Digimon.EXE 3

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 NO graphic depictions of a heterosexual and homosexual nature. 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. Digimon.EXE 3 is based on Rockman.EXE, which is copyrighted by Capcom Ltd. Please read and review.

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File 01: Biggest Dreamer

The two faced each other, not looking down at the arena between them. One of them was a brown-haired youth with a green cap and a black shirt. The other was a female with auburn hair and a short-sleeved T-shirt with green sleeves and a broken heart symbol on the front. She had fingers hovering over a control panel to which her D-Tector was connected and her eyes were on the large area in front of her.
It was three tiles wide and six tiles long. Each tile was 0.7 metres by 0.7 metres and the nine nearest to Ruki were red, while the nine nearest to her opponent were blue. This was the battle arena and on it were holographic images of their Digimon and the battle going on between them.
This was the Battle Arena for the Inphynitio DigiBattle Championships, a competition that was being held by the world famous computer company, ShibuCorp. Technically, ShibuCorp was sponsoring the competition, but they had paid for and provided almost all the equipment.
The holographic image of Renamon ran straight towards the edge of where the red tiles and blue tiles met. Her opponent, a human-shaped Digimon by the name of Andromon, opened fire. A rocket was sent flying straight towards Renamon's side.
She leapt sideways quickly, letting it smash into the floor, and leapt into the air and on to the tile right in front of Andromon, just as Ruki loaded a DMD and activated it, DigiModifying Renamon. The Digimon's right fist became metallic and Renamon flung a punch at Andromon, sending the tall cyborg Digimon reeling backwards.
An algorithm kicked in and Renamon was suddenly pulled back on to her side of the arena. The rules were simple. Neither Digimon were allowed to step into their opponent's section, unless they claim it for their own by turning the tiles to their colour or if they're moving into attack. Unfortunately, for Renamon, she could only stay within her opponent's section for a limited time before a program algorithm kicked in and dragged her back on to her side.
"DigiModify– Area Steal activate!"
The front row of red tiles suddenly became blue, reducing the space in which Renamon could move. The fox Digimon saw Andromon swing his metallic arm, sending a crescent wave of light green energy straight at her. She leapt right over the energy attack and in mid-air she crossed her arms. Renamon spread her arms and let rip with a storm of sharp crystal shards that managed to wound her opponent.
Andromon ran up to the edge of his area and swung a metallic fist straight at Renamon, hitting the fox Digimon and sending her flying back.
Ruki glared down at her control panel and the loaded DMDs that were available to her. There were a couple of DMDs available to her, but she had to choose a wise combination of them. If she chose the right DMDs and activated them in the right order, she would be able to activate a glitch that merged the DMDs into one more powerful DMD. This was called a Combo, which disguised the fact that it was a mistake generated by a highly incompetenent computer programmer.
"Okay, Renamon, let's do this as we rehearsed," she called out to her Digimon. "Plan 25A!" She reached out and selected a DMD. "DigiModify– Area Revolve activate!"
Three spheres of golden energy flew up from the blues tiles that used to be red and crashed into Andromon, sending him flying to the back of his area. You see, the Area Revolve DMD reversed any changes made to the layout of the battle arena and wounded the Digimon whose Operator made those changes. The amount of damage increased with the number of tiles changed and this gave Renamon an advantage.
"Ha! You think that can stop me and Andromon?" shouted Ruki's opponent from the other side of the DigiBattle Arena. "DigiModify– Giga Heal activate!"
A beam of light bathed Andromon and suddenly he recovered 300HP.
Renamon growled angrily at that move. All Digimon (and even viruses) had HP, which was a measure of the Digimon's stamina. If the HP was allowed to reach to zero, then the Digimon (or virus) would end up being deleted, which was why all DigiBattlers were required to make back-up copies of their Digimon and leave it with the Match Officials.
"That's not going to do you any good, pal!" shouted Renamon, as she ran along the path and leapt over the boundary between her area and her opponent's area.
"DigiModify– Hyper Speed activate! DigiModify– Heavy Punch activate! DigiModify– Desolation Claw activate!" The three DMDs merged together to form one special Combo. "DigiModify– Multi Punch activate!"
Renamon lowered her two hands and aimed them at Andromon. Both turned into metallic fists like that of a horribly built robot.
"Time for a knuckle sandwich!" cried out Renamon, before she fired metallic fist after metallic fist rapidly at Andromon. She didn't relent, not giving Andromon a break.
Ruki's opponent didn't let up. He searched his control panel for a DMD and soon a smile spread across his face.
"Ha! All right!" he cried out. "DigiModify– Floor1 activate!" In activating that DMD, all the tiles on both the red and blue areas cracked, or at least, appeared to crack. "DigiModify– Ground Repair activate!"
Andromon's side of the battle area was suddenly repaired by the DMD. He was free to move around on his area, but Renamon wasn't.
Suddenly, Renamon's Combo wore off and she found herself in a sticky situation. Andromon fired. She leapt out of the way and in doing so, the cracked panel she had stood on broke and disappeared. This was a holographic illusion of what was really happening within the computer system in which Renamon was fighting in. In her Digital World, the panel had actually cracked. In the Real World, the large panel that represented it, only looked as if it had cracked.
"DigiModify– Hover activate!" announced Ruki, as she loaded her DMD.
Renamon suddenly found herself floating above the floor. A smile spread across her furry muzzle. This would give her the advantage she would sorely need. She crossed her arms and charged up her attack, before spreading her arms and sending a shower of crystal shards towards her opponent.
"DigiModify– EarthBarrier activate!"
An EarthBarrier? Renamon had heard of those. They could only be obtained by absorbing the data from CyberPrismG viruses that lived in the DarkNet. EarthBarriers were the strongest of all the Barrier DMDs, with the weakest being AquaBarrier.
"Ruki, it's no use!" she protested, upon seeing her attack crash against the EarthBarrier. "We need a hard-hitting wood-style attack!"
"Watch out!" someone called out from the crowd. It was too late, as one of Andromon's attacks hit Renamon.
Ruki couldn't believe it. She just stared at the words on the screen in front of her that said, 'Renamon deleted', in capital letters. Ruki couldn't believe she had lost. The auburn-haired girl had seen plenty of EarthBarriers before and she had managed to defeat the Operators that used them on their Digimon. So how was it that she had lost this battle? Was it due to arrogance and complacency?
She sighed and shook her head. This just simply wasn't her day. A thought went through her mind. How was Takato doing in the arena next door?

The holographic image of Guilmon stood to the right column of his area, looking to his opponent whom was two squares from him. His opponent happened to be an aqua-style Digimon and there was a rule that stated that all aqua-style attacks did double damage against fire-style Digimon like Guilmon.
Behind the holographic image of Guilmon was his Operator, Takato Matsuda. The brown-haired youth had his reddish-brown eyes focused on the screen in front of him. Though his D-Tector held 30 DMDs, most of which were pretty useful, the D-Tectors had a useless DMD selection program. During battle, only 10 of these were selectable, however, and only a maximum of 5 could be used at one time.
'Alternatively', thought Takato, 'I could replace five of the DMDs, but that would take some time'. The strategies were all open to him.
"Guilmon, keep Shellmon on the run!" he called out to his Digimon. "I'm going to replace some DMDs." He pressed a button on the large control panel to his side and then waited for the computer to randomly pick some DMDs from his D-Tector. Takato kept his fingers crossed, as he watched Guilmon run across his arena.
"Easier said than done!" called out Guilmon, as he leapt over a huge Hydro Blaster attack.
Takato began to wish he had taken Ruki's advice and actually paid attention to who he was up against. If Takato had only done a little bit of homework, he would have known his opponent had an aqua-style Digimon. He could have then changed Guilmon from a fire-style to an electric-style Digimon. The brown-haired youth glanced down at the computer screen and saw the gauge slowly filling up.
As Guilmon dodged Shellmon's attacks, Takato kept his gaze down at the screen, waiting for the moment that the DMDs would become available again. He glanced up at the corner of the screen and saw a number that stated how much HP Guilmon had left. Only 91HP? That wasn't good.
"Come on," he muttered, as his Digimon dodged attack after attack. Takato kept his eye on the gauge and saw it creep upwards. It was nearly full. "Come on."
The gauge started flashing in front of him.
"Yes!" cried Takato, as he reached out and pressed a button. Five of the DMDs had been replaced with his hard-hitting ones. A smile spread across his face, as he looked up at his opponent. "Guilmon, get ready for a Combo." He selected one DMD and then prepared to select a few more DMDs in a special order. "DigiModify– Hyper Speed activate!"
Guilmon felt a surge of energy flow through his body. To the dinosaur Digimon, it seemed as if Shellmon had slowed down, when in reality it was him that had sped up. He fired a few fireballs straight at his opponent, searing Shellmon's exterior with his fiery Pyro Spheres.
"DigiModify– Shogun Sword activate," announced Takato. "DigiModify– Trump Sword activate. DigiModify– Duality activate."
The three DMDs would have appeared in Guilmon's right claw one after another, were it not for a glitch in the battle programs. The two Sword DMDs began to merge into one gigantic sword, while the third DMD took on a life of its own. Guilmon split into two Digimon and his second counterpart turned into Leomon.
"DigiModify– Double Hero activate!"
Guilmon and Leomon rushed in to attack Shellmon. While Guilmon fired flaming spheres of burning fire, Leomon slashed away at Shellmon with his gigantic sword. Between the two Digimon, they managed to slash Shellmon's HP down to 40, before the Leomon disappeared as if he had never been there.
This was a boon to Takato. Guilmon was a virus-type Digimon and their attack power was known to be more powerful than those of the data-type or vaccine type Digimon. In fact, Takato knew that every one of Guilmon's attacks wiped 10HP off a Digimon or viruses total HP. Though Takato wasn't that good at mental arithmetic, he was sure that only a few more hits from Guilmon would win the match.
"Do you really think that I'd let myself lose that easily?" asked Takato's opponent. "DigiModify– Super Heal!" A smug expression spread across the green-haired opponent, as Shellmon recovered 100HP. "That's not all," he boasted to Takato. "I know a pretty decent Combo myself. DigiModify– Hyper Speed activate! DigiModify– Heavy Punch activate! DigiModify– Desolation Claw activate!"
Takato suddenly realised what Combo his opponent was attempting to create. It was called the Multi Punch Combo and was pretty devestating. He searched through the 10 DMDs he had available. Was there something he could use to counter the Multi Punch Combo?
"DigiModify– Multi Punch activate!"
Guilmon saw a fist appear on Shellmon and suddenly realised what his opponent was attempting. The only thing he could do now was to brace the Multi Punch Combo, which would surely delete him, or to hope that Takato had a counter-attack that could prevent his opponent from using the Multi-Punch Combo. He suddenly saw a multiple of fists heading his way.
"DigiModify– Leaf Shield activate!"
One of the fists hit Guilmon, knocking him backwards and knocking his HP down to 11. A second fist hit him seconds after that and then another and then another. In total, he was hit by six of them in such rapid succession and with such force that Guilmon thought he was being pumped full of lead with a machine gun.
The Digimon had expected himself to have been deleted, but when he opened his eyes, he found himself intact. What had just happened?
"What? How is this possible?" cried Takato's opponent.
There was a smug smile on Takato's face, as he looked down at Guilmon's HP. 480HP had been recovered, so Guilmon now had 491HP, far more than Shellmon.
"It's something called a Leaf Shield," he told his opponent. "It absorbs an attack, recovers the exact same amount of HP that would have been lost if it hadn't been used, and then disappears." He was glad that it had been loaded on to his DMD when he last replaced the selectable DMDs.
"Guilmon," called out Takato, "let's finish this!"
The red, scaly dinosaur Digimon nodded in reply.
"Sure thing," he replied, before he lunged straight at Shellmon. He spat out Pyro Sphere after Pyro Sphere, reducing Shellmon's HP by 10 with every successful hit.
Shellmon inhaled and spat out a gust of water straight at Guilmon, which struck the fire-style Digimon and reduced Guilmon's HP by 10 HP as well. The aqua-style Digimon lashed out at Guilmon again, only for the dinosaur Digimon to leap out of the way.
"All right!" cried Takato, as he saw a DMD in his selection screen. "DigiModify– Hyper Cannon activate!"
Guilmon pointed his right arm straight at Shellmon. It became a cannon and he opened fire once before the cannon disappeared. He heard Shellmon cry out in pain and then disintegrate into tiny bits of digital data that dispersed into the air.
A roar came up from the crowd. It was the biggest cheer that Takato had ever received and he felt himself going red in the cheeks from the collective praise he was receiving. He couldn't believe that he managed to win his second-to-last battle in the Championships. If he continued this winning streak, he would be able to win the Inphynitio Championships and possibly go into the World DigiBattle Championships at Toronto, North America.
"Good job, Guilmon," Takato told his Digimon. "You were great."
"Thanks," replied Guilmon. "Thanks for using the Leaf Shield by the way."
"Oh, it was nothing," said Takato as modestly as was possible for a guy that had just got through into the finals. He logged Guilmon out of the DigiBattle Arena and then unplugged his D-Tector. It was like a mobile-phone with a flip-top lip and on the bottom-side of the lid was a screen, which Guilmon's face had suddenly appeared on. Takato closed the lid and pocketed his D-Tector, before he walked over towards his opponent.
His green-haired opponent had done the same thing. They met halfway and Takato extended his hand.
"Good game," he told his opponent. "You really had me breaking a sweat back there."
"Thanks," thanked Takato's green-haired opponent. He had a smile on his face. "I'll win next time."

Ruki watched Takato from the back of the stadium with a smile on her face. Well, she could have expected no less from the youth that destroyed the Juggernaut Virus and had defeated a Crime Syndicate's world domination plans. Takato was more than you average youth. He was talented in DigiBattles and over the years, he had managed to surpass even her. She hated that.
The auburn-haired girl made her way back to a vending machine she had seen earlier on. She was parched and Ruki decided on having a soda to remedy that situation.
"What? Out of order?" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yeah, pretty much all of them've been out of order."
Ruki whirled round and saw a brown-haired youth standing not too far from her. She recognised him as Hirokazu Shioda, a reformed member of the old Hypnos Terrorist Organisation and the youth that had defeated her in DigiBattle not too long ago.
"What are you doing here?" she asked Hirokazu bitterly. "Here to gloat over your victory?"
Hirokazu lifted his green cap in a meaningless way.
"No," he replied with a shake of his head. "I'm here for the same reason you are– to get a drink." He laughed at that comment. "You'd think that a stadium like this would actually maintain working vending machines."
"What do you mean?"
"None of them are working," replied Hirokazu quickly. "In fact, not a single vending machine in this entire stadium has any drinks in it and the vendors are starting to run out too." He looked back at the rapidly diminishing crowd in the stadium seats. "Wouldn't surprise me if they all upped and left," he said, gesturing out towards the spectators. "I mean, who would stick around if there's nothing to quench their thirst? It is kind of hot in here, after all."
Hirokazu sighed.
"It's really shoddy," he said with a shake of his head. "Well, I've got to go and get myself ready for the finals." He winked at her, before he made his way back down the corridor in the direction of the changing rooms where he had stashed his DMDs.
"Something doesn't feel right," stated Renamon, her voice coming from Ruki's D-Tector.
"Don't be so paranoid," Ruki told her Digimon, before she walked off and down towards the crowd. Perhaps she could sit amongst them and watch the rest of the Championships.

To be continued...