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[tri OOM] When every flag is red
Feb. 19th, 2021 08:43 pm“All right, all right, everyone in their seats?” Miyako says, rapping her knuckles against the white board. “Good. Let’s start.”
It’s still early in the morning, although it doesn’t look like either Koushiro or Miyako have slept much. Ken and Jyou at least seem marginally better rested, but Yamato catches Ken yawning when he thinks nobody’s looking.
“Between our own research, the data Meiko convinced her bigshot Bureau dad to hand over to us, and Warudamon’s notes, we think we have a decent idea for a cure,” Miyako says. “Koushiro?”
Koushiro gives an agreeable noise, chugging down half a bottle of oolong tea. “The Infection, as far as we can tell, is the primeval variant of the Black Gears, Dark Network, Dark Rings, and Dark Spore. Just like all of those, it’s made from the chaos Apocalymon produces, but it’s in a more primitive, uncontrollable form.”
“So it’s vulnerable to our powers,” Sora says, raising her hand. “Or it should be, right?”
“Right. Remember, someone -- probably Gennai while he was still on our side -- sent Meicoomon to Earth with a digivice. He planned for her to partner up,” Miyako replies. “And Meicoomon was stable when she was with Meiko. It’s not like she spent seven years Infecting everything around her, having Meiko there rendered the Infection dormant.”
Meiko flinches slightly, curling in on herself. Almost absently, Mimi slips an arm around her, hugging her close.
“Meiko’s not a Crestbearer, but like any other human, she still produces the Light of Evolution in small amounts. As far as we can tell, her digivice isn’t built for allowing evolution, it’s meant to drain the entirety of her power reserves and put it to use keeping the Infection in check,” Koushiro says. “We think a much more powerful burst of the same Light might eradicate the Infection entirely.”
“How powerful are we talking?” Yamato asks. “Because once our partners were Infected, they still succumbed to the Infection. Being linked to us didn’t save them.”
“For a complete cure, the combined power of nine Crestbearers should work,” Ken says. “The problem is saturating a patient with that power. Just blasting them from the outside won’t do it, we need to apply the energy directly to their cores.”
“Luckily,” Miyako chirps. “We think we’ve come up with a device that’ll do the job.”
“Unluckily,” Ken adds. “We need to go to the Digital World to get the parts.”
“A seed from the original host computer, Warudamon’s data, and a Holy Ring,” Koushiro says. “With those three things, we can build a device that, once charged with our powers, will release it in a self-propagating wave that will penetrate and saturate the core of every Digimon in its path.”
“Alright,” Taichi says, standing up. “Then -- …”
“Er, guys?” Mimi says, peering at her phone. “Maybe we should switch on the television.”
---
It’s on every channel, on every streaming site, intruding in on every call. Taichi Yagami’s face flickering on screen, then turning in a buzz of static to Ken Ichijouji, then Hikari Yagami, before finally settling on Taichi again, lips curled up into a smug smile that doesn’t suit his face at all.
Among the gnarled roots and branches of the room behind him, the three youths abducted from Fuchu Prison -- Kaito Otsuka, Ryusei Daimon, and Mizu Kojima -- are sat, black and violet digivices in hand.
“Greetings, people of Earth,” Gennai says in Taichi’s voice. “This is a declaration of war. In exactly seventy-two hours, the Gate above Odaiba will open, and an army of Digimon, led by my new Chosen, will flood through. They outnumber you, they are more powerful than you, and they will kill indiscriminately, spreading outwards until they have scoured the planet.”
Ryusei huffs a short laugh behind him. Gennai ignores him.
“But I’m not a cruel person, nor am I unreasonable, so I make this offer to you: Give me the unconditional surrender of the planet, agreed upon by all your nations and leaders, and I will stay my hand. If not, your streets will be painted with the blood of your people, beginning with Tokyo.”
The feed blinks out.
---
“He has to be kidding,” Mimi says. “Does he actually think the whole planet’s going to agree to surrender?”
“He doesn’t expect them to,” Yamato says flatly. “He’s sowing discord. He wants people scared and angry.”
“Because he can use all that emotion to evolve Meicoomon,” Taichi says. Yamato’s eyebrows rise, and Taichi gives a quick shrug. “What can I say? We had the same idea, Yama. We’re so in tune~.”
He drops his chin onto Yamato’s shoulder, grinning. Yamato gives a disgusted noise, shoving his face off.
Jyou frowns. “If he’s attacking in three days, that gives us time to prepare. All -- …”
“No,” Yamato cuts in sharply. “Not all of us.”
Taichi watches him out of the corner of his eye. Yamato glances over at him, waiting for some indicator that he should continue or stop, but Taichi’s impassive, giving him nothing.
“Koushiro, Miyako, Ken, Jyou,” Yamato says. “Take today to prepare. You move out tomorrow morning. Go to the Digital World and get everything you need for this device.”
“Yamato-san …” Koushiro starts, then frowns, going silent.
“As soon as Gennai made that announcement, the clock started counting down. If he evolves Meicoomon before we can cure her, we’re screwed,” Yamato says. “And the only way to cure her is for you to build that device. So we have to beat the clock. Get that device and bring it back here for us to charge before Gennai can harvest enough energy.”
Koushiro hesitates for a second, then nods. “Roger that, Yamato-san.”
“We won’t let you down,” Ken adds.
“I’ll go start getting everything we need ready,” Miyako says. “We’ll want rations, medical supplies, stuff for traversing the environment …”
“I’ll call my brother,” Jyou says. “If I’m gone, all of you are going to need a new medic. He can fill in while I’m away.”
As they hurry off, Taichi nudges a hand against Yamato’s shoulder. “You know, whenever you want to give me that answer …”
“I’m going to go draw up a battle plan,” Yamato replies archly. “Somewhere away from you.”
---
Mizu tosses her digivice up, catching it as it comes tumbling down. It’s different to the ones she’s seen the Chosen carry, more gnarled in shape, made of some black metal that has a texture almost more like wood. It can’t evolve Digimon, as far as she knows, instead acting as a glorified storage device for Astraimon.
Nearby, Ryusei batters a punching bag, and Kaito is reading a book. None of them have noticed what she has.
“So,” she says to Gennai, as his form flickers and shifts into that of Koushiro Izumi. “What is it you aren’t telling us?”
Kaito looks up. Ryusei doesn’t pause in his workout. Gennai arches an eyebrow at her. “Oh? Am I hiding anything?”
“It would’ve been easier just to broadcast that little message to everyone back on Earth,” Mizu says. “So you wanna tell me why it got broadcast across the Digital World, too?”
Gennai smiles gently. “Aren’t you a clever one,” he murmurs. “There are a hundred different ways I can achieve my goal. As one plan fails, I simply switch to the next one. This is just -- another one of those plans. Coiled and ready to spring for if the three of you should fail.”
“We’re not going to fail,” Ryusei says. “You just need us to cause havoc, right? Beat down the old Chosen, terrify people, tear through some buildings and cause chaos. It’s not rocket science.”
“I certainly hope not,” Gennai says. “But just in case, I’ll be stacking the deck in my favour.”
It’s still early in the morning, although it doesn’t look like either Koushiro or Miyako have slept much. Ken and Jyou at least seem marginally better rested, but Yamato catches Ken yawning when he thinks nobody’s looking.
“Between our own research, the data Meiko convinced her bigshot Bureau dad to hand over to us, and Warudamon’s notes, we think we have a decent idea for a cure,” Miyako says. “Koushiro?”
Koushiro gives an agreeable noise, chugging down half a bottle of oolong tea. “The Infection, as far as we can tell, is the primeval variant of the Black Gears, Dark Network, Dark Rings, and Dark Spore. Just like all of those, it’s made from the chaos Apocalymon produces, but it’s in a more primitive, uncontrollable form.”
“So it’s vulnerable to our powers,” Sora says, raising her hand. “Or it should be, right?”
“Right. Remember, someone -- probably Gennai while he was still on our side -- sent Meicoomon to Earth with a digivice. He planned for her to partner up,” Miyako replies. “And Meicoomon was stable when she was with Meiko. It’s not like she spent seven years Infecting everything around her, having Meiko there rendered the Infection dormant.”
Meiko flinches slightly, curling in on herself. Almost absently, Mimi slips an arm around her, hugging her close.
“Meiko’s not a Crestbearer, but like any other human, she still produces the Light of Evolution in small amounts. As far as we can tell, her digivice isn’t built for allowing evolution, it’s meant to drain the entirety of her power reserves and put it to use keeping the Infection in check,” Koushiro says. “We think a much more powerful burst of the same Light might eradicate the Infection entirely.”
“How powerful are we talking?” Yamato asks. “Because once our partners were Infected, they still succumbed to the Infection. Being linked to us didn’t save them.”
“For a complete cure, the combined power of nine Crestbearers should work,” Ken says. “The problem is saturating a patient with that power. Just blasting them from the outside won’t do it, we need to apply the energy directly to their cores.”
“Luckily,” Miyako chirps. “We think we’ve come up with a device that’ll do the job.”
“Unluckily,” Ken adds. “We need to go to the Digital World to get the parts.”
“A seed from the original host computer, Warudamon’s data, and a Holy Ring,” Koushiro says. “With those three things, we can build a device that, once charged with our powers, will release it in a self-propagating wave that will penetrate and saturate the core of every Digimon in its path.”
“Alright,” Taichi says, standing up. “Then -- …”
“Er, guys?” Mimi says, peering at her phone. “Maybe we should switch on the television.”
It’s on every channel, on every streaming site, intruding in on every call. Taichi Yagami’s face flickering on screen, then turning in a buzz of static to Ken Ichijouji, then Hikari Yagami, before finally settling on Taichi again, lips curled up into a smug smile that doesn’t suit his face at all.
Among the gnarled roots and branches of the room behind him, the three youths abducted from Fuchu Prison -- Kaito Otsuka, Ryusei Daimon, and Mizu Kojima -- are sat, black and violet digivices in hand.
“Greetings, people of Earth,” Gennai says in Taichi’s voice. “This is a declaration of war. In exactly seventy-two hours, the Gate above Odaiba will open, and an army of Digimon, led by my new Chosen, will flood through. They outnumber you, they are more powerful than you, and they will kill indiscriminately, spreading outwards until they have scoured the planet.”
Ryusei huffs a short laugh behind him. Gennai ignores him.
“But I’m not a cruel person, nor am I unreasonable, so I make this offer to you: Give me the unconditional surrender of the planet, agreed upon by all your nations and leaders, and I will stay my hand. If not, your streets will be painted with the blood of your people, beginning with Tokyo.”
The feed blinks out.
“He has to be kidding,” Mimi says. “Does he actually think the whole planet’s going to agree to surrender?”
“He doesn’t expect them to,” Yamato says flatly. “He’s sowing discord. He wants people scared and angry.”
“Because he can use all that emotion to evolve Meicoomon,” Taichi says. Yamato’s eyebrows rise, and Taichi gives a quick shrug. “What can I say? We had the same idea, Yama. We’re so in tune~.”
He drops his chin onto Yamato’s shoulder, grinning. Yamato gives a disgusted noise, shoving his face off.
Jyou frowns. “If he’s attacking in three days, that gives us time to prepare. All -- …”
“No,” Yamato cuts in sharply. “Not all of us.”
Taichi watches him out of the corner of his eye. Yamato glances over at him, waiting for some indicator that he should continue or stop, but Taichi’s impassive, giving him nothing.
“Koushiro, Miyako, Ken, Jyou,” Yamato says. “Take today to prepare. You move out tomorrow morning. Go to the Digital World and get everything you need for this device.”
“Yamato-san …” Koushiro starts, then frowns, going silent.
“As soon as Gennai made that announcement, the clock started counting down. If he evolves Meicoomon before we can cure her, we’re screwed,” Yamato says. “And the only way to cure her is for you to build that device. So we have to beat the clock. Get that device and bring it back here for us to charge before Gennai can harvest enough energy.”
Koushiro hesitates for a second, then nods. “Roger that, Yamato-san.”
“We won’t let you down,” Ken adds.
“I’ll go start getting everything we need ready,” Miyako says. “We’ll want rations, medical supplies, stuff for traversing the environment …”
“I’ll call my brother,” Jyou says. “If I’m gone, all of you are going to need a new medic. He can fill in while I’m away.”
As they hurry off, Taichi nudges a hand against Yamato’s shoulder. “You know, whenever you want to give me that answer …”
“I’m going to go draw up a battle plan,” Yamato replies archly. “Somewhere away from you.”
Mizu tosses her digivice up, catching it as it comes tumbling down. It’s different to the ones she’s seen the Chosen carry, more gnarled in shape, made of some black metal that has a texture almost more like wood. It can’t evolve Digimon, as far as she knows, instead acting as a glorified storage device for Astraimon.
Nearby, Ryusei batters a punching bag, and Kaito is reading a book. None of them have noticed what she has.
“So,” she says to Gennai, as his form flickers and shifts into that of Koushiro Izumi. “What is it you aren’t telling us?”
Kaito looks up. Ryusei doesn’t pause in his workout. Gennai arches an eyebrow at her. “Oh? Am I hiding anything?”
“It would’ve been easier just to broadcast that little message to everyone back on Earth,” Mizu says. “So you wanna tell me why it got broadcast across the Digital World, too?”
Gennai smiles gently. “Aren’t you a clever one,” he murmurs. “There are a hundred different ways I can achieve my goal. As one plan fails, I simply switch to the next one. This is just -- another one of those plans. Coiled and ready to spring for if the three of you should fail.”
“We’re not going to fail,” Ryusei says. “You just need us to cause havoc, right? Beat down the old Chosen, terrify people, tear through some buildings and cause chaos. It’s not rocket science.”
“I certainly hope not,” Gennai says. “But just in case, I’ll be stacking the deck in my favour.”
