Digital Souls
By Wanderer D
Chapter 1
A creature with rough yellow skin and a reptilian snout, a spiraling thorn sticking out of its forehead and almost completely covered in a white wolf's pelt with dark blue marks, was running on it's two hind legs, balancing each step with it's saurian tail, after a blonde ten-year-old kid and shouting his name as the young human ran through a forest.
"Matt! Wait!" The creature yelled at the kid.
"What?!" Matt asked bitterly, stumbling as he slowed down.
"You can't leave ME behind!" the creature said, stopping to pant next to him.
Matt stopped completely and looked at the creature. He could see it had immediately regretted its words.
"Matt, I- I'm going to be with you all the time. No matter what. You are my friend!" the creature said, walking closer to him.
Matt smiled slightly at the creature and hugged it. "Thank you, Gabumon. I don't know what I'd do without you!" he confessed, resting his head on the soft pelt for a moment before standing up and urging his friend to walk.
They walked all afternoon deeper into the forest, not really paying attention to their surroundings, which were a literal mixture of electric house appliances, trees and giant plugs.
The day gave in to the night and the strange constellations of the Digital World seemed to flicker into existence after the last brush of rosy light faded.
After making a small campfire, Matt sat back-to-back with Gabumon and pulled out his harmonica. With a barely perceptible sigh, Matt brought the silver instrument to his lips, closing his eyes and started a slow melody.
Gabumon drifted to sleep with the soothing sound of Matt's music. The human boy played for a while into the night, smiling a little at his Digimon's soft snoring, and also drifted of to sleep under the stars.
***
Surrounded by electronic equipment in his vast laboratory, Dr. Wily tapped at his computer, thinking furiously. His latest, meanest, best and downright masterpiece was lacking... a soul, so to speak. And, what he needed now was a computerized soul for Project Zero.
There had been some developers working on that, most prominent among them his nemesis, Dr. Light.
Everything else was finished; the armor itself was strong enough to withstand the combined fire power of all his previous inventions, yet it was also very thin, and weighed almost nothing. It was painted a metallic red; a color Wily favored, for its aggressive appearance. Project Zero would also have a strength that would put to shame heavy duty construction units for many generations to come. It was faster than anything similar built too, and he had loaded practically every weapons program he could manage to find. The only problem would be creating a versatile 'soul' and mind, which would give it the advantage it needed to prevail against Light's creations.
And so, Wily was hacking into the cyber-world where he would be able to access the database he thought would most probably contain what he wanted. But, as he tapped and hacked various defensive firewalls, he encountered an unexpected solution.
"What the?!" Wily exclaimed as he ran a program to check what he had found. "Can it be?" he waited eagerly for the results, "It IS!" he cried in triumph.
Wily jumped up and down, dancing around the room before stopping and doing a victory sign towards his PC.
"A whole human mentality, attitude, personality, skills and... if what I'm reading is correct, this program will allow my masterpiece to be almost human! Pity about the soul, though." Wily smiled, it would have been great to have a human's soul transferred into Project Zero, but the scientists wouldn't hear about it and he didn't have the knowledge to do it himself.
He looked a little deeper into the program and noticed that it came complete with a design! Hmm... A little young looking, but it was to be expected from the genius who had made it. He would have to agree that a kid would be easier to handle. He would have to make it age a little.
He experimented with the face for a while, making it a little more mature before deciding that it could fit his plans perfectly. "There. Now, looks done, let's start with the serious stuff!"
Smiling in joy he started downloading the digital 'soul' he had found. He encountered a protective program, but it was easily bypassed.
***
"Arghh!" Matt yelled, rolling to his side and clutching his arms.
Gabumon immediately woke up with Matt's first scream of pain.
"Matt?!" The Digimon looked in horror as Matt fell to the ground, slowly fading from view. His friend started becoming transparent, and then his hands disappeared, followed up by every other part of Matt's body.
Gabumon jumped and tried to grab Matt, but some kind of invisible wall prevented him from reaching his friend. The last thing he was able to see was the confusion and pain in Matt's eyes as his body faded from view completely.
"MATT! MATT!" Gabumon wailed looking around for his friend. When he finally discovered Matt's Digivice, Tag and harmonica lying on the ground, he realized the boy was gone. Gabumon fell to his hands and knees, crying for his friend.
After a few minutes, he finally stopped. He stood up and cleaned his eyes with the back of his pelted arm and then turned around walking towards Puppetmon's house, and back to the other Digidestined.
He could find Matt with his Digivice, but he would need the other Digidestined help.
***
"I don't want to fight anymore," A girl in a pink cowgirl dress, with a pink cowgirl hat said. "I'm gonna stay here."
"But, Mimi, we have to go to the other Dark masters!" Another boy, with a mop of brown hair, held at bay by a pair of goggles, rationalized.
"Tai," another boy, a little older and wearing a pair of glasses, started to say, when the bushes next to them rattled.
"You are not going anywhere!" Gabumon said as he walked out of the bushes and into the group of seven youths and their Digimon companions.
Everyone stopped discussing as Gabumon walked into their midst, weary and teary-eyed. The Digimon had seen better days. The obvious absence of Matt immediately worried the others.
"Gabumon! Where's Matt!?" Tai asked, worried.
Gabumon was a little surprised at the very real fear in Tai's eyes. He had supposed that Tai would still be angry with Matt, after their recent fight, but it was obvious it would take more to strain Tai's friendship. Matt was his friend too, after all.
A little more relieved, Gabumon slumped to the ground. He had been looking for the Digidestined all night and was tired and sweaty. After explaining what had happened Gabumon stood up and faced the others.
"I don't know what happened, but I know Matt is alive, and you have to help me get to him!" Gabumon said, his eyes shining with renewed vigor.
Everyone's faces turned grim and they all nodded as one.
"Let's go!" Tai ordered as he pulled out his Digivice, followed by the others.
"No!" Matt's Digimon interrupted, startling everyone.
"What? Gabumon..." Agumon, Tai's Digimon, an orange raptor, like a miniature T-Rex, started to argue.
"Listen, you guys have to stay here and help out. I'll help Matt. Just help me get there!" Gabumon said.
"But..." Sora, the sport-loving girl that had come with them to the Digital world, home and back, began. "We can help when we get Matt back."
"No, Sora! You guys have a responsibility towards the Digiworld! I'm going to get Matt back, and then we'll all free this world together!" Gabumon promised, looking up at her. "But you cannot leave the Digiworld... who will protect it from the Dark Masters?"
The others didn't like the idea but it was the simple truth. And they all believed in Matt and Gabumon.
T.K., Matt's younger brother, and one of the two youngest members of the group hugged Gabumon tightly, as Patamon, his Digimon lay a comforting wing on his shoulder. "Please bring my brother back." T.K. pleaded softly.
Gabumon returned the hug and nodded solemnly. "And you guys take care of Puppetmon." Was all he asked of them.
***
Wily uploaded the program into Project Zero's body, carefully suppressing those parts he didn't like. "Loyalty... Good, he will be loyal to ME! Hmmm... Independence? As long as it doesn't interfere with his mission... I don't want another Protoman..." he muttered.
And so, Wily worked hard into the night and the next morning, finally filtering the whole program. He found out that this program would be destroyed if he removed anything. HE himself couldn't understand much of it, and he didn't dare touch this program. Curiously the program auto- erased itself when it was transferred and he couldn't make any copies.
"Now to check how much time it would take for the program, energy devices and weapons to become 100% effective..." Wily said to himself, as he turned the diagnosis program on.
***
34 years later:
Zero walked through the Maverick Hunter's HQ, thinking, his metallic boots making a clanking sound each time he took a step.
"X," Zero greeted, noticing his friend already standing before the computers.
"Hi, Zero!" X greeted back, smiling enthusiastically at him.
Zero nodded and sat down, putting his feet up on the table.
"There's a Maverick raid again, this time in the city. The difference is that it seems to be an organized raid." Dr. Cain's voice informed them.
"That means..." X started.
"That something or rather someone is controlling them. And I think we might know who it is." Zero finished grimly. "Well," he muttered as he stood up, "there's only one way to find out."
***
Both fighters materialized in the middle of the city. The Mavericks had gone outwards destroying everything and everyone that stood in their way.
"I'll go southeast, you go northwest!" Zero told X, who nodded and left with a quick dash.
***
In a computer shop, X blasted through two Maverick goons, their spiked balls falling around in a mess. He suddenly noticed a monitor glowing softly. Deciding to investigate, he crept closer, after making sure there were no enemies in the immediate area. As he approached, a sixth sense warned him of a danger, and he immediately ducked and rolled, turning around with his Mega Blaster pointing at the general direction where the blast that had turned the place he had been standing on into a sizzling pull of acid had come from.
"Well, if it isn't the famous X," A voice remarked with overacted boredom.
"Come on out!" X shouted angrily.
The figure that crossed the door looked like a mixture of a human-like Reploid and a rat, with impressive incisors and a tail pointed by some kind of gun.
"I'm Spray Rat! And you are mine!" Spray Rat shouted and fired a stream of acid from the tip of his tail that X was almost unable to evade.
X dashed under the stream and charged his Mega Blaster. When he was just in front of Spray Rat, he let loose, sending the later flying and crashing into a console. Spray Rat got up.
"Teeth Clasp!" the Maverick yelled and jumped towards X and just as he was about to sink his teeth at the surprised Hunter, the computer monitor X had noticed glowing gave off a flash of light and something materialized in front of it.
X ignored the strange dog-like creature, for the moment, and taking advantage of Spray Rat's distraction blasted him, blowing his head right off.
X turned around when he heard a gasp and was just able to see the strange creature disappear around a corner. As he was about to check it out, he heard his radio channel opening.
"X, our work here is done! Let's go back to base and see what we got!" Zero's voice said, crackling through the static.
"Roger! I'll just check something first!" X answered, and started walking towards Spray Rat. He absorbed Spray Rat's acid spray gun into his weaponry, and as he did it, he noticed something shining on the ground.
Walking towards it, he picked the small metal object and looked at it for a moment. Shrugging, he threw it into the air and caught it before he started to walk towards the back of the store, where the creature had run to, when he noticed the computer was still glowing, and sudden bursts of energy started appearing.
X managed to get out of the store just before every computer inside exploded.
He stared at the store for a few moments before teleporting back home.
***
"And then, just before leaving, I found this on the ground," X finished. Motioning at the harmonica.
Cain looked at the harmonica on the table. "Do you know what that is, X?"
X shook his head.
"A... harmonica?" Zero asked as he picked it up.
Cain nodded and turned his attention to X. "Indeed. I hadn't seen one in more than 40 years! Ever since computers started playing all instruments there haven't been people who bothered to master its play-"
The Dr. was interrupted by Zero, as he played a soft tune that sounded both, sorrowful and hopeful. It was a beautiful little piece, and both he and X waited until Zero was finished before clapping appreciatively.
"Zero! I didn't know you could play so proficiently!" The good doctor applauded. X merely nodded in surprise.
"I didn't know, either." Zero confessed as he looked down at the small instrument as if it had the fault.
***
Under the city, Gabumon finally stopped running blindly. It seemed that creature which he somehow didn't think was human even if it looked the part, wouldn't be following him.
Sighing in relief at avoiding a fight with someone who would blow their enemies head without a second thought he took stock.
"Matt's Digivice... check." Gabumon said, putting it away securely. "Matt's Tag... check." He said pulling the string he had tied around his neck. "Matt's harmonica..."
Gabumon paused in a sudden panic, looking around to see if he could find it anywhere. After a few desperate minutes he concluded that he didn't have it with him. "Oh, damn. Matt is gonna kill me!" He shouted.
Gabumon quickly returned to normal. "Ok, first things first; I have to find Matt. We'll find his harmonica later. And that means you." He took out the Digivice. "Please, oh, please let me find Matt!" he pleaded to the small digital object.
***
"Sheesh! One would think that at the rate they're making weapons they would've done something to keep the sewers clean!" Muttered an almost human looking Reploid wearing a yellow helmet.
"You don't know the half of it, partner! At least you don't have to smell it like I do!" responded the human standing next to him. "Good thing I left my lunch outside."
The two climbed up a metal stair out of the sewers. They cleaned themselves and took off their overall uniforms.
The human sat down on the sidewalk and opened his launch box, taking out a huge subway-style sandwich. As he was about to dig in, he heard a kid's voice next to him.
"Wow! That's a big sandwich! I bet it tastes delicious!" the kid said.
"Beat it, kid. This is not for you!" The man grumbled. What was a kid doing here anyway?
"Not even a tiny bite?" The voice insisted.
"No. Look here," The man turned around to face the little pest. Only to find himself staring at a dog-lizard-mix creature with the meanest fangs he had seen in his life.
Letting the sandwich drop, the man screamed and ran away.
"Wait! Don't you want your sandwich? Guess not." When his stomach grumbled, Gabumon dropped all pretenses and dug in.
***
X opened the door to the roof of Maverick Hunter HQ where Zero sat: back against the wall and playing that harmonica. The music echoed through the street as the melody unfurled.
Zero had appropriated the harmonica after X had said it was fine, and spent almost every minute of his free time playing it. Ever since that last attack, there hadn't been any more raids for almost two weeks, and Dr. Cain believed that Spray Rat had probably been a left over from the war with the Reploid Army.
X waited until his friend had finished before walking up to him. When he was near enough, he noticed Zero had a lost look on his face and was just finishing one of his latest sighs. He had been sighing a lot lately.
"Hey, Zero!" he greeted, waving a hand.
Zero looked up a little surprised, but then nodded at him. "Hey, X. How's it going?"
"Couldn't be any better!" X answered cheerfully. He crossed his arms and reclined on the wall looking down at the city below.
"You seem awfully cheerful today." Zero remarked.
X nodded before answering. "Yeah! It seems we won't need to fight! We haven't heard anything from the Mavericks other than that raid two weeks ago!" he said, gazing out into the sky. "This looks like it, my friend! No more wars, we can all live in peace."
"Geez! You sound like Mimi!" Zero blurted out.
"Who?" X asked, looking at his friend askance.
"I... I don't know..." Zero answered.
X looked at his friend worriedly. Zero had told him about those nightmares he had had about the strange Doctor, destroying many Reploids... and he hoped his friend was okay.
***
Gabumon ran around the city trying to avoid people. The Digivice had pointed to this building, and just a few minutes ago, he had heard Matt's harmonica! It couldn't be any doubt that it was Matt who was playing it. It was his feelings that could be heard, lonely but hopeful.
"Matt..." Gabumon whispered. The Digimon couldn't fail to be relieved. He hadn't seen Matt in the two weeks he had been here, and his link to his friend had only strengthened this last few days.
Gabumon looked around the building for a good way in. It was a fortress, and, when he was about to give up, he found a small window. With a little pushing and struggling he was able to get inside. Once there, he found himself in a broom closet. Opening the door a crack he spied through it and then eased his way out, carefully closing the door after him.
***
End Chapter 1
By Wanderer D
Chapter 1
A creature with rough yellow skin and a reptilian snout, a spiraling thorn sticking out of its forehead and almost completely covered in a white wolf's pelt with dark blue marks, was running on it's two hind legs, balancing each step with it's saurian tail, after a blonde ten-year-old kid and shouting his name as the young human ran through a forest.
"Matt! Wait!" The creature yelled at the kid.
"What?!" Matt asked bitterly, stumbling as he slowed down.
"You can't leave ME behind!" the creature said, stopping to pant next to him.
Matt stopped completely and looked at the creature. He could see it had immediately regretted its words.
"Matt, I- I'm going to be with you all the time. No matter what. You are my friend!" the creature said, walking closer to him.
Matt smiled slightly at the creature and hugged it. "Thank you, Gabumon. I don't know what I'd do without you!" he confessed, resting his head on the soft pelt for a moment before standing up and urging his friend to walk.
They walked all afternoon deeper into the forest, not really paying attention to their surroundings, which were a literal mixture of electric house appliances, trees and giant plugs.
The day gave in to the night and the strange constellations of the Digital World seemed to flicker into existence after the last brush of rosy light faded.
After making a small campfire, Matt sat back-to-back with Gabumon and pulled out his harmonica. With a barely perceptible sigh, Matt brought the silver instrument to his lips, closing his eyes and started a slow melody.
Gabumon drifted to sleep with the soothing sound of Matt's music. The human boy played for a while into the night, smiling a little at his Digimon's soft snoring, and also drifted of to sleep under the stars.
***
Surrounded by electronic equipment in his vast laboratory, Dr. Wily tapped at his computer, thinking furiously. His latest, meanest, best and downright masterpiece was lacking... a soul, so to speak. And, what he needed now was a computerized soul for Project Zero.
There had been some developers working on that, most prominent among them his nemesis, Dr. Light.
Everything else was finished; the armor itself was strong enough to withstand the combined fire power of all his previous inventions, yet it was also very thin, and weighed almost nothing. It was painted a metallic red; a color Wily favored, for its aggressive appearance. Project Zero would also have a strength that would put to shame heavy duty construction units for many generations to come. It was faster than anything similar built too, and he had loaded practically every weapons program he could manage to find. The only problem would be creating a versatile 'soul' and mind, which would give it the advantage it needed to prevail against Light's creations.
And so, Wily was hacking into the cyber-world where he would be able to access the database he thought would most probably contain what he wanted. But, as he tapped and hacked various defensive firewalls, he encountered an unexpected solution.
"What the?!" Wily exclaimed as he ran a program to check what he had found. "Can it be?" he waited eagerly for the results, "It IS!" he cried in triumph.
Wily jumped up and down, dancing around the room before stopping and doing a victory sign towards his PC.
"A whole human mentality, attitude, personality, skills and... if what I'm reading is correct, this program will allow my masterpiece to be almost human! Pity about the soul, though." Wily smiled, it would have been great to have a human's soul transferred into Project Zero, but the scientists wouldn't hear about it and he didn't have the knowledge to do it himself.
He looked a little deeper into the program and noticed that it came complete with a design! Hmm... A little young looking, but it was to be expected from the genius who had made it. He would have to agree that a kid would be easier to handle. He would have to make it age a little.
He experimented with the face for a while, making it a little more mature before deciding that it could fit his plans perfectly. "There. Now, looks done, let's start with the serious stuff!"
Smiling in joy he started downloading the digital 'soul' he had found. He encountered a protective program, but it was easily bypassed.
***
"Arghh!" Matt yelled, rolling to his side and clutching his arms.
Gabumon immediately woke up with Matt's first scream of pain.
"Matt?!" The Digimon looked in horror as Matt fell to the ground, slowly fading from view. His friend started becoming transparent, and then his hands disappeared, followed up by every other part of Matt's body.
Gabumon jumped and tried to grab Matt, but some kind of invisible wall prevented him from reaching his friend. The last thing he was able to see was the confusion and pain in Matt's eyes as his body faded from view completely.
"MATT! MATT!" Gabumon wailed looking around for his friend. When he finally discovered Matt's Digivice, Tag and harmonica lying on the ground, he realized the boy was gone. Gabumon fell to his hands and knees, crying for his friend.
After a few minutes, he finally stopped. He stood up and cleaned his eyes with the back of his pelted arm and then turned around walking towards Puppetmon's house, and back to the other Digidestined.
He could find Matt with his Digivice, but he would need the other Digidestined help.
***
"I don't want to fight anymore," A girl in a pink cowgirl dress, with a pink cowgirl hat said. "I'm gonna stay here."
"But, Mimi, we have to go to the other Dark masters!" Another boy, with a mop of brown hair, held at bay by a pair of goggles, rationalized.
"Tai," another boy, a little older and wearing a pair of glasses, started to say, when the bushes next to them rattled.
"You are not going anywhere!" Gabumon said as he walked out of the bushes and into the group of seven youths and their Digimon companions.
Everyone stopped discussing as Gabumon walked into their midst, weary and teary-eyed. The Digimon had seen better days. The obvious absence of Matt immediately worried the others.
"Gabumon! Where's Matt!?" Tai asked, worried.
Gabumon was a little surprised at the very real fear in Tai's eyes. He had supposed that Tai would still be angry with Matt, after their recent fight, but it was obvious it would take more to strain Tai's friendship. Matt was his friend too, after all.
A little more relieved, Gabumon slumped to the ground. He had been looking for the Digidestined all night and was tired and sweaty. After explaining what had happened Gabumon stood up and faced the others.
"I don't know what happened, but I know Matt is alive, and you have to help me get to him!" Gabumon said, his eyes shining with renewed vigor.
Everyone's faces turned grim and they all nodded as one.
"Let's go!" Tai ordered as he pulled out his Digivice, followed by the others.
"No!" Matt's Digimon interrupted, startling everyone.
"What? Gabumon..." Agumon, Tai's Digimon, an orange raptor, like a miniature T-Rex, started to argue.
"Listen, you guys have to stay here and help out. I'll help Matt. Just help me get there!" Gabumon said.
"But..." Sora, the sport-loving girl that had come with them to the Digital world, home and back, began. "We can help when we get Matt back."
"No, Sora! You guys have a responsibility towards the Digiworld! I'm going to get Matt back, and then we'll all free this world together!" Gabumon promised, looking up at her. "But you cannot leave the Digiworld... who will protect it from the Dark Masters?"
The others didn't like the idea but it was the simple truth. And they all believed in Matt and Gabumon.
T.K., Matt's younger brother, and one of the two youngest members of the group hugged Gabumon tightly, as Patamon, his Digimon lay a comforting wing on his shoulder. "Please bring my brother back." T.K. pleaded softly.
Gabumon returned the hug and nodded solemnly. "And you guys take care of Puppetmon." Was all he asked of them.
***
Wily uploaded the program into Project Zero's body, carefully suppressing those parts he didn't like. "Loyalty... Good, he will be loyal to ME! Hmmm... Independence? As long as it doesn't interfere with his mission... I don't want another Protoman..." he muttered.
And so, Wily worked hard into the night and the next morning, finally filtering the whole program. He found out that this program would be destroyed if he removed anything. HE himself couldn't understand much of it, and he didn't dare touch this program. Curiously the program auto- erased itself when it was transferred and he couldn't make any copies.
"Now to check how much time it would take for the program, energy devices and weapons to become 100% effective..." Wily said to himself, as he turned the diagnosis program on.
***
34 years later:
Zero walked through the Maverick Hunter's HQ, thinking, his metallic boots making a clanking sound each time he took a step.
"X," Zero greeted, noticing his friend already standing before the computers.
"Hi, Zero!" X greeted back, smiling enthusiastically at him.
Zero nodded and sat down, putting his feet up on the table.
"There's a Maverick raid again, this time in the city. The difference is that it seems to be an organized raid." Dr. Cain's voice informed them.
"That means..." X started.
"That something or rather someone is controlling them. And I think we might know who it is." Zero finished grimly. "Well," he muttered as he stood up, "there's only one way to find out."
***
Both fighters materialized in the middle of the city. The Mavericks had gone outwards destroying everything and everyone that stood in their way.
"I'll go southeast, you go northwest!" Zero told X, who nodded and left with a quick dash.
***
In a computer shop, X blasted through two Maverick goons, their spiked balls falling around in a mess. He suddenly noticed a monitor glowing softly. Deciding to investigate, he crept closer, after making sure there were no enemies in the immediate area. As he approached, a sixth sense warned him of a danger, and he immediately ducked and rolled, turning around with his Mega Blaster pointing at the general direction where the blast that had turned the place he had been standing on into a sizzling pull of acid had come from.
"Well, if it isn't the famous X," A voice remarked with overacted boredom.
"Come on out!" X shouted angrily.
The figure that crossed the door looked like a mixture of a human-like Reploid and a rat, with impressive incisors and a tail pointed by some kind of gun.
"I'm Spray Rat! And you are mine!" Spray Rat shouted and fired a stream of acid from the tip of his tail that X was almost unable to evade.
X dashed under the stream and charged his Mega Blaster. When he was just in front of Spray Rat, he let loose, sending the later flying and crashing into a console. Spray Rat got up.
"Teeth Clasp!" the Maverick yelled and jumped towards X and just as he was about to sink his teeth at the surprised Hunter, the computer monitor X had noticed glowing gave off a flash of light and something materialized in front of it.
X ignored the strange dog-like creature, for the moment, and taking advantage of Spray Rat's distraction blasted him, blowing his head right off.
X turned around when he heard a gasp and was just able to see the strange creature disappear around a corner. As he was about to check it out, he heard his radio channel opening.
"X, our work here is done! Let's go back to base and see what we got!" Zero's voice said, crackling through the static.
"Roger! I'll just check something first!" X answered, and started walking towards Spray Rat. He absorbed Spray Rat's acid spray gun into his weaponry, and as he did it, he noticed something shining on the ground.
Walking towards it, he picked the small metal object and looked at it for a moment. Shrugging, he threw it into the air and caught it before he started to walk towards the back of the store, where the creature had run to, when he noticed the computer was still glowing, and sudden bursts of energy started appearing.
X managed to get out of the store just before every computer inside exploded.
He stared at the store for a few moments before teleporting back home.
***
"And then, just before leaving, I found this on the ground," X finished. Motioning at the harmonica.
Cain looked at the harmonica on the table. "Do you know what that is, X?"
X shook his head.
"A... harmonica?" Zero asked as he picked it up.
Cain nodded and turned his attention to X. "Indeed. I hadn't seen one in more than 40 years! Ever since computers started playing all instruments there haven't been people who bothered to master its play-"
The Dr. was interrupted by Zero, as he played a soft tune that sounded both, sorrowful and hopeful. It was a beautiful little piece, and both he and X waited until Zero was finished before clapping appreciatively.
"Zero! I didn't know you could play so proficiently!" The good doctor applauded. X merely nodded in surprise.
"I didn't know, either." Zero confessed as he looked down at the small instrument as if it had the fault.
***
Under the city, Gabumon finally stopped running blindly. It seemed that creature which he somehow didn't think was human even if it looked the part, wouldn't be following him.
Sighing in relief at avoiding a fight with someone who would blow their enemies head without a second thought he took stock.
"Matt's Digivice... check." Gabumon said, putting it away securely. "Matt's Tag... check." He said pulling the string he had tied around his neck. "Matt's harmonica..."
Gabumon paused in a sudden panic, looking around to see if he could find it anywhere. After a few desperate minutes he concluded that he didn't have it with him. "Oh, damn. Matt is gonna kill me!" He shouted.
Gabumon quickly returned to normal. "Ok, first things first; I have to find Matt. We'll find his harmonica later. And that means you." He took out the Digivice. "Please, oh, please let me find Matt!" he pleaded to the small digital object.
***
"Sheesh! One would think that at the rate they're making weapons they would've done something to keep the sewers clean!" Muttered an almost human looking Reploid wearing a yellow helmet.
"You don't know the half of it, partner! At least you don't have to smell it like I do!" responded the human standing next to him. "Good thing I left my lunch outside."
The two climbed up a metal stair out of the sewers. They cleaned themselves and took off their overall uniforms.
The human sat down on the sidewalk and opened his launch box, taking out a huge subway-style sandwich. As he was about to dig in, he heard a kid's voice next to him.
"Wow! That's a big sandwich! I bet it tastes delicious!" the kid said.
"Beat it, kid. This is not for you!" The man grumbled. What was a kid doing here anyway?
"Not even a tiny bite?" The voice insisted.
"No. Look here," The man turned around to face the little pest. Only to find himself staring at a dog-lizard-mix creature with the meanest fangs he had seen in his life.
Letting the sandwich drop, the man screamed and ran away.
"Wait! Don't you want your sandwich? Guess not." When his stomach grumbled, Gabumon dropped all pretenses and dug in.
***
X opened the door to the roof of Maverick Hunter HQ where Zero sat: back against the wall and playing that harmonica. The music echoed through the street as the melody unfurled.
Zero had appropriated the harmonica after X had said it was fine, and spent almost every minute of his free time playing it. Ever since that last attack, there hadn't been any more raids for almost two weeks, and Dr. Cain believed that Spray Rat had probably been a left over from the war with the Reploid Army.
X waited until his friend had finished before walking up to him. When he was near enough, he noticed Zero had a lost look on his face and was just finishing one of his latest sighs. He had been sighing a lot lately.
"Hey, Zero!" he greeted, waving a hand.
Zero looked up a little surprised, but then nodded at him. "Hey, X. How's it going?"
"Couldn't be any better!" X answered cheerfully. He crossed his arms and reclined on the wall looking down at the city below.
"You seem awfully cheerful today." Zero remarked.
X nodded before answering. "Yeah! It seems we won't need to fight! We haven't heard anything from the Mavericks other than that raid two weeks ago!" he said, gazing out into the sky. "This looks like it, my friend! No more wars, we can all live in peace."
"Geez! You sound like Mimi!" Zero blurted out.
"Who?" X asked, looking at his friend askance.
"I... I don't know..." Zero answered.
X looked at his friend worriedly. Zero had told him about those nightmares he had had about the strange Doctor, destroying many Reploids... and he hoped his friend was okay.
***
Gabumon ran around the city trying to avoid people. The Digivice had pointed to this building, and just a few minutes ago, he had heard Matt's harmonica! It couldn't be any doubt that it was Matt who was playing it. It was his feelings that could be heard, lonely but hopeful.
"Matt..." Gabumon whispered. The Digimon couldn't fail to be relieved. He hadn't seen Matt in the two weeks he had been here, and his link to his friend had only strengthened this last few days.
Gabumon looked around the building for a good way in. It was a fortress, and, when he was about to give up, he found a small window. With a little pushing and struggling he was able to get inside. Once there, he found himself in a broom closet. Opening the door a crack he spied through it and then eased his way out, carefully closing the door after him.
***
End Chapter 1