Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Less than Human

Chapter: 37/ Surprises

"Good morning Janyu," said Yamaki as he stepped into the hospital room, a good natured, companionable, but crooked smile on his face that looked more like a smirk that was normal for the blonde haired head of Hypnos. Janyu sat up in his bed in surprise upon seeing the man but winced suddenly and settled back down into his bed, repressing a groan of pain from the stress that his motion had placed on his injuries. Yamaki looked the man over with a critical eye, surveying his injuries…the ones that were visible that is. Janyu had a cast covering the entirety of his left arm and the one covering the lower half of his right leg, and a mess of bandages wrapping around the upper left thigh. From what Yamaki remembered from Henry and various Hypnos employees who were present at the time that the man had been hurt he had rushed forward and knocked Henry aside to avoid his getting struck by Sangloupmon's Sticker Blade attack. As a consequence of his actions he had received three knifelike blades jammed in his left arm, with two out of three becoming lodged in the bones of his arm causing fractures and breaks in them; the Humerus of the upper arm and the Ulna of the lower to be more specific while the third had just jammed itself into the meat of his shoulder. Both legs were also out of commission, and they had been messy enough on their own. Fortunately they weren't as bad as the damage he had received in his arm. And with the number of blades that had been thrown at him, it could have been a lot worse.

Yamaki winced beneath his sunglasses, remembering seeing Janyu's inert form on the ground, blood pooling on the ground beneath him from the blades that were imbedded in his body.

As things stood Janyu, had been a very, very, lucky man.

He's going to need a lot of therapy to his life back to normal, thought Yamaki with a sense of guilt that he hadn't been there when things had gone wrong. It's a good thing that the hospital is going to be keeping a close eye on him during that time. I made sure of that.

"Yamaki," said Janyu in a strained voice as he settled back down in his bed, his lips caught between a grimace and a grin at his forgetfulness over his injuries and the doctor's advice to 'take things easy'. Yamaki grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the bed and sat down in it.

"How are you doing?"

"As well as I can be I suppose. I'm not liking the position I'm in."

"I can understand that," said Yamaki with a nod. "Has your son dropped by to see you?"

Janyu shook his head. "He has school to attend, remember? He does stop by once it lets out, and he tells me how his day went. He told me quite a number of interesting things yesterday…in spite of the drugs they give me to dull the pain making me feel groggy."

"I see. Does it hurt much?"

"Only when I move…or when I'm not, which is just about all the time. I can't even laugh much either, and the doctors can only give me so much in the way of painkillers, and even that isn't exactly going to be the best for me if this keeps up."

Yamaki nodded, fingering his lighter idly with one hand. He could understand where Janyu was coming from.

"So…" began Janyu in a tired voice that strangely bordered on a chuckle. "Did you just come here to see how I was doing, or did you have something more specific in mind? In case you didn't notice, I'm a little bit…out of it at the moment."

Yamaki simply raised his lighter and flicked it open before closing it again before answering.

"Actually I did just come here to see how you were doing. I may not be the best at connecting with my employees, or even the best employer but I do only what I can do to ensure that I can keep things running, and that includes people."

"Sorry," said Janyu, losing his jovial tone as exhaustion once again tugged at him. "I guess that the drugs are getting to me. But if you do have something that you want to tell me or do…as best as I can that is…I would very much like to hear them."

Yamaki flicked his lighter open again.

"I think that for now it's best that you rest Janyu…"

"Please Yamaki. There's really not a whole lot going on here, and it would help quite a bit if I had even something to think about during my stay. Henry tells me that you activated Argus…"

Yamaki sighed and rubbed his temples.

I had hoped to keep him out of things involving Hypnos until he was better. I should have known that he'd be able to get something out of his son…

"Yes. Yes, I did."

"Yamaki…why…?

"I'm afraid after the attack that left you injured was the last proverbial straw for the higher ups. There was quite a bit of damage caused in the fighting, never mind your own condition though to be honest our superiors were more concerned about the amount of equipment that was destroyed in the battle; primarily the damage that had been done to the modifications that you and the Monster Makers had made to Juggernaut. You know how much that cost. It's heartless I know, but there are people who only care about results and the bottom line…"

"…And we've just been set back," finished Janyu. Yamaki nodded, glad that the man's medications hadn't completely addled his mind.

"So…what happened?"

"We tested Argus on its lowest setting. So far it's a success but I'm sure that pressure from the top is going to want results from the upper levels." Yamaki frowned. "Daisy still hasn't managed to get around the unpredictability of the level two program. Makes me wish that we had all of the Monster Makers available for this…"

"Well, you know that the rest of the world needs help in setting up their own programs for areas that now see digimon activity after D-Reaper weakened the barriers between the worlds. I don't suppose that you could find a way to recall Shibumi from his New York conferences. He's been there long enough…"

Yamaki shook his head.

"I have thought of yesterday and sent him a message. He hasn't returned it so far but I expect to get one before today's over."

"Strange…"

"What is?"

"I've been trying to get a hold of Shibumi after I had gone over his data for Guilmon. Remember? When you detailed me to help Impmon? He never got back to me. But then, I have been out of the loop lately so I haven't exactly been able to check but still. It's not like Shibumi to not respond to an E-mail about something like this. He's very much on top of these things."

Yamaki frowned.

"If I get in touch with him, I'll ask him about that. In the mean-time…" Yamaki paused as he thought of something. "Hold on. When you were looking over Shibumi's data for Takato's partner, did you notice anything strange about it?"

Janyu nodded.

"There was a line of code imbedded in the original structure that I didn't recognize. We have complete scans of all the partner digimon when they came back so I compared the two and I found something that didn't quite match up; similar yes, but there was something different about it. I can't make heads or tails of it. Why do you ask?"

"I had been in touch with Takato Matsuki yesterday. He said that Guilmon is…different. A change in appearance, loss of memories, and he can no longer biomerge."

"I see. Then we have a problem."

"Yes. Whatever Shibumi did, it's drastically altered our side of the playing field. Perhaps even more then we realize, because I noticed that the code that's in Guilmon's data is the same as what we saw in that Triceramon and the Sangloupmon. They all share similar data patterns."

Yamaki's eyes widened beneath his sunglasses.

"Why didn't you tell me about that particular part?"

Janyu chuckled.

"In case you didn't notice, I'm a little under the weather. Plus I was still studying the data and cross-referencing Shibumi's notes. You were preoccupied with Argus and I didn't want to disturb you until I had something more concrete. I guess that this clinches it though, doesn't it?"

"In a way," said Yamaki. "If you don't mind I'd like to go over the data that you were looking over…"

Janyu raised an eyebrow. "You even have to ask? You are my boss, remember?"

"You're forgetting that I once told you that you were allowed to use the resources of Hypnos as you saw fit. While that may have changed with your contract I still have a high degree of respect for your resourcefulness and your knowledge regarding digimon…"

"Yamaki," interrupted Janyu. "I thank you for that, but you still have to remember that you are my superior. While I'm touched that you asked first, it is still within your power to go over my information while I'm incapacitated if the data is as important as we both think it is."

The two men looked at each other in silence for a moment before Yamaki nodded.

"Thank you."

"Not sure why you're thanking me…"

"Just accept it as it is Janyu," said Yamaki with a smirk as he reached into his coat pocket. "By the way. I passed this around Hypnos and collected some signatures. I'm not normally used to this sort of thing but I thought that you might appreciate this."

Pulling out an envelope Yamaki tore it open and pulled out a rectangular object from it before handing it to Janyu's good hand. Raising an eyebrow Janyu took it and looked at it. Janyu chuckled as soon as he saw it.

It was a 'get well soon' card.

"Now here's one for the history books," joked Janyu while Yamaki clicked his lighter closed. Janyu looked up at Yamaki with a playful smirk on his face. "Any other surprises you have for me?"

"You found a WHAT?!" Jeri's surprised shriek cut across the park, threatening to shatter windows and set off car alarms with its intensity. So great and unexpected was the noise that a certain long eared digimon pulled his ears together tightly to blot out the sound that hammered against his digital eardrums.

"Owww…you mind toning it down, Jeri? That really hurt…"

"Sorry Terriermon."

"What about me?" Asked a small, white colored digimon as he held his tiny hands to his own, now shrunken ears.

"Sorry Calumon."

Jeri, Henry, Kenta, and Kazu all exchanged glances before turning to the two girls in front of them, Ayaka and Miki, the latter of whom was looking quite started by Jeri's reaction while the former, for some as yet unexplained reason did not look at all surprised.

"Told you that she'd react this way," said Ayaka simply.

"Hang on," said Kazu. "Let me get this straight. Yesterday you two found a digimon and now you think that automatically makes you Tamers? Give me a break!"

"Um…" began Kenta. "But what about Jeri? I mean, I don't mean to bring it up Jeri but didn't you think something similar about Leomon and you two still wound up becoming partners even though it didn't look like it to begin with?"

Jeri nodded, a hint of sadness falling over her face before vanishing just as quickly.

"He's got a point," said Terriermon from atop Henry's head. "Humans have been known to get partners from the strangest events and they don't always happen right away. I mean, just look at Kazu and Guardromon."

"And what is wrong with how Kazu and I became partners?" Asked Guardromon.

"Yeah! And need I remind you that you were swimming in a data stream while all that was going on?"

"I'm not saying anything was wrong with you too becoming partners or how it happened, even though I got the edited, and might I say biased version of the story from Rika, I was just saying that we can't expect this sort of thing to happen like it does on the TV show. I came from a game and Guilmon came from a picture after all."

"He's got a point," said Kenta. Kazu grumbled slightly but did not as yet say anything else on the matter.

"But that doesn't tell us much about this," said Henry, turning his attention to Ayaka and Miki. "I'm surprised that you were even able to capture it…"

"If that's what they did," chipped in Terriermon. "I for one would like to propose the possibility that this is a joke seeing as how they don't have it anywhere nearby."

"It isn't a joke!" Exclaimed Miki indignantly. "We captured a digimon last night! We even have proof!"

Pulling off her bag roughly Miki unzipped it and dug through its contents until she brought out a digital camera, turning it on and flipping through various pictures that she had until she found what she was looking for.

"Let's see…Mom…Dad…Fluffy…Dad holding Fluffy… Dad getting mauled by Fluffy… Aha! Here we go!"

The children gathered around Miki to see the picture. It was a simple one of Miki herself flashing the 'V' sign while holding onto a dark colored, demonic like digimon with a leaf shaped, black colored mask with two eyes, one green and one red, painted on its surface. Two, bat like wings wrapped around its waist, and even though it wasn't smiling it had a look about it that said that mischief was a part of its very nature. Jeri, for her part, wasn't all too surprised by Miki's 'catch'. She had heard from Ayaka how smitten she had been when she had first seen Beelzemon drop into the schoolyard. The resemblance between the two, despite the obvious difference in size (hinting that the little demonic digimon was most likely at the Rookie level) was rather uncanny.

Terriermon's reaction was instantaneous.

"HEY! THAT'S THE DIGIMON THAT I WAS FIGHTING THE NIGHT BEFORE LAST!!!"

"Wha…?" Stammered Henry in surprise.

"It's the same one Henry! It's gotta be! All right you two! Tell me where he is so I can track him down and blow his hide to kingdom come!"

"NO!" Shouted Miki angrily as she pulled the camera away from the long eared digimon as though just being near the picture was the same as being near the actual digimon that was portrayed on it. "I won't let you hurt Beanie!"

"Beanie?!" This from all the Tamers and digimon, with the exception of MarineAngemon who gave a 'puh?' as his question, but given that it was said at the same time and in the same questioning tone as the rest, he didn't need a translator for anyone to pick up what he meant.

Ayaka rolled her eyes.

"It's what she calls the little guy. Don't ask why. Just be glad that she didn't decide to call him 'Baby Beelzemon' or something like that…"

"AYAKA! You're not helping!"

"Well you know what my feelings are about this…"

"Would you two give it a rest already?!" Said Kazu hotly, shutting the two girls up almost instantly. Kazu turned to Terriermon. "You sure that those two digimon are the same one that you fought the night that Henry's dad got hurt? Couldn't it be possible that they're just two separate digimon that happen to look the same?"

Ayaka blinked in surprise and looked at Kazu with a raised eyebrow and a curious look on her face.

Huh? Did Kazu actually say something…sensible for a change? I must be hearing things…

"He does have a point there Terriermon," said Henry, though he himself had to admit that he was curious about the whole thing.

"Well…I'll concede that, but I don't know. Don't you think that it's just too much of a coincidence that these two snag one that looks just like the one after I get clobbered trying to take out the first one? I tell ya, there's something fishy about this."

"There is that," conceded Henry. "But we don't know that for sure. Now…you two said that you found him wandering around the park last night, right?"

"Yeah," answered Ayaka. "Miki jumped him and squeezed him a little too hard. Which is why we were able to capture him so easily…"

"Never thought to try that," said Kazu sarcastically. "But then again, most of the digimon that we fight tend to be the kind who would give the hug, and not in a friendly sort of way."

"Too much emphasis put on bone crushing and beating the data out of us," said Guardromon.

"Exactly. You two took a real risk doing what you did. Not exactly the smartest of moves to make, and I should know about making 'not smart' moves."

Ayaka looked as though she were just about to shoot back a nasty reply before pausing, tilting her head to one side in a quizzical fashion that was reminiscent of Renamon, and then surprised herself by nodding in agreement. Ayaka looked greatly perplexed by this occurrence.

"Anyway," continued Henry, not wanting to lose the stream of his part of the conversation so that Terriermon wouldn't get any funny ideas while he was at school. "Ayaka and Miki found the digimon after school yesterday. We don't know how long it's been here, but the one that you fought yesterday returned to the digital world…right?"

"Not exactly a good point there, Henry," said Terriermon with a scowl. "That digimon had help when I fought him the first time around. If he had help getting through the barriers then don't you think that he'd be able to get back just as easily as he left? Remember the Devas and how they got around? Same difference."

"Even if it's grammatically incorrect," sighed Henry with a shake of his head.

"What's it doing now?" Asked Jeri raising one hand. "I mean, you don't have the digimon with you so…"

"He's at my house now," said Miki cheerfully. "Beanie's taking some time to settle in right now. He's not a bad digimon once you get to know him…"

"You mean 'once you told him that you knew the Tamers', right?" Asked Ayaka in a sarcastic tone. "Because that was the only way that you were able to get him to settle down and not try to escape."

To a man, the Tamers looked at each other and winced. There were just so many ways that they thought that this could be considered a 'bad thing'.

Hopefully this digimon isn't something bad. If Terriermon's right and this is the same digimon from the night before, and it has something helping it, we could be in for some trouble. Something's coming our way, I can feel it. I just hope that Takato and Rika get back before whatever's coming gets here. We're going to need all of our strength for this one.

"We're going to need to check this digimon out," said Henry before adding on upon seeing Miki's shocked expression. "Not to destroy him, but just to be sure that he's not the same digimon that we think he is. Terriermon and I will…"

"Don't you have to meet someone today, Henry?" Asked Terriermon, and the boy frowned, remembering that he had promised Noriko's mother last night on the phone that he'd see her after school.

It had sounded pretty important too…

"Oh…yeah. Forgot about that…"

"Don't sweat it Henry. I can go there. I mean, I saw this digimon up close, so I should be able to tell if it's the same one."

"And if it is, what then? You know it's harder for me to help you in a battle when I'm not with you even with the camera function of the digivice."

"I can go," said Kenta. All eyes turned on him. "What? C'mon you guys. I want in on this too. Besides, MarineAngemon's a Mega…"

"No offense dude," said Kazu. "But he's hardly the fighter type if things get rowdy…"

"I have to agree with Kazu on this one," said Ayaka.

"He scared off the D-Reaper by himself," said Kenta flatly, folding his arms over his chest with a frown. "Not that I'm bragging or anything but that's something not even Gallantmon in his Crimson Mode can attest to.

"I don't see any problem with it," said Henry.

"Really?" This from both Kazu and Kenta.

"Why not? MarineAngemon's got great restraining powers and shield defense, and while his abilities may not be all that powerful offensively they're still more then enough to handle any digimon from Fresh to Champion, and some Ultimates…that is, if you believe what the print says on the card, and he accounted for himself pretty well during the Parasimon invasion."

Kenta beamed and looked over at his angelic partner with pride. MarineAngemon giggled happily.

"Maybe I should go too…" began Kazu, only to be stopped by the shake of Henry's head.

"Guardromon's too big to enter Miki's house, plus if a fight starts Guardromon might make more of a mess of things. We need something small for this and as non-lethal as possible. Terriermon will know if the digimon's who he thinks he is and if he is then MarineAngemon will handle him. Are you guys up for it?"

Terriermon stood up proudly on Henry's head and flexed his tiny arms as though he were showing off his nearly non-existent muscles.

"Anytime, anywhere!"

"How about you MarineAngemon?" Asked Kenta.

"Puh!"

"He says 'yes'."

"All right then. After school you know what you all have to do."

"Don't worry Kazu," said Jeri with a light giggle. "I'll be sure to keep you company again at the bakery."

"Great…" moaned the visor-wearing child.

Yamaki busily typed away on his laptop, breaking away every so often to look over Janyu's notes and reference it with the information that he had displayed on his computer's screen.

This is far more complex then I thought it was, though Yamaki. From what I can see, wherever it was that Shibumi had gotten this piece of code he had, metaphorically speaking, used it to 'sew' together Guilmon's broken data and reconstitute the algorithms that made up his digi-core. But that was not all that it did. It appears to have spread quite a bit into Guilmon's digital makeup, influencing it in ways that might suggest an increase in power and possibly an outward change of appearance.

Yamaki switched over to a screen containing the code that made up Guilmon prior to Guilmon's 'death' when he had returned from the digital world with the other partner digimon and compared it with the more recent scan.

Of course, the current map of Guilmon's code is much more primitive, being in a lower evolutionary stage then the Rookie manifestation but still. This code, whatever it is, will make itself more apparent as Guilmon digivolves. I wonder if Shibumi knew that it would go this far when he inserted it into Guilmon.

Yamaki frowned, as he looked the data over again.

Interesting…it looks as though this code was used as something akin to a 'restart' button. 'Rebooted' I guess you could say but all the old information is still there. Just buried beneath layers of data and overshadowed by whatever this new algorithm is. I wonder if I could come up with a program that could be used to bring the old code back. I'll have to see what I can do about that…

Yamaki switched out of Guilmon's digital maps and went to check his E-Mail, glancing down at the computer's clock. 12:47. Yamaki frowned as he looked through his account.

Still nothing from Shibumi. Janyu's right. This isn't like him. He would have sent something by now, especially given how much he worked on bringing Guilmon back. The man is nothing but efficient. Even when his mind was trapped in the digital world he was still working on solving its mysteries and helping the Tamers. Could there be something wrong?

Picking up the phone on his desk Yamaki dialed a number.

"Riley. See if you can't get a hold of Shibumi. I don't care what he's doing right now wherever he is but get a hold of him whether it's his hotel number, his cell phone, or the number of a United States senator. I have some important questions I need to ask him."

"On it sir!"

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