After a lot of issues with my old laptop, replacing it and copying my archive yet again, I'm back. Not sure if I'll be anything resembling regular, but I'll try to post at least once or twice a month. I've been on a bit of a writing kick, but this chapter is roughly five years old, and only recently slightly updated to make a little more sense.

Aside from that, I'm also using a new writing program, in a different format, and while it uses my preferred font (Calibri), I'm still getting used to it. Without the word counter in the corner, some of my new chapters are going to be considerably larger, though that might end up being a good thing. Let me know when I get there in, around six or seven chapters from this one? I'm still working on other stories, and some are going to end up being fully rebooted. But you're not interested in that. So, without further stalling, Chapter Twenty Two!

Disclaimer: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do hereby state that I do not own the rights to Digimon.
...

I stood before the giant bird with the revolver bodied Deputymon next to me. He was known simply as John, and he spoke much like John Wayne, probably the reason behind the name. He accepted me as an ally due to my deputy badge, seeing that a fellow lawman wouldn't be evil even if the other part of the data was a Devimon subtype. Hanu was waiting across the area, something the bird noticed. It wasn't acting angry, but it seemed agitated.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"We wait for it to make a move." He said. "If it attacks, fried chicken. You do have fire, right?"

"Hellfire Exhalation." I said. "If it doesn't attack, by the book, tell it to go home." He nodded and after a few minutes, it didn't move, so he moved to the right.

"You go in first." He said. "It might be more willing to listen to a virus than me. I'll keep ya covered."

"Arthur, copy that?" I asked.

"Got it." He said. "Daisy's waiting across from Hanu. We've got him completely surrounded. I haven't heard from the others yet. I uh, also just found out that your data isn't as optimal as it used to be. Looks like Digivolving made it scale down a lot. It's worth less than a tenth. I routed all of it, what little there was compared to the amount you're comprised of normally, to your heart, but I can still modify whatever you need."

"Let's leave it as it is." I said. "Maybe that data will help me speak from the heart a little better." He laughed as I slowly walked forward, my spurs jingling in an odd warbling manner. Kokatorimon stared at me as I got closer. "So, any chance you're willing to talk?" It was silent. "We don't have to fight, if you'll just tell us why you're here."

"Seeking an Impmon with a gun." It said.

"Ah, that old refrain." I said. "I've heard this tune before. GunImpmon, about, yea tall?" I held my hand down slightly, about where my head used to be. "Here, countin' the ears?" It nodded as I raised my hand just a little. "Carried a revolver?" It nodded yet again. "Why?"

"Need, help." It said. "Dark Area, is overwhelmed by, an army." I stopped, crossing my arms. "Left, to find what they were after, to protect it. Knew, one would come to us, if we asked."

"And the other three we detected?" I asked.

"Two are with us, one is not." It said.

"We counted three Champions and one Ultimate." I said. "I'm hopin' you're gonna say, that the Ultimate is on our side."

"No." It said. "It's a Vamdemon, a Myotismon."

"Figures." I said. "Let me guess, it's here to kill the GunImpmon."

"Yes." It said. "Because it killed the operative with the Rapidmon." I slowly lowered my arms and I heard Arthur make a sound.

"That was the Digimon of a murderer." I said.

"Killed only 'inferior' Tamers." It said. "Those, who wouldn't join the army." I thought for a moment. "Do you know where the Impmon is? We must find him, soon." I held my arms out.

"You're looking at him." I said. It stared. "I Digivolved, to kill the Rapidmon, after he tried to blast me with a missile." Its eyes widened.

"Mao, we've got some really bad news." Arthur said quickly. "The Ultimate, the Myotismon, just pulled a wicked u-turn, and it's flying our way! They were tracking it with helicopters, and now… It's heading directly for us!" I looked at him. "We've got backup, in the form of a MetalGreymon and two WereGarurumon… But they're about thirty minutes out, and the Myotismon, is figured about ten…"

"Kokatorimon, please tell me you or one of your friends compressed, and can go Ultimate." I said. "Because he's headed our way."

"No…" It said. "The others are headed here. One is a Dobermon, put aside its hatred of viruses for the Impmon… You may want to hide if they get here fast… But, none of us can Digivolve."

"Well then, looks like we'll need a plan." I said.

"I need to hide." It said. "It already injured me…" It looked at its left wing, and I spotted blood. "I barely got away."

"Daisy, Hanu, take Kokatorimon somewhere safe." I said. "He wants me, so why not let him see me?"

"Mao, tell me you've got a plan." Arthur said.

"Yeah, I've got something." I said. "I'll, wing it, just a bit. Let's keep them out of the park, at least." I opened my wings.

"I'll provide cover fire." John said.

"Just keep him in the air and find his Tamer, however you have to." I said. "I'll see if I can't find their Digivices, or at least their cell phones."

"You can do that?" Percy asked.

"I never really tapped into my viral abilities that much." I said. "I can hack, infiltrate, ruin, or track anything with a chip in it… I think. Never really bothered to try all that much. Let's see, if a Digital Devil can track down a phone." I jumped and took to the air, flying up quickly and spotting a rushing form, clad in the classic dark purple outfit of a Myotismon. As I got higher, I flapped my wings to stay up, but he turned upright and looked at me. "I don't suppose you're willin' to talk this out?"

"Only if it would lead to you joining our cause." He said. "We need powerful warriors, and varied ones at that. But your Tamer won't turn. He doesn't realize what he is, what both of you are. Your power is greater, more than ever, but it still pales in comparison to that of Lord Traynor."

"Lord, General, it seems to me he's a man without a face to go with the name." I said. "I don't trust someone without at least a set of eyes to tell me where he's lookin'." He laughed quietly. "So, we've got backup on the way, you're here, I'm here… Three Ultimate levels and a bunch o' Champs. It's been shown, that with one Champion and my Rookie form, a Myotismon ain't all that tough. Now that I'm stronger and that same Champion is on the way… You're out of your depth if I so much as drop to the ground near my friends." He grimaced. "So, let's just take this to the station, we'll talk, and maybe you can even leave, alive, instead of being deleted here and made part of me." He was silent for a moment when I picked up a cell phone signal being directed at him. I saw a Bluetooth in his ear, so it made sense.

'He's not going to join us, so I'm heading toward the hospital to get to the drop point.' A voice said. 'Kill him now and leave before his backup arrives.'

"I see your partner wants you to be quick." I said. "I guess you won't talk after all." His eyebrows rose slightly, his eyes widening behind the mask. "Well then, in the immortal words of the human race…" I held my hands up, curling my fingers in and out. "Come at me, bro." He was suddenly in front of me, but I used the teleportation technique from Botan and moved above him. As he turned and looked around, I dropped and grabbed him around his shoulders, and he fell only a short distance before I let go and teleported again, moving onto the top of a building as the others began getting close. "Guys, tell me you're ready. The Tamer is on his way to a hospital with a portal computer. Get people in and close them off."

"On it." Arthur said.

"He's going after Daisy!" Ann said quickly. I teleported in as Myotismon formed a blood whip, but I drew Panic and shot him in the shoulder, making him stagger, but the bullet dropped to the ground, and he stared at me in surprise.

"Well, that was a big letdown." I said, backing up to Daisy. I put a hand on her side carefully as she went to move, but as Myotismon went to swing the whip, I teleported us away, behind him a fair distance, and I focused and took aim at the Myotismon. "Devil Round!" I fired and hit him in the elbow, and in a gory spectacle, his arm fell to the ground, vanishing as data as he let out a pained yell. He turned and opened his cape, and I drew Disorder as bats flew at us. I fired, and a second set of guns fired as well, putting them down as Daisy shot needles at them. As Myotismon began backing away, preparing to fly, needles hit his feet, pinning them to the ground as I reloaded a single round and walked over. Myotismon prepared a whip, but before he could try anything, a pair of missiles hit him directly from the air, flinging me back slightly into Daisy. She had her arm up, but as I looked, a MetalGreymon landed, as did a few other flying Digimon, including Scott. "Nice timing." I coughed. "I think I swallowed shrapnel." They walked over, and I held my hands up. "Hey, DGA, your side big guy." He poked me in the chest with his metal claw.

"I've never seen a Champion take on a foe so much stronger, and then…" He started. He suddenly grinned. "Blow his arm off! Ha, that was brilliant!" I laughed. "For a devil, you're alright." He held his right fist out, so I bumped it with mine. "We got the message and the WereGarurumon team are en route to a possible location, but they'll hide to make sure the perp is caught." Scott walked over, putting his hand to his head.

"Don't encourage him." He said. "I've already told him to cut out the heroics, yet still, he goes off on his own."

"Did you have a better way to stop Daisy from getting whipped?" I asked. Daisy suddenly tapped my hat, so I looked up at her. "Don't tell me you were going to give him a haymaker." She gestured to me.

"Needles in your back." She said. I blinked and suddenly something was pulled from my vest, so I looked at Scott as he stared at a rather long needle.

"Oh, that…" I said. "Yeah, that stings, but, I've been through worse. I'm strong enough to handle it." I holstered my revolvers as they laughed, and Daisy patted my back, and I jumped up, yelping ."Yowch! Hey, watch the patting! I can take needles, but don't drive 'em in!" They all laughed a little more as I jumped up and down before pulling off my vest. "Okay, someone get these out. I don't trust Scott right now." He laughed as I walked over to Arthur as he walked into the clearing. "Arthur, buddy, lend me a hand?" Without warning, a bunch of code appeared and flew toward me. "Hey, what's…" I jumped back just as it hit me, and I felt my chest as it went in. "Hey, MetalGreymon, you deleted him, but did you get the code?"

"No…" He said.

"Why me, then?" I asked.
…

"According to this, you downloaded something specific from that Myotismon." The tech said. "I've been studying digital code for months, and this is something I've never seen. When you absorb the code of any Digimon, it alters your own slightly, but it regulates after a while. Sometimes there's a change in personality, slight but just noticeable… In your case… It looks like it's, doing something else…" He rolled his chair over as I stared at the screen. "This is the before, and that's the after." I looked up. "Then there's this, the baseline Rookie data, versus what you got after you killed that other Myotismon." I looked them over. "Similar, but in this case, it's more sophisticated. If I'm right, the first one was what Digivolved you…" He rolled again and I looked over. "Arthur took scans of the Myotismon, and I compared it to baseline Myotismon data I had already. It was different." I walked over and looked at it. "The data you took from the one is in fact more like yours. When you Digivolved to your current form, well, look." I looked at the two images, and after a moment, he crossed them over, and a match was found and outlined in white. "That code is what you use now, or used. It was Data from a, Deputy Devimon." I rubbed my chin for a moment. "This new data…" He showed it. "Shows similarities, but make no mistake, this is far more complex, more advanced. If that other data was this form, then this might be your next."

"So, you're saying those two Myotismon, carried data, meant for me?" I asked. "Or, someone like me?"

"Another Deputy Devimon and whatever the other one is?" He suggested. "Possibly. And look at this, when I cross it." He put the images to overlap, and something else formed. "Whatever your Ultimate form is, this is combined with the data from all of your previous forms, including the Ultimate. I've only seen coding this impossibly complex, from Mega level Digimon, that didn't require fusing with their Tamers." I whistled quietly. "There's something unique about you and the other GunImpmon. Maybe you need to kill Myotismon to get your data, but those two were special cases. No new Myotismon except those two, had this data… It stands to reason, they had it because it was meant for you, or something else we can't begin to understand." Images flashed for a moment, places I didn't know, but somehow recognized. A castle with a throne with a shadowy figure, a second figure nearby talking to it, kissing its lips, and then the image of red eyes in a shadow as a door exploded. "Mao?" I blinked and looked at him. "It's my professional diagnosis that you will Digivolve again, sometime in the future. I can't put a number to it, or even a guess in the most remote way, but I know it will happen. If you can swing it, be here when it happens and we can get a better idea on what, exactly, we're dealing with here." I nodded as he rolled to another station, gesturing, so I followed. "One more thing I've noticed, I was sent data from another GunImpmon in Maryland. It was just a scan and a few videos, but there was a massive gap between you and that one in the same form." He showed a video of a thinner GunImpmon shooting a bunch of Rookies with Dark Rounds, but it yelled 'Imp Rounds' instead. "The Tamer, here… Uses a D-Arc, not an Optimizer. I've run hundreds of searches, as have a lot of the others, and thus far only one Optimizer is known to exist, but there are Tamers that are unregistered and unlicensed, some that just went straight to the Digiworld and never came back. There may be some that have it there, but there's no telling."

"Thanks for tryin', at least." I said. "That Impmon, did it…"

"We have footage of it being deleted." He said somberly. "It, did some heavy damage to the attacker, however. It would seem that while being nowhere near your level, GunImpmon are just, damn tougher than normal Rookies. I've seen Renamon that weren't as tough as that one. And you, you're a step up without the Optimizer. What happens when you cut loose for real?" I shrugged. "Well, regardless, there are six left in the US, twelve in Canada, and we're waiting for info from the rest of the world. My guess, you GunImpmon are rare, and you're being hunted, but the hunters pay through the nose for each victory. At least five before the GunImpmon goes down, and you're working your way up to the top rung of the ladder." I nodded as he gestured. "And that's all. Go to your friends and let them know you're alright and that the data is beneficial, possibly unlocking your next stage." I nodded and patted his shoulder.

"Good luck on your projects." I said.

"Hey, luck from the devil." He said. "Now I know my new my projects are going to succeed." I laughed quietly as I walked out, and the others looked over from talking. I was silent for a moment.

"Is this about me?" I asked. Arthur laughed.

"Actually it's about Riley's apartment." He said. "We've got the deposit down and we're ready to help her move in…" I walked over and looked at his phone, whistling.

"Good size, and a big screen TV." I said. "Lucky."

"And a Jacuzzi tub!" Riley said. "That's gonna be awesome!" Harrigan laughed quietly as I sat own.

"So, what did he say about your data?" Scott asked.

"Well, odd as it seems, and it did seem odd…" I said. "I'm better than fine. They took data tests for my forms, and apparently the first Myotismon's data unlocked this form, but no other Myotismon ever scanned had that type of data, or the data from this one. If he's right…"

"You're going to go Ultimate very soon." He finished.

"Not very, but, in time, yeah…" I said. I shrugged. "No clue as to when, even as a rough guess in years, let alone months."

"Nothing on the Optimizer." Arthur said. "All I know for sure is that my optimizing is limited now. I meant to tell you, now that you're a Champion and thus far bigger as far as data goes… The data from before was absorbed to make you even stronger already." I blinked. "Yeah, get this, you're worth two Champions. I scanned Scott, he's about thirty gigs… Harrigan's thirty three, Daisy's thirty one, Lena's twenty seven… You're sixty seven gigs, buddy." I whistled. "Oh, and the data from Myotismon was worth twenty so I need you to allocate that later, remind me." Percy felt his beard for a moment.

"So without that Optimizing data from before…" He said.

"Mao would have been thirty three and a half gigs." Arthur said. "The stored data was more than that but most of it was used to fuel some kind of rapid regeneration when the missile hit. I checked the time and, that was then… But it turns out you can use excess data for just that, with the Optimizer. If you're ever hurt bad enough, I can use data to power you up, or I can use it to heal you. It's apparently new… I think…" He stopped.

"Go on." Sarah said. Lena jumped onto the chair next to him.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I'm starting to think the Optimizer, is upgrading its software." He said. "I mean, every so often it adds new functions, so, it's getting new information as Mao grows stronger… And then it just added this button and the scanner, so I started using it, figuring I'd just never seen it." He looked at the gauntlet shaped Digivice. "Maybe it can even upgrade the hardware to become more complex and functional. I mean, what's it even made of?"

"Chrome Digizoid." I said in time with the other Digimon. He blinked.

"It makes sense." Scott said. "All Digivices are fundamentally indestructible, so as to keep us bound to our Tamers, so we always know where you are to protect you." I nodded.

"So that being made of metal, what better than Chrome Digizoid?" Lena asked. She jumped onto his lap and looked it over. "This wasn't there the other day, was it?" He looked at it and shrugged as she jumped down. "A new button… Push it." He did so, and a series of small plates slid in and out of the gauntlet until it became more streamlined.

"Instant upgrade?" I suggested. "Resizing to fit better?"

"It does feel a little lighter, too." Arthur said. The glove suddenly slid in, and a screen slid out from the wrist, about the size of a phone. "Oh, that's much easier to work with. But, where's, oh..." He took a stylus out. "There. Easy. It's upgrading itself to be easier to work with. Thoughtful of it, but, why now?" I shrugged.

"The only way to ever figure that out would be to ask the maker." I said. "That being the main program of the Digital World."

"Yggdrasil?" Scott said. "That's, easier said than done. We'd need to contact the Royal Knights, get one of them to take at least you there, and hope that they understand that you just have a question you want answered..."

"So, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Sarah said. "Seems a good plan if you ask me."