Lab accident. //MPC-31 A PERFECT RIVAL//

Working with Digimon has been really interesting throughout the last few weeks, at least that is how it was to Denizen. His own research and projects made leaps and bounds once he started applying theories and techniques he learned in the Digimon World. Still there was one thing that was inconvenient about it. The way that he had to use to travel back and forth between the human and digital worlds. Though he had some ideas to remedy that. Still it would require a lot of preparation, not to mention time.

His idea involved creating a small tunnel that would connect him to an anchor he previously left in the Digital World. If everything worked, then in theory he could make gates between the two places, though they would be stable enough to cross, they would be short lived. Still it should be enough to travel back and forth comfortably. The principle that was employed was a temporal fusion of two set coordinates in both worlds, thanks to which a temporary, small scale fusion of the two worlds would happen.

Normally it would be something too dangerous to even consider as anything going wrong could possibly either destroy or merge the two worlds together permanently, but to Denizen the benefits outweighed the risks. In his mind the chance of an accident happening was incredibly slim, not to mention he was confident in his abilities. Furthermore if the experiment would in some way fail, he’d still be able to remedy the situation thanks to measures he built into his machine.

”According to principle, the coordinates are properly set and after I turn on the machine it should generate a small portal. Making a passable one would work as well but for now better to keep the output minimal as to not cause too great of an accident.” Denizen was reckless but not to the point that we was careless. Creating a small portal was enough for a test, then he could try and create a bigger one and stabilize it so he could cross. For now better to start small.

The monitors displayed no anomalies at the initial startup, now it was time for the test.”AIDA, please increase the power input and display any out of place data.” Denizen knew that the system would register anything out of the ordinary, thus he would be able to notice if anything was wrong. Once the start button was pressed, the small portal started to appear between the coils of the machine, it seemed stable at first glance.

”Well I think I can call this a success.” He smiled broadly, then pressed a few keys and a new set of data was displayed. ”AIDA Prepare the linking procedure, prepare to connect the default set coordinates with the previously input Digital World portal location.” Denizen figured that it would work so he prepared to connect the portal. However in his excitement he did not notice a strange ripple across the screen, not to mention the wording being slightly off. Instead of connect portal, the monitor displayed the words: accept connection.

Denizen hit the enter key to start the procedure, only noticing something was wrong when the alarm rang. In the next moment the portal started to grow and destabilize, warping the space between the coils, not to mention causing multiple small explosions in the room. The man managed to hit the emergency shutdown switch, but it was too late, there was no response. Only thing he could do was to initiate the lockdown sequence and hope that would keep the damage only to his lab.

After the heavy steel curtains dropped, Denizen took the first heavy object that was close to him and smashed the portal generator. This would set him back weeks, maybe even months, but at least there would be no permanent backlash to either world. He only hoped that it would be enough. Though once he broke the final coil, it was then that the lab shook and a big explosion destroyed most of the lab.

Fortunately, Denizen was not hurt much, he had scrapes and bruises, but luckily nothing was broken. However once the dust and smoke cleared he stood as if paralyzed. He was not alone inside of the room anymore. Looking towards where the portal was, he saw something akin to a mirror. Though to be frank it was more like he looked directly at himself. He had no idea how this happened but his mind was racing. He figured that it might have to do with the portal collapsing but why would there be a copy of himself there, it was just strange… what if…?

Denizen looked at his copy more closely. It looked almost identical, yet there were some subtle differences. Though it seemed that his counterpart came to the same conclusion as he did, as he slowly circled around the wreckage, mimicking Denizen’s movement. The two men had an identical expression, not to mention their movements were exactly the same. How they moved while on guard, placement of their feet, in preparation to rush the opponent. It was a perfect mirror.

It was only an instant, but that was enough. Straining their muscles to the limit, each man rushed, targeting the other. Their fists colliding in mid movement, one hit, then two then a dozen. It came to the point that no matter what they aimed for, their fists would still collide, as their aim was always the same. Once kicks were added to the equation, one might assume that something would change, on the contrary, it was did not.

If someone were to watch from the side they could assume they were either in perfect sync, or they trained a lot together, as each and every time their movements would mirror. It almost looked like a strange dance they performed. They exchanged blows for at least another twenty minutes before they just… stopped. Both Denizen and his counterpart just stared at each other. After a few moments, in sync, they asked a simple question. “Who or what are you?” Both narrowed their eyes, yet as they asked the same question their expression changed to surprise.

“What?” They blinked at each other, then slowly sat down while they still stared at each other. The silence just dragged on for minutes, the duos expressions would be stern, their eyes would slowly narrow, a really nasty smile would appear on both of their faces. One would think they might just start hitting each other again, even though they were still a bit bruised from the exchange before.

Both of them burst out laughing the next moment. It seemed they finally decided to stop trying to kill each other for no apparent reason. One might be curious why this happened, the reason was simple really. The “There can be only one” mentality only applies if your clone/copy/counterpart is the same gender as you. Though it took them a while to notice that they were indeed not. Their appearance was not much help, after all their faces could be either male as well as female, furthermore the baggy clothes did not help either.

”We are such idiots.” Denizen, chuckled. ”Indeed, we are.” his counterpart agreed. “Denizen.” He stretched out his hand in greeting. ”Denize.” She answered, even their names were almost the same. This made them laugh even more. ”Want to drag a beer?” She nodded and they just left the mayhem behind and figure things out.

After talking for a couple of hours they came to a few conclusions. One: they tried making a similar experiment, but instead of connecting to the digital world, they connected two different realities together. Two: They were too competitive and tried to outdo the other and three: neither f them could hold their liquor so both of them got smashed rather quickly. No idea how they got back but waking up in the same place only ended up in them trying to beat each other up…again.

The duo spent the next few days trying to figure out how to reopen the portal so Denize could go back to her own reality. Each of their ideas was worse, but once they started to theorize that putting enough kittens into a box with bacon would somehow make the cats radiate cosmic energy and open a portal back, was too much even for the author to handle. Though that is what you get when you put two equally crazy people on one team and make them compete. Fortunately, before they went on to pitting mimes and clowns against each other in death fights, somehow they managed to reopen the portal.

”Was fun, don’t come again though.” Was the only thing Denizen said before his counterpart went through the portal. Once she was on the other side, she would look at him and smile. “I’ll be back, you are too much fun to tease.” She would smile a pure innocent smile, to which Denizen would just smile bitterly. Once the portal closed though he would only say. ”Well that was something… now to clean up this mess.” He sighed and started to clean up, making sure he destroyed any blueprints concerning this experiment. Last thing he needed was someone trying to merge the digital and human worlds together… or realities.