Brave New Digital World
Prologue
"It's not over."
"What do you mean, it's not over? You were there, Janyu, we ended it rather permanently three years ago."
"We ended the D-Reaper, that is true. What I meant to say is that it's not over for the kids."
Yamaki sat down in his chair, rubbing his temples.
"Alright, I know that I'm not going to like this, but tell me anyway."
Janyu set his laptop on the desk, turning the screen so Yamaki could view the screen. The screen showed a rotating body with a wire frame overlay.
"This is a scan of Henry I did three and a half years ago, just before the kids' first trek into the Digital Plane."
As he spoke, Janyu pressed a key on the laptop, bringing up a new window, also showing a rotating wire frame. Underneath was a second picture of Henry, but this picture was heavily pixilated in many spots. In some spots, he was almost see-thru.
"This is a scan I did last week. I checked all the other kids, same results. I don't know if it was BioMerging, simply being in the Digital Plane, or something else, but all the Tamers we've had contact with are slowly losing their grip on the physical plane."
Yamaki slowly took off his trademark sunglasses, letting out a slow, long breath.
"Does this have anything to do with Jeri being hospitalized last week?"
Janyu nodded.
"I also did some looking in on that. Aside from the physical scans, I did a data scan, and got some interesting results."
Hitting a few more keys on the laptop, bringing up a new window, showing a static image of Terriormon next to a data graph. Beside that window, a window with a static image of Henry popped up, also with a data graph.
Yamaki took a good look at the screen.
"Their data is almost exactly the same."
Janyu nodded again.
"Almost is right. The data match between every Tamer and their partner Digimon is 85%. To put it in genetic terms, the kids are fraternal twins with their digimon."
Yamaki stared at the screen for a moment.
"Very interesting, but what does this have to do with Jeri in the hospital?"
Janyu went back to tapping at the keyboard. A window with Jeri's picture and a data graph popped up. This graph was different from the past two, where all their data had been held in tight, consistent clusters, Jeri's data was fragmenting around the edges.
"As far as I can tell, Jeri's digital data, originally supplied and fortified from Leomon, is starting to degrade without her partner to provide the balancing data."
Yamaki turned his attention back to Janyu.
"What do you mean, 'balancing data'?"
Janyu sat back in his chair.
"Shibumi and I came up with a theory, based on the data, that the Tamers are picking up digital data from their Digimon, and the Digimon are picking up physical data from their Tamers. Over time, the Tamer gains more Digimon traits, and the Digimon gains more human traits."
Yamaki didn't like where this was going.
"So, what does this mean for the kids down the road?"
"That, is the million yen question."
-Shinjuku Academy-
"Hey, Rika!"
Rika turned to see Henry running toward her.
"Henry? What's wrong?"
"Do you have a moment to talk somewhere private?"
"Yeah, what's going on?"
"I'll tell you in a minute, just not here."
"Alright, lead the way."
A moment later, the pair entered an empty classroom.
"Okay Henry, what's this all about?"
Henry turned to face the redhead.
"Before I tell you, I have a question. Have you noticed anything strange about yourself lately? Something randomly out of place and you don't have any explanation for it?"
"You mean aside from being stronger than anyone else in my class?"
Henry nodded.
"Yeah, that started three years ago when we first met our partners, I'm talking more recent."
Rika paused for a moment at the question.
"Well, mom did ask me if I had lost a lot of weight recently."
"You're mom was asking about your weight?"
"She's a model, it's something she notices. And before you ask, I have, about fifteen pounds since the start of the semester."
Henry appeared to be lost in thought for a moment.
"You haven't been having any weird dreams recently, have you? Where it feels like your back in the Digital Plane, but you don't really have any control over where you go or what you do."
Rika looked a little shocked.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"Do you remember a few weeks ago when my dad took scans of everyone?"
Getting a nod from Rika, Henry continued.
"Dad found something in his scans, it …"
Before Henry could continue, he was interrupted by a ringing cell phone. Instinctively, both Henry and Rika started digging in pockets for their respective phones. Finding his ringing, Henry began lifting the device to his ear when something odd happened. Halfway to his ear, Henry's hand seemed to blur, becoming almost see through. As it did, Henry's phone slipped through his hand, like it wasn't there.
"Henry? HENRY!"
As the phone hit the floor, Henry sank to his knees, hand still blurred, passing through the floor where it struck. Henry's eyes rolled back before he fell completely to the floor. Rika moved to her fellow Tamer's side, trying to get any response at all out of the boy. Getting none, Rika turned to the still-ringing cell phone. The display read "Dad". Lacking any other option for help, Rika answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Rika? This is Janyu Wong, Henry's father. Is he near the phone right now?"
Rika turned back to Henry, who was still unresponsive, but his hand seemed a little more solid.
"Uh, he's not exactly in any position to answer right now."
Janyu's answer came quickly.
"Where are you at the school?"
"Third floor, Classroom 3-D."
"Stay right there, help will be there shortly."
Shutting down the phone, Rika couldn't help but wonder.
Will they get here in time?
-Somewhere on the Digital Plane-
Renamon watched, helplessly, as Terriormon continued to thrash against the wall.
"Henry… gotta… get to… Henry."
The rabbit-like Digimon had been growing steadily worse over the last few days, but he had gone absolutely delirious in the last hour. Renamon had done the best she could to protect the few of her friends she had been able to locate, but even her strength was beginning to fail.
"Will Terriormon be okay?"
Renamon turned to the red drake beside her. She didn't have an answer.
A/N: This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while, I just never bothered putting it to paper (or keyboard) until now. The basic idea for this is that being a Digimon Tamer is not a one way street, that the Digimon influences the Tamer just as much as the Tamer does the Digimon. As for what happens next, review enough and you'll find out!
your ever burning author,
S.P.