In a dark room in the command centre at Midway, in the Pacific Ocean, a phone rang tunelessly. Illuminated only by the dim glow of a computer monitor, the darkness seemed to stretch into infinity. Someone picked up the receiver. The commander wasn’t looking forward to this. He breathed in heavily.
“Master Kamagata, I-”
“You’ve lost him, haven’t you?” a voice hissed. The commander froze.
“Sir, if you would let me explain, I can-”
Kamagata’s eyes narrowed evilly. “I don’t care for slack security, commander. See to it that he is returned as soon as possible. The Sentients will be after him soon, and we don’t want them taking him, do we?” he growled.
The commander’s voice was wavering. “Yes, sir. I’ll…send out a recovery team immediately, sir.”
“Good. Have we established where the Haven is?”
“Latest reports indicate it’s just East of our base.”
“Find it and destroy it. Is that clear? If I hear any more bad news from you, commander, I shall see to it that the monsters tear you apart limb by cursed limb. Do you understand?” Kamagata hissed, clenching his metal fists.
All blood had drained from the commander’s face. He felt sick. He’d never seen the Master, but he’d heard of what happened to insubordinates. “Yes, sir,” he whispered quietly, putting down the communicator.
In the dark room, Kamagata Naraku rubbed his hands together slowly. The digidestined had been alive for far too long, standing in the way of his efforts to swing the war to the humans’ favour. The fact that they had Digimon partners alone made them target for extermination. He felt disgusted at the very notion. They weren’t partners. They were parasites. That was why they would be exterminated.
He hit a button on the keyboard. The screen hummed electronically as a cryogenics tube came up on screen. It was filled with a hazy green liquid, but inside he could see the distinct features of his creature.
They would soon learn that the human race is not so easily defeated.
“Fools.”
MetalArmadillomon opened his eyes blearily. He must have fallen asleep. Down below him he could see the beach. They were steadily descending on the ocean, to what looked like a small island a mile or so away from the shore. As they drew nearer he could make out its shape. At one end was a small mound-like rocky tail, joined to a large metal dome by a strip of rock. The flying fortress of the Digimon Emperor…
“Was… he real, then? The stories were true?”
“Yeah.” The digimon nodded as they came in to land on the dome. He touched down effortlessly and set him down on the ground. “Still is real. Kenji Ichijoji…” The digimon continued. He drew his sword again and tapped on the dome three times in quick succession. A young man with messy, neck-length blonde hair opened a circular hatch in the centre of the dome.
“Get inside quickly- a patrol of digimon’s coming this way.”
The digimon grabbed MetalArmadillomon and shoved him down the hatch. Keeping a watch on the sky above, he climbed in afterwards, slamming the hatch shut behind him. The inside of the ship was dimly lit. Odd bits of seaweed clung to the metal walls, which had begun to rust. More corridors led off from this one, each looking the same. Small hatchways were embedded in the walls- ventilation ducts and maintenance tunnels. MetalArmadillomon strained his eyes to see through the gloom, following closely behind the winged wolf.
The muscular digimon marched through the rusty corridors, his claws clicking on the corroding metal floors. His wings swayed slightly as he walked, shifting his scabbard, which made a sharp metal ‘clink’ with each step.
Eventually, they came to a large door. The two looked back at MetalArmadillomon, nodded to each other and swung open the doors.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. A massive brightly-lit blue metal room greeted him, and all around it were loads of humans and digimon sitting together happily- not a hint of malice in the room. To one side, some younger kids were playing with a few battered toys with their digimon. Occasionally, MetalArmadillomon would see a digivice. He’d try to get a closer look at it, but someone would get in the way. The blonde-haired man was talking to the digimon who’d saved him.
All around him the room was buzzing. Some of the older people were just sitting and talking, but still looking genuinely happy. Never had he glimpsed such emotion.
Matt looked at the digimon sternly. “Did you find anything?” he asked.
Aidan shook his wolfen head. “No. It wasn’t the right one.” He gave Matt an apologetic look and held his hands behind his back.
The human wasn’t impressed. “Did you need to bring back the digimon?”
“They would have killed him otherwise,” he protested, digging his claws into the palms of his hands.
Matt sighed. They didn’t really need another mouth to feed, but at least they were making progress. “Alright. But we should drop him off in a safe area as soon as we can. In the meantime, Aidan, I want you to try and remember any other details that you can about the facility, okay?”
Aidan nodded sombrely and left the room.
In the bridge, Yolei and Ken were sat at the controls. In front of them were masses of monitors and scanners, hurriedly joined together by wires and duct tape. Yolei tweaked a bit of the tape and sighed.
“Not exactly state-of-the-art, is it?” she said lazily, flicking the radar screen.
Ken nodded in agreement. “At least it works. And it’s our only hope at achieving peace.”
Yolei was just about to reply when Matt strode into the room. He stood inbetween them. “How’s it going, guys?”
“We’re good to go!” Yolei said cheerfully.
Matt’s face remained stern. “Aidan rescued a digimon from the Corocoro compound earlier today. If we’re lucky, he’s got at least some clue as to holes in the human security systems.” He said flatly.
“So… do you think we’ll be able to pull it off?” Ken asked apprehensively.
Matt’s head lowered. “That room is full of children. They have no concept of how to battle properly. The only ones here who can deal with this are you two, Sora, Izzy, Aidan and me. And I still don’t trust Aidan yet. That’s not a heavy strike force…”
“How many will we need?”
“I don’t know. It’d take a lot. Much more than what we have.”
They all looked solemn. Matt looked ahead at the thick plexi-glass window. Fish had begun swarming around the edges, sucking up plankton. “Take us out, Yolei,” he ordered, turning to leave. “We’re heading back to Tokyo.”
Ken and Yolei looked at each other with concern. T.K’s absence was obviously still playing on his mind, even after all these years…
She slammed the throttle forwards. The entire ship moaned into life, jerking forwards. Slowly, it rose up out of the ocean and into the sky until it disappeared behind the clouds.
