Chapter 17: Two Important Messages
We returned to the now dormant computer. As Matt turned it back on, Ro went back to his place on the tailgate. That dog had his eyes even more focused on the road behind us. Perhaps he wanted to make sure that the Ogremon wouldn't come back. I was personally sure that we had seen the last of them....at least for a little while.
"It's from Genni." Matt stated simply. I turned back towards him to see him reading a message on the screen of the laptop. I sat down next to Matt, who was obviously very comfortable, thanks to a pillow he had found and sat down on.
"Who's that?" I asked as I turned to the pile of medical supplies behind me, and began searching for a pillow of my own.
"Genni's a weird man that lives in the Digital World." Matt said, looking back at me. "He knows quite a bit about almost everything Digimon-involved. I don't know where we Digidestined would have been without him."
"So he's got some useful info?" I speculated as I turned back to Matt. I had satisfied myself with a pillow about half the size of Matt's. Normally, it would have been too tiny to be worthwhile. However, in my smaller, inhuman size, it was good enough.
"Not really, he's just checking up to see how we're doing." Matt replied. "He knows everything that has happened, and is trying to find a solution."
"So, nothing useful to us right now?" I guessed, glancing at the screen.
"Nope. But I'll reply and tell him everyone has been seperated." Matt began typing on the keyboard, but quickly stopped.
"Mind if I put in some information about you two?" the tiger-boy asked, reffering to Ro and I.
"No, I don't care....think this Genni could figure out what Ro and I are?" I answered.
Matt shrugged. "Maybe."
As Matt went back to typing, I admired his typing ability. While it was nothing unusually good, I was impressed that the Gabu-boy could still type quickly and fluently with his new hands. I began to wonder how long he had been in his current form.
I was also still very curious about Matt little brother, T.K. I knew what this kid had become(a Patamon, of course), but that's about it. My dilemma was that Matt seemed to not want to talk about his brother. It likely pained him that his little brother was going through the inevitable hard times. Being the youngest in my family, this was only a guess.
"By the way, Matt..." I began. "I remember you saying that you Digidestined caused this whole thing to happen. Uh..."
"You're wondering how." Matt predicted wothout stopping his typing.
"Well, yeah." I said sheeplessly.
"To put it as short as I can..." Matt started. "We saved the Digital World, Genni told us in an E-mail that we could go home and opened a warp to the real world, we entered the warp with our Digimon, and the part of the message we hadn't read said not to bring our Digimon back."
"Uh-oh...so what then?" I said as I leaned back on the pillow and closed my eyes.
"So, after finishing the message, we were knocked out in the warp." Matt continued. "We all awoke in our own homes, without our Digimon."
"Your parents must have been surprised." I related.
"No, thanks to a time warp in the Digital World, they never even knew we left." Matt explained. "Anyways, we were all really confused about where our Digimon were. We were going to meet up and figure out what happened, but..."
Matt stopped typing and talking at this point. I opened my eyes, and saw that he had a very sad look on his face. I would admit that he looked very pathetic, more so than if he was human. This was mainly due to the fact that he was likely, to use a girl term, 'adorable'.
"Matt...you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to." I said with a note of sympathy.
"No, it's okay..." Matt said softly. "Well...before we could meet up, I guess we all just blacked out."
"Again?" I said aloud.
"Yes. We all had dreams about our Digimon." Matt sighed. "In my dream, in was in a void with Gabumon, and he was calling for my help. I tried to run to him, but I could never reach him..."
"I had a dream like dat." said the motionless, but obviously attentive, Ro.
"You did, Ro?" I asked.
"Yeah," the puppy responded. "except for dere was dis bone, and it was saying, 'Eat me! Eat me!', so I ran ta it, but I couldn't reach it..."
"I don't think that's exactly the same, Ro..." I chuckled.
"I'm sure he didn't wake up transformed, anyway." Matt said, noting Ro's dream.
"Oh...you woke up...I see." I mumbled. "And the whole world was...?"
"Normal, besides us Digidestined." Matt smirked. "Later on, we were going back to a certain campsite on a bus. You see, we were going to return to the Digital World to see Genni again, and that was the only place we could go back from. Anyways, the bus driver had a heart attack, and died right there."
"And then what?" I was drawn into this tale.
"We were on a bridge at this point. When the driver died, we almost completely smashed over the bridge. Kari and...my little brother, Digivolved into Angewomon and Angemon to save us." Matt spaced out at this point, with a proud look on his face. "T. K. was very brave."
"I'm sure...uh, what did you mean by, 'Digivolve'...?" I began.
Matt resumed both his typing and his normal serious face at this point. "A Digimon can Digivolve into a more powerful form for a little while. So, when the two of them Digivolved, they were stronger and could fly, so they went outside of the bus and lifted it back to the road, thus saving us from certain doom."
"So how did da world go bad?" Ro whined impatiently, still not bothering to remove his eyes from the road.
"The action of T.K. and Kari Digivolving sent a 'shockwave', of a sort, over the world. This turned everyone into Digimon." Matt answered.
"So that's what you meant when you said that you Digidestined caused this all to happen..." I trailed off.
"Yes." Matt confirmed. At this point, he stopped typing. "Well, I've sent the message. Hopefully Genni can find some useful information for us soon."
I barely heard Matt say this, as I now had a new thought in my mind. If the world had been turned into Digimon because of these Digidestined, then why was that 'Dark Armor Guy' lurking around?
At that point, something dawned on me involving the robot Ro and I had met in the vents. I had never known an army using something like that...
"Matt, do you know of the army using robots to guard things?" I asked, seeing if he had seen or heard of any robots.
Matt looked at me with a puzzled expression. "No...that wouldn't really make any sense. Why do you ask?"
"Well," I began. "when Ro and I were entering the mall, we had to go through a ventilation shaft to get inside. In there, we encoutered a robot that seemed to be patrolling."
"That's strange..." Matt mumbled. "I guess the army must have been using them, though."
"Maybe it's da armor guy's robot." Ro blurted out, glancing at Matt and I.
"What armor guy?" Matt asked. He then looked at me sternly. "Have you been hiding something?"
I sighed. "I guess it's time to be completely honest with you, Matt."
"You should be; I've been honest with you two." Matt reasoned with a glare.
"Okay, Matt..." I began. "We - Ro, John, my sister, and myself - came from Tannerville, Illinois. One night, when John was having a sleepover at my house, we heard my sis screaming. We went outside to see this guy in dark armor approuching her, and we tried to save her. I guess this weirdo knocked us all out, and I woke up in the Tokyo City Park alone...and..." I looked down at myself. "...like this."
"Hmmm...." Matt mumbled. "Did this guy in armor look like any Digimon that you've seen?"
"Hardly. I think he was human." I responded.
"And you all come from the United States? How'd you end up here?"
"I have no idea." I answered. "And before you ask, no, I don't know where my sister is."
Matt stood up and began pacing around. "This is getting more and more complicated..."
Suddenly, an electronic voice began talking on the computer. 'Mail detected in the Junk Mail folder. Terminate?'
Matt stopped pacing, and sat sown at the screen again. "Curious..." he mumbled. "Izzy never has to delete mail in that folder...he has a special junk mail blocker..."
"Check it out, then." I suggested.
Matt pushed a few buttons, and then a message appeared on the screen. This is what it said:
-----------------------
Dear Mr. Kobida,
As you are well aware, the United States and the rest of the world are in complete disarray. A joint action has been ordered between all of the available military personnel. You are instructed to do so in in the nation of Japan. Use any tactics to restore order.
On another matter, our scientists have concluded that the epicenter of the infection occurred in Japan within a 30-mile radius from Tokyo. We also believe that the original carriers may have abnormalities in their type and size range. Handle them with extreme caution.
Any strange occurrences with these or any other carriers must be reported immediately. I expect to have a videoconference with you in some point in the next 72 hours. Keep in contact.
General McCalvin, of the United States Government.
-----------------------
"You're right. That is curious. How'd Izzy get it?" I said after reading over the E-mail.
"Probably, the message was sent over an open channel." Matt answered. "I can't think of any other way he could have gotten the E-mail."
"Wat C-Mail?" Ro asked, once again without moving.
"It's E-mail, Ro, and if you want to see it get over here." I responded sternly.
"Oh, fine." Ro sneered, coming over to sit on my lap to view the message.
"Has dat video conference happened yet?" Ro said with a puzzled expression.
"Well Ro, there is probably another 36 hours or so before it happens." Matt said before I could answer Ro.
At that moment, I noticed that the truck's engine was revving down. A glance out the back of the truck conformed that we were in the hospital grounds, as a saw a sign that said 'Searheart' on it pass behind us.
"I think this is our stop." I said with a grin.
"I noticed. We should probably jump out now." Matt responded.
"Alwight." Ro answered.
"Okay, we'll-" I started, then it dawned on me what Matt had just said. "What?!?!"
"We'll be spotted if we get off when the truck stops. I'm sure that there'll be some guards to get the stuff that's there." Matt said, pointing a claw towards the medical supplies behind us.
"But...you guys can land better than me, considering your forms are better for that!" I argued. Both Ro and Matt were similar to dogs, and I knew that I was like a lizard. I was pretty sure dogs landed much better than lizards. But I knew it was fruitless to argue, as both Ro and Matt had gone to back of the truck, posed to jump out. "Ah, fine...let me get my backpack..."
"Grab the laptop too, while you're at it." Matt ordered.
I grumbled as I grabbed the computer and stuffed it in my backpack. After placing the pack on my shoulders, I clambered up to the back of the truck, and posed myself to jump also. "I had better not sprain my ankle..."
"Don't worry, Master, you don't have wun now!" Ro said with a smile.
'Good point, Ro.' I thought to myself.
"Alright, everyone!" Matt said with an in-charge kind of voice. "On the count of three! One...two...three!"
We returned to the now dormant computer. As Matt turned it back on, Ro went back to his place on the tailgate. That dog had his eyes even more focused on the road behind us. Perhaps he wanted to make sure that the Ogremon wouldn't come back. I was personally sure that we had seen the last of them....at least for a little while.
"It's from Genni." Matt stated simply. I turned back towards him to see him reading a message on the screen of the laptop. I sat down next to Matt, who was obviously very comfortable, thanks to a pillow he had found and sat down on.
"Who's that?" I asked as I turned to the pile of medical supplies behind me, and began searching for a pillow of my own.
"Genni's a weird man that lives in the Digital World." Matt said, looking back at me. "He knows quite a bit about almost everything Digimon-involved. I don't know where we Digidestined would have been without him."
"So he's got some useful info?" I speculated as I turned back to Matt. I had satisfied myself with a pillow about half the size of Matt's. Normally, it would have been too tiny to be worthwhile. However, in my smaller, inhuman size, it was good enough.
"Not really, he's just checking up to see how we're doing." Matt replied. "He knows everything that has happened, and is trying to find a solution."
"So, nothing useful to us right now?" I guessed, glancing at the screen.
"Nope. But I'll reply and tell him everyone has been seperated." Matt began typing on the keyboard, but quickly stopped.
"Mind if I put in some information about you two?" the tiger-boy asked, reffering to Ro and I.
"No, I don't care....think this Genni could figure out what Ro and I are?" I answered.
Matt shrugged. "Maybe."
As Matt went back to typing, I admired his typing ability. While it was nothing unusually good, I was impressed that the Gabu-boy could still type quickly and fluently with his new hands. I began to wonder how long he had been in his current form.
I was also still very curious about Matt little brother, T.K. I knew what this kid had become(a Patamon, of course), but that's about it. My dilemma was that Matt seemed to not want to talk about his brother. It likely pained him that his little brother was going through the inevitable hard times. Being the youngest in my family, this was only a guess.
"By the way, Matt..." I began. "I remember you saying that you Digidestined caused this whole thing to happen. Uh..."
"You're wondering how." Matt predicted wothout stopping his typing.
"Well, yeah." I said sheeplessly.
"To put it as short as I can..." Matt started. "We saved the Digital World, Genni told us in an E-mail that we could go home and opened a warp to the real world, we entered the warp with our Digimon, and the part of the message we hadn't read said not to bring our Digimon back."
"Uh-oh...so what then?" I said as I leaned back on the pillow and closed my eyes.
"So, after finishing the message, we were knocked out in the warp." Matt continued. "We all awoke in our own homes, without our Digimon."
"Your parents must have been surprised." I related.
"No, thanks to a time warp in the Digital World, they never even knew we left." Matt explained. "Anyways, we were all really confused about where our Digimon were. We were going to meet up and figure out what happened, but..."
Matt stopped typing and talking at this point. I opened my eyes, and saw that he had a very sad look on his face. I would admit that he looked very pathetic, more so than if he was human. This was mainly due to the fact that he was likely, to use a girl term, 'adorable'.
"Matt...you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to." I said with a note of sympathy.
"No, it's okay..." Matt said softly. "Well...before we could meet up, I guess we all just blacked out."
"Again?" I said aloud.
"Yes. We all had dreams about our Digimon." Matt sighed. "In my dream, in was in a void with Gabumon, and he was calling for my help. I tried to run to him, but I could never reach him..."
"I had a dream like dat." said the motionless, but obviously attentive, Ro.
"You did, Ro?" I asked.
"Yeah," the puppy responded. "except for dere was dis bone, and it was saying, 'Eat me! Eat me!', so I ran ta it, but I couldn't reach it..."
"I don't think that's exactly the same, Ro..." I chuckled.
"I'm sure he didn't wake up transformed, anyway." Matt said, noting Ro's dream.
"Oh...you woke up...I see." I mumbled. "And the whole world was...?"
"Normal, besides us Digidestined." Matt smirked. "Later on, we were going back to a certain campsite on a bus. You see, we were going to return to the Digital World to see Genni again, and that was the only place we could go back from. Anyways, the bus driver had a heart attack, and died right there."
"And then what?" I was drawn into this tale.
"We were on a bridge at this point. When the driver died, we almost completely smashed over the bridge. Kari and...my little brother, Digivolved into Angewomon and Angemon to save us." Matt spaced out at this point, with a proud look on his face. "T. K. was very brave."
"I'm sure...uh, what did you mean by, 'Digivolve'...?" I began.
Matt resumed both his typing and his normal serious face at this point. "A Digimon can Digivolve into a more powerful form for a little while. So, when the two of them Digivolved, they were stronger and could fly, so they went outside of the bus and lifted it back to the road, thus saving us from certain doom."
"So how did da world go bad?" Ro whined impatiently, still not bothering to remove his eyes from the road.
"The action of T.K. and Kari Digivolving sent a 'shockwave', of a sort, over the world. This turned everyone into Digimon." Matt answered.
"So that's what you meant when you said that you Digidestined caused this all to happen..." I trailed off.
"Yes." Matt confirmed. At this point, he stopped typing. "Well, I've sent the message. Hopefully Genni can find some useful information for us soon."
I barely heard Matt say this, as I now had a new thought in my mind. If the world had been turned into Digimon because of these Digidestined, then why was that 'Dark Armor Guy' lurking around?
At that point, something dawned on me involving the robot Ro and I had met in the vents. I had never known an army using something like that...
"Matt, do you know of the army using robots to guard things?" I asked, seeing if he had seen or heard of any robots.
Matt looked at me with a puzzled expression. "No...that wouldn't really make any sense. Why do you ask?"
"Well," I began. "when Ro and I were entering the mall, we had to go through a ventilation shaft to get inside. In there, we encoutered a robot that seemed to be patrolling."
"That's strange..." Matt mumbled. "I guess the army must have been using them, though."
"Maybe it's da armor guy's robot." Ro blurted out, glancing at Matt and I.
"What armor guy?" Matt asked. He then looked at me sternly. "Have you been hiding something?"
I sighed. "I guess it's time to be completely honest with you, Matt."
"You should be; I've been honest with you two." Matt reasoned with a glare.
"Okay, Matt..." I began. "We - Ro, John, my sister, and myself - came from Tannerville, Illinois. One night, when John was having a sleepover at my house, we heard my sis screaming. We went outside to see this guy in dark armor approuching her, and we tried to save her. I guess this weirdo knocked us all out, and I woke up in the Tokyo City Park alone...and..." I looked down at myself. "...like this."
"Hmmm...." Matt mumbled. "Did this guy in armor look like any Digimon that you've seen?"
"Hardly. I think he was human." I responded.
"And you all come from the United States? How'd you end up here?"
"I have no idea." I answered. "And before you ask, no, I don't know where my sister is."
Matt stood up and began pacing around. "This is getting more and more complicated..."
Suddenly, an electronic voice began talking on the computer. 'Mail detected in the Junk Mail folder. Terminate?'
Matt stopped pacing, and sat sown at the screen again. "Curious..." he mumbled. "Izzy never has to delete mail in that folder...he has a special junk mail blocker..."
"Check it out, then." I suggested.
Matt pushed a few buttons, and then a message appeared on the screen. This is what it said:
-----------------------
Dear Mr. Kobida,
As you are well aware, the United States and the rest of the world are in complete disarray. A joint action has been ordered between all of the available military personnel. You are instructed to do so in in the nation of Japan. Use any tactics to restore order.
On another matter, our scientists have concluded that the epicenter of the infection occurred in Japan within a 30-mile radius from Tokyo. We also believe that the original carriers may have abnormalities in their type and size range. Handle them with extreme caution.
Any strange occurrences with these or any other carriers must be reported immediately. I expect to have a videoconference with you in some point in the next 72 hours. Keep in contact.
General McCalvin, of the United States Government.
-----------------------
"You're right. That is curious. How'd Izzy get it?" I said after reading over the E-mail.
"Probably, the message was sent over an open channel." Matt answered. "I can't think of any other way he could have gotten the E-mail."
"Wat C-Mail?" Ro asked, once again without moving.
"It's E-mail, Ro, and if you want to see it get over here." I responded sternly.
"Oh, fine." Ro sneered, coming over to sit on my lap to view the message.
"Has dat video conference happened yet?" Ro said with a puzzled expression.
"Well Ro, there is probably another 36 hours or so before it happens." Matt said before I could answer Ro.
At that moment, I noticed that the truck's engine was revving down. A glance out the back of the truck conformed that we were in the hospital grounds, as a saw a sign that said 'Searheart' on it pass behind us.
"I think this is our stop." I said with a grin.
"I noticed. We should probably jump out now." Matt responded.
"Alwight." Ro answered.
"Okay, we'll-" I started, then it dawned on me what Matt had just said. "What?!?!"
"We'll be spotted if we get off when the truck stops. I'm sure that there'll be some guards to get the stuff that's there." Matt said, pointing a claw towards the medical supplies behind us.
"But...you guys can land better than me, considering your forms are better for that!" I argued. Both Ro and Matt were similar to dogs, and I knew that I was like a lizard. I was pretty sure dogs landed much better than lizards. But I knew it was fruitless to argue, as both Ro and Matt had gone to back of the truck, posed to jump out. "Ah, fine...let me get my backpack..."
"Grab the laptop too, while you're at it." Matt ordered.
I grumbled as I grabbed the computer and stuffed it in my backpack. After placing the pack on my shoulders, I clambered up to the back of the truck, and posed myself to jump also. "I had better not sprain my ankle..."
"Don't worry, Master, you don't have wun now!" Ro said with a smile.
'Good point, Ro.' I thought to myself.
"Alright, everyone!" Matt said with an in-charge kind of voice. "On the count of three! One...two...three!"