Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Less than Human

Chapter: 38/ Kenta's Battle: Part 1

"This isn't good. Yamaki's picked up on our trail. He knows that something's amiss now."

"I told you that if you attempted to block anything going between the humans that you would be detected. Sooner or later someone was bound to notice something. I'm actually surprised that we've lasted this long!"

"Well, that's because Mr. Mizuno's been rather busy lately. I just wanted to make sure that his attention wasn't anywhere near what was going on with Hypnos while we executed our plan."

"What exactly is it about this 'Shibumi' that you fear? He's only human…"

"So are the Tamers and we've seen what they can do. Mizuno may be human but he's also a human who helped create your kind and evolved it by adding the evolution algorithm to your world…what you would call the catalyst. He is not one to be trifled with. He knows many things that other humans do not. He has held court with digimon and digignomes during his 'stay' in the digital world."

"Afraid that he'll recognize what you are?"

"…You know…I've always suspected that you knew what I really was. How'd you know, may I ask?"

"Hmmmph! You may look different and your powers may be altered but you still carry the stink of your kind about you."

"The nose 'knows' eh? Figures…"

"But back to my question. Are you afraid that Shibumi would recognize you for what you are and figure out a way to use that against you?"

"A little bit, yes. Shibumi's an unknown factor in our plans. He could upset things for us. We don't dare move against him because he has proven to be unnaturally lucky with these kinds of things. It's like he knows some things in advance when he shouldn't. Not that he's perfect mind you because he isn't, but he's quite possibly the most dangerous human in existence. I…knew him a long time ago. Before I became what I am…before I came to the real world…following those Tamers…"

"Now you're getting nostalgic."

"It was another life. Hard to believe that I was so much more cheerful back then. I didn't understand the pain that life could put you through until I came to the world of humans. It's why I joined your group in the first place. I understand what it means to experience loss. It seems like it's all that these humans ever feel. Their lives…much too short and always in danger of being cut off…so easily too…"

"You're doing it again, so back on track. So Yamaki's on our trail? What are we going to do about that?"

"Us? Nothing. One thing that I've learned during my stay with the humans is that some problems tend to solve themselves without any interference from our end. Yamaki's about to be…interrupted."

"I see… You know, sometimes I think you get some kind of perverse pleasure in watching things unravel. I don't understand you sometimes."

"You can't understand the motives behind a being that's not of your own kind DinoRexmon. Have you ever met a digimon who could understand a digignome or one of those aimlessly moving programs like D-Reaper or our blue clouded friend out there?"

"Point. So Yamaki's about to be halted?"

"Temporarily of course, but nonetheless he's stopped. A victim of someone else's war…"

"You almost sound smug about that…"

Yamaki stepped into the main control room, every step measured as he peered around the room. Anger bit into his mind like a savage animal but in spite of that he held it back as best as he could, with the only outward sign that he showed of his temper being that of the death grip that he held on his lighter. He didn't bother with flicking it open and closing it, as was his usual habit such was the intensity of the anger that he felt. He had every reason to be angry at this moment. Approximately three hours ago he had tried to get a hold of one Gorou Mizuno, a.k.a. 'Shibumi' only to meet up with something he hadn't expected to happen. According to his operators Riley and Tally something had intercepted his call and had affectively 'canceled' it. Suspecting that something foul was afoot Yamaki had Riley do an analysis of any and all outgoing messages that had been sent to Shibumi's E-Mail account. During the next three hours they had begun to get a rather disturbing picture. Someone…or something, did not want them contacting Shibumi, and had done the same to the E-Mails as had been done to the call.

Shibumi had never once received a single message from any of Hypnos's agencies during the entire time that he had been down at New York.

He, Riley, and Tally had been in the process of trying to figure out just what was going on and track down its source when Riley had received a communiqué that interrupted them, and unfortunately demanded his full attention as well. Someone had arrived at Hypnos, and he was bearing news that did not sit well with him.

"Where is he?" Demanded Yamaki hotly when his eyes came to rest on Riley.

"Over here Yamaki," hailed a familiar voice from over by the floor level control panels. Yamaki followed the voice over to its source and he began to descend down the stairwell, glaring behind his shades at the figure that was now smirking impetuously at him. It was a thickly set man, clean-shaven and with short, well-groomed, dark hair that was standard for most agents and government officials that Yamaki had come across in his time. He was also a man that Yamaki had hoped to never see again.

"I thought that I made it very clear to the board that you were to never set foot in this facility again," said Yamaki, struggling to keep his tone even.

"As I recall the board said that they'd keep your suggestion under advisement," said the man, clearly unimpressed with Yamaki's simmering anger. His smirk disappeared though as he became businesslike with the Head of Hypnos. "They never said anything about keeping me away from here."

"Get out of here Itokawa," growled Yamaki. "Before I call security and have you thrown out bodily. The last time someone let you in here you activated Juggernaut without authorization and nearly destroyed this building! Your unfamiliarity with the technology almost caused an even bigger disaster then when the Devas first corrupted the Juggernaut program!"

"I realize that mistakes were made Yamaki, but I'm not here to defend them. Merely…improve upon them so that they don't happen again. And unfortunately for you, you don't have the authority to throw me out. I'm here under orders." The man named Itokawa reached behind him over to the control panel and picked up a folder that Yamaki hadn't noticed earlier and handed it to the man. Raising an eyebrow Yamaki accepted the folder and opened it, scanning the papers that were contained therein.

"I trust that you'll find that everything is in order," said Itokawa calmly, and with a subtle tone of satisfaction. "As of right now the Argus program has been placed under my jurisdiction. I am in control of making sure that the testing of Argus continues without interruption."

"They can't be serious about this!" said Yamaki, unable to hide the frustration and surprise that he felt.

"I'm afraid that the board is deadly serious, Yamaki. And unanimous…with the exception of your good friend, the Chief of Cabinets that is but his vote was but one, and to allude to an American saying he hardly makes up an army. Be warned Yamaki. Should you give me any difficulties the board will suspend you so if you intend to get rid of me I suggest that you go about it in a more roundabout way or talk to the board yourself. And if you're wondering why this is happening now when the first level was tested successfully, the answer is simple. The board knows that you've been dragging your heals on this project and fighting it every step of the way. They want someone who won't be so resistant to the program operating it. It works out well for both of you Yamaki. The board gets its program and you can put all of your focus on training the Tamers and making them a part of Hypnos, just like you wanted and you'll remain a first line defense of the real world. What more do you want?"

"Someone in charge of an unpredictable program who at least knows what they're getting themselves into and an idea as to what kind of impact that Argus could have on the digital world."

"I have an idea," said Itokawa turning away from Yamaki. "Juggernaut was most instructive on that front. Now if you don't mind…Ootori. Megumi. Prepare to activate Argus. Set it on level one, sublevel program Chak, and have it set to bio-emerge on present coordinates on the last digimon to breach into the real world. I want to see a demonstration…"

"Belay that order!" Countermanded Yamaki. Itokawa turned to the blonde haired man with a dark look.

"Yamaki," he began in a low voice. "Need I remind you that I'm the one who's in charge of Argus now, and as far as Argus is concerned I'm on equal footing with you. The board can and will suspend you if you stonewall this project any further. The same will be done to your two associates if they refuse to follow orders and I know that their loyalty to you is strong enough where they will do so even if you hadn't ordered them. Now I want you to consider something. Outside of this building, cut off from its resources the three of you won't have any way of stopping me from running this place or using Argus as I see fit. You want to fight me on this one? You'll just have to do so from within and on the same terms as me, which means a slower, more patient game. Do we have an understanding of each other?"

Yamaki gritted his teeth and gripped his lighter even more tightly.

Dracmon was not happy.

Actually, not happy was something of an understatement. Having all sense of positive emotions consumed in a growing serpent of fiery, roiling anger and fury was a far better description. Being void of all happiness of all manner aside, perhaps a closer examination as to why he was in such a rut would help clarify his feelings better.

'Humor them', he says, growled Dracmon mentally as a white furred, fluffy cat made its rounds about him, sniffing the masked little demon tentatively and eyeing him with bright, green eyes that sparkled in the sunlight. Easy for him to say; he doesn't have to put up with stuff like what I just went through…

The primary reasons behind Dracmon's lack of positive reinforcement came from the fact that he had realized just how far he had fallen since arriving in the digital world. In each and every encounter with the Tamers he had fought them…and lost miserably, getting hurt badly enough with each successive battle that he had been forced to de-evolve a level in order to stay alive. That had been bad enough, but he had tried to cope with it even though it meant that his usefulness in the success of the Exodus (which had now become extremely low due to the fact that there were now only two X digimon remaining in the group) was negligible. Being reduced to scouting and spying hardly seemed to be the role that befitted a digimon of his status, and he resented it.

But then, my so-called status is nothing now. Getting caught by a little girl…I don't believe it. After everything that I've been through, a… little…HUMAN…girl ends up catching me, rendering me unconscious with barely a struggle. I would much rather have been deleted by that Rapidmon then to face this humiliation. If it weren't for the fact that the girl…Miki…said that she was friends with the Tamers I would so be out of here and never look back. But nooo… The Oni wouldn't have it! He thought that this would be the best way in which I could observe the Tamers without arousing any of their suspicions…

The white furred cat suddenly began purring and nuzzled Dracmon fondly, causing the little demon digimon to frown disdainfully.

As if being caught by that human child wasn't bad enough, now I've got this…ah…ah…Ah…AH…

Dracmon's nose began to tickle and twitch beneath his facemask as something powerful began to build up within him. Dracmon felt panic coming onto him as the sensation grew stronger and soon erupted forth in a powerful explosion that, while it left no smoking holes, still made Dracmon rise several centimeters off the floor and caused the cat to run out of the room, bolting at high speed. Dracmon eyed the door with a scowl and rubbed his nose irritably.

Well, at least that's one less problem that I have to deal with…

The sounds of footsteps approaching interrupted Dracmon's thoughts and after a few seconds a tall woman with long, dark hair and a wide smile poked her head into the room. Dracmon grimaced, recognizing Miki's mother almost instantaneously, having been introduced to Miki's family after regaining consciousness last night.

"Awww…" The woman cooed in a painfully cute, babyish voice to the Rookie. "Does the widdle digimon have a cold? Stay here while I fix you some Chicken soup…"

Dracmon groaned inaudibly. Yep. Definitely a step down for me. Oni…you'd better not let this arrangement be permanent or I'll make sure that I'll make your life miserable even if I have to come back from deletion to do it!

Dracmon wrapped his arms around his body and shivered suddenly.

Actually…cold is kinda right. When did it get to be so chilly here?

The end of yet another school day had come at last and children filed out of their respective classrooms and into the schoolyard with only a vague sense of an orderly fashion. All had only one goal in mind, the school gates, and they made for it with as much speed as was permitted of them within the confines of the school hallways and rules of proper conduct.

"Well," said Kenta as he looked down at his partner, MarineAngemon as he poked his head out from underneath his outer shirt. "This is it, buddy. We're about to undertake a mission of great importance and danger for the team…"

"Momentai," chirped a certain long eared bunny-dog as he plopped down on top of Kenta's head just as soon as he stepped off the school grounds. "Technically you two won't be going alone. You'll have me and those two girls accompanying you. Nothing to worry about."

"Not exactly very comforting for me though," grumbled Kenta. "I mean, I have fought in some battles before, especially during D-Reaper but I'm used to sitting on the sidelines while you guys do the real work. I'm a little nervous about this."

"Well, just think of this as your big moment to shine and spread your wings. And what little wings they are too…" giggled Terriermon, indicating MarineAngemon with one long ear.

"Puh?"

"He's just being sarcastic MarineAngemon," said Kenta with a small, comforting smile. "Just remember, it's not the size of the dog that matters, it's the fight."

"Apt metaphor Kenta," chuckled Terriermon. "Bravo. So where are the two Tamer misfits?"

"They had to go to the bathroom and told me that they'd meet me out here when they were done. Did you see Henry all ready?"

"Yup!" Chirped the dog bunny. "Off to see a friends mother as weird as it sounds, but there you have it. He promised that he'd meet her so he couldn't ditch the meeting…"

"Seems a bit weird if you ask me," spoke up Kazu as he and Jeri came up from behind Kenta.

"That's what I just said," said Terriermon as he rolled his eyes.

"Momentai Terriermon," said Jeri with a soft giggle.

"Hey! That's my line!"

"Whatever," huffed Kazu as he crossed his arms. "So Chumley, what was the deal with you bugging out of the room like that? It's not like you had to rush to meet Ayaka and Miki you know seeing as how they're in the same room as we are."

"I just needed the fresh air. It's too stuffy in that classroom sometimes and I wanted to avoid Ms. Asagi before she gave me detention or something before I was able to carry out my mission. You know how she is when she's in one of her moods."

"Was she bad today?" Asked Terriermon, looking over at Kazu and Jeri for confirmation.

"Not as bad as Kenta thinks she was, but yeah, she was kinda moody. Kept looking at me, rubbing her forehead, and popping aspirin at just about every opportunity; not exactly very healthy if you ask me. Wonder if Mr. Morri tried to pick her up again."

"She's probably worried about how Takato's doing," said Jeri looking downcast. "He had something of an impact on her when Guilmon was…deleted. Remember how she wanted to keep you guys from going out to face a Wild digimon? She's been like that a lot ever since, even though we told her that Guilmon was coming back."

"She was never too fond of the idea of us facing dangerous stuff that's for sure," said Kenta. "Can't say that I blame her."

There followed a brief period of silence in which the three children looked at each other, as though gauging the emotional weather of the other two until finally Kazu stretched his arms and yawned.

"Well, I guess that we'd best get going. Takato's Mom wanted me to man the cash register today and I don't want to disappoint my first day on that job."

Jeri looked at Kazu incredulously.

"Wow Kazu. She must really trust you if she lets you do that."

"Mmm…I doubt it. She told me that she had to run an errand and Mr. Matsuki has to make a quick delivery around that time so with Kenta gone I'm the odd man out, so she's calling it a 'trial basis'. She'll probably take one look at you and change her mind. Not that I'll be complaining if she does because let's face it; I'm too new to this stuff to trust to ringing up a customer and counting their change. Anyway, good luck with that little digimon Kenta. If it causes you too much trouble and blows something up be sure to give me a call and I'll close up shop in order to save the day."

"Kazu!"

"What? I'm just wishing him luck…"

Kenta watched the pair as they walked off, continuing to bicker with each other, only to be interrupted by Calumon as he came out of wherever he had been hiding to land on top of Jeri's head. A small smile appeared on his face before turning away just in time to see Ayaka and Miki come to a stop in front of him.

"Evening ladies," said Terriermon from on top of the boy's head.

"Don't you mean afternoon?" Asked Ayaka, not looking at all amused with the long eared Rookie.

"Afternoon…evening…they're really all the same if you think about it."

"Yeah, except that one's dark and the other's not," muttered Kenta.

"Score one for Kenta," chuckled Terriermon. "At least you say something other then 'Terriermon' whenever I make a comment. I have a feeling that we're going to get along just fine…"

Kenta groaned, feeling his cheeks beginning to grow warm.

"Um…shall we go then?" He asked the two girls, both of whom looked at each other before nodding reluctantly. Together the three children plus two digimon began to walk.

"Hey Kenta," asked Ayaka after about fifteen minutes of walking and no one saying anything, including Terriermon, a surprise in itself.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me something. How did you get to be a Tamer? Jeri once told me about how she became one and we've all heard about Kazu's heroics when he became a Tamer, but you've never mentioned anything about how you came to be a Tamer to that cute little guy."

Ayaka indicated MarineAngemon, who was now floating between the two, eyeing Ayaka with a cautious look. Kenta couldn't blame the little guy. In times past the blonde haired, pig tailed girl had given him reason to tread, or float carefully around her whenever they met. She had the penchant of screaming excitedly at the sight of him and trying to catch him. Kenta winced mentally as he recalled one such incident occurring shortly after the Locomon disaster. Then it had been both Ayaka and Miki. He had been hard pressed to escape them that day.

Funny. Ever since I got him the girls all crowd around me. Kazu used to joke that MarineAngemon was going to be the only reason why I ever got a date once we got into High School. I'm starting to wonder if he's right…

"I don't know really. We met the day that we were getting ready to go home. Calumon had released all of his digivolving power and that was around the time that MarineAngemon showed up. Well…more like crash-landed but I helped him out of that and sent him off to join the other Megas to help battle D-Reaper. I guess he just took a liking to me because the next thing I knew I found him in my pocket with my digivice…"

"Yeah," chuckled Terriermon. "Kazu couldn't figure out how it survived that, but I don't think that we should at all be surprised. He's a tough little guy."

"Pih!"

"He says thanks."

"No problem."

"Hmmm…" Ayaka contemplated this for a bit. "So…what? You just became a Tamer because you did something nice for him? Is that how it works?"

Kenta shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. Kazu became partnered with Guardromon after helping him out. I think that it has more to do with caring and wanting to help someone more then yourself. For the longest time Kazu and I wanted to become Tamers and we only became them when we weren't thinking about what we didn't have. Maybe that's how it works."

Ayaka looked at Kenta with an expression that was Kenta could only define as…approval and…astonishment?

"Wow," said Ayaka, looking at the bespectacled, dark haired boy with new eyes. "That was…really deep, Kenta…"

Kenta felt his heart pick up a nervous rhythm to it and he turned away from the pig-tailed girl with an embarrassed blush blooming on his face.

"Er…Thanks…"

"But how did you become a Tamer if you made MarineAngemon go off to join the other digimon? I thought that you had to be with your digimon in order to become partnered with him, and you said that you weren't aware that he had gotten into your…er…pocket."

"I don't know. I never asked him." Kenta turned to MarineAngemon with a questioning look. One that MarineAngemon answered with a series of 'pihs' and 'puhs' until Kenta nodded in understanding.

"What'd he say?" Asked Ayaka.

"He says that he followed some weird, glowing fish thing and that it showed him the way. He must be talking about a digignome."

Miki raised an eyebrow.

"What's a digignome?"

"Um…well, from what I remember from what Azulongmon said when we saw him…"

"Azulongmon?" Asked Ayaka, raising an eyebrow. Kenta sighed.

"This is going to take some explaining…"

"Take your time buddy," said Terriermon from his place on top of Kenta's head. For some reason the little bunny-dog sounded awfully…cheerful about the situation. "They're not going anywhere."

MarineAngemon glanced up at Terriermon and raised an eyebrow before looking at Kenta.

"PihPihPuh."

"Oookay…so he's smiling…"

MarineAngemon turned away from Kenta and shook his head as though in disappointment.

"PuhPuhPuh…"

Kenta frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The small group continued on their journey until they finally were outside of Miki's front walk. Looking it over carefully, as though checking it for any booby traps Kenta took a deep breath to steady himself.

Okay… Take it easy Kenta. This is no big deal. No big deal at all. You've faced down D-Reaper agents and scared away the J-Reaper. Handling one tiny Rookie should be a walk in the park…

"Hey!" Demanded Terriermon from atop Kenta's head. "Are you going to go in or what? We have an ink drop to check out!"

"I'm going, I'm going…"

Is that frost on the window? Thought Kenta distractedly as he took a step forwards, with the two girls behind him.

The sound of glass breaking from a flurry of frozen snowballs erupting from behind it and the battered form of a small, dark figure jumping out a second later gave them all reason to pause once again.

"Hey!" Shouted Terriermon, pointing in the direction of the retreating figure. "There he is! The Dracmon! Hey! Hold it buddy! I've got a bone to pick with you…!"

"Never mind him! Mind that!" exclaimed Ayaka as she detached herself from Kenta's arm and pointed at the new figure that was emerging from the shattered window and hopped down from the ground in pursuit of the Dracmon. It was about child sized, smaller then any of the humans gathered before it though it dwarfed both Terriermon and MarineAngemon. It had stubby, bear like ears on top of its head and some headgear strapped just below them. It was mostly gray and white colored, and had what looked like the appearance of rugged, military boots and armor that made Kenta think of a soldier from the science fiction movies that he and Kazu would watch when they were younger. Despite its rather comical, innocent appearance it shouldered what looked like a rocket launcher. It hardly looked dangerous at all, but Kenta knew from hard experience that looks weren't everything. MarineAngemon was a case in point.

Kenta frowned as he looked up from his digivice, the item was not displaying any data that he could use to identify the digimon and use to his advantage. In fact, the color scheme and the entities silence seemed to indicate that there was a good possibility that this was an agent of the Argus program that Yamaki had told him and Henry about.

But why is it here? Could it be after the Dracmon? Never mind! I'll just deal with it now and face the consequences later. I came here to check out that Dracmon and I can't do that if it ends up being destroyed!

The small bear leveled its launcher on the shivering form of Dracmon, who had paused in its stride as soon as Terriermon had yelled at it. Seeing this, Miki screamed a warning to the little demon, but it looked like it was too little, too late.

Suddenly, without warning Ayaka burst forward, a look of irritation and flat out anger on her face. Her motion caught the bear's attention and it shifted its target…

…Only to be caught a second later by one, well placed kick from the pig-tailed girl to the bear's face. The bear fell backwards and crumpled to the ground without so much as a sound, its form flickering uncertainly as its rocket launcher fell from its hand uselessly.

Riley blinked beneath her visor in surprise.

"Subprogram Chak has been…disabled!" She said in disbelief. Below her Itokawa looked up at her with annoyance.

"How?" Was all he asked, his voice taking on a hard, edged sound that all but demanded that she clarify. Glaring at the man beneath her visor Riley was about to answer when Tally spoke up in her stead.

"Sensors indicate a high level digimon is in the area…"

"Really?" Itokawa grinned and turned to the control panel and began typing in commands, grateful that Yamaki had left to take his complaints to the board of directors that they all answered to, as it left him unable to prevent him from dealing with this high level digimon in the way he felt was appropriate. "Let's see how it handles this one then."

Riley's and Tally's eyes went wide beneath their visors as their sensors registered what the man had done.

"No!" Exclaimed Riley. "Level two hasn't been fully tested yet! It's unpredictable! SIR!"

Ayaka looked down at the inert figure below her, her body trembling with realization at what she had just done. She had just…defeated…a digimon. With just one kick! What was more; she had actually gone in and fought the digimon! It didn't sit right for some reason…attacking something like that. But as she took some calming breaths and remembered that it had invaded the house of one of her friends, she couldn't help but feel some small measure of satisfaction from all of this.

Oh man…I just realized! Miki's mom was supposed to be here! Is she…?

Ayaka's thoughts were interrupted by a blanket of mists suddenly bursting forth from the air in front of her. As her eyes widened in disbelief a tall figure began to materialize in front of her. It was thin, almost avian shaped with wings on both a featureless head and coming from its back. Long, metallic claws rose into the air as an eyeless face focused on her, and Ayaka saw that despite the bird like contours it was more predominantly human shaped then otherwise. Black orbs flared to life in the creature's claws and Ayaka felt herself shaking again. The creature's claws paused briefly before surging down towards the young girl, and reflexively she closed her eyes, biting back a scream as the attack descended.

The last thing she heard as she awaited her eminent doom was the sound of Kenta and Miki screaming her name.

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