Chapter Twelve – “The Legend of the Chronosphere”

 

“Translating every little thing that the two of them say is getting tiring,” Rika scowled muttering to Henry. “You, Jeri, Takato, and I all managed to learn English as a second language fluently, and three of us are saving the world every day, risking our asses with all the bullshit that’s going on everyday, Takato has enough problems on his hands, and yet the four of us all managed to learn English. These two losers sit on their fat asses every day smoking joints and fucking up people’s computer’s while Jeri saves their butts every time they get in trouble with the law- and you’re telling me that in all that time they couldn’t even learn to say hello in English? What a bunch of dickheads!”

 

“Nan desu ka?” Kenta asked getting the feeling they were talking about him. “Wakarimasen?”

 

Henry shrugged, and Rika gritted her teeth and turned her attention back to Agent Martin, who was busy explaining their plan.

 

“...we’re going to enter the Tecnhowerx building the last place they expect,” he said and smiled at his own reckless plan. “Right through the front door.”

 

Henry and Takato looked worried, Jeri looked dumfounded, Kenta and Kazu was still saying “Wakarimasen?” Rika on the other hand was smiling. They were in the Thunderground’s base of operations, an abandoned subway station that actually held an extremely advanced headquarters behind some locked and hidden doors.

 

“Sounds like a plan my man,” she said suddenly and everyone turned to look at her, and the aggressive glint on her face. Some of the Thunderground Agents looked scared of her, especially when she muttered “I like this guy’s style” to Henry a bit too loudly.

 

“Oh God,” Keyana sighed. “The last thing we need is two maniacs in this plan,”

 

“Oh, but this is a maniac’s plan,” Kyle said smiling broadly. “We don’t have the time for our ...er... usual tactial officer-“ he nodded towards Agent Kelly who was playing with her blonde hair in a nervous air. “To think up some covert plan. We need to take care of this tonight, because whatever these guys have planned, we don’t know if we’ll even have a tomorrow to work this out in. Like I was saying, we’ll split up into groups.”

 

He gestured towards everyone in the room.

 

“Now because of that little slip up at the resteraunt,” he chuckled nervously. “Which was kind of our fault – but anyway, they know people are onto them, so we’re going to play a few mind games. Group A, will consist of myself and Mrs. Rika. Considering we’re the craziest people in this group, it makes sense we be the ones to walk right in the front door.”

 

Rika blushed.

 

“You’re too kind,” she said winking, and everyone laughed for a few seconds before Kyle resumed his plan.

 

“Right then,” he said. “Group B, Takato, Kazu, and Kenta will go in ahead of us, and join the tour through the building. When myself and Rika cause a commotion downstairs, the last thing they’ll be worried about is some ordinary tourists, and a large part of the security at Technowerx will be diverted to the downstairs area, and which point you’re real job begins.”

 

“The Technowerx building,” Henry said as Jeri translated everything the background. “Has an elaborate security system that can be tripped in several different fashions. The more sensitive areas of the building are booby trapped up the ying yang, but we’re pretty sure we located the core of the security network-”

 

“Pretty sure?” Takato repeated skeptically. “What if you’re wrong, and you get killed by the security system?”

 

Henry sighed.

 

“This is just like science old friend,” he said patting Takato on the back. “You need a little faith. Just make sure you deactivate the security systems, and leave the dangerous stuff to us. Security should be diverted away from the place for the most part, but since you’ll be playing the innocent tourists, you’ll be unarmed...”

 

“Which means,” Keyana said with utmost concern. “The second something goes awry, get out of there as soon as possible. Don’t play Mr. Hero, we can take care of things without the system disabled. It’ll just be a bit harder.”

 

Takato nodded.

 

“Kenta, Kazu?” Jeri said in Japanese. “You two will be in charge of hacking into the security system.”

 

The two of them nodded, and Kyle went on.

 

“Group C will be the biggest one,” Martin said. “It will consist of the remaining members of the Thunderground and Tamers. This group will storm the remaining security, which will probably be the toughest. The Thunderground component of this group will take care of the baddies, and the Tamer component, Henry, and Jeri, will get through the path cleared by everyone else and get all the information from the Technowerx database as possible. Now its imperative that you understand that with the possible exception of Group B, none of these operations have room for error and failure. If we’re dealing with inhuman forces as the Tamers informed us, we’re going to have to pull out every trick we have. Do whatever it takes to succeed. Ai and Mako have the simplest jobs, driving the truck and being on lookout for any back-up the Technowerx staff may call.”

 

Takato raised his hand.

 

“Yes?” Kyle said taking off his reading glasses. “Mr. Matsuki?”

 

“Er ... yeah,” Takato said clearing his throat. “Don’t they know what we look like?”

 

Kyle raised an eyebrow.

 

“They know what the Thunderground looks like in uniform,” he said wagging his finger with a smirk. “And by the time they see Rika, Jeri, and Henry, we won’t be in ‘covert’ mode anymore and it won’t matter. The bullets will have started flying. Group B is the group that goes in first, and they haven’t seen your face Takato, you went home that night at Fortunado’s. As for Kazu and Kenta, they haven’t seen them at all. All you have to do is look innocent, and then we can go in and shoot up the place for all we care. Just make sure you don’t blow your cover. We’ll all be wearing communicator watches similar to the Thunder Blasters, but we won’t be suiting up for this. When Group B completes their objective, I want you to get out of there, no matter what’s going on around you. You’re the only unarmed ones in this entire operation.”

 

“But if you’re not going with your armor on ...” Takato continued. “Then how do you plan to survive?”

 

The entire Thunderground smirked.

 

“Remember when we told you how we saved the world from an alien invasion?”

 

Takato nodded slowly.

 

“That was before we got the suits. To tell the truth, I don’t care for them much, Uncle Sam wants us wearing it though ... long story. Good grief, my head ...”

 

Kyle rubbed his head uneasily.

 

“I think the stress is getting to you old man,” Agent Potente said smiling.

 

“It just might,” Kyle said trying to blink the pain out.

 

Everyone had a laugh, but the stress was probably getting to everyone, they just weren’t getting headaches. The rest of the day leading up to the big mission was filled with a thick nervous air, and everyone tried to relax by playing games, joking, and reminiscing over old times when they weren’t going over their parts in the plan. Everyone laughed heartily when Agent Martin got another cell phone, and he laughed the loudest of them all, even though his headache had gotten worse. When he went to go get an aspirin, everyone was reminded about how dangerous this plan was. There was a good chance that not everyone would return alive. No matter what powers the Thunderground held, and how smart Henry was with all of his inventions and weapons, these were still superhuman incarnations of Digital Monsters, and they were only human.

 

Finally it was seven o’clock.

 

“Alright team,” Agent Potente said slapping his hands together. “Its time to go. We have to hurry if Takato and his friends are going to catch the last tour.”

 

Everyone murmured in agreement and Takato noticed Rika and Agent Martin leaving a room in the back in black sunglasses, all black, and trench coats of the same color. They were beaming. Taking a closer look at the room he saw why.

 

Armory

 

Takato shook his head with a smirk; especially when Agent Martin ran back into the armory saying he had forgotten something, and came back shoving something in his pocket that was almost certainly another gun of some kind. Looking up he saw Jeri moving towards him, but she suddenly stopped and turned around, red in the face, heading towards her armored truck that would serve as transportation for Group C. He wondered why she had turned around like she had seen a ghost, but before he could work it out, Keyana was next to him.

 

“Maniacs,” Takato said to her looking at Rika and Kyle, who, judging by their gestures, were discussing different ways of killing people. “Every group has them I guess.”

 

Keyana chuckled touching Takato on the shoulder, at which point Keyana handed Takato a package she had been holding in the other hand.

 

“What’s-”

 

But Keyana shushed him.

 

“Open it after all of this is finished,” she said. “It’s a gift. You’ll be so pleased and surprised ... maybe we’ll open it together, over a candelit dinner.”

 

Takato smiled as he set the package down on a nearby desk making a mental note to pick it up later.

 

“It’s a date,” he said smirking, and he gave Keyana a peck on the lips, but Keyana wasn’t satisfied, and kissed him back in turn, only it was a passionate kiss that lasted several seconds. For some reason, even though part of him was enjoying it, another part of him had a sick feeling. The kind that someone gets right before something bad happens. Takato broke the kiss. “If this keeps up, we’ll never get to the damned building.”

 

He smiled, and they both laughed again.

 

“See you on the other side,” Takato said and Keyana went towards the truck. Takato himself started towards Jeri’s car which he had borrowed, a red convertible. Kazu and Kenta snuck up behind him startling him.

 

“Well Takato,” Kazu said said clapping him on the shoulder so hard Takato felt as though his knees would buckle. “Aren’t we the little pimp. A little case of Jungle Fever it would seem.”

 

“That’s not-”

 

“Don’t worry,” Kenta said smiling. “We think black girls are hot too. Way to score.”

 

“But I-”

 

But they had already sprinted ahead of him to the car.

 

* * *

 

The Technowerx building was in downtown New York. Surprisingly, it, by far, wasn’t the largest building on the skyline despite its fame. As Takato and his friends pulled up into the parking lot, Takato realized he had never took real notice of the building. It was a simple plain structure really, and the more Takato, Kazu, and Kenta looked at it, the less they believed anything diabolical threatening all of time and space could be going on in here.

 

“Man ...” Kazu said adjusting his baseball cap and looking up. “This is sure one crappy headquarters ... are you sure we have the right place.”

 

Takato nodded seeing the big “TECHNOWERX” sign on the top of the building. Since Kazu and Kenta couldn’t read English, they just took his word for it and went inside.

 

“Ah,” said a beaming attractive blonde standing right beside the guest entrance. “You’re just in time for the last tour! Please, just go over there by that line, and enjoy your tour of Technowerx industries!”

 

Takato, Kazu, and Kenta nodded (even though Kazu and Kenta didn’t understand,) and headed over to the moderately sized line forming by the door. They had made it just in time, because the group was about to leave.

 

“Hello folks,” said a short and rather wide black man at the front of the line. “My name is Bill, and I’ll be your tour guide for today. Any questions, just raise your hand and I’ll attend to you. During the tour we ask that there be no smoking, food, or drink, wandering from the group, and please don’t touch anything. We also ask that there be no loud talking, as some of the areas we’re taking you through today have workers in them currently doing their best to bring the next Technowerx computer or Palm Pilot to you!”

 

The guy smiled a smile that was so phony that Kazu briefly gagged even though he had no clue what he had just said.

 

“Now if you’ll just come this way ...”

 

The line progressed, but just before they left the lobby, Takato could have sworn he saw an armored truck driving by. Things seemed to be moving right along schedule. Meanwhile, outside, the armored truck was parking in the corner. Group C which composed of Keyana, the rest of the Thunderground (besides Kyle,) Henry and Jeri, was the most anxious of the entire group due to two facts; the first being that their survival depended on the success of the other two groups, one composed of two gun-totting maniacs, the other composed of an unemployed civilian, and two drug addicts, and their second reason for anxiety was the fact that they had the toughest job of all – waiting. Their lifelong friends were in that building, and could be killed in a heartbeat, and all they could do was wait. Five minutes after Group A entered was the time given for Group C to make their move.

 

Seeing as how the most dangerous operation in the plan was that of Group A, nobody was happy to see Kyle and Rika go in. The Thunderground was hugging and kissing Agent Martin, while the Tamer side of the truck was doing the same with Rika. As they exited the van, everyone wondered if either of them would be alive after tonight.

 

“So now the waiting game beings,” Jeri said sighing. “Anyone know any magic tricks or ghost stories?”

 

Not even Jeri laughed.

 

Besides the tourist entrance, there was the main entrance, which led into the more intimate corridors of the Technowerx building. Because of this, a metal detector stood just a few feet deep of the building. Armed guards stood all around the room watching everyone who came in.

 

“Is that gray marble?” Rika said point at the walls and Kyle nodded smirking. “We’re so going to get sued for this...”

 

Kyle shrugged, and the both of them straightened out their all black clothing and trench coats before putting identical pairs of sunglasses. They got in line whipping the smiles from their faces, as one by one, the people in front of them went through the detector without a flaw, while the guards in the building were looking at the two of them, noticing there was something very familiar about this scene. Finally Agent Martin was in the front of the line and he put the small briefcase he had been carrying on the conveyer belt of the metal detector, and he walked through.

 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

 

A guard came up to him.

 

“Sir,” he said. “Do you have any metallic objects in your pockets?”

 

And with that, Kyle threw open his trench coat revealing a small armory in the inside pockets.

 

“See,” he said grabbing a machinegun. “The difference between me an Keanu Reeves is that I make this look cooler-”

 

BAM! BAM! BAM!

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

 

Not wasting a single bullet he took out the three closest guards with little or no effort. That’s when the rest of the guards began running towards them.

 

“Ohhhh,” Rika said opening her own trench coat and arming herself. “Can I join the party?”

 

 

“As you can see, all of the computers here-” Bill was saying, but at that moment, an ear-splitting alarm went off, and a voice came over the PA system.

 

“Attention, intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

 

And with that, every security guy visible turned without a word and started running to the source of the disturbance. Even Bill stopped the tour and headed down the stairs.

 

“Don’t worry,” Takato said to Kazu and Kenta. “They’re not all supersoldiers. Now come on, we have work to do.”

 

The two of them nodded, and they started walking towards where they thought the security console would be. Down the stairs, Rika and Kyle were actually enjoying their gunfight. Rika lived up to her title of the greatest tactical officer in Japan, and Martin seemed to have some inhuman talent with guns.

 

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!” he yelled before taking down twenty min in under twenty seconds. “Just like bowling ...”

 

Takato, Kazu, and Kenta had finally made it into the security room, which thankfully had been abandoned as more people were diverted to the main lobby. They didn’t suspect unarmed tourists to be doing anything worth following. The door was even open.

 

“Too easy,” Takato muttered. “While you two are in there, see if you can hack some computer systems. We might be able to get some information since we might have more time than we thought.”

 

“Sure thing Takato,” Kenta said cracking his knuckles. “Give us a few minutes and we’ll cut this thing open like a ... er... thing that gets cut open.”

 

Takato sighed.

 

“Just hurry up,” Takato said. “We only have about two minutes before the last group enters the building. I want the security system down before they get inside.”

 

 

“Five minutes is up,” Keyana said curtly. “Time to make our move.”

 

“Well,” Agent Cruz said. “Don’t just talk about it, lets go.”

 

Everyone took whatever weapons they were planning to use, and flooded out of the armored truck into the screaming mob of people outside of Technowerx. Jeri felt bad for scaring these people, but didn’t have much time to dwell on it before they were inside the Technowerx building. It was at that time that Jeri saw why the Thunderground dind’t need armor.

 

The first thing she noticed was that thick green ropes had sprouted from one of the Agent’s arms, and then she realized they were vines. The agent squeezed her victim until he was purple before throwing him through a window with ease. Next, she saw the big burly Agent Potente suddenly point at a man who was yelling at him as he reloaded his weapon, and suddenly all the computers around him went off. Then the man began to jerk uncontrollably and foamed at the mouth until he was dead.

 

“Electricity,” Jeri said to herself in awe. Next, the agent who had used the water cannon at Fortunado’s started running madly towards one of the guards. About two or three yards short of the guard he turned into a high pressure jet of water and drove the man through a wall. Topping that was another one of the female agents who turned her entire arm into titanium and punched some guy’s lights out. “Prodigious ...”

 

“Jeri,” Henry said. “Come on, lets go, we need to get upstairs to Burgess’s office.”

 

Jeri snapped back into reality and started to run with Henry up the stairs seeing that they weren’t needed here. They felt very fortunate since it seemed that there weren’t any supersoldiers here.

 

“Can you believe our luck?” he said, but Jeri was busy looking back at Agent Cruz as he suddenly sprouted monstrous snake-fangs and drove them into an unfortunate man, filling him with poison. Jeri nearly ran into a poll.

 

 

“Alright,” Kazu said sighing as Takato looked over their shoulders in the security room which had walls composed of computers and control panels rather than walls. “We think we’ve got the security system down.”

 

Takato blinked.

 

“You THINK?” he said raising an eyebrow.

 

“Well ...” Kenta said. “This is one of the most complicated computer systems I’ve ever seen. It’s almost as if its beyond human capabilities-”

 

“Which verifies the whole Digimon theory,” Kazu said nodding. “But we were still able to power it down with a little computer virus we designed, and fortunately always carry around on floppy wherever we go.”

 

“I thought you told Jeri you were retired,” Takato said frowning and the two of them looked impatient.

 

“Do you want to save the world or not?” Kenta said. “Now like I was saying, we managed to power down the security system without tripping any failsafe devices. It should stay down until the auxiliary systems power up, which would be...”

 

He checked his watch.

 

“Fifteen minutes from now,” he said sighing. “So lets hope our friends – new and old – know the meaning of fast. Some of these booby traps look nasty.”

 

“Did you find out anything about what the Digimon are looking for?” Takato asked earnestly. “A name at least?”

 

Kazu shook his head.

 

“We tried to get into that information,” he said sadly. “But it was impossible once we disabled the security system. We basically had the quarantine this room from the rest of the computer network in the building to use the virus without infecting the rest of the building – which would have made the rest of the information we need inaccessible. We didn’t have time to get the system down and hack that information from these computers.”

 

“However,” Kenta cut in. “We did find some interesting nuggets of information before we quarantined the system.”

 

Takato’s heart leapt.

 

“What did you find?” he said quickly. “I don’t want to feel completely useless.”

 

The two of them smiled.

 

“Well,” Kazu said. “Some of this stuff is a bit too ... advanced for you.”

 

“Hey!” Takato said blushing.

 

“Er, but from what we can tell,” Kazu said. “You were wrong. Burgess and his superhuman freaks aren’t Digimon in doppelganger form – its Jordan and company, in the flesh. Their DNA is on file for some reason, and it shows no major change. We think that instead, its mind control. Somehow they’ve developed mind control that actually heightens physical ability all in one quick procedure, but the rest of it is way too complex for us even.”

 

“We think its some kind of wavelength,” Kenta said. “Various scientists around The Web theorized recently that by running together certain sounds at an ultralow frequency in short intervals, one could control somebody by ... shutting off the part of the brain that controls free will making them very submissive to the same frequency of wavelength that turned it off in the first place.”

 

Takato had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that caused him to pursue this information.

 

“Wavelengths?” Takato said rubbing his chin. “What kind of wavelengths?”

 

“Well not anything like an earthquakes,” Kenta said matter-of-factly. “If that’s what you were thinking. No, something like a light or some kind of soundwave-”

 

“Soundwave?” Takato asked feeling as if he were getting close to something. “How could that happen?”

 

Kazu shrugged.

 

“It could be anything that reproduces sound,” he said. “A CD, a tape recorder-”

 

“How about a phone?” Takato blurted out. “Is it possible for this ... wavelength to be played over the phone?”

 

Kenta nodded.

 

“Oh yes, definitely,” he said. “That’d definitely be more convenient for the controller. They cold phone them new orders within the ultralow frequency.”

 

“Kenta,” Takato continued. “What kind of ... effect would that have on someone? Would there be any visible side-effects?”

 

Takato knew what they were going to say even before they could open their mouths.

 

FLASH!

 

Back at Fortunado’s last night. Jordan Burgess unfazed by the huge explosion set off by Agent Martin’s grenade launcher. Burgess immediately felt his head as if it hurt for a brief second.

 

FLASH!

 

Madison Square Garden watching Mako wrestle for the championship. Agent Martin’s cell phone rings. It’s a prank call, but a few minutes later, once their outside, he complains of a headache.

 

FLASH!

 

Right before the Thunderground and Tamers left to come to this very building, Agent Martin complained of a headache ....

 

“Oh shit,” Takato gasped. “They’ve got Kyle! He’s not under his own will right now ... the Digimon have him!”

 

“Use the watch communicator!” Kazu said. “They have to know, Martin could be about to do some serious damage!”

 

Takato frantically pounded the buttons on the side desperately. Kyle and Rika were the two most heavily armed people in the group, and Takato remembered Kyle taking something out of the armory before the left... could it have been some kind of explosive?

 

“This damned thing won’t work!” Takato said and he cursed some more. “We’re going to have to tell them in person. We’ll go upstairs and meet them by the main computers-”

 

“But Keyana told us to get out of here the second the security was down,” Kenta reminded him. “We’re not even armed, and wherever the Thunderground, Henry, and Jeri are going, guys with guns are sure to be behind them. We’ll be shot up the instant we go down the main hallway!”

 

“But-”

 

“But nothing,” Kenta said. “We all agreed not to take unnecessary risks like this. Plus I’m sure that, whatever Martin has, the Thunderground can take care of it. There’s no guarantee Martin is even under the control of the Digimon, this is all speculation! We have to get out of here- hey! Wait Takato, come back!”

 

But Takato had already taken off running. Kazu and Kenta didn’t bother to follow him knowing the dangers involved, but Takato didn’t care. All he knew was that there was there was no a superhuman freak who also had alien powers after Keyana, and he wouldn’t stand idly by. He heard his communicator watch beeping (apparently he could receive but not send messages.) It was a panicked sounding Mako from down in the truck.

 

“Guys,” Mako said. “Three white stretch limos just pulled up, and they match the description of the guys who saw at the restaurant! They’re headed straight for the door! Takato, Kenta, and Kazu, you guys don’t have any weapons! Get your asses down here and in this truck this instant-”

 

Takato stopped a second to throw his watch on the ground, and took off again feeling lighter somehow. He had been worried all along about Keyana getting hurt, but this latest revelation had set him off completely. Luckily, he was behind Group C and their pursuers and not in front as Kazu and Kenta predicted, or else he would have probably been shot dead right there and then.

 

Around this corner, around the next corner, through this door-

 

CRASH!

 

Before Takato even had time to get a good look at the Thunderground, fighting with their various powers, and Henry and Jeri hastily going through the large computer in the corner, there was a crash and tingle as Jordan Burgess and his cronies- somehow managed to reach the top floor and fly right through the window. They didn’t bleed despite the momentous amount of glass that had fallen on them. The normal guards, who had already seen people bursting into water and greenery, had had enough and ran out of the nearest window.

 

Jordan, who was dressed in all white again, adjusted his rose-colored sunglasses with a big creepy smile on his face, apparently indifferent to the rampant abnormality in the room. It was then that Keyana and Jeri both noticed Takato standing in the doorway, out of breath.

 

“Takato!” they said unanimously. “What are you doing here.”

 

Jordan chuckled, and his cronies stood in the background, arms folded, and faces empty.

 

“Well, well, well,” Jordan said, chuckling the whole while. “I congratulate you on successfully breaking into my establishment ... Tamers... and the Thunderground of course. Diverting the guards ... turning off the security system ... it would almost seem as if you had the perfect plan. However there is one variable you miscalculated – time.”

 

Takato opened his mouth to tell them of Martin’s disposition, but was unable to get the words out of his mouth. The supersoldiers had arrived, meaning that bad things were in the works.

“Time?” Henry said looking up from the computer. “You ... you got it?”

 

Jordan smiled again.

 

“I see you’ve been looking through my database,” he said, not really caring. “Even if you know about it, its too late. While you and your buddies were busy breaking into my establishment here, I was busy in the Digital World getting it.”

 

“Getting what?” Keyana asked taking her eyes off of Takato for a second, for she realized they were too late, and whatever Jordan Burgess was attempting to do had been done already, and they had failed.

 

Jordan frowned.

 

“Why ... the Chronosphere of course ...” and he held up a shimmering ball no bigger than his fist.