Digimon.EXE

By Wolf O'Donnell

WARNING! May contain Alternative Universe situations and out-of-character experiences. Upon reading this, you hereby agree that you forfeit all your rights to sue me and that I cannot be held liable for any psychological or physical damage caused by the fact that I use British English spelling and that this fanfic contains graphic acts of a heterosexual and homosexual nature (not applicable to FanFiction.net version), extreme violence and use of swear words. Digimon is copyrighted by Bandai and Toei Animation Ltd. Wolf O'Donnell is copyrighted by Nintendo Ltd, although that might have nothing to do with the fanfic. Constructive criticism is very welcome.

* * * * *

Session 5: Hontou no Tsuyosa

Kabuterimon stood on a large platform that looked like it was made out of neon lights. Surrounding him, the ether was completely black. Every now and then, the old lightning bolt would flash across the black ether.
"I'm still having troubles, Koushiro," he informed Izumi.
"Keep at it, Kabuterimon. We must not fail."

* * * * *

The elevator door opened and the Dragon Syndicate thugs aimed their rifles at it, ready to open fire. The elevator was completely empty. This puzzled the thugs. There had to be someone in the elevator. One of the gangsters advanced towards the elevator cautiously.
A canister suddenly fell amongst them and it sprayed out smoke, smothering each of them. One by one, the thugs fell foul to the knock-out gas and crashed to the metallic floor unconscious. Some tried to stagger away, but it was futile. The gas was everywhere around them. They couldn't escape it in time and lost consciousness, falling into a pile of sleeping bodies. When the gas cleared, that was where they remained, unconscious until the effects of the gas wore off.
"What did I tell you?" asked Jenrya smugly, as he picked his way amongst the unconscious Dragon Syndicate thugs. "Dropped them like flies, didn't it?"
"Yeah, whatever," grumbled Ruki. "Say, how come this place still has its lights on?"
"This level has its own back-up generator," replied Jenrya, as he pulled himself along the corridor. "It's to ensure the security systems stay online." A laser suddenly flew past him and Jenrya pulled back. "Whoa! Looks like it's definitely still on," he stated, as a wall of lasers suddenly barred his way forward.
"Hang on," said Ruki, as she kicked off the floor and floated towards the laser wall. She grabbed a little panel to stop herself from floating into the lasers. "I think I can jack in here," she stated, as she reached for her D-Scanner. "Renamon, it's time for you to do your stuff," Ruki told her Digimon, before she connected her phone-like D-Scanner to the panel.

* * * * *

Renamon suddenly found herself standing on a path that floated in the middle of a black ether. The path looked as if it was made out of neon lights. She noticed that the paths were all very short and all had dead ends.
"This can't be right," she muttered under her breath. "How am I supposed to get through, if all the paths are broken?" A bolt of lightning flashed through the black ether momentarily. "A program!" she exclaimed, upon seeing a white glowing creature in front of her.
The Digimon ran along the path and straight towards the white creature with frilly ears and large eyes. It had a red triangle on its forehead, with three black triangles around it, forming some sort of star. The edges of its feet and its ears were purple and it floated instead of walking about on its stubby, little legs.
"Excuse me," she called out to the program. "Excuse me, but can you tell me what's going on with the paths around here? They all seem to be broken."
The program, which looked a lot like Calumon from Digimon Tamers, laughed at Renamon's question.
"The paths aren't broken," replied the program. "Some of them are invisible," it told Renamon. "It's a security mechanism to stop foreign programs from getting around."
"If that's so, why did you tell me about it?" asked Renamon curiously, as another bolt of lightning flashed through the ether.
The program shrugged its digital shoulders.
"I've been programmed to recognise all Deva Digimon," the program replied. "You're one, aren't you?" it asked Renamon and it received a silent nod in reply. "Well, that's good. There's been some Syndicate Digimon running around here lately, making my job a nightmare. I hope you'll go and kick their digital butts!"
"That's what I intend to do," Renamon told the Digimon. "Well, I'll see you!" She waved goodbye to the program, before running down the path and towards its end. She tried to go forward, but found that there was a dead end in front of her. Due to certain limitations, Digimon weren't allowed to stray off the paths and platforms of the Digital World, because it was physically impossible. The paths were the digital representation of the wires that made up the computer networks of the Real Worlds. The platforms, known as terminals, were the digital representations of the computers and machines in the Real World that were connected to the Net.
The foxy Digimon backed off slowly, placing her hands against the invisible walls of the path to find an opening. Suddenly, she fell forward. Gracefully, she reached out with her hands and did a forward flip, landing back on her feet in the middle of what appeared to be nothing.
"Well, well, that program was right," murmured Renamon.
"How's it going in there, Renamon?" asked Ruki's voice.
"There's quite a strange defence mechanism here, but I've managed to get the hang of it," replied Renamon. "One of the programs I met said there were a lot of Syndicate Digimon running around in here."
"Well, I'll make sure you've got the correct DigiModify Advances."
"Thanks, Ruki," thanked Renamon, before she continued down the invisible path. She ran gracfully along the invisible path, before she hit another invisible wall and fell flat on her bottom. "That was unexpected," she commented, as she rubbed her nose.
"Renamon, behind you!"
The furry Digimon leapt up into the air and straight towards the invisible wall. She kicked off it, flying backwards and over the computer virus, landing on its other side. Whirling round quickly, she then fired her Diamond Storm attack against the virus before it could even get a chance to turn round. It was toast in seconds.
"Seems as if the Syndicate's been flooding this place with viruses," stated Renamon, as she bent down and picked up the datacap that the virus left behind. "Hm, an Electro Shocker Advance. How useful."
Suddenly, Renamon felt rather dizzy. She clutched a paw to her head, not knowing what was going on. Her entire digital structure underwent a change from biped to quadruped. The number of tails she had increased, as she grew in size.
"Renamon! You've digivolved!" exclaimed Ruki in surprise. "From Renamon to Kyubimon."
"I have?" exclaimed Kyubimon in surprise. She looked at her new form. "Well, this is interesting," she stated. "Adolescent form at last. Ruki, you may still call me, Rena, if you wish."
For a while, Ruki didn't reply.
"Well, I don't intend to call you anything else," she said. "Say, now that you're four-legged, shouldn't you be faster?"
"I think I might just be," came Rena's reply. "Let's have a try, shall we?" The Kyubimon leapt into action and carried on down the invisible path towards a visible section. "You're right, Ruki!" she called out to her Operator, as she sprinted down the path.

* * * * *

"Here he is, sir," stated one of the thugs, as he shoved Takato forward.
This action forced Takato down on to his knees, his hands bound behind him. The brown-haired youth felt humiliated at being forced to kneel down in front of Syndicate scum.
The purple-haired man, Mr. Ichijouji, smiled upon seeing the brown-haired Operator in front of him.
"So, this is the Operator that helped defend the Devas' Official Online Headquarters," he stated with a chuckle. "Doesn't look like much of an Operator to me!"
"Shows you how much you know!" retorted Growlmon from Takato's D-Scanner.
Ichijouji laughed.
"So we have a smart-mouthed Digimon too?" he laughed, as he moved towards Takato. He reached down and removed Takato's jacket, taking the D-Scanner out of Matsuda's pocket.
"Hey, give that back!" shouted Takato, only to be hit in the face by Ichijouji.
"You speak only when you're told to speak," growled Ichijouji, as he flipped open the lid of Takato's D-Scanner. He pressed a few buttons on the small device, searching through it for data on D-Scanner's Digimon. "Well, it looks like we have a virus-type Digimon here," he told the other criminals around him. "How amusing!" He knelt down and lifted Takato's head up with a finger. "So, boy, you think you could take us on, did you?" he asked rhetorically. "Well let me tell you this, you are nothing."
Takato turned his face abruptly away from Ichijouji, not wanting to look at the Dragon Syndicate scumbag. He didn't want to dignify this man with any answer. 'This looks like it's going to be the end of the line for me,' thought Takato miserably.
"Such a spirited young boy," chuckled Ichijouji, as he rose to his feet. "Anyone ever tell you that?" He tossed Takato's D-Scanner to the ground, for it to slide towards the brown-haired Operator's knees. "It would be such a shame to kill you," sneered Ichijouji. "Yes, it would be a shame, when we could use your skills in our criminal organisation. Well, what do you say? Do you want to die or do you want to join us?"
"No way!" roared Takato, as he lunged forward, his head lowered. He managed to headbutt Ichijouji in the rear end, sending the purple-haired man falling forwards.
Two of the Syndicate thugs rushed towards Takato, grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him backwards on to his back.
"You measly little brat," swore one of the Syndicate criminals, "next time you do that, you'll wish you had never been born. Got that, kid?"
Takato had never heard someone use that tone of voice to him in his entire life. Frankly, he thought it was far too vulgar. He nodded silently in response to the ruffian, not wanting to be beaten up by the criminals.
"Yeah," he replied, only to receive a cuff on the head.
"Who said you could speak?"
Ichijouji laughed as he got up to his feet.
"So, kid, you want to play it rough, do you?" he chuckled, as he advanced towards Takato. "Well, we'll play rough if you want to."
"You think yourself so tough?" spat Takato angrily, after much thinking on his own behalf. "Well, I bet you couldn't withstand a Digimon battle!" he told Ichijouji. "I bet when it comes to DigiDuelling, you're no better than a three-year old."
One of the Syndicate gangsters raised his hand to cuff Takato on the head again, but Ichijouji physically stopped him.
"Back off," he told the gangster, before he knelt down in front of Takato again. "Are you challenging me, squirt?" he asked Takato. "Do you want to take me on?"
"Yeah," was Takato's short and simple reply.
Ichijouji turned round and reached for Takato's D-Scanner, picking it up off the floor. He stood up and motioned silently for his lackies to uncuff Takato.
"Well, let's see you put your money where your mouth is," he stated, a devious smile on his face.

"Hurry up!" shouted Jenrya, as he flew through the air, kicking the Syndicate thug in the stomach. He ducked, narrowly missing the sharp blade of one Syndicate criminal's knife. Jenrya whirled round, kicking the knife away and rushed the thug, punching him in the face.
"Rena's going as fast as she can!" shouted back Ruki, as she pressed a couple of buttons on her D-Scanner, sending some Advances to her Digimon. "Rena, how close are you?" she asked her Digimon.

* * * * *

Rena became a whirling wheel of blue fire, crashing through the viruses. She didn't stop for them at all. She landed on the other side, completely unscathed. In front of her was what looked like a gear and a huge switch.
"I'm nearly there!" she called out to Ruki, before Kyubimon sprinted towards the switch.

Growlmon looked ahead of him. He was standing on a narrow path of three by six squares. Half of them on Growlmon's side were red. The other half on which his Digimon opponent stood was blue. Several 0s and 1s floated around this path like ghostly projetions, but that was irrelevant. What was relevant was the Stingmon that stood in front of him on the Duelling Area.
Duelling Areas were extremely special. Neither Digimon is allowed to cross over from their area into their opponent's area. Thus, Growlmon wasn't allowed to step into any blue squares and vice versa (however that rule had a loop hole to it, which was easily exploitable by those Digimon that can teleport or fly). Hence, if Growlmon wanted to stand on the blue squares, he would have to convert them to red squares with the TileGrab or RowGrab advance, which were specialist DigiModifying Data used only for duels.
"So, you ready?" asked Stingmon. Duels could only start once each Digimon's Operator had finished sending them a couple of Advances.
Growlmon waited a while. There! Three Advances had arrived. He nodded in reply to his opponent's question.
"I'm ready whenever you are," he told Stingmon.
That was when Stingmon launched his first wave of attacks.
"DigiModify- RowGrab activate!" He used a RowGrab advance. A row of light smashed on to the Growlmon's row of red tiles closest to Stingmon's rows. They suddenly turned blue. "Spiking Slice!" cried out Stingmon, as he swung his arm in an arc in front of him, causing a wave of energy to fly through the air towards Growlmon.
Growlmon, who was the exact same size as Stingmon (all Adolescent Digimon are of approximately the same height as other Adolescent-level Digimon, all Adult Digimon are approximately the same height as other Adult-level Digimon and so on), rushed to his left to avoid being hit by the Spiking Slice.
"That's not right!" cried Takato. "Stingmon's a close combat Digimon! He can't do attacks like that!"
Ichijouji laughed.
"Mine can," he chuckled. "Show him what you've got, Stingmon!"
"Right, boss," agreed Stingmon. He disappeared from his side and appeared right in front of Growlmon. "Spiking Strike!"
Growlmon was not prepared for the attack. The multiple punches from Stingmon's spiked arm was inflicting a lot of damage on the Adolescent-level Digimon. He lashed out blindly, but Stingmon had already retreated to his section of the Duelling Area, which had been expanded thanks to the RowGrab Advance.
"This ain't good," he muttered under his breath, as he realised that he now only had six tiles to move on, instead of the usual nine. He knew that eventually, those missing three tiles would be returned to him, but until then, they would be Stingmon's.
Breathing deeply, Growlmon then exhaled, breathing out a jet of fire that flew across the Duelling Area.
Stingmon flew to the left side of his area. He then moved from tile to tile so quickly that it appeared he was teleporting from one region of his area to the other.
"Growlmon, use your Heat Wave advance!" suggested Takato.
The Adolescent Digimon checked the Advances that Takato had sent him. Yes, there was a Heat Wave advance there. However, he realised that that wasn't enough, especially if Stingmon ventured on to the red tiles. What he needed was... Ah! Growlmon saw the Advance he needed.
"DigiModify- Gravity Ring activate!" he announced, and threw a ring through the air.
It landed right on top of Stingmon and surrounded him, binding him to one tile.
A smile spread across Growlmon's face.
"DigiModify- Grass Stage activate!" he announced and suddenly all the tiles were covered in grass. Now that Stingmon was hovering over grass, any fire attack would cause double damage to the Digimon. He inhaled sharply and spat out a sphere of flames at Stingmon. "DigiModify- Heat Wave activate!" he announced quickly.
The flames hit Stingmon causing the grass tile he was over to burn, singeing him. That was when a wave of red hot lava crashed down on to the rows in front of Growlmon, setting the grass on fire. It travelled across the Duelling Area and smashed into Stingmon, causing even more fire damage.
"All right, Growlmon!" cheered Takato.
"Don't think we're through just yet!" warned Ichijouji. "Stingmon, use the rest of your Advances!"
Stingmon nodded in reply. He selected three advances, putting them in order. The Digimon was taking advantage of a phenomenon that occurs when one selects DigiModifying Advances of a similar type or programming. They somehow merge together to create a more powerful Advance.
"DigiModify- Double Trouble activate!" he announced, before splitting into two Digimon. Both copies teleported from the blue area and appeared in front of Growlmon, kicking at the fire-type Digimon mercilessly.
Ichijouji laughed.
"This is far too good!" he chuckled.
"Hold on, buddy," called out Takato. "I'm sending you an Advance right now!"
"It'll be too late," stated Ichijouji. "By the time your pitiful Advances get to your Digimon, he'll be toast!"

To be continued...