GuyYouMetOnline

Karanlik turned west, facing the setting sun. People were panicing, runing east. Karanlik grabbed a man. "What's going on?" he demanded to know. "A d-demon attack," the man stammered, clearly terrified. "We have to run!" "The demons will not take this city. You may run, but I will ensure that you have something to return to." He released the man, who immediatly resumed running east. Karanlik headed west. [i]Now's the time to proove the truth of what you said, Tanji[/i] he sent on the way. [i]Demons are attacking. They come from the west. Use your power. Sense my mind, and come to me. I'll be where the demons are. If you and your companions aid me in the battle, I'll know you speak the truth, and I will join your little group.[/i] Before long, he reached a group of demons. "Stop what you're doing and leave," he commanded. "If you don't, you will die." One of the demons laughed. "What makes you think you can kill us? We have nothing to fear from you." "You have nothing to fear from normal humans. I'm not a normal human." He glanced at the sun, almost out of sight below the horizon. "You have about ten minutes until nightfall. At that time, any of you left will die." The demons drew their weapons, from the stereotypical pitchforks to katanas to swords. Karanlik drew his poles. "You have one last chance to leave," the demon said. Karanlik laughed. "I don't need to. None of you will survive."

"Well, Hawkmon," Siire said, "I think we've just met our vaccine." "What do you mean?" Tera asked. "Shortly after Hawkmon and I left, he told me that there is real good and real evil in this world," Siire explained. "As you know, I don't like those terms. Computer terms are common here, it seems-firewall, digital, etc. I put the good/evil thing in computer terms. Antiviruses, or vaccines, are the "good guys", viruses are the "bad guys", and the neutral Digimon are data. "Hawkmon also told me that where I saw unseen manipulators-the whole nick-of-time digivolution thing-he saw protection. I'd say it's pretty obvious that Mephismon was a virus, meaning that if anyone is protecting us, it's a vaccine or vaccines. I think we just met them." "Intresting theroy." Siire grabbed his digivice. "Digivice. Short for digital device, probably. Not a very inventive name, but it fits, I guess." He started inspecting it. "What are you doing?" Rena asked. "BDs did a light thing. I'm assuming that ours can do the same trick, and I want to know how to do it. Can't figure it out, though. I'll just have to ask BD the next time we see him, which I think we will." He looked toward the storm-covered area. "I think the crests are in there. Hawkmon and I were heading there when we passed by all of you. I decided not to join you, but I had to come when I ran into a group of Digimon. That happened again with the insects, who I tricked into letting me live if I lured you to them. I brought them here to help with Rad, but that didn't work out, and BD had to come save me." He sighed. "I really thought Rad was dead, even though Hawkmon kept insisting he wasn't. He was right, obviously. Now Rad's against us. Worse, he's gone through a lot of change. He thinks that we're here to destroy this world, and he's trying to stop us. hawkmon says he's been brainwashed, and I have no reason to disagree. That doesn't explain the rest, though. He's got some kind of power, like I'd expect from a Digimon." "Is Rad data?" Hawkmon asked. This startled Siire. "You have [i]got[/i] to be kidding me." A pause, then, "You're serious?" "Yes, I am. Surely these virus things can change data if they can do all the other things you said. If Rad's data, then he can be changed, right?" "Um... yeah. And I thought this place couldn't get any more insane. Well, we'll just have to be on guard from now on. I say we keep going in the same direction. Rad'll be back. He has to be back if he's going to destroy us. We should look for the crests while we wait for him to return. And yes, I said 'we'. I'm not leaving this time. Now, shall we go?"

"Probably with Aurora," David said. "Jack, do you still have that Master Ball?" Jack showed him. "Yes. Unused." "Good. Don't take it out or even think about it until this is over. We don't want whoever's behind this getting their hands on it." "What are we supposed to do now?" Hope wondered. it was David who had the answer. "Someone's been here for a while, but nobody's here now. Whoever was here is probably pulling out. Let's get outside and do a perimeter sweep of the mountain. With the amount of stuff there seems to have been, there'll have to be some kind of transport vehicle. we need to move fast, caution be damned. Hope, crater please." Hope teleported all of them to outside the crater. "Now what?" she asked. Again, David answered. "Hope, get ready to do something you should never do. Hopefully you won't need to do this, but we might just be too late. If we miss them, have your friend use its special power. If they really are pulling out, we can't afford to miss them." Just then, David's phone rang. He took the call. "Hello?" "David, it's Azufe. Another helecopter is on the mountain. I passed it on its way in. Looked like it was heading somewhere 90-180 degrees rotating with an east start from your position," "Thanks. And be sure to classify Hope's husband as Omega, too." "You are going to have to tell me this story when you're done here." David laughed. "Of course. Out." He turned his phone off. "Helecopter landing somewhere on the mountain." He released his Charizard and climbed on. "We need to circle around the mountain, starting east from here. Hopefully we'll be on time, but if not, you'll have to fix that, Hope." Of course, all this was confusing Jack horribly. "Um... what's going on?" "We're intercepting an attempted evacuation of the area. That's all you need to know for now. Stay here, and keep the you-know-what safe. Everyone else, follow me." And with that, his Charizard took off, Hope and Shinobi following.

OOC: Have you even been reading my recent posts? Hope is there because of the problems with Aurora. And David just wants to know what Jack uses the Master Ball for, and when, more as part of his job than anything else. I'm going to act as if that post didn't happen, because it contradicts several previous posts. If anyone has a problem with that, tell me, and I'll edit. ------------------------------------------- "Well, that solves the 'why' mystery," David said. "You should have told me that a long time ago. You and Aurora are what we call Gravity Points. People or things that every criminal out there would give anything to get their hands on." At that time, the chopper landed and Azufe jumped out. He was holding a rather large backpack, which he gave to David. "Here it is. EO-D" David took the pack. "Thanks." "Anything else?" "Yes, actually. I've just learned that Hope and Aurora are GPs." Azufe was shocked. "Gravity Points? You're sure?" David nodded. "Class Omega, to be precise." "Omega?! Two of them? You have [i]got[/i] to be kidding me." "I'm absolutly serious. Make the report as soon as you get back." "Got it." And with that, Azufe got back into the helecopter and took off. Hope turned to David. "What do those terms mean?" she asked. "Class Omega refers to the contents of your Master Balls," David explained. "EO-D stands for Epsilon Opponent-Dark, and refers to the equipent Azufe gave me. Epsilon Opponent means that I wanted equipment for going up against a psychic, mainly gear to protect me from any paranormal abilities. ThatI wanted you to take the chopper, too. if we're up against a psychic opponent, then he or she could possibly have detected and/or intercepted your teleportation. Dark refers to full visual equipment. there are certainly some areas in that mountain that are very dark, and in there's a perfect place to hide something. I've got everything from flashlights to infrared equipment." He opened the pack and dug around for a few seconds before pulling out two pairs of odd-looking goggles. One he handed to Hope, and the other he put on himself. "Yours are standard light-up equipment. What you see goes through some process i don't understand that brightens the image, making it easier to see. Good because it's not dependent on heat like infrared equipment, which is what I'm using. Infrared is great for discovering anything hidden from normal vision." He then pulled out an odd-looking helmet and puts it on. "Basic mental protection gear," he explained. "Won't do much against someone in physical contact with me, but great for everything else." He closed the pack, put it on, and droped into the crater, folowed by Hope. As soon as it started to get darker, they activated their goggles. "Scan for Aurora," David said. "If you can get a location, we'll have a much easier time finding her."

[i]I hope she takes the chopper,[/i] David thought. [i]If she teleports, she might be detected or intercepted. Code Epsilon, after all. Have to take the necessary precautions, and not teleporting is one of them. Too much risk of detection and/or interception. Not likely, but I'll only accept not possible in a situation with so many unknows.[/i] While he waited for Hope, David kept trying to think of reasons someone would be after Aurora, but couldn't come up with any. [i]I'll just have to ask Hope.[/i] David then started worring about Nate. No sigh of him or any of the others who he was supposed to get out of the mountain. [i]He's probably in trouble, too.[/i] It wasn't much longer before he spotted the chopper. [i]Finally. All right, Hope, I really hope you have some answers, because I have a lot of questions. Like who would be after Aurora, and why, and how the amnesia could have been caused. Tell me what you know, I'll get the pack from Azufe, and we'll head in.[/i]

"****!" David swore. He turned on his phone, but instead of calling Hope, he dialed the UNO. "Hello?" "Jaht?" "Is that you, David?" "Yes, it's me." David said. "I have a situation falling under Code Epsilon." "Epsilon? A psychic? Is there one in the group? I never saw the list." "Yes," David verified. "My niece, as a matter of fact. She passed out while in the mountain, so I brought her back outside. She woke up a few minutes ago with amnesia. She got what she could back from my mind, then she teleported away. I think she went back inside the mountain. I'm going in, but not at my current status. I don't know where the rest of the group is, either." "You want backup?" Jaht asked. "Negative. Whoever'sbehind this-and I think someone is-doesn't seem to be able to reach outside of the mountain. But if someone else goes in with me, he/she/it will know that I'm suspicious. But more equipment shouldn't be noticed. I want an E-O-D pack." "Epsilon-Opponent-Dark?" "I'll need to be inside the mountain, so I want full visual gear," David explained. "And Aurora's amnesia was quite possibly caused by an unexpected mental attack. Oh, and one other thing. Send a chopper to pick up Hope. Have Azufe go. He knows how to fly, and as a friend of mine, he's met Hope before and knows where her ranch is. She'll probably have finished off the intruders by the time he gets there. Hopefully I'll have spoken to her by then, but if not, Azufe should tell her to call me. Then she needs to go with Azufe. Make sure he knows how to find Mount Paoliko, because that's where he's taking her. I'm at the top. If Hope sais no, Azufe is to call me while still on the ranch, understand?" "Got it. Bye." Jaht hung up. Siire dialed Hope's ranch again. [i]Answer, Hope. I'm not going to stop calling until you answer, because I need your help.[/i]

OOC: Just trying to keep people posting. It's boring when not much happens (it is to me, at least). Besides, it's DW who started this most recent battle. I just brought the insects into it. ------------------------------------------ Siire and Aquilamon circle around, looking for Rad. "There he is. Land and devolve. I have an idea." Aquilamon did as siire instructed, and Siire whispered his plan to Hawkmon. "Think you can handle it?" "Of course I can," Hawkmon replied. "You're the one to worry about. You sure you're up to this?" "You have the hard part," Siire said as he broke a pair of branches off of a nearby tree. "I get to strike while he's distracted." Suddenly, Siire felt somethink touching the back of his neck. "****." "Turn around," Rad said, and Siire obeyed. "Drop your weapons." Siire let go of the branches. "Why are you doing this, Rad? I know we got off to a bad start, but that's no reason to try and kill me." "Who's Rad?" "You have [i]got[/i] to be kidding me," Siire said. "You're Rad." "My name is Matthia." Siire chuckled. "I suppose that makes me Mathew Brand." "Who?" Siire chuckled again. "Ask not why we sing this song, 'cause everything you think you know is wrong," he said. He was clearly enjoying himself. "What does that mean?" Rad demanded to know. "It means that you don't know the truth," Siire explained. "It means that your friends are your enemies, and your enemies are your friends. It means you can't trust anything. And it means that you need to watch your back." Just then, Hawkmon flew in and pulled Rad's helmet off. Siire took advantage of the distraction by quickly picking up one of his branches and using it to knock Rad to the ground. He holds it about a centimeter above Rad's neck. "If you so much as twich, you'll have a broken neck. Hawkmon, tell me if anyone approaches." "I won't let you get away with this!" Rad shouted. "And just what am I trying to get away with?" "I know what you want. I won't let you destroy this world!" "That's not why I'm here, and that's not why you're here. We're here to save it. Now, I want you to tell me who told you that. Then you'll tell me everything else you 'know' about us. I reccommend you start talking, because I won't hesitate to break your neck. I'll probably regret it in the future, but I won't hesitat now. So start talking." ---------------------------------------------- OOC: For anyone wondering, Brand and the "everything you think you know is wrong line" are refrences to a book trilogy called [i]The Wonderland Gambit[/i]. Siire was using them to distract Rad.

David thought fast. "We have to get you your memory back, but you can't be like this until then, and I don't have time to fill you in on everything." He dropped his mental sheild. "You might not remember this, but you're able to read minds. You don't like to do it without permission, as you consider it an invasion of privacy. Well, I'm giving you permission. I'll think about what you need to know, and you'll be able to read it from my mind. Much faster than explaining everything to you, and there's no possibility of a misunderstanding." "If it will help me remember, then sure. I'll do it." "Good. Now, you may not remember how to control your ability, but you don't need to for this. Just concentrate on what you hear in your mind." Through the psychic method, David told Aurora everything he knew about her, and everything she had known about her parents and him. He made sure he went into great detail about the events so far on and in Mount Paoliko. "That should do until we can get you your memory back," David said when he was done. He put his mental sheild up again. "Nate's supposed to be bringing everyone else here, but I'm getting worried. I want to go back in there, but it's too risky for you to go back in, and I'm not leaving you here by yourself." He took out his phone. "I'm going to keep trying Hope until she talks to me. She should know what to do to get you your memory back. ANd she should have an idea of what happened, and why. And if someone's after you, she should be able to tell me why for that, too. Some rare Pokemon you have, perhaps." With that, he took out his phone again.

[i]ALl right,[/i] David thought. [i]I'll just have to handle this one myself.[/i] David's first step was to go into what he called "mental defense mode", a techniuque for keeping others out of one's mind. It required no mental powers to be used, and was taught to everyone with the UNO, although David had discovered it on his own several years before the UNO was created. It wasn't perfect, but it had saved him before. Step two was to wake Aurora up. But after trying everything he could think of, she was still out. Then David realized that nobody else had arrived. [i]What [/i]are[i] you doing, Nate?[/i] he thought. [i]Well, no time to worry about that.[/i] He turned back to Aurora. "All right, girl. It's time for you to wake up, and I don't care what I have to do." He released his Swampert. "Swampert, soak her, please." Swampert hit Aurora with a weak Water Gun. He continued for a few seconds, then stopped on David's command. David shook Aurora again, and was pleased when she started to wake up. "Aurora, it's me. I brought you outside. I need you to tell me what happened."

Karanlik shoved the unknown presence from his mind and focused on the task at hand. There were ten of them. [i]Why?[/i] Karanlik wondered to himself. [i]Why do humans aid those creatures? Surely they've seen what the demons do. I do not understand, but that won't save them. They aid the demons, and that cannot be allowed.[/i] He stepped out from his hiding place in the shadows of buildings and stood facing the ten humans, six male and four female. He drew his poles from their position strapped to his back. One woman stepped forward. "Who are you?" "My name is not important," Karanlik said. "I am here because I know who you are, and what you do. Because of that, I'm your worst enemy. If you were smart, you'd run. But you won't. Nobody ever does.[/i]" "And why should we?" the woman asked. "You're outnumbered ten to one." "Numbers don't matter. Skill does. And I don't think you have the skill to take me." "We'll see about that." "Yes," Karanlik said as the ten drew their swords. "Yes, we will." Karanlik struck first, smashing a pole into a man's head, then jabbing the other one through his chest. Two women came in from the sides, and a man from the front. Karanlik spun with poles low, knocking them to the ground. He spun, blocked, and killed a man coming from behind with a pole through the chest before finishing off the three on the ground. The remaining five formed acircle around Karanlik. Karanlik pushed off with his poles, flipping over a woman, who he then killed. A pair of men charged him, and he slipped between them while knocking them to the ground and killing them. His remaining two opponents came in simoultaniously from both sides. He blocked them both and sent dark energy through his poles to their swords and into them, killing them. [i]That was easy,[/i] Karanlik thought. [i]Now, whoever you are, now's the time to come back into my mind. Tell me what you're up to, how, and why.[/i]

When Aurora passed out, David immediatly went into serious mode again. "We've got to get her out of here." "Why?" Nate asked. "Because she passed out while in here. Clearly we can't keep her here. Rule one: never keep the victim at the site of the problem." "Makes sense. Let's go." "Not you," David said. "Find the others and meet me outside. Whatever happened to Aurora might happen to us. Move!" David released his Charizard. He picked up Aurora and put her on Charizard's back before climbing on himself. "All right, Charizard. We need to get her out of here, and fast." It was fast. In a couple minutes, they were back outside at the crater. David returned Charizard, then pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. [i]surely there's someone I can call who could help.[/i] After a few seconds, it hit him. He turned the phone on, and dialed Hope's number. -------------------------------------------------- OOC: No, David doesn't know anything. That's how te reacts to things like that. He can be a bit paranoid, but he knows what he's doing. And yes, I know Hope's having problems of her own right now, but David doesn't.

"Find Rad, and keep him busy until I get back," Siire said. "Oh, and the ones I'll come back with are enemies and should be treated as such. Hawkmon?" Hawkmon digivolved to Aquilamon. Siire climbed on, and the Digimon flew downstream. In a few minutes, they came to the insect Digimon from earlier. "Where are they?" Searchmon asked. "They're coming a few minutes behind me. Follow the river upstream and you'll get to them. Go for the guy in te armor first. He's the most dangerous." "And what will you be doing while this is going on?" "That guy in the armor is a personal enemy of mine. I'm coming with you to take him out. As for my word, the same holds true now. Oh, and you can destroy me if I go against my word." "Agreed," the Searchmon said. "Lead the way." Aquilamon turned and flew back upstream, with the insect Digimon following. [i]Perfect,[/i] Siire thought. [i]We let the insects handle Rad, then come in and take them out once he's unconcious. Two problems, one solution.[/i]

OOC: Don't worry. David won't sense anything. Of course, he's one who would know what a Dark Ball does and how to recognise a Pokemon that's been captured by one, but only if he can get a good look at its face. Don't worry, I won't say that a Pokemon's been captured with one unless you already have, Blanko. --------------------------------------- "I'm not here to enjoy anything," David said. "I'm here on business. I [i]am[/i] doing my job. And as for the Master Balls, I know why you have them, remember? And I know you've got them in a safe place. With Jack, I only have his word as to where he got his, and I have no reason to trust him. I know I'm probably just paranoid, but that's saved my life a couple of times before." "Fine," Aurora said. "Just act like you're enjoying yourself, okay? And drop the Master Ball thing." "I'll need to know what he does with it as part of my job, but I'll stop talking about it." And with that, he dropped the business attitude and became the carefree David again. "So, what's next?"

Hawkmon pulled Siire away from the group. "What is it?" Siire asked when they were far enough away. "We need to talk without being heard." "All right. What?" "I may be imagining things, but I don't think Rad's himself." Siire chuckled. "What was your first clue? The armor?" "I'm being serious, Siire. Some Digimon are capable of brainwashing." "You're sure?" "Who lives in this world? Not you. I know what I'm talking about." "True," Siire conceded. "All right, then. What do we do?" "I think he'll be doing something tonight," Hawkmon said."He'll do it while everyone's asleep. We need to be awake if we want to stop him." Siire chuckled. "You're being negative. He might not be planning anything." "You don't believe that." "That's right," Siire admitted. "I was being sarcastic. I think you're right. something's wrong, and if you think it's brainwashing, I really have no reason to dissagree with you. What should we do?" "Return to our observation spot and watch. When Rad makes his move, we make ours."

OOC: Could people [i]please[/i] stop pointing out every ******* mistake I make? When's the last time I've corrected any of you? We all screw up, okay? Why am I the only one people are correcting? Just stop it, okay? Would you like it if I pointed out every single ******* spelling error you made? STOP ******* CORECTING ME! --------------------------------------------- David had followed Aurora and Nate down, and had watched them battle. His mind wasn't on the battles, though. [i]This place is [/i]perfect[i] for illegal operations,[/i] he thought. Something occured to him. "Where's Jack?" he asked. "No idea," Nate told him. "Why?" While he''d been innatentive and carefree earlier, David was suddenly all business. "Because he has a Master Ball. Anyone with one of those needs to be observed at all times. Every organization out there wants to get their hands on one of those things. How do I know that's not why Jack's here?" "Don't be so suspicious," Aurora said. "I doubt that Jack's up to anything." "that doesn't mean that he isn't. I know you havn't read his mind. You don't ever do that without permission. So you don't knoww why he's here. I don't, either. What I do know is that he has a Master Ball, and puts him under suspicion. I'm going to make sure he doesn't do anything with it unless I know about it and allow it." He released his Charizard, and the two of them went off looking for Jack.

"Somebody wake her up," Branit said, indicating the sleeping Mina. "We're almost there." Zire shook her awake. "Mina, wake up. You need to be on full alert for this." "No!" Mina looked around and calmed down when she remembered where she was. "I- I'm sorry." "She was having a bad dream," Callista said. "I saw them. Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. They were destroying everything. Every city they came across." Zire chuckled, but it was a dry chuckle. "Why bother dreaming? That's what they're doing in real life. Saffron, Blackthorn, Mauville, Fallarbor, Lavaridge, Verdanturf, and probably Cinnibar by now. They'll get Celadon before we're done at Nerajtigita HQ. You don't need to dream it, Mina. It's happening for real." At that point, the helecopter touched down. "Here we go," Zire said. "Your objective is to get me to the Beherrschen project center. Once in, I'll download the data we need. Then we'll get out, which will be the hard part. It's likely that we wount be able to get back here. Backup rendevous(sp?) is outside of the Pokemon Mart in Phenac City. Let's do this." Everyone except the pilot, Branit, and Artroa exited the helecopter, which was primed for takeoff at any moment. Zire kicked a tree, stepped on a bush, then sat on a rather large rock. After about a second, he stood up. The rock moved away, revealing an entrance to the underground facility. "Secret entrance. Sequence is tree-bush-rock." Zire released his Absol. "All right, people," he said. "I lead, because I know the way. They'll be on us every step of the way. Don't play by the rules, because they won't. Expect heavy resistance, especially as we near the Beherrschen center. And we're on the clock, too. If we take too long, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune will return to this facility. If that happens, we're dead. We should have about an hour. Plenty of time if we don't get held p too much. Ready?" A brief pause, then, "Good. Let's move."

OOC: The brainwashing thing was a guess. And DW, I can think of a perfectly good reason why he wouldn't stop: stronger sense from the group. Oh, and I did delete the post. --------------------------------------- Siire and Hawkmon walked downstream. It wasn't long before a group of Insect Digmon showed up. Hawkmon identified the Digimon as Kuwagumon, Kabuterimon, Searchmon, two Roachmon, a Dokugumon, and a Yanmamon. "Let me guess," Siire said. "You thought they're be a group of us, and you're here to to try and get rid of us." "Correct," the Searchmon replied. "Well, Hawkmon and I left the others. They're not coming this way. I'm willing to get them here if you're willing to let me and Hawkomn live." "What assurance do we have that you'll do what you say?" Searchmon asked. "What insurance do we have that you won't attack us once you're done with the others?" Siire countered. "I can't trust you, and you can't trust me. That's why we can trust each other." The Searchmon was confused. "Trust because we can't?" "Exactly. None of us are trustworthy. But untrustworthy types have to play by the rules, or else everyone'll be after them." "Um... makes sense. Agreed. You have exactly 24 hours to get them here, or the deal's off." "Got it. Come on, Hawkmon." The two of them turned around and started back upstream. "That was clever," Hawkmon said as soon as they were out of sight of the Digimon. Siire laughed. "Not really. I read it in a book. Similar problem, exact same solution. Honestly, I didn't think it would work, but it was worth a try." "So what are we doing?" Hawkmon asked. "We're going back to the others. We'll bring them to those Digimon like I said, but we'll be fighting against them. They won't expect that." When Siire and Hawkmon see Rad in the armor, Hawkmon pulls Rad into a pile of bushes. "See that?" the Digimon asked, whispering. "Is it just me, or is that Rad?" "Zerodramon's there, so I'd say yes," Siire whispered back. "What's he doing, and why's he wearing that armor?" Siire was about to get up, but Hawkmon held him down. "No, Siire," he whispered. "Let's see what's going on first." ---------------------------------------- OOC: Again, Rad/Matthia wouldn't notice Siire, even if he can sense the digidestined. He's with the main group, and with them so close, he wouldn't really be able to sense Siire too well.

You don't get it, do you?" Zire said. "It's too late. Suicune attacked Saffron-I watched Harstbron give the order. Entei's going for Cinnibar, then Raikou's hitting Celadon-and he-" "She," Artroa interrupetd. "Raikou and Entei are confirmed as male, but Suicune is a female." "Fine. She was responsible for Blackthorn's destruction, and that took less then a minute. Saffron's already been destroyed. About half the people were evacuated in time. Cinnibar's already empty, and Celedon's being evacuated as we speak. Th e point is that it's too late. There's nothing you can do to save Saffron, Callista. Saffron's already destroyed. What you can do is help stop Raikou, Entei, and Suicune before they do more damage." "No," Mina said. "No Pokemon deserves to die." "Even ones that kill hundreds of thousands of people?" "They were ordered to. There is no such thing as a bad Pokemon." "Typical breeder beliefs." Zire said. "That's like saying that there are no bad people. And there are certainly bad people. We're going to a place that's full of them." Branit walked over to them. "We're ready." Zire nodded, then turned to the others. "Come on. We're leaving." He enters the helecopter behind Branit. The others follow, and the pilot takes off. Zire gives him coordinates, and he heads toward the Nirajtigita HQ.

"In response to your question, Jon," David said, "the UNO isn't involved with the tournaments. We don't do security. We expose and shut down major criminal operations. There's enough control on the tournaments that nothing like that could ever happen at one of them, so we're never there. As for your other question, the UNO was only formed labout three years ago. That's nowhere near enough time for the government dumbasses in charge to come up with a name. Oh, and one other thing: part of my job is to ask questions." He looks around. "Are Nate and that what's-his-face huy coming, or are they going to kill each other first?" "You weren't that nice to him either," Aurora said. "Someone else would have done it if I hadn't. He had it coming. And he could never to that flip move, I don't think. Not that it's a very useful move. GReat for showing off, but that's about it. Looks cool, though." "You're just as cocky as ever." David chuckled. "Behavior advice from my niece. Good think none of the boys are here. They'd never let me hear the end of it."

Aquilamon, Wizardmon, Piddomon, Saberdramon, DoruGamon, and Seadramon, who was in the lake, faced off against the enemy Digimon. Bakemon went for DoruGamon, Kuwagumon attacked Seadramon, Tyranomon faced Wizardmon, Monochromon went up against Saberdramon, Meramon went for Piddomon, and Ogremon faced off with Aquilamon. "We're defeated everyone before you," Aquilamon said, "and those were one-on-one battles. This is six one-on-one fights at once. If you know what's good for you, you should leave." Ogremon laughed. "It's you who will lose." "We'll see about that. Blast Rings!" Ogremon jumped over Aquilamon's attack and landed in a tree. He leaped from it, slammind into Aquilamon, knocking the bird Digimon to the ground. "Pummel Whack!" Aquilamon took another Pummel Whack, and Ogremon was about to finish him off. Siire grabbed a branch, ran over, and jabbed it into Ogremon's eye. Off balance, Ogremon's attack missed, and Aquilamon was able to get in the air. "Blast RIngs!" Ogremon, still distracted by Siire's strike, didn't notice the attack until it was too late. Aquilamon followed up with a Grand Horn, slamming Ogremon into a tree. Siire steped forward. "Who sent you?" "You won't survive the next attack," Ogremon said." "Who sent you?" "At least one of you won't make it." "[i]Who sent you[/i]?" "It won't matter soon enough." Siire sighed. "We won't learn anything from him. Aquilamon, finish him off." Seeing that Saberdramon was doing fine, Tera looked over to where Siire was. Only he wasn't there. A message was scrawled in the dirt. "I'm not ready," she read. She looked downstream, where she could make out something flying away. [i]Siire, I'm sorry.[/i] Aquilamon landed by the wrecked swan-boat and devolved. "Too bad it was destroyed," Siire said. "I guess we'll just have to walk." As they starte walking toward the storm-covered area, Hawkmon looked at Siire. "Why didn't you want to stay?" "It was Ogremon," Siire explained. "You heard him. 'At least one of you won't make it.'" "What does that have to do with anything?" "Well, it got me thinking about Rad. I know what you said about the teleportation flash, but that doesn't mean he's alive. What if Mephismon didn't die? He might have taked Rad and Zerodramon somewhere to finish them off safely." Hawkmon shook his head. "You're being negative again, Siire." "Exactly. That's why they didn't want me in the first place. If I go back now, we'll have another fight, and you and I will end up going it alone anyways. t's better for us to just stay by ourselves for a bit longer. Let's try not to get too far ahead, though. I don't want to have to search for them too much when I am ready to go back." "When will you be ready?" "I don't know. Probably not until my beliefs are prooven wrong."

Oni walks into the station. "What's going on?" Zire goes over to him and introduces everyone. "What's you're name?" "Oni." "All right, Oni. You're the fifth, and five are coming, so it's time I started explaining things. I saw reports of the attacks on the news earlier. A piece of fabric with the symbol of international criminal organization Nerajtigita on it was found in the ruins of Blackthorn.That caught my attention. See, I was once with Nerajtigita. I quit because there are things I will never do, and I learned that despite what I was told, they do those things daily. I went to the cops and told them everything I knew in exchange for protection. "Law enforcement has known the location of Nirajtigita headquarters for a while, but they haven't been able to attack. See, Nirajtigita's careful not to leave enough evidence to allow a legal raid. Everyone knows when they're behind something, but nobody can legally do anything about it. I think we can nail them with the attacks, but more information is needed. "A highly secret project called Beherrschen begun just before I left. I think Beherrschen has something to do with the attacks. I hacked into the Nerajtigita computer network-I'm an expert hacker as well as a skilled fighter, which is why I did so well in Nerajtigia. Anyways, they seem to be keeping Beherrschen on a seperate network. o I accessed the security camera network and observed Nerajtigia head Harstbron. He was talking to three Pokemon he identified as B1, B2, and B3, which sound like subject labels to me. It was clear from what he said that B3 took out Blackthorn, B2 was responsible for the volcano, and B1 destroyed Viridian. I couldn't get a clear view of the Bs, as they were just out of visual range of the camera I used, and not quite in range of the next one. "Harstbron gave them orders to draw out C1, obviously another subject, and destroy it. It seems that C1 turned against Nerajtigita. C1 is more powerful than any one of the Bs, but can't take two or three at once. When the three Bs left, I managed to get a look at them. I printed the image, and I've figured out which one is what Pokemon. B3 is Suicune, B2 is Entei, and B1 is Raikou. Of course, legendary Pokemon expert Artroa here tells me that those three couldn't have destroyed the cities that quickly. We're missing some puzzle pieces, which can only be found in one place: Beherrschen's seperate network in Nerajtigiat headquarters outside the Orre region. You five are here because the cops don't have enough evidence to allow a raid. Every station wants to go in, but none of them can. They'll make sure that there's no record of our actions. Our job is to get in, get the information we need, and get out. Any questions?" Just then, a Jenny ran over to them. "Saffron's been hit." "How many people were left?" Zire asked. "We got about half evacuated before the attack. Cinnabar's empty, and we're working on Celadon. Progress is slow, though." "Damn!" Zire swore. "They'll all die if they don't leave. You have to get everyone out of the Celadon area. Now."

Hawkmon and Siire moved out quickly the next morning. Hawkmon's plan to get down the waterfall worked, and the two of them were soon on their way. As they passed by the others, Siire looked and saw tera looking back. [i]She knows it's me,[/i] he thought. [i]You keep doing what you're doing, Tera. We'll meet up again. We're all headed to the same place.[/i] "Siire, are you sure you're not ready to go back to the others?" Hawkmmon asked after about half an hour. "After taking some time last night to think about our discusion yesterday, I think I'm ready. The thing is, I still don't think that they're ready to have me back. They don't know that you've explained things to me, and they don't know that I understand why my pessimistic outlook might have caused some probalems. And they don't know about our conclusion about the good & evil thing. No, I'll give them some more time. Plus, I want a little more time away from them myself. It's hard for me to face them after that scene after the battle yesterday." Hawkmon was about to reply when something hit the swan-boat, flinging Siire and Hawkmon onto the riverbank. They got up and turned to see several Digimon facing them. Hawkmon identified the igimon. "That's a Kuwagumon, that one's Tyranomon, there's a Monochromon, Meramon, Ogremon, and that ghost one is Bakemon. They're all Champions, which is the level above mine. Ultimates next, then Mega." "Hello," Siire said to the Digimon. "Is there something you want?" "We were told that there would be several of you," the Meramon said. "Let me guess. You're all here to try and get rid of us. One Ultimate didn't work, so now it's a group of Champions. Well, sorry, but the rest of the group isn't here right now. They should be getting here sometime today." "We'll take care of you first," Meramon told him. Hawkmon immedeatly Digivolved. "Not if I have anything to say about it." Meramon laughed. "What can you do against six of us?" "He's right," Siire said. "We can't win." "So now what?" Aquilamon asked. "Upstream. Move!" Siire jumped on Aquilamon's back, and Aquilamon flew upsream as fast as he could until he reached the others. Siire jumped off, trying to do a backflip off of his landing. He ended up coming down on his rear. He stood up. "Hi." Tear stepped forward. "Siire, I-" Siire cut her off. "No time." He points downstream, where the six DIgimon can be seen nearing the group. "They were waiting for us downstream. Hawkmon and I ran into them. We saw you earlier-it was us in the swan-boat, as you probably guessed-and I knew that our only hope was to get them up here. We'll talk when the danger has passed. For now, it's go time." -------------------------------------------------- OOC: Just to make sure that it's clear, Siire hasn't undergone any huge attitude changes. He just understands the problems people have been having with his outlook on things. He still has the same beliefs, but he understands that he shouldn't keep emphasizing the negative side of things, even though he stil tends to believe that things are bad.

Siire walked to the edge by the waterfall and looked over. "Hawkmon, come here." "What is it?" the Digimon said, coming up beside Siire. Siire pointed. "Looks like a fire," Hawkmon observed. "About the size of the one we had yesterday night." He looked at siire. "Maybe the others are down there." Siire nodded. "My thoughts exactly." He looks out at the storm-covered area. "Maybe they think Rad's in there somewhere. That's a place I'd expect a creature like Mephistomon to send somebody. They may think Mephistomon's responsible for Rad's dissapearance, unlike you. No matter what, in there's as good a place as any to start looking." "Should we go down there?" Hawkmon asked. "We're all going to the same place, aren't we?" "True, but I don't think they're ready to have me back yet. I was pretty nasty to them, Rad in particular. True, my sister wasn't exactly nice to me before we left, and so was Rena, but I guess I deserved it. No, tomorrow I think we'll stick with our origional plan and take the swan-boat downstream for as long as we can before going it on-foot. That is, if we can get the boat down the waterfall. True, we can send it over, but it'd probably be gone by the time we got down." "Send it over and jump," Hawkmon said after thinking for a moment. "I'll make sure you survive." "Are you sure you can support my weight without digivolving?" Siire asked. "No, but I can certainly slow your fall. It should work." "Sounds like it will to me," Siire agreed. "We'll try it tomorrow morning. For now, let's get some sleep."

"You're psychic?" Jon asked Aurora. "Yes, she is," David said. "So's her mother, who just so happens to be my sister. I think it runs in the family. I suspect myself of having latent psychic ability. I tend to have a high percentage of accurate guesses of people's actions, for one thing. That's one skill that's helped me in my job." "Aurora said you're wth the law." "That's true," David agreed. "I'm with an overt but currently unnamed government organization-everyone with it calls it the UNO, for Un-Named Organization-that's dedicated to exposing and disbanding criminal organizations. I was assigned to come on this expedition to make sure none are in the area. What about you? Why'd you come?"

"Why can't they understand?" Siire wondered mostly to himself as he and Hawkmon walked down the mountain. "Why don't they get get it? How can they not see the danger in this world?" "I think they do," Hawkmon said. "They just choose not to focus on the bad, and look at the goos side of things instead." "Yeah? What good side?" "Well, Rad and Zerodramon being alive, for example. I think they are, by the way. That flash was the kind that happens with a teleportation." "You can tell that?" "Yes. The difference between a teleportation flash and a destroying flash is obvious when you know what to look for." "So Rad's not dead? Surely Mephismon could have taken him out as a final blow instead of teleporting him somewhere else." "True," Hawkmon agreed, "but there is both good and evil in this world. Mephismon was evil, so it's quite possible that he was saved by one of the good Digimon." "I don't like those terms," Siire remarked. "they represent extremes. Surely there's some kind of computer-related terms. This world is full of them." "What's a computer?" Hawkmon asked. "A device we have where I come from," Siire explained. "You can do all kinds of stuff with them. Now, if something's on a computer, we say that it's 'digital'. This world is the digital world. On computers, a firewall protects a computer from- of course." "What?" "Viruses. A firewall protects a computer from viruses. Viruses basically screw up computers. They can erase stored information called data, they can prevent certain programs-things a computer uses to do something-from working, and they can crash computers, which is the closest computers can get to death. To put what you said about good and evil in computer terms, the evil Digimon would be viruses. That would make the good Digimon antiviruses... vaccines. Any neutral Digimon would probably be data or programs or something. An interesting paralell, and something to think about, but I don't see the relevance." "Well," Hawkmon explained, "it's like you've said. Every time someone's been in danger, that person's Digimon partner has digivolved. I don't see that as something toying with us like you do. I see that as something protecting us. Now, if we're fighting the-viruses, you called them? Since fighting the viruses, the vaccines would be inclined to help us. I think one of them saved Rad and Zerodramon, and I think that they've been behind the digivolution rescues." "I think I get it. You're saying that I see manipulators and death where you and the others see protection." "I don't know about the others, but you're right about you and me," Hawkmon agreed. "you need to lighten up a little. We're not going to die, at least not anytime soon. There isn't any reason for our protection to suddenly dissapear." "I can see where you're coming from. I guess that's no less likely than what I think. I think I understand why Tera said that stuff, even though I'm still shocked. That's not the kind of stuff you expect your sister to say." Before long, they came to a river flowing around and down the mountain. "It looks like it circles around and goes down the east side," Hawkmon observed. "What's that doing there?" Siire asked. He was pointing to a swan-shaped, pedal-driven boat. "Oh, there's strange things all over. There's this one forest with random signs all over the place, and another with strange poles sticking out of the sand. It's perfectly safe, don't worry." "Wasn't that strange storm-coveredplace to the east?" Siire asked. When Hawkmon nodded, he continued with his thought. "Somewhere in there would be a good place to hide things you didn't want found. I don't think the viruses want us to find the Crests. It's likely that they're hidden in that area. I say we take the swan boat down the river as far as we can to speed things up, then walk the rest of the way." Hawkmon agrees, and they use the swan boat. They stop at the top of a waterfall and decide to stop there for the night. ----------------------------- OOC: There were a few more refrences in that post. Matt used a swan-boat in S1, the signs and the desert with the power poles (Hawkmon doesn't know what kind of poles they are) are also in S1, and the virus-vaccine-data part should be obvious.