In the Aftermath [Plot Case - Machine]

"Hm?"

Hearing the hum of a car outside, Angel's ear gave a flick, the Renamon giving a brief glance towards the window. She narrowed her eyes, as if trying to glare past the blinds, before she let out a sigh. "It's the Hackmon - or something close to one, anyway. Not sensing any other data signatures. He come alone?"

"Remember, humans aren't 'data' on this side." Still, the Renamon was mostly correct, the fox giving a 'tsk' through her teeth as Denryu stood up. "Hold up inside for a second. I'll go and greet our guests."

"Yeah, yeah, try to not trip over your words this time." The fox managed a small grin, the general just letting that one slide. As the car pulled up (Angel mentioning that the signal 'vanished', which Denryu simply thought of as similar to a Xros Loader), Denryu opened the door, keeping it cracked open as he waited for the agent to approach. As Machine would turn the corner, he'd see exactly that - but perhaps it wouldn't exactly be what he was expecting.

Denryu wasn't Japanese - his hair and build suggested being more of British or German descent. Instead of a bow, the man offered a handshake to introduce himself. Still, Machine could be certain that he was talking to the right person, thanks to the Xros Loader affixed to his belt.

"Hello. I am 'Metal Drive'." Though fluent enough, Denryu's Japanese was audibly rough to the ear - and surely, he meant to say something slightly more sensible than that. "My partner will help with more rough translation."

He'd tilt his head towards the door, and if permitted, would open the door further, Angel lying idly back on the hotel bed. "First you use me as a microphone to speak to them, and now you want me as a translator? I'd say you're on thin ice, buddy." Angel chuckled. "Don't worry about alerting your patrol or anything, us two will be on our way after this."

"Well, now that we've 'pulled the veil' back on this - I guess I'll leave it to you to start before I jump into things. Machine, right?" Denryu gave a nod: "I am the one who organized the 'Golden Week' event. Our primary intent was to put Digimon out in a place for the public to openly see, though it didn't exactly work out as intended. I'll get a bit more detail into it, but what questions do you have?"

Ah, good - Denryu wouldn't be tripping over his words as much, then! Returning that handshake, the General gave a nod. "Considering I probably have a lot of explaining to do, that should make things much simpler."

He nodded, leading Machine back into the room. The General decided to not clarify his name further - like the DATS agent, he had no idea if he was being recorded or not. This was also why the blinds to the room were drawn, and he kept his D-Terminal powered off. "Well, maybe not 'completely' like what I warned you about." The Renamon sighed: "When we have our own thumb on the scale, we can't entirely call it an action by the Digital World."

"Hm." Denryu let that slide for now, letting Machine speak his peace. The agent figured that the plans got leaked out to some untoward individuals somehow - and, he also figured that the potential damage to DATS was offset by the sheer violence shown to the real world. That much remained to be debated, but it all boiled down to one large, general question.

'Why did this happen'?

"'Why' is an interesting question. As far as I can see, all that happened was that the intent of certain Digimon simply bubbled to the surface." He quickly clarified: "What each and every Digimon did their was their own choice. All of the participants chose to participate, and though they probably practiced their 'entertainment' routines, the first groups that showed up were all Digimon that both stood to benefit from being able to come to our world, and who found DATS' restrictions either silly or unjust. And, as you guessed, the 'other' group were all Digimon with personal intentions... none of which I would really know."

"Could be more pissed-off Digimon at DATS or some group being paid to disrupt it as a whole. Don't know."

"As for 'how'? Only a few Digimon in Terminus know that I was involved in it at all. I worked with a few Digimon, called in a favor, and they helped organize an underground movement to get a 'rally' during the closest holiday in Japan. Anything too 'loud' and DATS would have caught on before it happened - but doing it that way might have caused the other events to happen. The Digital World, ironically, isn't the most tech-savvy place - in hindsight, its not surprising it leaked out. As for my own involvement?"

"About a week before it all happened, we set up web cameras in the areas we knew it would be set up. You know it first-hand: Xros'd, I can completely mask my data signal. So we set them to record, and watched everything unfold, all the way from the safety of London."

Angel sounded almost annoyed at the fact, even as Denryu returned a shrug.

"Ultimately, we did this because we find DATS 'problematic' - not the organization itself, but the very concept that Digimon would be kept secret. In the short term, they will be able to act as 'just guardians' amidst a threatening alien force from another world... but how long do you think they can really keep up that image?"

If you shake the pot a certain way, perhaps you shouldn't be surprised if something goes awry. Angel returned a nod, Denryu more-or-less letting it slide without comment as the general processed that thought in his head. There was always a risk, but were things really right as they were now? With DATS trying to eliminate most Digimon involvement in the human world?

Or should have he been more direct, like Holly suggested?

Regardless, this was the situation they were in now. At the comment on the cameras, Denryu returned a nod. "A few were taken offline, others were caught up in the fighting, but we have... 'enough' footage to work with, at least. Yes, we saw what happened in both areas."

"Sorta made me wish we took a more direct role. Tch... though I am curious as to how much hot water we'd all be in if any of this conversation got out."

"Water getting a bit hot for you, Angel?" Denryu sighed, hearing Machine out. "Unfortunately, that might be a bit difficult going forward. Acting as a DATS Agent, your face is probably already out there... hm." The last bit caught his interest, though. Three simultaneous incursions, coordinated with the entire event of Golden Week. Angel picked up on it as well: "So what you're saying is, the 'snake' behind it hasn't shown his head, yet?"

"Careful there, Angel."

"What, D? It's clear as day that - ... oh for the love of fuck."

It clicked - and she hate that it clicked. A definite, reasonable possibility was that there was a ringleader behind what had happened. No, the issue wasn't with Angel's conclusion, but with the implication behind it. They would have no leads, no suspects... except the one person Machine knew with the motive, and intent to try and destroy DATS.

The very General he was trying to get information from was, at least for the moment, a very well-fitting suspect. But at that next question, Denryu seemed to take it in stride. "Its difficult to say... though I'd say its probably not the Train Station. That looks more like there was someone, at some point, who made an anchor point to make transition more 'stable'."

He rolled that thought through his head.

"... There's an oddly high number of news articles about missing persons near the riverbank. It's inferred evidence at best, but its possible that the area there's been an active transfer point."

"Hmph. I wondered when you were going to join us."

At the sound of that crackling device, the Renamon rolled her eyes. Her question aside, it was obvious that they would be in hot water, but she was more interested in what said hot water would entail... but it seemed like that would stay a mystery. Right now, the conversation switched to the topic of the 'Arachnemon'.

"I think its doubtful that the mastermind would have come here directly - but its definitely too soon to throw out that possibility. I suppose we'll keep an eye out for her in the Digital World, just in case." The General gave a nod to that - and the Hackmon suggested putting surveillance in both places. "Wait, really? Wouldn't DATS already have cameras set up in both places, regardless?"

That was a good point, honestly! "I think its more a matter of having his own feed... aside from that..."

The Hackmon brought up a better point. A very dangerous thought - what if a higher-up in DATS had a hand in the entire situation? Angel blinked, missing the point of the exercise: "Wait, wait, isn't it a bit much to jump to that kind of answer? You're saying that a human operative has enough control in the Digital World to create such a situation-"

"Angel." Denryu rested a hand on the Renamon's shoulder, then nodded to the Hackmon. "If I were to make such a decision, it would be for the purpose of validating DATS as an agency. And to that, I ask a different question: Machine? Were any of the patrol routes assigned to the agents different than your ordinary paths? For example, would have any of you had deliberately shorter response times to the situation?"

As to the second point, Denryu took a moment to think - closing his eyes, letting it piece together in his head. Slowly, they opened, the General giving a nod.

"... I'd take whatever 'head' looks real, and strike it down." Denryu sighed: "If the initial attack was fabricated, then he has the choice to use his position against any group in the Digital World - and if the same attack doesn't happen again, he's proven himself right."

"D..."

"Relax, Angel. We're working off an assumption here - it really depends on the circumstances of the situation. Some things might seem to fit now - its really up to Machine to let us know if such a situation is even plausible."

The four were at an interesting point - and, unfortunately, the current question did not have an answer. Was someone in the Digital World truly orchestrating a vengeful response against DATS, or did the organization itself prop up a false motive to try and justify its own position? There was evidence to the latter argument, but certain large gaps of information made it a bit difficult to picture.

"Well... even if it wasn't thought up before to have them in the proper locations, maybe it would have been too obvious? They could have thought that-"

"Angel." The General cut off his partner. "The moment you try to force the pieces to fit into the puzzle, you've set yourself too far. Chasing phantoms that aren't there will only serve to get ourselves caught even faster." And to that, he turned his attention to Seifer. "If this interpretation is true, we aren't going to defeat DATS with current hypotheticals. There's a plan we can execute to force DATS' hand in this, but we need to be more-certain-than-not that the director or someone higher up is pressing their thumb on the scale. Otherwise, we'd be playing right into the real msaterminds' hands."

"Tch... so in the end, we have to leave it in the hands of these two..."

It was a risk that Denryu was willing to take from the start. The General gave a sigh, reached into his bag, and pulled out a pen - and, at this point in time, what would be an ancient piece of technology: a flip phone.

"If the director does have their hands in it, they're going to be taking particular note of your personal and business phones - but it'll be too risky to meet up in person, like we are today. It'll be suspicious of you to keep responding to the same data signal over and over." Writing something on the top page of the hotel pad, he tore off the top page, folded it around the form, and tossed the rest of the pad into his bag - to make sure the impression on the next page couldn't be tracked, if this room was investigated.

"This is a burner. Using this, you can text or contact me at any time if you figure something out - and its completely disconnected from the internet. This way, if you figure anything out, you can get the information to us without fully compromising yourself."

That was true - but there was another admission there. To be so comfortable organizing this, and to even think ahead on it?

How used to breaking the law was Metal Drive?

Machine posed a rather interesting question: what would Denryu do if he were the head of DATS right now? Angel gave a blink, misinterpreting the point right off the bat. "How would he know? We just went over why we didn't really know what was going on in the leader's head, right?"

Indeed, the question didn't make sense if you thought of it that way! To that, though, Denryu would just rest his hand right on top of the Renamon's head, giving a quick ruffle behind her ears. "You're right - but that's not what he's asking, Angel." The Renamon batted that hand away, crossing her arms in a huff, muttering and swearing about something under her breath. More to the point, what would Denryu do, right now, if he was the head of DATS?

"I think, after sorting out the immediate issues that come with this incident, I'd attempt to reach out to Terminus. Either publicly, or discretely - either is fine - and attempt to investigate the motive of how the attack in the real world happened. As advanced as our knowledge is on this side, its hard to imagine you would all have any sway in their world."

"And that's the crux of it." Denryu nodded: "I don't care for DATS. But if it has to exist, then it should be trying to build relations with the Digital World, rather than sealing them behind secrecy. There's nothing wrong with protecting the world from 'scary monsters'  - but we don't have to make them monsters in the first place."