Me: Finally-I get some free time to myself! I don't own Digimon-was there any doubt?
Takato: Where have you been? I've been waiting forever for you to show up!
Me: Relax, young hot-headed Tamer! I just had to avoid being killed by Rika and Kazu's singing voice.
Takato: Yeah, Kazu does overdo it sometimes with the singing.
Me: And...I've decided to go about doing things a bit more differently than what the show portrays-for one thing, Susie won't go to her partner, but he'll come to her in a very unexpected way. Another thing is that...if I told you anymore, I'd ruin the whole story for you.
Takato: But, you won't ruin it-just tell me what's gonna happen!
Me: Nice try.
Digimon Tamers: Takato V.S. Takato
Chapter II-Round One Equals Defeat
"More yummy, goody, snacky stuff?" -Calumon
"You want more?" -Jeri
"Yes, please-thank you!" -Calumon, Jeri's Quest
And I thought things couldn't get any worse than they had before-guess I was wrong! It all
started when Takato figured he could contact Rika via a Digital Plane that was between the
Digital World and the Real World, but it could only work if both Tamers were using their D-Powers at the same time. To add insult to injury, Beelzemon showed up at the same time Ryo did
and tore into Cyberdramon like he was next week's home-cooked meal! Luckily for Takato, he
linked up with Rika through the Digital Plane and they shared a quick conversation, eventually
revealing where the other one was at. Now, Takato, Henry and Terriermon are on the move to
the south while Rika and the others are headed toward the east-problem is, Beelzemon, Takato
and Guilmon's clones are on the move after them, too-and they aren't willing to take prisoners,
at least, not alive.
"Takato, slow down, would you?"
"Yeah-my feet are aching so badly, I may have to wear socks. That would be a sight, since I never wear any socks."
Takato tried to keep his irritation down. Ever since he had found out where Rika, Kazu, Jeri, Kenta, Ryo and the Digimon were at, he, Henry and Terriermon had been trying to catch up with them for the past two days, but without success.
"Tell you what-you guys can hang around here and rest, while I just keep on running ahead trying to find our missing friends, okay?" Takato made no pretense to keep the sarcasm from his voice. At that moment, Henry finally lost it.
"Takato, why don't you try thinking of the rest of us for a change?! I don't mean any offense, but ever since you got with Rika, you've been acting more and more moody, cynical and uncaring toward all of us! The only one you haven't been like that to is Rika and Jeri."
Takato sighed sadly as he plopped down onto the ground next to his friends.
"I'm sorry, guys, but it's been at least two days or more, and we haven't seen a sign that the others even saw Gargomon's Gargo Lasers attack when he blasted it up in the sky. Plus, Guilmon can't Digivolve without me there. And-you're right. I've been acting more like Rika did when we first met her. Can you forgive me?" Takato rose his hand up to meet Henry's outstretched hand.
"Deal. And you mean the day you met her-I just came in to see if Terriermon's wit had hurt your feelings."
"You said I needed to be more tactful, Henry and I have been!"
"Sure-tell that to Kenta and the rocks you put in his bag to make them more heavier."
"Rika, we've been walking for two days-if even!-and we're all ready to collapse from exhaustion over here! Can't we take a break?" Kazu asked grimly. Rika felt like giving Kazu another piece of her mind, but a wiser voice that wasn't hers suddenly entered into her head.
"Stupid Gogglehead-even when he's not here, he's gotta be the voice of reason." Rika admitted in her thoughts before she came to a halt.
"Okay, we'll relax for an hour. Fair enough?" Her response came when everybody-with the exception of herself and Renamon-dropped to the ground a moment later.
"I'm gonna see if I can try to alert Takato with that Digital Plane idea he cooked up. Hope he's within receiving range." Rika joked while raising her Digivice to the sky and sitting down beside a resting Guilmon, Renamon keeping her eye out for anyone suspicious.
"Be sure to pull me back if there's any trouble, okay Renamon?"
"You can count on me, Rika."
"How do we always find these guys? I thought that was supposed to be Kazu and Kenta's curse when they came here!" Terriermon yelled as he, Takato and Henry had to avoid Chatsuramon by running as quickly as inhumanly possible.
"You'll never escape, my young prey! Take this!" The Dog-like Deva launched himself directly at the two Tamers and Terriermon.
"Anytime you wanted to yell out 'Momentai' could really help us out right now!" Takato said.
"This is no time for 'Momentai,' alright?!" Terriermon retorted.
"Duck!" Henry demanded, pushing the two of them down to the ground as Chatsuramon ended up going by them. Takato cried out as he struck the ground hard and started to pass out. Unbeknownst to him, his D-Power glowed brightly.
"Takato, get up!" Henry exclaimed.
"We don't have time for you to play 'Sleeping Beauty' while the rest of us face a harrowing life
and death situation!"
"Huh? Where am I now? Whoa! Is it just me, or does this place look a lot like the park back home?" Takato asked himself the next time he opened his eyes.
"Well, it's not just you who's seeing it, so it must look like the park at home. Go and see Guilmon's little hut, which is still there."
"Rika!" Takato tried to resist the urge to run up and hug her, but he couldn't help himself. After standing by his girlfriend and wrapping his arms tightly around her, she managed to do the same.
"I've missed you a lot, Rika."
"Yeah-I can tell, since you're cutting off the flow of blood to my wrists, but I've missed you too."
"Really? Sorry about the wrist thing, I just haven't seen you for two days, at least." Takato blushed while releasing Rika from his grip.
"Look, us just blindly hunting for each other won't do any good. There's got to be a quicker way than a Gargo Laser attack being fired in the air repeatedly. Can you think of anything?" Rika asked, getting straight to the point.
"What if Terriermon tried taking on Chatsuramon by himself and defeating him?"
Rika sputtered at that response, trying to hide a smile and failing. "You're kidding, right? At least I knew Taomon had a slim chance against MegaSeadramon, but Terriermon by himself, going up against a Deva? Come on!"
"I'm serious! We just got ambushed by that Digimon before I blacked out and came here." Takato insisted. After seeing the near desperation in his eyes, Rika knew her boyfriend wasn't joking.
"All right, he should try getting to the Ultimate level as soon as he can, otherwise he won't stand much of a chance."
"Thanks, Rika, and-" Takato leaned forward and gave her a kiss that lasted for a minute before
pulling away and fading on her. "-take care of Guilmon. See you soon!"
"Ugh!" Takato had to force himself to wake up, since Henry and Terriermon weren't near him. "Guys, where are you?"
"Over here-it's about time you woke up from your little catnap!" Gargomon replied, keeping Chatsuramon at bay.
"Not the time for jokes! Did Rika say anything?"
"Just that when I told her about our trouble, Gargomon should Digivolve to the Ultimate level soon."
"But how? We don't have a blue card!"
A miracle must've happened, because a little white In-Training Digimon came flying amidst Takato's path singing to himself, "Calumon go-a-zoom, here-a-zoom, there-a-zoom, I still don't have any underwear on-zoom! Takato!"
"Calumon!" Takato grabbed Calumon and hugged him, noticing that the In-Training Digimon was holding onto him with a pretty good grip and wouldn't let him go.
"I'm glad to see you again, Calumon, but could you let me go now?"
"No way, no how! I wanna stay with you guys again for longer than 5 minutes."
"If you're quite through..."
"Huh? Ahhhhhhhh!" Calumon saw Chatsuramon and quickly buried himself inside Takato's hooded shirt, shivering under it!
"Calumon, I'll protect you-just come out of there, will you?"
"Gargo Lasers!! Nobody hurts our friends and tries to kidnap them, pal!" Gargomon growled defiantly while shooting another round of bullets at the Ultimate Digimon.
"You can't beat me-no one can defeat the Devas! Not as long as the Digimon Sovereign-"
"Dragon Slash!!" Chatsuramon was deleted and absorbed by none other than-
"Growlmon! Growlmon-how'd you Digivolve?" Takato was stupefied, as was Gargomon, Henry and Calumon, who'd come out of hiding from under Takato's shirt.
"Because of me! I'm back, and this time...we're playing for keeps." Takato's eyes narrowed as
"Takato" appeared next to "Growlmon," with something behind his back and the wrecked
remains of a comlink.
Rika, Renamon, Jeri, Leomon, Kazu, Guardromon Kenta and Guilmon moved on an hour later, rejuvenated and back to looking for their missing friends.
"Hey, Icy Queen-what happened to Ryo-did you say something to make him mad and leave?" Kazu spoke up.
"No! If you must know, Cyberdramon wanted to see if he could really beat Beelzemon in battle, so they're going to go and find him."
"Oh-just wanted to know!"
"What?" Confused, Guilmon started sniffing the air in front of Rika and suddenly gasped out.
"Guilmon?" Jeri asked in amazement.
"What is it?" Renamon asked calmly.
"He's back. I thought we'd defeated him, but he's back, and so is Takato's clone..." Guilmon hissed as his eyes dilated in the same manner they did whenever trouble reared it's ugly head.
"'Takato's clone?!' You don't mean...?" Kenta, Jeri, Kazu and Rika all remembered that incident when they'd all run into the Tamers clones at the park in West Shinjuku. (A/N: If you're confused, go and read "Tamer V.S. Tamer"-I don't have time, or space to write a flashback right now.)
"But how?" Rika was astounded, but managed not to show it.
"I don't know, but he is and that means Takato's in trouble."
"How'd you get back? Guilmon and I defeated you in the Digital Field a long time ago!"
"True, but thanks to a simple Modify card, my partner and I were restored, fully recharged and ready to seek revenge, but we'd been approached by someone who hated you as much as I do. Matter-of-fact, it was the same Digimon who I had Growlmon beat and absorb. No one beats you in battle except me, and that includes Devas."
"And what did Chatsuramon say?" Gargomon asked, keeping his voice neutral.
"Just that if I wanted to escape, my partner and I had to swear allegiance to the Sovereign, so I told him I'd think about it for a while. When he did come back, he mentioned that he'd run into a Rookie Digimon who'd wanted to Digivolve, no matter what he had to do. I assume you know who I mean?"
"Beelzemon-you mean Impmon? We already figured that out, brainiac!" Gargomon retorted.
"Did you defeat him? I think not-and good ol' Takato won't, especially when I beat him in a battle!"
Takato quickly tossed Calumon toward Henry as "Takato" tackled him to the ground and both
started punching and kicking at each other, both also trying to gain the advantage.
"Ahhhh!" Rika let out a small cry as she felt pain, undescribable pain radiating throughout her body meters away from Takato's position.
"Rika, what's happening?" Renamon asked immediately.
"It's Takato...he's being attacked, and I can feel it."
At that instant, a part of Rika thought something that was selfish and would end in heartbreak if
she admitted it out loud, preferably to Takato, so she dismissed it as exhaustion.
Takato cried out as for every punch he gave to his clone, he received one in kind, one that hurt a lot harder than it ever had before!
"I'm sorry, Rika. This is my fault. If I'd stayed behind to make sure my clone was gone..." Takato muttered to himself.
"Sure-put all the blame on yourself when the real person to blame is behind you! Who else used a Recharge Modify card during one of your battles?" "Takato" hissed.
"Okay, I may have used a card like that, but I lost it during...oh, no!" Henry felt like he would throw up at that time. Gargomon turned to Henry with a determined look on his face.
"Come on, Henry! Don't believe anything this Takato wannabe has to say. He could've come back at any time, with or without your card."
"Yeah-keep telling yourself that, and you'll start to believe it. Ironic, that the only reason I come back is because of a stupid move from one of your closest friends, huh?" With a flick of his wrist, "Takato" revealed his secret weapon. Takato couldn't believe it-neither could Henry, who'd snapped out of his depressed state at the sight of the weapon.
"Where-when-how'd you get a knife?!" Takato stammered in surprise.
"Simple-I created it out of Yamaki's old comlink. Didn't you notice this stuff in my hand before, when I got here? And now, it's time to say 'adieu' to an old foe-who didn't even try to put up much of a fight-once and for all."
Takato gulped a second later as he steeled himself and waited for the end to come.
"Don't even try it! Bunny Pummel!!" Gargomon knew Takato wasn't his partner, but until Guilmon got here, he'd have to protect both Takato and Henry.
WHAP! Gargomon's attack hit "Takato," which caused him to hit the ground. Unfortunately, he didn't lose the knife.
"Nice move, coming from a stuffed animal."
"You'll regret saying that. Gargo Lasers!!"
"PyroBlaster!!" "Growlmon's" main attack struck the tiny bullets, causing them to melt!
"I think we're gonna need more help right about now!" Takato responded.
"You can say that again. Uhh!"
The world, to Takato Matsuki, went from peaceful to the color of red at that second. The only
thing he felt was the pain...unforgivable, hurting and agonizing pain.
Rika suddenly dropped to her knees, feeling the exact thing Takato felt-nothing but pure agony deep within her heart.
"What's going on, Rika?" Jeri asked.
"Something's wrong...terribly, horribly wrong." Renamon replied. Guilmon looked up toward the sky, when he heard it-a tiny scream of pure pain.
"Takatomon..."
"RIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!" Takato screamed out his sadness, resentment and indignation as his clone stabbed him in the stomach with the knife.
"STOP HURTING MY FRIEND!" Henry yelled angrily, not seeing his D-Power glowing, or the triangle on Calumon's head glowing as well.
"If I hadn't gotten captured, Takato wouldn't be in pain right now..."
That's when the miracle occurred once again-Gargomon glowed with a greenish light forming around his body.
Matrix Digivolution!
"Gargomon Matrix Digivolve to...RAPIDMON!!!"
Digimon!
"Tri-Beam!!" Rapidmon's attack forced Takato away from his clone, and the knife out of his stomach.
"You'll regret doing that."
"The only thing I regret doing is not taking the chance to kill you when I had it earlier! I'm not gonna make that mistake twice. Rapid Fire!!"
Growling, "Takato" moved in front of "Growlmon", prepared for the worst. The attacks didn't make contact, but they did hit the ground, sending both clones flying and the knife out of "Takato's" hand.
"Wait, Rapidmon...don't do it..." Takato gasped out, clutching his gaping wound, which bled heavily.
"Why not? He just tried to kill you, and you wanna let him go?"
Takato glared at his clone, anger behind those usually caring eyes. "This is my fight, and my clone. You never got the chance to beat your clone in a one-on-one battle, and I'm sorry for that. I have a feeling that if I don't beat him, soon, and with Guilmon by my side, we could all be in serious trouble."
"Nice speech, but you'll wish you'd let Rapidmon finish us off." That said, "Takato" and "Growlmon" made their exit.
After he was sure they were gone, Takato dropped to the ground in pain, no longer covering the wound with his hand.
"Come on, Takato! Don't you dare give up on us now! After that speech you just gave, if I'm gonna let you die now, you're crazy!" Henry frantically looked around, and to his surprise, saw his bag and Takato's bag near them.
"Hey-how'd your stuff get here?" Rapidmon and Calumon chorused.
"We must've been separated from our bags as well as everyone else. There are some first-aid
wrappings in here, so we won't have to worry about mending anything. Hold on, Takato-just
think about Rika, and you'll be okay."
"She's stabilizing. She should be fine." Opening her eyes, Rika was hoping to see Takato, but it was Guilmon, Renamon, Jeri and the others.
"What happened?" Rika asked weakly.
"One can only assume Takato's clone must have a weapon on him and stabbed Takato with it. The blood seems to have stopped, and you already look like you're on the mend." Renamon explained.
"I'm never gonna understand this connection that they have." Kenta mumbled.
"Try not to think about it too much, buddy-you'll only hurt yourself." Kazu responded.
"I'm sorry, Takato..." Rika turned away from the others, not wanting to see them or to let them
see the tears trickle down her face while she was thinking. "...but I've got to do this. It'll be the
best thing for everyone. Not just for me, but for you, too. You'll see..."
Back in the Real World, Mr. Wong had met with Yamaki in the park, and they were discussing the little project Yamaki had concerning the Tamers' clones and the missing comlink. Surprisingly enough, Susie went with her father and started to play on the slide when a Digital Field appeared at the bottom. Susie stopped herself as a rabbit-like Digimon with long ears that dropped down to his shoulders came through. (A/N: Doesn't it remind you of the Digimon movie when Davis, his DigiDestined and Willis battled against Kokomon? If this is confusing, just go to www.BiyoEvolution.com to see this Digimon's picture.)
"Hi! Are you from the Digital World? Have you seen my brother Henwy there?" Susie asked politely. The Digimon eyed her with a confused look on his face.
"Do you wanna play?" After considering that Susie would pose no threat, the Digimon nodded.
Makes you wonder what game those two are gonna play, huh? And what's up with Rika? She'd better not be planning something that concerns her relationship with Takato, that's for sure! Find out on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters!