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 43: Upgrade In Progress
The images continued to flash through Juri's mind with such speed and intensity that it felt like her head was going to split apart. But all she could focus on were three things: Calumon, Beelzemon, and Leomon's death. Calumon needed rescuing, and Beelzemon needed to be punished for what he did to Leomon. She could tell this thing, the one using her voice, was getting frustrated. She didn't care. All she could focus on was revenge and anger.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!"
She was finally pulled from her thoughts by a little digimon screaming at the top of his lungs as he appeared beside her. Calumon! She wanted to call out to him but she couldn't - she had no control over her body, let alone her voice. She couldn't even give the little digimon a hug even though that seemed to be what he desperately wanted and needed. Then he took note of her, "Juri? Juri! Are you okay!? Please be okay! I was trying to run away and then this weird kid who looked like Takato grabbed me but it turned out it was some kid wearing Takato's face like a mask and then he threw me off a roof and I forgot how to fly and then a bird kidnapped me and I'm scared!"
He wailed at the top of his lungs - clearly horrified out of his mind and barely able to think clearly. He threw himself on to her in a hug, seeking some measure of comfort. She wasn't able to hug him back, but the sensation of his touch gave her some comfort that she had desperately wanted since all of this started. She could forget about the hundred or so images flying past her head, or her own voice screaming at her, "How is the energy source used? Is it extracted? Is it activated? Answer Juri! ANSWER!"
"I don't know, I don't know," she murmured quietly, trying to ignore the voice in her head. Calumon patted her calmly, "Juri! What's wrong? Who are you talking to?"
Then she felt it. A pain seizing through her body and taking control of her. And the voice spoke again, "You were brought here for a purpose little one. Together, we will accomplish great things."
The horrified look on Calumon's eyes were enough to make Juri wish she were stronger. To make her wish she could fight back more against the thing in control over her body. But she was too weak. She wasn't strong enough - no matter how desperately she wanted to be stronger. To of some use.
Then she saw her hands begin to move of their own accord, tracing a pattern across Calumon's head. Juri froze, "What are you doing!?"
"Memories were scanned - memories regarding the power source. We are activating the power source now. We will evolve. We will become supreme," her voice said back to her. Calumon calmed as the pattern was traced across his forehead, until finally she witnessed the digimon go limp in her hands. Then light erupted from the symbol atop his forehead and the voice spoke again, "Awaken! Upgrade in Progress!"
Beelzemon stood there and listened intently to everything the weird digimon with the flowing red scarf had to say. It was a little hard to believe - that he had merged with his partner to reach this whole new level of digivolution. To be fair, it was kind of stretch to believe that humans and digimon could become one physical being. Then again, Mako's toy gun had turned into a freaking canon growing out of his arm so what did he know about this stuff?
"Beelzemon!" Taomon called his name. He looked up from what he was doing to see the fox priest flying towards them, landing beside them. She asked, "Was that you firing all those blasts a moment ago?"
"Damn straight," he smiled smugly, making a point to flash his gun at her. She didn't seem as impressed though and looked back towards Justimon, "Who are you?"
"It's me…well, us. Ryo and Cyberdramon! Only we're Justimon now," he answered. If Taomon was able to smile, he didn't see but she did greet him warmly, "I'm glad you finally managed to do bio-merge but…how?"
"Ugh, I just finished explaining," he moaned, "Okay, I'll explain again quickly."
The fox digimon nodding along quietly to every word the idiot said like it made some kind of sense. Once Justimon was done, Taomon announced, "You realize that this means we can finally reach our mega forms! Like MegaGargomon and Sakuyamon! I have to tell Rika!"
"Wait," Justimon grabbed her before she could get too far, "If what that Trickster guy said is right, then we can't go anywhere near the others or we'll fry the computers. And then the whole plan will fall apart! We have to keep our distance!"
"But Rika is already there. So what does it matter?" Taomon countered.
"I still don't want to risk it. I don't know what The Trickster's game is but the fact is he threw Calumon off the roof so those bird things could get to him!" Justimon explained, "And if he's even the slightest bit less trustworthy than the Tamer, then who knows how much of what he's saying isn't to manipulate us! Heck, maybe he's counting on the fact that we'll ignore him and go straight back there! Or we listen to him and the others get killed because we're not there to defend them!"
"We don't have time to argue about this! Those things are swarming the others right now and I don't know how much longer they can be held off!" Taomon argued back.
Beelzemon just rolled his eyes and looked back at the building the bird creatures were swarming. He didn't really care for all the talking at this moment and just wanted to get the ball rolling. And that was exactly what he intended to do, "You twos can argue 'bout this all day for all I care! I'm going' there and getting them kids myself if I hafta!"
"Wait!" they tried to say but he was already off, leaping onto the nearest rooftop and shooting at the bird creatures as he went, "Take this! And this! Haha! You want some too? How about you!? I got plenty more where that came from! Eat this! And this! HAHAHA!"
"Beelzemon! Wait!" Taomon called after the digimon. He glanced back once just to see what had them so worked up and saw both her and Justimon following just behind. And they had more of those bird things after them, "WHAT!?"
"Weren't you listening? They're swarming the tower! You'll never get through those numbers on your own!" Taomon shouted at him.
He grunted, "Weren't you freaking looking? I can blow these things away no problem! WATCH!"
He pointed his gun at the birds behind them fired again another blast of energy at them, watching as numerous bird things were obliterated before their very eyes. He punched the air, "SEE THAT!? I ain't got nothing to be afraid of!"
"Watch out!" Taomon pointed ahead of them. He looked ahead in time to see a blade coming his way that he had to use his gun to block. The metal blade bounced off his gun and he brought his free hand to bare against the attacker - it looked like someone wearing a robe with a mask over the face, with blades and scythes for hands and feet. And it dangled in the air like a marionette dangling by invisible strings. His fist impacted the mask so hard that he felt something break and the marionette creature tumbled backwards in the air until it corrected itself. Then it attacked again, using its bladed limbs to swing and stab at him. Beelzemon brought up his weapon again to shield himself, trying to predict the crazy things attacks before breaking away in a sprint.
That didn't stop it from giving chase, and he was awed by how quickly the thing could move and give chase after him, "What is thing!?"
"I've never seen one before," Taomon stated.
"Maybe it's the D-Reaper itself?" Justimon suggested, coming from behind to try and punch it. He missed as it dodged out of the way and he crashed into a roll on the roof top, "Like maybe this is it's true form? The real thing?"
Taomon followed along with his reasoning, "So if we kill this thing, we stop all of this? It's worth a shot but it's easier said that done."
Justimon followed it as it raced around them quickly, "It's not going to be enough to move faster than this thing. We'll need to box it in - give it nowhere to go so that it loses the speed advantage!"
"And how do we box in something that can move faster than us?" Beelzemon grumbled trying to follow the humans' sense of logic. It was stupid though. They always overthought everything and shooting them was just as good as anything else, "All I need is one good hit to take it out!"
He aimed down the sights of his cannon, trying to stay just ahead of the creature before firing. The beam of light shot straight out of the canon but the masked pendulum-footed attacker dodged out of the way of the blast, "You've gotta be kidding me! That was a sure hit!"
"We need to work together, Beelzemon!" Taomon said again.
"Fine, what do I need to do?" Beelzemon grumbled angrily, seeing that his usual tactics were not going to work here. He looked at Taomon expectantly and was annoyed to see her looking to Justimon. Justimon pointed at Beelzemon, "It's focusing on you! So go that way!"
"Why!? AND IT CAN HEAR YOU!" Beelzemon had to point out to them just as the thing attacked again. He moved out of the way of its blade and looked to the others for some kind of help. Instead, Justimon shouted again, "JUST RUN!"
"FINE!" Beelzemon snapped, turning on his heels and running from the thing. He didn't like the idea of turning like a coward and running. He wanted to have faith that they had some kind of plan, that maybe whatever he was thinking would stop it. But how was he supposed to know the plan when they were so far away without that thing finding it out? Then again, things usually worked out for them so why not have a little trust?
He sighed and raced to the edge, leaping off towards the next roof and landing so hard that he felt it crack under his feet. Then he felt something hit the back of his head and looked back to see the thing had crashed into him. It had given chase but didn't plan for him to stop so suddenly, and it had bumped into him and tumbled back in the air so that it had to steady itself between the two buildings.
Then he heard Taomon cry out, "NOW! Talisman of Light!"
"Justice Burst!" Justimon's right arm transformed into a cannon that fired off electrical orbs at the creature. Both attacks struck the creature in the back and it twitched in the air as the current ran through its body. But it still held on. It was fighting back against their attacks.
And that really pissed Beelzemon off enough to ready his gun and fire, "JUST DIE ALREADY!"
He got it straight between the eyes and the creature twitched in the air wildly before going limp and falling to the ground several stories below. Through its death throes, he swore he could hear it say, "Upgrade in progress."
Beelzemon grunted his approval and looked back up at the other two digimon with him, "He hits hard and fast but he goes down a lot easier than those birds."
Taomon nodded dismissively and sighed, "Yes, yes, we're all relieved it's over. Now go get our partners here as soon as you can! The sooner Rika, Henry, and Rapidmon are here. The sooner we can-"
"Uh, guys," Justimon interrupted, gesturing to the distance where a new swarm could be seen emerging from the red mass in the distance. Beelzemon squinted to get a better look and realized he was looking at a whole swarm of those pendulum footed creatures coming their way. He swore under his breath and complained, "You've gotta be kidding."
"So, not to be a bummer, what do you suppose upgrade in progress meant?" Justimon asked. Taomon raised up her brush, "That we won't last long against these creatures. Beelzemon! HURRY!"
"Got it, tuts. You sit tight!" Beelzemon turned and hurried towards the towers in the distance, surprised to find himself running straight into danger like this.
Davis and Ken continued to encircle the Digital World, using their digivices to scan every single Digital life form they came across. As they worked, he picked up the communicator, "Tamer! How much more do we have to do?"
"Honestly? No idea. Just keep scanning every digimon you can. I'll activate things here once we have the Juggernaut ready to fire," he answered back, "I'm about to head back to your world anyway. I need Izzy's laptop and I want to make sure the others are doing fine."
"What? Tamer!? What are you thinking?" Ken replied, wondering just how well the others were holding up on their own. He knew his wife would be okay, and Yamato would definitely be able to hold her own just a little bit better than the others. Plus they had the combined might of all their friends there to help hold them off! But the plan was to distract the monster by pulling its attention elsewhere not play defense as it attacked the Hypnos Program.
"Don't worry. Everything will be ," Tamer said over the communicator.
"Tamer, what the hell are you doing?" Ken asked more worriedly.
"It's a gamble, but I'm going to buy us some time. Hate me later," his voice said over the communicator.
Now Ken was agitated. He knew what gambles meant to him and he didn't want to lose anyone else in his life, "Tamer!"
No response.
"TAMER!?"
No response. He cursed and pocketed the communicator. He was going to do something to get his wife killed. He just knew it. Then he felt a punch on the shoulder. It surprised him for a moment and he turned his head back to Davis offering a half smile, "Ken! They'll be fine! Everything will be fine."
Ken wasn't as convinced. Then again, he also knew what his personal intervention had done before when it came to these kinds of things and relented, "I really hope you're right."
He said that but he couldn't fight the horrifying feeling in the pit of his stomach that things were not going to be fine. He'd seen enough of Tamer's antics to know that people had a habit of dying any time he got involved. And he wouldn't stand for the idea of losing his family - not the way he lost his brother.
Rika watched Hououmon, MetalGarurumon, Rosemon, and HerculesKabuterimon continue to beat back as many of the bird things as they could. And a miracle seemed to happen - the swarm was actually decreasing in size with every one of the creatures they defeated. It would only be a matter of time before things were under control and they could go back on the offensive. They just had to keep thinning the ranks a little more.
Suddenly, a blast of light blew away a hole in the thinning swarm and Beelzemon leapt through it wielding his shotgun in one and his cannon in the other, "HAHA! You see that? You schmucks got nothin' on me!"
"Beelzemon!?" Rika gasped, not expecting him of all people to suddenly appear. Why was he even here?
"You know this clown?" Ishida asked her.
She pointed at him, "That's the guy who kidnapped Calumon in the first place."
Beelzemon clicked his tongue, "Hey, I'm not here for small talk. I'm here for you and...um...the green rabbit one. What's the name?"
"Over my dead body," Rika hissed at him, wishing that Taomon was here right now. Why did he have to be here now? Then she recalled the light that blew away all of the bird creatures. That was the same light Taomon had run towards. Her mind went through all the terrible things he could've done and she didn't like any one of them. Not when she knew what he did to Leomon in the Digital World.
Ishida and his wife stepped in front of her. Sora pushed her behind them while Ishida drew a handgun from his pocket, "Back up freak! I don't want to but I'll shoot you dead if you get anywhere near Mimi's girl!"
"It's kind of important that you do if you want to stop that thing," he thumbed over towards the growing red mass in the distance and the swarm of birds.
Rika didn't like the sound of that or where this was going, "What? So you're working for that thing now?"
He raised an eyebrow, "You think…what? No! I just need to take ya to the fox so you twos can-"
"Rapid Fire!"
He was interrupted by a hail of fire from Rapidmon that made the mega level dodge further away. Rapidmon descended between them and Henry leapt off his back to rejoin them, "Guys! What's Beelzemon doing here?"
Beelzemon roared at the top of his lungs, lowering his guns to the ground in what must've been an attempt to show he had no ill intent, "Look! We ain't got time for this! There's a new one of those things swarming your friends and I need to get you guys to them so you can all fight back!"
"Yeah, right. And if that's true, why aren't they here?" Rika demanded of him. He groaned, "Oh for the love of-I don't know. Somethin' 'bout a clown or a joker and not goin' near computers! I wasn't paying attention! Now can we please get goin' before those new things get here? Coz they're a lot tougher than those bird things and-"
"Target Acquired," a strange mechanical voice echoed out.
"OH FOR THE LOVE OF-" Beelzemon snatched up his weapons and turned to face their new attacker - a large floating puppet with what looked like scythes for its appendages. As soon as it arrived, Beelzemon fired upon it, "HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE!? JUST DIE ALREADY!"
It dodged out of the way of both shots and moved in for the attack, swinging its many appendages like blades. Beelzemon raised up his larger gun to block the blades and tried to steady his shotgun to fire it at point blank range. Once again, the thing moved so quickly that the shot didn't connect and it went to strike from behind - hitting the digimon square in the back. Beelzemon let out a cry of pain - thrown forward by the impact with a deep gash in the center of the cut.
"HEY!" Rapidmon charged forward to aid Beelzemon, but the creature leapt away to get out the way of the attack before they could connect, so all he ended doing was tackling Beelzemon off the roof.
"YOU STUPID DUMBA-" Beelzemon cried out until he was too far away for Rika to accurately make out what he was saying.
"Uh-oh. SORRY! SORRY!" Rapidmon apologized profusely and soared off the roof after Beelzemon, leaving the rest of them at the mercy of the flying reaper creature.
"New targets acquired. Prioritizing threats. ATTACK!" the creature said with its low, mechanical drone.
"GET DOWN!" Ishida shouted at the top of his lungs, firing his gun at the creature as it charged forward. Several loud bangs echoed out as each shot flew at the pendulum footed monster, only for the bullets to ricochet away. Realizing the futility of using his gun, Ishida holstered it and took up his knife to protect himself, "Stay behind me!"
"Matt!" Sora gasped.
"Are you crazy? That thing has knives for hands and feet!" Henry stated, not that it needed pointing out as the blades swung through the air. Still, that didn't stop Ishida from trying to anticipate its movements so that he could duck under the blade and jab it with an upper cut. But just as it was about to strike and Ishida was ready to counter, a bright flash of light blinded them all.
They heard a loud yelp that was unmistakable, "Hey guys, is everyone...oh crap! Guilmon! DUCK!"
Once the light cleared, the creature was nowhere to be found, and Tamerkato was on the ground on top of Guilmon. The little red dinosaur squirmed, "Get off! I don't feel good and you're heavy! I think I'm going to barf!"
After a moment, Tamerkato's head perked up to around, "Is everyone alright? Geez, what was that about? Who was that? Actually, what was that? And why the hell was it attacking me!?"
"Tamer?" Sora choked out.
"Goggle head? What are you doing here!?" Rika blurted out in surprise.
"I'm here to get your dad's laptop. What was that thing?"
"Forget that! Where'd it go?" Sora asked, still trying to keep both Rika and Henry behind her as if she would be able to do anything if it tried to attack her. Tamerkato shrugged, "It fell into the gate I opened to get here just as it was closing. It's probably caught in the space between worlds. I wouldn't worry about it. By now, its gestalt conscious is probably disintegrating into nothing. Matter can only exist in the void for so long anyway."
"Wait, what?" Ishida repeated, "AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US THAT WHILE WE WERE USING THEM TO GO BETWEEN WORLDS?"
"See, this is why I didn't tell you guys these things. You all freak out! At least, I think that's why I did it. Now, seriously. Is no one going to tell me what that grim reaper puppet looking thing was? Because I would seriously like an explanation for it," Tamerkato grunted in frustration, gesturing at where it had been moments ago.
Rika ignored that comment about endangering their lives and pointed ahead at the red mass of the D-Reaper, "It's from that thing! It...I don't know what to call it but those birds are turning into those things."
"They did? How...that shouldn't...oh...oh that's not good," Tamerkato paused, looking back at the red mass.
Annoyed at being left out, Rika asked, "What is it, goggle head?"
"It might have Calumon. And if it has Calumon, then we really are in trouble. There's no more time to lose! Quick, Rika, where's your dad?"
Rika gestured down at the building, "Inside. But the whole building is locked down! There's no way you're getting inside with the stairs. Never mind that, if you were looking for dad, why are you here?"
"I was aiming for inside Hypnos. I missed and ended up on top of the building. Could be worse. Could be plummeting to my death right now," Tamer remarked.
Guilmon tilted his head sheepishly at his partner, "I don't understand a word Takatomon says anymore and that makes me sad."
"Sorry buddy," he petted his partner's head and raised up his digivice, "Come on. We don't have a minute to lose. DIGIPORT OPEN!"
With another bright flash, the two of them were gone. Rika stamped her foot, "I hate it when he does stuff like that."
"Tell me about it," Ishida agreed bitterly as a moment of silence followed until he asked, "Wait, wasn't Beelzemon falling a moment ago?"
"Yeah, I was. Thanks for nothing," Beelzemon grumbled from behind them. They turned back around to see Rapidmon slowly lifting him back up into the air, dangling him like a bag. The emerald digimon complained, "You weigh a ton, y'know that? What are you eating?"
Beelzemon grunted his disapproval as he cocked his shotgun, "Alright, where the hell is that freak so I can blow him to hell?"
"Gone. Tamer took care of him," Rika answered.
Beelzemon groaned in frustration and stamped his foot so hard that the roof cracked, "Oh, he's here, huh? Hmph…I don't really want to talk to him. Look, I need to get you-"
He pointed at Rika, then at Henry, "And you back to the others. So can we go now or are we just going to sit around talk s'more? Because I'm also not supposed to let ya near the computers or something stupid like that and those things seem pretty set on getting to you."
"Why not?" Henry asked.
Beelzemon groaned and moved to scoop up Rika with one arm. She kicked and failed to be let go but he barely seemed dazed by the hits. He would've picked up Henry but Rapidmon moved in the way to stop him.
Beelzemon just rolled his eyes, "Look, I ain't explaining it again. NOW COME ON AND FOLLOW ME!"
"Hey! Put me down, creep!" Rika protested but Beelzemon wasn't having it any more. Before she could say anything else, the digimon took a running leap off the roof and descended downward.
Izumi examined the code on the computer carefully for any kind of syntax errors or logical bugs that would cause it to fail. At this rate, they'd only get one chance to fire it and they had to make it count. Unfortunately, it was hard to concentrate on his coding when he could feel Yamaki's gaze on him. He looked up from his screen to ask, "Can I help you?"
"I'm just making sure you're not going to sabotage the code to save your pets," Yamaki frowned.
Izumi turned his chair to face him, "I'm not exactly happy about this arrangement either. If it were my call, I'd shut this whole thing and destroy all the data."
"And yet doing that would put your daughter in unnecessary danger," Yamaki started matter of factly. His wife didn't take to the unwarranted questioning and poked him in the chest, "Hey, don't go threatening our daughter like that. Now back the hell off and let him work."
Whatever Yamaki was about to say in response was cut off by a sudden loud flash of light that pulled their attention to the center of the room. The security team was already moving on the situation, weapons drawn and ready to fire, "Perimeter breach."
"Surround it! Keep it contained!"
"Check your fire, don't hit any civilians!"
"Why does everyone feel the need to point a weapon at me today?" the Tamer's voice echoed from the center of the security guards now converging on where the light flashed. They heard a growl and one of the guards stepped backwards away from the growling Guilmon. Tamer flicked him in the snout to stop the dinosaur and snatched the handgun out of the hands of the guard pointing him at him. Just as quickly, he removed the magazine and tossed it over his shoulder as he walked out of the circle of guards, "I swear if I see another gun pointed at me today."
"Perimeter clear," one of the guards said nervously and a sense of calm went back over the crowd of panicked workers.
Izumi wheeled himself away from his desk to get a better look while Yamaki marched over to meet him, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in their world?"
"I heard about what's going on and came to make sure everything's okay. Also need Rika's dad's laptop," Tamer remarked, hurrying over to Koushiro with the most serious look he'd ever seen on The Tamer's face. Mimi put a hand on her hips and went to meet him, "Here comes trouble."
"Hello to you too, Rumiko...Mimi...whatever, you know who you are. Izzy! Do you have your old laptop? The one from forever ago?" Tamer asked quickly. Koushiro reached for the bag hanging from the back of his chair, "Always. I've held on to it for a long and I don't intend to let it go. What do you want with it anyway?"
"It's part of a plan I'm working on. I put a back up of the Digital World on your computer remember? I can use this to help separate the worlds along with a bunch of information on all the type of digimon," Tamer explained knowledgeably. However, that didn't exactly put his mind at ease as he listened to the boy ramble on, "And this could be what gives us an edge over the D-Reaper since it's currently attacking the facility."
A loud bang from outside the blast shields reminded them of what was just outside and Guilmon started growling again. Tamer shot a surprised glance at the steel and remarked, "Are...are they seriously just ramming themselves against the metal?"
"Well, it's starting to dent if you haven't noticed," Mimi gestured at the indentations all along the metal barricades. Two more appeared as another bang followed.
Tamer frowned, "Oh that's not good. Thanks for the laptop Izzy. I'll try to distract it so please hurry up. OH! And where's the smart one who made the camera program?"
"Here!" she called out, "Why? What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that it's time we know what the D-Reaper's doing," Tamer hurried over to her computer and pointed his digivice at it, "Okay, I hope you won't mind if I borrow that."
Another light flash from his digivice and the computer's screen glitched only for a moment before it returned to normal. Then he pointed his digivice at Izzy's laptop and light flashed again, "Alright, that should do it. If you'll excuse me. DIGIPORT OPEN!"
"Tamer, wait!" Mimi tried calling out to him only to see him vanish in another flash of light as quickly as he appeared, "One day, we're going to nail him to the floor before he can do that."
"Time's a factor people! Let's get back to work," Yamaki clapped his hands to get everyone's attention and started barking orders to get everyone focusing on their job. Koushiro sighed and went back to his computer, although now he was pondering just what the Digimon Tamer was thinking - he needed the laptop with the back up of the Digital World and the camera program that she developed for the Ark. No matter what he thought of, though, he wasn't sure what the Tamer could be planning to do with both of those items. Then again, Tamer admitted to making this up as he went so maybe there was no plan. Maybe he was just talking out of his ass to keep them calm. He wasn't sure he liked that alternative.
Beelzemon continued over the rooftops of the city with the girl in his arms and Rapidmon just behind him. There was also a crowd of those scythe creatures attacking too which didn't help. With every step and leap he took, Rika screamed and cried at the top of her lungs, "Put me down! Put me down! Taomon!"
"Will you SHADDAP!? I'm trying to concentrate. I got half the city after us - those things and the humans who keep shooting at us," Beelzemon gestured at the soldiers shooting at them from below and the creatures pursuing them. Point that out didn't stop the girl from flailing and kicking violently, much to his increasing annoyance, "For the love of…if I didn't like yer partner, I'd drop ya. I have no idea how she puts up with you."
"Probably a lot better than she puts up with you!" Rika spat back. Beelzemon really wanted to drop her right now and it took all his effort to not do it. He was trying to turn over a new leaf. He couldn't do that if he was just going to drop her. Besides, he made a promise to those damn digimon partners of theirs.
"Seriously, where are you going!?" Henry shouted from Rapidmon's back. He looked over his shoulder once to shout, "I just told you, didn't I? Try to pay attention."
He hurried on, blasting everything in his way with his shotgun until he saw a mass of the pendulum creatures swarming around a roof top. That was where he'd left both Taomon and Justimon - and he could see both of them on their knees and ready to give in. He cocked his shotgun and took aim, "HANG ON!"
He fired off both shells - neither shot connected because the creatures moved out of the way but it cleared the opening they needed to rejoin the digimon. He set the girl down and looked up to see Rapidmon rocketing in behind him with Henry in tow - just avoiding crashing into the roof, "Okay, we're here. Now what!?"
"And who the hell is that!?" Rika pointed at Justimon.
"Rika, it's me," he answered as if he expected her to recognize him.
And as expected, she grumbled, "And that answers my question how?"
"It's Ryo and Monodramon…Cyberdramon? They're Justimon now," Taomon clarified for the girl whose jaw appeared to literally fall open with amazement.
It was embarrassing to watch her ogle him like he were a piece of eye candy. Justimon could only wave at her shyly as Rika pointed in disbelief, "You're…wow…hang on. Since when?"
Beelzemon groaned, "It's a long story and we don't have time. Just do the thing already!"
"Right…um…here we go," Rika raised her digivice above her head expectantly, as if that would actually doing anything.
When nothing happened, Beelzemon lost his patience, "What's taking so long?"
"Hey! We don't even know how we did it in the first place," Rika answered as the scythe creatures began to converge upon them.
Rapidmon raised up his guns and cried out, "Well figure it out fast. We'll hold these guys off for as long as we can!"
"RAPID FIRE!"
"TALISMAN OF LIGHT!"
"JUSTICE BURST!"
Beelzemon joined the fray, firing into the swirling mass of creatures encircling them in the hopes of doing some kind of damage to them. In the mess of attacks they were unleashing, a few of the creatures actually dodged straight into the attack and were destroyed. But like the bird creatures that preceded them, every one they defeated was quickly replaced by another so that it seemed that their attacks did nothing against their number.
"It's not working!" Rapidmon called out.
"They're getting closer," Justimon shouted.
"SHUT UP AND KEEP SHOOTING!" Beelzemon growled at them. If they spent half as much time doing anything as they did talking, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess but nope. Still, he kept firing his gun at everything he saw until-
"RIKA!"
One of the creatures took a swipe at the girl with its blade, and the girl was too frozen by surprise to do anything about it. Not run, not get out of the way. She just stood in its path like a deer in the path of a car. He turned his gun on the attacker and pulled the trigger - but the shot went wide and missed. Then Taomon leapt in front to protect her partner.
A bright light shone as Taomon stood in front of Rika and Beelzemon was blinded. Then he heard a yell and a scream, followed by a crash. When the light cleared, he could see the kid with the blue hoodie and Guilmon lying on the ground just in front of everyone. And the attacking thing was gone.
Tamer stood up and dusted himself off, "WHY IS EVERYONE DOING THAT TODAY!?"
"Goggle head!?" Rika blurted out in surprise annoyed that he was here, "What are you doing now!?"
"Takatomon, can we stop doing that? My everything is starting to hurt," Guilmon whimpered sheepishly as he massaged his tail.
Takato patted the dinosaur, "Sorry buddy. I promise I'll get better at this. Eventually."
"Can eventually be now?" Guilmon whined quietly from the floor.
Takato grinned and turned towards the mass of the puppet creatures who stopped their attack. They were now content to just float there and stare down at Tamerkato as he strolled towards one, "Hello! You must be those things trying to attack the-"
"You appear before us again," one moved in front of him, speaking in its horrifying drone, "State your intention. What is your purpose?"
"Purpose? I dunno. I make up a lot of this stuff as I go," he replied. Rika couldn't believe...no, she refused to believe what she was seeing. That thing was talking to him. Talking.
She wasn't sure what surprised her more - the fact that it could talk or the fact that it thought Tamerkato was worth talking to. No good could come from this interaction. Then the boy spun on his heels, "Guys, glad to see you're all still alive. I was kinda worried your mom would kill me if you got killed. Or try to anyway. Wait…are we in a Digital Space? When did that happen?"
"Your attempts at distraction are futile," the creature droned, "State your purpose."
HIs shoulders slumped as he turned on the thing, "Fine…fine…those bird things, the ones you sent around the city. They've been gathering information, haven't they? Learning all they can about this world so that you can figure out how to destroy it all. My question is…have you learned enough or would you like this?"
He produced his digivice from his pocket and extended it out to the creature, "Go ahead and scan it if you'd like. That contains information on the Digital World, all the digimon out there, and a copy of the Guardian's Archive. Including everything that could possibly be, ever! The best part is, once you have access to this, you still won't be asking the right questions."
The puppet thing hesitated. Rika wasn't sure what he was playing at and that made her nervous. After all, she had seen what Tamerkato was capable of when he wanted to be dangerous. Megidramon flashed through her mind as she thought about it.
"What questions?" the creature asked.
"Scan it," the boy winked. The creature blinked and reached out to touch the digivice. Immediately, the device flashed with light and dozens of images began flashing on its small screen. They all watched as the creature continued to scan the data on the screen as it flew past, all the while the kid's smile widened, "Have you figured out what the question is or should I keep waiting?"
"Only one: Why?" the creature repeated again with its once again tone.
"Try again."
"Is this a trap?"
"Keep going."
"What are you planning?"
"I already said I make this up as I go. Once more."
Rika noticed Beelzemon getting impatient with all this and he readied his gun to shoot, only to see another of those puppet things appear in front of him. He clicked his tongue and stepped back as the other puppet thing continued to scan. Then it asked, "What is the question?"
The smile widened as he finally explained, "The question is: Are these worlds defended? Because you're not the first. There've been so many others - whole armies have tried to destroy the Digital World and the Human World."
Images flashed on the screen of so many digimon she knew about from the show and books - Devimon and Etemon, Myotismon and his armies, the Dark Masters and Apocalymon, Dragomon and his hordes from the Dark Ocean, Mummymon and Arukenimon. As they flashed on screen, Tamerkato added, "And the thing you're not thinking about is this: what happened to them?"
As he spoke the images on screen changed to humans and digimon. No, once she looked closer - it was the digidestined and their partners.
Her parents - Mimi and Koushiro, and their partners Palmon and Tentomon. The teacher Kari and her partner Gatomon. Then her mom's designer friend Sora and Biyomon. On and on it went, flashing the face of each human and their digimon partner. Then Ryo's face flashed with Monodramon...and it followed with her face and Renamon's. Then Juri and Leomon. Henry and Terriermon. Kazu and Guardromon. Kenta and MarineAngemon. Xiaochun and Lopmon. Two random kids and Impmon. Then another guy.
It took her a moment to understand who it was. But once it clicked, she understood. In the anime it was Taichi...little Kari's older brother and one of the main characters in the novel. But here, it was Tamer. It had to be. His original face. And his partner Agumon. And the screen flash again to him glowing a bright light as he made a pained face - a face that changed slowly until it began to turn into Tamerkato's face. And the image cut out as he put the digivice away while wearing that stupidly confident smile of his, "Hello again. I'm the Digimon Tamer."
The puppet creature flinched like it was afraid of him. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing as it handed, "You've just seen an entire database of the Guardians about my people. And now you know what you're up against. You just threatened me and everything I care about. Do whatever you want to me if you think you're brave enough. But you hurt my friends. Worse, you kidnapped one of my friends and hurt her. You've seen what happened to all the others with all their plans and their schemes and their powers. So now let me ask a question: what do you think is going to happen to you?"
Author's Notes: That's a hell of a threat the Digimon Tamer just made. What will the D-Reaper do in response? Will the Hypnos team be able to finish the Juggernaut Project in time? Will Juri be saved or will the D-Reaper destroy both worlds. Find out all this in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name due out in three weeks on Friday May 29th at 8 PM CDT. I understand if some of you are increasingly frustrated about the delayed schedule as of late. I'm not happy about it either. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic is making work very busy and it's robbing me of any motivation to write or be creative outside that. For those of you keeping up with me through this crisis, thanks for your support and stay safe out there. That's all for now. Leave a review to let me know what you guys think and don't forget to follow to keep up with updates and favorite to show support. That's all I have for now, let's look at previews of the next chapter:
"Yamaki! Lock down your building and secure whatever assets you have. I want as much of it to be as salvageable as possible," the Prime Minister's voice said over the phone. His tone betrayed whatever anxiety he was feeling. Yamaki did his best to remain calm but he knew what that tone meant, listening intently as the Prime Minister went on, "We've authorized the drop. We're pulling as many people out of the city as possible."
"Sir, with respect, that sounds extreme. My team hasn't even been able to finish fixing the Juggernaut program yet," Yamaki tried to reason with the man.
The Prime Minister wasn't having any of it and interrupted him, "I don't care for your excuses Yamaki. You and your Juggernaut have never been effective in containing this problem and you know it. The bomb drop has already been authorized and the Americans have planes en route to the city. You've got about twenty minutes to secure everything. I want it to be sellable when all this is over. After that, the Defense Minister and I will be reviewing your role within the Ministry of Defense."