30) Found and Lost
The Material World: Yamaki's Apartment
Mitsou Yamaki was back to his old place, in front of the coffee table, near the window with its view of the twin towers of the Hypnos building. It was the same as every other morning since his dismissal from Hypnos.
Today, he was watching a replay of the rampage of Vikaralamon, the announcements of the evacuation, the vids of the devastation, wondering what went wrong, what he could have done differently. So far, he had not yet discovered Koichi's back door. There was no reason for Shaggai's malfunction: no counter measures from the Digital World, Nothing any of the digimon here in the Material World could have done. No bugs that could explain this. He had determined that Shaggai didn't bring in Vikaralamon, or any other of those malicious digimon sent by their God to exact his vengeance on Hypnos for daring to oppose their invasion. It was too little and too late. He knew these politicians and bureaucrats wouldn't listen. They would never admit their error and reinstate him. They would never betray their own failings by doing so.
So far, he was very disappointed, having not heard word one from any of the Tamers since he saw them off. He couldn't understand it. Even if they wanted nothing to do with him, then, surely, they would want to send messages to their folks? He didn't want to think about the possibility that something had gone horribly wrong, either with the transit itself, or could they have been attacked, captured or even destroyed by that digimon "God" or the minions he was certain to have?
Hypnos
"This equipment should be operated by qualified personnel only", the government representative was saying. "It was my understanding that that was the agreement for the authorization to restart".
"It was just a matter of time until the one who originally approved it lost his privileged position", Yamaki's replacement was explaining. "Even though this facility was responsible for a major – and embarrassing – incident, the government still believes this facility can serve a valuable purpose. That is why we are testing it. You understand this, correct?"
"Hypnos ready to go on-line", one of the techs called out.
"Alright! Put us back on-line", he ordered.
The various techs began rebooting the Hypnos subsystems. The Hypnos welcome screen appeared on the main monitor.
The Digital World
The "weather" suddenly turned extremely foul. One moment, it was sunny with clear skies. The next, the lightening flashed crossed the Material World Sphere, the skies darkened until it looked almost like night, fierce winds blew in from out of nowhere.
"Juri!", Leomon called out as she was nearly blown off her feet.
"What's going on?!", Jen called out as he tried to keep Terriermon from being blown away. Kenta and Kazu were doing the same for Impmon.
"A data stream!", Takato called out, as one of those pink beams was headed straight for them.
"We have to avoid it!", Kazu called out.
"How..."
"Guys!", Guilmon called out. "Over here!"
He'd used his Rock and Roll Breaker to carve a niche into the side of one of the mesas. They made it inside just ahead of the data stream as it swept past.
"That was close", Jen stated the obvious.
"Thanks Guilmon", Takato told his partner.
"Never seen such a nasty storm", Juri said.
"We've been having them lately", Leomon explained. "There's something very wrong with this world. We never had storm activity like this until recently".
"Something wrong with the world?", Jen asked himself more than anyone else. He was beginning to wonder just who - and what - was responsible. He didn't like the answer he suspected.
"Koichi", Terriermon said.
"Huh?"
"There's something glowing in your backpack", Terriermon pointed out.
He had a look, and saw that the screen of the long inert hand held had somehow come on. He pulled it out of the net pocket, and saw that, finally, he could get a connection. He took the stylus and began to tap out a message:
Sorry you haven't heard from us lately, but for whatever reason, we could not get a connection. Just wanted to tell you we arrived safely, we're doing fine, and hope to have our little friend located soon. Then we can all come home. Till next time...
Koichi
The Material World: Yamaki's Apartment
"Are you still at it?", Megumi asked. "if you haven't found anything by now..."
She was interrupted as the ping sounded and the "You have mail" icon pop-up appeared.
"Mail?", she asked, "who's sending an e-mail?"
Ever since Yamaki was dismissed, he'd been persona non grata. All his old "friends" had been avoiding him. Discarded, now that he could serve no further useful purpose. After taking the blame for all that destruction, no one wanted to admit they ever knew him. As for help, there was none. He wasn't expecting any e-mail or other contact.
"Could it be?", Yamaki asked himself, as he clicked on the e-mail client.
"That's from Koichi", they both said together.
"Isn't that great?", she asked, "they're OK!", she paused: "And you?"
"I just got a lot more OK", he told her. He knew this could be his ticket back in: if he rescued the kids...
The Digital World
The storm passed as quickly as it had blown in, just as if it had never happened. They left the niche Guilmon made...
"What're you doing?", Juri asked Koichi.
"I lost the connection as soon as that storm cleared up", he explained. "No idea if Yamaki got it". He left to rejoin the others.
"Why do you suppose...", Jen began to ask.
"Pretty obvious, I should think", Koichi told them. "Nasty storms the likes of which Leomon says were rare until recently, the comm connects now, of all times when it hasn't worked once since we arrived, given the time since we arrived, it all adds up to one thing: Hypnos. They got the goddamned thing up and running again".
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
"Pretty, culu?", Calumon said to his four companions: those "owls" again. Calumon stopped to take a drink from a stream. Across the brook to which they led him, the trees were either in bloom, or their leaves were always pink. They seemed to actually sparkle. He stepped into a stepping stone to scoop up some of the clear, cool water.
Suddenly, the "owls" began to act strangely, excited about something... Too late did he see the flash flood that had apparently occurred for no obvious reason. It hadn't rained, there wasn't an upstream dam, nothing that could cause such a flood. It swept him away...
"What's that?", Kenta was pointing into the distance. Koichi had his field glasses out: "Looks like some sort of geyser, or plume or something... He couldn't relate this to anything he'd heard of in Material World deserts.
"Better check it out", he said to Renamon.
"Evolution time", she said.
"Super Evolution Plug-in S: digimodify!"
Renamon Evolve! ...
... KYUUBIMON!
"Be back in a sec", he said as he climbed onto the kitsune's back.
"What do you suppose could cause a jet like that?", he asked. "Wasn't a geyser; there was no steam, and no other signs of geothermal activity".
"I don't know", she replied...
"I'm scenting Calumon", Guilmon announced.
"We know, he was here before..."
"No", he said, "on the breeze... That way", he pointed. He's coming back with Koichi and Kyuubimon!"
"We found him!", Takato said.
"Really?", Jen said, "we really found him!"
"Then we can go home?", Juri asked.
Hypnos
"Is Shaggai ready for testing?", Yamaki's replacement asked.
"Yes, it should be fine", came the reply.
"Make it quick, I have another appointment..."
"This is the first I heard of this!", the government bureaucrat said, "I wasn't informed you were going to test Shaggai! The risk... It's too dangerous!"
"I have authorization, please stay out of our way", Yamaki's replacement said with a characteristically arrogant tone. If they thought Yamaki was an overbearing asshole, they didn't realize how good they had it. This new guy was much worse. About the only good thing about him was he didn't have a Zippo that he clicked constantly.
As the new chief of Hypnos walked away, the government man took out his cell phone and auto dialed. He waited. He got no answer: "How long are you just gonna sit on your ass?", he asked himself.
Digital World
"Calumon! It really is you!", Takato called out as he leaped into Juri's arms. "We found you! Tell us..."
"I think that can wait", Juri said. "He looks like he's been through a lot. He looks all worn out". He was already half asleep in her lap.
"Dammit!", Koichi called out.
"What's wrong?", Jen asked.
"Still deader'n a door nail", he complained. "I was hoping we could inform Yamaki, see what we need to do to return to the Material World"
"Heh, found you", Lilithmon told herself from a nearby hill top. With a twist of the throttle and a pop of the clutch, she jumped the Iron Beast to land right in front of the assembled group.
"Who're you?!", Leomon asked.
She just chuckled softly.
"That biker chick from the other day", Terriermon said. "I have a real bad feeling about this".
Jen had his digivice out, running an Ident. Terriermon was using his internal "digimon analyzer" to do the same. Neither one came up with anything.
"I'm not receiving her data", Jen announced. "So are you a Deva?", he asked.
"Who knows", Lilithmon said with a shrug.
Kyuubimon was running her own scan, and gasped softly as she took a half step forward.
"Oh no!", she said, "It can't be..." The images played across her imagination. One dominated: a blue heart torn in half.
Kyuubimon turned to face the "biker chick": "You are Ruki Makino!"
"Ruki", she chuckled, "is no more... I am Lilithmon"
"I don't know how you pulled it off, this evolution..."
Kyuubimon recalled: rumours of humans who had somehow evolved into digimon. She had always thought these exaggerations of legends.
Jen finally received the profile
Lilithmon
Anthroform demon digimon
Mega, Virus
Her attacks are:
Phantom Pain,
Nazar Nail, and
Darkness Love
"Right here", she said, "you - all of you - will die"
This threat was made all the more malevolent and credible with the calm, matter of fact, way she said it.
"Ruki got awful scary", Guilmon said.
"The Digimon Queen?", Kazu and Kenta said together. "I do believe she finally out did Ryo", Kazu said.
He couldn't help the tone of admiration with which he said it. When it came to the "Legendary Tamer", he was a big fanboi. Those rumours of his having disappeared into the Digital World after winning that card tournament, having defeated that year's runner-up, a younger girl, one Ruki Makino, it all began to look very plausible to him. If Ryo was also here, could he? Possibly?
"I always heard Ruki was...", Juri stopped herself from saying "a real bitch". "I had no idea..."
"If you are, then weren't you Renamon's friend? Why would you turn on a friend like this?", Impmon asked.
"It's nothing personal", Lilithmon explained, "I'm on a mission from God"
"Certainly not your God", Impmon pointed out, "you're..."
"Human? Is that what you were going to say? I'm not. Not any more: humans were a big disappointment".
"I don't give a rat's ass who she used to be", Koichi said, as he pulled out a card and discovered it was a much needed Blue Card.
"Matrix Evolution!"
Kyuubimon Matrix Evolve! ...
... TAOMON!
No sooner had she evolved when another "storm" struck. This one much worse than the previous.
"On!", Taomon created the force field, as much against the storm as against any attack Lilithmon might launch.
"Dammit!", she called out, "I'll deal with you later!". She took off on the Iron Beast to get out of the storm area, or perhaps to seek shelter.
The Material World
"Bring Shaggai on-line", the new chief ordered.
This new guy hadn't been there very long, and they already hated him. Most of them were hoping Shaggai fucked up, so they could be rid of him.
He wasn't the only one to notice:
"Shuichon?", Janyu asked, "what're you looking at?", he asked as he passed, seeing her looking intently out the window. He joined her. He was horrified to see the green lights projecting from the twin towers of the Hypnos building.
"What's that?", she asked.
"A bad idea, honey", he replied, "a really bad idea"...
"The test should be concluding", the new chief asked, "so what's going on here?"
"Sir, we have a problem: Shaggai isn't shutting down".
("Shaggai engaging at full power in five minutes")
"It was supposed to shutdown automatically after the operational test!"
"We know, but something's gone wrong. It isn't auto-disengaging, and we can't stop it manually"
"Someone, do something!"
"I'm sorry, but it's out of our hands", one of the new techs explained, "this is beyond our experience with this system".
Janyu wasn't the only one who'd seen...
A roll away door opened: one of the few where his card key still worked.
"So you appear at last", the government bureaucrat announced.
"Tell your amateurs to get their worthless asses out of my lab", Yamaki ordered his replacement. "Then take yourself and get the fuck out of my facility... Megumi, take over".
"You can't..."
"I suggest you shut up and stay out of the way", the bureaucrat told the new chief.
Megumi had come along, as she was his best operator...
The Digital World
Something appeared just outside Taomon's force field. It looked like a foo dog, all dressed in blue and yellow. It launched some sort of sonic attack; the force field began to buckle. Jen brought up the profile, but caught just the name, Catsuramon, and enough to know this was another Deva, before Taomon's shield collapsed completely.
"Juri!", Leomon grabbed the girl, as the sudden exposure to the high velocity winds threatened to carry her off. Calumon went soaring, and Catsuramon leaped, caught him, and ran off. Takato, Jen and Terriermon were blown into a data stream.
"On!", Taomon generated another force field, but it was too late.
"Fuck!", Koichi said, "he's gone again?", he asked, not believing it.
"TAAAA-KAAAA-TOOOO!", Guilmon called out.
"Now what?!", Impmon asked.
"Hope to hell Terriermon can protect them until we find them, or they find us. As for Calumon... I don't know. That Deva's gonna take him straight to this God of his... We may never get him back now..."
Hypnos
"Megumi", Yamaki was saying, "try manual override on warp field generators two and four. Shut down the resonators. That should disrupt their operation".
"Digital field breaking up", she confirmed, "generators shutting down"
"Good, now terminate Shaggai"
"Shaggai terminating", Megumi confirmed. The Shaggai welcome screen was replaced by that of Hypnos.
"Looks like we avoided a disaster that could have wiped out the data of every system that was on-line", Yamaki told the government bureaucrat. "East Asia won't be sent back to 1950 after all".
"I warned him", the government man said. "He assured me there were safe guards built in... I... don't understand..."
"There were safe guards", Yamaki explained. "It's just that it looks like something corrupted the program... That's what I was working on before the politicians interfered, and look what almost happened here".
"Do you know how it happened?"
"No", he lied.
Yamaki was actually suspecting that the latest failures of Shaggai were deliberate. What he didn't know was who did it. One or more of the Wild Bunch? Would they actually go so far to protect their precious digimon? He was certain that Shibumi was capable of doing exactly that. He also suspected Janyu Lee: would he do so to allow his son to keep his "pet", despite the fact that Terriermon was leading him into dangerous situations? He wasn't sure he could answer that with an honest "No".
The Digital World
Koichi and the rest of his party were on the move again. This time, without Calumon, Takato, Jen or Terriermon. This time, with no idea as to where they were going.
"Takato", Guilmon was complaining, "where are you?". The crimson dino had never been separated from Takato this long, in this manner, ever in his life, which was a good deal shorter than they remembered.
"Leomon", Juri asked, "what about Calumon?"
"I don't think he's in any immediate danger", he explained. "He's too valuable to them for them to do him any harm".
"Still, I wish we could hurry up and find him".
"Indeed".
"Hey Guilmon", Kenta told him, "why so down? I could be your Tamer! How about it?"
"I already have a Tamer..."
"I don't necessarily mean forever, just while Takato's gone missing. How about it?"
"No, Kenta, and get away from me!", Guilmon began to run.
"C'mon! I can't be..."
Kenta was stopped in mid sentence as he saw Guilmon drop out of sight with no warning. He followed. Being that Koichi and the others were some distance away, they didn't drop until a few seconds later. They all found themselves dropping down another vertical shaft. Koichi, Renamon, Kazu, and Kenta took it in stride: they'd done this before. The others, not so much.
"At least we landed some place nice", Koichi said, as he picked himself off the ground. They'd landed in a temperate forest. He looked up, and the hole in the sky was beginning to clear up.
"Yeah, not like that Valley of Gales", Kazu agreed. "What the hell do you suppose happened?"
"I don't know, but it would seem we wandered into some sort of passage, or warp field, or some other unknown feature of this world", Koichi explained.