Big news everyone. This is going to be the last Every 50 oneshot that I do for a while. It's not because I don't like doing them, but I would quite like to focus on my main story for a while. I may reintroduce it at a later date, or I may not. It all depends on whether I feel like it later on.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed writing this oneshot for Geekgirl. I hope you enjoy reading it, as it focuses on a character from the Digimon universe that I have paid very little attention to in the grand scheme of things in my story so far.


Every Fifty

Oneshot 6:- Through Brown Eyes

Rating:- T

Worlds:- Digimon Tamers


Things had not been easy on any of the Digimon Tamers since they began their intrepid adventures into a world that they previously had all believed to be fiction – just a television series and a card game that was fun to watch or play. But, for one of the Tamers in particular, life hadn't been easy for a long time before she gained her partner and after she had, it just got even harder, although she didn't realise it would at first.

Jeri Katou was that Tamer.

She was the only one of the Tamers who had a parent that had died. Everyone else, except for her good friend Rika Nonaka who didn't know her father, as he had left them at a young age, had two parents. Jeri had one, as her mother had left this world and gone into the next when she was still young, leaving her alone with her father.

As could be expected, Jeri had taken her mother's death very, very badly indeed. That was hardly unusual, the lose a parent at such a young age could be extremely traumatic on anyone, particularly if that parent had been as kind and caring as Jeri's mother had been. And the situation was made all the worse by her father. He meant well, but he didn't really have the first clue about how to properly raise a child. He tried, of course, but as time passed his efforts seemed to dwindle until he became quite distant from poor Jeri, leaving her to mostly fend for herself. The fact that he was generally quite a strict and severe person by nature didn't particularly help matters either.

Jeri had adapted to being alone reasonably well, and had come up with a little fox-like hand puppet in order to give herself a friend and someone to talk to and at least pretend that it was answering her back. She forced herself to be cheerful and happy, because she thought that that was better than being depressed and bitter.

Then, her father had re-married. That, in Jeri's view, had been extremely hard to adjust to. She was still traumatized by the death of her mother, partly due to the fact it was a recent event and partly because Jeri's father hadn't really known how to comfort her, claiming that the death of her mother was "because of Destiny." For a young child like that, or indeed for anyone, an explanation like that would seem extremely cold.

Her new stepmother had been nice enough, but Jeri had never given her a chance, refusing to communicate with her if she could help it and unwilling to accept her into the family. This had continued for many, many years, and when she gained a new step-brother, it was almost like the remarriage was being rubbed in her face.

Because of this, she still had her hand-puppet companion by the age of twelve.

But then, her life had changed drastically, when she had met her first Digimon, in the form of the cute and innocent Guilmon, who, at the time, was still developing and even more child-like than he was now. Playing with Guilmon and his partner Takato Matsuki became second-nature.

Then, she met Leomon. Her own partner.

After the rather embarrassing introduction to him, where she had chased him around claiming, in a bizarre twist, that their meeting was destiny, only to discover he was not her partner at all, she met him again later on, and this time they did become partners. Jeri's life was finally beginning to look up. She had her own Digimon partner, someone who really could talk back to her, unlike her hand-puppet (which she still kept because of sentimental value).

But, in her naivety, she hadn't counted on the fact that she could one day lose Leomon. After many adventures they had together in the search for Calumon when he was kidnapped by the monkey Deva, Makuramon, they ran into Beelzemon and Jeri watched, powerless, as Leomon was killed right in front of her. In his dying moments, Leomon had repeated her father's words, claiming that it was because of destiny.

Abruptly, a shell slammed up all around Jeri, and she seemed almost completely oblivious to everything around her. She ignored everything, even an almighty battle between Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon themselves, and in her sorrow her cheerful front evaporated and she sank into a deep, deep state of depression, turning once more to her hand-puppet for company.

And this had allowed her to be infected by the D-Reaper.

And that had been an absolute disaster.

It had taken the combined efforts of Calumon, Gallantmon and a reformed Beelzemon to snap her out of her funk, but she still remained a prisoner due to her own fear at the fact her partner's killer had just used her own partner's attack to try and break her out. When the D-Reaper finally was defeated, her will had hardened and things began to look up for her once again. She and Takato had gotten much closer, her father had gotten closer too as a result of her abduction, and she even found it in her heart to forgive Impmon for his terrible deeds and finally let her stepmother into her heart.

But still, the fact that she no longer had a Digimon loomed over her head. It was rather selfish to admit it, but it was easier to bear when everyone else lost their partners when they were pulled back into the Digital World. But, then the Digimon had returned, and once more she was without a partner while the others had theirs beside them.

Then the Ogudomon Debacle had started and she had found herself to be a useless observer throughout the whole ordeal. The others all had partners would could help and she had none. It wa slightly easier to take due to the fact that Kenta, Ai, Mako, Suzie and Kazu had to stay on the sidelines too, because they could not biomerge with their partners. But then, Suzie and Kazu had managed to do just that, and Jeri's unhappiness at her powerlessness grew.

But then, Ogudomon was defeated. And it was on that day, that Jeri's life got even better once again. And this was because after the battle, Anubimon, Digimon of the Dead, had visited the Tamers and had been thoughtful enough to extract Leomon's absorbed data from Impmon's body and reform it into Leomon's Digi-egg.

Impmon had shyly presented it to Jeri, and Jeri's self-esteem bubble almost exploded with happiness.


About a week had passed since Anubimon's surprise visit, possessing the body of the Egyptian Jackal that Renamon and Terriermon kept as a pet. Jeri sat in the living room in the house behind the bar her father worked in. She was staring diligently at the Digi-Egg seated in the centre of the coffee table. It was upright, despite the fact that it should logically roll over onto its side. And it had been there since Jeri had brought it downstairs that morning and would remain there until the evening and Jeri took it back up to her room, or it hatched.

Jeri was a patient person usually, but her unlimited excitement when she had received the Digi-egg, which was mostly white but a tawny-golden stripe that resembled the colour of a lion's fur running up the middle, had turned into unending impatience. She had had the Digi-Egg for a week and it still hadn't hatched.

She spent the majority of her time seated on the sofa and staring at the egg expectantly. The egg went everywhere with her, even to school, and Jeri struggled to pay attention to Ms. Asaji's lessons while she stared at the egg.

A tumult of thoughts swept constantly through her brain as she eyed the egg. She was being given a reprieve, a second chance at becoming something special. Children her age would do almost anything to get a Digi-Egg of their own (in fact, one kid had attempted to steal Leomon's egg at the mall yesterday and probably would have gotten away with it had Henry, Terriermon, Suzie and Lopmon not been nearby at the time) and now she had one.

Jeri shut her eyes and remembered her last attempt at being a Digimon Tamer. She couldn't help but feel that she had failed spectacularly at it. Not only because of her ridiculous actions when she first met Leomon, but because she also felt she contributed next to nothing to the Tamer group as a whole. Yes, she managed to defeat Orochimon, but not before getting kidnapped by that same Digimon just beforehand, and her partner had also saved Guilmon from possession by Behemoth the motorcycle and saved Kyubimon by preventing Beelzemon from stabbing her, right before he got stabbed himself, but that was about it. Leomon's destruction of Kumbhiramon didn't count, as he had not been Jeri's partner at the time

This time would be different, she promised herself. This time, she would actually do some good. She would actually be a helpful Tamer. She'd received training in the card game by Rika and Henry, with Ryo occasionally giving advice (when Rika wasn't looking), so she knew what most of her rare cards did now.

One of the things she was most looking forward to would be biomerging. She watched on the sidelines time and time again as Takato, Henry, Rika, Ryo, Kazu and Suzie all merged with their partners and went off to fight. She just couldn't grasp what biomerging must feel like, no matter how hard she imagined it. She was looking forward to the experience.

She opened her eyes and glanced at the Digi-egg. Still nothing. She sighed. This was getting old real fast. She desperately hoped the reason that the egg wasn't hatching was because she wasn't taking care of it properly, but she really didn't have the first clue as to how to take care of it, like her father had been with her after the death of her mother.

For the first couple of days, she'd clutched it in her arms and refused to let go of it for any reason. But Rika and Renamon had popped over to see how she was getting on, and Renamon had advised her to not do that. When it came to a Digi-egg, the best approach, according to the fox, was to leave it alone and be patient. As long as it wasn't eaten or squashed, and the latter could well have happened in Jeri's bear-like grip, it would be fine.

"Still here, Jeri?" asked a female voice as Jeri's stepmother, Shizue Katou stepped through the door. Sounds of giggling could be heard from behind her – little Masahiko was obviously playing tag with Calumon outside. "You know, you have to eat something soon."

"I know," Jeri smiled at her stepmother, who she had become remarkably close with once she finally accepted her presence. "But... I just can't stand to leave him here by himself. I've waited so long for him to come back to me, and now that he's here, I just can't leave him here."

"I understand," nodded Shizue with genuine affection. Truth be told, she was rather looking forward to seeing the egg hatch, once she'd been reassured that Leomon wouldn't be as hyperactive as Calumon was. "I'll go and make some sandwiches for you then, shall I?"

"Yes, please," nodded Jeri, before turning her stare back to her charge. Shizue left the room and returned a few minutes later with some plain cheese sandwiches and a couple of slices of apple on the side of the plate.

"Here you go, sweetheart," said Shizue, sitting beside Jeri and handing her the plate.

"Thanks, Mum," said Jeri. Shizue smiled at the name. She felt they had hit a milestone in their relationship when Jeri finally started calling her that.

Jeri picked up the first sandwich, glanced again at the Digi-egg (still nothing) and took a bite into the bread.

CRACK!

Jeri paused and frowned. She was pretty sure that cheese didn't make that noise unless it had gone very, very out of date and this bread was far too soft for that. Shizue gasped and placed a hand on Jeri's shoulder, pointing at the egg. Jeri gasped too, as it cracked again, forming a horizontal split right across the middle of the egg.

Jeri put her plate down and leapt of the sofa, leaning by the table. "It's hatching!" she shouted. "HE'S HATCHING!"

"He is!" cried a voice from the garden and, a couple of seconds later, Calumon zoomed into the room and landed on the table. "Ohboyohboyohboyohboy!" he cried. "Yay! Leomon's finally hatching!"

Masahiko – Jeri's step brother – stumbled into the room a few seconds later. He was growing fast, but he still couldn't match the boundless energy of Calumon and he was panting slightly, while Calumon continued to bounce around the room, cheering and whooping. "Goody," the little boy wheezed. "He took ages, didn't he?"

"Ssh," said Shizue, her and Jeri's attention focused solely on the egg, the latter having to restrain herself from grabbing it, for fear of scaring the Baby Digimon that would emerge. Leomon was tough, but his first form probably wasn't.

The noise that Calumon was making drew the attention of Jeri's father, Tadashi, who stepped in through the door that led to the bar. "What's all the commotion abou- oh, never mind," he added as he spotted the egg suddenly jerking as the crack around its middle widened considerably.

Calumon stopped bouncing excitedly and stood beside the egg. All five members of the Katou household leaned forwards slightly, eyes widening as the egg rustled and twitched and all wondering what was about to come out of it. None of them realised that they were holding their breath.

Suddenly, with a pop the top half of the egg was knocked off and sent rolling away. The bottom half of the egg stayed where it is and it was holding a very small and very, very red little creature. Jeri had expected it to be a blob, so she wasn't surprised by the fact that it was. It had a squishy-looking body, two eyes, a small mouth and three feeler-like projections growing out of the top of its head.

"A Punimon?" asked Jeri, blinking at the sight of the creature she recognised from the Primary Village in the cartoon show. "You're what Leomons all start out as?"

"Apparently," said Punimon, bobbing from his egg and landing of the table with a squelch. Tadashi flinched – the little creature reminded him of a miniature D-Reaper or something, and he'd had enough experience with that in the past, thank you very much. But Jeri didn't appear to notice, and her eyes were shining with joy and happiness at the sight of her partner reborn. Granted, he had some growing to do before he took the familiar face of Leomon, but at least he was alive.

Aware of his squishy body, Jeri gently took him into her arms, being careful not to swuash him just in case he burst or something.

"I can't believe it's really you," Jeri whispered, as her eyes moistened – not that she tried to stop them from doing so. "Oh, I've dreamt of this moment L- I mean, Punimon. You've finally come back to me."

"Jeri," said Punimon in a squeaky voice. "Where am I? How did I get here? The last thing I remember was that we were being attacked by Beelzemon and then the evil-" Punimon's eyes widened considerably, taking up about half his entire body. "Oh my Fanglongmon, he killed me!"

Jeri nodded sadly, holding Punimon gently. "Yes," said Jeri. "He did. And then he absorbed your data. It's been over a year since I last saw you, Punimon. And now... now you're back."

Punimon shook himself, trying to hide the shudders creeping up where his spine would be if he had one. "Well, at least you survived. What about the others?"

"They're all fine," nodded Jeri. "Everyone's alright. We've had quite a few close calls, but we've managed to all pull through."

"But," Punimon frowned. "I don't understand. If Beelzemon absorbed my data, then how did I get here? Was he destroyed?"

"Uh..." said Jeri, not quite sure how she was going to broach the subject of Impmon's transition to good. "Well... er... you see... the thing is..."

"Hey, Jeri!" shouted a voice from outside. "Creampuff? You in there?"

"Creampuff?" asked Punimon confused. Then he spotted Calumon and said, "Oh hello. You're Calumon right. Well, at least you were rescued too. I didn't die in vain."

"No, you most certainly did not," said Jeri. Then she called out, "We're in here!"

The timing wasn't what she would call perfect, but perhaps it was best that Impmon be present for this part of the whole event. The purple imp strolled through the glass doors that Calumon and Masahiko had left open and walked into the living room. The little Rookie visited most days, to check on the progress of both Jeri and the egg.

"How's things going here?" he asked as he walked in. "We got a little family gathering or... some... thing..." Impmon trailed off when he spotted the broken halves of the Digi-Egg on the table and the small, red blob in Jeri's hands.

"Er..." he said, blinking in surprise and not a little shock.

Punimon frowned at him. "Have we met?" he asked. Leomon had never seen Beelzemon in his Rookie Form, but Punimon couldn't help but feel this purple imp creature was familiar.

"Er..." said Impmon. "That... depends. Are you... er, Leomon?"

"I will be someday," said Punimon. "Why?"

Impmon sputtered and stammered slightly, but he eventually swallowed and said, "Well, it's... er... brilliant to see that you're... er... alive again."

"Punimon," said Jeri, tightening her grip on the little guy almost unconsciously. "This is Impmon."

"Impmon?" frowned Punimon. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Because..." said Jeri, slowly. "Impmon is the Rookie form of Beelzemon."

Punimon's eyes expanded further than ever. "HE'S BEELZEMON?" he squealed. "He's the guy who killed me?"

"Yes, yes, yes," said Jeri quickly. "But he's not an evil, raving lunatic anymore. He's been reformed. In fact, he tried to save my life a couple of days after he killed you."

"A key word being tried," muttered Impmon. "I wasn't exactly very helpful was I? That bl- er, wretched D-Reaper stabbed me in the back when I was trying to get you out of the Kernel Sphere."

Punimon blinked. He had completely lost track of the conversation. "What?" he asked, a bit too confused to feel that much fear, anger or resentment towards Impmon at the moment.

Jeri sighed. "I better start at the beginning."

And she told Punimon everything, with Impmon and occasionally Calumon chipping in now and then. She told him about her sparing Beelzemon's life, her depression, the D-Reaper, how Beelzemon had stubbornly tried save her and almost got killed for it, and how things had been ever since then, finishing with how Anubimon had extracted Leomon's data from Beelzemon just a week ago.

Punimon's young mind struggled to take it all in, but he managed to do it. Punimon turned to look at Impmon, who was looking nervous. Not nervous of Punimon attacking him, as the only thing a Baby Digimon could beat was a weaker Baby Digimon, but he was nervous of Punimon's opinion of him.

"Well," said Punimon. "It seems to me, that you took my lesson to heart. Eventually," said Punimon.

"Yeah," nodded Impmon. "You were right. To have power is not to be strong. That's what you said and I know that now. I'm only sorry it cost you your life to drum that into my head."

"And," said Punimon. "It also seems to me that I should thank you for trying to correct you mistakes. I'd say that you've more than made up for your actions."

Impmon blinked. "You mean it?" he asked. "I'm off the hook."

"Yes," said Punimon. "As Leomon, I was always a Digimon devoted to honour and justice. That's still the same. You truly are sorry and you have repaid your debt in kind, almost getting yourself killed in the process."

Impmon grinned. "Cheers, Leomon," he said. "Er. I mean, Punimon."

"And now that that's over with," said Shizue. "Allow me to welcome you to the family, Punimon."

"You wanna play tag?" asked Calumon instantly.

"Whoa, Creampuff," said Impmon. "He just hatched. Cut him some slack."


Jeri took Punimon to the park the next day, in order to reintroduce him to everyone and to introduce him to the few people he hadn't met before. Punimon was happy to see everyone in top condition, but the union of Terriermon and Renamon as mates surprised him just as much as it had surprised everyone else. Jeri had also been feeling a warm glow inside her as the others all congratulated her and her partner.

At last, she was a Tamer once again. Granted, the Digimon she had was small and powerless as of yet, but she was still a Tamer again. Her heart had ached a little whenever she had gatherings with the other Tamers, despite the fact that she had tried to put Leomon's passing aside, but now her heart was bursting with joy again.

Punimon turned out to be quite playful, as most Baby Digimon were, and he even joined in with many of the fun and games, making him instantly popular with Guilmon and Calumon. Punimon also observed something else, and that was how close his partner had gotten with Takato – a fact she had neglected to mention in her story of events yesterday.

When he spoke to the others about this, Guilmon had said, "Oh, even I've noticed it. I think that they should be doing that thing that Renamon and Terriermon do and put their mouths together. Kissing, I think its called. Apparently that's what people do when they love each other."

"Yeah, but when it comes to their lovelife, both of them are too dense to realise their feelings for each other are mutual," said Terriermon. "I managed to get them to kiss once by landing on Jeri's back when she was talking to him and pushing her into him. But they still haven't gotten it into their heads. It's maddening."

"We're currently trying to think of a way to finally get them to notice the blatantly obvious," said Impmon. "But we're not making much headway."


Punimon had digivolved that very same day, when he and Jeri went back to their house and began to eat at the dinner table. After consuming half his plate extremely rapidly, Punimon had suddenly glowed and shouted "PUNIMON DIGIVOLVE TO... TSUNOMON!"

Tsunomon was another familiar face from the kids show, considering he was also Gabumon's In-Training form – white-faced, brown furred and with a huge spike on his head. Jeri had been slightly confused by all this, but Tsunomon assured her that he was going to become a Leomon again eventually, and not a Garurumon. He said that many Digimon shared lower forms

Shizue had been fascinated and had wondered aloud what Tsunomon would look like when he finally became this Leomon she'd heard so much about – she hadn't actually met Leomon before Jeri had left for the Digital World.

Jeri had responded by pulling up a YouTube video of one of the episodes of the Digimon cartoon – she still couldn't watch the MetalEtemon episodes without bursting into tears at the end so she pulled up one of the earlier ones where Leomon was a good guy – and showed her stepmother. When Shizue saw who tall Leomon was compared to the kids, she freaked out, wondering how Leomon was going to fit in the house.

"Yeah, I wondered about that too," muttered Jeri, sadly. "I suppose he'll just have to sleep outside or something."

"In rain and snow and all other weather?" asked Shizue. "He'd catch his death of cold."

"We Digimon are pretty resilient," said Tsunomon from beside the computer, "But I don't think it will come to that. I have a solution."

"What?" asked Jeri.

"Well," said Tsunomon. "Most of the other Digimon, with a couple of obvious exceptions, stay in their Rookie forms for the majority of the time. I could quite easily do the same. I don't have to Digivolve to the Champion level and stay that way if I don't want to, do I?"

"Yeah," Jeri nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, you could do that. What is your Rookie form anyway?"

Tsunomon winked. "You'll just have to wait and see," he said impishly.


And indeed she did see. It took about another week or so before Tsunomon digivolved again, but eventually he did and he became another incredibly familiar face. But it wasn't a Gabumon. He had become the caretaker of Primary Village – Elecmon.

That meant that a lot of children hounded Elecmon in the future, coming up to him when they were in the shopping centre or in the street and examining him. Jeri learned from Henry that he and Terriermon got this an awful lot too, because while all the Digimon were now famous, Terriermon was also part of the cartoon, so he got more attention too.

Jeri and Elecmon took to hanging around with Rika and Renamon, so that the two older girls could spend some time together and so that Elecmon could hide under Renamon's perception filter if the population became bothersome.

It didn't take long for a Digimon to bio-emerge and, ironically, it turned out to be an Ogremon. Naturally, everyone felt obliged to allow Jeri and Elecmon to battle him while they watched from the sidelines. Jeri, determined to get the first battle where she knew what she was doing all the time right, set to it with a determination. The much-missed face of Leomon reappeared on the battlefield and he and Jeri fought against the Ogremon, pulling off a decisive and clean victory, sending the Ogremon to visit Anubimon to a bit.

As usual with the first attempt, Leomon struggled to de-digivolve back into Elecmon. Terriermon and Guilmon, who were both masters at this, promised him that it would become easier and then started doing their usual handstand exercises to help him along. Leomon proved to have much better balance on his hands than Guilmon could ever have, and he stood that way for half an hour, with Terriermon and Lopmon standing on their ears next to him, and Renamon also doing a handstand, while Guilmon and Impmon tried and failed to do so several times.

Elecmon landed in a rather comical heap on the ground when he finally did de-digivolve. But he laughed along with everyone else.


Time passed and Jeri began to get more and more settled with being a Tamer once again. The thrill of having a partner never really went away from her, she realised. And she wondered if the others all experienced the same thing. They probably were, considering they too had lost all their partners, and regained them recently too, although it was a different sense of the word 'lost' for them. For her, last time she had a partner she lost him after only a week or two, but now she had one and it looked like he was here to stay. It felt great.

But there was one thing that still nagged at Jeri's mind. It was probably just a silly little thing that had nothing to do with anything but Jeri still felt like she was the lesser Tamer – the least skilled and the weakest member of the group. Whether this was because of past history, or because Elecmon was the only member of the Digimon Team (besides Calumon) that could not reach the Mega level, or for some other reason entirely, she didn't know.

She didn't voice this thought to anyone else, except for Elecmon himself.

"That's ridiculous," Elecmon had scoffed. "You are in no way weak. As I have said many a time, you have a lion's heart. The only thing you lack that the others have in experience, especially considering they've had their partners either much longer or for a while after my untimely demise."

Jeri nodded and agreed, and yet she still couldn't completely purge herself of this feeling. It was bizarre.

Eventually, three months passed and Jeri was no closer to getting Elecmon to the Ultimate level than she was to biomerging. She often sighed to herself as she thought about the tough Digimon she knew so well, like Gallantmon, MegaGargomon, Sakuyamon and all the others. She knew what she would probably become if she did ever biomerge with Elecmon, but she still wanted to experience it for herself.

She wasn't the only Tamer struggling with all of this. Kenta Kitagawa had had a wish granted by a Digi-Gnome, meaning that his own partner, MarineAngemon, was capable of de-digivolving to his own Rookie Form, which would allow Kenta to biomerge with him. And yet, they hadn't been able to do it either.

Ai and Mako were also a little put out that they couldn't biomerge with Impmon. Nobody was entirely sure if a Digimon with two Tamers even could biomerge with them. Everyone agreed it was possible that they could probably do it one at a time, but the twins were adamant that they did it together or not at all.

Jeri spoke to Henry about how to biomerge.

"It's like this, I think," said Henry. "Biomerging needs to be unlocked, as far as I can see. The situation has to be right for biomerging to occur. When the rest of us biomerged for the first time, it was always during times of great need. Perhaps it's because there must be a true sense of togetherness and determination for biomerging to occur, but we'll just have to wait until we have an encounter with a Digimon powerful enough to ignite that need."

And so Jeri waited, and waited, and waited. And the waiting wasn't easy, but she did it anyway.


Eventually, an opportunity presented itself.

Takato had arranged for all of the Tamers to go and spend some time with his cousin, Kai, in Okinawa, for a much deserved rest and relaxation during the Easter Holidays. Everyone was looking forward to the trip, but about a day or so before they went, Takato himself was suddenly struck by an extremely potent, although not very dangerous, fever. He found himself weak and it was difficult for him to get out of bed.

Takato had insisted that everyone else go on the trip anyway, so they wouldn't waste the tickets. It took a bit of cajoling, but eventually most of the others agreed. However, Terriermon and Impmon both dropped a not-so-subtle hint (that Jeri still didn't pick up on) that perhaps Jeri should stay behind and help Takato's parents to make Takato better.

Jeri and agreed, and so, she and Elecmon were now staying at the Matsuki residence during the daylight hours, while everyone else left for Okinawa.

"Sorry you had to miss your holiday," said Takato, sniffing in an attempt to clear his heavily blocked nose.

"It's alright," said Jeri. "I've been to Okinawa before so it's not like I'll be seeing anything I haven't seen before."

"Yeah," said Takato. "But Henry said he was going to help teach you guys how to SCUBA dive. And that sounds really cool. I wanted to try it and I'm sure you did too."

"Well," said Jeri, a blush furiously staining her cheeks. "Your well-being is more important than learning how to dive and stare at fish. I can learn how to dive another time."

"It's a shame they don't make any SCUBA devices for Digimon," said Guilmon, from where he was sitting innocently at the foot of Takato's bed. If a Divermon ever comes through to this world, perhaps we can borrow his air tank and try it out.

"I'm not sure the Divermon would be entirely happy about that," chuckled Elecmon dryly.

Jeri couldn't help but blush a little bit more as she spoon-fed Takato some of his medicine. Both Takato's parents had their hands full running the bakery downstairs, so Jeri's new job shared the opening and closing hours that the bakery did. If Jeri spotted the blush also on Takato'ss face, she made no comment about it.

Guilmon and Elecmon watched with interest as the two of them chatted to each other. Even Elecmon had become extremely exasperated by how the two of them seemed to dance around the fact that they were obviously crushing on each other, and had fully engaged with the others in an attempt to open their eyes a little bit.

So far, nothing had worked. Guilmon and Elecmon glanced at one another as Jeri read Takato a flaming bedtime story of all things. (It was one that Takato had got for Guilmon some time ago.) Both had spoken with Terriermon, Impmon and Renamon before the others left for their holiday and they had all agreed that if the two of them hadn't got together by the time the others got back, they would initiate the ultimate plan.

Suddenly Guilmon growled and tensed, every muscle in his body quivering. Nobody needed the beeping D-Arcs to instantly guess what was happening. Another Digimon was about to appear and wherever it was, it was pretty close.

"Oh great," muttered Takato. "When everyone else is out of town too. Why did it have to be now?"

Jeri rushed to the window and looked outside, seeing if she could spot any sign on the Digimon that was about to encroach on the Human World. It took a few seconds before she saw something, but then she did indeed see the pale blue column of light erupting from the ground in the middle of the park, followed by the cloud of fog that indicated a Digital Field.

Well, at least it wasn't in the streets. Yet.

Jeri balked as the field continued to expand, until it grew to an absolutely massive size. When it finally stopped growing it loomed at least three times as tall as the trees that surrounded it. Then, it began to fade away as the transition from the Digital to the Human World completed.

The Digimon that could be seen from the mist, even from Takato's bedroom, was enormous. It was definitely a Dinosaur Digimon, resembling an enormous orange Diplodocus. But, unlike an ordinary Dinosaur, it was encased in armour. It had bronze guards on all four limbs, and a huge bronze armour covering its chest. Metal stretched up the top of its neck and tail and its head had an enormous metallic helmet set on it. To cap off the appearance, a small cannon protruded from his chest and three enormous ones pointed upwards from his back.

Jeri opened the window as the Digimon roared and scanned it with the D-Arc. "Cannondramon," she read aloud. Cyborg Digimon. Data Type. Mega level. His attacks are Dynamo Cannon and Grenade Storm."

"That," said Takato, weakly sitting up, "does not sound good. Those attacks make it sound like the dinosaur version of MegaGargomon. He could wipe out the entire city quite easily if he wanted."

"Takato," Jeri fretted. "You're weak and ill. You need to stay in bed."

"I can't rest now," grimaced Takato, his skin extremely pale. "It's my duty as a Tamer to help defend this city in an way I can, regardless of how exhausting or draining it's going to be. I need to get out there and stop Cannondramon, before too many people get hurt."

Jeri bit her lip in anxiety but she nodded her head and stood aside, clearing a path to the window. Takato stood, unsteadily, and immediately was struck with a headrush. Shaking it off, he hobbled to the windowsill and clambered unsteadily onto the windowsill. Takato saw that Cannondramon was making his way towards the city, flattening trees as he went.

"Come on, Guilmon," said Takato.

Guilmon snapped out of his growling state and nodded, running forward and tackling Takato as he said, "Biomerge Activate!"

The two digivolved together in mid-air as quickly as they could. "GUILMON BIOMERGE TO... GALLANTMON!" Jeri and Elecmon watched as the Royal Knight swept through the air towards the sauropod Digimon.


Cannondramon was confused and angry at finding himself in this strange place with all the little creatures that scurried all over the place to avoid his feet and screamed at the top of their lungs as they did so. The sound irritated him and he ploughed towards the big buildings ahead, looking for a fairly powerful opponent that he could destroy and load their data. He didn't bother with the humans. They weren't worth the effort.

Cannondramon blinked as Gallantmon soared to a stop in front of his armoured face. "That's far enough," said the Digimon in two voices, one of which sounded strong and the other weak and trying to sound strong. "You will not be destroying anything here today as long as I have something to say about it."

Cannondramon growled and, as with most wild Digimon in the Digital World, he attacked blindly. "Nobody tells me what to do!" he roared, as he stampeded forward, swinging his head like an enormous mace. Gallantmon dodged to blow, but it was a rather close thing and Cannondramon displayed surprising agility for something so large and turned around, bringing his long tail surging towards the Royal Knight. Gallantmon's eyes widened as the enormous tail whooshed in his direction, and he quickly rose over the top of it, but the tail still managed to clip his leg and send him spinning.

Gallantmon grimaced beneath the helm. He wasn't nearly as fast on his feet as he usually once and Takato was quite literally struggling to fight. His tired and feverish state kept asking him to lie down for a bit and get some rest.

Gallantmon was caught completely unawares as the tail surged back in the other direction and slammed into his back, sending him spinning again and crashing into the ground. Wincing, he climbed to his feet, just in time to avoid getting squashed by an enormous sauropod foot. Gallantmon leapt into the sky again and managed to dodge the follow-up swing of Cannondramon's huge head.

However, he failed to dodge the tree that the swing uprooted and sent flying and the tree knocked him back a little bit.

"Takato," said Guilmon from within the Mega Knight. "Are you sure you're okay? I can feel that you're really tired?"

"There's no time for that kind of talk, Guilmon," said Takato. "We have to finish this up and quickly, otherwise we're not going to be able to win this fight. Let's give him a full power attack."

"Right," Guilmon agreed. And together they shouted, "SHIELD OF THE JUST!"

Raising Aegis, they unleashed the enormous red beam from the centre. Only, it wasn't quite as powerful as it normally was, due to Takato's severely weakened state. Cannondramon saw it coming and braced himself. The attack struck the armour on his chest with high force, but all it elicited was a slight grunt from Cannondramon. While his armour wasn't Chrome-Digizoid, it was still very tough, and he survived the attack with only a slight dent.

"Nice attack," said Cannondramon. "Now try one of mine. GRENADE STORM!"

Like MegaGargomon's Mega Barrage, numerous panels opened across the sauropod's armour and unleashed what could indeed be referred to as a storm of grenades right at Gallantmon, whistling towards the Knight at speed. At the same time, the smaller cannon on his chest glowed inside the barrel and unleashed a huge orange laser in Gallantmon's direction.

Gallantmon raised his shield, but his strength waned rapidly as he was peppered by the exploding grenades that warmed all around him. Several doubled back on themselves and struck him in the back, forcing him to drop his guard and leaving him wide open to the laser which slammed into his stomach and sent him flying backwards, slamming into the ground several hundred yards away from Cannondramon.

There, he split into Guilmon and Takato. Normally it would have taken much, much more than that to take them down, but Takato had been on the brink of collapse as it was before merging.


"Oh no!" Jeri gasped in horror as she watched Gallantmon, who looked extremely small from this distance and absolutely tiny compared to Cannondramon get slammed by the enormous laser that exploded from Cannondramon's chest. The sauropod Digimon was trashing the park, uprooting trees and sending them flying whenever he moved. And Jeri was a helpless observer as she saw Gallantmon get blasted to the ground.

She didn't see him getting back up again, but she did see Cannondramon baring down on something, so she could only assume that Gallantmon had de-digivolved. She bit her lip and turned away, unable to watch as Cannondramon approached her crush and the cute dinosaur she liked to play with.

She clenched her fist as her eyes filled with tears. This was just like the Ogudomon Debacle – she could only watch while her friends were beaten around by something bigger and she was powerless to help. Digivolving Elecmon to Leomon was going to do no good against that thing and she knew it.

"Jeri," said Elecmon, who was standing on the windowsill. "What are you doing? We have to help them. We can't just stay here."

"What can we do," Jeri sniffed, clutching her head in her hands. "I was right. I am the weakest of the Tamers. I'm a failure. I couldn't protect you when you needed my help and now I can't protect Takato and he's going to die and he's never going to come back."

Elecmon growled. "That is not the way of the lioness, Jeri," he said. "A lioness does not give up unless they know for sure that there is nothing they can do. A lioness hunts prey all the time, but they don't always get their kill. But do they simply give up and go hungry. No, they try again. And they keep going until they succeed so that the whole pride will benefit. You are the lioness and the Tamers are the pride. You must help."

"But I can't even biomerge," Jeri said tearfully.

"You've completely forgotten what Henry said," Elecmon chastised her. "Biomerging can only take place under the right circumstances. I'd say this qualifies, wouldn't you. Unless we do something and do it now, Takato and Guilmon are going to die. Are you willing to let that happen?"

"No, but..."

"Then swallow your self-deprecation, pick yourself up and do your part for the pride," Elecmon said, firmly.

"I..." Jeri stammered, but then glanced at Cannondramon in the distance and nodded, her brown eyes hardening. "Alright. Let's do it."

Elecmon nodded and Jeri ran to the window. Both of them looked out at the giant dinosaur Digimon ahead.

This may be the stupidest thing I've ever done, thought Jeri and she suddenly sprang from the window, with Elecmon right underneath her. Pressing her D-Arc to her chest as she did so, she cried "BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"

It worked.

"ELECMON BIOMERGE TO... SABERLEOMON!"


Guilmon hauled his nearly unconscious Tamer out of the way, just in time to avoid getting mashed underneath the foot of Cannondramon. "Hold still," the sauropod roared in frustration, as he lifted the other foot and attempted to mash them again.

Guilmon dragged his charge out of the way again and once again narrowly missed being squashed. But now he was trapped between the two front legs, one of which was already lifting up to squash him, and Takato wasn't getting any lighter.

"Game over," Cannondramon crowed, and brought his foot down. Guilmon covered his head and shut his eyes, waiting for the crushing weight from above. Instead, he was struck in the side and scooped upwards by something moving very fast. He heard a thud as Cannondramon's foot hit the floor where he had been standing. But when Guilmon opened his eyes, he was already at the edge of the park, and he was being held in the jaws of an enormous saber-toothed lion, with yellow fure flecked with red, a massive mane and two front teeth that were about as long as mammoth tusks. How the cat managed to get Guilmon and Takato in its jaws behind those teeth escaped him.

"This should be far enough," said the lion, in the duel voice that any biomerged Digimon has. Guilmon had already guessed that it was Jeri and Elecmon, but the voice confirmed it. The lion placed Guilmon and Takato on the ground.

"Wow," he said. "You guys got big."

"Thank you," said SaberLeomon. "But we don't really have time to chat. Look after your Tamer, Guilmon. We'll go and take care of that sorry excuse for a Brontosaurus." And with that, SaberLeomon hared off back into the park at blinding speed. Guilmon blinked at how fast they were. They were nowhere near as fast as Rapidmon could be, but they were still a yellow and red blur when they moved.


Cannondramon was still trying to figure out where his quarry had gone. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" he cried. "So I can squash you like a Tentomon."

"Care to repeat that?" asked a double voice. Cannondramon's armoured head swung around to face SaberLeomon, who had appeared as if by magic, standing with its front paws on a fallen tree and looking as regal as any male lion ever could, the wind blowing in its mane.

"And who are you?" Cannondramon asked, turning to face his new opponent.

"The name's SaberLeomon," said the Mega lion. "And I'm afraid you are trespassing on our turf."

"Your turf?" snorted Cannondramon. "I'm pretty sure that this place doesn't belong to anyone. But you appear to be a Mega, so you must have lots of strong data for me to absorb." He lowered his head and charged, aiming to slam his armoured head into SaberLeomon in a furious headbutt.

SaberLeomon grinned. "This will not take long," it said. And then it too charged forward to meet Cannondramon. As it ran, the hairs of its mane stood out and seemed to harden and SaberLeomon grinned as it announced its first attack. "TWIN FANG!"

Knowing that the attack would be useless if it struck the metal on Cannondramon's head, SaberLeomon rolled aside to avoid a collision at the last possible second and leapt, ploughing straight into the unarmoured underside of Cannondramon's neck. Cannondramon grunted in pain as he felt the hairs of the mane prick his skin, but no real damage seemed to have been done.

SaberLeomon was now clinging onto Cannondramon's neck with its paws and hanging on grimly. Cannondramon was unable to strike at SaberLeomon in the position where it was hanging and so it flailed around like a Bucking Bronco and swinging his neck wildly in an attempt to dislodge its unwanted passenger.

As he did, he became aware of the fact that he was slowing down. His movements were becoming sluggish and he was feeling remarkably stiff all of a sudden. He gritted his teeth and continued flailing but the problem just got worse and worse. Eventually, he stopped flailing and stood, panting in exertion and unable to move an inch.

SaberLeomon hopped off and regarded Cannondramon with amusement. "My Twin Fang attack allows me to inject a paralyzing venom from my mane that, if it pierces the skin, will leave you completely paralyzed before too long. And all your flailing about helped it spread through your system much faster. Thanks."

Cannondramon growled. "It's not over yet," he said, and suddenly the huge cannons on his back rotated and lowered until the barrels were all pointing directly as SaberLeomon, at point blank range. "Goodbye," he said. "DYNAMO CANNON!"

SaberLeomon watched as the cannons glowed the same orange as the chest cannon had, only much, much bigger. At the last second, it suddenly streaked away as incredible speed, meaning Cannondramon's attack slammed into the ground where it had been. This had the unforeseen (at least on Cannondramon's part) side-effect of making the ground shake and the recoil of such a close range shot target at such massive firepower literally threw Cannondramon to one side. The sauropod landed painfully on his side, still unable to move.

SaberLeomon reappered. "Well," it said. "It's been fun, but you're late for an appointment with Anubimon so you better run along now. HOWLING CRUSHER!"

Leaping high and plunging towards Cannondramon, with an outstretched paw glowing a bright white, SaberLeomon slammed its paw into Cannondramon's chest armour, creating an enormous rent in the metal. Cannodramon grunted in pain, and SaberLeomon attacked again and again, hitting the same spot each time. It took three goes to get through the thick armour, but on the fourth attack, the already weakened Cannondramon splintered into data due to being hit in such a vulnerable area as the chest.

SaberLeomon watched as the data particles floated away into the sky.

"Do you still believe you don't have a lion's heart, Jeri?" asked Elecmon.

"Nah," said Jeri. "It was buried a little deep, but it was there all along. I just had to find it."

"I did tell you," chuckled Elecmon. "Now, come on. We should get Takato back to bed quickly."


The week passed and eventually, the others returned. Upon hearing that Jeri had successfully managed to biomerge with Elecmon, most of the other Tamers were extremely congratulatory to both. Kenta, on the other hand, sulked and muttered about "missing his chance" and Kazu insisted in taking the rip of him.

Jeri beamed at all the praise she was receiving. She now felt like she was a true Tamer. Gone were the days of her being a feeble wreck. She was a defender of the world. She had a lion's heart.

She didn't notice several of the Digimon having a whispered conference not very far away.

A couple of days after that, and Jeri was walking through the park, passed the trees that her opponent had trashed and had yet to be cleared. Elecmon was leading the way and the two of them mostly walked in silence.

Eventually, Jeri said, "Are you sure that you don't know why we're supposed to go to Guilmon's hideout?"

"I'm just as much in the dark as you are, Jeri," said Elecmon. "Renamon just said that she had a surprise, but I don't have the slightest clue as to what she was talking about."

Jeri sighed. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Renamon anymore, because while she was still the serious warrior she had always been, her mating with Terriermon seemed to be bringing out more mischievous tendencies in her. But she still usually stopped him from pulling over-the-top pranks, so whatever was going on, it couldn't be too bad... right?

She reached Guilmon's old hideout, which, despite all odds, was still standing and she and Elecmon walked inside. True to her word, Renamon was waiting inside. But, to Jeri's surprise, so was Takato, who had healed a few days ago, and Guilmon.

"Hi," said Jeri, shyly. She was almost always shy around Takato, but when acting as his nurse, her motherly instincts had mostly overridden that shyness. "What are you doing here?"

"Guilmon said Renamon has a surprise for us," said Takato. "What are you doing here?"

"The same thing," said Jeri, turning to frown at Renamon. "What's all this about?"

"Oh, it's quite simple really," said Renamon, a smile on her face that seemed ever so slightly feral. "You see, over the last few months, all of us, even Ai and Mako and Calumon, have noticed one thing that you to seem to have failed to pick up on. And many of us have grown so exasperated by this, that we have decided to act."

"What are you talking about?" asked Takato.

"Takato, were you aware of the fact that Jeri fancies you?" Renamon stated, without any hint of a joke in her voice.

Jeri flushed scarlet, as did Takato. "Renamon! What are you doing?" squealed Jeri, while Takato stammered incoherently.

"Jeri, were you aware of the fact that Takato fancies you too?" Renamon stated. The blushes on both cheeks seemed to, if anything, intensify, so much so that each one of them put tomato ketchup to shame.

"But..." Takato stammered.

"I..." Jeri agreed.

"Even now, you seem somehow unwilling to accept this," said Renamon. "But we know how to fix that, don't we boys," Renamon turned to Guilmon and Elecmon, who both seemed to be grinning evilly.

"Get 'em!" yelled Guilmon, and he and Renamon each grabbed one of the two and, before they realised what was happening, Guilmon had pushed Takato against the wall and dodged aside, to allow Renamon to push Jeri right up against him, face to face. The two continued blushing and stammering in protest, unsure of what was really happening.

And that was when Terriermon entered that shed, with Impmon and Lopmon in tow. Between them, Impmon and Lopmon were carrying a cushion and on that cushion was a gun, being borne between them like a ceremonial device.

Jeri and Takato's eyes both widened as they saw it. "What the hell is going on?" Takato cried.

"Oh relax," said Terriermon, picking up the pistol in both hands and priming it. "We're not going to shoot you. Well, not with bullets anyway."

"What-" Jeri started to ask, but suddenly Renamon released her grip and rolled aside. Terriermon pulled the trigger at the exact same moment, probably co-ordinated using their telepathy. A glob of clear liquid shot from the gun and plastered Jeri's back, spreading rapidly until Takato and Jeri both had it covering their upper-bodies.

Then it dried.

Rapidly.

Jeri tugged, but found that she couldn't move a step backwards at all. Takato was similarly stuck. Now, they were pinned to one another, face to face.

"Gallium electrolyte compound," said Terriermon, blowing the tip of the pistol theatrically. "We picked it up from Goro's place. It served as a great matchmaker for me and Rena, so why not with you two."

"Here's the plan," said Impmon. "We're going off to do whatever we like and leave you two to your own devices for one hour."

"All except me," said Lopmon, an uncharacteristic smirk on her face. "I'm going to keep watch here and listen in on what you have to say. If the two of you still haven't accepted you fancy each other and become boyfriend and girlfriend, I'll send a mental message to Terriermon."

"And I'll be somewhere near Kazu's house," said Terriermon. "And I'll have a camera with me. And I might just slip the fact that you are stuck here and accidentally leave my camera in Kazu's pocket."

"Guilmon," Takato complained. "Why are you doing this?"

"They are right," shrugged Guilmon. "It is really annoying and it is so obvious. We just want to get it over with really."

"Toodles," Impmon waved, as he, Terriermon, Renamon, Elecmon and Guilmon all departed. Lopmon gave a slightly sympathetic look to the two trapped Tamers.

"Normally I wouldn't go for this sort of thing," she said. "But I agree with Guilmon. You're beating around the bush has gotten very irritating. I'll be outside and rest assured I can hear every word."

She left.

Takato and Jeri glanced at each other and blushed. Both of them were hating Terriermon right about now, along with most of the others, for putting them in this predicament. They had no doubt it was Terriermon or Impmon's idea.

But, at the end of the hour, when they finally decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend and shared their first (voluntary) kiss, the two of them had changed their minds and thanked the Digimon when they returned and Guilmon used his claws to cut them loose.


Again, sorry for the delay everyone, but I fully intended to try and get this as right as I possibly could. I intend to hurry up with the second half of the Shili Arc now that I've done this to the best of my ability.

Hope you enjoyed that Geekgirl.

Fergus Flamacron, signing off.