Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digital Reflection ❯ Chapter 10: Stern Resolutions ( Chapter 10 )

Digital Reflection

By Wolf O'Donnell

Author's Note: Digimon is copyrighted by Bandai and Toei Animation. All other characters are probably copyrighted by me. I am copyrighted by Nintendo, but that has nothing to do with the story. This fanfic is set within a completely different dimension from any of the TV shows or comics and features a lot of death scenes, so if you don't like reading about that sort of thing, please leave and find a nicer fanfic. Feel free to visit my website at http://strwlf.cjb.net after reading this. Thank you.

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Chapter 10: Stern Resolutions
Colonel Oikawa sat at his desk, hands clasped together, mind lost in thought. The Mercuries had proved effective, up to a point. Against human opponents, he was sure that they would surely win. Against DigiAnthropes, they proved to be of a match, but not to be better. Programming new attack manoeuvres and defensive manoeuvres into the Mercuries would be a good idea. Make them more agile, and they'd be able to dodge attacks. 'The Earth's gravity makes them clumsy, however,' he thought to himself. 'They would fare well in space combat and possibly in air combat, but not on ground nor in water.'
He sighed. Chairman Prince wanted them to be improved, but he had no idea how to do that. Perhaps a new defensive mechanism would do the trick. Something to protect the head.
"Colonel Oikawa, sir, there's someone on the line wanting to speak to you," crackled a voice on his intercom. "Shall I put her on?"
The Colonel frowned. Put her on? He reached out and pressed a yellow button on his intercom.
"Yes, please," he replied. He turned to face the computer screen and watched as the screen saver disappeared, to be replaced with a face. "Sora!" he exclaimed almost happily, upon seeing the pink-haired lady. "How nice it is to see you!"
"It's nice to see you too, Jyou," commented Sora calmly. "I was just calling to see how you were, and whether you'd like to join our project up on Space Fortress Valen."
"The Space Fortress?" exclaimed Oikawa in surprise. Now that would be an interesting trip and he had always dreamed of going up into space. "I would love to, Sora, but there are things I need to do first."
"Oh," said Sora in a disappointed tone of voice. "What kind of things?" she asked him.
Oikawa sighed.
"For one, I must improve the Mercury units," replied Oikawa. "Have you heard of them?"
"Yes, I have," replied Sora with a nod of her head. "I've heard that they are superb weapons."
"Indeed, but the DigiAnthropes, the very four that escaped from your laboratory, prove to be of a decent match for them," said Oikawa with disdain. "They practically wiped out a small battalion of my wonderful Mercuries. Now I have to find a way to improve them."
A smile spread across Sora's face, and her face seemed to brighten up.
"Jyou, I've just been thinking!" she exclaimed. "I'm working on a defence system for the Space Fortress, but the one we've developed is too small and cannot protect the entire Space Fortress. However, it seems as if the system we've created is of the right size to defend your Mercuries. I've got Tai with me. He's the one working on the defence system. Would you like a word with him?"
"Of course, put him on," replied Oikawa. 'Perhaps there still is hope.'

"It's no use, Michael," sighed Bridgette, as she looked at the computer screen in front of her. "I just can't find out where they put Marshal Kaplan."
Reisz looked emotionlessly at the screen.
"We have to carry on searching," he sighed. "The morale of the soldiers within the Kaplan Faction will increase if His Excellency is freed."
"It's just no use," exclaimed Bridgette, as she threw her hands up into the air as if to surrender. "Pecunia has hidden him too well." She nearly wept at the thought of what was happening to the world. Its Mercuries were pushing forward, claiming more territory for the Pecunia Conglomerate, while the troops of the Faction fought valiantly against Pecunia's conquest attempts. "Why'd this all have to happen?" she asked, smashing a fist into the keyboard. "Do the fools that run Pecunia even know what damage they're causing to the world, to humanity?"
"Easy there, Bridgette," said Reisz as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "We'll find a way to defeat Pecunia. We are soldiers after all, and this is our cause, to fight for a cause." He paused, thinking that he heard the sounds of military-issue boots clumping against the floor. Listening again, he realised that there was no noise and he was just imagining things. "We soldiers won't allow those politicians to bully the Earth. We'll fight for the freedom of people everywhere." He looked at the screen again and then frowned. Moved the mouse and scrolled down a tiny bit. His eyes caught sight of the name and the photo. "Miyako," he whispered under his breath. Gradually, memories of the past came back to him...

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Another explosion rocked the building, as Yamato ran through the corridors.
"Miyako!" he called out. "Miyako!" He looked around him wildly.
"Master Yamato!" exclaimed one of the attendants that worked for the Gennai family, as she ran towards him. "Master Yamato, you must come with me immediately. The UN Troops are advancing towards us!"
The platinum-haired kid turned round to face the attendant with a half-hearted angry look on his face. He knew she was just doing her job, but he had to keep his promise. Yamato had promised to protect his sister, and he would keep that.
"I have to find Miyako, Ms. Asaji," he said sternly. "You go ahead. I'll find my sister."
The Gennai family had dared to question and oppose the UN Organisation's way of thinking, and now the UN Troops were moving in to crush the First Family of Japan. Now the pacificist Gennai family was in the line of fire and Yamato Gennai along with it.
"Master Yamato, I must insist that you come with me!" cried the attendant, as she ran towards the boy. "It's too dangerous here. We must flee while we still can."
There was an explosion and the attendant screamed.
Yamato shielded his eyes, as dust and rubble flew into the corridor. As the dust cleared, he looked around and saw something he wished he hadn't saw.
"Ms. Asaji!" he screamed, as he ran towards her. He knelt down beside the rubble that lay on top of her and tried to lift, but to no avail. He looked at her and saw a look of pure terror plasted on her blood-covered face. Trembling, he reached out and felt for a pulse. "No. Ms. Asaji," he wailed, tears streaming down her eyes.
Slowly, the young boy stood up and walked over to the hole in the wall. He looked down and saw the UN Troops moving into the compound. He saw tanks and soldiers. Tears still streaming down his eyes, he tried spitting at them, but couldn't reach.
"Ms. Asaji," he said, as he turned to her lifeless body, "I swear that I will avenge your death. I will avenge you and my family. The UN will pay for what it did. It will pay!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Reisz found himself near to the brink of tears at that memory. He managed to suppress it though. From that terrible day onwards, he was known as Michael Reisz and had joined the EVA Organisation in the hope that he would get closer to the UN and destroy it.
"Who's Miyako?" asked Bridgette, as she turned round to face him.
"My sister," he replied sternly. "I thought she was dead, killed with the rest of my family..." He trailed off, as he backed away from the computer screen, taking note of where she was now. "Who would have thought that...? I have to find her, Bridgette. I have to find her."
Bridgette stood up quickly, and reached out for him, but he had was already at the doorway.
"But, Michael, you can't leave now," she protested. "The Faction needs you. We can't possibly fight against the new UN and Pecunia without you by our side."
He stopped in his tracks, turned round to face her.
"Bridgette, a long time ago I vowed to protect Miyako, and I don't break my promises," he growled coldly. "Don't you worry. I will be back. Perhaps not as Michael Reisz, but I will come back." He grimaced at the question that now reverberated within his mind- 'Who am I?'- and more so at the answer that he had for that question- 'I don't know.'

"It's a good thing we found this cabin," sighed Fumiko, as she sat in the chair, her hands wrapped around a mug of hot cocoa.
Takeru smiled.
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" he exclaimed. "One empty cabin in the middle of Norway." It seemed a little too perfect for him. "I wonder why no one's using it at the moment?"
"Cody, stop being so nosy," warned Fumiko, as she saw him looking through the drawers. "None of this is our stuff, so you'd..."
"This is Kaplan's," interrupted Cody after a while. "This belongs to the former Head of the UN Organisation, or rather, belonged to."
Placing the mug down on a coffee table, she walked up to him.
"What are you talking about?" she asked Cody. "How'd you know this belongs to Kaplan?" She looked at what he had in his hands, then snatched it from his grasp. "Oh, I see," she exclaimed, as she looked at it. It was a letter, addressed to none other than Marshal Kaplan. "Man, is that guy boring," she commented, before tucking it back in the drawer and shutting it.
"Pretty convenient of us finding this place," commented Takeru, as he looked out of the window.
"You're thinking about Kai, aren't you?" asked Fumiko, once she saw him looking out of the window at the snow that was falling ever so gently on to the snowy ground.
He nodded in reply, not turning to face her though.
"That's right," he sighed. "I wonder what he's doing now?"
"Should have gone after him," muttered Fumiko angrily. "Should have gone after him and stopped him."
Cody shook his head and sighed.
"How?" he asked her. "He was at Mega level! Couldn't you see that?" They were only Ultimates and he thought it best not to point that out. "It was a miracle we survived at all and now he's who-knows-where doing all sorts of damage." He slumped into the nearest chair he could find and sighed, placing hand against forehead as if he had a headache. Eyes closed he began to think. "I only hope that no one innocent's been harmed by him."

"Primary attack intiate," growled the MaloGarurumon, as he glared at the military base. "Venom Wolf Claw." He lunged at the fence and tore it to shreds, then stalked his way into the base.
Sirens wailed all around him, as Kai made his way into the base without a single coherent thought. His mind was a jumble of commands, most of them not his own. Hypnos commanded him. Hypnos was his master. Hypnos was his soul, heart and mind. He was Hypnos. Visual detected several Mercuries heading towards him. Memory identified them as a threat that had to be eliminated. Hypnos told him to initiate secondary attack, and he did so, firing a green beam of energy that shredded the oncoming Mercuries into pieces.
"We are currently under attack!" announced a voice in German that crackled over the speakers. "All military personnel are to report to Mech hangars immediately!"
Hypnos initiated subroutine 45 which drowned out the voice. The program then told him to aim 45° to the right and 12° up with his secondary attack. Kai did as was commanded. He did not see the Mech explode and send shards of metal scattering all over the place, but he knew that the enemy target had been destroyed. Hypnos intiated subroutine 15 and Kai leapt to the right and then to the left, dodging flaming pieces of metal.
Kai ran blindly forward, not knowing where he was going nor what he was doing. Smell was eliminated. Touch was eliminated. Taste was eliminated. All he could do was hear and see with an intense clarity that was beyond the capability of any living creature, yet the Hypnos program made him blind and deaf simultaneously, such that he was not doing the hearing nor the seeing but Hypnos was.
"I've got the DigiAnthrope in my sights," commented one of the soldiers, as he piloted his Mech in a fan formation around the base. He aimed the laser cannon of his Mech down at Kai and then roared, "Open fire!"
Lasers flew through the air towards Kai, but the DigiAnthrope managed to dodge them with ease, weaving in and out between the lasers with little effort. It was as if the DigiAnthrope was dodging really thin, immobile buildings that were spaced miles apart. Hypnos was doing all the calculations, doing all the necessary work to get Kai past the lasers and towards the Mechs.
'This is wrong,' thought Kai. Hypnos faltered. A laser hit him in the chest and pushed him to the ground. A snarl formed on the DigiAnthrope's face, as he glared at the machines. All sentient thought was wiped out of Kai's mind. Hypnos regained control and told him to initiate tertiary attack.
Not even the screams of the soldiers could be heard. Hypnos blotted that out with ruthless efficiency. It had turned Kai into a soulless, heartless killing machine with no remorse. Initiate secondary attack, Kai was told. He did as was told, destroying the front wall of the base in front of him.
"You again!" cried a voice that broke through Hypnos' shielding. Yamato Gennai, Michael Reisz or Firegigamon, whatever you wished to call him, stood there behind Kai with an angry look on his face. "What do you think you're doing?" He just hoped that Kai's blast hadn't in any way caused any harm to his sister.
Kai whirled round, glaring at Reisz with soulless red eyes.
"Target identified as enemy," he growled emotionlessly. "Destroy all enemies."

To be continued...