Chapter 16: The Raid

: Just after School, School Entrance:

The rest of the school day had gone by without major incident and now Seth found himself leaning against the schoolyard wall waiting for the Tamers and Digi-Destined to meet up with him before he lead them to the raid location. Nearby Ruby, Shade, Mia, Nina, and Elisa were discussing their plans for the day.

"B-but shouldn't we go help Seth with the raid." Nina asked nervously. She still wasn't too sure on her position amongst their little group which made her hesitant to voice her opinion in fear of over stepping her authority, if she had any.

Elisa shook her head "No Seth has this well-handled and even so you only have a few days combat experience under your belt, if something were to happen you would be more of a liability than an asset." Elise stated however upon seeing Nina lower her head in sadness she gave a reassuring smile. "Which is why I'll be training you at the bunker today, so don't you worry."

Nina seemed to brighten up at this and nodded her head before Mia spoke up "And what about the rest of us? With Seth doing this raid and the two of you training what should Ruby, Shade, and I do?"

Seth decided to intervene at this point "Ruby and Shade will be coming with me to the raid to help protect the tamers. As for you Mia, Alice actually requested your help in patrolling the area from the sky and keeping an eye on the school's Tamers. Since the rest of us will be busy you'll have to make sure none of them will cause any trouble." Mia perked up at the news before nodding in understanding.

Ruby nearly jumped in excitement "Does this mean your finally making me your partner!?" she asked before the entire group fell to dead silence as they shifted nervously while waiting for Seth's response.

Elisa watched the proceedings with an experienced eye as the various females stared at Seth in anticipation while the human himself seemed to be contemplating the answer. Elisa had known Set the longest and knew for a fact that he had never accepted a digimon partner even after many digimon had offered to do so with him, herself included. He had turned down every single one for personal reasons that Elisa knew stemmed from his mysterious background that only Yamaki knew of.

She had been one of the first digimon in the League and had asked Seth if he would like to be her partner after only a week she meet him. The human had shown he was a skilled warrior and always lent an ear to his allies when they needed it, traits that had attracted her to see him as a potential partner. However Seth had refused her request which at the time had angered and hurt her. When she demanded to know why he refused he had simply stated that she wouldn't want him as a partner once she got to know him better.

Seth had proven this to be true when not a week later they were on a mission together to evacuate a small town under attack from a rouge ultimate level digimon. At the time one of the local townspeople had refused to evacuate his home stating that he and his two young children would be safe in the house's basement. Seth in full view of the other townspeople had simply turned toward the sounds of the rouge digimon before turning back to the man, pulling out a pistol and shooting the man dead. Seth had then grabbed the two children before handing them off to Elisa and ordering the people to nearby to quickly move out of the town. Not a minute later the house and a good part of the block had been destroyed by the rampaging digimon who was eliminated a couple minutes later. Seth had stated, when asked about the incident, that he had determined that the rouge would have killed the man and his children if they had stayed and also many of the nearby bystanders if Seth had argued with the man, so Seth had saved the most lives possible by killing the man and saving the children and the bystanders.

It was that day that Elisa discovered that Honor and Morality, two traits she like many of the Leomon species valued above all others were traits Seth lacked. At the time she had hated him but over time mellowed out as she saw that while Seth's actions held no honor they were often highly effective. Also Seth did have some morals although they were often fragmented and riddled with exemptions. Over time they had settled their relationship on friendly co-workers and had left their differences aside to do their jobs.

She had watched as both Mia and Ruby had entered Seth's life with the League with Ruby being the promising student that grew an immense affection for her teacher and Mia being the rescued victim that devoted herself to her savior. She had watched the two both proposition the human to be their partner only to be rejected like her and given the same answer. Elisa could tell the rejection had hurt them but unlike her had kept interest in the enigma that was Seth and to this day were pushing for him to accept them as his digimon partners.

She like them were shocked when they heard that Seth had accepted Shade as his partner almost immediately after meeting her but after speaking to the Sangloupmon, Elisa had determined that Seth had done so mostly because of the desperation of the wolf like digimon and the lack of tamers willing to take in virus types. Still she had seen both Ruby and Mia take this as maybe a sign that Seth was becoming more open to the idea of accepting partners however Ruby had just now floored the question again for the first time since they had seen him again.

Seth thought about it for at least a minute before slowly shaking his head "I'll have to think about it some more but for now you'll just be there as backup." While the answer was disappointing to Ruby and Mia they along with Elisa noted that Seth's response was definitely an improvement over the first one and also not a definite no. Seth looked over to his right and saw the tamer group approaching "Here they are I'll meet up with you all tomorrow morning at the bunker." Seth announced before the group split off to do their own tasks.

Seth then turned toward the tamers "All right follow me it's a bit of a walk to the meet up point." He instructed them before turning and leading the group toward the downtown area.

: Half-hour later, Downtown Shinjuku:

Seth glanced one last time over the MP5 he had been given by one of the Dialed officers who stood around him checking over their body armor and weapons. Whereas the DIALED officers wore SWAT like body armor Seth was in typical street clothes consisting of a gray T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of black tennis shoes. He did however also now sport an earbud and microphone for squad communications that he had retrieved for this operation as well as a pistol strapped to his left hip.

Seth and his group were situated in an ally directly across from the target building which supposedly housed the smuggling ring. The building itself was located in Shinjuku only two streets away from a major area. The building itself was a simple three story building which served as an apartment complex for the top three floors, and a small office building on the ground floor. The office was a front for the smuggling ring which conducted their real business in the two basement floors that DIALED had discovered from the buildings blueprints. It was likely that most people had walked right by it without knowing its true nature but their ignorance would be shattered today.

Speaking of shattered innocence Seth glanced back at the group of Tamers who were nervously looking between the Dialed officers with their guns and the building across the street. Seth had already run them through their role in the operation and had gone through a number of hand gestures he would use to relay orders. For the most part however the Tamers would stay back and follow Seth who would lead them following the trail of the DIALED officers. Seth would work together with Renamon, V-mon, Cyberdramon, and Ruby, who Tyler had called in to help, and deal with any digital threats the DIALED officers may face. Agumon and V-mon would stay back and cover the Tamers in case something got past the DIALED officers and Tyler's group. Shade who dutifully sat beside Tyler would keep watch outside the building with four DIALED officers to keep civilians away from the area once the raid began

"Sir were ready to go" a DIALED officer relayed to Seth who nodded before the officer walked back to his team.

Shade let loose a subtle growl to Seth's right "I know you don't like the fact that you aren't going in with me but the close quarters would pose an obstacle to you. Hell, Cyberdramon is barely going to fit and he doesn't have a bunch of sharp blades attached to him." Seth reasoned only for Shade to lower head and whimper slightly. "I know Shade, but don't worry I'll be alright" Seth assured while he scratched behind Shades ears earning a happy wag of the wolf-like Digimon's tail as she leaned into his touch. "Think of it this way, you'll be protecting me from anyone trying to attack me from behind."

Shade seemed to think about Seth's point before Ruby also weighed in "Don't worry Shade, I'll be there to make sure nothing happens to him!" The Flamedramon boasted as she pumped her arms in confidence. This seemed to finally reassure Shade who nodded just as the signal was given to start the operation.

Seth looked over his shoulder at the Tamers "Stay glued to my six and follow the plan. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you." He told them before they jogged after the DIALED officers who were crossing the street.

The DIALED officers quickly entered the deserted business floor hallway except for Shade and another officer who would prevent nosy pedestrians from entering the building. The team inside swept the deserted hallway before nearing a door that blueprints said was the door to the basement. "Kill the lights" A DIALED officer relayed over the communication channel to a support team who were in a nearby command post. Within a couple seconds the lights inside the building suddenly went off allowing the DIALED officers to take out their NVG's before entering the doorway.

Seth being a SWORD operator didn't need NVG's and neither did the digimon so Renamon, Cyberdramon, and Seth made their way through the doorway but not before Seth told the Tamers to wait thirty seconds before following and then disappearing into the inky blackness.

: Ryo's POV:

The group of Tamers activated their digivice allowing them to see about 10 feet in front of them before they made their way through the doorway and found themselves at the top of a longs stairway. Swallowing their own anxiety the group slowly made their way down the stairs as quietly as possible before finding themselves in a moderately sized room.

The room was sparsely furnished with a ratty sofa, a coffee table which hosted an ashtray and multiple cigarette butts and a few mugs, a rug that must have passed through a couple hand-me-down stores based upon its worn appearance, and a busted TV with a shattered screen. What stood out most in the room however was the slumped over bodies of two men that looked to have been in the midst of getting off the sofa before they were both shot in the chest.

The Tamer's wanted to gag as the coppery smell of dried blood and cigarette smoke reached their nostrils but they all managed to hold it in before seeing Seth waiting for them near a doorway next to the TV. Seth signaled them to follow before leading them through the hallway and into a much larger room. The sight that greeted them upon entry stopped them cold.

The room was roughly the size of their school's gymnasium and unlike the previous rooms was lite by a series of overhead lights that bathed the room in a dim light just enough to see without their Digivices and D-Terminals. The room was almost completely taken up by cages of various sizes and within which were digimon of various types. The DIALED officers were securing the area but made no move to free the digimon as of yet. Strangely the digimon themselves did not look happy to be freed, or look to feel anything as they unblinkingly stared straight ahead with a lost gaze as if oblivious to the world around them.

Seth indicated for them to follow him again before heading to a nearby cage containing an Elecmon who was staring vacantly in front of him like the other digimon around him. When Seth approached the cage he casually opened the cage door which was apparently not locked.

"Why put them in a cage if you don't lock them in?" Rika asked in confusion.

"The cages are mostly for organizational purposes, a potential buyer will likely not know the name of the digimon and so will refer to the digimon by the number cage their in." Seth answered in a matter of fact tone before pointing at a number 13 scratched into the surface of the cage. "They leave the doors open because it would be a hassle keeping track of all the keys for each cage. This way if they get new product they can easily toss it into a cage without having to find a key."

"But shouldn't they worry about the digimon trying to escape or attack them?" Ryo asked.

Seth shook his head before indicating the Elecmon in the cage "Does he look like he wants out? The truth of the matter is none of these digimon are going to resist them in any way thanks to these." Seth explained before kneeling down and lifting the Elecmon's chin and revealing a silver band around its neck.

The band itself was made of some type of metal and was rather plan besides a green indicator light on the front. "This is how the traffickers keep control of the digimon they bring in. The band is a control device which keeps the digimon in an almost coma like state but is still capable of some motor skills like standing up and walking, though it has to be physically pulled along in order to do so." Seth explained before grabbing the Elecmon's paw and pulling it up to its feet before pulling it gently toward the door with the Elecmon walking just behind him with the still oblivious gaze.

Seth left the Elecmon just outside the door before addressing the Tamers again "This state is what they are kept in for transportation" Seth began before indicating a closed garage door on the left side of the room. "That door is where a transport truck will park and load or unload digimon to be dropped off to the buy or to be put in a cage here. The door actually leads to a loading ramp that gradually rises into a private parking garage on the surface."

Seth than shifted their focus to the device around the Elecmon's neck again before pointing at the green light "The green light on the device indicates that the digimon is on a standby mode where it simply sits or stands inert. It won't move or act without prompt by another individual. When the digimon is purchased by a buyer they will be given a remote control with three buttons, green, yellow, and red which adjust the device to the right setting. Yellow is the order mode were the digimon will obey any order given to it before the light on the device goes red and it executes that order until the buyer presses the green button on the controller send the device back to standby mode."

"And the red button?" Tai asked already dreading the answer.

Seth glanced over at the group before shrugging "Basically a kill switch that renders the digimon to a feral like state making it attack anything that it can find until it's deleted via exhaustion or combat. From what we've been able to tell it scrambles their thought process making them incapable of higher level thought processes. Still no real cure for it once it happens, destroying the device doesn't reverse the process."

"Have you ever encountered a digimon like that?" Ryo asked as the tamers stared sadly at the Elecmon who was now being led toward the exit by a DIALED officer.

Seth nodded "More than I'd like to remember" Seth answered before another DIALED officer approached.

"Sir we've found the door to the lower level but can hear voices inside, we think their ready for us." The officer reported.

Seth nodded "Likely with a digimon or two guarding this places head man and their more valuable product. Get your men to take these digimon out of here while I take care of the lower level." Seth instructed before looking over at the Tamers "You'll come with me down to the lower level but stay near the stairs, Renamon, Cyberdramon, Agumon, and V-mon hang back with them and keep them safe but also don't allow anyone to get past us and up the stairs." Seth instructed getting nods before he turned and made his way toward a door at the back of the room.

"Ruby I know this is sudden but…" Seth stated "Would you like to be my partner and a member of my team?" Ruby's eyes widened before she vigorously nodded her head while seemingly vibrating in excitement. Seeing this Seth nodded before pressing a hand to the crystal structure on the device situated on his arm.

"New ally acquired" a synthetic voice announced before a holographic picture of Ruby appeared in the air above the device "Flamedramon aka 'Ruby' had joined your team."

"Yes! I won't let you down Seth!" Ruby practically jumped for joy as she bounced along beside Seth and making the males in the room notice the interesting thing the action affected her breasts.

"I'm sure you won't Ruby but calm down we got a fight on our hands with innocents in the battle area. Make sure you bring you're A-game." Seth calmed the ecstatic digimon who nodded before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath and exhaling before opening her eyes which now had a fierce glint to them.

"Yes sir!" Seth nodded before leading the way down toward the lower level as quietly as they could.

The room they eventually entered into was smaller than the first and dimly lit but they could still make out a few cages along the left side of the room as well as a few crates arranged haphazardly as barricades behind which a group of men crouched with weapons drawn. Seth immediately let loose with a spray of fire from his MP5 catching the men in surprise and forcing them to duck behind cover.

"Get into the room on the right!" Seth instructed the tamers as he kept the heads of the enemy down with bursts of fire.

From behind the barricade two forms leapt over and toward the firing human seemingly impervious to the bullets hitting their forms. "Digimon" Seth thought as their identity was revealed to be a Gekomon and a Numemon.

Despite the fact that both were champions Seth didn't think they would be much a problem "Ruby, wipe them out!" he announced shortly followed by a red and blue blur that tackled the two digimon mid leap and brought them to the back of the room. Convinced that Ruby had her fight handled Seth quickly reloaded the MP5 before charging the barricade and beginning to make short work of the few armed men behind it.

: Meanwhile, with the Tamers:

Rika reached the side door first of the group and immediately barreled through it shoulder first. This also had the unfortunate effect of sending her sprawling to the ground thanks to her forward momentum. As she was picking herself up she heard a startled shout ahead of her and looked up only to see a heavy set man in front of her brandishing a gun from where he stood behind a desk.

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" the man yelled with a British accent while seeming frothing at the mouth in rage. The man was large almost walrus-like with greying hair and small brown beady eyes wide with rage. He had a poorly kept mustache on his upper lip and was dressed in a ragged grey business suit with obvious stains on the white button up shirt beneath. The man looked like a business man that had slept on the streets for a couple weeks but Rika believed that the ten or so empty bottles of scotch on the desk pointed more to the fact the man was an avid drunk with way too much time on his hands. However one such hand now pointed the barrel of a gun down at Rika's face.

At this point Ty and Ryo both entered the room to escape the gunfight outside but stopped short at the sight of the man behind the desk who now was glancing worriedly between them and the open doorway where the sounds of gunfire rang out. "You two back against the wall now!" The man shouted indicating the wall to their right with a jerk of his head.

Ty and Ryo slowly made their way to the wall as the man moved around the table and grabbed Rika by her hair causing her to cry out in pain before jerking her in front of him and pointing the at the side of her head "Don't move a muscle girl or else I'll give you another whole to breath out of. Same goes for you two!" the man stated before he saw Cyberdramon, Agumon, and V-mon enter the room having stuck back to cover their tamers from gunfire. "DON'T TRY IT YOU FUCKING ANIMALS!" the man shouted as he pressed the gun against Rika's head. The digimon seemed to freeze for a second in shock before complying with the request, moving out of the way of the door and joining Ty and Ryo near the wall though they seemed ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHOSE BUISNESS YOU BRATS HAVE JUST FUCKED WITH!" the man shouted "THE SLIVO FAMILY WILL HAVE YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES HEADS FOR TH-!" The man was interrupted by Rika who through all of her weight forward while throwing her foot back and back kicking the man in the crotch making him lose his hold on her hair.

As Rika fell to her knees a second time Davis finally entered the room having heard the shouting through the gunfire and took in the scene in an instant before using his built up speed to ram into the man's side and away from Rika.

Still the man was angry enough now that he didn't care about the pain and instead focused on hurting the kids around him as much as possible with the gun still clutched in his hand. Unfortunately Rika had managed to injure him the most and so even as he fell the man brought the gun toward her prone form determined to pay the redhead back for injuring him, however his attempts were for naught as a voice broke out from the doorway.

"DIAMOND STORM!"

It was only thanks to the training she had previously with Seth that allowed Renamon to phase directly above the man attempting to harm her tamer and best friend and release a swarm of razor sharp diamond shards into him with pinpoint accuracy and speed. The first three or four actually pinned the man's gun arm to the floor and severed his trigger finger, those alone would have ended the man's attempt at killing her tamer. The ten or so other shards however that perforated the man's chest and neck sending blood high into the air made sure he would harm anyone ever again. Renamon landed next to the man and stared down at him in shock as he weakly and futilely clutched at his perforated chest and neck while staring in horror at Renamon's eyes before quickly bleeding out.

Rika quickly stood back up with a helping hand from Davis as the other's quickly surrounded her asking if she was okay. "I'm ok guys geez. Thanks though Davis that was some quick thinking." Davis waved off her complement

"Don't sweat it Rika, I wasn't about to lose a friend only a week or so after meeting them, plus Renamon did most of the work" the Digidestined's leader stated modestly.

Rika nodded and turned to Renamon who was still standing over the body of the man who attempted a second ago to kill her. "Thanks again Renamon I… Renamon?" Rika stopped as she noticed her partner's quick breathing and wide dilated eyes as she stared unblinkingly at the bloody form beneath her paws that were quickly becoming soaked in the pooling blood along the floor.

It was only now that the other digimon and humans in the room were hit by the coppery stench of fresh blood and the grotesque image of a man with large gaping holes in his chest and neck which revealed in flesh and innards to the air. Soon bile rose in their throats even as they threw their hands up to their noses in an attempt to block out the smell.

It was this scene that Seth walked into after finishing up with the men outside. He glanced around and noted the atypical reactions of people seeing a freshly dead body for the first time before his eyes zeroed in on the heavily breathing vixen that hadn't moved a muscle or broken line of sight with the dead form beneath her.

"Shit" Seth stated as he quickly made his way over to the vixen and gently grabbed her by the shoulders before pulling her away from the body. "Renamon, Renamon look at me." Seth stated as he used one of his hands to turn Renamon's head until their eyes met. "Listen to me Renamon, take deep breaths like me ok." Seth said as he guided on of Renamon's paws to his chest so she could feel him slowly inhale and exhale. Soon the vixen began to copy the expanding of his chest with her own even as her eyes remained locked with Seth's focused ones. "You're ok Renamon, Rika is ok, everyone is ok."

Renamon stared for a second trying to comprehend his words even as tears began to build up in her eyes. "S-seth, I-i…" Renamon began only for her body start to shake and tears began to fall down her face.

Seth internally sighed in understanding of what the vixen was going through right now. Like most people who saw death Renamon was going through shock as she suddenly came to terms with what she had just done with her own hands. Many people would think that a digimon as seasoned as Renamon would be used to death at this point with all of the digimon she had deleted before. However Seth knew that this was far from the case as digimon when deleted disappear completely and instantly making the process quickly over with and leaving no physical evidence. A human's death was the exact opposite, it was messy with blood and guts coating the area as the attacker is assaulted with the sights and smell of their enemies internal organs, as they see the unfathomable pain and panic in the other's eyes as they realize what's happened to them and futilely attempt to do something to make the pain go away. Then as if to add insult to injury to see the life leave the victims eyes as panic becomes gut-wrenching despair before finally the eyes dull as the victim 'leaves' the broken shell that was once their body and leaving the survivor standing alone with the smell of death all around them. Seth had seen this many times with Digimon working for the league, it seemed that taking the life of a flesh and blood individual as just as traumatizing no matter what the species.

Seth however focused on Renamon whose shoulders had begun to shake uncontrollably. "It's okay Renamon, I'm here everything's ok now." Seth stated as he wrapped his arms firmly around the vixens shoulders who pressed her head forward and wept into his chest.

As Seth quickly rubbed Renamon's back he reaffirmed to himself that taking the tamers on this raid had been the correct decision based on their reactions. If they had been on their own there would have been nobody to assure them like what Seth was doing for Renamon right now leaving them to go into shock.

Seth took another glance down at the crying vixen in his arms before internally nodding "I need to call Takato."

Aaannnddd Chapter! Well as some of you can see we are starting to delve into the darker aspects of the world here, but I imagine that the tamers and digimon would react like this when exposed to actual death and bloodshed instead of the fighting they had experienced from the series.

Anyway sorry this was so late, job related life stuff happened (and is still happening) as well as other fics taking priority all managed to put progress on this fic off for a while.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed and remember to stay frosty and don't forget to review!