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 49: Distress at Okinawa
Mephistomon exited the space between worlds and found himself over a pristine tropical island. The air here was different. He knew this place. It was the world of the humans. A world where data only existed in their computers. Machines meant to make their lives easier. And, if he was not mistaken, this was also a world that had been touched by the war. It had been fragmented.
No, that wasn't right.
Split?
MERGED!
This world was two separate versions of the human world sitting on top of each other - bleeding into each other. Crossing their destinies and becoming…something new. Something more.
Such a world was destined to the be place to mark his lord's return. As for what his lord would do with it…well, the humans of this world were at his mercy. Until then, Mephistomon would have to prepare it for his return. For the future.
For The Denier of Fate.
For Liberation From Destiny.
For the Morning Star.
Henry, Juri, Kazu, Kenta, and Ryo all waved goodbye to their parents as they boarded the private jet bound for Okinawa. Then the time came for them to get in their seats, but none of these kids could contain their excitement about getting the private jet treatment. In fact, it took until Yamaki yelled at them about staying in their seats for them to even comply.
Rika was the only one not jumping up and down out of her seat, although she had plenty of opportunities to fly around in private jets because of her mom's modeling/tv show career. But she had another reason for her quiet mood on the trip. On the one hand, she was excited about the prospect of getting to fight along side her parents again. On the other hand, why were her parents the only ones coming? Or more accurately, how had she become the one kid who's parents would tag along?
"I wouldn't feel too bad about it, Rika. I mean, not everyone can say their parents are the digidestined," Ryo pointed out in an attempt to cheer her up.
Still, it had to be better than Juri. She must've felt like a burden on them, getting dragged along only because Calumon refused to go without her. Even now, Juri was sitting in the back of the plane by herself with her attention out the window.
It wasn't long before they were in the air and the plane was bound for Okinawa. Despite the lack of an in flight movie, the boys quickly entertained themselves with a card game while the digimon watch curiously. Occasionally, Kazu or Kenta would do something that the digimon would find objectionable - pointing out how certain powers couldn't work like that or how that wasn't how certain attacks worked. Thankfully, Kenta could calm them down by reminding them all it was just a game.
Ryo was the only one not playing, having retreated to the back of the plane with Juri. It was concern that brought Rika back there to talk to them, at least that's what she told herself to deny the fact that it was secret jealousy.
"You guys not interested in playing cards with the others?" she asked.
Ryo stifled a laugh, "Sorry, Rika. But that card game stopped being fun after the first month stuck in the Digital World. I don't hate digimon...I just don't want to have to do anything involving those cards if I don't have to. How about you? I thought you'd like the chance to play."
Rika grinned, "Yeah right. Against those chumps? It'd be like shooting fish in a barrel. How about you, Juri?"
Juri hadn't said a thing, quietly staring out the window as the plane flew. Rika called her name again to get her attention and the girl squeaked, "Huh?"
"I asked if you wanted to play the card game?" Rika repeated for her.
Juri poked her head out onto the aisle and watched them having fun before mumbling, "No thanks."
"You don't want to play with them, Juri?" Calumon asked sweetly, "I bet it's a lot of fun! Look at them! Don't you want to join in?"
"I do. But I kind of want to be alone right now," she answered quietly.
"It's okay, Juri. Take as much time as you need," Ryo assured her, "We're here for you. We all are."
Juri gave them something like a smile. At the very least, she was less sullen now. She wasn't as carefree as she used to be, but this was a step in the right direction. And something was better than nothing when it came to her.
"Got it!" Izzy said excitedly from his computer.
"Got what?" Mimi asked as she leaned over to look at the laptop.
He rotated it slightly to face her and explained, "I've been working on this code for a while. It operates on the same principles as the Juggernaut only this time it's not designed to suck life in. It'll operate more like that camera program…which can let us take a peak into Yggdrasil back at Hypnos."
"Okay...can we try running it?" Mimi asked.
Izzy dismisses the idea, "Not on the plane. I need a connection to the computer to access it which means getting to a land line or a phone for a signal. And I don't want to risk the chance that the D-Reaper uses that to get loose and appear on the plane. Or worse, showing up on the plane."
"Yeah, good point," Mimi answered, looking back at their daughter talking animatedly with her friends. It was so good to see her smile after all this time; to feel normal after everything they'd all been through. Not that she minded having their partners back. She just wished the world wasn't in trouble every time they were together again. Speaking of which, Palmon ran back towards the kids holding a glass, "Ruki! Ruki! You have to try this juice! It's just so good!"
Rika's face twisted at being called her actual name - a name that her own daughter found too cutesy for her own liking. If it wasn't for the fact that Rika finally took the glass with a cute smile, Mimi would've wondered if she really was her daughter. But how could she not? After all, Izzy always assured her that Rika had her smile. And seeing that look on her daughter's face when she interacted with digimon…yup, there was no doubt. Rika was hers.
Takehito Uehara worked on his computer late into night, busy reworking some of the code in the artificial intelligence he'd been designing. The company he worked for scrapped the project after the incident in Tokyo brought heavy scrutiny on any research into artificial intelligence. Especially after it got leaked that digital life forms - living beings from a world made of data - were responsible for the attack.
Now it seemed like plenty of companies and organizations were moving away from artificial intelligence research to avoid bad publicity. But he didn't care. Artificial intelligence was the future of computer technologies. He knew it.
Granted, he wasn't working on anything as fancy as an intelligent form of life. What he really wanted was to create a digital assistant - something that could help track appointments, look up weather forecasts, answer emails and messages. An intelligent digital assistant. It was just an issue of keeping anyone from learning about the project before it was ready. He didn't want a coworker taking credit for his ideas or some obstructive government bureaucrat confiscating things before they were ready.
But it would be fine. Even if it was taken from him, the original copies of the files were with his daughter on her laptop. Which was the key to the entire project - a simple digital assistant that was disguised as a virtual pet. Something that adults would find useful for work and kids would find fun to play with.
"That is an excellent project you have there."
Uehara spun around in his chair, "Hello?"
He came face to face with a horrifying half man, half goat demon thing peering down at him with his teeth bare. It was hard to tell if the creature was smiling or not through those grit teeth. And the only thing stopping him from running away was his own crippling fear of death.
"Crap...did I break you? Hello?" it waved its hand in front of him. He was too scared to respond. It was waving at him. This horrifying thing was waving at him. And talking! Was it one of those artificial intelligent life forms? No...it couldn't be. It had to be a demon. Or a devil.
"Gah…I broke him. Humans are so useless. Fine. We'll do it this way," Mephistomon grumbled, waving his hand in front of him. Takehito didn't know when it happened, but the world went dark. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The plane landed at Naha Airport late into the afternoon, taxiing towards a hangar where a team of government agents were already waiting to meet them. Kazu was the first one of the plane, stretching loudly and crying, "Oh yeah! It feels good to stretch after being cooped up in the plane for so long."
"I'll say. Does anyone else feel exhausted?" Kenta added.
"That's the jet lag. You get used to it after a while," Rika's mom said as she descended down the stairs backwards, taking care to not accidentally lose her hold on her husband's wheelchair. They'd only managed to go down a step before Renamon pulled Rika's dad off and leapt down to the floor.
"I apologize but we really didn't have time to wait for you to get all the way down those stairs," Renamon explained to the two adults, watching Mimi hurry to bring the chair back down the stairs. Mimi waved it off, "It's fine, really. It's not the first time Koushiro got swept off his feet."
"Honey, don't tell them that!" Izzy protested but it was too late.
The mental image of him getting picked up his wife was now ingrained permanently in their memory. Made all the better because it was still hard to not see them as the kids from their favorite show. Henry chuckled, "Y'know, I always wondered what your parents saw in each other. I guess your dad was just into a strong woman who could-"
Rika punched him in the shoulder, "Do NOT talk about my parents' love life. EVER. I NEVER want to talk about it."
Henry rubbed his shoulder, wondering which of the two parents she got her temper and strength from. Maybe her mom was secretly a weight lifter? It would explain how she stayed fit for modeling. Although he'd never seen Rika doing that with all the times they'd been to her house.
Terriermon wasn't making him feel better, laughing from atop his head, "It's funny how none of you can go five minutes without saying something to upset her. Rika needs some Moumantai."
As he said that, a shoe flew from the side and struck him on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Now it was Henry's turn to laugh and he snickered, "Moumantai, huh?"
"Yeah, yeah. I deserve that," Terriermon rubbed the back of his head and stood back up, steadying himself against Henry's leg, "So where are we going anyway?"
"Well, first I wanted to go swimming at the beach. The waters here are so clean that you can see all the way to the ground!" Kenta said excitedly.
"Ooh! Swimming! I like swimming! Can I come!?" Calumon jumped up and down excitedly.
"We're here to stop a rogue digimon that escaped into our world, remember?" Yamaki reminded them, spoiling the excitement they had all been feeling.
Henry couldn't deny that he really wanted to just take a minute and relax after everything they'd been through. At the same time, they couldn't risk a digimon running loose in the world. Especially not after everything that happened. Besides, there would be plenty of time to relax after they sent it back to the Digital World. Or, if worse came to worse, after they killed it.
He really hoped it wasn't going to come to that. Henry took out his digivice and checked the radar, "It says the digimon is north of here. What's north of here?"
"The entire island," Yamaki answered matter of factly, "We're close to the southwestern edge of the island. I've arranged for transport to get us wherever we need to go and for a place to stay at a nearby inn. But for now, let's focus on the mission. Lead the way."
They loaded onto several large SUVs that took off from the airport and onto the main road, driving along the coast and following the radar north until they came along the small village of Kunigami. It was a quaint village, with only a few houses dotting the country side and barely anyone out and about.
"Talk about out in the sticks! I bet they don't even know what digimon is all the way out here!" Kazu stated with boredom, his face pressed against the glass until something caught his attention, "I can see the beach! Oh we're definitely going for a swim after all this is over. Let's find this digimon already and kick its ass."
"Or we could talk things out and send it back to the Digital World normally," Henry suggested.
"SHIT!" the SUV driver cried out, slamming his break so hard that everyone was thrown forward in their seats. Terriermon flew out of his lap and straight into the back of the driver's seat. For a brief moment, Henry swore he saw a girl just in front of the SUV with a terrified look on her face. She covered her mouth to gasp before running off. The driver cursed, "Damn kids just running out onto the road! The hell do they teach you these days!?"
His cursing was cut off as a large Scorpiomon ran in front of the vehicle, charging off in the direction of the girl. Henry cursed their luck. That was not the digimon that had set off their digivices. In fact, their digivices hadn't gone off at all for that digimon. How was that possible? How had they completely missed the arrival of another digimon? Was it shape shifting? Digivolution? There had to be some explanation for this.
Kazu was the first one out of the SUV, followed by Guardromon and their driver. Henry followed out and saw the others clamoring out of their vehicle in the direction the girl had just run. Kazu asked, "Hey! That girl's in trouble! We got to help her!"
"Come on Renamon!" Rika added, leading the charge into the forest after the girl.
"Hey! Wait!" Henry tried to call after them to stop them but it was too late. They'd already run off after the girl, leaving him behind with Terriermon, Juri, and Calumon. Calumon's ears shrank in size as he looked up at them worriedly, "Aren't you going to go help them?"
"Something about this isn't right. That isn't the digimon our digivices went off for. Our digivices never went off for a second digimon at all," Henry pointed out to the little Calumon.
"What do you think it means?" Calumon asked.
"You should still go after them to help, Henry. Since…I won't be much use," Juri replied.
Terriermon laughed, "You get down on yourself too much. You're plenty of help. Besides, Calumon won't go anywhere without you and we need Calumon there in case we need him to unlock more power for us."
"Do I have to go?" Calumon frowned, his eyes going big with fear at the prospect of having to witness and possibly participate in more conflict against his will. Henry just patted the little Digimon, "It's okay. We all know how you feel. Come on, let's go before they get too far ahead!"
"Hey! Wait for us!" Rika's mom cried out as she helped her husband out of the SUV and into his wheel chair. Henry stopped just short of taking a step to see the adults trying to move themselves and her hurried back to help, "Sorry, got caught up in the moment."
"It's fine. We were like that when we were your age. Just don't get too far ahead without us. Our digivices can't track Digimon the way yours can. Besides, if you wait a minute we can just bitch a ride instead of running," her father answered, producing his digivice and turning to his insect partner, "Do you mind, Tentomon?"
"Not at all! I'm always happy to give you a hand Izzy!" the insect declared.
"Nothing?" Zhenyu asked as he watched both Miss Kamiya and Mister Takaishi continue to message away at their D-Terminals. Both adults shook their heads, "Nothing. Whatever happened, it's stopped our messages from getting through back to our world."
"So we're stuck in the Digital World again?" Gatomon groaned.
Patamon smiler, "Well look on the bright side: at least Kari's here with us this time. Plus we've got new friends too."
"No offense Gatomon, but I don't exactly plan on spending the rest of my life here," Miss Kamiya interjected.
"The rest of our lives! Lopmon! You can show me the whole Digital World!" Xiaochun squealed ecstatically, hugging the little brown rabbit excitedly. The rabbit had just enough to squeal in protest as Xiaochun picked her up.
It seemed his little girl still hadn't quite grasped the gravity of their situation. If his wife didn't kill him for getting stuck in another world, his wife would certainly kill him for trapping their youngest daughter with him. How did things get this far anyway? It was just supposed to be a quick trip to survey the new Digital World.
Why did anything that involved coming here have to also involve another life threatening...
He paused when it occurred to him that Xiaochun wouldn't even get to have a life. She was just a little girl. Now she'd never know the joys of going to high school, falling in love, getting a job, starting a family...
No.
He shouldn't think like that. They would get out of this. He just needed to have faith that it would all work out. Although faith would be a lot easier to have if they at least knew why they weren't able to reopen a gate back to the human world. Why were they unable to get a hold of anybody in the human world with these trans-dimensional communication devices? And what about everyone who was in this world?
"What about the others? The ones with the dragon...Ken and...Davis?" he finally asked.
"I'm messaging them now. Hopefully, they have an idea of what's going on," Miss Kamiya responded, typing into her D-Terminal and sighing in silent admission of defeat. She looked up at them and offered a half smile, "Nothing to do now but wait for an answer, or a miracle."
"HEY!"
"Any one else ever notice how the timing in our lives is nothing short of a miracle?" Takeru snorted.
Thunder sounded and a gust of wind pushed little Xiaochun and Lopmon onto his legs where they held on for life. Over their heads, the flying dragon Imperialdramon zoomed past over their heads before circling back around to hover over them. The serpentine Azulongmon followed just behind him, its massive form so large that Zhenyu was taken aback by the fact that something so large and powerful could exist at all.
What did it eat? Where did it sleep? Did it need to sleep?
Imperialdramon stopped just short of knocking them over and landed beside them, Davis leaping off first to state, "Good! You're all safe!"
"That's an understatement. Can you guys open up a gate back to our world?" Takeru asked.
Davis shook his head, "No. Whatever that creepy goat guy did locked us out."
Takaishi stared at him blankly and Zhenyu wished he could've been more surprised by that statement. But after everything that had happened, he wasn't sure anything could surprise him anymore. He just blinked and asked, "What are you talking about, Davis?"
"Oh man, where do I even begin?" Davis scratched the back of his head.
"Ancient evil, escaped the heart of the Digital World, now it's loose in another world and we're stuck here," Imperialdramon answered for him.
"Hey! I was going to tell them!" Davis spat out angrily.
"Well, maybe don't take so much time next time," Ken remarked.
"Look, if this is about the D-Reaper, I thought we took care of that already. Don't tell me it's back!" Patamon interrupted them. That was the last thing Zhenyu wanted to hear after all the trouble they went through to kill it last time. That it was back. And worse, it was probably angry about what they did to it. They had no way of combatting it this time. They'd used everything they had with the Juggernaut last time. There was no firing another cannon this time.
"No, it's worse," Azulongmon stated. It was amazing how three words could be enough to destroy any good feelings he had. What could possible have been worse than the D-Reaper? He picked up Xiaochun to hold his little girl, half because she'd started shivering fearfully and half because he just needed something to ground him so that fear wouldn't take him.
"Digidestined…it…the digimon we encountered was Mephistomon. He is a powerful digimon, but also a servant to one even we Sovereigns dread. The fact that Mephistomon has returned can only mean his master is returning as well. And I'm afraid there is nothing we can do if he does appear," Azulongmon stated.
"Okay…what's this guy's deal? And what does that have to do with the fact that our digivices can't open a gate back to our world?" Miss Kamiya asked.
"…Mephistomon…in the early days of the Great War, he and his masters fought along side the Ancients to stave off the coming darkness that threatened all worlds. Then something happened. No one knows what. To be honest, it's dreadful to think about what could possibly have driven him to do what he did. He turned on the Ancients, leading his followers in a wave of destruction that cost more lives than anything the Dark Masters could have done on their own," Azulongmon explained.
This all felt like the sequel to a movie he missed. Zhenyu really hated that feeling, being left out the loop. Perhaps what was his punishment for keeping his work on the Digital World secret for so long. Lopmon looked up, "Lord Azulongmon. If he was stopped before, surely he can be stopped again?"
"That's what I would like to think, little one. However, Mephistomon and his master are in an entirely different league to us. We looked to him and his master the way you look to us. To challenge either is unthinkable. And, all cards on the table, we're not entirely sure how he was defeated in the first place…but now it seems that he was defeated when he was trapped by the D-Reaper. And without the D-Reaper…both are now free to make their return," Azulongmon answered, "But the fact that Mephistomon came first is a good sign. It might mean his master was already defeated. Or, at least, is too weak to strike out on his own now. We have a small window of opportunity to prepare for his master's return. We just need to find Mephistomon."
"Yeah, thanks for the story but that doesn't help with our immediate problem of escaping the Digital World," Zhenyu interrupted, "How could a digimon do that, anyway? I know they've crossed into our world before on their own but preventing travel between worlds shouldn't be possible for them. Could it?"
"When Mephistomon's Master switched sides, it's possible that they stole some of the Ancient's technology. How else could they be interfering?" Azulongmon answered.
"Then it looks like the Hallowed Bastion is our next stop," Ken answered, gesturing for everyone to climb on to Imperialdramon's back.
That name made Zhenyu blink, "The Hallowed Bastion. Is there a reason any part of the Digital World would have such a pretentious name?"
"It was made by some of the most pretentious people you will ever meet. Ever met, I should say. We spent a whole day with one for whatever that's worth," Ken answered.
"He's talking about the Digimon Tamer, by the way," Takaishi explained, giving him a hand up.
Ryo and Monodramon ran through the woods, following the sounds of screams and trees being knocked over. Rika and Renamon were just ahead of them and eventually Rika barked, "Don't wait up for us, Renamon! Go help the girl!"
"Okay! Keep her safe you two," Renamon answered, leaping up into the nearest tree branch and disappearing further ahead.
"I will!" Ryo and Monodramon said in unison, the two partners looking at each other in annoyance that the other responded. The more things change, the more they stayed the same. And it seemed he and Monodramon would always have different ideas when it came to handling digimon.
"You think she can take that digimon?" Monodramon asked.
"Renamon wouldn't have run ahead on her own if she didn't think she couldn't. Besides, she's not going after the digimon. She's going after the girl!" Rika said as they continued running.
"Does anyone else think that it's weird that the digimon is focused on that girl? I mean it had…what, six digimon right there in front of it and it ignored all of us to go after her!" Kenta asked, racing behind them and trying his best to keep up, "Who do you think that was, anyway?"
"No idea, but I'm guessing it has the Digimon Tamer written all over it," Ryo answered for them, still trying to figure out in his head how the Digimon Tamer was connected to any of this. After all, that was how he operated. He had his hand in a little bit of everything.
Rika scolded them from the front, pushing more branches and shrubbery out of her path, "Figure it out later! Come on! We're getting closer! I can hear the screaming from-"
"AAAAAAHHH!"
"-right over there," Rika finished, finally reaching the end of the forest where they stumbled into a beach. The girl was waist deep in the water, surrounded by the white squid Gesomon and a massive Shellmon. Renamon was next to her, trying to position herself between the girl and the attacking digimon while the angry Scorpiomon waded into the water behind them.
Thinking quickly, Ryo went for his deck and began cycling through his cards - knowing just what power up he wanted to give Monodramon, "Digimodify! WarGreymon's Shield Activate!"
Rika was just behind him, swiping her own card through the digivice, "Digimodify! Speed Boost Activate!"
A large shield appeared in Monodramon's hands, so massive that he could barely hold it up losing balance and toppling over. Still, that didn't stop the digimon from throwing it as hard as he could at Gesomon, knocking it in the head and bouncing it off towards Shellmon. That was Renamon's opening, who grabbed a hold of the girl and leapt up into the air. With a little aerobatics, she was able to spin herself in the air to kick off WarGreymon's shield and towards the shore beside them, "I'm glad you showed up when you did. I wasn't sure I could take three on my own."
The girl jolted out of her arms and ran behind Ryo - latching onto him for dear life while cradling a laptop in her other arm. Ryo tried to ignore the fact that this scared girl was using him as a shield, and the fact that Rika was scowling at him for some reason. This wasn't the time to figure this out, though.
"So is no one going to point out the fact that there are three of these digimon now! THREE!" Kazu pointed out excitedly.
"And they're all Champions too. We better get ready for a long fight," Kenta added, nervously producing his digivice and looking straight ahead at the three champions making their way back up the beach towards them. Kenta gulped and murmured, "Okay. This isn't our first fight. Just stay calm."
"What are you worried about, Kenta? We got this!" Kazu cheered him on.
"ELECTRO SHOCKER!"
An arc of electricity traced its way along the sand until it reached the water and fried the three digimon standing there. All three digimon convulsed and twitched for a moment before collapsing into the water. They began to dissipate into data but not until Ryo noticed what looked like a strange layer of black underneath their skin. Black? How was that possible?
He was pulled from these thoughts by a powerful gust of wind as Kabuterimon landed beside them, holding Rika's parents, Palmon, Henry, Juri, Terriermon and Calumon in his many arms.
Kazu was the only one cheering, "Holy crow! That was awesome! It've been awesomer if that wasn't the second time we've seen that happen."
"Third for us," Terriermon pointed out, "Tamer beat an electric chicken by tripping it into water."
"If we could focus? Next time you guys decide to run off, how about digivolving your partners so you can get there faster? And maybe don't go running off like that in case it's a trap," Rika's mom said, hurrying her way over to her daughter, "Here, Ruki. Sweetie, you have something on your face."
"Mom! Mom! It's fine!" the girl protested, trying to push her mom's handkerchief away. Ryo had to stifle a laugh at the Rika's protests before turning to the girl still cowering at his arm. Whatever happened to her before they showed up must've traumatized her because she wouldn't let go despite the absence of the Digimon attacking them. Ryo put a free hand on her, "Hey...it's okay. You're alright. Those things are gone now."
She forced one eye open to look around, seeming to relax until her eyes rested on Monodramon. She yelped again and pushed herself behind him, "No we're not. Those things are still here."
"It's fine. Monodramon is friendly. Well, mostly friendly. We're friends and we're here to help?" he asked the girl innocently. She cracked an eye open and looked at him nervously, then back at Monodramon. The little purple dragon tried to crack a smile but all it did was show off his many sharp teeth at her. She squeaked again but at least stopped shaking with fear.
"Everything's fine," Rika's dad assured her, "My name is Koushiro Izumi. This is my wife Mimi. That's our daughter Ruki. These are her friends: Ryo, Henry, Juri, Kazu, and Kenta. And these are our digimon: Kabuterimon, Palmon, Renamon, Monodramon, Terriermon, Calumon, Guardromon, and MarineAngemon. What's your name?"
Seeing the smaller and the cuter digimon among some of the more dangerous looking ones seemed to be enough to calm her down although the poor girl was still a little shaken. She eyed them all carefully, "These are your digimon? You're not like the ones from the news, are you? The ones that attacked Tokyo?"
"Hey! We helped save that city!" Monodramon protested against the girl's accusation.
"Give her a break. She's freaked out!" Kenta pointed out to the little digimon who just grunted one protest. Rika's father wheeled himself closer to the girl, "You said your father was attacked. What happened? Maybe we can help."
The girl just shook her head in fear, "I don't know. Dad didn't come home last night which was t weird since he usually falls asleep at work when he overdoes it. But he called this morning and asked me to bring this laptop to him. That was when I went to his office but it was dark and there was no one inside. But I went to his floor anyway and that's when I found him with this...thing. This goat with wings standing on two legs. It set those things after me and that's when I ran and...and..."
She paused again as she tried to collect herself. Koushiro's mom hugged the poor girl, "Hey! It's okay. You're safe now. We'll protect you. What's your name?"
The girl hugged the laptop close before answering, "Minami. My name is Minami Uehara."
"It's nice to meet you Minami," Ryo smiled.
"Sorry to butt in but you said your dad asked you to bring you that laptop? Why?" Kenta asked.
"Kenta!"
"What!? It's an honest question. Why does it want the laptop?" Kenta pointed out, "Most Digimon, when they're here, they want to find another digimon to fight so they can get stronger. But those guys ignored all of us to go after Minami. There's gotta be something really important on that laptop."
"Its my father's project. I don't know much about it buts it's supposed to be some kind of pet for kids," Minami said sheepishly. Terriermon just laughed and remarked, "Hey Henry, you humans sure do like making living things on your computers huh?"
"I don't think it's particularly funny. The last thing we need is to make another D-Reaper," Henry scratched the back of his head.
"Who cares about all that? We just found the goat digimon we were looking for and it's with her dad! Let's march on over to this guy's office and kick it's ass!" Kazu declared, "Come on, Minami! We're going to save your dad and beat this bad guy up! Which way are we going?"
Minami stared up, still shaking fearfully. She looked between them all with fear in her eyes. She was still afraid. Of course, she was.
"We can help your dad. You just have to take us to him," Ryo reminded her. The girl paused again but nodded in agreement, "…my dad's office is back this way."
Author's Notes: What are the Digimon Tamers about to go up against? Can the others escape from the Digital World? And what does Mephistomon have planned for his Master? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name, due out in three weeks on Friday October 2nd at 8 PM CDT. If you loved it, don't forget to favorite to show support and follow to keep up with all the latest updates. And hey, leave a review to share your thoughts! I'm sorry for the increased delays. This pandemic is eating away at my time and energy. I won't go into it but again, most days I am tired and have no energy. So I apologize for the delay. Anyway, that's all for now. Let's look at a quick preview for the next chapter:
"Do you guys ever think its weird that we keep coming back here to this place?" Gatomon asked.
A chorus of yes's rang out from the others. Xiaochun giggled at their sing song answers, "That's funny. Do it again!"
"I take it you've been here a lot then," Zhenyu stated. He was another with another round of yes's and sighed, "Okay, so let me ask you all this then: if this place is so important, why not just destroy this place? Or guard it to make sure no one nefarious just wanders in and takes it for themselves?"