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 12: From The Other Side
Smoke filled the air, and fire was everywhere. That wouldn't be so bad if Yamaki could get the ringing out of his ears. He was flat on his back for some reason, and his entire body ached. He sat up and looked around, seeing only darkness illuminated by the smoldering cinders. He called out, "Is everyone alright? Sound off!"
"I'm okay!" Riley answered. That was a relief.
"Fine, sir!" Another called back.
"My ears are ringing but I'm fine," Tally called back.
"Can anyone see anything?" one of the scientists shouted out in the dark.
"I can't see a thing through all this smoke!" another called out.
"I can't feel my leg," Izumi's voice groaned out in the dark. Yamaki stumbled around the dark room, following the sound of Izumi's voice until he saw the outline of a man in front of him. It was too dark to see properly and Yamaki lit up his cigarette light to see who he was looking at. It was Izumi - he looked fine. Yamaki brought the flame further down to his leg, and saw that he was missing his leg from the knee down. It was gone - obliterated into a messy blood stain scattered along the floor. Yamaki cursed, "Shit."
"Yamaki! What the hell happened?!" The minister asked. Yamaki ignored the minister, undoing his belt and tightening it around what remained of Izumi's leg to stop the bleeding. The guy was as pale as a ghost and would be soon if this wasn't stopped. He patted Izumi's shoulder to keep him awake, "Stay calm. Your leg is gone and you've lost a lot of blood. Don't worry. We'll get you out of here."
"Y-yeah," Izumi nodded, obviously too out of it to properly assess anything he'd heard. He probably didn't even realize how much pain he was supposed to be in. Yamaki took the man's arm over his shoulder and tucked another arm under Izumi, "Come on, stay with me Izumi."
"Generator...overload," Izumi mumbled, too drained of blood to finish whatever he was saying. The guy was hopping with each step Yamaki took, and Yamaki did his best to keep him from falling over. Thankfully, Riley came up on his other side and helped support him there so he wouldn't have to hobble along too much. Then the minister called out again, "YAMAKI! Don't you ignore me!"
"I don't know what happened, you fucking clod!" Yamaki snapped back, "And if you want to stay long enough to figure it out, you're welcome to. Burn yourself alive for all I care. I'm evacuating my people and getting them out of the building."
"Sir!" Tally called out to him, "There's something on the monitor! Something big!"
Yamaki called back, "I don't care! The buildings on fire! Let's evacuate!"
"SIR!" Tally called again, "You need to see this."
Yamaki paused and looked over his shoulder to see the large monitor over the room. It was a miracle it was still working after what just happened. But the fact that it was setting off an alert was more alarming. A single large red dot moved across the screen - stopping directly over the part of the map that marked the Metropolitan Building. Yamaki's jaw fell open, "It's going to bio-emerge here!?"
"Tear...open...worlds...connected," Izumi mumbled out between gasps for breath. Yamaki had no idea what he was babbling but there was a wild one coming here. A big one. They had to contain it, "Tally, deploy the QRF! Everyone else, get out of here!"
"Yamaki!" The minister shouted. He'd had enough of the minister's constant shouting for his name by that point. Without even a thought for any of the consequences, snapped at the older man, "Listen up you incompetent bureaucrat! I don't know what happened, and my only interest right now is getting my people out of here. If you want to sit there, point fingers, and scream like a little shit toddler trying to rattle to mommy and daddy, be my guest! But before you start throwing blame, remember that I can end your career with a single leak. Now get out of my way."
The minister blinked, but regained enough of his composure to begin reprimanding Yamaki, "How dare you-"
"Retsuko Sunoda, January 12th of this year, the Ichiraku Ramen Shop," Yamaki interrupted, the day the minister had met his mistress. Watching the minister's stunned face was all the leverage Yamaki needed. The minister tried to deny it, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, mister minister. It's so big. You're so good," Yamaki added to his stunned boss, knowing that specific line meant nothing out of context. But his boss's silence said more than anything else he could actually say, "We have a lot more than just that on you. And a lot more. Now get out of my way, or I'll be leaking everything I have."
The minister seemed to get the point and stepped out of their way, giving them the opportunity to finally get to safety. There were a lot of stairs on the way down and he didn't want to be here when the building came down on top of them.
The explosion was so loud that it was impossible to miss. Rika looked up from her walk and scanned the skyline. In the distance, she could see a small pillar of smoke rising up from the top most floor of the building. Then her digivice started beeping. She already had a guess why, and was unsurprised to see it pointing at the tower in front of her. But the image of the digimon it showed was completely alien to her. It was some kind of tiger with wings, but there was no other information appearing on the screen. What kind of image was this? What kind of digimon was she about to go up against? She reached for her deck, readying it when some guy with his hat pulled down over his face bumped into her - sending the deck scattering along the ground.
"Watch it!" she called out after the man bitterly, gathering her cards together quickly, "Are you ready, Renamon?"
"I am Rika," she heard her partner answer from behind her, "But this digimon is different. Whatever it is, it's strong. Stronger than anything we've faced before. If we go, we should be careful."
"We can handle it," she remarked confidently, trying her hardest to ignore the feeling of dread she could feel coming from that tower in the distance.
It was almost like something out of a crazy video game as far as Henry was concerned. The Tokyo Metropolitan Building was smoking in the distance, and his own digivice was pointing him at some strange digimon somewhere on top of it. Like the digivice expected him to go to the top of the tower and defeat the boss of a video game. But it couldn't even tell him anything about the digimon. And it was one he'd never heard or seen before. What was he supposed to do with this?
If he had to guess, it would've been to go find Juri so that he could get Terriermon, and then go after it. Odds were, she was with Takato and Guilmon. And there was no doubt that they were already on their way there. If anything was certain, Takato was on his way there to help out any way that he could. He sighed, contemplating what would possess the boy to act like that before hurrying after them himself. It was just enough time for him to wonder what was wrong with himself?
Kari and Mori scoured the park. She really wanted to go lie down after work. She loved her job, but that didn't mean she didn't like a break every once in a while. Then she heard the earth shattering boom in the distance and turned to see the smoke rising from the Metropolitan Building. She felt her heart stop, and instinctively reached into her pocket for her digivice.
Not that it would do any good. She may have brought the digivice with her everywhere, but that didn't mean she could actually use it in any meaningful way. Not without her partner. Besides, there was no reason to think this was a digimon. They hadn't been seen in a long time. Not since Takeru vanished.
"Miss Kamiya! We should probably head back!" Mori said nervously. Kari massaged her forehead as her current problem reminded her it was there. She looked at him, "Mister Mori. The Metropolitan Building is a good distance from here. There's no need to get worked up. Besides, we're still on the clock. Head home if you want, but I'm going to stay here."
She really hoped he did leave. She didn't care too much for his clinginess or attempts at earning her affection. Unfortunately for her, he seemed frozen in place out of terror. That was just as good. It meant she'd get a small break from him and, with any luck, she could leave him far enough behind that he'd get lost trying to find her for a while.
Takato swung the gate open to let the digimon out, "Are you guys okay?"
"Us? What about you?" Terriermon asked, pointing at his arms, "You were turning into a ghost, just like us!"
"I'm fine," he nodded, massaging his head, "Just a headache. A really bad headache. I've had worse."
His digivice started beeping erratically, and Juri noticed him wince at the sound, "And this isn't helping. Okay, what is it this time?"
"No idea, but I bet it has something to do with that," Kazu pointed upwards at the smoking top floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. It was hard to miss despite the setting sun, partially because of the soft glow of light coming from whatever fire was up there. Juri couldn't keep her eyes off it, wondering what digimon was up there that caused that and hoping everyone was alright. And Takato was going to run into that.
She wanted to urge him not to go until she saw the look on his face. Surprise, confusion, and a little bit of dread. He put the digivice away and said, "Maybe you guys should wait here."
Kazu raised his arms in protest, "Are you kidding!? There's no way we're missing this! We're coming to watch! I ain't listening to this stuff again on the news."
"Same!" Kenta agreed. Terriermon leapt up onto Guilmon's head, "Get us a box because we've got a long way to go to get there."
"Yeah, right," Takato picked the box up and threw it over them, "Try to keep up. Let's go guys!"
Without even hesitating, everyone followed Takato out of the park and towards the burning tower in the distance. The whole way, crowds of people stopped what they were doing to point up at the spectacle - some wondering aloud if it was monsters, terrorists, or an accident. They were so enraptured by it, that no one seemed to mind the fact that Guilmon was running by in his giant box. Or that it had a long red tail poking out from under the bottom.
The front of the building was no different - with a large crowd gathered at its base while fire crews and police kept everyone at a distance across the street. Behind the police line, it was hard to miss the lines of people leaving the building. Many were covered in soot, while others were visibly injured. Among them was the man in the shades they had seen the day before. The one who so casually threatened them with a gun.
He and some woman were helping to move another man - one who hobbled oddly on one leg. Another glance told her why - his other leg was gone. Blown clean off. Kenta gasped, "Maybe we should've stayed back. This looks bad."
"We can't back down now, dude!" Kazu shook his shoulder and pointed up, "There's a digimon up there and there's no way we're going to miss this fight."
"TAKATO! JURI!"
Everyone spun around to see Henry running up just behind them with his digivice dangling from his belt. He stopped to catch his breath, grabbing at his chest before finally asking, "What's going on?"
Takato pointed up at the smoke and fire, "We just got here. Whatever is coming through is on top of that building and we need to get up there before anyone else does."
"Alright, where's Terriermon?" Henry asked, looking between them all for some sign of his partner.
"Moumantai," his partner answered from inside the box. Henry smirked a little at his partner's carefree attitude, then noticed Kazu and Kenta, "What are you guys doing here?"
"We could ask you the same!" Kazu answered defensively.
"Why is it always you guys?" Rika asked as she appeared beside them with a hand on her hip. Juri was relieved to see her there, along with Takato who happily greeted, "Welcome back, Rika. Good to see you're back in the game!"
Rika rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't exactly call any of this a game, goggle head. So, what is it this time?"
Takato shrugged, "I have no idea. But you're going to want to put on your shades."
"At this time of night?" Kenta asked disbelievingly, until Takato explained, "The fog hurts your eyes when the digimon show up. Besides, the last thing any of us want is to get recognized. We've been lucky so far but we don't want that guy with the shades recognizing us."
He demonstrably put on his goggles and looked at Henry, "What about you?"
"I don't have anything," Henry answered sheepishly, looking to Rika as she put her pair of sunglasses on.
"Got it. Wait here," Takato nodded and disappeared into the crowd. A long uncomfortable silence passed between all of them. None of them had really spent time together outside of these digimon showing up and none of them really knew what to say to each other. The silence only broke when he reappeared a moment later with several pairs of shades: He handed a golden pair to herself, a green pair for Henry, a copper pair for Kazu and a pink one for Kenta, "You can borrow these."
"How come I get the pink ones?" Kenta complained sheepishly, missing the more obvious question that Henry had to ask, "Where...did you get this? My parents already think I stole Terriermon. I don't want them to think I moved up to stealing clothes and accessories."
"Think of it as borrowing without permission, but with every intention of returning at a later date to be determined at another time," Takato answered with a pointed finger, shoving the shades into Henry's hand and looking back up at the burning tower. Kazu asked, "How did you fail our grammar test again?"
"Because I can't spell and I don't like kanji, hiragana, katakana, or romaji," Takato retorted grumpily, "Seriously, I have a hard enough time with the first three, I don't want to figure out how to write in someone else's language."
"Anyone got any ideas on how to get up there?" Henry looked up at the tall building. Rika answered, "One, but it only gets me and Renamon up there. What about you guys?"
"I have an idea, but it's going to make quite the scene," Takato answered sheepishly. Between the burning building, the hundreds of injured people, and the police, Juri was sure Takato had missed something kind of important and pointed that out to him, "There's already a scene, Takato. I don't think any one is going to notice."
"Yeah, but you guys should get clear in case any one comes to ask any questions," Takato answered sheepishly.
Yamaki collapsed on the ground as soon as Izumi was safely in the hands of the paramedics. He turned down an oxygen tank, letting Riley have it first. Since he was a chronic smoker, the smoke didn't affect him as much as it affected her since she was struggling to breathe after the first flight of stairs. And they just marathoned the entire building. He took a minute to straighten himself out, trying to get to his senses when he noticed some all too familiar faces in the crowd. It was those kids again - the kids with the giant red dinosaur.
They must've had something to do with this. What else could it have been. He began walking towards them when a flash of light blinded his vision briefly. Instinctively, he put a hand on his gun and shielded his eyes with his other. When the light died down, he looked on to see the red dinosaur was a lot smaller in size now. And it had six white angelic wings sprouting from its back. It picked up the two boys and flew up towards the top of the building. Then a yellow fox leapt up beside them, running up the length of the building with a girl in its arms.
He felt his mouth fall open in disbelief at the sight before him. Who the hell were these kids? And more importantly, how did no one else see that? He wasn't crazy. He knew what he saw. It was hard to miss that bright flash of light. Then again, with so many flashing lights from the ambulances and the smoke coming from the Hypnos Program, odds were that there was too much going on for anyone to care. He would have to go up and take care of the problem alone.
He turned to head back in but was grabbed by Riley. Her grip was surprisingly strong for someone who was struggling to breathe just a moment ago, "Sir, where are you going?"
The question was formal, but he knew what she was asking. She was worried he was about to go do something incredibly stupid. He answered, "This isn't the time for this."
She snorted, "And this isn't the time to do anything stupid. We were the last ones out of the building. What are you going back in for?"
It was a fair question, but he still had to get up there. If he repeated what he saw, she'd think he was crazy. He had to make something up, "To make sure there was no one left behind."
She took a deep breath from the oxygen mask before passing it to him, "Be careful, sir. And come back alive, you idiot."
He nodded, placing the oxygen mask inside his coat pocket and running back inside. He hated lying to her, but she would've come with if she knew why he was really going back in. And he would never forgive himself if anything happened to her.
Upon landing on the roof of the building, they were greeted by the same digital fog that marked the arrival of a digimon. But this cloud was so large that it covered the whole roof of the building. Renamon set Rika down beside Guilmon as the dinosaur landed. He dropped Takato, Terriermon, and Henry before collapsing on his own, "You guys are heavy."
Terriermon asked the obvious, "So did you have a plan for after we got to this part?"
"Hope he likes talking," Takato answered sheepishly, "And hope that he doesn't just outright attack us."
"Humans...why are you here?" a deep voice spoke from within the fog, "You will stand aside or I will burn you away with fire."
"Okay, why is he threatening us before he even got here?" Rika demanded, trying to ignore the looks she was getting from the others. Terriermon pointed out, "Maybe he's mad we didn't roll out the welcome mat."
"This is a nice change of pace though - most of the time the digimon just flat out attack us and we have to fight," Henry pointed out only to be shushed by Takato. The boy actually stepped towards the fog, pressing a finger to his lips and whispering, "Maybe we shouldn't say anything to make him angry. He already sounds like he's in a bad mood."
"And what are you doing?" Rika asked him aloud. Takato answered with a big smile, "Talking and hoping that I can convince Mihiramon to not kill us all."
Everyone collectively groaned and Renamon buried her face in her hands as she asked, "That will not work! That does not work! It has never worked for you! And how do you know its name?"
"That's the least important question right now," he spun on his heels to face the fog, "Mihiramon! We don't want to fight you. We want to help. Why are you here?"
The answer came with a growl from the fog, "Who are you to know me? How does a human know my name?"
Takato's expression soured as he answered, "I know quite a bit, actually. What I don't know is why all the digimon are coming to the human world. Are you looking for something? Is there danger? Why are you here?"
"A lowly human would never understand. Especially not a child," Mihiramon replied.
"Kids saved your world!" Takato shouted at it. Mihiramon responded with a dangerously loud roar, blowing away the fog with a gust of wind from his wings and revealing his form: a large golden tiger with purple stripes and angelic wings. The tiger stared down on Takato, growling at the boy until Guilmon ran between them. The two digimon growled at each other - daring the other to make the first move across some invisible line on the ground. Takato tried pulling the red digimon back, "Sorry about Guilmon. He gets like that sometimes. He really doesn't mean anything by it. Let's talk!"
"Digimon, subservient to a human?" Mihiramon growled, "This will not stand."
He roared again, creating another strong gust that nearly threw them all off the tower. Rika scoffed at Takato's attempt to talk - none of the digimon ever wanted to talk and this guy didn't seem to be any different. She quietly sifted through her deck for the right card and nodded to her partner. Then she shouted, "Forget talking. Get out of our world already, freak!"
"NO!" Takato pleaded, too late to stop Rika from swiping a card in her deck, "Digimodify! Strength Boost Activate! WarGreymon's Shield Activate!"
"STOP!" Takato pleaded again as Renamon ran straight at Mihiramon with the shield in her hand. Rika called out, "Defense, Renamon! Let's see what this guy has and then come up with a plan! Hey! Chinese kid!"
"It's Henry," the boy answered and she rolled her eyes, "Whatever, are you fighting or what?"
"I…" the boy paused, looking back up at this Mihiramon. Terriermon chimed in, "Let me make this easy, Henry. You won't have to worry about your parents thinking I'm stolen for much longer if you're not alive to get yelled at."
Something seemed to click inside Henry's brain and he understood - nodding in solemn agreement with his partner and saying, "You're right, Terriermon. Give me a second to find the right card."
Now they were both fighting Mihiramon, ignoring Takato's pleas to stop the fighting, "Guys, stop! We don't have to fight! Henry, listen to me!"
Anything Takato had to say was lost when a ball fire erupted from Mihiramon's mouth, narrowly missing all of them and hurtling off into the city and striking the side of a distant building. This only confirmed what Rika already knew - the creature was only interested in destruction. Well not if she had anything to say about it. She raised up her digivice and said again, "How about you listen to us, goggle head! That digimon is going to kill us and the city if we don't stop it! Get off your high horse, stop trying to talk it down, and help us kill it!"
Takato spat back, "I'm tired of fighting. For once, I just want to talk this out. For all we know, we're on the same side! And…damnit, I wish I knew how to use this digivice!"
"We've seen you use it, goggle head. Just swipe the damn cards!" she spouted, tossing her deck holder at him which he caught. She turned her attention away from him and back towards the battle playing out in front of them. As she instructed, Renamon was using the shield to tank hits from Mihiramon and keeping his attention so that they could attempt to find a weakness. But from what she could tell - the digimon's vicious attacks boiled down to sheer speed and brute force. In fact, if it weren't for Renamon's natural reaction speed and WarGreymon's sturdy shield, she likely would've been defeated already. How could she take relentless attack and make a strategy around that? He never seemed to pause or slow down. It was just one strike after another.
If he was too busy attacking, maybe he was unaware of his surroundings! Of course! She called out to Henry, "Henry, have your partner rush in from the side and attack his blindspot!"
Henry nodded, producing his deck, "Got it! Terriermon, get ready for a little pick me up!"
"Well, it's about time!" Terriermon cheered excitedly.
Calumon floated along playfully through the airy night sky of this strange human city using his large ears as wings to help him stay aloft. As he floated by, he noticed a ball of fire shoot past just in front of him and collide with a building off in the distance. The little digimon's eyes widened with curiously - he'd only ever seen something like that when there were digimon trying to kill each other. And there seemed to be a lot of that for a world that was supposed to only have humans.
Still, he traced the path of the fireball back to a distant burning building - perhaps one of the tallest buildings in the city. Calumon oohed, "I wonder what's happening there? It must be a fun party. It's gotta be if the building is on fire!"
Yes, that had to be it. There were absolutely no flaws in his logic. With a nod, he floated towards the building and the smoke. When he was just a short distance away, he noted the crowd of people gathered below on the city street and that confirmed his thoughts. There must've been a fun party going on! Why else would all these people be here? Oh right. He forgot. Fireballs only fly by when digimon are fighting each other.
"Diamond Storm!"
"Bunny Blast!"
"Samurai Tiger Tail!"
Calumon paused as he finally noticed the fighting happening in front of him. Of course there was fighting. There was always fighting - why was there always fighting? He hated to watch the fighting. He wished that it would stop! He wanted it to stop!
"STOP! PLEASE!"
Calumon noticed Guilmon's human friend - the weird kid with the goggles trying to call everyone back, "We don't have to fight! Guys! We can talk this out!"
"Oh sure, how about we just lay down and make it easy for him to finish us off," the mean girl said. Guilmon was the only one of the digimon not fighting - keeping his distance beside Takato but looking like he wanted nothing more than to run into the fight. Calumon descended down just behind them, keeping quiet to avoid being noticed so that he wouldn't get dragged into this. He wished he could be as brave as those other digimon, but he wasn't anywhere near as strong as they were. If he ran into this, he would be hurt and most likely die. But he didn't want that. He didn't want anyone to get hurt.
He noticed Takato fiddling with his digivice, seemingly annoyed that he couldn't figure something out, "Work. Why won't it work? Come on. Just-"
He outstretched his hand, pointing the digivice at the giant tiger digimon but nothing happened. The boy smacked his digivice again and again, growing frustrated with each slap, "It...isn't...working."
Calumon wanted to help, he really did. But he didn't know how he could.
"ENOUGH! SAMURAI TIGER TAIL!" the giant flying tiger roared, spinning his tail and striking the digimon as he spun in a circle. Renamon's shield shattered into tiny pieces as she and Terriermon were thrown backwards. Renamon managed to catch the edge of the building before she fell off while Terriermon slid to a stop just before falling. Both their partners came to their aid, leaving Takato and Guilmon alone to face down the tiger. It roared, "I have had enough of these games. I will complete my mission. The catalyst must be procured, and I will not allow you to stand in my way!"
That last part caught Takato's attention, "The catalyst? Why are you looking here for the catalyst?"
"The tamer is missing and options were few. The catalyst had to be hidden. Now it must be found!"
"Well you're looking in the wrong place. It would never be here in the Human World!" Takato shouted at it. Mihiramon roared in defiance, "I don't know who you are but a human cannot possibly know this. You are a danger to our world. And so we mete out your punishment!"
"Wait!" Takato tried to shout one second too late, unable to stop the tiger from charging him. Guilmon charged back, "Leave Takatomon alone!"
"Guilmon! DON'T!" Takato shouted. But the two were already dead set on rushing each other. Calumon wanted to help. He really did. But what could he do? He wasn't big like Guilmon, tough like Renamon, or witty like Terriermon. He whimpered, and noticed Takato looking at his digivice. The boy pleaded, "Please, just give me this. Please. JUST WORK!"
He thrust his digivice forward one more time. If only he could help. Calumon felt a surge of energy building inside him. He hated when this happened, and closed his eyes as a bright light flashed from his forehead.
"Guilmon! Digivolve to! Growlmon!"
"Terriermon! Digivolve to! Gargomon!"
"Renamon! Digivolve to! Kyubimon!"
Henry was stunned. Where did that light come from? And how had their partners all digivolved? He hadn't done anything. And Takato and Rika looked just as confused. Mihiramon appeared just as surprised, stopping his rampage for a moment to gaze upon their partner's' champion forms. Then a look of anger flashed across his face and he roared, "I don't know how you did this, but don't expect it to mean a thing. You will still perish at my hand!"
"It's really more of a claw," Gargomon pointed out. Mihiramon just roared in anger and Henry groaned, "Don't antagonize him!"
"I'm just saying," Gargomon insisted, continuing despite Mihiramon's ever growing scowl, "I mean the colloquialism doesn't work."
"I don't know if I'm more impressed that you know what that is, or that you're brave enough to taunt a guy who's been wiping the floor with you," Henry frowned, somehow reminding Gargomon that Mihiramon was there. This didn't stop him from getting in one last snarky remark, "He wouldn't be if you would use more of your cards."
And it was now that Mihiramon decided to attack, "Samurai Tiger Tail!"
"Gargo Pellets!"
"Fox Tail Inferno!"
"Pyro Blaster!"
Mihiramon missed his mark and was struck from three different directions. Annoyed, the tiger digimon spread his wings and took to the air, "I've had enough of this. It ends now!"
He ascended skyward and disappeared into the darkness. Henry strained his eyes to see and saw nothing, removing his glasses to try and get a better look. But between the smoke and the dark, the tiger had vanished into the night sky. He looked over at the others, "Did he run away?"
"That wasn't very brave. So much for all that tough guy talk," Gargomon added. For a moment, it did seem that Mihiramon had simply fled the fight for his own safety. Before any of them had a chance to relax, Kyubimon's eyes narrowed and she shouted, "He hasn't left. He's still there."
"You can see him? What is he doing?" Rika asked anxiously, trying to scan the horizon for the digimon but unable to see anything. Then Takato suggested, "We might want to get off the roof."
"We're not leaving until this is over goggle head," Rika countered until Takato added, "I think he's going to slam into the roof of the building."
"What? Why would he do that?" Rika shouted in disbelief until they heard it. The unmistakable boom of something breaking the sound barrier. And when they looked up, they saw Mihiramon hurtling towards right at them with his wings folded. He was indeed going to divebomb the building. Takato explained, "That's why! If the impact doesn't kill us, the fall from this height will."
It finally made sense why and Henry shouted, "Shoot him down, guys!"
Gargomon primed his guns and aimed upwards, "Don't gotta tell me twice! Gargo Pellets!"
"Fox Tail Inferno!"
"Pyro Blaster!"
All three digimon started shooting upwards at Mihiramon, but he was moving too fast for them to get a good hit in. Takato shouted, "We're going to have to jump guys."
"What? You want us to jump? Jump where!?" Rika shouted in disbelief only to be answered with Takato gesturing up, "Up. He can't knock us off the building if we're off the building."
"That's your idea?" Rika shouted in disbelief, realizing they were running out of time and options. Takato grabbed onto his partner's legs and shouted, "Just do it! Get ready guys! Ready...JUMP!"
Rika grabbed onto Kyubimon's leg and Henry latched onto Gargomon bandolier. On Takato's command, all three of their partners leapt into the air as high as they could and Mihiramon slammed into the building with enough force to bust a hole in the ceiling and disappear into the floor below. The whole building shook, and they could hear windows shattering all the way down the length of the building. When all three digimon landed, Mihiramon was just starting to climb out of the hole he made, "That should've thrown you all off the building. How did you survive?"
"Maybe we're smarter than you give us credit for," Takato began, still trying to reason with the giant angry tiger digimon, "Come on. Talk to us. We can help."
"We don't need your help," Mihiramon hissed, spreading his wings to try his high speed attack again. He roared out defiantly, shaking the already weakened building and Henry shouted, "The building can't take another hit like that! Gargomon! Ground him!"
"Got it," Gargomon primed his guns again and fired on Mihiramon's wings. The digimon howled in pain as the bullets shredded holes in both, forcing the digimon to fold them, "GRAH! INSOLENT LITTLE- You die first!"
"Well...fu-," was all Gargomon had time to say before Mihiramon swiped the digimon with his razor sharp claws. The champion flew backwards from the near lethal strike - regressing back to his rookie form of Terriermon and lying defeated at Henry's feet. Henry's mouth fell open and he ran to protect his partner - knowing full well he'd get killed for trying. But he wasn't going to let his partner get hurt any more. Then he noticed the look on Takato's face. Takato was busily sorting through the deck of Rika's cards - quietly mumbling to himself about needing something, anything.
"Kyubimon! Help him out! Goggle head! Give me back my deck!" Rika shouted at him. Kyubimon rushed in and slammed into Mihiramon from the side, knocking him straight into Growlmon who lifted the digimon up and slammed him back onto the ground, "Pyrosphere!"
"ENOUGH!" Mihiramon roared, using his tail as a whip to smack Growlmon away and then slashing at him with his claws. Growlmon hissed in pain and stepped back.
Takato yelped in pain and dropped all of Rika's cards on the ground. Rika shouted, "What the hell, goggle head!?"
"Hurts," was all Takato managed to say as he sank to the ground, clutching at his chest. Rika looked down at the boy, unsure of what he was saying and then back up over at Growlmon and Mihiramon. Mihiramon was really slicing away at Growlmon - seemingly intent on ripping the digimon to pieces. Then she looked back down at Takato, clutching his chest - in the exact same spot where Mihiramon was swiping away at Growlmon.
That made no sense. What? Was she supposed to believe that the goggle head actually felt the pain that Growlmon did? That wasn't how it worked. Kyubimon and Gargomon had taken plenty of hits and neither she nor Henry were in any kind of pain. Then she felt Takato grab her leg, "We have to...stop this."
She offered her hand to help him up and he looked onward at Mihiramon. He was holding one of the cards in her hand and he looked ready to use it. But he couldn't bring himself to move his hand or the card. He turned his head to Rika, weakly admitting, "I can't...barely move...what card...is this?"
She snatched the card out of his hand and examined it - it was blue and had the drawing of a digimon she'd never seen before. It looked like a digitized Tyrannomon without the fins, or a Greymon without the horns. She'd never seen this card before and had no idea where it'd come from. But it came from her deck? When did she get this? What she did know was it was unlike any other card she'd seen before. She'd say it felt like plastic but it wasn't. It was like it was made out of...something. But she didn't know. But there was something telling her to use it. Something in the back of her head screaming to use it - that this was the answer to the problem.
"Use it Rika."
She looked up, unsure where the voice had come from. But if this was what they needed, then she would use it. She swiped the card through the digivice, "Digimodify!"
Her digivice erupted into a bright light and leapt straight towards the Kyubimon, "Kyubimon! Digivolve to! Taomon!"
Renamon was stunned by her partner's new appearance - she stood there upright like a human but wearing the clothes of a Taoist priest; long and white with purple leggings marked by the symbols of hokey old religions and beliefs. The digimon floated upwards, standing upon some invisible platform. Mihiramon became angered at the sight of the digimon, "You...so...you're the tamer."
"That's right!" Rika snapped, "I'm a digimon tamer, right here!"
"So you became a girl," Mihiramon mused, confusing her, "Became? I was born a girl, dingus! What makes you think-"
"It's just-"
"Just what?" Rika snapped angrily, "Just what!?"
"Wait, why did you say a and not the? Aren't you the Digimon Tamer?" Mihiramon asked. All Rika would give him was a dirty look. What kind of question was that? There were three of them!
"Never mind," Mihiramon grumbled, "So this is where you've been. You...you will come with me."
"Are you kidding me? You blew up my home!," Rika snapped angrily, "Taomon! Shut him up!"
"I thought you'd never ask," Taomon said with a bit more joy than she probably should have. She raised up her hand to produce a giant paintbrush - she drew a symbol in the air and held her hands in a praying posture, "Bon-Hitsu-Sen! Talisman of Light!"
The Sanskrit character flew through the air straight towards Mihiramon. He tried to leap out of the way but was held down by Growlmon, "You're not going anywhere!"
Mihiramon roared in anger and sank his fangs into Growlmon's neck. Takato seemed to scream in agonizing pain - sinking to his knees before finally collapsing to the ground. Growlmon roared and held Mihiramon tighter - forcing the digimon to get hit head on by the attack. Mihiramon let out one final roar before he was consumed by the ink symbols and exploded into a burst of data. As the data dissipated, Tao went about absorbing his data for herself.
The fight was over. She knew it. She was the stronger tamer - the best. She and Renamon had beaten this freakazoid coming over into their world. But before she could cheer, she heard Growlmon cry out, "Takatomon!"
That's right. That goggle head collapsed. She turned to see him struggling to get back up and there was something weird happening to him. He was clutching his chest like he was in terrible pain. But something else was happening. It was like he was distorting - like a digimon that was about to die but not quite. He looked up at her, making brief eye contact that pleaded for help, "We have...have to go...not safe...park..."
And then he collapsed. The park. The park could only mean one thing. But why the park? She wanted to ask why but the building started to groan from their battle. She could worry about this later. They had to go now if they didn't want to call to their deaths.
Author's Notes: Takato's unconscious. That thing is defeated, but what was it? What is Takato hiding? And if one got through, who else can? 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 April 26th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews section. I try to reply as soon as I'm able. If you loved it, be sure to favorite and follow the story to keep up with all the latest updates. Now let's look at some previews for the next chapter:
"You kids get outta here! This ain't a place for kids."
All three of them turned and ran before the office could get another word in, "Hey! Get back here! I mean...don't. I mean- damn kids!"
Kazu stuck his tongue out at the officer as they made their way to safety at the end of the block and just outside a corner. Kenta groaned, "Man, now we'll never know what's going on over there."
"You think they're going to be okay?" Juri asked nervously, dreading the answer that either boy could give. It didn't help that Kazu cheekily added, "Those others are probably okay but I'd be worried about Takato. That kid couldn't play the card game to save his life. And they-"
Every word made Judi's heart sink and it only stopped when Kenta elbowed the boy hard in the gut. Kazu was about to protest until Kenta pointed her out. He took the hint and offered an apologetic, "Sorry. I mean, he's probably fine. I taught him every move in the game he knows!"