Eternal Conflict
Amalgamation
Chapter 11: Aftermath
Hikari woke up in a cold sweat, her hair matted down to her neck. With a groan, the young girl sat up in her bed, and looked around the room that was her quarters on the Avalon. On the wall facing away from her bed, her gloves and camera were placed on a dresser. Hikari brought her ungloved hand to her face. 'What did I dream about?' the young girl asked herself, before looking at the side of her bed, where an alarm clock displaying the numbers 4:47 in neon green stood. Hikari groaned again as she turned her head towards the wall away from the door leading to the rest of the base, seeing an open door way which led to a private bathroom, complete with a shower. Hikari got out of the bed slowly, careful not to wake up her partner as she did so.
"Now if only I had a towel." Hikari mumbled, still groggy from her nightmare. At least Hikari assumed that she had a nightmare, but as she couldn't remember it, it must not had been that bad of one. Hikari didn't notice at first, but a white towel had appeared in her arms after she said that sentence. Eventually she did notice, and she blinked.
"That's weird." The eleven-year-old said. "I'll probably need another towel for my hair." Hikari's vision was then blocked as another towel materialized on her head.
"What happened to you?" Patamon asked as Takeru entered his room, his shirt still damp from the previous night. His room was almost identical to Hikari's, except that his dresser didn't have any of her articles of clothing on it.
"Miyako did." Takeru answered simply, before moving to the dresser and pulling out a green shirt and a bare of beige jeans. The Takeru stopped moving, before turning back towards Patamon. "You did remember to tell the others that clothing could materialize based on their thoughts, didn't you?"
"Umm… no." Patamon answered after a few seconds. Takeru shook his head.
"I wonder how long it will take them to figure it out." Takeru said as a towel materialized on his shoulders. "…And it's also a good thing that Daisuke isn't a teenager."
"And why would that be?" Patamon asked, jumping up into the air and using his wings to fly.
"Remember the incident with Mimi and Steve when we first got into the Avalon a year ago?" Takeru asked.
Patamon chuckled at the memory of Mimi chasing Steve around, thinking that he stole a pair of her panties ran through his mind.
Takeru frowned. "Now what would Chizuru do in that situation?"
Patamon paled for a second, falling to the ground as he forgot to flap his wings at one point, before a crucial piece of information hit him. "Wouldn't people suspect that he would have stolen Hikari's underwear?"
"Do you think that would matter to her?" Takeru said, shaking his head. "Either way, I'm taking a shower, and then you and I are going to get Hikari and Tailmon. We have something important to discuss about some of the members of her group, and where they should stay permanently located."
"You mean Chizuru and Miyako?" Patamon asked, flying up onto the bed.
Takeru nodded. "Iori as well." Patamon blinked.
"Why Iori?" Patamon asked. A sad look came across Takeru's face, a look that instantly told Patamon what his partner was trying to say. "Oh." The small mammal digimon said dumbly.
Takeru quickly went into the bathroom after that.
Mimi sighed as she relaxed in a bathtub, leaning back as she did so. 'Bath's always seem to sooth me.' The Child of Purity thought. 'I wonder if it has anything to do with Palmon being a plant digimon.' Her hair was wet, and her white streak of hair clung to the side of her face. Mimi grabbed a bar of soap and ran it over her body, inwardly wishing that she could spend more time enjoying this bath.
"But I can't do that." Mimi said to herself as she continued to wash her body. Gennai was going to need her there with Takeru and Michael at the emergency meeting that had just been called. 'Won't be my first time being awake for over twenty-four hours.' Mimi thought grumpily, before immediately silencing those feelings, remembering that Takeru and Ken had spent far more nights without sleep, due to nightmares or work.
Mimi finished washing the soap off of her body, and stepped out of the tub, before draining it and wrapping a green towel around her body. She grabbed another towel and covered her hair with it, rubbing it against her scalp furiously in order to dry her hair as fast as she possibly could, not even thinking about using a blow dryer as she did so.
Time changed everyone. This was even more so when that person is involved in a war.
"How's the progress of the A.P. Digivices coming along?" Ryo asked, looking at a screen, which displayed "SOUND ONLY" in bold red lettering. The Digimon Kaiser was sitting at his terminal, an almost bored expression on his face.
'It is going well my lord.' A voice that sounded mechanized answered from the speakers. 'The Advanced Progression Digivices should be ready for testing within three months.'
Ryo frowned at that. "You'll increase the deadline to one month." The Kaiser ordered coldly.
"WHAT?" the voice shouted, although the confusion was blocked out by the mechanical voice.
"You heard me Nanomon." Ryo answered back. "The A.P Digivices will be completed within a month, or I'll have someone replace you."
"But sir, the Attribute Alteration system isn't completed yet! It's probably only at thirty percent!"
"Send whatever data you already have completed to me." Ryo ordered. "I'll finish up the programming for it. It's obvious that this project is something that I cannot leave in the hands of a machine. Work on the other programs needed for the digivices."
There was silence for a few seconds. "There aren't any other programs that need to be worked on for the A.P. Digivices."
A look of elation appeared on the Kaiser's face. "Really now. Then get to work on the E.M.P. missiles.
"Yes sir!" And with that, lines of programming code appeared on one of the screens of the Kaiser's master terminal. The Kaiser leaned back, before looking up at one of the five monitors which where in a square formation, the top left one, which revealed a golden object in the center of the base.
Ryo smirked. "Soon my plans will be complete. All that is left to do is finish up those Digivices and allow Oikawa access to the Digital World. The access that they desire." And with that, Ryo started laughing like a manic.
The center of the monitors flared to life, and Oikawa's face appeared in the center of it after a few seconds of this laughter. The pale man looked puzzled. "Is something funny Akiyama?'
Ryo stopped laughing. "I was just thinking how close our years of planning are to finally being completed." 'Not that you'll live to see it."
"So the Artificial Digivices are on schedule." Oikawa said.
"Yes." Ryo answered. "Although you haven't been of any help with them."
"What can you possibly expect me to do from here?" Oikawa asked.
"You could help by giving me information on the armies of Earth." Ryo said sardonically.
"You act as if I'm in a position to actually do that." Oikawa answered. "In any event, I've taken out the one police officer who could have been a struggle to our plans." Oikawa paused. "Have you had any word from Saiba's team?"
"No. I haven't." Ryo answered. "I'll try to get in contact with them. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work." And with that, Ryo tapped a button on his keyboard, ending the conversation that he was having with the adult.
There was silence as the Digimon Kaiser went back to his work.
Hikari walked out of the bathroom, feeling refreshed as she dried her hair with one of her towels. The other was wrapped around her body, and her shirt, shorts, and undergarments were discarded on the floor. Hikari sighed.
"Is something wrong Hikari?" Nyaromon asked. Hikari looked towards her partner.
"No." Hikari said. "I guess I just really needed that shower." The small cat digimon blinked.
"So… what exactly are you going to do for clothes?" Nyaromon asked.
Hikari's face blanched as she thought about the fact that she had no other clothes anywhere in the Digital World. Then she heard a knock on her door and panicked, quickly thinking about another pair of clothes that she usually wore. A perfect copy of her shirt, shorts, and underwear appeared on top of her head, startling the girl and causing her to fall to the ground, causing her towel to fall off of her body.
The door opened as Takeru ran into the room, hearing the noise from the fall, Patamon flying at his side. Takeru's eyes then widened as he saw something that he didn't expect.
Hikari's face went red as she noticed that Takeru had entered the room. "Do you mind?" Hikari shouted, quickly clutching her towel to her chest.
"No." Takeru answered, his eyes returning to his normal expression. Patamon blinked at his partner.
"That was not the right thing to say." The small mammal digimon said, before turning towards Nyaromon, and blinking. "You're still in the Baby II stage?"
"Get out!" Hikari shouted at Takeru, who turned to leave the room.
"Alright," Takeru said, "but after you get undressed, meet me in the briefing room. It's near the teleporters." Takeru then turned towards his partner. "Come on Patamon." The child level digimon in question flew up and landed on his partner's head. The human child and digimon then quickly left the fuming Hikari, although they were perfectly calm as they did so.
"Damn him!" Hikari shouted loudly as the door closed. It then opened again as Daisuke poked his head in.
"Hikari-chan! Is something…wro…ng?" Daisuke said, trailing off at seeing Hikari clutch her towel to her chest. Daisuke's face reddened. "I'm sorry!" the preteen boy exclaimed before quickly running out of the room.
Nyaromon looked over towards the door. "At least he had the sense to leave."
Hikari glared at the small digimon.
A look of anger was on Hikari's face as she entered the meeting room, Nyaromon in her arms. She noticed that Takeru, Mimi, Michael, and Steve were all seated around a round table, their digimon sitting by them. The digimon sitting next to Michael was a small frog-like digimon with a orange-red fin coming out of his head. This was Betamon. A young man in his early twenties was seated at the table as well. Hikari glared at Takeru as she took an empty seat.
No one asked her about it.
"Alright." The man began. "Now that we are all here, we can begin this meeting."
"Um…" Hikari said, clearly confused, and abandoning her anger for the moment. "Where's Gennai?"
The young man laughed. "It's good to she you again Hikari." The girl in question blinked.
"Have we met?" Hikari asked, still confused. Nyaromon blinked as well.
"Hikari." Mimi began. "He is Gennai."
Both Hikari and Nyaromon's eyes widened. "Both how?" They asked in unison.
Gennai laughed. "That is something far to long for me to explain here." Gennai paused. "The first thing we should discuss is where Hikari's team is going to be staying."
"What do you mean by that?" Hikari asked. Takeru folded his arms over his chest.
"Gennai means that we should figure out if your team is going to be staying on the Avalon full time or not." The blond clarified coldly.
"But what about our families!" Hikari shouted in anger at Takeru, the previous incident with him not completely forgotten.
"Hikari." Palmon began. "Three of your teammates are already without parents." The plant digimon said sadly.
"What do you mean by 'three teammates'?" Hikari asked.
Steve had a distressed look on his face. "The Hida family was murdered last night." Steve said simply. Hikari and Nyaromon gasped.
"And that isn't all." Yuki Agumon added. "The police had found a nine year old child murdered in the street as well, and his DNA matched Iori's."
There was silence for a few seconds. "How is that possible?" Hikari asked, dismayed. "Is Iori…"
"No." Mimi answered before the girl could even finish the question. "Iori is still on the Avalon, alive… although on Earth he no longer has any identity."
"But how was he found dead then?" Nyaromon asked.
"The Kaiser has many Nanomon working for him." Takeru supplied. "When we fought Etemon before you joined us during our first trip into the Digital World, a Nanomon cloned Sora in an attempt to gain control of the Crest of Love and Piyomon."
"It isn't beyond any stance of possibility that the Kaiser could have had Iori's body cloned and killed for the police to find." Patamon added.
"Of course, that doesn't explain why he would do that." Michael stated. "There isn't anything that he could possibly gain from it."
"Actually there is." Gennai said. Everyone else looked at him.
"What is it then?" Betamon asked.
"Hida Hiroki was an influential member of the police force." Gennai said. "Because of this, we could have had the governments help against the Kaiser, as they may had believed him. If Iori was still alive, they would ask him if he knew anything of the plans that his father had, and could still had given us the police support even with his death. With all the Hida's out of the way, we have no way to get that help."
"Who killed them?" Hikari asked.
Gennai's eyes narrowed. "Someone named Oikawa Yukito, Hida Hiroki's best friend, one of the first two humans to ever contact the Digital World, and now we know for sure to be the current host of Vamdemon, and the man who's been manipulating the Kaiser."
Miyako held Iori, who was crying into her chest. The violet haired girl didn't say anything, and just held the crying boy.
Saiba Neo looked down at his sleeping partner, the black Agumon muttering something about eating everyone in Indonesia in his sleep. The silver haired boy was leaning on a wall of the room that he and his sister were in. Neo chuckled at his mass murder obsessed digimon, and looked around the room, seeing two dull gray beds, a gray dresser and a gray pair of doors at the other end of the room. There was also a window that had a magnificent view of the gray ocean.
The World of Darkness didn't have much variety.
Neo looked at the other bed, seeing Rei asleep on the bed, hugging her black Piyomon like a stuffed animal. For a second, Neo considered stopping the entire plan that he and the others had been setting up for over three years now…
But only for a second.
Neo raised his right arm and pulled his sleeve down, revealing a black digivice of the same model as Taichi's new one. 'I will not let what happened that time again. I will destroy you Taichi! For Akadimon's sake, and Rei's as well.'
Neo turned his eyes back to his sister, a strange softness in his eyes. The boy walked over to the brown haired girl and ran his hand through her hair.
Rei smiled in her sleep.
"What are you talking about?" Hikari asked. "We completely destroyed Vamdemon for good."
"Apparently you didn't do a good job." Michael said honestly.
Mimi glared at him, but said nothing.
"We went through too much for him to still be alive!" Nyaromon yelled, trying to pull off an intimidating tone. However, as she was nothing but a Baby II stage digimon, she didn't sound menacing at all.
"Regardless of what we want, Vamdemon is back." Patamon said. "And he must be stopped." This was said with conviction.
"That is true." Gennai said, "but for now we can not do anything about him."
"Then what can we do?" Hikari asked.
"First we figure out what your team is going to do for living arrangements." Gennai answered. "For now it would be a good idea for Iori, Miyako, and Chizuru to stay on the Avalon. Trying to find a way to defend your parents shouldn't be too hard, as every living parent of your teammates has another chosen there protecting them."
"Alright. I'll ask the others." Hikari said. "They should have a say in this."
Gennai nodded, and turned to Steve. "How is the Digital Modification Program coming along?"
"Bad." Steve answered. "We can't figure out how to get anything other than a digimon's attribute temporally changed. Of course, if I had some help," Steve empathized the 'help' of the sentence, while looking at Takeru, "then I could possibly finish it."
Takeru snorted. "Just because the Dark Seed has boosted my intelligence does not mean that I know anything about computers."
"Stop bickering." Gennai ordered. "The important thing is to try and get that program finished as soon as possible, as the Kaiser already has access to that technology." Hikari looked completely confused.
Gennai turned back to Hikari. "We're going to keep your team off of the missions for a while, until they can get some training in." Gennai mentioned.
"What should we be doing then?" Michael asked. Betamon looked up and over towards Gennai.
"You and the others should focus on either liberating areas from the Kaiser's control, and go to areas that aren't captured already and try getting as many digimon as we can to ally themselves with us. If we are to win this war, we are going to need many more allies than fourteen digimon." Gennai ordered. Michael nodded. "Now lets get to work."
Oikawa was ecstatic, a psychotic smile on his face. 'My path to the Digital World is almost secured! We don't even need the Dark Towers to get in anymore!'
Even so, we can still be defeated.
Oikawa's smile faded. 'So what should we do about it?' he asked in his thoughts. It didn't matter, as long as he could get into the Digital World, the nothing mattered.
Not even killing his best friend.
Contact Saiba. Have him and his teammates attack the Village of Beginnings. They'll meet our attack, and then we can strike.
'Do you honestly think that they've recovered enough?' Oikawa asked with concern.
If they cannot fight, we'll have the Kaiser send other digimon instead.
Oikawa sighed, and turned towards his computer.
Taichi entered the Kido apartment, Agumon, Sora, and Piyomon following behind him. "Alright Jyou-sempai, what's so important that we had to miss school?" Sora asked, noticing that he and Jun were sitting on a couch in the living room of the apartment. Jyou was holding Pukamon, while Jun was holding a small digimon that looked like a ball of flame. Koushiro was sitting next to a table, Motimon sitting on his lap, his shirt absent, giving Sora a good view of his bandaged wounds. "Koushiro-kun!" Sora shouted, running up the Child of Knowledge, concern overriding her sense of upbringing. "What happened to you?" Piyomon was wondering about that as well. Taichi walked in, taking off his shoes at the door. Yamato was already there, he and Gabumon sitting near Koushiro.
"There was an attack at a harbor last night." Koushiro answered.
"And we've now fought four members of the original chosen." Motimon commented. "Some masked guy with a Tentomon…" the small pink digimon seemed to sneer as he said this, "And some crazy rubber guy with a Patamon as his partner."
"The Tentomon can evolve into Yamnamon and Phantomon." Jyou added.
"And that 'rubber guy' definitely isn't human." Jun said, her voice nearly sneering with anger.
"What do you mean that he isn't human?" Agumon asked.
"And what do you mean by 'crazy rubber guy'?" Piyomon asked.
"The guy whose is partnered to the Patamon easily survived his neck being broken." Petit Meramon clarified.
"Not only that, but he can changed his body's shape, even to the point of being able to use a Digimon's attacks." Koushiro said.
Yamato paled, as Koushiro wouldn't explain until Taichi and Sora got to the apartment. "How did you guys manage to survive?" Yamato asked.
"Apparently he can only use the attacks of a digimon that are equal the to the level that is partner is at." Koushiro said. "We managed to get lucky and knock his digimon back into his child level from Devidramon."
"You're also forgetting to mention that we defeated that other guy's Phantomon by Jogress Evolving Kabuterimon and Ikkakumon into Atlur Kabuterimon." Jyou added.
"So we can Jogress our digimon as well." Taichi said, folding his arms in front of his chest. "I wonder if we could somehow Jogress our Digimon more than once."
"What do you mean Taichi?" Gabumon asked.
"We know that we can Jogress Evolve War Greymon and Metal Garurumon into Omegamon. And we can Jogress Evolve Kabuterimon and Ikkakumon into Atlur Kabuterimon. But what if we could Jogress two jogress evolved digimon together." Taichi said.
Koushiro's eyes widened. "Then we may be able get a Digimon up to the level of Ultimate!"
"Exactly." Taichi answered.
"But how are we going to get another Jogressed Digimon?" Yamato asked, putting an end to Koushiro's temporary elation.
"I'm not sure." Taichi admitted after a few seconds, moving his arm to rub the back of his head. "Jogress Evolutions aren't something that we could just figure out how to do. They've always been achieved in battle."
Jun looked downcast. "But what can we do?" she asked. "That last fight took way too much out of our digimon."
"Then there is nothing that we can do but wait." Jyou answered. "And hope that we will be enough."
Daisuke looked around the training room, noticing that Miyako and Iori weren't in here with him. He was dressed in a red tee shirt and blue jeans. 'That's odd.' The brown haired chosen thought, as he knew that the two of them had training lessons with him.
"Iori and Miyako won't be coming." Takeru answered as he entered the room. Daisuke turned around, seeing that the blond haired chosen was clothed in a white martial arts gi. "Iori's parents were killed last night." Daisuke's eyes widened. "Miyako's trying to comfort him." Two bokken were in the blond warrior's hands. "Catch." Takeru said simply as he threw one of the bokken at Daisuke. The brown haired boy awkwardly caught the wooden sword, nearly dropping it as he did so.
"What are we going to start with?" Daisuke asked after a few seconds.
"We're going to see how well you know how to fight so far." Takeru answered, before instantly lunging at Daisuke, his bokken in his hand, the tip of the wooden sword pointed at Daisuke's throat. The brown haired chosen ducked to the side, Takeru's blade missing him by mere inches.
Daisuke gripped the sword with two hands and dropped into a stance that made it very clear that he really had no idea on how to use the sword. "So… you're smart enough to dodge. You're already doing much better than I expected." And with that, Takeru charged at Daisuke, his bokken raised, overhead.
Daisuke dodged again as Takeru slashed his sword down, and thrust at Takeru's stomach, which seemed to be exposed by the overhead swing that the blond chosen had used. Takeru twisted around, dodging the blade and striking Daisuke in the head with his. Daisuke staggered back, dazed from the blow.
Takeru charged again, his blade now pointing at Daisuke's chest. Daisuke noticed this and jumped back wards as Takeru slashed. "This isn't what I had in mind!" Daisuke shouted.
"Tough!" Takeru answered back, slashing his sword as he got close to Daisuke again. The brown haired chosen dodged the sword strike again, before using a double-handed slash at Takeru's head. Takeru used his bokken to block the attack, both swords making an odd 'clacking' sound as they came into contact. Daisuke moved his sword back and slashed down at Takeru, who blocked it again. Daisuke snarled, before pulling his blade back and spinning around.
Takeru dodged the sword strike and slashed his sword and Daisuke's right arm, causing the brunette to drop his sword and hiss in pain. Takeru looked at Daisuke for a moment. "Good job." Takeru commented. "Much better than I expected an untrained fighter to be."
Daisuke quickly grabbed his sword and struck Takeru in the chest, knocking the blond back. Daisuke pulled himself off of the ground, and pointed his sword at Takeru. "You haven't won yet."
Takeru raised his blade and smirked. "If that is how you want it." And with that, both warriors charged at each other.
Ryo opened up a communications link, and saw Saiba Neo's face on his monitor.
'What is it?" Neo responded, clearly annoyed by the sudden message.
'After all, despite the fact that we need to work together, it doesn't mean that we have to like each other.' Ryo thought. "Oikawa wants us to attack the Village of Beginnings to lure the chosen out of hiding."
Neo eyes widened in shock. "You're kidding right?" Neo asked. Ryo glared at the screen. Neo chuckled. "Of course, you don't joke." Neo paused for a second. "It will take a long time for use to stage an attack of that magnitude."
"I know." Ryo stated. "Can I count on your support in this?"
"What's in it for me and my team?" Neo asked.
"We'll kill the chosen." Ryo answered.
"Alright." Neo said, his answer already considered. "We'll help you. But you must wait three months for this attack to begin."
"That's fine by me." Ryo said with a smirk.
End Chapter 11
Author's notes:
About time I updated this, it seems that I've finally gotten past my writers block.
Expect a return to the main action to pick up again next chapter. Just a little warning, the next chapter does not take place three months after this one. And once I actually get to that Primary Village battle… let's just say GUNDAM SEED is going to be a big influence.
Tamer Terra: Thanks for the comment, and yes, the battles have gotten a little repetitive. Hopefully that will change next chapter.
Anime obsessed fan: As that scene was Evangelion based, I'm keeping it vague.