Ikuto and Falcomon's dialogue and Cyberdramon's introduction are in italics to indicate they're speaking in the language of the Northern Territories (yes, the same language Izumi was dropping words in), which, in case you're interested, is Te Reo Maori. (Yes, I was lazy enough to just shorten the name within this 'verse.) Native language of New Zealand, that country with all the sheep. Ryo's self-introduction is a real pepeha, too, except I'm told that in today's society you'd generally say your tribe is your family name.

A hoeroa is a throwing club traditionally made out of whalebone, but considering Ikuto lives nowhere near the sea, it's probably something else. Use your imaginations.

Anyway, onwards with the obligatory morning after chapter and the sudden appearance of plot. Yes, this wasn't meant to just be a romantic drama.

Ikuto's eyes widened as Mama aimed an Absolute Zero Punch at him. Dodging, he grabbed at Falcomon. "Mama, it's me, Ikuto! Don't you recognize me?" Why was she trying to hurt him? It had all started after she'd come back early from gathering food with that black ring on her leg!

"It's no use, Ikuto, she doesn't know you any more!" Falcomon replied. "Hold onto me!"

Falcomon took to the skies. At any other time, Ikuto would have loved flying with him, but right now was too terrifying, too confusing. He clung onto his digimon partner as Falcomon rolled over in the air to avoid the storm of Mama's Snow Fight.

But what was that black thing coming at them? It looked like... "Falcomon, look out! It's like one of those black rings that got Mama!"

Diving low to the ground, Falcomon skimmed the top of the coarse grasses he'd seen those things that said 'moo' eating. "Maybe we can lose it."

Ikuto risked a glance over his shoulder. "Look, if it gets you you'll end up like Mama. Land. I have an idea."

"I trust you, Ikuto," Falcomon replied, gliding lower and hitting the ground.

He rolled off Falcomon and faced the thing. With a cry, he hurled his hoeroa at the ring, shrieking in triumph when his aim proved as true as it usually did and the bone connected hard with the blackness. A small fracture appeared in the ring. It crackled, and then fell to the ground in pieces.

"You did it!" Falcomon cawed.

"Hopefully there won't be any more," Ikuto answered, cautious. Spotting a shadow on the ground, he glanced up, stiffening.

There was something big coming. Something big and dark and – a digimon. Of course. He hadn't seen one like it before, shaped like he was but with a gray thing on its face and shoulders and sharp things coming out of its forearms and four dark red wings.

"Good, you dealt with it," it – no, it sounded like a he – said. Ikuto blinked up at him, not understanding. "Oh, another human? The west just keeps on getting smaller."

"Stay back!" Ikuto yelled.

"Great," the huge digimon sighed. "Another Northerner. Er, what was that phrase the girl used again... Hello, my mountain is Infinity Mountain, my river is the Dark River, my name is Cyberdramon."

Falcomon nodded at Ikuto. "He doesn't have a dark ring like Mama did, and he used a bit of our language. I think he's safe to talk to."

"Okay," Ikuto replied, before turning back to Cyberdramon and introducing himself in one breath. "My mountain is Aleph, my river is Sneyato, my mother is Yukidarumon, my brother," he indicated Falcomon,"is Falcomon, I am Ikuto."

"Oh my god," Cyberdramon muttered in that language Ikuto couldn't understand, "it's not just a Northerner, it's a Northerner with an identity crisis. No wonder he looks so weird, dressed like a wannabe digimon or something. No, wait, your mother is Yukidarumon? The one with the dark ring?"

Having lost him after 'mother' and 'Yukidarumon', Ikuto looked completely blank. The digimon sighed again and made a circular shape with his right hand, then touched his leg. Ikuto suddenly gasped and nodded.

"Goodie," Cyberdramon said. "Come with me."

Another blank look. Cyberdramon gestured towards himself, then flew off.

"I think he wants us to go with him," said Falcomon.

"Do you think it's safe?" Ikuto asked.

"Hopefully," his digimon partner replied. "He seemed to know about the black rings."

Ikuto's resolve strengthened. "We have to save Mama." Once again, he climbed onto Falcomon's back. "Follow him."

-

The state this place had been in when Kentarou had stumbled into bed at four o'clock that morning – catastrophic – he would have expected it to be a lot worse than it was: Almost spotless. "Whoa," he said eloquently, "what happened here? I swear it looked like a bomb had gone off last night. Well, this morning."

"Hikari happened," Minami replied from the kitchen, "she came in this morning as soon as she woke up and cleaned up, it was pretty amazing. Then she went straight back to bed, not that I blame her or anything. Pancakes?"

"Kyu!" Bun enthused, diving off his shoulder and bounding along into the kitchen with his surprisingly strong legs.

Kentarou laughed. "I guess that's pancakes for Bun as well."

Minami smiled as his digimon bounced up and down by her feet, then bent down to feed him a bit of pancake. "He's so cute!"

Chewing on the pancake, Bun wagged his tail happily.

"We get that a lot," sighed Kentarou, flicking his bangs out of his eyes as he followed his partner into the kitchen. He had really ought to see about getting a haircut. "Do you know if we have strawberries?"

"Nah, Miyako's allergic," Minami returned, "she comes out in hives and gets all itchy. It's not pretty. But I put blueberries in the pancake mix."

"A girl after my own heart," Kentarou smiled, rifling through the newly clean contents of the dishwasher.

Placing a fresh pancake on the plate he offered, Minami laughed. "I would have just said your sweet tooth."

"Whatever," Kentarou said through a mouthful of pancake, "this is fantastic. Whatever you graduated in, you should go become a chef."

"Now you're just exaggerating," the girl retorted, crouching down to give Bun some more food. "Speaking of chefs, have you seen Daisuke this morning? I know he likes these too..."

"Nah, haven't seen him," Kentarou replied, "does that mean I can have his share?"

"No, silly," Minami replied. Looking in the crockery cupboard, she found a saucer, put a particularly small and Bun-sized pancake on top, and slid the saucer across the counter, before picking up the digimon and placing him gently onto a stool. "There, now you can eat with us."

"Mokyu!" Bun approved.

Taking a seat of her own, Minami smiled at the little digimon. "I wish I had a digimon."

"Er," said Kentarou, unsure of how to respond to this.

Minami shook her head slightly, as if clearing it. "Sorry, I was thinking aloud. Why'd you name your digimon Bun?"

For a moment, Kentarou merely considered the question, and who it was coming from. Apparently she'd lost a dog too, and that was why she was living here. But at the end of the day, it still hurt too much to talk about it. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Oh, that's okay," she replied, making a stellar effort at keeping the disappointment out of her voice. "Maple syrup?"

-

"Anna, Anna, Anna," Takato called out, running into the blonde woman's house without so much waiting for her to officially welcome him in. Well, it wasn'this fault no one in Abilene left their doors locked except the businesses. "Where's Ryo?"

Glancing up from her morning sudoku puzzle, Anna merely blinked at him for a moment before the math faded from her mind and the meaning of his question set in. "I haven't seen him since last night when he went out back with Jenrya. Why?"

"Nothing," Takato said quickly. The food on the table had distracted him. "May I...?"

Anna sighed. "Go for it. You know where the plates are." Eagerly, Takato went to her cupboard and took a plate back to the table. "If you're still interested in looking for Ryo, wouldn't it be better to take a sandwich...?"

Disappointed, Takato slumped. "Oh yeah." He piled a poached egg and a few rashers of bacon onto a piece of bread, slapped another piece of bread on top of it, and ran back out of the house. "I'll be back for more!"

For a moment, Anna stared after him, somewhat bewildered, and then she cracked up laughing.

-

Waking up with a hangover was one thing, something that Miyako was reassuringly familiar with. Waking up naked with a hangover in a bed that wasn't her own was another, not quite as familiar an experience but certainly something that had happened to her before. Waking up naked with a hangover and your best friend lying on top of you, also distinctly naked, took things to a completely new level of awkwardness.

"What happened?" groaned Daisuke.

"You were having an emo in the corner," Miyako recalled, "and Kentarou told me off to go tell you off, and then..."

Everything from last night suddenly hit her like a Locomon.

"Oh my god," Miyako shrieked, startling to a sitting position. Her sudden movement disrupted Daisuke's position too, and as they'd been on the edge of the bed, Daisuke was unfortunate enough to fall off. "What was that crunching sound?"

Daisuke didn't bother trying to cover himself, he just reached beneath him and came up with her glasses. Both lenses were cracked. "Shit."

Having one's glasses broken, Miyako decided, was the worst way in the world to be bashed over the head with the fact that life was not a romance movie. It was not only not a romance movie, it was nothing like a romance movie, and now she needed new glasses to boot.

"I'm so sorry," babbled Daisuke, "I know you can afford like fifty new pairs but I'll buy you a replacement, before I pay last month's rent, do you have anything else to wear, I know you really liked those frames, I am so sorry—"

How depressingly like him to avoid the real issue completely. Although it was nice of him to offer to replace them when she was the one who had kicked him out of his own bed in the first place. "It's okay, Daisuke, I have spare contacts."

"That's good," he blurted out, then fell silent. That wasn't like him.

"Did you use a—?" demanded Miyako, unwilling to voice her concerns.

Daisuke's eyes were wide and panicked. "What for, nothing happened, we didn't do anything!"

The urge to slap him was rising, but that had been how this had all started, and besides, Miyako didn't want to get out of bed. "We did each other, Dais," she snarled, "your old 'when in doubt, deny, deny, deny' philosophy isn't going to work here!"

"I'm sure we did, I always keep a few in my bedside table, okay, here's an open packet on the floor, we must have used it!" Daisuke chattered nervously, waving around the empty condom packet. "Aren't there pills for that sort of thing?"

Miyako grit her teeth together in an effort to stay civil. "Yes, there are, but I would much rather not have to go down to the pharmacist this morning."

Her best friend – well, apparently more than that now – balled his hands into fists in his concern. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I swear."

"Neither did I," Miyako muttered, "it just happened." She sighs heavily. "Dais, please, put some clothes on, give me a moment, andfuck off."

"This is my room," Daisuke pointed out.

Miyako threw her – alright, technically Daisuke's – pillow at him. "This is myhouse!"

"Point taken," Daisuke muttered, scrambling for a shirt.

-

In the saddle in the main street of Abilene, Takato paused as he took a bite of his impromptu sandwich to examine his new D-Arc. The others had said you could track digimon and other digivices with it, and he'd actually seen Ryo using this feature once to find Yamato and Taichi. Something about flashing dots... Well, in a town like this one, there were several. That had to be Mimi's in the approximate direction of Voler, and the dots scattered around the boundary of the town were probably the digimon on patrol. Shuichon wasn't up yet, so that was her at home, that was probably Chichos at Acheter, there were Taichi and Yamato...

Easily the area with the most dots clustered together was Le Coucher. Takato dismissed most of them as Wallace, his two digimon partners, Shuichon's Lopmon, Junpei (apparently he had a digivice, though he'd never seen a digimon around him), Jen, and Jen's Terriermon (Takato still couldn't believe Jen had a digimon partner). That still left one unaccounted for. Maybe that was Ryo?

But who was that dot on the outskirts of town and apparently coming towards him? Takato looked up into the sun, winced, and put his goggles on. Okay, that definitely wasn't a human, and the shape looked kind of familiar, and Ema was starting to get a little antsy... Oh!

"Hey, big guy," he greeted Cyberdramon. Somehow Ryo's partner managed to look rather unimpressed at the nickname, despite Takato not being able to see his eyes. Oops. Better move on before he got too offended. "Have you seen Ryo?"

"I was hoping you had," the perfect level digimon replied evenly.

Takato frowned. "Oh, okay." Perking up, he hit upon an idea. "Wanna look for him together?"

Cyberdramon stiffened. "I'm sure he'd much rather I didn't. But do tell me when you find him."

"Sure," Takato smiled. "Hey, you've got a good sense of smell, right?" Cyberdramon's jaw dropped, probably trying to tell him, 'are you kidding me?' Takato barged on, regardless. "Could you sniff him out? There's too many digimon and people with digivices in this town for the tracking system to be of much use."

Ryo's partner digimon stared at his digivice for a moment (at least, he thought he was staring at the digivice, maybe he was looking at his saddlebags) before giving the air an obligatory sniff. "That way," he pointed with a claw.

About the direction of Le Coucher. Hey, he was right! "Thanks!"

Without waiting for a response – Cyberdramon really freaked him out sometimes – Takato dug in his heels and turned Ema to face Le Coucher before urging his horse into a trot. There was no need to gallop the fifty or so meters to the boarding house. Within a couple of minutes, he was dismounting and striding into the lobby. He'd been right about Wallace and the two Lopmon and the two Terriermon, too! "Hey, Wallace!"

"Takato!" Wallace greeted him with a smile which quickly turned teasing. "I thought you had a house."

The brunette laughed. "Yeah, I'm not checking in, you dork, I'm looking for someone. Have you seen Ryo?"

"Doesn't he have a house too?" Wallace pointed out.

"Jen's room," said one of the Terriermon, Takato presumed he was Jen's. "But I wouldn't just go barging in there if I were you..."

"Thanks, Terriermon," Takato beamed, "what's the room number?"

Terriermon rolled his eyes and glided over to the log book. That was nice, he was learning his way around the boarding house. "Two point nine, right upstairs.Seriously, I really don't recommend going in..."

"Thanks again!" Takato replied, making his way to and up the stairs. Honestly, what was Terriermon so worried about? Ryo and Jen must have been having a sleepover! What a great idea! Takato never did that for fun any more, it was always just all about the job and sleeping on the ground in a tent that didn't always keep off the rain if there was a particularly bad storm. Man, Takato hated storms.

Counting down the rooms, Takato barely knocked on the door of room 2.9 before bounding inside. "Hi, guys, I was mucking around with Juri's digivice and—"

He stopped to stare. Jen. And Ryo. In bed together. With no clothes on. His childhood friend and his work partner who was like the older brother he'd never had. Together. In bed. Naked. "Guh??"

"'Mucking around with a digivice', is that what they call it these days?" Ryo said mildly. "Keep your voice down, I didn't want to wake him."

"What about Ruki?" Takato blurted out. She and Ryo were together, weren't they? But Ryo was in bed with Jen, and the room smelt of sex and— Was Ryogay? But what about Ruki?

For the first time, Ryo looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Er. I really don't know."

Speechless, Takato didn't notice that he dropped his digivice on his way out of the room.

-

"Minami," Kentarou informed Hikari as she entered the kitchen, looking tired but considerably less hungover (apparently she didn't drink, but then again, Derek the exchange student had spiked the punch), "makes the best pancakes in the world."

"I wouldn't go that far," Minami smiled modestly.

"I know," Hikari replied, "I've had them. Can I have a few?" Helpfully, Minami got up from the kitchen counter to find Hikari a plate for her pancakes, before sliding the plate and a knife and fork to her usual place at the counter. "Thanks, 'nami."

"Is Miyako up yet?" Minami asked. "We haven't seen her or Daisuke this morning."

Stricken by inspiration, Kentarou looked between the two girls. "You don't suppose...?"

"Oh no they didn't," Hikari gasped.

"I bet they did!" Kentarou declared.

"Kyu?" asked Bun, looking up from his breakfast.

"When you're older," Kentarou replied.

His digimon partner shrugged (impressive feat with his tiny arms) and went back to his pancake.

"That's so sweet!" cooed Minami. "They're best friends; they're perfect for each other!"

"They're best friends," Hikari repeated, looking horrorstruck, "it would have been completely awkward!"

"Believe me," Daisuke announced darkly, from the doorway to the lounge, "you have no idea. Pancakes, please."

-

Where there was that overly skittish horse – what was its name again? Ema? – there was probably the goggle head. Cyberdramon waited patiently (for him, anyway) outside Le Coucher and caught the little goggle head as he ran out of the front door. "Did you find him?"

"Did I ever," gasped Matsuda. "Did you know he was gay? Because I didn't!"

Cyberdramon shifted uneasily as Monodramon's consciousness fought for just a little more control within him. [Keep your perverted fantasies to yourself, there's something more important we need to talk to him about!

Actually, he had a point, but Cyberdramon found himself distracted again. "Where's that digivice you were waving around?"

Involuntarily, he twitched. That was a sure sign Ryo was coming...

"You dropped this," Ryo said in the doorway, and he tossed Matsuda the D-Arc before he could answer. "Is it yours? How'd you get it?" Then his gaze fell on Cyberdramon, and on Ikuto and Falcomon beside him. "Cyberdramon, who are your friends?"

Oh, he would use that word just to annoy him, wouldn't he? Cyberdramon decided against pointing out the term. "This is Ikuto, and I'm assuming his partner Falcomon. They don't speak Servian."

"More Northerners!" Matsuda said, excited despite himself.

"Apparently he was raised by a Yukidarumon or something," Cyberdramon continued, examining his claws, "but I saw her get hit by a dark ring and she went berserk, tried to attack these two. There was another ring going for Falcomon but the boy destroyed it."

"This can't be good," Ryo stated the obvious. "Takato, tell me about the digivice later, okay? I have to deal with this."

"Er, okay," said Matsuda, looking like he wanted to say something else.

"And don't go running off and telling anyone about me and Jen," Ryo added as an afterthought.

Beneath the mask, Cyberdramon blinked. Ryo and— that Zentral boy? Makino, he tolerated (barely), but Lee?

"Fine," replied Matsuda.

"Takato, that includes Ruki," Ryo warned.

The goggle head looked disappointed. "Alright." Then his stomach grumbled, and he blushed instead. "I'll be at Anna's if you need me."

"Cool," Ryo said absently, already turning to go back into the boarding house. "Oh, do you have a digimon?"

Matsuda was startled. "Er, no, but there's a digitama on the screen."

"Tell me when it hatches," Ryo ordered, then he paused and glanced at Cyberdramon. "You're not going to fit through the doorway."

"Do I have to," Cyberdramon almost whined.

Ryo rolled his eyes. "Yes."

Cyberdramon sighed and grudgingly devolved to Monodramon. There went his mental dominance, to be replaced with that child speaking for them.

Their partner looked over Ikuto and Falcomon, hesitating for a moment before saying, "Come inside."

"He told you," said Monodramon, "they don't speak Servian."

"How'd you get them this far, then?" Ryo returned.

Monodramon gestured at them again, and after a moment, the Northerners (so he presumed) followed them into the boarding house lobby. Both he and Ryo took seats; the other two partners looked confused for a moment before sitting on the coffee table.

"Well, that's close enough, I guess," Ryo murmured, before regaining his composure. "Er. Izumi taught us how to do this properly, let's see if I remember it... Nah, I'll just do the shorter version without grandparents. Um. Kia ora koutou?" Ikuto looked startled, then nodded. Encouraged, Ryo went on. "Ko tauiwi taku iwi. Ko Infinity taku maunga, ko Dark taku awa. Ko Nibori taku papa, ko Isidora taku mama, ko Ryo taku ignoa. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa."

"You speak Te Reo?" the Marshall boy asked with interest, glancing behind him as he started up the stairs followed by his Terriermon and Lopmon and the other digimon he seemed to have acquired (oh, the Lee boy's and his little sister's digimon, Milleniumon remembered).

"Not really, I just picked up a bit from a Northern girl I know," Ryo replied without looking up, "please don't distract me? This is important."

Monodramon glanced up to see the Marshall boy wave a hand in assent and disappear up the stairs, his little digimon army trooping after them.

Digimon army...? Maybethat was why the Yukidarumon Ikuto called 'Mama' and several other digimon they'd seen lately had those dark rings on their bodies. He was careful to mentally phrase it in the subjunctive.

[It's not a bad idea, conceded Monodramon.

Ryo stared at Ikuto for a moment, before saying something that sounded like a question. Possibly 'what happened'. Monodramon gave up on following the conversation.

-

"So how was it," Kentarou hazarded a few hours after breakfast.

Daisuke looked confused for a moment, then suddenly caught onto his meaning and grinned. "Amazing."

A Who's Who of Non-Show or Obscure Characters from the Last Five Chapters, for people who were curious but too lazy to look it up:

Chapter 6
Doug is a random enemy Tamer in the Playstation game Digimon World 2.
Tatum is an American digidestined partnered with Airdramon in Adventure 02.
Yuka is Ikuto's little sister in Digimon Data Squad/Savers, while Misuzu and Kenji are his parents.

Chapter 7
Babel Enterprises is indeed owned by the Monster Maker of Tamers.
Tadashi and Taizou are two of Takato's classmates in Tamers. Why, yes, I am throwing a lot of Tamers into Westside.
Ryo's Elite cousin is, in one of my weirder freaks of crossovers, Keiko, a Dark Spore child with a Yukimi Botamon in Adventure 02.

Chapter 8
'Professor' Kondoo is from the Digimon Next manga.
The person complaining about the digidex was going to be Shuichon until I realized this wouldn't work with the timeline. So I think I'll make it Karen Bates from Digimon World 2 instead. You know, like it matters.

Chapter 9
The Alice Ken writes to finally is Alice McCoy of Tamers. Honestly, there are way too many Alices in the video games.
The names Mari spouts off as girls who are "getting some" are random enemy Tamers from Digimon World 3, except for Angel, who's another Australian from Adventure 02. This one's one of the two token girls, the brunette with the Gizamon.