Chapter 27 - ChaosGallantmon Does New York
The reports had come out of Central Park an hour ago. The police recognized the being from what the Odaiba Digidestined called the world tour.
There was a digimon in Central Park.
"Maria, wait up!"
I glanced behind me at Phil, trying to catch up with his FlareRizamon.
"I can't help it if Centaurumon is faster Phil."
"No, but you could get off his back and walk like me and Steve. All of us arriving together, team spirit, any of this ringing a bell?"
I froze at 'team spirit' and just stared at him. He looked at the ground, taking his cap into his hands.
"Look, Maria, I'm just sayin' that we have to stick together, you know? We don't know who this is or why he's here. And…"
I brushed a tear out of my eye and finished.
"And with Mimi back in Japan, Michael in an asylum, and Tortomon deleted, by Michael no less, we're even more pathetic than ever. Is that what you're trying to say Phil?"
He took a step back.
"Not in that way Maria…"
I glared at him.
"IT'S TRUE ISN'T IT?!"
"Easy…"
I glanced at Steve. He just sighed and shook his head. I calmed down and spoke again.
"Sorry Phil. And you too Steve, it's just…"
Phil nodded and approached, while I slid off of Centaurumon's back. He put his arm around my shoulders.
"I know, I know. We all feel it, I'm not sure why fate chose now to dump all this on us, but that's the way it goes, you know?"
I nodded, and straightened myself.
"All right team, we're going in."
I had a bit of a time convincing the officers to let us in to Central Park, but Steve stepped in and they let us through to try and talk to him, see if we could convince him to be peaceful long enough to get someone out here who could send him back to the digital world.
What we saw was nothing like what we expected.
In a clearing there was a dragon laying on the ground resting. It might have been a digimon, but I didn't recognize the type. Neither for that matter did I recognize the black knight leaning by a tree next to it. The knight turned was in turn studying us as we entered the clearing.
"Um…"
Oh, real smooth Maria…
He cut off what ever else I would have said.
"You are the New York Digidestined?"
I nodded slowly.
"Yes. Who are you?"
He grunted, considering the question, then answered.
"I am ChaosGallantmon. Your numbers are incomplete."
I blinked.
What?
When I didn't say anything he continued.
"There should be two, no, one more of you. I had forgotten that the digidestined known as Willis lives in Colorado. But that is a moot point. Bring to me the Digidestined known as Lou."
"What?!"
He looked down at me.
"I thought I was rather clear. I shall reiterate. Bring me the Digidestined known as Lou."
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
"And what do you want with him."
"Business."
I took a step forward, Centaurumon right behind me.
"That's not good enough."
He stopped leaning against the tree and stepped forward himself.
"I am a mega level virus type digimon. What do you think Centaurumon's Solar Ray can possibly do to me?"
I gulped. But I didn't back down either.
"It doesn't matter. The only way you get Lou is by going through us. Digidestined don't go down easy."
He laughed. He actually laughed at us.
"I have tested my mettle against Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode and you think you can stop me?"
Behind me Steve and Frigimon were getting into position, as were Phil and FlareRizamon.
"Anything is possible."
To my surprise, the knight nodded.
"Anything is possible. You amuse me. You have two options. One, you can bring me the boy Lou…"
"Or…"
His voice lowered and took on certain qualities of steel.
"I will be required to search him out myself."
I hung my head, and dropped the brave front.
"C-Can we have some time to think?"
ChaosGallantmon shrugged.
"You may have another hour. Keep in mind that you are but a means to an end. I will find the boy either way."
We walked back into the trees, and gathered in a circle. I looked around.
"Can either of you think of a way out of this?"
Steve shook his head.
"The guy's right. If we don't get Lou, he'll hear eventually that this guy is looking for him specifically. Then Lou will go looking for him, Tortomon or no Tortomon."
Phil nodded.
"I get the feeling that this guy doesn't care one way or another about us or the police getting in his way. The army probably wouldn't make much difference either."
I sighed.
"You guys go get Lou. I'll try to get more information out of him. If Centaurumon shoots his Solar Ray up wards then take him and run.
They nodded and set off. I turned back to the clearing. He looked down at me.
"I…"
He cut me off gesturing at the dragon as he spoke.
"Grani here has excellent sensory capacity. He has relayed your conversation."
Oh…
"Well, then, you know I'm going to try to get more information out of you. What do you want with Lou."
He shrugged.
"I wish to perform an… experiment."
I frowned.
Getting information out of this guy is like trying to get water out of a rock.
"That doesn't sound very nice."
He sighed.
"Perhaps that was a poor choice of words. I simply wish to see if something I can do will work."
"And what will happen to Lou?"
He shrugged.
"I am… uncertain."
I growled at him, and he looked at me strangely before chuckling a little.
"I do not believe that this will in any way hurt the boy if that is what you suspect."
"'Do not believe'?! What kind of reassurance is that?"
"The best I can give."
Lou entered the clearing then, looking up at the dark knight.
"I am told you wanted to see me."
He nodded.
"Did you bring your digivice? It would be a shame to waste more time by sending you back for it now."
Lou nodded and pulled it out of his pocket.
"I take it everywhere. Since… then… I cannot be bare to part with it…"
ChaosGallantmon nodded.
"Hold it up, boy, let me see it."
Lou did as asked, no fear in his voice or expression.
"Is this fine?"
"It's good enough. This will be… difficult for you. I need you to concentrate on your partner."
Lou's face broke a little then, but he was obviously doing as asked. ChaosGallantmon raised his hand, pointing his palm at Lou.
"CRYSTAL MATRIX!"
A red light exploded out of his palm, engulfing Lou. Nothing happened at first, but then Lou's digivice started beeping, and it released its own light, cutting through the red, back to ChaosGallantmon's palm. Then data began pouring out of ChaosGallant's palm, spiraling around an invisible rod, pushing the light from Lou's digivice back, bringing a spiral of data into existence between the two lights, holding them off from each other. It looked like a double helix, like a strand of DNA.
"Concentrate boy!"
Lou's face twisted in effort, and the beam from his digivice grew brighter, and the data began to compress. The data compressed until it was hard to make out anything other than an oblong shape, which glowed suddenly and dropped out of the lights, which vanished. Both ChaosGallantmon and Lou fell to their knees, and we ran forward to support Lou. Seeing the boys had him well in hand, I stalked over to ChaosGallantmon, who was attempting to catch his breath.
"Okay, what was all this about?! Surely you can say now that it's over!"
He didn't say anything in response, only pointed to the oblong object that dropped out of the lights. I walked over to it, and cleared the grass off of it, revealing a digi-egg.
What in the…
There was a beeping from behind me. I turned to see Lou, grinning from ear to ear. I looked back down.
Tortomon's…
I ran back over to ChaosGallantmon, who was now standing on top of his dragon.
"Why didn't you just tell us what you were doing?!"
He looked down at me for a moment.
"Hope is a wonderful thing to have, but terrible when shattered. If this had not gone well, it is likely Tortomon's data would have been permanently lost or damaged beyond recovery."
"Oh…"
"Now, if you will excuse me, I must rest, as should your friend. Resurrection is taxing on the body and mind."
Lou walked over then, carrying the egg like, well, a baby.
"Thank you…"
He grunted.
"Your thanks are not necessary."
Lou smiled.
"But I wish to give them anyways."
He nodded.
"Then you are welcome, for what it is worth. This was a large risk. I must go."
Lou nodded.
The knight and his dragon flew off, and exploded into the night sky as a cloud of green data. I looked back at Lou.
"Why weren't you afraid of him?"
Lou shrugged, and turned to look at me.
"He wasn't intending to hurt me, no matter what you may have assumed. I could see it in his eyes, couldn't you?"
I shook my head.
"No, I was freaked out. That guy was a virus type! And a mega! What would you do in my situation?"
He shrugged.
"I wasn't in your situation."
He paused and then continued.
"But in either case I cannot make an accurate judgment. He was right, I am too tired to consider things in their proper context."
Great… just what I need. Lou being cryptic again.
I smiled then. Lou had Tortomon back, and the team was almost all together again. Michael would never be back, but I wasn't too unhappy about that. He'd been scum in my eyes since he'd cheated on Mimi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched with concern as Mimi's eyes grew wide again while she was on the phone. There were so many times that I just wanted to rush over and hold her the way I had on the bridge, but it just never seemed like the right time.
I just hope nothing hurts her like that again…
But, I calmed down as her mouth broke into a wide, Cheshire cat grin.
"You've got to be kidding! He did what? That's incredible! Ooh, you don't know how happy that makes me; I'm practically jumping off the walls over here!"
She was telling the truth, she was bouncing up and down on her stool like a five year old on a sugar rush.
"Okay, I can understand Maria, go off and party, you've got reason too! I'll call in a few days."
She hung up.
"YES!"
I got up and approached her.
"It's certainly good news then, if it's got you cheered up after what just happened with Michael…"
She shot me a quick frown.
"Ugh. I don't want to think about that freak ever again."
My eyes widened. This was certainly a turn around.
For the past week she's been blaming herself for what happened, now this?
"Okay, forget Michael. What happened Mimi?"
The grin came back, and if the space hadn't been so limited I'm sure she would have cart wheeled over to me instead of the hopping routine she did do.
Okay, she's really had a turn around.
"ChaosGallantmon showed up in Central Park and revived Tortomon!"
"W-WHAT! This is… unheard of… another digimon reviving another? It shouldn't be possible… I mean…"
I spluttering in my haste to complete thoughts coming so fast they weren't letting the others finish. Mimi grabbed me and kissed me full on the lips to shut me up. Despite my body's protests I broke the kiss after a second. She grinned at me.
"Isn't it great!"
"Y-Yeah…"
I went and sat back down then. Despite the fact that what ChaosGallantmon had done should have been impossible, I found it impossible for me to concentrate on anything other than that kiss.
The reports had come out of Central Park an hour ago. The police recognized the being from what the Odaiba Digidestined called the world tour.
There was a digimon in Central Park.
"Maria, wait up!"
I glanced behind me at Phil, trying to catch up with his FlareRizamon.
"I can't help it if Centaurumon is faster Phil."
"No, but you could get off his back and walk like me and Steve. All of us arriving together, team spirit, any of this ringing a bell?"
I froze at 'team spirit' and just stared at him. He looked at the ground, taking his cap into his hands.
"Look, Maria, I'm just sayin' that we have to stick together, you know? We don't know who this is or why he's here. And…"
I brushed a tear out of my eye and finished.
"And with Mimi back in Japan, Michael in an asylum, and Tortomon deleted, by Michael no less, we're even more pathetic than ever. Is that what you're trying to say Phil?"
He took a step back.
"Not in that way Maria…"
I glared at him.
"IT'S TRUE ISN'T IT?!"
"Easy…"
I glanced at Steve. He just sighed and shook his head. I calmed down and spoke again.
"Sorry Phil. And you too Steve, it's just…"
Phil nodded and approached, while I slid off of Centaurumon's back. He put his arm around my shoulders.
"I know, I know. We all feel it, I'm not sure why fate chose now to dump all this on us, but that's the way it goes, you know?"
I nodded, and straightened myself.
"All right team, we're going in."
I had a bit of a time convincing the officers to let us in to Central Park, but Steve stepped in and they let us through to try and talk to him, see if we could convince him to be peaceful long enough to get someone out here who could send him back to the digital world.
What we saw was nothing like what we expected.
In a clearing there was a dragon laying on the ground resting. It might have been a digimon, but I didn't recognize the type. Neither for that matter did I recognize the black knight leaning by a tree next to it. The knight turned was in turn studying us as we entered the clearing.
"Um…"
Oh, real smooth Maria…
He cut off what ever else I would have said.
"You are the New York Digidestined?"
I nodded slowly.
"Yes. Who are you?"
He grunted, considering the question, then answered.
"I am ChaosGallantmon. Your numbers are incomplete."
I blinked.
What?
When I didn't say anything he continued.
"There should be two, no, one more of you. I had forgotten that the digidestined known as Willis lives in Colorado. But that is a moot point. Bring to me the Digidestined known as Lou."
"What?!"
He looked down at me.
"I thought I was rather clear. I shall reiterate. Bring me the Digidestined known as Lou."
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
"And what do you want with him."
"Business."
I took a step forward, Centaurumon right behind me.
"That's not good enough."
He stopped leaning against the tree and stepped forward himself.
"I am a mega level virus type digimon. What do you think Centaurumon's Solar Ray can possibly do to me?"
I gulped. But I didn't back down either.
"It doesn't matter. The only way you get Lou is by going through us. Digidestined don't go down easy."
He laughed. He actually laughed at us.
"I have tested my mettle against Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode and you think you can stop me?"
Behind me Steve and Frigimon were getting into position, as were Phil and FlareRizamon.
"Anything is possible."
To my surprise, the knight nodded.
"Anything is possible. You amuse me. You have two options. One, you can bring me the boy Lou…"
"Or…"
His voice lowered and took on certain qualities of steel.
"I will be required to search him out myself."
I hung my head, and dropped the brave front.
"C-Can we have some time to think?"
ChaosGallantmon shrugged.
"You may have another hour. Keep in mind that you are but a means to an end. I will find the boy either way."
We walked back into the trees, and gathered in a circle. I looked around.
"Can either of you think of a way out of this?"
Steve shook his head.
"The guy's right. If we don't get Lou, he'll hear eventually that this guy is looking for him specifically. Then Lou will go looking for him, Tortomon or no Tortomon."
Phil nodded.
"I get the feeling that this guy doesn't care one way or another about us or the police getting in his way. The army probably wouldn't make much difference either."
I sighed.
"You guys go get Lou. I'll try to get more information out of him. If Centaurumon shoots his Solar Ray up wards then take him and run.
They nodded and set off. I turned back to the clearing. He looked down at me.
"I…"
He cut me off gesturing at the dragon as he spoke.
"Grani here has excellent sensory capacity. He has relayed your conversation."
Oh…
"Well, then, you know I'm going to try to get more information out of you. What do you want with Lou."
He shrugged.
"I wish to perform an… experiment."
I frowned.
Getting information out of this guy is like trying to get water out of a rock.
"That doesn't sound very nice."
He sighed.
"Perhaps that was a poor choice of words. I simply wish to see if something I can do will work."
"And what will happen to Lou?"
He shrugged.
"I am… uncertain."
I growled at him, and he looked at me strangely before chuckling a little.
"I do not believe that this will in any way hurt the boy if that is what you suspect."
"'Do not believe'?! What kind of reassurance is that?"
"The best I can give."
Lou entered the clearing then, looking up at the dark knight.
"I am told you wanted to see me."
He nodded.
"Did you bring your digivice? It would be a shame to waste more time by sending you back for it now."
Lou nodded and pulled it out of his pocket.
"I take it everywhere. Since… then… I cannot be bare to part with it…"
ChaosGallantmon nodded.
"Hold it up, boy, let me see it."
Lou did as asked, no fear in his voice or expression.
"Is this fine?"
"It's good enough. This will be… difficult for you. I need you to concentrate on your partner."
Lou's face broke a little then, but he was obviously doing as asked. ChaosGallantmon raised his hand, pointing his palm at Lou.
"CRYSTAL MATRIX!"
A red light exploded out of his palm, engulfing Lou. Nothing happened at first, but then Lou's digivice started beeping, and it released its own light, cutting through the red, back to ChaosGallantmon's palm. Then data began pouring out of ChaosGallant's palm, spiraling around an invisible rod, pushing the light from Lou's digivice back, bringing a spiral of data into existence between the two lights, holding them off from each other. It looked like a double helix, like a strand of DNA.
"Concentrate boy!"
Lou's face twisted in effort, and the beam from his digivice grew brighter, and the data began to compress. The data compressed until it was hard to make out anything other than an oblong shape, which glowed suddenly and dropped out of the lights, which vanished. Both ChaosGallantmon and Lou fell to their knees, and we ran forward to support Lou. Seeing the boys had him well in hand, I stalked over to ChaosGallantmon, who was attempting to catch his breath.
"Okay, what was all this about?! Surely you can say now that it's over!"
He didn't say anything in response, only pointed to the oblong object that dropped out of the lights. I walked over to it, and cleared the grass off of it, revealing a digi-egg.
What in the…
There was a beeping from behind me. I turned to see Lou, grinning from ear to ear. I looked back down.
Tortomon's…
I ran back over to ChaosGallantmon, who was now standing on top of his dragon.
"Why didn't you just tell us what you were doing?!"
He looked down at me for a moment.
"Hope is a wonderful thing to have, but terrible when shattered. If this had not gone well, it is likely Tortomon's data would have been permanently lost or damaged beyond recovery."
"Oh…"
"Now, if you will excuse me, I must rest, as should your friend. Resurrection is taxing on the body and mind."
Lou walked over then, carrying the egg like, well, a baby.
"Thank you…"
He grunted.
"Your thanks are not necessary."
Lou smiled.
"But I wish to give them anyways."
He nodded.
"Then you are welcome, for what it is worth. This was a large risk. I must go."
Lou nodded.
The knight and his dragon flew off, and exploded into the night sky as a cloud of green data. I looked back at Lou.
"Why weren't you afraid of him?"
Lou shrugged, and turned to look at me.
"He wasn't intending to hurt me, no matter what you may have assumed. I could see it in his eyes, couldn't you?"
I shook my head.
"No, I was freaked out. That guy was a virus type! And a mega! What would you do in my situation?"
He shrugged.
"I wasn't in your situation."
He paused and then continued.
"But in either case I cannot make an accurate judgment. He was right, I am too tired to consider things in their proper context."
Great… just what I need. Lou being cryptic again.
I smiled then. Lou had Tortomon back, and the team was almost all together again. Michael would never be back, but I wasn't too unhappy about that. He'd been scum in my eyes since he'd cheated on Mimi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I watched with concern as Mimi's eyes grew wide again while she was on the phone. There were so many times that I just wanted to rush over and hold her the way I had on the bridge, but it just never seemed like the right time.
I just hope nothing hurts her like that again…
But, I calmed down as her mouth broke into a wide, Cheshire cat grin.
"You've got to be kidding! He did what? That's incredible! Ooh, you don't know how happy that makes me; I'm practically jumping off the walls over here!"
She was telling the truth, she was bouncing up and down on her stool like a five year old on a sugar rush.
"Okay, I can understand Maria, go off and party, you've got reason too! I'll call in a few days."
She hung up.
"YES!"
I got up and approached her.
"It's certainly good news then, if it's got you cheered up after what just happened with Michael…"
She shot me a quick frown.
"Ugh. I don't want to think about that freak ever again."
My eyes widened. This was certainly a turn around.
For the past week she's been blaming herself for what happened, now this?
"Okay, forget Michael. What happened Mimi?"
The grin came back, and if the space hadn't been so limited I'm sure she would have cart wheeled over to me instead of the hopping routine she did do.
Okay, she's really had a turn around.
"ChaosGallantmon showed up in Central Park and revived Tortomon!"
"W-WHAT! This is… unheard of… another digimon reviving another? It shouldn't be possible… I mean…"
I spluttering in my haste to complete thoughts coming so fast they weren't letting the others finish. Mimi grabbed me and kissed me full on the lips to shut me up. Despite my body's protests I broke the kiss after a second. She grinned at me.
"Isn't it great!"
"Y-Yeah…"
I went and sat back down then. Despite the fact that what ChaosGallantmon had done should have been impossible, I found it impossible for me to concentrate on anything other than that kiss.