Digimon Re: Tamers Chapter 18:
1 hour ago…
"I should've known that Grandis' crew would've been too easily distracted to deal with the likes of you!" Raiga states towards an unknown entity in the middle of a large network in the border of the Digital World and the Human World. Raiga is keeping a sharp eye out for any strange interloper that could be emerging at any given point, as Raiga's eyes hone in on something approaching.
"You don't know the half of it, Lady Raiga; trust me when I say that. You should've just stayed de-fused for now." A humanoid entity shrouded in crimson shadow speaks towards Raiga, as Raiga watches as the entity emerges before her and raises a hand, as a dark, spectral entity emerges from the crimson shadow.
A shield materializes in front of the entity, as a powerful energy blast fires towards Raiga. Raiga, unsheathing the Grey Sword from her left arm, moves to swipe the air in front of her to slice the energy blast clean in half, preventing it from damaging her.
"Nice try." Raiga says, as she unsheathes the Garuru Cannon from her right arm, before taking aim and firing an immeasurable blast of energy towards her target, as the unidentified individual responds by firing off another blast of energy from its shield to parry the blast from Raiga's Garuru Cannon, blocking it from reaching itself in the process.
"Screw this! Initiate Realization!" The entity speaks, before disappearing into a wormhole appearing behind itself, just as Raiga is about to give chase with the Grey Sword pointed at her target. The wormhole closes just as the entity gets inside, as Raiga falters a little bit upon a surge being felt through her body, as she clutches her chest with her right arm.
"Crap… De-Fusion is about to force itself onto me, this soon?! Shouldn't be surprised, after what happened when I last underwent this process." Raiga states, as her body starts to disappear into light particles, as separating from her humanoid body are the forms of Flare and Tempest as WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
"Dang it, he got away even with our combined power…" Flare grumbles a bit towards the endless horizon of the matrix void of the network they're in, as Tempest shakes his head.
"He won't get far; he has to degenerate to Rookie if he wants to survive entry into the Real World. We must do the same, but we've already had eons of experience reacquiring Mega by ourselves." Tempest points out, as Flare sighs.
"Either way, I could use a good banquet to eat right about now. I suggest we both meet up with the nearest member of the VIP Club and head out to brunch so we can restore our own D-Power faster than simply waiting." Flare suggests, as Tempest nods.
"Good idea; the sooner we eat, the faster our D-Power restores, and the faster we can reacquire Mega Level and resume the chase."
"Why do I have to wear this thing again?" Impmon asks, as he's now donning the oversized coat and hat again from almost a week ago. The same exact oversized coat and hat he had worn when he had snuck into Jeri's school in the first place. Besides him are two Digimon, an Agumon and a Gabumon, wearing near identical, oversized clothing of their own.
"Digimon are slowly not becoming a secret anymore after what has transpired out in plain sight, and the mayor is kind of having us try and curb the problem by reinforcing the secret." Tempest, the Gabumon, states to Impmon, as Impmon merely groans.
"You've been spending too much time as a Mega Level knowing what it's like to be free to do what you want, why stop now?" Impmon asks of Tempest, as Flare, the Agumon, growls a bit towards Impmon.
"We have our reasons, Impmon; it would be wise not to push our personal buttons right about now." Flare tells him, as Impmon merely rolls his eyes. Once all three of them are "properly" dressed, the three begin to head out towards the school. Due to Grandis locking everyone out of the VIP Club, it was all the more important for the Digimon to hide once again, as they no longer had the immediate benefit of the VIP Club's technology to ensure public knowledge of Digimon got loose too quickly.
On their way to school, Impmon couldn't help but notice Ruki's household was apparently back to normal as if it happened overnight. He can see Rumiko with her mother outside, waving towards the approaching Ruki as Ruki, in a rare moment, happily waves back in complete bliss knowing her mom and grandmother are back at last. It feels almost too good to be true at times like these, considering the apocalypse was narrowly at everyone's front door just the day before.
"Hey guys, I take it Jeri's already ahead of me?" Ruki asks of Impmon, as Impmon shrugs.
"More than likely, considering her tendency to try and court Takato is still ongoing. She forgot her purse and everything, again, but I've got it on hand ready for her to take back." Impmon tells Ruki, as he showcases Jeri's purse within one of his many pockets in this oversized coat, before carefully tucking it back into one of them. Ruki, meanwhile, sighs a bit as she walks down the street with Impmon, Flare and Tempest to head to school.
"I still can't believe everything is finally back to normal on my end." Ruki states with an unusual amount of glee, as Flare growls a bit.
"Easy for you to say; we've still yet to hear reports from Takato and Henry regarding the status of Guilmon and Terriermon just yet." Flare brings up, as Ruki's expression turns rather saddened rather quickly.
"Ah, yeah, right; I'm the lucky one so far in that case. It's still very hard to get used to the fact I'm not dreaming at all with all of this good news on my end, since I feel like I got a free pass from God or something like that." Ruki responds to Flare, as Tempest nods.
"Wouldn't be surprised, Yggdrasil has been functioning rather generous as of late." Tempest says, as Ruki blinks in confusion.
"Who is Yggdrasil?" Ruki asks, as Impmon looks at her.
"The God of the Royal Knights, as some would call him." Impmon simply states, as Flare and Tempest nod.
"You'll possibly meet him someday, but we make no promises." Flare tells Ruki rather flatly, as Ruki nods.
"Ah, I see. Either way, do you two mind joining Jeri and I for lunch out someplace else? I'm allowed to take her elsewhere in the city for lunch if necessary, and I think I know a VIP Club owned café with some good eats for Digimon like you two." Ruki asks of Flare and Tempest, as she is fully aware of Agumon and Gabumon's rather large eating habits. Flare and Tempest, meanwhile, both nod in agreement.
"Sure!"
The choice of eating out was the same fast food building from a few days ago; the one where they had first met Strabimon, begrudgingly. In fact, he's off looming in a corner of the building, just observing as Ruki is talking with Jeri as Renamon and Impmon quietly eat at a nearby table.
"So there I was, lost in the middle of the woods, as Michael finally has me cornered. With Renamon's assistance, I manage to take him out, and in doing so, rescue my mother and grandmother in the process." Ruki tells Jeri, as Jeri's attention is keenly focused on Ruki's face with eyes wide. "Just as Michael has Renamon and I in a tight situation, I have succeeded in achieving the one thing I could not do before; Mega Digivolution, and thus digivolving Renamon to Mega Level as Sakuyamon!"
"Oooh~." Jeri mutters a bit, in awe towards Ruki's fabricated story. Ruki knew all too well she was lying through her own teeth to tell Jeri this story, but she did not want to risk tarnishing Jeri's innocence by telling her what had actually happened instead. Somewhere, deep down, she can feel as if she's not the only one who knows. Strabimon's gaze seems fixated on her from the corner he stands at, but she can't determine what Strabimon's glare means due to not facing him.
"What's tall dark and shiny gawking at if I may ask?" Flare asks in regards to Strabimon, as Strabimon's expression becomes that of slight shock upon realizing Ruki and Jeri are being accompanied by Flare and Tempest.
"What?!" Strabimon says quickly, before looking over towards Tempest and then back at Flare, "Since when did you two ever gain the ability to degenerate so freely?!" Strabimon asks, as Flare laughs at Strabimon's confusion, all the while Tempest is chowing down on a massive sirloin steak, to which on Flare's side of the table, there's a load of empty plates and piles of crumbs left from her own meal. Flare jumps off of the chair on her table, cracks her fingers together in both hands, before spontaneously Warp Digivolving into WarGreymon, all the while Tempest is still seated, before doing the same by Warp Digivolving into MetalGarurumon, before stumbling over onto the floor due to his sudden change in body structure.
"You two have business to attend to don't you?" Strabimon asks inquisitively as he raises an eye, as Flare nods.
"Aye; some punk with the Digital Hazard broke into the Real World earlier today, and we need to try and stop him from getting further away from us." Flare speaks, as Impmon and Jeri overhear the conversation as Jeri turns to face Flare and Tempest.
"Can we help out? We've had a novice tamer mission for days trying to track down such a Digimon, but we've had no luck so far." Jeri asks Flare with bright eyes, as Ruki and Renamon look at Jeri as they were quickly reminded of what they had assigned Jeri so long ago.
'Not going to lie, I'm surprised she remembered that yet alone the fact we've still yet to capture that Rookie Level Digimon in plain sight.' Ruki thinks to herself, as she drops a few dollars and coins on the counter to pay for her and Jeri's meal. Jeri, though, feels something move around her feet, as Jeri looks down to see what it is, before her eyes widen as she stares at it.
"Bunny!" Jeri calls out ecstatically, as she moves to pick up a white, floppy eared bunny with black, symmetrical spots. Jeri moves to hug the small critter towards her chest, as Ruki looks at Jeri weirdly, considering she couldn't register the fact a bunny snuck into the building.
"Awww!" Ruki exclaims, as she finds herself adoring the cute fuzz ball as she moves to pet it as Jeri holds it in her arms. Impmon and Renamon look at Jeri and Ruki weirdly, as they both look at each other.
"Sooo… Jeri and Ruki are distracted by a rabbit, shall we try and investigate our client ahead of them?" Impmon asks, as Renamon looks back over at Ruki briefly.
"Kind of feel jealous over the rabbit considering my own Baby II form when Ruki and I had first met."
"So is that a yes or are we going to sit here and reminisce on how you two first met? Honestly, while we're at it, Cyclonemon! I suppose one spicy sirloin for me and Renamon will do for our order!" Impmon calls towards Cyclonemon behind the counter, as Cyclonemon nods.
"Coming right up." Cyclonemon states, simply, as he heads back into the kitchen. Renamon, meanwhile, looks at Jeri and Ruki real quick, noticing they're still distracted by the rabbit. Flare and Tempest chuckle a little bit.
"Relax, Renamon; we'll take care of your problem for you should we stumble across it by accident. We're on patrol across the entire city, so no need to rush into a situation so soon." Flare tells Renamon, as she looks towards the back of the counter. "Yo, Cyclonemon! Order our pals here another set of meals and drinks, pronto!" Flare states, before heading out the door. Tempest looks back towards the counter as he drops off a bunch of dollars and coins.
"And if this isn't enough, put it on my tab!" Tempest adds in, before heading out the door as well after Flare. Renamon looks at where Flare and Tempest had left in a hurry, and looks back in the corner of her eye to notice Strabimon snoozing in the corner of the diner. Sighing a bit, she moves to sit down at her table with Impmon to look at him calmly as she waits for her order.
"So, you want to know how Ruki and I first met, correct?" Renamon asks Impmon, as Impmon nods.
"Okay, so it starts like this…" Renamon is nearly about to explain, before an alarm seems to be going off on Jeri's Digivice, as Jeri examines it and realizes something is approaching the building, and is moving at a high speed in numerous directions.
"Jeri, is something wrong?" Impmon asks, as Ruki grabs her Digivice and prepares to head outside to investigate what's going on, as Jeri moves to head outside as well, but not before putting down the rabbit and gesturing for it to stay put. Renamon jumps off of her chair and heads out with Ruki, as Impmon begins to follow, but not before staring back at the rabbit warily. Once he hears Jeri calling for him, he runs outside to meet up with her. Strabimon coughs to clear his throat with what he had witnessed.
"Do you intend to hide forever, Rose?"
Upon heading outside, Jeri and Ruki realized a powerful digital field had manifested in the entire area. Ruki looks around through the fog; something feels oddly familiar with this digital field.
"Jeri, proceed with caution, I have suspicion that a Deva has Realized in our world." Ruki informs of her novice ranked friend, as Jeri moves to ready her Digivice, as Impmon gives her a nod.
"Digivolution, activate!" Jeri calls, as she shines a light from her Digivice upon Impmon, as Impmon soon begins to glow with a vast white color, as a powerful surge emanates from Impmon as he's digivolving.
"Impmon, Digivolve to…!" Impmon says, as his body forms into a more humanoid body with devilish horns and large wings and massive forearms.
"Devimon!" Devimon utters, as he moves to perch on the ground, as the sound of laughter can be heard piercing the fog, as large, powerful footsteps from a hooved individual echo across the area.
"So, this is where you've been wasting your lifespan, Weakmon?" A powerful, higher pitched voice asks of Devimon, as Devimon glares a bit towards the hunched back humanoid heading his way.
"You…?! I thought you were destroyed for treason against the Deva, you big jerk!" Devimon speaks, as his forearms begin to show his veins cracking through the surface; the enemy Digimon doesn't seem to care to notice, nor does Devimon realize it right away, but the laughter still continues.
"Foolish, predictable demon, you expect me to feel intimidated by that?! I'll show you the definition of intimidation!" The voice speaks, before jumping down from a high place, lands on the ground with a powerful tremble the form of a humanoid-esque horse Digimon of some kind, appearing immensely taller than Devimon by a longshot, as Devimon looks up at the Digimon and glares.
"Indramon…!" Devimon quietly snarls towards the massive Deva Digimon, as Jeri looks at her surroundings, trying to see where Ruki had went.
"Looking for your friend, Jeri? I believe she's occupied with my own friend right now; a Deva can separate their digital field to exclude anyone unwelcome, so let's just say it's just you and I here with this Weakmon before me." Indramon calls out with a massive laugh, as Devimon glares as his eyes turn redder than even he thought was possible already; the cracking forming from his veins moving up towards his shoulders from his arms, as Devimon's legs begin twitching as the cracking veins appear to form there as well.
"Well, Weakmon? What do you have to say for yourself?" Indramon asks; if only the prick had eyes from which to see what was happening to Devimon right now, as Jeri gasps upon realizing her Digivice is suddenly glowing a powerful, static surge of a red light. Her Digivice's screen blasts a red light onto Devimon, as Devimon absorbs the energy from behind as his entire form begins to crack apart to pieces.
His upper body begins to shatter like glass, as his arms flail wildly in twitching motion, before grabbing hold of his own head and tearing his own skin off as an even larger head mutates from within; the head of some kind of demonic feline-type creature, as Devimon's entire frame shatters from underneath as a large, robust panther-looking humanoid Digimon emerges from Devimon's frame, seeming to be partially cybernetic in nature in addition to having small horns upon its savage looking head.
Letting loose a powerful, tiger-like roar, the unknown Digimon moves at an intense speed upwards into the air, as his remains as Devimon melt into liquefied ashes, as Indramon stands his ground even with the temperature rising due to the feral Digimon's speed moving around him.
"Kaiser Nail!" The Digimon speaks, slicing at the base of Indramon's neck with razor sharp, armored claws on his left hand, as Indramon's surprise couldn't be felt anymore, as his own head falls to the ground with a perpetual expression of shock.
"Impmon! What have you become?!" Jeri tries to call out, as Jeri scans Impmon's new form with her Digivice to try and investigate. "Vungareimon, Feral Beast Type, Champion Level. Special Attack: Frenzy Feast Fury." Jeri notes, as she looks onwards towards Vungareimon and notes that Vungareimon has now lunged onto Indramon's body, all the while Indramon's head still appears to be alive, at least, for now.
Since Vungareimon is now savagely tearing apart Indramon's body from the top to the bottom and digitizing each individual fragment of his body and consuming it into his own system; not a single bit of data goes to waste or is left behind in Vungareimon's feeding frenzy, as by the time Vungareimon finishes gorging on Indramon's remains, Indramon's head lets loose an ungodly scream of terror after having felt his own body be torn apart too quickly to process.
"Wait! Impmon! Have mercy on me!" Indramon's head speaks, as Vungareimon's attention is drawn to it, before Vungareimon grabs it with his right hand by the tuft of hair on Indramon's head, before a powerful, black magic manifests from a red, distinctive marking on Vungareimon's right arm, and drains all of the life energy out of Indramon's head as Indramon lets loose a bloodcurdling scream of terror that echoes into the distance for what seems to be for miles.
"Vungareimon!" Jeri calls, trying to get Vungareimon to snap out of his blind aggression; she didn't expect this fight to turn out the way it did, as Vungareimon quickly looks towards Jeri, as he moves to step forward with very distinct feline-esque legs walking his humanoid frame towards Jeri to stand before her. Moving to check an odd ring beside its left elbow, Vungareimon notices Indramon's head manifest around the ring on said spot, as Indramon's head basically becomes a smaller, keychain-like trinket for all to see.
"So how does the new accessory look?" Vungareimon asks, with a sadistic smirk across his face, as he looks down at Jeri with an unusual, child-like glee; one look at this smug expression and Jeri breathes a sigh of relief. Only the real Impmon could make a smirk as sadistic as that seem not so out of the ordinary.
"Oh, Vungareimon; what am I ever going to do with you?" Jeri asks, as she looks up at Vungareimon's form with a happy smile, as Vungareimon notices the digital field disappear. Ruki and Renamon are right behind Jeri as they can finally see what's been going on, as Ruki and Renamon's eyes widen to see Vungareimon's form, mere moments before Vungareimon degenerates back into Impmon as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
"Jeri, Impmon? What the heck happened in there…?" Ruki asks, as Jeri and Impmon look at her innocently.
"It's a long story, but one I'm certain you've heard before."