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 10: Kyubimon
Yamato "Matt" Ishida and Private Detective Ken Ichijouji stepped out of their car in front of an old apartment building. The building was in one of the poorer area and it showed with the graffiti and the broken windows on the first floor of the building. Normally neither would come near this place but they had no choice in this matter. Matt looked over at Ken and asked, "Are you sure this is the place?"
"My lead says there's a unit in his name up on the fourth floor," Ken pointed up at the upper floors. Matt wasn't so sure - this place was way below anything he could afford. He knew his little brother had his hideaways but he never figured they'd be in such a…disreputable part of the city.
They made their way up to the apartment number under Takeru's name and knocked. As soon as fist hit wood, the door creaked open just a little. Just like all the other places they'd gone, the door was not only unlocked but slightly open. Matt moved Ken behind him, and carefully pushed the door open just a little more to see a thin string running at about ankle height. His little brother had really gone out of his way to trap his hideouts. And like always, the trap was armed. Matt sighed, recalling his experience in the SDF to carefully disarm the trip wire and make sure neither of them died in some violent explosion. Once the trap was disarmed, he pushed the door open and saw a shotgun rigged to fire facing towards the door.
It was just like all the others. Something or someone must've really spooked Takeru for him to take these steps. Just like all the other places, all he found was an empty apartment littered with newspaper clippings, photos scattered everywhere, and notes littered around the floor. He frowned, "What happened to you little brother?"
A quick walk around the apartment led him into a bedroom that looked like it had been ransacked. Ken went to check the kitchen while Matt made his way to the bedroom, sure that he'd be disheartened by the lack of any good for the first time in a long time, he felt a spark of hope in his chest. Sitting in the corner of the floor of the bedroom was a laptop plugged into a wall. It was on log-in screen, illuminating the darkened apartment as it awaited password entry.
"I found something," Matt shouted, picking up the laptop. It was at full power, but how long had it been here? Ken came into the room and noticed it too, "A laptop? Pay dirt. If we can get in, we might find more leads on Takeru. Any idea what his password is?"
Matt mulled it over for a moment and began to type in the first thing he could think of, "Maybe his birthday?"
PASSWORD INCORRECT: THREE MORE TRIES REMAIN
"Damn," he cursed quietly. It was a silly guess, but it was worth a shot. Ken sighed, "Takeru doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd use his birthday. And it looks like he set up this laptop to either lock up or wipe itself if we guess wrong too many times. Any other ideas?"
"No," Matt frowned, closing the laptop and unplugged the charger from the wall, "Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps."
His mind raced with ideas as they made their way back downstairs. What would the password be? The name of his digimon partner, Patamon? The names of their parents? Their parents' wedding anniversary? Their divorce date? All of these ideas ran through his mind but they were all guesses in the end. And he only got three more chances. Whatever caused Takeru to booby trap the door, whatever caused him to just vanish...had Matt worried. Worried for his little brother. Worried for himself. Because what if whatever made his brother disappear also came after him? Or Ken? Or Sora?
"Rika? Rika! RIKA! Find me Rika! Find me!"
"Ryo?" Rika mumbled as she opened her eyes. That was his voice wasn't it? Damn. Why was she thinking about him? She hadn't seen him in years? Why did he have to run through her mind so often? She rolled her way out of bed, taking a moment to let her eyes adjust to the light streaming in. It was late, going by now low the sun was. Had she really slept all day? She cracked a tired yawn and forced herself up, trying to forget about that stupid dream she had.
What was with that dream anyway? Why was she dreaming about him? She needed to blow off steam. After a quick shower, she grabbed her CD player and headphones, intending to take a long walk to clear her head. It was just as well too since her mom had that designer friend of hers over and a couple of other people she didn't know. They were all talking about a laptop, something about finding someone else. Maybe it was another fashion model for her mom's friend's clothing line? The idea of it made her sick, because why would anyone want to waste their time with that?
It took a bit of work but they were finally able to cover Growlmon in the green paint they'd recovered from the shed. Unfortunately, all that changed was he went from a giant red dinosaur to a giant green dinosaur. For the plan to hide him to work, they'd have to sneak him back to the park without anyone noticing. They took a route back full of side streets and back alleys to avoid as many people as was possible. Then they ran into their next problem - Growlmon wasn't going to fit in the shed. That didn't stop Takato from trying to shove him in though.
"Suck in your stomach, Growlmon!" he called out while trying to push his partner in. Growlmon frowned, "I did! I'm not going to fit."
His head barely managed to fit through the gated door, but Takato still pushing the large digimon as hard as he could. After watching this for some time, Juri tapped Takato's shoulder, "I think you should stop. Growlmon sounds like he's hurt."
"I am hurt. My face is squished inside! Can I come out now?" Growlmon whimpered, looking like a dog with his head stuck in a bucket. Takato stepped away from the giant dinosaur, letting him poke his head out of the shed so that he could massage his sore neck, "I'm sorry Takatomon. I'm just too big."
"No, no," Takato sighed, massaging the back of his neck guiltily, "I'm sorry, buddy. But we can't just leave you out in the park. The green paint helps you blend in, but any one paying attention will figure you out right away. How do we hide a bright green dinosaur?"
"If he lies down, he can take a nap and pretend he's a bush. Or he can sleep in the playground and all the kids will think he's a new play set!" Terriermon suggested all too happily.
"Yeah. I'm going to give that a hard no," Henry said calmly, already envisioning a hundred little Xiaochuns climbing all over the sleeping digimon. He wouldn't wish that torture on anyone. Not to mention how many parents would freak out if Growlmon suddenly ran away in frustration around a bunch of kids. The police would get involved! Or worse. While they thought, Growlmon's stomach suddenly grumbled and he whimpered, "Takatomon, I have to go potty."
"Oh crap," Takato ran a hand through his hair anxiously. Terriermon's wars perked up, "Literally!"
Takato became frantic as his mind raced, "Didn't even think about that. How do we...wait, Growlmon! Stop! Don't! Not here!"
It was too late. Growlmon made his way to bush and squatted down. Everyone looked away in disgust as he did his business and left a large steaming pile just out of sight but close enough to smell. And it reeked worse than anything they could imagine. Anything he made as Guilmon paled compared to this, "Come on, Growlmon!"
"I'm sorry. I just really had to go," Growlmon whimpered, "Please don't be mad."
"I'm not mad, just...frustrated. There are weird people running around Growlmon, and we saw them take a digimon. I don't want them to take you, too!" Takato frowned, putting the idea into Henry that something could just as easily happen to Terriermon if his family ever found out. Or to Renamon and Calumon - they hadn't seen her since yesterday and Calumon had run off in the middle of the fighting. Maybe they'd be okay - Renamon was a fast moving digimon so there was no doubt she could keep herself out of trouble. Calumon was a different story - how did a digimon so small and naive manage to keep itself out of trouble?
"So I stood up, brushed the dirt away,
And dreamed it was a brighter day!
The chance I'm after came alive!
Big and bigger! Biggest dreamer!
Watch me race across the sky!
Hold your breath and soar with me!
Close your eyes and you can see it!
Flying farther, flying faster!
We can reach it if we try!
Tomorrow's now!
So take a bow!
And kiss your past good bye!"
Rika shut off her CD player, still unsure where this CD had come from. She didn't own it. At least, she didn't think she did. She'd been mindlessly walking for about an hour and, before she knew it, she was across town at the park where those idiots had been hiding their digimon. Not that she cared. It wasn't her concern what they were doing with their partners - she didn't care about digimon anymore. That's what she told herself but it didn't explain why she continued walking down the pathway towards the shed in the back of the park. The further she walked, the more she realized something was off about the forest - the trees seemed to be moving. On top of that, there was a foul stench in the air.
And judging by the noise coming from the shed, she was pretty sure who the cause of the smell was. She'd barely even made it to the first step when she realized the weird tree she'd been seeing was a larger version of Guilmon painted green for some reason. She blinked in disbelief - that idiot goggle head had gotten his partner to digivolve too! That annoyed her to no end, until she reminded herself it wasn't her problem. She didn't care about stuff like that anymore. It wasn't her business.
"We need to clean this up so that no one comes looking around," Henry said, "Otherwise we're going to have a lot of trouble hiding you guys here."
"Unless we can find a new place for them to hide," Juri proposed excitedly. Terriermon laughed, "Maybe he can dig another hole and hide in there?"
"That'll just draw more attention," Takato groaned. Once Rika was at the top of the stairs, she found all five of them standing around bickering while a giant pile of what she really hoped was bad smelling dirt sat nearby. She took one look at them and asked, "What are you guys doing up here?"
All five of them took notice of her, seemingly alarmed. She took off her headphones in preparation for whatever story they were going to tell her. Of course, she expected the goggle head to talk first but it was Henry who asked, "I thought you were done with digimon?"
Rika scoffed, "I am. But between the noise and the smell, it was hard to ignore whatever was going on."
"Thanks for proving my point," Takato added, gesturing at Growlmon, "Y'see buddy. This is why you needed to hold it. Now we have to figure out where we can hide you until you dedigivolve."
Rika took one look at the giant dinosaur and then at the door into the shed, spread wide so that the frame was loose and the walls around it were chipped. It looked like Takato had tried to force the big oaf through the small door. As if that would work. She sighed at their helplessness, "If you're trying to figure out how to shove your partner into that tiny thing, it's never going to work."
"Yeah, I know," Takato answered, kicking the dirt and pocketing his hands as if he were trying to hide the fact that he obviously had tried to force the gate open. Juri asked, "Do you know another place we can try, Rika?"
She mumbled under her breath about how this really wasn't her problem, then gestured for them to follow, "Yeah, I do."
"Really?" Takato's head perked up. She wasn't about to wait for them to start praising her and was already walking back down the path, "Keep up idiots. I don't have all day."
"What do you have to do on a Saturday?" Terriermon asked, but she ignored the question. Although she wasn't going to admit it, she'd been to this park several times in the past and knew of a gated off maintenance tunnel that was used to get into another park on the other side of the ward. Because it was gated, no one would be able to just wander in and find the digimon. Plus, it was big enough to fit a truck - it could hide the big dinosaur easy. Not that she cared or anything.
And it was just down the pathway too. But it seemed none of them had ever known it was here. Everyone gasped in awe of the large structure, Takato gleefully shouting, "Rika, this is perfect! How did you know this was here?"
"You notice a lot of things when you try to ignore people goggle head," she answered grumpily, checking the gate to make sure it wasn't locked and swinging it wide open for them. Growlmon took one look into the giant tunnel, lit up only by orange light that went on forever and asked, "This is so much bigger and nicer. Why don't I live here?"
"Because the last thing you need to do is to dig a hole in a tunnel," Takato answered, "And be careful in there, okay buddy? You don't want to bring the entire city down on top of you."
"Can that happen?" Juri asked. Takato shrugged, "He dug a hole in cement as Guilmon. Who knows what he could dig through as Growlmon. Thanks for helping us out, Rika."
"Whatever goggle head," she put her headphones on and turned to leave. She'd just taken her first few steps when Takato grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, "Hey, Wait."
Annoyed, she took her headphones back out, "What?"
"You should have this back," he reached into the pocket of his hoodie and retrieved her pouch full of cards attached to a belt. She looked at it wearily, not expecting to ever see those dumb cards ever again. Then again, she did keep running into these idiots everywhere she went. Tokyo was a big place, did they all just hang out in the same four blocks?
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 cheerfully. 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 a stupid smile.
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?"
"What do you care?" Rika asked, trying her hardest to ignore the fact that she'd been thinking the same thing. Then he added another question, "Also, why do you still have your digivice?"
Rika looked down to see the digivice still dangling off her belt loop. She was about to reach for it but Takato thrust the deck back into her face, "Take it, Rika. You don't want to give up on digimon, even though you say otherwise. Why else would you still have that?"
"I-" Rika paused, trying to calm the hundred thoughts rushing through her head. Why did she still have it? It hadn't gone off in a while - was Renamon okay? Did the goggle head have a point? Did she really want to still have stuff to do with digimon? She tried her best to rationalize each thought as it came into her head but couldn't. She needed to get out of this situation fast and there was only one way to do it. She snatched her belt out of his hands and fastened it, "Don't think this means I want anything else to do with digimon, goggle head. I just don't like creeps handling my stuff."
Takato chuckled nervously. That might've been the thing that did it for Rika. She stepped on Takato's foot as hard as he could to wipe the smile off his face and the boy leapt up on it, "OW! OW! What gives?"
"Now we're even," Rika said, before putting her head phones back in and turning to leave. Just as she started playing her music again, she heard Terriermon comment, "I think she likes you."
"If that's how she shows she likes someone, I'd hate to see how she shows disliking someone."
The QRF arrived to find their field agent unconscious on the ground. They were just about to report it in to command when a black Toyota rolled to a stop beside them - the company car as it were. Immediately, Yamaki stepped out of the driver's seat and asked, "What the hell is going on? Why are you all just standing around?"
The lead member answered, "Sir, we arrived to find the agent unconscious. We were securing the street and preparing to call this in."
"What happened?" Yamaki demanded, making his way to the unconscious agent. He was out cold, with a small puddle of drool forming under his chin as he lay there unconscious. He gestured at the team, "Pack it in. We're taking him back to base. I want to know what the hell happened as soon as he gets up."
"Yes, sir," the QRF members answered. In truth, they were only packing it in because it was still broad daylight and armed men in military uniforms hanging around outside a school would only cause a panic if they were seen. As the QRF filed back into their deployment van and departed, Yamaki noticed something on the sidewalk across the street. Small drops of green paint traveling down the road. It seemed impossible to miss once you noticed it, and he went on following it with every intention of discovering where it went. The agent reported they were painting the monster green. He wanted to know why.
Renamon leapt from one tree to another, then from lamp post to lamp post, occasionally even running along the roof tops. It seemed odd that in a city where digimon tended to appear so frequently, that she hadn't run into any today. Then again, she had wandered pretty far from where Rika's house was. Not that it was any of her concern - she and Rika were done with each other and that's how they liked it. Still, it would've been nice to get some exercise every now and again - testing her skill on some new enemies would definitely break up the monotony of running around all day looking for something to punch.
After a while, she stopped atop one of the rooftops and gazed down on the city below. There were so many humans just wandering around, going about their business without a care in the world. She envied that, being able to live a life where you didn't have to worry about being eaten by something bigger or getting crushed into oblivion by someone stronger. Then again, with the ever increasing number of digimon appearances in this world, it seemed like the mood was slowly shifting into one of quiet paranoia.
It was hard to ignore the increased police officers patrolling the streets, or the fact that many of them were armed with a secondary weapon now.
Then the smell came. The noxious smell of an annoying little imp who wouldn't leaver he, "Hey tuts. No human today?"
"What do you want, Impmon?"
"Just checkin' on ya. Us digimons gotta stick togetha in this world," Impmon said appearing beside her. Renamon turned to face him ,"I thought you said only the smart survive."
"I did. And the smart thing to do is to stick together," Impmon gestures out at the humans below, "Maybe you ain't notice from bein' round that human too much, but some of them humans is attackin' us! Little ol' digimon just mindin' theys own business when these guys in funny masks show up. You saw 'em get Dokugumon that one night. He ain't the first. They got a Minotarumon not long ago. You and me, we could be next."
Renamon eyed him suspiciously, "And what do I get out of us sticking together?"
Impmon scoffed, "We watch each other's backs, that's all."
Then another smell came. The smell of cold mist and the feeling of electricity that made hair stand on end. Another digimon was appearing, and it was appearing nearby. She scanned the horizon in search of it, running the length of the rooftop in search of it. Impmon noticed her leaving and asked, "Hey! Where's you going?"
"To become stronger," Renamon answered. If she hurried, she could beat the humans there and absorb the energy for herself.
The mist was growing in the distance, and she knew where her destination was. A small park just a few blocks away. And whatever was coming through was strong - at least a champion level in strength if she had to guess. Just the thought of it excited her. Without a word, she leapt off the roof onto a lamp post and took off - the chase began!
Rika found herself wandering all her familiar routes - all the card shops where she bought booster packs, comic book stores where she could leaf through the magazines to see what cards would be coming out in the new expansions, rule books, everything. All of this used to excite her but now...she just felt a desire to go back to when it was just that simple. When digimon were just pictures on a card with some numbers for stats. Now she knew they were real, and they were after her.
It scared her. So much so that she jumped the moment that her digivice started beeping. She tried to play it off and hurried on down the path, trying her best to ignore the beeping at first. But the longer she tried, the louder it seemed to get. Until people started giving her funny looks like they expected her to answer their phone. Eventually, she gave in and lifted it up to see the radar pointing her to a park she liked to frequent when she wanted some alone time.
Then another image showed up: A white bird with red accents and golden mask resembling a human face. Harpymon - a champion level digimon. She clicked her tongue and went on as if nothing happened, trying to ignore goggle head's words as they crept up back into her mind.
"I'm trying to keep you from making a dumb decision."
"You could've gone anywhere today. Tokyo's a big city. But you came here."
"You don't want to give up on digimon, even though you say otherwise. Why else would you still have that?"
She wanted to go be with her partner. Except she didn't. But Renamon could get hurt without her. And it wasn't her problem. So why did she care?
Annoyed, she looked at the digivice one more time to make sure her heading was the same and made her way forward towards the park while quietly hoping that she wouldn't need to be there.
Renamon arrived in time to see the wild digimon appear through the mist. Harpymon. It made something like a screech and turned its head in every direction, scouting for any danger. That was good. It hadn't sensed her yet. A few times, it stretched its wings and tried to fly but nothing happened. Obviously, it was still getting its bearings from just appearing in the Real World. Which gave Renamon exactly the advantage she wanted.
She moved quickly, hoping to get a good blow in before it could effectively put up a fight. One leap into the air was all it took for Renamon to get the drop on the harpy. It panicked, taken aback by the surprise attack and tried to shake her off. But no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't fully get her off its back. And Renamon used this to her advantage. At this close range, there was no way she could miss, "DIAMOND STORM!"
The diamonds appeared just behind her and pierced the digimon's side. It shrieked in agony, finally finding the strength to throw Renamon off her back and rise up into the air. Once airborne, the digimon turned its attention on Renamon. Renamon winced and started to move - it may have the flight advantage but that wouldn't account for much if she didn't give it an easy target. She darted for the trees, hoping the extra coverage would make her a harder target to hit for Harpymon. But the digimon responded in kind by flying through the trees, using her immense claws to slice the trees down as she flew past.
Renamon couldn't let up - she continued running. Right past the little Calumon staring up at her with big eyes, "Hey. What's up?"
"What are you doing here?" Renamon had just enough time to gasp out before she leapt at the digimon, scooping him up before a tree fell on him. Harpymon continued her pursuit just behind them, and Calumon asked, "What game are you guys playing? You're not fighting are you? Why is everyone I run into fighting today? I just want to play and have fun!"
Renamon had no time to figure out what he meant by that. They were being attacked by Harpymon! She didn't have time to protect this digimon and fight off Harpymon at the same time. One of them was going to have to give. And she had the sneaking suspicion that Calumon wasn't going to stay out of the way.
She needed to put him someplace safe. But where? With trees falling left and right, this place was more dangerous than if she'd simply leave him out in the open. At least there, a stray tree wouldn't land on him. She had to get out of this death trap.
"DIGIMODIFY! SPEED BOOST ACTIVATE!"
Immediately, Renamon felt her step get lighter and her leap take her farther, making it easier to leap out of the trees and slide to a stop in what appeared to be a basketball court. And standing there was Rika with her digivice in one hand and set of cards in the other. Immediately her eyes narrowed, "What are you doing here?"
"You looked like you could use a hand," Rika answered quietly, trying to avoid making eye contact. Renamon clicked her tongue, "I've done fine without you."
"Obviously not," Rika said, shifting her eyes back into the forest where Harpymon roared out screaming for blood, "What's their deal?"
"None of your concern, Ruki," Renamon warned the digimon. She set Calumon down and said, "If you want to be helpful, keep this thing out of my way."
Calumon seemed disappointed that she was disinterested in him, his ears shrinking down so that they were the size of small nubs sticking out of his head. That wasn't her problem though. He wasn't even her concern. Her only concern now was defeating Harpymon before Harpymon got the better of her. And she would do it without Rika's help.
Yamaki followed the trail of paint all the way to a park, and then to an access tunnel entrance where a pair of boys, a girl, and a small white rabbit thing were talking to each other. They were so busy doing whatever they were doing that they didn't even notice he was there. Which gave him the chance he needed to put a hand on his gun. He didn't want to start shooting at kids needlessly; perhaps he could convince them to surrender the wild one.
"Hey," Yamaki said. Immediately, the two boys stepped in front of the digimon and the girl. The one wearing goggles stated, "Oh, uh, hi. Don't mind us. We're just…hanging out."
"With that abomination," Yamaki stated plainly, gesturing at the rabbit. He watched the kids' faces turn to surprise while the boy mouth an obscenity, "You should watch your mouth. Kids your age shouldn't curse."
"And I'm not an abomination!" the rabbit protested. Yamaki blinked in surprise. They talked. He knew some could but most of them just screamed and hissed. He figured any speech would be more guttural and less eloquent. He stepped towards them cautiously, "Look, you kids should surrender that thing over to me. It's dangerous and-"
"Hard pass," the boy with goggles interrupted, "No offense, but I think we've got a better handle on this than you do. Also, thing? He has a name and it's Terriermon."
"Moumantai," it added rather cheerfully. Yamaki sighed, certain that this was going to be a serious challenge, "I wasn't asking you. I was telling you. That…Terriermon…is dangerous and people who get involved with those things tend to die. Give it to me before it does the same to you."
"We are talking about the same digimon, right?" the boy looked over at his shoulder at the small critter. The kids looked amongst themselves worriedly and the girl gasped, "Is that a gun?"
"He won't use it," the goggle wearing boy pointed out, "If he wanted to hurt us, he'd have done it by now. I mean look, it's still in its holster."
"That's not very reassuring," the other boy added. Everyone except the goggle wearing kid took a step back. In fact, he kept talking as he approached Yamaki, "But he hasn't used it yet. In fact, he's just standing there talking to us. Which means we can reason with him. Isn't that right?"
"There won't be any reasoning because you're going to give me the thing. You have no idea what you're getting involved with," Yamaki assured him, "For your own safety, do the right thing."
"We are doing the right thing," he replied, "By the way, you look familiar? Have we met?"
Yamaki raised an eyebrow. He'd never seen this boy before, so how did the boy recognize him? In fact, he'd gone out of his way to maintain his anonymity in government. Then the boy snapped his fingers, "Oh, I know! You come to my family bakery! You're the guy who gets those day old bagels!"
"Those bagels were a day old?" Yamaki repeated before shaking his head, "No, never mind. What that means is I know where your family lives. So if you don't want anything to happen to them, you'll-"
"Do absolutely nothing," the boy interrupted them, "Because if you were really okay with hurting us, you would've just shot us when you were sneaking up on us. Heck, we wouldn't even be standing here having this conversation. But you're not going to. Either you're too much of a good guy to do it, or you don't want to escalate needlessly. Either way, I think the best thing would be for you to walk away."
Yamaki rolled his eyes, and fired his gun at the ground just in front of the boy's foot. The boy took a step back, apparently getting the message. The other boy with them groaned, "Hey, how about you don't antagonize the guy pointing a gun at us?"
"He won't shoot," the first boy said adamantly. Yamaki fired again at the boy's feet, "Do you want to reassess that or do you want to keep talking? This is your last chance. Give me the monster before anyone else gets hurt."
The kids were frozen, apparently with shock. Maybe he'd gone too far in firing the gun. The little creature even seemed scared he'd be given up. The girl said, "Maybe we should."
The goggle wearing boy raised up his hand to signal her and stepped towards Yamaki. He raised his gun to scare the boy off but he just kept walking. And he only stopped when the gun was pressed against his forehead. That took Yamaki off guard. Did the boy want to die? Was he just insane? He warned, "I will pull this trigger."
He didn't expect the boy's answer, "So what are you waiting for? Because as long as I'm alive, I'm not going to give you Terriermon. Guys, get out of here."
"But-" the girl started, only for the boy to signal again, "I'll catch up. Go!"
The remaining kids looked at each other before running past them. Yamaki was about to turn and fire but stopped when he had the gun level on them. He could've stopped this. Shot the kids and ended it here. But he couldn't bring himself to squeeze the trigger. Then the goggle headed boy pointed out, "See what I mean? You couldn't do it. You didn't want to."
Yamaki clicked his tongue angrily. Who was this kid to psychoanalyze him? He pointed at the kid angrily and said, "Any thing that happens because you let that thing loose in this world is on you, do you understand?"
"I understand perfectly," the boy replied, hurrying off to join his friends.
"We'll see about that," Yamaki clicked his tongue and took to leave. He wasn't going to report this. The last thing he needed was his superiors breathing down on him for not letting three kids get away with a wild one. And though he didn't want to admit it, part of him wondered if he should've just done it - shot the kids, taken the digimon, and left.
Rika was miffed. She offered to help and Renamon had snubbed her. She was left to babysit the baby of a digimon who couldn't even defend itself. Then again, she had invited this on herself. She had been just as rude to Renamon. So, if anything, she deserved to be yelled at. But she wasn't going to sit idly while Renamon faced this monster of a digimon by herself. She called out, "I'm trying to help."
"Really? Because it looks like you let Calumon wander away!" Renamon spat back. Rika looked down to see the little digimon walking off and hurried to scoop him up, "You're not going anywhere! There! I'm protecting him. Now let me help!"
"I don't need you!" Renamon shouted, busy leaping around the park while Harpymon gave chase. Calumon whimpered and pleased, "You two shouldn't fight. You're friends, right?"
"Can it," Rika scolded Calumon. She didn't have time to deal with his whimpering and innocent comments. She called out to Renamon, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? Is that want you want to hear?"
"What I want to hear is you leaving!" Renamon snapped angrily. Okay, she deserved that. But she reached for digivice anyway, "Forget that, I'm helping. Get ready for an advantage! Digimodify! Angemon's Wings Activate!"
A set of angelic wings appeared on Renamon's back and she took to the air, ramming Harpymon so that both digimon spiraled downward as they fell. It seemed like Renamon had won until Harpymon spread her wings, "Wind Seeker!"
A blast of razors flew out of Harpymon's wings, tearing at Renamon so that she had to let go, "AARRRGGHH!"
She screamed in agony and fell to the ground, collapsing at the edge of the basketball court. Rika dropped Calumon, running to her partner's side, "Renamon! Renamon! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Stay out of this," she muttered, pushing herself back up but barely able to stand. Harpymon landed before the pair, hissing and snapping at them in anger for what Renamon had done. She wasn't going to leave Renamon though. They were partners. And she wasn't going to sit back and let her get hurt, Rika grabbed a broken branch she found lying on the ground and held it like a sword, "Back off freak! Renamon's my partner and I'm not letting you anywhere near her!"
"You idiot, Rika!" Renamon spat back at her, "That digimon will tear you apart! Get out of here before you hurt yourself!"
"I'm not leaving you!" Rika spat back bitterly. Harpymon roared triumphantly and stepped forward to attack, inviting Rika to charge forward with the stick, "I said back off! Leave her alone!"
She swung the branch with all her might and watched it snap in half as it struck the digimon across the chest. Before she could even think about backing away, Harpymon kicked her aside and threw her into a tree. She screamed as the pain ripped through her body, amazed that Renamon was able to take this kind of punishment and still keep standing. It was awful; she wasn't sure she'd even be able to stand after that attack. She massaged the spot where Harpymon hit her and looked up at the digimon as it roared at her.
Renamon was off the side, struggling to stand up on her feet while also reaching out to her. It seemed Renamon actually did care despite her bravado. Rika was glad to know, since she had been quietly worried about Renamon too. It just sucked that it was too late to show it now. She was pretty sure they were going to both die here. So stupid.
And of course, Calumon was off to the side watching the whole thing with a glazed over look. He didn't even look like he was focusing on her. He'd probably spaced out, the air head. Harpymon stepped over her and Rika was sure this was it. A bright light flashed from Calumon and Rika closed her eyes to keep from being blinded. BUt over it, she could hear Renamon cry out, "Renamon! Digivolve to! Kyubimon!"
Rika forced her eyes open and saw a yellow fox with nine burning tails ram Harpymon in the side, throwing the digimon to the ground, "LEAVE HER ALONE!"
"Renamon?" Rika asked, shaking her head, "No, Kyubimon."
Kyubimon dug her claws into the ground, standing over Rika and growling at Harpymon, "If you go near her again, you're dead!"
Harpymon answered by hissing at her. Then she charged, without warning and with her wings spread out again. Renamon answered by whipping her tails at the bird digimon, letting the flames shoot forward with a great burst, "Fox Tail Inferno!"
The flames burned Harpymon alive and the digimon screamed out in agony, giving Kyubimon a sorely needed opening to ram the large digimon. While she did, Kyubimon started spinning in place so that she became engulfed in flame, "Dragon Wheel!"
The digimon had just enough time to scream out before disappearing into a cloud of data. Data that Kyubimon quickly absorbed. Once she finished, she turned to Rika, "Are you okay?"
Rika lay on the ground, still holding where she'd been hit and replied, "I'm fine. You digivolved."
"Yes, I did," Kyubimon nodded, stepping towards her, "You're hurt."
"It's nothing," Rika said, using the tree behind her to support herself as she stood back up. Her gut was killing her and she staggered for a moment but Kyubimon used her snout to help her along, "Why'd you do it, Rika?"
"Because…we're partners," Rika answered meekly. She wasn't very good at this sort of thing and it was hard to say what she was feeling, "About before. I shouldn't have..."
She paused. All this mushy stuff wasn't her. She hated it. She sighed, "Look, I'm not good at this kind of stuff. What I'm trying to say is I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry," Kyubimon shook her head, taking the girl off guard, "I wanted to prove I could be strong. In the end though, I needed you to digivolve. We needed each other. Partners?"
"Partners," Rika answered, leaning on the digimon to support herself but also trying to give something like an awkward hug. The digimon stooped down, "Home is a long way for you. Climb on and I'll take you there."
"Thanks, Kyubimon," Rika pulled away from the hug, gritting her teeth as she climbed on to the digimon. Then they were off to home.
Impmon watched from a tree branch above as Kyubimon rode away with her human. He felt the littlest tinge of anger at it. So she'd gone back to the human. Of course she did. He scoffed and turned to leave. Seeing it made him sick to his stomach and he needed to find a place to throw up.
Author's Notes: Rika and Renamon are back together again! But what happened to Calumon? What will happen because of Takato and Yamaki's meeting? And can Matt and Ken find TK? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name due out next week on Friday April 5th at 8 PM CDT. 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!
Kazu and Kenta both freaked out at the sight, barely able to hide the concern in their voices, "What are you doing Takato?"
"Yeah, what is that?"
"I don't-" he paused again, "My head-"
He pressed his hands against his head, massaging his temples, "-hurts. There's something...digital field...outside."
He hurriedly stumbled his way out of the shed, trying to keep himself from falling over as he pushed the iron barred door open to the park. Juri followed him outside, once again certain that he was running off into certain danger without a thought for his own safety when she noticed an unseasonably strong wind. Then there was a faint glimmer of light in the distance, coming from the top of the nearby metropolitan building.