DISCLAIMER: The following story contains various themes and subject matter that may not be suitable for children under the age of thirteen. Viewer discretion is advised.

Digimon

GODFALL

By. Sonfaro

Chapter 5

I've got a wonderful feeling about this!

Let me be clear – I don't enjoy the thought of people missing in this or any world. I am a little worried, to be honest. But in the back of my head I'm still an eleven year old boy playing superhero with a tyrannosaurus who shoots frikkin' fire from his mouth! It's a life I couldn't have asked for. And as serious as this situation is, a part of me knows I'm going to enjoy it.

It's an adventure. That's what this is. A real grade-A adventure I can really sink my teeth into. I'm with some of my best friends in the whole world, racing against time to save the lives of humans caught in the mix of something mysteriously evil. Our enemy has a dark army of deadly machines with merging capabilities; but even they are useless against the power of good.

And we're joined by a pretty girl…

I smile for a minute and look at her. She blushes and smiles back. I don't know who she is or where she comes from – I have an idea, but I think I'll hold off on saying anything for right now. All I know is that she looks like my best girl friend, and in this moment, she needs our help.

The five of us take the time to shake dust out of our ears before looking around. It's definitely not a normal camping tent. It's spacious, about the size of Sora's apartment in terms of overall area. There's a little kitchenette, a couple of computers, and pages and pages of notebooks lined neatly in a pile. There are also four cots on each side: eight in all. It's almost a lab/office/dorm in the middle of nowhere.

Outside, the wind continues to hammer at our borrowed encampment, the sand beating out tiny messages against the thick tarp. The storm has just started, the harrowing sounds beating against our sanctuary. We're in luck though. Despite whatever battle occurred here earlier, there doesn't appear to be any tears in the equipment that would lead to problems later. We should be safe in here. For now.

"This is it," Rei says. "This is where I've been living for the past few days."

"Nice place."

Matt nods. "Yeah."

"So, um, I guess I'll give you boys a tour!" She says as cheerfully as possible given the circumstances. "I slept on that cot there the first night, I had my first meal I remember at that desk - There's a drawer full of granola in there..."

Agumon drops Izzy's briefcase thing and makes a beeline for the food without a word. I catch his ear before he makes it. "Hold it."

"Nn…"

"It's alright," she says as she opens the drawer. "There's plenty for everyone." She tosses us high energy granola bars from the drawer. Agumon is into them immediately. Gabumon holds back for a moment.

"Um… is there any chocolate in there?"

Rei blinks then smiles kindly. "Sorry. I wish there was."

Gabumon groans. He looks like he's been shot. Poor thing. He munches a granola bar sadly while Agumon chows down as usual. I sigh. Digimon. They can be like little kids sometimes.

"I've been surviving off granola and water bottles. There's a cooler in the tent opposite us: I think that one was supposed to be a mess hall or something. It's got a weird kind of faucet. The waters always warm, but I haven't died from drinking it yet. And I found this robe and sandals from over there-"

I blink. "What were you wearing before that?"

She doesn't look at me, but the side of her face has gone completely red. "U-um…"

I grab my nose to keep it from hemorrhaging. "N-never mind."

Matt blinks. "Wow."

She laughs nervously, her arms instinctively trying to cover herself. "Please stop looking at me like that."

"I don't see what the big deal is." Agumon mutters between gulps of granola.

"You wouldn't," Gabumon tugs at his fur, blushing harder than we are.

"And… eh… you never saw a hint of the people who set this place up?" Matt manages after turning from her, his face almost as pink as mine.

She shakes her head. "It was empty when I found it."

Shaking away embarrassing but truly tantalizing images of our new friend, I furrow my face in thought. "It would have been nice to have seen somebody." I say finally. "It's a big place."

"That's what I thought," the girl clasps her hands together. "I was sure I'd find somebody in a place this big, but no one came. So… um… I stuck around!"

"All by yourself?"

"I'm not a little kid," Rei eyes Matt.

Matt blushes again. Something he's been doing a lot of since she showed up. Weird. "Oh, no I meant… How… eh… never mind."

"How old am I?" She finishes for him. Matt nods. "I don't know. I guess your age… Um, how old are you two?"

"Eighteen." We say at once, and then smirk at the stereo sound we just created. Rei laughs too.

"Well. Is this what you four were looking for?" She extends her arms at the room, sheepishly waiting for a response.

"It's hard to say," Gabumon answers for us. "This certainly wasn't what we were expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

"Something smaller," Agumon quips.

"When we heard there was a science team, we were thinking along the lines of six to eight people," Matt explains. "This camp looks like it could hold a good twenty if need be. And that's only an estimate. If this is somehow the scientists camp ground it must have been quite the team they put together to investigate."

"Hmm…"

"Still," he continues. "It's our best lead so far."

"Thanks." I smile

"You're welcome." She smiles back

"Mn…"

I blink and turn to my blond companion. "What?"

He looks to me. "It's weird," he says. "I don't think they could have set this place up in a couple of days. It feels like it's been here for a while longer."

I raise an eyebrow. "Hmm."

"How much longer?" Gabumon pulls at Matt's pant leg. "A week? Two?"

"A month at least," he decides. "Some of that stuff outside looked like it would have taken multiple jumps between Digiports. And then there's the stuff in here…"

I look around. He's right. Things here seem worn with use. This feels less like a campsite and more like a temporary home for someone. There are even pictures of internet idol and perpetually single Mari Goutukuji hanging up from the sides in a string bikini. Now that is a hot looking piece of-

Focus Tai. People are counting on you.

I frown. This really does complicate things. MAGAMI hadn't been gone long according to Mina, but this site has been abandoned for several days according to Rei. If this was the campsite of the researchers tasked with discovering the secrets of the black wires then the team hadn't been here long before disappearing.

That would suggest that this isn't the site that the MAGAMI researchers set up in their quest for info on the black wires, but rather a sub-site of MAGAMI as a whole: which worries me. When we opened the gates to the world, science teams tried to pour in droves to discover the secrets. Almost all of them have been limited to Neo-Delhi or smaller human settlements like Neo-Hong Kong or Neo-Vegas. To my knowledge few (if any) of them has been allowed to set up camp this far out until this incident – for various reasons.

This leads me to two conclusions. Either MAGAMI is in serious violation of several inter-dimensional laws we finally got the UN to agree to… Or someone with very top clearance has given them the go ahead. Without consent from the Digidestined.

Which is a slap in the face if you ask me.

Then there's the whole issue of who or what attacked this place. I'm leaning on the Gizmon, but nothing is for sure. I mean they froze in place a while ago. Just stopped. Like they weren't allowed past a certain point.

I sigh. Whatever is going on we're not going to figure it out just by standing around.

"We should spread out," I suggest, to the others in the tent. "See if we can find anything."

Matt nods. "Good idea."

We split into two and fan out, me and Agumon on one side of the tent and Matt and Gabumon on the other. Rei stands center conflicted, before bouncing over to me. "Um… What are we looking for?"

"We won't know till we find it," I smile.

She frowns, not liking the answer. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Something simple," Matt tells her from across the room. "A journal, a diary. Something that would give us an idea of what they were working on here."

"Or where they are going," I grunt.

And so our search begins and, from the outset, it does not look promising.

The cots are all unmade, with shoes still underneath some of them. I can't make heads or tails of some of the books. Most of them are in English, and even the ones which aren't are so full of words and numbers I've never needed to use in my life it makes my head spin. Agumon's no better, having the unique ability to find the most useless of personal items whose purpose he's clueless to. Or at least he pretends to be clueless to. He finds several FuriKuriLove magazines with Mari on the cover. I wipe the blood off my nose after he shows them to me and shoot him a dirty look. He smirks. Rei laughs.

Rei…

It's not her name, but it's the name we gave her, and she seems to be taking to it well. To be honest I don't know where the name came from, though the Five-to-Zero bit helped solidify it in my mind as perfect. It's the name that jumped out at me; the name I had to call her… at least till we find her real one. I've got a theory about it but… It'll have to wait.

She follows after me trying to be helpful, but she's distracting more than anything. But that's fine. She wants to be useful: no need for me to take that away from her. She points out a few books I missed, but they're much like the first few: endless pages of numbers that have no discernable meaning. She points out a journal under another bed that starts off promising, having been started a few weeks ago, but it's mostly a personal journal about how some guy wants to sleep with some other team member that's becomes completely useless after a few pages. My path eventually crosses to the far corner, where a large cabinet stands quietly. With Agumon's help I pop off the lock and look up.

"Uh… Matt?

"Hmm?"

I point to what I'm seeing. "Are these things what I think they are?"

He makes his way over to us, and as soon as his eyes rest on what I'm looking at his face grows even paler. There appear to be flash grenades in rows on the top shelf, on the door hang knives of various sizes. But these aren't what we're looking at. In the center of the cabinet are our biggest concerns. Machineguns it looks like. A rack of them. And not the little ones the Yakuza use in the movies. These things are heavy duty. Matt gulps. "T-they look like modified M16's!"

I frown. "You know the make and model now Mr. Army?"

He scratches his nose, embarrassed. "Nn… I have a test on modern weaponry coming up."

I blink. "…You're serious about this JSDF thing then."

"Mn," he nods.

"You learn that too…"

He nods again. "I'm telling you, it's a good school."

I frown but don't tease him this time. "Hmm…"

Gabumon crosses between us, his eye focused on the weapons. "These are human devices, right?"

I nod. "Machineguns, yeah."

Agumon fidgets beside me. "This doesn't feel right."

"You're telling me." Says Gabumon.

"What the heck would they need with a weapons locker?" I shake my head. "I thought we made it clear that this sort of thing wasn't cool."

"We can say whatever till we're blue in the face," Matt sighs. "It won't change much."

I blink. "What do you mean?"

"We are only eighteen," Matt reminds me. "It's not like the United Nations has any real faith in us to handle things. They still think we're kids. Just because we say 'hey, no guns in the Digiworld' and they say 'sure whatever', doesn't mean they're going to actually do what we say."

"You think this is backed by the UN?"

He grumbles. "I'm saying I wouldn't be surprised."

"Mmn…" My frown deepens at the thought of our world leaders and their patronizing smiles. Our big summons to Tokyo after the real world went black had ended with a couple of up front house rules: 1.) Digimon are people, not pets. And 2.) If you're coming to the Digiworld, you'd better be coming in peace. I remember angrily spelling out these two rules with gusto, while the rest of my friends stood around me to keep security for shutting me up.

I kinda hate the UN these days. They don't do anything – or when they do, it's always five weeks late and never enough. I look at those guys with their smug faces, and a part of me wishes I could be up there just so I could knock some sense into all of them.

I feel Rei's arm beside me and I wipe off any thought of those hypocrites and focus on the task at hand. "Looks like the kids are doing the saving today."

"W-what do you think they were here for?" Asks the girl.

Matt places a hand to his chin. "I'm sure they'd claim defense."

I frown. There are six in all: enough here to arm a small team of mercenaries or something. What worries me most is that there are quite a few missing from the rack. There are three rows of five, which means that somewhere in the Digiworld are nine armed humans running around. That worries me to no end. I turn to the girl. "Rei, did you notice the guns when you were here last?"

She nods. "Mn. But I didn't touch those."

Matt makes a face. "What do you mean 'those'?"

"I… The other tents had them too. Some of their cabinets were open. I thought about bringing one with me when I left, but they were heavy, and I just wanted to see how far I could go in one direction. I was hoping the campsite wasn't that far away from civilization.

Matt thinks for a minute. "Nn… Twenty kilometers."

I whistle. "It would have been quite a walk."

She blinks. "Oh. Then… It's a good thing you… both found me."

"Yeah, don't mention it." Says Matt.

I frown; turning my head from the girl we're calling Rei to the gun rack. Things just aren't adding up anymore.

"Well, whatever it was, they were worried enough to bring weaponry in from the outside." Matt frowns. "If only we could figure out why…"

"Tai, Matt!"

I turn around. Agumon had wandered off by himself to set the giant briefcase with Izzy's techno-junk out of the way when he stumbled across an active computer. "Good work buddy," I say walking quickly away from the gun rack and over to the open laptop. I slide into the lab chair, and shake the mouse to wake up the screensaver. On the plus side, this laptop doesn't lock me out once the screensaver is down. On the negative end: it's in English. Great.

I frown; trying to remember how each combination of the English alphabet corresponds to sound, and then trying to translate that word in my mind all at once. I suck at it. "[Ah-Poh-Ray-Tee-Own Beegu-Borainu]… Ah, that was terrible. Yo, Matt?"

"Nn?"

"How's your English?"

He smirks. "Better than yours."

I rise from the chair and shift out of the way. He blinks, apparently not aware that I'm serious, but makes his way to the chair and sits down, adjusting that terrible designer shirt of his so that it doesn't wrinkle. I set a hand on his shoulder and lean in, while the rest of our party crowds around us. Matt takes a moment to read over the statements before speaking aloud.

"[Operation: Big Brain]," he corrects my attempt with just a hint of a French accent. I roll my eyes. "Log entry 876.2…" He trails off briefly, his blue eyes flashing over the screen trying to make out what this particular researcher was trying to put onto paper. Finally, he rests his chin on a finger, his frown growing along the lines of his face. "They're readouts of the wire grid. Maps. Projected densities and lengths. All the information gathered by the scientists is listed right here."

I lean in closer. "What does it say?"

"From what I can tell," Matt begins with trepidation, "they've discovered the source of the wires."

"What's so special about it?" Gabumon asks.

"Power," Matt answers. "This hub, where ever it is, is exporting incredible amounts of digital energy. More than they've been able to record so far. Enough power to stimulate the cables… to grow!" He frowns, scrolling down the page with growing apprehension. "There are updates as far back as two thousand three!"

At that my mouth widens in shock. My eyes twitch as the reality of what he's saying sinks in. "They've been watching this thing for years?"

Agumon coughs behind us. "That's longer than Neo-Delhi's been a city!"

"I know," Matt mumbles. "It looks like a small group stumbled into the Digiworld after the second Diaboromon incident."

I grasp his shoulder. "See if you can go deeper!"

He nods and begins playing around with the computer, looking for more information. Beside me, Rei looks worried. "W-what's going on?"

"Nothing," I try to be reassuring. "Just checking on something."

"Mnn…" Matt makes a face.

"What?"

He points to the screen, which is flashing red with English letters. "There seems to be a classified section. I can't get through without a password."

Agumon's shoulders lower. "You mean we did all that work just to get a page we already know?"

My fingers are to my chin. "Maybe not if we can hack it."

Matt gives me a look. "I'm okay with computers," he says. "But I'm not a genius. We'd need Izzy here to work his magic."

"Or we could just guess the password."

He blinks. "You really think it would be that easy?"

I shrug. "I think it's worth a shot."

"Do you know the odds of cracking a personal password?"

"It's our best lead so far."

Matt gives me a skeptical look, but hey, call me optimistic. He sighs. "Alright…"

I nod. "Try MAGAMI."

He types, slender musicians fingers quickly tapping out letters onto the screen. He hits ENTER. The computer flashes red. "No good."

"Try MAGAMI1." Suggests Agumon.

He types again. More red flashes…

"Try MAGAMI2"

Typing happens. Same thing.

"Try MAGAMI3"

"I am not going through every number!"

I pat a pouting Agumon on the snout. "Probably should have started with zero anyway buddy…"

"Science!" Suggests Gabumon.

More red flashes. "Nope."

"Digiworld?"

Red. "Nope"

I'm running out of ideas. "Ramen?"

"Password."

We both turn to look at the girl, who shrugs. I turn to Matt. "Password?"

He types, then makes a face. The light is green. "…We're in."

I chuckle. "You'd think company employees would have better safe-"

I don't have the air to say the rest. It all cuts off in my throat as I stare in awe.

Before our very eyes the air sizzles with digital energy and a shape begins to emerge from nowhere, emitting from a flat projector we didn't even see on the floor. It's spherical in nature, bright blues and greens propped up by the occasional dark brown and white, blotting the sphere in big colorful pixels. I recognize it instantly, but Matt defines it anyway.

"It's a holographic representation of the Digiworld."

I blink. "Amazing… This is really advanced."

Rei fidgets beside me. "Um… Is that really the Digiworld?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Hey! You can see my house from here!"

"It's not that exact Agumon…" Gabumon sighs.

Rei ignores them, her eyes twinkling with mystery. "It's beautiful…"

Matt nods again. "Our friend Izzy pulled something like this off once when we were just getting started. If a ten year old could do it…"

"His wasn't in color," I point out.

Matt shrugs. "It's probably based on his design. They've been hounding him for what he knows since MaloMyotismon. He's let a few secrets go."

"Still, to see it again, mapped out so perfectly…" I trail off.

The Digiworld is a lot like earth in many ways, but different in others. The sky is an odd patchwork of pastel blues bubbling into whites. Plants grow instantly after a set amount of time, much like the Digimon. Things can get weird, fast, in this world. But it's just as beautiful, I feel, as my own home planet. Blue oceans, towering peaks and mountains, lush forests, and nonsensical structures all make this place unique and gorgeous.

So when I see a large blot of black squares nestle on a space that should be golden brown, my frown shows up. "Eh, what's that? Black wires?"

"Looks like it. See this?" He points to a large red blip hovering on the floating globe. "This is the hubs projected location."

I nod. "Right in the center."

"This is where we are," he points to a yellow dot on the map, not far away from the hub. He then traces a line from the yellow to the red dot. "This is where the research team would have been heading."

"They must have been trying to keep track of the outbreak."

"Yeah. I think that's what these black squares are here: area's where the wires have solidified."

"They must have really been watching this thing closely."

"Yeah."

We stare together at the giant Digiworld representation, before I look to the side of his computer is what appears to be a log entry. I can make out a few words and names. Sounds important. I tap Matt's shoulder. "What about this bit?"

"Tsk… That's a big block of text. It would take me a while to break it down and understand it."

I furrow my brows. "I thought you said your English was better than mine."

He grins slyly. "Of course my English is better. Cody's English is better than yours; and he's twelve years old."

I roll my eyes. "Nn… Whatever. Can you give it a shot?"

He looks at me, annoyed, but he doesn't say no. He turns back to the computer

"Okay, I might have this wrong," he begins after taking a second to look over things. "But it looks like they first noticed the hub after hearing various legends about some epic battle that supposedly happened in a forbidden temple years ago. There isn't anything specific. A couple of names are mentioned. Johnny Beckenstein, Akihiro Kurata, Rai Aishuwarya…Izzy might know some of these people. They journeyed to the hub and found… something. MAGAMI was trying to piece together its function as well…"

He stops, his pale face growing paler. Concerned, I grab his shoulder. "What? What is it?"

He swallows spit. "They… they think they've found an ancient digital life form."

I stare at him in disbelief. "Say that again."

"I… it's alive!"

"W-what do you mean 'it's alive'?"

"It's like I said." He measures his words carefully. "Their earliest reports keep listing the core as 'he' or 'him'. It's like… a giant cellular organism or something: The hub is the nucleus, the wires are like muscle tissue or cell membranes, and the Gizmon are some sort of antibodies. When they discovered the ruins they woke something up. Something ancient. The cables have been spreading ever since."

"A Digimon?"

"Hard to say. They don't seem to think so though. There's no mention of any Digicore at the hub, just that it's the nucleus. And that…" He stops, his steel blue eyes catching something on the screen below. "Sonofa…"

He gets to work, typing out words and phrases in English and cursing when he has to use backspace to fix them. His brow is sweating, and not from the heat – it's actually surprisingly cool inside. I frown, edging closer to him. "What are you-"

He thrusts a finger to the floating globe. It fluctuates briefly, before reappearing. The red dot remains, but the black grid is nowhere to be found. "This is when it started."

I nod hesitantly. "2003…"

He presses a few keys and the image reverts to what it had been before. "This is where it is now."

I make a face, unsure where he's going with this. "Matt?"

"And this," he says with a terrible frown. "Is where it will be next year."

He slides the key over and I lose my breath. Server; a continent the size of Australia, is nothing but blackness. File is completely dark. The grid has even spread underneath the Net Ocean, crawling its way towards the rest of the world. In the space of twelve months, if these scientists are correct, this… thing, will have covered over a fourth of the planet.

"T-that can't be," Gabumon says, nearly petrified.

Rei's hands are to her chest. She's shivering. "That… That is…"

Matt nods. "Right. Server will be completely gone. File too. It'll start crossing into Modem and Domain next."

I shake my head. "How… how fast?"

Matt leans into the table, his arms giving his head support. "It's growing exponentially. Within eighteen months time from now over ninety percent of the Digital world will be connected in some way to this hub."

Agumon's eyes are wide. "Impossible…"

I keep shaking my head. "…It can't be."

"I wish I could agree with you but that's what's happening. This thing… whatever it is… is trying to swallow the Digiworld whole."

I take a step back. Rei grabs hold of my hand and squeezes. I don't even respond. The winds are blowing with terrible force around us, and the walls our encampment strain under the pressure. None of that matters right now. What matters is that some creature is spreading itself across the surface of a world I fell in love with, and I don't know how to stop it.

Remember that wonderful feeling I had? Yeah… That's gone, replaced by a growing sense of horror.

What the hell are we dealing with?

GODFALL

5

Digimon