Episode 15: The Digital Ruler's Agent

A small, purple dragon Digimon gazes up at an orb on a white pedestal. "How did he send any data to the other world? He's been sealed up for decades!"

The orb glows and emanates a voice. "I know not. But he is plotting to break free. It is your task to stop it."

"I will do anything to stop his return! I will go to the Human World!"

"Before you go, I must warn you." A projection radiates from the orb, projecting a Digivice. "Humans that have come into contact with Digimon have been carrying these. Some of them are friendly. Some of them are foes. In any case, humans and Digimon have made a connection with each other. Some of these humans are conduits for the data."

"Humans and Digimon…are connecting?"

Jellymon floats over to Shelby and plops herself on her head. "Whachu doin'?"

"I'm working on a way to detect Digital Waves." Shelby scritches at Jellymon's head. "I'm hoping to detect breaches before they happen."

"That's amazing!" Jellymon wraps her tentacles around Shelby.

"It's nothing, really. It's not functional yet. To get it going, I'm going to have to reverse engineer the analyzers at school."

"The same place where we met?"

Shelby nods. "The same exact place."

The moon casts a faint light over the streets of Digital Space. A light post flickers as a hole opens up. From it emerges the small purple Digimon. "The conduits must be here somewhere." It looks around for a couple moments.

"GRAAAAAAH!"

"What's that?!" The Digimon looks off into the distance. "I would rather avoid a fight." It runs off into the opposite direction.

Gazing into the stars, Lance slants his mouth with his hand balled against his mouth. "Hey, V-mon."

"Mm?"

"The Digimon crossing over are stronger than before. I keep thinking about what Edward said before. The more Digital Waves, the higher chance a Digimon will pass through. Does this mean the waves are more stable now? Does that mean…the Digital Gate might open?"

"Maybe…" V-mon lets out a yawn. "It's getting late, though."

Halfway smiling, Lance turns his head to V-mon. "Yeah, we should get some sleep."

Jellymon squirms on top of Shelby's head. "Are we allowed to be here on a weekend?"

"Yeah, the school is still open on weekends." Shelby turns on to the campus. "There's even some classes going on the weekends."

"That's crazy."

Shelby shrugs. "Some students just don't have the time during the normal week because they work full time."

"What do you mean 'full time'?"

"I guess jobs are a foreign concept for Digimon."

Lance's t.v. displays two characters fighting each other. "I almost have you, V-mon!" Lance meshes some buttons on his controller as the character he controls attacks.

"Think again!" V-mon moves his character out of the way before countering with a grab. CRUNCH! Lance's character goes down.

"VICTORY! PLAYER TWO!" The t.v. announces.

"Good game, V-mon!"

"Good game!" V-mon smiles.

Lance's Digivice beeps. Nearly throwing down the controllers, they almost leap off of the floor to stand up. "Let's get to it!" The two climb out of the window and begin running. Taking out his Digivice, Lance runs towards the direction of the breach.

The two huff and puff. "Lance! I see it!" V-mon points straight ahead to a purple dragon Digimon in a red vest.

"I see it!" The two stop running as they approach the Digimon.

The Digimon turns. "Who are you?"

Lance tries to steady his breathing. "I…I'm Lance. PHEW! And this is V-mon!"

V-mon steps closer to the Digimon. "What's your name?"

The Digimon looks closer at Lance's Digivice. "That device…Are you two connected?"

"V-mon and I are partners." Lance raises his eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

The small Digimon shakes its head. "It's not important."

"Hmmm… Well, anyways," Lance approaches it, "you just came here from the Digital World, right? We can help you find a safe place to stay.

The Digimon backs away. "I'm here on a mission."

"Maybe we can help!" V-mon smiles warmly.

The Digimon takes a couple more steps back. "I work alone!" The Digimon spins around and runs off.

"Wait!" Lance reaches for it as it turns the corner.

V-mon sighs. "Hope he'll be okay."

"Same here." He puts his hand back down. "What does he mean by 'mission'? There's Digimon that carry out missions?"

"I wonder if he serves for Yggdrasil." V-mon folds his arms.

"Yggdassil? Like the tree of life from Norse mythology?"

V-mon tilts his head. "What's Norse?"

Lance blinks a couple times. "Nevermind, what's Yggdrasil?"

"Yggdrasil is the king of the Digital World."

"What?!" Lance nearly shouts. "The Digital World has a king?"

"Yeah! Usually the Royal Knights carry out Yggdrasil's will."

Scratching his eye, Lance stares blankly at V-mon. "The Digital World is a lot more complicated than I thought."

V-mon looks to the direction the Digimon ran off in. "Who was that Digimon, anyways?"

Lance presses a few buttons on his Digivice, pulling up the Analyzer. "It says his name is Gumdramon."

=Digital Analyzer=

Name: Gumdramon

Level: Child

Attribute: Vaccine

Technique: Fire Vortex

"I've heard of him before but never seen him!" V-mon states. "Most only considered him as a legend!"

"That little thing…is a legend?" Lance balls his fist against his chin. 'Yggdrasil and Gumdramon…Are they connected?'

Shelby looks around the lab in Digital Space. "There's not even a hint of the battle with Chrysalimon."

Jellymon floats around the room. "I think Connor mentioned something about Digital Space resetting itself after each day."

"That's true." Shelby approaches the analyzer, setting a large bag down and pulling out a screw driver. "Let's get this apart." She starts to unscrew the back of it.

Jellymon expands her body and floats closer to Shelby. "Hey, I've been wondering: What motivates you?"

"Well… I want to help change things in some way. Make things better." Shelby places some of the screws aside. "I just see things wrong and I want to fix them."

"Is that why you became a hacker?"

"Well, not just a hacker. There's so much I want to learn and I'm not content on one thing."

"Is this why you prefer to stay home?"

Shelby stops for a moment. "Not really…" She takes her screwdriver off of the analyzer and turns to Jellymon. "Honestly, I just don't trust people. A lot of people make me nervous and can't stay around crowds for very long. And the things people have said to me make me distrust people even more. The things from older men, too… So, I just trust the little circle I have with Connor and Lance and the rest of our friends."

Floating backwards slightly, Jellymon looks to the floor. "I'm sorry, I pried too much."

"There's nothing to apologize for!" Shelby closes her eyes and smiles. "I trust you!"

Jellymon grins back at her. "Really?! Thank you!"

"Hm!" Shelby nods. "Let's get back to it!"

"Humans have become conduits for the data…" Gumdramon remembers. "I can't feel any of the data yet." Gumdramon folds his arms. "It's been difficult to pick up on anything with the Digital Waves interfering in this world."

Gumdramon walks through the alleyway and passes by some trash cans. "Grrrrrrrrrr…" Turning his head, he sees a dog knelt down and snarling at him. "RRRRRUFF!" The dog lunges at him. Gumdramon jumps and swings the hammer on his tail. "Arf!" After being smacked with the hammer, the dog retreats by the trash cans.

"Hm?" Gumdramon turns. "There's something that way." Breaking into a sprint, Gumdramon heads out of the alleyway.

"And it's done!" Shelby holds out a gun-like device with an antenna sticking out at the front.

"That was fast!" Jellymon collapses her body into her head and lands on Shelby's head.

"Now we can monitor Digital Waves in real time with this tracker!" Shelby swipes her finger across the screen to move the map. "See here?" She points to a wavy circle. "There's not too many waves here, the normal ones you would expect on a regular day. If we scroll a little bit more…aha!" She points to a bunch of wavy circles. "There's a high amount of waves here. There'll likely be a breach here sometime soon."

"That's amazing! You're so talented!"

"It's nothing, really." Shelby puts the tracker in her backpack. DING! She pulls out her phone and reads a text from Lance: 'Hey, this purple Digimon named Gumdramon seemed to be going in the direction of your school. If you're there today, he seems to be on a mission of some sort. Wouldn't tell me anything about it, but he doesn't seem dangerous.'

Jellymon reads through the text with her. "Did he break through while we were in there?"

"It seems so." Shelby shoves her phone back into her pocket. "Let's keep a lookout on the way home."

"Yeah!" Shelby pulls out her Digivice and transports them back to the human world. The pair exit the building and make their way across campus. Around the corner, a small purple Digimon runs in front of them.

"Excuse me!" Shelby calls out. The Digimon turns around to look at her. "Are you Gumdramon?"

"I don't have time for this." He turns around and continues on his way.

"Why is he running?" Jellymon scratches her head.

Shelby takes off her backpack, pulls out the tracker again, and points it in the directions Gumdramon ran towards, looking at the screen. "We need to go!"

As the street lights flicker and sparks shoot from data lines, Gumdramon comes to a stop. He looks at the open street, body tight and eyes narrowed. "It's coming."

A hole opens up, allowing a massive, furry Digimon to come out of it. "RAAAH!" The Digimon slams its rock covered fist down, creating a crater.

The crowd around them screams. "WHAT IS THAT?!"

"This is the Digimon from before!" The Digimon slams its fist into the building. "It's going to destroy the buildings!" He grits his teeth. "Gumdramon evol-!"

"Gumdramon!" Gumdramon turns around and sees Lance, Shelby, V-mon, and Jellymon running towards him. Lance turns his attention to the massive Digimon. "Another Digimon?!"

Shelby pulls out her Digivice. "Baboongamon."

=Digital Analyzer=

Name: Baboongamon

Level: Adult

Attribute: Vaccine

Technique: Mount Stone

"It's not safe here!" Gumdramon warns them. Shelby presses the button on her Digivice and transports them to Digital Space. "Back here…?"

"RAAAAAAWR!" Baboongamon beats its chest.

"Gumdramon, you said you have a mission. We can handle ourselves here." Lance smiles at Gumdramon.

"I don't know if you work for Yggdrasil, but you don't have to do it alone!" V-mon looks at Baboongamon. "We can help you!" He charges at Baboongamon. "V-mon evolve! …XV-mon!"

"RAAAAAR!" Baboongamon throws rocks from its fists at XV-mon. Taking flight, XV-mon avoids the attack.

"X-Laser!" XV-mon fires at Banboongamon. It jumps on to the side of one of the buildings and climbs up. Jumping off, it swings its tail with a rock at the end of it. XV-mon moves out of the way.

Jellymon floats towards Banboongamon coming down on them."My turn! Jellymon evolve! …TeslaJellymon!" Her body begins to spark as she ascends rapidly towards Banboongamon. "Vorsprite!" She collides with him, with enough force to knock him backwards.

Shelby crouches next to Gumdramon. "You don't have to tell us what your mission is, but we can at least work together from time to time."

"Grrrrrr…" Baboongamon looks up at XV-mon and TeslaJellymon.

"X-Laser!"

"Punishöne!" The two fire their attacks at Baboongamon.

"GRRRAAA!" Baboongamon screams as his data dissipates.

Lance turns to Gumdramon. "Even if you work alone, it's okay to accept help sometimes."

"It's my responsibility!" Gumdramon protests.

"You sound like someone else we know." Shelby closes her eyes and lets out a hard sigh.

"Hrrrnnnnnmmmmm…" Gumdramon twirls around and storms off.

"Wait!" Shelby tries to call out.

"Let him go," Lance starts. "We'll see him again." BZZT! Lance pulls out his phone and sees a text from Connor. His eyes quickly scans the message. "We need to go!"

"Where are we going?" XV-mon looks at Lance's phone.

"To Edward's hideout!"