Striking it Rich [Mission] [3/3]

Owen felt his fists clench at Luneth’s words. Was he seriously picking a fight with him? Then Gem joined in angrily, and then Omen launched a rather impressive tirade against them too. However, he knew deep down that something was drastically wrong here. They had been talking peacefully earlier, but now they were almost at each other’s throats. There was something about the light from the crystals in this chamber that just didn’t sit right.

Part of the Gaomon wanted to retaliate. He was the leader here, how dare they speak to him like that. But he knew he shouldn’t speak what he wanted to say right now. Not when he had just lashed out at Rory only to be rightfully put in his place. But he didn’t know what to say to de-fuse the situation with the angry Omen either.

Omen then moved towards Rory. Owen noticed for the first time that Rory was wearing the old DWR helmet with the blue light now. And if he looked closely, he could see the light somewhat… repelling the orange where he turned it.

Then he gasped as Amper raged too, seemingly about to explode with rage. Owen made a step to his grandson, but all he did was collapse into Vergil’s arms.

Rory was watching all this too, his blue eyes almost tearing up with disbelief as he watched his family and friends seem to go mad. Then he realized in this moment, when Omen moved close to him, that he was probably in the best position to say this. He didn’t want his brothers to fight Owen and his grandchildren. He had to speak up now.

“Everybody BE QUIET!!” Rory shouted at the lot of them, with a voice that was loud, clear and firm. “We’re under the effect of something! Nobody say a single word until we return to the breaker! We’re family and friends here and we’re on a mission! Nobody forget that!”

Owen opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, not trusting his tongue to speak what he wanted. All he did was give a nod of approval at the Coronamon. Even though the pulses of rage were flowing through his body, he was trained and mature enough to not act on them and make things worse. Also Rory’s voice in that moment was very slightly intimidating, reminding him of a time long ago when being chewed out by senior ranks.

Rory gave a short smile back at Owen, but things were still tense. He agreed with Amper, there were bad vibes everywhere here. Also he noted that Vergil didn’t seem to be affected either. He wanted to know why that was.

“Mr. Owen, do you have an idea on what to do here?” Rory asked. Owen nodded again. “Okay, good. We have a plan to move forward. Let’s all just call a truce for now, alright? We don’t want to fail this mission.”

Thinking back to the smashed-in breaker, Rory now had a feeling he knew how it had been broken. With digimon becoming so angry in the light of these strange crystals, it was no surprise that it had been destroyed in a deliberate act of violence.

Hopefully everyone would settle down here and retreat for the moment. “We need to report this to Mr. Gogmamon too.” Rory added as an afterthought, but they should only do so once they had checked themselves before they wrecked themselves.

After that bullshit with the orange wave of assholiness, Omen felt something she found she didn't feel very often. Cold. Huh. Is this the mythical cold sweat humans postulate about? Mmm. It didn't really matter. Omen was flat out tuning out Luneth...For the most part. He...really just...went and proved Omen's point. Him and his brother alike.

Wow.

Did she even dignify that with a response? No, not really. Good soldiers follow orders, after all. So said the memories she inherited. There was not even a hint of fear at Luneth's pointless bluster, nor towards Gem readying a mistake an attack. The fact that Omen didn't even seem to show any visible reaction -to- that should have sounded warning bells.

Anger was natural to her. This was someone who called Mocha one of her best friends, after all. But she was not taking them at all seriously. She followed along towards the breaker room (with the broken breaker), keeping an eye on her cousin as they moved along. "Hm. That'll definitely take out a part of things." Snap snap, went the camera.

At Luneth's -apology, though?- She didn't face him. Merely glanced. "...I have a mission. My forgiveness is secondary to that. We have to put our focus on the mission ahead. Per Rory."

She paused. Took a breath.

"So, my current theory is that the workers were likely under the effects of what came over us. Especially if they were here for long durations of time. Rory's helmet might have something in it that counteracts the orange stuff..."

...Her memory. Yes, the poster! "And...If you'll recall that poster from earlier...It indicated something similar. The sun and moon. One cannot be present where the other is. The moon pointed towards the sun, so that must mean that the moon ultimately surpasses the sun. Apply such logic here, and the sun will be repelled by the moonlight...In this case, Rory's helmet. However...The material in the helm might be doing something opposite to the orange material in that where the orange sun incites rage, the blue moon pacifies."

Owen was still feeling pretty bad about the outburst he made at Rory, he wished he hadn’t said it. Rory meanwhile took it in his stride. He had after all tested Owen’s patience in the past just like that, foolishly spending a night on the town before being expected to start early on a job the next day. While he had been let off with a warning at the time, only now did he know how truly annoyed his captain was in that moment. And he spoke the truth when he said he’d never do it again.

When they arrived back at what they hoped was a safe zone, the effects of that strange light faded and Owen’s aggression was replaced with his normal feelings, weighed down with remorse.

“I really am sorry for going off at you like that, Rory…” he began, but the Coronamon reached out and patted his shoulder.

“It’s fine, Mr. Owen, I know you weren’t yourself there.” he answered. They listened to Arlo and Omen’s theories about what happened, Arlo suggesting that the orange crystals were the reason the mine shut down, and Omen raising the issue of the poster they had seen earlier, showing a sun and moon.

“Ohh, right, so this helmet was stopping its effects on me.” Rory said, taking it off and looking at it more closely. “So the blue light acted like the moon on that poster, while the orange crystals must have been what the sun represented. And you’re right, Omen, I felt right and ready to go until I put the helmet on, then I was slowly starting to get tired.”

Vergil then volunteered to report to Gogmamon. Owen agreed and held on to Amper, noticing his grandson seemed to be utterly exhausted from his discharge earlier. The Gaomon’s remorse increased as he realized that in coming down here, he had exposed his own grandchildren to danger, and he had been unable to protect them. "I'm so sorry..." he thought, gently petting the Pulsemon's fur.

Gogmamon meanwhile listened to Vergil’s report. “I see.” their contractor said in a serious, disappointed voice. “That is indeed a hazard that accounts for this mine being shut down. I am not familiar with the substance in question, do you have pictures of it?”

“Arlo, you took pictures, right?” Rory asked the Angoramon. Gogmamon accessed the photos from his communicator.

”Hmm. It does look familiar, but I don’t believe I’ve seen crystals like that in a mine before.” Gogmamon said. ”Very well. If you cannot safely continue, we may have to leave it at that. I don’t want you risking yourselves to go forward. I may have to arrange a geological survey to find a way around this substance to get to the digizoid, but that would take months...”

"Hrm... I kinda wish I knew where my dad was, as a miner for the DWR, he might know what it is..." Owen thought out loud as he kept an eye on Amper. Then he was struck by another idea. "Oh, I know! I happen to have a friend who did scientific research for them, he might know."

With that, still holding Amper gently in one arm, he took his D-MR from his pocket and held it up towards the wall, turning to the others to explain. "I'm opening a portal now to his lab in Ys. Hopefully he'll be there, and won't mind us kinda... intruding like this, eheh..."

Soon after, the portal became stable and clear, revealing a sinisterly lit room, a dark shape in the middle of it, glowing with blue sparks of energy, mechanical whirs showing signs of life, and a multi-toned voice boomed dramatically.

"For thousands of years I lay dormant... Who has disturbed my-"

Owen rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile. "Enough with the theatrics, Bixby, we're on business."

"Aww, when I detected you making portal contact I wanted to have this whole thing set up." the voice was much more casual now, and the lights in the room switched on, revealing a Gomamon riding some sort of walking machine. He spoke quickly as he moved the machine toward the portal. "Oh well. What's up, Owen? Ah, I see you have your granddaughter there, hey, Omen! And Vergil too! Oh, is that your grandson? Is he okay?"

“I think he’s fine, just exhausted himself. We have something of a problem in the mineshaft we’re tasked with exploring.” Owen began, putting his D-MR back in his pocket so he could hold Amper with both arms again, then turned to the others. “Everyone, this is Bixby, he’s familiar with DWR research projects.”

After introductions, Owen explained the situation with the strange glowing rocks. Thankfully Bixby was familiar with the subject right away.

“Sun digicite.” the Gomamon declared, a more serious expression on his face. “Good thing you contacted me, I’m familiar with it. Some in the DWR tried to use it as a means to make soldiers more aggressive, it was a very bad idea.”

“Well, do you know what can be done about it, without us going mad?” Owen asked, as Bixby looked deep in thought.

“I might… if you had a sample of Sun and Moon digicite on you…” Bixby answered hesitantly. Rory’s eyes lit up.

“I have a sample here.” he said, holding up his jacket. The digicite was bundled inside so it wouldn’t emit any light. “Do I just… get it through the portal here?”

“Yeah, that’s great.” Bixby said, and Rory handed over the sample. “What about moon digicite?”

“What’s that?” Rory asked, not having seen any around.

“It’s a glowing rock like the Sun digicite, only it glows blue instead of orange.” Bixby explained.

“Ah, so that must be the light source in your helmet.” Owen deduced. Supposing he was right, Rory handed his helmet through the portal too. “What can you do with these samples, Bixby? And why was it affecting us like that?”

“Well, sun and moon digicite act a lot like mood lighting on your data.” Bixby said as he made preparations in his lab through the portal. “A small sample, like the moon digicite in this helmet, or the sun digicite you just gave me, isn’t enough to seriously affect you, well right away anyway, but a corridor full of raw veins of it would drive you mad pretty quickly. However, it’s enough to cancel each other out when in close contact.”

“Right… so the miners who worked here used moon digicite helmets so they could be unaffected by the sun digicite.” Rory deduced. “Still, it was difficult, it made me tired pretty quickly.”

“That’s a side effect of it, yeah.” Bixby said. Before long he was joined in the lab by another person that Owen recognized. A large human with brown skin and a kind face entered the lab, wearing a coat over his clothes.

“Hey, Nik.” Owen said to him. Nik waved back. “Nik’s a friend too, his partner Brad and I go way back.” he explained to the others. He then turned back to Bixby. “So, what’s the plan?”

“With Nik’s help, I’m gonna create a device that’ll protect you all from the effects of the sun digicite.” Bixby said. “Using the samples you gave me, we can make a counter-effect that’ll cancel out the aggression effect in your data. And furthermore without the drowsiness effect of the moon digicite. Nik’s a human so he won’t be affected by the digicite, and he’s pretty effective as my assistant.”

“That’s great!” Owen said, cheerfully. “And how long will you take?”

“Give us a few minutes.” Bixby replied. “I just need to find my notes about it in the archive… ugh, sun digicite. How I loathe the stuff.”

“Well then, it seems you have the situation under control.” Gogmamon said through Vergil’s communicator, having quietly listened to the entire exchange. “Once the counter-device is completed, do you feel like you can continue?”

Owen turned first to Amper, who he was still carrying, and then to the others, hoping that they would be alright.

Omen had more or less managed to tune out most of the bad stuff after delivering her explanation, more or less focusing on the report and it's intricacies. Her theory was, of course, pretty damn sound. Photographic memory-based evidence helped a lot. "Hi, Bixby--it's good to see you." The Wispmon managed a smile at that.

She hadn't spoken much to the Gomamon, but she did enjoy hearing about innovations from the past and the present from him on occasion. "Interesting...though, if the Moon digicite was what they had on hand to deal with the effects of the sun, then...what drove them out? Or rather, what broke the breaker? I think that they're the only Digicite of that nature we'll be dealing with, unless we find Star Digicite or something--that's the only one I can think of that'd be around these two if it even exists."

This wasn't an invitation to confirm that.

"Needless to say, Gogmamon, I am my mother's daughter to the end, and if my mother would never forsake a mission, then neither would I. The question is if you're okay with continuing to allow it to proceed."

Owen was glad that Vergil was able to tell Arlo that now was not the time to discuss what happened. It had been a moment of madness in the mineshaft ahead, and dwelling upon what was said would not be helpful for any of them.

Rory meanwhile chuckled at his big brother’s comment. “Yep, seems my helmet inhibited my usual tendency to act embarrassingly.” he said. The Coronamon in that moment was a little worried about what he might have done if it wasn’t for the accidental protection of the Moon Digicite helmet. Well, thankfully he hadn’t acted out, so there was no reason to dwell upon it.

Gogmamon meanwhile was grateful for the visual images of what they had experienced. “Excellent, if it turns out we have to avoid this substance in future, we now know what to look for.” he remarked.

When Owen mentioned Bixby, Luneth said that it was the first time he had mentioned him in his presence. “Well, he’s eccentric, and… kind of a last resort in most situations, but, I think this situation in particular calls for him.” Owen explained to the Hackmon.

The Gaomon noticed that Arlo had seemed to be able to resist the effect of the Sun Digicite rather well, when he admitted that he had felt its effects but had not acted out on them like he had. Owen thought that was admirable, and a skill to take note of.

Arlo then asked if there was any other type of digicite that they should be aware of. Bixby considered his response.

“Well, there’s the Sun and Moon Digicite, so far that I’ve explained…” the Gomamon said, holding his paw to his chin as he tried to remember all he could about it. “Oh, and there’s Black Digicite, I’m sure by now you’re familiar with that, they’re the substance behind Control Spires and they inhibit evolution and bind digimon to their protection, but we’ve been pretty successful in destroying the few left remaining in the digital world…” he wavered off, seemingly wanting to say something further, but held himself back.

“Could you please continue, Bixby?” Owen asked, gently.

“...there’s Clarion digicite.” the Gomamon said, eventually. “It’s refined Sun digicite without all the aggressive madness. It enhances combat abilities, while retaining control. Although that’s completely artificial, and green in color. I very much doubt you’ll find any down there. In the DWR Civil War, according to my records, all of its use was accounted for in the strongest soldiers, who all destroyed each other in the end.”

“Yeah, sounds about right.” Owen said, shaking his head with shame about how he was involved in all that. But that was the past. Now was the present, and he had to take care of everyone here.

Bixby then addressed Omen’s question about how if they had Moon Digicite as a means to counteract the Sun Digicite, why did they abandon this mine. “That’s a great question, Omen, I’ll be right back while I find the file on that.” he said, retreating from the view of the portal for a few minutes before returning. “Ah, yes, here’s a report. I’ll just quote the key findings…”

Bixby then read from the paper he held up in his flippers. Rory found it remarkable that the Gomamon was able to walk around his laboratory in his mechanical frame with almost the same functionality as a human. At the same time, he understood why he had made such an apparatus, it must be so frustrating for some digimon to try and use their claws as fingers and their lower bodies as legs. But it seemed Bixby had it worked out.

“Short term interactions between Sun and Moon Digicite…” Bixby read from the archive report. “Minor irritability and fatigue noted, but nothing dangerous particularly notable. Interactions have been declared safe for operations. Long-term interactions… oh dear, 80% of mine workers operating in such conditions develop excessive aggression issues after 6 months. This was a particular problem for the DWR in its Digizoid mining operations.”

“How come?” Rory asked, curious about the reason.

“Most digizoid ore deposits had Sun Digicite nearby.” Bixby explained, closing the file. “Hasn’t really been a reason why, but a hypothesis I’ve come up with is that digizoid ore deposits occur where there’s been major battles between Mega level digimon, who usually have the usual digizoid armor and weapons, and the Sun Digicite occurs from the sites of their battles and all that. Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make these devices for you.”

Bixby then resumed his work in the lab with Nik.

Owen was glad to see that Luneth, Gem and Omen were eager to continue with the mission as asked by Gogmamon, but Vergil raised a very good point. Amper was still knocked out by his discharge of energy from earlier, and Vergil correctly noted that Owen would not want to continue so hastily. But still, the Gaomon didn’t want to abandon the mission altogether right now, especially when Gogmamon said that the alternative would be a several month delay. So instead, Owen chose for a time-out option.

“Let’s just take a rest for half an hour, while we wait for Bixby and Nik to finish their devices.” he suggested. He then looked down at Amper, then remembered a moment earlier in their acquaintance in which he had tuckered himself out by using up too much of his electric powers, and seemed alright after a basic remedy. “Ah, wait! Bixby! Do you have any Powerade or Gatorade there? Amper could do with some.”

“Powergatorwhat?” Bixby asked, blinking. Thankfully his human assistant knew what was going on.

“Yeah, we’ve got some of that, Owen. I’ll grab a bottle from the fridge.” Nik said, finishing his current stage of the experiment in the lab, then retreated from the room for a moment, before returning with a bottle of blue liquid. Nik tossed it through the portal and Owen caught it, thanking him.

“Here we go, mate, this should get you back up and running.” Owen said to his grandson, gently putting the electrolyte-filled drink in his mouth. Hopefully this would get him back in action soon enough.

For the moment, it seemed that they could do little else but wait. Owen noticed that Rory was pacing a little impatiently, but he couldn’t blame him. And that much of their group didn’t seem to be going well. The Gaomon felt the need to check up on them.

“Well, since we’re having a break for the moment, I should ask you all, how are you feeling?” he asked, caring much about what they had to say.

Bixby, to Omen, was very far from a mad scientist. She kinda thought those were lame--and a very hurtful label to throw onto people who were pretty eccentric in their own right. Regardless, much of what she posited was proven to be accurate to a degree. Which was neat! Maybe she should study this minerology stuff more in-depth when she could.

"Operating at 90% efficiency. So. A rest would probably work great. Honestly, there hasn't been much proper fighting at all--more in-fighting than anything thanks to the Sun Digicite. Given what Bixby said about Clarion, makes me wonder a few things about an acquaintance of mine..." But that didn't really matter. Omen accepted her lunch when she was offered it. She didn't really need seconds. Or have much else to say.

"Our job right now is seeing the extent of these conditions. Whether or not the mine can be operated is ultimately up to Gogmamon's discretion--though with the extent of the Digicite present...Prognosis is grim."

Well. Outside of that.