A/N: The plot thickens, I don't have predictable access to the internet on this computer, and time zones are really going to piss me off. Oh, and I get to type random numbers for the times in the digital world, because it really doesn't matter when most of the current action isn't there! Oh, and smart people will figure out the way Digital World time is different than Real World time.
I think I'll refrain from calculating how old that makes Blake and Bearmon. It's somewhere above a trillion if I'm guessing correctly. Besides, physically they only age to how old they'd be if they WEREN'T in the Digital World.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Let's leave it at that.
Chapter One: The New Pride2:30PM/USA/New York/New York City/WWBC News Studio/Board Room
New York City was fourteen hours behind Tokyo.
"We've got news from Japan, people." The Boss said as he walked into the room where Earth News Nightly's pre-show afternoon meeting was held. All heads turned to the fat guy in a suit as he laid down the print of an e-mail. It was several pages long. On top of the e-mail was a CD, which presumably held an attachment to the e-mail in video form.
Felicia took the e-mail and began to skim while Shelby placed the CD in the nearby laptop's disc drive. "Political assassination, eh?" She said, noting that it was a member of the House of Councilors. She passed the printout to Shelby, who would get the details now that Felicia had the general idea. That was how they worked together with their mental link, and it made them very efficient.
The Boss nodded. "The interesting fact is how it was done, and the lack of evidence against the assassin, whoever it is. There are no suspects yet, and the local police don't seem to think there will be any. Apparently it's got the same characteristics as a series of other murders and assassinations recently."
Shelby frowned before a slight smirk briefly came to her face. "Poor guy got caught with his pants down. And now he's nose deep in piss." She said as she sent the details into the Tri-Mind. What was the Tri-Mind? The Tri-Mind was what Felicia, Shelby, and the other person they shared a mental connection with, Lynn, had called the mental space they could all access. It was frequently filled with news-related items and occasionally some CIA or Digimon related stuff.
But now we turn to Felicia's face. Surprise was evident on it, as well as… faint recognition? For you see, within the e-mail was a bit of forensic evidence, and among that, one of the details Shelby had picked up on was that whatever had decapitated the man, Masaru Inoue, had been curved, with the vertex of the arc away from the front of the victim's neck. Obviously the sort of blade, and it had definitely been a blade, that could have inflicted such a wound would've been noticed in the restaurant. Blades that curved like that were rare in central Tokyo, where the restaurant had been located. But Felicia had seen something that could inflict such a wound and remain hidden before. After all, she had been friends with the only person who had that thing. An Arkadimon arm-blade that had been formed from a human forearm and hand and could be turned back into the human arm. It came from the arms of Dan, the Twilight Assassin. Her immediate question stunned everyone in the room, Shelby included. "What kind of weapon that makes a wound like that goes unseen in a five star Japanese restaurant?"
"No idea. And that's what's got the cops there so confused. It's like a scythe, but something like that doesn't go unnoticed. Especially not one big and sharp enough to decapitate that neck." The Boss said.
As the Boss motioned for Shelby to play the video they had edited and bring up the script they would use for the story on it, Felicia added, "Excuse me, I've gotta use the bathroom." She walked quickly out of the room and said mentally to Shelby "I know that weapon. And it is most definitely digimon related."
The Digidestined woman did indeed go to the bathroom, but she didn't use it. In fact, as soon as she was inside she locked the door and took out a cell phone. Or should I say D-Phone, as that's what the Digidestined called their cell phone digivices. Flipping open the D-Phone, which looked like a fairly modern phone in comparison to how it had looked when she first got it, she scrolled through the brief contacts list on this phone, that she only used for matters of the digimon kind. 'CoroWayne' was the name she called as she glanced at her watch. 2:36PM. In California it would be 11:36AM, just after the students Wayne taught would be out for lunch.
"Hello." She heard Wayne say. Obviously there was still a student in his room. As such, we now turn to Wayne.
11:37AM/USA/California/Freeborough/Freeborough High School/Room 1013 (Mr. Johnson's Room)
Wayne watched silently as the student finished packing up their binder and left the room. His tone of voice turned secretive as he shut the door behind the student, effectively closing it in another teacher's face as well. He pushed the overhead up to the door so the handle wouldn't turn and asked "What's up, Felicia?"
"Imagine a very wide parabola with a blade on the inside. Some politician in Tokyo was decapitated last night with something like that."
"A scythe?" He asked
"No. We already know it can't be that, too big to go unnoticed in Tokyo. And besides, there's been a string of similar murders."
"You're thinking Dan, OUR Dan, is killing people?"
"He did used to work for Hadesdramon, and we haven't heard a peep from him in twelve years."
"He killed Hadesdramon, there's no way he's still evil."
"Remember what he shouted when he did kill Hadesdramon? 'I work for no side but my own.' If you look back on it, it was in his best interest to work with us. He only looks out for himself. What if he thinks killing people is in his best interest?"
"There's no way, he wouldn't. Unless…." Wayne paused as he remembered something. "He absorbed Hadesdramon's data when he killed him. Is it possible he absorbed Hadesdramon's evil?"
"Anything's possible. Get the others to watch me tonight, we're doing a story on the assassination and the other murders. We'll decide afterwards if it's Dan. If it is, I've got next month off anyway, and summer starts soon. We can go find out for sure."
"Right. Hopefully it isn't Dan. If it is, we're gonna have to bring Blake and Bearmon out of the Digital World." They hung up and Wayne moved the overhead out of the way before heading out of the classroom.
"Wayne, we were going to discuss the final test for the students…." The teacher outside began.
"Busy, something came up and I've gotta go tell Aki about it. We'll talk after school." Wayne said before rushing off towards the language building.
And so it was that Wayne told Aki, Aki told Kyle, and Kyle told Jeff about the news. That night, the four Digidestined who were on the west coast and their digimon sat watching Earth News Nightly with Felicia Livingston and Shelby Turner. And elsewhere, another Digidestined and his digimon sat at a pair of computers and began going through information.
7:03PM/Internet Island/Digital World-Real World Nexus/Communications Room
"Bearmon, you got anything from Lynn yet?"
"Nope." Bearmon checked the IM window on his screen again. "It says she's watching ENN. Isn't that Felicia's show?"
"It is. Send her a Mega-Nudge. I'll get Wayne and Kira. It says they're watching it too. Something must be up, especially if Lynn is watching it right now instead of recording it so she can talk with us." The Digidestined opened his own IM window and sent a Mega-Nudge to the contact titled 'Apollo Rookie'.
7:04PM/USA/California/Freeborough/Wayne and Kira's house/Living Room
Coronamon growled as the laptop on the table suddenly shouted "APOLLO ROOKIE GET THE HECK ON HERE!" Sometimes he hated updating to the newest version of his IM program that, thanks to some messing around from Blake in the digital world, now had Mega-Nudge.
"Deal with it before it shouts again. And change what it says, it's annoying." Wayne said calmly as he handed the laptop to his partner. He received another growl in reply as the rookie digimon checked the IM window.
"It's Blake." Coronamon said simply as he typed out a message in reply along the lines of 'Important things are on ENN right now, talk later'. He then continued watching TV as the camera turned to Felicia saying something about an important Japanese politician being decapitated in a restaurant bathroom.
"Masaru Inoue, a member of the Japanese House of Councilors, is the latest in a string of similar murders and assassinations in Tokyo. Japanese authorities claim that all of these deaths were by decapitation from a curved blade, similar to that of a scythe, and that there has been no evidence that would point to a suspect in any of the cases. Police there have a sketch of what the weapon used might look like, based on the cut. Startling though it is, they claim the blade used could be anywhere from two feet to thirty feet long, and is at least five and a half inches wide, although only an inch thick. This especially concerns police, due to the fact that such a blade would not go unnoticed in Tokyo and would be very difficult to hide on one's person. We go now to –"
Coronamon looked down as he received a reply. 'More important than portals to the Dark Realm popping up in Leviathan Marsh and Wrath Mountain?'
His eyes widened as he typed back 'The Seven Demon Lords are back?!'
'Scanners show only four more portals. Apparently it's only six of them, if at all. General evil levels in the digital world are only slightly above normal, considering the portals. Either they're weaker without the seventh, or the portals are open for some other reason.' The reply came quickly.
Coronamon became interested. 'Which area is there not a portal in that there would be if it was all seven?'
'Hadesdramon's Lair.'
"Guys, it's Dan killing those people." Coronamon said aloud, certain of his conclusion.
"What makes you say that so certainly?" Aki asked, turning away from the TV as the story on the assassination ended.
"This." Coronamon replied, showing them the IM conversation. It took a while for them to figure out Coronamon's logic. Then Lunamon spoke up.
"Hadesdramon's portal isn't there because he's gone forever. The only reason Hadesdramon became a demon lord was because he killed and absorbed Lucemon, thus inheriting the Sin of Pride. Dan killed and absorbed Hadesdramon at the same time with his last attack. Ergo, Dan is a demon lord. And a demon lord would definitely be killing people."
"Exactly. But I don't think he knows. If he has Pride, he'd want to be leading the other six, and flaunting his power in their face." Coronamon said.
"It doesn't make sense though, Dan has Humility. Wouldn't the two cancel out?" Aki asked.
"The Twilight Busters. All the mega items give certain powers, Dan can have two contradictory things and they won't contradict each other. It's just one at a time. Remember, he absorbed our attacks and then threw them back at us, but he could only use one at a time because they contradicted each other. Before then, he could absorb them both, but only use them if he hadn't absorbed the other yet." Wayne answered. He took out his D-Phone and sent a text to Kyle, Jeff, and Felicia. 'Dan did it. Me and Aki have summer off starting next Monday. We'll meet at LAX, Felicia can meet us via speakerphone.'
"I'll tell Blake." Coronamon said after seeing the message. He typed fast and then turned the computer so the USB port faced open space. 'Come to the real world, we have things to discuss. You can stay with us.'
15:07DST/The Great Council Chamber of the Seven Demon Lords/Dark Realm
Two dots on the map stopped moving and settled in Japan, blinking furiously. Barbamon, the only awake demon lord in the room at the moment (Belphemon had fallen asleep there), instantly sat up and had the map zoom in. The table now showed a map of Tokyo with the two dots zooming around at high speed, still blinking furiously. Barbamon switched the picture to live imaging and zoomed further in, the dots now circling the edge of the screen while they blinked. A manual search began as Barbamon looked for Dan in the crowds. The time in Tokyo was 12:15PM, and Barbamon had a full day before it was 12:16PM there.
And on the Seat of Sloth, Belphemon smiled. The idiot hasn't thought to just go there yet. You'd think he'd come to the conclusion that Dan wouldn't be able to resist trying to stop us if we attacked Tokyo.
12:15PM/Japan/Tokyo/Dan's Apartment
Dan grinned as his D-Phone vibrated with a message sent from his computer, where Arkadimon was currently checking statistics in the Digital World. The connection was secure, and untraceable. Flipping open the phone, Dan raised an eyebrow. The message said 'General evil levels elevated to a six demon lord level. Calculations indicate a search for you will likely be started (86.96712345091 chance), if one hasn't started already. Our position is still hidden for the moment.'
The grin turned to a frown. "Luckily I have enough stuff to do here that I can stay occupied for a few thousand digital years."