DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimons. So far, I own only Chaos Specter. This is the second chapter; containing explanations to set up the story for upcoming chapters. Just a note though - my English is not very good, so please excuse some errors here and there, and also for the lack of in depth description of a few places, characters and things featured in this chapter.
Note: The Vengeance series are in continuation with the Digimon anime, and the movie too, minus the third part onwards (Golden Digi-Eggs)
*************************
VENGEANCE
- Chapter 02 - Asuka Laboratory -
by
Alforce Zero
Location: The Digiworld, in Asuka Sector
Gennai took the seven defeated Digidestined to Asuka Sector, where all of their former allies had regrouped. He assured them that he had a plan, which might be able to help them deal with the losses of their D3s earlier. The Digidestined split up, with T.K., Cody and Ken followed Gennai to Asuka City, a city built within the sector; while Davis, Kari and Yolei opted to look around the vast garden outside the city.
Kari was lost in her own thoughts. "Why do you think ChaosWarGreymon set us free after hearing my name?" she asked Yolei, who was sitting with her beside a river flowing near Asuka City. She looked at the lavender-haired girl, who was a year older than her. Yolei just stared at the river, not saying anything. Both of them were still saddened by the destruction of their D3s, but had regained composure and were hoping that Gennai had the solutions for the problem.
"That's indeed strange, but I'm glad he did that," a male voice suddenly chipped in. The two girls turned around and saw Davis, their presumed leader of the group, standing behind them. His digimon partner, Veemon, joined Gatomon and Hawkmon playing stone-throwing nearby. "I don't know the reason, but seems to me that it had to do with that keeping-a-promise stuffs that ChaosWarGreymon and ChaosPiedmon were disagreeing about."
Yolei frowned. "Davis, they are the bad guys! I don't think that keeping-a-promise was the case," she snapped irritably, but her expression softened a little instantly. "I'm sorry Davis, for snapping just like that. I..."
"It's okay, I know how you feel," Davis cut her back, and joined the two girls sitting beside the river. "I hate feeling like this, you know, powerless and all, not being able to help," he said slowly as he looked at their three partner digimons, who were sitting a little bit farther than them. They were throwing stones into the river. "They seemed to take it really well," he gestured to the laughing Veemon, Gatomon and Armadillomon.
Kari smiled slightly. "Gatomon assured me that everything will be okay soon. She said that something good will turn up." Kari's expression then changed slightly. "I hope so."
"Me too," Yolei said, and looked around. "Davis, where are Ken, T.K. and Cody?"
Davis pointed towards the city. "They are with Gennai inside the city." Suddenly they saw T.K. coming out from the city's entrance. "Speaking of T.C., there he is."
*************************
Inside Asuka City, Gennai was taking the three boys around the city for a small tour. Asuka City looked like a small, yet modern, European style city. Not many buildings were built in there, and in the middle of the city there was a river separating Asuka City into two smaller divisions. The three Digidestined noted that the two divisions were seemed to be color-coded; the division where they were in was mostly red. The buildings, the roads, they were all in different shades of red, and brown as well. The division on the other side of the river was green. Lots of trees were planted there, and they saw that the 'green' division had even less buildings.
"That's where we are going," Gennai said and gestured towards a large, white building in the middle of the greenery of the division. The building's design was unique. It looked like a cross between a temple and a laboratory. They also noted that the building seemed to have satellite dishes on it, giving it the look as if it was a laboratory, besides the color white. Otherwise, it looked like an ancient temple. The temple-lab crossover was built on a higher ground, with several steps of stairs built leading to its entrance. Two identical digimons seemed to be guarding each side of the stairs, but they couldn't make out what digimons were there, as they were quite far. Gennai looked at the three boys. "Will one of you go and get the others to join us?"
"I'll go," T.K. offered and immediately took off, Patamon flying as fast as he could to catch up with his partner. About ten minutes later, T.K. returned with Davis, Yolei and Kari, and their partners.
"Where are we going, Gennai? What is that building you showed us?" Ken asked as he looked at the white building.
"That building is the Asuka Laboratory, built on top of the underground ancient Asuka Temple. I have been residing here, doing researches about the digimons and of the Digiworld as well," Gennai answered.
"It looks awesome," Davis commented.
"Thank you, it was me who built it," Gennai said nonchalantly and chuckled a little. "With the help of some digimons of course. I couldn't do it alone. Ever since the attack of the Dark Masters at my previous headquarters years ago, I've lost many researches as well as my team-mates," Gennai said thoughtfully and paused for a while. Davis, Ken, Yolei and Cody, while not having any idea what Gennai was talking about, decided to keep silence as they watched Gennai's expression changed into a slightly sorrowful look. Only T.K. and Kari understood that Gennai was referring to the event when the Dark Masters had invaded the laboratory where Gennai and his teammates were residing, and had destroyed it after killing Gennai's friends. Gennai had narrowly escaped with a Mekanorimon, taking the Digivices and the digi-eggs, containing the Baby forms of Patamon, Gatomon and the other six digimons belonged to Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe and Mimi.
"I had help from many digimons to build this laboratory," Gennai continued, gesturing for the Digidestined to start walking with him towards the laboratory. "All the digimons of the File Island helped out. There, I continued my research, using the Digivices as templates for me to study their powers. I also studied the course of digivolution of various digimons of the Digiworld, with help of some of the digimons here as well. A few digimons now resided in the laboratory as well, helping me out."
"Who are the digimons?" T.K. asked.
Gennai smiled. "I believe you already knew of Piximon, right? He is the trainer of digimons for them to digivolve into their next levels. He helped me studying the course of digivolution."
"Piximon? He's here?" Kari asked happily. The last time she had met Piximon was when he had sacrificed himself to save the Digidestined from the Dark Masters almost four years back, when she had first arrived on the Digiworld.
"Yes, and not only him. Leomon's here too. He helps with the trainings Piximon conducted on the digimons. Ogremon's here as well, saying that he is actually not willing to help and that he's forced by Leomon to help, but otherwise he's been a great help."
"I'm sure Mimi and Joe would be very happy to hear that Leomon's here as well," T.K. commented. Leomon had died while protecting Mimi from MetalEtemon, during the Dark Masters era as well.
"The laboratory, Asuka Lab for short, takes place on the ground level. Beneath it, in the lower ground levels and below, is the original Asuka Temple. The temple's powers keep Asuka Sector safe from any evil forces from trespassing. I think you haven't met the guardians of the temple yet," Gennai said. Suddenly he stopped walking, and the Digidestined saw that they had already arrived at the Asuka Lab. A pair of Knightmons whom were guarding the entrance recognized Gennai and were introduced to the Digidestined, and they let them pass into the laboratory.
Asuka Lab, they saw, was an absolutely huge and well-equipped, high-tech laboratory. Neither Digidestined had ever seen such laboratory back on their world, either in real life or in the television. Computers were practically everywhere around the laboratory's walls, all of them were operated by Piximons. In the middle of the room was a large, circular platform. Faint, silvery, straight lights were coming out from the platform. A particularly larger computer was seen at the farthest end of the laboratory, and there were two seats in front of the computer. One of them was occupied by a Piximon, and this Piximon was slightly different from the others as he was carrying a staff with him. The other seat was vacant, and Gennai led the Digidestined and the digimons towards the computer.
"Here is my computer," Gennai said as soon as they had reached the computer. The Piximon quickly hovered up from the chair he was sitting earlier and moved towards the Digidestined. "I believe you have met this Piximon, T.K., Kari," Gennai gestured towards the Piximon. T.K. and Kari instantly knew that the Piximon they were looking at was the same Piximon that had saved their lives four years back.
"Hello, T.K., Kari," Piximon greeted warmly. "It is a pleasure to meet you two again." He then looked at the other four Digidestined and greeted them in the same manner as well.
T.K. and Kari grinned widely. "The pleasure is ours, Piximon. We didn't get the chance to thank you yet, Piximon, for saving us from Piedmon four years ago," T.K. said, and Kari nodded.
"It was an honor," Piximon simply replied. He then introduced himself to the other four Digidestined.
After a while, Gennai began explaining his purpose of bringing the Digidestined into Asuka Lab. "A few months ago, after the defeat of MaloMyotismon, Piximon and I have been working on a research on how the digivices worked to supply sufficient powers for digimons to digivolve from their Rookie stage into Champions. We were trying to figure out the reason why the digivices couldn't supply enough powers for digimons to go beyond Champions."
"But I thought Tai and Matt digivolved Agumon and Gabumon using only the digivices?" T.K. asked.
"Yes, but that was due to the influx of powers their digivices were getting from the crests and from the special arrows shot by Angemon and Angewomon last time during the battle with VenomMyotismon on your world. The powers remained inside their digivices ever since."
Piximon cleared his throat before he continued. "So, we began to do a research to find ways to improve the digivices so that they could give enough powers for digimons to digivolve into Ultimates onwards, but unfortunately there was no way to modify the ways of the old digivices were constructed. They were created by the powers of the Digiworld itself, and the reason behind this has still remained a mystery. The new models of the digivices, which I believe you are calling the D3s, were slightly modified by Azulongmon and the other three Harmonious Ones when Ken's digivice mysteriously took a new form when he dipped it into the Dark Ocean. The improvements that the D3s had were that it could comply with Armor-digivolving, and to enable the owners to travel back and forth between the Digiworld and their own world. They were also modified to work in conjunction with the D-Terminals to store the special Digi-Eggs, which enabled Armor-digivolving."
"But when we found Gatomon's Tail Ring, we discovered its holy powers and incorporated it inside the D3s, enabling your Champions to DNA-digivolve together to form Ultimates. Using this method, one of the two digimons act as the main digimons, this means that he would receive powers from the Tail Ring. But the ring's powers alone was not enough, so it used the other digimon as a power source, channeling the digimon's powers into the main digimon, making the main digimon has enough power to reach its natural Ultimate form," Gennai explained. "But when Gatomon took back the Tail Ring, DNA-digivolution process was no longer possible, so we've decided to find a way to make the digivices, or the D3s, to digivolve digimons into levels above Champions independently, without using any extra power source like the Tail Ring, the crests and tags, or another digimon's powers."
"That's great. It may be the answer of our problem right now," Ken said enthusiastically.
"Unfortunately, it is not that simple," Piximon replied back. "We found out that there is absolutely no way to make a digimon digivolve beyond Champion level without infusing the digimon with enough energy from an external power source, unless the digimons itself gained the necessary power level and experience needed to naturally digivolve into Ultimates."
"And while the current method of digivolving into Ultimates, the DNA-digivolution method, is pretty successful, one downfall of the method is that the number of digimons decreased, compared to the method of using the Crests and Tags which retained the number of digimons," Gennai continued. "We began to search for other methods to make digimons digivolve into Ultimates without decreasing the number, but we just could not find the perfect solution, thus leading us to believe that DNA-digivolution was the only possible method."
"But...?" Yolei asked.
"To answer that, you all need to look at this," Piximon replied, and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard of the computer. The monitor, which was large, around 30" or so, instantly displayed a device which all six Digidestined were unfamiliar of. The device was basically rectangular in shape if it wasn't for the circular shape of one of its end. The circular end bore complex shapes and symbols which the Digidestined recognized as the characters of the Digiworld's alphabets. Four metallic arrows came from the circular end, pointing to four red buttons built on the middle of the device. The other end of the device had a small circular depression on it. Below the device was attached a black leather bracelet, making it looked like it was meant to be worn on the wrist. The device was mostly gray in color, with the exception for the four red buttons.
"What is it?" T.K. inquired.
"What you are seeing now is the template of the new device we had developed, which we called the Diginizer. The two of us, with help of the guardians of the temple below, planned to create a set of devices similar to the digivices and the D3s with the ability to enable the partner digimons of the Digidestined to be infused with enough power to make them digivolve beyond the Champion level, should something like this would happen," Gennai explained. "We feared that one day, more powerful enemies would rise to take over the Digiworld and that the powers of the Digivices and the D3s weren't enough, so we developed the Diginizers, but unfortunately they aren't completed yet."
"Do you mean that the six of us will be given the Diginizers, once they are finished?" Davis asked. "That'll be great, now that we've lost the D3s and our digimons can no longer digivolve."
Gennai smiled and nodded. "Yes, Davis, actually the Diginizers ARE meant for the six of you, although there are actually twelve Diginizers in the making, in conjunction with the number of the sacred elements of the Digiworld. Those elements are those being used to create the Crests."
"Twelve?" Kari asked, her expression puzzled. "But I thought there were only eight Crests, nine including Ken's Crest of Kindness?"
"There are twelve elements exist in the Digiworld. Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Reliability, Sincerity, Hope, Light and Kindness are the first nine elements which you have encountered before," Gennai answered. "The other three elements are Miracles, Destiny, and Darkness."
"Darkness?" T.K. asked, feeling uneasy all of a sudden. "Why Darkness?"
"Darkness does not necessarily means evil, T.K.," Piximon answered with a thoughtful tone in his voice. "If utilized correctly, the element of Darkness may prove vital for the side of good. The same situation applies if any of the other elements fell into the wrong hands. It is the matter of the way one use the elements." T.K. nodded slowly, and he noted that Ken's expression slightly changed as well although he was doing his best to cover it.
"I've never heard of the element Destiny before," Kari commented.
"It exists, but similar to the elements Miracles and Darkness, no crests have been developed based on them yet," Piximon replied.
"So now we are getting the Diginizers, right?" Yolei asked, and was a little surprised when suddenly Gennai grimaced.
"I've said before that the Diginizers are nowhere near completion," Gennai answered slowly. "Although we have developed a device similar to the Digivices and the D3s, we still don't have a clue on how to make it usable for you to make your digimons digivolve into Ultimate. The Diginizers are currently downstairs with the guardians of the temple, as they are currently infusing them with the ancient powers mentioned at Asuka Temple below. I don't know whether they have already finished with them or not."
"Right now, the Diginizers only have the similar functions the other digivices and D3s had," Piximon continued. "Beyond that, we don't know."
"I think that's good enough for now, we still need to battle the Chaos Generals if they ever come back here," Davis said. The others nodded in agreement. "If the Diginizers currently functioning the same way our previous D3s had, then we can still get Imperialdramon, Silphymon and Shakkoumon. We need them to battle Chaos Specter's forces."
Gennai and Piximon looked at each other. "Well, in that case, follow me," Gennai said finally and led them towards the circular platform situated in the middle of the laboratory. "The platform is used to teleport us downstairs, where the temple is. This is as a safety precaution, to avoid any unworthy being to step foot inside the sacred temple." He then instructed the six Digidestined and their partners to step onto the platform while he motioned for Piximon something before he himself joined them on the platform.
The platform suddenly glowed with bright multi-colored lights which enveloped all of them, and as swift as a blink of the eye, they saw the laboratory surroundings instantly changed into a somewhat dimmer, yet full of radiance environment. "We are now inside the temple, Digidestined." All of them looked around them in awe, and took the time to study the interior of the temple. The temple was as large as the laboratory, but looked ancient. The walls, the floors and the ceilings were all yellow and gold in color, and they emitted some dim glitters, which gave the lights to the temple. Some of the walls bore ancient inscriptions, engraved in the Digiworld's ancient language. There were about four separate entrances on each sides of the wall, and they heard footsteps coming from the entrance nearest to them, and turned their attentions towards it.
Two angel type digimons suddenly appeared from the entrance. One was a male, and was dressed in loose robs completely in white. He had large, white wings on his back, pretty much similar to Angemon's wings. The male angel digimon wore a mask similar to MagnaAngemon's, and also coincidentally, had long, blonde hair similar to the mentioned digimon as well. In fact, his right hand also had the same kind of bracelet MagnaAngemon wore, the bracelet which housed the sword Excalibur, and speaking of a sword, the digimon had a large sword neatly placed on his back. The digimon smiled warmly towards the Digidestined, who were all staring at him in awe, as he truly looked magnificent.
"Welcome to Asuka Temple, Digidestined," the angel greeted them with a grin, and nodded towards Gennai. "I am MagnaAngemon, in Priest mode. I am the Guardian of this temple and all of its ancient holy powers." He then gestured towards the other angel digimon, who was a female, and smaller than him. The female angel digimon was indeed pretty, and had a beautiful orange complexion. Her hair was also blonde, but was mostly covered by the large red hat and the red shawl she was wearing around her neck. She had two pairs of gold wings, and was dressed pretty much like Angewomon, with a blue piece of cloth covering her legs like Angemon's. She wore a golden, transparent mask covering her eyes, and on her right hand was a small staff. "This is my disciple, D'Archmon."
D'Archmon smiled towards them and nodded slightly. "I am honored to meet all of you. Gennai have been telling me all about you." Her voice was sweet and melodious, and all four male Digidestined became slightly captivated. D'Archmon obviously noticed it as she herself blushed. MagnaAngemon PM (Priest Mode) chuckled slightly, seeing D'Archmon and the four boys were all blushing.
"I see that humans too are attracted to D'Archmon as well," he said, his voice had an amused tone on it. "Don't worry," he said after seeing Davis, T.K., Cody and Ken were all flustered. "Even my other two disciples are vying between themselves for her attention." After he finished, two male angels stepped out from the entrance as well. One of them was an Angemon, and the other digimon looked exactly like him, only that instead of having three pairs of wing, the angel had only one pair, and his cloths and sashes were dark pink instead of blue. He also was holding a staff similar to Angemon, the only different was that at the end of his staff there was a golden crescent on it. "Meet Angemon and Piddomon, my other two disciples. D'Archmon, Angemon and Piddomon are all in Champion levels, and they have been helping me in guarding the temple, and developing the Diginizers." The two male angel digimons nodded in respect towards the Digidestined, and blushed after seeing that Yolei and Kari were staring at the two of them.
"Speaking of the Diginizers," Gennai said and paused to clear his throat. "The Digidestined are here to retrieve them, as their digivices were destroyed by Chaos Specter's henchmen." He then proceeded into telling MagnaAngemon PM and his three disciples of what had happened earlier.
MagnaAngemon PM nodded grimly. "Then I guess it is time. I have infused the Diginizers with the ancient powers of this temple earlier, but hear me this, children," he said. "There is no way of knowing how the Diginizers will work with you and your partner digimons, as we ourselves have not the time to test them out yet. You can use them to do what you have done earlier with your digivices, but beyond that we will have to wait and see for ourselves. But promise me one thing, children, that should anything wrong happened with the Diginizers, you are to discard them immediately."
The Digidestined thought for a while. "Okay," Davis said, and the others nodded.
MagnaAngemon PM looked at his disciples. "Bring me the Diginizers." Piddomon nodded and walked away back into the entrance which he and Angemon had come from earlier. After a couple of minutes, he reappeared with him was a medium-sized chest which he held with both hands. Piddomon then placed the chest in front of MagnaAngemon PM, and opened the chest before turning the chest facing the six Digidestined.
Inside the chest were twelve identical devices they had seen earlier on Gennai's computers. MagnaAngemon PM then instructed each Digidestined to take one Diginizer from the chest. Davis decided to take the first Diginizer, and took a while to look at all twelve.
"Which one should I choose?" Davis asked.
"I don't know, Davis," MagnaAngemon PM replied. Davis then selected one of the Diginizer, and as soon as Davis took out the Diginizer from the chest, the device glowed brightly, emitting deep blue lights around the temple. After the blue lights died away, Davis saw that the Diginizer he had taken had changed color from gray into blue, except for the four metallic arrows, which became silver. The depression on the other side of the Diginizer let out a ray of gold light which surrounded Davis for a while until it returned back to the depression, and formed a symbol of a sun, made out of gold. The symbol covered the depression, and Davis was shocked when he realized what the symbol was.
"It's the symbol of Courage," he breathed out excitedly, and touched the golden symbol of Courage with his fingers. The symbol glowed slightly as Davis ran his fingers on it.
"That means you have been selected by the ancient powers of the temple to become the Digidestined of Courage," MagnaAngemon PM replied. He then beckoned for the others to do the same thing. Ken went next, and his Diginizer changed into the color black, and the symbol of Kindness was engraved on his Diginizer. Yolei's Diginizer took the color red, and bore the symbol of Love. Cody's was yellow, bestowed with the symbol of Knowledge. T.K.'s Diginizer was green in color, and had the symbol of Hope, while Kari's was pink with the symbol of Light.
"The Digidestined are back in business!"
to be continued...
