Episode 18: Conference; Craze; Catalyst

"Comrade, eet has been too long!" Misceomon pulled Linkmon into a bear hug.

Linkmon felt like his data was being compressed from Misceomon's incredible grip. "It's good to see you, too, Misceomon…"

Kurohi caught all this out of the corner of his eye, most of his attention being drawn to a friend he hadn't seen for some time. "It's been a while, Melor. How've you been?"

The boy on the other side of the screen was accompanied by his usual synthetic voice. "I have been keeping busy."

"As much as I'd like to believe the reason you wanted to talk was just to catch up, you don't normally come to me unless you've got something important to say."Kurohi tried to stare down Melor, which was tough since Melor constantly averted his eyes from him.

"As you know Misceomon and I have been pursuing DIGIrus on our own time, but for the past few weeks we have seen no activity from them. Has the situation been the same for you and your team?"

"Yes, it has. We've seen almost three weeks with no activity, and everyone's getting a little on edge."

"A few days ago, Misceomon and I encountered a group of three unevolved DIGIrus with no 'mentor'. Do you have any opinions on this?"

"Hmm." Kurohi scratched his chin in thought. "Seems odd. We've run into a total of three cases of 'mentor' DIGIrus over the past few months, and those were the only times when there was more than one DIGIrus in the same area. From what we've seen, the little ones don't get along with each other." He massaged his forehead as thoughts of their battle with MinoGatorus flashed back into his mind. "Remind me again, what's you record?"

"The three from this week makes six."

"That gives the underwhelming grand total of fourteen small and two big, then. If you give me the location I'll check it out with Linkmon in the morning. It's getting late, and even later for you."

"Your concern is noted, and appreciated. I will get to bed shortly."

"We really should hang out like normal internet friends some time. All work and no play is far too dull."

"Understood. And Kurohi."

"Yea?"

"Happy Birthday."

Kurohi checked the time at the bottom corner of the screen. It read 12:03, meaning he was now officially 19 years old. "Why you cunning little…G'night man. Thanks. I'll talk to you soon."

Linkmon was surprised to find Misceomon waiting for him the next morning. "Don't tell me you've been waiting for me all night?"

"Nah, but eet's been a while since we've done anytheeng fun together. Thought I'd try and catch and catch you on your way out."

"You may find this fun, but for me this is work." Linkmon glided past him.

Misceomon smirked and looked back over his shoulder at him. "You know, you can try and lead eef you want, but do you know where you're goeeng?"

Linkmon froze in the air. He shot the chimera an annoyed look. "Then move your fuzzy butt. Like I said, this is work."

It took them ten minutes to reach their destination. It was a normal computer, like all the others they'd passed through to get there; just a big white sphere filled with gridlines.

"You sure this is the place?"

"Positive." He pointed to one of the lines on the wall. "See this line? Eet doesn't intersect where eet should." Following where he was pointing, Linkmon could see that one end of the line was, indeed, askew.

"Good attention to detail."

"Err, can you fix eet, please? Eet's been bothering me for days."

Linkmon sighed and plugged his tail into the wall. The line straightened itself out, almost instantaneously.

"Thank you kindly."

Linkmon scanned around. "Doesn't look like much. Do you know of anything around here that might attract a DIGIrus' attention? A database, or someplace big enough to hide a few of them?"

"Aye, I theenk so. There's an abandoned server around here for some MMO that went off the grid a few years back. 'Calamity' something…"

"Well, I trust that you know where you're going."

They filed from pipeline to pipeline, Misceomon counting at intervals as if to jog his memory.

"Can I ask about your whole OCD thing?"

"Ask away."

"For someone who claims to have it, I rarely see you acting upon it."

"That wasn't a question." Misceomon shrugged. "The eenterior of the eenternet, for the most part, ees clean and uniform, so my obsession doesn't bubble up too often. No obsession, no compulsion. Drove Melor nuts in the begeenneeng, thou. I turned all his desktop icons into circles and named them all that star icon you get with shift and 8, so he had no idea what anything was for the longest time."

"I can see you doing that." At the end of the pipe they were currently traveling down was a yellow cautionary sign blocking their progression. "I'm guessing this is the place?"

"Yup." He banged his clawed hand on it. "Locked up tight."

"And how do you propose we get in?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you have a skeleton key een that theeng." He pointed at Linkmon's tail.

"Hah, fine." He stuck his tail in the door and it opened almost instantaneously to reveal a dark open space. The two of them entered, their feet lightly patting down onto the gravitized floor, the door reclosing slowly behind them. "Ominous and creepy, isn't it?"

"I'm not much of a betting 'mon, but eef I was I'd say we were probably about to walk eento a trap." The room illuminated itself. At least a few hundred unevolved DIGIrus were scurrying around the walls and the many tall, black pillars that filled the enormous rectangular room. Their eyes all turned to the two Digimon that had entered their hidey-hole.

"Trap seems like an adequate description."

The army of malformed creatures began shuffling at them.

"Kurohi, have you requested backup?"

His disembodied voice responded. "Thirty seconds ago."

Linkmon and Misceomon went back-to-back; the swarm surrounding them on all sides. "I hope you have an idea, Linkmon, because eef you don't we may not last until help gets here."
"Just one. Ever tried a Superior Grenade, before?"

"You mean that thing where you jump into people? I've always thought that was a little inhu-'mon, but beggers can't be choosers, ey comrade?"

"Kick off on three?"

"Three and go, or jyust three?"

"Just three."

They each entered a running pose.

"One."

They braced a foot, sole to sole, against one another.

"Two."

The DIGIrus were so close now that they could hear their simulated breathing.

"THREE!"

They kicked off, forcing themselves into the crowds of 'mon-eating monsters around them.

"Linkmon-

"Misceomon-

-Superior Evolution!"

Every DIGIrus within a five meter radius of them vanished into the two black balls that were once Digimon. From one emerged a giant black dragon, while the other spawned a blood red and toxic green behemoth of equal size.

"GlobaLinkmon!"

"Iramon!"

GlobaLinkmon grabbed the globe off his back and brought it down on top of the swarm before him "Atlas Hammer!" He spun, splattering all the DIGIrus that remained around him after his evolution finished.

"Unclean Judgment!" Iramon's uneven claws grew and glowed an eerie swirl of white and black. He dragged the glistening scythes through the crowd, eviscerating everything they touched.

A cry went up that would have shook the heart of any normal man or 'mon, but they knew what these creatures were capable of, and they would not stop until they were all gone.

"Beam Scissor Slash!"

A wave of energy smacked into GlobaLinkmon's right, toppling him over and sending his prey scurrying. A many-limbed shadow cast over him. "It's been a long time, boy." GiraffaKuwarus stood atop a pillar, flanked by Catastrus and another evolved flower DIGIrus he did not recognize.

GlobaLinkmon rubbed the side of his face with the back of his hand. "I was beginning to think I'd never see you again, bug."

The swarm had disappeared to the back of the server, leaving only the five of them there. "Not sorry to disappoint you. I've been itching to go at you for a long time. Boss shouldn't have any trouble with me taking you out if I tear you up and feed you to the kids afterwords."

"I'd like to see you try!" GlobaLinkmon drove his hands into the ground. "Chains of Tartarus!" Black chains ruptured through the pillar the three DIGIrus were standing. GiraffaKuwarus made a dive for GlobaLinkmon, while Catastrus grabbed the other DIGIrus by the waste and jumped to the adjacent pillar.

She set the flower girl. "Toley, go get the kids out of here."

"Y-yes, ma'am." She turned and flew off in the direction the unevolved DIGIrus had gone.

Catastrus called out after her. "And make sure they don't eat each other!" She jumped down in front of the towering Iramon, her guns trailing on his head before her feet even touched the floor. "You friends with that bug guy, snuggles?"

"Nope." Iramon swung, narrowly missing the smaller and more agile Catastrus. She returned fire; her bullets bouncing off his fuzzy coat.

"Ah crap, what the hell are you made of?"

Iramon bared his teeth. "I really don't like lookeeng at you." Claws out, he narrowly missed her again, but knocked over one of the pillars which dominoed down three more. He slashed wildly, not giving her any openings.

"Hate lookin' at us 'DIGIrus' that much, huh?"

"No." He raised both fists into the air and slammed them on top of her. "Your spots are uneven."

Catastrus held her guard as best she could, but her knees were buckling underneath her. "Man, you're a weird one. Can't say I hate that, thou."

GlobaLinkmon and GiraffaKuwarus were locked in a grapple, Kuwarus needing both sets of his hands to push back against each of Link's. "So you've gotten more than just bigger, eh hunter-boy. I knocked you around pretty easy last time."

"It's not going to happen again." He slammed his skull down on the top of GiraffaKuwarus' head. His arms now free, he curled both into fists and double uppercut him into the nearest pillar.

The dazed beetle clutched his head. "Shh'man. Cousha kiwled me wi' dat."

"Isn't that the idea?"

"Yea, guesh it ish." He feebly got back to his feet. "Maybe the bosh was right about keeping me on the bensh. I've been wanting to go after you for sho long, and look at what happensh."

GlobaLinkmon strode forward. He knew he couldn't run away. "You have some sort of grudge against me?"

"Well, yea. You nearly killed me. Most people would be upshet about that."

Linkmon stopped dead in his tracks. That odd pang in his heart was back, telling him something was off. "Are you afraid of death, bug?"

He laughed. "At the moment? I'm terrified."

GlobaLinkmon grabbed him by his mandible and hoisted him into the air. "Then why are you laughing?"

"Becaushe if I laugh about it, it won't sheem ash shcary."

The pang resonated louder from within him. "Do you realize that this must have been what every Digimon you ever killed felt like? That every Digimon you ate, every Digimon you fed to one of your so called 'children' felt the same way that you do now?" He punched the pillar, mandible still in his curled fist. "Do you know the same fear I had the day I met you!?"

The second impact had disorientated Kuwarus even more. His words were slow and hoarse. "...Yesh. I do."

The panging stopped, and Link let go. He felt disgusted, not by the creature on the floor, but by himself. At this moment, he felt no better than the DIGIrus he had been hunting; just a looming shadow, ready to snatch away the breath from their lungs.

He tried to regain himself, he tried to speak, but even he could her the cracking in his own voice. "If I find you've hurt anyone else, next time I will kill you."

GiraffaKuwarus' head followed his as he walked away. "Why...why let me live?"

Link took a deep breath and held his composure as best he could. "Because at the moment, I hate me just as much as I hated you." He scuttled away and turned his attention to Iramon who had returned to crazily chasing Catastrus around. "Ira, let's go. They're not our priority." He spread his wings and flew to the back of the server.

"Eh!? But..." He looked from Catastrus to the fleeing back of GlobaLinkmon. He pointed at the small girl in front of him and growled. "You're lucky I'm suck a good friend." He bounded after the skybound dragon.

Out of danger, Catastrus sank to her knees, exhausted.

GiraffaKuwarus hobbled over to her. "You...okay?"

"Better than you, by the looks of it, but I thought I was done for back there." She flopped onto her back. "Why'd they stop all of a sudden?"

"Dunno. Maybe the boy'sh just an idiot...but..."

"But?"

He shrugged. "I don't think I can hate him anymore."

"Ha, that's weird coming from...Oh crap, Toley!"

Toloarus was trying her best to herd the children through the small gap. GiraffaKuwarus was much better at making them than she was, so only a few of them could go through at a time. "Come on, please hurry." She frantically buzzed around over top of them. "I need to go back and help the oth-"

A series of growls and hisses arose from the back of the group. She turned around to find that enormous black dragon, nearly three times her size, standing over her. She didn't know what to do. Her voice wouldn't come out. She was dead, she knew it. This thing had killed her friends and now it was going to kill her, just like they told her the Digimon would. She closed her eyes and braced herself for what was to come.

"Your friends are pretty beat up. You should probably go help them out."

"Eh?" She looked back up at him. He wasn't looking at her anymore, but instead surveying the children below her.

"My assignment is to protect Digimon. Do you eat Digimon?"

"N-n-no, sir."

"Than I have no qualms with you. Go help your friends. I'll wait to start until you leave." His hand was resting on the giant ball on his back."

"Y-yes, sir. Thank you, sir." She flew off in the direction of the entrance, passing by the other Digimon on her way. Before she was even half-way there, she heard a familiar voice.

"Toley!" Catastrus was running so fast it looked like she gliding over the gaps between the pillars rather than jumping.

"Catastrus-san! Are you okay? Where are your guns-" She was tackled mid-air. Catastrus had drawn her into a very tight hug.

"Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?" She looked very worried.

"I'm fine, Catastrus-san. I was just about to check up on you, but the children..." She looked back over her shoulder. Rubble and small explosions could been seen hanging in the air.

"Eh, I'm not too broken up about it." She pulled Toloarus to her feet. "Better them than us, in my opinion. Boss'll be pissed, thou." Toloarus still had a defeated look on her face. "Hey, hey." She gave her a pat on the back. "You're number one job at all times is coming back alive. You're way more valuable than a thousand of them."

Toloarus gave a weak smile. "Thank you, Catastrus-san."

"Come on, let's go check on G. The black guy clocked him pretty hard in the head, but he's probably stopped slurring by now."

A heavy silence hung over Linkmon and Misceomon as they headed home. Thou they did not know how many DIGIrus had managed to escape through the crack, they had deleted over 200 of them, which should have been a very serious win for them.

"Why deed you stop me, Link?"

Linkmon hung his head, wishing an answer would come to him. "I don't know. Just didn't feel right."

"They're killeeng Digimon, Link"

"Only the children do that. The adults have a strict no-kill policy."

Misceomon snorted. "Well, at least you have one answer."

"Also, it'd be weird if leopard spots were symmetrical."

Misceomon blushed. "Heard that, deed ya? Not one of my finer moments."

"There's something I need to look into, Misc. There's something I need to know, and I don't know if I can continue with this job until I find out."

Misceomon stopped. "And what's that, comrade?"

Linkmon turned to him, his expression hard to read. "What exactly are the DIGIrus?"