The landing went okay. Yohko, Kyoko, and Becca all managed to get off of the boat without incident. Once clear of the docks, Kyoko and Becca let their partners out of their hiding place, which happened to be a rather old and well-worn backpack Yohko had had the bad luck to carry.

"Gahh. That stunk," Salamon griped. "What has you been -eating?"

"Unlike you, liver and onion breath," Lopmon replied, "I've been eating a healthy diet of-"

"Whatever she comes across." Becca completed with a smirk. "We'd better get going. CIPHER was able to get some agents into this town when I left, and that was a few months ago. I don't know how much further they've extended their control."

"How big is this CIPHER?" Yohko asked.

"Big," Becca replied. "They have a stranglehold on Orre now. We'd better move quickly. You two got the lists?"

Kyoko nodded. "Food, supplies, some extra clothes. But why aren't you coming with us?"

"I'm a bit too well known here. I caused some trouble when I left Gateon Port."

"Meaning she beat the stuffing out of a CIPHER agent. Who just happened to be the chief of police." The two Kanto natives winced. "You do know that ninja are supposed to be subtle."

"We're also assassins," Becca snapped, then flushed, embarassed. "Sorry. I just...I have to go." She left without saying another word.

Lopmon looked in the direction Becca had gone. "She didn't mean that," Lopmon explained, then followed, leaving the two girls and one digimon looking confused, and a bit shaken.

--

Digicross: The Devil Meteor of Oore part 2 -'Showtime!'

Pokemon created by Satoshi Tajiri Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness: Nintendo Digimon created by Bandai Other ideas/inspirations/characters come from:
Sakura Taisen V: Sega Gaogaigar/Gaogaigar Final: Sunrise Street Fighter: Capcom

--

Kyoko and Yohko walked down the road, a little nervous. Gateon Port was a magnificent city, and there were signs that it was once a thriving community; a number of hotels and restaurants could be seen, as could several small shops offering the usual tourist trap items, and some more useful items that the two could use.

But the atmosphere was depressed, almost oppressive. There was no one on the street, save for the odd group of intimidating looking men in dark outfits; Kyoko found herself reminded of the Team Rocket uniforms she had read about in history class. Not even a car could be seen on the street, only the occasional heavy truck. Windows were shuttered, half of the hotels and restaurants were either closed or long vacant, the signs over the doors faded and uncared for.

More, neither of them had seen a single pokemon. Even the densest cities that they had been to had had at least a few pokemon wandering around, if only to scrounge from leftovers and trashcans, or let out by trainers to exercise or battle. Kyoko shivered; "Yohko, I don't feel well. This place feels all wrong, for some reason."

"I'm a bit creeped out too. I..." Yohko trailed off as she glanced at Kyoko, looking around. Salamon, following behind her, looked at her partner worriedly. "Kyoko? What is it?"

Kyoko stopped, leaning against a wall. "I don't know. It's like there's something pressing against my mind. It felt a bit like when I saw that aura around Zangoose. Only this is more general."

Yohko's eyes narrowed, senses suddenly searching for anything out of the ordinary. "Those three did say they had mroe of those shadow pokemon with them. Come on, let's get out of here." The trio picked up the pace. Seemingly unnoticed, a small group of figures carefully followed them.

--

Wiping a tear away, Becca stood up in front of the small stone monument. "This is all that remains of the Pokemon Graveyard that once stood just outside Gateon," she whispered. "Before Cipher..."

"Before they destroyed it." Lopmon said quietly. "Will you be OK?"

"...No. Not until I've settled things with those...things."

"We've settled," Lopmon amended. "We can't really do that until we take care of the three goons Hamilton has working for him." The small digimon sighed. "Well, they're not human, so I guess we can cut loose on them."

"Yeah. Like they did to..." Becca trailed off, sudnly gripped by sadness. Lopmon looked up sympathetically, but said nothing.

A minute later, there was a small knock on the door. "Becca?" a man asked, sticking his head in. Becca glanced at the speaker. "I think your friends might need you. She senses something's up."

Becca didn't have to ask who 'she' was. "I swear," she sighed, her mood recovered. "I can't take those two anywhere. Thanks, Kosuke." She arched an eyebrow as Kosuke Entouji grinned and scratched his head, a small flurry of dandruff dislodging itself in the process. "She's not going to be pleased, you know."

"No time to take care of it, and you know how supplies are these days." Kosuke Entouji sighed, looking around the room. "We'll have to move this place soon. You'd better get your friends together; she thinks things are going to go bad very quickly out here." Becca nodded.

--

Kyoko started to ask Yohko something, but the swordswoman motioned for her to stay quiet. She could feel Salamon tense up, and felt her own pulse racing a bit.

"We're being followed," Yohko whispered. "Stay with me. Hopefully, we can make it out of town without starting anything."

"That's far enough," a familiar voice announced. Raymond stepped out of the shadows. "I see you lost your friend. And here I thought she was some sort of ninja," he sneered. "Well, I'll make this simple. You walk, we take your friend and her digimon. We'll even make sure that Tsunomon is treated nicely. For a while." Beside Raymond was an aggressive looking creature. "Breloom should be more than a match for you without your little ninja friend."

Kyoko flinched. "Yohko, that Breloom's got an aura like Zangoose had," she whispered. Yohko nodded. "What are you doing to that pokemon? Can't you see that you're hurting it?"

Raymond shrugged. "Well, no pain, no gain, right? And besides, Breloom's lost all feeling, including pain. He'll just go on until...well, until he's stopped."

Yohko drew her wooden sword. "You're a monster," she snarled, taking a defensive stance.

"Actually, I'm a sentient being created by the reformatting of a discarded Control Spire. 'Monster' is such an inelegant term." Raymond snapped his fingers, and two more Breloom appeared. "Now these, these are monsters in the term that you mean."

Yohko's grip on her sword tightened. Where was Becca, she wondered silently.

--

Becca and Tururiemon leaped back as a ten-foot mechanical monstrosity slammed a claw into the ground. It resembled two packing crates stacked on top of each other, three legs holding it up, and two long arms with exposed hydraulic lines, crude hands tipped by metallic claws. It had no head, but a video screen in the chest, protected by a window of transparent armour, showed the smirking image of a grey-haired man, left eye covered by a metallic plate. "Long time, little Rebecca. How's your pet...oh, I forgot. Terribly sorry." Becca snarled, landing a powerful kick right in the center of the screen. While not breaking, the window did spider-web, making the face on the screen flinch back. "Ohh, did I hit a-" that was cut off as Tururiemon leaped over Becca, and drove her weapon through the plate glass, wrecking the video screen. The speakers still blared on, however. "You know, if you keep wrecking my things, I might become perturbed."

Becca stepped back, readying another attack on the robot, when a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder. She dropped, rolled to the side, and stood, looking right at Donald.

"See? I got perturbed, and I had to leave my nice, comfortable laboratory. Now," he sighed, hands cracling with electricity, "how shall I express my displeasure?" He reached forward, aimed at the ninja's neck.

Becca stepped ahead, grabbed Donald's arm, swung him around, and slammed him face-first into a wall, while Tururiemon busied herself with taking the robot apart. She then forced Donald's arm up, slammed her foot into the back of Donald's knee, released him, then delivered a crushing roundhouse to the back of his head. She then back off as her attacker, ebony interior now mostly exposed, recovered and started stumbling towards her. "Impressive attack, my dear. But you do know that such tricks won't work on this body.

"No," Becca responded a bit impishly. "How about that?" She pointed above and behind him, as Tururiemon finished wrecking one of the robot's legs. It pivoted forward, and fell on top of the mad scientist, driving him into the ground.

"Th...this won't stop me..." a black form, humanoid but missing most of its lower body and one arm, struggled out from under the wreckage. Becca and Tururiemon could already see the damaged limbs starting to generate new crystals. In a few hours, he'd be mobile. Two or three days, Donald's human-looking 'shell' would have recovered. "You'll pay..."

"The only reason I'm not finishing you off now," Becca said, a bit coldly, "is because I have to go help some friends. Cross me again, and I might not be so charitable." She got up, and started walking away. "Oh, and never call me 'Rebecca'. Got it?"

"Yes'm," Donald managed before passing out.

--

The tip of Yohko's sword touched the ground lightly as the second Breloom fell to the ground, knocked out. "Well," the swordswoman asked levelly. The remaining Breloom stood by Raymond, seemingly unmoved. "What, you thought I was some bloodthirsty barbarian? I can knock attackers out without hurting them. Unlike you, apparently." She glanced behind; Kyoko stood her ground, Zangoose at her side; the recovering pokemon had managed to dispatch the second Breloom, its innate tolerance for poisons giving it an edge in the battle against the plant type pokemon. Kyoko seemed to be wavering a bit, as if she was trying to do something but not sure how. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," Kyoko replied. "But...it's like when I met Zangoose. I think...whatever I did to Zangoose is reacting to the Breloom's auras."

Yohko frowned. She had no experience with psychic powers outside the movies, but 'out of control paranormal ability' didn't sound that good to her. "Okay," she whispered. "We'll back off for now."

"Please," Raymond said, grinning. "Don't leave yet, there's so much to discuss. Your friend Kyoko has some fascinating abilities, ones we find a bit disturbing to our cause. We must find a way to counter them, in order to complete our mission. And you'll find we'll take any steps necessary. Like this!" He snapped his fingers.

The two Breloom that had been knocked out got to their feet, staggering towards Kyoko and Salamon. Zangoose stood protectively in front of them. "No...you're killing them!" Indeed, Kyoko oculd almost feel the remaining life force being drained out of them as the sinister control Raymond exerted over the two forced them to stand and resume their attack.

"So? Wake up, little girl, this isn't a game. No rules, no complex codes of conduct. You have something I want, so I'm taking it."

Kyoko started to speak, then gripped her head as what felt like a sharp spike of ice-cold pain stabbed through her mind. "Please..." she murmured. To Yohko's surprise, Raymond seemed unsettled by Kyoko's affliction. "Please..." she said, a bit louder.

"Get her!" Raymond ordered. The three Breloom advanced, fists raised.

"please..." Kyoko almost sobbed, the agony she was experiencing was so great. "please...PLEASE STOP IT!" As she screamed, Yohko felt something like a wave pass through her; for a moment, she felt extremely disoriented. She heard Kyoko collapse behind her, Salamon falling in a heap on top of Zangoose, and, for a brief second, she could see the black aura around the three Breloom.

The effect on the attacking pokemon was more dramatic. The two Breloom that had just staggered to their feet collapsed again, clearly spent, while the third one suddenly turned and attacked Raymond in a blind rage, howling in unchecked fury. "Stop that!" Raymond snarled, bringing an arm up. "You obey -me-!" The attacking pokemon ignored him, landing a solid uppercut on the man's face, then swinging his tail around, releasing all the spores it had stored up. They reacted on exposure to air, floating everywhere. Yohko accidentaly inhaled some of the powder and staggered, watching with some satisfaction as Raymond turned and ran from the pokemon he had only just recently dominated. Her stomach clenched., making her double over.

"Oh yeah...Stun Spore..." she gasped as she passed out.

--

"...been a ninja like me, you'd have been a lot lighter to carry." Yohko slowly awoke, then gagged as something bitter assaulted her sense of taste. "Easy," Becca whispered. "You inhaled a lot of that Stun Spore. I gave you something to get it out of your system, but it was kinda gross and disgusting."

Slowly, Yohko sat up, trying not to throw up from even that small amount of exertion. "What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me," Becca replied. "I found you and Kyoko passed out, and three Breloom, one still on a rampage. We managed to subdue him and took the three of them and you here to a hideout we used to use."

"We?"

Becca sighed. "It's gotten worse since I was here last. You know those goons we fought back there and at your home were from a group called Cipher, right?" Yohko nodded; she'd heard Raymond drop that name. "Cipher's not just a bunch of pokemon thieves; they take pokemon and do...things to them. You know what I mean." Yohko caught the tremble in Becca's voice; the ninja wasn't telling her everything, but that could wait. "They work for some mad scientist type near where the old Battle Colloseum used to be, in the centre of Oore. He created Donald, Raymond, and Miriam to gather pokemon and any digimon they came across. And no, I don't know why."

"Where's Kyoko?"

"Next room," Becca replied. "Tururiemon's looking after her. I think I know where we can get help for her, but we'll have to hurry."

Yohko nodded. "Lead on."

--

Donald shivered as he felt his energy being drained off. "Really, DOnald," the masked man said, not bothering to look at him. "I didn't design you to fight, to stay back and work on my inventions. And yet you disobeyed my instructions. And got beaten up. By a girl."

"Well, it was a very professional job," Miriam remarked, not reacting in the slightest to the masked man's tone. "Was it the ninja or the samurai? I am -so- curious."

"Ninja," Donald grunted; a flesh-coloured material slowly oozed out of the ebon arm, making it look somewhat human. "Her and that digimon partner of hers. Be careful, Miriam, they might give you a run for your money."

"I'm the close combat specialist, dearie," Miriam responded a bit acidy. "Leave the battle evaluations to me." She looked around. "Where's Raymond."

"Sulking," Donald said a bit bitterly. "That girl with the Salamon was able to disrupt his control of the Breloom that Patrick pr-"

The masked man swung around, grabbing Miriam by the throat. "-Never- use that name. Understand?"

"Urk...I..."

"UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes! Professor Hamilton..."

The man released his death-grip on Miriam, who collapsed to the ground. "You would be wise to obey me next time, One," he snapped at Donald. "Remaking you would require only a little effort. Three, repair yourself and find those intruders. They may try to make contact with the resistance."

"Yes sir..." Miriam replied, still shaken.

"Bring me the girl and her Salamon. The rest are expendable, you may...indulge yourself with them."

Miriam bowed, her normal personality restored. "Well, since you asked so nicely."

Professor Hamilton truned, then stopped. "Three, did you get their names?"

"Yes. The samurai is one Yohko Tachikawa. She was the former owner of the Tsunomon that we took. The psychic is Kyoko Kamiya, and-"

"Kamiya?"

"Yes. Does that name mean something to you?"

Hamilton paused. "There was a Koushiro Kamiya I met once many years ago. He possessed some intelligence, but was a naieve fool, like the rest. Now go." Hamilton left the room.

Miriam narrowed her eyes, making a note of the information. This, she thought to herself, could be useful.

--

Tururiemon looked worriedly at Kyoko, who was still unconcious. Becca and Yohko stepped into the room, curious about her condition. "She's still out of it, and Salamon just went under too. We need to get them to the lab. Where's Kosuke?"

"Getting the transport," Becca replied. "But he's not ready for this, if it's what I think it is."

Yohko glanced at the ninja. "You know what's happening to her?"

"I think so, but I'm not 100 sure. Was she psychic before?"

"No, I...no way..." Yohko glanced at Kyoko, who was still moaning quietly.

"I know a psychic. I think her talent just opened up, and her mind's trying to process all the noise she's receiving." There was a knock from above. "Oh, good, he's here. Come on, help me carry them up."

"Where are we taking her?"

"Out of town's the first step," Tururiemon replied. "Less mental chatter in the big wide open. Plus you'll be harder to find after all that ruckus you two started." The digimon grinned at the swordswoman. "Maybe after I finish with Becca, I can teach you a thing or two. You would-be samurai, always running around hitting things..."

"Like you're one to talk," Yohko replied absently, helping Becca pick Kyoko up. Tururiemon carried Salamon in his arms. Yohko frowned, feeling a strange...fuzziness in her mind.

"Focus," Becca said, voice oddly strained. "She's picking up any stray thoughts." Quickly, the group left the small room, and clambered into the back of a waiting transport. "I know who can help her," she insisted.

To be continued.

Next Episode:
-The two digidestined meet the leaders of the remaining resistance to Cipher in Oore, Kyoko learns just what effect the Black Spore had on her, and Professor Hamilton reveals just what he has in mind for the region, and why he needs digimon for his experiments. Next, on Digicross: The Devil Meteor of Oore.
'The cruel experiments of Patrick Hamilton'

"For what they did...there can be no forgiveness..."