"How is she?" Yamaki asked. He was looking over Hitomi's sleeping form, the
girl having been sedated almost continually since she had been brought in.
"So far, nothing. She's just a normal girl, about 10 or 11."
"And the Wild One?"
The researcher sighed. "That's not a simple question. Our nearest guess is
that it's some sort of hybrid; we've detected both regular DNA strands and
Digital DNA patterns in it. But we can't figure out how it got there. I think
we have something completely new on our hands."
"Dissection?"
The researcher shook his head again. "Every time we try, the girl seems to
react negatively. It's as if what happens to the creature is felt by her."
"I see. How about that object that was with her."
"Most interesting." The researcher said. "It's virtually identical to the
digivices they have on the TV series. But none of us can make it work. We
can't even take the thing apart, and we've tried everything short of an atomic
bomb in trying to open it up."
"I see." Yamaki said. "Continue with your work. I'll have technician Ramone
assigned to your team." The researcher nodded, and left. Yamaki looked
around. Where was Talli, he wondered.
===========================================================================
Digicross Tamers episode 13
-Bring Back Hitomi!
===========================================================================
Nami Asaji slumped down in her chair. She had called in sick the last two
days, since Hitomi had disappeared. She was torn about what to do. She went
to the police, but there was little they could do; legally, Hitomi did not
exist outside of what was listed in the school database. The policeman that
had taken the report nodded, assured her that this sort of thing happened all
the time, and left after getting a full description of her and Eevee. There was
a flutter of wings at the window; Noctowl had returned. He had been searching
the city since Hitomi and Eevee had vanished. She knew that Takato and Henry
were looking for her as well, despite what she had told them.
There was a knock at the door. Dully, she got up, walked over, and opened it.
Yuka Nonaka stepped in. "Nami, I came as soon as Rika told me what happened!
Are you doing all right?"
"Ms No-"
"Ah, it's Yuka, dear. Rumiko's out of town right now, so I decided to come
over and keep you company. Have you had any word on Hitomi yet? Rika and her
friend have been tearing up half the city looking for her."
"H...her friend?"
"Renamon." Yuka replied. "I met her last night."
==Last night
"Hitomi's missing?" Yuka asked, shocked. Rika, her granddaughter, nodded her
head. "How long?"
"About a day now. She was taking Eevee for a walk and never came back."
"And you've been searching for her, haven't you?"
Rika pulled back, scowl appearing on her face. "Well, what do you expect me to
do? Sitting around's not my style."
Yuka had to smile at that. "No it isn't. Just be careful, alright? I don't
want you to go missing as well, Rika." Yuka looked at one of the walls.
"You'll see to that, right?"
"Grandma?"
"You can come out now, I won't tell anyone else about you." Yuka kept her
sight locked on the wall. A tall figure appeared out of the shadows.
"Renamon." Rika gasped. She turned back to Yuka. "I can explain, grandma,
really!"
"It's all right. I've known for a while that you've had a guardian angel.
Renamon, right?"
Renamon nodded. "I will not let anything happen to Rika."
"I know that. And I know that asking you to watch Rika will just make her
mad." Yuka saw Rika gasp. "You two had better go get some rest. I'll go over
to visit Ms. Asaji tomorrow, so don't worry if I'm out, all right?"
==
"Don't worry." Yuka told Nami gently. "If Renamon's anything like Rika, she
won't stop until Hitomi's found and returned to you." Nami tried to reply, but
her strength finally gave out, and she started crying. Yuka just held the
teacher, letting her get it out of her system.
==Takato's home.
"Anything?" Takato asked Henry.
"Nothing. Terriermon can't find either of them, and I can't even get anything
on my d-arc. You don't suppose she went home, do you? Back to her world?"
"Without Noctowl? Or saying anything?" Takato replied.
"Yeah, you're right. How's Jeri?"
"She's OK. She's not taking this too well, though. She insisted on coming
with me to search, but I couldn't let her. Her dad's pretty strict about being
out late. Gabumon's been helping out, though. I just wish we had some clue to
go on."
"We'll just keep looking until we find her." Henry checked his watch. "I'd
better get home; Dad already knows what happened, and he'll help out wherever
he can."
==Hypnos, about the same time.
Janyu wandered down the corridor, lost in thought. He had been disturbed by
Hitomi's disappearance, and had warned his son about doing anything rash, like
searching for her himself. Like he'd ever listen, he admitted. Distracted, he
made a wrong turn, going down a wrong set of stairs.
Startled by a wall that shouldn't be there, Janyu looked around. "Great, lost
in my own workplace. Not something for my resume." Picking a direction, Janyu
headed down a hallway, to where he saw some windows and lights. "Maybe someone
will..." Janyu stopped, gasped as he saw Hitomi, apparently asleep in one of
the rooms. "Hitomi?"
Janyu couldn't remember how he got back upstairs, or how he found Yamaki's
office. He stormed in, wondering why he didn't just take Hitomi out of here
right now. "What's going on here Yamaki? Why is Hitomi here?"
"You'd rather it was your own son, Janyu?" Janyu stopped short. "These
digimon present a serious threat to this entire planet. That girl, along with
your own son, have been seen several times in company with various digimon that
have appeared here. In addition, she may not be of this world; we recorded an
unusual signal some time ago, and this 'Hitomi' is emitting that same signal
right now. It is my duty to take any means necessary to remove the digimon
threat that faces this world. And if that girl and her pet can be used to that
end, so be it."
Janyu got some of his anger back. "We'll see about that."
"We will, you won't." Yamaki snapped his fingers, and two burly agents
appeared, one with several stitches on his face. "Please detain Mr. Wong until
further notice. See that he is treated well, but he is not to leave this
building or have any communication with anyone not involved with the current
project." The two guards nodded, and led Janyu out.
"This isn't over, Yamaki." Janyu snapped.
Yamaki sat down, once Janyu had been escorted out. He knew something like
this would happen. He hated to do it, but there was no way to avoid it. He
typed a few commands on his computer, then took out a phone, and attached a
small device to it. The computer dialed a number. "Wong residence." a
pleasant female voice said.
Yamaki keyed in a command, and spoke. "Meilin, it's Janyu. Listen,
something's come up, and I'm going to have to go out of town for a while."
"What? Can't you come home first?"
"Sorry, dear. There's nothing I can do about it. I'll see you next week,
promise!" Yamaki hung up. The voice program had worked perfectly. No one on
the other end would know that Yamaki had been mimicking Janyu's voice, taking
cues from the computer. He got up. There was one more thing he had to do.
==Hypnos secondary lab
Babel looked up. "Where on earth is Tao? I thought he was just out
stretching his legs."
Dolphin shrugged. He was about to answer when Technician Ramone entered the
room. "Mr. Wong has been sent on a field assignment; once it has been
completed, he will be back. How goes the research?"
"We're stumped." Babel answered. "We've gone over the original program we
devised, but we can't explain what's happening here. The digimon we created
should not have developed as far as they have. Even Unix isn't that powerful."
"Any luck on finding Shibumi?" Dolphin asked. "He was responsible for a lot
of the higher level coding, including the survival and adaptive subroutines."
"None yet." Ramone replied. "It is as if he dropped off the face of the
planet."
==Hypnos, ground level.
Reilly exited the elevator. She saw Talli there, changing out of her work
uniform, and savagely stuffing it into a locker. "Talli? What is it? What's
wrong?"
Talli whirled around, red eyes locked on Reilly. "We kidnapped a 10 year old
girl, and you're asking me what's wrong? I didn't sign on for this!"
"She might be the key to fighting off the digimon that are threatening this
world." Reilly replied. She was worried this might happen. "You know what
happened two years ago. We just want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"I don't care! Reilly, can't you see this is wrong? I can't take this any
more. I'm leaving Hypnos, and if I never see this place again, I'll be happy.
Maybe I can even forgive myself." Talli walked away. Reilly put a hand on her
shoulder, but Talli turned and slapped Reilly across the face. "Don't EVER
touch me again." Talli walked out. Reilly fell to her knees, watching her
best friend leave the building they had spent the last two years working in.
==Asaji home.
After Nami had cried herself out, Yuka had told her to sit down while she made
her some tea. "This should help you calm down a bit. I'm sure they'll find
Hitomi soon." There was a knock at the door. "Why don't you get it." Yuka
called from the kitchen. "My hands are a bit full."
"All right." Nami got up and opened the door. Standing there was a tall man,
wearing a suit and sunglasses. "Can I help you?"
"Nami Asaji?" Nami nodded. "My name's Yamaki, I'm here about Hitomi, I have
a few questions to ask you."
Nami was about to reply when Yuka's voice cut her off. "You." Yuka snapped,
recognizing Yamaki. "You were the pervert that was chasing Hitomi earlier."
Nami backed away, and Noctowl came out, fixing Yamaki with his steely glare.
"I assure you, Hitomi is in no danger right now, but I do have several
questions that must be answered."
Nami grabbed Yamaki by his collar. "Where is she?" Nami demanded. "What have
you done with her?" Yamaki tried to pull away, finally succeeding in shoving
Nami away, knocking the teacher to the ground. Noctowl flew at Yamaki, clawing
and pecking at the man's face. Yamaki backed off, flinching under the fierce
assault. Noctowl chased Yamaki to the elevator, then flew back.
Yuka, having run over to Nami and helped her up, looked at Noctowl. "Thank
you. Now we know who has her, we just need to know where." Noctowl nodded and
flew out a window, following Yamaki. "Nami, you'd better get everything Hitomi
owns and come with me to my place. We'll be a bit safer there."
==Hypnos labs
"Are you sure about this?" the technician asked Reilly.
Reilly nodded. "I think it's time we took a more direct approach. Can we do
this?"
The tech nodded. "This will bring the subject-"
"Hitomi." Reilly interrupted. "Her name is Hitomi."
"Right. This will bring Hitomi into a semi-awake state. She'll be in a sort
of trance, and will answer any simple questions asked of her. Don't stimulate
her too much or she may become fully awake." Reilly nodded. "Ma'am?"
"Yes?"
"I know you're just following orders, but...this feels wrong. I don't like
doing this to digimon, much less little girls."
"I know." Reilly said quietly. "Please proceed." The tech nodded, and
injected Hitomi with a small amount of stimulant. The girl began to come
around, the technician monitoring her vital signs. "Hitomi? Hitomi Motomiya,
can you hear me?"
"...yes..." Hitomi's voice was almost inaudible.
Reilly nodded. "I need to know where you're from. Can you tell me?"
"Stone Town, Kanto....region..."
Reilly leaned closer. "How did you get here. Can you tell me that?" Reilly
kept her voice calm, gentle.
"Accident...an Unown followed me....trapped....mom? Mom...MOM DAD WHERE ARE
YOU?" Hitomi started screaming. The tech quickly applied another sedative,
and Hitomi passed out again. The technician disposed of the needles he had
used, then pulled off his mask.
"I'm sorry. I can't do this any more. I hope you got what you needed."
Reilly looked up. "I think I did. I'll...I'll tell Yamaki you called in sick."
==
Ramone looked at the digivice. Right now, it was inert. "What is this
thing's secret?" He knew that it held some key to allowing the creature in the
next room to digivolve. He could feel the power inside it.
The girl. She had to have the answer. Quickly, Ramone hacked into the
security systems. Reilly was just leaving the room. Hitomi was unattended.
"Perfect." he muttered, getting up.
One room over, Eevee looked around. There was no way out of the cage he was
in; it was solid steel, and bolted to the table. The table itself was solid
metal. He paced back and forth, casting dark glares at the one guard in the
room. Hang on, Hitomi, he thought. I'll get you out of here whatever it costs
me.
==
"This is getting too weird." Babel said to Dolphin. "First Tao takes off on
some field assignment, now our computer access is cut off. You think there's
something they're not telling us?"
"A top secret government project not telling us something? Heaven forbid."
Dolphin replied. "Of course, we could try to find out something. Perhaps that
firewall on the secondary server connection?"
Babel grinned. "Already handled. You must be getting slow, old man."
"Says you, baldy. I just wanted to give you a chance to keep up."
"Right. Careful Dolphin, your hairline's receding." There was a beep from
the computer. "Email? One sec." Babel checked the computer. "No sender,
just says that we'll need this. And there's a program attached. You been
visiting all those naughty internet sites again?"
Dolphin sighed, crossing his arms. "Funny. Try running it." Babel nodded,
opening the application. Instantly, several screen lit up. "It's hacking into
the security cameras. Hey, check this out!"
Babel looked at the screen Dolphin indicated. "That's Tao, all right. Field
assignment my foot. So, what now?"
Dolphin thought about it. "Now, nothing. We'd better get out of here, then
come back when we have a plan. We can't be the only ones who know about this.
Looks like we're fighting the government again."
Babel grinned. "Just like old times."
==
Talli walked down the street, still angry. She didn't know what to do next,
she just wanted to get as far away from Hypnos as possible.
"I should have done something." she muttered to herself. "I should have
gotten her out of there." She stopped, wondering what to do next. Then she
saw a boy she recognized.
"Henry? Henry Wong?" Talli ran over to the boy.
Henry looked at her. "Who wants to know?"
"Please, I know where Hitomi is. I need to speak with the other tamers. It's
urgent!"
==
Calumon looked at the Hypnos building. "Did I just see Impmon heading over
there? I wonder what he wants in that place?" Calumon shrugged, and went back
to playing tag with Unown.
Impmon, completely unaware of Calumon's interest in him, made his way to the
Hypnos building. "I gotta be nuts!" he grunted. "I finally find that freak
again, and he tries to blow me away! Why am I going back there?"
He finally got within site of the building. He knew that whatever system
that was in there could detect digimon, so he decided to wait on a rooftop
until nightfall. Then he could sneak in and settle accounts with that man in
there.
"This is all Monodramon's fault, I just know it!"
==Later that afternoon.
"And that's everything." Talli told everyone. Henry, Takato, Jeri, and Rika
were there, along with Rika's grandmother and Nami.
"They just...grabbed her off the street?" Jeri asked.
Talli nodded.
"So, when do we go get her?" Takato asked.
"That's out of the question!" Nami almost yelled. "You're just children, I
can't let you attack a government building like that! This is a job for the
police!"
"And tell them what?" Rika asked. "Our friend is being held by a secret
government organization because she's from another dimension, and they think
she might be connected to all those reports of monsters appearing?"
"And dad hasn't come home yet." Henry added. "I'm beginning to think that
that 'out of town assignment' call mom got was a fake."
Nami looked at Henry. "But-"
"They're right." Jeri said. "If they have Hitomi and Henry's dad, any one of
us could be next."
"And Hypnos can access any form of electronic communication." Talli added.
"If we went to the police, they'd know about it almost instantly."
"That's probably how they found out about you, Nami." Yuka said. "I don't
think we have a choice."
"I might be able to sneak myself and one or two others in with me, but it will
be tricky." Noctowl flew in. He landed by Nami and cawed quietly.
"I think Noctowl can help you." Nami said quietly.
"Don't worry." Takato said. "We won't go crazy or anything. We just go in,
get Hitomi, Eevee, and Henry's dad out, and leave." He turned to Talli. "Can
we get our digimon inside?"
"It will be hard. The Scanner dome is set to detect any active digimon. The
only way would be to cut the power to the place."
"Fine then." Rika said. "Henry and I go in, while Takato cuts the power to
the place."
"Why me?" Takato asked.
"Because a dinosaur the size of a house might be too big to sneak around
inside a building? Guilmon's not the most subtle digimon around."
"What about me?" Jeri asked. "Can Leomon and I help?"
Rika blinked. "Leomon?"
"Yeah," Takato said, "Jeri became Gabumon's tamer just before Hitomi got
caught. He digivolved to Leomon to fight a Gesomon that attacked us."
Rika sighed. "Great, another amateur." That got an elbow from Yuka. Rika
cleared her throat. "Look, Jeri, I know you want to help, but this is really
dangerous. We can't make any mistakes doing this."
"She can help me cut the power lines." Takato said. Jeri nodded.
Rika sighed again. "Fine. Everyone get ready. We're leaving in an hour."
Rika stood up, and left the room.
Nami watched Rika leave. "We can't let them do this!" she said to Yuka.
"They're just kids!"
"Children are full of surprises." Yuka replied. "And I don't think we could
stop them." she added, as Henry, Takato, and Jeri left the room to get their
digimon ready. "I could see it in their eyes. Hitomi's their friend, and they
won't stop until they get her back."
==
Talli waited outside, car idling. Henry walked up to the car, Terriermon on
his shoulder. "Thanks for bailing me out," Terriermon chirped, "Suzie was
acting all weird again."
"Terriermon, this is serious."
"Hey, relax. Takato told me everything. We sneak in all ninja like and save
the damsel in distress. What's the problem?"
Henry looked at Terriermon, sudden image of him on a dissection table filling
his thoughts. "Plenty, if we blow this. Promise me you'll be careful, all
right?"
Terriermon sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll be all Renamon like."
"I heard that." Renamon said, appearing. Startled, Terriermon nearly fell off
Henry's shoulder.
"Do you practice freaking people out?" Terriermon complained.
"It's a talent." Renamon replied, voice flat.
"Can we get on with this?" Rika stepped out of the house, heading to where
Talli and Henry were. Henry had to resist the urge to stare. Her normal
outfit, jeans and a T-shirt with a broken heart on it, was replaced by a dark
trenchcoat, black jeans, and a dark grey shirt with a skull and crossbones on
it. Rika's expression was hard, a mix of anger and determination.
"Yeah. Let's go." Henry managed. "Jeri and Takato are on their way. Once
they take out the power station, there'll be a short amount of time where we
can get in with our digimon. Then we find everyone and get out." Rika nodded.
Everyone piled into the car. Rika took the front seat, leaving Henry stuck in
the back with Terriermon, Renamon, and Noctowl.
==
Outside the Hypnos building, Takato, Jeri, Guilmon, and Gabumon watched for a
chance to attack. "We should be able to attack in another two minutes. That's
when the shift in the scanning room changes over."
Jeri looked at the building they had targeted. "You were right about one
thing." she whispered. "They do have a super digimon detector."
Takato chuckled. "Look, Jeri, Just...just be careful, all right? I don't
want anything to happen to you."
"Silly." Jeri replied, leaning over and giving Takato a kiss on his cheek.
"As long as I have Gabumon and you with me, I'll be all right. I think it's
time." Takato's watch beeped. The two children took cards out, ready to use
them. "Digi modify!" they said, slashing the cards through their digivices.
"Rain of pollen activate!"
"Cat's eye hypnotism, activate!"
Guilmon jumped forward, spitting a cloud of dust at the guards around the
power building. Taken by surprise, they quickly fell over, asleep. A third
guard came out, but Gabumon quickly hypnotized him, rendering him unconscious.
Gabumon pumped his arm. "Yes!"
Guilmon coughed, small puffs of pollen coming out his nose. "I think I
inhaled, Takatomon."
"You'll be fine. Ready for stage two, Jeri, Gabumon?" The two nodded. "Digi
modify! Offense plug in V, activate!"
Jeri had a second card out. "Digi-modify! Digmon's Gold Rush, activate!"
Gabumon's horn reshaped itself into what looked like a large drill bit, which
promptly launched and struck the outside of the building. The attack tore
through the wall and exposed the systems within. Guilmon fired a powered up
fireball through the hole, barbecuing everything in there."
"Okay, let's go!" Takato yelled, leading Jeri out of the area.
==
Yamaki had gone straight home, deciding not to go back to work. He was
pretty sure that that owl was following him. No sense leading it back to
Hypnos. Instead, he had rested, treated the scratches Noctowl had inflicted on
him. He hadn't meant to doze off, but he had, dreams of happier times with his
son, Ryo, filling his head.
A beeping noise woke him up. He checked his pager, saw that there was trouble
at Hypnos. He tried calling in. No answer. There was a dull whirring noise
from his room. He went in, checked the source. he came out several minutes
later, dressed and clutching a small black object in his hand.
==
Impmon got up. "What's all the racket?" he wondered. He picked out Guilmon
and Gabumon leaving the area, along with two humans. "I wonder what's up?
Pineapple head probably thought there was a buffet in side. Well, as long as
he's making such a nice big distraction, I might as well pay a visit."
==
Michael Ramon stared at Hitomi, wondering who this girl was. She felt
different from the other humans here, like she didn't really belong here. He
looked around, double checked that the security camera was disabled. "I really
can't see anything like this." he muttered, then made a dismissive gesture.
His form seemed to ripple, then was replaced with a different form. This one
was smaller, looking more like an abstracted monkey.
Makuramon took out a small silver orb, holding it over Hitomi. "Now that I'm
free of that useless disguise, I can use my full power. Now, my dear, let's
see what secrets you hold." The orb glowed, and Hitomi was bathed in a harsh
silver light. She writhed as she felt the pain, even in her unconscious state.
As she did, her digivice activated.
"Interesting." Makuramon said, noting this.
==New Bark Town.
Kyoko got up, awaken by some feeling of dread. "Hitomi." she muttered,
getting up. Beside her, Gatomon, her partner, also got up. The two headed for
the lab where Kyoko's father worked.
When she got there, she found that there were several other people there.
"Takeru! Sam! Asuka! How...?"
Takeru snorted. "We were wondering when you'd get here. You always were a
sleepyhead." Then, in a more serious tone, he went on, saying "Hitomi's in
trouble. Any ideas what we should do?"
Sam looked at the portal that Izzy had been working on. "Well, how about our
digivices? It worked for our parents? Remember what they said about Skull
Demon?"
Everyone nodded. "Let's do it then." Asuka said, pointing her digivice at the
portal. It lit up, and a beam of light shot out. Everyone else did likewise.
==Another digital world.
Hiroki Hida stepped out of the small hut that he, Ryoko, and the digidestined
they were travelling with were sleeping in. Sneasel was already outside, as
was Ryoko. "You can feel it, can't you?" Sneasel asked.
Hiroki nodded. "Hitomi's in trouble." On instinct, he held his digivice out,
pointing it at the sky. It lit up, and fired a beam of energy out. A second
later, a beam from Ryoko's digivice joined it. The beams went up, then seemed
to fade out. The two stayed outside, hoping that their friend was all right.
==Stone Town
Kyle shot up. "Hitomi!" he gasped, waking June up. Both of their digivices
started beeping crazily, flashing like miniature strobe lights. The two of
them pulled on whatever clothes they could find, and ran for the computer.
June pointed her digivice at the computer. "Digiport open!" she yelled,
fearing the worst. The familiar graphic appeared, and Kyle and June were
pulled through.
They appeared in Izzy and Kari's living room, nearly colliding with the
Kamiyas as they exited the portal. Without any hesitation, the four ran to the
lab. "What's going on?" Kyle demanded as soon as he saw the children there.
"We're trying to help Hitomi." Asuka snapped. Kyle was about to reply when
his digivice emitted a low whistling sound.
==Hypnos lab (phew! -ed)
Makuramon stepped back. He would not have recognized the object that came out
of the digivice as the Digiegg of Loyalty. It levitated straight up, then flew
into a computer screen, vanishing as it did so. A second later, the computer
exploded.
"What's going on here?" he asked, stupefied.
In another area, Reilly worked madly to bring the systems under control.
Yamaki was not in, meaning that she was effectively in charge of the whole mess
right now. "What's going on? First we lose main power, then the scanner goes
all haywire!" Half of the staff was gone for the night, and the loss of power
meant that over half of the security systems were gone.
"Whoever did this knew where to hit us." Reilly grumbled. One of the working
monitors lit up. Curious, Reilly took a look.
==
Talli tried her passcard again, but the scanner beeped, the red light staying
on. "Lockdown." she muttered.
"Now what?" Rika asked.
"Watch and learn." Talli replied. She pried the box open with a pen knife,
and played with the wires for a second. With a hiss, the door opened. "We're
in!" Talli led the two children and their digimon in.
==
Janyu woke up. He had drifted off, still locked inside the small office.
There was a loud knock coming from the door. "Janyu?" a familiar voice could
be heard. "You awake? Come on, wake up old man!"
"Dolphin!" Janyu ran over to the door. "What's going on?"
"We're busting you out!" Babel's voice said. There were some clicks, and the
door swung open. "That's how you do it, got it, Dolphin?"
"Clearly, your youth was misspent." Dolphin replied. "I'm surprised you can
remember that far back."
"Cute. Come on, let's get out of here."
"Wait!" Janyu said. "We have to get Hitomi out of here too."
"Who?" Babel asked.
"I'll explain later. You have a map of this place?"
"What do you think?" Dolphin replied.
"We're toast." Babel muttered.
==
Reilly saw Talli override the electronic lock, allowing her, two children,
Noctowl, and a pair of digimon enter the building. Her hand hesitated over the
alert button, remembering what Talli had said earlier. Finally, she keyed an
intercom. "Security team to level 1. There's an error listed in the main
gate, could you check it out?" Reilly cut the mike off, and leaned back.
"That's all I can do, Talli. Good luck." Another sensor went off. Executive
override, entering the vehicle bay.
"Yamaki's here." Reilly muttered.
==
Noctowl flew along the corridors. The security forces there were panicked
enough that they didn't bother to look up; Noctowl was able to fly silently
along. Talli had told him where Eevee and Hitomi were; she and the two tamers
would get Hitomi, while Noctowl would go find Eevee. Once that was done, wait
there for the tamers to arrive.
Noctowl made his way up several elevator shafts, through open doorways, and
around security cameras. Finally, he reached the floor he had been told about.
A few doors down, and...
The guard watching Eevee heard some scratching at the door. His orders were
strict, do not, repeat NOT leave the room until someone comes and relieves you,
he was told. He had stayed here even when the power had flickered. "Must be
my relief." he thought, opening the door.
Noctowl flew in, surprising the guard. He then used his hypnotic powers,
creating a very specific illusion he had been planning.
"Intruders...must get weapons ready..." Mind almost completely under Noctowl's
control, the guard walked over and unlocked Eevee's cage, thinking it was a box
that held firearms, like the ones Noctowl had spotted in one of the guard rooms
he had seen. The latch fell open, and the guard got ready to reach in to take
a gun out. Eevee took the opportunity to Skull Bash the guard, knocking him
out.
"Where's Hitomi?" Eevee asked. Noctowl made a few cawing noises. "All the
other tamers are here?" he asked, incredulous. More caws. "Rika's here? Huh,
Takato must have pulled out all the stops. Come on, let's find Hitomi!" Eevee
ran out of the room, Noctowl following him.
==Mid-dimension
The energy from the other digivices hovered there, waiting for a sign. It was
not sentient by any stretch of the word, but the other digidestined had managed
to transmit a need for this energy to find the digivice belonging to Hitomi.
From one of the worlds, a golden flare appeared. A small object was rapidly
travelling from one world to another. It went through the energy ball,
unhindered. The object matched the type of energy it was looking for, and
followed the trail the object had left in its wake.
==New Bark Town
Kyle's digivice was glowing brighter now, as was the portal that Izzy had
built. There was an explosion from it, as an object slammed into Kyle's
digivice. Confused, Kyle looked at it. "That's the symbol for
loyalty...Hitomi's digiegg!" Kyle looked at June, near panic.
Izzy took in this information, then realized what it meant. "Out of my way!"
he yelled, running to one of the keyboards. "Come on, come on..." He worked
feverishly, ignoring all questions from the others there.
==Hypnos
Hitomi woke up. The energy had charged her, clearing the sedatives out of her
system. "What...where am I?" She looked around, and saw that she was dressed
in a hospital gown (pullover type, friends. The back is sewn up -ed). Then
she looked up and saw Makuramon's face. She shrieked, and rolled off the bed
she was lying on.
Makuramon summoned his staff, and pointed it at Hitomi. "Who are you? Who
sent you? Was it Ebonwumon?" Makuramon jumped, trying to tackle Hitomi. She
ducked the clumsy leap, darted forward, and grabbed her digivice. It shone
again, blinding both people
==New Bark
"I've got a lock on her digivice!" Izzy yelled.
==Hypnos (that was quick -ed)
Talli, leading the two tamers with her, picked her way along the corridors.
They had to make several detours, as parts of the facility were now sealed off.
"We shouldn't be far now." Talli told the others. "We-" she stopped as a
black suited figure stepped out of an elevator shaft. "Mr. Yamaki!" she gasped.
Yamaki spun on his heel. "Giving tours, Talli?" he asked slowly. "I had no
idea this was an open workplace. I-" Yamaki stopped, seeing Rika. "You." he
breathed.
"Me?" Rika asked. Beside her, Renamon fell into a fighting stance.
Yamaki fell back. "I don't know why you've come here, Talli, but this isn't
over." Yamaki ducked back, went into a stairwell, and ran upstairs. Rika
started to follow him.
"Forget him." Henry said. "Hitomi and Eevee are our only priorities here."
"Right." Rika said.
"Did you know him?" Renamon asked.
"He seems to think so." Rika replied. "How do we get past this shutter?" she
asked, kicking a large metal door. "We're running out of time, especially if
that guy sends security down here."
Henry pulled a card out. "Leave it to me. Digi-modify! Digivolution,
activate!"
"Terriermon, digivolve to...Gargomon!" Gargomon aimed his cannons, and
promptly blew a hole through the door. "Someone need an exit?"
==
Yamaki ran up the stairs. He remembered that girl, she was the one that his
son had beat for the championship two years ago. "Full circle." he muttered.
He made it to the top, opened a doorway. It was a secret passageway he'd
discovered when he first came to work here. He could get to his office much
faster than those kids could.
"They must be here for that girl. Well, they can have her, as long as the
digimon go." Yamaki entered a small storage room, where a project he had been
working on sat, largely unnoticed. He took an object, shaped like a large
handgun, and left the room. "Talli's leading them straight to that girl, so I
should be able to intercept them if I hurry."
==
Hitomi's eyes managed to adjust to the light coming from her digivice. It was
starting to subside now. Was it damaged, she wondered. The D-3 started to
pulse, then a ring of energy formed around the small screen, and expanded
outwards. As it did, the D-3 changed shape!
"A D-arc." Hitomi breathed. She yelped again as Makuramon swung his staff at
her, missing her head. Hitomi ran to the door, opened it, and ran into the
hallway. Makuramon yelled, running after her. Hitomi ran down a hallway,
trying to get away from the attacking digimon.
==
Two floors up, Eevee stopped. His head lifted up, ears twitching. "Noctowl,
I have to go down!" Noctowl indicated a fire escape. "Well, what's one more
alarm here?" Eevee yelled, tackling the lever that opened the door. A fire
alarm went off. Eevee and Noctowl ignored it, dashing down the stairs.
==
"Dragon Wheel!" Kyuubimon's attack knocked another wall down; Renamon had
digivolved to help with getting through the locked doors. They were making
good time.
"Hitomi was being kept in a room three levels up. If we keep going this way,
we should find her in no time."
Yamaki entered out of one of the stairwells. "That's far enough, children."
Yamaki said, unmoved by the sight of Gargomon aiming his gun arms at him
"Where is she?" Rika demanded angrily. "We know you have her here
somewhere!" Kyuubimon tensed, ready to fight.
"And we'll tear the whole place apart if we have to!" Henry added. You know
we have the power to do that." I hope Takato and Growlmon are ready, he added
mentally.
"Power," Yamaki said calmly, "should be only used by those able to handle
it." As he spoke, he took out a small black object.
Rika's eyes widened. "That's..."
Henry saw it too. "You're a..."
Yamaki snorted, passing a card through his digivice. "Humph. Downgrade,
activate!" The energy from Yamaki's digivice slammed into Kyuubimon and
Gargomon, devolving them instantly.
"How...?" Henry gasped.
"I received this digivice two years ago, shortly before my son was killed by a
digimon. I've since loaded it with a program I call Yuugoth. Shall I
demonstrate its higher functions?" Yamaki took the device he had been carrying
out of his jacket, and slipped the digivice into it. "I call this a Yuugoth
blaster. It's designed to destroy digital data." He aimed the gun at Renamon,
who was struggling to get up. "Like this." Yamaki fired.
Rika got in front of the shot, blocking it. She flinched, but was unharmed.
"Rika..." Renamon gasped.
"Hey, it can't hurt me, right? Henry, get going, I'll take care of this
freakjob." Yamaki tried to get around Rika, but the girl kept blocking him.
==
"Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"
"Guilmon, digivolve to...Growlmon!"
"Gabumon, digivolve to...Leomon!" The two champion level digimon charged the
Hypnos building, ready to do as much damage to the place, planning to divert
attention from the tamers already inside the building.
A woman stepped in front of the two digimon, forcing Growlmon and Leomon to
skid to a stop. "Are you Takato Matsuki?" she asked.
"Um...yeah?" Takato replied.
The woman held a badge up. "Deunan McReady, Interpol. I think we have a
common goal."
==
Hitomi, scared, confused, and cold as anything (barefoot on metal floors. Not
pleasant -ed) kept running, hoping to evade Makuramon. She turned a corner,
then screamed as a hand clamped around her. A second hand went over her mouth.
"Hitomi!" Janyu said urgently. "It's me, Henry's father. Don't worry, we're
going to get you out of here!"
"What the heck is going on here?" Babel demanded. "What's this kid doing here?"
Janyu was about to answer when Makuramon appeared, leaping at Hitomi, staff
extended. He seemed to hover for a second, which was more than enough time for
Eevee to intercept the digimon with another Skull Bash. Noctowl flew in after
Eevee, and started trying to claw Makuramon's face.
"Eevee!" Hitomi shouted, hugging her partner tightly. "I was so scared..."
"It's all right." Eevee tried to calm her. "We'd better get out of here."
"Not so fast." Makuramon snapped. "You still haven't answered my questions,
young lady!"
"Is that a digimon?" Dolphin asked, stunned.
"Yes, I am." Makuramon replied. "But if you're expecting me to call you
'daddy', think again! MAKAWW! Primal Orb!" Makuramon threw his silver orb at
Dolphin. Babel knocked him over, flinching as the attack punched through a
concrete wall.
"Digi-armour energize!" Hitomi said, holding her digivice up. Nothing happened.
Eevee scowled. "Peachy."
==
"Get out of my way!" Yamaki yelled, taking a swing with his gun at Rika.
"Make me!" she replied. "I don't know what you've got against digimon or
Hitomi, but you're not going to harm anyone while I'm here!"
Something in Yamaki's mind snapped. "I won't let you take away two years of
my life over some...girl!" He thumbed the control on the gun to its highest
setting, then aimed it at Rika. "Either move or die with your pet." Rika's
stare didn't waver. "Fine!" Yamaki fired.
"RIKA!" Renamon yelled, trying to get up, to move her partner out of the way.
Rika held her digivice up, just as the attack struck it. There was a loud
crack, as if something had shorted out. When Renamon's vision cleared, she saw
Rika, still standing, energy from her digivice trying to push the attack away.
Both humans were locked in a silent, motionless struggle. "Rika.." Renamon
tried to get up, to place a hand on Rika's shoulder, but flinched, as if Rika
was charged with electricity.
Yamaki was hurling all his hatred of digimon into this attack. He could feel
the power winning against Rika's field. "You don't know what you're fighting
for." he gasped. "They're killers, all of them!"
"You're wrong!" Rika replied, straining. She felt Yamaki's attack starting to
win. "Renamon, run! Get away from here!" Renamon shook her head, trying to
get up, launch one last assault.
"BADA BOOM!" A fireball slammed into Yamaki's arm, forcing him to drop the
weapon. He looked around, saw Impmon standing there, barely standing.
"YOU!" he roared.
"I don't know what you're doing, but no one puts the hurt on me!" With a
yell, Impmon attacked Yamaki, arms flailing. Yamaki responded likewise,
grabbing Impmon and shoving the digimon into a wall. Rika and Renamon were
forgotten.
"Rika! Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Just exhausted." She looked at Yamaki and Impmon, still fighting.
"What's going on with them?"
"It looked like that digimon was being affected by Yamaki's attack. I still
can't believe he's a tamer."
"Yeah, I know. But how could that...no way." Rika breathed.
"What is it?"
Rika watched the two fighting. "I think...they're partners."
==
"This way!" Talli yelled, leading Henry and Terriermon down a corridor. In
the distance, they heard shouts. "That sounds like a fight!" The three
hurried up.
"Henry," Terriermon said, "whatever that guy did took a lot out of me. If
there is a fight, I won't be much good to you."
"We'll find a way." Henry replied. He hopped over a wrecked door, managing to
catch a flying Eevee in the gut.
"Henry!" Janyu yelled, seeing his son.
"Dad!"
"How touching!" Makuramon snarled. "Primal Orb!" He hurled his attack at
Henry.
Terriermon leaped off. "Terrier Tornado!" he yelled, launching a whirlwind.
The orb was deflected, slamming into the wall by Henry's head. Terriermon
staggered a bit, dizzied by the attack.
"Terriermon, I need to get to Hitomi." Henry whispered.
"This is no time to be making a pass, Henry!"
"Terriermon! This is serious!"
"All right, all right. Jeez, get a sense of humour, already." Terriermon
marched towards Makuramon. "Okay you reject from the Ringling Brothers, try me
on for size!" The monkey obliged him, attacking Terriermon.
Henry darted over. "Hitomi, dad, are you all right?"
"Fine thanks, don't bother asking." Dolphin muttered, getting a sharp elbow
from Babel.
"Henry," Hitomi said, "Eevee can't digivolve into Templarmon, and my digivice
has changed!" Henry looked at her digivice, eyes widening on realizing it was
a d-arc now.
"Maybe you don't need your digiegg anymore. Here, use this." Henry handed
Hitomi a card. "Just believe in the card."
"Henry!" Terriermon yelled, as he was hurled away by Makuramon's staff,
landing by Eevee. "If you have a plan, now's the time!"
"Hitomi, do it!" Henry yelled.
"Digi-modify!" Hitomi shouted, swiping the card through her digivice.
"Digivolution activate!"
Eevee felt the power surge through him. "Eevee, digivolve to..." Dimly, the
pokemon could swear he saw his skin peeling off, revealing a grid pattern
underneath him. He still felt better than he ever had before, though.
Energized, even. "Jolteon!"
Henry's digivice glowed. He held it up, and Jolteon's picture appeared.
"Jolteon, champion level digital pokemon, Data type. His special attacks are
Pin Missile and Zap Cannon."
Makuramon hurled another orb at Jolteon, who dodged the attack easily. "You
left off the increased agility." Jolteon said. The pokemon quickly attacked,
firing dozens of needles at Makuramon. The monkey pulled back, not injured by
the attack, but distracted. Then he started to smell ozone in the air.
"If you ever, ever come near Hitomi again, this is what you'll get! ZAP
CANNON!" The electrical ball slammed into Makuramon, seemed to float for a
second, then exploded, hurling Makuramon through a window into an adjoining
office. He didn't get up.
There was a noise from the stairwell Henry had entered from. Jolteon turned,
ready to attack again, but it was Rika and Renamon that came out. "Did we miss
anything?" Rika asked.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." Terriermon said, standing up. "Oh, and Hitomi's
digivice became a D-arc, and Eevee turned into Jolteon here."
Renamon regarded Jolteon. "The colour's an improvement."
"Funny." Jolteon replied, deadpan.
==
Talli led the tamers and Monster Makers out of the building, after Dolphin and
Babel had extracted Janyu's promise to tell them EXACTLY what was going on
here. Outside, they found a large number of unmarked cars, Takato, Jeri, and
their digimon standing off to one side. Jolteon and Renamon got ready to fight
again. Takato ran up, motioning for everyone to calm down.
"Uh, sorry guys," Takato said, "we kinda got sidetracked."
"By more goons?" Janyu asked.
"That's hardly the way to talk about the person that saved your butt in
biochemistry, Tao."
Dolphin recovered first. "Dolly?"
"That's Chief Inspector Deunan McReady to you. You," she indicated Janyu,
"can call me Dolly."
Janyu held a hand up. "Sorry, I'm married."
Dolly sighed. "Curly will be crushed. Anyway, this is the part where I keep
you all here and get your stories about why these children here found it
necessary to storm a secret government installation with several unknown beings
of unusual power." Everyone started to speak at once, but Dolly silenced them
all. "Don't worry, Takato told me everything. I think your friend Yamaki is
going on a little trip for a while. So why don't we get you home."
==
Yamaki rolled, dodging another fireball from Impmon. "I've waited years for
this," Yamaki snarled, "and if I have to tear you apart with my bare hands, so
much the better!"
"Sez you!" Impmon snarled, hurling another fireball, this time at Yamaki's
weapon. "There, I busted your little toy. Now it's your turn!" Yamaki
rolled, grabbed his digivice, and swiped another card through it. The
downgrade card tore into Impmon, who stopped short, wracked with pain.
"FREEZE!" Two policemen came upon the two, covering them with their handguns.
"Chief, I have Yamaki, and one other. Probably a Wild One."
"Great, first you, now the cops!" Impmon shouted. "I'm outta here!" Impmon
ran towards a stairwell. One of the cops ran after him, but lost the small
digimon in the darkness (courtesy of several fireballs to the lights). The
second officer was trying to restrain Yamaki.
"Let me go! He's a murderer! They're all killers!" Yamaki screamed as he was
dragged off.
==
Makuramon came to. "That creature had unusual attack powers." He looked
around at the wreckage around him. "Time for Michael Ramone to make a return."
Makuramon made a gesture, and became human again. It was a setback, not
finding more out about that girl, but that was all right. His work on the
Juggernaut program was essentially complete, he knew what form the Catalyst had
taken, and no one could connect his true form with that of Michael Ramone. A
Deva's work is almost done, he mused.
==Nonaka home
Everyone piled out of the collection of vehicles. Almost everyone, anyway.
Dolly had gone with Takato to explain to his (now frantic) parents that Takato
had been instrumental in finding Hitomi, and that getting his statement had
taken a bit longer than expected, so could they please not ground him for the
next decade or so?
Rika led Hitomi over to the house; they had recovered her clothes from the
Hypnos building, and Hitomi had gotten changed en route. When she saw Ms.
Asaji again, Hitomi started crying, the full impact of the events of the last
two days finally overwhelming her. Nami held Hitomi, just letting the girl cry
herself out.
Yuka put a hand on Nami's shoulder. "Why don't the two of you spend the night
here? You can go home in the morning. I'll even let you borrow Rumiko's
clothes, if you promise not to tell her." Yuka added, smiling.
"Thanks." Nami nodded, holding the still crying Hitomi. Beside her, Eevee
slumped down, also drained. Noctowl cawed loudly, celebrating the return of
his trainer.
==New Bark Town, next morning.
Izzy finished his work. "I can't get a portal through yet," he said to
himself, "but this should give us something. Please, reach her!"
==Nonaka household, Rumiko's room.
Hitomi, Eevee curled up beside her, was sound asleep on a small futon that
Rika had pulled out for her. Nami was in the same room, sleeping on a small
mat. There was a faint ringing noise, which woke Eevee up. He looked around,
saw that the noise was coming from Hitomi's pokegear, still recharging itself.
He padded over, pressed a button, and listened. After a second, he ran over,
desperately trying to wake Hitomi up.
"What is it?" Hitomi asked, blinking as the sunlight got in her eyes.
"Pokegear. Now. Answer!" Eevee dragged Hitomi over to the phone. Curious,
she picked it up.
"Hello?" Hitomi asked, before being deafened by a loud scream from the other
end. "Who is this?" she demanded. "Takato, is that you?"
The scream stopped. "It's me...Izzy!"
Next Episode
While Yamaki waits for his superior's decision on the fate of Hypnos, he
reflects on the events that have led him to this stage of his life. Unknown to
him, Ryo reflects on his first few months in the digital world, how he managed
to adapt to life in this new world, and how he was drawn into the War of the
Sovereigns. Next time on Digicross Tamers:
-'I remember the Earth'
girl having been sedated almost continually since she had been brought in.
"So far, nothing. She's just a normal girl, about 10 or 11."
"And the Wild One?"
The researcher sighed. "That's not a simple question. Our nearest guess is
that it's some sort of hybrid; we've detected both regular DNA strands and
Digital DNA patterns in it. But we can't figure out how it got there. I think
we have something completely new on our hands."
"Dissection?"
The researcher shook his head again. "Every time we try, the girl seems to
react negatively. It's as if what happens to the creature is felt by her."
"I see. How about that object that was with her."
"Most interesting." The researcher said. "It's virtually identical to the
digivices they have on the TV series. But none of us can make it work. We
can't even take the thing apart, and we've tried everything short of an atomic
bomb in trying to open it up."
"I see." Yamaki said. "Continue with your work. I'll have technician Ramone
assigned to your team." The researcher nodded, and left. Yamaki looked
around. Where was Talli, he wondered.
===========================================================================
Digicross Tamers episode 13
-Bring Back Hitomi!
===========================================================================
Nami Asaji slumped down in her chair. She had called in sick the last two
days, since Hitomi had disappeared. She was torn about what to do. She went
to the police, but there was little they could do; legally, Hitomi did not
exist outside of what was listed in the school database. The policeman that
had taken the report nodded, assured her that this sort of thing happened all
the time, and left after getting a full description of her and Eevee. There was
a flutter of wings at the window; Noctowl had returned. He had been searching
the city since Hitomi and Eevee had vanished. She knew that Takato and Henry
were looking for her as well, despite what she had told them.
There was a knock at the door. Dully, she got up, walked over, and opened it.
Yuka Nonaka stepped in. "Nami, I came as soon as Rika told me what happened!
Are you doing all right?"
"Ms No-"
"Ah, it's Yuka, dear. Rumiko's out of town right now, so I decided to come
over and keep you company. Have you had any word on Hitomi yet? Rika and her
friend have been tearing up half the city looking for her."
"H...her friend?"
"Renamon." Yuka replied. "I met her last night."
==Last night
"Hitomi's missing?" Yuka asked, shocked. Rika, her granddaughter, nodded her
head. "How long?"
"About a day now. She was taking Eevee for a walk and never came back."
"And you've been searching for her, haven't you?"
Rika pulled back, scowl appearing on her face. "Well, what do you expect me to
do? Sitting around's not my style."
Yuka had to smile at that. "No it isn't. Just be careful, alright? I don't
want you to go missing as well, Rika." Yuka looked at one of the walls.
"You'll see to that, right?"
"Grandma?"
"You can come out now, I won't tell anyone else about you." Yuka kept her
sight locked on the wall. A tall figure appeared out of the shadows.
"Renamon." Rika gasped. She turned back to Yuka. "I can explain, grandma,
really!"
"It's all right. I've known for a while that you've had a guardian angel.
Renamon, right?"
Renamon nodded. "I will not let anything happen to Rika."
"I know that. And I know that asking you to watch Rika will just make her
mad." Yuka saw Rika gasp. "You two had better go get some rest. I'll go over
to visit Ms. Asaji tomorrow, so don't worry if I'm out, all right?"
==
"Don't worry." Yuka told Nami gently. "If Renamon's anything like Rika, she
won't stop until Hitomi's found and returned to you." Nami tried to reply, but
her strength finally gave out, and she started crying. Yuka just held the
teacher, letting her get it out of her system.
==Takato's home.
"Anything?" Takato asked Henry.
"Nothing. Terriermon can't find either of them, and I can't even get anything
on my d-arc. You don't suppose she went home, do you? Back to her world?"
"Without Noctowl? Or saying anything?" Takato replied.
"Yeah, you're right. How's Jeri?"
"She's OK. She's not taking this too well, though. She insisted on coming
with me to search, but I couldn't let her. Her dad's pretty strict about being
out late. Gabumon's been helping out, though. I just wish we had some clue to
go on."
"We'll just keep looking until we find her." Henry checked his watch. "I'd
better get home; Dad already knows what happened, and he'll help out wherever
he can."
==Hypnos, about the same time.
Janyu wandered down the corridor, lost in thought. He had been disturbed by
Hitomi's disappearance, and had warned his son about doing anything rash, like
searching for her himself. Like he'd ever listen, he admitted. Distracted, he
made a wrong turn, going down a wrong set of stairs.
Startled by a wall that shouldn't be there, Janyu looked around. "Great, lost
in my own workplace. Not something for my resume." Picking a direction, Janyu
headed down a hallway, to where he saw some windows and lights. "Maybe someone
will..." Janyu stopped, gasped as he saw Hitomi, apparently asleep in one of
the rooms. "Hitomi?"
Janyu couldn't remember how he got back upstairs, or how he found Yamaki's
office. He stormed in, wondering why he didn't just take Hitomi out of here
right now. "What's going on here Yamaki? Why is Hitomi here?"
"You'd rather it was your own son, Janyu?" Janyu stopped short. "These
digimon present a serious threat to this entire planet. That girl, along with
your own son, have been seen several times in company with various digimon that
have appeared here. In addition, she may not be of this world; we recorded an
unusual signal some time ago, and this 'Hitomi' is emitting that same signal
right now. It is my duty to take any means necessary to remove the digimon
threat that faces this world. And if that girl and her pet can be used to that
end, so be it."
Janyu got some of his anger back. "We'll see about that."
"We will, you won't." Yamaki snapped his fingers, and two burly agents
appeared, one with several stitches on his face. "Please detain Mr. Wong until
further notice. See that he is treated well, but he is not to leave this
building or have any communication with anyone not involved with the current
project." The two guards nodded, and led Janyu out.
"This isn't over, Yamaki." Janyu snapped.
Yamaki sat down, once Janyu had been escorted out. He knew something like
this would happen. He hated to do it, but there was no way to avoid it. He
typed a few commands on his computer, then took out a phone, and attached a
small device to it. The computer dialed a number. "Wong residence." a
pleasant female voice said.
Yamaki keyed in a command, and spoke. "Meilin, it's Janyu. Listen,
something's come up, and I'm going to have to go out of town for a while."
"What? Can't you come home first?"
"Sorry, dear. There's nothing I can do about it. I'll see you next week,
promise!" Yamaki hung up. The voice program had worked perfectly. No one on
the other end would know that Yamaki had been mimicking Janyu's voice, taking
cues from the computer. He got up. There was one more thing he had to do.
==Hypnos secondary lab
Babel looked up. "Where on earth is Tao? I thought he was just out
stretching his legs."
Dolphin shrugged. He was about to answer when Technician Ramone entered the
room. "Mr. Wong has been sent on a field assignment; once it has been
completed, he will be back. How goes the research?"
"We're stumped." Babel answered. "We've gone over the original program we
devised, but we can't explain what's happening here. The digimon we created
should not have developed as far as they have. Even Unix isn't that powerful."
"Any luck on finding Shibumi?" Dolphin asked. "He was responsible for a lot
of the higher level coding, including the survival and adaptive subroutines."
"None yet." Ramone replied. "It is as if he dropped off the face of the
planet."
==Hypnos, ground level.
Reilly exited the elevator. She saw Talli there, changing out of her work
uniform, and savagely stuffing it into a locker. "Talli? What is it? What's
wrong?"
Talli whirled around, red eyes locked on Reilly. "We kidnapped a 10 year old
girl, and you're asking me what's wrong? I didn't sign on for this!"
"She might be the key to fighting off the digimon that are threatening this
world." Reilly replied. She was worried this might happen. "You know what
happened two years ago. We just want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"I don't care! Reilly, can't you see this is wrong? I can't take this any
more. I'm leaving Hypnos, and if I never see this place again, I'll be happy.
Maybe I can even forgive myself." Talli walked away. Reilly put a hand on her
shoulder, but Talli turned and slapped Reilly across the face. "Don't EVER
touch me again." Talli walked out. Reilly fell to her knees, watching her
best friend leave the building they had spent the last two years working in.
==Asaji home.
After Nami had cried herself out, Yuka had told her to sit down while she made
her some tea. "This should help you calm down a bit. I'm sure they'll find
Hitomi soon." There was a knock at the door. "Why don't you get it." Yuka
called from the kitchen. "My hands are a bit full."
"All right." Nami got up and opened the door. Standing there was a tall man,
wearing a suit and sunglasses. "Can I help you?"
"Nami Asaji?" Nami nodded. "My name's Yamaki, I'm here about Hitomi, I have
a few questions to ask you."
Nami was about to reply when Yuka's voice cut her off. "You." Yuka snapped,
recognizing Yamaki. "You were the pervert that was chasing Hitomi earlier."
Nami backed away, and Noctowl came out, fixing Yamaki with his steely glare.
"I assure you, Hitomi is in no danger right now, but I do have several
questions that must be answered."
Nami grabbed Yamaki by his collar. "Where is she?" Nami demanded. "What have
you done with her?" Yamaki tried to pull away, finally succeeding in shoving
Nami away, knocking the teacher to the ground. Noctowl flew at Yamaki, clawing
and pecking at the man's face. Yamaki backed off, flinching under the fierce
assault. Noctowl chased Yamaki to the elevator, then flew back.
Yuka, having run over to Nami and helped her up, looked at Noctowl. "Thank
you. Now we know who has her, we just need to know where." Noctowl nodded and
flew out a window, following Yamaki. "Nami, you'd better get everything Hitomi
owns and come with me to my place. We'll be a bit safer there."
==Hypnos labs
"Are you sure about this?" the technician asked Reilly.
Reilly nodded. "I think it's time we took a more direct approach. Can we do
this?"
The tech nodded. "This will bring the subject-"
"Hitomi." Reilly interrupted. "Her name is Hitomi."
"Right. This will bring Hitomi into a semi-awake state. She'll be in a sort
of trance, and will answer any simple questions asked of her. Don't stimulate
her too much or she may become fully awake." Reilly nodded. "Ma'am?"
"Yes?"
"I know you're just following orders, but...this feels wrong. I don't like
doing this to digimon, much less little girls."
"I know." Reilly said quietly. "Please proceed." The tech nodded, and
injected Hitomi with a small amount of stimulant. The girl began to come
around, the technician monitoring her vital signs. "Hitomi? Hitomi Motomiya,
can you hear me?"
"...yes..." Hitomi's voice was almost inaudible.
Reilly nodded. "I need to know where you're from. Can you tell me?"
"Stone Town, Kanto....region..."
Reilly leaned closer. "How did you get here. Can you tell me that?" Reilly
kept her voice calm, gentle.
"Accident...an Unown followed me....trapped....mom? Mom...MOM DAD WHERE ARE
YOU?" Hitomi started screaming. The tech quickly applied another sedative,
and Hitomi passed out again. The technician disposed of the needles he had
used, then pulled off his mask.
"I'm sorry. I can't do this any more. I hope you got what you needed."
Reilly looked up. "I think I did. I'll...I'll tell Yamaki you called in sick."
==
Ramone looked at the digivice. Right now, it was inert. "What is this
thing's secret?" He knew that it held some key to allowing the creature in the
next room to digivolve. He could feel the power inside it.
The girl. She had to have the answer. Quickly, Ramone hacked into the
security systems. Reilly was just leaving the room. Hitomi was unattended.
"Perfect." he muttered, getting up.
One room over, Eevee looked around. There was no way out of the cage he was
in; it was solid steel, and bolted to the table. The table itself was solid
metal. He paced back and forth, casting dark glares at the one guard in the
room. Hang on, Hitomi, he thought. I'll get you out of here whatever it costs
me.
==
"This is getting too weird." Babel said to Dolphin. "First Tao takes off on
some field assignment, now our computer access is cut off. You think there's
something they're not telling us?"
"A top secret government project not telling us something? Heaven forbid."
Dolphin replied. "Of course, we could try to find out something. Perhaps that
firewall on the secondary server connection?"
Babel grinned. "Already handled. You must be getting slow, old man."
"Says you, baldy. I just wanted to give you a chance to keep up."
"Right. Careful Dolphin, your hairline's receding." There was a beep from
the computer. "Email? One sec." Babel checked the computer. "No sender,
just says that we'll need this. And there's a program attached. You been
visiting all those naughty internet sites again?"
Dolphin sighed, crossing his arms. "Funny. Try running it." Babel nodded,
opening the application. Instantly, several screen lit up. "It's hacking into
the security cameras. Hey, check this out!"
Babel looked at the screen Dolphin indicated. "That's Tao, all right. Field
assignment my foot. So, what now?"
Dolphin thought about it. "Now, nothing. We'd better get out of here, then
come back when we have a plan. We can't be the only ones who know about this.
Looks like we're fighting the government again."
Babel grinned. "Just like old times."
==
Talli walked down the street, still angry. She didn't know what to do next,
she just wanted to get as far away from Hypnos as possible.
"I should have done something." she muttered to herself. "I should have
gotten her out of there." She stopped, wondering what to do next. Then she
saw a boy she recognized.
"Henry? Henry Wong?" Talli ran over to the boy.
Henry looked at her. "Who wants to know?"
"Please, I know where Hitomi is. I need to speak with the other tamers. It's
urgent!"
==
Calumon looked at the Hypnos building. "Did I just see Impmon heading over
there? I wonder what he wants in that place?" Calumon shrugged, and went back
to playing tag with Unown.
Impmon, completely unaware of Calumon's interest in him, made his way to the
Hypnos building. "I gotta be nuts!" he grunted. "I finally find that freak
again, and he tries to blow me away! Why am I going back there?"
He finally got within site of the building. He knew that whatever system
that was in there could detect digimon, so he decided to wait on a rooftop
until nightfall. Then he could sneak in and settle accounts with that man in
there.
"This is all Monodramon's fault, I just know it!"
==Later that afternoon.
"And that's everything." Talli told everyone. Henry, Takato, Jeri, and Rika
were there, along with Rika's grandmother and Nami.
"They just...grabbed her off the street?" Jeri asked.
Talli nodded.
"So, when do we go get her?" Takato asked.
"That's out of the question!" Nami almost yelled. "You're just children, I
can't let you attack a government building like that! This is a job for the
police!"
"And tell them what?" Rika asked. "Our friend is being held by a secret
government organization because she's from another dimension, and they think
she might be connected to all those reports of monsters appearing?"
"And dad hasn't come home yet." Henry added. "I'm beginning to think that
that 'out of town assignment' call mom got was a fake."
Nami looked at Henry. "But-"
"They're right." Jeri said. "If they have Hitomi and Henry's dad, any one of
us could be next."
"And Hypnos can access any form of electronic communication." Talli added.
"If we went to the police, they'd know about it almost instantly."
"That's probably how they found out about you, Nami." Yuka said. "I don't
think we have a choice."
"I might be able to sneak myself and one or two others in with me, but it will
be tricky." Noctowl flew in. He landed by Nami and cawed quietly.
"I think Noctowl can help you." Nami said quietly.
"Don't worry." Takato said. "We won't go crazy or anything. We just go in,
get Hitomi, Eevee, and Henry's dad out, and leave." He turned to Talli. "Can
we get our digimon inside?"
"It will be hard. The Scanner dome is set to detect any active digimon. The
only way would be to cut the power to the place."
"Fine then." Rika said. "Henry and I go in, while Takato cuts the power to
the place."
"Why me?" Takato asked.
"Because a dinosaur the size of a house might be too big to sneak around
inside a building? Guilmon's not the most subtle digimon around."
"What about me?" Jeri asked. "Can Leomon and I help?"
Rika blinked. "Leomon?"
"Yeah," Takato said, "Jeri became Gabumon's tamer just before Hitomi got
caught. He digivolved to Leomon to fight a Gesomon that attacked us."
Rika sighed. "Great, another amateur." That got an elbow from Yuka. Rika
cleared her throat. "Look, Jeri, I know you want to help, but this is really
dangerous. We can't make any mistakes doing this."
"She can help me cut the power lines." Takato said. Jeri nodded.
Rika sighed again. "Fine. Everyone get ready. We're leaving in an hour."
Rika stood up, and left the room.
Nami watched Rika leave. "We can't let them do this!" she said to Yuka.
"They're just kids!"
"Children are full of surprises." Yuka replied. "And I don't think we could
stop them." she added, as Henry, Takato, and Jeri left the room to get their
digimon ready. "I could see it in their eyes. Hitomi's their friend, and they
won't stop until they get her back."
==
Talli waited outside, car idling. Henry walked up to the car, Terriermon on
his shoulder. "Thanks for bailing me out," Terriermon chirped, "Suzie was
acting all weird again."
"Terriermon, this is serious."
"Hey, relax. Takato told me everything. We sneak in all ninja like and save
the damsel in distress. What's the problem?"
Henry looked at Terriermon, sudden image of him on a dissection table filling
his thoughts. "Plenty, if we blow this. Promise me you'll be careful, all
right?"
Terriermon sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll be all Renamon like."
"I heard that." Renamon said, appearing. Startled, Terriermon nearly fell off
Henry's shoulder.
"Do you practice freaking people out?" Terriermon complained.
"It's a talent." Renamon replied, voice flat.
"Can we get on with this?" Rika stepped out of the house, heading to where
Talli and Henry were. Henry had to resist the urge to stare. Her normal
outfit, jeans and a T-shirt with a broken heart on it, was replaced by a dark
trenchcoat, black jeans, and a dark grey shirt with a skull and crossbones on
it. Rika's expression was hard, a mix of anger and determination.
"Yeah. Let's go." Henry managed. "Jeri and Takato are on their way. Once
they take out the power station, there'll be a short amount of time where we
can get in with our digimon. Then we find everyone and get out." Rika nodded.
Everyone piled into the car. Rika took the front seat, leaving Henry stuck in
the back with Terriermon, Renamon, and Noctowl.
==
Outside the Hypnos building, Takato, Jeri, Guilmon, and Gabumon watched for a
chance to attack. "We should be able to attack in another two minutes. That's
when the shift in the scanning room changes over."
Jeri looked at the building they had targeted. "You were right about one
thing." she whispered. "They do have a super digimon detector."
Takato chuckled. "Look, Jeri, Just...just be careful, all right? I don't
want anything to happen to you."
"Silly." Jeri replied, leaning over and giving Takato a kiss on his cheek.
"As long as I have Gabumon and you with me, I'll be all right. I think it's
time." Takato's watch beeped. The two children took cards out, ready to use
them. "Digi modify!" they said, slashing the cards through their digivices.
"Rain of pollen activate!"
"Cat's eye hypnotism, activate!"
Guilmon jumped forward, spitting a cloud of dust at the guards around the
power building. Taken by surprise, they quickly fell over, asleep. A third
guard came out, but Gabumon quickly hypnotized him, rendering him unconscious.
Gabumon pumped his arm. "Yes!"
Guilmon coughed, small puffs of pollen coming out his nose. "I think I
inhaled, Takatomon."
"You'll be fine. Ready for stage two, Jeri, Gabumon?" The two nodded. "Digi
modify! Offense plug in V, activate!"
Jeri had a second card out. "Digi-modify! Digmon's Gold Rush, activate!"
Gabumon's horn reshaped itself into what looked like a large drill bit, which
promptly launched and struck the outside of the building. The attack tore
through the wall and exposed the systems within. Guilmon fired a powered up
fireball through the hole, barbecuing everything in there."
"Okay, let's go!" Takato yelled, leading Jeri out of the area.
==
Yamaki had gone straight home, deciding not to go back to work. He was
pretty sure that that owl was following him. No sense leading it back to
Hypnos. Instead, he had rested, treated the scratches Noctowl had inflicted on
him. He hadn't meant to doze off, but he had, dreams of happier times with his
son, Ryo, filling his head.
A beeping noise woke him up. He checked his pager, saw that there was trouble
at Hypnos. He tried calling in. No answer. There was a dull whirring noise
from his room. He went in, checked the source. he came out several minutes
later, dressed and clutching a small black object in his hand.
==
Impmon got up. "What's all the racket?" he wondered. He picked out Guilmon
and Gabumon leaving the area, along with two humans. "I wonder what's up?
Pineapple head probably thought there was a buffet in side. Well, as long as
he's making such a nice big distraction, I might as well pay a visit."
==
Michael Ramon stared at Hitomi, wondering who this girl was. She felt
different from the other humans here, like she didn't really belong here. He
looked around, double checked that the security camera was disabled. "I really
can't see anything like this." he muttered, then made a dismissive gesture.
His form seemed to ripple, then was replaced with a different form. This one
was smaller, looking more like an abstracted monkey.
Makuramon took out a small silver orb, holding it over Hitomi. "Now that I'm
free of that useless disguise, I can use my full power. Now, my dear, let's
see what secrets you hold." The orb glowed, and Hitomi was bathed in a harsh
silver light. She writhed as she felt the pain, even in her unconscious state.
As she did, her digivice activated.
"Interesting." Makuramon said, noting this.
==New Bark Town.
Kyoko got up, awaken by some feeling of dread. "Hitomi." she muttered,
getting up. Beside her, Gatomon, her partner, also got up. The two headed for
the lab where Kyoko's father worked.
When she got there, she found that there were several other people there.
"Takeru! Sam! Asuka! How...?"
Takeru snorted. "We were wondering when you'd get here. You always were a
sleepyhead." Then, in a more serious tone, he went on, saying "Hitomi's in
trouble. Any ideas what we should do?"
Sam looked at the portal that Izzy had been working on. "Well, how about our
digivices? It worked for our parents? Remember what they said about Skull
Demon?"
Everyone nodded. "Let's do it then." Asuka said, pointing her digivice at the
portal. It lit up, and a beam of light shot out. Everyone else did likewise.
==Another digital world.
Hiroki Hida stepped out of the small hut that he, Ryoko, and the digidestined
they were travelling with were sleeping in. Sneasel was already outside, as
was Ryoko. "You can feel it, can't you?" Sneasel asked.
Hiroki nodded. "Hitomi's in trouble." On instinct, he held his digivice out,
pointing it at the sky. It lit up, and fired a beam of energy out. A second
later, a beam from Ryoko's digivice joined it. The beams went up, then seemed
to fade out. The two stayed outside, hoping that their friend was all right.
==Stone Town
Kyle shot up. "Hitomi!" he gasped, waking June up. Both of their digivices
started beeping crazily, flashing like miniature strobe lights. The two of
them pulled on whatever clothes they could find, and ran for the computer.
June pointed her digivice at the computer. "Digiport open!" she yelled,
fearing the worst. The familiar graphic appeared, and Kyle and June were
pulled through.
They appeared in Izzy and Kari's living room, nearly colliding with the
Kamiyas as they exited the portal. Without any hesitation, the four ran to the
lab. "What's going on?" Kyle demanded as soon as he saw the children there.
"We're trying to help Hitomi." Asuka snapped. Kyle was about to reply when
his digivice emitted a low whistling sound.
==Hypnos lab (phew! -ed)
Makuramon stepped back. He would not have recognized the object that came out
of the digivice as the Digiegg of Loyalty. It levitated straight up, then flew
into a computer screen, vanishing as it did so. A second later, the computer
exploded.
"What's going on here?" he asked, stupefied.
In another area, Reilly worked madly to bring the systems under control.
Yamaki was not in, meaning that she was effectively in charge of the whole mess
right now. "What's going on? First we lose main power, then the scanner goes
all haywire!" Half of the staff was gone for the night, and the loss of power
meant that over half of the security systems were gone.
"Whoever did this knew where to hit us." Reilly grumbled. One of the working
monitors lit up. Curious, Reilly took a look.
==
Talli tried her passcard again, but the scanner beeped, the red light staying
on. "Lockdown." she muttered.
"Now what?" Rika asked.
"Watch and learn." Talli replied. She pried the box open with a pen knife,
and played with the wires for a second. With a hiss, the door opened. "We're
in!" Talli led the two children and their digimon in.
==
Janyu woke up. He had drifted off, still locked inside the small office.
There was a loud knock coming from the door. "Janyu?" a familiar voice could
be heard. "You awake? Come on, wake up old man!"
"Dolphin!" Janyu ran over to the door. "What's going on?"
"We're busting you out!" Babel's voice said. There were some clicks, and the
door swung open. "That's how you do it, got it, Dolphin?"
"Clearly, your youth was misspent." Dolphin replied. "I'm surprised you can
remember that far back."
"Cute. Come on, let's get out of here."
"Wait!" Janyu said. "We have to get Hitomi out of here too."
"Who?" Babel asked.
"I'll explain later. You have a map of this place?"
"What do you think?" Dolphin replied.
"We're toast." Babel muttered.
==
Reilly saw Talli override the electronic lock, allowing her, two children,
Noctowl, and a pair of digimon enter the building. Her hand hesitated over the
alert button, remembering what Talli had said earlier. Finally, she keyed an
intercom. "Security team to level 1. There's an error listed in the main
gate, could you check it out?" Reilly cut the mike off, and leaned back.
"That's all I can do, Talli. Good luck." Another sensor went off. Executive
override, entering the vehicle bay.
"Yamaki's here." Reilly muttered.
==
Noctowl flew along the corridors. The security forces there were panicked
enough that they didn't bother to look up; Noctowl was able to fly silently
along. Talli had told him where Eevee and Hitomi were; she and the two tamers
would get Hitomi, while Noctowl would go find Eevee. Once that was done, wait
there for the tamers to arrive.
Noctowl made his way up several elevator shafts, through open doorways, and
around security cameras. Finally, he reached the floor he had been told about.
A few doors down, and...
The guard watching Eevee heard some scratching at the door. His orders were
strict, do not, repeat NOT leave the room until someone comes and relieves you,
he was told. He had stayed here even when the power had flickered. "Must be
my relief." he thought, opening the door.
Noctowl flew in, surprising the guard. He then used his hypnotic powers,
creating a very specific illusion he had been planning.
"Intruders...must get weapons ready..." Mind almost completely under Noctowl's
control, the guard walked over and unlocked Eevee's cage, thinking it was a box
that held firearms, like the ones Noctowl had spotted in one of the guard rooms
he had seen. The latch fell open, and the guard got ready to reach in to take
a gun out. Eevee took the opportunity to Skull Bash the guard, knocking him
out.
"Where's Hitomi?" Eevee asked. Noctowl made a few cawing noises. "All the
other tamers are here?" he asked, incredulous. More caws. "Rika's here? Huh,
Takato must have pulled out all the stops. Come on, let's find Hitomi!" Eevee
ran out of the room, Noctowl following him.
==Mid-dimension
The energy from the other digivices hovered there, waiting for a sign. It was
not sentient by any stretch of the word, but the other digidestined had managed
to transmit a need for this energy to find the digivice belonging to Hitomi.
From one of the worlds, a golden flare appeared. A small object was rapidly
travelling from one world to another. It went through the energy ball,
unhindered. The object matched the type of energy it was looking for, and
followed the trail the object had left in its wake.
==New Bark Town
Kyle's digivice was glowing brighter now, as was the portal that Izzy had
built. There was an explosion from it, as an object slammed into Kyle's
digivice. Confused, Kyle looked at it. "That's the symbol for
loyalty...Hitomi's digiegg!" Kyle looked at June, near panic.
Izzy took in this information, then realized what it meant. "Out of my way!"
he yelled, running to one of the keyboards. "Come on, come on..." He worked
feverishly, ignoring all questions from the others there.
==Hypnos
Hitomi woke up. The energy had charged her, clearing the sedatives out of her
system. "What...where am I?" She looked around, and saw that she was dressed
in a hospital gown (pullover type, friends. The back is sewn up -ed). Then
she looked up and saw Makuramon's face. She shrieked, and rolled off the bed
she was lying on.
Makuramon summoned his staff, and pointed it at Hitomi. "Who are you? Who
sent you? Was it Ebonwumon?" Makuramon jumped, trying to tackle Hitomi. She
ducked the clumsy leap, darted forward, and grabbed her digivice. It shone
again, blinding both people
==New Bark
"I've got a lock on her digivice!" Izzy yelled.
==Hypnos (that was quick -ed)
Talli, leading the two tamers with her, picked her way along the corridors.
They had to make several detours, as parts of the facility were now sealed off.
"We shouldn't be far now." Talli told the others. "We-" she stopped as a
black suited figure stepped out of an elevator shaft. "Mr. Yamaki!" she gasped.
Yamaki spun on his heel. "Giving tours, Talli?" he asked slowly. "I had no
idea this was an open workplace. I-" Yamaki stopped, seeing Rika. "You." he
breathed.
"Me?" Rika asked. Beside her, Renamon fell into a fighting stance.
Yamaki fell back. "I don't know why you've come here, Talli, but this isn't
over." Yamaki ducked back, went into a stairwell, and ran upstairs. Rika
started to follow him.
"Forget him." Henry said. "Hitomi and Eevee are our only priorities here."
"Right." Rika said.
"Did you know him?" Renamon asked.
"He seems to think so." Rika replied. "How do we get past this shutter?" she
asked, kicking a large metal door. "We're running out of time, especially if
that guy sends security down here."
Henry pulled a card out. "Leave it to me. Digi-modify! Digivolution,
activate!"
"Terriermon, digivolve to...Gargomon!" Gargomon aimed his cannons, and
promptly blew a hole through the door. "Someone need an exit?"
==
Yamaki ran up the stairs. He remembered that girl, she was the one that his
son had beat for the championship two years ago. "Full circle." he muttered.
He made it to the top, opened a doorway. It was a secret passageway he'd
discovered when he first came to work here. He could get to his office much
faster than those kids could.
"They must be here for that girl. Well, they can have her, as long as the
digimon go." Yamaki entered a small storage room, where a project he had been
working on sat, largely unnoticed. He took an object, shaped like a large
handgun, and left the room. "Talli's leading them straight to that girl, so I
should be able to intercept them if I hurry."
==
Hitomi's eyes managed to adjust to the light coming from her digivice. It was
starting to subside now. Was it damaged, she wondered. The D-3 started to
pulse, then a ring of energy formed around the small screen, and expanded
outwards. As it did, the D-3 changed shape!
"A D-arc." Hitomi breathed. She yelped again as Makuramon swung his staff at
her, missing her head. Hitomi ran to the door, opened it, and ran into the
hallway. Makuramon yelled, running after her. Hitomi ran down a hallway,
trying to get away from the attacking digimon.
==
Two floors up, Eevee stopped. His head lifted up, ears twitching. "Noctowl,
I have to go down!" Noctowl indicated a fire escape. "Well, what's one more
alarm here?" Eevee yelled, tackling the lever that opened the door. A fire
alarm went off. Eevee and Noctowl ignored it, dashing down the stairs.
==
"Dragon Wheel!" Kyuubimon's attack knocked another wall down; Renamon had
digivolved to help with getting through the locked doors. They were making
good time.
"Hitomi was being kept in a room three levels up. If we keep going this way,
we should find her in no time."
Yamaki entered out of one of the stairwells. "That's far enough, children."
Yamaki said, unmoved by the sight of Gargomon aiming his gun arms at him
"Where is she?" Rika demanded angrily. "We know you have her here
somewhere!" Kyuubimon tensed, ready to fight.
"And we'll tear the whole place apart if we have to!" Henry added. You know
we have the power to do that." I hope Takato and Growlmon are ready, he added
mentally.
"Power," Yamaki said calmly, "should be only used by those able to handle
it." As he spoke, he took out a small black object.
Rika's eyes widened. "That's..."
Henry saw it too. "You're a..."
Yamaki snorted, passing a card through his digivice. "Humph. Downgrade,
activate!" The energy from Yamaki's digivice slammed into Kyuubimon and
Gargomon, devolving them instantly.
"How...?" Henry gasped.
"I received this digivice two years ago, shortly before my son was killed by a
digimon. I've since loaded it with a program I call Yuugoth. Shall I
demonstrate its higher functions?" Yamaki took the device he had been carrying
out of his jacket, and slipped the digivice into it. "I call this a Yuugoth
blaster. It's designed to destroy digital data." He aimed the gun at Renamon,
who was struggling to get up. "Like this." Yamaki fired.
Rika got in front of the shot, blocking it. She flinched, but was unharmed.
"Rika..." Renamon gasped.
"Hey, it can't hurt me, right? Henry, get going, I'll take care of this
freakjob." Yamaki tried to get around Rika, but the girl kept blocking him.
==
"Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"
"Guilmon, digivolve to...Growlmon!"
"Gabumon, digivolve to...Leomon!" The two champion level digimon charged the
Hypnos building, ready to do as much damage to the place, planning to divert
attention from the tamers already inside the building.
A woman stepped in front of the two digimon, forcing Growlmon and Leomon to
skid to a stop. "Are you Takato Matsuki?" she asked.
"Um...yeah?" Takato replied.
The woman held a badge up. "Deunan McReady, Interpol. I think we have a
common goal."
==
Hitomi, scared, confused, and cold as anything (barefoot on metal floors. Not
pleasant -ed) kept running, hoping to evade Makuramon. She turned a corner,
then screamed as a hand clamped around her. A second hand went over her mouth.
"Hitomi!" Janyu said urgently. "It's me, Henry's father. Don't worry, we're
going to get you out of here!"
"What the heck is going on here?" Babel demanded. "What's this kid doing here?"
Janyu was about to answer when Makuramon appeared, leaping at Hitomi, staff
extended. He seemed to hover for a second, which was more than enough time for
Eevee to intercept the digimon with another Skull Bash. Noctowl flew in after
Eevee, and started trying to claw Makuramon's face.
"Eevee!" Hitomi shouted, hugging her partner tightly. "I was so scared..."
"It's all right." Eevee tried to calm her. "We'd better get out of here."
"Not so fast." Makuramon snapped. "You still haven't answered my questions,
young lady!"
"Is that a digimon?" Dolphin asked, stunned.
"Yes, I am." Makuramon replied. "But if you're expecting me to call you
'daddy', think again! MAKAWW! Primal Orb!" Makuramon threw his silver orb at
Dolphin. Babel knocked him over, flinching as the attack punched through a
concrete wall.
"Digi-armour energize!" Hitomi said, holding her digivice up. Nothing happened.
Eevee scowled. "Peachy."
==
"Get out of my way!" Yamaki yelled, taking a swing with his gun at Rika.
"Make me!" she replied. "I don't know what you've got against digimon or
Hitomi, but you're not going to harm anyone while I'm here!"
Something in Yamaki's mind snapped. "I won't let you take away two years of
my life over some...girl!" He thumbed the control on the gun to its highest
setting, then aimed it at Rika. "Either move or die with your pet." Rika's
stare didn't waver. "Fine!" Yamaki fired.
"RIKA!" Renamon yelled, trying to get up, to move her partner out of the way.
Rika held her digivice up, just as the attack struck it. There was a loud
crack, as if something had shorted out. When Renamon's vision cleared, she saw
Rika, still standing, energy from her digivice trying to push the attack away.
Both humans were locked in a silent, motionless struggle. "Rika.." Renamon
tried to get up, to place a hand on Rika's shoulder, but flinched, as if Rika
was charged with electricity.
Yamaki was hurling all his hatred of digimon into this attack. He could feel
the power winning against Rika's field. "You don't know what you're fighting
for." he gasped. "They're killers, all of them!"
"You're wrong!" Rika replied, straining. She felt Yamaki's attack starting to
win. "Renamon, run! Get away from here!" Renamon shook her head, trying to
get up, launch one last assault.
"BADA BOOM!" A fireball slammed into Yamaki's arm, forcing him to drop the
weapon. He looked around, saw Impmon standing there, barely standing.
"YOU!" he roared.
"I don't know what you're doing, but no one puts the hurt on me!" With a
yell, Impmon attacked Yamaki, arms flailing. Yamaki responded likewise,
grabbing Impmon and shoving the digimon into a wall. Rika and Renamon were
forgotten.
"Rika! Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Just exhausted." She looked at Yamaki and Impmon, still fighting.
"What's going on with them?"
"It looked like that digimon was being affected by Yamaki's attack. I still
can't believe he's a tamer."
"Yeah, I know. But how could that...no way." Rika breathed.
"What is it?"
Rika watched the two fighting. "I think...they're partners."
==
"This way!" Talli yelled, leading Henry and Terriermon down a corridor. In
the distance, they heard shouts. "That sounds like a fight!" The three
hurried up.
"Henry," Terriermon said, "whatever that guy did took a lot out of me. If
there is a fight, I won't be much good to you."
"We'll find a way." Henry replied. He hopped over a wrecked door, managing to
catch a flying Eevee in the gut.
"Henry!" Janyu yelled, seeing his son.
"Dad!"
"How touching!" Makuramon snarled. "Primal Orb!" He hurled his attack at
Henry.
Terriermon leaped off. "Terrier Tornado!" he yelled, launching a whirlwind.
The orb was deflected, slamming into the wall by Henry's head. Terriermon
staggered a bit, dizzied by the attack.
"Terriermon, I need to get to Hitomi." Henry whispered.
"This is no time to be making a pass, Henry!"
"Terriermon! This is serious!"
"All right, all right. Jeez, get a sense of humour, already." Terriermon
marched towards Makuramon. "Okay you reject from the Ringling Brothers, try me
on for size!" The monkey obliged him, attacking Terriermon.
Henry darted over. "Hitomi, dad, are you all right?"
"Fine thanks, don't bother asking." Dolphin muttered, getting a sharp elbow
from Babel.
"Henry," Hitomi said, "Eevee can't digivolve into Templarmon, and my digivice
has changed!" Henry looked at her digivice, eyes widening on realizing it was
a d-arc now.
"Maybe you don't need your digiegg anymore. Here, use this." Henry handed
Hitomi a card. "Just believe in the card."
"Henry!" Terriermon yelled, as he was hurled away by Makuramon's staff,
landing by Eevee. "If you have a plan, now's the time!"
"Hitomi, do it!" Henry yelled.
"Digi-modify!" Hitomi shouted, swiping the card through her digivice.
"Digivolution activate!"
Eevee felt the power surge through him. "Eevee, digivolve to..." Dimly, the
pokemon could swear he saw his skin peeling off, revealing a grid pattern
underneath him. He still felt better than he ever had before, though.
Energized, even. "Jolteon!"
Henry's digivice glowed. He held it up, and Jolteon's picture appeared.
"Jolteon, champion level digital pokemon, Data type. His special attacks are
Pin Missile and Zap Cannon."
Makuramon hurled another orb at Jolteon, who dodged the attack easily. "You
left off the increased agility." Jolteon said. The pokemon quickly attacked,
firing dozens of needles at Makuramon. The monkey pulled back, not injured by
the attack, but distracted. Then he started to smell ozone in the air.
"If you ever, ever come near Hitomi again, this is what you'll get! ZAP
CANNON!" The electrical ball slammed into Makuramon, seemed to float for a
second, then exploded, hurling Makuramon through a window into an adjoining
office. He didn't get up.
There was a noise from the stairwell Henry had entered from. Jolteon turned,
ready to attack again, but it was Rika and Renamon that came out. "Did we miss
anything?" Rika asked.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." Terriermon said, standing up. "Oh, and Hitomi's
digivice became a D-arc, and Eevee turned into Jolteon here."
Renamon regarded Jolteon. "The colour's an improvement."
"Funny." Jolteon replied, deadpan.
==
Talli led the tamers and Monster Makers out of the building, after Dolphin and
Babel had extracted Janyu's promise to tell them EXACTLY what was going on
here. Outside, they found a large number of unmarked cars, Takato, Jeri, and
their digimon standing off to one side. Jolteon and Renamon got ready to fight
again. Takato ran up, motioning for everyone to calm down.
"Uh, sorry guys," Takato said, "we kinda got sidetracked."
"By more goons?" Janyu asked.
"That's hardly the way to talk about the person that saved your butt in
biochemistry, Tao."
Dolphin recovered first. "Dolly?"
"That's Chief Inspector Deunan McReady to you. You," she indicated Janyu,
"can call me Dolly."
Janyu held a hand up. "Sorry, I'm married."
Dolly sighed. "Curly will be crushed. Anyway, this is the part where I keep
you all here and get your stories about why these children here found it
necessary to storm a secret government installation with several unknown beings
of unusual power." Everyone started to speak at once, but Dolly silenced them
all. "Don't worry, Takato told me everything. I think your friend Yamaki is
going on a little trip for a while. So why don't we get you home."
==
Yamaki rolled, dodging another fireball from Impmon. "I've waited years for
this," Yamaki snarled, "and if I have to tear you apart with my bare hands, so
much the better!"
"Sez you!" Impmon snarled, hurling another fireball, this time at Yamaki's
weapon. "There, I busted your little toy. Now it's your turn!" Yamaki
rolled, grabbed his digivice, and swiped another card through it. The
downgrade card tore into Impmon, who stopped short, wracked with pain.
"FREEZE!" Two policemen came upon the two, covering them with their handguns.
"Chief, I have Yamaki, and one other. Probably a Wild One."
"Great, first you, now the cops!" Impmon shouted. "I'm outta here!" Impmon
ran towards a stairwell. One of the cops ran after him, but lost the small
digimon in the darkness (courtesy of several fireballs to the lights). The
second officer was trying to restrain Yamaki.
"Let me go! He's a murderer! They're all killers!" Yamaki screamed as he was
dragged off.
==
Makuramon came to. "That creature had unusual attack powers." He looked
around at the wreckage around him. "Time for Michael Ramone to make a return."
Makuramon made a gesture, and became human again. It was a setback, not
finding more out about that girl, but that was all right. His work on the
Juggernaut program was essentially complete, he knew what form the Catalyst had
taken, and no one could connect his true form with that of Michael Ramone. A
Deva's work is almost done, he mused.
==Nonaka home
Everyone piled out of the collection of vehicles. Almost everyone, anyway.
Dolly had gone with Takato to explain to his (now frantic) parents that Takato
had been instrumental in finding Hitomi, and that getting his statement had
taken a bit longer than expected, so could they please not ground him for the
next decade or so?
Rika led Hitomi over to the house; they had recovered her clothes from the
Hypnos building, and Hitomi had gotten changed en route. When she saw Ms.
Asaji again, Hitomi started crying, the full impact of the events of the last
two days finally overwhelming her. Nami held Hitomi, just letting the girl cry
herself out.
Yuka put a hand on Nami's shoulder. "Why don't the two of you spend the night
here? You can go home in the morning. I'll even let you borrow Rumiko's
clothes, if you promise not to tell her." Yuka added, smiling.
"Thanks." Nami nodded, holding the still crying Hitomi. Beside her, Eevee
slumped down, also drained. Noctowl cawed loudly, celebrating the return of
his trainer.
==New Bark Town, next morning.
Izzy finished his work. "I can't get a portal through yet," he said to
himself, "but this should give us something. Please, reach her!"
==Nonaka household, Rumiko's room.
Hitomi, Eevee curled up beside her, was sound asleep on a small futon that
Rika had pulled out for her. Nami was in the same room, sleeping on a small
mat. There was a faint ringing noise, which woke Eevee up. He looked around,
saw that the noise was coming from Hitomi's pokegear, still recharging itself.
He padded over, pressed a button, and listened. After a second, he ran over,
desperately trying to wake Hitomi up.
"What is it?" Hitomi asked, blinking as the sunlight got in her eyes.
"Pokegear. Now. Answer!" Eevee dragged Hitomi over to the phone. Curious,
she picked it up.
"Hello?" Hitomi asked, before being deafened by a loud scream from the other
end. "Who is this?" she demanded. "Takato, is that you?"
The scream stopped. "It's me...Izzy!"
Next Episode
While Yamaki waits for his superior's decision on the fate of Hypnos, he
reflects on the events that have led him to this stage of his life. Unknown to
him, Ryo reflects on his first few months in the digital world, how he managed
to adapt to life in this new world, and how he was drawn into the War of the
Sovereigns. Next time on Digicross Tamers:
-'I remember the Earth'