Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Digimon Trinity

Chapter: 11/ The Fox and the Hound

"Hey Ken," began Davis as they made their way down the park path. "What do you think of that new kid? Will you really be able to get him a permanent license?"

Ken shrugged nonchalantly, being somewhat lost in his thoughts. "Probably, as long as his digimon remains on his best behavior. But…" He frowned. "The hazard sign worries me."

Davis nodded, remembering the last time they faced down a digimon with that symbol branded on their body. Lucemon—an angelic digimon whose name was based on the mythological Lucifer—had taken control of a segment of the digital world. He seemingly did fine at the time as he ended a civil war that had been raging there for years, but soon became tyrannical, oppressing digimon until the Digidestined and a group of Mega digimon fought him and his servants, capturing him in a Dark Area prison. Lucemon had only been at the Rookie level, but he had been tremendously powerful.

He shuddered to think of how strong Lucemon would have been had he been at a higher level.

"Izzy said that digimon with a hazard sign are supposed to be pretty dangerous," Davis said.

"Yeah!" DemiVeemon giggled from atop the man's head. "That's why they have a hazard on them genius!"

"Lay off," Davis rebuked before returning to Ken. "But he seemed okay. Kind of like a kid. I mean, Takato did say that he created him…"

Ken nearly missed a step at that. Whirling about, he fixed Davis with a sharp glare. "Takato did what?"

Uh oh… "Um… He created Guilmon?"

"And you didn't say anything?!"

"Chill out, Ken," Davis said, backing up and raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry. Kari said that she wanted to give the kid a chance. He seems nice enough."

"Davis…" Ken groaned, pressing a hand against his head. "This changes a lot of things…"

Davis raised an eyebrow at that. "How?"

"Well…for starters…" Ken began, but his words fumbled, seemingly unable to describe what the issue was. Guessing at what was going on in his friend's mind, Davis took a more confident step toward his friend.

"This is about when you were the Digimon Emperor, isn't it? When you created Kimeramon."

Ken fixed Davis with another harsh look, but the anger was definitely dissipating.

"Yes," he replied after a moment. "You recall what I've told you about that, right? How Devimon's darkness was consuming me? Kimeramon was little more than a weapon—a tool—with no other purpose than to destroy my opponents." He flinched at his words, but he pressed onward. "A program hardwired into a digimon shell-body, and when I showed just a little bit of mercy, the darkness I had empowered him with took control."

Davis nodded, remembering those days. They were a black eye on Ken's life. He had to live everyday with the knowledge that he caused untold amounts of pain and suffering in his bid to rule the entire digital world. It hadn't been his fault, as he had been infected with a Dark Spore from an adventure he had prior to the Digimon Emperor War, causing his mind to steadily unravel over time as it simultaneously increased his abilities, but the fact remained that his hands had been the means to cause so much destruction. From his mind was birthed Kimeramon, and it weighed on him daily.

"Ken," Davis began, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "For all we know this could be completely different. If you're that worried about it though, can we get him checked out?"

"We already are," Ken said, turning back down the path. "I have Wormmon shadowing him as we speak. He'll contact us in case there's a problem."

As if on cue, Ken's cell phone rang. Taking it out, he hit the reply button. "Wormmon?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"We have a problem…" Wormmon began worriedly.

###

Unreality washed over Takato as he struggled to understand what was going on. One second ago, he and Guilmon had been looking for a place where Guilmon could stay, and in the next they were being attacked by a Renamon partnered with a girl that Takato swore only existed in his dreams. He clapped a hand on his forehead in an attempt to make either reality or his brain make some kind of sense of it all. Unfortunately, neither seemed to be cooperating.

"I saw you in my dream," he repeated, shaking his head. "No way, it can't be!"

The red-haired girl—Rika—tilted her head to one side, a bit unsettled by the notion that this boy dreamt about her in any fashion. Creep, she thought. "So, you're a lousy Tamer and you're weird," she berated. "Now amscray, unless you think you can handle us, little boy?"

That got Takato's blood boiling as he took a step toward her. "I am not either a lousy Tamer and what do you mean little boy?" he shouted angrily. "I…uh…" he deflated somewhat as he looked over at Guilmon, who was now recovering from Renamon's blow, watching the pair as they shouted at each other in confusion over what he should be doing in response. "…Guilmon's just young that's all!"

"Like Tamer like digimon," Rika stated scornfully. "Come on, he's at least a Rookie, right?"

"Um… Ah… Well?" Takato looked back at Guilmon, who shrugged. "Yeah, well, at least I think so," Takato replied, turning back to Rika. "That's what I was going for. You know I've never done this before."

Rika looked on, confused. "Never done what before?"

"Ahhh…" Created my own digimon? his mind answered, but the response sounded bizarre to him, even in a world full of digimon. To his knowledge, it hadn't been done before.

"Oh how clever," Rika continued, stepping aside for her vulpine digimon. "Renamon?"

"No, wait! Call her off!" Takato exclaimed, waving his arms in the thin hope of disarming this approaching conflict. "Come on! We don't want to fight!"

Curling a hand into a fist, Rika turned on Takato furiously. "Don't want to fight? Are you kidding me? I knew you were just some little boy with a pet digimon! Do you even know what digimon you have there you goofy little Gogglehead?" Her eyes flashed as they flicked over to the yellow-rimmed Goggles sitting on his head. If that didn't say 'I'm stupid' nothing did. "It's got a hazard sign on it! Don't you know what that means?" Rika ground her teeth together at the boy. "I bet your digimon is a Virus too," she grated. "Virus digimon love to fight. Well, I'm more than happy to oblige. Especially since your digimon's Hazard data will get me what I need."

"Wha…? Get you what you need?" Takato was horrified. This girl intended to murder Guilmon. "But…Guilmon doesn't want to hurt anyone…"

"For goodness sake," Renamon began, leaping into the air. "Let's just get this over with!"

Crossing her arms, a sphere of light formed in front of Renamon, breaking apart into dozens of razor-sharp crystalline shards as she slashed her arms outward. "Diamond Storm!" she shouted, the shards falling down toward Guilmon. Remembering what happened to the Lynxmon from his dream, Takato let out a cry and turned toward his partner.

"Guilmon! Run away!"

"Heyyy…!" Guilmon howled as the shards impacted his scales and the ground around him, detonating with explosive force. Shielding his eyes, Takato felt all his hopes for a peaceful or semi-peaceful resolution evaporate completely.

"Just listen to me for once!" he called out desperately, but it was too late. The smoke cleared, revealing Guilmon virtually unscathed by Renamon's attack. However, there was a distinct and noticeable change in his eyes. The pupils had shrunk into vicious slits and an animalistic snarl broke across his face. Opening his mouth, a crimson glow began to burn in the back of his throat. Takato recognized instantly what was happening. Battle was about to be joined.

"Pyro Sphere!" Guilmon called out, and a red bolt shot out from his maw, aimed at Renamon as she came for a landing on a tree branch. Seeing it, she had barely just enough time to jump out of the way as the blast struck the branch, blasting it into pieces.

Renamon dove toward Guilmon, shouting a battle cry. She had to admit, she was caught off guard by the digimon's durability and the speed to which it counter attacked. Fugamon had been a Virus type and a Champion and it still fell to her Diamond Storm. Granted, she wasn't fighting under any modify card effects, but even so, at this level this Guilmon should have been destroyed.

Who is this guy? she wondered, narrowing her eyes as she drew closer. No answer came to her, but the hazard sign had to be the key in all this. Switching back to the battle, she had barely enough time to defend herself with her arm as Guilmon got into a crouch and then jumped up at her, arm clamping down on her armguard and biting hard as they crashed to the ground and rolled. Renamon clenched her teeth, resisting the urge to hiss in pain. There would be no damage, but Guilmon's jaws held ferocious strength that she could feel all the same. She clawed at his face with her free arm, hoping that by doing so he would dislodge his vice-like grip. Most digimon, like humans and animals, protected their eyes, so just the fear of them being damaged alone should be enough…

Should being the key word here.

Whatever fears other living things had about their safety and wellbeing, Guilmon clearly didn't have it, at least not while in the grips of this…berserker rage. He remained singlemindedly focused on trying to tear her arm off, his fangs digging deeper as he pulled and tugged. Renamon's arm jerked painfully around her wrist joints, and those eyes…

It was as if he were a possessed by a demon!

"Come on… Sometime today!" Rika growled at her digivice as it displayed a holographic circle with Guilmon's image on it, struggling to get some useful information on their adversary. "Why doesn't it have any data on Petmon over there?" she asked, but the digivice flashed only No Data at her.

This wasn't right. Her digivice had encyclopedic knowledge of all digimon. Closing out of the scan function, she looked up at the battle. "This thing's a piece of junk."

As both Tamers watched, Renamon tumbled over to the side, still attempting to free herself. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to go one step further and gouge out Guilmon's eye. Killing a digimon was one thing, but she preferred their deaths to be quick and as clean as possible if she could help it. She was going to have to find another way.

Watching helplessly, having not moved an inch as he stood there, paralyzed with fear and horror, Takato could only shake his head. "Guilmon, please!" Something wasn't right with his partner. The way he was acting brought out all the terror he felt when Guilmon first appeared in the real world. He wasn't acting like Guilmon at all. It was as if… as if… He cried out, trying to shake himself out of his fear-ridden fog. "I don't even think he remembers I'm here!"

Across from him, Rika, not having the same issue, went for a different approach. Digging into her deck box strapped to her belt, she pulled out a card. "That's just plain sloppy Renamon!" she shouted, raising the card to her digivice. Sliding it through the slot on the side, sparks flew as it activated its effect. "Digi-modify!" she called out, the card glowing blue. This seemed to snap Takato out of his haze as he watched.

"What is she doing now?"

"Armor Activate!" Rika finished. In response, Renamon raised her free hand and light coalesced around it, forming a metal gauntlet around it.

"Huh?" Takato recognized the item. It was based on a modify card in the game and had a pressurized metal bar inside it. Pull the trigger and it delivered a punch that could easily destroy the skulls of most Rookie level digimon. "Oh this is really bad…" I'm going to lose him! "Guilmon!" he shouted, almost losing himself to panic. "Run away, I'm begging you!"

Renamon lowered her gauntlet to Guilmon's head as across from them Rika smirked triumphantly.

"Now that's more like it."

One second. One chance. That was all he had. All at once, it felt like the world around him vanished, and the storm in his mind began to calm a little, replaced by…something else? Another storm? A sea of red fire it felt like, but so focused on Guilmon he didn't even see it. He took a shuddering breath and…

"Come on boy… Get out of there! Now would be a really good time for you to start listening to me!"

And then Guilmon blinked.

"Takatomon?"

His pupils returning to normal, Guilmon relinquished his grip on Renamon's arm and stood up, looking over at Takato as if wondering what he was doing all the way over there. He didn't even notice Renamon shifting to take aim once again. She lined up with the side of his face and pulled the trigger…just as Guilmon moved out of the way.

Renamon gasped in surprise as the recoil from the weapon blew her away from the reptile, who, for his part, simply began running over to Takato like an eager child to their parent.

"I'm not listening? Sorry, sorry! Time to play!"

Landing to her feet, Renamon got into an attack stance to gauge the situation. Guilmon's demeanor had altered from the animal to that of a juvenile, eager to please his human partner. Quite the change from how he was before and quite unlike any other digimon she had encountered. She found herself wondering if they should continue pursuing this battle. The way the Guilmon had tanked her attack, and with the hazard sign to consider… There were still too many unknowns and this battle alerted her to one of them already.

She wouldn't even be here fighting them had Rika not caught sight of the pair as they entered the park.

"Now's your chance, Renamon!" Rika called, snapping the vulpine digimon out of her thoughts. "Don't screw up this time!"

Yet as Guilmon ran into Takato's arms, Renamon hesitated. They're too close, she thought. If I attack, there's a chance that the human will be injured…

There was more as well. The sight of Guilmon running into the welcoming arms of his partner struck a chord in her. A master and his pet they may be, but even without that they both seemed to care greatly for each other in a short amount of time. She thought of last night, when she watched them sleeping together peacefully. She had thought then that she would destroy Guilmon easily and move on, but now…

"What's wrong with you?!" Rika demanded, seeing Renamon pause. "Hellooo? Attack! Now!"

I'm sorry, Renamon thought uncharacteristically. Leaping into the air, she descended toward Takato and Guilmon as they turned to see her approaching, eyes cold and weapon ready. This is the end.

"Stop it!"

"Silk Thread!"

The two cries were different, and they both came from different directions. The first caused Renamon to look away to find its owner and miss the second as a sticky, web-like substance struck her armored hand. She only realized what was going on just as a Wormmon appeared from the tree line, the webbing protruding from its mouth. It gave a sharp pull and Renamon crashed to the ground.

Rika, Takato and Guilmon both looked up in surprise up a hill as the Wormmon landed. Behind him approached a dark-skinned boy with a long-eared digimon beside him. Takato blinked, swearing that he recognized him, but could not for the life of him recall his name.

"Who… I… You?!"

The long-eared digimon, a Terriermon, raced down the hill toward Takato, tiny arms up in the air and giggling. "It's me! It's him! And aren't you happy to see us?"

More digimon… Rika thought guardedly. And this time with another Tamer. She looked up and locked her violet eyes with the grey ones of the other boy as he slid down the hill toward them. What's going on here? Is he going to side with this guy's digimon?

Terriermon ran right up to Renamon and stopped, smirking. "You looked pretty good there at the end," he said. "But didn't you feel silly rolling around in the dirt like that?"

Renamon stiffened, feeling her body flush beneath her fur. Only seconds had passed since the fight was interrupted by these two digimon and she already decided which one she liked the least.

"It's not very smart to mouth off to someone bigger than you," the dark-haired boy said as he came to a stop by Takato. Turning and doing a small dance on one leg, Terriermon laughed.

"Henryyy… Momentai!"

"You take it easy," Henry replied before looking over at Rika and Renamon. "What are your digimon fighting about anyway?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Wormmon said, crawling down the hill, an angry look on his face. "Digimon aren't supposed to be fighting in the real world but for some reason you," Wormmon pointed a claw at Rika as he crawled by her on his many legs, "went after these two. Why?"

Rika was flabbergasted by the Wormmon's authoritative tone, wondering what made him think that he could just demand answers from her. It took only a second for her to see the badge pinned to one of his legs; a silver shield medallion with a D emblazoned on it. Rika grimaced, recognizing the Wormmon as working for the authorities.

Oh this is just great, she growled mentally. She expected this to happen at some point, but never this soon. Shouldn't have attacked those two blockheads in the daytime. I should have waited and followed them… See what they were going to do.

It was too late to turn back the clock now. There was only one thing left to do. "Renamon?" she said, turning to her partner. With no words exchanged between them, the vulpine digimon vanished, only to reappear behind Rika. Taking the girl into her arms, they disappeared together, leaving a surprised and angry Wormmon fuming at the spot that they had vacated.

"Hey!" his head snapped up at the sky. "You're resisting arrest! That's against the law! Where do you think you're…?"

"Incoming!" he heard Takato yell. Turning, he spotted a familiar blue-scaled, quadruped digimon wearing black armor and a lightning-bolt shaped spike sticking out of his facemask with two more sticking out of his back. Raidramon. One of the Armor-evolved forms of Veemon. On his back were Davis and Ken.

Immediately upon landing, Ken jumped off, black and grey digivice at the ready as he scanned his surroundings. "We're here, Wormmon. What's the situation?"

The only immediate answer was Davis behind him, retching as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

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