Yamato Ishida (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angry_friendship_wolf) wrote2020-03-06 10:52 pm
angry_friendship_wolf) wrote2020-03-06 10:52 pm
[tri OOM] The Storm
They’re halfway down the canyon when a pillar of violet light erupts from the sky, resolving into the tiny shape of PicoDevimon.
Yamato doesn’t slow, pulling Cisco’s stungun from his belt and firing off a quick shot, paralysing the little Digimon just in time for Taichi’s foot to land against its fanged, beach-ball face and send it flying like a soccer ball kicked at a winning goal.
“Little harsh,” Yamato mutters to Taichi as they keep running.
“He’s a zombie-puppet-thing, he doesn’t care,” Taichi returns.
They reach the canyon to find five Digimon sprawled out and beaten, and Mugendramon looming over them all. Vikemon is curled up in a heap, HeraklesKabuterimon looks like he’s half embedded into one icy canyon wall while Rosemon is slumped against the other, and Seraphimon and Angewomon are sprawled near Mugendramon’s feet.
Gennai gives a heavy shrug, shaking off the vines around him as they go slack. “As I told you before,” he murmurs. “You’re not a match for a Dark Master.”
Mugendramon’s triple claw snaps out, closing around Piyomon, and before Yamato knows what’s happening, Sora has leapt onto the claw, trying to prise it open as Mugendramon lifts both of them up into the air.
“Sora!” Taichi yells.
Sora ignores him, digging her arms around the claws and trying to pry them loose, even as Piyomon begs her to stop. It’s a futile gesture. A human just can’t shake the grip of an Ultimate-level Digimon.
Yamato raises Cisco’s stungun again, firing shot after shot, but they dissipate against Mugendramon’s armour with no effect.
Sora swings around to the same side as Piyomon, hooking both arms around one claw and focusing all her strength on it. It doesn’t budge. A quick smack against the canyon wall prompts a yell of pain from Sora, a momentary pause, before she redoubles her efforts.
Yamato swears, lifting his ring and muttering into it. For a moment, the gloves he made in Milliways appear, forming out of cubes of data, but they fall apart before they can snap around his arms, dissipating back into the ring.
“All out of energy, you two?” Gennai asks cheerfully. “I know telling Ishida to blacken his Crest is like asking a Numemon to calculate pi, but you have a little more imagination, don’t you, Taichi? You know exactly how to wring out all that power your Crest is holding back.”
Rosemon pulls herself up, throwing herself at Mugendramon with her rapier out. A quick lash of his tail sends her crashing down again, another flick of it bats Vikemon and HeraklesKabuterimon away as they attack from the other side. As Seraphimon and Angewomon haul themselves to their feet, a roar that shakes the air knocks them down again.
Mugendramon smacks Sora against the wall again, earning another cry of pain.
“I told you to run!” Piyomon yells.
Sora curls her arms around the claw again, digging her heels into the metal arm as much as she can and straining to open it. “You already saved me once.”
“Because you’re helpless,” Piyomon snaps. “You’re just a human, what do you think you’re going to achieve?”
Sora doesn’t reply this time, gritting her teeth and tugging on the claw, scrabbling as her grip slips before clenching it tighter under her arms, anchoring herself to keep pulling.
“Why won’t you just run?!” Piyomon cries. “Why won’t you just understand, Sora?!”
There’s a few moments of silence. Sora presses her forehead against Mugendramon’s claw. Muffled against it, Yamato hears her softly say: “You’ve never called me by my name before.”
Piyomon seems momentarily stunned, then awkward, then guarded. Sora lifts her head, turning to smile at her.
“Here. Take my hand when -- …” She hesitates, then stretches out her arm towards Piyomon. “Take my hand if you’re ready. Ready to try this whole … partner thing.”
Piyomon stares at her hand, slowly lifting a wing. “I want to …” She seems to balk at saying more, the claws on the end of her wing curling inwards, away from Sora. Then, quietly: “I want to try those meatballs you made again.”
Sora laughs. “I want you to try them again too.”
Slowly, carefully, Piyomon stretches out her wing, and settles the edge of it into Sora’s hand, lacing her claws between the girl’s fingers.
For several long seconds, nothing happens.
“A valiant attempt,” Gennai says, with surprising gentleness. “But one that -- …”
Red light explodes out of Sora’s chest, engulfing them both, blasting upwards to form a pillar of light, and the winds whip up around them.
“Piyomon, evolution! Birdramon.”
Mugendramon’s claw is forced open, and Birdramon, with Sora clinging on to one talon, soars away, curving about to rain bolts of fire down on him. He bats them aside easily, angling his cannons up towards her.
With a thunderous roar, he fires two shots up at her. They miss, just barely, as Birdramon climbs higher, red light forming around her again.
“Birdramon, super-evolution. Garudamon.”
Garudamon fires another blast of flame down at Mugendramon, forcing him back a fraction of a step this time, then another.
Sora’s not done. Yamato sees the light from her Crest flare brighter, her eyes burning red, before the winds around them spiral up into a hurricane, and Garudamon’s form blazes bright red again.
---
Meiko sees the windstorm burst up from the edge of File Island, turning from turbulence to a typhoon, buffeting the ship with eddies and gales.
She keeps Meicoomon gripped tightly in her arms, but the little Digimon is still staring, like she’s in a trance.
“Listen to the lingering remnants of our regret.”
“While we lay buried in the deep darkness of utter cold and sorrow, you were on the other side, laughing happily in the warm light.”
“What have we done to deserve this? Why must we grieve while you enjoy cheerful laughter? Who decided that we must be deprived of this world and consigned to oblivion? We wanted to live! We wanted to live!”
“We cannot live, and we cannot rest. So long as this hateful world remains, we must languish in the darkness.”
Meiko touches her forehead, trying to get a handle on the stray thoughts, the fragments of recollection floating from Meicoomon to her, but it’s like trying to catch smoke. All she can do is whisper softly to Meicoomon, telling her everything will be okay.
---
“Garudamon, ultimate evolution. Hououmon!”
As the winds dissipate, Yamato sees four golden wings and rainbow tail feathers emerge from the swirl of red light, trailing embers as it descends.
“Hououmon, Ultimate-level Vaccine-attribute Holy Bird Digimon,” his wrist computer chirps. “A divine Digimon with four golden wings, which reigns over all Bird-type Digimon.”
Hououmon sets Sora down gently, touching its talon to the ground just long enough for her to clamber off, then takes off again.
Mugendramon aims his cannons, firing off a barrage of blasts. She dances around them, soaring in and closing her talons around the top of his cannons and hefting upwards, pulling Mugendramon into the air and swinging him bodily into the canyon wall.
He bellows, pulling himself free of the ice, one cannon sparking, the other aimed squarely at Hououmon.
“Infinity Cannon.”
“Force Wing!”
The blast from Mugendramon’s cannon slams against Hououmon’s wing, then sinks into it, absorbed, the glow around her intensifying as she stockpiles its power.
HeraklesKabuterimon struggles to his feet. One by one, the other Digimon join him, hauling themselves up. “Everyone, send Hououmon your power.”
Hououmon stretches out her wings, sending orange motes of light up into the air, as the Digimon around her charge their attacks.
“Giga Horn Buster.”
“Forbidden Temptation.”
“Arctic Blizzard.”
“Strike of the Seven Stars.”
“Holy Arrow.”
They crash against her wings and are absorbed, the golden glow burning brighter and brighter, until it’s refracting into rainbows around her. One by one, the others glow and shrink back down to their Child forms, leaving just Hououmon.
She flaps her wings and soars upwards, until all Yamato can see is a faint spot of gold against the sky, then veers around and dives, wings outstretched, plummeting towards Mugendramon.
“Starlight Explosion!” She calls, as her shape seems to dissolve into a streak of golden light, rocketing downwards.
With a sharp crash, she collides with Mugendramon and bursts straight through him, leaving a ragged hole across his chest. With one last roar, he explodes in a ball of fire, scattering into cubes of data.
Hououmon lands, digging her talons into the ice, then shrinks back down until all that’s left is a tiny Pyokomon. Sora plucks her up, hugging her close.
“Well done.”
“Sora!” Taichi calls, sprinting over. Yamato sets off after him. “Are you okay?”
“Are you hurt at all?” Yamato adds, crowding in on one side of her as Taichi shuffles in on her other side. “We should have Jyou check you over.”
“Maybe we should take her to Monzaemon, just to make sure,” Taichi adds.
“Good idea. If we set off now we can get there in -- …”
“I’m fine,” Sora laughs. “Are you two hurt?”
Yamato meets Taichi’s gaze for a second, the two of them forming an unspoken agreement not to mention how they nearly drowned. Again.
“Y-yeah, we’re fine,” Yamato says.
“Just swell,” Taichi adds. “The swellest.”
Sora wriggles out from between them, taking a few steps away. Taichi frowns, jabbing his elbow against Yamato’s side lightly. He jabs the other boy in response, throwing a glare this way.
“Are, er …” Taichi clears his throat. “Are things okay with you and Piyomon now? We’re sorry that we, um, didn’t help much …”
“Hm?” Sora seems almost stymied by the question. “Yeah, things are fine now. Don’t worry about it.”
“We can’t just -- not worry about it,” Yamato says. “We acted like dicks and then when we all got split up you were stuck here alone and -- …”
“It’s fine,” Sora chuckles, turning away from them. Fondly: “Idiots.”
Gennai takes a step forward, rubbing at his wrists where the vines had started to cut into his textures. “Well done, all of you,” he says, and Yamato thinks he almost sounds sincere. “Take a moment to pat yourselves on the back.”
“Just give up, Gennai,” Taichi says, turning towards him. “We’ve rescued Daisuke’s team, got our powers back, defeated all your puppet Digimon. We’ve won.”
Gennai’s smile turns distinctly chiding. “You’ve won that battle, and foiled that plan. But I’m still here, and there are a hundred different ways I can achieve my goal,” he says. “That’s always the problem, isn’t it? If you want to save the worlds, you have to stop me every time. If I want to end them, I only have to win once. You’ve foiled Plans A, B, C, and D, but …”
Lightning arcs in the distance, in the direction of the ship, again and again. Yamato turns towards it, narrowing his eyes. Lightning from clear skies. Even in the Digital World, that isn’t natural.
“And there’s Plan E,” Gennai says. “Right on cue.”
“Mei-chan,” Mimi says, a look of panic crossing her face.
“And Meicoomon,” Sora adds softly.
Gennai chuckles, tilting his head in some imitation of confusion. “Who’s Meicoomon? No Digimon with that name exists in the registry.”
Lightning crackles in the distance again, flashing brighter, heavier. There are storm clouds sweeping in now, black and heavy, spiralling inwards above where he’s sure the ship must be.
“Get to the coast,” he barks to the others. “Now.”
---
When they get to the close, they see exactly what they were expecting: CaptainHookmon’s ship at the centre of a nimbus of cloud and lightning, careening through the water like it’s going to run aground at any moment.
“Let me tell you a story. It’s one you already know,” Gennai says mildly, appearing between Yamato and Taichi. “Once upon a time, at the dawn of this world, there was nothing but lifeless data, a world and creatures without consciousness, without souls. This place had formed from the unchecked ideas and creativity of humanity, but that wasn’t enough to make it alive.
“And then, one miraculous day, eight beings descended from the heavens, onto the slopes of Infinity Mountain, fascinated by humanity’s unintentional act of creation. The youngest pleaded with them to give the world life, so they split from themselves shards of their very being and gave life to the world, and to the first hundred-and-eight Digimon.
“But they had acted rashly. This Digital World, perfectly positioned to be the lever that would bring down every other world, was not like any other world they had seeded. As these Digimon evolved into new forms, some of them would fail, overreach, and instead of successfully evolving they would be destroyed, so completely that the remnants of their data wouldn’t return to the cycle of reincarnation. Bit by bit, that remnant data would pile up.
“The first Digimon to die in this fashion couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t move, could barely even think. He languished in the deep darkness, just the fragments of what was once a person. But in time, other Digimon perished this way, and as their data joined together, that collective began to regain those lost faculties, becoming something that was all of them and none of them, something new. A being that was both a Digimon and something else, that trespassed upon the domain of the Crests themselves. Apocalymon, a being whose mere existence threatened reality, and who was driven by a need to at last, finally, be permitted to rest.
“The Crests had foreseen this, and when they departed this world, they left behind the prophecy that they would return, clad in human form, and put an end to Apocalymon. And eventually, when the world was on the cusp of destruction, they did. Eight children defeated Apocalymon’s Dark Masters, climbed Spiral Mountain, and destroyed Apocalymon.”
“Thanks for the recap,” Jyou says dryly.
Gennai grins at him. “But a single shard of him survived. It drifted back down to the Digital World, embedded itself in an egg, and, seeking to avert disaster, a wise old man,” he presses a hand to his chest demonstratively. “Sent that egg and a digivice to the human world, where a human partner could keep that remnant of Apocalymon in check. And she did, for years, until the shard of Apocalymon began to grow too powerful, began to remember what it was.”
Koushiro stares at him. “Meicoomon is …”
“All this time, you’ve been so sure that she was Patient Zero of the Infection. But the Infection comes from within her, sprang forth from the same power that created the Black Gears once before,” Gennai says. “Meicoomon is and has always been your first enemy. She is what remains of Apocalymon.”
The ship runs aground with a harsh creak of metal, slowing to a stop on the rocks near Toy Town.
“And now, she stands just a few kilometres away from eight fully realised Crestbearers,” he adds. “The power that thwarted her plans and nearly destroyed her once before. I can think of nothing better than fear to shake loose those old memories.”
In the distance, Yamato sees Meicoomon -- no, evolved now, returned to the Meicrackmon form she’d used just before the Reboot -- rise into the air and open a distortion, escaping through it to parts unknown.
“She shouldn’t have been born. She should never have been born,” Gennai says softly. “And yet, I was waiting for her to be …” He frowns, touching a hand to his forehead.
Yamato’s gaze snaps towards him. “Gennai?”
Gennai gives a raspy chuckle, taking a step backwards. “There’s … there’s really something wrong with me, isn’t there? We’re not … I’m not all here, or I’m …”
“Koushiro, scan him,” Sora says sharply.
Koushiro flicks open his laptop, typing with one hand as fast as he can, but Yamato knows Gennai isn’t going to stick around for a scan. Just like that last glimpse of sanity back in Harwell Town, this isn’t going to last.
A second later, that mad glint returns to his eyes again.
“Even when I lose, I win,” Gennai says, some stability returning to his voice. “Remember that.”
Then he’s gone, vanishing in a crackle of data.
Yamato doesn’t slow, pulling Cisco’s stungun from his belt and firing off a quick shot, paralysing the little Digimon just in time for Taichi’s foot to land against its fanged, beach-ball face and send it flying like a soccer ball kicked at a winning goal.
“Little harsh,” Yamato mutters to Taichi as they keep running.
“He’s a zombie-puppet-thing, he doesn’t care,” Taichi returns.
They reach the canyon to find five Digimon sprawled out and beaten, and Mugendramon looming over them all. Vikemon is curled up in a heap, HeraklesKabuterimon looks like he’s half embedded into one icy canyon wall while Rosemon is slumped against the other, and Seraphimon and Angewomon are sprawled near Mugendramon’s feet.
Gennai gives a heavy shrug, shaking off the vines around him as they go slack. “As I told you before,” he murmurs. “You’re not a match for a Dark Master.”
Mugendramon’s triple claw snaps out, closing around Piyomon, and before Yamato knows what’s happening, Sora has leapt onto the claw, trying to prise it open as Mugendramon lifts both of them up into the air.
“Sora!” Taichi yells.
Sora ignores him, digging her arms around the claws and trying to pry them loose, even as Piyomon begs her to stop. It’s a futile gesture. A human just can’t shake the grip of an Ultimate-level Digimon.
Yamato raises Cisco’s stungun again, firing shot after shot, but they dissipate against Mugendramon’s armour with no effect.
Sora swings around to the same side as Piyomon, hooking both arms around one claw and focusing all her strength on it. It doesn’t budge. A quick smack against the canyon wall prompts a yell of pain from Sora, a momentary pause, before she redoubles her efforts.
Yamato swears, lifting his ring and muttering into it. For a moment, the gloves he made in Milliways appear, forming out of cubes of data, but they fall apart before they can snap around his arms, dissipating back into the ring.
“All out of energy, you two?” Gennai asks cheerfully. “I know telling Ishida to blacken his Crest is like asking a Numemon to calculate pi, but you have a little more imagination, don’t you, Taichi? You know exactly how to wring out all that power your Crest is holding back.”
Rosemon pulls herself up, throwing herself at Mugendramon with her rapier out. A quick lash of his tail sends her crashing down again, another flick of it bats Vikemon and HeraklesKabuterimon away as they attack from the other side. As Seraphimon and Angewomon haul themselves to their feet, a roar that shakes the air knocks them down again.
Mugendramon smacks Sora against the wall again, earning another cry of pain.
“I told you to run!” Piyomon yells.
Sora curls her arms around the claw again, digging her heels into the metal arm as much as she can and straining to open it. “You already saved me once.”
“Because you’re helpless,” Piyomon snaps. “You’re just a human, what do you think you’re going to achieve?”
Sora doesn’t reply this time, gritting her teeth and tugging on the claw, scrabbling as her grip slips before clenching it tighter under her arms, anchoring herself to keep pulling.
“Why won’t you just run?!” Piyomon cries. “Why won’t you just understand, Sora?!”
There’s a few moments of silence. Sora presses her forehead against Mugendramon’s claw. Muffled against it, Yamato hears her softly say: “You’ve never called me by my name before.”
Piyomon seems momentarily stunned, then awkward, then guarded. Sora lifts her head, turning to smile at her.
“Here. Take my hand when -- …” She hesitates, then stretches out her arm towards Piyomon. “Take my hand if you’re ready. Ready to try this whole … partner thing.”
Piyomon stares at her hand, slowly lifting a wing. “I want to …” She seems to balk at saying more, the claws on the end of her wing curling inwards, away from Sora. Then, quietly: “I want to try those meatballs you made again.”
Sora laughs. “I want you to try them again too.”
Slowly, carefully, Piyomon stretches out her wing, and settles the edge of it into Sora’s hand, lacing her claws between the girl’s fingers.
For several long seconds, nothing happens.
“A valiant attempt,” Gennai says, with surprising gentleness. “But one that -- …”
Red light explodes out of Sora’s chest, engulfing them both, blasting upwards to form a pillar of light, and the winds whip up around them.
“Piyomon, evolution! Birdramon.”
Mugendramon’s claw is forced open, and Birdramon, with Sora clinging on to one talon, soars away, curving about to rain bolts of fire down on him. He bats them aside easily, angling his cannons up towards her.
With a thunderous roar, he fires two shots up at her. They miss, just barely, as Birdramon climbs higher, red light forming around her again.
“Birdramon, super-evolution. Garudamon.”
Garudamon fires another blast of flame down at Mugendramon, forcing him back a fraction of a step this time, then another.
Sora’s not done. Yamato sees the light from her Crest flare brighter, her eyes burning red, before the winds around them spiral up into a hurricane, and Garudamon’s form blazes bright red again.
Meiko sees the windstorm burst up from the edge of File Island, turning from turbulence to a typhoon, buffeting the ship with eddies and gales.
She keeps Meicoomon gripped tightly in her arms, but the little Digimon is still staring, like she’s in a trance.
“While we lay buried in the deep darkness of utter cold and sorrow, you were on the other side, laughing happily in the warm light.”
“What have we done to deserve this? Why must we grieve while you enjoy cheerful laughter? Who decided that we must be deprived of this world and consigned to oblivion? We wanted to live! We wanted to live!”
“We cannot live, and we cannot rest. So long as this hateful world remains, we must languish in the darkness.”
Meiko touches her forehead, trying to get a handle on the stray thoughts, the fragments of recollection floating from Meicoomon to her, but it’s like trying to catch smoke. All she can do is whisper softly to Meicoomon, telling her everything will be okay.
“Garudamon, ultimate evolution. Hououmon!”
As the winds dissipate, Yamato sees four golden wings and rainbow tail feathers emerge from the swirl of red light, trailing embers as it descends.
“Hououmon, Ultimate-level Vaccine-attribute Holy Bird Digimon,” his wrist computer chirps. “A divine Digimon with four golden wings, which reigns over all Bird-type Digimon.”
Hououmon sets Sora down gently, touching its talon to the ground just long enough for her to clamber off, then takes off again.
Mugendramon aims his cannons, firing off a barrage of blasts. She dances around them, soaring in and closing her talons around the top of his cannons and hefting upwards, pulling Mugendramon into the air and swinging him bodily into the canyon wall.
He bellows, pulling himself free of the ice, one cannon sparking, the other aimed squarely at Hououmon.
“Infinity Cannon.”
“Force Wing!”
The blast from Mugendramon’s cannon slams against Hououmon’s wing, then sinks into it, absorbed, the glow around her intensifying as she stockpiles its power.
HeraklesKabuterimon struggles to his feet. One by one, the other Digimon join him, hauling themselves up. “Everyone, send Hououmon your power.”
Hououmon stretches out her wings, sending orange motes of light up into the air, as the Digimon around her charge their attacks.
“Giga Horn Buster.”
“Forbidden Temptation.”
“Arctic Blizzard.”
“Strike of the Seven Stars.”
“Holy Arrow.”
They crash against her wings and are absorbed, the golden glow burning brighter and brighter, until it’s refracting into rainbows around her. One by one, the others glow and shrink back down to their Child forms, leaving just Hououmon.
She flaps her wings and soars upwards, until all Yamato can see is a faint spot of gold against the sky, then veers around and dives, wings outstretched, plummeting towards Mugendramon.
“Starlight Explosion!” She calls, as her shape seems to dissolve into a streak of golden light, rocketing downwards.
With a sharp crash, she collides with Mugendramon and bursts straight through him, leaving a ragged hole across his chest. With one last roar, he explodes in a ball of fire, scattering into cubes of data.
Hououmon lands, digging her talons into the ice, then shrinks back down until all that’s left is a tiny Pyokomon. Sora plucks her up, hugging her close.
“Well done.”
“Sora!” Taichi calls, sprinting over. Yamato sets off after him. “Are you okay?”
“Are you hurt at all?” Yamato adds, crowding in on one side of her as Taichi shuffles in on her other side. “We should have Jyou check you over.”
“Maybe we should take her to Monzaemon, just to make sure,” Taichi adds.
“Good idea. If we set off now we can get there in -- …”
“I’m fine,” Sora laughs. “Are you two hurt?”
Yamato meets Taichi’s gaze for a second, the two of them forming an unspoken agreement not to mention how they nearly drowned. Again.
“Y-yeah, we’re fine,” Yamato says.
“Just swell,” Taichi adds. “The swellest.”
Sora wriggles out from between them, taking a few steps away. Taichi frowns, jabbing his elbow against Yamato’s side lightly. He jabs the other boy in response, throwing a glare this way.
“Are, er …” Taichi clears his throat. “Are things okay with you and Piyomon now? We’re sorry that we, um, didn’t help much …”
“Hm?” Sora seems almost stymied by the question. “Yeah, things are fine now. Don’t worry about it.”
“We can’t just -- not worry about it,” Yamato says. “We acted like dicks and then when we all got split up you were stuck here alone and -- …”
“It’s fine,” Sora chuckles, turning away from them. Fondly: “Idiots.”
Gennai takes a step forward, rubbing at his wrists where the vines had started to cut into his textures. “Well done, all of you,” he says, and Yamato thinks he almost sounds sincere. “Take a moment to pat yourselves on the back.”
“Just give up, Gennai,” Taichi says, turning towards him. “We’ve rescued Daisuke’s team, got our powers back, defeated all your puppet Digimon. We’ve won.”
Gennai’s smile turns distinctly chiding. “You’ve won that battle, and foiled that plan. But I’m still here, and there are a hundred different ways I can achieve my goal,” he says. “That’s always the problem, isn’t it? If you want to save the worlds, you have to stop me every time. If I want to end them, I only have to win once. You’ve foiled Plans A, B, C, and D, but …”
Lightning arcs in the distance, in the direction of the ship, again and again. Yamato turns towards it, narrowing his eyes. Lightning from clear skies. Even in the Digital World, that isn’t natural.
“And there’s Plan E,” Gennai says. “Right on cue.”
“Mei-chan,” Mimi says, a look of panic crossing her face.
“And Meicoomon,” Sora adds softly.
Gennai chuckles, tilting his head in some imitation of confusion. “Who’s Meicoomon? No Digimon with that name exists in the registry.”
Lightning crackles in the distance again, flashing brighter, heavier. There are storm clouds sweeping in now, black and heavy, spiralling inwards above where he’s sure the ship must be.
“Get to the coast,” he barks to the others. “Now.”
When they get to the close, they see exactly what they were expecting: CaptainHookmon’s ship at the centre of a nimbus of cloud and lightning, careening through the water like it’s going to run aground at any moment.
“Let me tell you a story. It’s one you already know,” Gennai says mildly, appearing between Yamato and Taichi. “Once upon a time, at the dawn of this world, there was nothing but lifeless data, a world and creatures without consciousness, without souls. This place had formed from the unchecked ideas and creativity of humanity, but that wasn’t enough to make it alive.
“And then, one miraculous day, eight beings descended from the heavens, onto the slopes of Infinity Mountain, fascinated by humanity’s unintentional act of creation. The youngest pleaded with them to give the world life, so they split from themselves shards of their very being and gave life to the world, and to the first hundred-and-eight Digimon.
“But they had acted rashly. This Digital World, perfectly positioned to be the lever that would bring down every other world, was not like any other world they had seeded. As these Digimon evolved into new forms, some of them would fail, overreach, and instead of successfully evolving they would be destroyed, so completely that the remnants of their data wouldn’t return to the cycle of reincarnation. Bit by bit, that remnant data would pile up.
“The first Digimon to die in this fashion couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t move, could barely even think. He languished in the deep darkness, just the fragments of what was once a person. But in time, other Digimon perished this way, and as their data joined together, that collective began to regain those lost faculties, becoming something that was all of them and none of them, something new. A being that was both a Digimon and something else, that trespassed upon the domain of the Crests themselves. Apocalymon, a being whose mere existence threatened reality, and who was driven by a need to at last, finally, be permitted to rest.
“The Crests had foreseen this, and when they departed this world, they left behind the prophecy that they would return, clad in human form, and put an end to Apocalymon. And eventually, when the world was on the cusp of destruction, they did. Eight children defeated Apocalymon’s Dark Masters, climbed Spiral Mountain, and destroyed Apocalymon.”
“Thanks for the recap,” Jyou says dryly.
Gennai grins at him. “But a single shard of him survived. It drifted back down to the Digital World, embedded itself in an egg, and, seeking to avert disaster, a wise old man,” he presses a hand to his chest demonstratively. “Sent that egg and a digivice to the human world, where a human partner could keep that remnant of Apocalymon in check. And she did, for years, until the shard of Apocalymon began to grow too powerful, began to remember what it was.”
Koushiro stares at him. “Meicoomon is …”
“All this time, you’ve been so sure that she was Patient Zero of the Infection. But the Infection comes from within her, sprang forth from the same power that created the Black Gears once before,” Gennai says. “Meicoomon is and has always been your first enemy. She is what remains of Apocalymon.”
The ship runs aground with a harsh creak of metal, slowing to a stop on the rocks near Toy Town.
“And now, she stands just a few kilometres away from eight fully realised Crestbearers,” he adds. “The power that thwarted her plans and nearly destroyed her once before. I can think of nothing better than fear to shake loose those old memories.”
In the distance, Yamato sees Meicoomon -- no, evolved now, returned to the Meicrackmon form she’d used just before the Reboot -- rise into the air and open a distortion, escaping through it to parts unknown.
“She shouldn’t have been born. She should never have been born,” Gennai says softly. “And yet, I was waiting for her to be …” He frowns, touching a hand to his forehead.
Yamato’s gaze snaps towards him. “Gennai?”
Gennai gives a raspy chuckle, taking a step backwards. “There’s … there’s really something wrong with me, isn’t there? We’re not … I’m not all here, or I’m …”
“Koushiro, scan him,” Sora says sharply.
Koushiro flicks open his laptop, typing with one hand as fast as he can, but Yamato knows Gennai isn’t going to stick around for a scan. Just like that last glimpse of sanity back in Harwell Town, this isn’t going to last.
A second later, that mad glint returns to his eyes again.
“Even when I lose, I win,” Gennai says, some stability returning to his voice. “Remember that.”
Then he’s gone, vanishing in a crackle of data.