Disclaimer: This work is for purely entertainment purposes and is not for profit. I do not own Digimon or any characters previously seen in Digimon. If anyone who does own Digimon sees this I am more than willing to help with the next season. Enjoy.

Chapter Six: Decisions

Takato, Rika and Henry sat in Rika's room with their respective Digimon and a giant white dry erase board. They were debating on what to do about this new Tamer.

Takato took the red marker from Henry and tapped it on the white board "Rika, what's this guy's name?"

Rika sat silent for a moment. Her growing hatred for Adman Hows was coming into conflict with the promise she had made. Her integrity was fighting her basic instinct to kick ass.

Renamon solved her dilemma by saying, "Adman Hows. That's what he calls himself, though I don't know if it's his real name."

Takato scribbled the name onto the white board. Rika shot a look at Renamon.

The yellow fox exposed her wounded arm "They could have killed you, Rika. The deal is off."

Takato spun around "That guy did mention a deal. What did you agree to, Rika?" He was worried for her.

Rika admitted "Adman was the one who brought our Digimon back."

Henry cut in, "How? And why didn't you tell us?"

Rika stood up "I don't know how. He made me promise I wouldn't say anything. That was the price for bringing the Digimon back."

Takato scribbled down what Rika said onto the board and then tossed the pen back to Henry "So what else do we know?"

Renamon added in, "He's a Tamer. His Digimon is called Shadowmon, I think."

Henry scribbled Shadowmon under Adman's name.

Takato thought for a moment "He's stronger than most humans. How else could some guy take on two Digimon at once?"

Henry wrote down 'strong' before turning to the group in the room "What's this guy look like? Do we know how old he is?"

Takato started in "He wore black. In fact when the sword cut into his arm he actually bled black.

Henry looked at Takato confused before writing down 'wears black'.

Rika looked away, but added in, "He has sky blue eyes."

Both boys looked at her surprised. Rika normally didn't pay that much attention to details like that.

She saw their judgmental looks and became angry and defensive, "Hey I wasn't sure if I'd ever have to describe him to you guys! Or even the cops. He was so weird I tried to remember every little detail. Anyway he seems to be just a little bit older than us."

Henry scribbled down '14-17'.

Rika added in, "He's extremely well-funded. When I met him he sent a limo for me. He had a private jet, but it blew up at the airport."

Henry added, "I heard something about that in the news. So this guy is loaded."

Takato laughed, "Great. A 14 to 17 year old millionaire with a strong love of black named Adman Hows. This shouldn't be too hard. Even if some of our facts are wrong we should be able to find out who this guy is."

Rika scoffed, "We shouldn't try and find him."

Everyone in the room whipped their heads in her directions.

Renamon approached her Tamer "Rika, why?"

Rika thought for a moment "Because he said he'd leave us alone. He's kept his word on everything up to this point. Besides we promised not to even talk about him. Trying to find him goes against the deal."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Then Takato spoke in his understanding voice, "You're right Rika. You and the others shouldn't look for him. You made a promise. It would be wrong of me to ask you to break it, but I didn't agree to anything. He hurt Guilmon. I can't risk him coming back and catching us off guard again. So I'm going to look for him. The rest of you can try and forget about this."

Henry knew Takato was slightly foolhardy so he tried to be the voice of reason, "Let's slow down for just a second. Why aren't we just calling the cops on this matter? He threatened and attacked you guys. I'd say that's grounds for an arrest."

Rika objected vehemently, "He's a Tamer. He's one of us. If he does become a problem then we should be the ones to bring him down."

Takato nodded "I somewhat agree with you Rika, but there is a problem there. We've never fought a human before; at least not to this level. What are you actually suggesting? That we kill him? I can't do that."

Rika put her foot down "I don't intend to kill him, but me and Renamon will stomp him into dust if he crosses our path again. That's my plan. We don't look for him, but we sure give him what he deserves if he shows up. We'll show him he can't mess with the Tamers of Shinjuku."

Henry replied, "That doesn't sound like much of a plan, Rika."

Terriermon hung from Henry's shoulder with one long ear and added in, "Does anything ever go according to plan anyway. I say why worry about a plan. Let's just momentai and see what happens."

So they left Rika's house with the strong effort to forget their encounter with the man in black, but Takato would not forget and would not stop looking. Rika cleared the whiteboard and that was the end of Mr. Adman How. At least that's what Rika hoped. If only it were so easy to erase all life's unpleasantness.

A motorcycle drove through urban streets as the sun was just rising on the next day. Adman pulled up behind Ai and Mako's house and turned off the motorcycle. He set his helmet down on the bike and put his black sunglasses back on. A strong hand gripped his shoulder hard and Adman darted away in a roll, pulling out his handgun in fear. There was Beelzemon standing next to his bike.

The mega level demon chuckled, "we've got to stop meetin' like this."

Adman holstered his weapon and relaxed "At least I was the quicker draw this time. Sorry it took me so long, but I brought your bike back."

Beelzemon inspected his bike "Having some joyridin' time?"

The young man nodded "Yeah, but I assure you it's in exactly the same condition that I borrowed it in. You don't know how hard it is to get off the thing. I mean I could just ride for days on that. Makes you kind of homicidal though. I was, unfortunately, a little devilish."

Beelzemon explained, "The fact you can get off on your own at all is surprisin'. I thought I'd have ta hunt you down and knock ya off."

Beelzemon finished the inspection and then began to glow. The tall Digimon shrunk to about a foot tall. When the lights dimmed he was the little purple imp with the red bandana. Beelzemon had de-Digivolved to Impmon.

He walked back into his yard through a gate "Sorry about scaring you, but I wasn't sure who'd be coming around at this late hour. Have to protect the kids, you know?"

The Tamer in black simply mumbled a, "Always."

Impmon went into his house and the man in black stood at the gate.

The Digimon noticed he was no longer being followed and called back "Wanna come in for a drink or something?"

The Tamer shook his head no, "I can't stay. I'm afraid I have other places I need to be. You'll look after everyone, won't you?"

The little imp nodded a yes. With that the man turned to leave.

Impmon stopped him "Hey." The words didn't come easy to the little guy, but he tried, "I don't know you too well, but I can see you got problems with your conscience. I understand it ain't easy making wrongs right, but you need to keep trying. And, well, if you ever need to talk to someone about these problems you have just let me know. You should look up Jeri. She's good at helping with stuff like that."

The man looked away for just a second, somehow sadness crept into him for just a moment "Why are you doing this for me?"

The Digimon acted surprised "I don't really know why. I guess I just know what it's like to feel like you're worse than the scum on somebody's shoe. It sucks, but at the same time you feel you deserve it. I don't know, maybe ya do. I just want to say good luck."

The young Adman Hows turned to the little Digimon "Thanks for that. Maybe I will take you up on that drink."

The little Digimon smiled "Really? Well come on in!"

The man shook his head and walked away "Another time. Goodbye, my little purple friend."

The dark Tamer picked his sword and helmet off the bike and began to walk down the alley to some unknown destination.

Hours before Adman delivered Beelzemon his bike Takato's day was just coming to an end. Takato Matsuki was resting in his bedroom after their meeting at Rika's. Guilmon was lying next to him nursing his hurt ribs.

Takato patted the dinosaurs head "I'm sorry, boy. Some welcome home party. Your first day back and you get your butt kicked."

Guilmon tilted his head to look at his Tamer "It's not that bad. Besides I'm just glad that after a tough fight I can come back here and sleep in your bed for a while."

Takato rubbed his friends belly gently "Take as long as you need to heal. I'll go get you some food. You just relax."

The dinosaur grinned at the promise of food "And peanut butter?"

Takato nodded a yes "And peanut butter."

Guilmon tried to do some sort of happy movement on the bed, but found the wounds too tender still. Takato walked down the stairs from his room down to the main bakery area. The shop phone rang and Takato picked it up.

It was after hours and the bakery was closed, but Takato still answered the phone with the professional, "Matsuki Bakery, this is Takato speaking. How may I help you?"

From the other end a cheery girl's voice said, "Hi Takato, this is Jeri."

Takato perked up. Jeri always put him, and everyone for that matter, in a better mood "Oh hi Jeri. It's good to hear from you. Sorry about today in the park."

"Oh don't worry. You guys draw crowds even on a good news day. Now that you have your Digimon back it's bound to only get worse. That's what happens when you become heroes."

Takato blushed at her calling him a hero "Its not been easy to get used to. So can I make it up to you somehow? I know I still owe Rika, but that's no excuse for you being pushed out mid conversation. I know I can find somewhere in this whole city where the paparazzi can't bother us."

Jeri smiled wide "That sounds nice, Takato. So where do you plan to take me?"

Takato thought hard. After drawing a blank he just asked, "Where do you want to go?"

Jeri sighed at Takato's uncreative nature "I don't know. We could find some peace and quiet in a dark movie theatre or maybe go get some noodles." Suddenly an idea hit her, "You know I just realized I've never seen your room before. Can I come by the bakery tomorrow and see the rest of your house?"

Takato laughed nervously as he remembered his pigsty of a room, "That all sounds great Jeri. Let's do it."

Jeri asked curiously, "Which one?"

"All of them."

Jeri could barely contain her excitement, "Oh Takato that sounds wonderful. When?"

"Whenever you come over tomorrow. Let's just be completely spontaneous. Whatever movie is playing at the time we'll go see and whatever noodle shop we see first we'll go in. Then you can come by my place, hang out, and I'll walk you home."

With plans set Takato and Jeri hung up the phone. Takato was amazed to see it was actually one in the morning. With that he grabbed a handful of day old bread for Guilmon and ran back upstairs. The red Digimon had fallen asleep waiting for his Tamer to return and Takato was okay with that. In spite of everything that could go wrong for once everything seemed to be going his way.

Author's Note: Anyone who knows me knows I hate author's notes, but I felt this instance called for one. I'd like to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I typically like to post just a few minutes into the day they're promised to be due, but last night got away from me. I'm still technically on schedule, but I didn't want to edit this unless I was in the right mindset. On that note Happy New Year. Year of the dragon here we come! I'd also like to thank the people that review and I'd very much like to thank the people out there that read my story on a regular basis. I feel that this weekend's set was far superior to the last set and I only hope for improvements. If you've reviewed but I haven't responded yet I promise I will. Things have gotten a little backed up, but I respond to every review or private message. Please review and tell me what you think.