Chapter 1: Break out/ The search begins
Gennai was pacing in his house, he had no idea what to do but he had to do something. As he continued to stress and worry, he received an email notification and hurried to see where it had come from, an outsider would be shocked that an old man like Gennai could move as fast as he did which showed just how desperate he was. Reaching his computer, Gennai opened up his email to find a message from the spy he had placed inside of Myotismon's forces:
The Digimon are imprisoned inside of Myotismon's castle, they are being held in separate parts of the dungeon. Unsurprisingly Myotismon is ensuring that they remain as weak and discouraged as possible, however, Myotismon himself is in the human world working to expand his dominion while the Dark Masters (who have sworn allegiance to him by the way) are working to conquer the digital world. Machinedramon guards the castle and dungeons along with dozens of Bakemon and Devidramon as well as a LadyDevimon. At most, we could rescue one of the digimon but the others simply can't be rescued, we just don't have the resources. Sorry I can't give you better news.
-Oculus
Gennai grew pale as he read the email a second time, he hadn't been expecting the Dark Masters to form an alliance with Myotismon, though it made sense in hindsight seeing as Myotismon had defeated the digidestined which made him a noteworthy evil-doer and the Dark Masters love associating themselves with both power and success. "This is bad" he thought "The Bakemon and the Devidramon wouldn't be too difficult to deal with, but the involvement of the Dark Masters made everything worse. What would even be the point of rescuing one of the digimon, what can one of them do against literally everything?" Gennai was pulled from his thoughts by another email notification, this one from an ally rather than a spy, as he opened the email and read it's contents a package materialized next to his computer. Opening the box and looking inside, his eyes grew wide as he turned back to the email. Gennai wasted no time in messaging his supporters around the digital world for a desperate break out.
(Meanwhile on Earth)
Myotismon watched in pleasure as gunfire could be heard along with screams throughout the Shinjuku district, Shinjuku was the only area of Tokyo that had yet to fall to his power, over the past week he had been gradually expanding the fog barrier that cut off communications and contributed to his power. Local police as well as a military regiment were doing everything that they could to keep the digimon under Myotismon's command at bay, but despite their best efforts, all they could do was annoy the more powerful ones as their weapons only seemed to work on the Bakemon and Gazimon.
"Brave, but foolish" Myotismon said, more to himself than anyone else "They are fighting the best they can, and while it's futile, they are giving the Gazimon and Bakemon a rough time, perhaps I could use human soldiers to 'keep the peace' after I've conquered the Earth, I could always take a break after taking Tokyo to see how it would work out, and if it works, I could use the humans to fight the other ones so I keep more of my digimon intact." As he was musing a small bat-like digimon flew near him and landed to give a report.
"Lord Myotismon" the bat said with a bow
"What is it Demidevimon?"
"Some Gazimon have broken through the human defenses and are attacking them from the rear, it is only a matter of time before their leaders recognize that they've already lost and surrender to you."
"That is excellent news" Myotismon replied with a smile "Take one of the Mammothmon and help the Gazimon that broke through take care of the remaining human fighters, let me know once Shinjuku is ready to surrender."
"Yes my lord" Demidevimon acknowledged with a bow before flying off to do as instructed. Myotismon returned his gaze to the war-torn streets below and watched as his dominion grew larger.
(Six hours later, in the Digital World)
A pair of Bakemon stood guarding the main entrance to Myotismon's castle bored out of their minds.
"Hey" one of them said
"Yeah?" the other asked
"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"
"Well-" the pair of Bakemon were interrupted by the sound of an attacking opponent charging them down, they were being led by Leomon and Ogremon (who put their feud on hold until the Myotismon crisis was rectified) with them was Andromon, Monzaemon, Meramon, Elecmon, as well as a dozen Gekomon. The plan was to storm the dungeon allowing Gennai's spy to free one of the partner digimon, and once they were free, get them to Gennai's house, they could hit fast, cause a distraction, and keep Machinedramon busy until Gennai's spy got out with one of the digimon. The only drawback was that they could only get one partner out, even so, they knew that it was better than nothing and that they would be lucky to even pull that off, there was so much that could go wrong with this plan, but they were all willing to risk everything for this glimmer of hope. While the main group made their way to the dungeon entrance fighting through whatever stood against them, Oculus (a Gaomon who is Gennai's spy within Myotismon's forces) snuck through the dungeon halls. Oculus was happy at Gennai's orders and was more than ready to betray Myotismon, in fact, once he ran into a Bakemon, he was more than ready to fight.
"Gao Rush" he yelled charging the Bakemon and hitting them with swift, unforgiving punches. A Devidramon screeched and attacked him from above, Oculus dove out of the way and yelled "Double Backhand" spinning and hitting the Devidramon hard enough to knock it out, he had to hurry though, he wasn't strong enough to truly defeat a digimon at the Devidramons level, the mission was crucial to any real success and he focused on completing it as soon as possible. Oculus fought off another group of Bakemon before reaching a cell door. Say what you will about Myotismon, but he knows how to seriously inconvenience a rescue mission like this one. All of the cells that contained one of the partner digimon were deep inside of the dungeon, all of them were equidistant to Machinedramon's location and all of them were spread out to make a mass escape nearly impossible. The only things the rescue party had going for them were that: with as spread out as the captive digimon were, the rescue party could only go for one, which meant that Machinedramon would need to wait for information on where exactly the attack was coming from before he could move against it, the other factor the rescuers had going for them was that none of Myotismon's forces knew that the Gaomon in their ranks was Gennai's spy or that he was betraying them. Even so, those advantages would only work until that Devidramon woke up and reported to either Machinedramon or LadyDevimon, either way that thought caused Oculus to move quickly as he broke the lock off of the massive iron door leading to the cell. Opening the door he found Gatomon, bruised and exhausted but otherwise alive.
"Who are you?" Gatomon asked with a cough, obviously dehydrated
"My name is Oculus, I'm working with Gennai, you were the only one I could get to, we need to leave before the enemy finds out about me busting you out." Oculus replied offering her a sip from a pouch of water he was carrying.
"How can I trust you?" she asked sounding a little better thanks to the water
"I can't offer you any proof, but if you don't mind me saying, there isn't really a lot of options for you right now. We need to go" he replied, making it clear that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Fair enough" Gatomon said with a sigh, Oculus broke the chain that kept her bound to the wall and helped her out of the cell. There weren't any guards around, which wasn't too much of a surprise, considering that most of them would be scrambling due to the attack. Even so, they should've come across at least a few guards, Machinedramon was too smart to leave such a key part of the dungeon unguarded during an attack, unless of course, there was a trap. Oculus' eyes went wide as he realized this.
"Run!" he yelled doubling back with Gatomon to find another way out of the dungeon as several Devidramon screeched accompanying LadyDevimon's laugh as they pursued the two. Oculus was about to run down a hallway on the left when Gatomon grabbed and practically dragged him down a hallway to their right, Oculus was about to point out that this was a dead-end when they actually ran through the wall and into a room filled with various tonics on shelves. "How-" he started to ask in astonishment when Gatomon interrupted him
"I was a servant of Myotismon for years before I remembered who I really was" she started walking over to a shelf with blue tonics and while reading the labels continued "This was a secret storage room for elixirs he brewed, some of them were poisons and pain-inducing liquids that he would use to punish followers that failed him or prisoners he captured, honestly I'm surprised he hasn't had Machinedramon use them on me or the other partner digimon, not that I'm complaining. The others are rewarding elixirs that he would use to reward success among his followers." she walked over to another shelf with green elixirs on it "Rewards ranging from" she took a look at the labels "reliving your happiest memory" she walked towards some purple elixirs on a third shelf and read the labels smiling "to a temporary digivolution" she picked two of them up and handed one of them to Oculus "If I drink one, I'll temporarily go to Ultimate, and if you drink one you'll go to Champion. What's your Champion form?"
"Gaogamon" Oculus said with an understanding smile which Gatomon returned
"And I'll temporarily become Angewomon, we still need to fight our way out of here, but with these we'll have a much better chance. We need to be quick though, the digivolutions will only last about five minutes." Gatomon said with a sigh
"Right, we don't have anytime to waste, let's get out of this awful place" Oculus said earning a nod of agreement from Gatomon. They each took the stoppers out of their respective vial and drank. They felt the effects immediately and digivolved.
As Oculus was a Gaomon, he was a bipedal blue dog with a black nose and claws, yellow eyes, a white belly and mane, with white tips on his tail, feet, snout, inner ears, and wore a red bandana, white bandages on his arms, and red and black boxing gloves on each of its hands.
"Gaomon digivolve to…"
As Oculus finished digivolving, he resembled a large blue dog with similar features as his rookie level form but he didn't have the bandana revealing a yellow cross-shaped mark in his forehead, the boxing gloves were pierced by his claws and there were red ribbons on his back in place of the bandana.
"Gaogamon" he yelled as his digivolution finished.
In Gatomon's current form she was similar to a white egyptian cat, she wore yellow and red striped gloves with her claws coming out of them. She had large ears with tufts of purple hair on them, and she wore a holy ring on her tail.
"Gatomon digivolve to…"
As she finished digivolving, she became an angel with eight wings and had a radiant aura around her, she had blond hair and a helm covering most of her face.
"Angewomon" she said as she finished digivolving. The two digimon ran out of the secret room and attacked the pursuers (who had looked down a completely different hallway and weren't expecting an attack).
"Spiral Blow" Oculus yelled, releasing a vortex of air from his mouth and sending the Devidramon flying while Angewomon attacked LadyDevimon.
"Heaven's Charm" she yelled sending a massive cross made out of light crashing into LadyDevimon, knocking her out cold.
"We can finish them later, right now we need to get out of here" Oculus said
"Right" Angewomon agreed as they rushed out of the exit and signaled the attackers to retreat.
(Gennai's house, six minutes later)
Oculus and Gatomon had returned to their original forms almost immediately after arriving at Gennai's house, they were rushed inside so Gennai could re-conceal his living place in water. Gatomon was eating a much needed meal of Salmon, during the escape the only things she had been running on were adrenaline and that digivolution elixir. Gaomon was sipping some tea while he and Gatomon waited for Gennai to see them, they had been told that he was finishing up a quick plan on how to proceed. Gatomon finished one of the fish and glanced up at Gaomon.
"You really weren't able to get anyone else out were you?" she asked, already knowing the answer from how empty and quiet the room felt.
"I'm afraid so, I'm sorry" Oculus replied with a look of sympathy in his eyes. Gatomon looked down feeling ashamed that she was now free and at least somewhat safe while her fellow digimon and her partner were imprisoned and alone with no help coming as of now. Oculus came over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You should finish your food, if you're going to help them, you need your strength. Don't worry, they've managed for this long, they can handle things a little bit longer" he assured her with a smile
"Your right" she said smiling sadly back at him "I'll do the best I can, thanks." Oculus nodded at her as Gennai came in.
"I hope you two are doing alright." he said in a warm, yet obviously stressed tone "We need to move quickly if we are to be successful, I won't lie to you, even with this plan, there is a good chance that we will fail, but if we do fail than at least we can take the privilege of being as much of an annoyance as possible before we fall, and of course, if we pull this off, we can turn everything around."
"Right" Oculus and Gatomon said at the same time
"Now, currently we are outnumbered and outmatched by Myotismon's united army of darkness, however I received three new crests and a new digivice from the being that created the crests in the first place: Azulongmon."
"Azulongmon is real?" Gatomon asked in surprise
"Yes, he is" he said opening a box that he had just placed on the table in the center of the room. One of the crests was Aqua-colored with a symbol neither of the digimon recognized (AN: Red vs. Blue fans would recognize it as the insignia for Project Freelancer) another crest was silver with a sundial engraved on it, and the third was gold with a small galaxy engraved on it in intricate detail that seemed physically impossible given how small the crest was.
"This is the crest of time" Gaomon said looking at the silver one
"This is the crest of space" Gatomon said looking at the golden one
"And this" Gennai said holding up the Aqua one "is the crest of tenacity, Oculus, Azulongmon informed me that you were to receive a human partner, her name is Carolina and she is the rightful holder of the crest of tenacity, and this" he continued gesturing toward the digivice on the table "is her digivice, you'll need to deliver them to her, it's part of the plan. You see Carolina and her friends aren't born yet" Gennai said earning confused looks from Oculus and Gatomon "Carolina is alive hundreds of years in the Earth's future, in the year 2552 to be exact." The digimons confusion turned into shock "This is why you need the crest of time, to travel into the future to find your partner and bring her back to help us, as well as her friends, the Reds and Blues, given the right supplies their help will be invaluable."
"Supplies?" Gatomon asked
"Bullets made of Chrome Digizoid, armor of the same material, and everything to give them a fighting edge, Myotismon has yet to cease control of the metal so I sent Leomon and Andromon to grab as much as they could and bring it back here for us to work with, we're nearly done."
"If the purpose of going into the future is for me to find my partner, why do we need these, Reds and Blues as you called them?" Oculus asked
"Good question" Gennai smiled "Carolina is strong on her own, and she'll be even more formidable with you as a partner, but it's not enough, the Reds and Blues have proven their worth. They might not be the strongest, and they certainly are not the smartest, but they have retrieved ancient artifacts, brought down corrupt government officials, and have faced off against some of the most dangerous elements their timeline has to offer. That combined with the fact that we are in fact desperate, we need their help. And you'll need the crest of space because she isn't on Earth, I don't know where she is, I'll give you a clue to where you can start looking but you'll have to look across an entire colonized galaxy to find her."
"Ok" Gatomon accepted "But if we have the crest of time, why don't we just go back to the fight against Myotismon on that TV station and rectify the error."
"Another good question" Gennai nodded in approval "British Sci-fi could probably explain this better than I could but there are certain events in history that are basically fixed points in time. These fixed points cannot be altered or changed in anyway otherwise the consequences would be cataclysmic."
"So Myotismon's victory in Odaiba is a fixed point in time?"
"Yes, in this universal timeline anyway."
"What do you mean 'this universal timeline'?" Oculus asked
"Ok" Gennai said clapping his hands "Now we are wandering into the multiverse theory which we really can't be in because a) I don't understand it well enough to tell you about it and b) we really don't have time to discuss it."
"Alright" Gatomon said standing up "Let's get to work then" Gennai and Oculus nodded in agreement as Oculus accepted the crest of time leaving space to Gatomon and putting the crest of tenacity inside a pouch at his waist along with Carolina's digivice.
"Where and when do we start?" Oculus asked as she and Gatomon got ready to use the crests of time and space.
"The year 2552" Gennai said "As for where, start where Agent Washington did when he looked for the Reds and Blues at the beginning, specifically a boxed canyon in the middle of nowhere called Blood Gulch."
"You do know we have no idea who he is or where that is right?" Gatomon asked
"I know" Gennai said with a chuckle.
Next time: Oculus and Gatomon arrive in Blood Gulch and begin looking for the Reds and Blues what will they find? Find out Next time in Chapter 2: Blood Gulch Memories.
FYI, the next few chapters will be very much like the early Season 15 in canon, this just seemed the best way for Oculus and Gatomon to find them.