quite the trance, but you don't seem affected by this world at all. Have you been here before?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I was here a long time ago, back when the Emperor was still around." Ken winced slightly, nicked despite himself by the reminder.
"So you're a Chosen?" She nodded slightly. "That explains how you got here in the first place. It's not just anybody who can get through my Seals, you know."
"You built the Seals?" Miyako said, standing up straighter. Ken found himself feeling just a touch nervous.
"Yeah, I did. They've -"
She cut him off. "Do you know how long I tried to get past those things to get back in?" She unconsciously clenched a fist behind her back. "Weeks, that's how long! I spent weeks in front of a computer screen, trying my luck against your stupid Seals, so that I could come through and find out what happened!"
"I had to keep Milleniumon in the digital world!" he shot back, holding up two hands. "I didn't have any choice - he would have gotten out otherwise!"
Miyako opened her mouth to shoot something back but much to Ken's relief she realized that he was right and managed to calm down somewhat. At least, her eyes lost the hard edge to them. "You could have at least sent Daisuke through to us," she said.
Ken looked off to the left, avoiding her gaze. "I couldn't do that." He watched as Miyako absorbed that statement, eyes turning briefly downcast before sharpening up again, hands unclenching. When her eyes turned down Ken suddenly felt a bit bad himself. Almost as a reflex he glanced up saying, "He... wouldn't have wanted his friends to find out what had happened."
"You act like you know him," she observed.
"We fought together, against Milleniumon." Ken turned his gaze back on her; he saw nothing but curiousity and a touch of concern in those honey- brown eyes. "That was a bad time for me. He helped me through some personal problems. However, that's neither here nor now. What's been going on in that world of yours?"
Miyako seemed to suddenly focus, leaning forward just a bit, becoming slightly more animated. "What do you know about the Odaiba Group?"
"Quite a bit," Ken replied dryly. Dimly, he realized that it was getting easier to talk to this Miyako girl. "I know that they've constructed and distributed popular energy reactors that draw their power from the humans around them; I know that they've developed a network-based dark energy distribution method using a device called the VandeNet; I also know that their President is hunting Chosen, presumably for their respective Sigils. I'd have to -"
She cut him off again. "Hunting Chosen?" Her eyes had gone from focused and thin to large and frightened; her hands were suddenly clasped together in front of her. "Is that why you've brought Mimi here?"
"You mean the Sincerity chosen?" She nodded slowly. "Yes, she'd had her Sigil stolen from her by the President. I have to assume that he's captured other Chosen. He's probably taken out their Sigils, too." Miyako's eyes, which had been open and horrified, clouded over again. Ken felt the same heart-pang as the last time they'd done that. She clasped her upper arms, shivering slightly. "What's wrong?" Ken heard himself asking.
"He does have other Chosen," she said softly. "I thought they'd be all right for a while, but I played right into his hands..." Ken could only stand there, uncertain of what to do and how to do it; Miyako didn't give him any time to react. Before he could twitch she'd unwrapped her arms and grabbed his upper arms, whole body shaking, desperate. "Mr. Regent, you've got to help me! I did exactly what he wanted, I managed to give most of the team to him! You've got to help me get them all back!"
Ken felt his own arms go up and gently break the hold she had on him, keeping her hands in his. He said, "I'll find a way, Miyako. Not only are they your friends, they're also the champions of the digital world, and we back up our champions. But first -" She cut him off again, this time to pull him close to her, hugging him with all her considerable strength. For a long moment, Ken couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't move past her there, right next to him...
"Thank you, Mr. Regent," she said softly, and broke it off, turning around, suddenly scarlet. Ken took the moment to catch his breath and gather the tattered scraps of his dignity. Shaken, he asked himself, What just happened here?
****
He had been planning to make a quick stopover, just long enough to drop off his cargo of rare Tanna fruit and spend some of his newly acquired Digidollars in a local bar he was familiar with, when he happened across a few rumors. A few of the virus-types that he knew were talking about Capital gossip, and he did his best to keep up with the Capital news. He spent a few minutes listening in on their conversation, growing more and more disturbed with each new scrap of information, and after the last one - a vague story that the famous Regent had been wounded - he decided that Tanna fruit picking could wait until he had checked up on this, and took to the sky.
The countryside was familiar to him, a seven-foot length of flesh and steel, with the head of a Kuwagamon, the torso of a Leomon, the wings of a Kabuterimon, and the lower body of a Centarumon, one that was spliced with fragments of steel. His tail, that of a Scorpiomon, lashed behind him as he glided on the strong southerly currents towards the far distant Capital. His father, wounded in a conflict - he wouldn't stand for it! Stingmon would just have to swallow his pride, because nothing was keeping him from helping his great father and perhaps finally being recognised as more than just a prodigal son. Then all would be well again, just like it was when he was still Goburimon and even Stingmon liked him.
Grinning his excitement to the heavens, DemiKimeramon flew in to his destiny.
END CONTACT
****
Contact
****
If there was one thing that distinguished the Capital building from its companions in the real world it was probably its scope. The Capital building had been designed by the Regent for governing the entire digital world, a place with astonishing variance in form and ability, and as such was suited to fit thousands of differing digimon. To accomplish this the building itself was enormous -- far more so than its compatriots in the real world -- and was staffed by digimon who numbered in the thousands. That meant that if a visitor didn't know where they were going, they'd be quite lost very quickly unless they had a guide.
Miyako had a guide, but the floating Wizardmon was moving quickly after the Kiwimon and their cargo, trying to see to his patient. She was having a devil of a time following the creature and it didn't help that everything from a giant Monochromon to a small army of tiny Mushmon had managed to interpose themselves between her and Wizardmon. As for the Wizardmon himself, he was a receding image of a white laboratory coat and messily tied hair who was certainly not slowing down for a pair of concerned humans. Just for that, Miyako resolved to keep up.
As for her newly acquired compatriot, the black man, he was winded -- apparently he'd been running earlier -- but it was obvious that it would take most of the digimon in the palace to stop him. Miyako had decided to follow the Wizardmon after her running friend revealed that the redhead the Kiwimon had hauled out of the atrium where she'd met both the black man and possibly the world's most attractive guy alive was actually a Chosen, like she was. That meant that she'd gotten in somehow, and if Miyako could figure it out she'd be out of this world and back home in a heartbeat. She was trying not to think about what could have happened in her absence but her mind kept running over the possible scenarios and they weren't good.
Lost in her musings for a critical second she missed it when the Wizardmon cut an abrupt right turn and charged off in a different direction. Fortunately the black man didn't pause a second and cut the same turn, giving Miyako something to follow. She chose that time, pulled up alongside him, to introduce herself. "I'm Miyako. Who are you?"
"Chardsy," he shouted over, not looking at her. "We gotta keep up -- they's sayin' Tachikawa's a Chosen or somethin', and that she's --"
He got about that far before Miyako finally reacted. "Mimi?!"
Chardsy looked over at her in surprise. "You know her?"
"We knew each other when we were kids," Miyako explained breathlessly. What was Mimi doing here? Miyako had tried to follow her music career, but with the hubbub of running a revolution she hadn't listened to much music lately. She could keenly remember feeling like Mimi was a kindred spirit to her, somebody who'd completely understand what she did and why she did it. Meanwhile Chardsy was looking a bit overwhelmed, shaking his head as he ran.
"What is it with this place?" Miyako looked over at him as they ran around a irate tripped Tyrannomon. How long were they going to have to run? "Everyone else knows each other."
"We came here a long time ago, when we were kids, but we left this place behind when... when bad things happened." Chardsy didn't comment on that. "Why'd they bring Mimi here?"
Chardsy's mouth twitched. "She got attacked by the Odaiba Group's President."
Miyako was able to keep running, but not by much. "What? Why?!"
"I don't know -- me and Ken were late to the party." Ken? Miyako thought that name sounded... familiar somehow. Where had she heard it before, in connection with the digital world? All of her memories from her past experiences in the digital world were oddly hazy when she tried to think about them, but the name Ken reached through the mists of her mind and stirred something ancient. A memory of a person, shrouded in the darkness of her mind... Miyako managed to keep her mind away from it, dismissing the odd sentiments.
Chardsy broke up her flash of memory to shout, "Quick, there he goes!" Miyako looked forward quickly enough to see the Wizardmon twist in mid-air and fly into an antechamber off of the main hallway. Dodging a curious Mekanorimon she cut to her left and pulled ahead of the tired Chardsy, making it to the chamber.
It was about what she'd expected -- a whitewashed medical ward of some sort, with the floating Wizardmon coasting into the back. Miyako ran over to the counter where a bored Gizamon was flipping through pages in a book. "Hey, wake up!"
The Gizamon gave a start, looking over at the panting and anxious Miyako, and put his book aside. "All this running today. Well, what -" He stopped suddenly, looking at Miyako and the approaching Chardsy with an expression that was nothing short of stupefied. Miyako sighed impatiently and, reaching over the counter, shook him hard. It worked. "Hey, you're both humans! Whoa! When have we had outside humans lately?"
That was not the reaction that Miyako was looking for. Losing patience quickly, she yelled, "I want to go see Mimi!"
That wasn't the reaction that he was looking for either.
"Let a human into the medical chamber? No way! That's expressly for-- " He cut off because Miyako had picked him up, all thirty pounds of him, and was staring him straight in the eye.
"Listen, you little rabbit-thing, I want to see Mimi and I want to see her now!" she bellowed at him, and dropped him back into his chair.
"I can't do that! I'd get fired for sure!" He was standing firm but his voice was wavering and he was looking wildly around himself for assistance. Miyako didn't notice what he was doing; her attention was focused directly in front of her on the Gizamon, and he wasn't going anywhere. Let him look.
"Uh, you might want to calm down," Chardsy whispered to her urgently, glancing around.
She spun around, intent on letting this guy know exactly where he stood, and stopped cold at the sight of a pair of tall, angry-looking Drimogemon staring her down. Both of them wore silver-lined blue rings on their left arms. One of them happened to be cleaning his nose drill with his left hand drill thoughtfully, the conflicting whirs driving home their point exactly.
"Oh, crap," Chardsy whispered out. Miyako found herself glancing from a suddenly smug Gizamon to a terrified Chardsy to the angry Drimogemon to the crowd her attack had gathered, and suddenly realized that she'd gone a bit beyond her rights here. "You just had to let him have it, didn't ya?"
Miyako's flicking glances finally found something for her to put her hope onto - Aquilamon! He was near the ceiling and diving fast, and with startled exclamations from both humans he landed right in front of them, standing between them and the two Drimogemon. Much to Miyako's surprise the Drimogemon pulled back at a glare from Aquilamon, nodding respectfully to him as they did so, and began to clear the crowd out. Aquilamon turned his piercing gaze on Miyako, but she beat him to the punch. "Where did you go?"
"I was looking for the Regent," he said. "His re-entry into the digital world didn't go according to plan."
"I'll say," Chardsy muttered.
"Don't worry about him," Miyako said, voice becoming slightly vague, eyes unfocusing slightly. "I already ran into him, and one of the digimon here had him sent to his chambers."
Aquilamon's head jerked up suddenly. "What? He was badly injured! He needs to be in the medical ward!"
"I took care of his wound," Miyako proclaimed. "It wasn't that bad, and the stuff that the Keeper's friend gave me worked just fine!" Aquilamon's eye twitched. "Now can you get this little rabbit out of my way?"
"I'd forgotton what you were like," he muttered to himself, but not quite quietly enough; Miyako heard him.
"What does that mean!" she demanded, hands on hips.
"Nothing," he said, quick to reassure her. "I just. missed you, a lot." The giant hawk glanced down at his feet, ashamed. "Being away from you for six years had dulled your voice in my mind a bit." His voice was soft, and Miyako felt her heart going out to the hawk. She ran a hand over his soft down, hidden under his stiffer armor feathers, and felt his powerful but tense muscles relax ever-so-slightly under her gentle touch.
"Who's your friend?" Chardsy asked brightly from behind her. She half-turned and, pulling her hand free from his feathers, motioned to Aquilamon.
"This is Aquilamon," she said. "He's the chief of police around here, and my partner digimon too," she added proudly. "Aquilamon, this is Chardsy. He came in at the same time as the Regent did."
Chardsy walked over to Aquilamon, extended a hand. "Hey. What's goin' on?"
"Not much," Aquilamon grunted back. "Pretty much the usual around here, except for this crazy Regent thing."
"That's gotta be rough. Feel like chillin' a bit after this blows over?" Chardsy said.
"Sure - I know this little hole-in-the-wall in town that's just --"
"Okay, now can we get inside?" Miyako asked impatiently, interrupting them. Inside, she was a bit put off; Aquilamon was HER partner digimon, thank you. For his part Aquilamon all but jumped getting to the Gizamon.
"Gizamon!" Aquilamon said. "I'd like to see the guest."
"I wish I could let you go through, believe me," the Gizamon replied, glancing at the still-irate Miyako. "For now, though, until the Regent himself gives orders otherwise, I can't let anyone in." Aquilamon drew back, nodding politely to the Gizamon, and strode down to the others.
"Well?" Chardsy asked.
"Sorry, but the brass's put the guest off-limits for now." Aquilamon shook his head, disgusted. "Stingmon's always been paranoid. Can't wait until the Regent gets off his ass so we can get somewhere."
Miyako managed not to stomp out her frustration on the marble floor. "Can't you get us in there anyway?"
"I don't like to fight losing battles, Miyako," he responded. "If I can't win, I'm not going to put my neck on the line." He held up a claw to stop her retort. "I'm a strong Adult-level, sure, but I'm just an Adult- level. The palace is swarming with them, not to mention that most of the Administrators are in town and they're all Perfect-level or Mega-level. I'd get demoted and they'd imprison the two of you."
Chardsy said, "That ain't cool," rather faintly.
Any further conversation between the three of them was forestalled immediately when Miyako turned around, trying to come with an answer, and caught sight of the armored figure of Angemon soaring across the open pavilion. To her the angel was enormous, all white feathers and shielded torso and outstretched rod and the raw beauty of the angel took her breath away. She couldn't tear her gaze away from him until he hit the ground with a light tap, a few feet in front of the little party.
Chardsy was about as stunned as Miyako was, but Aquilamon was quick to recognize his friend. "Angemon! What do you want?"
He didn't respond at first, just glanced over the party, his eyes eventually settling onto Miyako. He raised one delicately crafted eyebrow. Miyako was suddenly haunted by the distinct feeling that he was surprised, unpleasantly so, and that he didn't have any intention of being surprised, ever, until that very moment. At length, he switched his gaze over to Aquilamon. "How long?" he asked in a disapproving tone.
"Oh, about a day," Aquilamon responded conversationally. "She arrived over at the Keeper's Chamber and he arranged to fly her out here. I've been giving her the tour since then. What happened to the Regent, anyway?"
"Can't tell you in this company. However, I can cure that particular problem and fill you right in." Angemon turned his head slightly to the left and spoke into a shoulder-mounted communicator for a moment. As soon as he was done, a bright flash resounded throughout the halls of the palace, and when it had cleared Miyako had her view of a terrifically ugly digimon; one that was more blue brains and head than anything else. It looked over Miyako and Chardsy appraisingly, leering at them.
Aquilamon shook his head. "Must we? We could just ask them, you know."
"Stingmon's in charge," the angel answered wryly. "Boys and girls, this is Vademon." He indicated the digimon behind him. "He's going to ask you two a few questions."
****
The Regent was dreaming.
In his dream, he had been sent to the Real World on an improbable errand to investigate the lost Internet and found a drained world, one that had succumbed to the powers of darkness in the form of an evil corporation, the Odaiba Group. He dreamed that he found a new friend, a human, and a new quest: restore that broken world. He dreamed that he went to a - a concert, that was the word - and at this concert he met his match: the President of the evil Odaiba Group. He dreamed that he dueled the evil man and defeated him, only to almost fall to the darkness within himself. He dreamed that he loosed the darkness within himself in an attack that terrified even himself, and in his relief at getting rid of it he let his guard down. He dreamed that the evil President made him pay for that, and sent him into a wall with an exploding weapon.
He dreamed that he was falling, and the light above was growing dimmer; the darkness reached up with tendrils of itself, pulling him down into its inky expanse. He dreamed that while he couldn't escape himself the chains were effortlessly broken by... a beautiful angel? Yes, one of light, with dark flowing hair clad in a elegant gown of white; he couldn't make out her face. She latched onto his arms, pulling him up away from the darkness, toward the light above...
And Ken woke up.
He was lying in his bed, in his suite, at the Capitol Building. He wasn't wearing much and his hair was askew; he was without his equipment. He sat up, glancing around, and suddenly realized something: his torso wasn't burnt from the President's cruel grasp. In fact, his torso was looking remarkably whole. The scar he'd gotten last year calming down a Scorpiomon was gone, as was the one from three years ago when he and Piedmon had tried to spar. He shook his head at the memory; going toe-to- toe with a Mega was a foolish idea and he should have known better.
He took a quick glance around at his room. While he may have been the Regent, with the resources of an entire world at his beck and call, he hadn't seen any reason to abuse that for his own gain and as such the small room was more or less bare. He had a simple bed, and a simple dresser, and an adjoining bathroom; he also had, on one wall, a map of the entire digital world, laid out for specie location and resource allocation. He often spent a few moments in front of the map at the beginning of the day, trying to figure out how to solve the day's problems.
Ken took a moment to reminisce over the crazy dream. He didn't dream much anymore; his responsibilities oftentimes left him completely drained, able only to stumble into bed. He shook his head again, trying clear out the cobwebs, and found himself contemplating the angel. Beautiful, and not a digimon-type angel either; this one was a complete unknown to him. He found himself replaying the scene in his mind, being brought into the light, and forced himself to stop. It was probably just a human thing anyway, something he'd have to overcome when he did his job.
He tried to stand but his body just wouldn't allow it, and he collapsed back onto the bed. He wasn't in any kind of pain, but he certainly felt very weak. He sighed. It was no wonder why he had dreamed, now; the extended weakness after a major healing could only be the work of a vial of Essence of Light. That stuff was a potent healing agent but it just couldn't stand to see somebody in any kind of pain -- it had a minor sort of sentience -- and it would try to cure emotional pain as well. Only the Keeper made an effort to manufacture the potion and he didn't give the secret away to anybody. Inwardly, Ken sighed. He'd have to visit the Keeper and discharge the new debt he had made.
Ken thought: 'Spore?'
He didn't receive a response. Internally, he could sense the presence of the Spore, but it seemed to be all but drained to nothing by his last series of adventures. He glanced down at his hands, remembering the power and its corrupting nature. Ken knew exactly what had happened in the fight with the President; he'd given in to his darker side, and the Spore was a conduit for the Emperor to emerge. He shuddered, ever so briefly. He'd have to come up with a new way to do things. The Spore was getting to be too dangerous.
Ken's mental sorting was broken up by the door opening quietly and then flying open as Stingmon peeked his head inside. "Ken! You're already awake?"
"Yeah, I'm awake," Ken replied. "I'm still working on up."
It wasn't often that an eight foot insect almost crushed Ken with his weight, but that was exactly what happened as Stingmon charged into the room and swept up his partner human in an almost bone-crushing hug, ignoring Ken's muffled protests. "Azulongmon, Ken, don't do that to me! I thought you'd been killed or worse!"
"That's great," Ken managed to gasp out, "but I can't breathe!" Realizing what he was doing, Stingmon dropped Ken back onto the bed.
The insect then took a closer look at Ken. "You look like yourself now."
"I feel like it," Ken said. "I know how close I was, Sting." Stingmon didn't respond to that, preferring to just glance at Ken's face and then look away, worried. Ken spent a moment studying his partner's face. After eight years of being partners, through good times and bad, they had established quite the rapport for understanding what the other was doing and thinking, and Ken could tell that his partner was worried that he'd revert back to what he had been, once upon a time. Ken spent a long pause reassuring Stingmon with silence.
After a moment Ken asked, "How'd you contact me?"
"Biyomon instructed me in the ways of the partner bond," Stingmon said wryly. "I didn't know that I could use it to talk to you directly, but once I tried it the concept just came easily. I could do it any number of times, now."
"You stay out of my head," Ken said warningly. "I don't need anything else up there."
"No promises," Stingmon grunted out.
Ken cocked his head to one side. "Does it work both ways?"
Stingmon didn't even twitch. "You'd have to ask Biyomon about that."
"I don't think I need the help," Ken pressed. "If I recall correctly, you said that the concept is simple to understand. Since you've been in my head before I can just recreate the feeling and divine what I need from that." Stingmon was looking somewhat more nervous now. Ken had a flash of intuition -- "I don't know, though. I doubt that I'd find much beyond a certain pink bird..."
Stingmon's normally solid green face seemed to turn a darker shade of green, and he seemed taken aback. "Well, I do owe her a bit," the insect managed lamely.
Ken shook his head. "Good luck, partner. You're gonna need it; she's a heartbreaker. So, what's been happening here in the digital world since the last time we talked?"
Stingmon relaxed a bit, now that he was back on solid territory. "Oh, just about everything."
****
"You took the initiative," the President began, hands clasped in front of him, arms resting on his desk. In front of him stood one of his three Assistants, nervously picking at the sleeves of her red dress, glasses off and hat hung on the rack near the elevator entrance. Her silver hair was pinned up in a functional and otherwise unimpressive bun, a few uncooperative wisps hanging down across her face. She nodded, in response to the President's question.
"You decided, without any kind of instruction, to begin the extraction process on one Iori Hida," he continued. His eyes were darkly disapproving. "You believed that you understood my plans to the point where you could advance them without my instruction, or you've decided to create and further your own agenda."
Again, she nodded once.
The President looked down at his desk, gathering himself, then looked up again. "Were you not as successful as you were, by sheer chance, I'd have already consigned you to the bottom of the corporation. That does not mean that you will go unpunished." Her face, which had been slowly becoming smug, suddenly snapped into surprised. "You will not have any contact with the prisoners. You will, in fact, be escorting Kido Jyou once he leaves on his vacation, you will observe him carefully, and you will remain in contact with me at all times. You must remain undetected by Kido. Eventually I will give you additional instructions which you will act upon immediately. Do not fail me in this, Assistant. You are useful but not essential, and you know far too much to be allowed to roam freely across the world."
"But, sir," she responded desperately, "didn't I do what you were looking for?"
"The extraction process that I've developed is not something to be implemented by somebody who is ignorant of the process!" he thundered. "You don't know what the process is designed to do; how can you possibly assist it other than blind luck? The process is much more than simply making the person feel bad about themselves, Assistant!"
She remained mute. After a moment, the President said, "Take your hat and get on your assignment."
She departed quietly, neither storming nor cursing; she simply turned, took her hat down, and got into the elevator shaft. A moment after she left Gatomon jumped up from her resting place, beneath the President's chair, and landed easily on the President's desk. "That went well."
"I wish I could reward her," the President said quietly. "She did excellently at the task she set for herself. But her success was due to blind luck in her assumptions. That's too dangerous to use on the last one." He glanced at his clasped hands, then turned his gaze over to the waiting Gatomon. "I suspect that this won't do much for your character, but I do not have the time to work on Hikari. I need you to prepare her, and quickly."
Gatomon's ears perked up. "Really?"
The President's gaze turned piercing. "Try not to enjoy it too much, Gatomon. And don't bother with anything subtle. We don't have much time and out of all of the children Hikari has the most resistance to this sort of thing; a sort of psychic stamina, if you will. Use a sledgehammer's worth of her greatest fear and smash her resistance aside."
"Why do we have to hurry?" Gatomon said darkly.
"We have to hurry," the President explained as if to a child, "because I am convinced that the Emperor will come here after he is finished recovering and that he'll have a lot of his friends from back home with him. Humanity hasn't designed the defenses that can hold to an assault led by a vanguard of Perfect-level digimon. Four renegade Chosen will be of no use against them, either, which leaves us myself and you three Assistants. Those are not good odds."
Gatomon nodded. "We didn't get him at the stadium?"
The President shook his head. "It would seem that the Emperor was prepared. He opened a Gate and left about three minutes from when the draining hit."
"Alright, then," she responded, grinning ferally. "I'll take good care of her."
****
Miyako sat in the same chair she'd been in for the last fifteen minutes, head in hands, nursing one mighty headache. After what Vademon had done it was all she could do to just sit there and rock slightly. She could still conjure up the disorienting feeling of a foreign mind going through her memories, quickly and efficiently sorting them into coherent categories for his own study. According to Vademon he'd been quick. According to Miyako he'd spent the better part of the day in her head. He'd taken off a few minutes ago, newly gained information stored in a little disk in his hand, and had promised to send for somebody to take care of the headache.
A few moments earlier, Aquilamon had entered the room; he'd downsized to Hawkmon for his partner's sake and was currently doing his best to soothe her by holding her hands in his wings, relating a story of his career to Miyako. "So I happened across this gigantic Saberdramon, don't you know, and he's just in an awful state of affairs - his wings weren't working properly, from his fall. It's all I can do to lug the lug off to the nearest medical station. The frontier's not quite settled yet, and there's plenty of open space left out there - "
Miyako muttered something incoherent into the table. Hawkmon immediately broke off his monologue. "Miyako, are you quite all right?"
"No," she managed. "Do you know how scratchy your voice is? It's making my head hurt even worse!"
"It's the best I can do, my dear - my voicebox was injured during one of the larger battles we've had here for the land."
"You've fought a lot, then?" Miyako asked. Hawkmon glanced off to the side of the room, away from Miyako's eyes, but it seemed that for a brief second he was much older. Then he turned back to her, youth in his eyes again.
"We've had to on occasion, you know," he said. "Can't help it. For some time now, however, the Northlands where the Virus-types tend to gather have been carefully managed by Piedmon."
Miyako didn't take her eyes off of the table, but her voice softened. "Poor little thing. Fighting's not in you." She missed the flicker in Hawkmon's eyes. "Who's this Piedmon?"
"He's a Mega-level Virus type that the Regent stumbled across, trapped within a Gate of Destiny - a storage place for people, you might say. He broke the lock on it and allowed Piedmon outside. Piedmon then immediately took over the Northlands, fashioning for himself a tall tower to rule the place from. However, he kept in mind the fact that the Regent helped him out, and has been working with us for - well, it must be five years now."
Miyako finally pulled her head off of her hands. "I thought Virus- types were bad."
"They're just different, it turns out. More aggressive and less sensitive, but they're all digimon underneath. Why, the Regent's partner himself, Stingmon, is a Virus-type, and look how he is; he'd spoil the Regent if he was still a child."
"Is this Stingmon big, green, and look kinda like a wasp with two legs?" Miyako asked, suddenly slightly tense. Her eyes were not on Hawkmon but focused behind him.
"He does indeed, Miyako. That's quite the observation; how did you manage to guess that?"
"He's right there."
Hawkmon spun around, quick to his feet despite himself, and found himself staring at an obviously relaxed Stingmon. Even in his relaxed state he still appeared ready to kill; his armored torso upright, his arms always held carefully away from his body. Hawkmon knew that it was unlikely that Stingmon ever really lowered his guard when he wasn't near the Regent or anyone else he really trusted. Still, a relaxed Stingmon is a happy Stingmon, Hawkmon reminded himself, and a happy Stingmon is probably a happy Hawkmon. "Hello there, Stingmon. What would you like?"
Miyako sighed a bit and let her head drop back down. Of course they'd know each other; Hawkmon knew the entire world, as far as she could tell.
"Oh, just to drop by. How's she doing?"
"You never just drop by," Hawkmon retorted. "She's not doing well, incidently. Vademon sorted out her memories a half-hour ago, remember?"
"Yes, I do." Stingmon didn't sound too worried.
"What do you really want, Sting?"
"It's not what I want, Hawkmon. The Regent has requested to see our guest," Stingmon said, and he waved in Miyako's general direction.
Miyako had only been half-listening to the conversation when that little nugget of information came up, still stewing on Hawkmon. She perked up a bit, suddenly feeling both very nervous and just a tad bit excited. The Regent himself was very, very good looking, and he was obviously intelligent. In her mind things were beginning to look up, just a bit. Her friends might still be captured back on Earth, and she might be almost all alone in this place, but if the world's current ruler was both interesting and interested. hey, a girl could dream, couldn't she? Even if there was something vaguely wrong about him. She started paying quite a bit of attention.
"Why's that?" Hawkmon said.
"Vademon's scan, along with what Datamon was able to gather, has shown that something's seriously wrong in the other world. She's from the the other world and might be able to give a better perspective to the whole thing."
"Did the Regent actually agree to let a human get scanned by Vademon?" Hawkmon asked. Miyako's shoulders pulled towards each other, ever so slightly.
"Well... no. I did that. I thought it would be for the best!" Miyako's shoulders relaxed, but when she saw the perturbed look on Hawkmon's face -
"Hey, who exactly is the Regent, anyway?" Both of them stopped their glaring contest and turned their gazes on the suddenly attentive and straightened Miyako.
"You mean to tell me that you don't know who he is?" Stingmon replied, incredulous.
"I know the general stuff, like that he's in charge and running the digital world, but I don't really know anything about him," Miyako explained plaintively. Stingmon glanced over at Hawkmon, who shook his head slightly in response, then turned back to her.
"I'll agree to give you some history," the insect said, and sat down in a chair across from Miyako. "The Regent's real name is his to give out, but he's also a human. He came here six years ago, after you and your other Chosen were driven out. The Regent defeated both the Emperor and Milleniumon, and has been in charge since then. I happen to be his partner digimon." Miyako's left eye twitched and she suddenly slumped over, hard, her hands trembling despite themselves.
"Sure," she said mechanically, "I could see that the Emperor was gone, but... his monster too? That's crazy. Nothing could beat that thing when it was still Kimeramon!"
"He's gone," Hawkmon said, sighing a bit. "He's been gone for six years." Miyako shook her head slightly. She then sighed a bit.
"There's more," Stingmon said. "He's not just ruling because he feels like it. He's been ordained by the Four Gods of the digital world to watch over the land until the time comes. Then he'll step down from being the Regent, and he'll be able to be himself again." Hawkmon nodded his assent.
After a moment Miyako gathered herself, and stood up woozily. "I think I'll be all right. Which way do I go?"
Stingmon pointed down the hall. "Take the first staircase you see all the way up to the top, and his room's on the left-hand side. He'll probably meet you halfway, though."
"Let's go, Hawkmon," she said, extending an arm for him to hop on. He waved her off with one wing.
"I have a few issues with Stingmon here that need to be attended to, Miyako," he said. She nodded once, lips pursed, and walked off.
Stingmon glanced over at Hawkmon. "So, how long will you be able to keep this up?"
Hawkmon shook his head. "I thought that it'd be easier than this." Having said that, he was engulfed in a glow and digevolved to Aquilamon, tossing his wings out to the side. "I like my body and I like my job. I don't know how much longer I'll have to stay in my Hawkmon form before she's comfortable with me, and I tell you I don't like it at all."
"She's already seeing through part of it," Stingmon warned. "You'll have to tell her sooner rather than later."
Aquilamon sighed. "I know. I just wish she'd accept me as Aquilamon rather than her long-lost partner Hawkmon, but that's not going to happen, is it?"
****
Ken was out of his room, pondering life whilst looking over the capital, when she came up the stairs.
He was completely unprepared. It had been a long, long time since he'd had to talk to human girls, and he'd been contemplating just what he wanted to say, but this one just took his breath away, in a way that he had no idea she was capable of until she wandered up. Ken's self-discipline was second to none in the entire digital world, but even he was having problems looking away from her face, or her lavender hair, or how the glasses she wore caught the light and sent it right into her uncertain honey-colored eyes, or the rest of her. The way her outfit showed her figure, or the subtle sway in her stride; he wasn't prepared for any of this, not at all, and it took him a moment to rally.
"Hi," he said, extending a hand. "I'm the Regent, and I run this world." She took it slowly, lightly, and the contact between them seemed to send a spark up Ken's arm. What's wrong with me? he asked himself.
Releasing his hand, she glanced down and managed, "H-hi. I'm Miyako Inoue."
"So," he said, "you're from the real world. Well, if nobody else has said it, welcome to the digital world."
She conjured up a quick, nervous grin at that. "Glad to be here."
"I understand that I owe you quite a bit," he continued. "People tell me that you and a bit of medicine kept me from dying."
"Don't worry about it," she said, waving him off slightly. "Anybody would have done it."
"That doesn't change the fact that you did it. I owe you one, Miyako." And he grinned at her. It wasn't a planned grin; in fact, he'd been intent on staying serious and focused the whole time. But... it just sort of happened. Ken thought, I'm not losing it like this. No way.
The grin did seem to calm her down a bit, though. "No problem," she said, and smiled back. For a brief second, there didn't seem to be anything beyond her face, and he was - mesmerized? That was the word, yes. Mesmerized. But reality, and his earned discipline, quickly reasserted themselves.
"I'm curious," he said. "Chardsy's been up here earlier, and he was in quite the trance, but you don't seem affected by this world at all. Have you been here before?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I was here a long time ago, back when the Emperor was still around." Ken winced slightly, nicked despite himself by the reminder.
"So you're a Chosen?" She nodded slightly. "That explains how you got here in the first place. It's not just anybody who can get through my Seals, you know."
"You built the Seals?" Miyako said, standing up straighter. Ken found himself feeling just a touch nervous.
"Yeah, I did. They've -"
She cut him off. "Do you know how long I tried to get past those things to get back in?" She unconsciously clenched a fist behind her back. "Weeks, that's how long! I spent weeks in front of a computer screen, trying my luck against your stupid Seals, so that I could come through and find out what happened!"
"I had to keep Milleniumon in the digital world!" he shot back, holding up two hands. "I didn't have any choice - he would have gotten out otherwise!"
Miyako opened her mouth to shoot something back but much to Ken's relief she realized that he was right and managed to calm down somewhat. At least, her eyes lost the hard edge to them. "You could have at least sent Daisuke through to us," she said.
Ken looked off to the left, avoiding her gaze. "I couldn't do that." He watched as Miyako absorbed that statement, eyes turning briefly downcast before sharpening up again, hands unclenching. When her eyes turned down Ken suddenly felt a bit bad himself. Almost as a reflex he glanced up saying, "He... wouldn't have wanted his friends to find out what had happened."
"You act like you know him," she observed.
"We fought together, against Milleniumon." Ken turned his gaze back on her; he saw nothing but curiousity and a touch of concern in those honey- brown eyes. "That was a bad time for me. He helped me through some personal problems. However, that's neither here nor now. What's been going on in that world of yours?"
Miyako seemed to suddenly focus, leaning forward just a bit, becoming slightly more animated. "What do you know about the Odaiba Group?"
"Quite a bit," Ken replied dryly. Dimly, he realized that it was getting easier to talk to this Miyako girl. "I know that they've constructed and distributed popular energy reactors that draw their power from the humans around them; I know that they've developed a network-based dark energy distribution method using a device called the VandeNet; I also know that their President is hunting Chosen, presumably for their respective Sigils. I'd have to -"
She cut him off again. "Hunting Chosen?" Her eyes had gone from focused and thin to large and frightened; her hands were suddenly clasped together in front of her. "Is that why you've brought Mimi here?"
"You mean the Sincerity chosen?" She nodded slowly. "Yes, she'd had her Sigil stolen from her by the President. I have to assume that he's captured other Chosen. He's probably taken out their Sigils, too." Miyako's eyes, which had been open and horrified, clouded over again. Ken felt the same heart-pang as the last time they'd done that. She clasped her upper arms, shivering slightly. "What's wrong?" Ken heard himself asking.
"He does have other Chosen," she said softly. "I thought they'd be all right for a while, but I played right into his hands..." Ken could only stand there, uncertain of what to do and how to do it; Miyako didn't give him any time to react. Before he could twitch she'd unwrapped her arms and grabbed his upper arms, whole body shaking, desperate. "Mr. Regent, you've got to help me! I did exactly what he wanted, I managed to give most of the team to him! You've got to help me get them all back!"
Ken felt his own arms go up and gently break the hold she had on him, keeping her hands in his. He said, "I'll find a way, Miyako. Not only are they your friends, they're also the champions of the digital world, and we back up our champions. But first -" She cut him off again, this time to pull him close to her, hugging him with all her considerable strength. For a long moment, Ken couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't move past her there, right next to him...
"Thank you, Mr. Regent," she said softly, and broke it off, turning around, suddenly scarlet. Ken took the moment to catch his breath and gather the tattered scraps of his dignity. Shaken, he asked himself, What just happened here?
****
He had been planning to make a quick stopover, just long enough to drop off his cargo of rare Tanna fruit and spend some of his newly acquired Digidollars in a local bar he was familiar with, when he happened across a few rumors. A few of the virus-types that he knew were talking about Capital gossip, and he did his best to keep up with the Capital news. He spent a few minutes listening in on their conversation, growing more and more disturbed with each new scrap of information, and after the last one - a vague story that the famous Regent had been wounded - he decided that Tanna fruit picking could wait until he had checked up on this, and took to the sky.
The countryside was familiar to him, a seven-foot length of flesh and steel, with the head of a Kuwagamon, the torso of a Leomon, the wings of a Kabuterimon, and the lower body of a Centarumon, one that was spliced with fragments of steel. His tail, that of a Scorpiomon, lashed behind him as he glided on the strong southerly currents towards the far distant Capital. His father, wounded in a conflict - he wouldn't stand for it! Stingmon would just have to swallow his pride, because nothing was keeping him from helping his great father and perhaps finally being recognised as more than just a prodigal son. Then all would be well again, just like it was when he was still Goburimon and even Stingmon liked him.
Grinning his excitement to the heavens, DemiKimeramon flew in to his destiny.
END CONTACT