Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Out of Body, Out of Mind

Chapter 2: The Monster among Me!

"Pepper Breath!"

A massive fire ball ripped through a metal grate, obliterating its bars. Shortly thereafter a large, stubby, orange colored body with a large head leapt through the opening and splashed into the water filled sewer, rodents squeaking and snarling as they were sent scattering by the sudden and unexpected disturbance in their abode. Casting his green eyes about him Takato, now in his Agumon body winced at the number of smells that assaulted his senses, sending his nasal passages screaming in agony over the horrid, decayed stench that filled them. Doing his best to cover his nose with his claws to keep out the smells of the sewers Takato, breathing as carefully and as limitedly as possible took a step forwards, sloshing around in the cold water. As he moved his body began shivering from the temperature decrease that crawled up his legs.

Great. This is not good. I couldn't find Henry, Rika, or any of the others…not that that was made easy by the fact that I didn't know what they smell like, or that I had an army of secret agent types chasing after me…but now I've also got to worry about catching hypothermia or some disease while I'm down here. Ooohg…man, I really don't want to know what that smell is.

I guess this would be a bad time to wonder if, seeing as how I'm stuck in a reptile's body, I happen to be cold blooded. If so, that's not a good thing to have in a place like this. If I remember Ms. Asagi's class right my metabolism can slow down and I might fall asleep down here before I get the chance to get out of here and figure all of this out! And I can't afford that! Not if I want to rescue the others!

Uh…assuming that is, that the others are in the same situation that I am as well. But then again, given the luck that we usually have I'm probably right.

On the other hand, given my luck…

Takato let the thought drift off and began to push his legs, much smaller then he was used to but significantly stronger than before, forwards through the slime encrusted muck. Turning his head as he scanned the area for an exit Takato quickly found that his eyesight was much better then what he had as a human. A nice surprise to be sure, though given some of the things that he saw in this subterranean garbage dump Takato felt that he would probably have been better off blind as a bat (using the metaphorical definition of the saying). At least then he would only have to worry about the smells making him gag, though whether he was human or digimon, enhanced smell of the latter notwithstanding, he would rather not have to smell at all.

Unless that is I'm smelling good things…like my mom's food.

Deciding that it was best to simply bear it and grin, Takato trudged onwards, working a little bit more speed into his pace as he did so.

I wonder how this happened anyhow, thought Takato. I mean, I wasn't exactly doing anything digimon related at Rika's party outside of my D-Arc and having all of our digimon friends in the same place as us. Okay, there was the Parasimon invasion from earlier, not to mention a crazy Locomon and a digital zone but all of the Parasimon were destroyed when Guilmon and I transformed into our Crimson Mode and Locomon returned to the digital world, closing up the digital zone behind him when he left. Well, maybe there was still something residual left from all of that.

Takato scowled, his orange, scaly eyebrows furrowing over his green eyes and he groaned in frustration as his curiosity remained unanswered.

At this point I don't think I can rule out being abducted by aliens.

Shaking his head, Takato turned his attention on the here and now as his experience as a Tamer, not to mention Rika's nagging voice from the many times she had gotten on his case for not acting as a Tamer should in a serious situation, reminded him of his priorities. Get away from immediate danger, find a safe place to hold up and recover, and then figure out what was going on.

Funny how sensible Rika sounds, even when she's putting me down, chuckled Takato as he continued to jog along. Takato then blinked his emerald eyes as he realized that the tunnels around him were starting to become brighter. A signal to him that he was nearing an exit.

Terriermon would probably say something like 'don't go into the light' but in this case I think I'll chance it. Whatever's waiting for me, if it's an exit, I'm pretty sure that it's better than where I had been before.

Takato broke into a run then, forcing air into his lungs at a rapid pace to keep up with his body's demands against the sewer water that continued to slow him down like a lover that did not want to part with him. Straining every muscle in his unfamiliar body, so very like the digimon of old that he had admired for so long, Takato strove for the light. In response, the light grew brighter, reaching out and pushing aside the darkness with wide, open arms of light, welcoming Takato with its embrace.

Red lights flashed throughout the room as the two women in blue and white uniforms, one with long dark hair and the other with short, curly blonde making them appear as polar opposites of each other, typed furiously on their control panels. Behind them their actions were supplemented by two, strange, armored figures with a short spear and a small shield strapped to their backs. These two figures likewise completed the appearance of polar opposites for the two women, though their physical similarities and their dedication to their work in the same manner as the women, hinted at a long companionship that went beyond whatever differences they might have with each other.

"Commander," spoke up one of the women over the claxon sound of the room's alert status. "The area has been completely sealed off. All sectors have been alerted. The sector security has sealed off the sky area."

A tall, powerfully built man wearing a long, blue and white colored trench coat and dark, pointed shades took in the report without a word. On his shoulder however, a long, thin, ferret appearing creature spoke up.

"The target is a renegade. We must catch him before he gets out. Don't you agree Samson?"

The man turned his head slightly to analyze the images portrayed on the main view screens.

"Hmmm…" he began. "Where is he now?"

"Trying to escape through area B-7," replied one of the women at the controls.

"Send Yoshino," ordered the trench coat wearing man named Samson. "Only a high level DATS agent can capture a digimon."

Ahhh… Takato breathed the fresh air as he splashed water over his reptilian face, grateful to be out of the sewers and to have found this nearby dock. Following his 'break out' from that strange military complex Takato had gone to great lengths to find a place where he could wash all the garbage and stink off of him. The smell, he knew from the experience of having to go through back alleys and similar such places just to get his partner Guilmon when he bio-emerged into the real world was bad enough for a human, but in his present form it was positively burning his nostrils, not to mention making him want to vomit. Not exactly the best thing to have happen, and the smell only served to draw attention to himself.

Well, more so then I already do, thought Takato to himself as a pair of what looked to be high school students, from their uniforms, passed him by, giving him odd looks as they did so. Fortunately neither of them screamed or made a scene, but they did increase their pace. He was tempted to call out to them in the hopes that one, if not both would take pity on him and offer him some help, and if failing that at least offer some measure of human acknowledgement that didn't come in the form of high pitched screams. However, it was the possibility of them acting in such a fearful manner that prevented the former Goggle-wearing Tamer from calling to them, and in the end they moved on without incident. Giving a sigh Takato looked back into the water and looked himself over.

He realized that he was different from the standard Agumon, something that he hadn't noticed when he was in that strange building (not really having the time to take in his appearance all that well before being interrupted). He was larger, much larger for starters, not to mention that the next obvious difference was the red training bracers strapped to his three fingered claws. His nostrils were also different from the Agumon that he had grown up watching on the digimon TV show, being simply holes in the front of his muzzle as opposed to the more pronounced ones that the original had.

All in all, he was decidedly a very different mon.

This just gets weirder and weirder, thought Takato as he stuck his tongue out at his own reflection and was rewarded when it did the same back to him. Takato sighed. He didn't know what else he had been expecting by doing that. It wasn't as though his image was going to disappear, or that it was showing him something that wasn't true. All he had to do was look down at himself and see his body for what it was.

Feel kind of weird without any clothes, thought Takato. But not as weird as I did when I breathed flame out of my mouth. I'm kinda surprised that didn't even hurt. It is fire. Then again, Guilmon breathes it all the time and the original Agumon didn't seem to have any trouble either…

Oh yeah. That's right. He was a TV show…

Takato frowned at his body.

We've got to do something about this. I know that digimon don't have any problems walking around without any clothes on but I'm still a human being at heart. Now where can I get some clothes?

A glance around revealed nothing but an old man standing on a nearby bridge with a fishing line cast into the ocean. The man was staring at him with curiosity sparkling distinctly in his gray colored eyes. Takato held the old man's gaze for a few moments before he felt something…click. He didn't quite know what it was that he felt, or how he could describe it, but the closest that he could get was a kind of impression that something had struck him without necessarily making physical contact with him. Rather, it was more like something was trying to get his attention.

And whatever it was, Takato felt his heart rate go up as the familiar feel of adrenaline flooded his body, tuning all of his senses to the max. It didn't take Takato long to figure out that this was the 'digimon sense' that Guilmon and the other Tamer partners got whenever a digimon had bio-emerged or detected danger in the area. Something was out there, and from what he felt in his heart, someone also needed his help.

The gray haired man with the fishing pole watched the strange, orange colored dinosaur run off. Yet he wasn't frightened to see the creature. Surprised would have been a better word for it though not because the creature was at all not natural to the world that he had grown up in. No. It was something else. Something about the creature, or more accurately its presence here in the real world that had been unexpected.

So…another one has come through has he? Thought the old man before a tug on his line caught his attention.

Whatever's going on…I have to get there, thought Takato as he pounded his feet on the ground, vaulting over benches, racing through the sidewalks and frightening bystanders, unmindful of the 'low profile' that he knew the importance of having to maintain, …FAST!

Pow! Thud!

The sound of bodies hitting the ground, mingling with screams of pain and shrill sirens shrieking upon the air only drove Takato to push his body even harder, ignoring the dull aches and weariness that he felt from his escape. He felt that deep down, someone was in need of his help and he had to be there to offer it as soon as possible! Leaping up one more time Takato jumped over a guard rail and landed on a smooth, wooden floor. Breathing heavily Takato quickly too stock of the situation just as a human body wearing black clothing crashed to the ground with a groan.

"Wha…?" Stammered Takato before looking up. The sounds of knuckles cracking filled the air, and Takato's green eyes came to greet a pair of gold colored irises that burned with a fire and held a competitive streak that he had seen before in only two people, one of whom was a fire haired Tom boy, and another being a visor wearing kid with an ego and supreme confidence in his skills, both of whom would be ready to charge the gates of the most powerful enemies no matter what the odds. But this person, this teenager (as that was how he appeared to Takato unless his eyes were deceiving him), was neither of those people. He had long, brown hair that bordered on red and had a section of it tied back into a pony tail. He wore a red, unbuttoned t-shirt over a plain white t-shirt and blue jeans. Once more he cracked his knuckles and looked around him, a smug grin on his face as he surveyed his defeated opponents.

"Well they didn't put up much of a fight," said the teen and Takato's mouth gaped in surprise.

Why is he fighting people anyway? Takato wondered, and as though he had spoken the words out loud, the teen looked over in his direction, the appearance of satisfaction from battle evaporating as he sighted on a new target. The boy's body tensed up and his hands, now held on either sides of his waist, balled up into fists.

"Huh. You're a weird looking guy. I don't know who you are, but you're standing in the middle of my turf."

Takato tilted his head to one side. "Uh…what?"

"This is my training ground," the boy continued. "One day I'm going to be a champion ultimate fighter! Fans all over will chant my name! They'll say 'Marcus Damon is the best!'"

"Huh?" Takato blinked in surprise. Oookaaay…what's going on here? This guy kind of reminds me of someone I know…

"That's…nice…" Takato said cautiously. "Uh…sorry that I'm standing on your…turf, but last I checked this place looked like a public area to me."

"It's only public until someone makes their claim to it, and I've made my claim," shouted Marcus Damon, proudly raising his fists into the air, one of them swiveling around to indicate the piles of battered and unconscious people that lay on the ground around them. "Which was something that these guys didn't quite understand when they showed up here looking for trouble! So I decided to teach 'em a lesson!"

"Yeah, well, it looks like your lessons going to stick, though I can't imagine them being too happy about it," replied Takato sarcastically, scratching the side of his head with one of his claws.

"Not that it's going to matter," said Marcus, slamming one fist home into the palm of his hand. "So, are you looking for trouble too, pal? Because I'll be more than happy to oblige."

Takato chuckled nervously. "C'mon. Looking for trouble? Me? I don't go looking for trouble, nah-ah. Although trouble always seems to find me now that I think about it…"

"Sounds like you have it tough. Which is too bad, because if you don't clear out right now, things are about to get even tougher for ya."

Takato glowered at the teenager, feeling a tad bit irritated at being threatened in such a fashion when he hadn't even done anything to deserve it.

"Hey, take it easy. I just came here because I thought someone was in trouble…"

"So you came here to help out these losers, huh? Well I guess that means I'm going to have to take you out!"

"HEY YOU!" Called out a female voice all of a sudden, and Takato turned his head in the direction of its speaker. Up at the top of a stair landing Takato saw a human female with short, dark brown hair, looking to be around the age of the street fighter in front of him, wearing what looked to be a purple uniform and white, high heeled boots. "STOP RIGHT THERE! YOU CAN'T FIGHT THAT CREATURE! HE'S TOO DANGEROUS!"

"CREATURE?!" Takato exclaimed in surprise. "I'M NOT A CREATURE! I'M…oh, wait." Takato felt a light bulb turn on his head as he remembered his current situation. "Yeah, I guess you could say that I'm a creature. That makes this a little difficult. I wonder if I can scare this guy off or something…"

"Huh?" Marcus looked incredulously at the young woman on the stairs. "Look toots. I'm the dangerous fighter here. And I don't need a babysitter to hold my hand." Marcus then turned towards Takato. "And yeah, you look weird enough to be a visitor from another planet! What did you think you were anyway? And don't think that just because you have a lot of fangs and big claws that you're going to scare me off or anything 'cause Marcus Damon never runs from a fight!"

"But I don't want to fight…"

"Then you'd best start running pal," said Marcus as he raised his fists and grinned viciously. " 'Cause ready or not, here I come!"

Letting loose a ferocious battle cry, the Ultimate Street Fighter known as Marcus Damon raced towards Takato, one fist drawn back as he prepared to deliver an earth shaking blow on the hapless, former goggle wearing dinosaur.

For the second time that day a familiar thought ran through Takato's mind.

Aw…nuts…

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