Disclaimer: I don't own Digmon.

Revival

Chapter: 2/ The Ultimate Fighter

A silver furred fox stood atop a sand dune, peering through a pair of binoculars. A wide, amazed smile on his face as his tail flicked back and forth.

I never get tired of this thing, he thought to himself, blinking his eyes. My eyesight was always pretty good before, but this…! Yamaki was right to lend me some equipment. This is helping my reconnaissance tremendously!

Feeling a little bit embarrassed, he put down his binoculars and scratched the back of his head. His hand bumped into the long, bladed spear that he had tied to his back, and he frowned at it. Memories emerged but he dismissed them and replaced the binoculars in the knapsack at his side. Pulling out a data pad in its place, the fox began typing out a message.

Surface Area of the digital world remains clear of digital anomalies. Presently no sign of digimon or any surface life. Proceeding to Surface Area Sector 8-12.

Hitting the send button, the kitsune digimon waited to make sure that the message was properly received before pocketing it and taking off at a brisk pace. As he ran, his eyes tracked the number of pink, energy beams that swept the desert. They were data streams. Mobile points where information could be transferred from one place to another as a result of human computers interacting with the digital world. They were largely confined to the barren surface layer of the digital world, and if someone was caught by them they would be transported randomly to another layer. It was practically impossible to figure out where one was going until they got there.

No one that is, except him.

His claws swept through the air in a series of sharp, swift gestures, drawing light blue lines of energy. His ears tugged at the back of his skull as a data stream began to lurch towards him. He watched it as it drew closer, analyzing it before changing his direction to intercede with its course. The beam caught him a second later, and his vision of the world blurred, becoming obscured by the bright pink light before reforming. More desert landscape surrounded him, with only a few trees littering the landscape here and there. It was more cavernous and rocky compared to the more dune-covered sector that he had been in previously.

More stable ground, thought the kitsune approvingly. The data pad beeped at him and he looked at it. Oh. A message from Yamaki.

Understood Urocyomon. Will rescan that area. Be on your guard. Scans indicate an unusual amount of activity in Surface Area Sector 8-12.

Urocyomon nodded to himself and typed in an affirmative before running through the data pad's map system that was directly uplinked to Hypnos.

Hmmm…According to this, the trouble seems to be south by southwest as the Crowmon flies…er…I think. Great. Good thing Kuzuhamon isn't here. She'd tease me about how I can't use units of measurement without screwing them up.

Pocketing the device, Urocyomon scanned the skyline, finding the sun and checking it against what he knew about human directions. He paused for a moment. Sun. That was something new to the digital world, at least in the Southern Quadrant.

My teacher Gyōjamon always told me that there was a sun visible in the Eastern Quadrant. I wonder why that for so many years it's only starting to get around to showing itself now. The digital world has…become odd since I came back. But at least the Sand Liches are gone. That's one nightmare I could do without around here.

Urocyomon scratched one ear thoughtfully as he continued to look up. A second later he blinked and covered his eyes, staggering backwards a bit.

"Whoa…that's right. Don't look up directly at the sun like that. Jeesh… Thank you Calumon for letting me know about that."

Blinking the spots out of his digital eyes, Urocyomon took another moment to check his position and then ran off in the direction of the sector he was investigating. He was a bit far off to be able to see it, but that was how he wanted it. The further off he was, the more time he would have to prepare for any unpleasant surprises. Although the monstrous Sand Liches, undead leftovers from the D-Reaper's rampage, were long gone, the digital world was full of many dangers. At the Rookie level and without a human partner to digivolve him, he would need every advantage he could get if he needed to fight or just plain run.

And with my strength level, running is by far the best idea I can come up with. Gyōjamon may have given me his spear before he died, but that doesn't mean I know how to use it. His thoughts paused on his long-gone teacher before refocusing on the terrain around him. Can't let myself get distracted, he thought as he soared over a particularly deep chasm. All it takes is one false move and…boom. Digital dust and then Yamaki is left wondering what happened to his scout.

As if to confirm his thoughts he found himself falling just short of the cliff that was his intended landing target. His eyes widened in shock and with only a split second to consider his options he reached over his shoulder and unloosened the harness that tied his spear to his back. Whipping it free he stabbed its blade directly into the hard rock, the razor sharp edge imbedding itself with ease and bringing him to a sudden halt.

"Gah!" Urocyomon let out a weak cry as his arm protested against his sudden stop. Small bits of sparkling data flew from his mouth as he rested for a moment. Bit my tongue…

"Well…that confirms it," he mused, staring down at the very far bottom below him. "Kuzuhamon always said I'd come to a bad end if I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. Guess I'll have to pay attention to her the next time I visit her…and…leave out this unfortunate incident as well." Shaking his head ruefully, Urocyomon pulled himself up and flipped onto his spear, balancing on it precariously before leaping onto the cliff, whereupon after making sure he was secure, retrieved his spear and retied it to his back. After checking his bag to make sure he hadn't dropped anything he scanned his surroundings.

"Still a lot of rock around here. Nothing but rock…sand…and wind." As though in response, a gust of wind blew across his body, playing with his silver fur. "See?" he said to no one in particular. Running a paw over his head, he began walking. "This is so dull… Yamaki said that there was something going on in the surface area of the digital world, but I haven't seen squat! I've gone through at least eight sub-quadrants and even more sectors than I have claws. I thought I'd at least see a Kuwagamon, or maybe Jijimon and Babamon having one of their infamous rows. Ugh. I ought to remind myself why I thought scouting for the humans would be a good idea."

Tapping his chin, Urocyomon thought back to his life before he met the Tamers at the temple governed by the Seer Council and peopled by the vast multitude of Renamon. The fur around the base of his tail began to poof out in response.

"That's right," he scowled while trying to smooth out his fur. "Moving on."

Urocyomon's ears perked as they caught wind of a noise. Furrowing his brow he again scanned his surroundings, listening carefully. Had I…? Yes. He had heard something. It sounded like a yelp, and it was quickly followed up by a series of what was decidedly complaining. It was difficult to hear, but given his own experiences he was comfortable enough to lay down a bet that someone was complaining about something. He wondered if that was the source of activity that Yamaki had mentioned.

Probably not. He said an 'unusual amount of activity'. Digimon fighting doesn't really count unless they're Ultimate and above. Still…could be worth a look. Besides, they might know something.

The idea that whoever he heard could end up turning on him crossed his mind, but as there was nothing gained by never venturing, Urocyomon took off, leaping across the pitted landscape until he finally came across the source of the noise. There appeared to be something of a fight going on. An Ogremon amidst a group of Goblimon to be more precise. One Goblimon was down on the ground in front of two figures standing in front of a group of Yokomon protectively. One of the duo was clearly an Agumon, and the Ogremon was swinging its club through the air, getting ready to attack…

Urocyomon drew to a halt as his eyes widened in shock.

No way… Is that…? Pulling out his binoculars, Urocyomon peered through them to make sure. At this range, his eyesight was excellent enough to tell individual digimon species, but he had to double check to make sure that it wasn't a trick of the sun. Urocyomon swallowed anxiously as he looked through them, glanced away, and then double-checked. It is. I don't believe it. This should be impossible but…here it is. Urocyomon looked up again from his binoculars, his gold colored eyes shining brightly in the sun.

There's a human down there.

Reddish-brown hair blew in front of the human's face as he cracked his knuckles. A grin born of the utmost confidence rose on his face as his yellow eyes met those of the Ogremon standing before him.

"Sorry," he said to the Ogremon, "but I can't let you just have your way with these defenseless Yokomon over there." The young man indicated the diminutive, pink digimon behind him with a toss of his thumb over his shoulder. "Is that anyway to act anyway? Strong guys shouldn't pick on anyone weaker than themselves. What's the point?"

"Well Boss," said the rather large Agumon by his side. His wrists were adorned with red bracers. "I guess that must mean that he's weaker than the Yokomon. Why else would he be trying to pick a fight with them?"

"Back off!" roared one of the Goblimon, swinging its club menacingly at the human and Agumon. "This here is our turf and these shrimps barged in on it! We can't let them go thinking they can just walk anywhere and not pay for it!"

"Yeah?" asked the human, smirking at the group. "Is that so? Then I guess I can't let you go thinking you can trash whoever you feel like, because when Marcus Damon is policing the digital world, the law is the law. No one gets hurt on my watch unless you're fighting me!"

The Ogremon narrowed his eyes and began to chuckle.

"Really. Care to put your fists where your mouth is?"

"Don't mind if I do! Bring it on!"

With a roar, the Ogremon charged towards Marcus Damon, swinging his bone club in a wide arc before bringing it slamming down. Marcus didn't at all bat an eye at its approach, instead bringing up his fist to block it. Orange flame-like energy wrapped itself around his fist as Ogremon's cudgel slammed into it. The flame flared briefly before the cudgel broke in two. Ogremon stared on in shock and amazement as the broken shards of his weapon fell upon the rocky ground.

"W-Wha…?" he began as Marcus looked over at the Agumon next to him.

"You ready, Agumon?"

"Yeah!"

Whipping out a rectangular object, Marcus brought his hand against its back, allowing the orange flame energy to engulf it. His triumphant smile grew as he shouted the words that sealed the Ogremon's fate.

"DNA…Charge!"

A sphere of energy materialized around Agumon and increased in size. From within the sphere, Agumon warped and changed as energy ran the length of his body. The orange of his scales deepened, and his body becoming more toned and muscular. His tail lengthened, becoming more pronounced, and a bony head crest tipped by one large horn sprouted upwards. The sphere shattered as he spoke the words that all digimon knew completed such transformations.

"Agumon! Digivolve tooo…GeoGreymon!"

Ogremon and Goblimon alike fell back as the newly evolved Champion towered over them. Still smirking beneath his greatly enlarged partner, Marcus Damon dropped into a fighting stance and bared his fists.

"It's fightin' time again!"

Holy Sovereign…

Those were the thoughts that passed through Urocyomon's dazed mind as he took in the fight scene that now erupted. The human, Marcus Damon unless his ears misheard what they picked up on, waded into the pile of virus digimon with the GeoGreymon, fighting against the Goblimon while the larger dinosaur manhandled the Ogremon. In spite of the odds arrayed against them, the battle was very much one-sided in their favor. The Goblimon barely represented a challenge as Marcus' body flared with bright orange energy with each and every blow he rained upon his opponents. The Ogremon, now bereft of his primary weapon, barely fared any better against the GeoGreymon as it tore into him, and it was clear that the reptile was holding back for fear of harming the Yokomon who were still in the vicinity.

Just what is going on here? Wondered Urocyomon, somewhat stunned by what he was seeing. A human in the digital world? Well…it's not like that's something unheard of, but I could have sworn that all Tamers had been accounted for…unless a new one has shown up recently. The silver furred kitsune tapped one claw on his chin as he observed the battle. Weird. He's handling those Goblimon pretty easily. Humans…are generally too weak to combat digimon with such effectiveness. Well…they can be on par with a Rookie in terms of power but…he's got some shiny flame action going on with his fist.

Urocyomon scowled. Realizing that he wasn't getting anything done by just standing there and observing, he reached into his knapsack and pulled out his data pad. A few taps on its surface and he fired off a message to Hypnos, apprising them of the situation.

I need to get a closer look at this…

A red headed woman pulled up her visor as the doors to the main Hypnos control room opened. She smiled as two familiar figures, a short haired, light brown haired woman, and a tall, blonde haired man with wire-rimmed glasses. As she watched, the man pushed up his glasses and nodded a greeting towards her…at least as much of a greeting as it could be with the scowl he had on his face.

"Hey Tally," she said as she started to lower the operation seats for her partner to get on. "Kuroda. Took your time coming back from lunch together, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you are insinuating, Riley," grumbled Kuroda as he went over to his post. Riley shot a look over at Tally, but she simply flashed her a grin.

"He's embarrassed," she whispered towards her fellow colleague.

"No I'm not," spoke up Kuroda, having heard her. Riley grinned. She knew that in spite of what he said, his actions were often quite the opposite. She still remembered the day that Tally broke the news to her, over Kuroda's protests no less, about their relationship. A simple promise of a cup of coffee after the mess that went down three years ago—the most exhausting one that Riley could remember since the incident with the D-Reaper—was what started it all. The story differed depending on who was doing the telling, but ultimately it ended the same way. Somehow, they both woke up in the same bed, completely naked after 'relaxing' (Kuroda's own word for it), and between the two only Tally had been perfectly happy with the situation.

It took him some time to…adjust, smirked Riley as Tally climbed into the seat behind her and fired up her systems. But at least they love each other. Each in their own way.

"So how was it?" she asked her friend as they rose back into the air, both of them typing rapidly on their controls. Tally giggled.

"He bought me dinner. He's also promised to get me a stuffed bear later."

"If it weren't for his personality I'd say that you two have an uncommonly normal relationship."

"Hey! His personality is fine!"

"Fine, fine. I'll leave you with that, but you've got to admit he's a little rough around the edges."

"You're hardly any better, you know," teased Tally. "Oh well. At least I'm no longer the third wheel in the group. Thank you lucky rabbit's foot! Hey, speaking of which, where's our Mr. Bossman?"

"He's having a meeting with the Chief of Cabinets and the Sponsors. He doesn't want to be disturbed unless the end of the world is approaching again."

"I wonder if we should be bothered by how easily we can joke about that."

"It's only happened three times…or was it four? I've lost count."

"I'll check the records after I get off duty," said Tally as she checked over the recent data entry logs. "Hmmm…we've got a new message from our little fox in the sky."

"Anything new?"

"Give me a second and I'll…um…wait. Hold on another second."

Riley raised an eyebrow at her friend, as did Kuroda from the pit below them.

"Two seconds now? What'd he run into?"

Tally didn't answer right away as she rescanned the message to make sure that she hadn't misinterpreted what she was reading. Finally she turned towards Riley, her lips pressed into one thin line.

That doesn't look good, thought Riley. "What's going on?"

"Well," said Tally finally, "it's not the end of the world, but we're going to have to call Yamaki anyway. He's going to want to hear about this."

"…And so," began Eiichi Nakazawa, Chief of Cabinets in the Japanese government from his image projected on the screen, "we formally recognize that the Tamers are a valuable asset to Hypnos and the Japanese government."

"It's about time," said a wire-thin man's image below Nakazawa. "We've been in debate about this debacle for years now. Now these…children can at last be held accountable."

"They're Japanese citizens," shot a woman next to his. "They could have been held accountable at any time. It was just that their services have been sufficient enough in protecting not just our country but the entire world that kept the government off their backs."

"Not to mention that Yamaki had tried to keep their identities secret…"

"Do I even need to remind you that you were against incorporating them into Hypnos operations? I seem to recall that you had other ideas about what should be done with them…"

"That's enough!" declared Nakazawa's voice, silencing the bickering two. "Now…Yamaki. I assume that you have everything set up to finish inducting our heroes into Hypnos?"

"Yes," the blonde haired head of Hypnos nodded. Finally, after all these years these fools have gotten some wisdom from my reports. Nakazawa at least is sensible, as is the woman, Juria Yoshikawa. She backed me during the rescue operation of Noriko Nakata even though she doesn't approve of digimon and their existence.

"There are however certain assurances that we require," said Juria Yoshikawa, as though his thoughts had caused her to speak up in response to them. Yamaki nodded and picked up the folder on his desk.

"Yes. I've read over your 'compromise'. Have all Tamers undergo psychiatric evaluations before major missions should they be required. In short, a government liaison unconnected with Hypnos who keeps an eye on them and sends back all vital information to make sure that they are 'well adjusted and behaved'."

"In short," replied Nakazawa curtly, "Yes. And this is not without justification Yamaki. Last I checked, your lead Tamer, Takato Matsuki, nearly caused a meltdown in the digital world. And then there is the infamous incident involving Jeri Katou. We have kept both incidents under wraps from the public, but all it takes is one public outburst to sway public opinion all the way towards the negative side."

"Please understand, Yamaki," said Juria. "We are on your side. These past three years the digimon issue has been at a critical neutral point, but it's tipping dangerously towards the side that feels that digimon should be wiped off the face of the Earth and the digital world destroyed in order to preserve our world. If the Tamers can be shown as being fully capable of living up to the creed that they're reported as having…"

"I'm well aware of this," interrupted Yamaki. "And I understand it. I won't interfere with it."

"Of course you won't," said the wire thin man with glasses. "More to the point, you can't. That is also a part of our requirements for allowing the Tamers to join Hypnos."

Yamaki's hand instinctively tightened around his lighter, but he said nothing in response to that. Not that he had a chance. The ringing of his cell phone caught his attention.

"Hang on," he said to the board members as he flicked open his cell phone. "I thought I ordered no interruptions."

"Sorry sir," said Riley on the other end. "But Urocyomon sent us a message that you need to see. He's discovered a human in the digital world."

Urocyomon whistled as he finished typing in another message to Hypnos, this one describing in detail what he was witnessing. In very short order the human and the GeoGreymon had completely and utterly defeated the Goblimon and Ogremon.

Just who is this guy? He wondered as he waited for Hypnos to send a return reply. They were taking an awfully long time… Could there be something wrong with the network? Perfect timing if that's the case…

It was at that moment that a massive shadow fell over Urocyomon, causing him to stiffen up and look up towards the sky.

Awww…nuts… he thought as the shadow suddenly grew around him.

A/N: One of the problems with this series is just how much of the canonical stuff I'm trying to keep merged together. As most of you noticed, Frontier took place before the events of Tamers despite season four occurring after in order to accommodate Lucemon's plot in 'Hazard's Sorrow' and 'Less than Human', with the X-Evolution movie occurring at the same time as 'Less than Human' and Data Squad obviously occurring afterwards as it was hinted that the Royal Knight infiltration of DATS was going on around that time. With some of the other series, such as Digimon Next being brought in, I've had to come up with something of a working timeline and put together how Yggdrasil works in the whole multiverse theory while keeping him/her/it a single entity. I kind of figure that Yggdrasil is similar to the D-Reaper in that it has multiple bodies that it can spread itself out through, enabling it to multitask easily and set up multiple groups of Royal Knights and other agencies. This is a bit problematic however in the case of Sleipmon, who was mentioned as being part of the Royal Knight group in Less than Human, making him separate from the bunch that appears in Data Squad, though I don't think it would be too much of a stretch of the imagination that, after the betrayal of the last batch, a new group was created. Still, it does bother me a little. But I digress. Now I've incorporated Data Squad, set a short while after the events of said series, but not before the five year epilogue. Whether or not we see any of the other main characters from that series remains to be seen as the story develops, but for now we have Marcus Damon and Agumon to join in on the fun. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and see you next time.

-Crazyeight

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