Chapter 5: An Empty Life
By: RayD
Guilmon's Hideout
Flamedramon opened his eyes quickly.
"Davis?" he said as he awoke; but Flamedramon clamed downed as soon as he looked around.
He sighed, "I'm still here." He said in a sad tone.
The sun had not yet risen, and park outside was still much in darkness. Flamedramon wasn't a normally an early bird, but during the night certain dreams plagued his mind. He dreamed that he was in Davis' room, and his partner and friends were there to welcome him back home. However, when he tried to get near them they all vanished, and Flamedramon was pulled into darkness. The same kind of darkness that he experienced in the portal that brought him here.
"It was so real." He said to himself. "I really thought I was home"
At that moment, Flamedramon started to think of the worst-case scenario. What if he couldn't get back home? That was something that Flamedramon feared the most. However, he shook that from his mind. I can't think like that. he assured himself. But what will I do if I can't get back. Flamedramon scratched his head at this thought. However as he did this, he noticed something.
"My shoulder, it doesn't hurt anymore."
Flamedramon looked at his shoulder, and rotated it. There was no stiffness or sharp pains within the shoulder. "Uhmm…Those herbs Renamon gave me. They must have healed the shoulder."
Flamedramon then examined the rest of his body, and gasped at what he saw. All the bruising that was on his chest and legs were gone. "Amazing." He said, "It would have taken a long time to heal from all those injuries, but these herb did it in one night!" Flamedramon then thought, If these herbs healed my bruises then could it have healed my cuts. He raised his arm, which had the bandage on it, and slowly cut it opened with one of his talons. As Flamedramon peeled back the bandage, he saw that the cut was completely healed, and that there was only a small scar. Flamedramon shook his head in disbelief.
"Man, these herbs are strong if they can heal this much. But I wonder…" Flamedramon placed his claws underneath himself. "I hope this works he said. Flamedramon took in a deep breath, and lifted himself up onto his feet.
There's no pain. Flamedramon thought as he stretched his legs and arms. "Man, this is incredible. Now I'll be able to move around on my own," he added. Flamedramon looked out the doorway of the stoned house, and saw the city that lay behind the trees. "I wonder what the city looks like?" he asked himself. Flamedramon looked over at Guilmon, and saw that the red dinosaur was fast asleep. He looked back outside, and thought, I'll only be gone for a couple of minutes that it. I just want to see this city beyond the park. As Flamedramon finished that thought; he pushed off with his powerful legs, and was clear of Guilmon's house.
Rika's House
It was yet another early morning for Renamon as she stared out at that morning sky. Normally she would be sitting back in content, and not think about anything in the world, but this day Renamon had something on her mind. Why can't stop thinking about him? she thought to her self. Every since yesterday she had not been able to stop thinking about Flamedramon, and she was nervous. Well, he was very handsome, but I wonder what he looks like without the mask.
Renamon stopped, and shook her mind of that thought. "I'm better not being getting ideas." She said to no one in particular. Indeed Flamedramon was handsome to her, but she knew she couldn't think that way. She was a fighter after all. "But I am a fighter who isn't fighting." She said.
Every since they had defeated the Devas, and the D-reaper there weren't any other enemies to fight. Almost like the tamers wiped them all out. Renamon then looked at her paw, and sighed. "If there are no enemies left then what should I do?" Fighting to her was the most important thing in the world. Renamon could still remember fighting in the digital world before even joining up with Rika. Now it seemed that she had defeated all her enemies, and had become the strongest digimon just as she had promise to Rika. "But now I'm not fighting, and if I don't I'm goning to die of boredom." She said furiously. However, with Renamon so busy with that thought, she didn't noticed a certain dragon digimon approaching her rooftop.
"Whoa this is a beautiful city." Flamedramon said as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop. During the past hour, Flamedramon had seen eight blocks around Shinjuku Park area. It was beautiful to Flamedramon at how the morning sky seemed to lighten up all the streets with a dim violent light. "This city reminds me of home." Flamedramon said as he surveyed the city from a rooftop.
"I wish Davis was here to see it, and all the popularity were getting." Flamedramon mused. He had been down Main Street, and was shocked to see that the local theatre was playing a film that had him, and friends starring in it. He would have snuck in to see this movie, but he knew that would be breaking the promise he made with Takato and Henry.
Flamedramon then looked out more to the city. He had explored a good amount of city, but they were still much area to cover. Who would have thought this city would be so big. he thought. However, Flamedramon looked back at the park. He would have to return soon otherwise Guilmon would find him missing, and would probably make the tamers worry about his whereabouts. He didn't want to do that these tamers had helped him so much, and he didn't want to harm his newfound friendship, but Flamedramon still wanted to explore more of the city.
"I'll just go two more blocks then I head back. It shouldn't take me that long." He assured himself, but as Flamedramon went to the next rooftop, he noticed a figure sitting down on top of one of the houses.
Who could that be? he thought as Flamedramon approached the rooftop. However, as soon as he got out of the suns light, Flamedramon saw there sitting on the roof was none other then the beautiful diginon he saw yesterday, Renamon.
At what Flamedramon could tell, she seemed to be looking out to the horizon, not really paying attention to what was around her but as Flamedramon was about to walk towards her he stopped himself. What am I going to say to her? he thought.
Flamedramon never thought of what he was going to talk to her about, and how was he ever going to carry a normal conversation if he was always nervous around her. Maybe I shouldn't talk to her? he thought, but if I don't then how will, I get to know her. Flamedramon shook his head. Here he was, the dragon of courage, being scared to talk to a simple female digimon, but it somehow it wasn't easy for him. Slowly, but surely, Flamedramon made his way behind Renamon. He had so quietly that she didn't seem to notice him standing behind her. All right Flamedramon, this is your chance.
Flamedramon cleared his throat, and said, "Hi Ren-..." Unfortunately, Flamedramon was cut short as he saw Renamon turn quickly, and punch him in the jaw. He flew back, and was about to fall off the roof entirely, but with quick thinking grabbed the edge of the building.
As he hanged there, Flamedramon tried to shake the pain from his jaw. "Ouch! That hurts!" he cried as he barely hanged on to the rooftop with his long claws.
"Flamedramon?" a new voice said. Flamedramon looked up, and that it was Renamon looking down at him. "Give me your hand." She said as Renamon held her hand out. Flamedramon grabbed her hand with his freed talon, and pulled himself back onto the roof. He looked up at Renamon with a confused look. "What was that for?!" he said trying not to yell.
"I'm sorry," Renamon said, "I don't like it when someone sneaks up on me."
"I'll have to remember that?" Flamedramon said as he held his throbbing jaw. Renamon noticed this, and mentally grinned.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
Flamedramon looked, and quickly stopped holding his jaw. "Oh it's nothing." Flamedramon said as he tried to sound tough in front of Renamon; but in reality, Flamedramon was in a lot of pain, and he was barley keeping from affecting him. Renamon nodded, and turned away from him.
Man, I have never been hit that hard before. Flamedramon thought, Even the Darktyrannomon didn't have that much punch.
"So what are you doing here?" Renamon asked as she sat down on the roof.
"Well… I was exploring the city, and I saw you." He said nervously.
"And I wanted to thank you for those moon herbs." He added.
Renamon glanced over, and saw that indeed the herb had worked and that his bruising was all gone. This didn't surprise Renamon; she knew those herbs were quite powerful, and effective.
"I'm glad they helped you." She said without turning around to look at him.
She must be the strong silent type. he thought as he watched her.
Flamedramon stood beside Renamon, and looked down at her. "Uhm is it okay if I sit here with you?" he asked nervously.
Renamon looked up at the Dragon, and seemed to be sizing him up. "You may if you want." She said as she looked back at the sunrise.
Flamedramon smiled, and gently sat beside the fox digimon; making sure, that he didn't sit too close to her. However, as Flamedramon sat there he noticed that Renamon was staring out at the sunrise. "So… he said nervously, "what are you doing out this early?"
Renamon glanced over at Flamedramon, and said. "Nothing much." She lied, "I couldn't sleep."
"Oh," replied Flamedramon.
The two digimon soon fell silent once again, but Renamon, unknowing to Flamedramon, seemed to glanced over at him once or twice. Every since yesterday, Renamon had been wondering what kind of world did he come from?
"Your tamer is very nice." Flamedramon said, breaking the silence.
"Thank you" Renamon said.
"I bet Davis would like to meet her." Flamedramon added.
Renamon this time turned fully towards Flamedramon. "Davis? That's your tamer?" she asked.
"Not exactly," he said, "He's my partner." Renamon looked with still a puzzled face.
"In my world we don't have tamers." He added.
Renamon nodded, and said,"Then what do you call them?" she asked.
Flamedramon smiled. It felt odd that this Renamon was so interested in his world.
"Well, in my world we call them digi-destined, and he is my partner."
"I see." Renamon replied. "Then what is your partner, Davis, like?"
At the mention of his partner's name Flamedramon started to chuckle. Renamon looked at him with confusion "What's so funny?" she asked.
"Oh umm… nothing. It's just that I remember Davis doing all sort of crazy things when he was around his friends."
"What kind of crazy things?" she asked.
Flamedramon grinned, and started to tell her all the things that he and Davis use to do.
A few minutes later…
"It sounds to me your partner is very outspoken for a human." Renamon stated as Flamedramon finished his story. "I guess so," Flamedramon said, "but he does what he can to help people." He added.
"He sounds like a good person." Renamon said as she looked back at the sunrise.
"Thank you it very nice that you say that." He said.
However, Renamon didn't answer as she was busy watching the sunrise end. This gave enough time for Flamedramon to look at the young fox digimon. He didn't really know why he was acting like this, but her face was beautiful to him. He had never seen anything like her in all his life. However, Renamon noticed his staring, and was getting annoyed.
"Why are staring at me?" she asked sternly.
"Flamedramon blinked his eyes as he quickly snapped out of his trance.
"Huh? Uh…" he said trailing off.
"I saw you doing this yesterday. Why are you staring at me?" she asked once again, but this time she said it with more anger.
Flamedramon stood there in fear, for the first time in his life, as he tried to think what he was going to say to an angry Renamon. I don't even why I'm doing this myself. he thought, I'd better say something otherwise; I'm going to get another punch in the face.
"Flamedramon!" another voice called.
Flamedramon quickly stood up in alarm, but because the roof was wet he slipped, and was soon sliding down the roof.
"HOLY SH-!" Flamedramon yelled as he saw the ground quickly rush up to his face. Flamedramon tried to land on his feet, but he didn't enough time, and he fell on his back.
"Oh that hurt…," he said as he opened his eyes. There he saw looking over him was Guilmon.
"There you are," he said, "I was wondering where you were." Flamedramon sat up, and looked at Guilmon. "Sorry Guilmon I was taking a run this morning." Guilmon gave Flamedramon a childish smile. "That Okay," he said, "It's just Takato was wondering where you are, and wanted everyone to meet." Flamedramon nodded, "I'll be there Guilmon just leave me for a second." Guilmon nodded, and was quickly running back to the forest.
Flamedramon looked up at the roof that he once on top of, and sighed. "Great," he said, "You try to impress a girl, and you stare at her like some sort of idiot; and to top it off you fall off a roof." Flamedramon shook his head. "If Davis knew about this he would be laughing his face off." Flamedramon said as he got up started to walk back towards the park.
Renamon watched Flamedramon as he left Rika's house, and headed to the park. What a weirdo. she thought. "I don't know why he keeps staring at me, but if he does it again I'll give him a harder punch." She said as she clenched her fist. However, she released it after she thought of something. Why haven't I hit him before? she asked herself. Maybe deep down, she liked it when he looked at her that way. Renamon shook her head, "That can't be it." She stated. "That dragon is making me think weird." Renamon sighed as she jumped down from the roof. "I'll have to think about this later." She added as Renamon went inside to wake up Rika
The group had met in the park, and after the tamer got over their shock of how Flamedramon was healed made, their way to Hypno Headquarters. Normally Flamedramon would expect to be in backpack or in some sort of disguise for walking out in public, but as Takato told him people here knew about digimon, and they shouldn't be afraid. However, Flamedramon wasn't thinking about that instead he was thinking how embarrassing it was when he fell off that roof. Next time I'll try not to do that again. he thought.
Hypno Headquaters
Yamaki looked at Takato with a confused face. Here he was doing some boring paperwork, and the tamers walk into his 25th floor office telling a story about this Flamedramon being from a different dimension. I have to lay off that coffee the cafeteria serves. he thought as he looked up at the group.
"Takato, you know how bizarre that sounds." Yamaki said as he stood up from his desk.
"I know it sounds strange sir, but it's the truth." Takato replied.
Yamaki looked at Flamedramon through the dark lenses of his glasses, and then looked back at Takato.
"I believe you Takato, but why did you come here?" Yamaki asked.
"Well, since you guys know so much about digimon we were hoping that you might know how something portals and that you can help him get home."
Yamaki sighed at that remark. Indeed, Hypno knew much about digimon, but portals that another area entirely. Hell, even Hypno didn't know that much about the portals that bring people to the digital world much less portals that go between dimensions! Yamaki looked at the dragon that stood there in anticipation to what he was going to say. "I don't know much portals, but I someone who might."
Yamaki went over to his desk, and grabbed the phone.
Flamedramon was very nervous at this point. Was he going home or was he stuck here.
"Hey you okay." a voice said. Flamedramon looked over, and saw it was Terrimon. "Are you okay?" he asked again.
"Yeah I'm fine." Flamedramon replied. "It just that I'm bit nervous that's all." Terrimon smiled, and hopped on Flamedramon's face; watching the blade that came out from his helmet.
"Momintai Flamey. These guys know what there doing."
"Flamey?" Flamedramon questioned.
"Yeah, it your new nickname I gave you." Terrimon kidded.
Flamedramon raised an eyebrow, and said. "You gave me a nickname?"
"Uh huh. It's easier to call you that instead of Flamedramon. What you don't like it?"
"Well, it sounds weird, but I guess I can get use to it."
Terrimon giggled, "There you go Momintai." Flamedramon smiled.
Suddenly the door of Yamaki's office opened up, and a man walked in. All that Flamedramon could tell was that he had long hair, but was going bald at the top. The man also had a beard, and looked like he was a least 35. "Yamaki this better be important I have been running projects all week, and you always…" The man stopped in mid-sentence as he saw the tamers standing there.
"Takato, Henry, Rika! It's so nice to see you." Shibumi said with a smile. "It's good to see you too." The tamers answered as Shibumi shook each ones hand.
"Well, you have all grown up since I saw you. How is it going?"
"Were fine Shibumi." Rika answered.
"Yeah everything's great." Henry added. Shibumi smiled, and looked at Gulimon, Terrimon, and Renamon. After he greeted the tamers' digimons he noticed Flamedramon. "Oh who's your friend?" he questioned.
Takato walked over between Shibumi and Flamedramon, and said, "Mr. Shibumi this is Flamedramon. Flamedramon this is Shibumi."
"It's pleasure to meet you." Flamedramon said as he bowed his head in respect.
"Well, I have never met a Flamedramon in person before, but it's nice to meet another friend of the tamers." After the greetings were finished, Shibumi turned towards Yamaki. "Now Yamaki what was it you needed me for?" Yamaki adjusted his glasses as he looked at the long-time friend, and associate. "The reason I brought you here Shibumi is because that Flamedramon needs your help."
After Shibumi sat down, in one of Yamaki's office chairs, Takato and Flamedramon told their stories about how the portal brought him here. Now throughout the time of the story, Shibumi didn't show any sign shock instead he was showing great interest. "A dimensional portal," he said, "not many of those around."
Takato nodded, "We have never portal like it." He said.
Shibumi took his gaze from the young Takato, and looked at Flamedramon. "Now," he said, "You say this portal appeared in front of you out of nowhere." He asked.
Flamedramon nodded, "Yes, that's right. It appeared right after my Fire Knuckle collided with his attack."
Shibumi raised an eyebrow. "After your attacks collided?" he asked.
Flamedramon nodded again, and Shibumi stood up from his chair.
"Yamaki, I'm going to need your computer." He asked.
"Alright, I'll give you my passcode." After Yamaki punched in his code, Shibumi sat behind the computer, and immediately started typing.
"Mr. Shibumi what are you doing?" Henry asked as he looked over the man's shoulder.
"Well, right now I'm getting Yamaki's computer to hook up with Hypno's mainframe." Shibumi said as he continued to type.
"This way I will be able to use the mainframe to search for any documented portals in the records." He added.
After Shibumi finished typing in the last bit of code the link to Hypno's mainframe was complete. "Alright, now I am going to tell the computer to show any reports on dimensional portals that are in the records." As Shubumi said this, he typed in the kind of portal he was looking, and pressed search. "Now, since the mainframe has such a huge memory bank, it's going to take some time to do the search." However, Takato wasn't quite listening to Shibumi at that point; instead, he was looking at his D-Arc.
"Mr. Shibumi," Takato said, "there's another question I need to ask you?"
"What is it?" Shibumi asked.
"Well, when I first saw Flamedramon my D-arc scanned him as a rookie?" Takato said.
Shubumi gave a puzzled look. "A rookie?' he said, "but as I recall Flamedramon is an armoured level."
"We know Mr.Shibumi, but our D-arc scanned him as rookie." Rika said as she walked up to Shibumi.
"That's strange." Shibumi said as he puzzled over this. "Flamedramon should be an armour-digivoled."
"Well, he isn't, and where if you would know why our digivices are doing this." Henry asked.
Shibumi stood up, and walked over to one of Yamaki's cabinets. "The D-arks would never do that." He said as he grabbed a black object. "The D-arks only scan what you show them. If it says he is a rookie than he is a rookie."
"But I'm not a rookie." Flamedramon exclaimed.
"I know but, the D-arks don't lie so I'm going to use this Digi-scanner on you."
"Digi-Scanner?" Flamedramon questioned as Shibumi flipped a switch on the device.
"Yeah, what this does is scanner does is, well, scan your digital code into the computer." As Shibumi said this, he took the scanner, and went from Flamedramon's head to his feet. After Shibumi finished his scans, he went, and sat back at the computer, which had just numbers on the screen. "What's all this?" Takato asked as he peered over Shibumi's shoulder. "What you see right now is Flamedramon's complete digital code." Yamaki said as he sat beside Shibumi.
Flamedramon looked at the screen in wonder. "My complete digital code?" he asked.
"Yes," Shibumi said, "all these numbers in front us are what makes you who you are. It's kind of like DNA to humans."
Shibumi scrolled down the large column of codes, and stopped at a certain section. "Yamaki come, and look at this." Shibumi said. Yamaki quickly moved over, and looked on the screen that was in front him.
"How is this possible?" he asked as he looked upon the screen.
"What's wrong?" Flamedramon asked.
Shibumi looked over at Flamedramon, and pointed to the area of code that he was studying. On the screen the code was broken up, and a computer message beside it.
It read:
CODE MISSING!
"Code missing?" Takato said with confusion. Shibumi nodded, and looked back at the computer. "It seems to me," he said, "That some of Flamedramon's main codes are missing from some of its sequences."
"Is he going to be okay?" Takato asked as he was starting to feel worry for his friend safety.
"To tell you the truth Takato, Flamedramon shouldn't even be alive right now."
Everybody, including Yamaki, gave Shibumi a questionable look.
Shibumi saw this, and explained what he meant. "His main codes are the ones that control everything about Flamedramon. His strength, his thoughts, everything is controlled by these codes." Shibumi said with interest. "With normal digimon if even one code is missing from this sequence the code would fail to run thus destroying the digimon."
"But how is he still alive?" Rika asked.
Shibumi scrolled even further down the line of code, and found Rika's answer. "Well, it seems that Flamedramon's digi-egg of courage has merged with him."
"Merged?" Flamedramon questioned.
"Yes, it looks like when your codes were taken the dig-egg of courage merged with you to fill in the gaps in your code."
"I'm guessing this transformation changed your power level from an armour-digivolue to a rookie level." Shibumi said as he continued to look at the computer screen. "But I think you attack powers are the same."
Flamedramon grew a look of concern on his face. "Will I be able to turn back into Veemon?" he asked.
Shibumi nodded, "Yes, you could go to your previous form, but that would now be called you in-training form."
"Wait a second!" Takato said, "If that's true then what will happen to his other evolution forms?"
Shibumi shrugged his shoulder. "Don't know; this transformation has made Flamedramon become a new breed of Digimon. I would have no idea what it would do to his evolution ladder."
"But the real question is who would be able to extract data from digimon?" Yamaki said as he stood, and looked out to the window.
Just then, the computer made a beep, and a message came on the screen. Shibumi looked at it, and saw that the computer had finished it search of the Hypno mainframe. "It looks like we have a match."
Shibumi open the file, and a picture of the portal came on the screen.
"That's it!" Both Takato and Flamedramon said, "That's the portal we saw."
Shibumi looked at the two, and sighed. "I was hoping this it wasn't this portal." He said.
The tamers looked at Shibumi with confusion. "What's wrong?" Takato asked.
"It's an m-class portal... they are dimensional portals that only open up if something broke the temporal barriers." Shibumi looked over at Flamedramon, and said, "I believe when your attack collided with the Darktyrannomon's it must have broken the barriers, and pulled you in." Shibumi then sat back in the chair, and sighed again. "Another thing about these portals is that they produce copies of anyone who enters them."
"So you're saying there is another Flamedramon out there in the park?" Takato questioned.
Shibumi shook his head. "Not here," he said, "the portal would leave a copy on the other side." Flamedramon stood there in shock. Here he was, trapped in another dimension, and a copy of himself was with Davis. They don't even know I'm here. Flamedramon thought as he tried to comprehend all this.
"How is this possible?" Flamedramon said; nearly yelling.
"Calm down," Shibumi replied, "we don't know how this happens, but we do know is that the copies are very unstable, and I think if you came in contact with the copy than it would be reabsorbed into your digital code."
"Well then, all we have to do is recreate the accident that opened the portal." Takato said as he looked over at Flamedramon with confidents. However, Shibumi shook his head. "It's not that easy to do." Shibumi added. "To get the portal to open at his dimension we would have to create the same variables that you and the DarkTryrannomon did. If we mess up one variable than the portal may open up in another dimension or even worse; it could open up as a black hole, and destroy this reality."
Yamaki stood beside Shibumi, and said, "Shibumi, what are the odds that we could everything right?"
Shibumi looked up with sadness in his eyes. "The chances of getting it right are one in a billion." He looked over at Flamedramon, and said, "I'm sorry Flamedramon you're stuck here."
Flamedramon stood there as he heard those horrifying words. No, it can't be! Flamedramon thought. It can't be.
"No." he said. "NO!" Flamedramon cried out.
At that moment, before the tamers could stop him, Flamedramon broke into a run, and crashed right through Yamaki's office window.
As Flamedramon fell, the 25 floors, he positioned himself to land on a taxi that was picking up someone. However, before the person could even open the door, Flamedramon landed on the roof of the cab, which bent it at an awkward angle. While Flamedramon did see the shock look on there faces he didn't stop. Instead, he continued to run he didn't where he was going he just had to run; runaway from all this.
"We have to go after him." Takato said as he and Guilmon were about to run after Flamedramon.
"Takato wait!" Henry called, "You won't be able to catch up with him."
Takato stooped, and looked back at Henry. "I know that, but I have to at least try." Takato said, "He needs our help."
"I know that, but we need someone fast enough to catch up with him." Henry replied.
Rika looked over at Renamon. She knew that Renamon was very fast, and could possible catch up with Flamedramon. "Renamon, can you catch up with him."
Renamon nodded, "I think so."
"Okay, I want you to catch him,and tried to calm him down while we'll follow you with my digivice."
Renamon nodded again, and quickly jumped out the window pursue Flamedramon. However, as Renamon followed his path, one thought went throught her mind. How am I going to calm down a freaked out dragon?
Will Renamon catch up with Flamedramon, and what happened to Flamedramon's digital code?
Find out in the next chapter: Friendship
Author Note: There you have it chapter 5 of A New World. I hope that answered everyone's question how is Flamedramon became a rookie. If anyone has questions concern this you can email me about it.
Well, the voting for Davis coming to the Tamers world is very close. Currently the voting is 3-2 in favour of bringing him to this storyline, and I like how all of you are giving me good reason why, and why not. Still there is a lot time to vote, and if you haven't voted please do so. Also, to the reader you have voted, you can change your decision it's not final.
I should have chapter six done in late Febuary or earl March depending on my schedule. Also, at that time I will announce the results of the voting.
Hope to see you later.
P.S. Sorry about the paragraphs being so close it seems my problem is that I use a program that isn't compatible with FF.net. I will try to fix it later on.