"So before we continue, tell me how the programs went?" Loch asked as she sat back in her honey gold chair with three screens floating in front of her.
"Really? I just told you that someone has managed to find a way to use Dark Digivolution, and the only thing you care about are your programs?" William groaned as Loch just gave him an unflinching stare.
"Come on, Loch worked really hard on those," Fanbeemon flew down from his perch at the top of the hive and landed on top of Loch's head. "I should know, I was the one who had to keep reminding her to eat. Speaking of…"
Fanbeemon quickly reached into a nearby wall and took out a jar of honey before quickly passing it to Loch.
"Fanbeemon, has Loch been eating only honey?" William could feel his eye start to twitch. He could already feel the speech about proper nutrition forming in his head.
"It's the only thing I can make here," Fanbeemon shrugged four of his arms.
"It's fine," Loch quickly cut in, "Data consumed by a digital life form automatically formats itself into whatever form is most nutritious. You could eat nothing but candy for twenty years and stay as skinny as a stick."
"That is…" William took a second to consider his words, "just… don't tell Sarah about this. Living here is supposed to be temporary. Last thing she needs is to get into the habit of eating junk food everyday."
"I'll keep quiet about it as long as you keep Hope in the dark about the digital portal program." Loch grumbled. "Last thing I need is her breathing down my neck every other second to see where it's going."
Fanbeemon shivered at Hope's mention. "The longer Patamon stays away from me the better. I know he's supposed to be our teammate, but that little digimon scares me sometimes."
Both of the humans paused to stare at Fanbeemon before looking back at each other.
"So the programs?" Loch asked as though Fanbeeomon hadn't said anything. The insect digimon just sighed and nestled himself on top of Loch's hair.
"Well the portal program didn't go as planned. It pulled a Vegimon from the digital world, but it was too feral to interview," William fought back a shiver, "honestly it was one of the most vicious feral digimon I'd ever seen."
"Vegimon… yeah that makes sense. I only had a twenty percent chance of a champion crossing over, but a one in five odds isn't too odd. We'll need more trials before we can risk creating a permanent portal to the digital world."
"If the portal is even leading us to the same digital world," William muttered. If Loch heard him, she made no sign of it.
"And the power up program?" She prompted as William sighed.
"Well it managed to transform Vegimon into a Redvegimon. Does that fit your predictions?" His words sent Loch into a frenzy of typing, even getting the girl to sit back up in her chair. For a second William even thought he saw her lean forward.
"Okay that makes sense, I'll get the rest of the data from your digivice," she held her hand out as William handed the device over. She placed it in front of the screen as both sets of screens turned into streams of ones and zeros. Once they were done, Loch passed the digivice back.
"Okay, so tell me about this dark digivolution." She said as text started running through the screen and a progress bar appeared on both screens. William knew he probably only had until both were full, so had to be quick about it.
He gave her the quick version, he tried to teach this digital rebel guy a lesson, and he'd manage to fight back using dark digivolution. He was a major threat and needed to be taken down quickly.
"What time did you say this dark digivolution happened?" She asked after he finished his story. William gave her the approximate time as Loch opened a third monitor. She pressed on the holographic keys for a few seconds before the screen changed.
Now the screen was cut in half. To the right was a set of data. A time, a website, a value with a large number, and a graphic of a large wobbly purple circle. Both the time and website were familiar.
"Is this the time and place of the dark digivolution?" William leaned forward and felt a chill go down his back. Everything on the right of the screen matched up with that Gazimon dark digivolving into Devidramon. And on the left was another time and place, a value with a similar number and a near identical purple circle.
"He's either done it twice or…" Loch trailed off as William gulped.
"Someone else out there managed to figure it out."
"I mean, she looks pretty cool," we all slowly turned to Francis who took a second to notice, "what? The new form looks cool."
"She's also the size of a building," Roxie narrowed her eyes before gesturing towards the recorded footage from the satellite.
"I still think this entire conversation is unnecessary." Gazimon crossed her arms and legs from her spot on the couch. Which was a new sight in the basement. She still emerged from the laptop as Pagumon, but now she had the ability to digivolve into Gazimon.
An ability she made sure to use at any opportunity. She still had to stay in her smaller form to transport herself, but the second she was in a secure location it was digivolution time. Good thing the Rebel Drive had gone through its own 'evolution' or things would have been much more complicated.
I'd been right, everything around me had just assumed it was some kind of old digital watch. Completely unnoteworthy in an age of smart watches and other gadgets like it.
"You don't know that," Roxie got up from her seat, bringing me out of my musing. I got ready for another round of this argument between the two girls. "How are you sure you won't transform into that giant demon dragon form out here?"
"I need Gabi's help to reach that form, and we can't even reach it in digital form right now," Gazimon growled while leaning towards Roxie, "you don't have to worry about me turning into Devidramon in the material world."
Roxie just sighed like she wanted to say something, but instead just sat back down on the sofa. Francis got up and went to the laptop, rewinding the footage until it ended up on an image of Devidramon roaring into the night.
I had to force back a sigh as my mind rushed back to that beautiful sight, the absolute rush of awe and power as I saw the path towards salvation.
"I mean, she looks like something out of a 90's metal album cover!" Francis pointed towards the screen as I fought back a twitch. I knew full well my opinion on Devidramon wouldn't be shared, probably not even by Gazimon herself. I still wanted to jump on top of the table and gush to all three of them.
"Listen we're getting distracted, "Gazimon cut in, "the important part is that you guys don't have to worry about me digivolving into Devidramon and reenacting a monster movie."
"Fine, I guess I have no choice but to believe you. So onto our next business, are we going to keep taking requests?" Roxie got back to her feet and pulled up the HQ website. "Because even after putting up that notice, we're still getting requests."
The 'notice' in this case was a post Francis and Roxie had put up while I was in the hospital. Explaining that the main force behind the digital rebels had been injured and would need a short while to recover. While there had been a few who had angrily demanded to know why their requests wouldn't be heard, most people seemed to be okay with it.
And now we had a choice. We could upload another notice telling the world we were back, or just start taking requests without any fanfare. Because even if the rebels ended here, even if the other three threw in the towel, I would keep going. By myself if I had to.
"Well I guess it's not up to the two of us," Francis leaned with his back to the wall and turned towards Gazimon and I. "When you get down to it, Roxie and I are just supporting you two. If you two want to keep doing this, I'll stick around."
"Part of me wants to get out of this," Roxie admitted with a groan, "but I already know you're going to do this no matter what, right Gabi?"
I gave a simple nod as her eyes lowered.
"Knew it. I'll stay on even if it's so I can get you guys out of trouble. Last thing I need is to learn you're in the hospital because you got in over your head."
"So I guess the real question is… am I doing this alone?" I asked as Gazimon stiffened. I placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know you don't need to join me on this. This is my crusade, not yours. I can just sneak through the stuff we'd fight our way past."
That my job would be whole lot more complicated without Gazimon by my side, went unsaid. Everyone here knew it. But the last thing I was going to do was force her to go along with this. The same went for Roxie and Francis.
"Oh please we both know you're way too much of a drama king to just sneak your way past anything. I give it a week before you get caught because you wanted to showboat," Gazimon sneered before leaning back with her head nestled in my arm, "guess I'm stuck watching your back. Wouldn't have it any other way."
"Then we're all in agreement," I smirked before taking my arm off Gazimon and getting to my feet. I hobbled to the desk and went for the keys and mouse of the laptop. "Now let's find us…"
"And what exactly are you doing?" I slowly turned around and saw Gazimon glaring at me. Roxie and Francis looked just as annoyed.
"I'm getting a request so we can hit the ground running." I explained to Gazimon as I received three blank stares in return. "Why are you all staring at me?"
"Gabi, you're still recovering from having your leg almost broken," Francis pointed towards Gabi's leg, "you had to hop to make it to the table."
"Yeah but I'm fine. My leg's getting better by the day, and I barely feel any of the pain when I'm in my digital form." I argued only for the three stares to keep going, "you guys are going to force me to take a break, aren't you."
"Don't worry, Luke said you'd be right back to normal in a week… as long as you don't do anything to mess up your leg." Francis gave me a knowing smile. Between the three of them, I had a feeling I wasn't going to be taking on any requests for at least the next week.
Lights flickered over an alley at midnight. The wind swept through the trash filled floor, finding no resistance in the empty alley. And above it all, the full moon shone down from the center of the sky. A peaceful night scene which some would have found oddly beautiful.
A peaceful beauty interrupted by the constant beeping of the ATM built into the back of the bank. The beeping grew faster and faster, until it was a constant loud drone.
And the calm night was further interrupted when the ATM exploded into flames, scrap metal, and green paper bills. A second later, two figures emerged from the ATM. The first was a tall, heavily built man wearing a tanktop and a golden chain around his neck. Next to him was a short green creature wearing brown scraps and wielding a brown club.
The taller figure reached out and grabbed a couple of bills from the air. He rubbed the bill between his fingers before starting to laugh wildly into the night.
"This is amazing!"