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 19: The King and the Droid
Juri sat quietly at the dinner table, fiddling with her rice and contemplating if she should actually tell her parents. Her stepmom was too busy feeding her baby step-brother to notice she wasn't eating. Her dad on the other hand did notice and asked, "Eat up Juri. You need to eat."
"I'm not feeling very hungry," she replied, "May I be excused?"
"Well at least eat your rice," her stepmom pointed at the half eaten bowl of rice, "It's not healthy for a girl your age to eat so little. Are the other girls making fun of your weight?"
Juri wasn't sure what to say to that, but she did know she hadn't felt ever felt self conscious about her appearance until now, "Do I look fat?"
"No, of course not," she replied quickly, assuring her that her step mom thought she was fat. That didn't help her at all. Juri wanted out of this conversation now and pushed her plate away, "I think I'm done eating now."
"Not until you eat young lady," her father insisted, sliding her plate of food her way. She sighed and shoved a spoonful of rice into her mouth, before pushing it away again and getting up to leave, "Thank you for dinner."
She hurried upstairs to her room, ignoring her father calling after her until she was upstairs. Once she was in her room, she threw herself face first into the bed and buried her face into her pillow. Part of her felt guilty for not telling them, but somewhere in the back of her mind was the knowledge that it didn't matter. All it would do is make them worry and she wasn't worth worrying over. Life...had a way of giving her the short end of the stick.
Zhenyu Li looked at Henry from across the desk in his office, trying to process everything that had happened earlier that day. It all seemed like a terrible dream, knowing that his work as a college student was now affecting his family. As he waited for the computer to finish loading the appropriate programs, he attached some custom made scanning equipment he built himself and reflected on everything he'd learned.
His son came back from his camping trip, only to have to run off again because he was...friends with a digimon. And they were fighting to save the world. He and his son always had the easiest time talking to each other but, for the first time in his life, he felt like his own son was a total stranger to him. And Xiaochun. She was involved in all of this too. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be impressed or amazed that the little girl was actually able to keep a secret with how talkative she was.
After a while, he broke the silence between them, "Henry...no, Jiangliang. If I hadn't stumbled onto you two, would you have ever told me?"
His sone was quiet, and he couldn't blame him. Then he answered, "I didn't want you guys involved. I saw what happened to Terriermon during his first fight. He almost died. I didn't want him to fight. But if we didn't...it would just mean someone else would get hurt. So...I figured it'd be best to just keep you guys out of it."
"But you told Xiaochun," he pointed out calmly, trying to avoid losing his temper. His son nodded, guiltily admitting, "We needed someone energetic enough to keep up with Calumon. And I didn't want her to freak out if she saw Calumon start walking and talking. That digimon's too hyper to keep quiet for too long. So I told her. Believe me, I wasn't too keen on it."
From the way the little Calumon was prodding everything in the room with his fingers, he wasn't surprised. Which brought up another issue: the rest of the family. He turned to Henry, "When are you going to tell the others?"
"Tomorrow," he answered sheepishly, "It's been a long day and all I want is to eat dinner and go to bed."
That was fair. It had been a busy day for the kids. Once the computer finished loading, he asked to borrow his son's 'digivice' and set it on the scanner. Right away, the scanner identified its electromagnetic spectrum as off - more specifically, it was not resonating as if it were any known material in the world. Whatever it was made of, it wasn't from this world. Then another window opened, perhaps prompted by the scan of the device, that began displaying code. Computer code. His eyes widened in surprise as he read through it, Henry and Xiaochun peering over curiously, "What is it, dad?"
"Just some strange code. It doesn't look like anything malicious. Scanning the device probably triggered a launcher to read the code," he rattled off without thinking, realizing his son was probably just barely following him and his daughter was completely lost. Now even the digimon were curious, reaching their hand into the scanner and watching with bemusement as their hands became ghost like. Calumon laughed, "It tickles."
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he warned, "We have no idea what'll happen. It won't affect us as humans but digital beings...anything could happen."
The digimon leapt away like they'd touched something hot, and Xiaochun giggled. He continued reading through the code when he noticed something. It was subtle at first, something so innocuous that one could glance over it without noticing. But once he doubled checked, he was sure he recognized the code. It was just a signature left by whoever programmed it. Except he recognized the signature: it belonged to an old friend of his and a colleague on the college project: Shibumi. But he hadn't heard from him since the project shut down. He'd assumed the man had dropped out of college in grief. To think his signature would be on this. Was he involved? His mind raced with the possibilities when he heard his wife call for dinner. It would have to wait. He shut the program down and returned the digivice to his son.
Once dinner concluded, Jianling and Xiaochun excused themselves to her room. He assumed it was for digimon related reasons. He was about to barge in when there was a knock at the door. He needed time to consider how he was going to approach his two kids about their digital friends, as well as the code from his old colleague. He decided it would be better to deal with the door until he was sure he wasn't going to start screaming at them. Oh how wrong he was.
On the other side was another familiar face - one he hadn't seen in a long time although he wished it would've stayed that way. Yamaki stared back at him with his sunglasses that obscured his face and that damned black suit of his. He should've known. If his kids were involved in his college project, then so was he. Well he would be damned if Yamaki got anywhere near his kids. He frowned, "Hey, Zhenyu. Long time, no see. How have you been?"
"What do you want?" he replied with just a mark of bitterness. Yamaki seemed unperturbed, "Is that a way to greet an old friend?"
"You took my college project, turned it into a government defense program, then shut it down before we could see what would become of it," Zhenyu replied, barely hiding any of the harbored resentment about that. Yamaki smiled for the first time he had ever known the man. It was unsettling to see, "That's exactly why I'm here. May I come in?"
"No, you can't," Zhenyu opened the door just enough to slip out of the apartment, and closed the door behind him. He wanted to be sure this asshole had to go through him before getting anywhere near the door, "What do you want?"
"I'm sure you've already pieced together what's happened based on the news," Yamaki began softly, trying to remain calm despite what he was about to say, "There's going to be a press conference about it tomorrow. The whole situation is getting out of hand and our top expert was seriously injured working on a project to contain this mess. So we need to get to the next best thing - the makers of this little project."
"You didn't want us involved any more. Go clean it up yourself," Zhenyu answered with a scowl, about to go inside. Before he could even try to open the door, Yamaki blocked the door, "Don't forget what happened. The number of dead children. It's getting out of hand. We're containing this as best as we can but we can't do it on our own any more. And when that happens..."
He paused, obviously reading Zhenyu's reactions through those shades of his. Then he added, "I've heard you've gotten married since then and had kids. You don't want what happened in the past to happen again, do you? A lot of parents buried their kids that day."
Yamaki was right. Something Zhenyu hated to admit. Jianliang and Xiaochun could die if they got any more involved in this. And no parent ever wanted to bury their child into the ground. He hadn't forgotten from the first time it happened. But something about that bothered him. He remembered it happening clear as day. So why were the appearance of digimon surprising to him now? Especially when it only happened a year ago? Thinking on it gave him a headache that was piercing so he massaged his temple and tried to focus on the matter at hand, "What do you want from me?"
"If you're interested, then come to the metropolitan government building tomorrow. We're going to have the first meeting," Yamaki replied, "You'll be doing the right thing if you come."
He let go and Zhenyu retreated back inside, making sure to slam the door extra loud. He massaged his temple as he tried to sort the memories out in his head. They were crystal clear - digimon attacking...hundreds of children dead...the clean up in the aftermath...the world appearing in the sky...they were all there! So why did thinking about it feel like someone was driving an axe through his skull? And why did he remember it being just another normal work day?
It was hard to tell how long Juri lay face down in her bed, wishing she'd had the guts to tell her parents. But she couldn't - she was sure they wouldn't care anyway. She stirred only when she heard a soft rumble outside. It sounded like thunder, and she hurried to her bed side window to see for herself what it was. It had been clear skies earlier that evening but it was foggy now, the stars hidden behind a blanket of clouds.
When had it gotten foggy? She peered as hard as she could into it but saw nothing. Wait, there was something. Something big and it was moving fast. That was when it dawned on her that fog appeared whenever digimon were crossing over to their world. There was a digimon out there. She panicked for a moment as she tried to figure out what to do. She would need to get Takato, Rika, or Henry. But how was she supposed to get any of them without going out there herself? She couldn't. But she couldn't do nothing either. She panicked, mind racing as she thought about what she should do. What she had to do.
She hurried back down stairs, taking care not to be noticed by either her dad or step mom before going outside into the fog. It was surreal to feel unsafe in her own neighborhood but she had no choice here. She needed to be out here if she was going to alert the others. She peeked out past the gate to make sure it was safe before hurrying on. Once she was sure there was nothing else out, she opened the gate and took her first step outside.
RAARRRRGGGHHH!
She froze at the sound of the roar, fear overriding her ability to move. That sound came from just ahead of her. But that was the way to the others. Maybe she could find another way around?
"GATLING ATTACK!"
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
There was a flash of light ahead, followed by a fireball coming her way. Juri knew she had to get out of the way, but her legs were still frozen in fear. This was it. This was what destiny had planned for her. She was going to die here.
"LOOK OUT!"
A large figure appeared just in front of her and deflected the light with the broad side of a sword. For that brief moment, the light illuminated her rescuer just long enough for Juri to get a good look at him: a giant lion wearing only black pants. He must've been twice as tall as her dad, and he certainly scared her as much as him. The lion looked over his shoulder at her, and she let out a small squeak as he fixed his gaze on her. Then he looked ahead back into the fog, "Enough, Andromon! You almost hurt an innocent!"
Andromon. At least she had a name to call it now. The fog was starting to thin a little enough for her to see ahead at who he spoke to. Its shape was vaguely humanoid, beneath layers of metal and wires. Altogether, it resembled a robot with a laser cannon for an arm. The android grunted, "Observation: You interfered!"
"You attacked!"
Its eyes started to glow a harsh red, "Counter: I need to find the digimon tamer. Stop interfering with my search, Leomon."
The digimon tamer. Juri looked from the android to the lion, wondering if they meant Takato, Henry, or Rika. But why would they be looking for them? They weren't Devas, were they? She noticed the lion sigh, "Andromon, even you have to understand the dangers of jumping from world to world. We're not the Sovereigns. We're not even Devas. I want to save our world as much as you do, but this is too dangerous!"
They weren't devas. But what were sovereigns? Was that important? In fact, now that she thought about it, these digimon were different. They were actually stopping to talk to each other instead of just attacking everything in sight. Maybe these guys weren't dangerous. At least, she thought so until the android made a sound like grinding metal which she assumed was meant to be a snarl, "Query: If it was so dangerous, then why did you follow me? Conclusion: you're either a hypocrite or a coward who can't do what needs to be done."
The android's cannon clicked and whirred, until a long metal blade emerged from the deep within. It raised the blade and declared, "Suggestion: Stand aside."
"Ancient technology is dangerous if used improperly! You need to return it before we cause more damage!" Leomon retorted, looking back over his shoulder at Juri, "You might want to leave, kid. It's going to get dangerous."
"Um...are you a good digimon?" Juri asked, finally managing to get her mouth to work. Leomon roared his reply, "Go! Now!"
Juri was still frozen in place, too scared to run away properly. This also gave her a great view of a fight as she watched the lion and the android leapt at each other with their weapons drawn. They crossed blades several times, taking turns to strike or parry the other's attack but neither was able to deal a decisive blow. The two were clearly experienced, casually trading words as easily as they traded blows, "We need to return to the Digital World before we cause any lasting damage to this one!"
"Observation: We're in the human world! Conclusion: If we can't find the digimon tamer, then we can at least help find the Catalyst!" Andromon responded bitterly. Juri gasped as she realized they were after Calumon. That couldn't be good. She turned around, intent on finding another way to any of the other's houses as the two digimon continued to duel. She reached the end of her street and turned the corner just to see the fight had followed her. Andromon was pushing Leomon back.
"Query: Don't you understand, Leomon? I have to do this for the good of all digimon!" Andromon shouted, swinging his blade and scratching the side of Leomon's face. The lion howled, stepping back and raising his sword defensively while Andromon countered, "Declaration: First blood is mine. Please don't make me continue, old friend."
Leomon held the cut on his side, wincing in pain while countering, "That's why I'm continuing! Because we're friends. Crossing over to this world may do more harm than good."
"Statement: If we find the tamer, they can fix it," Andromon replied, "Plea: I don't wish to fight but I will if I have to."
The two charged at each other again, pushing past her and continuing on. This was her chance to get past them. She turned and hurried towards Takato's house. He was the closest and he always seemed to have more ideas than the others about what was going on. She ran as fast as she could just to Andromon be thrown past her, rolling along the ground until he stabbed his sword into the ground to catch himself. He used the moment of the roll to turn himself upright and returned to a defensive posture. Juri would've been impressed if she wasn't caught in the middle of this fight with nothing more than just a deck of cards in her pocket.
Andromon readied his weapon, pressing forward towards Leomon while holding his side, "Observation: Operational capacity at 94 percent. That was a good blow. You're learning to guard your blind spots. Counter-point: You still haven't learned follow through!"
He charged forward with his weapon raised. Juri gasped, realizing the android was charging straight at her and raised her arms up in defense. The android seemed to realize his mistake and managed to stop his charge just short of her, "Insult: You coward, Leomon. Using a child as a shield!"
"Me? You're the one who charged in blindly!" Leomon protested from just behind her, "Don't you get it, Andromon? You're too rash! You charged in without thinking and almost hurt the girl."
Juri felt herself be picked up and looked over to see Leomon holding her with one arm. He set her down on the sidewalk and said, "And I thought I told you to get out of here! It's not safe, kid."
Juri nodded, trying to be thankful but really just being fully confused now. The two of them bickered like an old married couple. Andromon even grunted, "Query: Are you trying to play the hero when you're the one who stood behind her in the first place?"
"Don't read this for anything other than what it is," Leomon replied, pointing his sword at Andromon, "She was in trouble and I helped save her."
The android grunted and charged again, the two clashing blades to try and finish the other off. Maybe they weren't so different from the Devas after all. Juri tried to use this chance to run past, hoping to safely escape their brawl and get help. As soon as she rounded the corner, she bumped straight into Takato and Guilmon. Takato caught her before she fell backwards, "Sorry about tha-Juri!?"
He helped her stand up and quickly let go, stammered out, "What're you doing here?"
She answered as quickly as she could, "Getting you! Two digimon just popped up outside my house and-"
She wasn't fast enough - Leomon came flying past again and rolled along the ground, stopping just short of crashing into another wall, "A fine parry, Andromon. But this will end with the next bout."
Andromon raised his sword, "Statement: Agreed. I will end this without taking your life old friend."
Juri wasn't sure what possessed Takato to do it but he suddenly raised his voice, "Or, and this is just a thought, maybe you could try talking this out? Y'know, without the weapons and trying to kill each other? Just a thought. I mean, that's what I do when I have a disagreement with friends."
Both Leomon and Andromon stopped what they were doing and looked at him curiously, still keeping their weapons drawn and minding their distance to each other. Leomon asked first, "Who are you?"
"Takato," he replied plainly, strolling up to the two of them and placing a hand on their weapons. Then, as if in defiance of all expectations, he lowered their swords and asked, "What are you guys fighting about anyway?"
Both Leomon and Andromon examined the boy as he proceeded to guide their hands into putting their weapons away. Guilmon followed along and started sniffing them, "Friends?"
Both digimon became uneasy as Guilmon continued to sniff them as Takato went on, "I mean, it's the middle of the night and you guys are causing all this racket. It's a miracle you haven't woken up the neighborhood! I mean a midnight brawl!? I'd fancy a snack myself."
"Our affairs are none of your concern, Takato," Leomon replied coldly. He turned to Andromon, "Are you ready to return to the Digital World?"
"Negative," Andromon replied, "Mission is the same: Find The Digimon Tamer and return him to the Digital World. Priority: Absolute. Digital World in danger. Threat Level: Absolute."
"Absolute," Takato repeated mockingly, "Absolute what? Madness? Coz your not wrong. Who goes to another world just to pick a fight? Just stay in your own world. You don't waste the time. How'd you even do that?"
Leomon thumbed at Andromon as he answered, "Not that it's your business, but Andromon over there used Ancient technology to travel to this world. I tried to stop him. That technology is too dangerous to be left around...Wait, why am I telling you any of this? You probably have no idea what I'm talking about!"
"I have an idea of what you're talking about but it's probably wrong. Trouble in your world so you came here to find a solution," Takato replied nonchalantly, turning to Juri, "That sound about right to you Juri?"
She was still trying to process what she was seeing. Takato's luck appeared to be changing since he successfully convinced two more digimon to stop fighting. Granted these two digimon were different from the others, it didn't change the fact that this hadn't happened before. Eventually, she managed to nod and Takato looked back at them, "So Leomon, did I get all of tha…hang on a minute. Weren't you dead? Like…didn't you die? Or am I remembering that wrong? Puppetmon killed you."
Leomon frowned, crossing his arms and turning to Andromon, "That was a different Leomon. The real Leomon. Can't say the same for him. He's the Andromon - The android created by the Ancients to protect their technologies and servant to The Digimon Tamer himself."
"Correction: I do not serve The Digimon Tamer. I serve the Agents, of which The Digimon Tamer is the sole remaining member," Andromon started monotonously. Leomon sighed, "So you do serve the Digimon Tamer."
Andromon grunted disapprovingly and looked back at them. It was actually kind of funny in a disgusting sort of way. The digimon turned on Leomon, "Declaration: I will continue my mission now. Stand aside."
The two looked ready to get their weapons out again. Juri gasped and Guilmon started growling at them; a fight was about to start with Takato in the middle of it. But instead, Takato called out to get their attention, "You're looking for a digimon tamer, right? What if you already found one?"
"Clarify one," Andromon demanded. Takato clapped his hands together excitedly, "Well, we've got three already and another two who are definitely looking for a partner! I've already got Guilmon, Rika has Renamon and Henry has Terriermon so-"
"Query," Andromon interrupted, "Are they the digimon tamer?"
"Yes," Takato answered with a pointed finger. Andromon gave no reply. In fact, his silence suggested he had no idea how to answer the question. He became perfectly still. It was like he'd been turned off. Juri took a step forward, waiting for a response. When nothing happened, she stepped closer and poked him in the side, "Is he okay?"
"He's processing," Leomon frowned quietly, "Whenever he's presented with information that's…not wrong or…how do I phrase this? He needs a moment to make sense of a confusing answer."
Juri had no idea what that was supposed to mean. She looked at Takato who answered, "Think of it like this: what's the true color of the sky?"
"Blue," Juri answered quickly until Takato answered, "Then why's the sky red when the sun sets?"
She blinked. He was right. The sky was red when the sun set. And kinda purplish too. He snapped his fingers and answered, "What just happened to you is happening to Andromon but in a more…complex way. Just give him a minute."
Juri looked at Andromon who still hadn't moved and felt sorry for the guy. What exactly was going through his head? She thought about his question and Takato's response. He asked if they were the digimon tamer, and Takato replied yes. It sounded like that thing Renamon talked about. So did Andromon mean a digimon tamer or the digimon tamer? She looked back at Takato who had finally grown impatient and snapped his fingers in front of Andromon to get his attention, "Hey, you okay?"
"Processing," Andromon replied. Takato turned back to Leomon, "How did you get here again?"
"Ancient technology in Andromon," Leomon pointed at the android's arm and lifted it for them to see. He opened a panel and Juri saw a myriad of wires, cables, flashing lights, and other assorted electronics she'd never seen before. But that wasn't the weird part. It was the fact that the inside seemed to go on forever despite the size of Andromon's arm. It was…bigger on the inside. It didn't help that Leomon managed to fit his whole hand inside the panel and pull out something that resembled the broken old digivice Takato had. He explained, "It took him a long time but Andromon was able to retrofit himself to act as a gate - giving himself the power to go back and forth between worlds. The problem is…we weren't sure if it was going to work or if it would blow up the Digital World when he used it."
A look of joy crossed Takato face, and he beamed up at Andromon and Leomon, "This is it. We can use this and go to the Digital World!"
His excitement quickly turned to panic as he pushed the digivice back into the panel and closed it shut, "That is very not good! We need to get off the streets as quick as possible."
"What's wrong?" Leomon looked at the boy frantically starting to push him and Andromon forward. Takato spoke quickly, "You are two digimon standing out in the open in the Real World. We need to go before those crazy government shooty guys show up!"
Leomon seemed to finally understand and turned to help move Andromon. They just barely managed to make it into a nearby alley when several white vans pulled up in the dark. Men wearing hazmat suits jumped out, obscured by the bright flashlights they equipped on their rifles. Juri immediately threw her hands up while Takato jumped in front of them all, "Wait!"
It was too late. Guilmon was already growling, ready to go on the attack and Leomon readied his swords. One of the men called out, "Minimize collateral damage. Single fire only! Don't hit the kids! Take 'em down!"
"You won't lay a hand on these children!" Leomon roared, pushing both Juri and Takato behind him. He drew his sword and readied it, "I'll die before I let any harm come to them!"
"Activating Emergency Jump!" Andromon finally spoke. Suddenly, she was blinded by a bright flash of light and several loud bangs. Then she felt the sensation of falling, followed by something hard hitting her. She'd been shot. She knew it! She was dead. This was it. This was how she died! Not like this! Not like this! She didn't want to die! Not yet!
"Juri!"
She opened her eyes as soon as she felt someone shaking her from the shoulders. It was Takato, with a relieved look on his face, "It's alright. Everything's fine. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" she replied, taking a moment to compose herself. She was lying on the ground now, and it was pitch black out. No, there was sun light. A little bit of sun, not a lot. But enough that she could start to make things out, "What happened?"
Takato took a look around, "I think Andromon tried to open a gate to the Digital World to get us out of danger. Instead, we landed at the park where I hide Guilmon."
"I…huh," Juri looked off to the horizon, at the rising sun, "But, why's the sun coming up? It was almost midnight!"
"I think it also threw us several hours into the future. That's kinda dangerous. Let's not do that again," Takato answered uncertainly, helping her stand up. She dusted herself off and examined her surroundings to be sure. They were definitely in the park. As far as she knew, they were thrown into tomorrow morning. Then she noticed Andromon and Leomon beside them. Andromon was busy tinkering with the open panel on his arm and Leomon was helping him, "Maybe if you try rerouting power?"
"Power is not the issue," Andromon responded, "Key components are damaged, requiring either repair or replacement. Scan indicates this world's technology is not on par with necessary tech. Parts cannot be acquired in this world. We are stuck in this world."
Leomon grunted at the news, folding his arms and turning to Takato, "It would seem that we are in your care then. Takato, correct? You said Guilmon is your partner. Are you a digidestined?"
"Not even close," Takato answered quickly, going over to have a look at Andromon's panel, "Repair isn't going to be easy. We'll need a place for you to lie low. There is the shed but…never mind, bad idea. I really should clean that thing out one day."
"Yeah you should," Juri agreed, looking up at Leomon thankfully. He didn't know them but he'd jumped in the way to protect her so many times. She was a little embarrassed by it too. Leomon looked at the pacing Takato, "Who were those men? The ones who shot at us. Why would they do that?"
"No idea, but they keep popping up," Takato answered quickly, still examining Andromon's arm carefully. Eventually, he sighed and closed the panel, "Yeah, there's nothing we can do about that."
Andromon examined Takato carefully, "Query: Who are you?"
Takato looked up at the large digimon silently before answering, "You know who I am. I'm Takato. I said that already."
Andromon stared back for the longest time before finally answering, "Scans do not sugg-"
"Guys!" Henry called out from behind them. They all looked over their shoulders to see Henry hurrying along with Terriermon and Rika just behind him. Henry called out, "We've been looking for you guys all night! What happened?"
"That's…kind of a long story," Takato replied sheepishly, looking back at Andromon and Leomon as if hoping they would offer some kind of assistance. Instead, they stared down at him silently as if they were expecting more from him. Rika sighed, "Well you better start talking because we want to know what happened. We got to you guys just as those crazy people with the guns showed up. Then there was this flash of light and you were gone. We spent all night trying to avoid those guys while finding you. So what happened?"
Juri raised her hand to offer up an answer, "Leomon and Andromon showed up outside my house, fighting each other. Takato managed to get them to stop."
"Surprise, surprise. It worked for once," Rika spat out in shock, looking from Takato to the two giant digimon in disbelief. Juri wasn't sure how else to explain it to them, because she was still having a hard time believing that Takato had finally managed to get some digimon to stop fighting and work together. Leomon put a hand to his chest and explained, "I am Leomon, and this is Andromon. We're not here looking for a fight, just to save our world."
Rika placed a hand on her hips, "You and every other digimon since the Devas started showing up. So why should we believe you?"
Andromon beeped out in his monotone, "Response: Because if we wanted to fight, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Observation: she's not smart."
"I think she's one of the smartest people here. At the very least, she's observant," Takato replied matter of factly, before crossing his arms, "Now where to hide you guys? The shed's out because you're just too big for it. Maybe the access tunnel?"
"It is big enough," Henry thought until Terriermon laughed, "So they're just supposed to hide out in the tunnel all day?"
"Negative. Mission Critical: Locate the digimon tamer," Andromon said again, turning to walk away until Takato ran in front of him, "I'm right here!"
Andromon scanned the boy carefully, seemingly disbelieving of Takato's claim, "Scan complete. Data inconclusive. Further evidence required."
"Then how about this?" Takato held up his old digivice, the one he claimed once broken. Andromon looked at it for a long time before answering, "Scan complete. Identity verified. Greeting: Digimon Tamer, it is good to see you again."
Then the oddest thing happened. The mechanical man bowed, as did Leomon, "It's an honor to meet you."
"Hey, what's happening?" Terriermon asked, looking to the others for some kind of explanation. Unfortunately, none of them had one. Takato looked back at them, "I already said, didn't I? My name is The Digimon Tamer. But Takato works just fine by me."
"So...should we be bowing too?" Henry asked. Rika maintained her adversity, "I'm not bowing."
Renamon's answer was more conflicted, "I feel like I should out of respect…but every bit of data in my body wants to be sick at the idea."
Takato shrugged, "I'm right here y'know. Not bowing is fine though, I don't particularly care for it. Do you mind standing up? It's starting to get embarrassing."
Andromon straightened out his posture, "Query: if you are the Digimon Tamer, why didn't you say so when I first said I was looking for you?"
"That was the old me. New face, new rules, new likes and dislikes," Takato answered matter of factly, "That and I wasn't sure I could trust you at the time. Not until I saw the Ancient tech that was built into you. If you had ancient tech, that had to mean I could trust you. Otherwise, you might've been one of the digimon trying to kill me. And that'd be a whole 'nother problem I don't want to deal with right now."
"Digimon are trying to kill you?" Henry asked. Renamon nodded, "The Digimon Tamer is said to have made many enemies. There are plenty who would like to hang his head over their mantle."
Everyone suddenly felt uneasy standing next to Takato like this. Andromon seemed satisfied by his answer, and Takato looked at the rest of them with a big innocent smile. Juri thought back to what Rika had said - not to trust him. He said he was trying to not keep so many secrets and he'd kept the part about digimon trying to kill him secret. Although, it was the more like he'd just neglected to mention it instead of lied. But didn't that count as a lie? And between that, finding out he wasn't the real Takato, and learning that the names she'd been calling her teacher was wrong, she began to wonder just how much of the world she'd come to live in was not as it seemed. Then a thought occurred to her, "Wait, we've been out all night!"
"Yeah we have. Our parents are going to kill us!" Henry picked up Terriermon and turned to leave, "We'd better get going before we end up in trouble."
"Speaking of parents, have you guys told them yet?" Takato asked, looking specifically at Rika when he asked that. She frowned, "No. And stop looking at me. It's freaking me out."
"That's good," Takato said, crossing his arms seriously, "Because, full disclosure, I'm not going to beat around the bush with Kari any more. I'm just going to flat out tell her and hope the revelation of multiple converging realities doesn't overwhelm her brain. Worse case scenario: her brain permanently rejects the idea in self-defense."
"Wait, is that what happens?" Terriermon gasped, his jaw hanging open. Takato shrugged, "Well yeah. Anything a brain can't process, it either correlates with something it can process or ignores it. She's had experience with digimon before so this shouldn't be weird to her."
"But why now?" Rika asked, watching Takato as he began pacing, "You had plenty of time to tell her before. And you never did. So why now?"
Takato's gaze looked downward, "I was trying to open her eyes slowly. But the risk is getting too great. Between the Devas and everything else going on, someone needs to stay on this side and protect the Real World because if we fail...one of the few things I can remember from my old life is they're the back up plan. They're the ones who'll save the day when I'm not around. And they haven't been doing that. It's about time we found out why. I hope you don't mind, but we're going to have a team meeting at your place tomorrow."
"Wait, what!?" Rika blurted out in shock. Takato raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Why do you think? Your mom is a part of this too. If I'm going to tell Kari, I might as well tell her too."
"This is going to end well," Rika smiled devilishly. Juri had a worried feeling in the pit of her stomach, wondering what Rika knew that she wasn't sharing.
Yamaki sat in his car, listening to the report from the QRF. Those kids were there again. Worse, they'd disappeared in a flash of light with the digimon as they were called. There were issues in place that needed resolution. Thankfully, most of the Monster Makers seemed willing to come back and help. All of them except for Zhenyu. Finding them was the easy part - trace their lives through the system to their current addresses. It was convincing them that was the hard part. And it wasn't hard to press the right buttons considering some of them had kids of their own.
Once he finally found the will to get his car started, his phone rang. He was annoyed at the timing - the last 24 hours just wouldn't stop rolling with the punches. He let his car stay in park as he answered, "Yamaki."
"Boss, it's Izumi. He's awake," came the voice of the agent on the other side. If Yamaki believed in hope, he felt a small glimmer of it in his heart somewhere, "I'm on my way. Keep him conscious. I want to talk to him as soon as I get there."
"Yes sir," the agent replied, hanging up. Maybe things were going to work out after all. Maybe things were starting to look up. The idea brought a small smile to his face. He knew better than to do that.
Author's Notes: What will Koushiro say now that he's awake? Is Henry's dad going to join Yamaki? What will the others say when they see Leomon and Andromon? Find out all this and more on the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name which is due out next Friday July 12th at 5 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys thought in the reviews section. And if you loved it, don't forget to follow the story to keep up with updates and favorite to show support! And don't forget to stop by the tumblr at the-digimon-tamer for updates, announcements, or just to chat. That's all for now, let's have a look at a preview for chapter 20! That's all for now so let's have a look at previews for the next chapter!
Kari set her stuff down on her desk and turned to face the class. It wasn't hard to miss the dazed looks on some of her students: Juri Katou, Hirokazu Shiota, Kenta Kitagawa, and Takato Matsuda. Takato especially. Like they'd been up all night even though they'd spent all weekend camping. She sighed and picked up her lesson plan to start the day's lesson. She would handle her students after class. But that didn't stop her from fixating on Takato, although she tried her best not to.
The idea that her brother had been just a few feet in front of her after all this time weighed heavy on her. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him. Not the least of which was why he never said anything. Then she remembered how the last time they'd met, he said she wouldn't recognize him. How she shouldn't wait for a brother who isn't coming back to return. But that would have to wait until after she confirmed it.
After what felt like the longest day, she dismissed her class but made a point of announcing, "Except for you Takato. We need to have a talk."
There were a lot of oohs from the rest of the class - kids being kids when someone got into trouble. It didn't help that he remarked, "That's okay! I wanted to talk to you too!"