"Daddy, look! The TV's going all funny!" No, Yamaki thought, no...not again....
Two figures, indistinct but immediately recognizable, appeared. One, a large, dragon-like monster roared and started attacking. The smaller figure appeared, tried to stop the monster. As Yamaki watched, the boy pulled out a small device, pointing it at the monster.
"Dad! Get out of here!" Flames surrounded the pair, then a glowing white light. Where the two stood, a new figure took their place. Small, mocking figure.
"This is what digimon do! BADA-BOOM!" An explosion...
Yamaki sat up, breathing heavily. He realized he was in his office, not his...home from two years ago. He'd had the dream again.
"I'll show them what humans can do" Yamaki swore darkly.
Digicross Tamers 03
'Digital Secrets'
==Sunday
Rika sat in her room, annoyed.
Granted, that was her usual frame of mind these days, but today marked a new level of irritability. Her grandmother had noticed it and decided to give her time to cool down. Her mother was off on a fashion shoot.
All this gave the girl no way to vent her frustration; mentally, she replayed the battle she had with the Tankmon yesterday. It was going well until that other girl showed up. To make matters worse, she managed to digivolve that little rat, without using a single card. And to top it off, those two didn't even know about loading an opponent's data.
It made no sense. A D-3 instead of the digivice Rika used, and a -digiegg- of all things..."Renamon." Renamon phased into view, waiting for Rika's command. "What happened last night?"
"We both know what happened" Renamon replied. "And no, I don't know where that digiegg came from."
"Are there-"
"Digieggs" Renamon said, cutting Rika off, "are an invention of that TV show. All the 'armour' digimon I've fought evolved normally, without such a device." Renamon hoped Rika didn't catch the emphasis she put on who did the actual fighting. "That....Eevee might not have been a digimon as we know it."
"That's stupid. Next you'll be telling me that girl had a French poodle and a ventriloquist act going."
Renamon's eyes narrowed slightly. "It was not a normal animal. Neither of them was. Digimon can sense when one another is nearby; I got a different feeling from Eevee. And that owl that was with her."
"She's got two digimon with her" Rika said flatly. "This just gets better and better. Where are you going?"
Renamon looked at Rika. "I need to find out something. Call me if something comes up." Renamon faded away.
==Wong Household.
Terriermon was mortally afraid. He sat on the bed, wishing he could do anything, ANYTHING to escape what he knew would come. The door creaked slowly open, and Terriermon knew his fate was sealed.
"Hewoo, Tewwiermon" Suzie said. "It's time for your beauty tweatment."
-Henry, you owe me for this!-
In his own room, Henry heard the muffled noise of his little sister playing with his partner. "Sorry Terriermon" Henry said, "I'll make it up to you. But you'll make sure of that." He typed away, checking the net for news of the last few tournaments. After a few minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for. On the screen was a scan of a newspaper clipping, the headline proclaiming that the newest Digimon Card Tournament winner had been crowned. Alongside the article, a picture of Rika, scowl and all, was shown.
"Thought I recognized her" Henry said to himself. He printed out a copy of the news article. "Lovely. Takato picks a fight with last year's Digimon Card tournament winner." Something occurred to him, and he ran another search. None of the local news sites had the data he was looking for. In desperation, he tried the weather archive, and found what he was looking for.
++Weather-Japan.com
++Weather anomalies baffle meteorologists (xx/xx/xx)
++Scientists are baffled by the occurrence of what can
++only be described as 'free-floating fog banks' that
++have started appearing within the last few weeks.
++These banks, which spontaneously appear and disappear,
++have been plaguing Tokyo for several weeks now. To
++date, no explanation has been found for this meteor
++-ological anomalies. Complicating these reports are
++several crank calls about people seeing monsters inside
++these banks...
Henry glanced over the rest of the article. "That sounds like a digital field" he said quietly. He looked at the date stamp; "this was just after the tournament. I wonder if that's a coincidence?"
Looking at the clock, he saw he had time for one more search. He called up several metasearch engines, and ran a check for 'Eevee', as well as 'Motomiya Hitomi'. Both came up nil.
"Hitomi I can see not appearing, but there must be an Eevee card somewhere." Henry turned several possibilities over in his mind, then tried again, this time at an American site that specialized in digimon. Nothing again. On an impulse, he tried 'Eeveemon', but still turned up nothing. In desperation, he logged into a message board, posted a message to the rumor list about a possible 'Eevee' card, and signed out.
"This doesn't make any sense" he muttered. "It's possible she created Eevee the same way Takato created Guilmon, but why doesn't she have a D-arc like the rest of us? A D-3, right out of the TV series..." A brief thought ran across his mind, but Henry dismissed it immediately. "Nah, even for this place, that's just impossible." He got up, left the room.
Outside, he saw what happened to Terriermon after Suzie 'Got Through With Him'.
Dress, bib, and bonnet. Terriermon's eyes clearly said "don't even THINK of laughing." To his credit, Henry didn't. Yet.
==
Hitomi, Eevee, and Nami had left earlier that day for a walk. Still shaken by the events of yesterday's battle, Nami had hoped that a quick tour of Tokyo wold calm the girl down a bit. Noctowl had opted to stay behind; being a nocturnal pokemon, Noctowl preferred twilight hours for flying around. Plus a giant owl flying around would attract some suspicion.
Besides, Noctowl didn't feel like going out today. He scrunched his head down, and dozed off.
Silently, so silently that there wasn't even a rush of wind, Renamon appeared in the apartment. Quickly, she looked around, saw Noctowl sleeping. -That complicates things- she thought to herself, as she quietly walked over to a folded up cot. As she walked, Renamon cast a casual glance around the room. -Hasn't been here long,- she noted, -and not expected either.- She noticed a small pile of books and assorted detritus, hastily moved from where the cot was. On the table by the cot, she saw several unusual things.
The first item that caught her eye was the photo. Renamon crouched down, looking at it. Her eyes widened a bit; Hitomi and Eevee she recognized, but those other children with her also had digimon. Instinctively, she knew that the photo was not doctored or forged. Always with an eye for deception and illusion, she saw that the photo was real.
They look so happy, she thought, with a slight pang of jealousy. Shaking it off, she turned her attention to the small spheres on the table. Carefully picking up one, she gave the pokeball a quick examination. These must be those pokeballs Hitomi mentioned last night, she thought. Unwilling to press the button on the front, she replaced the item and looked at the third item.
It was rectangular, with a circle-in-a-circle design on the front. On the top was a stubby black antenna. Picking that up and turning it over, she saw a small inscription:
'Welcome to the club! K&R'
As she looked it over, she accidentally triggered the cover release, opening the front of the pokedex. "I am Dexter" the metallic voice announced, "A pokedex registered to Hitomi Motomiya. Please return to the nearest Pokemon Center if found."
Snarling, Renamon looked around. The owl was not on its perch. The fierce raptor's cry came from behind her, just as a sharp impact struck the digimon on the back of her head. Renamon rolled with the tackle, and faced Noctowl. "Take it easy" she said quietly. "I don't want a fight. Yet."
Noctowl was able to understand the barb, and his wings slowly spread out, faintly glowing, Renamon noted. And yet...
"You're not a digimon, are you?" she asked, not expecting an answer. Noctowl didn't move, did not stand down. "What are you?" Still nothing. Moving slowly, Renamon placed the pokedex back on the table. Then, she backed slowly to the window. "Please forgive my intrusion" she said, vanishing.
Noctowl held his position for a minute, scanning the area. As familiar with deception and illusion as Renamon, Noctowl took no chances that Renamon was still in the apartment. When he was satisfied that she was gone, Noctowl returned to the small perch it was resting on earlier. The owl's head twisted around, as Noctowl thought about what had happened.
So, she suspects something, Noctowl decided. Not enough to figure everything out, but enough to get suspicious. Noctowl hopped over to an open window, and flew out.
==
Calumon was having the time of his life.
When he had come to this world, he had felt a combination of exhilaration and fear at being in an unrecognized place. That combination had faded into confusion as he had not seen any other digimon, then boredom as he realized that he had no one to play with.
Then he met Unown.
"Come on, let's keep going" Calumon called, flying through the air. Behind him, the Unown, having the time of its life, chirped in merriment, following Calumon around. The two had managed to reach some sort of understanding; Unown had easily been able to understand what Calumon was saying, but the alien language the pokemon used had taken a bit of getting used to. Somehow, Calumon had managed to pick up the basics.
For several minutes, the two flew through the air, just enjoying themselves. They zipped through the city, though no one looked up to try and figure out where that odd laughter was coming from. Eventually, the two found a secluded area and landed.
"That was FUN" Calumon exclaimed. "What should we do now?"
Calumon recognized the pattern of noise Unown made. "Eat? OK, but where? Those apples I found were nice, but that mean human chased me off! By the way, what's a 'freeloader'?" More noises from Unown. "OK, we'll find something else to eat."
"Well, well, what have we here" a new voice, full of disdain and arrogance said. Calumon and Unown looked at the source of the voice.
It was clearly a digimon; a bit taller than Calumon, he was black with a white face, thick, pointed tail, and matching ears. There was a red bandana around his neck, and a yellow caricature of a 'have a nice day' face with pointed teeth. "Gahh" Impmon said sarcastically, "the cuteness level is makin' me wanna puke. So" he said, conversationally, "do I just load your data now, or do I gotta fight ya for it?"
Unown squeaked, curiosity evident. "Data? What's that" Calumon asked. "Wouldn't an apple or something be tastier?"
"You've got to be kidding me" Impmon said, more to himself than anyone else. "Nothin' personal kiddos, its just business. BADA BOOM!" A fireball shot at Calumon, who only just managed to evade the attack.
Unown squealed angrily, glowing an alarming rainbow shade of energy. "What's that supposed to do?" Impmon sneered. The sneer turned to shock as the energy bolt struck the digimon in the chest, shooting him backwards, slamming Impmon into a post. Agitated, Unown surrounded Calumon in an energy field and the two flew off, fleeing the attacker.
"Oh sure...run away..." Impmon groaned, peeling himself off of the post.
==City Park
Terriermon, having recovered from the latest encounter with Suzie (and delivering the usual threat of billing Henry for the therapy sessions) was horsing around with Guilmon in the park. Henry and Takato were discussing what they had managed to find out.
"I got challenged by WHO" Takato half shrieked. He and Henry were discussing last night's attacks, and what Henry had learned since then.
"Quiet, will ya" Henry said, motioning Takato to keep quiet.
"Sorry, but...wow...the Digimon Queen herself...And she was so good, too."
"Yeah," Henry agreed, "she must have been at this since the last tournament." At Takato's confused look, Henry shared what he had found out. "There's a long way between being good at a card game and winning an actual battle."
At that point, Guilmon stuck his head out of the bushes. "Takatomon, I'm hungry!"
"You just ate" Takato replied. Guilmon just cocked his head in a 'yeah, so?' way. Sighing, Takato took a bread roll out of the pack he had brought and gave it to Guilmon. "I wonder if this is how Yolei felt?"
"She was feeding a whole team" Henry said, catching the reference.
"Guilmon eats like a whole team. Of in-trainings!" The two humans chuckled at the thought. "Hey, Henry. What are these 'digital field' things anyway?"
"I don't know. I think they're a result of the digital world interacting with our world. When Terriermon appeared, the floor of my room was covered in fog. I'm willing to bet there was a lot of mist around when Guilmon appeared." Takato nodded. "Thought so. There's more. According to the report I read, those digital fields are forming mostly around here. And they're becoming more frequent."
"And each one has a digimon in it?" Takato was stunned. "Guilmon's a handful, but what if something huge comes through, like Greymon or Ankylomon?"
"As long as the field stays intact" Henry replied, "the digimon usually leave when the field dissipates. But I am worried about it, yeah. Much as I watch the TV show, I'd hate to have Wargreymon versus Machinedramon, round 2, in my front yard." Henry's face grew serious. "Takato, did you notice anything...odd about Hitomi?"
"How do you mean? She seems nice enough, a bit weird, yeah..." Takato trailed off. Henry arched an eyebrow, inviting him to continue. "Well, I sorta gave her an introduction to the card game on Saturday, even took her through a battle with a deck I loaned her."
"So?"
"I have never seen such a hopeless card player" Takato said. "I mean, she makes me look good! Hey," Takato noticed Henry's exasperated look, "you did ask. And, in a way...she seemed to know about digimon, but it's like she's never even heard of the card game. When I first showed her a card on Friday, she kinda freaked out. Sounds silly, I know..."
"Like you said, I did ask" Henry said. "Well, I'd better get home. Come on, Terriermon, let's go!"
"Do I gotta?" Terriermon whined.
"Either I sneak you in now, or I tell Suzie where I left you."
"Blackmailer." The two left.
Takato watched Henry and Terriermon leave. Then he looked, saw Guilmon resting on the ground. "Come on boy, let's go for a walk!"
==Hypnos main lab
"Sir" Reilly's voice came over the intercom. "We've finished analysis of the new signals." Yamaki got up, left his office.
As he stepped out of his office, he looked over the exterior of the Scanning Dome. Outside, it looked like a roughly spherical mass of wiring and electronics. Around it, a host of technicians worked, trying to decode any of a number of countless packets of data. Walking inside, the wires were gone, with only a clear, 360-degree 'screen' that could locate any source of electronic interference anywhere. "Well" he said to Reilly, voice hard.
Reilly's face didn't flinch. "As you know, we've been tracking the appearance of these 'Wild Ones' to a particular level of the net, here" she indicated a glowing point on the screen. "But, these new signals do not come from that point."
"Then where from?"
"Nowhere, sir" Reilly replied. "They just appeared, vectoring though the area the other creatures appear from. We were able to identify three discreet signals, all possessing some form of biological signatures."
"So what? We already know these 'digimon'," Yamaki said the word as if it were a curse, "can manifest a form of pseudo life."
"No sir" Reilly replied, a bit coldly. "I am familiar with the phenomena, but these signals indicated that whatever came through was -already alive-. It was not formed from digital information."
"What then" Yamaki asked, more curious now. "Little green men from Mars?"
"No. I'd guess human" Reilly replied. "As you know, we had another bio-emergence Saturday, this latest one reading as having two Wild Ones bio-emerging. Before the signals were neutralized, we detected an energy surge that matched the signal from a week ago."
Yamaki considered this. "So it's here and neutralizing Wild Ones." Idly, he toyed with the lighter in his hand, thinking.
"Correct" Reilly replied. "But it does not match the pattern of the other signal that's been attacking Wild Ones. Likely, it is someone who just came here."
Yamaki nodded. "Have our agents on the lookout for anything new. If they sight another field forming, they are to observe only, not interfere. If we can capture one of these things after it emerges, we can analyze it." A sound behind him caught his attention. "Talli, what are you doing away from your post?"
The second operator looked at Yamaki. "Sorry sir, but I just got word from the analysts. That signal we tracked last week? We've been able to separate it into four distinct signatures!"
"Four?" Yamaki made an effort to stop from yelling.
"Yes. One definitely emerged from the net, where the other Wild Ones we've been tracking have been coming from. The other three have yet to be tracked; two definitely have bio signatures before materializing, the third one...we don't know."
"Explain" Yamaki snapped.
Talli flinched a bit. "We didn't see it at first, its signal was lost in the background noise. But it does not have a data signature matching any Wild One we've tracked, and it does not have a bio signature like the two unknown signatures. It's almost like a roving anomaly." Talli was interrupted by a klaxon. The two women ran back to their posts, and started scanning. "Of all the rotten..." she started. Reilly cut her off, saying "Bio-emergence detected. Single signature, power class 'B'. Location...It's going to appear in the park!"
==
Takato walked along the path, Guilmon running alongside him. "Man, challenged by the Digimon Queen herself. How do I get into these messes?"
"Just lucky" Guilmon asked.
"Thanks." Takato sighed a bit. "I just wanted to have a digimon of my own, and now the local champion is trying to mop the floor with us. I...Guilmon?" Guilmon had stopped a few paces back, staring at something just down the road. As Takato watched, Guilmon's yellow eyes narrowed, and he had started growling like an attack dog. "Boy?"
"A digimon" Guilmon growled. Then he took off.
Takato ran after Guilmon, who had charged through a lot of underbrush towards some unknown destination. Then, without warning, he ran into a fogbank. "A digital field" Takato breathed, remembering what Henry had told him. Pulling his goggles over his eyes, Takato went further in. "Guilmon? You in here?" A shadow caught his eye. "Guilmon?" Takato got hit by something large, and was knocked over.
The figure that tackled Takato giggled crazily. "Catalyst. Where is it??"
"CataWHAT?"
A loud snarl caught the two's attention. "Get off of Takatomon" Guilmon roared. "PYRO-SPHERE!" A ball of fire knocked off the digimon attacking Takato.
Takato scrambled up, pulling out his digivice. It beeped, then a picture of the digimon Guilmon was attacking appeared. "Sepikmon" Takato read. "Armour level wizard digimon, data type. Special attacks are Spirit Boomerang and Charming Dance." So caught up in seeing yet another digimon, he almost missed Guilmon launching another attack. Guilmon jumped onto Sepikmon, clawing at the digimon like an attack dog. "Guilmon! STOP IT!"
Guilmon seemed to snap out of the rage that held him. "Takatomon? Oh! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Guilmon ran over to Takato. "You OK, Takatomon?"
"Aside from nearly having my head taken off by a fireball" Takato replied. "Why are you attacking Sepikmon?"
"Don't know. I just couldn't help myself."
"Couldn't...?"
Sepikmon watched the two. "You are..partners, yes?"
Takato looked at the wizard digimon. "Um...yeah. I did sort of create him and all."
Sepikmon tensed. "Create...? ABOMINATION! You will die, you and your...mockery!!"
"I think he's mad, Takatomon."
"You're telling me!" Sepikmon hurled the oversized boomerang at the two. Takato and Guilmon clumsily dodged the attack.
==
Some distance back, Rika and Renamon watched the battle as it unfolded. "This is so pathetic" Rika muttered. "Come on, let's get in there."
"No." Rika looked at Renamon, surprised. "Let's see how those two do, first."
"What's going on here? You've been acting weird ever since this afternoon." Rika looked at Renamon suspiciously. "Just where did you go today, anyway?"
"This is more than just a simple battle" Renamon replied. Seeing she was not going to get any more, Rika let it go, and watched.
==
Guilmon tensed again, the urge to fight almost unstoppable. "Takatomon?"
Takato nodded. "Get him." Guilmon growled again, and charged in. As Takato watched, he saw that Guilmon was still acting like a wild animal. "How can I help him" Takato wondered out loud. "I just wish I...hey!" Takato remembered when Renamon attacked Guilmon. "Rika was able to use cards from the game to help her digimon. Maybe..." Takato reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out several game cards. "Let's see...ah, here we go!" Takato looked, saw Sepikmon ready to strike. "Digi-modify! Defense Plug-In F, activate!"
"Spirit Boomerang!"
Takato watched as the boomerang flew at Guilmon, who knocked it aside with a shield that appeared on his arm. "It worked!"
Sepikmon roared, calling his boomerang back. "Charming Dance!" Sepikmon began to dance around, and both Guilmon and Takato couldn't help but watch.
"I feel sick Takatomon!"
"Probably all that bread you inhaled" Takato said, trying not to throw up. "Try attacking!"
"Pyro....gurrrr..." Guilmon couldn't launch an attack. "Too much bread..."
"You're mine" Sepikmon shouted, readying to strike Guilmon with his boomerang. Spirit-" The raptor's cry cut Sepikmon off. Noctowl, hoping to find Hitomi and Eevee, had seen the battle and intervened. Noctowl swooped down and stared at Sepikmon, daring the digimon to attack. "Fine" Sepikmon said. "Spirit Boomerang!" Noctowl flew up, dodging the attack. Sepikmon watched as the Boomerang swung around, coming behind the unsuspecting interloper.
With another cry, Noctowl parried the attack with a strike of a glowing wing. The boomerang shattered as Sepikmon watched, stunned. "Another one-"
"Pyro-Sphere!" Guilmon's attack caught Sepikmon unawares, and knocked the digimon down. Recovered, Guilmon moved in, covering Sepikmon. "Ready to surrender?"
"N...never...abomination" Sepikmon retorted.
"What's all this abomination stuff" Takato demanded, now angry. "Guilmon's a digimon, just like you!"
"NO" Sepikmon roared. "Bad enough that...thing was created by a child! But to see him fawn over a human is...revolting!" Takato was taken aback by the venom in Sepikmon's voice. "We are NOTHING alike!"
"Takato! Guilmon!" Takato heard a group of voices coming towards him. "That sounds like...Henry! And Miss Asaji!"
"More humans?" Sepikmon snarled. "DIE!" Rolling, Sepikmon knocked over, and made ready to launch a final attack.
"Terrier Tornado!"
"Rolling Tackle!" The two attacks hit Sepikmon, hurling the digimon through the digital field. With a slight 'pop' noise, the field dissipated. With a sickening crunch, Sepikmon hit a tree, and slumped to the ground.
"You alright" Henry asked, running up to Takato. Takato nodded. "Terriermon said he sensed a digimon appearing in the park. I ran into Hitomi and Miss Asaji on the way" he explained.
"What happened?" Nami asked Takato.
"You...will fall" Sepikmon groaned. "I am but one of many. You will fall to the So..." Sepikmon passed out, and discorporated. The three humans watched as Sepikmon's data floated up, and vanished.
Next Episode:
Convincing Hitomi and Henry to help, Takato tries to learn the basics
of battling other digimon to defend himself and Guilmon. But, an unexpected
appearance of a digimon teaches Takato a few lessons in digivolution as
well. Next, On Digicross Tamers:
'Fire Fight'