Chapter 9 - "Once more unto the breach: Part 2 -
Out of the frying pan..."
"Mr. Johns," Jackson called across the control room of the DWC. "I have deleted the first line of extra code we found in the sentinel master." He reported when Johns had arrived.
"What did it do?" Johns Asked.
"Well, as I thought the whole code segment was written to stop the sentinels from using both their camouflage and chameleon fields. The first line was for the camouflage." Jackson answered.
"So what does that mean?" Johns asked. Although he was in charge of the R & D department of the DWC, he wasn't very technically minded.
"Well basically the camouflage field allowed the sentinels to blend into their surroundings, effectively making them invisible." Jackson said.
"And the other part of the code"
"The chameleon field, allows the sentinels to take the shape of anything in its near vicinity. The other parts of the code are designed to stop them from doing this and to make them all take this shape." Jackson said indicating the picture of Keramon slowly rotating on a nearby computer screen.
"How long will it take you to remove these parts of the code?" Johns asked.
"Well this is where it gets difficult. This code was very well written, I can't just remove it. If I do then the whole sentinel network will stop working because it's connected to other more vital parts of the program," Jackson reported, "Whoever wrote this knew what they were doing." He added.
"Of course they knew what they were doing. We taught her to do it. Who long to bring it down?" Johns reiterated the question.
"I really can't say at this time as I don't know what other sub-routines within the program it's linked to," Jackson answered, then reading the look on Johns' face he added, "If I had to guess I would say about three hours"
"You've got ninety minutes, and if you can't bring it down I want a way to alter this code to work for us." Johns ordered.
"I'll try my best sir." Jackson said as he turned back to his computer screen.
"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that." Erin shouted at Matt from her computer.
"Well I just saw one of these things appear out of nowhere." Matt shouted back. Erin thought for a moment before replying.
"They must have started on my code, removed the first part," she shouted back, "Don't worry about it just be extra vigilant." Erin shouted to all of the digi-destined. She had to shout even louder than before, as now she not only had the wind to contend with, but gunfire, the Digimon's attack and the occasional explosion as well.
"Well since they can do this now, does anybody think that we should increase our power as well?" Sora asked the group.
"Good idea." Tai shouted back, "Everybody, digivolve to ultimate now." He ordered in between firing at Keramon "Davis, and Ken. You should DNA digivolve your Digimon to Paildramon." He added. Everybody complied. Erin was once more astounded by what she saw. She stopped working at her laptop and observed all of the Digimon changing form once again, to even larger forms than before. She then saw Ex-Veemon and Stingmon merge to become Paildramon. This surprised her even more as no one had explained to her about DNA digivolving, although she had heard the group mention it once or twice.
"That was interesting." She remarked, once all the metamorphoses had finished.
"Pretty cool, huh." Davis said from his new position along side Ken. Erin smiled in agreement, and then went back to work.
The digi-destined continued to fight along with their, now ultimate level, Digimon for what seemed like ever. They had actually been fighting for half an hour since the Digimon became ultimate. They fought in silence as they didn't have time to say anything between shooting at the viruses that relentlessly came at them. The only conversation came, sporadically, from Erin, Yolei and Izzy and this was mostly Yolei's complaints about the noise of the gunfire and the amount of security around a relatively low-profile area of a computer system. She had, though, been quiet for almost ten minutes.
"Yolei, everything okay?" Erin asked.
"Yeah," Yolei answered, "I finally got through the security on this database. I should be finished in about fifteen minutes." She said,
"How 'bout you Izzy?" Erin asked.
"I'm doing okay. I've crashed their gate so they can't send anybody through at the moment." He answered.
"How's it going, trying to close it for good?" Erin asked, still typing at her computer
"Well I really need Yolei's help for that," Izzy answered, "So I've been doing a bit of sight seeing"
"You've not been doing anything stupid?" She asked Izzy, alarmed.
"Well that depends on your meaning of stupid." Izzy answered.
"Please tell me you haven't been round the whole MI6 network. I only have clearance for the DWC network. Most of MI6 don't even know about us." Erin said even more alarmed.
"No I've only been round the DWC computers. Personnel reports that sort of thing. You know they were really close to implementing the last part of their plan." He said. Erin breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Izzy's answer
"Izzy, you don't have time for sight seeing." Yolei said.
"Yolei's right. As interesting as it might be reading Johns' memos to his boss, you really need to concentrate on getting that gate down." Erin told him.
"I was about to start, I've copied everything of interest." Izzy said.
"Good idea, we can use that as blackmail material in case they come after us." Erin said.
Johns walked over to Worth's computer area.
"Report." He ordered.
"They are keeping up quite well with the replication rate of the sentinels. I guess that this would qualify as a felid test of the pulse guns." Worth remarked.
"Indeed." Johns said. "Have you registered any computer system anomalies? Apart from what we know already." He asked in an offhand manner.
"Well no others. But I have been keeping up with what's been going on so far." Worth answered. "The gate room reports some very strange readings coming from the port. The security measures on the main database have been circumvented and the safeties on the sentinel's master program are being attacked as we speak." Worth reported.
"I've got Jackson working on the sentinels. What sort of readings are coming from the port?" Johns asked.
"I don't know exactly, Clarice Rankin is in charge down there, she knows more than I do." Worth answered.
"Get her up here, and reinforce the security around the database." Johns ordered.
"I've got it." Yolei shouted, "The first file is gone." She added.
"Good, start deleting the others. Go for the largest ones first." Erin told Yolei.
"How are you getting on with getting through the security on your area?" Izzy asked Erin.
"Not well, every time I get one wall down, another two spring up." She said, frustrated.
"Perhaps more manpower." Izzy suggested, "I can't do anything now until Yolei finishes with the database"
"You should keep an eye on the Digi-port." Erin said.
"Not a problem, I set it so that if they get it back up it will dial out to a random port then start fluctuating the power levels, that should have them confused for a while." He told Erin.
"If you're sure that'll hold until Yolei's finished then any help would be a godsend about now." Erin said, relieved that she had some help, for a while at least. "I'll switch you over." She said. She typed something on her laptop that made Izzy's display change from the Digi-port's diagnostic program, to a screen with computer code on it.
"What do I do?" Izzy asked.
"The master program is protected by adaptive sentinels, but unlike their counterparts here they don't just explode when you attack them. The laptop should have a selection of virus source code on it. Use those viruses to attack the sentinels." Erin told him. Izzy went to work without any further instruction.
The group worked for several minutes in silence until the increasingly erratic gunfire of the rest of the digi-destined distracted them.
"What is going on over there?" Yolei asked.
"It's these things, they're coming out of nowhere." Davis remarked, keeping his eyes firmly on the gap in between the trees.
"It's as if they're coming out of the trees." Tai said, firing a volley from his pulse rifle.
"And if that wasn't enough, they're replicating incredibly fast now. We can barely keep up with them." Matt said urgently.
"Can our Digimon fight without us?" Erin asked her companions at the computers.
"I believe so, if they think we're being threatened in some way." Izzy answered.
"Well we are." Yolei said.
"How about it guys, up for some action?" Izzy asked the three Digimon standing by their partners.
"Always." Hawkmon answered.
"Anything for you." Tentomon replied.
"I'm not sure, I'm new to all this." Terriormon said.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Izzy said encouragingly. "Ready?" He asked the two people standing with him.
"Yes." Yolei answered hastily, retrieving her digivice from her pocket.
"Erin?" Izzy asked turning to Erin.
"Exactly what do I have to do?" She asked tearing her concentration from her computer.
"Concentrate on your digivice, it should transfer your energy to Terriormon allowing him to digivolve. And if I remember what Gennai told us correctly, your digivice should allow Terriormon to digivolve straight to ultimate." Izzy told her. Erin look very lost at everything she had just been told and wore a blank expression.
"I'll try." She said uncertainly. Izzy and Yolei had no trouble in getting their digivolve, Erin on the other hand, just stood there holding her D-3 with a look of intense concentration on her face but with nothing happening. She finally gave up after several moments.
"Sorry little guy." She said, looking down at Terriormon
"Never mind, you've got a lot on your mind at the moment. Maybe later." Terriormon said as encouragingly as he could, but it was hard not to notice the disappointment in his voice.
"Hey guys, were sending over some help." Izzy called over to the rest of the group who were still trying to keep up with the sentinels.
"Thanks, that's a great help." Tai shouted back. The three then returned to work. Erin looks down at Terriormon apologetically, and he returned her look with one of understanding, before taking a defensive posture by her side, ready to defend her in his current State if the need arose.
"Somebody call for me?" Clarice Rankin said as she swept into the control room of the DWC.
"Yes, I did." Johns said, coming forward to meet her. "Daniel Johns." He said extending her hand, "you must be 5-2-9"
"I prefer Clarice Rankin." Said taking his hand and shaking it slightly. "How can I help?" She asked.
"I understand you have been getting some abnormal readings from the gate." Johns said.
"Yes, it appears that our intruders are trying to overload the gates dialling program." Clarice said.
"Can you stop it?" johns asked.
"What do you think we've been trying to do down there?" Clarice asked back with a slightly raised voice. "In fact why are you asking me this"
"We believe the leader of this little insurrection to be 4-5-2, I was her handler." Johns answered.
"4-5-2, Carter, Erin. What was she doing with a handler, she was R and D. I thought only the field agents got them." Clarice asked.
"She was special." Johns answered, avoiding answering the question properly.
"Is that all, only we're quite busy down stares?" Clarice asked disdainfully.
"Yes, report to me the second you have control of the gate again." Johns ordered, equally as disdainfully.
"Anything you ask." Clarice said as she walked from the room.
"Mr. Johns I have something." Jackson called across the room. Johns walked from where he was standing after watching Clarice Rankin walk from the room.
"What is it?" He asked.
"The code. I can't remove it completely, but I can alter it." Jackson reported.
"In what way?" Johns asked.
"This part of the code," Jackson said indicating a section of the code. "That part tell the sentinels what form to take, I think I can change it slightly so that they take on a different form"
"Did you have anything in mind"
"Do we have any image files of the attackers?" Jackson asked. Johns leaned forward and typed a few commands on a nearby computer. The image on the screen changed to a live video feed coming form the sentinels. It showed Davis, Ken and Sora all fighting from the sentinel's point of view. The picture, however, kept changing perspective as the sentinels were destroyed by the digi-destined and the Digimon.
"If we can get a picture for long enough we may be able to extrapolate a clear enough image file for each of them." Johns answered.
"Good, I'll need somebody to work on that while I refine the amendments to the code. I have a plan," Jackson said, "And fifteen minutes early." He added looking at his watch. Johns smiled, which was a very rare occurrence.
"Good work let me know when it's ready. I think I know where you're going with this. I'll get somebody to assist you." He said as he left the workstation.
"The port's just crashed." Izzy exclaimed. He had one again started working on the gate.
"What did you do?" Erin asked.
"Nothing. It just went down." Izzy said.
"Show me." Erin replied moving over to his computer. Erin examined the readouts coming off Izzy's laptop screen.
"You say you didn't do anything?" Erin asked again.
"No, I was about to run some testes on it and it went down." Izzy answered. Erin and Izzy studied the computer for several minutes before Erin spoke again.
"Think nothing of it. If it's destabilised then that can only be a good thing." She said returning to her computer. As Izzy was about to continue working, however, something else happened to the gate.
"The gate just activated itself." Izzy shouted, panicked by what had just happened. Erin, alarmed by what Izzy had said, drew her pulse pistol, moved round Izzy's computer once again and aimed it at the screen. She waited. Nothing came through the port. After a short while the gate deactivated itself and resumed it's idle state.
"What was all that about?" Erin asked, still aiming her gun at the computer. Izzy moved forward to check the computer.
"It looks as though nothing came through," Izzy said as he checked all of the systems. "No wait, something did come through. Someone sent us a message from the DWC." He said.
"Let me see." Erin said approaching the computer once again. Izzy had opened the message and Erin read it to herself. "It's from 5-2-9, she's one of ours." Erin said smiling at the fortunate turn of events.
"What does the message say?" Izzy asked.
"It's only short. It says that she knows what we're trying to do to the gate and she will help anyway she can. It also says that she has had a run in with Johns." Erin reported. Izzy also read the message.
"What does she mean by she thought that only field agents got handlers?" Izzy asked.
"That's not important at the moment, what is important though is that we have help inside now." Erin said returning to her workstation once more. Yolei, who had heard the conversation, now spoke.
"No, I think it's quite important. What did she mean?" She asked.
"Exactly what she said, only felid agents need handlers to give them their assignments." Erin answered reluctantly.
"So then why did you have one?" Yolei asked, "You told us you were never a field agent." She added with increased anger. Erin paused before answering.
"I suggest you keep working while I explain this." She said looking down at her laptop. "The plan was for all of the digi-destined members of the DWC to become agents eventually, as we're the only ones who can go to the Digital World. My application for transfer was awaiting Johns' approval before I discovered their master plan. Then I got transferred out here; this was to be my first assignment so to speak, hence Johns." She explained as she typed.
"So you lied to us again." Yolei shouted.
"Not exactly, I never worked in the Digital World. Listen, you can hate me all you want after we've finished here. For now concentrate." Erin shouted back.
"Guys, when you've finished arguing, I think we might be winning against these things." Davis shouted over the noise of Paildramon mowing down a group of Keramon with his,
"Desperado blaster"
"What makes you say that?" Izzy asked.
"It looks as though they're retreating." Matt answered.
"Impossible," Erin remarked. "The only think that would make them do that as if they were programmed to do so." She said.
"They must have been reprogrammed then, 'cause the numbers attacking have halved." Ken shouted across to the small group at the computers.
"And the numbers are decreasing all the time." Tai added.
"Keep fighting them. I'm almost through the security on the system, once I'm in I'll have a look, see what's been changed." Erin said.
"I've done it." Came a shout from Yolei's direction, mere seconds later. "The database is down." She shouted happily.
"Good work, now help Izzy and Clarice with the gate." Erin said, transferring Yolei's computer to the gate systems.
"Clarice?" Yolei asked.
"5-2-9, our girl on the inside." Erin answered.
"What are we doing?" Yolei asked Izzy, when she had control of her computer.
"We've just come up with a plan." Izzy answered. "Clarice is going to open the gate while I overload the dialling program. We need you to feed the open gate junk before it closes. We think that might overload the program and crash it permanently." He explained.
"What sort of junk?" Yolei asked.
"Anything, any trash files. Use your imagination. Try firing some viruses at it as well, that might help." Izzy answered.
"We've lost the database." Worth said to Johns, who was standing at his side.
"That's too bad, did we have any backups?" Johns asked.
"Of course we did, they got them as well." Worth answered.
"Great. How long will it take us to rebuild?" Johns asked.
"We may not be able to. According to the gate room, the attack on the port has increased. If they keep up what they're doing much longer we will loose all gate functions as well"
"Well we need to stop them before that happens." Johns said. He walked over to Jackson's station.
"How are things going?" He asked.
"We're ready to implement the plan." Jackson answered.
"Good, do so immediately. We need to distract them long enough to regain control of the port." Johns said.
"Right away." Jackson said. He typed a few commands on his terminal and the screens that displayed the Digital World showed receding images of the digi-destined.
"They've all gone." Tai shouted. The area that surrounded the digi-destined was once again silent except for the wind. Erin looked up from her computer.
"Keep working, this has to be a trap. The sentinels don't do that, I know I programmed them." She said to Yolei and Izzy. "How close are you to taking the port down?" She asked them.
"We need to refine what we're doing, we should be done in about twenty minutes." Izzy said.
"Keep at it." Erin said as she walked towards Davis, gun drawn again. She inspected the area of woods in front of where he and Ken stood before turning to face the rest of the digi-destined. "Search the area." She told them, "Be very careful though, this has to be a trap." She said as she returned to her computer. She didn't re-holster her pulse pistol; she laid it by the side of her computer before returning to work. The rest of the digi-destined moved out into the surrounding woods. The Digimon remained in the clearing in case the sentinels returned while their partners were searching. The three remaining digi-destined worked in silence while their friends were away. The group worked for roughly ten minutes before the first of their comrades returned.
"There's nothing out there except trees." Matt said as he walked up to the three working at the computers.
"You didn't find a thing?" Erin asked.
"Nothing, not even a wild Digimon." Matt answered.
"I'm not surprised with the noise you've been making." Yolei joked.
"How you doing?" He asked.
"We've nearly got their gate down." Izzy answered.
"That's good, what about getting through the security protocols on the sentinels master program?" He asked Erin. She eyed him suspiciously before answering.
"I'm nearly through. I should be finished with the security by the time they get the gate down." She said. Matt walked back to his previous position near Weregraurumon. The rest of the digi-destined returned shortly afterwards all reporting the same thing; they had seen nothing out of the ordinary in the surrounding woods. In fact they had seen nothing but trees and the odd twig on the ground.
"We've got something," Izzy shouted, "The stability of the gate has dropped to twenty percent." He said.
"How long, until it's down to zero?" Erin asked.
"If this works, about five minutes." Yolei answered.
"Keep at it." Erin said. Several minutes passed without further sign of any sentinels.
"How you getting on with the gate?" Erin asked the pair behind her.
"Nearly there." Izzy said.
"Hey guys, there's nothing out there except trees." The whole group all looked in the same direction to see Tai emerging from the woods. Everyone trained their guns on him as he walked forward.
"Hey, what's with the reception?" He asked.
"Stay where you are!" Erin shouted from her place behind her computer.
"What is with the guns?" Tai asked again.
"Who are you?" Matt shouted at him. Tai looked at himself before answering.
"I think I'm Tai. I was the last time I checked." He answered sarcastically.
"Then who's that?" Matt asked pointing to the person standing next to him. Matt was standing next to Tai.
"That's a cool trick." The Tai being held at gunpoint said as somebody else emerged from behind him.
"The place is clean, whoa!" T.K said as he saw the group all pointing guns at Tai and now him. "What's going on?" He asked.
"That's what we're trying to find out," Erin said, she then turned to Yolei and Izzy. "Don't stop working." She told them. They complied; the pair put down their pulse pistols and returned their attention to the computers. Davis was the next to come out of the woods. He had the same reaction as Tai and T.K when everybody aimed their guns at him. One by one the remaining digi-destined also came out from the forest to be met with the same reception, until there were two groups of digi-destined minus Erin, Yolei and Izzy.
"Why is nothing ever easy?" The second Tai whispered into his Sora's ear. The groups stood in silence, staring at each other.
"Done it," Izzy shouted, "Their gate's finished." This proved to enough of a distraction for the second group of digi-destined to bring their weapons to bear. Everybody was now aiming a gun at their counterpart; except Erin, who was aiming in the general direction of the group.
"Sir, we've lost the gate." Worth reported.
"Damn!" Johns shouted as he hit the table next to him with his fist. "Is there any way to bring it back?" He asked angrily.
"No, the gate room reports total failure. This command is finished." Worth answered.
"Well then the least we can do is repay the favour." He said icily. "Jackson," he called across the control room, "Order the remaining sentinels to begin extraction." He turned back to Worth. "Our friends have about thirty minutes before the Digital World destroys itself."
The large group of twenty people were now all shouting at each other and changing their positions randomly, all still pointing guns in every direction.
"Stop it, all of you!" Erin shouted at the top of her voice. This had little effect on the violently arguing group, so Erin fired her pulse pistol at the nearest tree to the group, causing it to explode. This got the groups attention.
"Thank you, now that I have you attention," Erin shouted at the group, "This is getting us nowhere slowley." She said, but before she could continue the ground beneath them shook violently causing everybody to loose their footing.
"What the hell was that?" Tai shouted.
"They must have started the extraction process. We've got about half an hour before the world pulls itself apart." Erin said as the ground shook again. The Digimon had de-digivolved, since the stand off had begun, and we're now standing collectively by the three digi-destined at the computers.
"This is where it get interesting." One of the Matt's wisecracked.
"Okay we don't have a lot of time so we can do this one of three ways." Erin said to the group. "The sentinels among you can come forward now and be shot." She said.
"Tempting prospect." One of the Tai's said sarcastically.
"Or we can let the Digimon here find you out and you can get shot, they have a very good ability at sniffing out other digital entities." She said.
"And behind door number three?" One of the Davis' asked.
"Yolei can I borrow your pulse pistol please?" Erin asked. Yolei handed over her gun and Erin carried it over to the tree stump where she was working. She mover her laptop out of the way and smashed the gun on the stump causing all of its innards to spill out. Erin fished through the debris that remained of the pulse pistol until she produced a long rod.
"Or we can check each one of you with this," she said showing the rod she removed from the gun, "The magnetic constrictor coil of the pulse pistol's pre-fire chamber. As you know digital things don't much care for magnets, so you can endure the most likely painful effects of the magnet then get shot." She told the group. The ground shook again this time more violently than before. The group remained silent. "I'll choose then." She said as she approached the nearest person to her. "I'm not to keen on getting the Digimon involved, so we'll do it this way." She said as she jabbed the magnet constrictor coil in one of the Joe's necks. Nothing happened. "Interesting," she said, "But just to be on the safe side." She added as she approached the other Joe. She did the same to him, only this time something did happen. This Joe did have a reaction, his appearance became like that of static on a television. Every member turned their gun on him and fired simultaneously, and he disappeared in much the same way as the rest of the sentinels. Erin turned back to the first Joe,
"Can I leave you in charge of this?" She asked.
"Sure." He said. She threw him the coil and returned to her computer.
"Okay we have about twenty-five minutes, are you ready?" She asked Izzy and Yolei. They answered affirmatively and began typing. The group remained silent apart from the random gunfire. After five minutes Erin exclaimed,
"I'm in"
"Great, now what do we do?" Izzy asked.
"It looks like we're going to have to delete each of the sub-routines individually and then the remaining program code." She answered, "Yolei you go for the ones at the top, Izzy go from line seventy five and I'll start at one forty-five." Erin said. The group complied and began typing. The ground shook again; it was becoming more frequent now as well as more violent. The other group of digi-destined was down to twelve people, there were two Tai's and two Cody's left and the group had the guns trained on them.
"One down." Yolei shouted as she successfully removed one of the sub-routines. The other group fired on one of the Cody's who exploded like the Keramon; there were only two Tai's left.
"Got one." Izzy shouted as he removed his first sub-routine. Joe was now standing in front of the two Tai's.
"Do either one of you want to volunteer?" He asked. They remained silent. "Okay then." Joe said and stabbed one of the Tai's at random. It was the real Tai. The entire group, Tai included, turned on the other Tai. He started to back away, but before he could get very far the group had opened fire and had destroyed it.
"That was weird. I just killed myself." Tai said slightly dazed. The group then went to stand near the remaining three digi-destined. T.K, who had been keeping an eye on the time since his double was destroyed, looked again at his watch.
"We've got about ten minutes before the lights go out." He hissed at the group, not wanting to break the concentration of the three working at the computers.
"Three more to go, then the rest of the code." Erin announced.
As the group was distracted by the goings on at the computers they didn't notice a lone Keramon enter clearing. It stealthy moved around the group, avoiding being noticed. Once it had found what it was looking for it pounced. It jumped straight for Erin. Davis was the first to notice the movement.
"Erin, look out." He shouted as the sentinel flew past him, but before anyone had a chance to bring their weapon up to the creature Terriormon jumped up blocking its path. Just at that time Erin's D-3 started glowing brightly.
"Wow, this is a strange feeling." Terriormon just about had time to say before he started digivolving. "Terriormon digivolve to... Gargomon." He exclaimed. Gargomon landed just in front of the Keramon. The sentinel started to attack but before it got very far Gargomon shouted, "Bunny pummel," and attacked it with a barrage of fire from the gun mounted on his arm. Erin looked up from her computer to see Davis standing next to Gargomon.
"Thank you, both of you." She said.
"That's what I'm here for, and hey I finally digivolved." Gargomon said.
"Yeah, don't mention it." Davis added. He locked eyes with her for a second before asking, "Hey Carter, when this is all over with, do you maybe want to go out on a date with me sometime?" Erin smiled broadly.
"Fantastic timing Davis, but if you don't finish soon this won't be over with. We've got about three minutes." T.K said. Erin caught Davis eye and nodded before returning to her computer.
"Okay we've got two more sub-routines and the remaining code to delete." She said.
"One more." Izzy said straight away afterwards.
An extremely tense atmosphere rested over the group as the three digi-destined typed away madly at their laptops. The rest of the group were once again looking out for stray Keramon in case a repeat of what just happened occurred.
"That's the last of the sub-routines." Yolei shouted.
"Ninety seconds." T.K shouted from where he was standing. The ground was almost constantly shaking now and everyone was finding it quite hard to remain standing.
"Forty five seconds." T.K shouted.
"Three lines to go." Erin shouted back.
"Two." Izzy shouted a moment later.
"One." Yolei shouted.
"That's it." Erin shouted as the shaking stopped. The rest of the group were all holding on to trees to stop themselves from falling over, now straightened up.
"That's it?" Tai questioned.
"Yes." Erin answered. The group stood in stunned silence until Yolei began cheering. Soon after the entire group were cheering also.
Several hours later the party was still going on in Tai and Kari's apartment. All of the Digimon had joined their partners into the human world, and were joining in the celebrations.
"This is one of the good days, people." Tai said, raising his glass. He turned to Erin, "To Erin," he toasted, "without her we would have ended up loosing the Digital World." He added. Everybody else followed suit, raising their glasses and reciting Erin's name. All except Davis, who said 'Carter', instead. After the toast, and when Erin had finished blushing, Matt made his way over to her.
"Hey Erin, can I have a word?" He asked quietly.
"Sure." Erin answered, and they made their way onto the balcony.
"Erin, I just want to apologise for the way I've acted towards you lately." He said, "I know I've been quite unkind to you since we found out about your employment. But now you've proven your intentions are good and that you're a friend who's not to be distrusted again." He finished.
"Honestly it's fine. In fact I expected more of you to act in the same way. But thanks." Erin replied. The pair stood in silence for a moment, looking out at the skyline of Odaiba, until they were interrupted by Yolei joining them on the balcony.
"Hey guys, what you up to?" She asked.
"Nothing much." Matt answered, and then sensing what was about to happen, excused himself. "I'm going to get another drink." He said heading back into the apartment. Silence returned to the balcony.
"Erin, I'm sorry." Yolei finally said.
"What for?" Erin asked.
"For the way I've been around you." Yolei answered.
"Yolei, it's fine, really. Like I just said to Matt, I'm surprised more of you didn't react in the same way." Erin reiterated.
"It's going to be harder to doubt you in the future." Yolei joked.
"I apologise for my strengths." Erin joked back, "Come on, my glass is empty. Let's go and get a drink." And with that the pair rejoined the other in the living room of the apartment.