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Eiji searches fruitlessly through the dark for the voice, but his vision fails to grasp anything tangible. For a few moments that followed, there was nothing. No sounds, smells, or light to tease the senses. Shock overwhelms the panick as Eiji continues to fight through the daze.
Just as quickly as they were enshourded by darkness, the lights flicker, illuminating the void. The sudden bright light forces Eiji to squint. He begins to feel the coold smooth stone pressed against his back and sares up onto an inverted wall. “What?” he lets out, as he begins to come to his senses. Eiji realizes he is no longer standing.
“Rrgh,” Loogamon grunts.
Eiji turns to his partner and gets up as quickly as he can. He fights through the faint dizziness and makes his way towards the wolf. “Loogamon! You okay?”
Loogamon lays on the ground, making weak twitches with its paws. “I…I can’t move,” it manages to say.
Eiji looks around and finds the rest of the group in a similar state spread across the circle. Scattered and unconscious. The interface on the prototype Digimon glow dimly but begin to fade with each passing second.
Eiji reaches for his partner, “Loogamon!?!” he shouts as his arms wrap around the wolf’s neck. The interface on the prototype Digimon go dark for a few seconds before rebooting.
Kosuke sits up and pulls up his console and virtual monitor. “What?” he murmers as an endless stream of unintellible code floods his screen. Kosuke begins typing desperately at his keys, but his console seems to be stuck in an endless reboot loop. The source code decryption had been canceled without warning.
“Good morning friends,” a familiar voice says softly. Eiji instantly recognizes the voice. He turns quickly in disbelief, but finds the professor standing in front of him. “Professor Ryusenji?” Eiji lets out softly.
With his back turned to the pupils, the Ryusenji says “I’ll take it from here.”
Yulin begins to regain consciousness. Through her fog, she can make out the professor’s silhouette. “Professor?” She says weakly as she slowly comes to consciousness. “What are you doing?… Why?”
Kosuke stares at the professor incredulously as his console continues to reboot.
“Why are you so surprised?” The professor says as he turns around to address his pupils.
Kosuke and Yulin quietly get to their feet. Their balance wavers, and they fail to find the words to respond.
“After all,” the professor continues. “I’m the one who asked you to raise these protype Digimon for me. Now if you don’t mind,”
RESTRAIN
“Gah!”
“What is this?!”
Loogamon and Dorumon fall to the ground as they become restrained by the same tool used on Ryudamon.
“How did you do that?” Durumon shouts.
“Did you really think I would just give you my Digimon?” Ryusenji says sternly.
“He had it…programed into us,” Loogamon shouts. Dorumon’s eyes grow wide in disbelief as the truth begins to sink in.
“Did you tamper with Ryudamon too?” Yulin is finally able to say.
“It’s a little…safety feature I installed in each Digimon and Digimon linker. Did I not mention it when I gave them to you?” The professor’s voice is cold. “I can also take control of the Digimon if I need to. Progress requires these types of safeguards, wouldn’t you agree?” He turns around and continues towards the center of the circle. “These Digimon are my tools, and I will use them as I see fit.” The Digimon continue to struggle in their restrains.
The group notices as a strange shimmer occasionally run across the professor’s hologram. His hologram was a mere projection from the three Digimon linkers. It was clear at that moment that everything was by his design.
“What the hell are you going on about!” Kosuke shouts, slamming his virtual monitor away.
The professor stops at the center of the circle. Without turning says, “Let me put it simply. Your story is now mine. Now watch closely.” The professor begins typing at his console. Dorumon’s interface begins to glow as a beam of data begins flowing through it.
“What are you doing?!” Kosuke shouts.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m decrypting the Source Domain’s code. It’s only fair that I do it.”
Kosuke stands helplessly and watches his Digimon be hijacked.
“Accessing source domain code,” comes an announcement from the cold robotic voice of the Source Domain.
“Loogamon!” Eiji shouts as he slams his fingers through various commands in a feeble attempt to regain control of his partner.
“It’s not looking good,” the wolf replies. Eiji continues to struggle, looking for any way to sever the connection and take back his friend. What if they couldn’t stop the professor? A cold shiver runs down his back.
“We’re supposed to be on the same side!” Kosuke cries desperately. “I want to save Saya too!”
“Professor! Please! Don’t!” Eiji shouts helplessly.
“What is it Eiji?” the professor asks coldly.
“Why are you doing this? Why put us through all this trouble? We’re on the same side. Don’t you want your daughter back?”
The professor smiles. “I’ve always liked you Eiji, so I’m letting you in on a little secret. I’m not really interested in finding her.”
“But then…why did you make the stimulant?” Eiji feels the weight of the world crashing into him. He stumbles and almost falls to the ground.
“Not…interested?” Kosuke clenches his fists tightly.
The professor shrugs. “What’s lost is lost. This whole plan you’ve dedicated your whole life to, Kosuke, it is a monument to wasted effort.”
“Don’t let him…get to you Kosuke,” Dorumon shouts.
“I…I always had my suspisions,” Yulin manages. “but I didn’t want to believe them. I couldn’t”
Professor Ryusenji smirks, “You should have listened to your gut, Captain.”
Without warning, the infinite space around them fills with an endless stream of data. “This is it. The universal directory,” the professor says as he sifts through the data.
“Search Complete,” the Source Doman’s voice announces.
Bit by bit, a small yellow Digimon begins to appear before them, occasionally letting off small strikes of lightning.
“Pulsmon!” Loogamon shouts, reigniting his struggle.
“What’s it doing here?” Eiji asks with delight.
“And there you have it boy, the Pulsemon you and Loogamon were looking for,” the professor adds.
Eiji takes a hard swallow.
“This is but a taste of what can be done with the control of the Source Domain’s data.”
Another Digimon begins to materialize. A small black dinosaur appears next to Pulsemon. Kosuke lets out a gasp, “Black Agumon!”
“Just as I suspected,” the professor continues as he examines the Black Agumon. “Even if the mindlinker perishes, the partner Digimon doesn’t suffer the same fate.
“Wait..what did you say?” Eiji stammers as tears fall down his face.
“Saya’s..” Yulin’s heart drops. The sudden pain of realization almost knocks her off her feet. “Saya’s dead?!” She can’t hold back her tears.
“Oh, yes. For quite some time, now,” the professor answers coldly.