Alright, so updates here are now kinda weird (for me, anyway). I have a class on Wednesdays now that goes until 8:00 PM. I know I usually update late anyway, but now, I don't have 5-8 to work on it. And to add to that, I can't access the campus wi-fi, for some reason, so I can't update during my three hours that I have free. So... yeah. Also, at the end of last episode... I have absolutely no idea what the hell happened there. Sorry. It was some bizarre typo, and I have no idea how it got there. Anyway, without further ado~
Yumi: "We wound up back on Earth, but our partners were still stuck in the internet. Luckily, I managed to get them out, storing them in our Digivices until we can get back. The problem is, we don't know how. Somehow, Diaboromon, or some other Virus he sent, followed us out and screwed up the machine that sent us in before and brought us back. We need to figure out something, fast, or we're all screwed."
"So you're saying we can't get back?" Kiira asked with a frown. This definitely wasn't good. If they couldn't get back, they couldn't finish what they were sent to do. They couldn't save the internet. If they couldn't get back... then Diaboromon had won.
Yumi sighed. She didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but... "That's right," she informed the group. "We're stuck here."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Hana asked, staring at the malfunctioning machine. She couldn't help but he glad that the issue had been caught before they were sent it. She had no idea what would have happened to her and the others if the machine had broken while they were in the middle of transport. She was very glad she didn't have to find out.
The girls glanced down in curiosity when Kiira's Digivice popped open and a small holographic image of Palmon appeared. "Hope it finds a way out of here, too, I guess," she said, adding to the conversation.
"I didn't know they could do that," Kiira said after a moment. She looked at Yumi. "Did you know they could do that?"
The hacker shook her head. "No clue," she admitted.
Hana ignored them, looking down at Palmon. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"If it finds a way out here, or something like that, then maybe we can figure out how to do it, too," she suggested, motioning to the Digivice. "And if we get out of here, maybe we can take care of whatever comes through. Maybe Diaboromon will take the fight to us, but maybe we can be ready."
The blonde thought for a moment. "It could work..." she muttered. "The only problem is that we would have to wait for the enemy to make the first move." Her Digivice opened, and Renamon appeared just as Palmon had, though DemiDevimon was perched on her shoulder, much like he had done with his human partner.
"While we may need to wait until Diaboromon comes after us, we can come up with some sort of plan of attack," Renamon suggested. "We can still be prepared."
"We need to take him out," DemiDevimon growled. "No one else is getting hurt."
Hana paused to look at the small Virus. She had been wracked with guilt about Miyuki saving her. She hadn't even thought of what would be going through DemiDevimon's mind throughout the whole ordeal. He was the brunette's partner. He must have felt useless, sitting on the sidelines as his partner was... And now he lost his best friend. "You're right," she told him. "She's gone, but what she didn't isn't going to be for nothing."
"Damn straight."
Kiira looked at Yumi. "Do you think you could, I don't know, isolate it or something?"
"I might know Diaboromon's basic code," she said softly to avoid anyone else hearing. It was an unspoken rule that her involvement in the Virus's creation would never be mentioned to anyone else. "But he's been growing over the years. Remember, he's been gathering power for four years... I might be able to find the code I know, but with so much added to it, there's no way he wouldn't know what I was doing before I would be able to finish."
"Dammit..." Kiira muttered. She looked to their leader. "So, what do we do?"
"We wait," Hana replied. The dark haired girl was about to protest when she added, "I don't like it any more than you do, but what other choice do we have?" Kiira didn't have an answer to that.
"I don't like having to just sit here and twiddle our thumbs," Labramon grumbled, having appeared from Yumi's Digivice.
Yumi glanced down at her partner, pushing up her glasses. "Neither do I," she told him. "But we just went over why we have to." The Rookie grumbled again incoherently.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x
Hana looked up abruptly when the power began to flicker.
"What's going on?" one of the workers asked, clearly concerned.
Yumi looked at the computer as it slowly went back online. This wasn't right... "These are high tech, state of the art computers. They shouldn't be lagging this bad," she muttered to herself. Her eyes widened slightly. Something was drawing power from the servers. From the looks of it, something big. "Guys," she called to the others. "Remember how we're waiting for the enemy to make its move?"
"Yeah?" Kiira asked, already suspecting what her friend was going to say.
"It made its move."
"Shit..." Hana muttered, looking at the various computers as they tried to boot up. "The question is, what's it doing?"
Renamon's holographic form frowned. "Something tells me we're about to find out."
Light gathered in the air in front of them, flowing from the computer to form a transparent woman-like figure with pale skin and white hair, with red eyes and clad in black.
"Name: LadyDevimon. Classification: Virus. Threat: High."
Yue looked from the Digimon projection to the girls. "I assume this is one of those Digimon you were talking about?" she asked. Hana merely nodded, stunned at the Ultimate's ability to take a form in the Real World.
"How the hell...?" Kiira asked.
Renamon studied their Virus opponent. "I believe she's using the power of the computers around us to take a form."
LadyDevimon tilted her head in a taunting manner, slowly dragging a claw through one of the monitors. The screen cracked and smoke poured out of it.
Hana looked at Daichi, who had just stepped out of his office. "I'm sorry," she told him. "But we might need to use some of your computer power, too, if we're going to take this thing down."
Daichi rubbed his temples. Over the course of the past few hours, he had taken several orders from a group of teenagers, but they knew what they were doing much more than he or his employees did. "Very well."
Hana grabbed her Digivice, Kiira and Yumi doing the same. Each clicked the boxes open, and power was drawn from the remaining computers around them, as well as the lights. When the auxiliary lights turned on, four new transparent figures had appeared.
"We have to be careful about this," Renamon said calmly. "There's a good chance we'll have the same effect of electronics that LadyDevimon has."
"So basically, take her out quick, and don't touch anything?" DemiDevimon asked. The fox Digimon nodded. "Alright then. Demi Dart!"
LadyDevimon knocked the syringe away with the back of her clawed hand. Once it bounced off, it vanished into specks of data. "Darkness Wave!" she yelled, aiming at the group of Rookies. The attack slammed into them, sending DemiDevimon flying, knocking Palmon and Labramon down, and making Renamon fall to one knee. She looked up with an icy glare before mustering the strength to stand. Even though it was four against one, she wasn't fond of the odds. From the looks of it, neither was her partner. They needed a way to end this quickly, but this building didn't have enough power to hold them together if they Digivolved. It barely had enough to handle four Rookies as it was.
An idea hit the Rookie and she looked to the other Digimon who were now getting back up. She hoped they understood her intentions with her expression. From their nods, it was clear that they did.
"Good luck," Labramon told her before he, Palmon, and DemiDevimon disappeared back into the Digivices.
"What are they doing...?" Kiira asked.
"I think I know," Hana said before the lights turned on for a split second before shutting down again. Renamon began to glow, so it was clear that the energy had gone to her to help.
"Renamon Warp Digivolve to... Taomon!"
"You think you can take me, all by yourself?" LadyDevimon asked, raising a brow. "When you're far too afraid of touching any of these?" To emphasize her point, the Virus ran her hand through several monitors, destroying them upon contact. "Hate to break it to you, hun, but we're dangerous to this world. We draw on the power of their electronics, it's the only way we can stay out here." Her gaze drifted up from her handiwork to Taomon. "They can't handle us."
Taomon's eyes narrowed, summoning her giant calligraphy brush. "Talisman of Light!" She sent the attack LadyDevimon's way, but the other Ultimate merely moved out of the way, causing the move to his another computer, destroying it.
LadyDevimon laughed. "My, my. Who knew you would have such a talent in destruction?" She raised an arm. "Darkness Wave!"
Taomon was about to move out of the way when she saw the girls behind her. If she moved, they would directly in the line of attack. Crossing her arms in front of her face to brace herself, Taomon took the brunt of the attack, shaking it off as best she could. Calligraphy brush gone, she yelled, "Thousand Spells!"
LadyDevimon began to move when she found herself frozen. "What...?" she whispered before looking around her to see herself surrounded by countless talismans before the each detonated in small explosions that didn't touch the equipment around them. LadyDevimon was gone in a matter of moments, and immediately, Taomon disappeared, light flowing from her disintegrating body to Hana's open Digivice. After a moment the main power came back.
"Holy shit..." Kiira said, vocalizing everyone's thoughts.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x
"That thing... That was a Digimon?" Daichi asked. The destroyed equipment had been moved to see if anything could be repaired, and everyone was already back to work on the remaining computers.
"That's right," Hana confirmed.
"And the other creatures, they were Digimon, too?"
"Right," the blonde said. "But they're on our side. LadyDevimon won't be bothering you anytime soon."
Yumi looked up from the computer connected to the transfer machine, which had somehow not been affected by LadyDevimon's appearance. Other than having shut down during the power drain, nothing seemed to be wrong with it.
Hana frowned. "I don't like that look," she said. "What is it?"
"You're right that we don't have to worry about LadyDevimon anymore," the lavender haired girl said softly. "But we're not out of the woods yet. Not even close."
"What do you mean?"
"The virus Diaboromon sent after us wasn't LadyDevimon." The leader gave her a quizzical look. "In fact, it wasn't a Digimon at all. He sent us a Trojan horse."
Kiira turned toward her. "What does that mean?"
Preparing to give her mini-lecture, the hacker adjusted her glasses. "A Trojan horse is a virus that can put data into some other computer that you don't want, but you don't realize it's there. Usually, they're those viruses you get when you click links in weird, unknown emails. It probably created a back door." At their confused looked, she continued, "In computing, a back door allows a second party to look at any data on your machine." She sighed. "Diaboromon studied the program that brought us back."
"But that was only to bring back humans," Yue stated. "It couldn't bring anything originally made of data into the Real World."
"Maybe not, but..." Her eyes widened. This was her fault, too... "He was paying attention when I transferred our partners into our Digivices. He knows how to move data from the internet." She closed her eyes. "He used my program to make the Viruses he sends draw power from the electronics around them to make them appear here. And they destroy what they touch because direct contact makes the energy flow to them faster than the machine can handle."
"So, you're saying he could send another Digimon back to our world at any time?" Daichi asked, unnerved at the thought.
"Can't you just debug the computer? Get his Trojan out and change the program or something?" Kiira asked.
"It's not that simple..." Yumi frowned. "I just looked. He found a way to keep changing the code. As soon as I would be able to isolate it, he'd change it again and I'd have to start all over."
"A big game of cat and mouse," Hana commented.
The bespectacled girl nodded slightly. "Yeah. But this mouse isn't going down easily. I'll find some way of stopping him." I have to, she added mentally. I made him. Diaboromon is my responsibility.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x
Diaboromon smirked to himself. Everything was going according to plan. His creator had found his Trojan, but he knew that despite the girl's impeccable hacking skills, she would never be able to get rid of it. He knew how to work around her. After all, she made him.
He enjoyed seeing her squirm. He knew she felt a lot of guilt for their entire situation, just like that blonde human felt about the demise of the brunette.
The Virus had to admit he'd been surprised to see the Digimon he'd been about to destroy disappear, but that was what had made him even more determined to find them out of the internet. And he did. He had a way of getting back at them.
Diaboromon had little doubt that he would be able to draw enough power to allow himself to appear in the Real World, but he preferred to taunt the humans. They would come to him eventually, but the pieces weren't set up yet, so he couldn't let them return at the moment.
The he'd sent after them into the machine that had brought them there still had a hold on it, and with the Spirit of the Internet out of commission, the humans would have no way back to the internet until he decided it was time.
They would be back eventually. But, by then, they would wish they had stayed away.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x
Yumi barely glanced up as people began slowly leaving the room, obviously heading home. Shortly after, it was only her and the other girls, Daichi in his office.
"Hey, it's time to head home," Hana told her. "Are you coming?"
"You go ahead," she said, focused on the screen in front of her. "I'll get a ride home. I have to ask something, anyway."
Hana nodded. "Alright. Let us know when you get home safe." She paused. "Just, don't email," she added jokingly.
Yumi offered a half-hearted smile before they turned and left. She headed up to Daichi's office.
"You haven't gone home yet?" he asked in slight surprise.
"No," she admitted. "I was actually wondering if I could take one of the company laptops home with me. They run a lot faster and have a lot more power than mine at home. I feel like I would be able to do a much better job studying the enemy and figuring out how to stop him on a more advanced machine. I promise to be careful, and to use it for work only."
The man thought for a moment. Ever since she had arrived, this teen had proved to be one of the best hackers he'd ever known. "I'll get you one of the newer ones," he said. Those didn't have any of the classified files hidden on them. There would be nothing for her to find that she shouldn't.
"Thank you, sir."
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x
After a reunion with her parents, Yumi shut herself in her room, immediately booting up the laptop. The first thing she did was set up a strong firewall. It may not keep Diaboromon out indefinitely, but it would definitely slow him down.
While she was working, she clicked open her Digivice, letting the small holographic image of her partner appear.
"What's up?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I missed having someone to talk to." She glanced at him. "And besides. You're my best friend." As soon as the firewall was up, she began typing.
"What are you doing?" Labramon asked, watching the two windows appear, each filled with code.
"Well," the hacker began. "When data gets deleted, it's never really gone for good. Especially if it's just dispersed. It had to go somewhere." A small smile graced her lips as a piece of the code in the left window lit up and the same piece appeared in the left window, remaining stationary while the rest of it ran by too quickly to analyze.
"What are you saying?" he asked.
Looking up from the codes, she whispered, "I think I can bring her back."
This caused the Rookie to stare in stunned silence. "But... we saw her die... There's no way..."
Yumi shook her head. "No, we saw her data go everywhere. None of it disappeared, it just separated. But I managed to look at the codes that made me and the others. There were certain abnormalities in the codes that we all shared. I decided to take a look at that data and piece together what her code probably was. Now, I'm just letting it search for these pieces of data." She nodded toward the computer. "Once it's all there, I can compile it and... hopefully it'll put Miyuki back together."
"That's why you wanted a company laptop," Labramon said quietly in realization.
"That's right," the teen confirmed. "I needed a computer I knew would have the power to keep a project like this running nonstop." She looked at her partner. "You can't tell the others, though."
"Why not?" he asked, confused. "I mean, this is awesome news!"
"Only if it works," she informed him. "If I tell the others and this turns out to be a bust... Well... I don't want to get anyone's hopes up for nothing."
"I get it," Labramon said with a nod. "It'll be our little secret."
"Thank you."
Next time:
Yue: We just got a report of a large 'bird ninja' creature in the shopping district of the city.
Kiira: I thought they could only come through here...
Hana: Guess Diaboromon managed to expand his influence. You know what this means.
Yumi: I just hope we don't end up causing too much damage.
Labramon: Or a huge scene.
Okay, well, here we are, done with episode 17. I gotta admit, this is one of those ones that I kinda didn't want to write. It was really only the parts with Yumi and her hacker-ness that I enjoyed. I hope that information about Trojan horses and back doors were accurate. My dad works with computers for a living, and I asked him, but I just hope I interpreted the information I was given correctly. If I was not, please let me know and correct me.
See ya on the flipside~ Elisa out~
