Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU
Chapter 36: Duelling with Discord Part 2
Discord made it onto one of the rooftops and saw the destruction happening across the distance. He grunted a bit feeling very frustrated. "Oh this is SO not good! My show's becoming a no show! And I do not appreciate this!" Discord jumped down from the roof and landed on the ground with no pain at all, he then began to run towards the area.
Meanwhile, the other Tamers have reunited - save for Thomas - and are on their way to the Control Spire. Right now their only plan was to try and destroy it while Thomas held off the commanders, this was their only chance now that only the commanders were conscious and they were distracted.
The seven had made it to the giant wall which surrounded the Control Spire. "Oh great, how are we gonna get to it!?" exclaimed Kenta.
Takato stepped forward and looked at his right fist, he tightened it and tried to focus, hoping to activate his Data Streamer power. But nothing happened, he let out a disappointed sigh, that was until he saw Rika step up to him, she gently held Takato's tightened fist with both hands and then faced him, Rika gave a small smile. "Takato, think you can do it for me?"
Takato looked surprised, but he became determined to help her, then suddenly his tightened fist began to glow a red binary light.
'So it only activates when he needs to use it for me...' Rika felt quite flattered from this, but stepped back to let Takato do his thing.
"Here goes!" Takato winds back and throws a punch into the wall which not only made it smash into pieces, but the force also sent the pieces flying forward. He smirked seeing his power, he then faced Rika with a smile. "Thanks."
They all looked to the west to see Thomas being thrown to them, he hit the ground hard but quickly got back onto his feet, but fell onto his knee feeling exhausted. There the three commanders charged forward with Quake-Shot in front.
Thomas prepared his gun but was surprised to see Takato run past him. "I got it!"
Just before Quake-Shot could throw his hammer down onto him, Takato threw a punch into his stomach, the punch was so hard it destroyed the rock around him and sent him flying through ten buildings. Saw-Tooth tried to slam his blades into him but Takato dodged, and threw an uppercut sending him sky-high. Hook-Claw shot both his claws at Takato but he grabbed both of them and began to spin around making Hook-Claw lift into the air and be spun around with them, Takato then slammed him down onto the ground making a small crater. All three were unconscious in seconds.
"Um... wow." was all Rika had to say, making quick work of all three of them at once when everyone else had trouble taking them down.
Thomas slowly stood up. "Nice one." he then turned to the Control Spire. "Now we gotta take that down."
Takato faced the Spire and prepared another punch. He punched the Control Spire as hard as he could which made a loud gonging sound which rattled everyone's ears. But the Spire was still standing strong, Takato stepped back gently waving his bruised hand. "D-Dang! That thing's made of some tough stuff."
Thomas fired a round of his shotgun into the Spire, but the bullet plinked off and hit a building far past them. "Real tough stuff. Guess I'll have to do it the old fashioned way." Thomas walked up to it and placed his hand gently in front of it, the metal on the Control Spire began to warp. "If I can get enough time, I can recode this Control Spire and turn it into something else."
"Is that your Data Recoding power?" asked Ryo.
"Yes. I can turn anything into anything by simply rewriting it's code. I can even do it to humans and Digimon." He turned and smirked. "So if Rika wanted, I could recode Takato's data and make him muscular."
"Uh." Takato chuckled nervously. "T-That's alright I like me how I am now." He noticed that Rika was blushing quite a bit, thinking of what Thomas said. "Uh... R-Rika?"
Suddenly Thomas let out an agonising scream and fell to the ground, the others were shocked to see that a dagger had somehow embedded itself into his back at breakneck speed. Jeri, Ryo and Henry went down to help him while the others turned to where the dagger came from.
"Recoding huh? That my friends is a very rare and special power!" from the top of a building, Discord jumped down from it and faced the kids with a sinister smirk. "But if you think I'm just gonna let all of you little tykes do as you please then you all have another thing coming!"
"Who's this clown!?" asked Takato.
"That's Discord, he's the leader." said Rika as she gently placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.
Ryo grabbed the dagger and forcefully yanked it out of Thomas's back, he grunted in agony for a second before his healing capability kicked in and removed his wounds. He slowly stood up and prepared his shotgun. "You're from Comatose correct?"
Discord chuckled. "Maybe I am, maybe not." He then pulled three daggers out in each hand. "But that information is of no use to you, none of you will be leaving with your lives."
Rika tightened her grip on her sword. "Is that a fact?"
Discord took notice of her sword and chuckled. "So the little lady thinks she can take me on with that little butter knife of hers?" He tightened the grip on his daggers. "Very well, I think I'll take you down first!"
Discord suddenly threw three of his daggers at Rika but she dodged them and immediately charged forward. Discord prepared three more daggers getting ready to strike, but Rika already unsheathed and swung her sword in a violent manner.
Everything went white for a second, but Rika suddenly found herself past Discord with her sword stretched out, she hated to see what was behind her, but she slowly turned around anyway. Rika felt several chills going all over her body, slowly losing her grip on her sword, there Discord lied there on the ground, completely cut in half from the waist. Rika slowly stepped back. "I... I... I killed him..."
Everyone else had the look of shock and horror to them, all except for Thomas who kept a serious face, but then turned surprised. "Rika! Get back!"
"What? B-But-"
"Think about it! Why is he not bleeding?"
Rika realised this and took another look, he was right, even though Discord was cut from the middle, completely split in two, not a single trace of blood was visible. She realised why and immediately ran back.
But Rika felt a burning pain in her right leg as a dagger suddenly shot into it, she let loose a scream before falling to the ground. The pain caused her vision and focus to go completely out of whack, but she saw that Discord's upper half began to float up by itself which the legs jumped up and landed back on their feet.
Discord laughed maniacally. "Love my moves there!? I'm a Data Streamer too! Sectioned Body! I cannot die by any blade-like weapons or attacks!"
"What about bullets!?"
Discord noticed Thomas as he fired his shotgun, but both halves of Discord went in different directions dodging the bullet. His upper half suddenly went to Rika, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him and placed a dagger right at her neck. "You better drop that gun before you have something to regret!"
Takato felt furious as he stepped forward a bit. "You coward!"
Discord's legs suddenly charged forward and threw a kick into Takato's chest sending him to the ground. They then ran back a bit. "You'd do well to keep your little brat mouth shut! Messing with Comatose is like having a death wish!"
"Even more so than the Dark Ones?" asked Thomas.
Discord looked confused. "The what?" He shook his head. "No, I don't care. Look, you talentless brats better drop your weapons and surrender or else I'll make this brat wish he stayed home with her mommy and daddy!"
Mentioning Rika's father stirred something in her chest, the feeling of anger and sadness. She suddenly threw her elbow as hard as she could into Discord's chest making him flinch, but this was enough for Rika to grab the dagger from her hand and stab it in his neck, Discord grunted in pain as he unintentionally released her, Rika grabbed her sword and cut off both of his arms and ran back to the others. But the immense pain in her leg made it difficult to do so.
Discord's legs which were distracted by his pain were grabbed by Takato and he threw them into Discord himself sending him to the ground.
Discord quickly got up, his floating severed arms grabbed the dagger out of his neck and he reattached every part of himself. He growled in anger as he stood up. "Looks like I'll have to teach some brats a lesson in manners."
Takato, Henry, Ryo and Thomas stepped forward. Thomas turned to Rika. "It's best you stay out of this fight, he's immune to your sword. Besides, your injured."
Rika felt hesitant however. "B-But I-"
Thomas turned back to Rika. "You, Jeri, Elecmon and Kenta find a safe place."
Rika turned back to Takato. "W-What about Takato?"
Takato turned to Rika. "Don't worry about me." He clenched his fists revealing the red binary light. "I've still got my strength, I'll feel much better if I know you're safe. You just take it easy."
Rika still didn't want to run, but she knew Takato would be fine, she turned to Jeri, Elecmon and Kenta, back to Takato, and then back to them. Rika then tried to run towards them but she fell onto her knee. Kenta and Jeri immediately went to her and both picked her up, the four then quickly made their way to a safe area.
Discord watched the four run from the area, he then turned back to the others and smirked sinisterly as he fiddled with his daggers. "Well isn't that just sweet? I'll be glad to take care of them once I'm done with you!"
Thomas immediately pointed his shotgun at him and fired a round, but Discord split himself in half again and the legs suddenly charged towards them. He then threw six daggers total, Thomas shot at every one of the daggers as Ryo jumped forward and tried to strike the legs with his staff, but the legs detached themselves from each other and shot past Ryo. Henry and Takato each blocked the legs and pushed them back.
Henry kicked one of the legs back while Takato grabbed it by the ankles and threw it right back at Discord who quickly tipped upside down to let his leg land back on his hinges. The other leg quickly flew back to him by his own command.
Ryo charged forward and tried to attack Discord with his staff, but he blocked all of his attacks with another set of daggers. Discord saw that Takato charged at him and jumped up trying to punch him in the face, but Discord quickly shot his head off of his body making Takato miss. His head flew up high as the rest of his body fought the others, he chuckled a bit before he noticed Thomas aiming for him. He fired more rounds of his gun which Discord's head dodged all over the place.
Takato suddenly grabbed the body and threw it up into the air and into the range of where Thomas had his gun ready. Discord panicked a little as he saw Thomas preparing to shoot at the body, but just before Thomas could, Discord suddenly split his body apart into a hundred little pieces and they all began to fly down towards Takato and Ryo. The two jumped back a bit and tried to strike back at any pieces coming at him, but the two were starting to become overwhelmed and were getting hit by them almost all over their bodies. Thomas couldn't fire his gun at the pieces as they were too close to the two Tamers.
Ryo suddenly swung his staff down smacking one of the body pieces, which suddenly made every single one of them freeze in place, the confused Takato looked over to Discord's head which was in the mix, he had a stunned look on his face as he tried to hold in as much pain as he could. He noticed that the particular body piece Ryo struck, had his crotch on it. Takato took this advantage by running up to Discord's head and punched it as hard as he could sending him flying over to the other side of town. The other pieces suddenly dropped to the ground.
Thomas ran back to the Control Spire and placed his hand against it in an attempt to recode it once more. Takato and Ryo took notice of the body pieces flying over to where Discord flew to. "Hurry Thomas, we don't have a lot of time!" called Takato.
"I know, but it's not easy to recode something this big and made with a very complex coding."
Meanwhile, in a back alley, we find Rika, Jeri, Elecmon and Kenta sitting there waiting for any chance of success from the others. Rika slowly felt her pain easing away from her as Kenta kept a Remedy Floppy close to her leg. How Kenta knew it was a Remedy Floppy was because Elecmon told him.
"I'm really glad you brought those with you." said Jeri with a sweet smile.
"Yeah but... these were suppose to be the Blast Floppies." said Kenta feeling upset. "I didn't bring any of the four types of floppies with me. And I had them divided into separate piles and everything."
"So the ones you thought you brought along are still in the train right?" asked Elecmon.
"Yeah..."
There was a bit of silence, until Jeri perked up realising something. "Oh, I know! Kazu and Jess!" The others looked over to her. "They're still on the train, they could bring us the Floppies."
"But they won't be able to tell the difference between them either." Kenta replied.
"But DemiDevimon is with them."
"And he can tell them apart!" Rika dug into her pocket and took out her phone. "Jeri, you're a genius!" She began to punch in the numbers and waited for a reply.
In the train, Kazu continued to play with the Digimon while Jessica watched. Soon she heard the sound of Kazu's phone ringing next to her, so she picked it up. "Hello?"
"Jess?"
"Rika?" Kazu and the Digimon turned to Jessica.
"Why did you- You know what, never mind! Listen to me, do you know where Kenta's Floppies are?"
"Yeah, they're in the next carriage, why?"
"The idiot brought the wrong ones and we're in a real bind here. We need the Blast Floppies, can you get them to us?"
"But how are we supposed to bring them? Isn't the place filled with guards?"
"Use the Cloak Floppies to turn yourselves invisible! Now please hurry!" Rika hung up suddenly.
Jessica turned to Kazu. "We need to bring them those Blast Floppies."
"But I thought- Kenta you numskull! How are we suppose to tell them apart!?"
Pagumon jumped up onto one of the tables. "Don't worry, I can tell them apart. Let's go!"
Back at the Spire, Thomas continued to try and recode it while Takato, Henry and Ryo kept themselves prepared for Discord's return, which was no doubt very soon.
Suddenly Discord himself charged from between the buildings looking furious, he began to throw several daggers like bullets in which Ryo jumped forward and began to deflect as many as he could. Discord then suddenly shot both his arms off and sent them flying like rockets. Takato jumped forward and grabbed both of them by the hands and tried to throw them back, but Discord's severed leg came out of nowhere and kicked him in the stomach, the arms then grabbed him and threw him into the Control Spire hitting his back against it hard.
Ryo tried to attack the body parts but they quickly returned to Discord as he charged forward with more daggers. Henry shot out of nowhere and threw a sweeping kick tripping Discord up allowing Ryo to smack his head with the pole sending him flying back a bit. But Discord shot both his legs forward like rockets striking their chests and sent them flying a bit. Discord returned his legs and ran towards Thomas to attack him, but Takato came out of nowhere and threw a powerful punch sending him flying thirty feet away.
Discord quickly got back onto his feet and saw Takato running straight at him, Discord pulled out more daggers and threw a bunch of them in his direction, Takato jumped to the ground avoiding them, but quickly got back up and threw a kick into Discord's chest sending him flying back. However, one of the thrown daggers was aimed at the distracted Thomas, and it imbedded into his shoulder causing him to yell in agony and drop to his knee.
"D-DAMNIT!" he grunted as he pulled the dagger out, he looked back up to see his progress had reset. He slowly stood back up and placed his other hand against the Control Spire, letting his other arm heal.
Discord landed in an alleyway but quickly got back onto his feet, he growled in frustration. "Damnit! I am never gonna be able to show this kid what-for if he keeps up his stupid moves like this!" He then stepped forward growing a sinister smirk. "Time for my secret weapon!"
Discord quickly placed his back against the wall and kept his hands spread out and firmly placed onto the wall, his hands began to glow a golden binary light.
"My body is not the only thing I can split apart."
The wall around him suddenly turned like a revolving door and he was carried to the interior of the building. Takato arrived on the scene but looked around in confusion. "Where'd he go!?"
Back at the Spire, Thomas continued to try and recode it while Ryo and Henry kept alert, mostly keeping an eye on the general direction Discord flew to. But suddenly a square segment of the ground under Henry suddenly lifted up and flipped over throwing him off, he saw the slab of ground about to crush him but he quickly got up and jumped out of the way.
The three looked over and saw Discord walking out from the hole he just made, he then suddenly charged straight for Thomas who quickly turned and prepared his gun, he fired a round but Discord split himself in half to dodge the bullet, his legs quickly kicked Thomas's stomach throwing him away from the Control Spire resetting what he's done again. Ryo quickly jumped in from the right and swung his staff at Discord's upper half, knocking him back a bit. His legs ran for Thomas but Henry grabbed them and threw them far from Thomas and he runs to fight the legs. Thomas gets back up and places his hand against the Control Spire again and began to recode it again.
As Henry fought Discord's legs, Ryo kept trying to strike Discord but he kept dodging his staff. Just as Ryo was about to swing again, Discord smacked his staff away and suddenly grabbed the top of Ryo's head, his hand glowed a golden binary light and began to pull as Ryo tried to pry his hand off.
But to everyone's shock, Discord suddenly ripped of Ryo's head and threw it behind him watching his body drop to the ground.
"RYYOO!" Henry screamed seeing it, but was distracted by the legs which kicked him to the ground. Henry got up and threw the hardest kick he could throw, directly at the leg's crotch, stunning Discord once again as both halves dropped to the ground. Henry ran to Ryo's body, but he stopped himself the second he saw something he wasn't expecting at all.
Ryo was still alive, his severed head looked around feeling very disorientated, he looked over to his body and moved one of his arms to see if he was still in control, and he was. "Ok... this is really freaking weird!" His body slowly pulled itself up and slowly walked up to his head stumbling a bit. Henry walked up to Ryo's head and picked it up, he then handed it to his body. "Thanks."
Ryo placed his head back onto his body letting out a golden binary spark as they connected. He then moved his head around to see if it was fitted in properly. "Well... didn't see that one coming." Said Henry with a slight smirk.
"Mom always said I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders." Ryo chuckled.
The two turned around to see Discord reattaching himself as he glared at the two. He then dug his fingers into the ground releasing a golden binary light, he then lifted a large flat square segment of the ground and flipped it over in an attempt to crush the two, but Takato came out of nowhere and threw a powerful punch smashing the segment to pieces, he ploughed through the pieces and threw a double punch at Discord who threw both his hands in the way to block the punch, but he was thrown back quite far.
Takato ran forward again to throw another punch but Discord grabbed his right fist, he threw his other hand but Discord caught that one too. He then suddenly moved to holding onto his wrists, making his hands glow a golden binary light and Discord threw a kick into Takato's stomach, he was thrown back and his arms were detached from his body making him fly further.
The now armless Takato hit the ground hard but was helped up by Henry and Ryo, he looked down to see his arms were gone. "W-WHAT THE HELL!?"
Discord smirked as he held onto Takato's severed arms, he looked down at them to see the red binary light emitting from his hands, then he gave off a very sinister smirk. He suddenly detached his own arms which floated in the air for a moment, before he placed Takato's arms into his shoulder sockets. Discord chuckled as he examined his new arms.
"Heh, they're a bit small, but the punch they pack is amazing!" Discord flex a bit releasing a red binary light, as his own arms glowed a golden binary light.
All four of them looked in shock and disbelief at the fact that Discord attached Takato's arms on himself and now not only has control of his arms, but also has his super strength. "Oh... crap!" muttered Takato.
"Now I have twice the groove and twice the power to knock you kiddies all the way back to yesteryear!"
Discord charged forward preparing his fist. The three jumped out of the way just before Discord could punch them, his fist hit the ground causing giant cracks to form all around the ground. His real arms flew forward trying to punch them too, but they dodged them too.
Just as Discord was about to charge again, he saw Thomas aiming for him with his shotgun and fired a round, Discord dodged in time and looked to see he now had to deal with Thomas as well as Henry and Ryo. Takato on the other hand was forced to flee as requested by Henry.
Discord smirked. "Decided to pay attention to little ol' me?"
"I'll have an easier time destroying the spire. Right after we deal with you." Thomas placed both his hands on the handle of the shotgun, after a flash of bright light, he now held two single barrel shotguns.
Discord prepared both his and Takato's arms making them glow both their binary lights. "Alright then, let's hope you can keep up with my new moves! Let's dance!"
Thomas fired two rounds from his guns but Discord dodged in time by splitting in two, his legs ran off to fight Henry while his floating arms went to fight Ryo. His upper half with Takato's arms flew forward to fight Thomas.
Thomas quickly dodged Discord's punches swiftly and then jumps back to get some room, he fired more rounds from his gun which Discord dodged by flying up high into the sky, he then rocketed down straight towards him keeping both fists forward. Thomas fired more rounds but Discord kept dodging them and was flying down faster, Thomas quickly jumped back further dodging Discord's double punch causing him to hit the ground which made a large crater and several cracks.
Thomas jumped back three more times and looked at the damage Discord did as he floated up out of the crater smirking. Thomas looked at his guns, he then sighed. "Hell with it." he then put both guns back together and placed it on his back again. This confused Discord for a moment until he saw Thomas placing his hand on the ground, is hand glowed in black binary lights before he pulled out a giant hammer made of the ground and placed it on his shoulders, then the hammer suddenly glowed a black light before reforming into a hammer made out of diamond.
Discord was surprised at first, but smirked none the less. Thomas jumped up high and tried to slam his hammer down onto him, but Discord threw both his fists forward and blocked the hammer with a double punch causing a large shockwave, Thomas jumped back and spun around and threw the hammer directly at him, but Discord spun and managed to catch the hammer, he then flew forward and tried to swing it at Thomas, but he jumped up and landed on the hammer with his hands, in a flash of light the hammer was suddenly turned into a soft mud right before Thomas leapt off of it, the hammer melted down from Discord's hands. The surprised Discord turned around but Thomas suddenly kicked him hard in the face sending him flying back.
Thomas was about to run forward until he felt a very sharp pain in his chest stopping him, but he quickly got over it and ran after Discord.
Rika couldn't believe her eyes, neither could Kenta, Jeri or Elecmon for that matter. Takato stood before them with a look of shock and embarrassment, as both of his arms were completely missing. "It... turns out that Discord guy can separate more than his own body parts."
Everyone was in complete silence, until Kenta spoke up. "Well... right now al l I can think about is the word disarmed."
"What worries me more is the fact that he's using my powers." exclaimed Takato. "It looks like if he attaches another Data Streamer's body part onto him, he can use their powers."
The others walked forward a bit to peek out of the alleyway, watching Discord fight Thomas using Takato's arms instead of his own, while his real arms fought Ryo and his legs fought Henry.
Rika looked down at her leg which Discord stabbed, though fully healed, it still ached a bit, she then looked back at Discord. "I'm going in!" She grabbed her sword and charged forward.
"Rika wait!" Takato shouted as he ran after her, but he suddenly tripped over and hit the ground hard, without his arms he couldn't get back up. Instead of the others helping him up, they ran after Rika, leaving him to lie on the ground. "... Ah nuts."
As Ryo was holding back Discord's arms, he became surprised to see Kenta running forward and he grabbed the shoulder-parts of the arms and tried to hold them back for Ryo who quickly took the opportunity to smack the arms around with his staff.
Discord's legs which fought Henry were immediately halted when they were struck with Elecmon's Super Thunder Strike. Once the attack was finished, the legs remained still as they swayed from side to side. Henry took the opportunity to thrust his right foot into Discord's crotch again.
Discord was stunned feeling both his real arms and his crotch in pain. Thomas was about to strike until he saw Rika charge forward from behind. She quickly focused, breathed deeply as she held onto her sword tightly, then with two sudden vertical swings from her sword, Takato's arms were forcefully removed from Discord's body. Thomas then threw a powerful kick into his chin sending him flying up over Rika and landing onto the ground hard.
Rika placed her sword back into her scabbard and grabbed Takato's arms as the others went in a line to face Discord's upper half. Rika then ran off back to Takato
Discord flew back up and his arms and legs flew back to him connecting once again. "This is the last straw, you brats! If I gotta give it my all to make sure that Control Spire stays up and you kids go down! Then so be it!"
"ATTACK!"
Suddenly, the Tamers' In-Training Digimon came up from behind Discord and all tackled him to the ground. The others became surprised to see them come out of nowhere.
"G-GET OFF ME!" shouted Discord as he tried to keep the Digimon from jumping on him and biting him.
"Are we late?"
Kazu and Jessica suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of the others. "What the!? How? What are you doing here!?" asked Henry.
"Rika gave us a call." Kazu smirked and pointed forward to the Control Spire. "She said you could use our help. Your welcome."
They all turned to where Kazu was pointing. there they all saw that the Control Spire had fifteen Floppies stuck onto it all around. Thomas smirked. "Blast Floppies." He took out his shotgun and fired at it. The bullet struck the button on one of the Blast Floppies.
In a flash, there was a sudden huge explosion that engulfed the bottom half of the Spire, cracks formed all around it as well as the ground and the remaining segments of the broken wall flew apart into pieces. Slowly the Control Spire began to tumble down as it shattered into smaller pieces.
Discord finally managed to get back up and throw the Digimon off of him, but became shocked to see the Control Spire was destroyed. "N-NO! Y-You did NOT just do that!" He then looked down to the In-Training Digimon glaring at him with smirks, then they suddenly began to glow. "Not good..."
In a massive binary shockwave which sent Discord back, the In-Training Digimon all Digivovled back into their Rookie Levels. DemiDevimon smirked as he stood on Guilmon's head. "So... feel like running?"
A loud beeping noise came from Discord's pocket, he took out a small communications device and answered it. "Discord Sir! The Digimon in the prisons! They're all Digivolving! We can't contain them!"
Discord looked over to where the prison was and saw large flashes of binary light. "Everyone retreat!" The Control Spire is down! We must retreat immediately! ESCAPE!" With that he suddenly turned tail and ran in the opposite direction, not before the Digimon began firing their ranged attacks at him.
Thomas let out a small sigh. "Finally. It's over."
"I thought that fight was going to last forever." said Jeri feeling glad.
Later, the gang were back in the train which was now moved closer to the town, they were all resting up while Thomas spoke with the town's Mayor.
Rika looked over to Takato who sat on the bed giving Guilmon a few strokes. "Glad to have you back to normal boy."
"Glad to be back, Takatomon!"
Rika let out a smile, she then turned to Viximon who was taking a nap on top of her laptop. She was glad that this situation was over, but a few things came to mind. Discord briefly mentioned about an organisation called Comatose, the name had rung a bell but she was completely unsure of what the organisation was all about, and she also wondered if they had any connection with the Dark Ones. But Discord seemed clueless on who the Dark Ones were, nevertheless she hoped that this was the last time they have to deal with Discord or any other evil Data Streamers.
She turned back to Takato. "So how are your arms?"
Takato turned to her. "Huh? Oh right, yeah, they feel as good as new. Still, didn't expect that disco-wannabe to just yank them off of me like that."
"Guess we must be careful if we face any more Data Streamers like Discord. I wonder what happened to him?"
"Who knows, just so long as he doesn't put up another Control Spire, we're good."
A bit later, just half an hour before they get moving again. We find Thomas, Henry, DemiDevimon and Terriermon in the front of the train, Thomas was typing in several keys at once on the keyboard. He turned to Henry. "Are you sure about this?"
"I'm very sure." Henry replied.
"This is going behind Jeri's back. Shouldn't you at least let her know?"
"Jeri told me that she would let her parents know in her own time... but... I know she was lying."
Thomas stopped for a moment and turned to Henry. "She lied?"
"She made me promise to let her do this in her own time, but I can just tell... she has no intention of telling her parents at all, and she doesn't want me to do it either."
"And what do you base that on?"
"I... it's the way she looked when she told me, the slight twitches, the look in her eyes. She's just so scared of her parents finding out, but she'll be in even more trouble when she gets back home, I know I'm breaking her promise, but if her parents know where she is and that we're keeping her safe, we can at least let her parents calm down."
"And you are fully aware that this will get really rocky for you the second she finds out right?"
"I... I'll be more than willing to take a few for her if it means less pain from her parents."
Thomas was silent at first, but he then typed one last key in and the window screen changed to look like a computer screen, it revealed the Katou residences' living room. Thomas took out the speaker-like object and readied his finger on one large key. "Would you like me to do it?"
"N-No thank you, they know me, and they'll hopefully feel reassured if they hear my voice." Henry took the speaker and Thomas tapped the key and stepped a few feet backwards.
The phone began to ring in the living room, soon Jeri's dad walked up to it looking somewhat anxious as he answered it. "Hello?"
"M-Mr. Katou?"
Jeri's dad looked a bit surprised. "Henry? Is that you?"
"Yes it is. I... I came to let you know that Jeri is with me, and she's doing fine."
He opened his eyes more and soon smiled looking relieved. But he then looked annoyed. "Well I'm glad she is but..." he let out another sigh. "Where is she right now?"
"She's resting for now."
"No I mean her location? Are you lot having a camping trip or something? She's been gone for days."
Both Henry, Terriermon, Thomas and DemiDevimon looked surprised, they looked at each other and back to Jeri's dad. "D-Did... didn't Jeri tell you?"
"Tell me what? She didn't say a thing! She just disappeared one day, no note or anything, and her big lion friend too. You have no idea how worried sick her mother and I were."
"Is that Jeri!?" soon a woman came into the screen and made her way to the phone.
The four looked at each other feeling uneasy. Henry covered the speaker as Thomas spoke up. "Jeri didn't say a thing? No wonder her parents are upset."
"She told me her parents said she wasn't allowed." Henry moved his hand away from the speaker. "Uh, Mr. Katou... uh... how do I explain this."
"Explain what?" he asked. "Where is our daughter?"
"I better step in." Thomas gently took the speaker and spoke into this. "We're all in a place called the Digital World, it's the home world to Jeri's lion friend."
"W-What!? Just who is this!?"
"My name is Thomas, I'm a friend of Henry, and I'm kind of the group's leader. I know you're worried about your daughter, but I can easily assure you that she will come home safe and sound."
"C-Can't you bring her home now!?" asked Jeri's mother. "We're so worried for her."
"I'm afraid we can't do that, she will be stuck with us for a long time."
Henry took the speaker. "B-But listen, I made a promise that I'll protect her, Leomon will protect her too, and so will the others."
"I... I don't care, I want her back! Leaving home without saying a word is bad enough, but she's in this Digital World thing, who knows what kind of danger is in that place!"
"T-Tadashi?" said Jeri's mother. "Listen, Henry is a strong smart boy, and that Leomon character is with her, I'm sure she will do her best to be safe, and I'm sure they'll help protect her."
"Don't worry." said Henry. "I keep my promises, and I will protect her, even if it risks my own life."
Tadashi still looked worried, but he sighed and nodded. "A-Alright. I trust you Henry. But if she doesn't come back in one piece, it's on your head!"
"Y-Yes sir." Henry replied feeling a bit nervous, knowing how tough he is.
Jeri's mother soon smiled. "And besides, it might be best she continues this little adventure, I mean she'll probably find out who she truly is."
"Who she truly is!?" exclaimed Henry feeling very confused, the others had similar expressions. "Um... wh-what do you mean by that?"
"It's nothing. Just a joke." said Tadashi looking worried.
Thomas took the speaker. " Mr. Katou, I feel that this is something we should know. If it can help us understand your daughter then surely we should know about it."
"I said it's nothing."
"Tadashi. I think we should tell them?"
"What? Who's side are you on!?"
"She's going to find out eventually, it's better she knows sooner than later."
Henry and Thomas looked at each other, then back to the screen. Thomas spoke up. "Mr and Mrs Katou... is Jeri... is she not really your daughter?" Henry looked back at Thomas in shock.
Both parents looked at the phone in shock. Tadashi looked as if he was about to bark back, but let out an upset sigh. "It's true... Jeri was... she was adopted."
Henry felt really shocked from this, he then took the speaker back. "Does Jeri know?"
"No. She has no idea. I adopted her when she was a baby."
"I see..." Henry turned to Thomas, then back to them. "Ok, listen. We'll promise to keep this a secret, it's better you tell her. But could you promise us this?"
"What?"
"Jeri wanted to come with us to help us all, and I guess she didn't ask for your permission because she was afraid you would say no. She didn't mean to hurt you, but she was desperate to help us all, and she has, she's done really well. C-Could you... could you give her some slack when she comes home."
Tadashi looked a bit surprised, but he then smiled. "I... I guess I can, I still feel like I should tell her how much she made us worry."
"I know, but she meant good. And won't worry, we'll keep this whole conversation a secret."
"G-GUYS!" exclaimed DemiDevimon looking quite scared.
Thomas, Henry and Terriermon turned around and became shocked to see that Jeri herself was standing right behind her. She looked both very angry and about to cry.
"J-JERI!?" Henry exclaimed.
"H-How long have you been standing there!?" asked Thomas.
Jeri turned to the screen. "DAD! First you replace my real mom! Now you say I'm adopted!?"
Tadashi looked shocked. "Now Jeri I-"
"SHUT UP!" Jeri turned to Henry making him feel like his heart skipped a beat in fear. "And you! You promised to let me do this on my own!? How could you lie to me like that!? I... I thought you trusted me!"
"Jeri! I do trust you, I just-"
"First I lose my real mother and get a fake! Now I learn that neither of my parents are mine! And you Henry, you lied to me, you broke your promise! I... I'VE NEVER FELT MORE BETRAYED!"
Jeri suddenly ran out of the room and was making her way back to her carriage. "Jeri wait! I'm sorry!" Henry ran after her leaving Thomas and DemiDevimon.
Thomas turned back to the screen and picked up the speaker, seeing both her parents looking shocked. "Mr and Mrs Katou, I... I'm really sorry for all this."
Tadashi sighed. "It's fine... really... please just bring her back safely."
"We will."
Jeri ran into her carriage surprising Leomon, Jessica, Ryo and Monodramon, she locked the door and ran further along the carriage. "J-Jeri!? What's wrong!?" called Leomon.
"Don't let him in! Keep him out!" Jeri cried as she ran into the end carriage.
"Jeri! Jeri!" Henry called as he tried desperately to open the door. Ignoring Kazu, Kenta, Takato, Guilmon, Rika and Viximon staring at him from their respective carriages. "Jeri! Please open the door! C'mon I'm sorry! Can I at least explain!? Jeri! JERI!"
No answer, Henry let out a sigh of frustration as he placed his head against the door. "Damn it." he muttered under his breath as a single tear slides down his cheek.
The end for now.
I... am... really... REALLY sorry for the five month delay on such a short chapter, it was a mixture of having ideas but no motivation and having motivation but no ideas. I will do my best to keep the updates a bit more efficient, I'm really hoping I can since I've got a ton of ideas for future chapters, I was just stuck big time on this one chapter.
I've been really tempted to work on other fan-fics when I can't work on this one, just for the sake of keeping my profile active. But I haven't decided, in any case, I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I really hope to get this story updated more often.