Episode 14: Query; Quandary; Question
"Been a while."
The boy pushed himself up in his chair and began to type. "Yes, it has. I trust you're doing well?"
Kurohi's image shrugged on the screen. "Can't complain. Finally managed to catch up on all the sleep I've lost."
"I trust the reason you're here is not just to have an idle chat."
The elder boy smiled. "Y'know, it's been so long I forgot how unsociable you can be." He scrubbed one of his eyebrows with his middle finger. "I did hope to have done a bit more 'idle chatting'."
As with most of Kurohi's attempts at jokes, Melor didn't make so much as a twitch. "You're here to conscript me into joining your little team again, aren't you?"
"I'm not conscripting, I'm asking you, as a friend, if you won't reconsider. We could really use you're help, Melor."
"And I stand by what I said before. I will not join that company."
He had trouble reading Melor's expressions, but Kurohi could tell how serious he was by how he was pounding away at his keyboard. "Alright, if you're that strongly opposed, then I won't press the matter. By the way, here."
Melor opened the e-mail. "What is this?"
"Just a little gift I made. Maybe you can find a use for it."
Melor waited before responding. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Talk to you soon, okay?"
"Alright, we will now bring to order the first official meeting of the...the..." Kurohi gently karate chopped his desk for a few seconds. "Our second order of business this varied by time zone will be to come up with a name."
Pop and Ricker looked at him like the idiot he occasionally was. "If our second order's a name, den whad's dhe first?"
"Right. New guy." He mimed pressing a button, and spoke in his best female receptionist voice. "Mr. President, your 4'o'clock is here."
A familiar human hologram seemed to materialize from the shadows. (More accurately he turned his projection on.) A familiar British accent rang in the ears of some very unhappy people. "Good...varied by time zone, I suppose. It is...good...to see you again, and in good health."
Pop wasted no time. "Kurohi! Explain yourself!"
Kurohi looked slightly sheepish. He stepped through his screen the same way that White had done on the night they'd first met to reveal a holographic image of himself. "He said he wanted to join the team, then offered me fancy toys. Who was I to say no?"
"Sellout."
Kurohi coughed into his hand. "Anyway, White will now be assisting us on missions. If you have issue with this, then shut up because I really don't care. I'm not asking you to be friends, I'm asking you to work together. It's not that hard. Suck it up."
White chimed in. "If it'll make the transition easier, I did bring fancy toys for everyone."
"And what can I get you to drink, sir?" The yellow Monitamon had his pen and pad ready.
The silver spider waved down his offer. "Thank you, but we do not need one."
"O-K, then I'll get the rest of your drinks and be back in a momento." He scurried off to the kitchen, leaving the four Digimon sitting at the table.
"This whole cafe charade doesn't really do anything for me either. It's just that these two seem to enjoy it, so we have our meetings here." Linkmon gestured to the two sitting on the opposite booth.
"I happen to enjoy the atmosphere. Even you must admit, it is quite lively, master Linkmon."
Linkmon scanned the room. The only reason it seemed lively was that the other patrons were all whispering to each other, no doubt about their strange little party. "I guess I have to admit it, then."
"We think we may have confused you, Linkmon. We did not refuse to order because we were disinterested in the 'cafe experience'. It is merely that we do not posses the appendages required to handle such things as drinking glasses in this form."
Linkmon and Sopranomon both shot him a bizarre look, while Rollermon began folding his eight paper crane out of a napkin. "You didn't get a drink...because you don't have hands?"
"When you phrase it like that, it makes us seem quite silly, Linkmon."
"...Sorry."
"Does dhis thing do anythin' other than look cool?" Pop and Ricker were now both represented by holograms of themselves. Since Pop couldn't see herself, she was staring intently at Ricker's hologram, who looked somewhat perturbed by the stares. He wiggled his fingers in front of his face to try and appease her.
"You can move your arms." White was apparently doing paperwork. Random white rectangles would appear in his hands and disappear soon after as he finished reading them. "You can't move your fingers unless your camera can see them, thou. Otherwise, they remain in a calm open position."
"Well, whad about him?" She pointed at Kurohi, making sure her arm was close to her chest so her camera could see it. "He looks like he's holdin' invisible softballs."
"You can change your default hands in the program menu. Kurohi switched his to 'rage hands'."
"Yeaaa, there aren't as cool as I thought they would be." Kurohi perused the menu some more, hovering his mouse over 'finger guns' for a moment before restoring the default.
Pop wiggled around a bit more, not entirely sure how to test the functionality of the program. "Well, as much as I hate to admit it, this is pretty cool."
"Heh, sellout." Kurohi said it just loud enough so that Pop could hear him. She did nothing, but you could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. "Alright, so next order of business would a name for the gro-"
Kurohi was cut off by a blaring siren sound from his DP.
"We've got one."
"It's a call." Linkmon jumped over the table and made for the door. He shouted back at the others over his shoulder. "Legionmon, front the bill, would ya?"
"We did not order anything. Sopranomon, will you please take care of the check?" Legionmon levitated after Linkmon.
After the two had teleported out, Sopranomon leaned over to Rollermon. "They do realize that this establishment provides free services, do they not?"
Rollermon shrugged.
The Digimon and Tamers, now back in screen mode as they didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, made their way quickly to Erika and Darcmon's location.
"Is this how your mission's usually begin?" White had saddled up close to Kurohi and had begun questioning him.
"Well, this is only our second official mission. I normally get a call, and we sortie and go. Conveniently we've all been together every time so far, so I'm not entirely sure what we'll do if we're all separated."
"If this is only the second mission, then I'm glad I joined when I did. Since I bore witness to your last mission, it puts me on a similar level of experience as the rest of you."
Seeing Pop's initial reaction to White joining the team fortified his reasoning behind withholding certain information from them. Turns out White had actually had Legionmon (or at least a part of him) tail them when they had left his home, and Legionmon had recorded the entire fight for White to observe.
"You have to remember that the entire team has had a previous encounter with a DIGIrus, and I've had two more before that. You may think you know what you're getting into, but as team leader, I'm going to advise to be cautious. Long range and hit-and-run are the best tactics to use against them, as it is not safe to get too close."
Reading the now more serious mood, White simply nodded before swinging back over to Legionmon.
It didn't take them much longer to find Darcmon, who was standing before a server entrance. "It seems you are all here. Good. Today, my master will instruct you on the details of your mission."
Darcmon bowed out of the way, and Erika's screen appeared where she was standing. "Hello, everyone. Now that you and our little trouble maker are here..." She gave White a big-toothed grin. "From what we can tell, the DIGIrus are in there. We've confirmed that there are at least two, so keep your guard up. Good luck."
Kurohi nodded in ascent, but the others just blinked confusedly. This made sense, since Erika had relayed all of that in Japanese, to which only Kurohi could understand.
"Wha'?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Excuse me?"
"Oops. Sorry." This time in English. "They're in there. There's at least two. Good luck." She gave them a double thumbs-up, then her screen flashed off.
Darcmon moved back to the foreground. "I will wait here. If any of them attempt to flee, I will try and stall them until you get here."
"Thank you, Darcmon." After addressing the messenger, Kurohi turned around to face his team. "All right, you guys should know the drill. We go in as Adults. Link and Rollermon will take the front, Sopranomon in the middle, and Legionmon will cover the rear. We good?"
There were a variety of grunts and words of agreement from the other seven.
"Then lets go."
Program Activated – Evolution
"Linkmon evolve to-"
"Sopranomon evolve to-"
"Legionmon Mega evolve to-"
"Jackmon!"
"Mezzomon!"
"Legionmon Giga!"
"Beebeebeep!"
The four Adult Digimon and their Tamers, now represented by holograms, headed toward the entrance.
Inside was dark. From the outlines Kurohi could see, it appeared to be an arena. The floor was flat, with raised spectator seating, and the natural curve of the computer made it look like an arched ceiling overhead.
"It's quiet." Jackmon broke the silence. "Which means something's about to jump out at us."
"But that would be unsportsmanlike!"
Three spotlights appeared and centered themselves on a figure standing in the bleachers. It had the appearance of a bipedal blue alligator. Its body was rough and covered in spikes.
It leered down at them with a giant toothy smile on its face. "Welcome to my arena, everyone!" It gave them a theatrical bow. "My name is MinoGatorus, and I am the proprietor of this establishment! Oh, you are so lucky!" He danced in a circle and clapped his hands together. "You're just in time for today's match! It's going to be you four scrumptious-looking Digimon, versus these children!"
The arena's lights flickered on. On the walls of the inner area of the arena were three doors that they hadn't seen in the dimness before. The doors started opening simultaneously to reveal three bestial non-evolved DIGIrus. They were a Leomon with the lower half of a ShimaUnimon for legs, a Liamon with the front legs and shoulder wings of a Peckmon, and a Lynxmon with a blank-eyed Tankmon head sticking out of its back.
"Isn't this exciting!" MinoGatorus was shouting from the stands again. "With a fight to the death this exciting, I'm sure you folks won't mind giving up your lives as payment!"
Jackmon stepped forward. "I believe you are slightly confused, proprietor!" He gestured at his comrades. "My friends and I have not come here looking for a show!" He seemed to have gotten caught up in MinoGatorus' act. "We were sent here to close this place down!"
"Oh! Then I believe this calls for a special event!" It jumped from the stands and landed in front of the other three DIGIrus. "If this is to be our final show, then let's make it a spectacular 4-on-4! I'm afraid I must insist!"
Linkmon slammed one dino-fist into the other. "Don't worry, if you hadn't come down yourself, I would've dragged you down anyways!"
A slow clap could be heard from the group's left, causing everyone to turn. "My such sportsmanship." A figure in blue walked down the seats and stopped right at the edge before the arena. His long cape flowed eerily, even without artificial wind. "It almost brings a tear to my eye."
Melor sat in front of his computer. He was reading though the lines of code that made up the program Kurohi had given him a few hours earlier. He leaned back in his chair. "Misheomon?"
"I'm right here, Melor."
He leaned one arm forward, which glided across the keyboard. "Kurohi is my friend, correct?"
Misceomon smiled. "Yea. Yea, he is."
Melor waited a moment before typing again. "Misceomon, what do you want to do?"