Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 11

Calumon floated through the iar on his wing-like ears, going back and forth between humming quietly to himself and giggling childishly. For the moment he was pursuing a news helicopter as it followed the pattern of traffic, its blades making a "Whup! Whup! Whup!" sound. Just listening to it caused Calumon to erupt in another round of giggles.

"You're so silly Mr. Copter!" Calumon laughed. The helicopter of course didn't respond, continuing on listlessly. Calumon tilted his head to one side and he tapped a paw against his mouth, looking somewhat saddened by this silence. "You still don't want to talk, do you? Okay…"

Shaking his head, the diminutive white digimon floated away. This had been the pattern for as long as he had been in the human world. Jeri tried to explain to him once that the helicopter could not possibly talk to him or play games of tag (no matter how often he tried to do so). Neither could the cars of course but that seemed silly no matter how he looked at it.

Grani became a real digimon, he thought. All he needed was a little persuasion from Guilmon. What am I doing wrong?

Such questions would go unanswered for the creampuff-shaped digimon, and he decided to retreat somewhere a little more familiar. Somewhere where he didn't have to deal with silly questions.

The playground served as the Tamers secondary meeting place whenever they needed somewhere close by to meet up or when they were off to school (the latter being absent of Rika due to her attendance at a different school), but while the time wasn't quite right for them to be out—Calumon thought, as he still hadn't yet learned how to tell time except through the positioning of the sun—that didn't mean that he couldn't go there and find someone else to play with. Sure enough, as he neared the playground, he sighted some children and parents in the area. Calumon cried out in glee and sped down, landing and retracting his ear-wings.

"Hi!" he greeted, his big, green eyes swiveling around. Heads turned in his direction and he waved. "I'm Calumon! Does anyone want to play?"

At first some children started toward him with big, wide smiles on their faces, but this quickly ended when parents rushed forward and snatched them up by the hand, dragging them away.

"It's a digimon!" shouted one of them. Calumon's face fell at that.

"Hey! I'm a good digimon! I don't blow stuff up! I… Come back!" Calumon hopped after the humans as they rushed off, leaving him to look down at the ground with sorrowfully. "I just want to play…"

It looked like today was going to be a boring day. Turning around he started plodding along in the direction of the swing sets.

"Awww… Whatsa matter creampuff? Someone beat you up and take your lunch money?"

Pausing, Calumon looked up in search of the familiar voice and quickly found it in the form of a slightly taller, dark-colored digimon with a pale face, red bandanna and gloves, and an evil-looking smiley face imprinted on his belly.

"Impmon!" Calumon cried out, quickly bouncing over to him. "Yay! Yay! Yay! Yaaay!"

"Take it easy the—oof!" Impmon grunted as Calumon bowled him over and clambered on top of his head. Sitting up, Impmon scowled at him.

"Hey! Get offa me! Do I look like Terriermon's partner to you?"

"Oh Impmon, he's just happy to see a friend…" came another voice followed by a pair of giggling. Looking around Calumon found Impmon's partners, a girl named Ai and her brother Mako, as they appeared from behind the slide.

"Oh! You brought friends!"

"Yeah." Impmon got to his feet and hoisted Calumon down. "They got let out of school a little early today, so I figured I'd take 'em out and run 'em around. So what're you doin'? Besides moping and making me depressed lookin' at you I mean."

"Not much else except that I'm happy to see you guys. Everyone is at school so I've got nothing else to do." A light bulb seemed to turn on in his head and Calumon tapped a paw against his chin. "Oh! Maybe I should go to school too! I hear they have a class on having fun. I'll bet I'll pass every test they have!"

"That's called recess," said Ai as she and her brother approached the pair. "It's not a class. It's just a break."

"Oh…"

Impmon snickered. "Maybe you should go to school anyway so you can learn yourself a little somethin' called 'common sense'…"

"Impmon!" exclaimed Calumon. Impmon snickered again.

"I'm just teasin' ya. Sheesh! The way you react it's like you was thinkin' I wanted to load your data or somethin'." Impmon scowled a little and scratched the side of his face. "Anyway, it looks like we've got the park to ourselves now and since it looks like I'm babysitting you too…uh…" He looked over all three. "Who wants to play a game?"

"I do!" shouted Mako, pumping his fist into the air. "I want to play 'Tamers'! I'll be the evil digimon this time and I'll be chasing…uh…" He looked down at Calumon. "Calumon, right?"

"Uh-huh!" Calumon giggled.

"So Ai and me are going to rescue ol' creampuff?" Impmon folded his arms over his chest. "I dunno. I'm pretty sure he can hold up on his own pretty well. The D-Reaper couldn't get rid of him. If I had to choose between Calumon and a rampaging digimon—or a rampaging Mako—I'd pick Calumon any day of the week."

Mako looked at Impmon with a hurt face, causing Ai to give their partner a hard look. Impmon rolled his eyes under their gaze.

"All right. If Calumon wants…"

"I do! I do! I do, I dooo!"

"Fine. Mako. Go terrorize him. Calumon, be terrorized. Ai and I will do the dashing hero act." He grinned up at Ai. "Make me look good. The whole world's countin' on ya!"

And so the game went as Calumon took off at a run with Mako chasing after him, arms outstretched and making childish, roaring noises, stomping with his feet as he went. Impmon watched them go, counting to ten to give them time to really get into the game.

He didn't make it to five when Mako suddenly stopped in mid stride and looked down at the ground. Cocking an eyebrow Impmon called out, "You find somethin' buddy?"

"There's something glowing underneath the…" Mako began before the dirt suddenly erupted in a stream of crimson.

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Takato slid his familiar blue hoodie over his head and brushed himself off. He looked at the bandage that wrapped around his arm where he had been injured in his fight from last night. He had been 'debriefed' by one of Yamaki's agents.

A dragon-digimon? He shook his head. That wasn't exactly right from what little he had been told. The agent had given him a cliff-notes version of Hypnos' information—half of which was presently classified—leaving him with more questions than answers.

It's got to be from the digital world. I mean, where else could it have come from? I know how in the TV show Gennai said there were many other worlds but so far we've only seen two. A small smile spread across his face as he took up his goggles and slid them over his head. Though now that I think of it, if there's a world out there with another Rika whose a wizard that would be kind of cool. That would be something, if there were so many worlds out there that the TV show really was real…

He chuckled. Oookay, I think someone needs to lay off the TV for a while. I can't wait to see how Guilmon is doing. He's supposed to be all right…besides being hungry that is. Man, he is such a bottomless pit. He had been disappointed to learn that the hospital discharged Guilmon out of fear of what his digital makeup could do to their equipment, but as Hypnos had been able to quickly take him in and had the necessary facilities he decided that it had been for the best. Digimon were far from being human and he knew from experience that bio-emergences had the tendency to scramble technology.

His clothes on, he picked up his D-Arc out of the box that earlier held his belongings…and nearly dropped it as a surge of electricity tore loose from the device. Takato cried out in surprise as the lightning arced in front of him and formed a humanoid shape. Features formed quickly, taking on the familiar violet eyes and red hair that Takato immediately recognized as belonging to Rika, only the similarities in her face ended there. Her hair was down and her clothes looked outlandish! Long purple gloves with black fingertips holding a bronze vajra staff and a sleek black sash over what appeared to be a silk dress of violet and gold over a kimono.

It's like she's out of some fairy tale, Takato thought, immediately recalling the agent's report about another Rika who appeared at the battle site, deciding that this had to be her. He backed up as the girl solidified and looked around her, taking in her surroundings before finally settling on him, eyes narrowing. And there's the Matsuki luck. She looks mad…

"What's going on?" she asked in a calm tone that surprised him. She didn't sound mad. Annoyed, but mostly curious.

Does she look like she's glad to see me? he wondered, noticing a softening in her gaze as she looked him over.

"Takato…" she began, her eyes settling upon his bandaged arm.

The boy pointed at himself with raised eyebrows. "You know me?"

She took his arm and looked at him quizzically. "Of course I know you. We've been together for…" She hesitated, pressing her lips together as she scrutinized him more closely. "Did that demon fox do something to your memory? She cast a spell and I…"

Again she hesitated. Takato was in the middle of puzzling out her words when suddenly she swept him up into her arms, pulling him into a powerful hug. Takato went rigid, not at all sure how he was supposed to react. He could feel heat flushing his face as her hand brush against the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair and caressing it affectionately.

Wha…Wha…Whaaa…? What is going on here? Does she…? No! That's crazy! She's just happy to see me…or whatever me she's expecting. She… Hold on! Did she say "we've been together"?

As his brain lost itself in the storm of his thoughts, the duplicate of Rika pulled away, a hard look on her face. "I promise you," she began, "that if that demon fox was in any way connected to what's going on with you…"

"Demon fox?" Takato looked at her baffled, but quickly seized upon the words, finding something that was more readily understandable. "You mean Renamon?"

Upon seeing that she didn't understand what he was talking about, he, with great care, separated himself from her. "Um…looks like a fox with purple arm guards? Bright yellow?"

"Yes," 'Rika' nodded. "She did something to me… Sent me away and now I'm back…with you…and you don't remember that we…" She blushed lightly but kept her gaze on him. Stepping forward she thrust her face at his, her expression becoming angry as she took hold of him by the shoulder with one hand. "You've got to remember! It can't be gone! Not all of it!"

"Um…" Takato raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Hang on. I do know who you are. You're Rika. Rika Nonaka and…" He swallowed, feeling as though he was standing precariously on a ledge. Seeing 'Rika's' eyes relax upon his confirmation of knowing her name did nothing to ease his own anxieties. "…this is going to take a lot of explaining…"

Rika opened her mouth to say something, but just then her eyes glowed blue and her head snapped over in the direction of the window.

"No…" she breathed. "It's here."

"Huh?" Takato looked over his shoulder, finding nothing. "Uh… What's here."

"The Chaos." The word sent a chill down Takato's spine. Rika slashed a hand to one side, causing Takato to jump in surprise as the window bent inward and shattered. "We need to go. We have to destroy it before it gets a chance to spread and grow!"

Takato didn't know what was going on but the Tamer in him recognized the deadly seriousness in her voice. And that word… The Chaos… He couldn't ignore that.

"I'm going to need Guil…"

"We don't have the time to get your horse!" 'Rika' interrupted, grabbing the boy by the waist. Blue light surrounded her body and with her charge she jumped out into the open air above Shinjuku's streets.

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