Digimon: Infection Episode 12

Episode 12: Answer; Alterations; Attack

The Digimon was monstrous, filling up at least a fourth of the space within the computer. Its body was jet-black, with its arms, chest, and jaws coated in plates of black Chrome Digizoid. As its enormous tail swished back and forth, the very air around it seemed to shake. Strangest of all was the giant globe perched on its back, which was held in place by its six wings.

GlobaLinkmon let out a roar, causing all present to quake under the pressure it produced.

“What do you think of my answer, White?” Kurohi was not smiling. His expression showed no joy, malice, or anything of the sort. He was simply seeking the opinion of someone with a similar ideal.

White stared down the beast without flinching. “It's big, and appears strong.” He snapped his fingers. “But I won't be impressed unless it can...dodge!” Legionmon dispersed, leaving behind its child form while the remaining silver mist that it expunged shot forward and sunk into GlobaLinkmon's skin.

The air was still for a moment as everyone waited for something to happen.

“Master, we have lost contact with partitions 1058477 through 1073741824.”

“All of them? And so quickly...” White pondered with his chin in his hand for a moment before throwing up his arms. “Very well, I surrender. For the moment, at least. I think I may have figured out how exactly you accomplished this evolution.”

“I'll tell you anything you want to know.” Kurohi's response was polite, and he gave a small bow to accompany it. “Unless it is something I don't wish to tell you.”

“Fair enough.” White seemed to walk forward, passing through the screen. He stood there, in all his transparent pre-rendered glory, smiling at Kurohi's rather startled face. “Impressed?”

“Depends. Can you dodge?”

“Let us move on.” White raised a single finger, and drew a red circle and a smaller silver circle in mid-air. “The way the program is supposed to work is it expels data.” He drew arrows coming our of the red circle. “I originally thought that this data was only able to be absorbed by specific Digimon, but as you've stated that is not the case, and it merely expels free data to be used by an Digimon.”

Kurohi winced momentarily as he remembered that Digimon were not the only digital lifeforms that could use this data, but kept his mouth shut.

“According to you, Illegal Digimon are unable to absorb this free data, so you simply altered its function from sending data to absorbing data.” He flipped the arrows so that they were pointing inward.

“Micro-black holes!” Pop clapped his fist onto her palm light.

White looked from Pop to Kurohi and mouthed 'Black Hole?'.

Kurohi mouthed back 'Just go with it'.

“...Bu' wait. Whad's dhe point of jus' switchin' dhe flow? Dhat doesn' explain how Linkmon could go from bein' a tiny lizard to...dhat thing.” She gestured her arms in GlobaLinkmon's direction.

“Yes.” White was also staring at the black behemoth. “It's true that just reversing the flow of data would normally do nothing. That is, unless you incorporated that data into another program.” His shifted his gaze back to Kurohi. “After all, that black hole didn't just spawn from nowhere.”

Pop turned to Kurohi so fast, you'd think her neck would have snapped. “You didn't.”

Ricker looked confused. “What? I don't get it.”

White cleared his throat. “Your friend here installed the program within his Digimon, granting it the data absorbing abilities that set it apart from normal Digimon.” He gestured to Kurohi. “And that is how you managed to evolve your Digimon to Perfect, correct?”

Kurohi looked disappointed. “You're only half right.”

“Oh? And what was I wrong about?”

“He's not perfect. He's Superior.”

White laughed lightly. “Well, he does appear to be quite strong. He may be stronger than any other perfect to date, but it's hard to say since I'd rather not put my Legionmon in harms way to test that.”

“No, you don't get it. He's not a Perfect Level Digimon, he's a Superior Level Digimon.”

White mimicked the confusion that Ricker had been wearing for the past several minutes. “Superior...Level?”

“I was not trying to replicate the processes of Perfect Evolution. The Superior Evolution process can't distinguish the data it absorbs, and merely sucks everything in erratically. This makes it slightly more dangerous. However.” Kurohi went into exposition mode. “There are three major upsides to this. The first is what you witnessed earlier. Any data that enters a Superior Level Digimon that it does not recognize will be absorbed, preventing viral infections.”

“Hmm.” White looked surprised. “I had accounted the absorption of Legionmon's partitions to be due to an instability in the program with the absorption process. I hadn't even imagined that you'd use it to such an extent.”

“Secondly, since it does not require the specific free-form data most Digimon use to evolve, Superior Evolution cannot be restricted. And finally, the indistinguishability allows Superior Evolution to not only be used as a method of powering up a Digimon, but also as a weapon.”

“A weapon?” White seemed taken aback. “Surely you can't be serious? Forcibly tearing out chunks of a Digimon's data would destroy it, with little to no chance of restoring it.”

“I never said it was a weapon against other Digimon.”

White stared Kurohi down. He could feel in his gut that there was more to it that what he was being told. That there was a piece missing from the puzzle that kept it from forming a complete picture. “What else is there, agent of Digicorp.?”

“It's not what is but what may.” Kurohi took on a somber hue. “This digital world has been changing rapidly over a very short period of time since the introduction of Digimon. Who's to say that something more dangerous couldn't crawl out of the metalwork?”

“I see. It seems like it would be a good defense, as ridiculous as the idea is.” White next words were inaudible to the others. “At least that's what I'd like to think.” White straightened his shirt collar and addressed the bizarre collection before him. “Well, everyone, I have thoroughly enjoyed this little sparring session, and appreciate the information you have shared with me, but it is becoming late, and I wish to retire. Legionmon will escort you off the premises.”

“Hold on jusd a minute!” Pop had her arms crossed and reminded Kurohi of a bear that had just been woken up. “We've been sittin' here for dhe past few minutes doi'n'othin' but listenin' to dhe two of you talk, and I was fine wi'dh'at because, well, no Illegal's ever evolved past Champion before.” Again, she gestured in GlobaLinkmon's direction. “And id was cool to here how you did dhat and everthin', but we came here on a mission. We are here for dhat program. And now we have a crazy strong Digimon which means you can' say no. Now hand it over.” She finished her tirade with one final arm-crossed harumph.

White looked at her totally straight-faced. “You broke into my house.” He paused to let that sink in. “Yes, I did steal this program from Digicorp., but you, as its agents, have also performed a illegality towards me. I think that sets us about even, wouldn't you agree?”

“But...but...”

Ricker turned to the young girl. “He's got a point, Pop.”

“Kurohi.” GlobaLinkmon's gravelly voice resonated in Kurohi's ear. “If we're not actually going to do any fighting, I'd like to regress. I'm still not entirely used to this form, yet.”

“Sure, that's-” An urgent marked e-mail popped up that distracted him. “Guys, we've gotta go. Let's go, Link.” Kurohi turned around and started to head out of the computer, followed by his large partner.

Pop called back at him. “We're not finished here yet!”

“Pop.” Ricker was now in hot pursuit of Kurohi. “You might want to read your mail.” He and Chargermon were soon out of sight.

Pop quickly skimmed the e-mail. It was short, so it didn't take very long to do so. “Hey, wait for me!” She started to go after them.

“Would someone please tell me what all the rush is about?” The transparent White stood there tapping his foot.

Pop stopped in her tracks. “Uh...” She had a feeling she wasn't supposed to tell him about what their team had actually been assembled for. “We've got another job. Id's secret, and id's more important than dhis one, so...yea.” She turned tail with Mezzomon and left White and Legionmon standing there.

==========

It only took them a few minutes to locate Darcmon, who was waiting for them in Finland. “What have you done?” Her gaze was instantly fixated on the large black dragon.

“Our other mission didn't go quite as expected.” Kurohi was pure business. “Erika, are you here?”

“Yea, yea.” Her face maximized in a window. Her silk pajamas suggested she had just woken up. “Alright, here's the sit-Jesus, what the heck is that!?” She was also drawn to GlobaLinkmon, just as her partner had been.

Not wanting to waste time, Kurohi brought her back down to earth. “The situation, ma'am?”

“Huh? Right.” She gave a small cough into her hand. “I know that this is the first time some of us have met face-to-face.”

Ricker was trying to look as serious as Kurohi, but was jittering around in his chair. Pop was finding it difficult to take this situation seriously with their boss dressed for bed.

“But our mission is urgent, and we'll have to save introductions for later.” She pulled up a map of the area. “The unevolved DIGIrus is currently here.” A blinking red dot appeared on the map. “Your mission is simple; destroy it before it can evolve. There will be no questions. I will remain on standby here with Darcmon since we won't be able to assist you. Now get out there.”

Kurohi took the map file and the six of them dashed to the designated location. “According to this, our target is in the middle of an upcoming passage. You guys head in and distract it; Link and I'll head around the back and flank it. You guys ok with that?”

Pop gave an evil smile. “Fine widh me, but don' be upset if dhere's nothin' left of it when you get dhere.”

Ricker chimed in as well. “We'll do out best, so you better hurry.”

“Got it.”

The two and their Digimon broke off from the black giant and his partner, each group taking a separate path. It wasn't even 30 seconds before Pop and Ricker turned a corner and found their target. Sitting in the middle of a massive spiderweb was a DIGIrus. It looked like a green Shellmon, whose shell had been replaced with the headless body of a Dokugumon. Hundreds of files were flying into its web, which it proceeded to gobble up as if it hadn't eaten in days.

“Looks like dhis one's gone vegetarian. Shouldn'd be too hard to take it out before the big guns show up. Dhis'll be an easy first mission.”

“I dunno, Pop.” Ricker looked skeptical. “We don't know how long it's been here. And our track record against DIGIrus in 0-1. We should try and be strategic, instead of showing off. Chargermon, try and knock it off its web.”

The green ball Digimon beeped happily and rolled up. He began spinning in place until he was coated in what looked like golden flames before blasting forward at high-speed. The DIGIrus saw it coming and, despite being half sea snail, scuttled out of the way in time. Chargermon took a wide U-turn and went in for another strike. The DIGIrus began to move again, but almost immediately slowed down once the flute music started. Mezzomon was playing a sorrowful melody that would have moved Chargermon to tears if he wasn't hurtling at top speed into the abdomen of a snail-spider hybrid. The impact was strong enough to knock the creature clear off its web, taking a large chunk of it with it. The disorientated creature made wild swings at the nearby cannonball.

“Global Shutdown!” A gigantic orb of purple energy hit the green and yellow chimera on the side of its abdomen, destroying half of its legs. Kurohi and GlobaLinkmon had finally come around and managed to get a surprise hit on the distracted DIGIrus. “We apologize for being late.”

Pop waved off the apology. “We've been managin' jus' fine, bein' all strategic and everythin'.” She nodded to Ricker.

Ricker returned the nod. “This one appears to be a lot weaker than the last one we fought. Kurohi, Linkmon should finish it off now.”

The creature was wailing and writing non-stop. In the short time that the team was exchanging banter, it managed to wriggle itself close enough to its destroyed web to start biting at its remains.

GlobaLinkmon and Mezzomon both began hailing it with attacks to try and deter it away, but no matter how many holes they kept blasting into it, it kept eating. After consuming about half of its web, and being reduced to almost nothing but a head, it let out a ghastly scream. “Evooolutioooon!”

The MoriShellmon head burst like a balloon. The new creature that stood in its place was bright orange with eight legs and two levitating green spheres floating above it. It looked like an abdomen-less armored spider with a mantis-like head. “Pantapodarusss!” The newly evolved DIGIrus hissed loudly at them before it began clawing away at the floor, trying to escape into the either.

“Link, don't let it escape!”

GlobaLinkmon rammed his USB tail into the nearest wall. “Confinement of Tartarus!” From the hole that the sea spider DIGIrus had been hurriedly digging spouted a murky black sludge. It seeped up and encased its legs, binding it in place no matter how much it struggled to get away. GlobaLinkmon landed in front of the Pantapodarus, which hissed at him again. He reached up and seized the globe on his back. “Atlas Hammer!” He brought the makeshift melee weapon down upon the left half of its body, deleting the portion immediately. The creature screamed loudly. Not even bothering to lift to globe again, he swung it through what remained, permanently deleting it.

Mezzomon and Chargermon watched in awe at the ease with which GlobaLinkmon deleted an evolved DIGIrus. “So that is the power of a Superior Level Digimon...”

Chargermon gave a low beep in consent.

GlobaLinkmon reverted back to his Child Level, and the other two did the same.

Kurohi and the others were silent. They all stared down at the battlefield that was quickly repairing itself. They had won. They had successfully defeated their first DIGIrus. No, defeat wasn't the right word. They had deleted it, and something about that didn't quite sit right with Kurohi, though he wasn't quite sure why. Not wanting to get his team down, he pushed aside those feeling for the moment and gave everyone the best not-fake-looking smile he could. “Mission complete, everyone.” They returned his remark with nods and smiles of their own, which meant that they hadn't picked up on Kurohi's mood.

“Man, dhat was easier that I thought id' be.” Pop leaned back in her chair and let out a deep sigh.

Ricker bobbed his head in consent. “It's good to know that these things can be defeated.” There was that word again. “We can't be sure thou if it's due to it just being weaker than the last one we fought, or if it's due to Linkmon's increased strength.”

“Don' be such a downer.” Pop seemed to be full of energy. “We jusd finished our first successful mission. Worry aboud dhat stuff later.”

“I agree with Pop on this one. We did good tonight, Ricker. A little celebrating wouldn't hurt.” Kurohi rubbed his hands together. “Right, let's reconvene with the boss lady, then head on home.” He looked around his apartment for a second. “Or...you know what I mean.”

They headed off to where they'd met with Erika and Darcmon a few minutes before, but Sopranomon and Rollermon lingered for just a second more.

“I'm...I'm not sure I want it, Master Rollermon. Not that kind of power.”

The two of them hurried after their Tamers.