A few weeks out, hopefully you all remember where you left off. If not, I hope you like this nonetheless. I'm still thinking of a better title, but I'll listen to suggestions through a PM. But other than that, this is just a slow chapter to introduce new characters and new information, and maybe shed a little light on Mao's past. And while I'm here, this chapter is brought to you by deathsonic, who asked when I was posting the next chapter. Thank you for reminding me I hadn't posted for a while. I'm sure some fans will appreciate you, and hopefully send you messages of thanks.
Disclaimer: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do hereby state that I do not own the rights to Digimon, in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for your time, and please enjoy the chapter, short as it may feel.
…
I rolled out of the hammock and landed on the blanket, but something hit me over the head. As I grabbed the sore spot, I looked up to see a familiar object. A shinai.
"Hey Harrigan." I said tiredly. I saw a look in his eyes. "Woke me up a little faster." Scott laughed quietly from his bed as I grabbed my belt and stood up, putting it on and turning the alarm off. "I take it Riley spent the night?" He nodded. "Cool. Hopefully you both like it here." I rubbed my head as Scott jumped down and glided to the floor. "Where are the others?"
"Probably getting breakfast, or maybe showing Riley around." Scott said. I went to the door and opened it, and we all walked out and Daisy ran up to us.
"Guys, you should see this." She said. I rubbed my head again and stifled a yawn.
"Is something wrong?" Scott asked.
"No, but, it's awesome." She said. We followed her down the hall toward the kitchen, where we heard cheering. As we got in, I saw Percy watching, one arm in the air. When we got to the crowd, Scott jumped up and landed on his shoulder, and he was silent. I jumped up and climbed onto Percy's other shoulder and saw that Arthur was arm wrestling someone bigger than he was, and they were even. I laughed. "How awesome is that? He's got him dead even!"
"No, Arthur'll win." I said, looking at her. "He's got a trick up his sleeve."
"What's that?" Percy asked. I looked at him and pointed at Arthur.
"Arthur, finish him!" I said. Arthur smirked and began moving his challenger's arm, slowly at first.
"What's he doing?" Percy asked quietly. I leaned in.
"It's all about how you move your arm." I said. "Look how Arty's moving his. He's pulling it in, giving the other guy less leverage." Percy looked. "You can take someone twice your size with that… Not that you'd need it. I don't know anyone bigger than you that isn't a Digimon." Arthur put the other guy's hand down and the crowd erupted in cheer, and I climbed up a little more.
"Ah, well done my friend!" Percy said happily. "Well done indeed! You beat him!" The man ran his fingers through his hair as Arthur smiled.
"Your dad was a Marine?" He asked. Arthur nodded. "I believe it. Good job." He held his hand out, and shook Arthur's. As Arthur stood, Percy took his hand and raised it.
"That's three for three, for squad sixteen!" He called.
"Yeah, but I bet your that Impmon isn't as tough as mine." The guy said.
"Hey, Mao can win, easy." Arthur said. I looked at him.
"I just woke up." I said.
"Chickenmon." A smug voice said. I looked to see another Impmon, arms crossed. "Just 'cause your different, ya think youse tough."
"Come on Mao, easy win." Arthur said.
"No using that new Digivice." The Tamer said.
"Won't need it." I said. I jumped down as the Impmon got up on the other side, and Daisy got near the table, climbing up.
"Okay, Mao, versus…" She started.
"Joey." The Impmon said.
"Joey." Daisy repeated, raising her arms. "Arms on the table." I put my arm down, and Joey did the same, our hands apart.
"You're goin' down, Mao." He said.
"Your hand is, I know that much." I said quietly.
"Okay, hands together." Daisy said. We complied, and Joey gripped fairly hard, trying to hurt my hand.
'If that's how you're going to play.' I thought.
"Ready Joey?" Daisy asked. He nodded. "Mao?"
"Ready." I said.
"Go!" She said, lowering her arms quickly. Joey instantly began pushing against my arm, but mine stayed still, if shaking from his effort. He let out a deep groan of effort, but I began pulling his arm a little toward me, making it harder, and I moved easily and put his hand on the table. He panted as he let go of my hand.
"You cheated!" He said loudly. "Your Tamer used that, thing!" Arthur held his hand out to his Tamer.
"If I did, it would show more data in Mao's right arm." He said. The man looked at it and ran his fingers through his hair again.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary." He said. "Sorry Joey, he, he uh, won. Fair."
"Damn it!" The Impmon said under his breath.
"It's all in the technique." I said. "Not that hard to learn it." He jumped down and walked away.
"Sorry, Joey's a bit of a sore loser." The Tamer said. "Good job Mao."
"Just think, if I were awake, I'd have won faster." I said. The crowd laughed as Daisy raised my arm.
"Let's hear it again for Mao!" She called. The crowd cheered and I smirked as she let go of my hand, though I left it up for a second before lowering it.
"With this many cute girls around, I had to show off." I said. They all laughed again as Joey walked back over with some food. "So, what do we win?" Annabelle kissed Arthur and Percy's cheeks, and then mine. Arthur blushed deeply while I just smiled, and then Daisy kissed my other cheek.
"You were awesome, all of you." She said. Annabelle picked her up and held her out to kiss Arthur's cheek, and then Percy's.
"I definitely feel like a winner now." I said. Arthur picked me up and put me on his shoulders while Riley jumped up, one hand in the air, with Harrigan mirroring her.
"We rule!" She called. "I got to be in the best squad!" The crowd slowly parted, likely to get breakfast, but they all seemed in better spirits than usual.
"The chief put you with us?" I asked. They nodded. "Sorry then." She laughed.
"Hey, you beat Harry, and there's an Angemon capable Patamon here." She said. Scott smiled a little as Percy turned. "And they told me about what you did." She smirked. "Monochromon, Tyrannomon, Devimon, and a freaking Myotismon!" I rubbed the back of my head and pointed at Scott.
"Scott did the harder work on that." I said. "Beat him as a Devimon, weakened him as a Myotismon… I shot him a few times, Scott fired the round that put him on the ground…"
"Yeah, but you finished him off!" She said. She and Harrigan held their arms out. "Dude, you killed a Myotismon! You're a Rookie that kills Champions, and you finished off an Ultimate!" They lowered their arms as she grinned, the others laughing. "You rule!" Harrigan nodded.
"It's because he overcharges his attacks." Scott said. She looked at him and then me.
"Really?" She asked. I nodded.
"Yeah." I said. "It's as much a weakness as a strength. I can only use half as many attacks as I normally should be able to. I only go normal power on other Rookies, if I know it'll drop 'em outright." Arthur shifted.
"Doesn't mean you're not awesome." He said. Riley and Harrigan nodded, raising their right hands.
"Heck yeah!" She said. We laughed.
"Come on, we should get Harry to the lab, so you can get your things." Arthur said. "They'll just need a quick scan to check things out." They all started walking toward the lab, but I grabbed a bag of food on the way. "Mao…"
"I just woke up, arm wrestled, and got kissed by a cute human girl and a cute Palmon." I said. Annabelle and Daisy giggled. "I've earned…" I looked into the bag. "A sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich, and hash browns." I pulled out the hash brown and took a bite of it over the bag.
"One crumb gets in my hair and I'll put ketchup on your head." He said. I moved my foot and he laughed.
…
"Hey, check this out." Annabelle said. I looked up from the magazine I was reading as she held a card out to Arthur.
"Is that…" Percy asked. She nodded.
"Yeah, I just found it in my purse." She said. "How cool is that?" Daisy raised her hands and Annabelle gave her the card as she crouched. "That's the same kind of card Percy uses to Digivolve Scott."
"I have one of those." Riley said. I looked over as she held out the card, while Harrigan held out a credit card, most likely to mimic her. Percy looked at the card in Riley's hand.
"Well, the only one without a card, or a noticeable way…" He started slowly.
"Is Mao." Arthur said. He looked at the Optimizer and touched the screen a few times. "Looks like whatever it was that changed with Mao is finished, but, there's no telling just what it was yet. I'll look for it…" He looked at me. "Hey, you know what we forgot to do?"
"What?" I asked.
"Data allocation." He said. He walked over and they looked. "After a big fight that gets a lot of data, Mao and I put it in, wherever he feels it fits."
"What do you mean?" Riley asked. She walked over, along with the others, while Arthur handed me the stylus.
"This Digivice is different, as we said." He explained. "Mao absorbs data on his own, to grow stronger, and heal. But he doesn't get a lot. Some goes to the Digital World, some of it goes to him, and the rest, comes to me, to the Digi-Optimizer." She got up next to me as he held the screen out to me. "Look at that. Six gigabytes. Not bad." I thought for a moment and put three gigs in each leg. "This is Mao's standard data, with all of the excess he's collected at all times. Then we add the data I acquire, so he can gain the full benefits, but that data is limited in how much he can have in various areas. He put it in his legs, so he can run faster and kick harder, but there's data in his arms, his head, and his body. This…" He pointed to the image of me, at my chin and jaw. "Is his jaw, where most of the head data goes. It lets him bite harder. In his eyes, it makes his vision sharper. His ears, his hearing improves." He pointed at my chest. "And his body, it's a general improvement of his durability, as well as general health. Strong lungs, a strong stomach, obviously…" The others laughed as he touched my chest, over my heart. "And a strong heart. This one time, he got hit by a lightning bolt in the middle of a battle, I thought he was a goner, and his enemy turned on me. I ran for, about five minutes, and all of a sudden I hear this voice yell 'Dark Round', but I think it's my imagination for all of a second. Then, a sound that thunder can't get close to. A bullet hits the thing in the head, and… Mao's standing off to the side." Riley looked at me as he looked at the screen. "The doctor we took him to said that Mao should have died the instant that lightning bolt hit him. I looked at the Optimizer, turned out it had given a warning, that his heart had nearly stopped. The doctor asked what I was doing, I told him what this was, what it did, and he suggested that the data in his heart made it just strong enough to take the hit. Since then, I always keep some extra data there, to save his life in case he gets another jolt from something."
"Did it hurt?" Daisy asked.
"Oh yeah…" I said, rubbing the top of my head. "Went right for the shiniest spot up here. Whenever it starts raining, I try not to jump if at all possible." They laughed quietly. "Lucky me, I healed completely. Turns out it was lucky I got jolted though. I'd used all six Dark Rounds, had just enough power left to create a single bullet. Figured I'd try to take a Champion down with a normal bullet, contact to the head. Then the lightning hit me." I patted Baffle. "Charged me just enough to fire that last shot. Lucky it didn't set off the bullet, or that would messed me up anyway."
"I'll say this again." Riley said. "You're awesome!" The others laughed.
"Yeah, now if only we could get Mao to go Champion, he'd be even more awesome." Arthur said. He rubbed my head. "Until then, he's strong enough to beat Champions, and with all of you, it'll be a lot easier."
"It'll happen someday." Percy said. "I bet he'll be something very powerful, oui?"
"I hope so." Arthur said. "But no matter what…" He held up the Optimizer and I put the stylus away in it. "He can be powerful. If all he has is melee, he can get strong enough to beat up an Ultimate."
"Hey, what's that right there?" Riley asked. She touched a spot, and we looked. She pressed the scan button and the light shined on Harrigan, and it dinged after a second. "Wh-what did you do to Harry?"
"Scanned him." Arthur said. "The Optimizer scans Digimon, analyzes them, and lets Mao learn some of their attacks. It looks like Mao just gained… The power to create a shinai. Neat."
"Mao, do it." Riley said. Harrigan nodded quickly.
"It takes energy, you know." I said.
"Come on, you can keep it with you." Arthur said. "You can clock people with it." I thought for a moment as images filled my head. I held out my left hand and focused, and data formed a shinai, but when it appeared, it was, partly rotted. "Whoa."
"It's rotted." Riley said. "Is that because of you?"
"Probably." I said. I swung down at the ground, hard, and it made a warped cracking sound, but it didn't break at all. "But it's just as strong as Harrigan's." He walked up and tapped his mask. "You sure?" He nodded. I swung down again and the shinai bounced off with a loud crack. He then offered his own, and Riley giggled.
"Wow, he really trusts you." She said.
"Probably from our sparring match." Arthur said. Harrigan nodded as I set my Shinai down and took his, and he moved his head a little. I swung down and it made a similar sound, but lighter. "Sounds different." I gave it back and Riley pointed at mine at the same time as Harrigan.
"His is tougher." She said. "The rot doesn't make it any weaker. If anything, the rotted stuff made it a little stronger." Arthur nodded as I looked it over.
"Looks like Harrigan's is genuine bamboo, while mine is…" I started. "Looks like maple slats tied together… It's like a, deconstructed, reconstructed baseball bat." Riley giggled. "That means, it's not a true shinai, but, a mimic." Harrigan nodded. "You know, I like naming my weapons. I will call this… Bamboozle."
"Bamboozle." Arthur repeated. The Optimizer beeped twice and he looked at it. "Hey, look at that. Create Bamboozle… Looking down a little, I see 'Create Baffle'. You can make another?" I nodded.
"Yeah, if Baffle gets damaged bad enough, it disappears like a Digimon would." I said. "Happened once when I lost it down a chasm. It was so far down I just created a new one. That made the original reformat to this one, or so I would imagine."
"So, that's basically, Baffle two point oh." Arthur said. I shrugged as I tapped my shoulder with Bamboozle.
"Another thing about that name, it has bamboo in it." Daisy said. Harrigan jumped and looked at her, nodding quickly.
"I didn't think of that." I said thoughtfully. "Good catch, Daisy." They all laughed.
"Hey, got a hot one for you." A lab tech said. "Percival?" Percy looked and took a note.
"What's this?" He asked.
"Well, they're sending you on a fairly simple mission." The tech said. "There are a few departments, and the chief wants all field agents to be on a special rotation. Today you started on the second part." He pointed at the note. "Looks like you're going to find a kid that has a Digimon and is using it to bully his peers. Sad as it is, you're going to have to separate the child from his partner and friend."
"What kind of Digimon is it?" Riley asked. Percy read the note for a moment.
"Keramon, but he uses a D three, and it's Champion capable." He said. "Best to separate them and remove the Digivice. But he also has a brother that has a Garurumon and a sister with a Greymon. The two are known to be able to reach the Ultimate level, so we have to be very careful. We're to go in, tell the parents, and make sure the Keramon is willing to go peacefully back to the Digital World until the boy is ready. If he fights back, subdue it. If we can't do that, it's, obvious what we have to do."
"How is it he has a Keramon in the first place?" Annabelle asked. "I thought Keramon were the result of a virus infecting a Digi-Egg that was on the internet."
"The original was." I said. "But after it multiplied, a few copies in the Digital World were reverted to Digi-Eggs, and were purified of that virus, but are still Virus Digimon." They all looked at me. "What?"
"How did you know that?" She asked.
"You hear things in the Dark Area, whether you mean to or not." I said. "Newspapers caught in the wind, intermittent power turning on a TV in an abandoned house, or the odd traveler that doesn't see me going after a roast in a tree and was talking to a companion on the way to a nearby castle to speak to the local lord." They laughed and I pointed to the note. "If the boy has a Keramon, then it's because he and the Keramon are similar in some way."
"True, Digimon are attracted to humans of similar dispositions…" Percy said. "It's all about the personality of the Digimon and the person he finds. Always seems to be that way. A Digimon leaves the Digital World to find a friend, they nearly always find their way to the exact human that is a perfect match for them, oui?"
"Oui." Riley said. She giggled. "I like that word… What does it mean?" Percy laughed.
"It means 'yes'." He said. "Come on, let's go. Ah, here is another word I think you will like, and it means 'let's go', more or less." He pointed toward the entrance. "Allons-y!"
"Allons-y!" She called, pointing with Harrigan.
…
"So, wait, my brother is bullying other kids?" The teen asked. Arthur nodded.
"So it seems." He said. "I have the security footage, here." He held out the smart phone and played a scene of the boy using his Keramon to hold another boy up by his ankles to make his money fall out. I looked at the Garurumon as he stood up to watch.
"What do you think, big guy?" The teen asked. "Did they do anything to this?" The Garurumon shook his head.
"No." He said. "That's the real deal."
"You know how to spot fake footage?" Arthur asked. I tapped his elbow.
"I've been meaning to tell you about something." I said. "Virus Digimon can hack into anything with a computer chip in the real world." He looked at me and then at Garurumon.
"It's true." He said. "Some better than others. I don't bother. Not too good at it. But I'm good at seeing it. Harvey has a habit of messing with Ben's videos. I can put them right, but I always see where Harvey messes around." He looked at me. "How good are you?" I shrugged.
"Never bother with it." I said. "Obvious suspect, right?" He laughed quietly.
"Well, if Harvey gives any trouble, we'll back you up." Ben said. There was a sound outside, like some kind of manic giggling.
"Arthur, the Keramon's attacking us!" Annabelle said quickly. "Riley and I can't get to our cards, and the brother…" The line went dead as Arthur got up, dropping the phone.
"Harvey." Ben said. We ran outside, Garurumon quickly picking me up. "Garu, get him around the side while I take care of Gary." As we got to the side yard, the boy was in the tree with a slingshot, and Ben ducked under a shot.
"Get 'em!" He called.
"Arthur, scan Harvey!" Percy called. "Find a weakness! He's in the air!" I looked up and pulled to the right, making Garurumon jump to avoid the 'Bug Blaster', Harvey laughing madly while he fired them. I saw Daisy hiding in a bush while Scott flew up, only to take a shot to the chest. He fell down and hit the ground fairly hard. Arthur scanned it and I heard a few beeps.
"Mao, just drop him!" Arthur called. "He's not going to go peacefully!" I drew Baffle. "New move! Bug Blaster!" Harvey panted heavily, giggling. He was visibly tired, but Keramon were known for having prodigious amounts of stamina. He could probably fire upward of fifty or sixty times. Judging by the holes, he'd fired a baker's dozen at best, maybe one or two more if Scott's prone state was anything to go by.
"How high can you jump?" I asked.
"How close do you need to get?" He asked.
"Just don't get hit." I said. I pulled the hammer back and took aim as he jumped high. Keramon spun as we got higher, and his mouth was already glowing, and wide open. "Tell me you can avoid this!"
"Bug Blaster!" Keramon giggled madly. Two shots were fired and the first missed, but the second caught Garurumon. I managed to jump, just in time for a shot to hit me. I hit the ground and heard a groan of pain.
"Mao!" Arthur called. I felt that I'd dropped Baffle as I looked up, and Keramon slowly floated down as the Greymon rushed forward, only to receive a shot to the face as the boy raised his Digivice. I had one shot. I opened my mouth, focusing on the new move.
'I hope to the Sovereigns this hits where I want it to.' I thought. "Bug Blaster!" I laughed madly as I spat the golden light toward the tree. It shook, causing the boy to drop his Digivice.
"Harvey!" He cried. He held onto the branch as I looked up, firing another just in time to hit Harvey. As I charged another, Greymon grabbed him by the head with both hands, one on top and the other on the bottom.
"No more of that from you, skinny!" She said. I slowly got up, grabbing Baffle as Keramon's tentacles grabbed her hands and began shocking her, making her wince a few times. "Cute, but I can crush your head right now if you don't…" A larger jolt made her let go, and as he looked at me I raised Baffle.
"Bug Blaster!" I said under my breath. I felt the urge to laugh again, but I managed to control myself as I pulled the trigger. A bright golden light shot out, going through Harvey's head, and he was quickly deleted. Greymon looked at me as I lowered the revolver and put a hand to my stomach, where I'd been hit, but I looked up at her.