"We're almost there!" says Lua

Blue energy ropes pull Team Twilight back to Drake's computer. Lua moves ahead, while Komet, looking upset, holds Sonne's neck with her arms. The Flaremon takes Hawks' corpse in his arms. He leaves the body on the 'floor' in front of Drake's firewall, then they cross it.

As they return back to their temporary home, Lua notices that the semi-invisible gate to project themselves in the physical space feels different from the other times. She shrugs it off and jumps straight to the other side anyway. The other two follow along, and they all materialize in Drake's room. They don't realize what actually happened until…

"What the fuck?" screams Drake

"F-F-FIRE!" screams Ferdinand

William grabs a pillow and hits the blanket that just started catching fire. Sonne stands up in surprise, but he hits his head on the ceiling because of his size.

Lua looks up in shock. "Wait, bigger puss bonked his head?"

Komet looks around frantically, slowly processing what is actually happening. She quickly moves towards the bed and grabs the blanket. "Oh shit! Sonne, watch your tail! We actually materialized in a physical form in Drake's room!"

"How the fuck did that happen? And those two in these big forms- SHIT! MY COMPUTER!" Drake quickly sits in front of the computer to see if it died for exceeding the memory capacity, since the two Digimon in their Perfect forms will occupy a couple of terabytes. But to his surprise and shock, none of Team Twilight's files are there anymore.

The ruckus goes on for a few minutes until they finally calm down to talk it out. Now, Ferdinand pets Sonne's mane, amazed by touching a digital monster.

William pushes his glasses back on his face and grits his teeth. "If I still had any traces of skepticism about this whole 'digital monster' idea, it's all gone now. I can't argue against that, regardless of how absurd the idea sounds"

Drake crosses his arms and looks at Team Twilight. "Let's start from the beginning. How the hell did you do that? Until earlier, you were just holograms!"

Sonne shakes his head. "Unfortunately I do not have an answer for this question. However, it is worth mentioning that the moment we jumped from cyberspace, I felt a familiar feeling, the same one from the time we had to rescue Komet. For some reason, this feeling still persists, and it is coming from…" He looks directly at Lua.

"Huh? Why are you looking at me like that? Am I smelling weird or something- Wait, the familiar feeling!" Lua leans her weapons on the wall and shakes her right arm, dropping the electronic component from her gauntlet. "I think it's this! I found it on Chief Hawks' pocket"

"Chief Hawks? Did you find Police Chief Hawks?" asks Drake

"Uuh, ahm… That's a short long story…" says Komet, while frowning. She proceeds to tell them about the battle that unfolded at the 'gate' of the telecom network.

"Are you saying there's a corpse lying in front of my cyberdoor?"

"I couldn't just leave it floating in a random spot of cyberspace, you know? We might hate the police, but at least let's give some dignity to his body. His family deserves the body back"

"I'd just leave that piece of shit rotting there"

"Do bodies rot in cyberspace to begin with? What happens if they are just left there?" asks William

Everyone looks at each other. No one knows the answer.

"Well, when we saved Komet, the cyberspace made her bleed slower, which is why taking her to the Digital World to save her life was possible. So maybe his body won't decay at all…?" says Lua

"Another reason to do something about it. Who knows, maybe they clog the traffic or something, but this is still not the biggest of my worries" says Komet

"And what's your plan? Call the police to fetch the corpse here, and make them 'confirm' that 'I killed him too'?" asks Drake

"Of course not! But we should at least make it possible in some way"

"This asshole just brought me trouble. We can just make it vanish for all I care"

"If necessary, I can incinerate the soft tissue and leave only the bones, so they will not be able to tell that the remains belonged to Chief Hawks at sight. My flames are powerful enough to make it quick. All it will remain is to find a proper place to leave the bones to be easily found and that will not be possible to track back to us" says Sonne

Komet chokes on her own saliva and facepalms. "Sonne, please, think about what you just said!"

Drake laughs, while the rest just nervously look at each other.

The lion gasps and covers his face in embarrassment. "A-Apologies! My intention was not to idealize a way to dispose of the body like a professional murderer, but to just merely suggest the best outcome for all parties"

Komet sighs. "It's fine… I guess there's not really much we can do about this matter now… The body will be left there until we have an opportunity to safely leave it somewhere else". She takes the component from Lua, shaking her head in disappointment. "It seems he was onto something, but the goop monster found him. We finally put an end to that piece of crap, but it left nothing! Absolutely nothing! And we had no way to capture or restrain that monster… Even our main, only clue was completely destroyed! I can't believe I'm back at square one! And to think that I had the answer at some point, but my head…"

"Well then, give me access to your brain, file or whatever. The answer is still there, but corrupted, right? Let me get in and problem solved" says Drake

"Are you insane? I'd rather die than let someone get in my brain like this!"

"Do you want to bring justice to Hydra or not?"

"Would you let me enter your mind for that reason, when you don't even know how things work?"

The two start arguing. Lua watches the argument and frowns. "I don't get it. Why is Komet insisting on helping Drake if they'll fight every time there's a chance? It's clear that he hates her and doesn't care about the effort she is putting into all this!"

"It's more complicated and complex than that"

Lua turns her head towards the voice. It's Ferdinand, also frowning while still brushing Sonne's mane with his hand. She puts her hands on her waist. "How is it complex? Even though he's being helped, he's being extremely rude and inconsiderate! He's an ass even to his friends! Did you think I didn't notice that you got scared of him at some point after talking to him?"

He scratches his head. "W-well, yeah… But this is not exactly Richie's fault, I promise…! He's actually a cool guy, it's just… He has trouble keeping his feelings in check. After all, he didn't really have a loving family… He was actually blamed for everything to favor his brother, regardless of actually being his fault or not. It was so bad that he ran away from his house before adulthood and never returned"

She rolls her eyes. "Here it comes, sob story for this asshole again. Fine, I'll listen"

"O-oh, don't worry, I won't go too deep into it, I promise! I won't lie, he was kinda mean-spirited at first. Will and I only stuck around in the beginning because he was our way to be protected from other bullies while we rewarded him for that. But at some point he changed and became a great friend and a chill dude!"

She looks at the argument still going on and looks back at the timid guy. "Aham, veeeery chill"

"Ahm… Despite the hostility and constantly telling us how much he hates hacker Komet, today I noticed that he kinda worries about her…? But it's kinda he doesn't want to admit that for whatever reason…"

"Why would you think that?"

"When you left to find out who Leviathan is…"

Several minutes ago

…Richie was there, typing lots of stuff, probably related to hacking. S-sorry, I don't know much about this stuff! I'm just a clueless fan! Well, at some point, it seems he lost connection with you guys, and he got very angry and panicked. It's not everyday you see him panicking, so I got very worried!

"B-boss! Is everything okay…?" asks Ferdinand

"Do I look okay for you, you dumbass?" says Drake

He lets out a short shriek and cowers a bit.

"There's a communication error between me and Team Twilight. It's that ternary monster again, and it probably ambushed them!"

"A-ah, that's horrible! Can you do anything about this?"

He punches the table. "Only hope. Hope they will destroy that piece of shit. I'll keep my eyes on the files. As long as it there and intact, they are still fine"

And the room went silent, which is weird when you have Richie around, especially if it persists for several minutes. Then I noticed his very tired look, as if he didn't really sleep much. He noticed I was staring at his face, so he gave me his mean look, ugh.

"Did you lose something on my face?"

"A-a-ahm…!" Ferdinand stammers, swallows hard and looks a bit away. "You look tired, very tired… Did you actually sleep…?"

Drake growls and rolls his eyes, then turns his chair around, facing him and giving him full attention. "I've spent the whole damn night and morning dealing with that shitty ternary virus. It was making a mess, making my computer crash a lot, but of course I was the winner!"

"Woah! How did you do this?"

He gave me lots of explanations, but then I remembered that I don't know much about programming, so I didn't understand most of the things. But regardless, I knew it required a lot of hard work, knowledge and effort, and he enjoyed talking about it, so I found all this incredible!

"What did you do with hacker Komet and the others during all this?" asks Ferdinand

I made this question because I knew how much he hates her, so I wanted to know more about their current dynamic. After all, they are joining forces despite the animosity. I was curious - and a bit scared too - about how he used the chance to torture her, or at least scare her out of spite. His answer surprised me.

Drake smirks. "They have limited freedom in my computer, so it was easy to build a protective wall around them. Since those sleepyheads were long gone in their dreams, they didn't even notice the threat. This is just how badass I am"

"Y-you… Protected them… So they could sleep well…?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I need her alive to prove my innocence, you understand?"

Well, yeah, it's scary when Richie yells, but still… He would at least troll them under normal circumstances. Then, William asked questions of what else he did, and it seems after he contained the virus, he spent the rest of the night using what he just learned from the protective walls to build a defense program against ternary infection for your three, and only went to bed long after the sun had already risen.

Present time

"Cool story bro, but this only made it clearer that he's doing that only to save his ass. As soon as it's all over, he will start being a piece of shit to Komet again" says Lua. She looks at the two still arguing. Sonne sighs and approaches them, then defuses the fight.

Ferdinand shakes his head. "I know Richie well enough to know this is not his normal response for people he hates. Take this argument as an example. Despite going on for long, Richie didn't go physical. He would have punched her already under normal circumstances, especially now that he can actually hit her. Instead, we just got a shouting contest"

"He's probably scared that we would put him in his place. We are dangerous, after all!"

"He doesn't care about that, trust me"

The Crescemon shakes her head, still feeling confused. "You're just defending him because he's your friend! Komet also kinda defends him because he was her friend too! But we all see he is an annoying brat! What's wrong with you guys?"

"They were friends, you say?"

"Well, yeah, this is what she says at least"

He rubs his chin, nodding to himself. "That makes much more sense now"

"What makes sense?"

"At some point, when Richie was panicking, he said 'Tiny, you bitch'. I thought he was saying something was tiny, but it didn't make sense in that context. 'Tiny' is actually a nickname for hacker Komet, right?"

"Uhm… Ah, yes! We've heard him using that too, and I got confused, because it sounds cute, but it came from someone like him. She explained that she was small when they met or something"

"Then I have a faint idea of what's truly going on. I've watched enough anime to recognize this trope"

"Trope…?"

"It's a case of good old friends that became enemies because of something very impactful, some kind of betrayal. But they still hold that memory of friendship in their hearts, which makes them even more hostile to each other, because remembering that hurts them"

"A friendship gone wrong…?"

He nods. "And judging from the little I saw here… I believe the one who did something awful was… Hacker Komet"

Lua immediately scowls and raises her voice. "How dare you accuse her of doing awful things? You know nothing about her to say something like this!"

Ferdinand cowers, covering his head. "I-I'm sorry! Please, don't hit me!"

She frowns, immediately feeling bad for yelling. She crouches and puts her hands on his shoulder. "Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! I won't hurt you, I promise! I… I want to hear why you think that"

He looks up, still feeling a bit scared, then stands straight again. "W-well… You see… Richie is always aggressive and stuff… While hacker Komet is still around despite his hostility, when she could have gone somewhere else… What would be the reason for that, if not holding guilt from what she's done in the past, and trying to make up for it…?"

Lua tries to contest that, but nothing comes to her mind. She looks down, feeling very concerned. "What are you actually hiding from us…?"

Komet sighs distraught, crosses her arms and looks away. Drakes also crosses his arms, rolls his eyes and looks at the opposite side.

"So much hard work down the drain because I took too long to return…! What do I do now…? That was my last card, so I'm out of ideas… On top of that, we don't have much time left… Soon the restructured 'privacy' laws will take effect, and we'll have little to no room to do anything…" says Komet. Tears start to roll down her face. "I-I'm sorry, Hydra…!"

Drake grabs her left arm and forcefully turns her around. "Don't you fucking dare cry already, you bitch. We get it, you've burned your whole stupid brain already, but it's still not over. There are other people here who can think of a new idea, you know? Don't forget that my life literally depends on this, so raise your stupid head and don't stop moving!"

She nods. "I… I wasn't thinking about giving up, don't worry…"

"Good. Although it still sucks that the new regulations will make everything as private as toilets with glass doors" He releases her, and notices that his hand is stained red. He looks in shock and quickly lifts her sleeve, in which he sees a stab injury. "Holy shit, Tiny! Your arm! How are you feeling fine with that big hole there?"

"A-ah… This… I forgot it was injured, and didn't realize it was that bad…"

"How the hell didn't you realize that? Ferdy, do something about this!"

"I'm coming!" says Ferdinand. He approaches her with a medical kit and treats her injury in the best way he can.

"Well… You know that I actually lost my left arm, right? This functional arm is just a digital fix… It works perfectly, but I don't feel pain there" says Komet

"Woah! You have more bruises on your body!"

She looks at her own arm. "Ah, don't worry about them… All I need is some time away from danger and a good rest in cyberspace to recover, before I end up getting myself killed. Oh, and I need a new wristband for my smartwatch too"

Sonne nods. "That is correct. You have gotten involved in danger more often than we wish for. Not only your body needs rest, but also your mind"

"Unfortunately my mind still has lots of works to do, so no vacation for it yet"

In the meantime, Drake walks towards his smartwatch's box, grabs one of the extra wristbands and throws it at Komet. "Enjoy"

She grabs it in the air. "Thank you"

"My boy, you didn't tell me you brought more guests to my house…!"

Everyone whips their heads towards the voice and sees the old lady standing on the stairs while looking at everyone, especially at the Digimon.

Drake gasps. "W-what did I say about knocking first?"

"I heard a commotion coming from this room, so I got worried" says the old lady

"I guess more people heard the big argument, huh" says William, as his glasses get foggy.

Sonne and Lua discreetly look at Komet awaiting for her commands, but she just stands frozen in place. The lass quickly shakes her head and forces herself to act. "A-ah, hey…! S-sorry for coming unnoticed…! Well, these are-"

She approaches Sonne and touches him. "What an amazing costume…! Kids these days sure are impressive, aren't they? Those new technology things sure help a lot, too!" The old lady holds her own hands together and shifts her attention to Drake. "The forecaster just announced that a big storm is coming tonight, and everytime this happens, we lose power for at least two days. You're always stuck here using your electronics, so I thought it was a good idea to bring this bad news to you"

Drake groans and facepalms. "Are you serious? Fuck my life"

She goes back upstairs. "Well then, it seems I have more mouths to feed now. I'll prepare a nice soup for everyone. Come in one hour, please! I don't mind if you don't remove your suits, so don't worry about that!"

The old woman leaves. Everyone looks at each other, not knowing what to say.

William whispers. "Well, at least it was easy to deceive her I guess"

"Are bigger puss and I really coming along…?" asks Lua

"I guess so…" says Komet, still nervous. "We already got caught, and she's gonna cook for all of us. I'll feel bad if I let her down"

An hour passes, and everyone goes upstairs as soon as the old lady calls that food is ready. Due to their sizes, Sonne and Lua have to squeeze their bodies through the door to get to the other side. The humans sit around the table, while the Digimon sit on the floor, hiding from windows as much as possible. Everyone looks awkwardly at each other and wonders for how long they can keep the act.

The old woman grabs a big old pan and places it on the table. As she opens the lid, a delicious smell of chicken soup comes out. She also places a basket with bread there. "I hope you enjoy my food!"

Ferdinand is the first to get the plate and the ladle to get his food. Everyone is silent, and Komet is wondering how her Digimon are gonna eat without scaring the woman.

The elderly woman looks at everyone again. "Don't be so shy…! I heard how energetic you were in the basement" She looks at everyone, one by one, and stops her gaze on Drake. "Ah, that's right! You don't need to keep hiding, Richard Heion my boy! Just be yourself, if this is gonna make everything lively again! Come, take this hood off your head and wash the dye off your hair whenever you feel like it!"

Drake chokes and tries to remain composed. "W-what are you talking-"

"You didn't really think my sharp old eyes wouldn't notice it, did you? Not that you are that good at hiding it, not from me, no. Don't worry, I won't call the police. If I wanted, I'd have done that long ago!"

Everyone looks shocked, especially Drake, who starts to panic. "B-but how? I-I made sure it wasn't obvious…!"

"Don't worry, it's not obvious for other people, no. I just have skills in this kinda stuff. After all, I was once a partner in crime! My eyes just got sharp in detecting suspicious behaviors, resulting from many years of getting rid of evidences and disposing of corpses"

Komet swallows hard. She looks at her Digimon and sees the shock in their faces as well.

The old lady continues. "Of course, I got arrested and sent to prison for years, and never got myself involved in these kinds of crimes again. Now I stick to taking care of my beautiful little farm and housing problematic people, as long as they are not bad problematic people". She looks at the others and bounces. "Oh, pardon my lack of politeness. My name is Maria"

William removes his glasses, since it doesn't stop getting foggy. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Maria. My name is William. I'd like to know why you help 'problematic people'"

"Nice to meet you too, William. You see, there are people who are simply kicked out of their houses for being considered a problem, who are persecuted for whatever stupid reason or just running away from the police. A lot of people do background checks before housing someone in their own houses, but I don't, so I make it easier for these people to have somewhere to stay until they have their lives sorted out"

He nods, still feeling concerned. "So this is why it was 'too easy' for him to come live here. Besides, people won't think you are dangerous because… You know. But what would be 'bad problematic people'...?"

"Actual criminals who take pleasure in hurting people. I'd make the police catch them in a way or another. Unless you are in the extreme, like serial killers, rapists, child molesters… I don't want these people here at all"

"Uuh… What if I turned out to be one of the 'extreme'…?" asks Drake

Maria walks towards the wall and lifts a carpet, revealing a drawer. She grabs the key from her pocket and unlocks it. Then, she takes out a pistol, a rifle and lastly a shotgun, in which she points at Drake. "Then I'd deal with it myself. Ptchoo!"

Everyone gasps in even more shock and looks at each other with even more concern in their faces, almost fearing for their lives at this point. Drake leans back with his eyes open wide. "WOAH! Don't just aim this shit at me like that!"

She giggles. "Don't worry, my boy, it's not loaded. I'll not harm you, you are in the clear after all" She puts her guns away and locks the drawer. "If you really were a bad, evil person, the spirits wouldn't help you, and there they are, three spirits guarding you, right before my eyes!"

He raises an eyebrow, still feeling shocked internally. "What…?"

She points at Team Twilight. "I told you already that nothing can escape my sharp eyes. Did you really think I thought they were just friends in costume?" She holds her own hands together and bows. "The spirits of the lion, the rabbit and the elk. I always believed in your existence, o guardian spirits! It's a honor to have you around"

Komet gives a nervous smile and looks at her Digifriends. Sonne looks uncertain of how to proceed, while Lua grins nervously under her mask.

Maria approaches the lass and holds her hands. "I'm very sorry for tricking you like that, but I really needed a way to show you that you are safe in my presence too…! I've seen the two of you in your feral forms, but you three always disappeared the moment I approached…"

Lua approaches the old lady and nods. "I'm impressed, truly impressed on how perceptive you are! Don't worry about the trick. In fact, this only showed how knowledgeable you are about us! Thank you for taking care of Richard, Maria! You have our gratitude. Truly a guardian in the mortal realm"

Komet holds her gasp and sees Lua discreetly winking at her. She could also feel that the bunny isn't happy about talking 'positively' about Drake, but at least she is doing her best to get the best outcome from the weirdest situation. She looks at the others while Maria is still distracted looking at Lua and Sonne, and motions them to play along.

"AHEM, well yeah, they told me to keep it a secret" says Drake, almost rolling his eyes.

"Are there more kinds of spirits? Like different kinds of animals?" asks Ferdinand, genuinely curious about that.

Maria nods. "And they are not just different kinds of animals. Each animal carries a different message, a symbolism for you. In your friend's case, he got three of them. The lion represents pride and valor. The rabbit, confidence and good luck. And the elk, passion and determination. Oh, and they can also take humanoid and animal shapes, but you've seen this already I believe!"

"Is she talking about their Adult forms…?" wonders Komet

"Richard is truly fortunate to have them around! So, I feel obliged to take care of him when the spirits return to their realm, and this is what I'm gonna do"

Drake smiles nervously. "Thank you, granny!"

"Okay, now let's all feast before the food gets cold! And I'll apologize in advance in case the food is not good enough for the three of you, guardian spirits, but I promise these mortal hands did their best"

"O-oh, no, no, I'm sure it's gonna be delicious!" says Komet

The whole group starts eating, including the Digimon, despite the plates and cutlery being a bit too small for their hands. The table is a bit silent because of the awkward situation, so Maria decides to tell them stories about her crime days. She even shows a tattoo she got on her back, made by an inmate. Drake, although still nervous, seems to be enjoying it the most, followed by Lua. Komet never expected that she would learn from a profissional how to hide corpses, but she hopes she'll never need this knowledge in her life, especially now that they are keeping a corpse in cyberspace. She spends the rest of her meal time wondering if Maria's guns can kill Digimon, but she obviously doesn't want to anger the old lady enough to find this out.

Time goes by, and the group goes back to the basement. Drake washes the black dye on his hair away, returning it to its red color, and brushes it in the style he loves the most, since the granny figured out his secret anyway.

"That… Certainly was something" whispers Komet, still processing the whole situation.

"You better not let this 'guardian spirit' bullshit get over your head!" Drake whispers back, pointing at Komet's face.

She scowls and walks away. "Never intended to"

"Uuh… Boss… A-are you sure you are safe here…? Aren't you afraid that Mrs. Maria can just shoot you down in your sleep…?" whispers Ferdinand

Drake smirks while shoving a wig in his pocket, in case he needs to quickly disguise himself. "Now I'm truly feeling safe! An experienced granny protecting me? Hell yeah!"

William facepalms. "Since the moment we entered this house my day got crazier than anime"

Komet leans on the wall and crosses her arms. "Guys, not wanting to be a party pooper or anything, but we should think of a plan, since a storm is coming. We are gonna be out of power and internet for at least a two days, after all"

Drake growls, but nods. "Unfortunately she is right. Granny has no power generator here, so we'll be completely in the dark, which means our 'guardian spirits' won't be able to stay outside the computer, since the gadget will run out of battery too-" He thinks for a moment, and then looks at the digital trio. "Wait, you three are materialized, can't you just stay around?"

She looks at Sonne, who looks at Drake and speaks up. "From my little experience, our freedom in the physical space is limited by a digital field. Metropolises like Soutriver, that are heavily connected with many digital devices and networks, possess strong fields, which would allow us to easily move around the city, even in case of a local power outage. However, I have felt this house has little to no digital field, so our space is limited by the range of the field generated by the gadget"

He groans. "Makes sense, we are in the middle of nowhere after all"

"But then what would happen if suddenly a blackout happens and makes all digital fields disappear while you are materialized? Richie did say that your files are not in the computer anymore" asks William

Sonne shakes his head. "I cannot answer for certain. Perhaps we would simply disappear for not having our beings anchored anywhere. Except for Komet, who would only lose the digital reparations on her body, which means if she does not get immediate help, she will quickly bleed to death"

He takes things out of his side bag. "Then good thing I brought my laptop and a powerbank. This way we won't have nasty surprises. Oh, I also have a wireless modem. I just don't know if it's gonna work well here"

Drake snorts. "You son of a bitch! You lost all the rights to say that I am the one who can't live without a computer"

The nerd opens his laptop, logs in and gives it to Drake. "You can have it for now, you will need it more than me after all. Install anything you want, I don't care what it is as long as it's not a virus to destroy my computer"

"Awn, I was so ready to set up a fork bomb here- Oh wait, Team Twilight is already a virus, and they pretty much can do that!"

Komet facepalms. "Anyway, does that mean we're gonna host ourselves in William's laptop now?"

He types on the laptop. "I have a better idea. Since we will have access to the internet after all - if it doesn't suck, that is - I'll place you in the clouds and connect my smartwatch there too, so that I can contact you from multiple devices. And that's not all. I'll give you freedom to roam in the internet, so that you can do your thing with your monsters after we run out of battery"

"Finally some freedom! Took you long enough"

"Behave or I'll revoke it!"

Lua quickly approaches Komet and grabs her and Sonne by their hands. "Ah, so let's go back to cyberspace, shall we? Then we can have our files moved to a better place! How do we do this…?"

"Hey! Devolve yourselves before doing it, or you will make the laptop explode!"

"Right" Komet nods and reverts Sonne and Lua back to Firamon and Lekismon. Everyone gets shocked when they see one of Lua's ears looking smaller than the others, and she explains what happened, assuming it was a little bit healed after evolving, but she doesn't know if it'll ever grow back to normal. Then, the trio jumps inside the laptop. After being granted permission to enter the system, they wait at the system's desktop.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't actually go on another argument with Drake. I have met the argument quota already, especially after, uuh, that whole thing with Mrs. Maria" says Komet

"Better safe than sorry! So, what are our next steps?"

She summons her notebook and opens it in her to-do list, then sighs. "I didn't recover my lost memory, our crucial clue is corrupted and has no use anymore, and the goop monster refused to answer any of my questions, while leaving nothing behind after being destroyed… On a positive note, we can be sure that InIATeS has nothing to do with that, and that Leviathan is really associated with Infection. Also, we have the weird device that you found on Chief Hawks. If only we could figure out the origin of that"

"Perhaps this could be our next lead to find more clues" says Sonne

"Invade Hawks' computer? I doubt the old man left anything relevant there, but it's something we shouldn't ignore for sure. I can also try studying the source code of the device if Drake doesn't do it already"

He quickly reads Komet's to-do list. "Another idea that comes to my mind is that we could focus on hacker Hydra's sentence, and investigate the people behind the idea of the death penalty. After all, if they believed killing him was necessary, then perhaps we are dealing with a case of witness elimination"

"A-Ahm… Well… This is not a bad idea per se, but I'm not ready to open yet another can of worms, you know- Oh, we will be moved already. Get ready!"

Drake finishes transferring the trio to the online storage, linking it to William's laptop and his own smartwatch, so that Team Twilight has two projecting points to the physical space. While William and Ferdinand are too busy discussing how scary Mrs. Maria is, and hoping the 'guardian spirits' can protect them from being shot and their bodies hidden forever, Drake lifts the cover on Hydra's computer, and notices a new prompt regarding the restoration process.

He gets closer. It's a prompt he never saw in his life. Something about using data to regenerate core and a warning that the process will take time. He shakes his head. "Whatever it is, you have to wait". He turns the computer off and unplugs everything.

"What's that second computer for? Is that Hydra's drive?" asks William

"This is none of your business. Try snooping and you will see what will happen to your nose"

Some time later, Team Twilight projects themselves in the room, but only as holograms. They discuss for a long time what they're gonna do. William takes note of everything to keep everything organized.

"So, Tayna and her digital monsters will look for a way to access Police Chief Hawks' computer or any other online account, correct?"

She nods. "Being hosted in the clouds has its disadvantages, but at least we won't be stuck in the computer when losing internet connection, since they are always online - as long as they don't have server problems or close for maintenance, that is. If we succeed, we'll wait until the power returns, so Drake can initiate the breaching"

He nods. "And boss will try cracking the materialization device to see if he finds any trace of its origin, correct?"

"That's the plan, although according to, uh, Komet, if it's like the InIATeS project, it'll take a hell of a time to decode the shit on this weird thing, so we're also gonna think in other ideas to figure out who Leviathan is" says Drake

Komet nods. "Even after six months, I couldn't fully understand the one I was working on, but I was getting close to finishing it"

"Then we have a plan," says William, closing his notebook. "I'll let my parents know that I'll have no signal for several hours"

"C'mon, you're already an adult, you don't need to keep telling mommy and daddy everything you do, y'know?" says Drake

William ignores him and sends the message anyway. Then, Komet tells William and Ferdinand everything about her investigation on Don Werisley and Leviathan, and after some time, they start brainstorming ideas for other ways to find more clues about Leviathan. Hours goes by, and the first lightning flashes under the door, followed by the thunder a few seconds later. It doesn't take long for them to start hearing heavy rain. Then, the light goes out.

Mrs. Maria walks downstairs holding a candle on a saucer, and places it on the table next to the group. Since Team Twilight is still there as projection, the old woman takes the chance to praise them a little more, which makes Lua happy and Drake rolls his eyes. They stay up until very late in the night, and when the laptop starts running out of battery, Team Twilight returns to the storage, while the boys go to sleep.

They stay out of power for about three days. Despite that, when they had enough daylight, they worked as hard as possible to think about any kind of ideas, no matter how stupid they were. Then, on the third day without electricity, they spend their time thinking on the best ideas from all the mess of ideas.

"I really like this one!" says Ferdinand

Drake grabs the piece of paper. "Investigate the background of all victims and find a link between them…?"

"Yeah! We know that Werisley's victims seemed random, but he always knew a lot about them, right?"

"Fredy is right. He always contacted the victims knowing exactly what they had and what they needed, which means his leaker friend is either a mega stalker or already had access to this kind of information" says William

"You know they could just have breached lots of databases and taken info from them, right? And big breaches don't go unnoticed" says Drake

"That's true, but who said it was a breach in a database? It could be a online service or even a mall they all went at some point in their lives, I don't know"

He sighs. "The idea is not bad in theory, but did it come to your mind how big the list will be for each person? How much info gathering will I have to do per person?"

"Good thing we can help you, boss. If we gather all our findings in Excel, then we can easily find the common points between the victims. Let's focus on services they used, places they went, things like that"

"Hmph, I guess this is the best we got for now, huh? Then I better see everyone working hard as soon as the power is back!"

The next day, they finally get electricity back. The first thing Drake does after the power stabilizes is turning Hydra's computer on. He inserts the password and gets the weird prompt again, but this time he connects the internet cable to the desktop and proceeds with the core regeneration, whatever that is. Then, he boots up his own computer.

"Let's go, boys, let's show this Leviathan person that they can't hide from us forever!"

During the days they couldn't go to the physical space, Team Twilight went on a mission to look for places they can access to investigate the Hawks matter further. Unlike the other days, Komet stayed behind, controlling things remotely, just like the 'old days' - the hacker using their tools - since Drake gave them freedom to do so.

They are currently resting when Komet decides to call Anpu, hoping that the Corrosion Virus matter is finally solved, since she believes they destroyed the source. She waits for a few minutes, until someone picks up the call. To her surprise, it projects the bust of Prof. Bokomon.

"Hi Komet! Long time no see!" he says, waving frantically.

"Oh, hi Prof. Bokomon! Anpu is busy, I see! I have some questions for you then. Aside from the already existing Infected Digimon, is the Corrosion Virus still coming to your world…?" she asks

"I can't say for sure… It seems something horrible regarding the Corrosion Virus happened recently in Quettas, like, something massive related to overflowing virus data! Unfortunately I don't have the exact information on what happened there. But I can say that things are not looking good there"

She grits her teeth. "So we can't even know for sure if we eradicated the Virus"

"Worry not, Komet. Finding Leviathan is possibly the final key to solve both the Corrosion Virus problem and the Hydra mystery. I am confident we will soon put an end to all this" says Sonne

Bokomon nods. "And you have time for it, too! According to Rasielmon, the Three Archangels are a bit too busy solving the matter in Quettas, so they still had little progress in their plan to travel to your world"

Komet nods. "Good to hear"

"Now, I also have some things to say. Congratulations for evolving your friends to Perfect without getting yourself killed in the process!"

She frowns. "Really? Is this the first thing you think when they evolve?"

"Gee, I wonder why" scoffs Lua

"Okay, I kinda did that with Sonne, but Lua evolved on her own. Happy now?"

"You are learning, that's progress!" says Prof. Bokomon. "Talking about progress, you fused again after the last time we called. How did it go, and how's your body?"

"Well, since one week has passed since then, it's basically fully recovered from the bruises I got from overclocking again. I don't know for how long I was unconscious, though. But the fusion went well, and I remember everything from Icarumon"

"Good, good! At this point, you are almost a Digimon, since you can also use special attacks from our weapons, haha! But that still means you shouldn't abuse that, since your body still degrades from fusing. Oh, and a warning… You've gotten two Perfects now. If you ever consider fusing with them in these forms… You should be very, VERY careful!"

"With my body, you mean?"

"That too, but more so about the environment. I assume you are aware of what happens when you become Icarumon, right?"

"We generate a high amount of data that results in an explosion for combining opposing forces"

"Exactly. Now imagine this, but with evolutions of higher magnitude"

Komet swallows hard.

Prof. Bokomon opens his notepad and turns some pages. "I know we've talked about that before, but be careful if you ever consider doing it. I've calculated the theoretical data produced from it, and it's immense, so there's a chance of having a big collateral effect on the environment. I hope my calculations are wrong, but according to it, fusing with those two in their Ultimate forms is a Digital Hazard. It'll generate so much data that the Digital World will most likely not survive from the effects of fusing such powerful opposing forces!"

"I… Will not do that with Ultimates then. But in case it happens with Perfects, I'll pay attention to the impact on the environment and report back to you"

"Thanks for understanding! That's all I wanted to say. Good luck with your things!" He closes his notepad, waves frantically and his projection disappears.

She lowers her arm and stares at the void. "So, finding Leviathan is most likely the final key for everything, huh… Who would have thought your problems and my problems would be connected to the same person… I guess you were really lucky to find me for that. Despite getting closer to get what I'm looking for, this is making me more and more nervous, just like the first time…"

"Maybe it's excitement because it's almost over! The things we are fighting for will finally have a resolution!" says Lua

"You know what they say: don't count your chickens before they hatch"

Sonne tilts his head. "Count chickens…?"

"Ah, right! That just means to not take anything for granted until we actually finish it. After all, as Murphy's law states: 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong'"

Lua scowls. "Come on, don't be a downer!"

Komet shrugs. "Hey, at least this way I don't get disappointed"

Some days pass, and at some point, Drake summons them to the room.

"Welcome back, 'guardian spirits'" says Drake

"It's been almost a week. Was the power out for that long?" asks Komet

"It returned three days ago, but we didn't need your help"

"Direct and honest"

"Enjoying my directness, yeah? Then lemme do this again. We're not gonna invade Chief Hawks' stuff. There's somewhere else that I want your team to go first, and you have no right to say 'no' to that, understand?"

"...huh?"