It Begets Terror
888
"Today the mayor of Tokyo led a memorial to those fallen during the monster attack that destroyed the Rainbow Bridge-"
The radio continued with the story. Taichi however stuck his ear buds into his ears. It had been a month since Armageddemon. He looked out the window, in the very farthest edge of his view he could see the cranes that were rebuilding the Rainbow Bridge. He pulled the string on the blinds bringing them down. School was nearly intolerable. The other kids knew who he was, it was never a problem before but now, they would look at him, whisper behind his back. He swallowed as he closed his eyes and clenched his fists.
Fortunately, UNIT had seen fit to block all reporters, and fielded all media questions, or at least tried, periodically someone would get through but generally they didn't get far or didn't get far for long before someone took them away. For the moment Agumon and the others were staying in the UNIT compound, in Koushiro's laboratory. Over the course of the month UNIT had approved his research into the server program. Other digi-destined hadn't had it so easily. Many were being mobbed at school, bullied. Being a digi-destined became a bad thing, and if your digimon was in the Human World, the scrutiny had only gotten worse.
Taichi took a deep breath and pulled the ear buds out of his ears.
"-police are still looking for twelve year old Takako Namamora of Shinjuku." the reporter droned on. "She is known in the community as being a digi-destined, she was last seen at home preparing to go to bed with her monster partner, her parents later claimed that she was gone when they awoke the following morning. No sign of forced entry was reported her partner monster has not been located some have theor-"
Taichi shut the radio off. He pulled away from his desk and stood up and stretched. He turned and opened the door of his bedroom. There was a commotion going on in the living room. Taichi furrowed his brow. He walked into the living room to see Hikari leaping up and down.
"Big brother!" Hikari cheered as she ran up to him. She pushed an envelope into his face. "LOOK! It's from the magazine!"
"Wait the magazine?" Taichi blinked looking at the envelope. "Did they?"
"I haven't opened it!" Hikari said looking at the envelope. She frowned slightly. "I'm a little scared….what if…"
"Open it! Open it!" Taichi implored smiling. "The worst thing they can say is you didn't win, right?"
Hikari looked up at him and smiled. She nodded sharply and tore open the envelope. "Dear Ms. Yagami, it is our pleasure…OH TAICHI TAICHI!"
She grabbed him around the neck and hugged him tightly. He coughed as she nearly strangled him. She pulled away and looked at the letter.
"Well?" Taichi asked.
"I don't- I don't believe it!" Hikari sat down on one of the armchairs arms. "I won…I won the top prize! My photo won the top prize! I have to tell Ms. Tachikawa!"
Taichi smiled as Hikari leapt to her feet and scrambled for the telephone. Her hands shook as she tried to dial the number. Taichi remembered the day they'd taken the photo. It was on Odaiba Day of this year. They had gone with Daisuke and the other newer kids, and found the old trolley that had taken them home from the Digital World. Hikari had gotten a photo of all of them and the digimon sitting around it.
Taichi's cell phone range quietly and Taichi pulled it out of his hip pocket. The number was from Koushiro.
"Hey, Izzy." Taichi said as he walked towards his bedroom.
"You sound like you're in a good mood…" Koushiro yawned.
"Hikari's photo one the top prize from that magazine." Taichi explained as he closed the door to his room.
"Cool, the picture with us at the trolley? It deserved to win…" Koushiro said, yawning again.
"Is something up?" Taichi asked. "You haven't called me in a couple of weeks. You sound tired."
"Yeah, I've been working on some stuff here in the lab." Koushiro said. "Pulling all nighters…"
"So what's going on?" Taichi asked.
"I can't really talk about it over the phone, can you come over here?" Koushiro asked.
"Sure…I'll be over as soon as I can." Taichi said.
"I'll have someone pick you up." Koushiro replied.
"I can-"
"No. I'll have someone come pick you up." Koushiro said. "Bring Hikari with you, I think I'll need everyone for this."
"O-ok, sure whatever, Izzy." Taichi said. Koushiro said goodbye and then promptly hung up. Taichi furrowed his eyebrows and then shrugged.
888
Takako Namamora sniffled slightly as she looked up. It was dark wherever she was. She wasn't sure where she was or how long she'd been there, all she knew is she was alone and her D-3 was gone. She looked around her. She couldn't find Kotemon. She swallowed trying to remember how she'd gotten here, but her memories were fuzzy. She remembered waking up and seeing Kotemon staring blankly at the computer screen, and then she felt something, a wind, but that was impossible she didn't have a fan in her room. She closed her eyes, since they were of little use in the darkness. No, there had been a breeze a chilly, wind. She started and turned, and then….
Takako opened her eyes. A creature a monster had appeared at the side of her bed. She had tried to scream but the monster's paws had covered her mouth. She had tried to fight back but it was too strong and Kotemon simply watched as the creature had taken her towards the computer screen.
Then everything had gone dark, and it hadn't lightened up. Takako walked around, this had been the fourth of fifth time. Whatever room she was in it was large, but there was nothing in it. No bed, no chairs, just walls, she hadn't even felt a door. She stopped. She strained her ears into the dark. There was a sound of scraping.
"Hello?" Takako shouted, unsure. "Is-is anyone there?"
There was a rush of air, cold, and harsh. Takako lifted her arms to protect herself, preparing for a fight. Something was breathing in the dark. Suddenly two red eyes shown in the darkness.
"What are you? Who are you?" Takako shouted, trying to back away, her back came against a hard stony wall.
"Wa-lul-ace-" the creature growled.
"What?" Takako asked.
"Not Wa-lul-ace-" the creature growled.
"No, I'm not!" Takako shouted in confusion. There was slushing sound and footsteps.
"Who's there?" Takako growled, clenching her fists.
"Nobody-" the voice said, it sounded like a man's voice. "Nobody at all."
"Don't make me fight you!" Takako shouted.
"There's no need to fight." The voice said, and then a candle appeared. The glow of the light burned, and Takako winced. The bearer walked forward. He was a tall thin man, with spiky black hair that had a long trailing rat-tail in the back. His eyes were cold as ice. Takako looked over and saw the beast, the one that had kidnapped her. It had a small round head, with floppy, furry ears. It's body was wide at the shoulders, thin at the waist with bulging thighs, and weird bendy forearms. She looked back to see the man standing before her. He wore black robes. "I do hate fighting…it's so unnecessary, I've found."
"What are you some kind of pedophile? Only you use digimon?" Takako spat.
"No, I despise children, I despise all things." The man said with an incongruous smile. "I despise the pointless struggle you tiny, little, extant things put up, all the more so because of the futility of it all." He turned his head. "Come on out, let us begin-"
In the edge of the candlelight Takako saw a small form walk forward. She gulped quietly. It was Kotemon standing there staring up at the man in black robes with a blank stare.
"Kotemon!" Takako shouted. "What did you do to him?"
"Freed him, of course-" the man said looking back to Takako. "He suffers no more. Child, look deep into my eyes now, and see the truth…isn't it terrific."
Takako looked up at the man and he grabbed her face and looked into her eyes. She tried to struggle but the man's grip was very strong. She looked into his eyes. She hadn't a choice. Somehow, the steely blue of his eyes were engulf in darkness, no, not darkness, darkness implied light to define it, this was deeper than darkness, this was darkness beyond darkness this was, it was….
Takako slumped forward into the man's arms. The man curled a smile across his lips. He looked to Kotemon. The little digimon wearing kendo armor grew, morphed changed into a lithe swordsman with a mask and llama like ears. The man dropped Takako's body on the ground turned and left the cell, the two digimon following behind him.
888
"Is everyone here?" Koushiro asked as he looked over at the group of digi-destined and digimon in his office.
"I tried to get Jyou to come over-" Gomamon said as he looked at everyone, "but he said he was busy with school stuff."
"What's wrong with him?" Daisuke grumbled crossing his arms.
"It's fine." Taichi said as he leaned against the wall of the office. "We can always fill him in later."
"Right-" Koushiro said as he lifted a small remote. "As you guys know I scored an internship with the UNIT research office. I've been working here specifically on my project to develop a better way of allowing digimon to safely stay here."
"How's that going?" Ken asked as he looked up.
"Tricky-" Koushiro sighed. "It worked at first, but now, I can't get the biofilter to function right. Some of our digimon are fine getting into the server space but others…"
"We just keep bouncing off." Agumon said lifting his clawed hand.
"I've gone through a dozen computer monitors…" Koushiro shook his head.
"Is it a coding issue? The digimon typing?" Ken said.
"No, no, I think the filter matrix is just glitching from usage." Koushiro growled, looking at the computer screen. He shook his head. "But that's not why I asked you here…"
"Then what's the problem?" Yamato asked, as he sat back in his chair and crossed his legs.
"I've been secretly monitoring the Digital World and the internet since our visit from Diaboromon last month." Koushiro said, as he clicked the remote. The screen behind him flared to life showing two worlds hovering next to each other. "I've noted an increase of activity in the digi-port network these last few weeks."
"Lots of kids have been sending their digimon back to the Digital World due to pressure from others." Iori said looking around. "A lot of kids' parents don't want digimon in the house."
"I thought that too, but the transfers aren't from our world to the Digital World, it's the Digital World to our world." Koushiro said clicking the remote. Blue and red lines blinked in and out between the worlds. "These lines represent the activity across the barrier, red is for transmissions from the Digital World, blue is to the Digital World…"
It looked like a fireworks display, millions of tiny flashes of red followed quickly by flashes of blue. The lines went everywhere across the world.
"Is there a pattern?" Miyako asked as she adjusted her glasses and sat forward.
"No, not precisely, not until I started digging anyways…" Koushiro said, he clicked the remote. The screen blinked and revealed news clippings. "I'm not sure if you guys have heard, but there's been a rash of kidnappings, or alleged kidnappings going on…"
"Yeah-" Yamato sat up. "My dad was talking about it. Cops still don't know if its kidnapping or if the kids are running away, not much has been said…"
"The authorities probably don't want to start a panic." Ken said, crossing his arms.
"The first one in Japan started about two days after Armageddemon bio-emerged." Koushiro said, clicking the remote. "It was a boy, his name was Haru Shinkai, parents saw him go into his bedroom to go to sleep, the next morning he was gone, no sign of forced entry, no evidence that Haru planned to leave, all of his clothes and belongings were there, his digimon partner was gone."
"So are we thinking that it was…what?" Mimi asked, she looked at the others and the others looked to Ken.
Ken's crossed arms tightened. "It's possible, but even so you'd have thought he'd taken stuff with him."
"What's possible?" Mimi scratched her head.
"When Ichijouji was…umm-" Sora blushed slightly.
"As the Digimon Emperor I ran away from home, to live in the Digital World." Ken said, he took a deep breath, "but I had prepared for a long time. I had supplies, I had an empire…"
"There's no evidence that Haru ever went to the Digital World…furthermore his D-3 was still in his bed room." Koushiro said looking up at the screen. "Nothing from his social media suggests he'd ever been to the Digital World…and nothing to suggest that the computer he had even had a Digital Port program installed on it."
"You think this is some kind of new Digimon Emperor thing?" Daisuke sat forward looking at the screen.
"No, because Shinkai was only the beginning-" Koushiro clicked the remote. The news clippings changed to something new. "A week later two disappear, a week after that three…and more importantly it isn't restricted to Japan, this is happening all over the place. The kids' belongings left behind, including their digivice or D-3, and their partners are gone."
"You think it's the Digital World?" Hikari said, clutching Salamon in her arms.
"I'm not sure, there's no pattern, some of the kids it should've been impossible they don't live near a gate or have portal program installed in their computer…" Koushiro said, frowning. "I am however sure that they are getting taken from their beds, at night…I just don't know how. The only thing that connects all of the disappearances are the fact that they are digi-destined."
"Has anyone disappeared that we know of?" Iori asked.
"Not, exactly-" Koushiro said as he sat down. "I'm not sure…"
"What do you mean?" Taichi asked pushing off from the wall of the office.
"Well, it's an aberration…" Koushiro said quietly.
"What's an aberration?" Yamato looked back to Taichi and then to Koushiro.
"You guys remember those twins from America…?" Koushiro asked.
"Willis and Wallace!" Mimi said. "I loved them; they were really neat!"
"Yeah, well, one of their partners disappeared-" Koushiro said. "Specifically Wallace's partner Lopmon the night that Armageddemon attacked." Koushiro took a deep breath. "Wallace was helping me do some research on the server program, when the Kuramon attacked, the biofilter matrix glitched Lopmon had gotten trapped, it took me off guard, I had to dismantle the biofilter to get Lopmon free…"
"Yeesh, poor little thing must have been terrified." Mimi said, looking at Koushiro.
"Wallace said he looked fine-" Koushiro replied. "But all of a sudden that night, while Wallace and Willis were sleeping, he disappeared. No word on where he went. No one has heard from him since."
"And these disappearances…." Iori narrowed his eyes.
"Started days later…" Koushiro said, he turned and looked up at the screen. "It could just be coincidence, and there's no reason to believe that Lopmon would be able to or would want to do this sort of thing…"
"Is there anything going on in the Digital World?" Ken asked.
"I don't know." Koushiro shook his head. "I've been trying to talk to Gennai for a month now, and getting nowhere, he's completely silent."
"He does disappear for long stretches of time-" Yamato said, he frowned slightly.
"Usually when we need him the most." Takeru said, looking to his older brother.
"Not like this, before a month ago he'd been fairly chatty helping with the barrier maintenance-" Koushiro said looking at the others. "Then about a week before Armageddemon happened it went all silent."
"Maybe he's on vacation?" Veemon said the little blue dragon looked at everyone hopefully.
"One hell of a time to take a holiday-" Daisuke grumbled.
"So what are we actually supposed to do?" Sora finally said after a few minutes of silence. "I mean we can't be in every kids' bedroom waiting for whatever is happening to happen…"
"We have to do something now," Taichi said, slapping his fist into the palm of his hand. "If we wait too long, or something people could be hurt, or worse."
"But what do we do?" Ken asked. "It's not like there's anything we can punch or blow up…if we let this get out it will only spread more panic, and the public are already a little iffy about digimon-"
"Whatever is going on it's coming from the Digital World." Taichi said as he walked forward. "Then we go to the Digital World. We find Gennai…we get to the bottom of this!"
"The Digital World is huge-" Iori said looking over to Taichi. "We could search for weeks and not find anyone…"
"And if Gennai is purposely not wanting to be found it could be even worse." Salamon said looking up from Hikari's arms, "There are secret places that only Gennai would know about…"
"Then more reason to start looking. We can split up!" Taichi said looking to the others. "Into two teams. Start at the obvious places, Gennai's lake house, File Island…someone has to know something."
"Ok- say we do this." Hikari said with a great deal of trepidation. "When we find out whatever this is, what do we do about it?"
"We stop it." Yamato said standing up. "One way or another."
The other kids looked up at Yamato. The blonde looked back at them with steely blue eyes.
Taichi nodded. "That's my decision then, let's find this thing-"
"Can it wait though, just tonight?" Miyako asked. Taichi furrowed his brow and looked at her. Miyako winced. "It's just, I'm supposed to watch the shop tonight…"
"Fine, tomorrow then..." Taichi said, he looked to everyone in the room for dissent and when none came he nodded.
"I'll call Jyou then-" Koushiro said, as he looked at everyone.
"He's not going to like this." Gomamon said as everyone started filing out of the room and Koushiro returned to his computer terminal.
"Lately he hasn't liked much of anything!" Tentomon buzzed.
"It's school and his family, and well…" Gomamon blushed. "This girl-"
All the children stopped and spun around agog. All of them in tandem shouted. "A GIRL!? JYOU!?"
"Oops-" Gomamon said then he started to panic. "Please don't say anything, I promised I wouldn't tell anyone! He hasn't told anyone about her!"
"Have you seen her?" Yamato said walking forward, turning a chair backwards and sitting on it with his head on his arms as they braced against the chair back.
"Umm, no, not really, she's not from the area, they talk online-" Gomamon said, tentatively.
"Are you sure-" Yamato said lifting his head and putting his hands together and pointing his two index fingers forward. "Are you very sure she's real?"
"Matt…" groaned Sora.
"It's Jyou, it's a valid question!" Yamato responded.
"I mean, he's not, unattractive-" Mimi said as she tapped her chin.
"Mimi?" Miyako asked.
"Oh, he's far too oblivious for someone like me but maybe…maybe I don't know…I'm just saying." Mimi said waving her hands trying to dismiss the assumption. She blinked. "I wonder who she is?"
"Just don't mention it!" Sora said, grabbing Yamato and hauling him to his feet. She looked to Mimi. "Don't ask questions, just forget it! Gomamon made a promise we're going to help him keep it!"
"Right-" Koushiro said turning back to the monitors. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
The kids nodded to one another waved to their digimon partners and then filed out of the room.
888
Wallace walked slowly down the street. The same streets he walked with Lopmon after school. Further ahead Willis was walking with Terriermon, laughing and giggling as they joked and talked. He looked at the pavement below his feet, gray and cracked. He hiked his backpack onto his back and swallowed back as a few drops of water fell onto the pavement.
Why did Lopmon have to leave? Why didn't he say where he was going? Did I do something wrong? Wallace came to a stop. He looked up to the storefront he was in front of, an electronics store, the window was filled with television displays. The TVs were shut off. Wallace could make out his reflection in the darkness of the TV screens. A cold breeze swirled around him, Wallace hugged himself, wincing as the wind swept across his face. He opened eyes, and looked up, and saw a second reflection in the television screen.
"Wa-lul-ace-" growled a voice, as a wide mad smile curled into existence as a pair of eyes shined red.
888
AN: This one just blazed out didn't it!? Don't expect this pace to stay in place though…Anyone picking up what I'm putting down with this 'evil' Gennai?