I do not own anything, expect the OCs.
Chapter Seventeen: Dagomon's Counterattack Pt.3
Michael had done everything he could to keep his nerves from bursting into flames before he booted up his computer. Splashing cold water in his face, eating, jogging (in place since going outside wasn't an option), playing video games, and even having Marie give him a massage. It felt…different being given a massage not by some stranger or profession but by someone he considered a close friend. He'd make it up to her one day. He owed it to her given the amount of blushing she did before, during, and after she was done. Michael was still stressed out but the massage had helped. Willis had been in for something similar though his treatment had gone much better judging by the look on his face.
The girl he'd rescued Evelyn had taken a liking to him. That much was obvious to everyone save for maybe Willis who seemed to be unsure of what to do. Growing a crush on a girl he'd just met in the middle of an epic battle of good versus evil wasn't exactly typical but it had happened. Michael didn't mind the fact Willis had likely found himself a girlfriend, matter of fact he was happy for his friend. He just worried about if they'd be alive or if they'd have a world for them to explore together. Those two things may have hinged on how this world-wide meeting went.
The blond stood before the laptop waiting for Willis to arrive. As much as he was dreading meeting over ten other kids like himself face to face he was glad he'd be able to escape the nightmare New York City had become. No, the nightmare the world was steadily becoming.
Everyone had stayed at Michael's house the day they returned from the beach battle. To say they were shook up would have been an understatement. They all could feel something big was coming. How big and bad it was unknown to them until they all noticed the crime rate was slowly growing. Murders, robbery, rape, and everyone other crime imaginable in an urban jungle suddenly began growing over the course of a few days. Fear soon started taking hold of the thousands if not millions of people of New York. As if that wasn't enough Digimon began appearing at random, all over the city, forcing Michael's team all over the place. Sometimes they made it in time, sometimes they only got there in time to see the aftermath. Then the storms came. Almost every beach had been shut down when the first typhoons started hitting, flooding the streets and homes; since it was almost constantly raining or storming those streets remained submerged underwater and abandoned.
Between the Control Spires and insane storms the Big Apple was becoming a city of fear and paranoia. Certain areas had been entirely closed off by both the police and National Guard. These weren't just areas that already had violence in them, no, those areas had either been wiped off the city map or completely isolated from the outside world. Slowly bit by bit those areas steadily grew as did the violence inside them. Racial tensions were also starting to crop up in the ethnic enclaves to a boiling point. Harlem had become a maelstrom of anti-black crimes by white supremacists. It was always known there were some in New York City, that was to be expected from a city called the great melting pot, but when whole blocks started going up in flames with swastikas spray painted on homes and buildings it left a whole in everyone's heart. The African communities weren't the only ones hit by a wave of Neo-Nazism, the Jewish enclaves had been hit, hard.
The Lower East Side, Borough Park, Crown Heights, Midwood, Forest Hills, and Willowbrook, just to name a few, had been assaulted by anti-Semitisms of every background and nationality had started a city-wide hate-campaign. It turned the stomachs of the whole east coast to see a reenactment of the Kristallnacht in New York City. Collectively there had been almost one hundred and thirty confirmed deaths.
It was Steve who suggested it had something to do with the Control Spires appearing in those enclaves. Just days before each incident a Control Spire had appeared cloaked in an orange or green aura of sin. Even when they brought the black obelisks down they still couldn't shake the feeling the danger wasn't over. Every death, every robbery, and every piece of life lost hammered home how much they should have listened to that feeling.
In the European enclaves it was a wave after wave of racial tensions and flat-out paranoia. Little Italy, Bronx, Howard Beach, Whitestone, Queens, 86th Street, Ridgewood, East Village, and bay Bridge had been the worst of it. Venturing into those areas was much like stepping into a warzone with all the fighting and wild Digimon running rampant. They'd almost lost Maria to that hellhole. Half of those districts were on lockdown.
Next up were the conclaves of Asians. That was where the NYC DigiDestined learned an important lesson; the Triads are not to be missed with…and spicy chicken is enough to burn a man's face off. Oddly the violence in Manhattan Chinatown, and Brooklyn had been a mix of various criminal groups making advances on each other and crazed chefs coming after each other to gather cooking secrets. From the outside it would have been laughable…if those chefs weren't walking around caring butcher knives, saws, icepicks, and boiling pots of soup and fluid hot enough to melt the skin off a person.
Yes, those had been strange, horrifying battles. Whole streets smelled of spices and fried food, it oddly mixed with the smell of blood and sizzling flesh. Indian, Korean, Filipino, and Japanese were caught in the crossfire, their respective neighborhoods getting dragged into the war as well. At some point multiple parts of town had become raging infernos, they had to be expected when a clan of Meramon showed up and started blasting at everything they saw. The "Chinatown Inferno" as it came to be called lasted for three days and by the time it was over whole sections of Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island had been burned to the ground with countless people either dead, dying, or traumatized. Almost every member of the DigiDestined was among the last bunch. After those three days of mayhem the mayor had made the choice to call out the National Guard. A more unsettling affect was all over the country people stopped eating Chinese food, or even going to any Asian restaurant when images of chefs and cooks hacking each other apart screaming about how well they could cook somehow made its way to the news.
Since many enclaves were so tightly packed together with each other it was only natural the violence of one would spill into the other. The Latin American populations of Queens and Brooklyn had been scared out of their minds as the violence washed into their communities, driving everyone Latino or Mexican into near hysteria. Gun shops and underground salesman soon started making a profit running weapons as the chaos continued to grow and grown, often ending in fatal consequences for some random citizen in the wrong place. The drug cartels and gangs eventually began coming to blows over who got what and who sold what. The end result was painfully obvious in the body bags and police shoot outs in Coney Island, Red Hook, Spanish Harlem, the South Bronx, and Jackson Heights.
Lastly there was the Middle Eastern enclaves such as Little Egypt, Atlantic Avenue, New Springville. It didn't help that Nine-Eleven was just little over a year ago. Syrian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Arabic, Iranian, Afghanistan, and Israeli, to some people the specifics didn't matter. The weeks following Nine-Eleven were bad, the hate wave that hit those enclaves were worse. Willis theorized the rapid Digimon running wild in those areas were being fueled by the left over hatred people might have felt for the attack on the Twin Towers. From the way they fought and the way the Control Spires seemed to be blazed with orange and red flames Michael and the others were certainly inclined to believe so. It was a nightmare pure and simple, one that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Probably the most baffling event was the aurora of lights that appeared over New York City following each of this incidents. They were in the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple and indigo. Scientist were awe-struck at what it was and how it was appearing over the Big City without any scientific explanation available. The DigiDestined knew those lights were trouble; moreover they knew the aurora was formed from the negative energy collected by the Control Spires. In certain parts of the city certain colors manifested stronger than others; in the Chinatown and Asian districts red, orange, and yellow seemed to hold the strongest dominance with a little bit of green slowly beginning to take up a sizable chunk of the sky. In the European enclaves it was a tie between purple and red. The Middle Eastern enclaves had a mix of orange and blue mingling above them.
Possibly the worst part of it was all this was only counting certain parts of New York. The sky over Wall Street was practically one big violet blanket with patches of blue thrown in. All across the sky were traces of indigo and green that seemed to grow bigger and bigger by the day.
It wasn't just New York City either, similar cases were coming in from almost every major city and population hotspot in the country. Specifically Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, and Miami had been hit by crime waves of almost equal intensity. If it wasn't in a major city it was a mass shooting or kill spree in some town or quiet part of the United States. Simply put; the country was going down the crapper, and again, that wasn't even mentioning the hell other countries were going through. In Europe various cities were getting hit by the same problem, the bigger the city, the worse it was. In South America wild Digimon were rapidly becoming the biggest thing to fear more than the feared drug cartels and dictatorships.
If anyone expected things to get better when tropical storms began bull-dozing the Control Spires then they were sorely mistaken.
The storms came up without warning and without pause. Within three days it was obvious they weren't natural to the general public, how could they be when monster sightings went hand in hand with them along with thousands of disappearances world-wide. The Daemon Corps was pushed back not by the effort of human military or the DigiDestined working around the world but by the aquatic servants of Dagomon. When Michael, Willis, and the others sat down to watch the overseas footage they noticed nearly all the Digimon that appeared in the midst of the storms had crimson DigiCode running up their body. They completely smashed through the Demon and Fallen Angel type Digimon in each of the warzones before going for the Control Spires. Watch the obelisks crumble to the ground would have been gratifying if it wasn't for the fact that something just as dangerous was taking their place. In the aftermath of each storm they had been disappearances and reports of kidnappings in neighboring towns and cities. All of it was linked to some cult that had been gaining attention on the internet.
The Deep Ones, that's what they called themselves and they carried with them the message that the moment of truth had arrived and the "Great One" had arrived to deliver them to salvation.
When they read the forums on the internet Willis fell back in his seat with a sneer. "Can things not be any worse?"
That was a week and a half ago from the current time. In that time things had truly gotten worse. For starters the tropical storms had grown in intensity. Rio had been nearly flatten by a record breaking tsunami along with Rangoon, Kolkata, Dhaka, Hai Phong, Abidjan, Shenzen, Sydney, Singapore, New Orleans, Caracas, Venice, and Athens. Seattle was currently going through the worst rainstorm in its history at the moment with no end in sight. Whole towns in the northeast had been wiped clean off the map forcing thousands of people inland. Even those areas that hadn't been hit already had its residents fleeing their homes and heading inland towards the mountains and as far away from the sea as possible. They could thank Miami for that one.
It was just one week ago, they were all resting from their latest battle in Bronx when Philip turned on the TV so they could see what was happening with the rest of the country. Every station was paying close attention to tropical storm Gordon blow through the Caribbean like a bowling ball and evolve into a category five hurricane.
There was nothing they could do but watch as Gordon practically wiped Miami off the face of the Earth in tidal wave after tidal wave. Countless on sight news crews went dark as the storm strengthened around them leaving shock and fear in their viewers. Eventually every news station was only able to show satellite footage. One day, for one whole day Miami had the entire world's attention despite no one being able to get a clear view of it. When the first images came through no one could believe what they were seeing.
Miami was gone, not just flooded or damage, but simply gone. Now buried under hundreds of feet of seawater that showed no signs of resending. A modern day Atlantis, people around the world called it. There was no talk of searching for survivors, especially since Gordon was still trudging its way up the east coast.
Only days later Venice, Rio, and countless other cities befell the same fate.
And then various countries started to notice warships were disappearing from harbors. That was when countless government officials started having heart attacks. Old Russian subs, destroyers, German submarines, battleships from various nations, and four US battleships had suddenly vanished from their harbors. Over the next few days this ships and sea craft were spotted in various locations, not a human aboard them or hint of being occupied by human or monster hands. The fact that this ships appeared alongside the sea monsters led them to be dubbed "Ghost Ships" by the worldwide media.
Worldwide storms ripping the world apart, crime waves hit every major city on the planet, and now straw warships roaming the sea with almost no method of tracking them down. As it was said on some night news show the condition of the whole planet could be summed up in one rude word.
That leads us back to our current situation. While the leaders of the world were collectively shitting themselves the leaders of the DigiDestined worldwide had decided to come to get to make sure the world didn't come to an end under their watch.
A war council, no one wanted to say it out loud but that was what all the kids were calling it. It was spoken of in private emails in both awe and terror. They were children and teenagers, where did they get off calling it such a thing? Where did they get off coming together to decide to save the world when hundreds of adults twice their age were banging their heads against the wall arguing about how to do the same thing?
"Because we're the only ones with the power who can!" Willis had nearly yelled when Evelyn cornered him before he set out to join Willis.
She'd stayed close to him during that time since he'd rescue her on that beach. As the two months passed he couldn't deny he felt an attraction to her. She wanted to learn more about the monsters that had ruined her day at the beach and through her persistence he spilled the beans on the Digital World, Digimon, and his role as a DigiDestined. From there they'd grown closer. Even though she had no Digimon partner she made every effort possible to help them in any way she could. For that she had his respect and was slowly gaining his affections as well.
There was no hiding the worry in his bright blue eyes that were asking Willis not to go. He may not have been going outside into the warzone they used to call home but the truth was she'd come to lean on him for protection and reassurance. It wouldn't be far from the truth if Willis didn't admit he'd come to see the hope of a simple life in her. The problem was unless he went with Michael there was no guarantee either of them would live long enough to see such a thing. Just as travel in the real world had become near impossible travel between the Digital World and Human World had grown harder do to the increased data storms, viruses, and Digimon roaming the boarders between the worlds.
"Evelyn," He started enveloping her in both his arms. "I have to do this. We have to do this. It's our job, I know it's crazy but it's not the first time the fate of the world's been handed to me." Another boom of thunder went off making her jump in her arms.
"Why can't someone else do it Willis? You said there's hundreds of DigiDestined around the world and Michael's already going so why do you have to go too?"
"Because…a long time ago I thought I could handle my problems all by myself. I thought it was the right thing to do." A small smile graced his face as Davis's words rolled through his mind and the feeling of that summer night wind briefly took him away from the storm-ridden city. "Then I met this guy and his friends who taught me trying to handle everything by myself was stupid and that it was alright to lean on my friends. They saved me from making a really stupid decision that probably would have coast me my life. Since that day I've realized no matter how big the problem is, it's easier if you've got your friends working with you to solve it." He gently kissed her forehead. "That's why I'm going with Willis, if I can convince the other DigiDestined of that then maybe we'll be able to stop this before anyone else dies. It's worth a try."
"Fine just…don't take any crap from any of those foreign kids okay?" She asked with a blush.
"Promise."
Soon enough he was standing beside Michael with Terriermon and Lopmon on his shoulder. Just before they could open the Digiport Michael shot him cool smile. "So in the midst of a worldwide crisis you found yourself a girlfriend."
Willis returned his smile with a smirk. "If we live through this then I'm hoping we can make it official."
Their eyes grew serious as the light from the computer grew brighter. Together they commanded the Digiport to open and not a moment later they were engulfed in a golden light. Their fellow DigiDestined watched them with worried and hard eyes. Once they vanished into the computer screen they all looked from one to the other. Until Michael and Willis got back it would be up to them to keep New York City from descending further into hell. It wouldn't be easy but they would do it and maybe, if there was someone watching out for them, they'd come back with a firm plan of action.
Almost immediately the two teenagers realized something was wrong long before they saw the coral-like growths filling the passage way between the Digital World and Human World. Some inner sense screamed at them to be on their guard the minute they crossed over from the real world. The tunnel-like passage they used usually was running wall to wall with streams of data moving back and forth between the light colored tunnel. That wasn't the case when Michael and Willis moved through. The tunnel was red, various warnings flashing around them in every written language possible while news feds and multi-colored streams of light raced passed them.
BEEP! BEEP!
Michael clung to Seadramon while Willis latched onto Antylamon while Gargomon took aim with his machine guns. From up ahead multiple streams of light shoot out at the pair forcing them to split apart. Gargomon began firing blindly into the darkness, his shoots being met with multiple explosions. The next thing they knew bird-like constructs made of data jetted outwards, nearly bisecting Seadramon and Antylamon.
"Ice Breath!" Seadramon roared freezing one of the constructs from its rear end. The other constructs reared back and charged at the teenagers and their partners again, their eyes now burning red like the walls around them.
They opened their mouths in a terrifying screech that unnerved Michael and Willis more than scared them. Two of the constructs merged together forming a condor-like beast that easily dwarfed Seadramon and Antylamon.
Curses ran through the minds of both boss as their partners began to withdraw further and further into the tunnel, their eyes looking for an exit or some way out. Before the condor could do anything more than screech at them an accented female voice filled the tunnel.
"HOLD UP YOUR DIGIVICES! NOW!"
Both boys did just that, holding up their Digivices for the condor to see. The screens glowed a bright blue that was soon mirrored in the condor's eyes. Dual streams of light shot from the devices into the construct's eyes. Once the beams faded the gigantic data bird bowed its head and vanished into bits of data.
Breathing a sigh of relief the two boys turned their heads to see a girl their age riding towards them on top a Triceramon. She was wearing a cowboy hat on top her ginger colored hair and bright blue eyes.
"I'm gonna assume y'all are the bunch from the east coast right?"
"Y-Yeah. That's us." Michael said trying to figure out where he'd seen her face before. "Are you from…"
"Texas, case ya can't tell from the hat and accent." She laughed. "Name's Katelyn and this guy here," She patted the digital triceratops. "Is ma partner Triceramon."
As their own partners Digivolved back into their rookie forms Michael and Willis introduced themselves and joined Katelyn down the digital tunnel.
"What y'all just met was a guardian created by the Digital World." She explained as they came into view of a bright light forcing all of them to shield their eyes. "Y'all are some of the last ones to arrive but don't let that slow ya down."
Passage through the light felt like a soft breeze of wind followed by a feeling of safety and warmth enveloping the boys and Digimon. Their feet landed on solid ground and their lungs took in the fresh air they blew around them. The three teenagers and four Digimon were standing on a stone walkway going through a field of flowers of every color. In the distance they could faintly hear the sounds water running leading them to assume there was a river somewhere far off. The weather was perfect; puffy white clouds drifting careless over a blue sky while a beautiful summer sun shined down on everything below the clouds.
Overall the whole area had a feeling of joy and almost divine pleasantness that made Michael and Willis feel as if they'd just taken a stroll through heaven. Further up ahead they began to see bar codes and digital lines running over the houses, huts, and temples they began to pass. They all lead to an impossible huge dome-shaped temple with DigiCode engraved into the blue, white, and gold stone and metal plating. Not surprisingly there were other Digimon grazing around the outside of the temple, no doubt the partners of the other DigiDestined waiting for them inside.
A young man maybe a year older than them with dark hair and bright blue eyes soon waved them down from one of the entrances. At his side was a small dragon-like Digimon with a blue and gray camouflage skin and dressed like a soldier. Upon seeing the others it saluted them with a cheesy grin.
Michael smiled as the older boy approached. "Long time no see, Jayden."
"Yeah, it's been what almost a year since we lost saw each other?" He turned his eyes to Willis. "I'm assuming you're Willis? The kid with the virus infected Digimon that nearly nuked Japan?"
With a blush Willis shyly nodded his head wondering if news of that incident had spread to the rest of the DigiDestined. To his relief Jayden just smiled and beckoned towards the silvery doors before them. "Don't worry about it kid. We've got bigger fish to fry and if any of these guys give you any crap just-"
"Just let us handle them Willis." Terriermon said jumping onto his shoulder along with Lopmon.
Jayden grinned at the two rookies. "Alright then, welcome to the Zebul Server." With that he led the others inside.
"Zebul huh?" Willis lightly chuckled. "We're in heaven, digital heaven at least."
"Really?" Michael jokingly asked raising an eyebrow. Instead Willis waved him off and walked further up ahead. The benefits of having a Jewish girlfriend. Compared to what he'd been through in the past two months this place was heaven.
After climbing a rather large set of stairs and set of double doors they entered the meeting room and were more than just a little blown away. The room was more like a small auditorium with six windows to the left and a food bar to the right. In the center of the room was a large circular table with and overhead chandelier. The table was about eight meters in diameter with a blue hexagon-shaped jewel in the center. On the outer rims of the table were Digital Letters that seemed to constantly be shifting from one color to the next. All the chairs were stainless steel with cushions for comfortable sitting. Each chair had an electric keypad on the armrest that the boys were sure they'd probably embarrass themselves trying to operate.
A great majority of the seats were filled with kids of varying ages from fourteen to eighteen.
"Oh look, all the Americans have arrived." An accented voice laughed.
Michael and Willis looked from Jayden and Katelyn to each other. It was time to put their game faces on.
Once everyone had assembled a sixteen year old brown haired boy with blue-green eyes stood up. He received mixed looks from everyone for taking charge of the meeting but he didn't let any of it bother him. The digital flag on his chair was that of Italy. "Well since it seems like everyone's here I guess we should get started. I'm Adriano Accorso, leader of the Italian DigiDestined."
Next was a sandy blond Michael was somewhat familiar with. "Liam White of Canada. Pleasure to see so many new faces."
"Catalina Mendoza of Mexican, it's an honor to meet all of you."
"Luis Vasquez of Colombia."
"Murilo Ortiz of Brazil."
"Irene Torres of Peru."
"I'm Nathan Ansley of England, pleasure to see some familiar faces and new ones."
"Bara Iversen, I'm here representing northern Europe."
"Bernd Kaehler of Germany."
"I am Roxanne Gracia of Spain."
"Catherine of France."
Eligia, I'll be speaking for Western Europe." Judging by her accent she was most likely Polish.
"Reagan Driscoll of-"
"Hold it right there!" one of the kids from the other side of the table shouted. The flag over his chair was Korea, North Korea to be exact. He was maybe sixteen or seventeen at most and dressed in formal military attire. His eyes held nothing but scorn and disdain for the other kids seating at the table but they were locked on Reagan, who just seemed bored despite being under the kid's heated gaze. "I've met the DigiDestined leader of Ireland, you're not her. Mind explaining to us why she decided to skip this meeting even though it was declared to be of the highest priority?"
Reagan narrowed his sea-green eyes on the child in a silent glaring contest. In his seat Michael repressed a groan. This meeting starts for five minutes and we've already started bashing heads with each other, wonderful.
"If you'd to allow me to finish then I would have explained I'm here on behalf of our real leader Fiona Culberth. She was investigating the matter of a few stolen Royal Navy ships and couldn't make it in time. As her second in command she ordered me to come here in her steed. When I speak it's for her and the kids in Ireland, got it?" His voice was hard and his eyes were cold as he glared the North Korean representative down. Over half the kids there realized from the way he was speaking he was insuring his place at the table wasn't questioned. For that a handful looked at him with a modicum of respect.
Once the North Korean representive stepped down the next stood up. He was a well-built boy with dark brown hair and gray-colored eyes that remained locked on the Korean kid. Clearly they'd had some history with each other and was trying not to let it get the best of him. "Name's Conall Macceallair, glad to be here on behalf of all the DigiDestined of Scotland."
A seventeen year old boy with curly black hair and tranquil blue eyes spoke next. "My name is Callister of Greece. Today I'm here representing southwestern Europe."
"Har-Bai of Egypt."
"Farah of North Africa."
"Kiama of east Africa."
"My name is Adaorie of west Africa."
"Reine, I'm here to speak for central Africa."
"Itha! Leader of the collective DigiDestined of south Africa!"
"Bayram, I'm here for Turkey."
"Representing the Middle East I'm Kaveh, a honor to meet all of you."
"Sarnai of Mongolia."
"Dara of Cambodia."
"Mina of India."
"Hui Ling from China."
"Guo Fong of Hong Kong."
"My name is Hyun from South Korea."
"Hak-Kun of North Korea."
"Anna of Russia."
"Name's Derek of Australia."
There was a quick silence that caused everyone to look towards the Japanese sit. Instead of Tai Michael and Willis were surprised to see a violet haired fifteen year-old girl with fidgeting hands. "I'm…Tai Kamiya of Japan wasn't able to be here now, I'm here for him and the Japanese DigiDestined. I'm Katsumi Fujioka."
"My name is Jayden Barnes of the west coast U.S. DigiDestined." Jayden effortlessly declared putting both hands behind on his back.
"Name's Katelyn of the southern part of the U.S. Pleasure to see y'all."
Michael coughed once to gather his courage before speaking up. "My name's Michael of the east coast of the U.S."
Once Michael finished speaking all eyes turned to Willis causing him to shrink back in his seat. Michael had told him exactly what to say but it still felt wrong telling everyone he spoke on behalf of the Mid-West when he barely had any contact with the other DigiDestined of his area. Doesn't matter now, I either talk or get laughed out of here. "I'm Willis of the Mid-West part of America, I'll be speaking for them."
Willis couldn't count how many eyes stayed locked on him when he said his name. Clearly they knew about Diaboramon and Kokomon. He figured word had spread fast about his actions and was full expecting a sneer or angry shout to be thrown his way for nearly destroying the world once. No one gave him any expect for Hak-Kun who just sneered at him from the side. It didn't take him long to realizing dealing with that guy was going to be a hassle.
"Now that we've gotten the introductions out of the way let's get down to business." Bernd spoke catching everyone's attention with his thick German accent. "We're all here because the crisis we're facing is the darkest and worst in the history of the DigiDestined and possible the Digital World."
"To start with you're all aware of this storms yes?" Eligia said. When everyone nodded she typed something into her keypad. The jewel in the middle of the table glowed blue then projected a 3D display of the Earth. "I'm going to highlight the places where the Control Spires have appeared and the areas where the storms have hit their hardest."
There were countless red dots all over the glob pounding a silent message into each of the children assembled. There was no corner of the Earth untouched by the Control Spires, every continent, every country had at least two or three within their borders.
Irene took over, throwing a quick glance around the room. "As you all may remember last year these Control Spires started appearing all over the world; bringing with them wild Digimon from the Digital World and causing widespread chaos."
"This time however, things are different." Conall picked up, his eyes growing deadly serious.
Nathan followed, "Now these things aren't just opening up portals to the Digital World but they're also acting as giant collectors for sin."
That caused a confused murmur to spread through the arrange children. Many of them looked at the projection then back at each other.
"Um, excuse me," Itha started clearly uncomfortable with having all the attention on her. "But when you say sin do you mean as in…"
"As in vices; greed, pride, lust, and those sorts of things." Bayram answered for her. His brown eyes hit a few children in particular, he'd read the situation and was not going to be the one to break the news to the rest.
Catherine lightly tapped her hand on the table getting everyone's attention. She was putting on a brave face like so many others but deep down she hated the fact she was going to have to explain the meaning of Bayram's and Nathan's words. "In the Digital World there exists a group comprised of seven Mega-level Digimon. They're known as the Seven Deadly Demon Lords and they are in fact based on the seven deadly sins of Christian lore."
The view of the Earth was replaced with images of the seven previously mentioned Digimon. All of them, from the sadistic Lucemon to the beautiful Lilithmon were on display for the various leaders to see. Some of the children who'd never even heard of the group looked on in horror while those with stronger wills sneered at the images of their true enemy. The atmosphere in the room had gone from tense to now fearfully and on edge. Various colored eyes examined the images while hands typed into the keypads to pull up more information on the seven Demon Lords.
"So…these are the ones responsible for the Control Spires?" Mina spoke clearly worried.
"Sadly yes Mina," Liam answered with hint of affection in his voice. "Get a good look people! Worse comes to worse this is what' we'll be facing; a few demons, a fallen angel, a giant crocodile, a biker from hell, and- "
"Demon hooker?" Jayden joked eyeing Lilithmon's hologram not with lust, but with calculating eyes.
"Least the surfer's blunt." Reine mused with a small laugh.
"Well I'm glad someone's joking about this!" Sarnai snarled. "Look at this things! According to this they nearly destroyed the Digital World four times! Now they're on the loose and you two want to joke about this!"
"Sarnai! Relax!" Kaveh spoke placing a hand on his shoulder to pull him back down. "I know what you all are thinking but these seven aren't on the loose." He paused, clapping his hands together. "At least not all seven of them."
"Could you please explain?" Har-Bai questioned. "I get the feeling if any of these things were out in the world we'd definitely know about it."
Nodding her head Bara took control of the holographic display. An image of Daemon came up followed by a display of Earth and two other worlds. "Last year the Japanese DigiDestined encountered Daemon, who somehow managed to escape his imprisonment, trying to harvest the Dark Spore within Ken Ichijoui. It wasn't easy but the Japanese team managed to defeat him by sending him into an alternate dimension they believed would be strong enough to contain him."
"Which evidently failed right?" Hak-Kun sneered leaning back in his chair.
"Actually no smart guy, it worked and still is working." Michael countered. He met the Korean boy's glare with equal intensity. "I heard the story myself and you better believe it wasn't easy but it worked. Daemon is trapped in a place called the Dark Ocean."
"That brings us to our next topic; the Dark Ocean." Catalina started dismissing the holograms in favor of a view of the Dark Ocean. Screen shots of it and various descriptions of it floated across the table for the others to personally grab and examine. "If you're feeling a chill run up your spines then don't worry, that's normal. The Dark Ocean is an alternate dimension that acts as something like a graveyard." Her pause caught everyone off-guard leaving them confused as her eyes remained on the table.
Slowly the rest of the kids began to take notice of the unsettling air that had surrounded the North African representative. Beside her Callister placed a hand over hers along with a sympathetic glance. She looked at him once with a sad smile then faced the rest with a look of determination. "When Catalina said it was a graveyard she wasn't kidding, it's a dark dimension made of negative energy and it sits at the edge of the darkness. Broken dreams, shattered hopes, and even lost souls all wind up there along with old, corrupted data. It's not quite hell as in Christian lore or any of its variants, it's more like a netherworld, one with…lots and lots of water and ghosts." A new image came up on the screen further horrifying the children. Farah didn't blame them for being unsettled. She was just glad none of them had the displeasure of seeing Dagomon's ugly mug face to face. "This…ladies and gentlemen is Dagomon, ruler of the Dark Ocean."
'T-That's a Digimon?" Adriano scowled. "Looks more like some kind of toxic mutant octopus!"
"He's called the Deprived Monk of the Deep amongst a list of other things." Farah started, her brown eyes gaining an angry light in their chocolate hues. "To be blunt he's the false prophet. If Lucemon is our devil then this is the devil's worshipping, give or take a few things. Being created from the corrupt data of the internet and the collective misery of mankind and Digimon he's the ultimate nihilist; to him hope, love, and happiness or nothing but mirages on the ocean people foolishly spend their lives chasing after only to be crushed and broken. He promises salvation and an existence free of pain and suffering for those who give to him, which involves accepting that life is nothing but one miserable train wreck after another with no hope of life ever getting better. He's Cthulhu turned into a cult preacher." Farah paused to allow her comrades in arms to absorb this information as well as reign in the tide of hatred threatening to spill into her voice. "Since the seventies he's been kidnapping human and Digimon alike from their homes when they were at their lowest and converting them into his followers. You could almost say he qualifies as a Demon Lord himself with dominion over the eighth sin not usually mentioned in Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, or Islam; the sin of despair."
"How can despair be a sin?" Guo questioned.
"According to some old scriptures giving into despair was considered rejecting God's love and light." Anna answered him. "Farah…not to be rude but how do you know this?"
"I know because…I was once taken to the Dark Ocean and almost… converted into one of Dagomon's followers." The Libyan girl spoke quietly.
The collective shock that ran through the assembled children was immense. Many were looking at Farah with both curiosity and sympathy.
"I'm…I'm sorry for bringing it up." Anna said suddenly feeling terrible.
"No Anna, you have nothing to apologize for." She countered looking her in the eye. "Back to Dagomon, in the past thanks to the ship-oriented viruses that compose his body he's able to take control of the electronic systems aboard ships if they're not protected enough. I believe that answers what's been happening with all those ships disappearing from their harbors."
"WHAT!?"
"Are you saying this bastard can hijack ships?!" Hui Ling screamed before breaking off into a stream of Chinese curses.
"Afraid so. It's been done so in the past." Roxanne added crossing her arms.
"Oh well…guess I won't be swimming for a while." Murilo muttered sinking into his chair.
Leaning his head into the palm of one of his hands Luis looked at Farah with pleading eyes. "Why do I feel like there's something worse you're about to tell us?"
"With all due respect I'm pretty sure half of you already know." Farah declared crossing her arms. "You've all seen the news about the mysterious disappearances."
With a groan Katelyn spoke what no one else wanted to say. "Damn cultist right?"
"Bingo."
A series of curses in various languages rolled off the tongues of every child while a holographic display of the Deep Ones came up.
"So on top of seven uber powerful demon lords we've got a digital Cthulhu with a cult following and let me guess, he's causing the storms around the world?" Willis groaned.
"It sounded better when the African said it." Hak-Kun snarled. "Let's get back to Daemon, if he's supposed to be trapped in the Dark Ocean how's he still summoning up all this Control Spires?" His eyes glared in the direction of Katsumi who'd been mostly quiet throughout the whole meeting.
Conall caught his glare across the table and decided to put a stop to it. "As previously stated the Dark Ocean is a place consisting of negative energy. As a Demon Lord it's not out of the question for Daemon to have learned how to harness the negative energy there and use it to summon the Control Spires into the Human World. Portals open up all the time between the two worlds because every day, in every corner of the world someone's getting pissed on."
Adaorie took the chance to speak, "Then now we know what the problem is. Somehow Daemon has figured out how to use the Control Spires as collectors for Sin and is planning on using the sin energy he collects to release the other seven Demon Lords correct."
"You're half right Adaorie." Callister said.
"How so?"
Callister threw up the panel he'd been reading for all to see. "According to this besides massive amounts of sin Daemon is going to need a human to release each Demon Lord. A human who represents the sin of the Demon they're set to release."
The Nigerian male ran a hand over his short black hair in frustration. "Honestly I don't know if that buys us more time or less time."
"That all depends if Daemon has found a human for each Demon Lord." Mina warned.
"He's already found one for envy." Hak-Kun said off-handily catching everyone off guard.
"Mind telling us how you know that Hak-Kun?" Jayden asked trying his hardest not to sneer.
"It'd be easier if you could find out for yourself but for once you Americans aren't the first ones to jump. Pity now that we actually need it."
Katelyn and Irene had to hold Jayden back from getting out of his seat. A handful of kids shot a glare at the North Korean boy for falling back on racial tensions when the fate of the world was at stake.
"My team has been doing some digging and we've found Daemon is scouring the globe for the right partners for each of the Seven Deadly Demons. Wrath is no longer an issue but we've discovered he's found suitable carriers for envy, greed, and possibly pride." At the mention of the last sin his eyes darted towards Katsumi again then back at Michael. "Word is pride is Ken Ichijoui, the former Digimon Emperor."
Again shock rolled through the assembly.
"As far as I'm concerned this whole mess falls on the Japan's team's shoulders." His glare was now directed in full at Katsumi who was now seriously squirming in her seat. "If you hadn't sent Daemon to the Dark Ocean we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Hak-Kun!" Hyun shouted slamming his fist down. "The original Japanese team isn't here and even if they were you have no right to criticize them!"
"I agree with Hyun." Reine barked at Hak-Kun with narrowed eyes. "How it happened doesn't matter, what does is what are we going to do now?"
"There's something I still don't understand." Kiama started looking at Dagomon's file. "Dagomon's powerful no doubt but is he really strong enough to cause global storms all over the world? Even coordinate them in such a skillful manner?"
Katelyn shook her head disapprovingly. "My friend he may be big and ugly but stupid Dagomon is not. First off he's a god, maybe not a kind god but still a god none the less."
Hai-Bai quickly caught onto the Texas girl's words. "Gods draw strength from payers. If Dagomon rules over despair then we've all practically been feeding him a five-star meal."
To emphasize his point the news reports and global readings came up for everyone to see.
"Despair follows death." Itha sadly stated watching the bad news flashes roll by her.
"To the average person it does look like the end of the world is here." Adriano reasoned. "And in their desire to live they give their submission…"
Farah grimly nodded. "And willing bow their heads and open their ears to the cries of the Deprived Monk of the Deep."
"So we've got a demon in a bathrobe giving orders to his army of demons and devils from hell's beach and Cthulhu and his army of cult followers warring it out over Earth and the Digital World." Sarnai snorted with disconnected eyes.
"Pretty much sums it up mate." Derek said with a downcast look in his eyes.
Now that they had the full scope of things a thick silence fell over the assembled DigiDestined leaders. Not even their partners spoke as they too were feeling the fear their partners felt. Some of them came to the Zebul Server trying to deny the fact they were caught in the middle of an unseen war, alas, reality was cruel. It seemed ludicrous how massive their foe was, even if they all stood united they couldn't shake the feeling of their homes being attacked. Daemon and Dagomon most certainly knew they were coming and had taken steps to take them out of the game via personal attacks.
For the longest time the girl with the violet hair and red eyes had been quiet but no more, "We can still win."
Once more all eyes fell upon her.
"Interesting words from someone who's been quiet almost this entire meeting." Bara chuckled.
Gathering all the strength in her body Katsumi faced forward. "Yes we're facing tough odds, the toughest any of us have ever faced but we made it through once before." Katsumi looked around the table noting the expressions on everyone's faces. "I know we've all been hurt by this war, either physically or emotionally, that's what's brought us all together but it isn't what's going to keep us together. Everyone here is scared, no matter how much they try to hide it but the important thing is we all find the courage to overcome the fear. That's what the leader of the Japanese DigiDestined Tai Kamiya taught me and I believe that holds true now more than ever." Getting rid of all the news feeds and images she pulled up an image of the Dark Ocean. "If Daemon's pulling the strings from the Dark Ocean then we have to cut those strings, either at the source or lock the portals between worlds down."
There was a murmur of agreements and disagreements at her words.
"Hold on a second Katsumi. Are you suggesting we go into the Dark Ocean and defeat Daemon and Dagomon who rules the whole thing?
"Ireland's game." Reagan spoke up with dead seriousness in his voice.
"Katsumi's right though." Guo agreed. "It may be dangerous but unless we face that danger head on we're just going to be prolonging the inevitable. Besides…" His fist tighten as an image of his brothers and family came into his mind. "If I'm going out, I want to go out defending the things that I love."
The young man's words struck a cord in every child and Digimon around the table. No matter how much were loathed to admit it they could all sympathize with fighting to protect something they cared about. Nationality, race, and religion played no part in that.
Dara pulled up a map of the world with the storms highlighted in blue and the Control Spires in red. "First of all we all know those storms are only able to go so far and even with a few warships Dagomon's going to be restricted to coastline and near water targets. That means Daemon is more than likely going to start keeping his Control Spires inland. If we can find someone way to disrupt the sin absorption we may be able to slow down the resurrection of the other seven Dead Demon Lords."
"We got just the thing for that." Derek grinned. "One of my friends has been working with the boys from the Metal Empire and some Celestial Digimon to create these."
"What the hell is that?" Bayram asked looking at the strange satellite device Derek pulled up.
"Dimensional Disruptors." Derek clarified. "We're currently tuning them to block signals coming from certain areas. That should stop random Digital gates from opening."
"And in addition to that we have this." Replacing the mechanical device was a set of Japanese and European style talismans inscribed with DigiCode. "Some friends of mine managed find these in old temples in the Digital World. They ward off evil Digimon and those infected by evil intent. Place them around your homes, various areas, and maybe inside computer networks and we may be able to stop the Daemon Corps and the Deep Ones in their tracks."
It started out small but hope soon began to return to the faces of the various DigiDestined much to the relief of Michael, Willis, Katelyn, and Katsumi.
"We're going to need as many of those as you can make." Hak-Kun spoke up, the usual sneer and condescending tone absent from his voice. "For the Seven Towers."
"What are the Seven Towers?" Jayden questioned only to have his answer brought in the form of seven holographic displays. "Why do these things always have to have ominous clouds circling them? Seriously, it's like a cliché."
Hyun gave the American a small smile. "If they had fluffy white clouds circling them we wouldn't be able to call them Towers of Sin now would we?" His face grew serious as the images changed into real time. Hundreds of Digimon of countless species were amassing around each tower, all of them clothed in the same aura of the sin the tower represented. "You see my friends when the Seven Great Demon Lords are close to returning their towers begin emitting corrupted waves of data that draw Digimon who exhibit that particular sin towards them."
"Awesome." Roxanne sighed. "So before we can get down to guarding the towers we've got to clear out the army that's amassed around them."
"I'm calling dibs on Lilithmon's." Luis cracked. "Sorry but I don't do deserts or volcanic wastelands.
As much as she hated to dash the hope that was just now returning to the group Eligia caught everyone's attention with her frown. "Guys as good as that plan is what are we going to do about Dagomon? In case you've all forgotten he's turned both worlds into his personal bathtub and we're the rubber ducks in the tub."
Sighing Willis decided to take center stage once more. "One of my partners, Lopmon is able to Digivolve into Golden Rapidmon, maybe with some back-up I'll be able to take Dagomon down. He may be a Digimon god but he's still a virus type with an affinity for the darkness."
"So we battle darkness with light. Classical." Liam grinned giving Willis the thumbs up.
The mid-western boy braced himself for the next words he was about to speck. It may have been a violation of privacy but Davis needed all the help he could get if he planned on storming the Dark Ocean. "A friend of mine, Davis Motomiya, his sister's been trapped in the Dark Ocean for almost a month now and we plan on rescuing her."
THUMP!
"How do you know she's alive?" Farah barked turning her eyes towards Willis.
"He got a blurry message through from her a few weeks ago."
"Then I'm going with you." Farah declared. Her glare silenced everyone who was about to say anything.
Before long the children were discussing who was going to be going where and what needed to be defended and destroyed. Obviously there were some parts of the Human World that needed attention badly; namely areas with heavy violence such as North Korea, most of Africa, some parts of India, the northern tip of South America, Middle America, and American cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles. Such an offensive would be led by the American, South American, Latin American, and Canadian DigiDestined. It was decided with help from allies in the Digital World the Control Spires be destroyed on land while at sea the Australian and most of the Asian DigiDestined would search for the missing ships and if not subdue them then destroy them. The rest would head to the Digital World to guard the Seven Towers of Deadly Sins. The last group would head into the Dark Ocean to defeat Dagomon and rescue Jun Motomiya. When agreements on who went where were reached the meeting dispersed and the children began to trickle out of the meeting room. Not many of them left immediately, most stuck around to regain controls of their jittering nerves.
Willis and Michael sat at the steps of one of the many stairways in the mansion. Bara, Bernd, Katsumi, and Reine had joined them.
"You did pretty good." Reine laughed tossing Michael a soda.
"Would you believe how nervous I was before we got here? I thought I'd suddenly turn into dust and just crumble away."
"Heh, no need to feel ashamed my friend." Bernd chuckled leaning against the wall. "We all felt like that before we got here, some were just too proud to show it."
"All things considered I think we have a pretty solid plan. All we have to do is pray it works." Bara said.
"Here's to hoping, we are in heaven after all." Katsumi said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and Dagomon will take out Daemon before we get to him."
"Frankly Katsumi, I'd feel better if they kicked the shit out of each other and all we had to do was just give the knockout blow." Reine joked. "But hey, like the others said; sometimes you gotta face your fear head on."
Willis was sure he wasn't the only one who wished they could stay inside the Zebul Server instead of returning to the real world. He wished he could have brought Evelyn with him. Spend just a day with her when the sky was falling out and they weren't in constant fear of their lives or their loved ones. All the other kids were probably feeling the same way. In that regard Katsumi was right, it was a desire to live that was bringing them all together. In order to protect those things they'd all have to leave this haven eventually. Yes, he could see it written on everyone's faces as one by one they began to log out of the server.
In order to protect their respective heavens, they must return to war.
It might not be a stretch to call this chapter the DigiDestined's Counterattack given the amount of planning they did. I wanted to add this chapter in to show the global affect the conflict's been having and to show how serious it's gotten. Truthfully I never planned on having the story grow to this length but I'm glad it has and did.
