Another chapter on the way! Again, it's kind of short, but it has some interesting information in it. I'm going to start dropping hints again on things to come. And I'll have some flashbacks, as well as the mystery enemy. I hope you like it and hope that you start guessing.
"No way am I dragging four year olds through the digital world when something is trying to kill us," Impmon growled. "Again!"
Takato sighed, "Fine, we need you to show us the 'bug-zapper building' since your idea of directions is 'three blocks past the noodle cart with the lazy security, turn left past where that one girl nearly got her braces caught in her boyfriend's and continue that way until you reach the roof with three lost Frisbees.' But it's not like you'd be on your own this time in the digital world anyway."
"I wasn't supposed to be on my own last time. I can take care of myself, but that doesn't mean I'm excited to let my tamers turn into a spider's supper while any back-up is who knows where. If we're facing an aggressive threat in both worlds, I'll pick the one that doesn't involve leading these two into the largest number of ticked-off digimon possible. So, Ai and Mako are going back to Hairball's place and I'll take care of the 'bug-zapper.' Got it, Goggle-head?"
The combined group of digidestined and tamers faced the daunting task of dividing into teams. Half would return to the human world to handle the problems on that front while the other half would deal with things in the digital one. In addition, the common view seemed to be that it would not be ideal to send the tamers into either world unguided. Thus, members of both groups would make up the new teams.
"Okay, Impmon, Ai, and Mako are headed back," muttered Rika. "Renamon and I are staying. We have a rematch with Marsmon planned."
Tai shrugged, "I guess Agumon and I could go with Impmon and the twins to the human world. Takato, do you…"
"Of course I'll come," exclaimed the boy, causing Rika to roll her eyes.
"I suppose," Jeri suggested, "that I'd do better in the human world. Unless you mind, Leomon?"
The champion shook his head, "Where ever you choose to go, I shall follow."
"Since Izzy and Tentomon is still back home, I think that should be enough," remarked Davis.
"Which means you can spend some more time with Rika," Terriermon snickered, watching the boy turn pale.
"Better than dealing with all three goggle-heads," the red-haired girl muttered. "But if you annoy me, you shall suffer."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," frowned Impmon, "but I only count two losers with goggles. Unless the Winged-Hog is hiding them with his big ears," he grinned gesturing at Patamon.
"Tai passed his goggles on to Davis," Takato explained. "Kind of passing on leadership to a new generation, I guess."
"Great, goggle-headism is contagious," the virus groaned.
"If you have decided," remarked Destinty, "I will open a portal back to the human world for you. Then, I shall begin the search for the original DigiDestined and their digimon."
"And Riku," BigAgumon nodded.
"Best of luck with that, Dee," grinned the purple rookie. "I have enough digi-dorks to deal with, personally, but if you want more… Have fun with that scavenger hunt."
With a slight smile, the prophetess produced her D-arc and created the rainbow-colored portal. The Digidestined still felt impressed by the trick. Tai, Takato, the twins, Jeri, and their partners stepped through and vanished. Davis shot Rika an uneasy glance.
"Uh… Maybe we should split up further," he suggested. "To cover more ground."
"Coward," the red-head muttered.
Ken commented, "Since Wormmon and Veemon can only reach the ultimate level together…"
"So far," reminded Terriermon.
"It makes sense for us to remain in the same group," he continued.
"Fine, I'll go with you two," sighed Henry.
The rabbit digimon snickered, "That way Rika doesn't murder Davis."
"Terriermon…"
"Momentai, Henry," he responded.
Gatomon grumbled, "He's as bad as the troublesome virus. Kari, we're not going with him, are we?"
"No, I think we're going with T.K., Patamon, Rika, and Renamon," the Digidestined of Light answered.
As the digital world team divided in half, the prophetess and BigAgumon began to walk away. The pair seemed to meld into the undergrowth, which was a startling feat for the large, orange dinosaur. Davis, after a few moments of contemplation and thankfulness that he'd be escaping Rika, turned towards his new teammates.
"What in the world does 'momentai' mean?"
Reunions in the near future seemed promising, but they were for another. Five humans and five digimon would soon be back together, and yet she still had little idea of how to find her own partner.
Destiny glanced up towards the oversized rookie. He, at least, seemed happy. His memories of the boy would be returning slowly. And being reunited would undoubtedly assist in that effort. BigAgumon's goal was in sight.
Hers seemed so far. Fate didn't appear to be any closer to being returned. As far as she could tell, memories were the key. The digimon needed to remember their humans. The humans needed to remember their responsibility. And she… needed to remember… something.
Memory was so difficult for the prophetess. How could she find the right one? She couldn't even recall a fraction of her life.
Start somewhere and hope for the best was her only plan on the matter. And since she was seeking about for other digimon, she could pass the time by searching for the key to the past.
"And moving one egg is all we need to do?" Fate asked suspiciously. "Are you sure you aren't just getting lazy?"
Under her hood, she smiled, "I'm sure. It's all a question of nature versus nurture. If this little guy stayed where he was, he'd grow up in a very malevolent environment. He'd be raised to be a monster like the rest." She shifted the light green-spotted egg in her arms. "Since they need all…" …for a moment, the word faded away before returning back to audible range… "…the loss of one is enough to change things."
"Well, not to sound cruel or anything, Dee," commented the shorter cloaked figure, "but why move the egg? Wouldn't just killing off one when they hatch work just as well?"
She sighed, "No, it won't. Even if you destroy one, the…" …Memory failed again for the moment. The details of the event faded until the conversation shifted… "…and isn't it better to give him a chance? He could live a completely different life, despite what he could have become."
"So you're giving him a chance to actually be useful to the worlds rather than a threat," smirked the virus. "You have far too much faith in the guy before he even hatches. He may not turn into what he's supposed to, but I think that his base programming will come out eventually."
Destiny stopped and stared, "You know, as well as I do, that even the tiniest thing can change the course of history. Why is it so hard to believe that a single digimon can become more than he is supposed to have been? Given the right chance, anything can occur and anyone can be saved."
"Fine, fine," he surrendered. "Let's drop the little bundle of joy off. Maybe he'll get killed off quickly and this thing won't come back and bite us.
"Fate," she groaned. "He deserves to have a life and be happy. He deserves to be more than just another piece of the puzzle."
"Like us?" sighed the digimon. "We're not more than that."
"We will be… someday."
She shook her head at the memory. While it seemed important in its own way, that scene didn't seem to be the right one.
The next digimon she sought wasn't far. In fact, she was likely watching the progress of Destiny and the rookie. While at least two were back in the Primary Village, one was in this forest. The girl shot a look upwards and caught a glimpse of white.
"Wait a moment, BigAgumon," she instructed. "Another friend of yours is here."
Going through the files by hand was not only tiring, but monotonous. While some of the files of DADP were on a secure computer system, many of the more sensitive pieces of information were on hardcopy. Just part of the paranoia about the "digital creatures," Mizutani assumed. It just meant that examining the intelligence about the children caught up in the dangers of digimon would take a while.
She pulled out the next file. A girl named Noriko Araki had been paired with a baby digimon named Punimon for six months. She'd been among a small group of children kidnapped between Christmas and New Year's Eve. They all returned with digimon. While she'd work well if they needed a candidate for a short-term interaction, they wanted to see the greatest effects possible. Thus, she needed one with a longer relationship. She set the file away.
The next one read "Sora Takenouchi." Inside, a red-haired girl about fourteen years in age smiled out of the picture. This individual had been one of the longest partnered children they possessed records of. Her digimon was a pink bird-like creature named Biyomon. Mizutani narrowed her eyes at the avian being. It seemed so familiar and yet wrong. The color was too gaudy and intense. It should be more pure and soft…
…A pair of honey-golden eyes blinked as a soft, female voice greeted, "Nice to meet you, Ta…"…
…Softness wrapped around her, hugging the girl…
…A boy with tall, spiky hair grinned, "Come on, it'll be awesome. Together we can beat…"…
…The hat pulled over her blond hair was yanked off by a small, blue creature. Growling, she reached out…
… "But I don't like that cave," a young boy with black hair mumbled. "It's creepy. You go first, Tsu…"…
… "I promise," a soft voice whispered. "We'll see each other again. You're my friend, Ta…"…
… "…Mom, it was real," she asserted, her stormy-grey eyes flooded with frustrated tears. "I know it was. It wasn't a dream. She promised…"…
The young woman snapped out of her dazed-state. Each short glimpse was no more than a hint of her past hallucination. She knew the surge of emotions that were part of the long-gone dream, even after the specifics were lost. Each time these fleeting hints tried to bother her, she'd feel joy, fear, a sense of familial love, sorrow, loss, and a lingering feeling of betrayal. But only the last event, when she tried to convince her mother she wasn't lying about her hallucination, was a real memory. The rest was a fake. Taking a deep breath, she repeated the same phrase that her entire life from the dream seemed to revolve around: the things she dreamt are false and everything that is connected should be forgotten. Mizutani pushed the images away.
The file, kept up to date by the diligent members of DADP, noted that the girl was out of town for a sports event. Even if the bright pink creature happened to still be at the child's residence, Mr. Konishi wanted to examine both the human and digimon halves of the team. She set the file aside.
Before she examined the next possibility, she opened her desk drawer. The bottle of pills rested, waiting for her. She really should take the medication. If the dream was intruding on her again, she should take care of it. Her grey eyes remained locked on the bottle, refusing to acknowledge the other object in the drawer nearly hidden beneath the papers. Taking the pills would sooth her, take away the hallucination, and cloud her mind, but she didn't want to blur her world away.
"Not yet," she sighed, closing the drawer.
The next file held a photograph of a boy with spiky hair. The image reminded her of the flashes from her remembered hallucination, but it was a different one. Tai Kamiya was another child who'd known his digimon for over four years. His partner, Agumon, seemed strangely small, but she shrugged it off. As she scanned further down, Mizutani realized this would be the perfect target. In a single household, two children were partnered. Tai and his sister, Kari, offered a prime opportunity to collect multiple digimon with the least amount of time and effort.
She grinned, "Perfect. It's time to begin rescuing the children from themselves and their addiction to these digital monsters. Agumon and Gatomon will only cause you harm."
A distant echo in the back of her mind whispered sorrowfully. It was her younger self, crying softly. While the young woman didn't know why the nearly-forgotten dream was trying to return, she knew where the voice was from. How many times did she cry over her hallucination until she accepted it for what it was? Fake. Her greatest pain, even worse than being called crazy by all her friends and family, was her insistent clinging to the dream. Imagining the suffering that these children would feel because of these creatures must have reminded her of the sorrow she'd felt.
"You promised," she wept quietly. "You promised that we'd see each other again. I know it was real. Wasn't it?"
"No," the woman stated harshly. "It was never real."
He knew that his companion was speaking to the digimon sent after the humans. While Dianamon, Valkyrimon, and Marsmon were powerful megas, he knew that the power held by the Digidestined was impressive. After all, they defeated him twice and left him near dead. He was too powerful to have been defeated by anything less than the most commanding and dangerous of them. And he would not lose again.
He currently dwelled in between the human and digital world, biding his time as his one-time rescuer prepared to isolate the two worlds. The gullible fool listened to his words about the nature of man. And when he mentioned the work of DADP, the vaccine accepted that humans were a threat to digimon.
So, while the oblivious but well-meaning digimon tried to break apart the fragile connection between humanity and digimon, he prepared to destroy both. Guardian would be his secret weapon, once the hidden programming was activated. That was why he was waiting in the information stream between the two worlds. While DADP's systems were fairly isolated, he'd included a secret entrance in his prize program. He could examine the files and watch the progress of his plan.
His companion joined him in his contemplations, "There were new digidestined than those you described. According to my allies, three of them combined with their human partners to become megas. You never mentioned this before."
"See, they enslave the digimon further," he hissed. "They enter the poor digimon's very minds. They control their bodies. Not only do many wish to destroy us, but now the others seek new ways to use us. We must do what must be done to prevent this. You handle your part and I'll handle mine."
"I will," the loyal vaccine nodded. "But I still don't know what you are doing here…"
"I am simply assuring that in the end, humans and digimon will never interact again," he grinned.
Okay, people out there: I want predictions. Who is the mystery enemy? What is going on in the story that you only have hints so far? What's up with Tamiko Mizutani? I want to hear what you have to say. I love reviews and I love predictions both. The more you give me of them, the happier I'll be. Questions are also useful because they tell me where to clarify when it comes to the plot. Feedback is the only way I'll know what you think.