Digimon Tamers 2: The Rise of Zero
Chapter 3
Renamon waited. She could sense the digimon had stopped in the extraction vent in front of them.
'Maybe it can sense us too...' It made sense, she realised, for it to be able to sense them. Especially considering it had known when to exit and re-enter the vents to have a better chance of escaping.
She spread her arms out in front of Rika and Henry who were stood beside her and took a few paces back, forcing the two humans to do the same. The others saw her action and did the same without comment.
'Come on out you little pest...'
He was frantically trying to find a new escape route. Up was a trap and he couldn't get back into the horizontal tunnels he previously left. The only other option was...down? He cast his eyes downwards, becoming slightly dizzy with the height he was at.
The metal tunnel continued down quite a way, until he saw something different. Where the vertical tunnel ended, it curved away from the horizontal openings. That meant one thing to him, the tunnel continued in a different direction.
Seeing a new chance at escape he began to descend, only to stop as soon as he started. If he climbed down, the others would sense him and cut him off again. He couldn't climb fast enough. He cast his eyes down again as a new plan formed in his mind. He didn't like it, but he had no other choice.
He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. In one smooth motion he curled his tail around himself, flattened his ears to his head and pushed off of the slats he was holding on to.
Renamon's ears twitched. She felt the digimon moving, but going down rather than up. Going down, fast. She notified the others before they took off down the stairs. She cursed under her breath. There was no other way for her to descend fast enough without moving too far away. She had to use the stairs.
He felt air rush past him as gravity took control of him. He felt his back press against the opposite side of the tunnel as he fell, causing him to rotate. Exactly what he hoped for. He sensed the others, but he was moving too fast for them to catch him now. He was almost free.
He reached the curve in the tunnel and his speed caused him to angle his trajectory to match the curve, now heading horizontal. He felt himself hit something hard, and then he was out. But as quickly as he left the tunnel, he slammed into something else. Something brittle that shattered on impact with the sound of metallic rain. He endured a few lesser impacts before one final, larger collision and coming to a rolling stop.
He quickly got to his feet as he felt the others closing in on him, searching for a new place to hide. A slightly raised circular plate in the floor caught his attention and he quickly lifted it before scurrying inside the hole it covered, allowing the plate to fall back in place.
Takato and the others emerged from the office building and rounded the corner towards the ventilation intakes. He noticed that the vent cover of the intake the digimon was in had been knocked off by a sizeable impact, and a smashed window in the shop opposite. Looking through the broken window, he saw signs of something that had flown through the window, knocked a few things over that were on display to customers and barrelled through a side door opposite the window.
Quickly deciding that the digimon had caused this, Takato set off around the shop to hopefully locate the digimon that had plowed through.
It was Renamon that noticed the faint wisp of a data trail that snaked from the window to the opened door of the shop, and her that noticed the same trail disappear underneath a sewer access cover. There was no way that even she could track anything down there. Too many overpowering smells could easily mask any trace of the digimon. However, she couldn't pinpoint the significance of that data trail. After all she could only see it if she phased out, and neither of the other two digimon of their group had the ability to phase out at all.
"Looks like it's escaped. We will never track it down there now." Henry sighed, after Renamon had explained what she had seen. "We better call Yamaki and see if he can find a way of tracking it. Until then I guess we should go home."
"I don't want to abandon the search, but it looks like we have no choice." Takato also sighed.
"Momentai, we will find it next time." Terriermon offered, trying to lighten the mood.
They all eventually agreed that there was nothing more to do, except decide who got the short straw of telling Yamaki they failed to stop the digimon.
He immediately regretted coming down here. The smell was unbearable. But at least he was safer now. He still ran, but he wasn't being chased this time. He just wanted out of this foul smelling place.
He spotted another circular cover above him after a few minutes of running and shoved his small weight against it, the pain in his side flaring briefly. The plate lifted just enough for him to squeeze out before it slammed closed again. He was greeted with fresh air, and a new reason to run.
He was out in the open, not something he wanted right now. So he bolted towards the nearest cover he could find. He also spotted what looked to be an easy way to scale one of these large structures that surrounded him, so he instinctively made his way towards it and up the side of the structure.
Upon reaching the top he noticed the absence of noise and foul smells. Here was as good a place as any to hide and rest. He crawled under a strange metal box that was producing a low, relaxing humming noise that lulled him. He laid himself down as the last of his strength left him, his eye lids becoming heavy.
They were half way home when Renamon stopped, her ears and nose twitching. That scent was back. She phased out and saw the now familiar data trail, greater in strength, leading from another sewer access cover to an external fire escape of a ten story building.
She quickly informed the others who raced to the stairs while she took a faster, more direct approach. Compressing her powerful legs she sprang herself up onto a balcony above her, before jumping again to a second one above that. She scaled the building in seconds, landing on the flat roof with a soft thud. She quickly scanned the area for the data trail and saw it end underneath an air conditioning control unit, with a soft blue glow.
He sensed the arrival of another and panic once again gripped him. He didn't have the strength to move anymore. They were going to find him and there was nothing he could do.
Renamon moved closer to the unit. Poking out from underneath she noticed the white tip of a tail leading to a dark silhouette, framed by the blue glow. She saw the fear in the digimon's composure. The tail twitched nervously, the shadow of the main body quivered and trembled, and the frantic breathing patterns betrayed exhaustion and outright panic. Seeing it from the digimon's perspective, she realised that she must not be helping it's fear.
She tried to speak softly and in a non-threatening way, but her choice of words didn't help.
"I know you are here."
He didn't move. Even if he had the energy, he couldn't. Paralysed by fear, he could barely keep himself from screaming out. The tone of her voice, he could tell it was female, seemed soft enough but the words were far from friendly.
Renamon saw that her choice of words wasn't exactly helpful. The shadow still quivered madly and it whipped it's tail round itself in a final act of security. Deciding that this digimon wasn't a threat and was simply terrified, she tried a different approach.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm simply here to help." She spoke in the same smooth voice she used before and watched as the digimon's quivering lessened slightly. "My name is Renamon."
A quiet, halting voice emanated from the shadow, fearful and strained from exhaustion.
"Re...na...mon?"
The voice was unmistakably male and very young. He must be an In-training level, which would explain the fear and desire to run away. She responded with much more care now, he didn't need any more reasons to feel fear.
"Yes, I'm here to help you. You don't need to be afraid anymore. You don't need to run anymore."
The name alone was enough to dispel his fear of her but her next words gave him a reason to trust her, to believe her. His weakened state couldn't last much longer, he needed help.
"Help...me...please...Help..."
Renamon instantly knelt down next to the unit he was under and watched as a small form desperately pulled itself towards her. She gasped under her breath at the sight of the digimon, and gasped again when she saw his state. A patch of his left side was glowing blue, flecks of fur dissolving from the edge as he slowly destabilised in front of her. A trail of data slowly extracted itself from the wound and she knew he didn't have long left, if she didn't get him help soon.
He collapsed in front of her, loosing the last of his strength just from moving. She picked him up in her arms just as the others arrived on the roof behind her. They all saw her holding something as Rika called out.
"Hey Renamon! Um, what is that you are holding?"
Renamon slowly turned, revealing the small form in her arms.
Everyone gasped. In Renamon's arms, was a black coloured Viximon.