NOTE: Christian content
Chapter 54: Backstabbers
"Here's your Fearow back, Gary. Thanks for letting us have him."
"Don't mention it," Gary grumbled.
"…Are you okay, Gary?"
"No."
"…Anything I can do to help?"
"Well, the vibrations that your voice is making sure aren't helping my back!"
"Ouch…I hope you get better, soon."
"Get out of here!" Gary grumbled.
As Ash shut the door behind him, he thought, What put him in such a mood?
"Piiii ka, Pika-pi. Chu, pika pi piKA chu pikaaaaa," Pikachu thought aloud.
"I know…he's usually in some self-centered world of his own. Now, he's gotten grumpy all of a sudden. I wonder why."
"Chu, pika pi KA chu pi."
"Yeah, I guess this is the kind of world where you'd expect people to get grumpy for no reason…but still, that wasn't really like Gary."
******
"There is good news and bad news, sub-major."
An awkward silence hung in the air. The head scientist had seen dozens of his underlings fall to the wrath of the sub-major's whims, and he didn't want to follow them. He also knew that their scientific staff was already shorthanded as it stood; they did not need another terminated scientist. "Continue," was the sub-major's single-word answer. He had not said it in a promising tone, but the head scientist refused to let his composure suffer. As bad as things looked for him, they would only look worse if he didn't look confident.
"The bad news is that, as before, we are unable to clone the tissue."
"And the good?" the sub-major grunted. It was clear that he needed to be humored if the head scientist was going to live.
"The good is that we can, with this information and information from the obtained artifact, design a device that will allow us to take control of the specimen."
"Hmm…"
"Since it has no connection to a digivice, it will not be difficult to take over, and if we can overtake it, then we know now that we will be able to use it---and how to use it once it is ours."
"I see…continue with this project with all speed."
"It shall be ready within the month."
"The month?!" the sub-major darkly asked. "I am not willing to wait that long."
"Sir…our scientific staff has been plagued with failures that you have had terminated---ah, which was good---but there has been a disadvantageous side effect: we are understaffed. If you could send for more scientists from the Empire---"
"The Empire," the sub-major grunted with disdain, "is a collection of bureaucratic fools with no idea how to wage war. They will not help us."
"Then…if…you could have other scientists on this world transfer here…?"
"…Perhaps…you are dismissed. But work at this with all speed: I will have that clone!"
"Yes, sir. But there is one other thing…in order for us to use this new clone, we will need to either mothball or do away with two of our current clones."
"Their deaths can be arranged, I am sure. If that is all, you are dismissed."
As the head scientist left, he couldn't help but wonder, The Empire has been putting all their resources into capturing this world; why would they suddenly choose not to help us? …Unless…there is something that the sub-major is doing that we don't know about, and that displeases the Empire!
******
"Remind me again why we're in here?" Gatomon asked, squirming in her uncomfortable seat of crumpled paper balls. They were inside a recycled paper dumpster.
"We're in here because it's sunny out," Kari explained.
"And that's a bad thing?!" Gatomon asked, giving up on getting comfortable and trying to jump into Kari's lap.
"It is when you factor Luftwaffles into the picture," Yolei answered. "Those things are solar-powered, remember?"
"Barely…but I can't help but feel like it's going to start raining…"
"That's a feeling everyone gets on Earth, nowadays," Misty thought aloud.
"And they're usually right," Brock added.
Gatomon snorted and shook off her fur. "Well, frankly, I'm sick of this: we have to hide every time anybody sees the sun…I'm tired of hiding and fighting these things!"
"We're all sick of it, Gatomon!" Kari answered, "But these menace machines aren't just going to go away on their own…they need our help for that," Kari chuckled.
"I don't find destruction very funny," Hawkmon cut in.
"Maybe not," Kari admitted. "Say, Moochi, is the sun still out?"
He lifted the lid of the dumpster a little bit and peeked out. "Finally…the sun went behind a cloud, chi."
"Then let's get out of this dumpster, already!" Hawkmon shouted.
They hadn't been walking for two minutes when they heard, "You-hooo…!"
They knew that voice. "There's something else I'm sick of, too!" Gatomon said as she slowly turned around, rolling her eyes. The Unnamed Figure had Jaymon and Blackgatomon at his side on the Trojan.
"Haven't you learned your lesson that you can't win?" Misty asked.
"You're the one who's about to learn a lesson!"
"Heard it, seen it, been there, done that!" Kari shot back. "We've heard that a bajillion times before."
"You won't have to hear it again. Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"
"Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!" Nekhbetmon towered over them. "Meteor Blast!" it shouted, hurling white flame out its mouth at them.
"Starmie, Staryu, I choose you! Cancel out that fire with Water Gun!" The two pokémon's attacks were strong enough to cancel the champion digi-clone's attack.
"Impressive, I must admit. But, as I recall, water pokémon are vulnerable to electric attacks, right? Blackgatomon, your move."
"Darkening Claw!" Black bolts of lightning licked Blackgatomon's paws, and, just as they were about to fire out…
"Lightning Claw!" Gatomon cancelled the attack, but she had to put a lot more oomph into her attack than Blackgatomon.
"Oh, why do I even bother with this trivial kind of fighting…?" The Unnamed Figure put another mod-card into his D-Gauntlet. "Digi-modify! Counter-crest digivolution, activate!"
"Nekhbetmon, digivolve to…Remon!"
"Blackgatomon, digivolve to…Wickemon!"
"Go get 'em!" the Unnamed Figure commanded his two ultimates. "I'll handle this…and add these three, fine girls to my collection…"
"Not while I'm around!" Brock spat. "Steelix, I choose you!"
"Magneton, go!"
"What're we waiting for?" Kari asked.
"Gatomon, digivolve to…Angewomon!"
"Hawkmon, digivolve to…Altairmon!"
"Altairmon, digivolve to…Aeroangemon!" Aeroangemon was a huge, white, eagle-like bird. She had a gold and purple harness around her chest, and she had four heads: one human, one eagle, one lion, and one ox's head. "It's time to test this new form out! Quadrant Beam!" Red lasers flew out of the mouths of each of her four heads and smacked Remon backwards.
"Steelix, dig underground!"
"Thinking of hiding?" the Unnamed Figure asked. "Forget it! Magneton, put them all under with thundershock, so that I can take them in a get a reward!" Just as Magneton was about to fire, Steelix burst up from the ground and smacked Magneton out of the air. "Hey, no fair!"
"The Pokémon League said it was a legal move, and it sure worked on Magneton."
The Unnamed Figure called Magneton back. "This time, I won't be so easy! Houndoom, go!"
Angewomon was having troubles of her own. She aimed her crossbow at Wickemon, and that forced her to get a good, hard look at Wickemon---a thing she had never done, nor wanted to do: Wickemon was unchastely dressed, and its skin looked like it was made out of black plastic. Everything about Wickemon 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!"
Wickemon 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!"
Wickemon 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 Wickemon flew over.
Angewomon suddenly remembered what she had thought at the Easter Pageant: how Wickemon 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?" Wickemon spat.
"It's not what you were meant for!"
"Who says?!" Wickemon 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 Wickemon'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," Wickemon taunted.
"Then let's switch fights!" Misty shouted, throwing her pokéball at Kari's digivice.
"Angewomon, co-op digivolve to…"