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 6: In Fighting

Henry rejoined the group just in time to see Renamon swinging her sword like crazy at Guilmon. Guilmon lost any semblance of the naive child he'd behaved like previously, devolving into a violent hissing monster that charged and attacked. Terriermon mused, "You must've been really slow Henry because it looks like we missed something important."

Henry said nothing back to that comment, instead now wrestling with the idea of whether or not he should get involved here. Takato actually called out to his partner, begging the red dinosaur to stop fighting while Rika cheered her partner on.

"That's it! You've got him on the ropes!"

"Guilmon! Please! Listen to me!"

Guilmon ignored Takato, getting the drop on Renamon by whipping his tail at her at her feet. The fox fell on her back and Guilmon was on her, digging his fangs into her arms. At first, Henry was sure Guilmon would win. But then he saw Renamon ready the sword to strike a fatal blow on Guilmon. It was a feint, a trick to make Guilmon an easy target. And he fell for it. Rika cheered, "That's it Renamon! End this!"

"Guilmon! NO!" Takato ran for his partner, calling his partner's name and trying to get his attention, "RUN AWAY! GUILMON!"

Just before Renamon could deliver the blow, Guilmon let go of her and stood up, "Takatomon? Sorry! Sorry! Can we play now?"

It was a curious moment to see. Guilmon had completely forgotten about the fight he was just in, leaving a confused Renamon lying on the ground. Rika didn't share Takato's concern and ordered, "What're you doing Renamon! End that baby digimon!"

"Yes! As you wish!" Renamon shouted, scrambling to her feet and readying to attack. Just as she charged forward, Takato wrapped his arms around Guilmon and spun the digimon behind him, "I'm glad you're okay buddy! Don't run into a fight like that again!"

Renamon stopped mid charge, coming to a stop just short of them with a surprise look on her face. She let the gauntlet slide out of her arm as she relaxed her wrist, eyes still fixed on these two. Rika scowled, "What are you doing Renamon? Finish it!"

"Rika," Renamon frowned, looking back at her partner in dismay. Rika didn't seem to be able to see it, which was a shame for her. Henry thought it was obvious what was going through the rookie digimon's mind. She'd seen Takato run to protect his partner that way, and was actually standing in her way to defend him. He wondered what Rika had put Renamon through that she was hesitant to attack this digidestined who cared enough about his partner to stand in her way. Was it that she was unfamiliar with the compassion or that Rika had conditioned her to not attack people?

Either way, she wasn't attacking. And Rika was infuriated by her insubordination, "I'm giving you an order Renamon! If you want to get stronger, this is how you do it! End those dweebs!"

"Knock it off!" Henry finally found the courage to scold her. Rika finally took notice of him standing there, as did Takato and Guilmon. Terriermon leapt out of his arms and ran into the middle of the stand off, "Why are you guys all fighting anyway? Weren't you busy fighting that giant Devidramon a second ago? Why not celebrate!? Where'd he go anyway?"

"We're not celebrating until we put a digimon in the ground! Right, Renamon!" Rika spat out angrily, "We came out here to beat a digimon and absorb its data and that's what we're going to do."

Renamon looked back at her partner silently and Henry commented, "I don't think she wants to fight anymore. Do you Renamon?"

Terriermon giggled and patted the fox's leg, "Moumantai!"

"Huh? Moumantai?" Takato repeated aloud. Henry sighed, "I don't know. It's a thing he says. So what happened to Devidramon?"

"He went back to the Digital World. I think…hope…look, the important part is he's not causing problems anymore," Takato answered meekly, before turning to Rika, "Why do you want to fight digimon so bad anyway?"

"It's what Renamon wants. It's why she came here! She chose me because I was the best partner and I'm going to help her become the strongest digimon," Rika declared loudly, "Got a problem with that?"

Takato nodded and counted them off on his fingers, "A few problems, yeah. First one is that Guilmon was just born. He's not fighting anyone on my watch. Second thing is Renamon coming to this world. You said she came here to get stronger. Why? What's going on in the Digital World? And third, what do you mean best partner?"

"It's the way of the Digital World," Renamon answered quietly, "The weak die. The strong live. As for Rika, well, she is the tamer."

"The tamer?" Takato looked between them, "What does that even mean?"

"You're wrong about the Digital World," Henry interrupted, "All the books said that only the evil digimon wanted to fight and kill each other. The rest of the digimon were just trying to live their lives in peace."

"But I was fighting Gorillamon. Does that make me a bad guy?" Terriermon asked. Henry folded his arms, "They attacked you first, that's different. It's self defense. This…this is just violence in the name of violence."

"Henry! Moumantai!" Terriermon said with his ears raised above his head. He sighed, wandering if his partner meant to stop over thinking things or if he meant not to worry about it since he couldn't do much about it anyway. He groaned and looked over at Takato, "And you. What's your deal? Yesterday you said you didn't know a thing about digimon and here you are with one."

"I didn't know if I could trust you yesterday," he answered firmly, making sure to keep Guilmon just behind him, "It's a bit of a relief to see that you're Terriermon isn't a doll."

"Only to his sister since she won't leave me alone," Terriermon admitted unhappily. Guilmon approached Terriermon and started sniffing the digimon like a dog, pushing his snout so close that Terriermon doubled over in laughter, "Stop! Stop! That tickles!"

Guilmon turned around to face his partner and asked, "Takatomon, is he a friend? He's a lot nicer than the other one."

"I take exception to that assertion," Renamon protested. Then all three digimon looked up. Terriermon's ears stood on end, Renamon looked off into the forest, and Guilmon started growling again. Takato asked, "What is it Guilmon? Do you smell something?"

"Humans just entered the park," Renamon answered, "I can sense them."

"They smell like the ones from yesterday," Guilmon added excitedly, "More friends?"

Henry looked between them, completely out of the loop of what they were talking about. Between the two of them, he knew who he trusted to stand beside and made his way over to Takato, "What's going on? Who's here?"

"We should get out of here. RUN!" Takato shouted at the top of his lungs. Renamon vanished instantly while the rest of them took off at a run. Rika scowled, "We're not done here goggle head!"

"Will you let that go?" Takato shouted back as they all made their way out of the other side of the park.

Yamaki arrived on the scene some time after the QRF had already secured the area and examined the park carefully. This was where it had gone - the wild one that crossed over from the Digital World. But there was no sign of it. The reports were clear - a twenty foot tall flying dragon with glowing red eyes and black leathery skin. Something like that didn't just disappear. It had to be some where. So where did it go?

One of the hazmat team approached him with a spare hazmat suit in his hands, "Sir, you shouldn't enter the area without this."

Yamaki brushed him aside and made his way into the park without one. As the Director of Operation for the Hypnos Program, it was his responsibility to prevent things like this. And the devastation was all the evidence he'd needed that he'd failed in that endeavor. All the way up the street were over turned cars, bent street lights, broken windows, cracked pavement, and more. The worst of it was not knowing what that monster brought with it when it came over to this world. Radiation? Disease? If any innocent civilians suffered because of his failure, then he intended to suffer with them. The only solace he could take was knowing no one was hurt right now.

Then his cell phone rang. It seemed he wouldn't have to wait to suffer for a different reason, "This is Yamaki."

His boss answered with an uncharacteristically calm anger, "It's all over the news, Yamaki. You better have a good explanation for this."

He bit his tongue to keep himself from shouting back, "We can detect the creatures as they attempt to cross over into our world. We can't control where they appear or how long it'll take for the QRF to arrive. Until you authorize the Juggernaut for use, all we can do is run damage control."

"Don't try to pin this on me Yamaki," the minister growled under his breath, "What's your damage control plan since that's all you have?"

Yamaki forced a smile to keep himself calm, "We need to keep the populace calm. A panic could trigger a riot. We report it as an isolated incident: mass hallucinations triggered by a terrorist attack utilizing an airborne hallucinogen. We tell them that plans are underway to prevent similar incidents in the future."

"And how are we going to explain the fact that there were two of them?" the minister demanded. That was the question he wasn't ready for. What did he mean there were two? Their scanners only detected one making its way to their world. Where did the second one come from? He couldn't let the minister know that and calmly repeated, "Same thing. It was an isolated terrorist incident and the situation is under control."

"Is it under control?" the minister demanded.

"Yes sir," Yamaki said to try and reassure his boss. His boss nodded and hung up the phone. Then Yamaki sighed. It was not under control. But he couldn't let him know that. All he could do was rely on his sources. The resident expert in Hypnos was Izumi, and Yamaki was going to have him working another all nighter to explain what just happened. For now, there had to be something left over from this attack. Something he could use to further test the Juggernaut program and persuade the secretary to authorize its use.

...

Rika dashed after the rest of the boys until they came upon an empty alley. They all gasped for breath, too tired to keep running but knowing they couldn't stand out in the open. Takato stumbled his way over to a dumpster and grabbed the largest box he could find, throwing it over his partner to conceal him, "Stay under there until we get you back to the park buddy."

"Who were those guys?" Henry asked between gasps for breath. Takato shrugged, "No idea. Last time they started shooting at Dokugumon. And who knows what they did to him…her…it."

"I think it's time we all compared notes and figured out what's going on," Henry grunted out, leaning against the wall to keep himself upright while he continued gasping. Rika was just as tired and wasn't in the mood for any more talking, "Oh great, you and goggle head will have a lot to talk about."

Henry looked over at Takato, hoping for an explanation and he answered grimly, "We stopped by her house earlier, hoping to figure out what was going on. It's been a weird day."

Henry felt a small smile draw itself on his face. As inappropriate as it was, he couldn't help but feel like one of the main characters in those books he read, "It's like we're digidestined from those novels. You know - A Digimon Adventure and Another Digimon Adventure by that Takeru Takaishi guy."

"I hate to break it to you, but those are just books," Rika pointed out. Terriermon shook his head, "Not in our world. In the Digital World, everyone knows about the digidestined and how they fought to stop the Dark Masters."

"Until you think about it and realize it doesn't make any sense," Rika pointed out grumpily, "The first one is set in 1998 and the second one is set in 2002. But it's 2001! And the guy's an old fart! So explain to me how someone who was supposed to be eight in '98, and twelve years old next year, can be in his twenties right now?"

Rika had to admit that she enjoyed the realization on Henry and Takato's faces. It seemed like it hadn't occurred to either of them that the story made no sense. Then Takato's answer caught her off guard, "I'm glad someone else noticed. But you're missing the point, Rika. Digimon are real. We know that for a fact. And Terriermon says he knows about the digidestined. So it's safe to say that parts of it are true. Who's to say it's not all true?"

"Common sense," she countered, before standing up in frustration. Now she was too annoyed to even care about getting Renamon to absorb a digimon. She adjusted her belt and straightened herself out before turning to leave, "Forget this. I'm going home. Next time we meet, we're settling our score goggle head."

Once Rika was gone, Terriermon commented, "That girl has issues."

"Be nice Terriermon," Henry lectured his partner only for Terriermon to reason, "I'm just saying what we're all thinking. She's mean."

"Don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes," Henry reminded his partner. Unfortunately for him, Terriermon didn't seem to grasp the concept, "Her shoes are way too big for me. I'd be tripping with every step. Besides, why would I put my feet in her shoes? Is that a thing in the human world?"

"Forget it," Henry sighed. His partner was impossible. He was just hoping Takato wouldn't be so difficult, "So that's the box you lost, huh?"

"Yeah. That's my fault," Takato laughed nervously, "It turns out he wasn't the one at school causing a ruckus too. Well, that's a lie. He ate the food in the kitchen. He probably saved us from being poisoned."

"So...what weird things were you trying to piece together?" Henry asked. Takato looked back out the alley and explained quietly, "A weird thing happened with Guilmon earlier today. It was like he turned into a ghost. I don't know why though. That didn't happen to Terriermon too, did it?"

Henry looked down at his partner who was busy trying to join Guilmon under his box. Guilmon's large frame gave Terriermon no room to actually get in though. He shook his head, "No. at least, he didn't say anything."

"That's what I was afraid of," Takato frowned, "I'm beat. Let's figure this out tomorrow after school. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good. Let's meet at the gate after class!" Henry added, just now realizing how tired he felt. He scooped up Terriermon and was about to leave, but recalled his dad's words last night. He didn't want to walk back into that conversation and asked Takato, "By the way. Where have you been keeping Guilmon?"

Takato eyed him nervously, "You're not going to attack him are you?"

"Are you kidding me? Henry hasn't let me fight anything since I got here!" Terriermon complained, "I wanted to help with that big guy, but Henry kept saying no!"

"It was for your own safety," Henry said, unsure if he believed his own answer. He looked over at Takato and explained, "I can't really bring Terriermon back home. It's complicated."

"Henry's dad thinks he stole me from some girl he has a crush on," Terriermon answered. Henry groaned, unable to stop his partner from blurting out what he said before adding, "I just need a place to keep him for now."

Takato continued to eye him curiously, then eyeing Terriermon. The little digimon was giggling with delight in Henry's arms despite his attempts to control his partner. Then he sighed, "Mom and dad wouldn't let me keep him. They never saw him, so they thought I was keeping a dog in my bedroom. Anyway, I'm keeping him in a tool shed at the park for now."

"Room for one more?" Henry asked hopefully.

Renamon followed her partner, leaping from one street light to another. It was dark out now, so Renamon could move more freely and openly without having to worry about being spotted. But it was odd to see that so many people didn't feel the need to look up. Then again, it was likely they didn't need to worry about something attacking from above and could freely distract themselves with their lives.

And it seemed that was the case for her partner. Rika moved silently through the streets with her hands in her pockets. She never once looked up at the people around her or did anything to regard them. Three boys who were just a little older than her stopped upon seeing her, recognizing her, "Is that who I think it is?"

"Dude, that's the digimon queen!" another said, pointing at her, "She's the one who wins all the tournaments! She's the best player!"

"Dude, stop pointing. She's like five years younger than you! You're going to end up on a list or something," the third said.

Despite what they said, Rika kept walking - either because she wasn't interested in what they had to say or she didn't want anything to do with them. She walked through the streets like she was completely alone - but it was a self imposed isolation. She wanted to be alone. Why?

When Rika finally got to her home and started making her way up to the house, she called out Renamon's name. And she leapt to her side, "Yes Rika?"

"You said you were the strongest digimon, didn't you?" Rika asked her quietly.

Renamon answered, "I am. Which is why I chose you. So that I could become stronger.

Her answer didn't seem to satisfy Rika and she snapped, "Then how come you couldn't beat either Dokugumon and Devidramon? And that weirdo digimon!? Why haven't you won? Because it sure isn't me. I've been making the right calls in all those fights. I gave you the winning strategies and the winning power ups each time."

Renamon wasn't able to answer the question and lowered her head. Rather, she could answer but knew it wouldn't be one Rika wanted to hear. So instead she apologized, "I'm sorry to disappoint you Rika."

Rika frowned, "You'd better start shaping up if you don't want to keep looking like an idiot. Tomorrow we're going to track down those dweebs and we're going to finish what we started. Like it or not, we're taking out that baby digimon and his partner."

"Yes, Rika," Renamon agreed. Well, she agreed out loud for whatever that was worth. But she wasn't sure she agreed with her partner entirely. Not after she'd seen the way that other human treated his partner. Neither of them were strong fighters but there was no doubt in her mind that he truly, deeply cared for his partner. Why else would he have thrown himself in harm's way to protect the digimon? And it made her wonder if Rika would've done the same for her?

And she was sure Rika asking the same questions. Rika had given her the best strategies and the best power ups. But their partnership had only produced one victory and it was against a digimon who was already her equal in fights. What were they doing wrong? What was she doing wrong?

She kept these thoughts privately to herself for now. There was no need to give her partner reason to doubt her ability. In fact, she was starting to wonder if Impmon had the right idea. He'd said that she shouldn't trust her human partner. Perhaps he was right.

Juri went to school the next day worried sick that something bad happened to Takato and Guilmon. She tried to catch up to them in the crowd, but the panicked people running in the other direction made it impossible to find them. And as soon as she saw the monster, fear overtook any concern she had. Neither of them had made the news the night before, but the digimon had. And everyone was talking about it. Everyone.

The news said it was some kind of terrorist attack and most of the adults seemed to believe. But no one their age did. Some of the boys were talking about how cool it would be to actually have a digimon for themselves. Everyone else was wondering how a bunch of toys could be real, and if they were dangerous.

Which brought back her concern to Takato and Guilmon. Maybe they'd gotten pulled to the other world, or worse, they'd been captured by the government. Of course, all of her fears were alleviated when Takato walked into the classroom like nothing happened. Although it seemed weird that he wasn't with either Kazu or Kenta. And it was even weirder that he was early.

As soon as she saw him, she got up and spoke to him, "Takato, what happened last night?"

Without a word, he took her hand and led her outside into the hallway. He spoke at a whisper, "We can't talk about that at school, Juri."

That was right. She promised to keep this all secret and she's forgotten. She apologized, "Right, sorry. But I'm glad to see you're alright."

"Same," he replied. A long pause followed between the two. She wasn't sure what to say next to him - she didn't really talk to boys. Takato was probably the one she'd held the longest conversation with. She needed to talk about something else - something not digimon related, "I didn't see Kazu or Kenta with you today."

Takato scratched the back of his head nervously, "Yeah, they weren't at the park this morning. I don't know where they-"

Right on cue, both Kazu and Kenta appeared behind them. Both looked annoyed about something and she was sure they were about to let Takato know all about it. And she was right. Kazu spoke first, "Alright, spill Takato! Did you have anything to do with last night?"

"What, no! Of course not!" he lied badly. He'd just introduced them to his digimon yesterday. There was no way they were going to believe him if he tried to deny anything. That didn't exactly stop him from trying, "I was with Juri!"

"What?" Juri blinked while the boys added, "Juri!?"

While it was technically true, she didn't expect him to just blurt it out. In fact, she felt her face turn red from embarrassment. She wasn't embarrassed to be around boys, just flustered that she was the cover he'd chosen. Hi next couple of words didn't help as he scrambled to come up with his excuse, "Yes! It was a prank! Some Christmas lights, a fog machine, and a radio playing a tape of dinosaur noises! She was helping me clean up!"

"You really expect us to believe that?" Kazu groaned in frustration. Takato nodded, "It's true!"

"You know we could just go to that same place later after school and find out for ourselves right?" Kenta pointed out. Takato hung his head shamefully and pushed his fingers together, "Well it was worth a shot, y'know?"

"How did you get a digimon? Of all people! YOU!" Kazu gestured at him angrily, obviously annoyed about the fact that he didn't have a digimon, "I'm twice the card player you are!"

It was here that Juri knew she had to defuse the situation, "Hey! It's okay, Kazu! I don't have a digimon either."

"You don't even like digimon!" Kazu pointed at her angrily. Takato slapped his hand away, "Don't point fingers, guys. And can we please not fight about this? I don't want to make a scene in front of-"

"Shouldn't you four be in class?"

Juri wasn't sure if she was happy to be saved or flustered to get in trouble. It was their teacher Miss Asaji wearing the oddest of coats - a ratty old blue long coat with yellow stripes going down the arms and a hood on the back. The coat was obviously a size too small for her, but it helped outline her more feminine features and came out to about the size of a small trench on her. She gestured at the clock and said, "You've got about a minute to get in there before you're late."

"Nice coat, Miss Asaji," Takato nodded, sliding the door open and pushing everyone inside. Juri hurriedly made her way to her desk, trying to hide how red her face was as the bell rang. Miss Asaji followed inside a second after them and began, "Good morning class. I know you're all probably worried about what happened last night. So to help take your mind off things, we're going to jump right back into our studies and work extra hard!"

"Oh come on, Miss Asaji! A digimon showed up yesterday!" one of the boys groaned, "Can't we skip class for a day?"

"We still have a curriculum to maintain," she reminded them, slapping the books under her arm, "So take out your textbooks and turn to chapter 4, so we can start on geometry."

The class groaned, but Juri couldn't help but feel relieved. This meant no one could see how red she was.

Rika got home from her private school just in time to swap out of her gray uniform and throw on her preferred t-shirt and jeans. She already had her plan for the day and knew exactly what she wanted to do. Her homework could wait for now. She had a score to settle. Part of her wondered if she was being petty over this. The other part didn't care. Once her deck was safely in its pouch, she made her way to the living room only to see her mother there.

Her mother of all people. It was such a rare sight, that she did a double take upon seeing her. Her mother was young, pale skinned with brown hair and a pretty face that made men take another glance. And some women. Not that Rika cared. Her mother smiled and waved, "Oh! Ruki! You're here! Come say hi to the fashion designer I model for, Sora Ishida!"

Rika made her way into the living room and saw another woman sitting on the couch opposite her mom. She looked about the same age as her mom but had a more serious expression her face and more vibrant red hair that she trimmed short. The woman smiled at her, "Hi Ruki. It's nice to see you, again."

"Hi," Rika frowned, really hoping her mom wasn't about to propose what she was about to propose. Then her mom said the words she dreaded while holding up some sketches and fabric, "She just brought over her designs for this fall's fashion line to look over. Aren't they cute? Anyway, we needed someone who could model the girls' line and since you're so experienced at it, we thought you'd like to join me for another-"

"No thanks. Bye!" Rika said, bolting for the door to get as far away as possible. She was tired of her mother constantly trying to get her into fashion and modeling. It shouldn't have been that hard to figure out. She hated frilly dresses and pretty ribbons and make up and everything else about it.

As she closed the door, she heard the designer say, "I see your daughter still has her attitude Mimi."

Mimi? That wasn't right. Her mom's name was Rumiko. No. Wait. She didn't care. She wanted out fast. Once she was safely out of the house and onto the street, she called aloud, "Ready, Renamon?"

"I am," she replied, appearing beside her. Rika took out her digivice, unsure of where to look for either boys. But once they were close to the digimon, her digivice should start pointing her in the right direction. That's when she'd make her move.

Henry waited for Takato at the school gate like they agreed, watching everyone else in the school hurry home. Terriermon was probably throwing a fit in the shed from boredom, and the idea of him running off and getting into trouble kept Henry worried. He trusted his partner...to a point. Then again, he was able to stay still like a doll whenever Suzie played with him. This shouldn't have been impossible for his little partner.

His anxiety wasn't helped by that fact that Takato was taking his sweet time to meet him at the gate. Just as he was sure he'd been forgotten and he was about to leave, he noticed Takato coming his way along with three of his classmates. Henry adjusted his bag nervously, certain that the boy had gotten himself into trouble based on the way he walked with his head down.

Takato smiled, "Hey Henry."

"What's all this?" Henry asked. The boy with the green visor demanded, "Yeah, what is this? Who's he?"

"Keep it down," Takato begged of the boy before explaining to Henry, "It's okay, they know about the digimon."

"WHAT!?" Henry almost gasped in disbelief, until Takato shushed him. Then the boy with glasses beside them asked, "So does he have a digimon too? Is he a digidestined like you are?'

"I'm not a digidestined!" Takato argued at just above a whisper, sounding more annoyed the longer the conversation went on, "Look, I said I'd show you guys again. Just...stop talking so loud, okay?"

Although he said that, it didn't do anything to stop those boys from speaking so loudly. He turned back to Henry and put his hands together apologetically, "I am so sorry for them. I caved to pressure. It's a weakness. I'm sorry. Which is weird because I usually don't but I guess it's just the new situation."

"Come on, Takato. Are we going to get to see the digimon or what?" the boy with glasses begged. Takato sighed, "I really am sorry."

Henry looked between the three additional kids and figured they were part of his friend group. It would've been hard to keep secrets from his friends, but that didn't mean it would've been safe for them to get involved in whatever was going on. Henry patted the boy's shoulder, "Don't worry about it. I probably would've caved too. I'm Jiangliang, but everyone calls me Henry."

"Hiya Henry, I'm Kenta," the boy with glasses answered first, only to get cut off by the boy with the visor, "And I'm Kazu, the cool one."

"And...she's Juri," the girl answered with a yellow sock puppet that suddenly appeared from nowhere. Henry looked from the puppet to the girl, noticing that she was suddenly looking away, "Uh-huh. Anyway, we should go before our partners start eating the shed."

Henry took the lead for them since Takato appeared too overwhelmed to think properly. It was a good thing that the park wasn't too far either. All the while, he tried to not chuckle at the questions he was bombarded with - trying to maintain a calm appearance despite the fact that the questions came one after another.

As they made the familiar trip up the steps, Takato finally spoke, "Guys, you have to promise not to run off screaming again."

"What? We didn't do that!" Kazu said in their defense in a way that screamed they had. Takato nodded, "You're right. I must've been confused by the loud screams coming from your mouth and the fact that you left without coming back."

Then Kenta reasoned, "It was a tactical retreat, y'know? We needed to assess the situation from afar to understand it."

"Any further back and you'd need to mail your assessment," Takato answered with a smile, before finally hurrying along. Once they reached the top, they found the gate into the shed broken open. It didn't take long for Takato to fly into a panic, "Oh no. GUILMON!"

He hurried into the shed, calling his partner's name. Kazu groaned, "He didn't get out, did he?"

"I don't think so. Look!" Henry gestured at the gate, noticing something Takato had missed. The gate itself was fine but the lock on the outside had been smashed. It had been broken from the outside. Then he remembered the men in the Hazmat suits. Fear turned to panic. He hurried after Takato into the shed to find-

Brightly colored streamers running from wall to wall, a bunch of half eaten cakes, balloons, and Terriermon sitting with Guilmon and the little strange white digimon from before. Takato looked around in utter confusion, looking to Henry as if he would have an explanation. The boy could only shrug back before Terriermon leapt into his arms, "Hey Henry! Calumon came back to throw a birthday party!"

"Birthday party? Who's birthday is it?" Henry asked dumbfoundedly. The little digimon called Calumon giggled, "No one silly! But they'd never seen a birthday party before so I threw them one. I almost couldn't either. There was this funny guy on the door holding it shut, but I convinced him to open it with some gentle persuasion!"

"He means he bashed open the lock with a rock!" Terriermon clarified, "He may be odd but he's a lot of fun! He brought us cake and balloons and everything!"

"And where exactly did you get the cake?" Takato asked nervously. It was at this point that Juri, Kazu, and Kenta finally entered the tool shed. Juri stood just behind the boys, using herself to block them so that they'd run right into her if they tried to flee. The two boys seemed nervous at first, until they noticed Guilmon's face was covered in a beard frosting. Then their confidence seemed to find its way back to them.

"That's it? Takato, your digimon looks dopey," Kazu folded his arms behind his head. Kenta approaches the digimon and patted its head, "Whoa! So cool!"

Guilmon turned his head in confusion, licking his frosting beard off so that he could sniff the two boys. Kazu recoiled fearfully while Kenta seemed amused. Guilmon remarked, "You guys don't smell like pee today."

"What? Why would we smell like pee!?" Kazu took offense to that, "We don't pee our pants."

Kenta added, "Just how would you happen to know what pee smells like?"

"Guilmon go in corner!" Guilmon pointed at a corner of the shed marked by stains and what looked like a dried mound of dirt. Takato added, "We should probably skip out on that cake. Anyway, Henry - we should probably start comparing notes."

Henry breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see that things were finally starting to move, "Yeah, that sounds like a good-"

"Found you goggle head," came the familiar cry of an angry girl. Waiting for them at the entrance was the ever scowling Rika with a hand on her hip, "We got a score to settle."

"Do you just follow us around or something?" Henry clicked his tongue angrily, annoyed that she just refused to leave them alone. Takato answered, "You used that radar on the digivice, didn't you? Three digimon and two digivices right here. We might as well have had a big flashing sign over our heads saying, 'here we are'."

Rika gave no answer, instead snapping her fingers to signal her partner to appear. Then she pointed at Takato, "This time, you're going down goggle head."

Takato closed his eyes and answered, "I don't want to fight you. But if you want to fight so bad...we will. But outside, not here."

Author's Notes: Rika wants to let Takato have it, but Renamon finds herself doubting her reasons. Who will come out ahead in this fight? What is the Juggernaut program? Why does Rika act out? Will Henry intervene this time? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name due out in two weeks on Friday February 28th at 8 PM CST. If you loved it, let me know in the reviews section and I'll try to respond as soon as I'm able. And hey, why not follow or favorite the story to keep up with all the latest updates? That's all I have for now! I'll see you guys in the next installment! Now let's take a look at previews for the next chapter!

"Uh huh," Henry folded his arms and leaned back against the wall, intent on questioning Takato just a little longer, "So what? You think we're digidestined or something?"

"I wouldn't call myself that," Takato scratched the back of his head, "I wasn't chosen by destiny or anything."

"So what would you call yourself?" Henry asked, now curious to see what Takato thought on the whole thing. He answered with a big smile, "Tamer."

Tamer? Why a tamer? That name sounded too mean. Like he was forcing his digimon to learn tricks and do things he didn't want to do. Which made sense when he considered that Rika called herself that a minute ago, "So like Rika said she was going to be the best tamer? Doesn't that sound a little...I don't know, mean?"

Takato's smile grew wider, "But then it'd be just like the books!"