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 9: Growlmon Roars Into Action

Even though they'd defeated their first rogue digimon together, the air between them was dejected and quiet. It should've been a happy moment, but all they could think about was the exchange between Rika and Renamon. Takato was especially bothered, seeming contemplative instead of talkative like he usually was. Terriermon was the only one talking after that exchange, and it was to question Henry, "Why didn't you swipe the card Henry? It would've helped me out back there!"

"I...couldn't," he apologized, "I just...couldn't bring myself to do it."

That answer was hardly satisfying to Terriermon, who grunted his response disapprovingly, "Sorry wasn't going to stop IceDevimon from going after Rika - even if she was being mean. Unless you were trying to get her killed. Please tell me that wasn't the plan."

"No, of course not! I just didn't want to see you get hurt. Besides...we should probably hang on to this," Henry held up Rika's card pouch and belt - only for Takato to snatch it out of his hand. It was the first thing he'd done that was in character for him since the battle, aside from the fact that he'd been massaging the side of his head like he had a headache, "We should give this back to her."

"Why? She said she didn't want them any more," Terriermon pointed out. Takato stuffed the belt and the deck into his pocket, "Never trust anyone's decisions if they're made in a fit of anger - they may not mean it and they'll probably regret it later."

He stopped suddenly, taking the time to carefully massage both sides of his head. Juri raised up her sock puppet, "Is Takato alright?"

"Just a headache," he replied, although Guilmon sniffed him and provided his own opinion, "It doesn't smell like a headache to me. It smells funny."

"Gee, thanks," Takato groaned, leading the way again back to the park shed. Once the digimon were safely hidden away, Takato told them, "We're out of school tomorrow so we'll come back. Oh, and I have to feed the school animals tomorrow so you guys will get to see some new things. Just promise you won't eat the bunnies, Guilmon."

"What's a bunnies?" Guilmon asked innocently enough. Neither Henry nor Juri could deny how amusing it was to see Takato mime a rabbit with his hands on his head for ears, "They're these cute little animals with big ears that bounce around all over the place. They're really cute."

"Is Terriermon a bunnies?" Guilmon asked, turning to sniff the little digimon curiously and somehow oblivious to the little digimon's protests, "Hey! Stop, that tickles!"

Takato sighed, "No, Terriermon's not a bunny. For starters, he probably eats more than a whole pack of them. Although he does kinda look like one. Y'know, I never thought about it but a terrier is a dog and you look more like a bunny."

It was hard to miss the look of existential crisis on Terriermon's face as he looked down at his own hands. Juri felt a little sorry for him because of it until his ears perked up, "Moumantai!"

Takato laughed, "Anyway, we'll see you guys tomorrow. If no more digimon show up that is."

"Night night," Guilmon answered with a tired yawn before crawling over to his hole to take a nap. Terriermon joined the dino digimon and flopped atop his large body, "Nap time sounds good."

All three kids smiled at the sleeping digimon before heading home.

Rika was plagued by horrible nightmare's that night, tossing and turning in her sleep as terrible images came to mind. Images of more digimon coming to visit her, and not all of them wanting to be her partner. Some wanted revenge, enraged that they had been passed over so that Renamon could be chosen for a partner instead. As the digimon attacked her, she was visited by Renamon - but the fox refused to do anything to help her. Instead, she merely watched as Rika was eventually over run by the digimon. They pushed her to the ground, each one taking a separate limb before they started pulling. Harder and harder until she could feel her bones popping out of their sockets - until her legs and arms were ripped apart.

She jumped awake in a cold sweat, looking around her empty room to make sure there was no one else present. It was just her, alone in the dark bedroom. But she'd thought that before, and it didn't stop IceDevimon from reaching through the darkness to take her away. How long until it happened again? What would she do without her partner to back her up?

She sighed and tried to push it out of her mind - lying back down and grabbing her CD players. Maybe some music would help her calm down. She couldn't tell which CD was inside because of the dark, but she was able to feel her way to getting her headphones on and pressing play. The song started and she could feel herself start to relax,

"Wanna be the biggest dreamer,

I'll keep running straight on through!

Past yesterday, beyond today,

tomorrow dreams come true!

I dunno,

can't pretend I'm all that cool.

Never was the best at anythin' in school.

Life is slow and questions keep pilin',

on and on and on

Gotta know…

where do I belong?

Tried to figure out it all,

then I slipped and tripped to fall!

I know I heard laughter!

She didn't remember owning this CD, but the song was helping her forget the nightmare. Whether it was because she was confused by the song or annoyed by it, she didn't care. Her eyes felt heavy.

Guilmon and Terriermon lay sleeping in their shed, and would've slept for several hours more if they hadn't been awoken by someone whipping the lock door open. Both digimon were startled awake as little Calumon hurried in with his big eyes and large ears, "Hey guys! Hey guys! Why are you sleeping? Don't you know it's time to play?"

Both sleepy digimon looked at Calumon groggily, however Terriermon was the first one to grasp what'd happened, "Calumon? What are you doing here this early?"

"It's time to play! It's time to play! It's time to play!" the little digimon repeated in a little sing song tone. Terriermon answered his joy with a tired yawn before crawling back into his bed, "I'm sure it is. I'm going back to bed."

"I want to play," Guilmon cheered, rising out of his hole energetically, "What are we playing?"

"I saw a bunch of humans at this one place playing a fun game with a ball and lines!" the little digimon said excitedly, "Come and play! Come and play! Come and play!"

"Okay!" Guilmon said. Terriermon groaned, too awake to go back to sleep, "Fine, let's play this dumb game. Where are we going, anyway?"

"It's this way!" Calumon said, hopping out of the shed as fast as his little legs would carry him. Both Guilmon and Calumon followed the little digimon out into the dark forest, down the empty streets, and all the way to an empty building. One Terriermon recognized right away, "I know this place! It's a school! Henry comes here all the time!"

"I know this place too! I came here looking for Takatomon that one time. It still smells funny," Guilmon added enthusiastically. They made their way towards the school gate to find that it was locked shut. The young dinosaur's heart sank at the sight of it, "How do we get it open?"

Calumon produced an answer by picking a stone off the ground, "With a little gentle persuasion! Take this!"

For such a small digimon, he displayed an awfully dangerous amount of strength by smashing the rock as hard as he could against the lock until it shattered off the gate. Both Guilmon and Terriermon had to applaud the little digimon for that. Both digimon were alarmed by how strong the little guy was - and were just as dumbstruck as he swung the gate open for them. Neither would've guessed he had it in him, "See, just a little friendly persuasion! This way! I know where they keep the balls and white stuff!"

"Wait, what?" Terriermon sputtered out, following along just behind Guilmon. The little dinosaur was just as clueless and asked, "What are those? Can we eat them?"

"I mean…some people do," Terriermon replied, not sure if his mind was in the gutter or if Calumon was taking him where he thought they were going. Calumon ran along happily, leading them along the grounds and past the soccer field which had been cleared for the afternoon. To their amazement, he ended up leading them to a shed in the far corner of the field. Like the gate, it was also locked shut but all it took was some more of Calumon's gentle persuasion to break the lock off that.

The little digimon disappeared inside the mess of gardening tools, returning with what looked like a wheel barrow with holes full of white powder and a soccer ball on his head. He dropped the ball and said, "First we got to spread this white stuff all over the ground - it's so the players can tell if they're out of bounds and where the sides are and-"

"Oh, I know this," Terriermon said, "I watched it from the classroom."

"Well we're going to do it a little different," Calumon said excitedly, running ahead of both digimon. Guilmon hung on to every word that Calumon said, but Terriermon couldn't help but notice the discrepancies. He also found it hard to miss the rules Calumon made up, "So if you cross this line, you have to spend the rest of the game hopping on one leg. And if you shoot past this line, you can only hit the ball with your head for the rest of this game. And if you cross this line, a mean old digimon shows up and tries to attack you! And you have to hop inside this line-"

On and on it went. Terriermon considered pointing out that those weren't the rules, but also decided that he didn't want to be like his partner when it came to this type of thing. He smiled and decided to run with it, especially when Calumon mentioned the rule about having to walk on your hands if the game went to double over time - if that were possible. At least he'd have the advantage if he were Gargomon. Once the lines were set up, Terriermon kicked the ball into the middle and invited Terriermon to his side, "Since we're so small, we should be on the same team and Guilmon can be on the others team, because he's so big."

"So when do we eat the ball?" Guilmon asked. Calumon tilted his head, "You don't eat the ball silly!"

Guilmon appeared disappointed but he quickly forgot as Calumon kicked the ball first. Terriermon sighed and went for it - jumping in front of the ball and kicking it toward the goal. Guilmon dove in front of it just before it crossed the goal, catching it in his mouth and promptly spitting it out towards the goal, "Blegh, that tastes like dirt."

"It's been rolling on the ground," Terriermon laughed, "Guilmon ate dirt!"

"Guilmon! You're not supposed to eat the ball silly," Calumon giggled excitedly, pointing out the goal he'd just scored, "That's one point for us by the way which means you have to play the next round on one leg!"

"I do?" Guilmon tilted his head in confusion. Terriermon felt like today was going to be an interesting day.

The next morning, Henry made his way to the shed - glad to finally get away from his family for a little while. His dad really tore into him for his recent behavior - stealing dolls from girls and coming home late, only to leave again. His mom made the case that he was just going through a phase but he was pretty sure his dad was just waiting to give him the birds and bees talk. The thought of his dad trying to explain that stuff any better than the health ed teacher made him shiver.

As he turned into the park, he bumped into a frantic Takato with Juri just a few steps behind him. Takato fell over backwards and massaged his butt, "Ow, ow, ow."

"What's the rush?" Henry asked him. Takato looked up, face in a full panic as he explained, "It's Guilmon and Terriermon! They're gone! I don't know where either of them are! The gate was open and we're following their tracks!"

Henry looked down and noticed a set of dirty foot prints in the shape of claws on the ground - undoubtedly from Guilmon. He sighed, annoyed that two nights in was all it took to get Terriermon to wander off, "Come on, Terriermon."

"We need to get after them before they get into trouble!" Takato exclaimed, scrambling back on to his feet and following the tracks. Henry sighed and looked at Juri, "He's awfully excitable in the morning."

"You should see him try to sneak into class," she answered, "He's always caught but that doesn't stop him from arguing with the teacher anyway."

"I don't doubt it," Henry pocketed his hands and followed after Takato. He was just as worried too, but he doubt they would've let themselves be caught so easily. At least, that's what he wanted to believe and Terriermon seemed all to eager to prove him wrong. They followed the tracks all the way back to the school, where the gate had been broken into and the shed where gym supplies were was thrown wide open. The cherry on top of the vandalism to their school was the mess of scribbled chalk on the field that zigged zagged all over the place. And Guilmon slept on his back in the middle of the field, with Terriermon on his side and Calumon on his belly.

Takato breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh good, they're alright."

"Guilmon certainly takes after you," Henry chortled, patting the boy's back, "I guess the digimon doesn't fall too far from the tamer, huh?"

"I didn't tell him to do this!" Takato reasoned. He chastised him, "No, but you did tell him to break a lock into that apartment. I betcha he got the wrong idea."

"Whatever," Takato groaned, running up to their sleeping partners to shake them awake, "Wakey wakey guys! Come on, get up!"

All three digimon stirred slowly, with Guilmon sitting up before Calumon was ready so that the little digimon rolled off his side. The dinosaur yawned, "Oh, hi Takatomon. Do you have bread? I'm really hungry."

"You shouldn't have snuck out of the shed like that," Takato chastised the dinosaur with a warning finger like he was telling off a younger sibling, "You could've gotten into serious trouble."

"I'm sorry Takatomon," Guilmon made something like a frown and sat himself up. Then he motioned for the digimon to follow, "Come on, we have to feed the school animals. Then you can have your breakfast."

Takato helped his partner up, and Terriermon slowly walked his way over to Henry, "Hey Henry."

Henry had to stifle a laugh when he saw his partner rubbed his tired eyes and took one good look around the soccer field. There was no sense to any of it - and the soccerball appeared mangled. He had a good guess about what happened but thought he should get his partner's take on it anyway, "So what did you guys do all night?"

"Moumantai," Terriermon perked up suddenly, his ears flopping out as large as they could. Henry sighed, unsure of what else he'd been expecting from his partner. The little digimon then followed after Takato and Guilmon, "Where are we going anyway?"

"Oh, the animal pen is in the back of the school by the kitchen," Henry explained to his partner, who cracked a yawn and looked at Juri, "Oh, hello. What're you doing here?"

Juri opened her mouth but didn't say anything. Henry wasn't sure whether she was shy or uncomfortable talking to Terriermon yet so he tapped his partner on the head, "Be nice, Terriermon. Come on, let's go see the bunnies."

"Bunnies! I like bunnies!" Calumon appeared excitedly, waddling up along side them cheerfully, "What's a bunny!?"

Perhaps she'd finally found her nerve because Juri picked the little digimon up and smiled, "Come on, let's go see!"

Calumon didn't see it that way and panicked, "AH! THE HUMANS GOING TO EAT ME!"

"I'm not going to eat you," Juri said in her defense, patting the little digimon on the head to try and calm him down. Calumon didn't appear to buy it and leapt out of her arms, sprinting off as fast as his little legs could carry him towards the back of the school. Which ended up being surprisingly fast for how small he was. Oddly enough, he ran straight towards Takato and Guilmon at the pen in the back of the school.

Guilmon was busy sniffing at the different animals in their cages - bunnies, ducks, chickens, geese, and hamsters. Takato was busy going in and out of the different pens, carrying buckets in each arm that he busily filled with vegetables, seeds, and other food he pulled out of feed bags for the different animals. Immediately, Calumon forgot he was running scared from Juri and went to marvel at the bunnies. Terriermon looked at Henry expectantly, as if he had to ask for permission and Henry said, "We both know you're going to run off anyway. Go ahead buddy."

"Thanks Henry," Terriermon ran ahead to join the two digimon. Calumon awed at the little creature, "So these are the bunnies? They're so cute! Aw! Hey! That tickles!"

He bounced away as one of the bunnies came to smell him. The adorableness of the sight was ruined by as Guilmon asking, "Are they food?"

Henry, Juri, and Takato all stopped - looking between each other because none of them wanted to answer that question. If anything, it would've been Takato who answered the question absent mindedly, but he seemed to have enough sense to realize telling his partner to eat the school animals would've been a bad idea. Instead, he tried to change the subject, "So what were you guys doing here?"

Guilmon looked up, "We were playing soccer! Calumon came up with a some rules to make the game more fun and we played until the sun came up. Then we took a nap, and you woke us up."

"So you only slept for an hour," Takato said, taking the empty buckets to fill them with water. As he went about his weekend chores, he suggested, "Hey, how about we play a round or two after you guys have something to eat?"

"Will we get to eat bread?" Guilmon asked excitedly. Takato shrugged, "Oh definitely, there's got to be something in the kitchen we can scavenge for you guys."

"From the school?" Terriermon asked wearily, looking at Juri and Henry for some sort of rescue from having to eat the food. It wasn't hard to see why, since they weren't fans of the food either. Calumon rubbed his little belly and asked, "Do they have candy? I love candy! It's the best."

"Is that the best thing for them to eat? They could get sick and throw it all up," Juri pointed out for Terriermon, unsure of what that would do to the digimon. Takato thumbed over at Guilmon, "I've watched him eat so much that he puked it back up, only to eat it again. I think Guilmon can handle it."

"The more time passes, the more I realize you only treat him like a dog because he basically is a dog," Henry frowned, waiting for Takato to finish filling the water bowls for the different animals, "Besides, I'm Terriermon and Calumon aren't up for just anything."

"Yeah, you're right," Takato replied. Once he was done filling the water bowls, he clapped his hands together to get as much dust off as he could before washing it at the water faucet. Then it was off to the kitchen, "Don't worry, I'm not going to let them eat the leftover tuna casserole or the day old stuff. The last thing we need is for our digimon to get food poisoning with everything going on."

The kitchen was just as stocked as they thought it was, and they found several brownies hoarded in the refrigerator as well as cookies. Beside it was all the nasty food they were certain the lunch ladies had been serving for the last few years of their life. As quickly as they'd found it, their partners made it all disappear with a few quick and sickening bites that made any appetite they had disappear.

Henry felt his stomach churn at the way Guilmon ate, surprised that either Juri or Takato were able to handle it. Takato patted Guilmon's head as he took each bite while Juri awed at it. Henry tried not to be sickened but it was hard, especially when he'd tasted some of that food himself and knew it wasn't the best thing in the world. As they ate, he noticed Takato still had Rika's belt hanging loosely out of his pocket, along with the deck of cards that came with it. He pointed it out, "Still haven't talked to Rika, yet?"

He frowned, "I thought I should wait a day for her to cook down first. I'm pretty sure she'd punch me in the face if I went to go see her right now. Or kick. It's really hard to tell what she'll do."

"I've never seen her around the school, is she a student here?" Henry asked. Juri shook her head, "I think she goes to a middle school and she's just a year ahead of us."

Both Henry and Takato were surprised to hear her say that and looked at her in surprise. She appeared startled by their appearance and asked, "What?"

"How do you know that?" Takato asked seriously, a question Henry wanted to know the answer to as well. She explained, "I noticed her uniform when we were at her place a few days ago. It's a middle school uniform - which means she's at least a year ahead of us. That or she goes to the weirdest elementary school ever."

Takato and Henry both swapped looks, certainly for different reasons. He knew Takato and Juri had been looking for him, but he didn't know they'd been to Rika's place too. Although it would explain why she'd been acting weird. Then Takato complimented Juri, "You've got a good eye, Juri."

"Oh...thanks," she looked away anxiously, causing Henry to raise a curious eye brow. These always seemed to be around each other but they weren't siblings. Or cousins as far as he could tell. Maybe they were together? Nah - that couldn't be. Although, it would explain why his parents were so convinced he was going through a phase. But he wondered if they were both trying to keep it secret. Then again, it wasn't his place to worry about. It'd be rude to pry into their business.

Once they were done eating, Guilmon let out a sickeningly loud burp that smelled horrible and everyone rushed out of the kitchen to escape the smell. After a few minutes of coughing and gagging from Guilmon's monster of a burp, Calumon asked, "Can we play our game now?"

Henry heaved between gasps for breath, "Yeah, sure. We all need some fresh air after that."

Guilmon burped innocently enough from within the kitchen.

Yamaki scrambled for the main deck again as Riley and Tally announced the appearance of two more wild ones on their monitors. As soon as he made his way in, he demanded, "Where are they bio-emerging?"

"One in a school in Shinjuku, the other in a mall in Yamato," Tally answered, "And whatever they are, they're big!"

"Dammit," Yamaki cursed under his breath. It was a Saturday so no one was in school today. Which meant the priority was the one in the mall. He hated having to make split decisions like this, "Okay - send the QRF to Yamato. Have an agent sent to Shinjuku to monitor that one. Then have the QRF divert there after they're done in Yamato. And Tally, get some cover stories ready!"

"Yes sir," Tally replied with a groan, obviously annoyed.

"On it, sir," Riley was more on point, maintaining the professional relationship they were supposed to have. She began alarming the QRF and setting their target orders for them.

It took Calumon the longest time to explain the rules of his game to them. It was nothing short of a miracle to Juri that Guilmon and Terriermon were able to keep up. However Takato and Henry were left scratching their heads at all the nonsensical rules they were told. Rules that ranged from crossing line making a mean digimon appear to attack you or having to hop on one leg, or shooting past a certain line meant having to spend the rest of the game hitting the ball with your head. It was so bad, her head was spinning trying to keep up. Takato especially was massaging the side of his head as he tried to follow along.

"And those are the rules to this extra special fun version of my game!" Calumon finished explaining his rules in time for Juri to breathe a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, I thought I was going to go insane trying to follow any more rules."

"I hear ya," Henry scratched his head, "So which line is the one we're not supposed to pass so we don't get attacked?"

"Come on guys, this is easy!" Calumon whined, running back over to the lines he'd just finished explaining, "First you can't cross this line or-"

"How about we play a round and you just tell us if we're breaking any rules?" Takato interrupted quickly to save them from having to sit through another terrible explanation from the little digimon. Surprisingly, the little digimon's mood seemed to improve upon the proposal, "OKAY! BOY THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN! HOORAY! FOR THIS ROUND, WE'RE GOING TO PLAY HUMANS VERSUS DIGIMON!"

"Sounds good to me, how about you Juri?" Takato asked her. She nodded to avoid hurting Calumon's feelings, "Sure. I'm not good at sports but this game sounds...fun."

"Might as well," Henry said, pocketing his hands and making his way to one side of the field with them, "So did anyone follow the rules 'cause I sure didn't?"

"I don't think anyone could," Takato shrugged as they made their way to the center. After a quick kick off, both sides scrambled to get the ball into the other team's net while trying to abide by Calumon's absurd rules. Even though they'd just played the night before, Guilmon and Terriermon were at just as much of a loss when it came to the rules as they were. In no time, they were all hopping on one leg, diving for the ball with their heads, and singing nursery rhymes backwards.

And it was as much fun as it was infuriating for everyone involved. The silliness of it outweighed the aggravation just enough for it to be enjoyable, especially when Guilmon bounced the ball with his head at Takato, who head butted it into their goal while sliding along the ground. Calumon called out, "Uh oh, you crossed the line! Now a mean old digimon attacks you!"

"Okay, but who's attacking me?" Takato asked as he dusted himself off, then shivered, "Did it get cold all of a sudden?"

"Cold? It's hot out!" Henry stopped, gasping for breath. Takato started stepping from side to side, then back and forth from the same spot, "Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold."

"What are you doing Takato?" Juri asked, only to jump when Guilmon started growling. Takato dug his heel into the ground and drew a circle around where he was standing, "Just marking the cold spot. It's the weirdest thing."

"Hey, you have to stay on one leg!" Calumon pointed out, not expecting to be drowned out by both Takato and Henry's digivices ringing to life at the same time. Both boys stepped away as a fog began to appear over the circle Takato marked on the ground, and Takato groaned, "Wait, was that rule serious? A digimon will actually come out and attack us!?"

"Actually, it's just going to attack you," Terriermon pointed out, leaving Takato exasperatedly running backwards from the growing fog, "That's some rule and I don't want to die!"

It was the first time she'd stood so close to the fog, and it burned her eyes to be beside it. She closed her eyes and stepped back, cracking her eyes open just enough to follow the others as they retreated away. She noticed Takato fix his goggles over his eyes and turn to face the fog.

"Takato, what are you doing?" Juri gasped, still retreating away from the fog. She stopped just beside Henry at the edge of the fog as he examined his digivice, "It's Devidramon!"

"AGAIN?" Takato asked, a look of frustration drawn upon his face. He stared back into the fog to see a long black claw come out of the darkness. Then another claw, until they were in the midst of the demonic dragon again. Guilmon and Terriermon ran straight for it while Calumon retreated back towards Juri. She picked the little guy up, and stepped away from the monster. Then she felt her heart sink as she watched Takato raise his arms up to signal everyone not to fight before walking towards the creature, "Hang on. Nobody fight! Maybe we can talk to him. "

"Good luck! He's here for you!" Henry called out to him. That didn't stop Takato from continuing over to the digimon, "Devidramon! Why are you back? Go back to the-"

It answered him with a defiantly loud roar and Takato scrambled back. Terriermon and Guilmon squared off against the creature to cover Takato's retreat with Terriermon remarking, "So much for talking to him."

Devidramon turned his attention to the two little digimon in front of him. Terriermon panicked, "Uh, Henry - I don't think he's interested in Takato! We might not be able to sit this one out."

"R-right," Henry took a moment to compose himself before reaching for his deck of cards. Juri watched Takato do the same, retrieving a deck from his other pocket, "Let's end this quickly - don't kill him just...make him stop fighting! And if you can figure out how to digivolve again Henry, that'd be great."

"I don't even know how we did it the first time!" Henry complained. Both boys were shuffling through their decks furiously, looking for the correct power-ups to help in this fight. After a few seconds of searching, they found exactly the card's they needed. Both boys swapped glances once with each other before swiping their cards together, "DigiModify!"

"Excalibur Activate!" Takato cried.

"Strength Boost Activate!" Henry shouted.

A gauntlet with a glowing purple sword appeared on Guilmon's right arm and the digimon ran forwards while Terriermon started firing away, "Bunny Blast!"

Despite the added strength from Henry's card, Terriermon's attack bounced off the giant digimon and burst in the air like the bubbles they were. This left Guilmon running into the fight alone with the holy sword. As he was about to take his first swing, Devidramon swatted him away and advanced towards the humans. Juri picked up Calumon and retreated further back, only looking over her shoulder once to see Guilmon running at Devidramon again. Once again he was swatted aside, and Terriermon's bubble attacks did nothing to even the odds. Juri gasped, "Are they going to be alright?"

Then Guilmon was thrown into the side of the building by Devidramon. Takato screamed in a panic, "Guilmon! Guilmon are you okay!? Say something buddy! Please!"

Juri knew that feeling - that fear that someone was hurt and there was nothing that could be done. She should've known there was nothing she could've done, why did she even come here? She couldn't help them. This was beyond her. What...what could she do? She noticed Calumon shivering with fear in her arms and tried to hug the digimon to comfort him, and was blinded by a bright light for her efforts.

For a moment, it seemed like the light was coming from the mark on Calumon's head, and she dropped the digimon on the ground from surprise. She may have been blinded but that didn't mean she couldn't hear Guilmon triumphantly shout, "Guilmon! Digivolve to! Growlmon!"

When she regained her vision, she saw a digimon almost as large as Devidramon where Guilmon had been moments before. It looked like Guilmon too but larger, with white hair coming from his head and razor sharp blades protruding from his elbows. The large digimon roared out, cowing Devidramon before charging forward to slam the digimon into the ground. Devidramon held Growlmon up with one hand, trying to keep the digimon from attacking at point blank range with his attack.

Seeing what was about to happen, Takato ran forward trying to signal at the two digimon, "Growlmon! Don't kill him! Devidramon! Listen to me! We can help you! But please! Stop fighting us!"

Devidramon answered by slamming his fist into the ground and attempting to strike Takato, who just barely managed to side step it. Takato grunted, fiddling with his digivice, "Come on, come on. How did this thing do it before? Was it this? No. Maybe it was this? What was it? Gragh!"

"Whatever you're going to do, do it quick!" Henry shouted, "Growlmon can't pin him down forever!"

Takato looked up, obviously alarmed by what he'd said - it almost seemed like he hadn't considered Growlmon being unable to hold the digimon forever. And as he looked at all of them, his eyes stopped on Juri. She felt herself freeze, wondering what exactly was going through his head to cause such a pained expression. Then Takato clicked his tongue, "I'm sorry. Growlmon! Do what you have to!"

He sounded so defeated when he said it, as if he didn't want to say that. And he seemed more pained as Growlmon opened his mouth to spew out a bright red light, "Pyro Blaster!"

The attack struck Devidramon in the face, burning the digimon's head until the rest of it's body went limp and it turned into float cloud of glowing dust. And the dust gathered around Growlmon, condensing into a bright light that swallowed into Growlmon's body. The digimon roared triumphantly, signaling the end of the fight - but no one was cheering the win.

They were just glad it was over. And once Juri had a chance to calm down, she realized Calumon was gone. Maybe he'd run off in a panic? She looked around frantically, "Where's Calumon? He was here a second ago."

Her question was drowned out by Henry, "Okay, what's up Takato? Why do you keep trying to talk to the digimon that are trying to kill us?"

"I just…don't want any one to get hurt - that's all," Takato answered meekly, still obviously shaken by the fact that Growlmon ended the fight with Devidramon so quickly. He seemed to snap out of it though, long enough to state, "But now there's another problem."

They followed his finger as he pointed out Growlmon standing in front of them. The digimon had stopped in front of Takato and started sniffing the boy, "Takatomon, I'm hungry."

"I think I see what you mean," Henry scratched his head. Juri was at a loss though, and had no idea what either of them were talking about, "What do you mean? Devidramon's gone, right? What could be the problem?"

Terriermon ran up to the big digimon to pat his snout, "The problem is how do we get Growlmon back down to size? He stands out like a big red sore thumb!"

Juri looked up at the big digimon towering over them - he did stand out with his bright red skin and he was basically tall enough to look into the second story of the school building. And unlike Terriermon, he couldn't just pretend to be a doll. And there wasn't a box big enough to hide him. So how were they going to hide him.

The Hypnos Agent stepped out of his car, massaging his eyes to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. A giant red dinosaur, in the middle of the school, surrounded by three kids who looked like they were talking to it. He picked up his radio to communicate it back to command, "Uh, command. I think we have a situation at site Bravo."

"Copy that, what's your status?" came Tally's voice over the radio. He looked up again at the site to make sure he wasn't hallucinating it before calling it in, "There's a wild one here, no doubt about that. And...there are kids. They're talking to it."

There was a pause on the radio before Tally replied, "Hang on. I'll notify Yamaki."

The agent shuddered. Usually, if anything went straight to Yamaki, it ended with him yelling at someone. He braced himself for that, still watching the monster from a distance as the kids started trying to move the creature. One of them, a boy, ran into a tool shed in the school and came out with a bucket of green paint and several rollers. Then...the strangest thing happened. They started painting the creature and it seemed to be all for it, raising his arms and turning for the kids as they painted every inch of his body.

Finally Yamaki came on the radio, "Say again agent. What exactly is going on?"

"Sir, they've gone from talking to it, to painting it green," the agent said into the radio, "Should I...move in?"

"Negative," Yamaki said, "Continue to monitor it but don't get too close. Keep it in site and wait for the QRF."

"Copy," the agent said. He placed the radio down and continued to watch from across the street. It was a good thing no one was in school today or this would've been a PR disaster for the program. Then he heard a soft click behind him, followed by the press of cold metal against his head. He raised his hands, and a woman's voice spoke, "Don't turn around. I'm not going to kill you but you're going to follow my instruction. Is that clear?"

"Burnt Leaf?" he asked, only to be answered when the steel pressed harder against his head. He nodded and the woman instructed, "Pick up the radio, call your command and tell them the monster just disappeared."

Not wanting to press his luck, he picked up the radio, "Ugh...Tally. We have a situation."

"Go ahead," she answered on the radio. The woman behind him added, "Make it convincing."

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, "The wild one just...disappeared."

"Say again?" Tally asked. The agent added, "I don't know...it was there one second and gone the next. It was like...I don't know...maybe it went back?"

The gun pressed harder against the back of his head, and he worried he might've screwed this up. Then Tally asked, "Confirm it, agent."

The agent answered, "It's gone. I don't know how to confirm that it...disappeared into thin air."

There was a long silence on the radio, then she said, "Stand By. The QRF just finished at Site Alpha and is on the way."

"Affirmative. Standing by," he answered. He heard the woman click her tongue behind him and she said, "Well that's bad news for me. And bad news for you."

He felt something hard hit the back of his head, then fell into darkness.

Author's Notes: Trouble is coming for Takato, Henry, Growlmon, Juri, and Terriermon! Will they be okay from the government agents? What'll happen when they meet? Will they narrowly escape the agents? What about Rika? 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 March 29th 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!

Annoyed, she went to swat the deck away only to find it thrust into her hand. She was perplexed, taken aback by how quickly and smoothly his hand had moved to accomplish the feat. And it only angered her into dropping it on the ground. In turn, Takato scooped all the cards back up and neatly reassembled the deck. Then he offered it to her again. She raised an eyebrow, "What's your deal?"

"I'm trying to keep you from making a dumb decision," he explained. Rika's eyes narrowed, "Don't tell me I'm making a dumb decision, goggle head. I'm making a smart decision, because this is dumb. All of this: the digimon, digivolution. All of it. I don't want anything to do with this."

"Then why'd you come back?" Takato asked with that stupid smile of his.

Rika paused at the question, certain that the goggle head was about to make some kind of dumb point, "You could've gone anywhere today. Tokyo's a big city. But you came here. Why?"