Chapter 21: Answers
When we reached the top a bright burst of sunlight welcomed us. It was windy at the top and, once the sunlight cleared, we could see for miles. I could see all the way to the forest we'd left this morning, and in the other direction I could just make out an ocean. We stepped off the platform and wandered around looking. There was a ceiling above us that was held up by support beams.
"It's about time you got here." A voice said from behind. We turned to see a MagnaAngemon leaning against one of the supports the held up the ceiling.
"Oh MagnaAngemon, why are you here?" Codamon asked.
"I just thought I'd come and see what all the fuss is about, everyone at the core is talking about our saviors here." MagnaAngemon said pointing to us.
"Alright then, this is them." Codamon said and went about introducing us to him. He came up and shook our hands, I found this odd because I thought that was a mainly human custom, but I let it drop.
"Well it's nice to meet you all, I can't wait to see what you can do, I'm sure you'll all be crucial in the fight against Alice-M. Now, I should leave before the Sovereign arrive, I've heard all of this already." He said. Then he gave a wave and drifted off the platform with his great wings.
"How many Digimon are on the D-Corps?" Kayla asked.
"Counting myself there are 5 elites, and we have about 20 soldier units." Codamon said.
"Oh Ok." K said. Just then I saw a blue streak heading toward us. Instantly I was reminded of the streak that had caught us when we came to the Digital world.
"Hey look at that." Matt said. We looked over and saw a gigantic white form coming at us from the opposite direction as the blue streak. Then to the South we saw a flaming red form with wings approaching. And lastly, from the North a Massive creature covered in a green aura was slowly approaching. I looked around at the creatures who had just arrived. The most brilliant Digimon I'd ever seen. The blue one, I made out to be Azulongmon, was the Dragon. His body was that of a long winding blue serpent, his skin was a misty and covered in a blue aura.. He had a few sets of arms and his whole form was also bound with many winding chains. His face was covered in some kind of face plate. He had four eyes, red in color. Just looking into his eyes made me feel frightened and comforted at the same time. The white creature from the West arrived also, standing on the ground his face was level to us on the tower. He was a gigantic Tiger type Digimon, Baihumon. His face was similar to Azulongmon's, He had four eyes and wore a face covering. His body was totally white except for his light purple stripes. Also, when I looked down at his midsection I could see that there was a series of solid white orbs circling his chest, odd. Next the fiery bird Digimon came up, Zhuqiaomon. He was essentially a phoenix in every way. I giant majestic bird covered in flame. Like the others he wore a facemask over his long beak, four eyes like the others. Lastly the large green Digimon came laboring up to the tower. All I could see was a huge tree coming towards us. It wasn't till I looked over and saw the turtle with two heads underneath. Once it reached the tower it lifted its two heads up to the platform. This could only be Ebonwumon. After they'd arrived we figured out the use of the circle around the perimeter. A giant dome shot out from it and we were protected and concealed from the outside. Finally we literally came face to face with the legendary sovereign we'd heard about. In the presence of these holy creatures the humans were too overwhelmed to speak and our digimon were too humbled to move.
"Tamers, meet The Sovereign." Codamon said. We were still hesitant. Slowly I came to my senses. As scary as they were they also embodied sanctity in the Digital world, I took a step foreword towards Azulongmon.
"Hello, you are the one who saved us when we first came to the Digital world, weren't you?" I asked. Azulongmon gave somewhat of a smile.
"I thought you were all unconscious. Yes, it was I. I couldn't have our saviors dying before the battle even got started could I?" He said in a booming voice. I felt some kind of connection to Azulongmon somehow.
"Now! Let us discuss things." Zhuqiaomon said in an equally ominous voice. "Humans, you were brought to the Digital world to assist us with halting a great evil. The force called Alice-M came to power almost overnight. It has been terrorizing many communities and has even destroyed some. We know little about the structure of the group, we have a covert member of the D-Corps, Mimon on the inside. From the information he has gathered it appears there is a main leader, a small group ultimate level Digimon whom he controls, and numerous minions." We all listened to the tale. We all had questions I'm sure, but none of us dared interrupt.
"Yes, that is where you come in." Baihumon began. "From the information gathered by Mimon it appears Alice-M is planning on making an attack on Gazitown, a small village of Gazimon near where you first arrived here. Many of Alice-M's targets have been on immature villages such as ''Opolis'' where the residents are mainly weak digimon, or on villages where many virus type digimon live. We believe that Alice-M is planning on either recruiting or brainwashing these digimon into joining them. For right now, your mission is to go and stop the attack on Gazitown."
"However you won't be alone, there is another Tamer waiting there for you." Azulongmon said.
"Wait, another tamer?" Nick asked, somehow I knew he'd be the first to speak up.
"Yes, she came in with Protagamon last night. The reason you didn't know about her was she was operating far from you three who live very close to each other. I won't tell you who she is, that would ruin the surprise." Azulongmon explained dryly.
"Yes, another one." Nick said to himself.
"We'd like for you to leave as soon as possible for Gazitown, but I see you and your digimon are hurt. Allow us to help." Azulongmon said. Azulongmon's eyes began to glow red, the same happened with the eyes of the other Sovereign. Suddenly I began to feel like all of the aches in my body were slipping away. I looked around at the others, they were all starting to stand up straight again. Armor Skymon picked up his lance and put it its pole end on the ground, holding up the blade side. Then the Sovereign began to return to normal.
"Wow, thanks." Gotsumon said. "I feel like a million bucks." The Sovereign looked pleased.
"Now, I'm sure you have a few questions for us." Azulongmon said.
"Yes, I have one. Why was it my friends and I were chosen to do this, there must be other tamers out there." I asked.
"There are other tamers in the Real world, but they aren't as strong as the three of you are." Azulongmon began to explain.
"Actually, my lord, it's the four of them, this is my new partner, Matt." Codamon said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there, congratulations." Azulongmon began. "Nonetheless, you three were the stronger of the tamers in the real world. You may not have been the strongest physically, but you fought with such passion and meaning. Aside from your strength we did have a reason for bringing you in particular to help us. The reason is a prophecy. In an underwater cave, just South of Ebonwumon's realm there was a secret inscription in the rock. It was said to have been inscribed by the ancient prophetic entity known as Olmon. He was also credited with the prophecy that us, The Sovereign would eventually arrive. The inscription in the cave told of a great disaster, that an unknown enemy would appear and shake the foundations of not only the Digital world, but the Real one. It also told of four heroes, and their Digimon. The first pair described is Joy, a Troubled Duo, the next pair is Strength, a Noble Duo, next is Sincerity, a Caring Duo, and lastly is Love, a Desolate Duo. When we saw Tamers with traits such as those we kept an eye on you until the time came to bring you here."
"So this other Tamer has the crest of Love?" Kayla asked. Azulongmon turned to Ebonwumon.
"Yes, this is where we originally learned the idea of Crests." Ebonwumon said, "Once we learned about them we forged the ones you carry so that they would augment the strength of your Digimon. Each one of us chose one crest to enhance. Kayla, I did yours. Nick, Zhuqiaomon did yours, Brendan, Azulongmon did yours, and Baihumon did the other tamer's crest of love."
"Don't you know her name?" I asked.
Ebonwumon turned and said, "Actually you know each other. That's the funny thing, all of the Tamers of the prophecy have been connected to you. I think it's just a coincidence though."
"All connected to me, that's so cool." I said, smiling to myself
"Brendan, don't you have another question for us?" Azulongmon said. Now I knew that they had been watching us, more closely than I thought. I was kind of embarrassed to ask about the alert-mode in front of everyone so ArmorSkymon and I walked up to Azulongmon seeing as how he powered up my crest I felt like we had some kind of connection with him. The others stood behind us waiting.
"Well, I guess you know our question, do you have an answer?" ArmorSkymon asked. We stared into Azulongmon's huge face.
"I'm aware of your problems." Azulongmon said, only when he responded it wasn't with his voice, he was speaking to us in our minds. I appreciated the discreteness. He continued, "What you have is called a 'Viral Instinct' in the Digital world. How it works is, whenever you are in danger, or an evil Digimon is nearby you lose control of your own functions and become a more vicious version of your normal self, bent on destroying the threat. You have it because you are a good virus type. A weak virus type may give in to the instinct and become completely evil. However strong ones like you are able to stave it off. If Brendan hadn't called for you might have lost your constitution and given in. It is a kind of security measure. Virus types tend to be stronger than the others, however they are cursed with this Virus instinct."
"Isn't there any way to get rid of it?" I whispered.
"I'm afraid not, it's something Herpetomon was created with, and as long as he is a virus type he will carry this burden, I'm sorry." Azulongmon projected.
"Oh, so we can't do anything?" I whispered.
"Nothing I can think of, a Digimon's type is set in stone." Azulongmon projected back. ArmorSkymon was depressed, I could see.
"Well hey, it's not so bad right, I mean it just makes you stronger in battle, right?" I said.
"Yeah, I guess, but I wish it wouldn't make me hurt the ones I love so much. All it does is cause trouble for you." ArmorSkymon said.
"Nooo, it's ok, I know you can't help it much." I said. "Come on." I led him back to the others, With his huge size the only thing I could do to console him was to awkwardly rub his foot. He was totally upset, and I couldn't seem to cheer him up. So much for the crest of Joy, I chuckled to myself. We were all gathered in the middle again.
"Now, we should begin the mission." Zhuqiaomon said. "I'll be returning to my domain in the south, on the way I will drop you off at Gazitown."
"That concludes this meeting." Azulongmon said, booming. Suddenly the dome that had appeared around us shot back into the ground. "I'm sure we'll meet again soon." He said. Azulongmon, Ebonwumon, and Baihumon turned, and as quickly as they had appeared, flew away. We all turned and made for Zhuqiaomon.
"Are you ready?" He asked. I looked around, everyone nodded.
"Yes, let's go." I said. We took a few steps forward so that we were at the edge of the platform. Zhuqiaomon was concentrating on something, and suddenly a large circle of fire appeared in front of us.
"Step onto the platform, the flames won't hurt you." He said. I was hesitant. Then from behind me Nick and Fatomon walked up and got on, I was reminded again of the fact that Zhuqiaomon augmented their crest, there must be some kind of connection. Once Nick was on we all followed. I thought is would be cramped, but the flames extended whenever we moved over the edge. The Zhuqiaomon began flapping his tremendous wings, our fiery platform moved with him. Then we were off, speeding in the direction we'd come from, past the city and past the forest. While we were speeding along I bent down and felt the flames. It was odd, they were warm, but my hand wasn't burning. A very interesting feeling.
"Oh, Zhuqiaomon, when we were in the city we were attacked by a weird evil Digimon. It was like he was made out of shadow." Nick said to him.
"That is Ruhemon? We've had a few reports of such attacks. I'm sure his place is in Alice-M, but aside from that we don't know much about him." Zhuqiaomon explained. The view from up in our fiery platform was incredible. Once we passed the forest I could see Opolis, there were a few In-Trainings bouncing up and down at the sight of Zhuqiaomon. The took a left somewhere along the way and in the distance I could make out another town. I could only assume this was Gazitown. Zhuqiaomon commanded incredible speed so the town that was only a speck a moment ago was already in full view. Soon enough we were there. Zhuqiaomon hovered outside the town for a moment before lowering our platform to the ground. When the platform hit the ground it disappeared.
"Good luck tamers." Zhuqiaomon said, and flew off towards the South. The town in front of us had many shacks and huts in it, some with thatched roofs. I turned to the rest of the group.
"Ok, This is it, our first mission." I said beaming. "Can you handle it? Our mission is to protect this town from the forces of Alice-M. It doesn't look like the attack has started yet so for now we'll look for this 'other tamer'. Once we've found her we'll wait around town for the battle to begin." I said. Everyone nodded.
"We'll split into two groups and search the city, the person will be obvious because she'll be the only other human. Ok, the groups shall be Matt and Codamon with Kayla and Gotsumon. The other will be Nick and Fatomon with ArmorSkymon and I." I said. We walked up to the edge of the city and in front of us was a large town center. There was a road to the right, a path to the left, and an alley ahead of us. "Ok, we'll go to the right you guys go to the left, we'll meet back here in about 10 minutes." We split up and moved into the crowds of leering Gazimon. From the look of this town it looked like not all Gazimon were evil. But because they are all viruses will they have the virus instinct? I assumed so and continued to look. Luckily Gazimon are pretty short so it was easy to see over them. We looked and looked, but couldn't see anything. The town was shaped like a rectangle. From the town center there are the right and left paths that go in a rectangle shape and meet at the alley in the middle. We didn't go into any shops or anything to look though, we just moved on.
"I see her, over there." ArmorSkymon said. He pointed with his lance to the left turn ahead of us, sure enough I saw a human form quickly make the turn. We pushed through the crowds and moved up to that spot where we saw her. I could see a form walk away and slip into the alley. I ran up to her before the next crown came. The others were held back in the crowd, but I moved on. I stepped into the alley and the person turned.
"Oh my god no way!"