Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v2.0: In His Name is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 3: Goggle Headed Moron

Rika massaged her temple as she went on explaining the concept of physical appearances to her partner, "Some people get really obsessed with appearances. It's really dumb. As if that actually matters."

Renamon tilted her head, "That sounds like something you'd say, tamer."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Rika asked in annoyance, folding her arms behind her head, "My name is Rika. Why do you keep calling me tamer?"

Renamon tilted her head, "But isn't that-"

She paused, turning her head and stating, "Five more just entered the park. No, there's six."

"More digimon?" she asked. Renamon shook her head and began, "No. More humans. I think. This feels different. We should go."

"Why?" Rika asked just as her partner vanished. Rika stood up and looked around her, unsure of what her partner had defected to get her so worked up. The forest surrounding the shrine was calm and that made Rika nervous. Just as she was sure her partner had imagined things, she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. She spun around and called out, "Who's there? Come out!"

When she got no reply, she called again, "I'm not kidding! Come out!"

Still nothing. She picked up a stone from the ground and threw it into the bushes. She heard a yelp and a short boy with a blue hoodie and khaki shorts poked his head out. What immediately struck Rika was the pair of yellow goggles he was wearing on his head. With tears in his eye, the boy massaged his head and grumbled, "Ow! What was that for?"

"What are you doing skulking around in the bushes, gogglehead?" Rika asked with a pointed finger. The boy stood up, shooting her a dirty look as he massaged his head, "I lost...something and I'm looking for it. What's your deal? Is throwing stones how you normally greet people? It's rude and hurts the other person. Not a great way to make friends."

Rika felt her blood boil at that, "You can talk, gogglehead. I bet you get a lot of friends skulking around in the bushes like that."

"I said I'm looking for something. You haven't happened to see a box wandering around have you?" he asked back innocently enough, gesturing out its size with his hands. Rika raised an eyebrow, "A box?"

"You know: brown, cardboard, kinda flimsy but surprisingly sturdy for some reason. Probably a few dents from bumping into things. It's big enough to hide...I mean hold...it's big," he rambled off nonspecifically. She clicked her tongue in frustration, "Yeah, I know what a box is, you idiot."

"You don't have to call me names," the boy replied sheepishly. Rika put a hand on both of her hips and complained, "I'll call you whatever I want. What's the big deal about this box anyway? And if it's so big, why are you looking for it in the bushes?"

"In case it dug a hole," he replied quickly. Rika's face twisted into a scowl, "What did you lose? A dog?"

"Would you believe a fire breathing red dinosaur from another world that can talk?" he asked sheepishly. Rika's eyes narrowed as she considered the possibility. He couldn't be but it sounded like he was talking about a digimon. But where would he get a digimon? As far as she knew she was the only one with a partner. Then again, the books did say there were always more than one child with a digimon partner. But she didn't dare reveal that to him without risking the chance that he would tell someone who would get her in trouble. She chose her words carefully, "What...like a digimon card?"

"Something like that," he replied as he kept looking around. Rika massaged her temple to nurse the growing headache she was getting from talking to this idiot, not knowing what other answer she was expecting. If he had a digimon, why would he tell her? Then again, if he had a digimon partner, he couldn't be a good partner to have lost it already. This kid was more annoying than she wanted to deal with, "That card is long gone by now, moron. Give up!"

"Name calling is not very p...oh, hello. Are those friends of yours?"

He pointed off just behind her at a pair of men advancing their way. Two things struck her right away - the large white hazmat suits they were wearing and the assault rifle one of them was holding. She gasped and leapt into the bushes right away as they stepped up to the temple she had been standing in front of. The goggle headed boy asked, "So they're not friends?"

"Why would they be my friends?" Rika hissed at just a whisper, growing increasingly annoyed with the boy. He shrugged, "I don't know your life story. I was trying not to judge. But if they're not friends of yours, then I hope you don't mind if I do this."

"What are you doing?" she hissed. He picked up a stone beside them and threw it as hard as he could at a tree on the opposite side of the temple. The two men turned to face the noise, and the boy grabbed a hold of her hand and whispered, "While they're distracted. Let's get out of here."

Before she could even try to come up with a protest to holding her hand, they took off at a sprint away from the temple. She was about to gasp but realized that this would only make the weird men look back at them, so she grit her teeth and followed this weird goggle headed kid through the trees until they came out on the other side of the park.

It was only when they were safely away from the park that Rika snapped her wrist free of the boy and demanded, "What gives? What's your deal!?"

He hardly noticed her complaint, instead scratching the back of his head, "Well that's not good. What would a bunch of guys be doing walking around dressed like that?"

Rika has an idea but she didn't dare say anything with This weirdo around. Instead she looked back into the park, wondering if Renamon was okay in there by herself. She hoped so. The last thing she wanted was to lose her partner in a worse way than this kid just had. What kind of partner would that make her to be less competent than the kid wearing goggles?

Before she could think of a response, the kid dashed back in. She stood there dumb struck by his bravery before following him back in, "Where are you going!? You just ran away and now you're running back in?"

"I can be very indecisive, what's your excuse?" he asked back at her, continuing into the park and straight back into the trees. Rika tried her best to keep up with the boy but slowly fell behind. She wasn't out of shape but any means but his smaller build made it easier for him to move through the trees and brush. Before she knew it, she'd lost him in the brush. Then she stopped, looking around in disbelief and stamping her foot in frustration, "Where'd he get to? Forget it. Renamon? Renamon!? Where are you?"

Renamon moved through the trees and retreated up to a safe distance among the branches, while her partner began talking to a strange boy in a blue hoodie below. She turned head curiously, unsure of what to think of this new boy who'd just appeared out of nowhere. Although she was too high up to see, she could hear what they were saying perfectly - and felt nothing short of concern for her partner's safety and well being during it.

Just by listening, she could tell the boy was looking for a digimon. But this new world had thrown off her senses. She was unable to properly smell any dangers until they were nearby. If they were too far away, this digimon could easily get the drop on her before she would be able to do anything about it.

Then she watched her partner disappear just as more humans appeared, and she followed after them to make sure she stayed safe. The boy and Rika hid in the bushes, before he threw a stone to distract the other humans and they ran off. She pondered what this meant - since her partner had never done anything to indicate she was nervous or scared before. So why was she scared now? Who were those people. They seemed like ordinary humans as far as she was concerned. Yes, they were dressed weird, but all humans dressed weird as far as she could tell. Why not just go about as they were?

Then she paused when she smelled a new scent - one she didn't recognize. It was a digimon, but it was wrapped in the scent of the human world. It reeked of humans, their food, their clothes, everything. She turned towards the scent and witnessed a small imp like creature wearing a red scarf and matching gloves staring at her from a higher branch. Despite its appearance, the digimon was weaker than anything she'd come up against.

"Who are you?" she asked. The imp-like digimon, "Sorry toots, but I don't go aroun' givin' out my name just cos' a pretty face asked. Especially to no digimon who don't respect themself enough to decide to work with humans."

Renamon thought about that statement for a second, confused by the number of negatives in his statement and then asked, "Wait - you don't like digimon who have human partners or you do like digimon with human partners?"

The little digimon ignored her question and leapt down to get a closer look at her with his hand on is chin, "Why do you work with that human anyways? Them humans are more trouble than they's worth. They don't actually care about you, y'know? All they care about is whatever you can do for 'em. Once they don't need you no more, they'll leave."

"That's fine with me," Renamon replied, noting the surprised look on this digimon's face, "All I want is to get stronger anyway. Something is coming - something that's sent the whole of the Digital World into a panic. And only the strong will survive."

"It's not the strong who'll survive sweet heart," the digimon teased with a stuck out tongue, "I've learned a few things while I've been wandering the human world. The first is that the strongest don't survive. It's the smartest who do - if you want to get any where in this world, you've gotta be smart. And I don't mean like with 'em books. You can have that nugget of advice fo' free."

"That advice is noted," Renamon folded her arms, "Now who are you?"

"Ah-ah!" The digimon wagged its finger with a smile, "What's yours?'

Renamon turned her head, curious of this digimon before answering, "Renamon."

"Hmph," the digimon smirked mischievously, "Not a smart move Renamon. Then again, I can tell yous a new digimon 'round here. So I'll make it even - the name's Impmon."

"Impmon," Renamon repeated quietly as the little imp digimon made his way, "Last nugget of advice: ditch the human. You don't need 'em."

He leapt away, leaving her along to ponder the meaning of his words. Impmon was odd although perhaps not the oddest digimon she's met. Most of them usually just attacked on sight so this was a welcome change. It did leave her wondering just what this digimon had been doing in this world without a human partner. Or did he have one that he chose to ignore?

She would have to ruminate on those questions later as another noise caught her attention - the arrival of more human dressed oddly meant that she had to move again or risk being spotted by them. she leapt away from one tree branch to another, trying to put as much distance between her and these men. She retreated further away into the park - then froze as her sense went crazy. She could feel it - another digimon was coming.

And Rika was all alone in the middle of it. She stopped in her tracks to examine the humans again - against her better judgment, she went after her partner. She couldn't just abandon her to whatever was coming.

Rika looked up and down the trees for the danger but couldn't find anything - no goggle headed boy and no Renamon any where. There weren't even any of the strangely dressed men with guns and weird tools anymore. It didn't seem possible because the park was so small, but there was no other way for her to describe it. She was lost. Lost in a park she'd been to dozens of times before with no familiar sights around to guide her. She looked upward to see if she could make out any buildings that she could use as landmarks to get her bearing but saw only clouds.

Thick white clouds.

That wasn't right. It had been sunny just moments ago. Where did the clouds come from? She got her answer when her digivice began to alarm and whir. She retrieved from her pocket, trying to turn the alarm off but noticing that the radar on it was active again. And it said there was a digimon appearing nearby. She panicked, realizing what was about to happen and called out, "Renamon!"

Renamon appeared beside her, rapidly gasping for breath, "I'm here. I'm glad I found you and that you're alright!"

"What took you so long?" Rika grumbled as she tried to focus on what was ahead of her. The fog encroaching on them was beginning to hurt her eyes and made seeing difficult, "I hope you brought your A-game because there's a digimon coming."

"I can sense it Rika. And whatever it is, it's hungry. It isn't coming to grow stronger, it's coming to find its next meal."

Rika clicked her tongue angrily, "Well whatever it is, it just bit off more than it can chew! Let's make sure it chokes."

"Was…was that supposed to sound cool?" Renamon looked back at her partner. Rika scoffed at the idea that it wasn't, "What do you mean supposed?"

The fact that Renamon didn't answer and instead looked ahead annoyed Rika - but not enough to actually do anything about it. They still had to face whatever was coming through from the Digital World. At that exact moment, an image appeared on the screen to reveal, "Dokugumon, that spider digimon with the nasty bite. Of course that's the one that's trying to get through."

As soon as she said those words, the spider digimon appeared before through the fog - an eight legged monster with more fangs than she wanted to count and long flowing red hair coming out of its yellow helmet. The spider saw them right away and hissed, "FOOD!"

"Renamon! Show it what you've got!" Rika commanded.

"Of course," Renamon raced ahead and leapt into the air, summoning a hail of crystals that rained down upon them, "DIAMOND STORM!"

The crystals fell on their target, burying themselves into its body but failing to do anything to slow it down. In fact, it seemed like all they'd really managed to accomplish was annoying their target more than anything. The spider advanced on Renamon and cackled with delight, "I like it when my food puts up a fight! It makes it taste better!"

Renamon wasn't intimidated by the spider's taunt and advanced instead to fight the digimon head on - leaping up to kick and scratch at its head. The spider tried to keep up, and its many legs gave it all the advantage it needed to keep up with Renamon's speed. But that just made it more of a challenge for Rika and for Renamon.

And Rika knew exactly the kind of card she'd need for this scenario, "Agility Boost Activate!"

Right away, Renamon's movements became faster and more precise, as she dove and weaved through Dokugumon's many legs to keep her distance. All this did was annoy the spider further as it tried grabbing at its meal more in vain. With each attempt at a grab, Rika noticed that Dokugumon was slowing down until Renamon was simply side stepping each attack. They had worn it down. Now was the easy part - ending it.

She was about to shout out her next command when Dokugumon cried out, "POISON THREAD!"

A sticky web shot out of the end of her mouth and wrapped up Renamon - pinning her to the side of a tree. Rika gasped in shock, surprised to see her partner immobilized so easily and unsure of what to do now, "Renamon! What gives? How did that hit you? You're moving twice as fast as that is!"

"I'm sorry Rika," Renamon grunted, trying to free herself while Dokugumon paused to catch her breath. She looked between the two, contemplating what she should do to help while Renamon declared, "I'll try to break free."

"DINNER TIME!" Dokugumon growled ecstatically, moving into consume her partner. Rika groaned, shuffling through her deck as quickly as she could to find some way to help Renamon break free. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything that could and nothing in her deck seemed like it would be of any use. Her panic turned into a full blown terror as she watched Dokugumon stop just short of Renamon and stick out a long slimy tongue to lick Renamon, "So tasty."

"When I get out of here, I'm going to enjoy destroying you!" Renamon hissed bitterly at the digimon. Dokugumon seemed amused by her empty threat and looked ready to savor the moment. She opened her mouth wide to take her first big bite out of Renamon's face, and was promptly leapt upon by a strange red dinosaur with what looked like bat wings for ears.

Rika and Renamon found their jaws falling open as the dinosaur tackled Dokugumon from the side, making the large digimon roll over and thrash violently as it tried to throw the new opponent off its back. Still, nothing Dokugumon could do would shake the digimon off - and the red digimon was in some kind of crazed frenzy as it attacked the digimon viciously. It didn't care at all about either Renamon or Rika - only Dokugumon and ripping it apart apparently.

Rika stared down at her digivice, hoping it would provide some kind of clue about what she was looking at. But so far - nothing. Her digivice displayed something that looked like an error message but in some kind of language she couldn't understand. This dinosaur was terrifying to look at - something that was more monstrous and violent than the Dokugumon trying to eat her partner.

Then the dinosaur leapt off of Dokugumon's back and growled at it. Dokugumon seemed taken aback by it - trying to process this new digimon that had run into danger to save another. While it was distracted, Rika ran to help free her partner. Renamon struggled against the web, "Rika, the bindings are too strong."

"Yeah, I know," Rika grunted, pulling at the webs to free Renamon, "Gah, what is this made of?"

"Have you tried using scissors?"

Rika and Renamon looked over to see the boy in the blue hoodie again holding up a pair of scissors with a dumb smile on his face. Rika's jaw dropped but then she snatched the scissors out of his hand and started cutting away the web, "Where'd you go goggle head?"

"I found the box," the boy replied with a half smile, picking up a rock from the ground and slamming it into the tree to try and tear off some of the bark, "Of course, it helped that it followed all the fighting and screaming."

Rika looked over her shoulder at the large red digimon ripping apart Dokugumon with his claws, "The box? You mean that weird digimon over there? How could you lose track of a box big enough to fit that thing?"

"Well first, he followed me to school," the boy began, "Freaked out the principal and the staff. Then I ran into this other kid who tried to show me his doll. I think it was a doll anyway. Might've been a digimon. Oh, and then I had to ditch school to find my partner. Today has been weird."

"You're one to talk," Rika complained, managing to pry off the last bit of webbing and helping her partner down, "Can't you even control your partner?"

"In my defense: he was only born this morning," the boy offered sheepishly, stepping back so that the fox could stretch her limbs. Rika eyed her partner to be sure she could stand before asking, "Are you ready to get back into the fight, Renamon?"

"Yes," she nodded, pulling the remaining webbing off of herself. Rika gestured ahead at Dokugumon, "Good, because you're looking bad in front of the new guy. You'd better give 110%!"

"Understood," Renamon raced back into the fight and kicked Dokugumon from the side. It was two on one now, and Dokugumon looked annoyed at the targets in front of it. It didn't help that Dokugumon was already tired from the fight with Renamon earlier. Now that it was two on one, they would have this in the bag.

Just as she was about to help Renamon with another card, the weird goggle-headed kid ran out into the middle of the fight waving his arms to get his partner's attention, "Guilmon! That's enough! Stop! Guilmon!"

The red dinosaur barely registered him until he was about a foot away, at which point it's glare turned into a dopey smile and it turned away from the fight. In a more playful tone and a voice that sounded like it was coming from its nose, the digimon called out, "Oh! Hi Takatomon! Is it time for food?"

"What're you two doing!?" Renamon snapped at them, turning away just long enough for Dokugumon to get a free swing. Thankfully, Renamon noticed in time to get out of the way of Dokugumon's leg, "Seriously, this isn't the time for this!"

"You're right!" The boy answered, "We should get out of here!"

"Why?" Rika demanded.

"OVER THERE! OPEN FIRE!"

Rika groaned at the timing and her luck, seeing the oddly dressed men finally appear through the fog with their guns. Renamon had already retreated to Rika's side, and the boy ran past with his dinosaur partner, "What're you waiting for? Run! I mean us! RUN!"

Rika didn't argue this time, watching as the men surrounded Dokugumon and continued shooting. Their bullets didn't appear to be hurting it, but it was distracting it enough for a few other men to start holding up magnets at the creature. And Dokugumon actually retreated away - becoming disoriented and toppling over.

She didn't see what happened next though, as the fog became too thick the further they ran. They made it through the fog and stopped just short of the park exit where a large cardboard box lay on its side with a small hole cut out for the eyes.

The boy threw the box over the dinosaur and said, "Here you go buddy. And don't get lost this time - I can't go chasing you around the school again. Oh crap, I just ditched school."

"Shut up!" Rika snapped at this mile a minute motor mouth in frustration, "Just...let me think for a second."

"One," The boy counted and turned to leave, "Time's up. Let's get out of here."

"No you don't!" Rika stamped her foot on the ground, "Who are you? Who were those guys!? What do you mean he was born this morning? Just...WHAT?"

The boy pocketed his hands sheepishly in his hoodie and examined her curiously, unnerving Rika even more. What was wrong with this kid? Eventually he nodded as if he were approving of something and answered, "I'm...Takato Matsuda."

"Okay Takato," Rika began, more annoyed now than before, "Are you going to answer the rest of my questions?"

"In no particular order: I'm just as confused as you, I made Guilmon, and I have no idea who they are. Well, I guess I didn't make him, he just sort of appeared," Takato paused as if he were contemplating his answers, "Any way, we should probably get out of here if we don't want those guys to follow us."

"And how exactly are you going to hide that big dumb thing?" Rika asked, pointing at the box with the hole for the eyes, "It's not exactly subtle. Anyone with half a brain is going to ask what's inside it."

Takato opened his mouth a few times as he tried to respond to that, "What's your name?"

"What?"

"Your name? I gave you mine, it's only fair," Takato reasoned. Rika frowned, not sure if she was more annoyed with the fact that he'd ask or the fact that he didn't recognize her. She didn't think of herself as a celebrity but she'd hope that she was still recognizable in the circle of geeks who played card games. Although she wasn't a geek herself...she wasn't interested in any geek stuff. Digimon didn't count. She shook her head and replied, "Rika."

She paused when she realized which name she gave. Only Ryo and Renamon could call her Rika. So what was this deal? She'd lose face if she corrected herself now and said to call her Ruki instead. And there was no way she was giving her real name. Takato noticed her unease and waved his hand to get her attention, "Nice to meet you Rika. This was fun but we've gotta run. Guilmon has to get back to his hiding spot and I've gotta get back in class before anyone notices I'm gone. Oh who am I kidding - they all know I'm gone."

All the same, the two turned on the spot and wandered off without so much as a word after that. Rika was left standing there stumped, "What was with that kid?"

"I thought you two got along quite well, actually."

"Don't ever say that about him ever again. He's a weirdo!" Rika complained. Renamon crossed her arms, "My experience with humans is limited at most - but between his behavior and the way those other humans dressed - I'd say that you're the weirdo. You're the odd one out."

Those were exactly the words she need to hear to shoot Renamon a death glare, "Don't ever say that ever again."

"I'm sorry. I'll take my leave now," Renamon took a bow and leapt away. Rika was alone now with just her thoughts. And she had a lot to think about. There were other humans with digimon partner's in this world, but what for? Renamon came here to get stronger but Takato said he made Guilmon. What did that even mean?

The soldiers caged the captured spider monster and covered it in a tarp, keeping magnets nearby to contain it. Then they lifted it onto a flatbed truck set to transport it back to their headquarters all while they were observed by Yamaki Mitsuo. Yamaki was relieved to see they'd acquired their first live specimen in a long time and quickly placed a phone call to one of his superiors - the Defense Minister.

It rang a few times before someone finally picked up, "This better be good Yamaki. I was in the middle of a meeting."

Yamaki knew right away that he was talking about his extramarital affair. There were no meetings on the schedule today. But he chose to say nothing - he'd wanted to save that card for a scenario when he'd need it. He explained, "I'm calling to say we just caught a wild one in a park in Shinjuku. We're moving it to a containment facility now."

"Shinjuku? Why didn't you inform me Yamaki?"

"It was moving and manifesting before we had time to notify anyone. But don't worry sir. I took care of it."

"You filed the right paperwork, right?"

"Yes sir. And we already had approval for this from the Program Morpheus," Yamaki answered quietly. The minister snapped, "Please tell me you didn't just say that out loud in public."

Yamaki frowned, forgetting where he was for a moment but acted like nothing happened anyway, "We already secured the area, sir. We'll contact you again once it's back at the base. We're continuing to stay on top of the situation."

"What about Burnt Leaf? They haven't appeared yet, have they?"

Yamaki took a look around the park before answering, "They're not here yet. Which makes it all the more important that we move quickly."

"Good. I'll be waiting."

Yamaki closed the phone and rejoined the rest of his crew as they finished securing the cage to the truck. The men then saluted and made their way to the van they came in on. Yamaki took one last glance up and down the street. If Burnt Leaf was here, they were maintaining a very low profile. It was important they get out of here as soon as possible.

Author's Notes: And so concludes another chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name. Who are these strange men and what are they going to do with the digimon? What is Impmon's game? And what is Burnt Leaf's involvement? Find out all these and more in the next chapter of The Tamer due out in two weeks on Friday February 1st at 8 PM CDT! If you guys loved it, let me know in the reviews section. I love hearing your thoughts and answering them as soon as I'm able. And hey, don't forget to follow/favorite the story to keep up with all the latest updates. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story so far and hope you all are looking forward to how it ends. That's all for now, let's look at previews for the next chapter:

"DAD!" Henry protested immediately, only to see Xiaochun fitting Terriermon into a dress while singing to herself, "Princess Prissypants! Princess Prissypants! She loves her prissy pants! She loves her dress dance!"

His dad crossed his arms disapprovingly, "Henry, I'm not an idiot! You give that doll back to whichever girl you took that from tomorrow."

"Dad, I didn't steal...wait, why do you think it's a girl?" Henry paused. Unfortunately for him, each moment was just going to keep on getting worse for him, "Henry, I was your age once. Stealing a girl's things isn't the way to get her attention."

"WHAT!?"

His brother teased, "Jianliang's got a girlfriend. Jianliang's got a girlfriend! Woo!"