Chapter Two - Obedience is Truth?
The cave walls were lined with a bio-luminescent moss which gave off a pale yellow glow, and as Tai's team progressed deeper into the indistinct gloom of the cave system he could not help but be preoccupied sickly pallor the sparse lighting gave his three subordinates. The persistent feeling of unease which had possessed Tai since before their landing was now forming a persistent knot in the pit of his stomach which more and more with every passing second made him want to vomit.
Their initial scans had registered many more warm bodies than those who had greeted them out in the valley, but now these caves were as quiet as a crypt.
"Alright I'll say it—where the hell is everyone?" said Koichi from the front of their formation as he shouldered his data disruptor and turned back towards the rest of the team. A few feet in front of him, Duskmon sheathed his two ruby blades, taking Koichi's nonchalant attitude as his unspoken signal to stand down.
"Shut it Koichi," said Thomas quietly from his position beside Tai "As far as we know the enemy could be around the very next corner, so don't give away our position…"
"He does have a point," admitted Tai after a moment's thought, "Based on our initial scan I'd say at least thirty enemy combatants disappeared into this cave system after the fight, but we've been searching for at least an hour and haven't found anyone—"
"Yeah, about that— does anyone remember the way back out, cos I sure as heck don't…" said Koichi, pointing vaguely back in the direction they had come. He let out a small expression of amusement at his own confusion, but his eyes betrayed panic at the developing implications of their situation.
"Aww, is the little baby scared of being lost in the big dark cave?" mocked Rika as she walked over to a small rocky outcropping and sat down, stretching out her shoulders with a wicked expression on her face as she looked over at Koichi.
"I mean— yes obviously I'm afraid of that, are you not?" replied Koichi, casting his eyes from Rika over to Tai and Thomas.
"This is the job," Rika said with a shrug "Just another day at the office." With that she carefully placed her disruptor down at her feet and reached up to her neck to remove her helmet, which came off with a low hiss.
"I don't remember our commander telling us it was time for a break Nonaka!" said Thomas shortly, glaring down at Rika as she proceeded to stretch out and relax. It was as he watched this display that Tai could not help but reflect on the lax discipline of the team under his control. Despite nominally taking orders from him, often Unit 17-B did not wait for Tai's permission before "taking initiative"— a phrase which appeared frequently in Tai's written reports of missions.
In truth though Tai knew that as long as his people came back alive, he was happy not to be the hardass his superiors would have preferred him to be. That was not regulation, it was not going to win him any medals, but it at least allowed him to sleep at night. Sometimes anyway.
"We may as well catch our breath sir" said Koichi as he walked back to join the rest of the team, before continuing "who knows- we may not get the chance later…"
Thomas finally relented, saying "Fine, as long as Commander Kamiya is ok with—"
"Permission granted, sit down." Tai said with finality, dropping down onto his butt in one movement and removing his own helmet.
Leaning back, he signalled to the hulking form of Blitzgreymon who had been standing at the back of their formation and said, "Move to the forward position and keep a lookout."
Taking this moment of calm as a chance to collect themselves, the team sat down in a small huddle and busied themselves with whatever provided them respite. Koichi took our a small ration pack from his satchel and placed a hard lump of meat-apple jerky in his mouth alternating between chewing on it and turning it over on his tongue to soften it. Rika took out a set of playing cards from her belt and began to shuffle them with impressive dexterity, her eyes locked on the shifting movement of the cards with an obsessive calm. Thomas kept his helmet on and used the wrist-mounted controller to furiously skim through recorded information, attempting no doubt to construct a path out of the labyrinthine maze of tunnels they found themselves in.
After a few minutes Thomas gave up, angrily swiping the information away from his vision. "It's no use!" he said turning towards Tai, "There's some kind of interference messing with our tech. The only way we're getting out of here is if someone remembers the way back!"
The group settled into what they assumed to be a rhetorical silence, only for it to be broken by a quiet interjection from the other side of the cave. "…Excuse me, but I think I might be able to help…" said Youkomon, turning her blue fox-face towards the humans. Asset's spoke so seldomly even when granted permission that to hear one speak out of turn like this was almost as surprising as seeing a regular fox suddenly begin to speak, and so for a moment the team were dumbfounded.
"Who asked for your help?!" yelled Rika, spilling her deck of cards onto the cold ground of the cave as she rose furiously to her feet. The rest of the team remained seated, simply watching as Rika picked up her disruptor and stomped over to Youkomon. Koichi seemed vaguely amused by the outbust, but Thomas and Tai were stoney-faced.
"…I'm sorry Rika…I shouldn't have…" said Youkomon, casting her eyes to the ground and and lowing her forelegs to make herself smaller in Rika's presence. This only seemed to anger Rika more, who raised her disruptor and placed its barrel against the Digimon's forehead.
"Did you just call me by my name?" she asked, her voice now so full of cold fury that the words came out as little more than a whisper. "You do not call me by my name, understand?" she said, her finger hovering over the trigger. Tai finally had enough of the display, the measure of discomfort it had wrought finally piercing through his last layer of amassed cynicism: despite every instinct telling him otherwise, he felt bad for the Digimon, not that he would ever admit it.
"That's enough," Tai said sharply, his voice cutting clean through the low hum of the cave. It wasn't shouted, but it was the kind of command that ended conversations. Rika froze mid-motion, the disruptor still pressed against Youkomon's mask-like forehead.
"She's part of the team. She's allowed to speak."
Rika didn't lower her weapon immediately. Her eyes searched Tai's face, calculating whether this was worth pressing. Eventually, she clicked her tongue and stepped back, holstering the disruptor with a practiced flick.
"Fine. Let the pet talk."
Youkomon raised her head slowly, amber eyes shining in the cave light. "Thank you, Commander," she said quietly. She stood back to her full height and turned slightly, her snout raised, catching the faintest wisps on the air.
"I can smell two things," she continued. "One is the way we came—the scent of fresh air still lingers faintly in the rock pores. If we need to retreat, I can guide us out."
"And the other?" Tai asked, already knowing the answer.
Youkomon's voice didn't waver. "Humans. Machine oil. Fear-sweat. The metallic tang of newly-birthed Digimon. That path goes forward—and it's fresh. They're close."
Koichi sat up straighter, swallowing the last bite of his ration. "Well that's all the briefing I need."
Thomas was already on his feet, checking the charge on his sidearm. "If we move now, we might catch them unaware."
Tai stood, re-affixing his helmet with a hiss and rising to his full height. "We push ahead. Quietly. Form up. Rika, rear guard. Koichi, flank. Thomas, with me." He turned to Youkomon, who bowed her head in acknowledgment. "Lead on."
They moved swiftly, the cave narrowing around them. The air grew heavier, warmer, as though they were moving deeper into the body of something living. The bioluminescent moss began to pulse slightly, reacting perhaps to their proximity—or perhaps to the creatures waiting for them below.
As they rounded a sharp turn, the cavern exploded with motion.
A blur of red metal surged from the shadows—a Digimon, insectoid and angular, let out a shriek of modulated static as it launched itself toward Thomas. Tai barely had time to shout a warning before Thomas dove, the creature slashing a trail of sparks across his shoulder.
"Engage!" Tai yelled, drawing his disruptor and opening fire.
Koichi and Duskmon moved as one—Koichi rolling low while Duskmon arced into a spinning slash that cleaved another attacker in two. Sparks and data fragments burst in a flare of corrupted light. Rika was already behind cover, laying down suppressive fire with brutal precision, her disruptor spitting lines of searing blue energy.
More shapes came through the dark—twisted hybrids of metal and bone, Digimon bred in captivity, half-formed and wired into the cave walls themselves. BlitzGreymon charged past Tai, his thunderous footfalls echoing like war drums, plasma cannon charging as he aimed down the tunnel.
"Fire!" Tai ordered.
BlitzGreymon's cannon released a column of white-hot energy that swallowed the tunnel in a deafening burst. Screams—half digital, half disturbingly organic—rang through the cave. Stone split, ceiling shuddered, and suddenly—
The floor gave way.
Tai's stomach dropped as the world tilted. The cavern split beneath them, and he, Thomas, Koichi, and Rika fell into the abyss—shouting, twisting, reaching for purchase as the light above shrank into a yellow smear.
For a moment, darkness swallowed them. Until, over the screech of wind as they fell Tai heard Koichi's voice call out:
"Release restraint level 2- Kimura. Confirmed!"
Moments later a brilliant flash of light filled the chasm and from that light burst forth the monstrous crimson form of Velgemon, Duskmon's bird-evolution. The skeletal creature folded its dark wings into its sinuous body and dove at speed down into the depths of the chasm, before unfurling them again to catch the four young humans on its back.
"Good job!" shouted Koichi breathlessly, "now take us back up!" he said at last, patting Velgemon on the neck.
Moments later they were back on even ground again, as around them the other three Digimon finished off the last of the enemy. Gaogamon was dragging a wounded Mojyamon by the back towards the rest of the ground while yeti-like Digimon rained blow after blow onto the blue wolf's head with the broken hilt of his wooden club. It was Blitzgreymon who took the initiative to relieve Gaogamon, striding forward and delivering a powerful kick to the Mojyamon's face which resounded across the ceiling of the cave with a sickening crunch.
Pressing a cannon against the misshapen remains of the Digimon's face, the armoured mega growled "Tell us where the soldier you captured is and I'll let you go…"
For a second Tai wondered if the Mojyamon would even have any brains left to answer after that kick, but to his surprise the creature simply pointed to a tunnel on the far left of their current position.
"Thank you" said Blitzgreymon mirthlessly as he lifted his foot and allowed the much-smaller Digimon to scramble away as fast as its legs could carry it.
"Yes, very helpful…" said Rika, before raising her disruptor and releasing a burst of blue energy which struck the fleeing champion-level in the back. For a moment he simply stood in position as if frozen, and then a moment later his body burst apart into a mist of raw data.
"Come on" said Tai, his eyes locked on Rika as she turned back towards the group, "We're nearly done here…"
The tunnel led to a sudden drop-off—an archway of carved stone opening onto a vast, dimly lit antechamber. The ceiling curved high above them, held aloft by thick columns of carved metal and interwoven cables that pulsed faintly with violet energy. Banks of ancient computers hummed against the walls, their monitors flickering with strings of alien code and rotating wireframe models. Strange diagrams and schematics had been drawn across every surface—walls, floors, even the ceiling—rendered in red marker and glowing chalk, obsessive and chaotic.
Tai stepped into the chamber cautiously, eyes narrowing as he scanned the room. "Is this some kind of lab?" he muttered. "It looks like something out of a scientists dreams…"
"Or nightmares," said Koichi, sweeping his disruptor left to right.
Then they saw him.
Koushiro Izumi sat hunched at a terminal in the far corner of the room, dim light from the monitors casting sharp lines across his gaunt face. He turned toward them slowly as if he'd been expecting them—and dreading it. His eyes, dulled by sleeplessness or something deeper, flicked from face to face. He said nothing.
"Koushiro?" Tai took a cautious step forward. Something twisted in his gut—an ache behind the eyes, a name on the tip of his tongue. Recognition without memory. "We're here to get you out."
Koushiro blinked. His lips twitched, as if trying out a smile and failing. "Of course," he said flatly. "You're here to rescue me."
That moment of unease cracked open into full-blown wrongness for Tai— there was a darting discomfort within the diminutive young man's eyes which made him profoundly uncomfortable. But before he could respond, Rika kicked over a panel at the side of the room. "Found a straggler."
From beneath the debris, a small red beetle-like Digimon whimpered. A Tentomon.
He looked up at Rika, trembling. "I—I'm with him. Please, I haven't caused—"
"Save it," Rika said, lifting her disruptor. "And hold still."
Koushiro stepped forward, his eyes ablaze with anger. But before he could say a word, the ceiling above them shattered.
A streak of crimson and white metal dove into the chamber, the rush of displaced air slamming into them all like a wave. Gallantmon landed with devastating force, his cape trailing behind him like a flag of war. Without pause, he struck—his lance driving Blitzgreymon back in a blast of sparks.
"Contact!" yelled Thomas, diving to cover.
Koichi raised his disruptor but Gallantmon moved like a phantom—his shield ricocheting energy blasts with mechanical precision. Gaogamon and Youkomon charged but were cast aside with two brutal sweeps of Gallantmon's arm. Velgemon dove forward with his claws outstretched but was promptly slammed against the wall with earth-shattering force. Tai's team found themselves defenceless and In seconds, the knight Digimon had Thomas, Koichi, and Rika pinned against a wall with the tip of his lance sparking just inches from Thomas's throat.
Only Blitzgreymon remained standing, cannon humming with built-up energy. As he rose slowly to his full height, he let out an animalistic roar which caught the attention of the crimson knight.
The two titans collided in the center of the room, metal ringing on metal as lance met plasma blast. Gallantmon's shield absorbed most of the blasts, but Blitzgreymon's raw power kept him locked in place. Neither gained ground—just explosions of heat and force erupting from every exchange, shattering technology and setting fire to blueprints, which rained down to the cave floor as ash.
Tai turned to yell for Koushiro—but the boy was gone.
He caught a glimpse of him sprinting to a cluttered workbench on the far side of the room, hands rummaging frantically through piles of soldered components and broken devices. "Izumi—what are you doing?!"
"I'm sorry," Koushiro whispered, his voice nearly lost in the chaos. "This wasn't how I wanted to do it. To be honest Tai we weren't expecting you. You're probably not ready. But you'll have to be."
Before Tai could question just what the young man was talking about, Koushiro turned and pressed a crude device into his palm—a small octangular improvised device jury-rigged from parts of old comms units and processors. Its screen pulsed once—white and soundless—and for a moment everything seemed to stop. The light of that screen seemed in that stillness to divide into its constituent colors, and every colour brought with it a different recollection, a different feeling. A different life. Tai dropped to his knees, eyes wide.
Memories washed over him in flashes. A beach. A campfire. Agumon calling him "Taichi." The wind at his back as he soared through the sky on WarGreymon's shoulders. The laughter of his friends. His sisters smile.
The noise of battle dulled around him. The air seemed to stop the ceiling groaned.
Gallantmon's cape flared wide as he launched upward, lance tearing into the structural supports. Dust rained from above.
"Tai!" yelled Koichi, but it was too late.
The ceiling collapsed behind Gallantmon as he escaped into the vertical shaft above, the exit sealing shut behind him.
"Evac now!" Thomas barked, activating his comm as shafts of light struck the ground around him. The team gathered themselves and prepared to make a hasty exit. Koushiro moved quickly, pulling Tai's limp body up and slinging his arm over his shoulder. "Help me carry him!" he shouted.
Blitzgreymon limped forward, dented and scorched. Tentomon fluttered anxiously above, and Rika—reluctantly—holstered her disruptor and nodded.
As the evac call was answered and the transport coordinates locked in, the team focused on carrying Tai's unconscious form out of the cave system. Koushiro watched them all from the back, his face unreadable. Inside, he was calculating a hundred things at once. There was just too much uncertainty.
But in all of it there was one thing he could be certain of— when Tai woke up, everything was going to change.