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. Constructive criticism is very welcome.

* * * * *

File 14: Run Around

"W_k_ _p, Gall__t_on! Wa__ up, _allant_on!" Then there was static.
Gallantmon clutched at his head, as he rose back up from the ground. He looked around him and saw that the 12 Sentinels had disappeared as had Uranekimon. Only Taomon remained unconscious beside him.
"Urgh, what hit me?" he wondered out loud, as he staggered back up to his feet. "Takato?" He heard no reply from Takato. "Takato!" he shouted out loudly. "Takato!"

* * * * *

"It's no good," protested Takato, as he pressed frantically on his D-Tector. "My D-Tector won't respond." He looked at the screen on the underside of the D-Tector's lid. It showed him a clear image of Gallantmon, but he couldn't hear the Digimon and the Digimon couldn't hear him. "Gallantmon, go to the firewall! Gallantmon, listen to me, you've got to help Uranekimon and the Sentinels to defend the Entrance!"

* * * * *

Beelzemon grabbed Vajiramon by the horns and swung the Digimon around him, before letting go and flinging the Sentinel far away from him.
"Pathetic fools," he sneered, before he turned round to the firewall. He closed his eyes and smiled, lowering his head. "Now to grab me my reward!" He delved into his pockets and with a flourish, he threw them up into the air and kept his arms raised in the air, his fingers outstretched. "Now, Firewall of the Four Guardians, open!"
The TetraKeys circled his head, glowing brightly with the exception of the Black Tortoise TetraKey. As they circled above his head, they slow moved in towards each other, closing the distance between them. They merged into one key, as a keyhole appeared in the firewall. The key floated over to the keyhole and inserted itself in the keyhole and turned. The energy bars that made up the firewall flickered one last time and then disappeared.
Antylamon suddenly rushed towards the entrance and blocked Beelzemon's way. She spread her arms out, as she glared at him impassively.
"You're not getting past me, foul demon," she told him sternly. "I serve the DarkKing, the Ultimate Ruler of the DarkNet. This is his Domain that you have befouled, demon, and you shall pay for your acts."
"Fool!" laughed Beelzemon out loud. "Do you really think that pompous monkey is the True Ruler of the DarkNet? You know nothing, girl." A smile spread across his face. "There are others far more powerful than your precious DarkKing. You know nothing of true power, little rabbit. Nothing! Now out of my way!" He rushed straight at her and grabbed her by the throat, swinging her aside as if she was a small rag doll.
Beelzemon then floated through the open gateway and out of the Forbidden Account and into the Dark Ocean, the centre of the ShibuNet. He looked around him and saw that the place had a night sky. Beelzemon looked down and saw that he was floating above a wooden pier that had been built into the waters of the ocean.
"How literal," he said to himself, as he looked around him. He chuckled, as he floated down a wooden path and made his way towards the centre of the Dark Ocean where DAEMON was inevitably going to be.

"Come on, Taomon, Rapidmon, wake up!" cried Gallantmon, as he knelt on the floor beside her. "You've got to wake up!" He sighed angrily, smashing a clenched fist into the floor angrily. "Wake up, darn it!" he shouted. Deep down, he was crying. He feared that Taomon was gone, that he had lost her forever. "Come on, wake up. Please? Please, wake up."
Tears streamed from his eyes, as he knelt beside the still bodies of Taomon. It seemed as if she was gone for good. It seemed as if he would never see their smiles again and never hear their voices.
"Please, don't leave us," pleaded Gallantmon. "What about Ruki? She needs you too. Don't give up. You can't give up, not now, not after all we've been through."
A single tear dripped from his helmet and dropped onto Taomon's furry face. It was followed by a second, a third and then a fourth.
Taomon began to stir. The muscles on her face began to twitch and slowly, her eyelids moved.
"Gallantmon," she murmured weakly, as her eyes opened slowly. "What... What happened?" She propped herself as best as she could, even though she felt quite weak.
"Taomon, you're all right," said Gallantmon, a smile appearing on his face, though hidden by his helmet. "You're all right!"
A smile spread across Taomon's face.
"Yeah, I'm all right," she said with a nod of her head, as she slowly got back up to her feet. "Where's Beelzemon and the others?"
"I'm not sure," replied Gallantmon with a shake of his head. "I've tried contacting Takato, but he can't seem to hear me." He couldn't quite understand why Takato couldn't hear him. Perhaps the D-Tector was infected with viruses again? No, perhaps it wasn't that. Perhaps it had something to do with the damage that Beelzemon must have inflicted on him. "Can you contact Ruki?" he asked curiously.
He saw Taomon falter and reached out to catch her, to prevent her from hitting the ground.
"Are you all right?" asked Gallantmon concernedly. "You don't look too good. Perhaps you should log out right now." However, he had a feeling that if she logged out, the task of defeating Beelzemon would be made far more difficult. Yet, Taomn didn't look as if she was capable of fighting.
"I'll be... fine," replied Taomon breathlessly. She tried to throw Gallantmon's supporting arm away, but soon realised that she was too weak. "Perhaps, you're right," she agreed with him. "I should log out. Ruki!" There was silence. There was no reply. "Ruki!" She listened but heard no reply. "I don't understand it. Why won't she reply?"
Carefully, Taomon thought about what could have happened. Had Beelzemon's attack been so devestating that it had made communication with her Operator impossible? That could have been it. Her D-Tector had once been so damaged that she couldn't communicate with Ruki and had to be transferred to a new D-Tector. Was this one of those times?
"T__mon!" called out a voice that seemed distorted and garbled. "Taomon!" it came out again, crystal clear. "Taomon, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Ruki," replied Taomon with a nod of her head. She was relieved. Ruki finally managed to get through. "I can hear you."
Ruki sighed in relief.
"You have no idea how long I've been trying to contact you guys," she sighed. "Uranekimon has gone with the Twelve to the Entrance of the Dark Ocean. Beelzemon has already brought down the firewall and is inside. You two had better get going! Rapidmon's already on his way there."
Gallantmon and Taomon turned to look ahead and then ran for it across the floor, running around a few pillars. Their way was not hindered by viruses, which suggested just how secure the Forbidden Account really was. Not even viruses could get into the Forbidden Account, let alone Digimon, so how did Beelzemon do it? Was he that powerful? If so, then they feared what they would find when they reached the firewall.
"You guys had better hurry," called out Takato. "Beelzemon has already come back out of the Dark Ocean and he's got the DAEMON Program in his hands. Looks pretty small for a devestating program."
"Don't be deceived, even small things can be dangerous," Reiko warned Takato.
"Wait, I see him up ahead!" cried out Gallantmon, as he approached the battle scene.
Taomon couldn't believe her eyes. The Sentinels were strewn across the place, all of them unconscious.
"This is nuts!" she exclaimed. "Beelzemon can't be that powerful!"
"He probably is," stated Gallantmon sternly. "That's why we've got to delete him now!"
Beelzemon saw the Digimon approach him and smiled.
"I'm sorry," he called out to them, as they ran up to him. "You're too late to stop me now." He chuckled to himself, as looked down at a certain Digimon lying on the ground below him. "Your friend was kind of a push over. I wiped the floor with his butt so easily it was a joke."
"Beelzemon, this is the end!" cried out Gallantmon, as his right arm changed into a lance. "We're going to delete you right now and end your tyranny!"
"Oh, you want to play, is that it?" laughed Beelzemon insanely. "Well, I don't think so, tin-boy. I've got lots to do, but once I'm through with my errands I'll come back and play. Matter of fact, I'll play with the entire human race and destroy all the hairless monkeys." He laughed out loud, as a data stream struck him and enveloped him, before plucking him out of the Forbidden Account.

* * * * *

"Darn it!" cried Takato angrily. "We were so close!" He hit the side of the ShibuNet Servers angrily. Takato felt so angry, but mainly at himself. He and Gallantmon could have engaged Beelzemon in battle and delete him before he could escape. They could have prevented him from taking DAEMON with him. "That coward! Why'd he run away like that? Why didn't he release DAEMON then and there?"
"I can tell you why."
Takato and the others turned round to face the doorway and saw Dr. Lee standing there. It could be seen clearly through his helmet that the scientist had a solemn expression on his face, as he slowly made his way across the floor.
"DAEMON's code isn't compatible with today's version of the Digital World," stated Dr. Lee calmly. "Beelzemon has to take it away and have someone upgrade DAEMON and I suspect that the only person in the Hypnos Organisation that can do that is Dr. Yamaki himself." He sighed, as he thought about it. If Yamaki could upgrade DAEMON then they would all be in big trouble. "You might as well pull your D-Tectors out now. There's no point in staying in the Forbidden Account."
Jenrya looked down-hearted, as did the others.
"So, Hypnos has won?" asked Jenrya curiously. He sounded incredibly worried and he had good reason to do so. If Hypnos won then that would be the end of their society as they knew it. He cradled his D-Tector and looked at Rapidmon's stats. A few patch programs would heal Rapidmon and make him as good as new again.
"No," replied Takato loudly all of a sudden. "They can't have won!" he protested. "As long as we're together, we can fight against DAEMON and stop Yamaki's twisted plans. I know we can do it. There's nothing we can't do as long as we stick together. No matter what they destroy, we can always rebuild it."
Dr. Lee chuckled.
"In a way, Takato's right," he told them. "Hypnos won't win. When Beelzemon escaped the Dark Ocean, I managed to track him down. Thanks to him, I know where Hypnos' latest base is. It's in an abandoned space station halfway between the Orbital Space Ring and the Moon. Don't worry. I've informed the UN and they're building up a military force to attack Hypnos HQ. They'll be able to strike before Yamaki can upgrade DAEMON."
Ruki unplugged her D-Tector.
"So, Dr. Lee, does that mean it's over?" she asked him curiously. She hoped that it was all over and that the nightmare was finally done with.
"If everything goes according to plan, then yes, it will all be over," replied Dr. Lee. "All we can do now is wait and see what happens." Deep down, however, he had a feeling that things wouldn't be that simple. Somehow, he had this feeling that things were going to get worse. Yet, he couldn't tell them that. There was no point in getting their hopes down. "Now come on. Let's go home."
Takato looked back at the ShibuNet Servers and then he carefully logged Gallantmon and unplugged his D-Tector. The youth had a gut feeling that things were going to get worse.
"Gallantmon," he said, lifting the D-Tector up so that he could see the image of Gallantmon's face on the D-Tector screen, "I think it'd probably be best if we trained tonight, you know, just in case something does happen and we're needed again. What do you think?"
"It's not a bad idea," agreed Gallantmon.
"Seems as if you've come up with a great idea for once, Takato," chuckled Ruki, who had overheard the youth. "I'll be training Taomon too, so don't think you'll be all alone with this." She paused a while and then gave him a devious smile. "Why don't you come round to my house and we can train our Digimon together?"
"Yeah, I'd like that," replied Takato with a nod of his head.

The UN Commander looked at the soldiers marching towards the troop transporter. In all his years, he had never ever been a part of such a big operation. In fact, if he remembered his history correctly, there hadn't been a single military operation like this since the destruction of the tyrannical EVA Organisation in the year PA085 and that was quite a long time ago.
It looked like this new century would be seeing its first ever war and somehow, he just couldn't wait.
There was suddenly a violent sound of gunfire and the soldiers all dived for cover. Bullets flew through the air, spraying the walls. There was a powerful explosion as one of the fuel barrels was hit. It set off a chain of reaction, as fuel barrel after fuel barrel got caught in the ball of fire that erupted from each previous barrel.
"What the Heck is going on here?" shouted the UN Commander.
"The robots are going beserk!" came the reply from one of the soldiers. "We can't get near enough to them to fix the problem!"
Suddenly, a klaxon wailed through the military base. The UN Commander had had enough. He ran as fast as he could towards the Control Room, keeping as low as possible to avoid being hit by stray gunfire from the special robotic tanks. The Captain suddenly skidded to a halt. He saw one of the grey tanks marching straight towards him.
The tank was supported on caterpillar tracks and had a round, bulbous head with yellow, dot-like eyes and strange purple markings on it. It also had two arms that looked like deformed foxglove flowers, but which concealed machine guns. The machine rolled forward and then opened fire.

"This is Rosa Maridonna reporting to you live from New Barcelona, Inphynitio," announced the reporter on the television set. "Military tanks all over the world have suddenly gone beserk, attacking the soldiers that operate them. An official UN spokesperson has stated that they do not know the exact cause for this, yet they suspect Hypnos. The tanks, designed by the former Official, Dr. Mitsuo Yamaki, before he left the Officials to form the Hypnos Organisation..."
Dr. Lee switched off the television set and then turned back to look at his desk. He sighed.
"It's happening all over again," he muttered under his breath. "It'll only be a matter of time before DAEMON gets to the missiles. That blasted program might just start off a World War, as if the Space Ring War wasn't bad enough. And I thought that it was dangerous the last time it escaped."
"Don't worry, Tal," said Dr. Merzuno, using Dr. Lee's nickname. "We still have an ace up our sleeve in the form of your son and his friends. They'll be able to stop Hypnos in its tracks. Only their Digimon are powerful enough to delete DAEMON." He saw the look of hesitation on Dr. Lee's face and then laughed. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of them."
"You're going to the Hypnos Base?" asked Dr. Lee curiously.
"That's right, Tal," replied Dr. Merzuno with a nod of his head. "Beelzemon is there, isn't he? He is my responsibility. I created him and I must put a stop to his demented plans."
Dr. Lee reached for his phone.
"You call Ms. Manun. I'll call my son," he announced. "We'll also need some UN Troops to protect them. Do we know anyone from the UN that can help with that?" He certainly hoped that they could assemble them all together before Yamaki could finally finish decoding DAEMON and release the finalised version on to the Digital World.

Yamaki smiled, as he stood in the great hall. He had installed several seats in the hallway and each of them were connected up by wires to the machine in front of him. There was one seat installed in it and above was a huge glass sphere with electricity crackling inside it like one of those Static Spheres you get from novelty shops.
The old man climbed a flight of stairs that led up to the seat and sat down in it calmly, placing his arms on the padded arm rests and leaning back. He sighed contentedly. It wouldn't be long before DAEMON was finally completely decoded. Once it was, all he had to do was convince Beelzemon to break the Four Seals that kept DAEMON dormant. Then and only then, would his dreams come true.
"Reiley," he said, even though there was no one there. "Reiley, though the UN Military can no longer invade, I am sure that that Matsuda boy and his friends will try to come here and stop me. See to it that they do not." Yamaki smiled, as he sat there underneath the huge glass orb above him. "See to it that they don't even get past the front door. They must not interfere with my plans again like they did with the Juggernaut Virus and with the Dragon Syndicate. Do anything in your power to stop them, even if it means sucking them out into the cold, airless vacuum of space."

To be continued...