Butter-Fly Effect

The first time you went to the Digital world, you came upon a busy city full of Digimon, the likes of which you haven't seen anywhere else. It was your welcome to their world, and the sort of place that you'd like to see more of one day. Maki Himekawa's crowning achievement.

Aside from the Black Gears, File Island was a safe place. And there are no more Black Gears, Izzy took care of that pretty conclusively. A nice cloud of data, to send you off when you were told to go to Server.

You aren't entirely sure why you were told that, still. Sure, Piedmon showed up there, but you don''t think that's the sort of thing that would be well known.

Maybe Homeostasis just wanted their castle back.

It's not like you can just ask. Even ignoring the inherent difficulty with contacting a force of nature, you have more important things to do.

Like opening this portal. Your Digivice shines, as do the ones your friends are holding, and space itself seems to ripple around you. And still you keep thinking about the Digital World, and File City, and how important that it is that you be part of that world, where nothing has to make sense but for the symbols marked on random walls, and which can affect things in any world so long as they were marked in that one.

Haruka's apartment vanishes.

---

You remember this fountain. It's where, a long time ago, or maybe just a week, you sat down and washed off a strange object that you found at summer camp, an object which turned out to be the Crest of Light.

Not that you knew what it was, then. You only recently discovered how it got to the Analog World. But you think that says something, about how far all of you have come. How much you've learned since then.

Aside from you, your fellow DigiDestined, and the Digimon you've brought with you, the streets are emptier than you remember them being. Matt nudges your shoulder.

"So, that wasn't like that before, right?" You follow his gaze up into the sky, which seems to be... not entirely there. Like there's nothing in the Digital World besides this place.

You're in the middle of town, though, so maybe it'd be different if you went someplace else.

"Well, at least we know we're in the Digital World," Kazuya comments. "You don't really get that sort of thing anywhere else."

Haruka adjusts her glasses. "So, this sort of thing's close to normal?"

"Somewhat. You know, for someone who keeps saying your eyes aren't that bad..."

"Is now really the time for this?" DemiDevimon asks. "We need to figure out what's going on! Where even are we!?"

"This is File City," Kari replies. "We stayed here for a while the first time that we came here."
"I'm home."
The bat Digimon glances around at the various buildings and shrugs. "Yeah, okay, makes sense."

"So, could you improve the storage space on the cooler now?" Kazuya turns to Haruka. "I don't trust the Digimon with it."

"You really shouldn't," She agrees, pulling out her dark brown marker. "You know they cleaned out my fridge?"

Rikuto groans. "You don't even keep anything in the fridge."

"Yeah, and half the stuff that actually was there wasn't edible. It's still gone." This is going to be a long adventure...

"So, what do we do next?" Tai sits down next to the fountain. "We have to figure out what's going on right now, we have to fix the keychain thing, we need to try and find a way to fight the Dark Masters, figure out where the Sovereigns are... there's a lot we have to do, and we might not have enough time for it all."

"The city itself seems to be safe for now," Daigo points out. "We can probably get more things done here than we would anywhere else." Of course it's safe here. The last time you checked, they had two Mega Digimon.

Matt nods. "Then we should all do whatever we think is most important, and meet back here later." None of you can think of a reason to object to that, so people begin splitting off, and you begin thinking on what you consider to be most important.



[ ] You need to figure out what's going on in the Digital World right now. You can probably ask around about that.
-[ ] In this general area.
-[ ] Around the meat farm.
-[ ] At the Colosseum.

[ ] You want to stick around to observe how the others solve the keychain thing, just in case something happens and you have to do it yourself later.

[ ] You should ask around about the Sovereigns, and if anyone knows where they are.
-[ ] At the mayor's office.
-[ ] At the Green Gym.

When people describe momentous occasions in programming, you're pretty sure they don't imagine two kids and a teenager sitting around a fountain with a bird, a ladybug, three keychains, and two computers, even if one of them emits a blinding light from all of the runes inscribed on its surfaces.

Then again, most people don't know that this world exists, let alone the responsibilities that you, Izzy, and Haruka bear as DigiDestined, or the powers that Biyomon and Tentomon can wield under the right circumstances, so you suppose it all evens out.

Haruka's laptop, a gleaming silver even without external modifications, is open on the ground. Izzy, having handled such mundane concepts as 'conceptual waterproofing' a long time ago, sets his originally-yellow machine on the fountain itself.

You don't have anything particular to do. You're just here as an observer, so you can hopefully gather enough pieces that, if necessary, you'd have the framework to recreate whatever program they're using.

You're not the best at programming around, but you're all just kids, so a little improvisation is entirely expected.

You still hope you won't need it. You aren't sure how long your group would survive if Izzy and Haruka were both missing or keychains.

If you're lucky, their laptops would be left behind and not destroyed by Piedmon, but you aren't sure you're that lucky.

Haruka, for one, seems to be taking this as seriously as ever. "Okay, this will be our first real test of the Antidote Program. The goal is to restore these three keychains to their former states. Sora, take notes."

"Using what?" An empty notebook is pulled from a laptop carrying case and thrown at you, followed by a green gel pen. They really do prepare for everything, don't they...? "So, um... what am I supposed to write down?"

"Whatever I say." Okay, that's simple enough. "The Antidote Program gets its name from MagnaAngemon's Magna Antidote power, which has the ability to reverse magically-induced transformations just as easily as any illness. We got assistance from one the last time we needed to solve the problem of our partners turning into keychains, but just sitting around and hoping Patamon Digivolves to the right thing is... not exactly productive."

You think she's just asking you to write all this down so she can look back at a record of her achievements later, particularly when Izzy seems to be waiting for her to get to the point. Whatever. It's good practice.

"Of course, it's a lot harder to replicate the effects of the move technologically when we don't actually have copies of their code from before they became keychains, but if we had that, we'd be able to clone them outright, so... it's probably for the best, really. But that meant we had to make a program to do it for us."

"It wasn't exactly simple," Izzy adds. "Magic effects are hard to pin down at the best of times, let alone when we're working in the Analog World, on things also located in the Analog World, and so can't properly analyze the changed code."
"Please don't stroke her ego, she does enough of that herself."
Haruka glares at the keychains for a moment. You don't really understand why, but trying to figure out the mind of a mad scientist has always been an exercise in futility, for you at least. Izzy might have better luck with that, but you don't want to ask him. You think the answer might scare you.

Eventually, though, she continues. "Fortunately, the Digimon Analyzer program that we created works perfectly fine on keychain Digimon, and while Tai's partner Agumon has differences in his Digivolution line, we were able to use him as a baseline to isolate what is most likely to be the keychain program in its entirety."

Izzy rolls his eyes. "By that, she means any unusual similarities in data between Agumon and Tapirmon that weren't related to DNA Digivolution or being Rookies. Or partnered. The last of which we had to use Tentomon to isolate ahead of time, because there's very few things that three vastly different Rookie species would share. We considered asking Gatomon for a better comparison, but Kari was busy that day."

Haruka adjusts her glasses and tries not to look too annoyed at the constant interruptions. "Anyway, once we figured out the code that seemed to correspond to the effects of the spell, we simply had to write a program that isolated that code and rendered it nonfunctional. By doing it like this, instead of outright removing it, we should ideally be able to prevent such a transformation from occurring again. As we haven't had actual opportunities to test it before now, we don't actually know if it works, but I'm feeling confident. We just have to run it and see how it goes. ...You can stop copying down whatever I say now."

That's good. You've covered more paper than you expected to, and the program hasn't even been run yet.

Still, you think you understand what's going on, even if the specifics of how to do it still elude you.
(Sora's Digicode Programming skill has increased!)

"So, we're ready to run the program. Sort of."

"...Miss Yamaguchi? Is something wrong?"

"Just... realizing that we have two computers, and three keychains. And I'm not sure what order to do this in..." Haruka glances at the keychains, which remain stubbornly silent. "So, any suggestions?"


[ ] They should change back Maki first. She's Haruka's friend, right?
-[ ] Just Maki, the Digimon can come later.
-[ ] Along with Tapirmon, that way both reunions get out of the way sooner.

[ ] They should change back the Digimon first, if only because working on a human is bound to be more difficult, and have worse consequences for failure.
-[ ] One at a time, just in case.
-[ ] No reason they can't do both at once, right?

"...Maybe start with the Digimon?" You suggest. "I mean, they're data normally, so maybe it'd be easier to work on them?" Also, if something goes wrong, the Digimon are the ones who could come back, but you know better than to mention that part.

"That does sound about right..." Haruka agrees. "Of course, it'd be even easier if we had access to Maki's Digivice, but... we can go without it."

"If we're going based on how difficult it would be, I would recommend we start with the Agumon," Izzy notes. "After all, we all know what one of those looks like normally, but I've never actually met a Tapirmon before."

"That's a new species to me, too," You admit. "...Actually, the only Digimon I've met from any of your partners' lines is Leomon, and they aren't exactly rare."

"Just unlucky," Biyomon finishes. You glance at her. "What? That's what everyone says!"

Haruka smiles, just a little. "Well, that would explain a few things... Though, that's not so important now. Izzy, could you separate the Agumon keychain from the rest? If this works, he's about to get a lot bigger."

It's not all that elaborate, what happens. Haruka just types a few things and presses the enter key. You might not recognize half the symbols, but it's still less impressive than you'd expect, for something as important as this.

Not that Haruka has ever cared how visually impressive a process is, so long as there are results. And the end result of this seemingly-simple action is an ordinary Agumon sitting in the middle of File City.

Said dinosaur blinks, tries to stand up... and falls to the ground snoring.

You glance at Haruka. "Is that... supposed to happen?"

"No, but it really isn't that surprising. I figured they'd either be really tense coming out of it... or they'd just crash. In energy, not computer terms. I guess it's the second option."
"After seven centuries of no sleep, can you really blame us?"
"For this one, at least," Tentomon states. "After all, there are two keychains left, aren't there?"

"In this case, I'm hoping that it's the same for all of them... some conversations just really don't need to happen on five hours of sleep and half a can of soda."

You blink. "...You know, this is why the rest of us are worried about you."

"It's fine. Just don't ask me to do anything more complicated than calculus for a little while unless it's a computer thing. Maybe not even then. Once we find someplace to stay, I'll rest there." You honestly have no idea how Haruka continues to function from day to day, and honestly, so long as it works, you don't think you need to know.

"I-I think I'll take your word for it." This is a problem for somebody else. "So, the other keychains?" You change the subject, hoping for a distraction away from... whatever that is.

"Okay, right. Tapirmon next, then. I'm pretty sure the program will work regardless, but... no reason not to be safe." It's just a repeat of what happened before. Nothing but the rushing of the fountain, the clacking of computer keys, and then another snoozing Digimon.

"...I just realized a problem with this," Haruka sighs. "Depending on how long they're unconscious for, we might have to try moving them. And I'm not entirely sure how many of the people we know can lift the Digimon, let alone Maki. I should probably have thought about this before we started turning them back... or, at least, after the Agumon."

"You know, this is probably going to get really confusing," Tentomon comments. "We've got our friend Agumon, and then we have this Agumon... if any more show up, we'll have far too many Agumon."

Izzy groans. "Tentomon... that's not important right now." It probably will be, but you think that you can all figure that out later. "Right now, we have to figure out how to not have a human and two Digimon asleep in the town square."


[ ] You could get one of the others for help with this.
-[ ] Daigo.
-[ ] Rikuto.
-[ ] Kazuya.

[ ] Your Champion Digimon are more than enough to carry someone, you think. Maybe.

[ ] You could leave Maki as a keychain for the moment and get help with her Digimon from passersby.

[ ] Why not just let them sleep?

[ ] Maybe you could try to wake them up, and hope they have enough energy to go someplace else?