Ben10 & Digimon Tamers
Heroes and Humanity
Part 02: Humanity and Heroes
The Invasion – Chapter 38
Originally Written: Saturday October 31, 2015 524PM to 940PM
. . . . .
"Now we sit and wait." Albedo murmured. All viewers shut off their visual connection to Gallantmon and Justimon. Multiple windows went dark. Albedo looked over to Jeri. She looked at her computer screen as though she was not all there, the barest hints of yellow in her eyes. Albedo diverted his gaze.
He tried not to feel anything for sending the boyfriend of one of the few people who supported him off to such an infiltration mission, but the heavy knot in his stomach was not breaking up no matter how much he wished it to or tried to break it up himself.
"Commander Katou." A voice spoke up from her Plumber's badge.
"Go ahead Xavier." Jeri spoke with a firm voice.
"Kazu Shioda and Kenta Kitagawa have returned with their respective Digimon. Our location is still secure. Do you want me to send them up?" The plumber male, apparently named Xavier, responded.
"Please do, but only if they promise to not punch Albedo."
Kazu muttered, "Dammit."
Rose and a few more Plumbers in the room snickered and snorted.
"None of you provided any other plans that deviated from the current one." He spoke, voice heavy with fatigue." I will not reiterate this point again, nor will I tolerate any more of your feeble, useless, protesting."
Rika hid with Renamon in the darkness above a ceiling on one of Hypnos' floors. With the outside disturbance handled, the Incursean activity inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building increased.
"There's heavy security on floor B10 and B15." Albedo ignored outside activity within the decked out office he currently resided in.
"B10 is a laboratory floor." Jeri explained. "Floor B15 contains controls that make it easier to access the Digital World."
Albedo nodded as he filed this information in his mind.
"In all likelihood with the security breach, both floors are locked down. The activity could be due to Incursean forces trying to get past it." Jeri folded her hands in her lap. "There are containment and prison cells scattered throughout the floors, but most of them lie on Floors B7 to B9. There are too many to examine them via a stroll." She looked at Albedo. "You may be able to hack into the system and see if you can find Yamaki or any of the Monster Makers."
Albedo nodded, "A likely scenario."
Hugh stood still behind him.
He glanced around the room. Swamps and Haiphen were playing cards. Fridge somehow managed to grip a metal beam hidden above some ceiling tiles and hung upside down from it. Albedo recognized the Necroffrigian was deep in slumber. Yckat leaned against the wall next to the room's only window. The tip of his tail tapped impatiently against his leg.
He watched Rose shift her weight to one leg as she tapped a finger against her blaster. He debated on telling Rika to follow Attea and Bullfrag. With the forces of the time space continuum on Bullfrag's side, he doubted she and Renamon could take on both Attea and Bullfrag and survive. However, if the means to access the Digital World were on lock down, it made no sense for them to try and get there until they could get it unlocked in the safest manner possible.
Unfortunately this meant Rika was a sitting duck for however long the increased Incursean activity kept up. He was expecting Attea to assign more of her grunts to focus on keeping Gallantmon and Justimon in custody. From the grunts that spoke about how seriously Attea was taking their capture, she had, but it didn't seem to put a dent in those walking around the lower levels. Attea was taking no chances.
"We need that bitch and her boy-toy out the building again." Jeri frowned. Albedo reluctantly agreed. Jeri sighed heavily, "Rika only has a few days of supplies on her."
"I wasn't expecting this level of security." Albedo murmured. "Why does she have so many ground troops?" He rested his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his folded hands.
His mind raced.
"O-Of course!" Hugh shouted.
Albedo looked up at him.
He looked down at Albedo nervously, "One of their hostages, maybe more, p-possibly c-could h-have g-g-gotten f-free." His stuttering got worse as Albedo widened his eyes at him.
Albedo looked at the screen. As annoying as they were, sometimes his comrades said intelligent things.
"Henry?" Jeri murmured, directing her mouse across the desk.
"What?" Albedo looked at her.
"Someone just gave me access to cameras on B10." Jeri spoke softly, ignoring Albedo. He and Akari leaned over her shoulders, watching her screen. "Rika, see him on your D-Arc?"
Rika looked at her D-Arc's holographic map. She nodded.
He smiled, "Jenrya." He murmured, "How did he get out?"
"He can teleport to Terriermon's location." Jeri explained, "If Terriermon was kept free, Henry wasn't trapped at all."
"Henry Wong being free should help us out a great deal." Yckat commented, "He could give a few Incurseans a run for their money."
Jenrya waved to a security camera. He held a weary Terriermon in his arms. Behind a large table, in what appeared to be stasis cells rested some unconscious Incurseans. He noticed a simple handgun in Jenrya's hand. "What is he holding?"
"A modified Plumber grade blaster. Ryo's work." Akari spoke up. "Ryo's always boasting about how well those things function." He chuckled.
"I only see one." Albedo commented. He wondered where Jenrya hid the things. In all the time he spent with him, he never saw him with such weapons. Maybe he only got them recently, he wondered. He moved his chair so it was closer to Jeri's monitor. His heart sped in his chest as he looked around the room Jenrya resided in. It seemed to be a lab from what he could tell. He could only imagine how many Incurseans were behind the lab's entrance. He wiped his hands on his pants, hoping to remove some of the sweat that accumulated on them.
"The other one is the white thing on his belt. Let's hope he's saving one to use later. Those things run on a limited charge."
Jenrya turned around to look at someone who was not in the frame. They watched him run a hand through his hair.
Attea's voice seemed distant in Albedo's ears, despite the fact she was clearly yelling. Albedo moved back to his screen. He bumped into Kazu who looked at him with a hard stare as he folded his arms.
"She's stuck up there isn't she?" Kazu frowned.
Albedo wasn't dismayed as Rika directed her camera through a vent. Bullfrag walked behind Attea obediently, like a dog. "For now."
"I leave for five minutes, and you fools let that idiot into our security!" Albedo winced as Attea screamed. The female Incursean whacked a grunt upside his head as he cowered before her, softly begging and apologizing.
She turned and screamed at another guard. "Where is he now!?" By now, she and Bullfrag stood right underneath the vent Rika was directing her camera lense from.
"H-He has locked himself up in the labs, General Attea, Princess, Scion and Teen Supreme of the Deathless Incursean Empire. Highest Commander of the Celebrated Calaveras Legion."
Rika rolled her eyes. In a rare instance, he agreed with her. 'Dumb Incursean brat has turned red with rage.' He smirked.
"Well, get him out!" She shouted.
"There is a slight issue with that General Attea, Princess, Scion and Teen Supreme-,"
"-Get on with it already!" Attea cut off the grunt by whacking him with Gallantmon's shield. Even Bullfrag winced.
"The fuck is wrong with that woman?" Kazu growled out.
"Don't call her that." Kenta scolded. "Women don't act like this. She's a brat throwing her power around."
Albedo had to agree with that as Jeri hushed them.
"Barricaded?" Attea put a hand on her hip. "What do you mean barricaded?!"
"H-he has reactivated the security."
Attea looked at another grunt.
"The turrets surrounding the lab s-start firing whenever we get close, General Attea-"
Attea waved a hand as he continued.
"We've already amassed seventy injuries from previous attempts." The grunt cowered.
"Deactivate it then!" Attea clenched her fists, eyes bulging in rage.
"W-we can't. He is a high priority staff member."
She narrowed her eyes, "Who's that nuisance logged in as?" She leaned over as she stared the grunt down, making sure Bullfrag got a good look at her rear end.
"Wow... I didn't think she was that thirsty." Swamps sounded quite disgusted as he laughed Haiphen started laughing with him. Albedo could only guess what 'thirsty' meant in this instance, but greatly wished he had no idea.
"O-one Ryo Akiyama." The grunt spoke.
"Wha-?" Kenta questioned.
"Just like Jenrya." Albedo suddenly felt more confident.
Attea directed her men to find out who Ryo Akiyama was by searching the database.
"Henry?" Kazu questioned. Jeri tapped her computer screen.
Attea yelled, "We'll make him squeal!"
"Holy shit!" Kazu laughed, "You go Henry!"
"Shh," Jeri waved a hand.
"Ryo can fight." Albedo folded his arms, "And when Jenrya broke out of wherever they had him, Ryo wasn't in the building. If Ryo can keep his form as Justimon through whatever Attea has planned he still won't be in the building. If Jenrya can keep them from Ryo's bio, they won't figure out who Justimon really is."
"That's not a foolproof plan." Kenta spoke up with concern.
Since Hugh was leaning on Albedo's chair, Albedo felt the Vaxasaurian shift, "I-if they t-try to figure out who Ryo is by interrogating the captives..." He trailed off, "I-I'm glad I-I'm not in there."
Albedo frowned.
"I do not want to see that psycho 'Shield of the Just' Yamaki." Akari whined, holding his hand in his hands.
Albedo thought for a moment. He pulled out his D-Terminal and sent a message. 'I wonder if this will go through.' He watched a little icon spin on the screen.
The group watched Jenrya take his own D-Terminal from Terriermon. He looked up at the camera and nodded.
"Rika, try to get to floor B10. Meet up with Jenrya in Lab 23." Albedo ordered.
Rika placed a hand against her ear as she listened. She eventually nodded.
"Jenrya will be going dark, Jeri. He needs to concentrate on letting only Rika and Renamon inside. I have also warned him about the database search.
"Got it." Jeri typed a few commands at her station, "Did you tell him about Gallantmon or Justimon?"
"No," he shook his head. "At this point in time, I believe they are stuck." He looked at the screen, focused. "They need to sleep sometime."
"Albedo."
The white haired male felt eyes on him. He looked around the room. "We need to move slowly, carefully. Attea will only be placated with having Gallantmon or Justimon for a short while. Both she and Milleous are most concerned with the Plumber base in Bellwood in America. This base allows Attea to plan without Milleous spying." He waited a moment as he looked around, waiting to see if any started to understand. "I'm sure by now she's recognized that Bullfrag brings something unique to her table." He felt like throwing up. Even the psycho bad guys believed Tennyson was worthy of being more important to the grand scheme of things. It made his stomach turn and churn. "In her mind, Jenrya is a thorn stuck in her side and Bullfrag is all she needs. She will pluck that thorn, even if it means a Waybad has to trample another government building."
"This is crazy, Albedo." Rika muttered, "This is fucking nuts. She'll really do that, with everyone inside here, as long as she and Bullfrag get out?"
"Keep your demeanor calm." As Albedo spoke, he had to force himself to not shake. Apparently from the looks on people's faces, only Jeri had some sense of just how bad of a shape at least West Shinjuku, Japan was in. Everyone else looked completely blindsided. Albedo forced himself to not think of any images of Jenrya underneath a pile of rubble a Feral To'Kustar stood on top of. "If you, how do you say, lose your cool, you'll die."
"You could have mentioned this before, man!" Kazu yelled.
"What good would it have done?" Swamps spoke.
Albedo looked at him.
"It wouldn't have changed anything. The Incurseans were this cold hearted and serious from the get go. They smashed that other government building. We were there watching it. That was them being nice and you know it."
"Yea..." Kazu nodded. "They're fighting like D-Reaper..." He spoke softly after a while.
"They are fighting like a terrorist organization, the Nazi's, the United States with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan with Pearl Harbor..." Jeri looked at him with dull eyes. "They just want superiority over their enemies. D-Reaper wanted everything and everyone gone. Dead."
Kazu lowered his head, and Albedo knew Kazu couldn't argue with her. D-Reaper hadn't held him hostage.
"Phoo!" MarineAngemon called out, "Phoo!"
"Yea...!" Kenta nodded, "Swamps didn't say that to scare us."
"It's the reality of the situation."
Albedo looked at Rose. She leaned against the door frame. He looked at his monitor. Renamon had gone one way and Rika another. Rika's view shook whenever it stopped moving, indicating that Rika had stopped moving herself. Renmaon's dot on the mat moved in a continuous fashion.
"The Incurseans are serious. That's why they removed Tennyson from the board." Rose continued.
Albedo closed his eyes. He figured Renamon was able to stay out of sight with much more relative ease than Rika was. He did not regret including them in the plan.
"We should eat and rest." Jeri spoke, "We can't do anything else from our end. We can only hope that Attea and Milleous don't wait six months to transfer Bullfrag to Bellwood."
A chair squeaked on Albedo's right. He assumed it was Jeri. He rested his head in his hand, and ran his finger tips through his hair. "I doubt Bullfrag will be that patient."