Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure is a fan fiction idea. Please support the official properties.

Author's Notes: Hello you beautiful readers and welcome to another chapter of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure! A huge thanks to everyone who left reviews and favorited/followed the story. Big props again to AceSpiritwell for producing the cover art for this story. Give their fanfiction and deviantart accounts a look. I know I said I would start linking fan art in my profile but I ran into a difficulty with the links. I'm trying to figure out how to post them. In the mean time, let's start some guest reviews:

Guest 1: Fair enough, I can give it a watch but I can't guarantee that there will be a place to fit it in the timeline of The Tamer.

Guest 2: Less inclined to watch most game walkthroughs. I may give Anode/Cathode/Tag/D-1/Brave Tamer since I can genuinely see Ryo's story fitting into the timeline of the Tamer.

Okay, let's start the next chapter of the Tamer!


The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure

Chapter 29: Hold The Line

The Tachikawa couple dug through their closet and kitchen to arm themselves with whatever they needed. They closed their curtains, turned off the lights, and locked the doors to keep the monsters from getting in. Outside, they could still hear the screams of panic and the thunderous booms that made their little apartment shake. And Mimi was out there somewhere with that little talking cactus-flower thing. And they weren't going to just sit by when she was in danger. They were far from the strongest or the bravest people in the world, but they refused to let any harm come to their daughter.

Keisuke Tachikawa retrieved some old golf clubs he used for when he golfed with his work buddies and Satoe taped her sharpest kitchen knives to the ends like a spear. These were replaceable to the businessman and house wife. Their daughter was not. They didn't think these would at all be useful against the monsters, but something was better than anything.

Once they were certain they were ready, the couple opened the door to their apartment – prepared to go out and find their daughter. At the door, they found themselves staring at a pair of bed sheet ghosts with wide grins that revealed razor sharp teeth. Satoe immediately slammed the door on them only to find that they easily passed through the door. With a raspy echo, the first ghost spoke, "Oooh! We are the servants of Lord Myotismon! You will come with us or we will-"

The second ghost slapped the first and spoke more clearly, "Knock it off. You look like an idiot. Alright, listen up. We don't want to hurt you. We're only here to take you to our master. He wants you two alive for some reason."

Satoe blinked, "What?"

"Did you have to ruin it?" the first ghost asked.

"You already ruined it when you went through the door acting like that. Nobody acts like that. We're ghosts and we don't act like that!" the second ghost snapped. The first ghost slouched and whined, "I was just enthusiastic and I think we should put more effort it our parts."

"I'll give you effort," the second slapped him again. The first ghost yelped and floated back, allowing the second to take command, "So, what do you say? Come with us? I mean, we're taking you anyway. But you can come in one piece or you can come with broken legs."

Satoe and Keisuke looked at each other then took a stab at the two ghosts with their weapons. The make-shift spears passed through the ghosts and the first sighed, "See. This is what I mean. We don't act like ghosts so no one respects us like ghosts."

"Oh, shut up and knock them out," the second growled. The two ghosts swarmed the couple and knocked them out.


The Tokyo Wangan Police Station was located along Odaiba's waterfront, just a block away from the the small district's city hall. The front entrance was humble and faced out onto the street while the rear of the building faced the waters of the bay area. Before the building ran an elevated rail line that paired well with the station's excessive design, reminding everyone of Odaiba's presence as a more glamorous district in the city.

It was also where the local police force were making their stand against the horde of monsters that had appeared to overtake Tokyo. The two sides pushed against each other as hard as they could but the monsters were making their way inch by inch. The police had set up barricades and road blocks along the streets leading up to the station but it seemed like it did more to slow down the people running from the monsters than the monsters themselves. In fact, the only thing that looked like it was slowing these creatures down was the fact that they were working through the people too slow to get away from them.

Still, the police fired whatever they had with their small fire arms. Those trained in riot control geared up in their suits and headed out in their blue uniforms and riot shields. These few brave police formed a line three men deep at the entrance to the station to hold off smaller monsters that look like rabbits. A few were trained snipers and they took positions at the windows to pick off the monsters. But the fog made it impossible to pick off anything until it was already at the line of police with shields.

And as powerful as their rifles were, the larger digimon didn't even seem to notice the impact. In fact, they seemed more confused - they registered that something was hitting them but had no idea where they were being hit from. And the mild annoyance didn't slow down their rampage, or help the people they were chowing down on.

As the crowd of people began to thin, the police became more liberal with their shooting and began shooting gas grenades into the monsters to ward them off. The gas grenades worked on the smaller ones and they cleared out in a fit of coughs. But the larger monsters carried on unabated towards the station. No amount of bullets slugging the large monsters could deter them.

Kabuterimon and Garurumon hurried towards the sound of the gun fire with their partners riding on their backs – Matt, TK, and Patamon rode atop Garurumon while Izzy, Davis and Jun rode atop Kabuterimon. Jun was more than freaked out at having to ride the giant bug and incredibly disappointed that she couldn't ride with Matt. They didn't immediately join the fray, instead hanging back to figure out how many there were. Izzy counted three Tyrannomon, twenty Gazimon, eight green insect digimon that Kabuterimon identified as Snimon, four Mammothmon, and a large Tyrannomon that was completely black. It wore a leather wraps around both arms and shouted commands to the rest.

Izzy had never seen one like it nor had their digimon. He referenced his laptop database to find information related to the new digimon, "DarkTyrannomon, champion level, virus attribute, classified into Dragon's Roar and Nightmare Soldier Families. Predominance in arid climates…yadda yadda…Tyrannomon digimon affected by virus during digivolution…increased aggression, strength, and intelligence at the cost of speed and durability. Will attempt to draw out battles from a distance and command other Tyrannomon class digimon."

"How do we beat him?" Matt asked aloud. Izzy continued flying through the data, "There's nothing specific but it looks like if we beat him head on, then that might make the other digimon stand down."

"Great, this is just like Koromon Village again. We have to get to the strongest guy who is going to hide behind his big army!" Matt groaned.

"No it's not. We don't have anywhere to run and neither do they!" Izzy said defiantly, still reading through the laptop, "Wait. I got something. It says here that as a Nightmare Soldier, they have a natural weakness against the Virus Busters and Holy Knight families."

"Okay, so where do we get one of those?" Matt asked. A few more button presses was all it took for Izzy to pull up the information he needed. He turned his screen and showed them the file on Angemon, "We already have one."

"NO!" Matt said right away, "They are not-"

"Matt! I can help out too y'know!" TK said defiantly.

"TK, don't get mad. Your brother is just worried," Patamon tried reasoning with TK to no avail. It was like something had snapped in his mind and the little boy hissed, "I want to help! We have to help! I'm not going to stop just because Matt's a scaredy cat!"

"Hey! He's not a scaredy cat!" Jun chose the worst possible time to jump in and found herself backing away from the little boy, "You butt out of this! No one's talking to you or your cooties! You're only defending him because you like him, and that's totally gross! Ick!"

"Leave Jun alone!" Davis piped up, "If anyone's gonna pick on my sister, it's going to be me!"

"Okay, TK, calm down. We need cool heads if we're going to avoid making mistakes. You are going to help. And you aren't going to have a problem with it Matt," Izzy said wearily to the two brothers. Both shot him a nasty look, but Matt's was hostile while TK's was more accepting. Izzy went on before either of them could respond, "The police are making a big enough distraction. The computer says that DarkTyrannomon is smart enough to recognize a threat and will address it right away. But he also prefers to keep his distance. Here's what I'm thinking – Garurumon and Kabuterimon can draw his attention away from the police. Once they're far enough away, Angemon can fight DarkTyrannomon!"

"So when do I digivolve?" Patamon asked. Izzy scanned back up the street, "As soon as we have Dark Tyrannomon and the other digimon up the street with us. If you show up first, he might not come for us at all."

"What about us?" Davis pointed at himself and his sister. Izzy looked back up the street, "Once we have them chasing us, you guys make a break for the police station. But wait until they've all gone past us. Then it'll be safe to go."

"I want to help too!" Davis said anxiously. Izzy waved him off, "Sorry Davis. I don't think there's anything you can do to help us. Just…stick to the plan and run to the police when you get a chance."

"Okay," Davis said in sullen defeat. He hung his head and took a few steps back. Izzy continued looking through his laptop but motioned for the digimon to go, "You guys go and draw them back. I'm going to get more information on the other digimon."

"Okay!"

"Let's go!"

Garurumon and Kabuterimon were tired but were still ready to continue fighting with all they had. Kabuterimon flew ahead and unleashed a storm of electricity along the ground, getting the attention of the larger digimon. The digimon stopped in their tracks and awaited the commands of DarkTyrannomon. He roared his orders, "Snimon pursue the Kabuterimon! Mammothmon follow and trample the Garurumon! Tyrannomon hold positions!"


Hiroaki Ishida finished throwing on his coat and hurried out to the parking garage nearby. A reporter for the Fuji TV News Station, he was used to working long hours if it meant covering breaking stories. The day started out like any other – or rather as normal as it could've been. After dropping his son off at the summer camp, he headed into work and found the entire news room abuzz about strange weather phenomenon across the globe. Of course, covering the news meant all kinds of crazy stories came through – while he wasn't assigned to that story, he did get assigned to another story regarding the mayor's office. Someone close to the mayor – some disgruntled aide or perhaps even under-appreciated intern – let it leak that the mayor was having an extramarital affair with a woman half his age. Unfortunately for him, this meant pulling an all-nighter. Of course, a few other stories came by about giant monsters and possible Godzilla sightings – but those were largely dismissed as pranks.

Until a rival news station got hold of footage of two monsters battling. Hiroaki and a few others were assigned to cover this story – but really had no idea where to start. They tried talking to the police but were told the investigation was now above their heads and couldn't comment any further. So they talked to a few scientists and professors from Tokyo University, and were told to go talk to the company that owned the rights to Godzilla. All in all, he and his crew spent all night trying to get a hold of people who either wouldn't take the story seriously or would give him the cold shoulder. Before he knew it, the all-nighter had gone into the next morning.

And that was when all the madness started. The computers and electrical equipment started acting up – cameras began picking up static and image artifacts, audio became heavily distorted, keyboards and monitors stopped working at random, and other strange behavior. Then at nine, everything suddenly stopped working – the lights, the vending machines, the computers. At first, it seemed like a power outage, but they soon learned that flash lights, portable radios, and electronics with batteries stopped working as well. At the same time, one of his coworkers called their attention to a nearby window.

They watched several green dinosaurs with horns protruding from their backs march their way past the headquarters building in a single file line. Those with years of experience were used to the occasional sudden and impromptu promotional stunt. Years of working in media had him convinced that this was just common place. Then he watched them tear people apart while destroying a city block, and he realized something was desperately. His first instinct was to try and get a hold of his wife – but the phone lines weren't working.

His second instinct was to get their kids. His two sons were away at summer camp and he didn't want to chance that they would be in any danger. He reached his older car and turned the key in the ignition. The car groaned and whined in protest and he tried a few more times to get it going. When it didn't start, he shifted the car into neutral and rolled it out into the ramp. Thankfully, it was a manual transmission which meant if he did this right, he could pop the clutch and get it going. It took one roll and a quick hop into his car, followed by a few motions based on muscle memory, but he was able to get the engine started. He shifted it into gear and made his way out of the parking garage. He was going to get his sons – no matter what.


Officer Hida led the way down the street with his gun out. His wife stayed just behind him with their son held close while Yukio followed close behind. Mimi guided Yolei by hand as the little girl was left bawling for her parents. It was hard to see in the fog, but Mimi kept looking skyward in search of her partner anyway. The street was clear of monsters and people, but had plenty of rubble from destroyed buildings littering the road. The further they went, the tighter Yolei held her hand – there was still no sign of her family anywhere and their hopes hinged on finding them at the station.

Around them, they could hear screams, explosions, and gun fire. Officer Hida anxiously kept guiding them to the station. The closer they went, the louder the gun fire and explosions became. Officer Hida and his wife whispered to each other anxiously, unnerving the rest of the group. They could tell just by the sound: the monsters were now at the police station and some people were losing their nerve.

"We should head back to the café! It was safer there!" one panicked.

"The monsters are already tearing the police apart! You can tell just by how loud it is!" another worried out loud. Officer Hida looked at the group and barked, "SHUT UP! Look. The worst thing you can do in a situation like this is panic! I promise, I won't let anything bad happen to any of you so will you all just calm down! Making noise is only going to attract more monsters!"

This reminder calmed most of the group down, but one still intended to flee, "No. I'm not taking that chance. I'm going back!"

"No don't!" Yukio said anxiously, "Hiroki is my friend and he has never gone back on his word. So trust him. He will protect us!"

"You trust him. I don't! He's a cop! That's all the reason I need not to trust him!" the adult snapped in a panic. He ran back up the street, ignoring the pleas from Oikawa and ran straight into a sticky white web. The adult struggled to free himself but resisting only made the substance wrap around him more tightly. When he was completely covered, an unseen force pulled him upwards while he screamed into oblivion. Then they heard an unmistakable crunch followed by silence. The silence turned to cackling and a large hairy spider descended from on high, crawling down the side of the building with a bloodied mouth. On its head was a yellow helmet which spiky orange hair poking out from underneath.

"What is that thing!?" one of the survivors shouted. The spider hissed and gnashed its bloody maw, "I am Dokugumon, loyal servant of Myotismon. None are allowed to pass through here and live to tell the tale. Beware my sticky web, or I'll you all whole."

"RUN!" Mimi shouted at the group. Officer Hida cursed and drew his gun, moving between everyone and the monster. His wife and friend pleaded with him to come, but he urged them to go on without him. This was his duty – to protect the people no matter what that entailed. Mimi knew it was a digimon but had no idea how he intended to fight it. And without Lillymon, there was nothing to be done.

Mimi pushed Yolei ahead of her, and they followed the group as they ran past the officer. Cody screamed for his daddy, but his mother and Oikawa carried him along despite his protests. The father followed along, occasionally stopping to fire at the digimon despite it shrugging off the bullets. While they ran, Mimi screamed, "Lillymon! Where are you?"


Kari forced herself off the couch to her brother, who was on the floor quietly mumbling to himself, "Fifty-five, eighty-nine, one-hundred forty-four, two-hundred thirty-three."

"Tai! You're sicker than I am! You're skipping numbers," Kari exclaimed in a worry, noting that he was counting up but entirely at random. Her brother suddenly hopped up on his feet in another stage of mania, "No! You're just doing it wrong! GAH! Okay, focus. Focus. Focus."

"Tai! Please calm down!" her mother pleaded, only for the boy to stop and stare at with a crazed look, "I am calm! But right now i need to focus. Have you ever woken up with a hang over? Well imagine that, but someone decided to start playing music next to you, and then they told you to win a game of chess! That's what being me feels like right now! Argh! Okay, not good. So not good. Myotismon, what are you planning?"

Kari watched anxiously as her brother began pacing nervously, "I just need something to take my mind…off the headache! He's after you. We know that. But what else is he planning? He's already trying to change the future but it would help if we knew just how far into the future he's seen!"

"Wizardmon said he's planning on killing everyone. What was he supposed to do?" Sora asked nervously, "It won't hurt to tell us, right? I mean, since Myotismon clearly isn't doing it."

Tamer continued pacing the room anxiously, "He was supposed to spend a few days searching, then get tired of doing that and start rounding up all the kids he could find! Then he'd go through them one by one to find the child. But no one was supposed to die! Some people would get hurt, but that was all."

"Well, if Myotismon knows that's what he was supposed to do, then why wouldn't he do it different?" Joe mused, "And if you knew he was going to do it different, then why didn't you take steps to keep him doing it the way he was supposed to."

"I thought I said it before? Some things don't matter. It's the key points that are important," Tamer grumbled, "The most important part is he…never mind."

Joe and Sora blinked. Gomamon approached the pacing boy anxiously, "What?"

"Nothing," Tamer frowned as he kept pacing anxiously, covering his mouth with his hand as if to keep himself from talking. Gomamon clicked his tongue with disappointment, "After everything that's happened and is happening, when are you going to start letting us in on things? What is supposed to happen?"

Tamer stopped to stare out the windows, although there wasn't much to look at with the fog. He sat in silence but they could still hear the rampage going on outside. Not wanting to listen to the screams, Gomamon pressed her brother, "Well!?"

"Gomamon," Joe chastised his partner. Kari watched her brother flop on to the couch beside her, massaging his temples, "It's fine. Look, when you know what's going to happen ahead of time, and you understand the consequences that occur should that predetermined destiny fail to achieve itself, you take any action to make it so. No matter who or what gets hurt along the way."

"You're doing that cryptic thing again," Agumon groaned, bringing a brief smile to her brother's face, "I guess I am. Here's what supposed to happen: Wizardmon and Gatomon get caught. And then there's a whole lot of talking. Then we end up at a TV station where Kari finally confronts Myotismon. Then we beat him. That's all I can say."

"You mean to tell us that you knew all this would happen? And you let them go anyway!?" Joe pointed out in a panic, "Why would you do that!?"

"You think Wizardmon didn't know? He already said that he knew how things were supposed to play out. He said that he would help things along," Tamer smirked. Gomamon turned furious, concerned for the wellbeing of his friends, "What about the others? Was there any point in letting them go out and try to distract Myotismon!? You knew Wizardmon and Gatomon would get caught, so why didn't you tell them to wait here?"

"Would it have done any good to convince them otherwise?" Tamer asked Gomamon curiously. The little digimon stood his ground but Tamer carried on, "They wouldn't have been able to sit still if we had them just waiting here, knowing that the city was being destroyed. If there was a positive to letting them go, they'll feel better about themselves when all this is over."

His choice of words made Kari's mom gasp, and she quickly wrapped her arms around her daughter. Tamer waved a finger at them in disappointment, "If that's what has to happen. Because…never mind. All that matters is that Kari and Gatomon are the ones who defeat that pain in the neck. No joke intended."

"What?" Kari cocked her head to the side.

"Because he's a vampire," Agumon sighed. Joe slapped his forehead and moaned, "It's good that you can find time to make jokes while the city is being destroyed."

"I said no joke intended," Tamer raised an eyebrow and continued pacing the room, "I think I'm being quite productive, all things considered. I've added a few hundred steps to my step counter."

He showed them the digivice which displayed a small number. Joe and Sora examined theirs, "This thing can count steps?"

Tamer approached their digivices and pressed a few buttons. The screen flashed to show that each had different numbers on them and Tamer explained, "It can also adjust to the relative time in whatever world you're in, microwave food from over fifty feet, operate as a high powered flash light and pick up signals from literally any frequency in the world!"

"WHO CARES!" Kari heard her mom snap as she pulled her in close. Kari's mom hugged her tight while declaring, "I'm not letting her get involved in this! I already lost Tai! And now he's alive and…whatever he is! And then Susumu, he…I'm not going to lose my daughter!"

"Like it or not, your daughter is already pretty involved in this," her brother said plainly, "You can deny it as much as you want. She still has a role to play in saving the world. Is your daughter worth the world?"

"Kari is my world!" Kari's mom screamed, and she felt her face flush. Her brother stared at her mom, then at her. She had no idea what her brother was thinking, but he didn't look happy. He didn't look sad, either. After the longest time staring, he stood up off the couch and added, "I hope she's worth it. Now might be a good time to move to the building across the street."

"Why are we doing that?" Sora's mom asked, "What happened to waiting!?"

"Did you guys miss the part where I said Wizardmon and Gatomon get caught? Give it ten minutes, maybe an hour at most, and they're going to swarm this apartment looking for her."

Tamer pointed straight at Kari, and her mom tightened her hold on her. He went on to add, "Pack up anything you can. This apartment won't be around much longer."

"Tai…er, Tamer. what are you thinking?" Sora asked the boy as he pulled a drawer out of the kitchen and emptied its contents onto a nearby table, "They'll come into this apartment looking for Kari. Might as well make it a trap."


The police in front of the Wangan Police Station held their ground as long as they could, but it was obvious that nothing they could throw at the large dinosaur like monsters was enough to slow their momentum. If anything, they were more annoyed than harmed by any of the gunfire, barricades, and roadblocks. The larger ones were almost to the station but stopped to look back up the street. It sounded like one was talking but it was too far away to make out anything specific. They turned and started to leave, disappearing into the fog and towards the sound of fighting.

Then they heard the unmistakable rhythmic beating of wings and a large blue beetle buzzed past, followed along by a swarm of the large green ones. The officers watched as the blue beetle dodged and weaved through the green insects' attacks – guiding them away from the station while they continued their pursuit. While it led them away, they saw blasts of blue light come from the end of the street, where the large monsters had retreated towards. It was anyone's guess what was actually happening, but it seemed the monsters had turned on each other. If this was anything like the old monster movies, then it would make more sense to let them fight it out instead of getting involved.

The officer in charge called out to the rest to hold their fire and their positions. There were still who knows how many people out inside the station – and they couldn't let the monsters anywhere near. Down the street, they could hear more fighting, but it was hard to place what it was. Then a blast of blue fire came through the fog and shot over their heads, just narrowly missing the buildings. The entire force collectively raised their weapons and pointed down the street for whatever was going to come their way.

They could already make out the sight of two small figures running towards them. The commanding officer instructed, "Hold fire! Let it get closer."

He was glad he gave that order when the two figures finally came into view and they saw two kids running at them: a red haired girl and a younger brown haired boy. The girl was pulling at the boy's arm was shouting, "Keep running! Just keep running!"

"But they're back there!"

"Davis! Just run!" the girl shouted. Another figure appeared behind them in the fog – much larger than the two children. A large black dinosaur with green scales along its back and leather gloves on each claw. The dinosaur growled at the two kids and gave pursuit. Without thinking, the commanding officer shouted, "Open fire! Protect those kids!"

The order was moot, but they pulled their triggers anyway, angling their shots to avoid the kids running towards their line. For all the good it did, they might as well have done nothing. Like the other monsters, the bullets bounced of the large creature to little effect and it hardly seemed to notice it was being shot at all. The kids screamed at the sound of gunfire and quickly ran into a nearby building.

The dinosaur stopped to peer inside, trying to reach inside and roaring when his hand was too big to reach inside. This only brought the kids running back out through another exit and they continuing running for the station. The police continued shooting, hoping that it would at least distract the monster. At that moment, a couple ran out of the station in shock and began arguing with officers trying to usher them back inside. Over the roar of the gunfire, the commander heard the man say, "Get out of my way! Those are my kids! Do something! GET THEM OUT OF THERE!"

The commander glanced back at the couple. The man threw a punch at one of his officers, and another tackled him to the ground while the lady screamed. The commander cursed and told two of his colleagues to keep up the pressure. Without another word, he broke away from the police line to rescue the kids.

They saw him coming and ran to meet him, reaching out to be saved. The dinosaur was hot on their heels and ready to attack. They weren't going to make it. Before he could take them, he heard a voice cry out through the fog, "Hand of Fate!"

A single beam of light pierced through the fog and struck the black dinosaur from behind like an arrow. The dinosaur groaned in agony and breathed its last before disappearing in front of them. Beyond the parted fog was an angel bathed in light so bright that it cleared the area around it to reveal destroyed buildings and panicking monsters. The commander grabbed the two kids and ran back to the line, where the rest of the police force gawked at the angel before them. When he dropped the two kids, they ran to their parents and hugged them - glad to be back in safety. Their happy reunion didn't last long as the boy started talking about a bunch of kids and their monsters fighting to protect them. His dad assured the boy that it was his own imagination, but the commander had to admit that it wouldn't be the strangest thing he'd seen today.

The angel was an odd sight and the last thing any of them expected to see, but also shouldn't have been that surprising with the giant monsters running around. The monsters that had been attacking before stopped as well to marvel at where the black dinosaur had been moments before. Then they looked to the angel, hesitant to avenge their fallen. The green insects overhead even stopped their pursuit of the blue beetle to stare at the angel that appeared before them. The angel glanced at the monsters below expectantly, and they stared back in anticipation. They appeared to be talking to each other.

Amidst the paralyzed monsters, they saw a group of people emerge from the street corner. They paused at the sight of the monsters, then continued on to the station. From the group, they could hear a few shots of gunfire and the commander cursed again. It was impossible to tell who was shooting, but getting the noise brought the attention of all those creatures bearing down on the group of survivors. Snapped out of its stupor, one of the red dinosaurs growled, "Blaze Blast!"

The angel moved out of the way and returned with another ray of light that extended from his hand, "Hand of Fate!"

The beam hit its mark and dinosaur disappeared. Reinvigorated, the other monsters began attacking again – both on the ground and the air. This time, they alternated between the angel and fleeing survivors. The police braced themselves for the few monsters making their way towards them. Then paused when they saw the group of survivors run into their line of fire– they had to shoot, but they couldn't risk hitting civilians.


Mimi, Yolei, the Hida family, and the rest of their group continued running while the large hairy spider pursued them. Officer Hida lagged behind, stopping to occasionally fire a few shots before running to catch up. After running so many blocks in a row, Cody complained of being too tired to run and was carried by his mom on her back.

In the distance, they heard the gunfire in the distance suddenly stop – a sure sign that something happened at the station. Either the police were overrun or they'd beaten back the monsters. There wasn't much time to consider alternative places to run with the spider hot on their heels. When they reached the last city block before turning to reach the station, they found themselves running right into the heels of a red Tyrannomon. The dinosaur didn't notice their arrival as it was too overwhelmed by the presence of an angel above.

Angemon.

The light from his body drove back the fog and gave them a clear view of the police station up the street, where the police were staring equally in shock at Angemon's presence. In the other direction, Mimi could see Garurumon, Matt, TK, and Izzy. The three boys were staying just out of sight while Izzy worked on his laptop. Izzy looked up briefly to look at all the other digimon, then spotted Mimi. There was a splash of relief on his face, and then surprise when he saw all of the people with her. He motioned for her to go to the station. Mimi nodded and quietly said, "Let's go! They haven't seen us!"

There was a murmur of agreement among the survivors, and they hurried to the police station – hoping that the monstrous creatures wouldn't notice them going past. Their hopes were dashed when Cody's father fired the gun a few more times behind them. While the gunshots didn't grab their attention, the appearance of Dokugumon did. It gnashed its teeth at the other large digimon and hissed, "What are you doing!? There's only one of them and an army of you! KILL IT!"

Reminded of this fact, the Tyrannomon was reinvigorated and cried out, "Dukugumon's right! BLAZE BLAST!"

It shot a ball of fire at Angemon, and the angel moved aside. He raised his fist and struck back, "Hand of Fate!"

The Tyrannomon didn't stand a chance and was blown away. The other digimon regained their senses and started attacking. A few took notice of their fleeing group and gave pursuit – picking off those furthest to the back. There were screams of horror and howls as the digimon made their way through the people. Mimi pulled hard on Yolei's arm to keep her from looking back, and she screamed, "Don't look! Whatever you do, don't look!"

Cody, who was still being carried by his mom, could only look back while she ran. A few more gun shots rang out and Cody's eyes widened in fear, "DADDY!"

The gun fired faster, then suddenly stopped. There was a sickening crunch that made her skin crawl and she could see Cody's expression go blank. His mother tried to keep him from looking, but the little boy kicked and cried aloud while shrieking, "NO! DADDY! NO! NO! DADDY!"


"Izzy, this isn't working!" Matt grit his teeth angrily. Angemon, Garurumon, and Kabuterimon were trying their hardest to fight off the other digimon. There were too many people in the mix and it was impossible to protect them all, no matter how badly they may have wanted too. It didn't help that the police didn't seem keen on talking and they knowingly shot at al the monsters. Garurumon and Kabuterimon included.

"It seems that without leadership, they've resorted to their base instincts to attack mindlessly," Izzy speculated, "We might have made it worse."

"Great plan genius! So what do we do?" Matt asked impatiently while their partner continued fighting.

"I'm looking! We know the Tyrannomon aren't very smart and the Mammothmon have a weak spot on their belly," Izzy stated, "But those green digimon are Snimon according to this archive. And that talking spider is supposed to be Dokugumon. According to this, both are champion level digimon and they're part of the Virus Busters and Nature Spirit families respectively."

"NO ONE CARES! HOW DO WE BEAT THEM!?" Matt snapped angrily, just as a ball of red fire shot over his head and destroyed a building behind them. He could feel the heat on the back of his neck and it seemed like some of his hairs were burned off. The blast encouraged Izzy to scroll faster and he read aloud, "It says here that both of them specialized against other insect type digimon like Kabuterimon. But they have innate fear of fire."

"And?" Matt was growing impatient with Izzy. The computer whiz rolled his eyes, "Matt! Garurumon shoots blue fire from his mouth!"

Matt looked at the fight as it played out before them – Angemon and Kabuterimon flew through the air while being pursued by the Snimon. Occasionally, they stopped to attack the digimon on the ground but they weren't able to get any hits. Garurumon ran among the Tyrannomon and Mammothmon, tackling them into the ground to stop their fighting. But they were too preoccupied with Angemon and Kabuterimon to notice one wolf running around, leaving the smaller digimon like Gazimon to attack him.

Dokugumon completely ignored the fighting, instead choosing to chase down the group that Mimi was with. But Togemon was nowhere in sight and they could only guess what terrible thing could have happened to her. Lagging just behind the group was a man, the father they rescued earlier that day. He had a gun with him, and firing wildly at the digimon that tried to attack him – the small Gazimon, Dokugumon, the Tyrannomon. The bullets did nothing to the giant digimon but the Gazimon dropped with each hit.

They hadn't even noticed the three of them standing just of sight, but Matt found it difficult to let Garurumon attack the digimon. Angemon and Kabuterimon were too busy fighting the monsters to protect TK. If anything went wrong, it would fall on Garurumon to do that. He knew he shouldn't baby his brother, but he found it hard to not do so. His mouth was open but the words wouldn't come out. TK was too important to say those words. But if he didn't, he'd condemn all those people to die.

"MATT!" Izzy said, looking at him anxiously. Matt closed his eyes and frowned, "I can't."

"Matt, come on!"

"I CAN'T!" Matt said, "Angemon and Kabuterimon are too far away to protect TK. Garurumon is the only one who can protect him!"

"Matt! You…GAH!" Izzy threw his hands up in frustration and began looking through his computer at a frantic pace. This was like Myotismon's castle again, Matt stayed back to protect TK instead of helping out his friends. Izzy didn't dwell on it and began looking through the files in hopes of finding something that could be used as a weakness. One that didn't rely on Garurumon. But there was nothing useful in the files: sleep patterns, eating habits, predatory behaviors, and more. Absolutely nothing useful. They were up against a spider, flying praying mantises, dinosaurs, mammoths, and endless bunny dog things. His mind briefly wandered to the thought of what the Gazimon were supposed to be, but he reminded himself that this wasn't the time.

He kept looking but was stumped. How were they supposed to beat a spider, dinosaurs, mammoths, and all the other digimon? How? He watched Dokugumon shoot out a web at one of the survivors and miss. A Gazimon chasing that survivor ran straight into the web and became raveled in the thread.

Then a light clicked in Izzy's head and he realized the solution was right in front of him. After all, Dokugumon was a spider. The ideas ran through his mind in rapid succession making sense in such a way that he had no choice but to act on it. He closed his laptop and ran out of cover to get his partner's attention, "Kabuterimon!"

"What?" his partner shouted as he whizzed by overhead, with the Snimon still in pursuit. Izzy pointed towards the spider and shouted, "Dokugumon! Get Dokugumon to attack you!"

Kabuterimon whizzed past again and shouted, "Because all the Snimon weren't enough!"

"It's a spider!" Izzy shouted out to his partner.

"I KNOW!" Kabuterimon declared while whizzing past again. Izzy groaned and shouted, "WEBS! MAKE IT SPIN A WEB!"

"Why would I…OH!" Kabuterimon whizzed by again and turned in the air towards Dokugumon. Kabuterimon flew over its head with the Snimon closing in on him, dodging and weaving through attacks. He could briefly see Dokugumon chewing on something but it was hard to tell with so many things happening at once.

"Hey! Dokugumon! Right here!" Kabuterimon taunted, "Why not eat something like me?"

Dokugumon spat whatever it was chewing on and growled at Kabuterimon, "YOU! Poison Thread!"

It shot out a sticky thread from its abdomen towards Kabuterimon, who narrowly dodged the attack. A Snimon that was trying to attack from behind was not as lucky, and found itself embroiled in the thread. It struggled to free itself but was unable to avoid slamming into the side of a building. Kabuterimon mocked the spider, "HA! Missed!"

"Try this!" Dokugumon fired three threads simultaneously, and Kabuterimon just barely managed to avoid them. A few more Snimon pursuing him collided with the threads and were wrapped up in cocoons. Kabuterimon mocked the spider, "You're really bad at this."

Dokugumon became angrier and it fired even more threads in greater number: first five, then ten, then twenty threads at the same time. Each time, Kabuterimon avoided the attacks and Dokugumon would grow more frustrated. The more shots it fired, the more erratic it became. Kabuterimon was able to weave through the flurry of shots, but the other digimon weren't as lucky. Many of the Snimon were caught in the web when Kabuterimon flew high, and the Tyrannomon and Mammothmon were entrapped if he flew low. Garurumon and Angemon were able to avoid getting caught by moving away – letting the numbers of Myotismon's army get caught in the mess Kabuterimon spun. As Izzy watched his idea play out perfectly before him, he felt a mix of pride and excitement. He was so caught up that he didn't notice his crest glow a soft purple, but it caught the attention of Matt and TK.

When most of Myotismon's army was caught, Izzy yelled out, "ALRIGHT KABUTERIMON! LET'S FINISH THIS!"

His digivice hummed to life and Kabuterimon was wrapped in light, "Kabuterimon! Digivolve to! MegaKabuterimon!"

His partner changed from blue to red and grew to a substantial size. He'd also grown a large red shell that protected his backside and carried a blue sphere at the apex of the shell. He was so large that he just barely squeezed into the street. His horn split with two prongs and crackled with sparks of electricity. The sparks arced along the ground and MegaKabuterimon slammed his horn on to the ground, "Horn Buster!"

The bolts sparked and traveled along the ground towards Myotismon's army. The current traveled through the Tyrannomon and Mammothmon, then along the strands of webbing towards Dokugumon and the Snimon caught in the web. Many Gazimon got lucky and avoided the current since they'd already fled but a few lingered and they danced as the current ran through their bodies. The electrical blast was so powerful that street lamps lit up and some of the lights in the nearby buildings came on. Every bulb simultaneously burst from being overloaded and the enemy digimon disintegrated to data. And with that it was over. The enemy digimon were defeated.

Ahead of them, they could see the police station and a line of police officers with riot shields out in front of them. Between them and the station was a street clear of monsters but littered with damage. Debris, destroyed cars, broken street lights and signs, bodies of the deceased, and more were scattered all along the street. There were some police cars parked as if to block the road, but most of them were flattened.

The three boys regrouped with their partners – Garurumon and Angemon regressed to their rookie forms and MegaKabuterimon regressed to Motimon at Izzy's request. As Izzy explained, appearing before the police as a giant insect might do more harm than good.

They hurried to meet the officers but stopped when they heard a soft groan come from a man who was missing his entire lower half. Matt instantly covered his brother's eyes when he saw the grotesque sight, but TK had already seen it and he screamed in horror, "Don't look TK!"

The man's insides poured out of his body, creating a bloody mess where his legs should have been. In his hand was gun that he could barely hold level. One glimpse and all six knew who he was. It was the father from the bridge; the man whose child Tamer had calmed down, whom Birdramon and Kabuterimon carried to safety from the damaged plane, and had argued with Tamer until the boy whispered something that had the officer complying.

Blood trickled from his mouth and out his nose as he lay there, staring blankly up at the sky. Izzy approached the man anxiously, and the man's eyes glanced briefly at him. He offered Izzy a weak smile. Some blood gurgled out of his mouth but he was able to talk through gasps for breath, "Tell…your friend…I saved…my son…"

"You mean Tamer?" Izzy asked. The man nodded and Izzy agreed, "We'll tell him."

"Thanks," was all the man said. Izzy sank to his knees and leaned in closer to the man. He looked like he was gasping for breath, but was having difficulty doing so. Motimon didn't say a word and looked on in shock while Izzy murmured, "I'm sorry. That this happened. It shouldn't have-"

"It hap…pens. I've been…officer…long time," the officer's eyes were focused on the sky now, or rather unfocused. But he pushed himself to talk anyway, "shit…happens. Tell wife…love her. Tell Cody…grow up…honest…and kind…and not…afraid."

Izzy nodded again and the officer laughed. The laugh turned to coughs as he hacked and wheezed blood. The man stopped and said, "It's…funny. Your friend…he said…said…"

Izzy suddenly leaned closer, "What did he say?"

The officer was silent and stared up vacantly at the cloudy sky. Izzy didn't need to be a medical expert to know he was gone. It was an odd experience, watching someone die right in front of you. On TV and in books, there was always some kind of drama around someone's death. It was always a heart breaking revelation about the fragility of life when someone died in fiction. But here, Izzy didn't feel anything but curiosity about what the man was going to say before he passed on – and what it must've been like to feel your body suddenly stop as all of its vital functions ceased. Could he feel his pulse fading as his heart stopped? Did he feel pain or was the shock of losing his lower half so great that his brain stopped processing it? Was he scared, angry, or sad? Was he okay with leaving his family behind? If Izzy and Motimon were to fail, would he be okay with leaving his family behind?

He felt a hard lump form in the back of his throat, one he had great difficulty swallowing. Without realizing it, he'd begun to hug Motimon close and his partner was doing the same. It wasn't out of grief, but out of a need to hold and be held. He didn't quite understand what he was feeling – he'd felt a sense of loss and defeat when Koromon Village was destroyed, and he'd felt the same when the manor was almost destroyed. But here, he wasn't certain he was feeling anything at all.

The computer whiz wondered if seeing so many digimon die in the Digital World had affected him more than he realized. He glanced back to see that Matt was already guiding TK away with Patamon and Gabumon. They met the police officers half way down the road, and Izzy ran to join them. He stopped after only a few steps to look back at the man he'd met on the bridge. He believed his name was Hida. Izzy tried not to dwell on the man's death and carried ahead to tell the man's family his last words.


Doctor Kido stitched the last of the boy's surgical openings shut and applied the bandages as he had to. Once the little boy was stable, he signaled for the nurse to disconnect the older brother's IV. They did a few more checks to make sure both boys were stable before moving from the OR to the Recovery Room. The staff did their post op checks, vitals, and blood work. The two brothers were put on beds beside one another; the older one constantly asked if the younger was okay, "He's fine, right? Kenny! Please say he's okay!"

He was tired and pale from the blood loss, but he still found the energy to talk. The doctor nodded, "Yes, he's fine. Unconscious but stable. You should rest, though. You gave him a lot of your blood."

"I just want…to be sure," the older brother looked over at the bed beside his. He relaxed once he saw his little brother's chest rise and fall. Doctor Kido helped the older boy lie back down in bed. Once he'd closed his eyes and slept, he instructed the nurses to keep monitoring them while he went back to work in the Emergency Room. He also added that they should call him if anything happens.

It was in the same general disarray that he'd left it, if worse due to the increased patient load. The waiting area was overflowing and staff had been called from the floors to help with the emergency room. Before he could even pick a chart and start looking at patients, one of the registration clerks approached him, "Doctor Kido, there's a couple who keep asking about two boys in the waiting area. I think they might be the parents of those two boys from earlier."

Doctor Kido looked at his watch to see how much time had passed, then agreed to go out and meet them. He had to make sure these were parents of the boys in recovery before he let them in. It helped that they were covered in dried blood that didn't look to be theirs when he met them. That was a good sign, as the youngest brother was a mess. It could've come from him. But he still had to be sure, "Hello, I'm Doctor Kido. I'm told you're looking for two boys?"

The mom answered first, "Yes! Two boys. They should have been brought here by this pixie thing. Our oldest Osamu was fine, but Ken was the one who was injured. There was glass and blood and…please tell me they're here."

Doctor Kido watched the woman start crying and asked, "We do have two boys here but not one named Osamu. I'll need to see some identification before I agree to let you in to see them."

"Right yeah," the dad produced a driver's license, as did the mom. The dad added, "Osamu sometimes goes by Sam. He prefers his nickname. He's a smart kid so he was probably trying to tell you how to do your job. Please say they're in there!"

Doctor Kido reviewed the information carefully. They had the same last name as the two boys and the information matched what the older brother provided. He handed them their cards and motioned for them to follow, "Yes. Follow me please."

He led them back into the recovery room, while informing the parents of what happened. He told them about the boys' arrival, the surgery to stop the younger brother's bleeding, the older brother locking himself in the blood bank and more. When he'd finished, the parents looked relieved and the dad sighed, "Yeah, that sounds like Sam. He was always a smart kid - a damn good genius at that. And he has to get himself involved in whatever is going on."

"Your boys are resting now," Doctor Kido explained, "Sam gave Ken a lot of his own blood, but both of them should be stable. I'll let you see them, but only for a little bit. They do need to get their rest."

He said those words just as they walked into recovery, where the nurses were now gathered around the older brother's bed. Doctor Kido raced forward and asked the charge nurse, "What's going on?"

"He stopped breathing. We're trying to resuscitate him now!" the nurse explained.

"What happened to our boys!?" the mom asked in a panic. One of the nurses tried to escort them back out, but they protested and insisted on staying. Doctor Kido left it alone and took charge of the situation, "Okay start a rotation! We'll swap out every three minutes. And get some O Negative from the blood bank! We-"

"They're out! They've been out of blood for a while!" another nurse said, "We have some staff donating in there now, but they said it'll be a while before anything is ready."

"Dammit. Okay keep trying. I'll take over compressions in the next minute, then we'll cycle out," Doctor Kido said to the nurse, "We have to buy him as much time as we can!

"You don't have a lot of it," said a ghastly voice. The lights in the recovery room flickered and staff backed away when they saw a ghastly figure in robes and wielding a scythe appear. It had one had firmly around the boy's neck, "In case you're wondering, yes, I am choking him. That's why he's stopped breathing. I've been doing so for about a minute because I wanted your full attention when you came back."

"Who are you?" Doctor Kido asked. The phantasm bowed, "I am Phantomon. I have been instructed to…acquire you. Your son or daughter, whomever it is, is causing us a great deal of trouble and we want your cooperation. Now, as a doctor, I understand you'll have a compulsion to help everyone and act for the greater good."

The phantasm tightened his grip on the boy's neck, "But I want you to understand this: I can and will kill everyone in this hospital if you don't cooperate. Starting with these two brothers."

Doctor Kido looked as the unconscious Sam who looked to be in pain from choking. The way this day was going, the hospital would only flood with more patients. It would be a blood bath if this specter decided to start attacking. But, the doctor felt a brief glimmer of pride. Joe must be giving the digital monsters a hard time if they were desperate enough to go for loved ones. Doctor Kido nodded at the charge nurse, "You're in charge."

Then he addressed the specter, "I'll go with you, if you agree to leave the hospital alone."

"I accept your terms," Phantomon cackled, releasing Sam so that the boy gasped for air. Phantomon was on the doctor quickly and the lights flickered again. When the lights turned back on, Doctor Kido was gone and the nurses went to work taking care of the older brother. He was breathing now, but his pulse was thready at best. The lack of air and the lack of blood might have been taking its toll on his body. They would have to be careful if they wanted to keep him alive.


Author's Notes: The parents are captured. The body count is rising. Tamer's managing to overcome the headaches, but situation across the city is getting worse. Can he find time to make more puns? Will the digidestined stopped Myotismon? Find out in one week on Friday, June 24th at 5 PM CST during the next installment of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure. If you loved it, let me know in the review section. I usually reply in a day or two. I also welcome constructive criticism and speculation on the next chapter. Now! Lines from the next chapter:

"HE'S GOING FOR MIMI!"

Then Myotismon said something they didn't anticipate, "Tell me where the eighth child is and all of this will stop."

"I think it's pronounced car," Pumpkinmon pointed out.

"Eh, I don't really want to fight. Do whatever you want but I'm going," Gotsumon shrugged.

"Tai! You can't just blow up the apartment! We live there!" Kari's mom shouted at him.