“Your potential is great. You must understand just how much of a tragedy it would be for you to waste it…”
“Why do you insist on doing these things that you just lack the necessary competency for?”
“See, that’s why you’re not gonna get anywhere. You’re stupid enough to complain about what you want to do, instead of just doing what you ought to do! It’s all a game. Wise up and play it right for once!”
“No more of this nonsense! You will focus on your specialties, or you will no longer have a place in these halls!”
“Say what you will, but I expected more from you… but you’ve let yourself become a washout! You’ve rendered everything you’ve done into a complete waste of time! If you walk away, you know what you’ll be? A failure! You will always be a failure!”
“Work with me… and I promise, no one will ever see you as a failure again…”
Voices of the past echoed in Wizardmon’s mind, visions of these moments passing by in flashing images, frozen in time, like a traumatic slide-show. It was only the realization that he was dreaming that broke the stream of subconsciousness, launching him out of his sleeping state, his pointed hat nearly flying right off his head as he sat up with a jolt. Reflexively, he managed to keep his precious headwear firmly fastened, though he otherwise merely seemed to stare at the dirt path before him, the sunlight of a new day shining through the shade of the cherry blossom trees as he took a moment to let his dreams escape his conscious mind and recount just where he currently was.
The previous events from the day before came back to him, lastly that meeting with those infamous Tamers, particularly that brief argument with their leader before she cleared off with her Doumon in tow. That left him and his own newfound Tamer alone out here on this riverside trail. He’d pulled Art away from the actual pathway while he rested, as to not have his sleeping form getting in the way of any passers-by, and he had intended to keep watch all through the night… but clearly he hadn’t been so full of energy himself if he’d managed to pass out somewhere along that span of time. He quickly checked over both himself and his human companion, but thankfully it appeared no one had taken anything from either of them while they were out of it.
‘Still… I’m only asking for trouble if I make such a careless mistake again…’ Wizardmon thought to himself somewhat shamefully. He gave one more glance towards Art, the young man still being fast asleep. He couldn’t help but ponder just what he had to have been doing when the wizard Digimon dropped into his world so suddenly and got him involved in his rather chaotic affairs just as swiftly. Surely he must have had a life back there… and while much of his outer condition didn’t necessarily infer a life of luxury, it was, nonetheless, a life; One with ambitions, goals, troubles, everyday matters… all of which he’d coaxed him into abandoning… and he couldn’t help but question now, in this moment of calmness, if he’d had the right to do so. Perhaps those dreams of his were merely guilt-tripping him… Art had made his choice after all, he could have refused… probably… if the portal was actually going to close before he could get dragged in one way or another… Oh dear, now that would certainly be a thought that would kick around in his mind for a while…
Needing something to distract him from such worrisome ponderings, Wizardmon got up to his feet and began picking at the petals of the lowest hanging branches sheltering them. Rather quaintly, every picked blossom seemed to get replaced by a new one, rapidly growing from the space left behind by the previous petal as soon as he plucked it. It left him with quite the handful of petals in a matter of moments, with nary a sign that any of the branches had been picked. Leaning against the tree trunk, he cupped the petals with both hands, quietly muttering a chant, closing his eyes in deep concentration before opening both them and his hands at once… Released from his grasp, out came, not the petals, but a small flock of pink birds that flew out towards the river. Wizardmon watched with a small grin of triumph, though that faded as he saw the ‘birds’ abruptly revert back to petals and scatter along the slow-moving stream of water below. He looked down with a sense of disappointment, only for his moping to be interrupted by the sound of pure astonishment…
“Oh my god, that was badass, man!” Art had apparently woken up by this point, and he’d managed to witness the little attempt of prestidigitation. Wizardmon looked genuinely baffled that the human would be impressed by what he’d deemed only a half-successful conjuration. Had the boy never seen such simple parlor trickery before?
“I’m glad you found it entertaining… but it’s hardly anything special,” he quipped with a shrug, moving to hide his half-concealed face further with his hat out of sheepishness.
“Hey, maybe that’s ordinary stuff to magicians like yourself, but, dude… that was legit magic, wasn’t it? Can’t say we get a lot of that happening where I come from.” He truly was impressed… Wizardmon had to admit he wasn’t sure how to take this flattery… such feedback was about as rare for him as this display of magic apparently was for Art.
“Ah… Well… Thank you…” he finally resorted to saying, looking thoroughly bashful, and this just seemed to end up puzzling his Tamer.
“Hey, you okay?” Art asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re taking this like you’ve never heard someone compliment you before in your life.”
“Not… often,” Wizardmon muttered. “But, that’s hardly a matter of importance now, is it? Back to the task at hand, you ought to take a look at that map they gave you.”
Art took a moment to, presumably, recollect his own memories at this suggestion before it appeared the lightbulb in his head finally flickered back on. He realized he was presently still holding on to the very map Wizardmon had spoken of. Unfurling it, they were presented with the features of what seemed to be an archipelago of sorts. It was impressively detailed for a map of its size. Those Tamers certainly did a lot of scout work if all this was accurate… Still, it would only do the two of them so much good if they didn’t know where they currently were. Thankfully, Knox’s gang had them covered on that front as well, in the form of a small red sticky-note placed in a corner of one of the larger islands, simply labeled ‘YOU’. Removing the note revealed a spot labeled ‘Sakura trail,’ which, moving northward, eventually ended at a somewhat large chunk of the island leading up to the shoreline, titled ‘City++’.
“Somewhere around there is a pasture of sorts… and that’s where we’ll supposedly find our next mark,” Art surmised, looking from left to right along the trail, suddenly hitting another obstacle before setting out. “…Question is… which way’s supposed to be north?”
The two proceeded to spend the next few minutes reacquainting themselves with the cardinal directions, Wizardmon eventually coming to the conclusion and pointing where he believed the northward portion of the path was. “That way, yes… I’m near-positive.”
“Near?” Art repeated that particular word concernedly.
“I’m pretty certain, don’t fret… It’s just we cannot confirm the truth of the matter until we actually get to moving…” Despite the lingering hint of doubt, Wizardmon pressed forward, and he could hear Art quickly following behind.
“If I’m being completely honest here, I’m really hoping you calculated this right, it’ll save us a lot of time…” Art said, immediately sounding as if he regretted the way he worded it. Likely he feared he was coming across as ungrateful or simply childish, but, to this, Wizardmon felt it would be rather hypocritical of him to condemn such behavior with any degree of harshness. Even beyond any personal understanding, he did make a point that it would be rather terribly inconvenient to backtrack.
“Let’s not forget, Art, that I’m only marginally more familiar with this world than you are. I am an outsider to these lands as well, as you know,” he said, and the human seemed to resignedly nod his understanding.
“Right, right… Nearly forgot… You’re from another world originally… Witchally… or like… Witcherthee?”
“Witchelny,” Wizardmon clarified, lightly amused. “For all the little similarities that world and this one share, geography is not on that list. It will take some time for me to acquire an adequate sense of direction, but, developing such skills was partly the reason for my coming here in the first place, I suppose.”
“I’ll admit I’m still pretty curious about how that all went down for you. What was it you said… People from your world visit this one to test themselves? Something like that?”
“Not simply to test, but to learn. This Digital World is vast and diverse. Compared to what my people are more familiar with, it’s quite the breath of fresh air. Our mentors in Witchelny were far more conservative in their methods… much to the misfortune of students like myself.”
“You serious?” Art asked, nearly stopping in his tracks.
“Well, yes…” Wizardmon said in affirmation, puzzled that such a simple statement surprised the human to that extent. “Is it… strange that I may have been something of a problem student?”
“I uh… Hey, I don’t mean any harm by it, it’s just… y’know…You don’t really strike me as the type to play the class clown is all.”
Wizardmon chuckled despite himself at this. “Well, perhaps I wasn’t that sort of rebel… No doubt I would’ve been easily outmatched by the Impmons and the like in that particular line of thinking… and in fact that was exactly the case, but, that’s another tale in itself… Surely you’ve had some sort of schooling in your own world?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely… Only just got out of it recently.”
“Then you’re familiar with mentors who strive to teach you a very specific sort of way, I presume? The way they want you to learn?”
Art’s face seemed to scrunch up a little. It looked as if he was recollecting more than one of those moments. “Oh, yeah… Not the most enjoyable teachers usually.”
“No… not at all…” Wizardmon muttered in agreement. “Worse off when your peers consist of smug overachievers and kiss-ups…”
“Hey, I hear you… Had the same kind of crap when I was in high school especially… Someone’s always better than you at something, or a teacher’s always got a favorite student over you… story of my life. But, look at it this way, it’s over now, right? You’re out here, learning and doing stuff your own way, that mess is behind you,” Art said. Wizardmon nodded quietly to acknowledge that point, though his recent dream of those days still left him to question if that was truly the case… to say nothing of the mistakes he’d made almost immediately after…
For a while the two walked in general silence, observing the tranquil nature of the path they trod. Art seemed especially impressed, pointing out all sorts of things that were apparently anomalies to his world, like the perpetual-blooming cherry blossoms, the way the sky occasionally flickered like something he called a “CRT”, and perhaps most strangely to Wizardmon, such banal things like a couple of ducks swimming along the stream.
“They look just like the ones back home… What do you call ‘em? Duckmon or something like that?” He’d asked.
“No… I’m rather certain even the natives would still call them ducks…” Wizardmon replied.
“But… they’re digital ducks?”
“Yes… since they are, in fact, ducks in a digital world, they are, more than likely, digital ducks, Art…” He had to remind himself that the human was still quite new to the entire concept of this world… The occasional silly question was to be expected. Still… while they were on the topic of other worlds… “I must say your reactions certainly pique my own curiosity... Regarding the nature of your homeworld… I didn’t exactly have much time to sight-see while I was there after all. Perhaps you could enlighten me a little bit regarding just what your world is like? I’m not mistaken in the notion that it is not entirely digital itself? It had a rather peculiar feeling to it… difficult to put it to words exactly how.”
“I get what you mean, that’s pretty much how I felt when we first landed back in that desert,” Art said, thinking back to how he’d indeed felt that strange artificiality to the world upon his arrival. Even now he could still feel it, that strange sensation that just clicked in his mind that this world… this reality rather… wasn’t the one he was familiar with. “It’s like the very air’s got a different feeling to it… but yeah, you’d be right in your assumptions there. ‘Digital’ kinda just refers to things on a technological level… Y’know, electricity, computers, binary, that sort of thing. What’s it mean to all of you guys? Just like… a complete state of being?”
“Essentially… Few remember why we’re called Digital Monsters… Nor does anyone likely still understand the etymology of the Digital World. For the vast majority of us, it’s just the way it is, the way it’s always been. So in that sense, yes… the word ‘Digital’ might as well infer reality itself to us… All the more extraordinary that a realm exists where it can be merely an application and not quite so all-encompassing.”
The two continued to chat about these contrasts to their understanding of existence for a time. Wizardmon explained how the magic he wielded was hardly unique to his own kind, that it was merely a more advanced version of the elemental energy almost every Digimon had at their disposal in some form or another. Art tried comparing it to various kinds of ‘code’, as he called it, but, he admitted he wasn’t well versed in the subject enough to know if the analogy was accurate. Either way though, it did manage to strike up another sort of thought for the wizard Digimon.
“Art, you mentioned something about computers, yes? That they were… one of the objects you associate with things considered digital… You and other humans… who are the only lifeforms we know of that can actually be Tamers and tinker about with our ability to digivolve…” A few gears were clearly starting to shift into place, rumors and myths and… perhaps even certain past events he’d tried to blank out… They were all starting to come together and bring about a rather existential feeling in the pit of his stomach. “You… wouldn’t perhaps suspect that maybe your world had something to do with…”
Before Wizardmon could finish his thought, he was interrupted by the sound of rapid gunfire echoing loudly through the trees. Most alarmingly, he heard at least one shot fly past them, a near miss… or perhaps a warning. Swiftly he went to stand in front of Art, who’d instinctively ducked for cover, as he looked about for the source.
“Oh goddammit, more of this…” Art remarked just loudly enough for Wizardmon to hear. Likely he’d been hoping the incident with the Deputymon would be relatively uncommon. Still, they couldn’t have been near enough to their destination for this to be coming from the latest orb victim. The city landscape wasn’t even in view yet. No, Wizardmon was certain this was another matter… and perhaps one that involved a better chance of talking things out.
“Please, whoever you are… we don’t mean any harm, we’re merely travelers passing through,” he called out, though he didn’t lower his guard, his staff at the ready.
“‘Mean no harm’… Good joke, traitor. Really makin’ me laugh. Let’s hear another,” came a gruff, militaristic sort of voice in return from within the trees. Not long after, a visual came to accompany the sound… It had apparently camouflaged itself quite nicely within the pinks, greens and browns of the forest, though as it stepped onto the path, the creature reverted to what was likely its default, a sort of greenish-blue pattern. Standing before them with an M16 in its massively-clawed grasp was a bipedal reptilian in a ballistics vest with a helmet and rucksack to match. A Commandramon, Wizardmon knew from the distinct image alone… but on his own? Their place was generally with a platoon of their evolutionary line, they weren’t the sort to take solo missions. Sure enough, his suspicions were proven accurate as another Digimon soon glided onto the scene, though not one he’d expected… This one was a small black-scaled wyvern with bright scarlet horns, claws and teeth, amongst other sharp spikes jutting from its knees and tail, all matching the color of the gem embedded in its chest. A Vorvomon, in the company of a Commandramon… A fairly unlikely duo indeed…
“What, that all the material you’ve got? Guess you’re too busy mowin’ us down to hone your standup routine,” Commandramon growled as he approached, his gun not aiming directly at the two for the moment, but he was making certain to keep a claw on the trigger.
“I’m afraid you’re confusing us with someone else… We haven’t ‘mowed down’ anyone,” Wizardmon attempted to reason, though the glaring look from both of the draconic new arrivals inferred they were hardly convinced.
“Cut the crap, magic-boy. You expect me to believe that when you’ve got one’a them with you?” Commandramon said as he pointed accusingly at Art.
“So you see a human and you assume he’s automatically aligned with the actions and motives of another of his kind? Come now, is that truly reasonable?” Wizardmon retorted. All the while, he didn’t want to admit that was a question he may have had a very different answer to himself only a few days ago…
“Considerin’ what they’ve done to my platoon… what they did to my comrade’s friends… That’s all the evidence I need. Ain’t met a good one yet, an’ I’m done givin’ ‘em the benefit of the doubt. Whether or not I recognize ‘em ain’t a factor. Probably just a new recruit for those killers to train up, sendin’ him in to get his first taste of the action. Well we ain’t gonna stand by… but I’ll tell ya what, you renounce whatever repugnant little bond you’ve got, an’ we’ll at least let you walk, but one way or another you’re gonna stand aside so we can rid the world of that bloodthirsty garbage cowerin’ behind you.”
Ah… so here they had two rare surviving witnesses of that infamous Tamer-trio’s notorious onslaughts… Suddenly words didn’t seem as likely to work out…
“I’m sorry, good sir, both for your loss and the present inconvenience, but I am not letting you bring harm to this man. He’s under my charge, and we merely wish to continue on our way. It would be in everyone’s best interests if you let us do so… I would very much hate for this to have to get violent,” Wizardmon said, sternly holding his ground.
“I’m only lookin’ to get rid of a danger too many of us refuse to even believe in before it can come back up and bite us all in the collective posterior, magic-boy… But don’t think I don’t have the brass to go through any idiots who get in my way’a that. My comrade an’ I, we’re more than a match for one Champion-level.” As he aimed his firearm at Wizardmon, and the accompanying Vorvomon seemed to be generating a bright flame within its mouth, the Wizard Digimon merely let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.
“Kids these days… so uppity… You don’t seem to understand just what the power-gap between us really amounts to… You risk getting yourself hurt with that level of ignorance, soldier. How many ‘champion-levels’ have you successfully hunted down between the two of you so far?”
Commandramon didn’t answer… Judging by the sudden, insecure twitch in his eyes, it wasn’t likely that he’d simply lost count.
“…Just as I thought. All talk. I’m willing to forgive a mistake in judgement and let you pass this off as a learning exercise… but that will require you putting your gun down and letting us pass.”
The armored reptile’s stoicism seemed to be fading by the second, his rifle audibly shaking in his grasp. Vorvomon was right beside him at this point, constantly shifting his glance from his comrade to Wizardmon.
“Don’t let him get in your head! He’s bluffing! He’s gotta be!” the wyvern growled. “Come on, we can’t just let them walk all over us!”
“Don’t you think I know that!?” Commandramon shot back irritably as he, in a stressed lapse of logic, turning to look at Vorvomon… giving Wizardmon just the opening he was looking for. Without missing a beat, he aimed his staff at the distracted targets, shooting a vicious gust of wind, launching them both into the trees behind them. Nothing like a Blink Breeze spell to catch a close-ranged enemy off guard and earn some needed distance. Now it was time to prove just how out-of-depth these two truly were…
A beeping noise came from where Art was still ducking, more than likely his Digivice going off, but Wizardmon couldn’t stop to check, he already knew he had a limited time to get this fight finished. Quickly looking back just to make sure the human was still okay, he then proceeded to rush toward the spot where Commandramon had been flung. His rifle was on the ground, blown away from his grasp from the sudden wind attack. He used another gust to toss it further aside, away from the cyborg Digimon as his camouflage skin started to turn back into the pinkish variant, but by now it wasn’t going to do him much good. As soon as Commandramon got up to his feet, Wizardmon hit him with a fireball, having him tumble right back to the ground.
Vorvomon had recovered by this point, attempting a charge to assist his comrade, who, looking terribly frustrated, pulled out what appeared to be grenades of some kind, throwing them in Wizardmon’s direction.
“You’re making this far too easy for me, you know,” Wizardmon said with a tsk as he used some more wind magic to redirect the explosives toward the approaching Wyvern just as they were set to go off, the resulting explosion launching the rock-dragon back before he could even fire off a retaliating fireball of his own. The ensuing impact seemed to render the hapless creature unconscious, as he didn’t appear to be getting up this time.
“Your friend’s clearly not an experienced fighter. What did you hope to accomplish here? Really?” Wizardmon said to Commandramon, who’d watched in horror as his own attack incapacitated his ally. Still, the remaining rookie didn’t look ready to quit, letting out as vengeful a battlecry he could muster as he began to swing at Wizardmon with his claws. A little more durable, this one… Not too surprising since he was quite literally born to be a soldier… Still, those attacks weren’t anything like the relentless strikes of a Coredramon, and Wizardmon was generating small barriers to parry each lunge and slash without much trouble. Yet, even then, he knew the clock was ticking… No more toying around.
“Let’s just establish you’ve brought this on yourself…” he muttered, pushing Commandramon back with one more Blink Breeze to give himself just enough time to concentrate. Not surprisingly the reptilian fighter sprinted to close the gap again, but as he did so, he would see a great build-up of what appeared to be electrical energy gathering at the end of his opponent’s staff. He wouldn’t have enough time to realize the mistake of being in such close-range before it was too late… as the surrounding area became something akin to a plasma ball, lightning bolts flying in all directions, a great many of them hitting Commandramon. The resulting electric shock proved to be the breaking point, sending him to his knees, unable to get back up, though not for a lack of trying as he struggled to move, cursing himself as he failed to do so.
Wizardmon grabbed his fallen foe and forcibly pulled him up to his eye-level. “See to it that your comrade gets proper healing… and then I urge you both to rethink this misguided path of vengeance. I know exactly where such spite will take you. I went down that very road myself once… You’d best walk away from it while you still can, before you reach that threshold… before you no longer have the choice anymore.”
Commandramon’s eyes were reddened, and even behind his mask it was clear a few tears had managed to escape him. “Those humans…” he tried to protest, but his strength just wasn’t there for it.
“They are not all the same as the ones you were unfortunate enough to run into… Think about it, you would not still be able to speak to me right now if my Tamer were truly in-line with their ways of thinking. We’re letting you go… I won’t stop you from finding your weapon either if you can seek it out… but I urge you to reconsider before you make a mistake like this again.” At that, he let the militant reptile go, the defeated soldier falling right back to his knees as he silently crawled over to where Vorvomon was still laying prone. Wizardmon suspected it would be a long while before they’d have the strength for retaliation. He truly did hope they would reconsider such a thing.
Passing through the forest, watching as the splintered and damaged trees seemed to gradually repair themselves from all the environmental destruction, he was soon back to where Art was, the human having braved some of the risk to get closer to witness the utter thrashing for himself.
“That feels like it all happened so quickly…” Art commented, clutching at his forehead as if to let everything sink in somehow. “I mean, nicely done, glad you had that situation under control but… like… damn…”
“The power gap between levels is nothing to scoff at… By the way… I heard a noise coming from your Digivice earlier… Did you see what that was about?” Wizardmon had made sure not to forget that little detail.
“Oh, yeah… It was a timer I think… Don’t know what set it off, but whatever it was, you had about 30 seconds or so left on it,” Art said.
“Ah… thought so…” Wizardmon remarked. He proceeded to tell Art about the message he’d received the night before, how he managed to get Art to unconsciously digivolve him back to his Wizardmon state and the time limit he would apparently have for an indefinite period whenever it came to engaging in combat. “Sorry I didn’t tell you immediately about it. I’ll admit my mind was… a bit muddled this morning.”
“Hey, that’s fine, I’m the last person to pass blame on that subject, never been a morning person,” Art quipped, a brief humorous moment before he seemed to let himself refocus back on the current situation and what had most recently transpired. “Man… Can’t believe the mere sight of me just sent those guys into rage-mode like that…”
“Ideally we will not have to worry about those two again… but I’m afraid this hostile sentiment of theirs will only become more and more common as we near the city…” Wizardmon said, dusting himself off before patting at the human’s back and pointing back at the trail. “All the same we must continue…”
At that they both got back to their trek along the path, albeit looking much more alert.
“You think it might be… I dunno… wishful thinking that we might be able to turn this negative viewpoint on my kind around?” Art asked as they walked, and Wizardmon gave a shrug.
“Nothing’s impossible… It’ll have to be little by little, influencing individuals through our actions… But the public at large… well… It took years for that trio to give humans such a notorious reputation, Art… That’s not the sort of damage one can remedy in an instant.”
“I’ll admit… now that I’m starting to witness more of this first-hand, and with all you know about it… I’m surprised you didn’t attack me yourself when we first met,” Art said.
“I’m… not one to be picky in the face of a conundrum. Stories about humans certainly made you out to be a tad terrifying, I won’t lie, but… those were stories, and that Coredramon was an indisputable, objective threat… At the very least those tales meant I knew about how to get you to become a Tamer… more or less… and I can safely say that our brief time working together so far has definitely revised whatever views I may have had before,” Wizardmon explained
“Aw, how flattering,” Art quipped with a chuckle, though even in jest he did seem happy to hear that. Perhaps it just reinforced that hope that others would be able to have their minds changed as well…
---
“Cara?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got a problem over here…”
“Let me guess, your feed is going all haywire?”
“…So you’re having the same issue?”
“Bingo…”
Just when they’d thought they’d had everything as under control as possible within their limits, another setback just had to rear its ugly head in the form of camera trouble… For both Mateo and Cara’s computers, the feed of the monitors keeping an eye on the humans in the Digital World seemed to be glitching out. Consistently the footage would get interrupted by all sorts of nonsense, choppy framerates, other feed footage, and white noise to name a few examples. The fact that it was only happening to their two cameras definitely made it seem a far cry from coincidence.
“Someone’s messing with us… Gotta be…” Cara muttered, and Mateo had to agree this time around.
“The question is who… There’s no evidence anyone within the Digital World can do anything… They shouldn’t even be able to see us whatsoever… but that just means that someone in our world’s involved,” he surmised.
“Yeah… and it doesn’t strike you as a bit peculiar that this all happened just after we started notifying everyone about this?” Cara asked worriedly.
“All signs point to someone on the inside…” Mateo muttered, resting his chin on his hand in concern. “But it could be anyone… Anyone who’d have any reason to sabotage our attempts at keeping watch on these guys… but… why that in particular?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a plan to keep things hidden away before anyone can get the chance to leak it…” Cara presumed.
“That or someone is messing with us just to let us know they can…” Mateo replied, throwing yet another potential motive into the assumption pile, but all of it was speculative at best.
“We’d have to run an investigation on everyone… How else are we gonna get any more info on this?” Cara asked.
Little did she know someone would enter the room at that very moment to answer her rhetorical question.
“I might be able to assist with that, Ms. Hurst.”
Every Programmer in the room immediately looked up at the recognizable voice of their region’s leader as he arrived on the scene, the somewhat lanky fellow with the unmistakable facial combination of a bald head, trimmed beard, tired eyes, and those bizarre goggle-shaped sunglasses he seemed insistent to keep on his person at all times.
“Mr. Alvi, sir! Oh, thank God…” Mateo proclaimed in relief.
“About time you got back to us, boss,” Cara quipped, earning a brief glare from her peer, though the Head-Programmer didn’t seem irked, and in fact appeared rather understanding regarding his subordinate’s tone.
“I do apologize that my solitary work ended up… prolonged, but I assure you it’s not without reason… And in fact, this is less a matter of my return and more a need for you two to come with me… There are certain things I need to update you on.”
“Well that’s all fine and dandy, Payam, but… we’ve kinda got an incident on our hands right now…” Cara said as she pointed to the hectic footage on her monitor.
“This ultimately involves that, among other things… Have Clarke take charge here for now, what I need to tell you is top priority.” Payam’s voice was as serious as ever, but there was a certain hint of anxiety in his tone this time… Without hesitation Mateo called for the aforementioned next man up to look into the current debacle as he and Cara followed Payam out.
The headquarters from which they worked was in itself located within an underground labyrinth of sorts, designed to look like it was apart of an intricate sewage system, and with enough security along the way to make sure no one could accidentally stumble deep enough in to get the impression that it was anything more. They navigated the tunnels briefly before Payam stopped them at a spot with a supposedly featureless concrete wall. Cara and Mateo merely watched perplexed as Payam stared intently at said wall and began tapping various intricate marks along it. After a good minute of this the wall immediately sunk into the floor, revealing the room inside… A private computer room with only one system situated in the back… or rather… one monitor… and a multitude of towers surrounding it. Unmistakably this was some kind of supercomputer, and almost no one had been the least bit aware of it.
“This is where you’ve been cooped up all this time?” Mateo asked once words returned to him, understandably quite baffled.
“Yep… Probably shouldn’t be too surprising that the secret organization has extra secrets for the higher-ups to know, wouldn’t you think?” Payam said with a chuckle, clearly getting a kick out of the reactions… for a good second or two at least... then stoicism was back in its rightful place. “This matter is well beyond anything we’ve had to deal with… and my present tactics haven’t proven effective enough. That’s why I need you two by my side. I’ve got a new plan I need to put in motion… but first I need to get you up to speed…” At that he pulled out a portable hard drive and placed it on the table holding the monitor. “See that?”
Both Mateo and Cara cautiously nodded.
“In that little box is an entire life in suspended animation… One that I’ve been slowly trying to fix for a long time.”
“…Boss… Are you saying you’ve got a Digimon in there?” Cara asked in disbelief.
“…Not just any Digimon…” he began to reply as he reached into one of his pockets and placed a brick-shaped device with a small screen on the table right beside the hard drive… “It’s my Digimon.”
“Why do you insist on doing these things that you just lack the necessary competency for?”
“See, that’s why you’re not gonna get anywhere. You’re stupid enough to complain about what you want to do, instead of just doing what you ought to do! It’s all a game. Wise up and play it right for once!”
“No more of this nonsense! You will focus on your specialties, or you will no longer have a place in these halls!”
“Say what you will, but I expected more from you… but you’ve let yourself become a washout! You’ve rendered everything you’ve done into a complete waste of time! If you walk away, you know what you’ll be? A failure! You will always be a failure!”
“Work with me… and I promise, no one will ever see you as a failure again…”
Voices of the past echoed in Wizardmon’s mind, visions of these moments passing by in flashing images, frozen in time, like a traumatic slide-show. It was only the realization that he was dreaming that broke the stream of subconsciousness, launching him out of his sleeping state, his pointed hat nearly flying right off his head as he sat up with a jolt. Reflexively, he managed to keep his precious headwear firmly fastened, though he otherwise merely seemed to stare at the dirt path before him, the sunlight of a new day shining through the shade of the cherry blossom trees as he took a moment to let his dreams escape his conscious mind and recount just where he currently was.
The previous events from the day before came back to him, lastly that meeting with those infamous Tamers, particularly that brief argument with their leader before she cleared off with her Doumon in tow. That left him and his own newfound Tamer alone out here on this riverside trail. He’d pulled Art away from the actual pathway while he rested, as to not have his sleeping form getting in the way of any passers-by, and he had intended to keep watch all through the night… but clearly he hadn’t been so full of energy himself if he’d managed to pass out somewhere along that span of time. He quickly checked over both himself and his human companion, but thankfully it appeared no one had taken anything from either of them while they were out of it.
‘Still… I’m only asking for trouble if I make such a careless mistake again…’ Wizardmon thought to himself somewhat shamefully. He gave one more glance towards Art, the young man still being fast asleep. He couldn’t help but ponder just what he had to have been doing when the wizard Digimon dropped into his world so suddenly and got him involved in his rather chaotic affairs just as swiftly. Surely he must have had a life back there… and while much of his outer condition didn’t necessarily infer a life of luxury, it was, nonetheless, a life; One with ambitions, goals, troubles, everyday matters… all of which he’d coaxed him into abandoning… and he couldn’t help but question now, in this moment of calmness, if he’d had the right to do so. Perhaps those dreams of his were merely guilt-tripping him… Art had made his choice after all, he could have refused… probably… if the portal was actually going to close before he could get dragged in one way or another… Oh dear, now that would certainly be a thought that would kick around in his mind for a while…
Needing something to distract him from such worrisome ponderings, Wizardmon got up to his feet and began picking at the petals of the lowest hanging branches sheltering them. Rather quaintly, every picked blossom seemed to get replaced by a new one, rapidly growing from the space left behind by the previous petal as soon as he plucked it. It left him with quite the handful of petals in a matter of moments, with nary a sign that any of the branches had been picked. Leaning against the tree trunk, he cupped the petals with both hands, quietly muttering a chant, closing his eyes in deep concentration before opening both them and his hands at once… Released from his grasp, out came, not the petals, but a small flock of pink birds that flew out towards the river. Wizardmon watched with a small grin of triumph, though that faded as he saw the ‘birds’ abruptly revert back to petals and scatter along the slow-moving stream of water below. He looked down with a sense of disappointment, only for his moping to be interrupted by the sound of pure astonishment…
“Oh my god, that was badass, man!” Art had apparently woken up by this point, and he’d managed to witness the little attempt of prestidigitation. Wizardmon looked genuinely baffled that the human would be impressed by what he’d deemed only a half-successful conjuration. Had the boy never seen such simple parlor trickery before?
“I’m glad you found it entertaining… but it’s hardly anything special,” he quipped with a shrug, moving to hide his half-concealed face further with his hat out of sheepishness.
“Hey, maybe that’s ordinary stuff to magicians like yourself, but, dude… that was legit magic, wasn’t it? Can’t say we get a lot of that happening where I come from.” He truly was impressed… Wizardmon had to admit he wasn’t sure how to take this flattery… such feedback was about as rare for him as this display of magic apparently was for Art.
“Ah… Well… Thank you…” he finally resorted to saying, looking thoroughly bashful, and this just seemed to end up puzzling his Tamer.
“Hey, you okay?” Art asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re taking this like you’ve never heard someone compliment you before in your life.”
“Not… often,” Wizardmon muttered. “But, that’s hardly a matter of importance now, is it? Back to the task at hand, you ought to take a look at that map they gave you.”
Art took a moment to, presumably, recollect his own memories at this suggestion before it appeared the lightbulb in his head finally flickered back on. He realized he was presently still holding on to the very map Wizardmon had spoken of. Unfurling it, they were presented with the features of what seemed to be an archipelago of sorts. It was impressively detailed for a map of its size. Those Tamers certainly did a lot of scout work if all this was accurate… Still, it would only do the two of them so much good if they didn’t know where they currently were. Thankfully, Knox’s gang had them covered on that front as well, in the form of a small red sticky-note placed in a corner of one of the larger islands, simply labeled ‘YOU’. Removing the note revealed a spot labeled ‘Sakura trail,’ which, moving northward, eventually ended at a somewhat large chunk of the island leading up to the shoreline, titled ‘City++’.
“Somewhere around there is a pasture of sorts… and that’s where we’ll supposedly find our next mark,” Art surmised, looking from left to right along the trail, suddenly hitting another obstacle before setting out. “…Question is… which way’s supposed to be north?”
The two proceeded to spend the next few minutes reacquainting themselves with the cardinal directions, Wizardmon eventually coming to the conclusion and pointing where he believed the northward portion of the path was. “That way, yes… I’m near-positive.”
“Near?” Art repeated that particular word concernedly.
“I’m pretty certain, don’t fret… It’s just we cannot confirm the truth of the matter until we actually get to moving…” Despite the lingering hint of doubt, Wizardmon pressed forward, and he could hear Art quickly following behind.
“If I’m being completely honest here, I’m really hoping you calculated this right, it’ll save us a lot of time…” Art said, immediately sounding as if he regretted the way he worded it. Likely he feared he was coming across as ungrateful or simply childish, but, to this, Wizardmon felt it would be rather hypocritical of him to condemn such behavior with any degree of harshness. Even beyond any personal understanding, he did make a point that it would be rather terribly inconvenient to backtrack.
“Let’s not forget, Art, that I’m only marginally more familiar with this world than you are. I am an outsider to these lands as well, as you know,” he said, and the human seemed to resignedly nod his understanding.
“Right, right… Nearly forgot… You’re from another world originally… Witchally… or like… Witcherthee?”
“Witchelny,” Wizardmon clarified, lightly amused. “For all the little similarities that world and this one share, geography is not on that list. It will take some time for me to acquire an adequate sense of direction, but, developing such skills was partly the reason for my coming here in the first place, I suppose.”
“I’ll admit I’m still pretty curious about how that all went down for you. What was it you said… People from your world visit this one to test themselves? Something like that?”
“Not simply to test, but to learn. This Digital World is vast and diverse. Compared to what my people are more familiar with, it’s quite the breath of fresh air. Our mentors in Witchelny were far more conservative in their methods… much to the misfortune of students like myself.”
“You serious?” Art asked, nearly stopping in his tracks.
“Well, yes…” Wizardmon said in affirmation, puzzled that such a simple statement surprised the human to that extent. “Is it… strange that I may have been something of a problem student?”
“I uh… Hey, I don’t mean any harm by it, it’s just… y’know…You don’t really strike me as the type to play the class clown is all.”
Wizardmon chuckled despite himself at this. “Well, perhaps I wasn’t that sort of rebel… No doubt I would’ve been easily outmatched by the Impmons and the like in that particular line of thinking… and in fact that was exactly the case, but, that’s another tale in itself… Surely you’ve had some sort of schooling in your own world?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely… Only just got out of it recently.”
“Then you’re familiar with mentors who strive to teach you a very specific sort of way, I presume? The way they want you to learn?”
Art’s face seemed to scrunch up a little. It looked as if he was recollecting more than one of those moments. “Oh, yeah… Not the most enjoyable teachers usually.”
“No… not at all…” Wizardmon muttered in agreement. “Worse off when your peers consist of smug overachievers and kiss-ups…”
“Hey, I hear you… Had the same kind of crap when I was in high school especially… Someone’s always better than you at something, or a teacher’s always got a favorite student over you… story of my life. But, look at it this way, it’s over now, right? You’re out here, learning and doing stuff your own way, that mess is behind you,” Art said. Wizardmon nodded quietly to acknowledge that point, though his recent dream of those days still left him to question if that was truly the case… to say nothing of the mistakes he’d made almost immediately after…
For a while the two walked in general silence, observing the tranquil nature of the path they trod. Art seemed especially impressed, pointing out all sorts of things that were apparently anomalies to his world, like the perpetual-blooming cherry blossoms, the way the sky occasionally flickered like something he called a “CRT”, and perhaps most strangely to Wizardmon, such banal things like a couple of ducks swimming along the stream.
“They look just like the ones back home… What do you call ‘em? Duckmon or something like that?” He’d asked.
“No… I’m rather certain even the natives would still call them ducks…” Wizardmon replied.
“But… they’re digital ducks?”
“Yes… since they are, in fact, ducks in a digital world, they are, more than likely, digital ducks, Art…” He had to remind himself that the human was still quite new to the entire concept of this world… The occasional silly question was to be expected. Still… while they were on the topic of other worlds… “I must say your reactions certainly pique my own curiosity... Regarding the nature of your homeworld… I didn’t exactly have much time to sight-see while I was there after all. Perhaps you could enlighten me a little bit regarding just what your world is like? I’m not mistaken in the notion that it is not entirely digital itself? It had a rather peculiar feeling to it… difficult to put it to words exactly how.”
“I get what you mean, that’s pretty much how I felt when we first landed back in that desert,” Art said, thinking back to how he’d indeed felt that strange artificiality to the world upon his arrival. Even now he could still feel it, that strange sensation that just clicked in his mind that this world… this reality rather… wasn’t the one he was familiar with. “It’s like the very air’s got a different feeling to it… but yeah, you’d be right in your assumptions there. ‘Digital’ kinda just refers to things on a technological level… Y’know, electricity, computers, binary, that sort of thing. What’s it mean to all of you guys? Just like… a complete state of being?”
“Essentially… Few remember why we’re called Digital Monsters… Nor does anyone likely still understand the etymology of the Digital World. For the vast majority of us, it’s just the way it is, the way it’s always been. So in that sense, yes… the word ‘Digital’ might as well infer reality itself to us… All the more extraordinary that a realm exists where it can be merely an application and not quite so all-encompassing.”
The two continued to chat about these contrasts to their understanding of existence for a time. Wizardmon explained how the magic he wielded was hardly unique to his own kind, that it was merely a more advanced version of the elemental energy almost every Digimon had at their disposal in some form or another. Art tried comparing it to various kinds of ‘code’, as he called it, but, he admitted he wasn’t well versed in the subject enough to know if the analogy was accurate. Either way though, it did manage to strike up another sort of thought for the wizard Digimon.
“Art, you mentioned something about computers, yes? That they were… one of the objects you associate with things considered digital… You and other humans… who are the only lifeforms we know of that can actually be Tamers and tinker about with our ability to digivolve…” A few gears were clearly starting to shift into place, rumors and myths and… perhaps even certain past events he’d tried to blank out… They were all starting to come together and bring about a rather existential feeling in the pit of his stomach. “You… wouldn’t perhaps suspect that maybe your world had something to do with…”
Before Wizardmon could finish his thought, he was interrupted by the sound of rapid gunfire echoing loudly through the trees. Most alarmingly, he heard at least one shot fly past them, a near miss… or perhaps a warning. Swiftly he went to stand in front of Art, who’d instinctively ducked for cover, as he looked about for the source.
“Oh goddammit, more of this…” Art remarked just loudly enough for Wizardmon to hear. Likely he’d been hoping the incident with the Deputymon would be relatively uncommon. Still, they couldn’t have been near enough to their destination for this to be coming from the latest orb victim. The city landscape wasn’t even in view yet. No, Wizardmon was certain this was another matter… and perhaps one that involved a better chance of talking things out.
“Please, whoever you are… we don’t mean any harm, we’re merely travelers passing through,” he called out, though he didn’t lower his guard, his staff at the ready.
“‘Mean no harm’… Good joke, traitor. Really makin’ me laugh. Let’s hear another,” came a gruff, militaristic sort of voice in return from within the trees. Not long after, a visual came to accompany the sound… It had apparently camouflaged itself quite nicely within the pinks, greens and browns of the forest, though as it stepped onto the path, the creature reverted to what was likely its default, a sort of greenish-blue pattern. Standing before them with an M16 in its massively-clawed grasp was a bipedal reptilian in a ballistics vest with a helmet and rucksack to match. A Commandramon, Wizardmon knew from the distinct image alone… but on his own? Their place was generally with a platoon of their evolutionary line, they weren’t the sort to take solo missions. Sure enough, his suspicions were proven accurate as another Digimon soon glided onto the scene, though not one he’d expected… This one was a small black-scaled wyvern with bright scarlet horns, claws and teeth, amongst other sharp spikes jutting from its knees and tail, all matching the color of the gem embedded in its chest. A Vorvomon, in the company of a Commandramon… A fairly unlikely duo indeed…
“What, that all the material you’ve got? Guess you’re too busy mowin’ us down to hone your standup routine,” Commandramon growled as he approached, his gun not aiming directly at the two for the moment, but he was making certain to keep a claw on the trigger.
“I’m afraid you’re confusing us with someone else… We haven’t ‘mowed down’ anyone,” Wizardmon attempted to reason, though the glaring look from both of the draconic new arrivals inferred they were hardly convinced.
“Cut the crap, magic-boy. You expect me to believe that when you’ve got one’a them with you?” Commandramon said as he pointed accusingly at Art.
“So you see a human and you assume he’s automatically aligned with the actions and motives of another of his kind? Come now, is that truly reasonable?” Wizardmon retorted. All the while, he didn’t want to admit that was a question he may have had a very different answer to himself only a few days ago…
“Considerin’ what they’ve done to my platoon… what they did to my comrade’s friends… That’s all the evidence I need. Ain’t met a good one yet, an’ I’m done givin’ ‘em the benefit of the doubt. Whether or not I recognize ‘em ain’t a factor. Probably just a new recruit for those killers to train up, sendin’ him in to get his first taste of the action. Well we ain’t gonna stand by… but I’ll tell ya what, you renounce whatever repugnant little bond you’ve got, an’ we’ll at least let you walk, but one way or another you’re gonna stand aside so we can rid the world of that bloodthirsty garbage cowerin’ behind you.”
Ah… so here they had two rare surviving witnesses of that infamous Tamer-trio’s notorious onslaughts… Suddenly words didn’t seem as likely to work out…
“I’m sorry, good sir, both for your loss and the present inconvenience, but I am not letting you bring harm to this man. He’s under my charge, and we merely wish to continue on our way. It would be in everyone’s best interests if you let us do so… I would very much hate for this to have to get violent,” Wizardmon said, sternly holding his ground.
“I’m only lookin’ to get rid of a danger too many of us refuse to even believe in before it can come back up and bite us all in the collective posterior, magic-boy… But don’t think I don’t have the brass to go through any idiots who get in my way’a that. My comrade an’ I, we’re more than a match for one Champion-level.” As he aimed his firearm at Wizardmon, and the accompanying Vorvomon seemed to be generating a bright flame within its mouth, the Wizard Digimon merely let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.
“Kids these days… so uppity… You don’t seem to understand just what the power-gap between us really amounts to… You risk getting yourself hurt with that level of ignorance, soldier. How many ‘champion-levels’ have you successfully hunted down between the two of you so far?”
Commandramon didn’t answer… Judging by the sudden, insecure twitch in his eyes, it wasn’t likely that he’d simply lost count.
“…Just as I thought. All talk. I’m willing to forgive a mistake in judgement and let you pass this off as a learning exercise… but that will require you putting your gun down and letting us pass.”
The armored reptile’s stoicism seemed to be fading by the second, his rifle audibly shaking in his grasp. Vorvomon was right beside him at this point, constantly shifting his glance from his comrade to Wizardmon.
“Don’t let him get in your head! He’s bluffing! He’s gotta be!” the wyvern growled. “Come on, we can’t just let them walk all over us!”
“Don’t you think I know that!?” Commandramon shot back irritably as he, in a stressed lapse of logic, turning to look at Vorvomon… giving Wizardmon just the opening he was looking for. Without missing a beat, he aimed his staff at the distracted targets, shooting a vicious gust of wind, launching them both into the trees behind them. Nothing like a Blink Breeze spell to catch a close-ranged enemy off guard and earn some needed distance. Now it was time to prove just how out-of-depth these two truly were…
A beeping noise came from where Art was still ducking, more than likely his Digivice going off, but Wizardmon couldn’t stop to check, he already knew he had a limited time to get this fight finished. Quickly looking back just to make sure the human was still okay, he then proceeded to rush toward the spot where Commandramon had been flung. His rifle was on the ground, blown away from his grasp from the sudden wind attack. He used another gust to toss it further aside, away from the cyborg Digimon as his camouflage skin started to turn back into the pinkish variant, but by now it wasn’t going to do him much good. As soon as Commandramon got up to his feet, Wizardmon hit him with a fireball, having him tumble right back to the ground.
Vorvomon had recovered by this point, attempting a charge to assist his comrade, who, looking terribly frustrated, pulled out what appeared to be grenades of some kind, throwing them in Wizardmon’s direction.
“You’re making this far too easy for me, you know,” Wizardmon said with a tsk as he used some more wind magic to redirect the explosives toward the approaching Wyvern just as they were set to go off, the resulting explosion launching the rock-dragon back before he could even fire off a retaliating fireball of his own. The ensuing impact seemed to render the hapless creature unconscious, as he didn’t appear to be getting up this time.
“Your friend’s clearly not an experienced fighter. What did you hope to accomplish here? Really?” Wizardmon said to Commandramon, who’d watched in horror as his own attack incapacitated his ally. Still, the remaining rookie didn’t look ready to quit, letting out as vengeful a battlecry he could muster as he began to swing at Wizardmon with his claws. A little more durable, this one… Not too surprising since he was quite literally born to be a soldier… Still, those attacks weren’t anything like the relentless strikes of a Coredramon, and Wizardmon was generating small barriers to parry each lunge and slash without much trouble. Yet, even then, he knew the clock was ticking… No more toying around.
“Let’s just establish you’ve brought this on yourself…” he muttered, pushing Commandramon back with one more Blink Breeze to give himself just enough time to concentrate. Not surprisingly the reptilian fighter sprinted to close the gap again, but as he did so, he would see a great build-up of what appeared to be electrical energy gathering at the end of his opponent’s staff. He wouldn’t have enough time to realize the mistake of being in such close-range before it was too late… as the surrounding area became something akin to a plasma ball, lightning bolts flying in all directions, a great many of them hitting Commandramon. The resulting electric shock proved to be the breaking point, sending him to his knees, unable to get back up, though not for a lack of trying as he struggled to move, cursing himself as he failed to do so.
Wizardmon grabbed his fallen foe and forcibly pulled him up to his eye-level. “See to it that your comrade gets proper healing… and then I urge you both to rethink this misguided path of vengeance. I know exactly where such spite will take you. I went down that very road myself once… You’d best walk away from it while you still can, before you reach that threshold… before you no longer have the choice anymore.”
Commandramon’s eyes were reddened, and even behind his mask it was clear a few tears had managed to escape him. “Those humans…” he tried to protest, but his strength just wasn’t there for it.
“They are not all the same as the ones you were unfortunate enough to run into… Think about it, you would not still be able to speak to me right now if my Tamer were truly in-line with their ways of thinking. We’re letting you go… I won’t stop you from finding your weapon either if you can seek it out… but I urge you to reconsider before you make a mistake like this again.” At that, he let the militant reptile go, the defeated soldier falling right back to his knees as he silently crawled over to where Vorvomon was still laying prone. Wizardmon suspected it would be a long while before they’d have the strength for retaliation. He truly did hope they would reconsider such a thing.
Passing through the forest, watching as the splintered and damaged trees seemed to gradually repair themselves from all the environmental destruction, he was soon back to where Art was, the human having braved some of the risk to get closer to witness the utter thrashing for himself.
“That feels like it all happened so quickly…” Art commented, clutching at his forehead as if to let everything sink in somehow. “I mean, nicely done, glad you had that situation under control but… like… damn…”
“The power gap between levels is nothing to scoff at… By the way… I heard a noise coming from your Digivice earlier… Did you see what that was about?” Wizardmon had made sure not to forget that little detail.
“Oh, yeah… It was a timer I think… Don’t know what set it off, but whatever it was, you had about 30 seconds or so left on it,” Art said.
“Ah… thought so…” Wizardmon remarked. He proceeded to tell Art about the message he’d received the night before, how he managed to get Art to unconsciously digivolve him back to his Wizardmon state and the time limit he would apparently have for an indefinite period whenever it came to engaging in combat. “Sorry I didn’t tell you immediately about it. I’ll admit my mind was… a bit muddled this morning.”
“Hey, that’s fine, I’m the last person to pass blame on that subject, never been a morning person,” Art quipped, a brief humorous moment before he seemed to let himself refocus back on the current situation and what had most recently transpired. “Man… Can’t believe the mere sight of me just sent those guys into rage-mode like that…”
“Ideally we will not have to worry about those two again… but I’m afraid this hostile sentiment of theirs will only become more and more common as we near the city…” Wizardmon said, dusting himself off before patting at the human’s back and pointing back at the trail. “All the same we must continue…”
At that they both got back to their trek along the path, albeit looking much more alert.
“You think it might be… I dunno… wishful thinking that we might be able to turn this negative viewpoint on my kind around?” Art asked as they walked, and Wizardmon gave a shrug.
“Nothing’s impossible… It’ll have to be little by little, influencing individuals through our actions… But the public at large… well… It took years for that trio to give humans such a notorious reputation, Art… That’s not the sort of damage one can remedy in an instant.”
“I’ll admit… now that I’m starting to witness more of this first-hand, and with all you know about it… I’m surprised you didn’t attack me yourself when we first met,” Art said.
“I’m… not one to be picky in the face of a conundrum. Stories about humans certainly made you out to be a tad terrifying, I won’t lie, but… those were stories, and that Coredramon was an indisputable, objective threat… At the very least those tales meant I knew about how to get you to become a Tamer… more or less… and I can safely say that our brief time working together so far has definitely revised whatever views I may have had before,” Wizardmon explained
“Aw, how flattering,” Art quipped with a chuckle, though even in jest he did seem happy to hear that. Perhaps it just reinforced that hope that others would be able to have their minds changed as well…
---
“Cara?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got a problem over here…”
“Let me guess, your feed is going all haywire?”
“…So you’re having the same issue?”
“Bingo…”
Just when they’d thought they’d had everything as under control as possible within their limits, another setback just had to rear its ugly head in the form of camera trouble… For both Mateo and Cara’s computers, the feed of the monitors keeping an eye on the humans in the Digital World seemed to be glitching out. Consistently the footage would get interrupted by all sorts of nonsense, choppy framerates, other feed footage, and white noise to name a few examples. The fact that it was only happening to their two cameras definitely made it seem a far cry from coincidence.
“Someone’s messing with us… Gotta be…” Cara muttered, and Mateo had to agree this time around.
“The question is who… There’s no evidence anyone within the Digital World can do anything… They shouldn’t even be able to see us whatsoever… but that just means that someone in our world’s involved,” he surmised.
“Yeah… and it doesn’t strike you as a bit peculiar that this all happened just after we started notifying everyone about this?” Cara asked worriedly.
“All signs point to someone on the inside…” Mateo muttered, resting his chin on his hand in concern. “But it could be anyone… Anyone who’d have any reason to sabotage our attempts at keeping watch on these guys… but… why that in particular?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a plan to keep things hidden away before anyone can get the chance to leak it…” Cara presumed.
“That or someone is messing with us just to let us know they can…” Mateo replied, throwing yet another potential motive into the assumption pile, but all of it was speculative at best.
“We’d have to run an investigation on everyone… How else are we gonna get any more info on this?” Cara asked.
Little did she know someone would enter the room at that very moment to answer her rhetorical question.
“I might be able to assist with that, Ms. Hurst.”
Every Programmer in the room immediately looked up at the recognizable voice of their region’s leader as he arrived on the scene, the somewhat lanky fellow with the unmistakable facial combination of a bald head, trimmed beard, tired eyes, and those bizarre goggle-shaped sunglasses he seemed insistent to keep on his person at all times.
“Mr. Alvi, sir! Oh, thank God…” Mateo proclaimed in relief.
“About time you got back to us, boss,” Cara quipped, earning a brief glare from her peer, though the Head-Programmer didn’t seem irked, and in fact appeared rather understanding regarding his subordinate’s tone.
“I do apologize that my solitary work ended up… prolonged, but I assure you it’s not without reason… And in fact, this is less a matter of my return and more a need for you two to come with me… There are certain things I need to update you on.”
“Well that’s all fine and dandy, Payam, but… we’ve kinda got an incident on our hands right now…” Cara said as she pointed to the hectic footage on her monitor.
“This ultimately involves that, among other things… Have Clarke take charge here for now, what I need to tell you is top priority.” Payam’s voice was as serious as ever, but there was a certain hint of anxiety in his tone this time… Without hesitation Mateo called for the aforementioned next man up to look into the current debacle as he and Cara followed Payam out.
The headquarters from which they worked was in itself located within an underground labyrinth of sorts, designed to look like it was apart of an intricate sewage system, and with enough security along the way to make sure no one could accidentally stumble deep enough in to get the impression that it was anything more. They navigated the tunnels briefly before Payam stopped them at a spot with a supposedly featureless concrete wall. Cara and Mateo merely watched perplexed as Payam stared intently at said wall and began tapping various intricate marks along it. After a good minute of this the wall immediately sunk into the floor, revealing the room inside… A private computer room with only one system situated in the back… or rather… one monitor… and a multitude of towers surrounding it. Unmistakably this was some kind of supercomputer, and almost no one had been the least bit aware of it.
“This is where you’ve been cooped up all this time?” Mateo asked once words returned to him, understandably quite baffled.
“Yep… Probably shouldn’t be too surprising that the secret organization has extra secrets for the higher-ups to know, wouldn’t you think?” Payam said with a chuckle, clearly getting a kick out of the reactions… for a good second or two at least... then stoicism was back in its rightful place. “This matter is well beyond anything we’ve had to deal with… and my present tactics haven’t proven effective enough. That’s why I need you two by my side. I’ve got a new plan I need to put in motion… but first I need to get you up to speed…” At that he pulled out a portable hard drive and placed it on the table holding the monitor. “See that?”
Both Mateo and Cara cautiously nodded.
“In that little box is an entire life in suspended animation… One that I’ve been slowly trying to fix for a long time.”
“…Boss… Are you saying you’ve got a Digimon in there?” Cara asked in disbelief.
“…Not just any Digimon…” he began to reply as he reached into one of his pockets and placed a brick-shaped device with a small screen on the table right beside the hard drive… “It’s my Digimon.”