"Ryo!" Hopmon jumped up excitedly.

Ryo knelt down next to him, grinning. "You okay, Hopmon? Didn't get into any trouble while I was gone?"

"I was going to go looking for data so I could go find you, but Pokomon said I should stay in one place to wait for you."

"Right, that's how it works, isn't it?" Ryo said, more to himself than Hopmon, and frowned. Turning to the little yellow fox, he smiled and said, "Thanks for keeping him out of trouble, Pokomon."

"It was my pleasure," she said, always polite.

"Really, I owe you one," Ryo told her. "So… how about I pay you back by getting you guys back to your Tamers?"

"Yay!" Calumon and Gigimon agreed.

"Cyberdramon should be able to carry all of you, but it might be better to make two trips…"

"If you lead the way, I shall follow you on my noble steed," Kapuriman said and hopped on top of Kenta's partner, his blue and white-striped tail wrapped around the mega's neck like a feather boa.

"Sure?" Ryo asked, and Marineangemon nodded cheerfully. "That leaves… Calumon, Gigimon, Gummymon, Pokomon, Yaamon… Chocomon?"

"I need to stay until the Sovereign have safely recovered," the little brown in-training said seriously. "It's my duty as the last of the Devas."

"Well, I should be back way before then, so just let me know and I'll take you up by yourself when you're ready to go," Ryo told her. "Carrying five in-trainings isn't a problem, right Hopmon?"

The little purple-and-yellow Digimon tried to nod, but tipped over backwards. Ryo caught and steadied him, and he digivolved into Monodramon. "Yes, Ryo," he said, embarrassed.

"I'll ride on your back," Ryo said. "I can probably fit Gigimon, Gummymon and Yaamon in my bag, so if you hold Calumon and Pokomon? They have hands and feet, so they can hold on to you, too."

Monodramon nodded. "I'll be careful not to forget they're there."

"I want to see Rika again, but is this such a good idea? It hasn't even been an hour since we were fighting the D-Reaper," Pokomon said.

"Cyberdramon's strong," Ryo assured her. "It's not that hard to get to the human world and back."

"No, what I mean is…" Pokomon drew on her reserves of tact. "People tend to lose their tempers more easily when they haven't had enough sleep. I believe you said that Cyberdramon reacts to the presence of strong opponents?"

Ryo paled a little. "That's a good point. Monodramon. Can you promise me that if we take off from here instead of getting dropped off somewhere, you won't attack Azulongmon?"

"He caught you when you fell."

"And he's helped you and the others too, it looks like. Can you promise me, Monodramon?" Ryo asked, looking into his partner's eyes. "Please?"

"I, I don't want to. Right now. He's too weak now, almost an ordinary mega. Someone this weak could never be a threat to you." Monodramon looked down at the cloud. "I'll try and make sure I remember when I'm Cyberdramon."

"Alright, I'll believe in you." Ryo stood up. Reaching into his card pouch he drew out a card. "Digi-modify! Ma-Wait, no wrong card." He stared at the image of a red and blue Digimon wrapped in green digicode. "When did I even get this one? Normally one of the others just turns into a blue card temporarily. Huh, I wonder if this was the first blue card I found and that's how this ended up in my deck, but… Now I'm getting déjà vu. Maybe I need a nap." Shaking his head, he put the card back in his pouch. "Let's try this one…" He tilted it, and the light that reflected off of it was blue, with a gleaming Digimon symbol. "Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution activate!"


"Watch out!" Ryo yelled to warn anyone on the other side of the portal as the light enveloped them, but it was still a good thing that Cyberdramon went back to Monodramon as they tumbled through into the real world, sending the two Digimon in his arms flying.

When they all landed on the ground in the shed, Calumon jumped off the top of the pile and ran outside. "Hey, Jeri!" She caught him when he leaped into her arms and he laughed, delighted to see her again. "You're smiling!"

"I'm so happy to see you again!"

Most of the others ran to follow him, except Yaamon, who peered around the edge of the doorway.

And Hopmon.

"…Ow."

"Ow," Ryo agreed once he caught his breath, wincing as he pushed himself up off the ground. That horn had hit him in the stomach. "Are you okay, partner?"

"I don't feel so good…"

Ryo winced, leaning down and brushing some of the dirt off. "Let's get you something to eat before you go back down to Ketomon."

"Maybe I should be Ketomon. I'm nicer then."

"You need to be able to protect yourself. We're going back to the Digital World, and with it like that, a lot of Digimon are going to want to get the power of a Tamer for themselves. If you're a baby, they'll download you for breakfast… breakfast," Ryo said longingly.

"Will there be fried chicken?" Hopmon wondered hopefully.

"Probably not for breakfast, but there's got to be something, right? Come on," Ryo said, scooping him up.

"Takatomon…" Gigimon looked up at his tamer. "You got big. Did you evolve?"

The brown-haired goggle boy laughed. "No, Guil-Gigimon. I thought you understood about humans by now."

"Maybe?" Gigimon wondered, ears drooping. "My head is tiny."

"Well, you're in a younger evolution, so maybe… You were really mature when you were WarGrowlmon." Takato bent down and picked him up. "Hey, I bet you could ride around on my head like this! Like Patamon."

"Sheesh, Henry," Gummymon was scolding his Tamer from Henry's shoulder. "Now I've got something in my eye too."

"Lopmon? Where's Lopmon?" Suzy looked around. "Lopmon!" she called, running into the shed, almost bowling over Ryo.

Looking down at the small fox kit in her arms sternly, Rika said. "You are way, way too cute. Come on, Pokomon, you need to eat and rest up ASAP. You're just way too cute, I'll never hear the end of it if Mom sees you before you're Renamon again!"

"Of course, Rika," Pokomon said, folding her short legs under herself serenely.

"Seriously, you need to get down from there," Kazu told Kaprimon. "I must look like I'm wearing a coonskin cap."

"A higher vantage point will allow me to spot danger."

"Come on, this is the human world, and the D-Reaper's gone, right? You don't have to worry about rampaging Digimon trying to eat you because you're a Tamer's partner and they want to get to the human world…" Kazu blanched. "…good thing you got back here fast."

Kenta looked at his partner. "I wonder why you're still a mega."

MarineAngemon shrugged.

"Yeah, he didn't turn back to a rookie when he got into the Ark, even though Cyberdramon did," Kazu agreed. "We've all got little baby Digimon, and you've still got a mega? You suck, Kenta." Kazu poked him in the arm to let him know it was a joke.

"Hey, you're the one who got the knight in shining armor."

"Yeah, Andromon was going all over the Digital World protecting the innocent, just like Ryo!" Kazu said proudly. "Yeah, who needs a mega when I've got a hero for a partner. Right, Kapurimon?"

"Right!"

"They're here?" Dr. Wong said, mystified. "But they shouldn't be able to be here. It should be almost impossible for them to survive, that was why we needed to incorporate code to send all the Digimon back to the Digital World, and strengthen the barrier until it was safe for them to return."

"It appears the effect is weaker than we thought," Yamaki said. "Or maybe the will of the children is stronger. Good."

"Good?"

"If it worked, someone would have wanted to use it. Maybe combine it with Juggernaut. Try to seal the barrier between the worlds 'for good.' Make it impossible for digital life to survive in the real world, so we would be 'safe.' The last thing I want is to end up the first in a long line of fools," Yamaki said.

"Sheesh, will you let that go already?" Riley asked him.

"You had a point, Riley. I've learned from my mistake, but I need to find some way to keep anyone else from following in my footsteps and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Possibly literally," since most of those looked like fairly unevolved forms.

"You didn't try to stop him because this was the outcome you wanted?"

"Hypnos knows how to work the media, although that's more Riley's field than mine."

"Thank you sir," Riley said, although it sounded anything but genuine.

"Before, it was 'we're safe now that the Digimon are gone.' Now take a look at the adorable heroes who saved the world."

Suzy screamed. "Where's Lopmon!"

She ran up to her father. "I hate you, Daddy, I hate you!"

Dr. Wong froze, but thankfully Henry ran over to grab her before she did too much damage.

"Wait, no!" Ryo followed Henry. "Your partner's fine, Suzy. She's just staying in the Digital World until the Sovereign don't need her anymore. I promised I'd help get her to you as soon as she's done, okay?"

"But I want Lopmon! Daddy sent Lopmon away!"

"Hey, hey!" Gummymon said. "What am I, chopped liver?"

"I love you, Terriermon, but you're not Lopmon. I. Want. Lopmon!"

"Ahem," Pokomon said with tiny dignity, seated in Rika's arms. "Sovereign Zhu… Sovereign Chicchimon? If you are watching this. When Lopmon was stripped of her title and power as a Deva and sent into exile, did that not free her from her duties as a Deva? I believe sending her here would be sufficient repayment for any debt you might owe us. Or in your generosity, perhaps you might give young Suzy a boon, in recognition of her efforts to avenge the fallen Digimon upon one of their creators."

Suzy blinked at her. "What does all that mean?"

"It means that you might get Lopmon back sooner because you punched Henry's dad," Gummymon told her. "Maybe you should hit him again, just to be sure."

Henry bopped him, but gently because he was weakened. He had to hurry and grab Suzy again with that hand, since she renewed her efforts to break free of his grip. "Gummymon!"

"He installed a program into me without asking and then I might have gone splat! In the Digital World, where there's no food! I saved the world, I should have least have gotten a huge celebratory feast out of it, right?"

"They're shouting…" Hopmon said, turning into Ryo's side.

"Right." Ryo nodded. "Give me five minutes, Suzy. Can't exactly complain about being a taxi service for you guys when one of the Sovereign's doing the same thing…"


Yep, that's dragon god-emperors plural in the summary. Sometimes it's hard to think of chapter titles, but this one prettymuch sprung to mind.

Or maybe I should have made it Crazy Taxies: Cyberdramon's a death seeker but Ryo's got severe enough PTSD his mind completely NOPEd out of reality in self-defense. It's a harmless crazy, though, rather like early series Jeri minus hand puppet she brings with her into class and plus berserk dragon chaperone. Like most veterans, he's more dangerous to himself than to innocent people.

Tamers!Zhuqaiomon dislikes humanity for, among other things, making his species obligate cannibals because they thought it would be cool. Reading the short story about the creation of Tamers timeline's Digimon-equivalent is just... Seriously, non-Shibumi Monster Makers. Did none of you consider the possibility that what you were doing might actually work, or how inflicting this on actual people would go way over the Moral Event Horizon?