AN: Like I said… to say hello to that goddamned school year, this is what I must do. But before that, I'd like to thank my reviewers for being so encouraging. I'm sure everybody knows how nice it feels to be cheered on by others, and I salute you for that.
Disclaimer: Digimon don't belong to me… okay? The only things I own are the story, setting, characters, and one or two Digimon I made up.
Installment Entry No. 2: I'd Like a Monkey's Hook on a Side of Fries, PleaseFidge's Point, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World
June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0736 Hours, PST
"Okay, JB, let's show these creeps what we're made of!" This was the first time a human boy was ever seen anywhere by the locals, moreover a human boy who carried a talking hand held computer around along with his digimon partner that was pretty much a green monkey in a loincloth with a pair of boxing-gloved hands that carried a gigantic slingshot on its back. They were surrounded and nearing the edge of an extremely high seaside cliff, which was obviously not a good place to fall, by a group of green, orc-like digimon with bone clubs.
"My, aren't we cocky for a first-time battle!" his device replied with a sense of sarcasm. "Seriously, though, we should be able to breeze through this one. Goburimon are nothing but pushovers who never know what's coming even if you slapped 'impeding danger' in bold red capital letters on a sign and put it in front of their faces after teaching them how to read Japanese. They're complete—"
"We get the idea, JB…" The monkey cut it off. "Just finish 'informing' us about these guys after we cream them, okay?"
Johnny-Be-Good, or JB, as it had affectionately been dubbed, muttered a few inaudible curses before it finally straightened up and realized the situation they were in was hardly fit for conversation.
Now, to be more descriptive of the boy would be the best thing to do right now, since, it would be hard to imagine what he looked like without any working description. His copper-brown hair was of the average length, upper portion of his crown-in-glory's forward side a little messed-up just to make him semi-adorable. He was around the age of 12, as most digimon lovers were, more or less. A yellow bandana, made of towel fibers, around his forehead complemented his golden eyes nicely, effect furthered by his hair and goofy, toothy grin. His clothes were of the average outfit of the day, red, button and collared shirt paired with brownish pants, topped off with some nice white Nike playing shoes. "Ya ready, Monmon?" The chlorophyll-colored primate nodded, preparing to deploy his slingshot. "Then here we go!"
Waves crashed angrily on the rocks beneath the trio as the boy raised JB arms' length into the air and called out in as loud a tone as possible, "Digi-Gate Edify! Activate Speed Enhancement Mk I [1]!" JB's holographic display projected its Emblem, its personal signature, a golden M4 Assault Rifle, out for all to see and marvel at.
"SPEED ENHANCEMENT MK I, ACTIVATED." JB's synthetic male voice boomed out as a beam of golden light burst forth from its screen, up into cyberspace above, and down onto the monkey, with the impact force of a meteorite.
Monmon began to glow with a taint of yellow, feeling a surge of power flowing through him, causing him to feel much lighter than before. In what appeared to be the blink of an eye, he drew his weapon and used his signature move, "Swing Swing!" Three or four power-charged coconuts flew this way and that, hitting the weak points of, and taking out, Goburimon after Goburimon after Goburimon, causing them to degrade into data code, and eventually disperse. Total targets destroyed: Five. Total battle time: Three seconds. Such were the effects of utilizing the residual power generated by Causeway. And that wasn't even an inkling of the total output released by a version that reached only a seventh of Causeway's true potential at most, during its 1.7364-second lifespan.
EDIFY CANCEL. The light surrounding the monkey slowly faded out.
"Boo yah!" the boy high-fived his partner's gloved hand just as the latter returned his somewhat cumbersome slingshot to its proper place behind him. "Kick ass, Monmon! That was even better than…" he racked his brains for something this battle could have topped, "Than any Digimon game I've ever played!"
"Uh… guys…" JB spoke up with a sense of foreboding at hand, contrary to its usual talkative demeanor, alarms flaring at what its sensors were picking up. Something was wrong in the Digital World, and it had to warn its partners about it.
"Not now, JB," bandana shoved his D-Jutant inside his right pants pocket as he brought out a Milky Way bar he'd planned to eat as an after dinner snack the night before, not expecting to end up in the Digital World God knows how far away from his home and parents. He tore the semi-plastic wrapper open, broke the delicate brown finger in two, and handed half to his monkey as he began to chow down on his own part.
Only JB seemed to notice the suspiciously dark cloud formation that took place above the ocean behind them. Of course, that was because among their many different and useful functions, D-Jutants were also designed to determine and analyze Digital World weather patterns. "Guys…" it spoke again from inside bandana's pocket with renewed force. The statement was only ignored by the two, who were about halfway done with their snacks. Not fast enough… by the time it was finished contemplating on what to do, it was too late.
Bandana suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. Not the kind given to you by horror movies, mind you, but the more natural chill that came with cold weather. "That's odd…" the boy turned around just in time to see the swirling purple and green funnel of a D-Twister collide with his face, dragging all three misfits up into the Digital World's atmosphere and off to some random location on its surface.
Strollway 11, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World
June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0811 Hours, PST
"So let me get this straight," Tomie Kaira thought hard about what she had been told by her D-Jutant. "I understand that the Real World's Internet traffic affects weather patterns here, but… how?"
"It's really simple," Iris spoke in its usual spunky manner, "The Digital World's made up of data code, correct?"
"Yeah…" Knight Kumamon remained silent as he watched the two philosophize, or at least, that's how he saw it, about silly things such as weather patterns. He was getting really hungry. The trio had spent the previous night at the abandoned citadel, whose only inhabitants were ghosts (or Bakemon, if you prefer to look at it that way) who wandered about its vast hallways, searching for something interesting to do. The trees were long dead, since, of course, there was nobody to tend to them, the citadel being abandoned and all. And to a digimon who knew as little about survival as Knight Kumamon, no trees equals no fruits, equals no food.
"Well, Internet connections house vast amounts of flowing data code. And since the Internet is, as I calculate it, located in the Digital World's stratosphere, the turbulence caused by the counter flow of the net's data code against the Digital World's normal data code flow is simply depicted as bad weather," the government-programmed device stated matter-of-factly. "This usually occurs within areas whose Real World coordinates contain a large concentration of high-speed-connection computers."
"And the reason we don't have any scary thunderstorms blowing the place around is?" Tomie looked up at the vast matrix of wires in the sky, their signals pulsing through like stars on set courses for God knows where. If she was right, they were still in Tokyo, not too far from her house, in fact, somewhere in the Asuka district. Memories of countless theater presentations she'd seen flooded her brain.
"Thankfully, the Asuka District has been spared the vast amount of computers that the rest of Tokyo is gifted with. Maybe it's all the theaters that take up space that usually belong to malls jam packed with cyber cafes." Iris 'looked' up at its partner from its position on her belt, where the former had been clipped onto earlier. "Tomie? Are you listening?"
The be-goggled girl was snapped out of her trance, "What? Oh, yeah… cyber cafes…" Another thought came to mind. "Iris… I just noticed this, but… why is there sunlight here if the Digital World is literally wrapped up by a blanket of Internet connections that supposedly blocked out the sun?"
"What?" D-Jutant as it was, Iris didn't have all the answers. After all, it only knew what COC knew, and that wasn't much. "Oh… I guess it's something that isn't going to allow itself to be explained at the moment. That's why we're here, after all."
"Actually, we're here because I was stupid enough to oversleep when I got home last night." True, the reason she arrived here in the first place was pure luck, but that didn't mean she wasn't happy. She never, in her wildest fantasies, ever imagined ending up in the Digital World. Sure, she once dreamt of being a Tamer, but being in the Digital World this way was unprecedented.
"Are you saying you don't like it here? That's interesting, seeing as you're supposed to be Digimon Crazy."
"It's not that I don't like being in the Digital World. It's just that I have responsibilities in the Real World too, you know."
Knight Kumamon's stomach grumbled weakly as the group continued their trek down the dirt road. It was then that the armored teddy bear noticed a sign by the side of the walkway and stopped to read it. "Mucheller Town: Headquarters of McDevimon's Fast Food Chain… two miles." His eyes widened as the thought then struck him of as to what the sign was trying to say. "Fast… FOOD! Hurry up, guys!" he increased his pace, followed by his partner, who was still waiting for her D-Jutant to talk.
"Like what? School? Chores? Homework? Forget all those for now. Your current responsibility is to gather as much information on the Digital World by exploring it and having me record the figures on the many different locales there are." Iris had a point… Even though she had responsibilities in the Real World, what mattered most, as what she concluded once, was the here and now.
"I guess you're right…" Knight Kumamon quickened his pace even more, causing the girl to stagger some as she tried to keep up with the hungry bear. "Knight Kumamon! Wait up!"
"Hold on – I've got something." Iris piped yet again, "I'm detecting three things closing in on our proximity…" Knight Kumamon froze in his tracks. Apparently, he'd sensed them too.
"And I wonder what those might be…" Tomie looked around for whatever the D-Jutant had sensed. Nothing. "If this thing crawls up on us like an Alien movie reject, I am going to scream at the top of my lungs," she mumbled.
"Well, we have a Class 3 Digital Storm – a.k.a. D-Twister, a Digimon, and whoopee-dee, another D-Jutant! In short, I think we're going to have company very soon." No sooner had the D-Jutant said this when a dark cloud floated above the road ahead, a massive green and purple funnel spinning violently beneath it, carrying various light and heavyweight objects. As it neared the trio, the large vortex abruptly subsided, dropping its load of assorted objects including debris, a couple of half-eaten chocolate bars, a monkey-like Digimon, and a human boy.
The boy clutched the back of his bandana-tied head, groaning in pain as he stood and helped his partner up to his large, simian feet. "Boy, Monmon, that sure was one hell of a ride, huh?"
"Sure, if you consider being flung around and around a relatively small space by winds in excess of 300 miles an hour a ride," the monkey checked his slingshot to see if it was alright. "Eh, a few scratches here and there, but nothing a little sandpaper won't fix."
Tomie's eyes widened as she recognized just who the boy was, "ICKZ!?" This is ridiculous! They were the best of friends, Hansel and Grettel, sugar and spice… not that she was sweet or anything. That was the comparison she detested the most. It wasn't like they were any more than that, even though their schoolmates tended to push their opinion of the two's welded-tight sibling-like relationship further and further into the 'love knots' category, which was hardly true.
Ickz - Ichirou Magatsui, rather, was surprised to hear that voice he thought he wouldn't be hearing for at least half a year, since that was the minimum amount of time Digidestined teams in general stayed in the Digital World. He looked up from dusting himself to see if his ears weren't just playing tricks on him. "TOMIE!?" the two simply stared at each other, their digimon partners doing the same thing, while, on the electronic level, their D-Jutants attempted to identify their counterparts.
Goggle girl spoke first, "ICKZ!"
Followed by bandana, "TOMIE!" as they practically mad dashed at each other and collided into an embrace that could only be the product of true friendship.
"Identity confirmed…" Iris announced, "Expanding D-Jutant network linkup to… Gate Key Three."
A muffled voice came from Ickz's pants pocket, "D-Jutant network linkup expansion from Gate Key One confirmed… completing setup."
"D-Jutant network linkup expansion complete." Both devices said in unison.
"So you're a… a…" Tomie couldn't find the right word for it, "A Digidestined too, right, Ickz?"
"Well, technically…" the bandana-clad boy went through another one of his word structure analysis moments, "We're not Digidestined, since, this whole thing we're in wasn't destined… it was an accident."
"I guess… but we don't exactly have any better terminology for ourselves, do we?"
"How's about 'Explorers?'" Ickz picked up what was left of his chocolate bar, sighing in regret at having nibbled on it instead of swallowing the whole thing before the D-Twister hit as he threw the dirty remains off the road in a slight burst of frustration. Milky Way wasn't just a brand of chocolate bar, it was the brand of chocolate bar. Any chocolate junkie knew that, and a chocolate junkie Ickz was. It was a miracle that he kept his balanced figure, what with him doing nothing but munching on Milky Way bars as he either lay down on the couch watching DVD copies of Digimon 01 and 02, surfed the net for Digimon pics and fanfics, or simply hung around his PSX and PS2 playing what else but Digimon Games? Why 01 and 02 specifically? Ickz was also a classic anime junkie and kept other big titles from near the end of the last decade of the twentieth century right in his vast collection of DVDs.
"Nah, too cheesy." Tomie checked up on her partner, who seemed to be getting into some slight conversation with Ickz's partner, who… happened to be a monkey-like creature… Just like Ickz. "Why don't we just keep our group nameless until we're completed, okay? That way, everybody gets a say in what we'll be calling ourselves. After all, we all probably love digimon to have bought these discs in the first place… or their cases, rather."
So her Gate Key also came in a Digimon Online CD case, eh? "Sounds good to me—" A rather loud grumble was heard, causing just about everybody besides Ickz and Knight Kumamon to fall to the ground, literally big sweat drops dripping from the backs of their heads. Hara-heta… [2]
"You're hungry too, eh?" the armored bear asked the golden-eyed boy. "Y'know, one of the signs on the road said there was a fast food restaurant a couple of miles from here…"
"Seriously? A fast food restaurant in the Digital World? I can't say anything about that, except quote a very famous ancient saying…" Ickz was really being himself again, and Tomie was feeling much more comfortable now.
"And what might that be?" Tomie asked as she helped the monkey up. She could feel it. It was going to be another Digimon quote. He always quoted Digimon whenever he said that.
"As the great Izzy Izumi would put it, PRODIGIOUS!" The goggled girl slammed her palm into her forehead in realized expectation. She was right. Well, of course. He was as big a Digimon junkie as she was, although his knowledge of anime included other classics that she didn't bother to research for fear of being disappointed. "Then what're we waiting for!?" Ickz grabbed Tomie by the wrist like a child would his mother and sped off in the direction Knight Kumamon had pointed, bear and monkey shrugging as they followed suit.
McDevimon's Fast Food, Mucheller Town, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World
June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 0912 Hours, PST
"Welcome to McDevimon's! May I take your order, please?" this was an odd statement, coming from a Demi-Devimon… a Demi-Devimon who happened to be floating behind an electronic cash register on top of a counter wearing a Devimonized version of a 'McDonald's' Employee's visor. This specific digimon was sandwiched between four more of his kind who were doing the same thing, namely taking orders and placing fast food onto trays.
"Uh… I'd like a…" Ichirou Magatsui eyed the menu that was suspiciously similar in design to an average 'McDonald's' outlet's menu, other than the fact that instead of big M's, the designs were curved into D's instead. The owner was obviously focused more on the Devimon than the 'Mac'. "A Big Devil [3] on a side of fries, please?" The burger looked like an average 'McDonald's' burger, despite the fact that he didn't like the looks of how the lettuce was red instead of green. The guy's got a sick sense of humor… from the looks of things, it's like this McDevimon's been to the real world or something.
"Drinks, sir?"
The golden-eyed boy took another look at the menu. Water, Helix Juice, and 'Soft Drink'. Well, he didn't get everything right… he should at least realize that soft drinks are a category in themselves. "I guess I'll have a 'Soft Drink'. Better see what this thing's made of, first.
"That would be 80 bits, sir." The Demi-Devimon finished punching on the cash register's keys with his left talon. Ickz face faulted. Even in the real Digital World they use bits as currency… although he had more important things to worry about at the moment, which had somehow earlier slipped his mind, such as where were they supposed to get the money to pay for the food?
"Uh…" he pretended to rummage his pockets for any money or valuables he might find. Where was his Digimon Battle Card Deck when he needed it for pawning? It was when he finally felt the outline of his card box when a rather large hand shoved him out of the line and onto his arse.
Ickz stood up in a daze, wondering what hit him, when a rather grumpy voice spoke. "Move over, kid! Can't you see there's people waiting here?" He looked at what used to be his place in the line and saw a red and black dinosaur, 'Digital Hazard' printed on his white belly. His rather punkish attitude was accentuated by the white mane that went down his back.
"What the—" he reached into his right pocket and brought out JB, who was still mumbling about how people should listen more to the 'established professionals' in the business. He was pretty sure he'd seen that Digimon somewhere before, he just couldn't put his finger on where exactly. He knew it was at least at champion level, since rookies were usually shorter than pre-teens.
"Oh, so now you want my advice! Well, since it's my duty and all to help you know your digimon from A to Z, I might as well get to it… This guy's a Growlmon – yes, that's right, a Growlmon. No, he doesn't have 'Growl' as a signature attack, but he does a hell of a lot of growling when he's angry. He's obviously a dinosaur type digimon of the virus attribute with signature attacks 'Plasma Blades' and 'Exhaust Fire'. This big piggy loves lots of edible things, but what gets to him the most is bread, especially buns. He just can't get enough of them. In fact, he's so into bread that—"
"Okay, JB, I think that's enough." By this time, Tomie and the others had rushed to see if he was alright. He paid no heed to what the goggled girl was saying, since now that he knew what he was up against, he was ready to get even. "I'm fine, Tomie. I think you should stand back a little, though." He cracked his knuckles and called out to the dinosaur, who just happened to be grabbing his takeout order from the bat-like clerk, who smiled as he said a typical 'Come again soon.' "Hey, bread head!"
Growlmon turned to look at his offender, eyebrow raised, suggesting both surprise and anger. "You talking to me, squirt?"
"Don't you know it's not nice to push kids around like that with your size?" Ickz huffed in mock annoyance, as though the much larger creature was nothing more than a mere nuisance to him. "I'd bet, if you were beaten by someone as little as say, my partner here," his thumb pointed at the monkey beside him, "You'd be very embarrassed, huh?"
"Feh! The chances of a stupid little monkey like that beating me are so small you won't even be able to see it with a microscope!" Growlmon tossed the whole paper bag's worth of fast food into his mouth and swallowed it easily. He then proceeded to storm out of the restaurant.
"Oh yeah?" Ickz shouted at the beast's back, "If you're so sure, then why don't you fight me to prove it?"
The gargantuan lizard stopped dead in his tracks and turned around… slowly. The only other thing that Growlmon liked as much as bread, was seeing an enemy mope in shame at his defeat.
The golden-eyed boy pushed his bandana further up his forehead just to emphasize that he meant business. He had the son of a bitch right where he wanted him. "If I win, you give me all the money you have with you right now…" This was going to be the fastest way to get some cash at the moment, and he wasn't backing down just because he was up against a 10-foot-tall lizard.
"And if I win?" this was said with a rather harsh grin that unnerved Tomie, who could do nothing but watch.
"If you win, I'll be your personal slave for the next two weeks."
"Three…"
"Agreed. One hour, the town square, you, me, and my Monmon." With that said, Growlmon strolled out of the revolving door, a confident smirk on his face.
It was then that logic kicked into Tomie's brain. Ickz was usually the more playful of the two, habitually playing pranks around the school. It usually ended up with him getting punched at least once or twice, and this usually brought out his more aggressive side. Take it from Tomie when she said it, "You do not want to get on his aggressive side." This was a different situation, though. Monmon was definitely going to be creamed unless she thought of something. It then hit her like a ton of bricks… You can always Digi-Gate Edify him… Even with that comforting realization, though, the stakes were too high for him to lose. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"
"Winning us some grub, that's what."
"Do you seriously think you can beat this guy?"
"No sweat, Tomie… I've already unlocked Monmon's next digivolutionary level. Right JB?"
"Right…" Tomie could almost imagine the D-Jutant roll its eyes if it had any.
"I just hope you know what you're doing, Ickz. It's your freedom at stake here." Another major character problem with Ickz was the fact that he was a big gambler. In any Digimon Card Battle, he would always be in enough a mood to choose a facedown card from his deck as a support card in an all-or-nothing gamble. Hopefully, he would beat this guy… Hopefully… she reminded herself.
Lounge, Digital Defense Directorate Headquarters, Sublevel 7 – The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1620 Hours, EST
Dr. Anna Pearson-Kaira sat nervously at the couch across the reception counter, wondering why the Directorate had called her here in the first place – kidnapped was a more appropriate term, actually. She was on the way home when the taxi she was in was blocked off both directions of the road by two suspicious black land rovers, out of which poured at least four armed men in black ski masks who shot the driver with what she assumed earlier to be real bullets, but were later revealed to be tranquilizers.
They then dragged screaming little her out of the cab and into their vehicle, tying, blindfolding, and gagging her. She stayed awake for hours, waiting for the blindfold to come off, hopefully. During the trip, she could feel the rover roll up a ramp and into someplace tight, judging from the increased humidity. A few minutes later, she heard the disturbing sound of plane engines start up. She was being flown off to God knows where.
By the time the blindfold was removed, she was being hand led by two members of the US Military Police down a well lighted hallway, with a few potted plants here and there to add some color to the monotonous white, and into an elevator. It was only when she set her eyes on the large insignia on the level that they exited on that she realized where she was.
It was an American Eagle surrounded by a gold ring, head turned to its right symbolizing peace, red and white striped shield on its breast symbolizing defense and the 15 other divisions of the intelligence community, and for the piece de resistance, a background of blue binary code to symbolize the use of advanced computer technology to keep peace. Then of course, there was the label surrounding that entire icon, "Digital Defense Directorate" on the upper hemisphere, separated from the "United States of America" on the lower hemisphere by five-pointed stars on each side of the circle.
She was standing inside the bounds of one of the most heavily guarded facilities in the world, an agency so secret that even COC, in its own secrecy, merely considered it an urban legend and nothing more. She was inside the headquarters of the Digital Defense Directorate. But why? Perhaps it had something to do with the email she had received from Boyd earlier that day realizing COC's predicted worse case scenario. The Gate Keys have fallen into the wrong hands.
A Spanish man in his late 20's stepped up to her. He was dressed in the typical American business suit, although a real stand out feature of this guy was the large, mechanical right hand that was disproportionate to his arm's size and at least twice the size of his left hand. "Doctor Kaira? I'm Agent Rafael Esteban. Judging from the look on your face, I can tell you already know where you are by now. I'm sorry to have brought you here on such short notice, but it was necessary—"
"Necessary!?" she cut him off, an air of chilling anger about her, "Was it necessary for you to take me here against my will!? Was it necessary for you to tie me up, blindfold, and gag me like some kind of hostage!? Was it necessary for you to shove me around like a slave!?" COC had given her the official title of 'Reina de Hielo' – The Queen of Ice - appropriately fitting her icy royal blue hair and cold personality. That, along with her reputation of pushing people around, ensured her place in COC's hall of fame as one of the most feared deputy chief scientists, second only to Boyd and his hardly comprehensible German accent, which had earned him the nickname 'Albert', as in Einstein.
"That's because we thought you'd want to hear the news directly from us."
"What… news?"
"Project Causeway was activated at approximately 3:10 AM this morning, Eastern Standard Time, and COC has pinpointed Gate Key One's code signature to your house. Eyewitness reports indicate that you weren't at home at the time, so we figured the only person who could've pulled off a Gate Key activation in your house had to be your daughter. The other Gate Keys have also been pinpointed to several other locations around the world, and we have teams on search and recovery."
"You realize that once Project Causeway sucks in seven human beings, the Gate Keys will send – not upload, mind you - send their programming codes into PCU and manifest themselves in the Digital World as D-Jutants to accompany their human partners…"
"We've checked Gate Key One already… it's been wiped clean."
"And how exactly did my little Tomie get her hands on Gate Key One?" The sheer manner in which the scientist said this sent a chill up Esteban's spine. No wonder they called her Reina de Hielo. There was no such story in his home country, but he had been cultured enough in foreign literature to know about her legendary name. She was truly feared by those who lived near her mountain.
"The Directorate Strike Team sent to pursue the thieves lost the discs inside a CD factory… which just happened to ship them off a few hours later, minutes after the search had been abandoned. They were all purchased, and activated, almost simultaneously."
Anna couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could she? The guy had a mechanical hand, for crying out loud. But that was beside the point, which she tried to get to. "You're telling me that my daughter has been sucked into the Digital World by one of Causeway's stolen Gate Keys that somehow managed to wind up in one of the many CD stores in Tokyo!? Where's Xedric!? I have a bone to pick with him!"
Esteban had to shut his ears to protect himself from the scientist's overly boisterous voice. "Calm down, Doctor Kaira. Doctor Boyd is on his way as we speak, and we're doing everything that we can to track your daughter down. I'm sure we'll have her back here safe and sound by—"
"I'm not buying this bullshit, you hear me!? Do you think I'm stupid? That I don't know why Project Causeway was started in the first place!? That's a laugh! I was Xedric's assistant! I know everything he does about the damned thing! And you know what else, Agent Esteban? I know that COC has no way of contacting my daughter or the six other kids who've been brought into this mess courtesy of the DDD's incompetence!" Venting of anger… one of the most popular and effective remedies to cool one's self down. And that is exactly what she did.
"Easy there, Anna," a calm voice articulated. There was something in its quality that cooled Reina de Hielo down to the point that she exhaled another breath she had taken earlier for yet another rant of a paragraph to unleash on the poor Spaniard. Anna looked to the right to see a Canadian man in his early forties, wearing a black clerical coat, bible in his right hand, hat in his left. "The Lord our God is a patient God, who is slow to anger. Remember that, eh."
Her eyes widened as she recognized that proverb that had helped her realize, on several occasions, the pointlessness of her outbursts at people who were doing their best. "Reverend Edward Parker…" The man nodded gently, a strange, ethereal aura about him. He was yet another Bridge Builder. A crackerjack hacker in his earlier days, it had been, ironically enough, an incidence regarding the Digital that made him change his ways. He spent countless hours studying and meditating on the Word, and he still did, in fact, and it was all thanks to the next individual that stepped out of the elevator.
"I decided to bring some company too, eh. Y'know, to make sure those Moslem fanatics don't try their 'hyper faith' on me. C'mon out here, Lucy…" the creature was humanoid, no doubt about that, in the make of a child, golden hair on his head, accompanied by a pair of wings as well on the upper back portion his cranium. He was dressed in a white tunic, which did nothing to hinder four more pairs of wings that sprouted from his back, and another two grown off the sides of his waist. This angelic build, coupled with a shade of blue that was slightly close to lavender in his eyes, gave him an unearthly feel.
"You brought Lucemon along?" Anna continued to eye the beautiful sight before her in awe and wonder. It was the first time she'd seen a digimon up close, since Lucemon had only been mentioned to her, paired with the fact that COC saw having a digimon within its premises as a liability. After all, weren't digimon always in pursuit of other digimon for their data? Then again, that was the television talking, and not the facts.
Another major misconception that the series brought forth was the idea that Lucemon was an ancient evil intent on remaking the universe in his own image. In reality, however, he was no more than an innocent child who was just trying to get along with existence, as he knew it. Of course, that was over six centuries ago. Lucemon had grown into a realistic character and had digivolved quite a few times, not in accordance to what the show had to offer, however. For some reason, he had instead developed into the angelic order, which was not normal…
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Kaira. Reverend Parker has told me much about you." the child-like digimon reached out, his hand being met halfway by hers. The angel was given a jolt as he peered into her cold, green eyes. What he saw, anger, worry, fear, were not trademark for any scientist. They belonged to a mother who was scared for her child. That could only mean one thing. "You have children in trouble, don't you?"
"How'd you know that?" Anna was shocked at that small statement. What could one expect, though? Digimon had many different powers. Not to mention the fact that this one was of the light, and probably had some kind of telepathy. Yeah, that's it…
"Your eyes… they say so."
"So your kid's in the Digital World, eh?" Parker had assumed as much. Why else would she be here anyway? She had officially quit the Bridge Builder team to provide more time for her daughter, so she no longer had any responsibilities to the US Government. The pastor had now prepared to counter that hellish child-related problem with another Godly solution, "Don't worry, Anna. I know Tomie, and I'm sure she's safe. After all, David himself called the Lord his hiding place… the Lord protected him as a shepherd boy too, eh."
"I'm sure…" that was when the second elevator made a calm 'ping!' announcing the arrival of yet another person. "Well speak of the Devil…"
The Devil she was referring to was none other than Dr. Xedric Boyd, in the flesh, who was adjusting his thin-framed glasses as he stepped out of his elevator. "Deep fhied Hitler on a Blitz [4] rod! Vhat za hell is a digimon doing here!?" The scientist drew what appeared to be a blue eyepiece attached to some kind of ear-mountable electronic device and, as what was earlier described, mounted it on his ear. "Activate D-Entifier Vehshion Zree Point Eight."
Streams of code flew upward on the cobalt lens similar to a movie's closing credits. Apparently, it was in start-up mode. This process was followed by a synthetic female voice that was so common to computers of the day. "D-Entifier Version Three Point Eight Online. Please designate voice command."
"Identify. Tahget Dihection: Lock Fohvard." Lucemon stared at the German, confused and amused at what he was doing. Although it was making the angel rather uncomfortable, being stared at like that and all. Behind the lens, Boyd could see his view of Lucemon become framed by translucent borders, which began rapidly switching to different pictures stored in its databanks, searching for a match.
Finally, after ten seconds or so of blank staring, results finally surfaced. "Lucemon, Angel Digimon at Rookie Level. Techniques Include: Grand Cross, Judgement Kick, and Eternal Gate. Trademark characteristics: Purple crests under left eye, on left arm, left leg, and left side of torso – significance unknown, Wings – six pairs. Brief description: Born with six pairs of wings, he is the example of what the greatest angel should be."
"Name Roots."
"Name Root: 'Luci': Latin - Light."
"Digivoltution Thee…"
"Digivolution Tree: Rookie – Lucemon - Champion – Unknown - Ultimate – Lucemon (Falldown Mode) - Mega – Lucemon (Satan Mode.)"
"Zis is intehestink… a Man of God is pahtnehed vith ze Devil himself…"
"I'd just like to correct a little mistake that humans have when it comes to digimon," Of course, Lucemon began to speak in his own defense. "Even though we resemble some icons in your tradition, it doesn't mean we mimic their personality traits as well. Besides, Lucifer only became Satan when he allowed his pride run away with him and started a coup de tat against God. My design takes place before that point."
"Vehy excellent deduction," Boyd was impressed. How could such a small boy know so much? It must've been Parker's teachings. It sounded like one of them, "However, it vould be my responsibility, as a Digimon expeht, to remind jhou zat jhour digivolution thee [5] also phoghesses into levels zat ah qvite demonic, in a sense…"
"That's why I've strived to deviate from my normal digivolution tree, Doctor," the angel's eyes narrowed in determination to end this debate about his nature. "And I must say that I'm very satisfied to have stayed an angel through out my entire evolutionary chain."
"Alhight, alhight, jhou vin." It was better to stop the argument before things got any worse.
"So what's our next course of action, Doctor Boyd?" Esteban seemed to be really into this discussion. After all, he started it.
"Let's see… hmm… Ze Gate Keys have sent zeir phoghamming codes up into PCU, rendehing zem effectively useless. PCU, however, is shtill online."
Esteban spoke up once again, "Just let me remind you, Doctor Boyd, that both the Directorate and the Military want to take advantage of whatever operation you plan to undertake. They want to know if you're planning on bridging the gap between both worlds again."
"Vhy?"
"In the event that a stable Digi-Gate is established, they intend to construct a functional and permanent air force base inside the Digital World…"
"I'll give it some considehation," That, however, was just a social courtesy, since, in his mind, Boyd was already swearing German obscenities at the stupidity of the idea. "Actuvally, zat seems to be our only option…" he brought out his palm pilot and started calculating. "Let's see… accohdink to my calculations, it vould take us zree to four months to modify und encode a second set of Gate Keys…"
"Modify?" Anna was thinking the same thing. "That would include revoking the D-Jutant conversion codes and increasing the stability capacitors to make sure Causeway doesn't close after seven people have passed through to the other side. Then there's the parallel coordinates factor…"
"Zat's vhat I like about jhou, Anna. Jhou catch up to vhat I'm zinking about vehy qvickly. However, zat time span doesn't cover the time reqvihed to reassemble ze Bhidge Builahs. Zat vould add at leasht anozah two weeks."
"But don't you think the children would be in big trouble?" Esteban had always valued human life, especially children. After all, he was happily married and a father of two.
"Don't worry. If I know Project Causeway's protection procedures, I'm sure they're alright. I mean, they have digimon partners, right?" Anna was confident in their little babies. Causeway's D-Jutant program was perfect. Each D-Jutant had its own corresponding digimon and special ability. Furthermore, the D-Edification system made sure that they would be protected. This was after three years of studying digimon and their destructive capacities.
It was now Lucemon's turn to say something, "I'm a firm believer thanks to Reverend Parker, Doctor Kaira. Even though digimon aren't on Jesus' salvage list, I know that God exists. And it's the faith that brings me to the conclusion that even with all the effort you've put into this project, the bottom line is that only God gets to decide if they make it out of there or not. Let me just warn you that no amount of preparation can truly ensure your safety in the Digital World."
"That's why I asked for a little divine intervention, eh." Parker smiled. He always wanted to say that. "Besides praying for the little children, I also encoded the Armor of God into Gate Key One's special capability tab."
"Vhat?" Boyd wasn't exactly gifted with understanding of the Bible, but he'd heard of such a thing. Whether it was a material thing or metaphor didn't matter, as long as it was there.
"The Bible says that the Armor of God is the ultimate survival kit that a believer needs in this world, eh. I just turned the metaphor into a literal, usable object. I encoded the corresponding verses, put in a few graphics, some function and limitation algorithms, and viola! Pretty nifty, eh?"
"Quite…" Anna smirked.
Boyd shoved his hands into his coat pockets, another trademark of his. "Vell, ve von't do any good standing ahound like zis und doing nozing. Let's staht looking for zose ozah Bhidge Buildahs."
Conception Chamber, Kazek' faleil Cell – The Guild, Somewhere in London
June 3, 2019 – Monday, 1833 Hours, AST
Crack. She was late… very, very, very late. It wasn't like her. Guild Master Thak' Rhazhad paced up and down the hallway, a rather impatient air about him. The seer was never late. There's always a first time for everything… Renamon had disappeared from the face of the planet, taking his signet ring - his signet ring - with her. There were only two explanations for this. Either the stupid bitch had double-crossed him and run away, or something else happened that couldn't be explained by his rather complex logic.
At last, sounds were heard. A weak tapping on the floor at first, then louder, accompanied by footsteps. In a few moment's time, an old midget in a dark cloak could be seen heading straight for him, upper half of her face concealed by the cloth. She stopped in front of the taller man and spoke, "You're early. I said I would meet you at 7 PM, not 7 AM."
"How did you—"
"Shush! I am the seer, remember? I know everything!" the Guild Master could swear that that statement was followed by a blast of dramatic trumpet music, companied with the roar of waves crashing onto jagged rocks on the sea and the resonance of thunder, all centered on this old hag.
"Sure, but you can't see anything…" he mumbled out of hearing range. Big mistake, he concluded, as the cane swatted his left leg. "OW! What the bloody hell did you do that for!?"
"I also know what you're thinking!" she then went on her way to push open the pair of giant, ornately crafted brass doors to the Conception Chamber, one of the Guild's most important facilities for two reasons. One, this was where they have been using centuries' worth of black magic to summon digimon into their world, and two, it was the center of the seer's powers.
The Guild Master merely shrugged and followed her inside, conveniently keeping his face in the dark areas at all times as he continued to munch on his precious Graham Cracker.
The center of the room was a huge square pit, around two feet deep, the corners of which were illuminated by blue-flamed incense torches. In the center of the pit was a large white crystal, around five feet in height, roughly carved out of wherever it came from. This was the 'Heart of the Seer', and was pretty much a perfect name for the said magician's source of power. "So… what can you tell me about—"
"Renamon and your missing ring! I know!" She turned to face the crystal, the light of the flames exposing her empty eye sockets, yet failing to reveal what was inside. The seer raised her arms to the crystal, the tense expression on what used to be her face displaying a great amount of concentration. This went on for a few moments until both she and her 'heart' began to glow a blazing white.
The cane was raised upward, and the white radiation receded into the bulb that was the former's tip. As in all cases similar to this one, a beam sprang forth from that bulb and for some strange reason, stopped several feet short of hitting the ceiling as it widened into what appeared to be some sort of window, Renamon's determined face in the middle. "Renamon! Where the bloody hell are you!?"
"Master!" the fox kneeled in respect, head bowed. "It appears as though I have been sucked back into the Digital World. The discs worked."
"I see… status report."
"Apparently, I have no idea where I am. I've never been to this area before. However, I can still sense that girl nearby."
"What girl?" his chewing progressed once more from elegant and fine-mannered, into the grotesqueness of his anger. He skimmed his memory for any recollection of – "Ah! That girl! Of course!"
"Any further instructions?"
"Stalk her. Make sure you collect the disc the next chance you get. I must now go attend a business meeting."
"Of course."
He signaled the seer to stop, closing the window and cutting off all possible communication. "So you're going to buy 75 percent of the shares belonging to a new little enterprise and take over the corporation without allowing it to grow first? My, how brash you are indeed."
"What business decisions I make are none of your business…" the Guild Master turned to leave. "And stay out of my mind, dammit!" He stopped halfway to the door as he pulled out a pistol and shot at the old hag. She smiled as the bullets bounced off an invisible wall that surrounded her and onto the floor, the flattened tips showing that the latter's defensive capacity was one to be reckoned with. "Typical…" He could swear that he heard a horrendous cackle as he bit off another piece of his Graham Cracker, the doors shuting behind him.
Town Square, Mucheller Town, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World
June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 1021 Hours, PST
"Exhaust Fire!" Monmon had barely dodged that attack. Although it was a continuous stream of flame, so the monkey had to run for his life. He jumped behind a dump truck that was conveniently passing by, just long enough so that the crimson lizard ran out of breath.
The dump truck rolled past, and the green ape was revealed, "Okay, my turn! Swing Swing!" Slingshot was drawn, deadeye handler taking aim and releasing a power-charged coconut, which hit home, namely, Growlmon's 'Digital Hazard' warning. Growlmon cringed at the hit and tried to comfort the sore spot on his belly. That Big Devil meal was reacting quite negatively to the hit.
"Okay, JB! Where's Growlmon's weak point?" Ickz's eyes slanted, focusing on the already recovering dinosaur.
"Oh, boy, where do I start? This guy's as weak as a fruitcake! In fact, he's so weak that—"
"JB! Focus! Give me the first one that comes to mind!" the bandana-wearer clutched his D-Jutant tighter, causing it to actually display verbal evidence of suffocation.
"Alright! Just stop that!" Ickz loosened his grip, "Let's see… first weak point, uh…"
"Faster, JB!" Growlmon had returned to his attacking stance.
"Right knee! Growlmon's right knee is just like fruitcake!"
"Monmon! Swing Swing his right knee! Now!"
"Too late, chump! Exhaust Fire!" this blast hit dead on target. The force threw a medium rare Monmon into the town square's fountain, dousing the flames. Fortunately, the monkey knew how to swim. A crowd had already begun to gather, making this battle a really big one. If Growlmon lost, he would so in a huge crowd, and that would be embarrassing. He had to win this fight. "Exhaust Fire!" the surface of the fountain was engulfed in flames. Maybe because of some incompetent Birdramon who accidentally dropped a bucket's worth of crude oil onto the said effigy earlier that morning.
"Monmon!" Ickz growled. Enough was enough. It was either he, Tomie, and their digimon had that well-deserved brunch, or they'd be snacking on Monmon flambé. And he wasn't about to let that happen. Again, he raised JB into the air, knowing exactly what to do. Tomie could only shake her head as she saw the flames that were ablaze within her friend's eyes. "Digi-Gate Edify! Activate Digivolution Mk I!"
"DIGIVOLUTION MK I, ACTIVATED."
That same beam that had enveloped the monkey earlier hit the burning pond, killed the fire, and held onto the chimp, this time, remaining in its cylindrical form for a substantially longer period of time. One, however, could easily see the silhouette that was inside, not to mention hear the sounds from within. "Monmon Digivolve to…" the simian shadow within the golden light was visibly shape shifting, growing in size to more than twice its original height. The standout features were vague, but Ickz, and not to mention the crowd that had gathered, could make out the outline of a corsair captain's hat, a rather large meat hook-like thing, and the barrel of a very large flintlock gun. "Hookmon!"
The light finally faded, revealing a rather tall humanoid figure in a blue old day naval officer's coat, boots, and hat. The hat, to be noted, had a not-so-standard skull and crossbones on it, since the skull belonged to a generic saurian digimon, and was facing the pirate's left. His right arm was cut off some ways up the elbow, a large brass hook in place of a forearm. A little below his shoulder was a blue cravat that was apparently used as a dressing for some nonexistent injury. His left shoulder was marked with an insignia, an anchor, depicting the obvious: this digimon was into the navy. In the place of left a forearm was a rather large flintlock gun, the barrel glinting menacingly in the late morning sunlight. Not much was to be said of his face, since the hat shrouded most of its features. The only part visible was a pair of shady blue eyes just above his thick collar and red inner clothing.
"What in God's name is that?" although Tomie was into digimon, she wasn't exactly an expert. The goggled girl looked at her D-Jutant.
Iris seemingly shook its head and released a holographic picture of the target digimon, which rotated ever so slowly to provide a perfect view. "Hookmon's the name, piracy's his game. This bad boy's a champion, mutant, and virus digimon. Probably a rip-off from Captain Hook, I might add. His signature attack is Caption Cannon, which obviously comes in a large package, judging from the size of that 1632 flintlock. He even comes complete with a pirate's accent!"
"Alright, Hookmon! Let's show him who's boss!" Ickz felt that good old adrenaline flow through him again. He was hyped up and ready to win.
"Argh!" came the pirate's signature snarl as he stepped out of the pond, brandishing his hook and gun, oily water dripping off his boots. "Now let's see how ya deal with a Cap'n like me, matie!"
"He's digivolved… amazing." Growlmon shook his head for even letting his guard down for a second. It was time to finish this. "Plasma Blades!" his forearms' fins ignited as he charged the pirate with all his momentum, ready to cut his opponent to shreds.
Hookmon caught both fins in the middle of a downward slash with his hook and turned Growlmon's inertia against him as the latter was flung upward, over the crowd, and into the wall of a nearby building. The spectators cheered, enhancing Ickz already high blood adrenaline content. "Say yer prayers! Caption Cannon!" the flintlock unleashed a massive cannonball that flew into the wall, pushing Growlmon further into the covering until a hole was made, smoke and dust rising from the explosion.
A few moments of silence, and movement could be seen, more specifically a large red dinosaur, who stood up and growled, yellow eyes narrowed at his adversary. "That hurt!"
"Well it's gonna hurt a hell of a lot more, laddie! Caption Cannon!" another cannonball flew straight at the lizard and nailed his hazard sign yet again, dropping him. Hookmon marched over triumphantly to his defeated enemy, training his weapon at him again. "So what'll it be, land lubber? Walk the plank? Taste my hook? Or should I blast you to kingdom come?"
"Alright! Alright! I give up!" Growlmon reached into a concealed pocket, drew a pouch full of what appeared to be computer chips, and shoved them at the pirate. "Here, take it! Take it!"
"Argh… the spoils of war!" his hook pierced the sac and raised it high into the air.
It was when he got a good look at his defeated opponent, his swashbuckling partner, and the sac of cash he was 'holding' up, that conscience gave Ichirou Magatsui a good kick in the rear. "What am I doing?" yet again he had let his desire for food get away with him. His stomach grumbled, seconding that motion. "Edify Cancel!" Ickz's partner returned to his original form, confused at what happened. The bandana-wearing boy rushed over to Monmon, panting as he reached his partner. He snatched the sac and handed it back to the lizard. "Here." It was at that point that the crowd began to dissipate.
"What… but I thought—" Growlmon didn't understand. The kid had gotten what he wanted… and he was giving his money back? The same money that he had won fair and square? Why? "I thought you wanted the money…"
"Nah… you keep it. I think I've proven my point enough." Ickz placed the pouch into Growlmon's open hand, knowing exactly what to say. "Besides, I can always pawn my Digimon Card Collection at some shop here." He showed the case of highly expensive collectibles to the dinosaur, who only laughed. "What?"
"Those things ain't worth a penny, kid!" he reached into another pocket as he stood up to his proud ten feet once more, bringing out a ring that the golden-eyed boy reluctantly accepted.
"Eighteen carat gold? Are you serious?" Ickz didn't know what to say. At least this guy wasn't a sore loser… at least he had a sensible side.
"Don't worry about it. Found that thing on the road on the way to McDevimon's. Figured it must be worth something at the local pawnshop." Growlmon smiled as a hand was offered to him in the form of a shake.
"Thanks… I guess…"
"Don't mention it. By the way, lunch is in two hours." the dinosaur turned to leave, "Oh yeah… I didn't quite catch your name, kid…"
"Ickz… just call me Ickz."
"Alright then. See ya around… Ickz." and with that, Growlmon walked off into some random building, probably where he worked.
"Now, to get some grub…"
Ickz turned around to face a rather irritated Tomie, complete with tapping foot and crossed arms. "And what did you think you were doing?"
"Winning us some brunch, remember?"
The girl pouted as she adjusted her goggles. "Seriously, now. You three were the center of attention for the past five minutes!"
"Well, at least he gave me this," Ickz smiled wryly as he held up the ring for all of them to see. "Might be worth a couple of Devi-Meals at the fast food joint."
"Sure. But remember that you're paying this time."
His arm snaked over her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tomie. That's what friends are for!" He grinned his signature carefree grin as he led the group back into McDevimon's for that well-deserved, long-awaited brunch. Sadly, though, he forgot that in order to survive in a cash-or-credit-only world, one needed to pawn his valuables in order to get his hands on some hard currency. The effects of this bad decision, has been left to the imagination.
Abandoned Citadel, Sector II, Zone IV, Quadrant I, Digital World
June 4, 2019 – Tuesday, 1211 Hours, PST
Footprints. Someone had passed this way recently, and judging from the size and shoe marks, whoever did was definitely human. And humans had never set foot in the Digital World before. The smell was also familiar. Perfume? No… Deodorant? No… The scent of a human girl? Renamon smirked as that guess hit home.
She was the hunter, and that fanatic was her prey. When was the last time she'd gone on a chase such as this? Not something she could actually remember. It was this hunt that mattered any way. She took another sniff and pierced the soil with her claw. From the hardness she could tell it had been at least five hours since her quarry had passed this way.
It was best to make better time and catch up before she lost that girl's trail completely. The vixen darted off in the direction those footprints led, prepared for anything, all in the name of the Guild. Anything…
To be continued…
AN: I would like to note a few things first: [1] – "Mk I" is read as "Mark One".
[2] – 'Hara heta' is Japanese for "I'm Hungry."
[3] – That's a derivation of Big Mac
[4] – Blitz: German for Lightning Krieg: German for War.
[5] – Thee is read as t-H-ee, as in tree in the normal English accent.
Okay, now for the closing notes. I would just like to say that that was the longest I've ever written in a span of one day. My God, I must be in such a rush. No, Lucemon does not have brain damage, I simply think he's better off being a good guy. Furthermore, you heard right. The DDD plans to build a permanent base of operations inside the Digital World – something that no human organization has ever done before. If you figured out, from my repetitive clues, that Ickz is similar to Son Goku (Saiyuki) in quite a few ways, then congratulations. No, he's not as big a glutton as Goku, but he might start acting like a monkey some time. No, he won't have a Gojyo to bicker with either. This won't become a major clone festival, mind you! And Lucemon? Well I'm just crazy enough to have him digivolve into a Seraphimon some time, which is rather awkward, since… his rookie form is A HELL OF A LOT MORE POWERFUL THAN SERAPHIMON!
Up Next (hopefully):
It was hard enough to have to fight while wearing an oversized nightgown that was meant for an Angewomon to wear, since she had to keep her skirt down. After all, what was a motel rooftop without any billowing winds? "Knight Kumamon! Grizzly Sword, now!"
"Grizzly Sword!" The armored bear leaped at the yellow fox, sword drawn, ready to cut her in half. He swung the blade down, expecting it to be over, but he was wrong… dead wrong. The weapon had clinked on cement. Renamon was gone.
A whistle knocked him out of his thoughts, bringing him to whirr around in the direction from whence it came. The following sight was not good. Renamon was standing behind his partner, one arm wrapped around her torso, other hand sprouting claws that were ready to slit the girl's neck. "You are a very lousy digimon if you didn't sense that that stupid thing was nothing but a phantom. And since you didn't, I guess it's high time this girl here tried teaching you how to fight properly."
The fox darted out of existence, leaving Tomie on her knees, crying. That was when a very familiar voice resounded, seemingly coming from every feasible direction, "I'll be back when you're both ready to face me. It's not nice picking on a pathetic human and her equally worthless digimon." This was followed by an extremely chilling laugh that only the most notorious women in history could ever accomplish to do.