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 10
I'm praying for a happy ending.
I cough, and immediately wince up. The pain in my side is nauseating, but I have to keep going. We have to give Tai and Rei as much time as they need to get inside of those ruins. I kip Garurumon's side with my feet and lean forward, wordlessly urging my partner to move faster. Behind us, the Gizmon have focused their deadly sight on me, and are spraying the air around us with laser fire.
If you would have told me this morning that I'd be getting shot at by a bunch of metalic cycloptic bugs with a wire shoved up their butts I would have believed you. This is, after all, the Digiworld. If you would have told me that a psychotic part of me was having fun risking my life on a trick, I would have thought you and Tai shared a brain. But as my free hand grips Garurumon's fur and my other splits duties of holding the robe together while clutching my torso, I can't help but smile. You'd better appreciate this when it's all said and done, Tai Kamiya.
Suddenly the laser fire stops, and the Gizmon behind us halt in mid-air. Garurumon slides his paws into the sand, kicking up dust from his sudden stop. The Gizmon have all turned, their red eyes facing back towards the ruins. I can't see much in the darkness, but I hear the turning of far away gears before the slamming of a door echoes across the desert.
They know they've been tricked.
The Gizmon squeal: new information runs through their systems and they all turn back to us. I give them a sheepish grin, and toss the robe off my shoulders and let the metal briefcase fall to the ground. They focus on the robe for a moment before squealing again. Whatever is controlling them is pissed off now. They surround us, forming a circle so that we won't be able to escape. Not that it matters anymore.
Tai and Rei are inside. No more running.
Behind us, the earth erupts as even more Gizmon make their presence known on the battlefield. We're surrounded. The Gizmon have circled about and locked us in a huge ring of wires and metal, their eyes flashing an angry red. I wipe my nose and dismount my partner. He growls, worried. I place a hand on his fur. I think we may be alright.
A long time ago, when I was an eleven year old jerk, I received a little trinket from the bottom of a well. The medallion gave focus to a great power I had been granted. My hand absently reaches for it now: though it hasn't swung from my neck in seven years I'll never forget the feeling. A cool breeze flows over the back of my neck that wasn't there before. Everything goes blue for a moment, and I can't help but smile. A sense of camaraderie washes over me then. A feeling of trust. Friendship… my virtue. I look down towards my digivice: it rumbles in my hands with extraordinary power, it's casing now a curious shade of dark blue. I turn back to my partner.
"Garurumon…"
Not for long.
"Garurumon Digivolve to…"
In a moment my partner lights up, brightening the night around us. He howls and hunches over, shifting and changing as the Gizmon swirl overhead. The fur from his paws peels off as the wireframe beneath morphs into knuckles. His back legs lengthen and straighten, his claws digging into the earth. He rises to his full height, standing secure on his new legs as his transformation enters its final stages. Through the oval of light that has surrounded him I can see him. He looks like a roughneck biker; complete with faded jeans, fingerless gloves, a spiked shoulder pad, and a foul attitude. I blink and his digivolution is complete. He's no longer just Garurumon. He's…
"WereGarurumon!"
The Gizmon back away from him: unsure of what to do. He sneers, raises his two middle fingers towards the swarm, and curses in English; telling them to bring it on. My face finds my palm in the dark. I'm never letting Gabumon hang out with my band again.
Apparently the Gizmon don't like to be insulted. Or they've been given new direction. Either way, they come charging after us. That's their first mistake when dealing with my partner.
WereGarurumon pounces on the first Gizmon, his hardened claws ripping through its data like knives through aluminum foil. A second fires on him, but he's already leapt away. The beam collides with the first Gizmon, deleting it instantly. The second fires again, but is off target. WereGarurumon is upon it in an instant.
The Gizmon back away from him, reestablishing their tactics. My partner is forced to wait. What WereGarurumon gains in agility, he loses in range. While he can still fire off a cool blast from his maw if need be, it's not nearly as forceful as Garurumon's Howling Blaster. WereGarurumon prefers to fight with his hands, getting down and dirty. WereGarurumon is twice as tough, and twice as strong as Garurumon is normally. That's not the issue.
The problem isn't strength. It's timing.
When the Arukenimon and Mummymon invaded our world, the guardian spirit Azulongmon gave us back the power within our crests; albeit in limited form. Meaning that while WereGarurumon clearly has an advantage over these things, he's got a shelf life. My partner has maybe nine minutes left before he reverts back to Gabumon.
Which means we have to make this battle fast.
I dive for the safety of the ground, while my partner spins in the air. The lasers get dangerously close, but he's always a fraction of a second ahead, just enough to avoid serious damage. Still others come; more and more with each passing second. WereGarurumon dodges their best fire but I know he can't keep it up forever. If we don't do something, right now, we're going to be swamped.
Time to press the attack.
"Wolf Claw!"
WereGarurumon's claws rip through the air, leaving streaks of red energy crossed together flying towards the Gizmon armies. The attack crashes into their swarm, severing some from their wires and destroying at least a row. They fire again, but he's just too agile; dodging their lasers with the grace of an acrobat. When he lands he sends another shockwave from his claws into the gathered Gizmon wall, destroying several. He's not making much of a dent, but a dent is being made. Just when I think we may get out of this however, the Ishida luck kicks in again.
Some of the Gizmon begin to glow.
WereGarurumon snarls and leaps backwards towards me. We stare with matching grimaces as several Gizmon wireframe begins to shift and morph into one another, until they are no longer 'many', but now only 'one'. Towering above us both is a mecha of monsterous design, lifted into the air by mechanical wings and connected at its base by the same snake like wires that it's buddies are bonded to. It's long, green arms extend from the side of it's lumpy body, lengthening into three claws. The sand about it's feet shifts as it shrieks, it's transformation finished.
"Matt…" WereGarurumon growls beside me.
I frown. Last time we faced this guy we had Tai with us, and it still took a lucky distraction to take it down. It's just us against them this time around. With maybe seven minutes left for WereGarurumon. I grimace. If Tai were here, he'd say 'this is where things get interesting' and I'd fear for my safety. But Tai's not here. And I'm not afraid.
"Go! WereGarurumon!"
"Mm!"
He rushes forward, his arms spread wide to the outside as his long legs pace towards his enemy. The mecha reaches for him, green fingers stretching out like Palmon's vines. WereGarurumon flits to the side, narrowly avoiding the claws and keeps running, The machine continues to grab for him, but WereGarurumon's agility favors him well here, until he finally reaches striking range.
"Full Moon Kick!"
He howls as he flips backwards, the claws of his feet flashing white as they connect with the 'head' of the giant mecha. The attack disorients the robot, and it stumbles back a few steps, landing in the wall of Gizmon. It's compatriots push him back towards WereGarurumon, who lays into the Gizmon mecha with quick jabs to its 'stomach'. The mecha swings with it's other arm, but WereGarurumon ducks underneath, throwing more punches like a prized boxer or one of those MMA guys. After a second swing misses the mark, WereGarurumon tires of playing Takahiro Aoh and drives his claws into the side of the monstrous robot.
"Shadow Claw!"
Black smoke begins to seep out of the sides of the mecha as WereGarurumon drills his fingers deeper in his opponent. The Gizmon mecha resists for a moment, before his arms slink around my partner. I shout out a warning and WereGarurumon looks up. The iris is glowing crimson again.
WereGarurumon manages to yank his claws out of the Gizmon robot and roll to the side just before the green claws entrap him in position. The iris flashes red as the massive blast races through the night. I cover my face to keep the wind out of my eyes, but the heat from the ray causes my skin to sizzle. The Gizmon mecha's attack destroys an entire section of his smaller buddies, though I doubt any of them possess the emotions necessary to care.
"WereGarurumon!" I shout.
He grunts an acknowledgement. The Gizmon mecha tries to turn and stop him. But it's too late for that. WereGarurumon has latched himself onto the monsters back, the claws on his feet digging into the monsters side. With a grunt he raises his fingers in the air, the black tips poised and ready.
"Wolf Claw!"
His hands literally rip into the back of the creature, slicing through metal and wiring and data and pulling the monster apart. A red 'X' burns its way through the robotic freak, letting me known that the attack has been effective. The Gizmon mecha slumps to its knees, the weight of WereGarurumon driving it to the ground. The battle is over; the Gizmon's Data is floating into the air already. I take a look around.
More Gizmon start glowing.
"WereGarurumon…"
He wipes his nose, watching the Gizmon shifting and changing. The first mecha hasn't even finished disappating and the others are already forming. In the end, the wall around us remains, but now we're joined by three more mecha, who close in on WereGarurumon. We face them with weary trepidation. One on one, WereGarurumon would be triumphant. Two on one, it would be close. But now we're being cornered on all four sides again. And as good as WereGarurumon is, he just won't be enough on his own. I swear. Of all the days to need MetalGarurumon.
The three Gizmon mecha take a final step forward. I grip my digivice.
"Desperado Blaster!"
A trail of bullets rips through the lead Gizmon mecha, cutting it down before it has the time to fight back. The others swoop around in an attempt to target their assailant. It is far too late.
Paildramon is on top of them.
WereGarurumon and I slink away as the dragon/wasp hybrid lets loose another volley, cutting through our attackers. The Gizmon regroup, opening their wall and laying out suppressant fire on their new foe while the remaining mecha recover. Paildramon out paces them easily. Ahead, I see the figures of both Davis Motomiya and Ken Ichijouji racing to meet us.
"Wir sindhierjetzt!" Ken says in perfect German. I'm envious.
Davis beams when he reaches us. "We heard you needed help."
"Don't flatter yourself. We totally had it handled." I lie.
"What are those things?" Asks Ken.
"Beats us." WereGarurumon grumbles. "We're calling them Gizmon."
Ken frowns. "Gizmon?"
"Yeah… Gizmo monsters."
"…Gizmo?"
My giant were-wolf snorts. "Don't look at me."
Davis goes to make a retort, but a massive beam that kicks up the wind around us removes the distractions. The surviving mecha are back on their feet, irises pulsing red while their bug like siblings buzz around them. "I don't think we have time to play with these guys," Ken observes.
Davis nods. "Right. Paildramon!"
"Okay!" The dual voices that made up Paildramon's previous forms – ExVeemon and Stingmon – chimes the affirmative. Davis and Ken stand in front of me, their young faces struck with determination; their D3 digivices held firmly in their hands. The devices shriek with an enormous power, and Paildramon shines with the light of his next transformation.
"Paildramon, Mega Digivolve to…"
The fused Digimon's arms stretch out to incredible proportions, his armor thickening and darkening around him. His jaw, once hidden beneath Paildramon's mask, burst forth, revealing teeth the shape of steak knives. He triples in size in a matter of moments, losing his upright posture but gaining massive claws, a boney face plate, and a giant cannon housed perfectly between two leathery wings. In the end, he had become one of our most powerful allies. A Digimon we knew as…
"Imperialdramon!"
The world around me grows a little darker, as the giant dragon in the sky blocks view of the moons. The Gizmon light up the night in a sea or red lasers, but do little to nothing. Imperialdramon's hide is too thick, his armor is to strong, and his attitude could best be described as gleeful when it comes to an actual fight. He growls with disdain, his massive figure tilting down to the battlefield.
"Positron Laser!"
The cannon housed on the back of Imperialdramon lights up with gathering energy before launching a pure white projectile clear across the sands and landing square in the midst of the Gizmon. They evaporate with a squeal, bursting into a million points of data with the pressure. More blasts follow, Imperialdramon laying unholy siege against the enemy. The survivors turn to fire but their attacks are useless now. Imperialdramon exists on a level above them.
In seconds the field is cleared of visible Gizmon. Smoke rises from little craters in the ground where Imperialdramon's damage is most severe. Behind me, I hear Davis cheering their monster, while Ken offers more polite congratulations. I sigh with relief and turn to WereGarurumon. He's still frowning.
"What is it?"
He growls, his teeth flashing in the moonlight. "We're not done yet."
"What are you talking about?" Davis gloats at us. "We totally just kicked their –"
He doesn't have time to finish his thought. The scorched earth before us yields as hundreds of black wires erupt from beneath the sands like flexible spears; each aimed at the giant dragon in the sky.
Davis balks. "What the –"
We take cover as the wires come dangerously close to us. Their target however is definitely Imperialdramon, who is wrapped by hundreds of coils in a matter of seconds. There is a hiss of steam, the wires begin to pull the great dragon out of the sky, snarling all the way down.
"Grr!"
"Imperialdramon, hang in there!" Ken shouts.
"You can't give up," echoes Davis.
It's no use. Imperialdramon continues to attempt at firing his Positron Cannon, but he is unable to aim the blast thanks to how taut the wires are. They begin pulling him closer to the ground, his digital makeup phasing from the strain. It would seem they have him.
Bad move on the life-forms part. It forgot about WereGarurumon.
"Wolf Claw!"
The boney nails on WereGarurumon's hands slash through the wires completely, severing them from the ground. A pair of wires shoots out after my partner, catching him off guard and knocking him off the ground. I watch as he flies, suffering from a critical hit. He glows again, and he shifts down the line all the way back to Gabumon; who falls hard in the sand below. I race towards him, cradling my partner in my arms. He yawns, with a smirk on his face. "Got 'em."
The wires shoot up again, but Imperialdramon has been released, the remaining coils dissipating in a haze of data. He roars and tilts forward, even as the rest of the wires shoot towards him.
Ken pales and signals to us. "Move!"
I lift Gabumon in my arms and we bolt as towards Imperialdramon's tail – trying to get as much distance between his mouth and us as possible. The giant dragon's jaw widens, even as the black wires snake up towards him.
"Mega Crusher!"
A single ball of white light, no bigger than Greymon's nova flame, flies from within Imperialdramon. But it burns through every wire that encounters it like nothing I've seen before. We leap in the air as it hits the ground, the shockwave sending us all flying as the night becomes day and the sands around the ruins burn. Briefly I hear the final shriek of the Gizmon as the desert becomes a dead-zone. Imperialdramon roars, victorious.
It takes a few moments for the glare to die down. We're standing a the edge of a newly formed crator of black carbon and glass thanks to perhaps the most powerful of Imperialdramon's attacks.
"And that's how it's done!" Davis declares with his hands on his hips
Ken frowns. "A little excessive but…"
"No, we had to get rid of them," I sigh. I rock my half-awake partner in my arms for a minute. "Gabumon are you alright?"
He sighes, stretching without a care. "I'm a little exhausted to tell the truth. And kinda hungry."
I set him down gently. He wobbles and grabs onto a pantleg for support. I fish into my free pocket and pull out three of our spare bars. "Granola?"
"Mm…"He nods emphatically. He snatches them from my hand – not that I mind – and rips into them with all the abandon of a starving priest off of his fast. I smile. Digimon have black holes for stomachs. I'm sure of it.
"Anymore of that?"
I look up to find Imperialdramon floating down towards us. His jaws don't move when he speaks, his words instead rumbling in my head. We've never been able to figure out how some of our partners talk without their jaws moving. Izzy's suggested telepathy before, but that's not quite it, as what we hear is only what they want to say, not shared thought.
Either way, I can only shrug at his request. "I've got a little left."
"That's okay Matt," says Ken as he turns to their fused partner. "Guys, we just ate on the way here."
"Aww nuts," rumbles the giant dragon's 'voice'. I shake my head. All the power in the universe and they still sound like little kids.
"Man, those guys were persistent," Davis grumbles.
"Tell me about it," I smile with relief. "Thanks again guys."
"Don't mention it," Imperialdramon rumbles.
"When you didn't respond to our emails we feared the worst," Ken explains.
I blink. "You sent emails?"
"Izzy did," Davis says. "He sent 'em right when we ported in."
Ken frowns, curious. "You didn't get them?"
I pull out my D-Terminal and take a look. The Vaccine Program V still flashes in the corner, but there's nothing in my personal inbox. I look up at them and shrug. "Nothing's reading."
Davis and Ken share a look. "We were afraid of this."
"What?"
Ken slides a hand through his dark black hair. "Before we got in, Izzy said there was something going on with his sensors."
"He said that to me too. But I got through to him didn't I?"
"Messages going out don't seem to have a problem," Ken explains. "Messages going in…"
I frown. "The signals aren't getting sent."
"That's about right."
I shake my head, my hand unconsciously reaching for my throbbing veins. "Great. We're flying bli… Nnd…"
Ken frowns again. "You okay?"
I take a deep breath. "I'm getting better. A blast knocked me around earlier, I think my wiring is bent."
The resident genius raises his eyebrows. "Yikes."
I wave him off. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. It's Tai we need to be concerned for."
"Is he's inside?"
I nod, suddenly feeling very somber. "Yeah."
Ken folds his arms. "What are we dealing with? Izzy said something about a giant organism that kills people by touch."
"We don't know if anyone's dead yet," I explain. "But a couple of missing researchers woke this thing up and now it's trying to expand across the Digiworld."
Davis blinks across from us. "Why not just let Imperialdramon nuke the thing?"
I sigh. "We wanted to try and reason with it first. This all could have been a big misunderstanding. We know this thing is alive and intelligent and wants to protect itself, but we don't know all the details. That's why Tai and Agumon went inside with Rei. To reason with it."
"And if he can't?" Asks Ken.
"We found a virus buster program they had developed to kill it. We were going to try and upload it if all else fails..."
"Wait, wait, wait, go back." Davis has both hands in the air as he steps towards us, Imperialdramon looming in the dark. "Who the heck is 'Rei'?
I open my mouth to say something, but suddenly lose my tongue. After a moments hesitation I finally coble together the vaguest explanation I can think of. "She's… a girl we met along the way."
Ken raises an eyebrow. "A girl?"
"Mm…"
"She wasn't just a girl," Gabumon defends her beside me, and I'm suddenly really nervous. "She was very nice to us. She even gave us free granola."
I sigh. My partner munches his granola bar.
"What was she," asks Ken. "A Tamer or a tourist?"
"We think a Tamer but…" I shrug. "We don't really know for sure."
"Didn't you ask?"
I frown. "Yeah. We asked. She doesn't know either."
Davis blinks. "What, she has amnesia or something?"
"Or something," I tell him. "She thinks she used to be a Tamer but she doesn't remember much aside from going in with the team and coming out without memory of who she is. Supposedly. I have my doubts."
"Is she not trustworthy?" Ken asks.
I shrug again. "I just met her today. For all I know she could be a Digimon in disguise. Still, she knows more about the Gizmon than we do and she's saved our life twice now. If she's playing a game it's a very good one."
I let that settle for a moment.
"We should let Tai know we're here now, right?" Davis suggests, concern in his voice. "We gotta tell him to wait for us."
I nod, flipping my D-Terminal back open. "Right."
I type a brief message, letting Tai know the Gizmon have been defeated and to wait for reinforcements. I hit send, and wait for a reply. After a few minutes, nothing happens. I'm getting worried.
Davis frowns "What's wrong?"
"Either the D-Terminal's are still acting funny or he's ignoring me."
Ken raises an eyebrow. "Can you get anything through?"
I shake my head. "Nothing."
"Hmmnn…"
We all get quiet then. Our D-Terminals are our primary source of communication across great distances in the Digiworld. I'm not sure they've ever been this scrambled before. We're running blind down here without a means to warn somebody. If only we had some other means of communication…
The realization hits me like a fist to the gut. "Ah crud!"
Ken blinks. "What?"
"Izzy's briefcase! Did I leave it in…" I turn towards the massive crater between us and the ruins. Blood drains from my face.
"You mean this thing?"
I turn back to see Davis kicking at a metal object buried in the sand. I yelp, vindicated. The Ishida luck has faltered for now. "Ha! Now let's see if this thing still works."
With Gabumon's help I dig Izzy's briefcase out of the sand, unlatching it quickly. Ken pauses above me. "Matt where are you going?"
"I'm going to call Izzy. I wanna know if he's learned anything new."
Davis balks when I pull it out. "What the heck is that thing?"
Ken blinks. "Oh, Izzy finished his trans-dimensional phone?"
"…Why is it the size of a small dog?"
I ignore Davis, though I'm inwardly glad that our protégé is starting to think like me. I dial Izzy's number from memory, and soon I hear the hackers voice over the other end. "Hello?"
"Izzy!"
"Matt? Prodigious! The phone still works! Did you find the problem?"
I blink. "Problem?"
"The mechanical problem. You ran into some difficulty and I had assumed you wouldn't be able to contact me with it again."
I blink, turning back to Davis and Ken, who just shrug, unaware of my dilemma. "Eh… yeah, we fixed it. Listen Davis and Ken are here, but me and Tai had to separate for a little while."
"Why? What for? Is he alright?"
"He's fine Izzy. He's inside the ruins right now. He's going to try and reason with it, but we have a termination program from you guys. That should destroy it if things go sour right?"
"I'd imagine so."
"We've been trying to get into contact with him, but my emails aren't getting through. Can you see him up there?"
There is a shuffle at the other end. "Barely. His signal's pretty faint, but it's moving."
"Ken and Davis said you replied to my email. I didn't get it. What's going on?"
He sighs. "It must be the wires. They must be blocking you're the closer you are to the nucleus."
"It wasn't like this when we started."
"It didn't know you were coming when we started."
I sigh. "Great. Any word on what you guys are doing down here?"
"It isn't us."
I blink. "Eh?"
Izzy clears his throat. "Well, it is in a legal sense I guess, but MAGAMI proper had nothing to do with this."
"What's he saying?" Asks Davis. I shoo him off.
"What do you mean Izzy?"
"You're dealing with a sub-branch of ours. The A.o.A."
"We saw that on a couple papers a while back. What are they?"
Izzy sighs. "The Artificial Origins Association. They were a research group that formed in nineteen-ninety nine after Myotismon's invasion and Digimon's second revelation. Their sole aim was to understand the mechanics of the Digiworld and how it came to be. But because of how early it was in our encounters with Digital life forms they could never make heads or tails of things. They kept trying to prove the Digiworlds existence via their computers alone, and they failed to use quantum mechanics to apply them to the mathematical base of the universal –"
"Izzy I didn't understand any of that."
"Are we breaking up again? I thought I'd moved to a better position..."
I sigh. "No. I just didn't understand any of that."
He coughs on the other end. "Er, sorry. Suffice it to say the A.o.A weren't looking at the big picture when they formed. It wasn't until Myotismon's second invasion that things really took off for them. Because of how much our reality was fluctuating at the time they were able to slide a small rover through a computer and make an early reading on the Digital World."
"They broke into the Digital World without approval?"
"Who did?" Asks Davis again.
"The guys we're looking for," I tell him briefly.
"At the time the UN's official stance on all matters Digital was mute. This was long before Tai's outburst at the UN summit."
I nod. "Okay."
"When the UN finally opened the gates to researchers, A.o.A was one of the first in line. However, they weren't exactly understanding of Digimon. For them, they were artificial. Unreal. They were to be tested and examined, not empathized with. They crossed the line when they tried to take Digieggs from Primary for experimentation by force. The UN had them booted out."
"Where were we when this was going on?"
"I believe you were starting your sophomore year."
"Well yeah but… we should have known this."
"Tai did."
"Eh?"
"Well, he didn't know who they were," Izzy clarifies, "but he was there when the Tamer who caught them logged the incident into the message board. He added it to his list of things to yell at the UN for."
"Oh. Er, who stopped them?"
"Koh."
I whistle at the memory of a very good Guard Tamer with a Firamon for a partner. "Mm… That guy's good."
"I know."
I close my eyes, feeling the frustration building. "So how have they returned Izzy?"
"Well, even though they'd been rather shady in their dealings with Digimon, they had made some progress, and MAGAMI was interested in getting a jump on the competition. They bought the A.o.A out in the winter of two-thousand three, just after they'd gotten their own Digital research permit."
"But the camp… It looked like it had been there for a while."
"It's the same camp they started from, just with added trimmings. MAGAMI bought the company out of bankruptcy for a low price and fielded them out as agents. They were supposed to follow the company line and share their research with us. I guess they haven't been so forthcoming."
"But we saw MAGAMI plastered on just about everything there."
"A.o.A borrowed some of our equipment. Except any weaponry – MAGAMI has a strict policy on not bringing human weapons to the Digitalworld. I don't know who those came from. I'd need to see their serial numbers to perform an expert track –"
"Izzy…"
"Sorry. Basically, that camp you found is the original A.o.A. camp, bolstered with MAGAMI equipment over the last few years." He pauses, his voice low over the speaker. "I don't know about the guns."
"You're saying then that MAGAMI had no idea all of this was going on?"
"Not MAGAMI proper. A couple of the higher ups were in on it I think."
I struggle to remember the names we saw in the tent. "Like Johnny… eh… Something. Or Aki... eh... Aki-something Kuraba…"
"Kurata?"
"Right."
"Akihiro Kurata?"
I nod. "That sounds right. Akihiro Kurata."
"He was the lead A.o.A guy. We didn't renew his contract. If he was in there it wasn't on our tab."
I think hard, and suddenly remember a name for sure. "What about Reiko Saibachi."
At her name, Izzy grows silent. "…Reiko is down there?"
"Uh… yeah. She's been signing off on most of their stuff."
"…I don't know about that. She's never been A.o.A before. At least I don't think so. She was a head of my department when I got started before she switched over to a new project. I haven't seen her since. Are you sure it was her name?"
"Positive."
He's quiet for a moment. "Alright. I'll keep looking into it."
I sigh. "Thanks."
"A-anyway, the point is MAGAMI is about to get in a lot of trouble because one of our cells went rouge. I've emailed the company president about it. We'll see what he has to say."
"Terrific."
"Matt. About that other thing?"
I look over to Davis, Ken, Gabumon and the looming Imperialdramon, suddenly worried my voice will carry. "…Did you do it?"
He doesn't sound to thrilled to be telling me. "Yeah. I… I don't know what to tell you except… There's something sh-…"
"Izzy, you're breaking up again." I tell him. "Can you repeat that?"
"H-ng on. I'll try to link up to a str-nger signal source wh-le we're talking. It'll go in an- out f-r a few sec-nds but I sh-ld be able t- fix it." He sighs. This is wh-t happens when y-u only do a pr-ject h-lfw-. You miss pr-bl-ms like the digit-l entang-ment issue and la-k the struct-re to a-quately –"
"Izzy."
"R-ght. I jus- finis-ed analyzing my d-tab-se. No registered T-mer or Digid-stined that m-tches your profile fits under th- d-scription. Exc-pt for one. The onl- one -hat fits is –"
"Sora." Saying it aloud chills me to the core. Ken and Davis frown around me, unsure of what this means. I don't care anymore. There is no Tamer like Rei. Not one. "I thought so."
"It's de-per than that." Izzy says with apprehension. "On a hunch I tracked her biomech-nical information in th- realization module while the five of you were riding towards the ruins. It was tough going though because you were all battling and moving and the tracking sensors had trouble collecting your base code in the module and –"
"Japanese Izzy, please!"
"I che-ked her base code from here." He sighs as his signal starts to return. "This girl? Rei…? There's something she's not t-lling you."
GODFALL
10
Digimon