Chapter 59: Full Set
"Now…if I were those two other cheerleaders, where would I hide?" Ash wondered to himself.
"Uh, Ash? I think it's starting to clear up," Brock said, pointing to the sky.
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"It means we're running out of time. The cheerleaders were hiding because they wanted to take shelter from the rain. If there's no rain, there's no reason to stay in hiding."
"Unless there happens to be a menace machine around…" Ash scratched his head. "Boy, I wish I'd taken Pikachu along. Maybe his nose would've been able to pick them out."
"I doubt it. The rain would wash the scent away."
"Hmm…but where do you think they would hide?"
"If I were desperate, scared, and trying to get indoors…I'd go to…a police station!" Brock answered, pointing at a nearby police office.
"It's worth a try," Ash answered. They knocked at the door, and the door fell off its hinges. "You think we'll find Officer Jenny?"
"I wish."
"Well, knowing her---or them, considering the number of Jennies---we'd never hear the end of it for that door."
"Hello?!" Brock yelled into the office. There was no answer.
"Do we go in?" Ash asked.
"Might as well."
Ash let out Charizard. As long as they were inside the police station, the rainwater wouldn't threaten his tail flame, and his flame would help light the way. "Hello?" Ash yelled again. "Anybody in here?" Ash walked a little ways into the station. He thought he heard the noise of a few girls shouting. "Hello? Where are you?"
The shouting got a little more desperate and louder. Ash and Brock ran to the source of the shouts, and they found that…somehow…the cheerleaders had gotten themselves locked into one of the jail cells.
"Awh! How'd you get in there?!" Ash asked.
"We came in here to use the bathroom, and the door shut by itself!" the girls answered at the same time.
"Aren't there better places to use the bathroom?"
"The normal bathroom was locked!"
Ash rolled his eyes. "Any idea where Gary is?"
"No, but I know that we're not going anywhere!"
"Do you know where the keys are?"
"On that table!!!" both girls answered.
"Yikes! I wouldn't be able to stand the thought of knowing that the way out was that close," Ash thought aloud as he began trying keys on the cell's door. "I sure hope that---" a loud click interrupted Ash as the door came open. "There we go!"
The girls thought Ash and Brock were their heroes, and gave them the stereotypical "hero hugs", the same way the previous pair had done. Again, it was a big mistake for the cheerleader who had decided to hug Brock.
"Brock, drop her! …So, now all that's left is to find Gary."
"Yeeeaaahhhhh…"
"C'mon, let's get these two back to Imperialdramon," Ash said.
"Yeeeaaahhhhh…"
"…Brock! Now is not the time! Come on!" Ash tugged on Brock's arm. "We need to move it and hope that Gary won't go anywhere!"
"Yeeeaaahhhhh…"
Ash rolled his eyes. They left the police station, and it had stopped raining. Everything was dripping wet, but the sun was shining. They began moving quickly for Imperialdramon, but, when they arrived, they didn't like what they saw: Imperialdramon and several Queuebes were slugging it out. "Ooooh…why does this kind of stuff have to happen?! Snorlax, Kingler, Haunter! I choose you! …Brock! Let out Steelix and Graveler, already!"
"Yeeeaaahhhhh…" Brock answered, letting out his two pokémon.
Ash sighed and looked back at the battle. "Snorlax, use Hyper Beam attack!" Snorlax fired at one of the queuebes, but the shot only got absorbed into one of its solar panels. "Okay, that didn't work…Haunter, use Night shade!" Haunter threw a black beam of energy at the queuebe, but that didn't do any damage, either.
Still in his hormonal stupor, Brock commanded, "Steelix, use tackle attack!" Steelix jumped into the air and smacked a queuebe, but that didn't do much damage, either. "Graveler, rock throw!" Again, the stones Graveler hurled up at the queuebe didn't even dent the solar panels.
Ash started to fret. He knew that Imperialdramon needed his strength, so he wouldn't be able to fight much longer… "There's gotta be a way…I know! Totodile, I choose you!"
"Totodile?" the cheerleaders asked.
"Yeeeaaahhhhh…" Brock pointed out.
"You'll see what I'm doing…Totodile, rain dance!" As Totodile began his strange jig, the sky clouded over again, and it started raining. Since the sun was blocked, the queuebes lost their power source and returned to their dormant state.
Ash and Brock called back their pokémon and hurried the cheerleaders under Imperialdramon's wings and into his force field.
Shocked, Davis asked, "Your pokémon can control the weather?"
"Not for very long," Ash answered. "We need to get out of here before the sun comes back."
June shuddered as she looked at the downpour outside. "I can't believe we're avoiding the sun! Is there anything these enemies of ours have left us with to enjoy?!"
"Doubt it," Davis answered. "Considering what they're doing to people…"
"Let's not get into that," Tina cautioned. "We all know that they're killing people---"
"We don't have time to chitchat! We need to get out of here!" Ash cut in. "Those queuebes aren't going to keep away forever!"
"Where would we go?" Imperialdramon asked.
"I'm not sure, either, but, knowing Gary, he wouldn't let this get him down; he'd try to find someplace where---"
Loud, feminine screaming in the distance cut Ash off.
"Who's that?" Davis asked.
"I dunno, but it looks like our pokémon are about to get more of a workout! Blastoise, Bulbasaur, I choose you!"
"Vulpix, go!" Brock shouted. Their pokémon stood ready, and, to Ash's surprise, Gary was the one who was doing the screaming.
"Wha---?" Ash mouthed as he looked at Gary running from a horde of droll bits.
"Vulpix, use Fire Spin!"
"Blastoise, use Hydro Pump! Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!" The pokémon threw their attacks into the field of weak menace machines and the machines fell.
Knowing his pursuers were gone, Gary paused, bent over, and caught his breath. But, when he looked up, Gary stared in panicked amazement at Imperialdramon. Then he heard a "♪♫No one can get Gary down, best survivor in this town! WOOO-HOOOOO!! ♫" and then Gary snapped out of his panic and sneered. "You think you can scare me?!" he spat. "Nidoking, Fearow! Go!" A pair of exhausted pokémon jumped out of their pokéballs, looked at Imperialdramon, and then retreated back into their pokéballs. "Hey!!! You can't just---"
"Why exactly are you afraid of me?" Imperialdramon asked.
"Afraid? Aw, psh! I'm not afraid of you!"
"…Uh-huh… And there's a good reason for you not being afraid: I wasn't planning to fight you." Imperialdramon turned his back on Gary and let Ash and Brock out.
"Ash?? What are you doing here?"
"Trying to get you, that's what!"
"Is that big dragon-thingy…your pokémon?!"
"He's not even a pokémon, Gary! But we've been looking for you for the past few hours, and we don't know how long we're keeping other people waiting. Get in."
"In?!?!"
"Come on! …Unless you're enjoying the rain."
******
Rika had half a mind to go out into the muck and help the saberstrikes harvest bananas. Even with rain and muck involved, it was better than the alternative, which was to let a half-drunk foreman talk her ears off. The alcohol and cigarettes weren't doing much for his breath, either. So there Rika was, sitting in the middle of a cloud of smoke, with a black cloud hanging over her head. At long last, the foreman fell asleep. Finally, Rika thought to herself. She scurried into the house and shut the sliding glass door behind her.
Renamon was still curled up around the fire, along with Tiger and Hare. All three were still drying out. When Rika came towards them, she heard Renamon let out a snort. But this was more of a get-the-smell-out-of-your-nose snort than it was a snort of disgust. "Rika, you smell like poisoned smoke."
"No, really?!"
"She's right," Hare added. "What happened out there?"
"Just a little thing called 'second-hand smoke'."
"How can you stand that?"
"I can't," Rika hissed back. She sat down next to the fire, herself. "So…when's Imperialdramon going to be back, anyway? I'm sick of waiting---" Rika stopped talking as she saw Imperialdramon land. Ken walked out onto the patio and changed the saberstrikes' instructions. They began loading piles of bananas into one of Imperialdramon's two cargo containers. "Finally!" Rika sighed. She walked under the shelter of Imperialdramon's wings. "What took you guys?!"
"We got hung up trying to find Gary and the cheerleaders," Tina answered. "But all's well that ends well. Here we are. How long were we?"
"Roughlty eternity," Rika answered. "At least, that's what it felt like. Are my ears still attached to my head? I'm scared that he might've talked them off," Rika spat, throwing a disgusted glance at the sleeping foreman.
"Your ears are still there. But, judging from the fact that he's still wearing the same clothes as before, we were gone only a few hours?"
"Probably."
"Good to know," Davis thought aloud. "So…what's the price for the bananas, would you guess?" Davis asked.
"I don't think he'll be in any condition to make business decisions," Rika answered. "He's been smoking and drinking this entire time."
"Yikes!" Tina exclaimed. "You sure smell like you need a shower."
"I feel like I need one!"
"Well, we don't have time to sit around here and wait for him to come to," Davis decided. "Ken, have the saberstrikes leave about half the bananas they picked. That labor will have to be the price. There's no time to lose. For all we know, one minute here could be more like a year to the people back in Japan."
"There's a scary thought," Tina agreed.
Unfortunately, it was a great deal more than a scary thought: when Imperialdramon arrived back at the nuke plant where they had left, they found that the power plant was gone…
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Didn't see that one coming, did ya?
Don't worry...Protocol Omega is coming up, and there's going to be even more action, suspense, and plot in it than there was in Operation: Salvage Earth. There are stranger transformations, more power, and I finally use the Omegamon and Imperialdramon Paladin Mode GIFs! Also, I get around to showing you the digi-clones DNA-digivolved forms. If you liked Operation: Salvage Earth, you'll love Protocol Omega.
Here are a few previews:
******
A bead of sweat trickled down the back of Hare's neck. "Uh…what's with the vest? And why the baskets?"
"Oh, the vest is only secondary," Natasha answered.
"And, uh, why would we be heading for the cemetery?"
"It's the best place we could find," Youngdramon said around the basket she held in her mouth.
"The best place for what?!"
"Hiding the eggs in the baskets."
"But what's the point of that?" Hare sniffed the eggs. "These aren't even real eggs! They smell like poison!"
"They probably would be poisonous to you, but not to humans."
"But…but…I'm not understanding one thing about this. Could you explain what the point of hiding poisoned eggs around in a cemetery is?"
"So kids can have fun finding them."
"…Oh. Well, that explains everything, doesn't it?"
"It's an old Christian tradition that we have. It's done every Easter."
"Easter? That sounds more like a direction than a religious holiday."
"Well, it is a holiday."
"And what're the eggs for? How do they tie in to the religious part?"
"Actually, they don't. I don't know how the tradition got started, but kids will bend over backwards for candy eggs."
******
"No! Bad!"
"Tina?" Ingrid begged, referring to Tina's merciful nature.
"Bad!"
Ingrid sighed. She wasn't getting out of this one. She'd eaten off from someone else's plate, and food was scarce at the time. So she had earned disapproval. Disapproval was always enough to make Ingrid want to stop doing whatever she'd been doing that was bad. But disapproval wasn't enough of a punishment to Yolei; there had to be corporal punishment. (It was all that had ever worked on Tina.) So Yolei brought out her trusty riding crop and gave Ingrid a few smacks. Ingrid screamed her lungs out, which was the worst thing she could have done: before long, there was a group of luftwaffles attacking their building.
"Uh-oh!" Kari thought aloud. "Maybe spanking her wasn't such a great idea, Yolei."
"I'm beginning to see that," Yolei answered. She pulled out the digi-egg of sincerity. "Digi-armor, energize!"
"Hawkmon, armor digivolve to…Shurimon, the samurai of sincerity!" Shurimon began reflecting laser blasts away from them away. "Double star!" she shouted, firing a few blades at the luftwaffles. Unfortunately, the luftwaffles were agile, and she only took one out after shooting out nine blades. "This isn't going well, Yolei," Shurimon shouted. "We're going to need some help to take these out!"
"Gatomon is still too weak to fight, and Moochi's beam attacks won't help us against those things!" Kari answered.
"Then there's only one thing left," Yolei thought aloud. She pulled a small brown object out of her pocket and threw it at Shurimon.
"Shurimon, radio-digivolve to…Pepomon, the noble samurai of sincerity!" Pepomon looked like Shurimon, but she was more obese, with a pumpkin for a belly, and her vines were longer, with bigger blades at the ends of them. Pepomon flew out of the building and slashed at the luftwaffles. They were down before long...
******
(NOTE: Christian content)
Angewomon was having troubles of her own. She aimed her crossbow at Wiccamon, and that forced her to get a good, hard look at Wiccamon---a thing she had never done, nor wanted to do: Wiccamon was unchastely dressed, and its skin looked like it was made out of black plastic. Everything about Wiccamon seemed unnatural and evil---not to mention ugly. Angewomon's nose wrinkled back as she realized that this vulgar excuse for an SI life form had somehow been derived from her own DNA. The first words that came out of her mouth were, "You look like a giant happy meal toy!"
Wiccamon had a cutting response: "Demon Amulet!" A green skull of energy shot out of its pyramid-shaped, crystal brooch.
Angewomon smacked the skull with the butt of her crossbow and shattered it. "Celestial Arrow!"
Wiccamon dodged under the white shot and charged Angewomon. "Say good night, angel-food-cake! Wicked Claw!"
Angewomon folded her wings and dropped to the ground, just as Wiccamon flew over.
Angewomon suddenly remembered what she had thought at the Easter Pageant: how Wiccamon was what she had once been: working for evil. "You don't have to be doing this, you know," Angewomon said.
"That's true: you could make it easier on yourself and surrender! Then I wouldn't have to fight you!"
"That's not what I meant!" Angewomon said, firing off another arrow. "I mean fighting for evil!"
"What about fighting for evil?" Wiccamon spat.
"It's not what you were meant for!"
"Who says?!" Wiccamon asked, canceling Angewomon's arrow with another skull of energy. "The Linonian scientists made me for this very purpose!"
"There's a Creator beyond them," Angewomon shouted back.
"Who's that? Your stupid God?"
"Yes, my God: Jesus Christ!"
"Ha! If you think I care at all about what He thinks, you're dead wrong! Demon Amulet!"
Angewomon leapt into the air and dodged away from the attack. "He cares about you!"
"I don't care!"
"You don't have to do this! You can choose to turn back!"
"I choose evil! Wicked Claw!" Angewomon felt one of Wiccamon's fingers cut her arm and leave her robe in tatters.
She clutched her wounded arm to stop the bleeding.
"See? I can win this fight," Wiccamon taunted...
******
...So, I hope you've found these entertaining and enthralling...the best is yet to come!
One last question...I could change Wiccamon's name to "Wickemon" without changing general gist of her character or the pronunciation, and, therefore, without changing the alien-language spelling of her name...should I do that?