YamiKibou-Hope - dude that's a super interesting story idea! I like it!
Oathkeeper16 - I'm so glad you're liking it! It's good to see you - sadly it's gonna be a hot second before TK gets reunited with Patamon :( Imma try to take my time with this rewrite, and that means pushing some events that I rushed in the first take back
Arthogawa - thank you for the awesome review! I came up with the story idea a loooong time ago, way before Tri (would you believe me if I told you that I only just watched Tri this past weekend?) so the events of Tri will most likely not take place in this timeline since it would mess with the story too much, sorry! There are a few ideas or concepts I might take from Tri, but I can't promise anything.
The story itself takes place (for TK, 2 years after the events of 02) for Tamers before they go to the digital world when the Deva's are first appearing - I believe I'm on episode 17? I'm going through Tamers chronologically. TK's and Calumon's relationship does have a reason, I promise.
Puberty7756 - I'm glad you're liking the interactions - I've always loved Kenta and Kazu and I really want them to get chances to shine in the story :D It might be a hot second before TK get's a chance to really get involved with the fights, sorry!
Important note - Henry's siblings in this chapter ARE NOT ocs - they're actually his canon siblings that just aren't mentioned or seen a lot during the TV show. I always wanted to include them in a story, so here they are now :)
oOo
"Seven cards, the perfect deck with the perfect number!" Jeremie said triumphantly, looking proudly at his cards. "With such a perfect deck, maybe I can even defeat the Digimon Queen." He let himself live in that fantasy for a moment as he made his way down the streets of the electronics area. So caught up in his hypothetical future he didn't notice the man in front of him until they had run into each other, causing him to fall to the ground, perfect deck spilling out onto the ground.
"Hey, watch it!" He shouted, glancing over at the man's retreating form. "Idiot." He mumbled under his breath, bending down and scooping up his cards indignantly. "I swear if they got scratched up… huh?" Pausing, Jeremie held up the unknown card. Some kind of support card with a bunch of Motimon on it. Looked useless, plus having an extra card threw off his perfect number. Making his way to the train station he turned the card this way and that, trying to decide that to do with it. He could just throw it away, but maybe he could get some sucker to trade it for a better card, maybe start working on a secondary deck.
Jeremie took a seat on the train, glancing around for anyone he recognized. Anyone gullible enough to sucker into…
"Hey Kenta!"
oOo
"I don't want it!" Kenta exclaimed loudly. "You can take it." He shoved the card at Henry, who had just barely finished a card battle with one of the other kids at the playground. Henry took it was a confused look, tilting his head slightly at Kenta and taking a peek at the card.
"Why don't you want a card? Isn't any card useful?" He asked and Kents shook his head vehemently.
"Yeah, but I've never seen this card before. We're pretty sure it's a fake, and no one with a shred of honor plays with fakes!" He crossed his arms and then reached up to adjust his classes. "But uh," He added, suddenly somewhat meek. "...maybe it could be useful for you guys, you know? I don't know if a fake will work but…" He pushed his pointer fingers together nervously. "Anyway I gotta go, lunch time and all that." The boy ran off before Henry could thank him.
"O-kay." Henry said aloud as he glanced at the card.
"Well, what card is it?" Terriermon asked, hopping up onto Henry's head.
"It's not a digimodify card, looks like a support card." He frowned. "I've never tried a support card through the digivive, I mean, I doubt it'll just summon a bunch of Motimon." On his head he felt Terriermon give a shrug.
"No time like the present, might as well try it out." Henry nodded and began to swipe the card. He only got it about a quarter of the way through before it jammed and he yanked it back out, groaning in disappointment.
"Looks like it is a fake if it's not going through." He said with a little bit of disappointment.
"Wait Henry, look!" Terriermon exclaimed, pushing his head down. Henry gave a small gasp as he watched the card began to glow with a bright white light. When it died down the card had transformed from an ordinary if useless card to one of the blue cards.
"What the…" His eyes widened and he turned it side to side as if to make sure it was real. "Where the heck did Kenta get this?!" Terriermon was doing a happy little dance off to the side, obviously very proud of himself for the card ending up being something so important. "I guess this is our chance to find out more about the blue cards."
"We should let your dad look at it! He knows those kind of things, right?" Terriermon asked, grabbing the card from his hands and inspecting it.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's head home, hopefully he'll get off work soon." The walk to Henry's apartment building was relatively quiet. For the portions where they had to go through heavily populated areas Terriermon had to do his whole stuffed animal charade, so they couldn't talk much about what they were hoping to get out of this expedition. Maybe a way to figure out how the cards were made? Maybe make new ones for themselves even? It sure would be easier to know that they can digivolve without having to rely so heavily on the cards. What if something happened and they didn't have them?
He climbed the steps up to the top floor, walking down the familiar hallway to the familiar door with the macaroni art proudly pronouncing 'Welcome' on the front. Henry gave Terriermon one last look and his partner gave a small, minute nod and a wink. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the cold doorknob and opened the door.
"Henry!" Instantly, almost like an explosion, Suzie burst into his field of view enveloping Henry is as big of a hug as her small arms would allow. "And you brought Terriermon!"
"Of course." He replied with a laugh, and she reached up to grab him from Henry's arms. He relinquished his hold and let him slip through his fingers, giving him a sorry look.
"Time to play Pretty Princess." She cried happily, hugging Terriermon close to her chest. Henry saw him give a terrified look, eyes wide.
"M-maybe instead you should hang out with us. Out here. Away from the costumes." Henry tried, and saw Suzie thinking it over, even making a little hmmm sound.
"Yeah, we can do four player co-op." Henry would have hugged his brother in relief as Rinchei held up one of the spare controllers. In background his other sister Jaarin just leaned forward closer to the screen, giving a triumphant cry as the Rinchei's character died. Suzie harumphed, squeezing Terriermon harder eliciting a small, audible wheeze.
"I hate video games." She pouted, and Henry gave Rinchei a desperate, pleading gaze.
"I'll…" Rinchei gave a great sigh, and tossed Henry a 'you owe me' look. "I'll let you have the Player 1 controller." Even Henry raised his eyes at that, Jaarin giving a shout of offense. Rinchei always had the Player 1 controller, he said that it was his birthright as the oldest. The Player 1 controller was by far the best controller, followed of course by the player two controller, and so forth, meaning that Suzie and Henry always got the crappy second-hand-cheap-as-can-be ones.
"Okay!" Suzie said happily, bouncing her way over and jumping onto the couch, happily accepting the prized controller. Henry knew he'd pay for this later, but the look of pure elation on Terriermon's face on escaping his fate of being trapped in a princess dress for the next three hours made it all worth it. They sat down and played some fighting game that Henry was neutral towards for the next hour or two until finally there was the creak of the front door opening and the warm sound of his father's voice. Suzie popped off of the couch and excitedly ran up to his dad, who scooped her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"And how is my perfect princess today?" He asked and she leaned hugged him around his neck.
"Great! Rinchei let me be player 1!" She exclaimed happily. His father's eyebrows raised and he glanced over to see sure, there was Rinchei, brandishing the player 4 controller as he completely decimated his siblings.
"Well, that was very nice of him." He said, a tone of awe in his voice.
"Welcome home honey." Henry's mom came over and gave his dad a quick kiss, smiling at him. "Did you have a good day at work?"
"Always." He replied with a grin. Henry reached over and grabbed Terriermon, hefting him back up in his arms and meekly approached his dad.
"Uh, dad?" His father turned away from his mom, eyebrows slightly raised at seeing Henry approach him. "Could you… help me with something?"
"Of course Henry, tell whatever it is you need." Taking a deep breath Henry shifted Terriermon onto his side and reached into his pocket and withdrew the card, holding it out to his dad, the blue sheen reflecting the light. The gleam caught his dad's eye, and the peaceful happy smile vanished, his father's eyebrows knitting together and lines of worry on his face deepening.
"I need to know what this is." Henry heard his father's breath catch in his throat. "Can you help me?" He kept his eyes on his father, watching as his dad's gaze flickered from the card to Henry a few times.
"Yeah, I can… I can help you with that. Let's go into my office." Mr. Wong's office was a carefully organized place that he seldom let his kids enter. Full of various computers, most of which his father had told him were from an old job of his. His dad moved into the room and pulled out something from one of his cabinets, a big blocky piece of equipment, and plugged it into his main computer.
"Woah, what's that?" Henry asked, looking over his dads shoulder.
"It's kind of like a high tech scanner made specifically for cards." Henry's dad replied, pushing a button and allowing for the tray to pop out. "May I see the card."
"Of course." Henry replied, eagerly handing it over. It fit into the tray perfectly, disappearing into the scanner. His dad typed a few commands into the computer as the scanner whirred with life. Eventually ones and zeroes began to appear on the computer's screen. "What does it mean?" He asked, curiously leaning forward. He could feel Terriermon in his arms do the same.
"Nothing yet, give it a few more seconds." His dad replied easily, not once taking his eyes off of the changing numbers. After another moment his father let out a small gasp and Henry's head whipped around to look at his dad, whose eyes were widened in shock.
"What? What is it?" He asked, but instead his father stood up and shook his head as if trying to clear it off something.
"N-nothing. It's nothing Henry. Just a bunch of… meaningless data." His father left the room, but Henry couldn't help but to feel like his father was instead running away from something.
oOo
"I have to agree with you Henry, that is weird." Takato said from his spot, sitting next to Guilmon on the grass. Henry had decided to talk to the others about the card, reasoning that the mysterious origins and appearance of the card affected all of them. To the surprise of the others, even Rika had come, standing off to the side, turning the card this way and that in her hand.
"What does the card do again?" TK whispered to Takato. The whole card schtick was a brand new concept to him.
"It lets our digimon digivolve to ultimate." Takato explained, and TK just kind of blinked at that. He could see why it was a big deal to them now, but all that did was bring up more questions. TK supposed it made sense - as far as he could tell, they didn't have crests or anything. But it still seemed strange to him that they relied on something like a card for that - did the card hold the same power as the crests did? He wished Izzy was around, he would be able to figure it out.
"So where are you going with this?" Rika asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. Takato fumbled a bit but Henry just rolled his eyes at her attitude.
"I'm saying we should try and track down where the card came from - maybe we could find out how to get more or how to digivolve to ultimate without the card. We should be finding answers." Henry said sternly, and Takato was already nodding, TK found himself inclined to agree with Henry as well. That just left…
"Fine. I'd like to digivolve on my own terms anyway." Rika replied. "Renamon, you'll be able to follow us?" She asked, and from somewhere above TK heard the reply.
"Of course, Rika."
"Terriermon, you'll probably have to fake it for most of the time." Henry said sympathetically.
"I can take it." His partner replied. Takato turned to Guilmon with a sad frown on his face, cupping his chin under his hands.
"I'm sorry buddy, I think you have to sit this one out."
"But Takato…" Guilmon whined, and TK could see how much Takato wanted to let him come.
"We'll be back as fast as we can. And I'll bring you some bread." Instantly Guilmon perked up, tongue lolling out happily.
"Yay! Bread!" The group set out to the playground, relieved to see that Kenta was still there, hanging out with Kazu and few other kids, trading cards and playing different rounds. If the bracket drawn in the sand was any indication than it was a tournament.
"Hey, Kenta!" Henry shouted, jogging forward to meet the boy who was sitting off to the side, rearranging his deck.
"Oh, hi Henry." Kanta gave a small smile.
"I wanted to ask you, where did you get that card earlier?" That caught the boys attention as he adjusted his glasses.
"Why, what happened to it? Is it useful?" He asked before Rika shoved Henry aside, crossing her arms.
"It's not important, where did you get it Glasses." Kenta scooched back a bit under Rika's cold stare.
"I-I got it from Jeremie, on the train. I think he was hanging out around the electronic area earlier?" He stammered out, and Rika nodded, already brusquely making her way to the train station.
"Sorry." Takato tossed over his shoulder to Kenta as the small group moved on, hopping onto the train and making their way downtown to the shopping district. Rika sat in pensive silence the entire time, but Takato was excitedly bouncing his leg up and down, a goofy grin on his face.
TK pulled out his digivice, clicking a few buttons, and was delighted when it actually worked for once. The small screen showed a grid around him, three red blinking dots next to his own yellow dot. As long as they were out on the town it was a perfect time to try and see if he could find any of the others. Hopefully they had found as good of a situation as he had at being transported to this place. A few trips to the digital world had taught him how to trust the others and their resourcefulness. It was annoying that his digivice wasn't working half the time, meaning that this was one of the first times since he'd been here that he'd managed to get this function to work. Long glances out the window were interspersed with peeks at his screen, hoping to see a new red dot pop up.
The shopping district was abuzz with people, and TK tried to stay close to the others, and as the crowds congested more and more he reached forward to try and grab Takato's shirt before he disappeared in the crowd, only for his hand to come away empty, holding air. Taking a deep breath and trying not to feel overwhelmed by being alone in an unfamiliar place, he did his best to find the electronics section, where the others surely were.
Passing shop after shop finally there was a hub of primarily video games and other gadgets. TK breathed a sigh of relief as he stood on his tiptoes, looking over the sea of people, struggling to find a pair of goggles, or Rika's easy to see red hair.
His eyes tripped over one figure and he backtracked carefully to try and find them again. A man hustling through the crowd. His face wasn't to TK, but there was a familiar red/maroonish tint to his hair that blew in the breeze. TK felt his digivice buzz, and he wasn't sure what it was from, but he took a step towards the man and-
"TK!" TK whipped around to Takato waving at him excitedly. "Hey, we thought we lost you!" Rika and Henry quickly appeared from the crowd behind him. "So, it turns out that Jeremie is actually way back at the park, so we're heading back." TK sent one last glance over his shoulder in an attempt to locate the man, but he was long gone. A glance at his digivice revealed that indeed, they were the only dots on it. He must be drawing lines where there weren't any.
"Cool, let's go." He gave a wide grin in an attempt to compensate for the disappointment filling his stomach. For a second he had been so excited at the prospect of finding a familiar and welcoming face…
Takato rambled the entire train ride back, discussing theories back and forth with Henry and imagining all the things they could do if they could just find out the 'secret of the card' as he had taken to calling it.
"It's like we're real detectives!" Takato said excitedly.
"It's like you're real idiots." Rika replied, frowning.
"Woah, no need to be hostile!" Henry inserted, giving Rika a disappointed look. "Why did you even come if you're in such a bad mood?
"I want to find out about the card, I'd just prefer if we didn't have to jump through hoops all across Shinjuku." Henry raised an eyebrow. "Also my mom's coming home today, and I'd like to avoid her as much as possible."
"You don't have a good relationship with your mom?" TK asked, and Rika shot him a glare potent enough he was shocked he was still alive.
"None of your business." She hissed out and turned away from them very deliberately, arms folded. Their stop couldn't come soon enough, the small group rushing out of the train and hurrying onto the steps of the park. Almost immediately Takato recognized Jeremie, hurrying over.
"Where did you find that card you gave Kenta?" Henry asked fervently.
"Just in the city, by the electronic department, why? Was it rare?" TK could hear Rika groan next to him at the prospect of having to go back on the train again in this wild goose chase.
"Look, you aren't telling us something, spill." Rika ground out the words, eyes narrowed into daggers like a needle spray from a Togemon.
"I- uh- I didn't get it from a pack or anything. A man just, bumped into me, and it was suddenly there."
"What did he look like?" Takato asked, excited by the lead. "Was he tall, short, fat, skinny? Anything will help us out." Jeremie shook his head.
"It all happened so fast, I don't really remember it." Takato's shoulders drooped in defeat.
"Well, what do you remember?" Henry persisted. Jeremie's eyes looked past Henry to Rika's stony expression.
"I remember… he was wearing a long, blue jacket with yellow paw prints on it."
oOo
The sun was setting through the window as the door to the small apartment in downtown Shinjuku opened, the man walked in with a yawn, hanging his long blue jacket up on the coat rack. He walked into the kitchen and pulled out a frozen pizza, sticking it into the oven before walking into a side room, pitch black save for the glow of a computer screen. He raised an eyebrow and entered, turning on the light switch as he went. The effect was instantaneous as the man with red hair flailed in his seat at the computer, keyboard flying, shocked by the sudden light.
"Oh, uh, you're home." The redhead said meekly, warmth rushing to his cheeks, embarrassed by his display. "Guess I didn't notice how late it was." He said sheepishly. The brunette just waved him off.
"When have I ever been one to complain.?" The redhead opened his mouth. "Don't answer that." He shrugged and turned back to his computer, tapping away. "Did you find the parts you needed?"
"Of course, I'm working on integrating them right now. The extra boost to the server should really help us. What about you? Did you get the card to them?" The redhead reached over and tweaked a few wires.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it made it to one of them. You're sure they're what we think they are?" With a confident nod, the red head grabbed something from their pocket, flashing it at his companion and eliciting a shocked gasp. "After what happened today, I'm sure of it."
oOo
Mr. Wong was on the roof of his apartment building, enjoying the night air on his face. Tai Chi calmed his nerves, especially when he was younger and trying to make it through school. Frustrated by his studying not showing in his grades, not matter how feverishly he tried, he had turned to a friend who had taught him the art of Tai Chi. Without it he had no idea how he would have gotten through college. Usually, it worked. Today however his mind just wandered, continually going back to the young friend who had taught him the forms, as if he might look over and see him next to him, watching him carefully to make sure he did it right. A ghost of the past that he had thought was gone forever, who he had not thought of so directly in years.
'It had been so simple back then, at the start.' He thought to himself, breathing deeply and letting the city air fill his lungs. 'We just wanted to see them again. To find the answers we'd been looking for. We were fools.' He sighed out a breath.
"What happened to us?" Mr. Wong asked the sky, as if it would open up and tell him. But it remained silent, the stars twinkling as if to laugh at his ignorance.
oOo
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Have a lovely day!