Prologue - Tamers 02
I gazed longingly at the purple on black D-Ark on the night table, hoping not to wake my sister as she tossed and turned in her sleep. I sat there and looked at it, and begged it's screen to show anything other than the static it always did now. I clenched my teeth in frustration.
If it weren't for them…
I still remember the day. Eleven-year-olds weren't supposed to have days they remember. At least not badly. But I remember this one. I remember the way my older sister stumbled into the house, D-Ark clutched to her chest. I remember how red her eyes were, her black hair messed up, and how utterly defeated and lost she looked. I growled lightly under my breath.
This is their fault!
The digimon tamers had taken our sister from us. She was still here physically, but she never did anything other than mope around, like she was a ghost instead of a living, breathing, girl.
The door squeaked open slightly, and I turned to look. Sticking his head in was our eight-year-old brother Mica. He looked in cautiously.
"Can you help me get somethin' to eat, sis?"
I nodded, and got up to go with him.
Delia should be doing this…
A little over a year ago, Delia had been the best big sister in the world. She took care of us all the time, even if she was a little gruff about it. Then she started fighting the Tamers. She wasn't around all that often then, but we were confident that once the Tamers were 'dealt with' as she put it, things would go back to normal.
But things didn't go as she expected, I mused as I got Mica some cereal, and she lost, to the most evil looking dragon I've ever seen. It ripped through Armageddemon like paper.
The dragon was controlled by one Takato Matsuki.
Mr. Shadow told me that. He tells me and Mica a lot of things.
Things we can't tell Delia. Because it might upset her, and we won't upset her anymore than she already is.
Takato isn't here now, Mr. Shadow said, but he'll be back. Mr. Shadow tells us that he has friends here though. Big friends.
And we have to get rid of them first. Before Takato comes back to finish the job. And we know just how to do it, too.
I grinned down at the black and silver D-Ark that was mine, and the black and yellow D-Ark that was Mica's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked out of my room in Henry's apartment, rubbing my tired eyes, wondering just what was going on. The noise had come from his room, and I was in no mood to be up. I had been up way past my set bed time working on a program.
"Henry?"
He looked up.
"Oh, hi Suzie."
I glanced around the room carefully.
"Um, what exactly are you doing big brother?"
He sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately. It had been a month since Takato's disastrous trip back here from the eastern quadrant when Jeri blew a fuse and yelled at Takato. She and Henry hadn't exactly broken up, but they hadn't spoken much since.
But the real shocker came when she disappeared a few days ago.
"Well, you know how Jeri just up and vanished, right?"
"Yeah…? Don't tell me you're just going to go out and search blindly for her?"
He shrugged a little.
"I'm going after her, but it's not exactly a blind search. Not anymore anyways."
What?
"Really? Where is she that you need all of that?"
'That' was a complete backpacker's backpack. A normal school backpack these days weighs about ten to fifteen pounds on a scale, even if we complain that they're more than that. This kind of backpack weighs closer to sixty when filled. With food, a sleeping bag, and occasionally a small tent.
He sighed.
"Yamaki sent me a message that a human, a Leomon and an unknown digimon entered the digital world right around when she disappeared. It has to be her."
"Um, Henry? What about me?"
He frowned.
"You're not going. You have school."
Lopmon trundled out behind me, and without thinking about it, I picked her up, and she took her place on my head, just like Terriermon still does to Henry.
"That wasn't what I meant. Am I going back to mom and dad's apartment? That's a heck of a commute to school; it's why I moved out here."
Terriermon stuck his head out the door.
"Nope. You get to stay here and starve!"
I don't think he's forgiven me for that last 'Pwincess Pwetty Pants' routine I pulled with Impmon and Veemon. Oh well.
Henry rolled his eyes.
"Terriermon… You'll be fine. You're a responsible girl, and you know how to order from the grocery store online. Dad'll come by once every few days to check up on you, so no wild parties. This shouldn't take longer than a week or two, so it's not like I'll be gone forever."
"Like we would ever do that big brother."
He smiled.
"Well, I really can't tell with you, can I?"
I smiled, and then I helped him carry the backpack downstairs to the car; waving as he drove off. I tilted my eyes upward towards the digimon still on my head.
"Well, looks like you and I have to hold down the fort for a few days Lopmon."
She jumped down to walk beside me and gave a salute.
"Right Susie! I'm good at guarding things!"
I laughed, and we headed up to the apartment. I was fully prepared to enjoy both my Saturday and my 'vacation'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I frowned, and stood up from my meditative trance.
Or what was supposed to be one, anyways. I am the best. At everything. And no old lady is going to show me up!
I got up and tossed an expensive glass sculpture at the door, making a satisfying crash. A servant entered hastily.
"Is everything alright sir?"
I growled.
"Fine. Has there been any progress in locating Nonaka?"
The man shook his head.
"Her mother refuses to give up any information on her daughter, and any other information is behind a security wall we can't seem to crack no matter what we do."
A scowl creased my face, and the guy jumped.
Coward.
"Get out."
The servant bowed, and hastily left. Nonaka had beaten me in the card game. That defeat could not be allowed to stand. I analyzed both her strategy and mine, and I had realized where I had gone wrong. I only had to find her to prove I was the best.
I narrowed my eyes.
But if the information given by this 'Mr. Shadow' is correct, then our next fight will be on a whole new playing field.
I grinned as I looked down at the black and white object. It looked like a child's toy, but held power. Real power. And that was something I liked.
I picked up the 'D-Ark' as it was called and switched it over to the compass mode. I followed it down the hall and out the doors of the large mansion out to the tennis courts.
Deck in pocket, D-Ark in hand, I watched a small gray rabbit dodge tennis balls from ten different pitching machines. They were set on their fastest speeds. One of the most unusual things about this tennis court is that a simple AI program combined with motion detectors made the pitching machines move and track the small digimon's position. Originally used for some rich bozo to be able to play by himself, with minor adjustments it also made for an excellent training routine.
Unless we're looking for more… lively… sparring partners that is…
The machines slowly shut down, allowing Gazimon a short time to breathe as a smaller machine, no more than a glorified vacuum cleaner really, sucked in the balls to place them back into the ball reservoirs of the pitching machines. Gazimon noticed me, and snapped up one of the balls that hadn't been claimed yet, tossing it at a small plate, which turned the system off after it finished with the balls, and he strolled over to where I was, calmly hopping the fence.
"Something wrong?"
"Not really. Just checking on your progress. I still can't locate Nonaka."
Gazimon's eyes narrowed.
"Hmmm. Are you sure you can beat her if you try again?"
"Positive."
"Then be patient, and let us hone our battle skills more. Crush her utterly, in and out of the game. After all, if victory is assured, then do not rush to confrontation. Takes the fun out of it."
He grinned viscously at me, and I had to laugh.
"You're right, of course. Everything in its proper time."
"Besides, decent competition is exceedingly hard to come by."
I nodded and continued as we walked back to the mansion.
"And life would be boring without it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sudden commotion came from my brother's room. I waited. He'd come tell me soon enough.
3…2…1…
"AI!"
I looked up from my book to see Mako slightly out of breath. I rolled my eyes.
"What is it this time Mako?"
Mako's grin threatened to take his head off.
"Come on, Ai, there's a digimon!"
My eyes widened and I put the book down after marking my place.
"Be right there!"
Mako nodded and ran down the stairs, Impmon close on his heels. I grabbed our deck and ran downstairs to slip on my shoes. With a quick 'see-you-later-bye-mom!' we were out the door and into the streets, Impmon leading the way. We ran down the street and past the school, stopping at a digital field. Impmon looked up at it.
"Oh man… maybe you guys shouldn't have come on this one… it's gonna be huge…"
I looked over at Mako.
"Um, Mako, if Impmon says so, maybe we should leave…"
He shook his head, and I gulped.
If it scares Impmon…
Out of the fog rose a dragon like creature with purple armor that had yellow lightning bolt designs all over. It's tail ended in this weird metal-banded black ball that was letting out this eerie light. Mako raised our D-Ark at it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
DeaxDoruGoramon
Level: Mega
Type: Virus
Class: Undead
Attacks:
Metal Impulse
Dorudin
This undead dragon is perhaps the foulest digimon in existence. His Metal Impulse will hit you hard when he rams you, but his Dorudin breath can melt even the toughest materials down to molten rock.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Impmon growled then, and began to glow.
Warp
Digivolution_
Impmon warp digivolve to… Beezlemon!
The dragon didn't even bother to start talking, it simply started attacking.
"METAL IMPULSE!"
Beezlemon jumped over DeaxDoruGoramon, leveling his guns at his back.
"DOUBLE IMPACT!"
The dragon screeched in pain as he slammed into the concrete, causing a small explosion. Mako looked back at me.
"Ai! Card!"
"Right!"
Mako shaking me out of my trance, I shuffled through our 'battle' deck, as we refered to it. Cards useful in battle were often different from cards used in the game.
"Here!"
He looked at it and nodded.
DIGI-MODIFY! Viral Boost Chip Activate!
Beezlemon roared and charged back into the battle.
"DARKNESS CLAW!"
But DeaxDoruGoramon simply flew above him, and leveled his tail at Beezlemon. Beezlemon, expecting to hit his target, stumbled for a moment. The funky black aura inside DeaxDoruGoramon's sphere shaped tail glowed brighter, and shot out at Beezlemon as a glowing black ball.
It hit him right in the back, and he started screaming, a black mist formed over him then, forcing balls of light out of his body.
The dragon just let out a large roar and flew off. I ran over to where the mist faded, revealing Impmon, looking a little battered, but otherwise okay. He looked up at us.
"Impmon? Are you okay?"
He nodded slowly, and then got up.
"Yeah, I'm okay… I just feel a little weird after what ever it was that he did to me…"
Then he clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow, starting to strain. Then he stopped, his eyes wide.
"Um, guys? We may have a larger problem than I thought…"
Mako looked back, obviously worried.
"What's wrong?"
He looked up at us.
"The power of the sovereign… it's gone… I can't digivolve…"
Then Mako said a word we're not supposed to.
I gazed longingly at the purple on black D-Ark on the night table, hoping not to wake my sister as she tossed and turned in her sleep. I sat there and looked at it, and begged it's screen to show anything other than the static it always did now. I clenched my teeth in frustration.
If it weren't for them…
I still remember the day. Eleven-year-olds weren't supposed to have days they remember. At least not badly. But I remember this one. I remember the way my older sister stumbled into the house, D-Ark clutched to her chest. I remember how red her eyes were, her black hair messed up, and how utterly defeated and lost she looked. I growled lightly under my breath.
This is their fault!
The digimon tamers had taken our sister from us. She was still here physically, but she never did anything other than mope around, like she was a ghost instead of a living, breathing, girl.
The door squeaked open slightly, and I turned to look. Sticking his head in was our eight-year-old brother Mica. He looked in cautiously.
"Can you help me get somethin' to eat, sis?"
I nodded, and got up to go with him.
Delia should be doing this…
A little over a year ago, Delia had been the best big sister in the world. She took care of us all the time, even if she was a little gruff about it. Then she started fighting the Tamers. She wasn't around all that often then, but we were confident that once the Tamers were 'dealt with' as she put it, things would go back to normal.
But things didn't go as she expected, I mused as I got Mica some cereal, and she lost, to the most evil looking dragon I've ever seen. It ripped through Armageddemon like paper.
The dragon was controlled by one Takato Matsuki.
Mr. Shadow told me that. He tells me and Mica a lot of things.
Things we can't tell Delia. Because it might upset her, and we won't upset her anymore than she already is.
Takato isn't here now, Mr. Shadow said, but he'll be back. Mr. Shadow tells us that he has friends here though. Big friends.
And we have to get rid of them first. Before Takato comes back to finish the job. And we know just how to do it, too.
I grinned down at the black and silver D-Ark that was mine, and the black and yellow D-Ark that was Mica's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked out of my room in Henry's apartment, rubbing my tired eyes, wondering just what was going on. The noise had come from his room, and I was in no mood to be up. I had been up way past my set bed time working on a program.
"Henry?"
He looked up.
"Oh, hi Suzie."
I glanced around the room carefully.
"Um, what exactly are you doing big brother?"
He sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately. It had been a month since Takato's disastrous trip back here from the eastern quadrant when Jeri blew a fuse and yelled at Takato. She and Henry hadn't exactly broken up, but they hadn't spoken much since.
But the real shocker came when she disappeared a few days ago.
"Well, you know how Jeri just up and vanished, right?"
"Yeah…? Don't tell me you're just going to go out and search blindly for her?"
He shrugged a little.
"I'm going after her, but it's not exactly a blind search. Not anymore anyways."
What?
"Really? Where is she that you need all of that?"
'That' was a complete backpacker's backpack. A normal school backpack these days weighs about ten to fifteen pounds on a scale, even if we complain that they're more than that. This kind of backpack weighs closer to sixty when filled. With food, a sleeping bag, and occasionally a small tent.
He sighed.
"Yamaki sent me a message that a human, a Leomon and an unknown digimon entered the digital world right around when she disappeared. It has to be her."
"Um, Henry? What about me?"
He frowned.
"You're not going. You have school."
Lopmon trundled out behind me, and without thinking about it, I picked her up, and she took her place on my head, just like Terriermon still does to Henry.
"That wasn't what I meant. Am I going back to mom and dad's apartment? That's a heck of a commute to school; it's why I moved out here."
Terriermon stuck his head out the door.
"Nope. You get to stay here and starve!"
I don't think he's forgiven me for that last 'Pwincess Pwetty Pants' routine I pulled with Impmon and Veemon. Oh well.
Henry rolled his eyes.
"Terriermon… You'll be fine. You're a responsible girl, and you know how to order from the grocery store online. Dad'll come by once every few days to check up on you, so no wild parties. This shouldn't take longer than a week or two, so it's not like I'll be gone forever."
"Like we would ever do that big brother."
He smiled.
"Well, I really can't tell with you, can I?"
I smiled, and then I helped him carry the backpack downstairs to the car; waving as he drove off. I tilted my eyes upward towards the digimon still on my head.
"Well, looks like you and I have to hold down the fort for a few days Lopmon."
She jumped down to walk beside me and gave a salute.
"Right Susie! I'm good at guarding things!"
I laughed, and we headed up to the apartment. I was fully prepared to enjoy both my Saturday and my 'vacation'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I frowned, and stood up from my meditative trance.
Or what was supposed to be one, anyways. I am the best. At everything. And no old lady is going to show me up!
I got up and tossed an expensive glass sculpture at the door, making a satisfying crash. A servant entered hastily.
"Is everything alright sir?"
I growled.
"Fine. Has there been any progress in locating Nonaka?"
The man shook his head.
"Her mother refuses to give up any information on her daughter, and any other information is behind a security wall we can't seem to crack no matter what we do."
A scowl creased my face, and the guy jumped.
Coward.
"Get out."
The servant bowed, and hastily left. Nonaka had beaten me in the card game. That defeat could not be allowed to stand. I analyzed both her strategy and mine, and I had realized where I had gone wrong. I only had to find her to prove I was the best.
I narrowed my eyes.
But if the information given by this 'Mr. Shadow' is correct, then our next fight will be on a whole new playing field.
I grinned as I looked down at the black and white object. It looked like a child's toy, but held power. Real power. And that was something I liked.
I picked up the 'D-Ark' as it was called and switched it over to the compass mode. I followed it down the hall and out the doors of the large mansion out to the tennis courts.
Deck in pocket, D-Ark in hand, I watched a small gray rabbit dodge tennis balls from ten different pitching machines. They were set on their fastest speeds. One of the most unusual things about this tennis court is that a simple AI program combined with motion detectors made the pitching machines move and track the small digimon's position. Originally used for some rich bozo to be able to play by himself, with minor adjustments it also made for an excellent training routine.
Unless we're looking for more… lively… sparring partners that is…
The machines slowly shut down, allowing Gazimon a short time to breathe as a smaller machine, no more than a glorified vacuum cleaner really, sucked in the balls to place them back into the ball reservoirs of the pitching machines. Gazimon noticed me, and snapped up one of the balls that hadn't been claimed yet, tossing it at a small plate, which turned the system off after it finished with the balls, and he strolled over to where I was, calmly hopping the fence.
"Something wrong?"
"Not really. Just checking on your progress. I still can't locate Nonaka."
Gazimon's eyes narrowed.
"Hmmm. Are you sure you can beat her if you try again?"
"Positive."
"Then be patient, and let us hone our battle skills more. Crush her utterly, in and out of the game. After all, if victory is assured, then do not rush to confrontation. Takes the fun out of it."
He grinned viscously at me, and I had to laugh.
"You're right, of course. Everything in its proper time."
"Besides, decent competition is exceedingly hard to come by."
I nodded and continued as we walked back to the mansion.
"And life would be boring without it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sudden commotion came from my brother's room. I waited. He'd come tell me soon enough.
3…2…1…
"AI!"
I looked up from my book to see Mako slightly out of breath. I rolled my eyes.
"What is it this time Mako?"
Mako's grin threatened to take his head off.
"Come on, Ai, there's a digimon!"
My eyes widened and I put the book down after marking my place.
"Be right there!"
Mako nodded and ran down the stairs, Impmon close on his heels. I grabbed our deck and ran downstairs to slip on my shoes. With a quick 'see-you-later-bye-mom!' we were out the door and into the streets, Impmon leading the way. We ran down the street and past the school, stopping at a digital field. Impmon looked up at it.
"Oh man… maybe you guys shouldn't have come on this one… it's gonna be huge…"
I looked over at Mako.
"Um, Mako, if Impmon says so, maybe we should leave…"
He shook his head, and I gulped.
If it scares Impmon…
Out of the fog rose a dragon like creature with purple armor that had yellow lightning bolt designs all over. It's tail ended in this weird metal-banded black ball that was letting out this eerie light. Mako raised our D-Ark at it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
DeaxDoruGoramon
Level: Mega
Type: Virus
Class: Undead
Attacks:
Metal Impulse
Dorudin
This undead dragon is perhaps the foulest digimon in existence. His Metal Impulse will hit you hard when he rams you, but his Dorudin breath can melt even the toughest materials down to molten rock.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Impmon growled then, and began to glow.
Warp
Digivolution_
Impmon warp digivolve to… Beezlemon!
The dragon didn't even bother to start talking, it simply started attacking.
"METAL IMPULSE!"
Beezlemon jumped over DeaxDoruGoramon, leveling his guns at his back.
"DOUBLE IMPACT!"
The dragon screeched in pain as he slammed into the concrete, causing a small explosion. Mako looked back at me.
"Ai! Card!"
"Right!"
Mako shaking me out of my trance, I shuffled through our 'battle' deck, as we refered to it. Cards useful in battle were often different from cards used in the game.
"Here!"
He looked at it and nodded.
DIGI-MODIFY! Viral Boost Chip Activate!
Beezlemon roared and charged back into the battle.
"DARKNESS CLAW!"
But DeaxDoruGoramon simply flew above him, and leveled his tail at Beezlemon. Beezlemon, expecting to hit his target, stumbled for a moment. The funky black aura inside DeaxDoruGoramon's sphere shaped tail glowed brighter, and shot out at Beezlemon as a glowing black ball.
It hit him right in the back, and he started screaming, a black mist formed over him then, forcing balls of light out of his body.
The dragon just let out a large roar and flew off. I ran over to where the mist faded, revealing Impmon, looking a little battered, but otherwise okay. He looked up at us.
"Impmon? Are you okay?"
He nodded slowly, and then got up.
"Yeah, I'm okay… I just feel a little weird after what ever it was that he did to me…"
Then he clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow, starting to strain. Then he stopped, his eyes wide.
"Um, guys? We may have a larger problem than I thought…"
Mako looked back, obviously worried.
"What's wrong?"
He looked up at us.
"The power of the sovereign… it's gone… I can't digivolve…"
Then Mako said a word we're not supposed to.