Ch9
"Gah.. too bright.." His hand instinctively hovers on top of his eyes to block the blinding light from above, sleeping in a bright room has never been a habit of his. Which begs the question, where is he right now? Because he's well aware that this isn't his own bedroom. The bed he's on is too soft for his taste, everything just feels alien to him right now. With a groan, he slowly gets up to sit, his eyes still closed after he got blinded before, trying to adjust to this room's brightness. He can hear a lot of chatter around him, they sound worried and relieved at the same time.
One of those voices keeps calling his name, but his mind is still trying to get everything in order first. "Akiyama.. Akiyama.." After about a minute or two, Ryo finally opens his eyes to the sight of a woman with a bunch of doctors and some men in black suits. "Akiyama Ryo, can you hear me? How are you feeling?" Asked the woman in front of him, he can tell that this woman is either in charge of him or assigned to be some sort of caretaker.
"Just call me Ryo, I'm fine.. just.. a moment.." It only took him a minute or two to recall what happened to him. "C-Cyberdramon, where is.." He holds his head as he feels dizzy, he also feels numb all over his body.
"He's right there." The lady in front of him points to his side, there are three Digimons that rest on the other bed. Monodramon and MarinAngemon sleep on the bed while Guardromon is on the floor due to his big body. "Calm down Ryo, nothing to be worried about. You feel anything hurt?" Ryo shakes his head. "I'll let you take a moment, okay? We'll talk when you feel better."
Every person in that room started to leave one by one. Some doctors checked his body one more time before giving him time to rest. They offer him to pick a meal, but his appetite isn't there, so he just asked them to turn off the light before leaving the room. Ryo almost couldn't believe this, out of any place that Pajiramon knew, he sent him back to the real world. He can guess why the deva would do that, yet it brings more problems as well. There are some choices before creating that portal, each of them will raise some problems, but this one is the safe bet. At least that's what he can think of right now.
The lights are already off, but he just can't get back to sleep. His mind keeps recalling that last moment before he returns to this world, that smile from Pajiramon is just hard to ignore. They might not have the best interaction by any means, yet they could agree on a few things. He raises his hand, flipping it multiple times. That hit from Zudomon hard to forget as well, that wasn't a normal Zudomon. Judging by what he can recall, that Zudomon shouldn't be able to survive for long. Though he can't help but be worried if there are other Digimons like him.
Ryo gets out of the medical room very early, everyone including Ryo himself wasn't expecting this. He wants to rest longer, but he just can't sleep again with a lot of thoughts on his mind. One of the agents quickly runs to tell Reika about this, and they enter a meeting room to discuss it.
"Are you sure you are okay, Ryo?" Reika asked him once again. "We were having an emergency, but you seemed to be beaten up when we found you."
The tamer nodded. "Miss Ohtori, right? I'm fine, I need some help first to gather all of them."
Reika sighed, she had already expected this before. "Just Reika is fine, I make an exception for you guys. But.. we can't gather them at this moment."
That answer from Reika makes Ryo frown, he thinks that Hypnos is trying to handle the situation themselves. "What? Why? It's not only about Guardromon and MarinAngemon, miss Reika." He asked back.
"Ryo, they're in the digital world right now." She explained. "And I can't reach them at all, nothing gets through it. Let's start with what happened here first, I also want to know what's going on there."
It's hard to believe what he just heard, he hoped that at least Kenta and Kazu could reunite with their partner. They might not be the best tamer, but three of them is better than fighting alone. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then facing Reika again. "Okay, let's start with what we have here."
Inside Hypnos's command room is packed full of agents and scientists, they're working around the clock and even pulled an extra workforce that was supposed to be on a long break. Ever since Yamaki went to Digital World, everyone has been on full alert. They've been trained to handle this situation, some of them were even personally trained by Yamaki and Reika as their emergency replacements. In the center of that room, two agents act as leaders when their superiors are still absent.
One of the men takes a sip of his coffee, which makes his peers frown. "Did boss called off your vacation?" Ask the man on the right. "Take a break, I'll handle this for now." He suggested him, his hands still on the keyboard. Some people stop by them and report some stuff, which now they do on an hourly basis. One of them hands over some papers and the guy on the left takes them.
"Don't sweat it, I just like coffee." He stared at the papers for a minute or two, then put them on the desk. "At least nothing is happening right now, Miss Ohtori still with that boy and boss is gone. I'm going to be real man.. if there are more qualified people I'll let them take over. Ordering around isn't my thing you know.." He takes another sip to calm his nerves. Steps could be heard coming to them.
A lady stops right beside them. "That's not good Kaneda, have some confidence." He almost chokes on his coffee, his friend also surprised. They quickly stand up and greet her. She chuckles and dismisses them. "Geez, cut that out. So.. where is Reika?"
"Ah, she's still talking with one of those tamers. He just came about.. few hours ago." Kaneda replied to her, he's not expecting her to be here. "Aren't you relocated, Miss Onodera?"
"Megumi is fine, we've met quite a lot before. Also, yes, I was in different prefecture for two months. Then I heard Yamaki.." Megumi Onodera tilts her head. When the agents clean up the desk for her to take over, Megumi stops them. "Stay here for now, I need to do something anyway. I thought she's here." Before Megumi could even exit the room, alarm blaring loudly. She looks at the two agents. "Get on it, I'll get her."
Just a minute later, both Reika and Ryo are in the command room. Reika and Megumi take charge of the situation. A quite thick smoke appeared in the central park, some agents had already been dispatched to the scene. It's like any other bio-emerge cases, smoke all over the place with 'portal' appearing inside it, and the area that's covered by that smoke itself is called the digital field. They're just observing from outside of it, praying that nothing will come out.
Ryo is well aware of what's going on, he gets a bad feeling from this. "Is it me?" He asked himself, thinking about Pajiramon. He turns around and about to leave but Reika stops him. "It will get messy, let me handle it."
Despite knowing Ryo is their best defense, Reika is still adamant about sending him off. "I'll drive you there myself if it gets worse, please trust our agents for now." Reika reassured him, he nodded right away which makes her quite happy. "Something's there?"
Megumi shakes her head, she keeps trying to scan it again yet nothing comes out. Instead, she scanned something else. "More digital fields, but they're so small. No Digimon is coming from them as well." Everyone in that room is still standing by, waiting to see if anything will come out of those digital fields. After ten minutes, those smaller digital fields disappear. "Huh? Someone trying to contact us with.. phone?" Megumi turned to Reika, her friend nodded with confusion shown on her face as well.
The voice on the other end is quite distorted. "It's.." It's hard to heard. "A! It's Team.. A! Can.. y.. hear me!?"
"Come in, Team A!? Team A? Can you hear us?" Reika answers the man while her hands gesture to Megumi to send reinforcement.
"We're hit ma'am! Everyone is down! It's.." The voice cut off again, this time not static things but more like the agent is stop talking.
"Team A? Team A!? Do you copy!?"
The phone call is finally cut off completely, which confuses them even more. At the same time three teams are unable to be detected, each agent on those teams has a location tracker yet all of them are gone from the map. Ping! A data of ultimate level Digimon appears on the screen, it's comes out of that one digital field.
One Hypnos's agent can only stare up at the big Digimon in front of him, there is just nothing he can do right now. All of his peers are unconscious after a shockwave hit them before, he's lucky enough to stay awake because he was standing the farthest from the digital field. It was hitting them the moment that Digimon was able to realize or materialize in this world, every electronic equipment that got hit is now broken or malfunctioning. He has his phone but now he's too scared to even say anything.
Triceramon, a triceratops-like Digimon is lowering its head toward him. It growling yet not doing anything to him, just staring at him. The man feels like his heart stopped when Triceramon's snout touched his head, it seemed like Triceramon sniffing him, possibly trying to track a scent or just checking its soon to be food. He closes his eyes, too scared to even see Triceramon while still hoping that this is just a nightmare. Just a moment later, he opened his eyes once more when he heard tries screeching from behind, which also alerted Triceramon who decided to take a few steps back.
"You okay?" Ryo quickly helps him get up, he can see Cyberdramon and Guardromon already standing between them and Triceramon. There is also MarinAngemon on Ryo's shoulder. "Can you walk?"
The man nodded and started to walk back alone, his peers with Reika can be seen waiting for him with medical team. "Hey, my.. my friends still there.." He turned to Ryo, he knows it's hard for Ryo to handle all of that alone but he just couldn't hold himself. "Please.." When he saw Ryo nod, he felt more relieved. That's the least he can do right now.
Cyberdramon growls, ready to strike at the dinosaur Digimon at any moment. "Ryo..."
"At your command, Ryo." Said Guardromon, he's also waiting for Ryo's instructions as they planned before.
Ryo carefully analyzes the situation, it's a no brainer for Cyberdramon to just charge head on with MarineAngemon as his backup at first glance, but looking at the unconscious agents scattered behind Triceramon, that seems unlikely. Even if Cyberdramon is able to overpower Triceramon, it won't be a clean fight. Having MarineAngemon as their front isn't a good option either, even though he's a mega, his power is more of a defensive one. Then out of all three Digimons, Ryo can only help one of them. Both Triceramon and Cyberdramon keep growling at each other, they're itching to fight.
Is Triceramon scared? That idea crosses his mind, he guessing that's what happening right now as it's not moving too much. "I need your help." Ryo whispered to MarineAngemon, he pointed to those knocked out agents, the mega nodded to him. With his small body, MarineAngermon carefully goes around them and starts saving them. He spits out bubbles to encase those agents, protecting them. Triceramon takes a step back slowly, knowing it's at a disadvantage, which also makes it notice MarineAngemon.
Ryo noticed when Triceramon glanced at MarineAngemon. "Cyberdramon!" When he thinks it's too late, but Triceramon stops its big claw before being able to hurt them or MarineAngemon. That barely gives Cyberdramon time to grab Triceramon's arms and bite its shoulder. They are trying to brawl and Cyberdramon manages to pull the dinosaur away from those agents.
Guardromon raises both of his arms, aiming at Triceramon. He is having a hard time because Cyberdramon still brawling with it. "Hold!" He yelled at Cyberdramon, hoping for him to hold Triceramon in place so he could fire his rocket.
"Wait, don't!" Ryo quickly pushes Guardromon's arms down. "They'll get caught if you miss, help them first."
Now that the fight is finally isolated, even Hypnos's agents start helping them carry out their peers. Ryo finally focused on the fight alone, he takes out two cards and ready to use them. But before that happens, Cyberdramon suddenly jumps back from Triceramon. Smokes start to cover the area again and Cyberdramon looks agitated by it.
It's hard to see but there is a portal appearing behind Triceramon and the Digimon seemingly retreats. The digital field is gone a moment later and Hypnos's agents swarm in to check the area. "Ryo!" Reika runs to him with a worried expression on her face. "You okay? What happened? Where is it?"
"It's gone, going back to the digital world." Replied Ryo short.
"That's it?" Ryo nodded, he doesn't have much to say. "Okay, that's a close one. Thankfully you're here to scare it, you go back first and get some rest."
One hour late, Reika is still on the scene with some of her peers. A man approaches her, he brings a laptop that has the report of this battle. Nothing strange from it, just a normal bio-emerge, Digimon arrived then a little fight before it went back to the digital world. But it's so normal that it becomes strange for Reika, she keeps staring at one thing from the report.
"Isn't it a good thing that there are no casualities ma'am? Not even an injury, excluding the electric shock of course." Said the man as his superior frowned at the data he brought.
"That's what makes it strange, we were late and this one wasn't a small one either." Reika takes a deep breath, she then closes the laptop. "Monitor all of them, especially him. I want everything you can find about him on my desk by tomorrow."
Everyone is fully awake and ready for the day, they gather in front of the house, waiting for the sovereigns to come. All of them have their share of nervousness about what is going to happen, they're just hiding that from their friends. Meanwhile, Ai and Mako look as cheerful as ever, which gives mixed feelings to the older tamers. Same goes for Shaocung, she is also cheerful, but mostly thanks to her partner's presence.
"Boop!" Mako touches Gaomon's snout, startling the blue dog. He's not used to someone touching his nose, in fact Mako is the first one to do that. The boy keeps circling Gaomon, checking his body and comparing him to his dog at home. "Hand." It's very confusing why Mako asked him to do that, so he just opened his palm to him. "Hahaha, you're smart like our dog."
Juri who's talking with Takato stops and walks to them. "Mako..." She said with an expression of a mom who caught their son doing something naughty.
"Hehe, sorry~" Said Mako with a giggle. "Come on Juri, he's really is a boxer dog."
Despite it's quite rude, Juri just can't be mad at him. This is their first time in digital world after all, and none of their Digimon partners has a very close reminiscence of an animal. Lopmon technically looks like a bunny, but he still not as close as Gaomon to a dog. "We talked about that, right?" The boy has an awkward grin on his face, then runs away to check on Lopmon with his sister.
Meanwhile, Gaomon still baffled by what just happened. "It's okay Juri, he's not doing anything weird. I mean.. not that weird." He's somewhat okay and quite fond of Mako, he keeps asking him questions about digital world this morning, though Gaomon chose his words very carefully after what he heard last night. "How'd you feel, Juri? Are you uhh.. hungry?"
"I'm fine, instead of worrying about me.." Juri grabs Gaomon's gloved hand, holding the one that was struck by a knife before. To her surprise, there isn't hole or even wounds there. "It's healed already?"
Gaomon nodded. "Thanks to you, I got some data to replace it rather than creating it myself. Juri, I-"
A terrifying presence stops Gaomon, he turns back to see two sovereigns already arrived, Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon. There are Sinduramon and Vajramon with them as well, which is also scary in his eyes. At the same time, he's also in awe when he sees them, none of them are afraid or nervous when sovereigns are there. His eyes met Zhuqiaomon's, and he quickly takes a few steps back in fear even though the vermillion bird isn't asking him to leave, he's aware of his place. Unlike the tamers, he's not an important guess, so he's just listening from the back of the pack.
Their discussion is rather quick than everyone expected, it went like that mostly thanks to their night talk. Most of them are also not fond of the idea discussing the two missing Digimons in front of Ai and Mako, having them dejected before going on a dangerous journey isn't something that they wanted, especially with their already limited number of Digimons.
"So, let me repeat this. Your suggestion is going back to that.. freezing place, with only this?" Ruki said it in disapproval. "Devas are strong, I get that, but did you even see how many their numbers are?"
Azulongmon doesn't have a choice but to nod as his answer. "That's the best lead we have right now, Ryo went to that place with Pajiramon and Cyberdramon." That silences Ruki, she thinks so much that she forgets why they decided to go back there. "We're terribly sorry that we can only send Vajramon and Sinduramon with all of you."
"It's okay, we'll find a way to get them back." Said Takato with a firm tone, his eyes are burning with confidence despite their situation. Yamaki and Ruki could only sigh watching him, but he's the one who's able to lift their spirits in desperate times. "Is there anything else that we need to know?" Takato asked.
"That's all of it, I wish you luck for both of our s-"
"WAIT!"
Everyone looks at Gaomon, he runs to the front of both sovereigns. After that, he's just standing there, trembling. His mouth is hard to open, like glued inside out. He never expected it'd be hard to open his mouth when he's right in front of two sovereigns, now he even starts to look down when his eyes meet Zhuqiaomon's again. Juri quickly walks to him and tries her best to calm him down.
Zhuqiaomon finds this annoying yet he lets him be, he just doesn't want to argue with Azulongmon later. "Just speak it out, we don't have all day to spend here." He spoke calmly, although there still a hint of anger in his tone. He glanced at Azulongmon and his friend seemed to approve this way of talking.
After Juri's help and Zhuqiaomon's words, Gaomon finally able to utter some words. "Let me, let me go with them." He said it while looking straight into the sovereign's eyes. That surprised everyone and pissed off Zhuqiaomon even more.
"I'm all in if you get deleted by your own stupidity, but what can you even offer for them?" Replied the vermillion bird. "Don't act high and mighty after yesterday, don't push your luck too far. You're lucky enough to survive twice, get that through your mind."
Gaomon clenched his fist very hard, it's hard to swallow yet that's the truth. It's just no one except Zhuqiaomon that says it so bluntly, he's lucky enough to be alive thanks to Labramon and Ryo, then lucky enough that the tamers arrived in the digital world not far from him. If one of them turned out to be different, he was either deleted or captured by them again.
"You still earned this moment to ask that, but let me ask you one thing." Azulongmon leans down and stares at Gaomon. "Why do you need to go this far, Gaomon?"
It's not taking a long time for Gaomon to answer that, now his voice is way calmer and he looks composed. "Because.. Ryo saved me, it's only fair if I help his friends. And now he seems to be in trouble, I will help him back." He stares right at Azulongmon without any doubt in his face.
"That's not all of it, isn't it?" Gaomon surprised when the sovereign said that. "But okay, that's good enough, I'll let that slide for now. Vajramon, take them to that place."
All of them start to question each other, wondering what Azulongmon meant by that. Jian thinks it's a trial or some sort of it at first, but looking at their precious time he throws that idea away without saying a thing. Vajramon quickly led them to a certain place as Azulongmon ordered him to, but Ruki and Renamon were stopped by Zhuqiaomon. They see their friends walk away while still with both sovereigns.
"What now?" Ruki asked sternly.
"Hah, don't glare at me like that, brat." Zhuqiaomon snorts at her. "I deemed you good enough, for this."
In a place not far from that forest, there is a huge bubble that seems invisible at first. They could only see it as they got very close, it's just looking like a huge screen that shows nothing to hide what's actually behind it. Vajramon touches a spot and some part of it disappears, giving them a way to go in. Inside of it is a mini park, there are some trees with creatures on their branches.
"Are they Digimons too?" Asked Ai. These creatures have white skin with some blue marks on their belly and forehead, some fly down to see the guests. Ai carefully touches one of them and it smiles at her. "Hihi, you're cute. Are you a Digimon?" The creature isn't answering her, when she turns around to ask the older tamers, she finds that all of them have disbelief looks on their eyes.
Jian stands beside Yamaki, he's well aware of this creature's abilities. "DigiGnomes, so you finally join us, Yamaki?" Yamaki chuckles and shakes his head, then points at Juri and Gaomon. "Are you sure you don't want a partner yourself? Your job will be much easier, you know."
"Some things just aren't meant to be." Replied the blonde man. "And it's better to stay like this."
A DigiGnome lands in front of Juri and Gaomon, like it's already knows why they're coming to this place. The rest of them just watching from behind and let them play it out without any interference. Gaomon is confused about all of this, and why this creature is staring at him with a smile. "Why is it staring at me like that, Juri? Do you know-" He sees Juri take out her D-Ark, although he only knows it as a thing that Ruki used to help Renamon. "Is that yours? What's going on?"
"Ummm... Gaomon.." The blue dog nodded, still confused. Juri seems to be nervous yet smiling at the same time. "Say.. do you want to be my partner?"
Well that's for this chapter, mostly catching up with the eldest tamers. Not much to say on this one, but the last part of this chapter should be expected, no? Or did you expect something different?
Anyway, thanks for reading! See you in the next chapter!