Chapter 34: Disembarking
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the OCs and OC Digimon.
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Alexander Rinaldi walked through the front door of his time machine and entered into a fairly Spartan room. Apparently, his subject had decided to stay in one of the former Digimon Emperor's guest rooms, something that made sense. He hoped that his subject was doing well, but now was not the time for that just yet. The ebony-skinned man walked silently over to the nightstand next to where the man was sleeping, eying the digivice right under the lamp. He was going to grab the digivice, but he just needed a distraction for the man in case he decided to wake up, so he pulled out a small, circular device and placed it on the man's neck before pressing the button. The man in bed barely noticed the feeling of his nerves being connected to the device.
Now Rinaldi picked up the digivice from off the nightstand and headed to his time machine. He was going to take advantage of one of the rooms where time went faster and complete the regeneration program. He hoped that by doing so, the man would at least feel a bit younger and that maybe he'd be able to give it to others.
After finishing his program and debugging it for any potential bugs, a process which took several weeks in sped up time, a mere half-an-hour in real time, Rinaldi walked back out of his time machine, glancing down at Antonio. The bald man noticed that the heavy man seemed to be twitching in bed and that he was wrapping himself tightly in his sheets. That's strange… What you're dreaming should be comforting to you, Rinaldi thought to himself, reaching into his pocket for a sedative and applied it to the neck, not knowing that the damage had already been done.
Then the dark-skinned man went back into the door he came out of, and the door disappeared.
###
"So, what are we going to do with him?" Jeri asked the group, who had been trying to decide how to deal with Phillip Goddard after defeating him. They had so far managed to tie up the boy using some rope that was inside Art's digivice as well as tying up Phillip's partner, BlackAgumon, who was presently unable to open his mouth. Also, the man's digivice was stored in Art's digivice as well, so there was no getting it from the fro-sporting Greek boy.
"Well, procedure is kind of weird as far as catching a rogue Tamer," Matt said, scratching his cheek. "If we were in the real world, it would be pretty dang easy, actually. We'd just turn him in to Echelon and have them deal with it while we got a pretty decent paycheck from it." Phillip glared at the black boy for that statement.
"Yeah, that would be awesome!" Fernando exclaimed. "Can you imagine all the video games I could buy? Or all the toys? I've been dying to get some Lego Mindstorms, but my parents won't let me because I'm not old enough."
"Lego Mindstorms? Man, when I was a kid, all I built were houses," Matt replied. "Come to think of it, I had a lot of Legos. I guess I could thank my dad and his high-paying job."
"Okay, back to the prisoner, boys," Alice told the others, hoping to get past this part.
Matt was pulled back to reality by the blonde's statement. "Oh yeah, well, I guess we could try to find the nearest Echelon Team Leader. Then again, maybe since Mr. Immortal gave the Tamers' Brigade to Antonio Urrutía, we could talk to him." Art's eyes bugged out a little from the mention of Antonio and talking to him.
"Tamer's Brigade?" Alice asked, slightly confused.
Matt grinned. "Heck, yeah, man! They saved me from being homeless. Well, at least for a few hours. Now if only we could find him…"
"Was he with anybody?" Jeri asked.
"Come to think of it, Art's hot cousin was there. Maybe he can call her," Matt suggested.
"Or maybe Jeri can call her. She's the most experienced Tamer here," Art countered, putting Jeri on the spot.
The girl fiddled with her fingers nervously. "What…?"
"Yeah, man, we totally elect you as leader," Matt informed her. "All agree?"
Everyone, including those who couldn't really follow along with the conversation real well such as Ai, Mako and Gus, raised their hands. The brunette nodded. "Okay, I'll call her."
Art was sweating a little, but at least he didn't have to make the call himself. If they found out that she really wasn't his cousin, his time with the group would be over. Then again, I haven't been telling the truth about a lot of things, myself. So, he decided to tell them as Jeri searched for Katarina. "Oh, and by the way, my cousin doesn't really know me, just in case you forgot. At least this version of her…"
The rest of the team nodded, understanding even though they weren't quite sure whether they believed him or not.
After a few seconds, someone answered the digivice. "Hello," a woman said groggily in a thick, foreign accent. She had bags under her eyes and had obviously been woken up. "Wow, I was almost expecting my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Art muttered, almost disbelieving. He cringed at the thought for some reason.
"Oh, sorry about waking you up," Jeri told her thoughtfully.
"No problem." The woman then paused for a second. "You look almost Japanese."
"My name is Jeri Katou and these are some of my friends," the brunette told the Greek woman before showing her the group.
"Yo, I'm Matt," the black boy told her.
"Hi, I'm Fernando."
Fernando's introduction made the woman realize something. "Oh! I was supposed to call you earlier!" she exclaimed.
"You were?" Jeri asked, surprised.
"Yes, Antonio's nephew, Fernando, is on your team. He told me to tell you to come straight to the castle as soon as possible. You're all in the Southern Wastes, right?" she asked.
"Uh, we kind of left them a while ago," Matt responded, looking around at all the tropical vegetation, including the palm trees that were around them. Just beyond where they were at was the sea. "We were headed to where you were at, but we kind of hit a snag, fought a Mega-level digimon and our transportation is currently unconscious." Katarina looked shocked at that one. "So, yeah, man, now we got this prisoner and we're trying to figure out what to do with him."
"You fought a Mega?" the woman asked in disbelief, her accent sounding more pronounced. She looked positively horrified at that.
"You should have seen it. Matt biomerged," Jeri told the lady, who paused for a few seconds.
"You biomerged? That's excellent," the dark-skinned woman commented, her expression changing to a smile. "So, you need to take your prisoner here. Go ahead. I'll be waiting."
"Hey, so what's going on with Antonio? I haven't been able to find the dude," the black boy told her.
Katarina again paused, trying to think of what to say and how to say it. "Unfortunately, Antonio hit a bit of a snag. You see, he went to go get his son and then his son got kidnapped."
Matt's eyes bugged out. "Ed? Ed's Antonio's kid, right?"
"Uh, yes. Why?" the woman asked in confusion.
"We were best friends, man! Dude, if he got kidnapped, we got to go get him!"
"My bo… Antonio is already going with a team," the director of the Coalition informed him.
"Oh, man, no way! That's just nuts!" Matt gritted his teeth.
"Who's going?" Fernando asked his uncle's girlfriend.
"Right now, he's going with a team of Japanese Tamers led by a girl named Ayaka. I can't remember her last name, unfortunately."
"Ayaka!" Jeri exclaimed. "She's one of my best friends." Then the brunette paused, but Alice beat her to the question.
"What about Tadashi?" she inquired coolly, worried about the blond.
"Unfortunately, we think he may have been brainwashed by the Digimon Queen and that he may have taken part in the kidnapping," Katarina informed the team, her face contorting in anger at the Queen for hurting Antonio. She was definitely starting to get attached to the man.
Jeri almost broke down right then and there. She couldn't believe her friend had… The Digimon Queen had to be stopped.
"So, where's this Digimon Witch lady supposed to be at?" Matt asked, his speech full of spite.
"We detected her by searching for her real name; however, you need to come to where I'm at to drop off your prisoner. Antonio doesn't want his nephew in any danger."
Art was angry at the Queen. He didn't know Ed, but… The whole thing overrode his nervousness at talking to Katarina. "But then we're going to go after this witch!" the olive-skinned boy exclaimed, deciding at the last second not to use an expletive. His teeth were gritting and his fists were squeezed tight.
"That's if I decide you should," Katarina told the group. She then realized she didn't recognize the boy that she had replied to. "Are you the one with the digivice that had its data blocked?"
The boy froze, a look of shock on his face. "Uh, yeah. It's a different model than what you've got," he told her, holding up his digivice. He was really nervous about talking to Katarina, something that Fernando definitely noticed. He tried to figure out the meaning of it. One of his conclusions made some sense, even if seemed to him like something out of a bad soap opera.
"Hmm… Interesting. That means you're not from this world, doesn't it?" she asked him.
He nodded nervously. "Right. This is the D-Plus. I was actually born in the Dark Ocean's human world."
"What is your full name?"
Art had to decide whether to tell her or not. After a couple of seconds, he decided. "I can't tell you. Alexander Rinaldi sent me, though." The woman looked in shock.
"That's… That's impossible." The woman definitely didn't believe the boy.
"He told me to keep my name a secret until he told me I could say it," he told her. "I'm sorry."
The woman nodded. "Well, then, I look forward to when you can tell us who you really are, then," she said with a smile. "How is Alexander doing these days?"
"Well, let's just say he's got a massive plan and he hasn't let me in on all of it," Art said. "Part of it involved each of us being sent to specific parts of the Digital World. I guess we've all got roles to play."
"Did he know that Antonio's son Ed would get kidnapped?" she asked.
"I think he did. We traveled back in time from the future, 2011 to be precise," the dark-skinned boy told her. "Funny, I had no idea that Ed even existed even though I know about the Urrutía clan."
Katarina nodded. "Well, anyway, I want you all to try to make it to my location as soon as possible. You have kids with you, after all."
"Okay, we will, Ms. Xanthopoulos," Jeri told her, bowing. The rest of the team nodded.
"Well, good night," the woman said as a good-bye before stifling a yawn and hanging up.
###
Jeri's team finally reached a nearby resort by the time the sun had completely set. "You know, I don't think we have the money for this," Patamon said. "I could try saying I'm Daemon from Oppidum Septentrionale, but I don't think they'd believe me."
"Don't worry, Patamon," Fernando assured his partner. "We'll figure something out."
"Yeah, it looks like there are a couple of digivice signals here, too," Matt said. "I wonder who they are…" He looked up info on them. "Crap, these guy's names are too similar."
"What do you mean?" Fernando asked, looking at the black kid's digivice. "Oh, okay."
"Dang, man, this is going to be a pain." Matt shuddered. They walked up to the entrance where they spotted a pair of digimon, cleaning up a restaurant. The two were very familiar to the Tamers.
"Agumon and Gabumon!" Gus exclaimed. "This is awesome!"
"Oh, we have guests," the Agumon said formally before glancing over at a muzzled BlackAgumon and shivering slightly.
"Gosh, it looks like our partners aren't the only ones," Gabumon added.
"So, where are your partners?" Jeri asked.
"Pablo, we have guests!" Agumon called out and two boys, both looking exactly the same, ran out, almost tripping over each other. They both had dark complexions and were short, well-toned muscle-wise and had short hair.
"Wow, this is awesome, other Tamers," one of them said in a Mexican accent.
"This is excellent!" the other said. So far, the only difference between the two was that the second one that spoke had a mustache.
Art could already tell he wasn't going to like this.
"So, welcome to the Net Ocean resort!" the first one exclaimed.
"Yeah, we just got pulled into the digital world and we found this place," the second one added.
"So, we decided to come here and work a little bit."
"I'm Pablo Chavez."
"And I'm Pedro Chavez."
The twins immediately went over and shook everybody's hands, getting introductions from them as they went through the group.
"Yeah, so, we like need a place to stay while Piximon's resting," Matt told them.
"If you have any rooms and they don't cost too much," Jeri added. "We don't exactly have any money."
"Oh, yes, I can find one for a pretty lady like yourself," Pablo said, grinning.
"Yes, yes, that would be great!" Pedro added, smiling as well.
###
The next morning, Katarina looked into the library to find Antonio reading a book. The dark-skinned woman went over and sat down across from him. "Good morning," she greeted with a smile.
"Good morning," he responded, trying to smile back to her. "Sleep well?"
"As well as can be expected. I got a call from your nephew's team late last night," she told him.
This caused his eyes to perk up. "How is he doing?"
"Fernando seems to be in good company. I talked to the one whose digivice isn't showing its data to us. He said that Alexander Rinaldi sent him." Antonio's eyes betrayed the shock he felt.
"That's… No way. That's impossible. What is he? His son or something?"
"He wouldn't say his name. Apparently, he goes by Art, short for Arturo. He also knows about your family and he's from an alternate reality," she told him.
Antonio looked at her like he was nuts. "What evidence?"
"He had a different model of Digivice, the D-Plus," the Greek woman replied. "It looked pretty sleek."
"That's Mr. Immortal's back-up digivice," Antonio informed her. "I wonder how he got that thing."
"I'll find out when he gets here," she responded, leaning forward on the desk. "So, on another note, what are you doing in here?"
"Well… When I'm really stressed, I tend to bury myself in hobbies, work and whatnot," He told her, putting down his book. "When my ex divorced me, I went back to school and got a graduate degree in a ridiculously fast amount of time." He chuckled. "Yeah, I got a doctorate in 1990, two years quicker than anybody would expect."
"Sounds like a lot of work. I know I got a Bachelor's degree at the age of twenty, but I also graduated from high school at sixteen too," Katarina told him. "Still, at least you're not taking it out by eating. What did you do when Ed got kidnapped the first time?"
"I studied Ancient Greek," Antonio told her. "Believe me; it's as crazy as it sounds. I went through a couple of textbooks at once. Plus, I did some scheduling for a few things six months in advanced."
"Wow, you are insane," she joked. "So, how come you didn't pick up Modern Greek, hmm…?" she asked flirtatiously.
He showed her the book he was going through, which was for Modern Greek. "Apparently Emperor Symanski wanted to study Greek too."
"So, how about breakfast?" Katarina asked.
"That sounds good. What are they making?" Antonio inquired.
"Well, let's go find out, shall we?" The Greek woman got up and Antonio followed.
###
"So, this is the plan we came up with," Ayaka said, presenting it with confidence, despite the underlying storm of nervousness underneath. "We will put all our digivices in stealth mode using the program that the Watchmaker installed in our digivices and use Sanzomon to block any telepathic attacks from any of the Digimon Queen's minions. First, we'll travel by air, but when we reach about fifteen kilometers away from the Digimon Queen's palace, we will land and walk the rest of the way so we don't draw attention to ourselves."
Antonio sat in shock. The group was sitting at the table in the Emperor's dining room. "You put that all together last night?" he asked.
"Yes, we did," Ayaka replied, her nervousness starting to bubble up. "Is there anything wrong with it?"
The heavy man shook his head. "No, nothing. This actually makes things easier. So, when do we leave?"
"Uh, this afternoon," she replied. "If that's alright?"
Antonio nodded. "That's perfectly fine. We should do this as quickly as possible."
"May I suggest something?" Harbinger asked, leaning backwards in his seat. The others gave him the floor. "There are a series of tunnels underneath the Digimon Queen's palace," the mysterious man explained, pulling out a series of maps. "One of them, an escape tunnel, starts here, approximately twenty kilometers from the palace."
"Twenty Kilometers?" Yuji asked in disbelief, groaning in agony at the very thought. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"You don't have to go the entire way on foot. The passageway is large enough for most Champion-levels to go through," the white-cloaked man explained.
"So, why are you giving us this information?" Taizou inquired, suspicious. There was something familiar about this man, but he couldn't place it.
"Simple, because we have a common enemy in the Triumvirate," the man said. "It must be dismantled."
"And then what?" Miki asked. The entire team was suspicious of the Harbinger and they had good reason to be. This person seemed to know way too much.
"Then we'll see," the man responded, standing up and flicking his fingers. Baalmon appeared behind him, grabbed him from behind and teleported him away.
"You know, I've been working with him for weeks and he still confuses me," Linda said, adjusting her glasses. "One of these days I'm going to pull his hood over his head and find out he doesn't even have a head."
"Yeah, we'll find out who that dude is someday," Yuji said. He had his suspicions.
"So, let's get ready!" Antonio told the group, some hope coming into his voice. "Katarina, you have command."
When everybody but the Japanese team and Abby left the room, Miki spoke again. "Wow, Gunter was right! We are going from one place to another without stopping. I mean, this is an emergency, but still!"
"She's right," Ayaka said. "Maybe after we rescue Ed and Tadashi and defeat the Queen, we should take a rest for a little bit."
"Funny, it's the opposite for me," Taizou said. "It feels like I've been doing nothing and now, finally, something is going on."
"There's always something going on," Yuji said, leaning back in his seat. "I just hope that beating the crap out of these Triumvirate guys is the end of it."
"It's not." The others turned to look at Abby. "We still need to find my brother and prevent any more worlds from combining."
"Eh, just leave that to Takato and the others. Heck, maybe Tadashi's brother's going to take care of the whole thing," Yuji suggested. They had gotten all caught up the night before about the messages in Latin.
"He has to be here for what Alexander Rinaldi said to come true, right?" Taizou asked.
"It could mean something else," Abby suggested. "I mean, there are multiple alternate realities, right?"
"Yeah, Antonio's a university professor in ours while he's a simple window cleaner in yours," Ayaka responded.
Abby nodded. "Exactly."
"So, how could it be different?" Taizou asked.
"What if the two brothers aren't Tadashi and Kurita? What if they're Ed and that Donaciano person you detected?" Abby suggested. "I mean, think about it."
"You're suggesting that Ed has another brother in another world," Taizou said. "That would imply that another world is about to merge with our own."
Abby nodded. "Yeah, and that Tadashi's brother,, Rinchei and the Dark Ocean Digidestined could fail to stop the threat they're facing."
"Kurata," Ayaka muttered. "Just who is he?"
"The one who kidnapped Abby's brother or something?" Yuji suggested, getting glances from everybody. "Since he's got the dimension key and all."
Abby looked down. "That's what it all means. My brother's probably in the Dark Ocean and Kurata's using him for some plan of his. Who is this guy, anyway? And what is he going to do? What's the purpose of combining all the worlds together?"
"Whatever it is, it ain't good," Yuji said, his fists clenched.
###
Fernando definitely wasn't the type to sleep in, preferring to get up early to face the day. He felt that he needed to go to bed early and get up early so that he had more time to do everything he needed to, whether it be chores or one of his various hobbies.
This tended to irritate those around him to no end. Today, the person getting irritated when his digivice's alarm went off was Matt, who almost reached over and shut it off from his bed, missing it due to Fernando already grabbing it. "Dang, man, couldn't you shut that thing off?"
"I'm getting up," the brown-haired boy told him while stretching. He then shut off the alarm on his digivice, put on his shirt and pants, grabbed Patamon and walked out of the room while Matt smothered his face in his pillow.
When Fernando walked outside with his partner, who was just waking up, the first thing he noticed was the smell of salty air. They were definitely outside of the freezing tundra and in the humid tropics. He could hear seagulls in the distance, something that surprised him since they were in the digital world. Maybe Digimon Adventure's depiction wasn't too far off from the truth.
He walked along the outside of the cluster of rooms where he was staying at, having shared one with Matt for some reason. Apparently the black boy had a hard time being around Gus due to his impatience with the blond. Gus did speak haltingly, partially because he wasn't used to speaking English and partially due to having to remember so many words. The blond was starting to feel a little isolated as a result.
And then there was Art, who couldn't stand being around Matt for long periods of time.
Fernando was still trying to figure out the half-Greek boy. All the brown-haired boy could figure out was that half of what the curly-haired boy was saying was lies. Fernando had to guess that being Mexican was one of them. Other than that, he didn't have much to go on. He had a few hypotheses running around his head, but other than that, not much.
"Wow, it sure is dirty," the brown-haired boy heard Pablo's Agumon comment. It turned out that the four were busy cleaning out a pool at the resort, one that apparently hadn't been cleaned lately due to the green color that it had.
"You're right," Gabumon said, pulling out some seaweed that was covered in algae. "Yup, this is really gross."
"The chemicals are definitely off. We need to add everything," Pedro said, glancing at a series of tubes used to measure certain substances. "Oh, wow…"
"It needs chlorine, too, tons of it!" Pablo told his twin. "I'll go and get some."
"Wow, that is one dirty pool!" Fernando commented, looking over the side.
"Dirty is an understatement," Pedro told the kid with a smile. "Pablo and I used to clean our grandma's pool back when she was still alive. It was kind of a pain, especially during winter. But we got paid 150 a month for it."
"I would charge more for something like this, though," Agumon commented.
"So, how old are you guys again?" Fernando asked the remaining twin as the two of them walked behind a nearby fence so that the Chicano teen could clean off the filter.
"Sixteen. Why?" Pedro asked, glancing at the brown-haired boy.
"Just wondering," Fernando said with a shrug. "You guys go to high school?"
Pedro shook his head. "Not anymore. We both just graduated a couple years early and so we're going to college for two years," the Chicano replied. "Had really good grades, too."
"You should have seen the ceremony. There were beach balls and an inflatable object that they would tell me what it was," Gabumon said. Pedro mad a face at that last one.
"Cool," Fernando replied. "I want to graduate early, but I don't know if I want to do so much homework."
"Just do it and get it out of the way. Then you'll be fine," Pedro responded, grinning. His moustache looked to Fernando like some sort of giant caterpillar.
"Wow, that is one dirty pool!" the two Tamers looked around the front of the fence to see Art, wearing a white tank-top and sky-blue boxers.
"Tell me about it. Our boss wants us to clean this up by lunch. Don't know if we can do it or not," Pablo complained, looking at the pool angrily.
Art raised his right eyebrow a ridiculous amount. "Really? Wow, what a killjoy."
###
"Alright, so far everything's checking out," Taizou said as the team arrived on the bridge of his airship-like partner, glancing over the readings from the computer console.
"Sensors are reading nothing substantial within the next few hundred kilometers," Ayaka said, glancing over her display as she sat down. "Okay, I guess we can head out. Antonio?"
The heavyset man was sitting in the first-officer's chair, fidgeting. "Go ahead."
"Alright, let's go!" Yuji exclaimed.
The airship then lifted off the ground of the hangar and moved forward as the mountainside hangar doors opened up to let it out. Now they were on their way out, headed toward the Digimon Queen's territory.
"Altitude rising and fast," Miki said, glancing at her readout. "We're approaching fifteen-hundred feet."
Ayaka nodded. "Alright, so Salamon, get ready to digivolve at a moment's notice," the blonde told her partner.
"Don't worry, I'll be ready," the dog responded from her feet.
Abby glanced over everything. She couldn't believe it: they were on their way to take on the Digimon Queen already, the girl who kidnapped her best friend.
"I'll be in my ready room," Antonio told the group, getting up and heading to the room off the side of the bridge. The man was definitely shaken, though at least he took the wise course of action and waited until he was somewhat stable before planning everything.
When the large man went into the room, Abby's console started to beep. "Incoming transmission, guys," she said.
"Alright, onscreen," Taizou ordered. At the moment, he felt like he was leading more than Ayaka. Then again, it was his airship, or partner rather.
A familiar boy with short brown hair appeared onscreen. "This is Kyle Dibenko. The Digimon Queen's forces arrived in the middle of the night over here and kidnapped Steven and Jacob!" the boy exclaimed urgently.
"Alright, we'll keep an eye out for them," Ayaka told the fellow Tamer.
"Thanks. Kyle out!" The screen went blank.
"Wonderful. What is this lady trying to do? Collect dudes for her own collection?" Yuji asked the group.
"Probably," Ayaka mumbled. The very thought sickened her.
"What I don't get is that none of them are my type of guy!" Miki complained.
"She has unusual tastes. Hey, I know a girl at school who only likes Mexicans," Abby told the group.
"Now, what I don't get is why she didn't just destroy everyone when she had the chance," Yuji added.
"She couldn't destroy us yesterday," Taizou said. "She only sent a single Witchmon to infiltrate Zeppelinmon and capture Ed and Tadashi. After that, even though she got Tadashi and Coronamon to biomerge, Apollomon was no match for UlforceVeedramon."
"Plus, she's probably trying to toy with us or something," Ayaka added. "Maybe she feels she wants to torture Antonio or something."
"Well, here we are! We're at 60,000 feet above sea level," Miki announced to the group as they got ready.
"Alright, how far to the Digimon Queen's fortress?" Taizou asked.
"10,341 kilometers," the dark-haired girl responded. She felt like a nerd while reading off those stats and she didn't like that.
"Alright, engage!" Taizou ordered with a grin. Tadashi and Ed, we're going to rescue you guys. Just you wait!
###
Roger Volkmann was sitting in his chair, sipping some coffee and reading reports from the front line when an unexpected messenger walked into the room. The poor boy knew that the red-haired Triumvirate leader wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. "Uh, sir, I have something I need to share with you."
Roger glanced up from the chair. "Yeah? Go on," the red-head told the dark-haired boy in front of him.
"Uh, a large number of Tamers have defected from your forces, sir, and joined what is known as the Tamers' Coalition," the boy responded nervously, knowing full well what was coming to him.
Roger gave him a glare that was a mixture of anger and disbelief. "What?" he yelled out, his ire compounding with each second.
The messenger grimaced. "Uh… yeah. Our intelligence detected them heading for Katarina Xanthopoulos' location in droves. Apparently, they feel that Antonio Urrutía would be a better leader."
Roger stood up and stared daggers into the messenger before grabbing his chair and hurling it at the boy who barely got out of the way in time. "Get out of here!" the red-head screamed before the messenger hurried out of the room before he got anything else thrown at him.
Then the red-head tried to sit down, falling on his hind end before realizing that he had just broken his chair against the wall.
That only made him even angrier.
###
"I love the beach!" Art yelled out, feeling the sun on his face and smelling the salty air.
"Yeah, I'd so go swimming if I had some swim trunks," Fernando remarked.
"Oh, can't you go naked? You do that every night in the bathtub," Patamon asked, curious. He was sitting on his partner's head.
"Um, there are girls around," the brown-haired boy told his partner.
"Besides, I don't need to see that," Art commented. "I do however have some trunks in my digivice, but I don't think they're the right size for you, kid."
"Ooh, look," Ardillamon said, looking up into the sky.
Art glanced over at the squirrel and then at the spot in the sky he was looking. "Uh, I don't see anything."
"There's a network of minds near here," the rodent remarked, smiling in amazement.
The curly-haired boy shrugged. "Yeah, I definitely can't see it," he commented.
"There's a line going straight into the water," the squirrel told him, pointing.
Art thought about it for a second. "Hold on, what could possibly be causing it? And you say it's a network of minds. You mean like a hive-mind, like the Borg?"
"The Borg were so cool," Fernando commented. "Have you ever seen 'Star Trek'?"
Art shrugged. "Watched it all the time at my grandparent's place," the olive-skinned boy replied.
"So, what were your grandparents like?" Fernando asked, curious.
"They were… I guess they were just really nice people. After my mom and dad disappeared, my dad's parents basically had me move in with them. They raised me."
Fernando nodded. "What were your parents like?" he asked.
"I don't remember them clearly, but I guess they were nice too," the dark-skinned boy remarked.
"What was the last thing you remember about them?" Patamon asked, smiling.
"Well, I guess the last thing I remember was just spending a day with my dad. I don't think my memory's that accurate, but I just remember I really wanted to go swimming so bad that my dad took me to a kiddie pool a ways from my house. We spent hours there." Art smiled slightly. "Then we went home, my mom made us spaghetti and meatballs. I had to get to bed by eight, so my dad tucked me in and read me a story. I remember it was a Curious George one, though I can't remember which one. Curious George Goes to Paris or something."
Fernando grinned at the dark-skinned boy. "Wow, I don't remember that story. So, what did your dad look like? You got pictures, I know that."
Art froze for a second. "Uh, I'll show you those later." He took a deep breath.
"Come on, I want to know more about your family!" the brown-haired kid exclaimed, grabbing onto Art's arm playfully. "Please?"
The olive-skinned boy frowned. "Sorry, I can't." Then he thought of something. "I don't exist in this reality, you know?"
"You do here."
"But I'm not from here. In my world, things turned out differently than in yours. In yours, my parents didn't even meet until recently, maybe, when in mine, they met eight years ago." Art glanced over at the sky, watching the fluffy white clouds fly by. "Samuel and Oscar went to Barcelona. In one world, they didn't take anyone. In another, mine, they took my dad. That was when he met my mom."
"Samuel and Oscar?" Fernando asked.
"The hint is in one of the names."
Fernando thought about it for a second. "I have an uncle named Samuel," the brown-haired boy replied. "He went kind of off the deep end, though, so I never talk to him."
"And eight years ago, he went to Barcelona with Oscar," Art responded.
"Oh yeah, Oscar Peñalosa. He lives in a different part of Santiago now. Wait, I thought you said you were Mexican?" The brown-haired boy gave Art a dirty look.
"I lied."
"I know a ton of people in Santiago. Not sure who your dad could possibly be… Why did your dad miss the trip in this timeline?"
"Reality," Art corrected. "He was busy. The trip was in the spring."
Fernando nodded. He was starting to put things together. However, his thoughts were interrupted by something coming up above the waves.
"One of the lines is headed for us!" Ardillamon exclaimed. "I wonder what it is."
Then, all the sudden, a massive lobster headed toward the duo and their partners. Fernando immediately took out his digivice. "Ebidramon, Champion Level, Data Attribute!" the brown-haired boy yelled.
"No way!" Art exclaimed before grinning. "Fernando, you can take this guy on!"
"But I can't reach Champion yet," Patamon objected, worrying about losing. The lobster continued for the duo.
"We all gotta start somewhere," the olive-skinned boy responded with a grin.
"Okay, Patamon! Let's get this guy!" Fernando exclaimed, pulling his digivice out and getting ready for battle.
###
Alice was walking down the steps when she noticed Art and Fernando talking along the beach. She found it intriguing that Fernando was the one the irate Greek boy warmed up to the quickest. Still, she didn't trust Art in the slightest and was wary of his personality and partner. Strangely enough, she thought that his partner seemed like something Ed would come up with. At least it was cute.
Then she noticed Ebidramon come up from under the water and head for the duo. She grabbed her yellow and gold digivice and called Sparrowmon. "We have a digimon coming up from under the water!"
"I'm coming!" she called out before spotting Art.
Art apparently knew what was going on, since he turned around and shook his head while giving a gesture to halt. She figured it out: he didn't want her getting involved. It was Fernando's chance to digivolve his partner.
###
The red lobster aimed for Patamon, who was unleashing Bubble Blow after Bubble Blow and getting nowhere. The yellow rodent knew that this battle wasn't going to end well if he didn't digivolve. For a second, he even wished he was still Daemon and powerful enough to take on whatever enemies he came up against. Except that he wasn't, even in that corrupted Mega form.
###
He could hear the sounds of artillery all over Oppidum Septentrionale. He was going down with his city and there was nothing he could do about it. After all, when he stepped in to help the remaining forces that stayed behind to support him, all he managed to do was get injured.
He didn't want to be here while his subjects were dying. There was no way he was going to get out of this alive, so why delay the inevitable.
Anubimon walked in, obviously having seen better days. The powerful Mega was definitely ruffled and was missing fur where he had gotten hit by attacks. "They broke through the walls and they're headed straight here."
Daemon hated the thought of losing to these invaders. He also hated the loss of life. It was so senseless. The Dark Lord was wearing a tattered cloak that barely covered the data-loss from losing an arm. He couldn't believe it was coming to an end like this.
"Then so be it," the cloaked Mega-level said.
"There is still a chance to escape, milord," the god told Daemon.
"Is there?" he asked. "MachGaogamon is dead. So is MagnaAngemon. Do you actually expect us to survive this?"
"Survival would allow you to get more done at least," the dark lord turned to see a familiar clock shop. In front of it was the Watchmaker himself along with a familiar blond man and an unfamiliar red-head.
"You don't have to die here if you don't want to," Mr. Immortal told the two Megas. "We can give you Tamers. By doing so, you'll have a chance to make things better."
"Come on, you don't really want to die, do you?" Mizuki asked, smiling sadly.
"Tamers? Who do you have in mind?" Daemon asked.
"I can team you up with anyone in the world," the Watchmaker said, giving off a toothy grin. The Time Lord was willing to help any way he could.
Daemon thought about it. "A few days ago, I met a boy named Eduardo Urrutía, who said that he had cousins."
"Far too many to count, actually," Mr. Immortal told the Mega.
"He told me about some living in a place called Oxnard," the Dark Lord added.
"Diego, Ezekiel and Fernando," the old man concluded.
"We can take you to them, though you might have to revert to a lower form," the blond told him.
"I'm fine with that. After all, this form isn't exactly in good shape anymore," Daemon responded. "Maybe if I could devolve to a form that isn't so… corrupt."
"Then it's settled!" the Watchmaker told him, pulling out his Xros Loader. He pressed a button, and gone were Daemon and Anubimon.
###
Fernando made it a point to fight alongside his partner. He wasn't worried. He knew that Art and Alice were both there in case he messed up. Still, he realized he needed to be careful anyway. So, he chucked rocks at Ebidramon. "Hey, you giant bug!"
The massive lobster then charged for him. The brown-haired boy ran away, but he knew that he could only run for so long. It was when the massive lobster was starting to catch up with him that his fear kicked in and he ran even faster. It was also at that point when his digivice burst into light.
"Patamon digivolve to… MagnaAngemon!" the digimon yelled.
Art looked up from his digivice to find the pen he was chewing on falling out of his mouth and onto the ground. "What? He didn't even use a crest program or a blue card," the dark-skinned boy commented in disbelief. Then he looked back down at the digivice in his hands, reading the info he had on the angel's energy output. "Now I get it: he still had large amounts of energy from being Daemon." The curly-haired boy grinned. Their team was definitely getting closer to the balance that he preferred.
"The lines are connected to that digimon. I think he might be under mind control," Ardillamon told his partner.
"Oh, okay," Art grumbled. "Hey, Fernando! Don't have MagnaAngemon use Gate of Destiny on this guy!"
Fernando glanced at the darker boy and nodded. "Uh, okay. Don't use Gate of Destiny! Use something else!"
The angel nodded as he pushed the giant lobster so that it fell onto its back. "Excalibur!" The angel shouted, throwing his sword straight at the enemy digimon and lodging it in its chest. The resulting attack caused the red lobster to disintegrate into nothingness.
"So, that thing was under some sort of mind-control, eh?" Art inquired of his partner.
"Yes, that is exactly what happened. You know, you probably could have just had me cure him," the digimon replied hurriedly, causing Art to slap his palm against his head in embarrassment. At least the digimon would most likely be reborn. "I'm going to try to hack into that mental field and find out what it is." The squirrel closed his eyes. "I'm in and I'm going to send in scouts to search the network. It looks big, whatever it is."
"Won't whatever created that network know you're in there?" Fernando inquired.
"No. I'm disguising the door to my mind so that whoever created the network shouldn't be able to find it. Also, my mental scouts have the ability to disguise themselves as any digimon that they encounter in the mental field."
Even Fernando had a bit of a hard time working all that out. "Weird…"
"This won't affect me while I sleep, right?" Art asked, doubtful about his partner's plan being a good idea.
"Not unless I bring something from the other side purposefully," the squirrel responded. "There's a chance I might have to digivolve into Sciurumon if something does come in from the other side. My scouts are reporting a digimon at the center of at least Ultimate-level strength."
"It's not StrikeMapachemon, is it?" Art inquired.
"Actually, it is. Why do you ask?" the squirrel inquired, glancing over at his partner, who betrayed nervousness.
"StrikeMapachemon is the partner of the Digimon Queen and I found its drawings along with yours!" Art explained, panicking slightly.
Ardillamon was surprised. "Well, that's kind of… strange."
"Yeah, no kidding," Art responded.
"Where did you find these drawings, Art?" Fernando inquired, curious.
"I'll tell you later," the dark boy replied as he walked off. He passed Alice on the way up.
"You've been keeping a lot of secrets, Art," the blonde told him. "Your partner wasn't designed by Eduardo Urrutía, was it?"
Art stopped in his tracks as Ardillamon caught up with him. "I don't know who designed him. I just found his drawings, I swear. They were with a bunch of pictures of Diego." Then the curly-haired boy continued walking.
Fernando thought about that for a second. "He found them with pictures of Ed," he concluded. "Where would he find those? Maybe… But that would mean he was lying about a whole bunch of things." The brown-haired boy scratched his chin. This was becoming really confusing.
###
Antonio entered into the mess-hall and eyed some of the food, grabbing a plate-full of sushi and a bowl of miso soup. Right now, he was the only one in the dining room other than Veemon, and he was fine with that. After all, he was an adult on a ship full of kids. That kind of made him an outcast.
"So, what are we going to do once we get there?" Veemon inquired after his partner prayed and started eating.
"Well, I thought I'd try a peaceful solution first," the heavyset man said as he sat down in a seat across from his blue partner, who had a bowl of ramen.
"Yeah, but this enemy of ours… I don't think she'll want that," the blue dragon replied. Antonio nodded.
"At least we'll be able to say we tried," the large Tamer told his partner. He wasn't looking forward to two days on Zeppelinmon. As it was, it seemed like a lifetime had passed since Ed was kidnapped a second time the day before. The man blamed himself for that. If only he had gone with his son when he checked on his friend…
Antonio heard the sliding doors open and Taizou walked in. "Hi, Antonio, how are you doing?" the brown-haired boy greeted, sitting down at the table on the left side of the curly-haired man.
"Oh, hey, alright," Antonio responded, even though he was as far from alright as he could possibly be.
"I just thought I'd check on you," the brown-haired boy replied. "It has to be hard."
"It's unbearable, actually. If I was alone here without you or your friends, I'm not sure how I'd make it," the big man told him. "I guess I have my god, but other than that…"
"I didn't realize you were religious," Taizou told him, getting a nod from Antonio.
"I was raised catholic until I was about ten, then my parents became something else. I kind of followed them, though there was a time where I lapsed. That was during my years at university. If I hadn't become inactive, I wouldn't have made the mistake of marrying my first wife."
Taizou nodded. "Whatever floats your boat… Wait, you were married since then?" the brown-haired boy asked in confusion.
"Oh, no, I just meant… No, definitely not. I've dated a few girls, but then I broke up with them. Or they broke up with me and ran off with some dude from Brazil. Yeah, that happened once." The heavy man chuckled at that. "Yeah, I've picked some losers."
"What about Katarina?" the brown-haired boy asked.
"Well, we pretty much just started dating yesterday, so it's too early in the relationship to see if it will work or not," Antonio responded before smiling. "But I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes and if she's really as over Mr. Immortal as she said she was." He grinned widely. "I remember when I first met her. I asked my friend why he never told me about her. What was really going through my mind was: wow, this girl's hot!"
Taizou nodded. "You know, this is kind of silly, but I was hoping to introduce you to my mom."
Antonio chuckled at that one. "Yeah, that is a bit crazy. Does your mom even speak English or Spanish?"
The brown-haired teen shook his head. "Nope, just Japanese."
The heavy man nodded in agreement. "Yeah, if that's the case, then we wouldn't be able to communicate. I've seen quite a few relationships break down because of bad communication."
"So, what do you two have in common?" Taizou inquired.
"We're both programmers, we both speak English and Spanish, we both have the same religion… Oh, and we both helped with setting up Saxum's taming division," Antonio responded. "There are probably a few other things, too. Personally, I just think she's great to be around."
"I'm glad. Hopefully Ed will like her as much as you do," the brown-haired boy added.
Antonio nodded nervously. That was one of the things he was most worried about. "I hope so too. I hope so too."
He knew that the next few days were going to be a hard time for him. And then there were the images that haunted him.
He didn't want a life with Katarina if it didn't involve Ed.
###
A/N: Well, I officially made it past the 200,000 word mark with this chapter. It's also now the longest story I've written as far as the number of chapters are concerned too. Hehe. Oh, and the chapters are getting longer. I'm not sure if this is a side-effect of the large cast or what, but I'm fine with it as long as everybody gets rounded out.
Yeah, and I've left Antonio's religion ambiguous, especially since it's not what the story is focused on. I don't want to accidentally cause a flame war. Heh.
And then there's Art's identity, which may or may not be revealed the next chapter or so. It's probably pretty obvious by now, though I hope it isn't. Let's just say that there's a good reason why he hasn't revealed his identity to everyone right off. By the way, the 'C' in Sciurumon is pronounced like a K.