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. I won't continue unless you do.

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File 06: Issho ga Ii ne – (Together is Best)

Ruki pressed the button on her D-Tector and sent the text message to Takato. Her voice had totally gone and she was in no condition to shout through the metallic door to the main computer network of the Water Works on the other side.
It was all very simple when she had thought about it. Well, she had some help from Renamon, but it all made sense. Upon receiving a phone call from Jenrya, the bits slotted into place. She knew exactly how this had all happened from the clues she had received. Clue 1: Ryo was missing. Clue 2: Ryo's father had been at work ever since Ryo's disappearance. Clue 3: Ryo had once told Ruki that his father was the Head Technician at Orbital Waters PLC. Clue 4: Hypnos was involved.
Somewhere out there, Ryo was being held hostage by Hypnos goons and on the other side of that door, Ryo's father was deliberately cutting off the water supply just so that his son would be safe. It was like the Juri Incident all over again, where Hypnos had threatened to destroy her home, the Phyle Administrative Region of the Orbital Space Ring, if she did not co-operate with them.
Ruki just hoped that Alice and Juri would find Ryo before things were too late...

"Where do you think we should start looking?" asked Juri, as she looked around her. "The Orbital Space Ring is one huge place. Ryo could be in Spyrol, Phyle, Inphynitio, here in Dyjitopia... any of the four Administrative Regions." Frankly, she didn't want to look, as the Orbital Space Ring surrounded the entire Earth and was many times larger than the Earth's equator.
The Orbital Space Ring was a very large place with a population larger than that on Earth. Due to the Great Disaster than happened before the Year PA001, much of Earth was flooded and vast areas had been made uninhabitable. Even 177 years after the disaster, the Earth still hadn't quite recovered and the majority of humans lived in the Orbital Space Ring.
Juri didn't like the odds. There were billions of people on the Orbital Space Ring and millions of square miles to cover. It was a daunting prospect.
"I don't think I have enough money to go on a round-the-Orbital-Space-Ring trip," she told Alice.
"What we first have to do is figure out where Ryo was last seen," stated Alice, thinking carefully. She had seen many shows on how real life police do their jobs. "We'll have our work cut out for us, but I'm sure that we'll find something... Probably."
"So, where do we start?" asked Juri.
"Why don't we phone up Jenrya and ask him where he saw Ryo last?" suggested Leomon from Juri's D-Tector.
A smile spread across Juri's face. Perhaps there was hope after all.
"Good idea, Leomon," she exclaimed. Suddenly her D-Tector began to vibrate and beep at the same time. She had mail! Juri reached for her D-Tector and unhooked it, lifting up the lid and looking at the screen. "It's an e-mail from that news mail group I subscribe to."
Something suddenly occurred to Juri.
"Say, you know that construction project going on in Central Agu Town?" asked Juri. She was of course referring to the capital of Phyle and the ruins of the old Hypnos Base underneath its town square. "This e-mail says that the project's been delayed."
Alice turned round to face Juri.
"So?" she said in an uninterested tone of voice.
"Because they've come across some live wires and they don't know where they lead," replied Juri. To her the answer seemed obvious. "Can't you see? Hypnos must still be using the place and if we go there we might just be able to find Ryo." She then asked her Digimon, "What do you think, Leomon?"
For a while, her Digimon didn't reply, as if he was lost in thought.
"It's clear to me," began Leomon, "that something isn't quite right at Agu Town. Perhaps we should go there and check it out."
"Oh, okay then," sighed Alice. "We'll check it out, but I'm phoning Jenrya to tell him where we're going."
Juri nodded in agreement.
"I guess it does pay to have someone know where we are," she agreed with Alice. She then waited as Alice phoned Jenrya. There was, after all, nowhere for her to go. "I hope the others are doing well," she said, as she thought about Ruki and more importantly, about Takato. "Takato, please be careful."

* * * * *

A Windmill Virus rose out of the sandy floor. It wasn't very large, though and was about the size of an ordinary fan. It began turning its sails and created a huge gust of wind that blew the sand straight into Renamon's face.
Two more viruses appeared. One was a Camel.425 virus. The second was a much stronger Camel.426 virus. Both looked like robotic camels without legs and floated in the air above the sandy ground. They were known to have two even stronger counterparts, the 500 version and the 514 version, but those were said to only exist within the DarkNet.
Renamon steadied herself. She had been to ArabNet before and had seen the Camel viruses in action. They were quite formidable, as they were normal-style yet had aqua-style attacks. She saw one raise its head and spit out a blue sphere at her. Renamon leapt out of the way, letting the sphere hit the ground and burst in a huge froth of bubbles. That would have been an effective attack against a fire-style virus or Digimon, but as it was, it merely made the sandy ground soggy and like mud.
This worked to her advantage. Sandy ground slowed the movement of viruses and Digimon alike, unless they floated over it. Renamon leapt into the air and performed her most special of attacks, Diamond Storm. She sent a huge spray of crystal shards that spiked into all of the viruses, inflicting some damage to them.
There was a problem though, and that was the Windmill virus. It was blowing her back and what with the sand slowing her down, it helped impede her movement.
The Camel.426 virus spat out two aqua bombs straight at Renamon. One was dodged skilfully, but the other caught Renamon in the head and exploded in a huge burst of damaging bubbles.
"Renamon!" cried Ruki.
"Don't worry, I'm okay," panted Renamon, as she rose back up from the ground. She turned to face the two Camel viruses. They were the ones that would harm her. The only thing the Windmill Virus did was to annoy her and impede her movements. "You viruses aren't going to get the best of me!"
"That's right," agreed Ruki. "DigiModify– Energy Cannon activate! DigiModify– Hyper Cannon activate! DigiModify– Giga Cannon activate!" The DMDs she selected then merged and became the powerful Supreme Cannon Combo. "DigiModify– Supreme Cannon activate!"
At once Renamon became translucent, as if she was a ghost. Her right arm became a cannon and she aimed at the viruses, opening fire furiously. None of the Camel viruses' attacks hit her. Renamon was comletely invulnerable. She fired shot after shot, hitting each virus as accurately as possible. There was only a limited time before the Supreme Cannon combo wore off and she had to be quick. Every shot counted.
The Camel.425 was the first to go. It exploded in a fiery burst of flames. The Camel.426 virus was next and it was in the midst of firing a bomb at Renamon. It dropped a BugFrag instead of a data packet like its other counterpart.
Now that they were gone, Renamon would have an easy time of deleting the Windmill Virus. She rushed straight at it, running against the flow of the wind. With one leap and a kick, she knocked the virus over and then stabbed it with her claws. It burst apart seconds later and left behind nothing.
A satisfied smile spread across Renamon's face, as she walked over to the BugFrag and picked it up. She put it away and then examined the data packet the Camel.425 left behind and absorbed it.
"Don't we already have a Camel1 DMD?" she asked Ruki, as she read the data inside the data packet.
"Yeah, we do," replied Ruki. "I guess we can always trade this DMD in those new DMD Traders that are being set up all over the place."
Renamon nodded in acknowledgement.
"Yes, Ruki," she agreed. She then ran straight ahead on the path, trudging her way through the sand. The Digimon didn't get very far when another virus rose out of the sandy floor. She sighed. "Not another one. Hey! You're not a virus!"
It was true. This certainly was no virus. It looked more like a large worm with a sandy yellow exoskeleton and two very humanoid arms on its body.
"No, I am not," hissed the Digimon. "Who are you and what are you doing here in the water network? Wait a minute! You're an Official, aren't you? Well, I won't let you ruin everything!" He hit the ground with his tail, throwing up a huge storm of sand before he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.
"Do you think that was the Hypnos Digimon?" asked Renamon curiously, when the sand had settled back down.
"There's no doubt about it," was Ruki's reply. "If we find him, we can find out what he's done to the water network."
"I wonder where he went, though?" wondered Renamon out loud.

The paths looked like rusted blue chrome metal, as did the various terminals they led to. All this floated within a sky that looked like a beige screensaver with the Hypnos symbol floating in it. This was the computer network of the old, abandoned Hypnos Base underneath Agu Town Square. Funnily enough, it was still operational.
Dobermon looked around him and growled.
"It's ages since I've been here," he muttered under his breath.
"Dobermon, see if you can get the lock on this door open," called out Alice, her voice coming to him from the Real World.
A data stream suddenly shone down from the sky and hit the path beside Dobermon. As the light subsided, Leomon materialised next to the canine Digimon.
"So, this is the old Central Hypnos Computer Network is it?" he wondered out loud, as he looked around himself. He reached behind him and unsheathed his huge broad sword. "I bet it's full of traps."
"Unauthorised hacking attempt detected!" announced a voice, before an alarm blared. "Activate Protect1 Program!"
"Not again!" exclaimed Dobermon, as he suddenly remembered his last visit to the place.
Two large monoliths, like black slabs, appeared on either side of them. It blocked their way back and forwards. Each slab displayed a number, specifically, the number 10. The number began decreasing in a uniform manner, simultaneously on both monoliths.
"We've got to hit them both with a really powerful attack," Dobermon told Leomon. "And we've got to do it at the same time, or they won't be deleted."
Leomon steadied himself, spreading his legs and preparing himself.
"Right, I understand," said Leomon with a nod of his furry head. "On the count of three?" He heard Dobermon agree with a growl and that was all he needed to hear. Leomon saw the number on the monolith change from a six to a five. It then changed to a four. Three. "Now!" he roared. "Fist of the Beast King!"
The two monoliths on either side shattered into dust that floated gently down to the rusted path.
"This places looks unstable," mentioned Leomon, as he looked around him, "as if it could break apart any time soon."
"Yeah," agreed Dobermon with a nod of his head. "This way!" He then bolted across the metallic path with Leomon hot in pursuit. "Watch out!" Dobermon leapt sideways and Leomon followed suit. He watched as the jet of flames flew past him. "A Cull Virus," he growled. "I didn't know they still existed."
The Cull Viruses were the viruses produced by the larger Juggernaut Virus. They looked like metallic crickets with spider's legs, as if they were sculpted by Picasso. The difference between these ones and the ones that Gallantmon and the others fought back when they fought against the Juggernaut Virus, was the fact that it had a force field surrounding it.
This was a CullF and had a FireBarrier surrounding it, which protected its user from any attack that did less than 20HP damage. AquaBarrier was the weakest, protecting from 10HP. EarthBarrier protected against attacks that did less than 30HP. Next strongest was WoodBarrier, which protected against attacks that did less than 50HP. ElecBarrier was the strongest, protecting against attacks that did less than 80HP damage. They were all, however, weak to elemental damage.
Dobermon counted himself lucky that the CullF wasn't protected by the Hypnos-created UltraBarrier, which protected against attacks less that did less than 100HP damage.
"This is going to be tough," he growled. "I don't think that my attacks can do more than 20HP damage. Alice, do we have any Aqua-style DMDs?"
"I'm afraid not, Dobermon," came the reply from Alice.
"We do!" exclaimed Juri. "Leomon, get ready! DigiModify– RainCloud activate!"
A sphere appeared in Leomon's hand, which he threw over the CullF. The virus slid out of the way. That was all right. He knew the ShowerCloud moved in a set pattern and the CullF would eventually get rained on.
The CullF got hit by the RainCloud DMD. Its FireBarrier flickered before it disappeared altogether. The rain hit the fire-style CullF virus and eventually it was deleted, leaving behind a data packet.
Leomon looked at the data packet wearily. He wanted to get it, but the floor it rested on looked highly unstable.
"I think we shouldn't go that way," he told Dobermon.
"Yeah, you're right," agreed Dobermon with a nod of his head. He could sense the fragility of the path too. "We should find another way round." Dobermon looked around him. Was there another way round, though? "Say, Alice, Juri, do you both have HyperWing DMDs?" he asked them.
"Yeah, why?" asked Alice curiously.
"The path in front of us looks real unstable," stated Leomon in reply. "It would be safer if we used the HyperWing DMDs to fly across that part of the path, just in case."
"All right then," came the reply. "DigiModify– Hyper Wing activate!"
Both Digimon grew angelic white wings that glowed with a brilliant light. They took into the air and flew across the potentially weak path. As they did so, their very presence weakened the structure of the path below and it crumbled, taking the data packet down with it. They landed on the other side and their wings disappeared.
Dobermon sniffed the air for the trace of any suspicious data that could be lingering about. There didn't seem to be any viruses about, like last time, but he wasn't too sure. After all, the computer network had been abandoned and any old virus from the outside Digital World could have infiltrated their way into the network. Knowing what the Hypnos Organisation's goals were, perhaps some of the viruses got strong off the data they obtained from the Hypnos network.
He put his nose to the rusted ground and sniffed around.
"There's been a Digimon here recently," he growled in sudden realisation. Dobermon lifted his head and looked around him. "This way! Follow me!" He bounded forwards and Leomon had no other choice but to run after the canine Digimon.
Alice's Digimon was rather difficult to keep up with, but Leomon managed to do it quite well. He ran behind Dobermon, but not too close just in case the Digimon had to stop abruptly. In the distance, he saw a glowing key floating on a pedestal.
"There!" he exclaimed. "That must be it!"
Before they could even reach it, a whole horde of viruses materialised in front of them. There were a whole bunch of them. Approximately thirty viruses in all, of every size, shape, strength and style. All elemental styles were accounted for. Some were normal style. Others were very powerful. Others were weak. They all had something in common though and that was the fact that they were highly dangerous in such a huge group.
"Man, there's a lot of them," growled Dobermon.
"Ha, we can take these guys on," scoffed Leomon, as he braced himself for the fight. "Between the two of us, there's only fifteen viruses each. Piece of cake."
"You reckon?" asked Dobermon, as the viruses advanced on them.
Leomon nodded in reply. One Knight Virus lunged at him to attack. With a roar, Leomon rushed straight into the fray with his sword drawn.

To be continued...