“It’s a flip phone! I can’t Digivolve pass the Champion level because of the security settings on a flip phone? Can’t you just override it or something? Modern day paper clips have tighter security settings than a flip phone!” I heckled as I dodged behind a decaying corner.
David snapped back at me from behind a pile of rubble. “Listen, we have no idea what this ADAMAS organization is capable of. It’s bad enough that we are using unauthorized login credentials to access their servers. We need to minimize our digital footprint until we have a better grasp of the situation.”
__________________________
A few days ago, Manga was briefing us about yet another digital world adjacent to ours. Heavy temporal abnormalities going on within that world had caused some seepage and overflow errors into ours. For now, it’s a situation Manga and the other Oracles should be able to handle, but there is enough of a disturbance to pique their interest. In the new world, the Digimon Tamers are government agents for a secret organization known as ADAMAS. Manga gave David a replicated Digivice and a retro-looking uniform to try to blend in with them. We were meant to go on a simple recon mission. Anyone who reads our blog or comics knows there is rarely anything simple about our missions.
The morning we were meant to head out, David and Manga sat in the living room. The Kid was keying in some last-minute adjustments on his Digivice, and Manga was pulling up a Digital Gate.
“Everyone should be arriving shortly. Then we can head out.” Manga said, as he set the computer on the floor.
A grey, chubby bear cub emerged from a beam of light. “Hey guys! Long time no see!”
“Wait, Rai is coming?!” I was excited to see my buddy from the Xros Wars.
“What a surprise. I told you yesterday all about it. I even asked you if you were listening. Yet, here we are. Grizzly heard absolutely nothing I told him…” He sighed without looking up from his screen. “We’re allowed up to six Digimon in this Digivice’s local storage. So, we put together an away team.”
I admit, I remember he said something, but I was on a new level on my Donkey Madness video game. I didn’t really care what was happening off screen. “Okay, so yours truly, obviously. Manga’s coming, since he’s sending us on this mission in the first place. Then we call in Rai and Nova, of course. I suppose we can have one of the Hagurumon from the Hagurumonz corps join up. That’s five…Oh, no….. no, no, no….”
Sara came trotting in the room with a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “My first full fledged mission! I’m so excited!”
Nova, who had just emerged from the PC, took the sandwich Sara offered him and sat on the floor next to Rai. Dan emerged from the kitchen, his hands full of cups. He placed a fruit punch on the floor next to Nova and handed another to Sara. When his hands were cleared, he rubbed David on his shoulders and chuckled about his outfit. I’ll admit, it was a wholesome scene, but this isn’t a movie. This is Digimon exploration. This is serious business.
“This is cute scene and all, but are we sure Sara can go? Uh, not that I’m saying she isn’t ready. I’ve been training her, so of course she’s ready. I’m the best combat instructor of all time, after all. It, uh… Bulucomon is an extremely rare species. Are we sure her data won’t raise any red flags? Yeah, cause, you know, discreet and all that.”
David finally looked up from his Digivice. “Remember when we traveled to that one File Island back in 2000 that had no naturally occurring Gazimon population?”
“Yea. Manga converted me into a Digitama and I became a Kunemon.”
David punched in a few keys. “And remember Floatia?”
“Yea, that’s when me and Magna had to work together because Tamers there to Digimon at t time. I think I spent most of my time there as a Gabumon. Or was that the time I was an Agumon?” I tried to remember.
David turned his phone screen towards me, revealing that he was accessing a list of Digimon. “It looks like you are right. The ADAMAS database has no record of Bulucmon. It’s too bad we can’t just do what we did back then and have Magna convert Sara into a different Digimon. Oh, wait…. Magna’s right there….”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, I don’t appreciate the constant sarcasm out of you.”
Sara snorted a laugh that came up from the bottom of her belly. “How do you think we all feel about your sarcasm!”
———————————————–
Like I said, we were meant to go on a simple recon mission. And it was, for a while. The city we emerged into had a lot of structural damage, and there was wild Digimon causing all kinds of petty crimes and just basic mischief. Considering the Oracles were reading massive alterations to the time stream here, I was actually surprised it wasn’t worse off than it was. That surprise went out the window when we got ambushed from behind.
Remember at the turn of the century when everyone in the Digimon community would joke that Leomon lived about as long as tissue paper in a rainstorm? Well, someone should have said that to the Saber Leomon who jumped us. I’m an awesome Digimon, don’t get me wrong, but even I have trouble taking down a Mega Level Digimon in my Rookie form. So, when things went sideways, we all were forced to go into hiding behind the crumbling buildings.
In the distance, I saw a white seal with purple stripes pop her head up from an un-hinged door. She jerked her head and a jagged ice chunk rocketed from her mouth. The yellow behemoth shrugged off the attack, but it turned and leaped in that direction. Sara used the confusion to waddle up to me without our enemy noticing. I could tell she wasn’t quite used to walking on all fours yet.
“Listen, I don’t think we are going to lose this guy. We have to think of something,” Sara panted.
“Oh, thank goodness. Your new Gommamon body gave you the ability to point out the freaking obvious.” I hissed, grabbing her by the orange mohawk and leaping towards David. “We can’t Digivolve. We can only load three of the six of us at a time. Either way you cut it we are outnumbered or overpowered.”
“Wait, I got an idea! According to this I can use this Digivice to add an attack to Hagurumon’s data. That attack has a chance to cause paralysis, and so does Grizzly’s Electric Stun Blast. So, we do a flanking attack, Hagurumon on the left, Grizzly on the right. You both hit him, and hopefully one of the paralysis effects kicks in. Then we hightail it outta here before it regains Its bearings!”
“And if neither attack causes the effect we die.”
“Well, got any better ideas?”
Hagurumon and I charged the beast, never to return….
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that dramatic. The paralysis effect kicked in, and we made it to a nearby clearing. Sara and Hagurumon propped themselves up against some iron rods to rest. I sat by David, who I could tell was still anxious. He was continually looking over his shoulder to see if we were alone.
“We’re okay Kid. You did good. We all did good. Even Sara.”
He lifted his lip into a half smile. “You know, you don’t have to keep acting so tough around her. She’s known you long enough to know it’s an act.”
“What act? I’m Grizzly, the lone master of his own domain. I don’t even know the meaning of the world love!” I puffed my chest out.
“It’s that warm feeling you get from your family and friends, you dumby.”
“Oh, so love is a warm thing!”
David just shook his head. “Okay, Grizzly. I get it, You don’t love anyone but yourself.”
“And his little sister! He loves his little sister, too!” Sara, who has been listening in, cackled at us.
“All of you can shut it!”
The nerve of these people. Yeesh.
Regardless, it looks like its a lot worse over there than we thought. I guess we’ll have to continue to investigation.
DedicatedGazi 