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 Ten: Innocence and the Animal.

Takato had taken Jeri home without stopping at his house first. Jeri didn't mind though. She understood completely. He placed a hand to his cheek in remembrance of his goodbye with Jeri. Tyrannomon, Adman, Rika, all of it paled in comparison to his night with her. And Rika. He had left her alone with Adman. Sure Renamon would help, but he should have stayed. Leaving her wasn't something a leader would do. His head obviously wasn't working right. He decided to call Rika when he got home to check on her. Still he was glad to have gotten Jeri home. The wild Digimon fight had put him on edge and he didn't want Jeri to be in harms way should another appear. The chaos swirled around in his head and he decided to instead focus on his surroundings. Takato was riding the subway home; the brightly lit train car was only filled with one or two passengers besides himself. Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see a familiar man in black now sitting next to him on one of the subway benches. Takato nearly jumped out of his seat. The dark Tamer hadn't boarded the train at any time yet somehow there he was.

Takato jumped in his seat slightly at the sight of the man. "How'd you get here?"

Adman took his sunglasses off and put them in his pocket. "That's none of your concern. I have something for you, Mister Matsuki."

Takato was nervous, but didn't want to make a scene in the train car. "Please, just call me Takato."

Adman seemed in a grumpy mood. He pulled a bottle from one of his sleeves and handed it to the boy with a, "Whatever."

Takato took the bottle and examined it. "I saw you give one of these to Rika. It's data, right? Just put it on Guilmon's wounds and they'll get better, right?"

Adman stood up as he remarked sarcastically, "Boy nothing gets past you, except maybe the fact that Guilmon's wounds are internal. Have him take a sip and he'll be better in no time."

Takato didn't like the attitude he was receiving from Adman, so he called the dark Tamer on it "Listen, just because Rika puts up with your crap doesn't mean I will. Why should I even trust you? How do I know that this bottle isn't filled with poison?"

Adman put his glasses back on to hide the anger in his eyes. "I guess you don't. Either use it or don't. It's no skin off my nose."

With that Adman seemed to vanish through the very floor of the train. There was no opening or anything close to that, but he seemed to just plummet straight through the ground and disappear. Takato looked at the bottle questioningly. What to do with it now?

Adman was in a positively foul mood. After leaving Takato it hadn't improved at all. All he had tried to do that night was patch things up and instead he made things worse. Rika, his one trusted ally of the group, now thought he was a complete creep. He walked back and forth near the front gate leading to the Nonaka residence; wondering what to do. He had already given Takato his bottle of healing data, but Rika had left hers on the bench when she stormed off. He wanted to give it back to her, but felt he would almost assuredly not be welcomed. Of course he and Shadowmon could always slip in undetected and just leave it somewhere, but that seemed like an invasion of privacy.

After about his fifth pass of the gate a voice called down to him from above, "What are you doing here?"

Adman looked up. Renamon was sitting in a tree branch that had grown over the tall wall surrounding Rika's house. She seemed both hostile and extremely pleased at that moment. Perhaps it was just the possibility of having something she wished to destroy so close to her.

Adman tilted his head in the most non threatening way possible. He held up the bottle of half used data packets. "I was trying to think of a way to get this back to you. I imagine you'll need it later, but I don't think your Tamer will let me in."

Adman tossed the bottle up to the fox.

She caught it one handed. "You would be right on that assumption. I have been given instructions to attack you on sight should you enter the property."

So this was why she was in such a good mood. In Renamon's mind Rika had finally seen through his smokescreen of false benevolence and had given the order for active hostilities.

Adman leaned up against the wall casually. "You would lose."

Renamon made some semblance of a smile, her voice taking on a cocky air, "Is that so? Care to test your theory?"

Adman sighed and pushed off the wall gently. "No thanks. I don't want to hurt anyone tonight. Besides you only just recently made it back to full strength. It would be a shame to have to heal you again."

Adman took out a slip of paper and began to scribble on it. "Renamon, I was wondering if you would do a favor for me?"

Renamon hopped down to the edge of the thin wall. "Why on Earth would I want to do that?"

Adman folded the paper up and held it up. "It's a simple request. Just give this to your master. My cell number is on there. I may be hard to get into contact with otherwise. If you should find yourselves in trouble I hope that she can find the humility inside herself to call me for help. I doubt she will, but the option is always available."

Renamon jumped down to street level and took the slip of paper from him in one of her three fingered hands. Without a word she disappeared. Adman began walking away. He had a long night ahead of him. Thoughts whirled in his head; he had to find a way to dispel some of them.

Impmon was resting outside in the doghouse Ai and Mako had let him use while their grandmother was around. He hated being in there, the thought of being treated like an animal irritated him to no end, but that was the best the two could do, and so he put up with it for them. He was just getting ready to fall asleep when he heard the back gate open. Intruders were rare, but he couldn't take the risk that someone would try and hurt his Tamers. He silently slipped out of the doghouse and looked around for this new invader.

As Impmon was looking for the new visitor a voice from behind startled him, "Looking for something, my little friend."

Impmon whirled around to see Adman Hows leaning against the back edge of the doghouse. He exhaled as the fighting spirit left him. "Jeez, you gotta nock that off. Are we going to be doing this stuff every night now, cuz my nerves can't take it? Just one night I wanna get some sleep."

Adman lifted the little guy onto the doghouse so he could look at him near eye level. "I need your help with something."

Impmon looked confused. "What can I do to help?"

Adman thought for a second. "You mentioned a girl last time I was here. Jeri. I assume that's Jeri Katou? I had the privilege of meeting her earlier tonight, but I couldn't speak with her that much. After certain events tonight I feel I need to talk to somebody and she sounds like a nice enough shrink. Would you come with me? She might be more willing to see me if she sees a friendly face."

Impmon began glowing and grew into his mega form.

Beelzemon smirked. "Well I don't know about friendly, but I am familiar. Sure I'll help, but after this let me get some sleep, ok?"

Adman nodded.

Beelzemon walked to the back alley and sat down on his motorcycle. "You need a ride?"

Adman had flashbacks of the last time he got on the strange motorcycle. "Are you kidding? No way I'm getting back on that thing. You lead the way and I'll follow."

With that they were gone, with Beelzemon riding through the night and a dark shadow moving silently along the ground chasing after the biker.

Jeri Katou was resting in bed, her eyes closed, but her mind was too wired to let her sleep. She and Takato had had probably the best day that she had had in years. She was slightly embarrassed about how it ended though. Takato had been so worried about her getting hurt that he took her straight home after the Tyrannomon attacked. They had ridden home silently on the subway. At her front door he had thanked her for a wonderful evening and apologized once more for how it had ended. She gave him a hug and then surprised both of them by planting a small kiss on his cheek. Before he could say anything she had said goodnight and slipped inside. Why had she done that? Even she had no idea. Both of them had come to the agreement that their evening was not a date. Then to go and surprise kiss Takato. She hoped that the act didn't ruin their friendship.

Jeri opened her eyes as she gave up the battle to sleep. The day had been too wonderful and the end too bizarre for her to let it end so soon by sleep. Then she noticed Calumon hovering near her window with those inflated ears of his.

She asked, "Hey there, Calumon. What are you doing?"

The little Digimon did not look away from the window as he answered, "There are Digimon outside."

For a split second Jeri remembered how Leomon had spent a few nights on the edge of her roof near the window. A good memory, but not likely at this point. The other thought scared her. Had wild Digimon followed her home? Why? What could they want? She put on her slippers and moved to the window. From up high she could see two Digimon and a young man outside her window. Beelzemon was one of them and he was gathering small pebbles to throw at the window when he noticed she was already there.

He waved for her to talk to them and she opened up the window to call down, "Hi Beelzemon. Is everything ok?"

Beelzemon whispered, but in his scratchy loud voice it was still quite gruff, "Everything's fine, Jeri. I just brought a friend with me who would like to meet ya."

She looked at the young boy in black and realized he was familiar. "I already met the man next to you earlier tonight, but the Digimon is new."

Adman looked at his dark Digimon. He was surprised she could even see his pitch black form in the darkness of the night. "Yeah, this is Shadowmon. He'll help you down if you're willing to talk with me."

Jeri agreed to the strange request. Beelzemon was there. He wouldn't let anything happen to her. "Sure. I'll come down for a little while, but I can't stay out long."

With that Adman nodded to Shadowmon. One of the foot long spikes slowly left the Digimon's shoulder and as the coil climbed higher and higher Jeri realized how scary the Digimon partner of the young man was. The coil wrapped itself around her body several times like a snake trying to constrict her. She was gently lifted from her window by the powerful Digimon and set down at ground level near the trio. Calumon floated down with his giant ears and rested on her shoulder. Shadowmon let her go and the coil returned to its resting spot on his shoulder.

Adman took off his sunglasses. "My name is Adman Hows. I don't know what Takato or the others have said about me, but try to take it all in with a grain of salt."

Jeri smiled her cheery smile. "Actually the others haven't mentioned you much. All I know about you is that you saved Takato in the park. Thank you for that."

Adman put his back against the wall relaxing. Beelzemon walked away to let the two Tamers get acquainted.

"So were you the guy who hurt Guilmon?" Jeri had blindsided Adman with the question. Her voice was so gentle that it didn't even sound like an accusation.

Adman looked to the ground, slightly ashamed of himself. "Yeah, that was me. Everything went out of control. He should be better soon. I gave Takato something to help the wounds. Hopefully that'll make us cool. I kinda doubt it though."

Jeri shivered in the cold air of the night. Adman slipped off his leather jacket and put it on her shoulders. To her surprise the man had a black leather glove on his right arm that concealed practically the whole arm. She tried not to stare at the man's fashion sense and instead thanked him for the comfort of the jacket.

"No problem."

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"My friend over there says you help people with their problems." Adman motioned to Beelzemon.

Jeri looked at the Digimon. "Well I'll always do what I can. What problems do you have?"

"Oh too many to count."

"Just start with the most current one."

"Well for starters Rika now thinks I'm a complete jackass. I tried really hard to be nice to that girl. I even saved her and her Digimon tonight. But I committed the one irredeemable sin."

"What's that?"

"I called her pretty."

"That sounds nice."

"Yeah well nice don't float Rika's boat. She was the one person in this whole damn city who seemed to trust me. Now she thinks I'm scum."

"I don't have any reason to not trust you."

"Thanks. I don't know. I know I'm not part of your group or anything, but I feel like the Tamers of the world need to stay connected. Somehow I've burned that bridge though. Takato doesn't trust me either."

"That's too bad. I'm sure they'll turn around once they get to know you."

Adman smiled for just a second. The girl was cheering him up. Suddenly he shook his head and became more self-conscious. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you don't want to hear about all my problems."

"It's ok."

"No seriously. Um' how was your date with Takato?"

"It wasn't actually a date."

"Ok then. How was your 'evening' with Takato?"

"Very nice. Thank you for helping him. He can't do too much to a Digimon without Guilmon to help out."

"Few humans can."

"Takato said you did quite well on your own."

Adman's features went serious and cold. "I hardly consider myself human anymore."

Jeri felt the man's sadness. "Why is that?"

Adman sighed. "I have a fairly sordid past, Miss Katou. Maybe that's why I was given the dark Digivice."

"Maybe that's just something for you to overcome. You know you don't have to be sad. We all have the ability to change our destiny. We can change ourselves. You can be happy if you want."

"I don't know that I deserve that." Adman shook himself and continued in a cheerier tone, "I'm sorry Jeri. Christ, you just met me and already I'm going to my darker places around you."

"That's ok. You opening up shows you trust me. Thank you for that."

"Perhaps you're just easy to trust. Maybe I should have contacted you about all this. It would have saved me a lot of hassle. So anyway, did you enjoy your evening with Takato?"

"Yes, very much. We had lunch and dinner. We saw a movie. We played at the arcade."

"Sounds like my kinda date. I mean 'evening'."

Jeri hesitated with her next question, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"It only seems fair."

The question didn't easily come. It seemed foolish to ask such a personal question of someone she just met, but Adman seemed able to observe more than most. He was an outside perspective looking in on them all. She gently asked, "Do you think Takato likes Rika?"

"It's possible. She is a very likable sort, although she doesn't like that fact. I don't know really. I haven't known either of them for that long. I did see him leap in front of a speeding motorcycle to save her, but I've read he's done similar things for you. I just think he's the kinda guy who does things like that for the people he cares about. Why do you want to know? Worried she's called dibs on him?"

Jeri frowned at Adman's sarcastic prodding, "not exactly."

Adman stared at the girl for just a second, trying to read into the girl. Then a smile crept over his features as realization set in. "you do like him! I knew it."

Jeri blushed and looked away. "Well he is a very likeable guy."

Adman encouraged the girl, "Truth be told I think he likes you too."

Calumon's ears popped up excitedly. "He does. It's true. I remember now. He said so." The little eavesdropper floated to the two Tamers.

Jeri looked up at the little Digimon. "He did? When was that?"

Calumon recalled the story, "When we got back from the Digital world with what we thought was you. Takato took the D-reaper agent in disguise all the way to your house on the subway. He was talking to it and he said he liked you."

"As a friend? Something like that?" Jeri was very interested.

Calumon continued, "Nope. He actually specifically said it was more than that. Well technically he said it to the D-reaper agent, but I think it was meant for you. Then he started to cry because you wouldn't talk to him."

Jeri pressed the little Digimon for information, "Oh yeah, then what happened?"

"Then the D-reaper started talking about food or something. I don't know. I think I fell asleep."

With that the little white Digimon flew away and began carrying on a conversation with Beelzemon.

Adman folded his arms across his chest in triumph. "I don't think you can get more proof than that. What do you think about good old Takato now?"

Jeri was in her own little world, but she managed to mumble out, "I guess it was good that I kissed him."

Adman just smiled wittily as Jeri realized what she had said. "Did I just say that out loud?"

The dark Tamer nodded. "Anyway, now that we have your problem solved can we get back to mine? I know from my files that Rika's birthday is coming up."

Jeri's eyes brightened. "Yeah! I'm going to throw her a surprise party. You should come."

Adman shook his head no. "I think that she wouldn't want me to be part of the festivities. Especially since the others don't even know me, except for Takato, who hates my guts. Actually I was thinking that in order to get back in everyone's good graces I'd get her a nice present. What should I get her?"

Jeri laughed. "You know you're the second boy to ask me that question today. You and Takato. I swear Rika gets all the attention."

Adman reminded her, "Yeah, but I don't think Takato has the same feelings for Rika that he does for you."

Jeri went sly. "Do you have those feelings for Rika?"

Adman chuckled, "Not a chance in hell. I have a strict 'no Tamer women' policy; no offense. It doesn't work out well. Trust me." He shouted to Shadowmon, "Hey Shadow, you remember those two girls from New Zealand?"

Shadowmon retorted dryly, "I remember telling you it was a bad idea to get involved with them."

Adman argued subtleties with his Digimon, "As I recall you said it was a bad idea to try for one. You said nothing about both. I confess I may have been overzealous, but I'm certain I would have been able to walk away on better terms had I paced myself better."

Shadowmon replied, "Say what you will, sir. They still hate our guts now."

Jeri coughed and it brought Adman back on topic, "Sorry. I got stuck on a tangent, Miss Katou. In answer to your question, no. It's not a matter of love, but of wisdom. If I can get her back on my side, then bridging the gap between me and the group will be easier. It's strategy that makes me fond of her."

Jeri seemed disappointed, "So this is all a tactic to be closer to the group?"

Adman went back to that sad look in his eye. Whether it was real or a tactic to manipulate the girl's emotions is debatable. "Is it wrong for a man to want friends? I have been alone most of my life. I've been a Tamer for seven years now. That makes me the most experienced Tamer out there. More so than even Ryo. For the longest time I thought I was alone in that too. Then when the D-reaper attacked I saw the others on television. I was busy fighting the reaper in the Digital world, but I swore that I'd find my brothers in arms if we survived the attack. We did and so here I am. I feel we all are kindred spirits. All of us must have been made Tamers for a reason. I don't want to lose this chance to connect with people so like myself. Do you understand?"

Jeri just nodded. "I understand. You can't really force a friendship though."

"I know that, but time is against me. I have other places I need to be so I have to speed up the process."

"Why are you leaving?"

"I've got places to be. I'll be here for a month or so. Then I'm gone."

"When will you be back?"

Adman looked up at the full moon in the sky. "I don't know. By the time I come back you might not remember me. Depending on how I leave that might be a positive."

Jeri felt sad for this strange man. "Well you will be missed. I know that if you want something bad enough you'll get it. As for Rika's present, anything that comes from the heart will be appreciated. Just get her something that means something to you and that you would like. Something she'd cherish."

Adman thought about this. "Something she'd... I think I know what to get her. Thank you, Jeri. And just so you know, I'll miss your wisdom once I'm gone."

Adman said goodbye and left in the silence of the night, walking away as he normally does.

Once he and Shadowmon were alone the fox appeared and commented, "You just lied to that girl. We've known about them for much longer than the D-reaper incident."

Adman didn't debate that fact, "I know, but she doesn't need to know everything. If she knew how we knew about Mister Wong and Miss Nonaka we'd never be welcome again."