Digicross Tamers Episode 11
The Capture of Unown
==Hypnos, Yamaki's office
"Did they say anything?"
Reilly shook her head. "No, if any of them do know about Digimon, they're hiding it pretty well. I don't think Janyu knows about his son, but he's pretty hard to read."
Yamaki nodded. "Fair enough. As long as they do the work we give them, so much the better."
"Sir? Why not just tell them?"
Yamaki frowned. "I don't want to create a situation where those programmers might be forced to choose between Hypnos and their families. This will have to be done slowly and surely." Idly, Yamaki toyed with the lighter in his hand. "We have to make sure the ones who made Digimon in the first place understand the full extent of the danger facing us."
Talli entered the office. "Latest report from our agents. There is still no sign of this 'Shibumi' person, under any of his aliases. If he is still alive, he's not in Japan."
Yamaki's frown turned into a scowl. "Blast it. All of our intelligence says he's still working on these Digimon, but there's no sign of where he's based. What about our contacts in America and Canada?"
"It's a large continent." Talli replied. "For all we know, he could have been hit by a car and is in a coma somewhere. And our agents don't have nearly as much freedom to move about outside of Japan."
"Very well. Tell our contacts in the FBI and the RCMP to stay in contact. They have all the information we can get on this 'Shibumi'." Yamaki looked out the window, gaze roaming over the city. As he looked, his grip on the lighter tightened, knuckles turning white.
Reilly looked at Yamaki for a minute, then left, saying nothing.
==Tokyo, half an hour later.
The only weapon that Hypnos possessed against the perceived threat of digital invasion was the Yuugoth system. It was very effective against Digimon, but, at this point in time, the program could not affect a Digimon once it had emerged into the Real World. The proposed 'Juggernaut' system would correct this limitation, but it was yet to be finished.
It was then left to the small staff of field agents to comb the city of Tokyo, always watching for signs that Digimon were appearing, and making whatever effort they could to limit the impact those Digimon had. Usually, there was little they could do, aside from steering civilians away from observed 'digital fields' and subtly diverting news media away from the site, usually with a combination of covert sabotage and crank calls.
All this was revealed to rookie agent Miyakawa Ritsu, only a few hours after he had signed the contract with the Hypnos agency, binding him to a five year term with the agency, as well as complete secrecy. That contract, and the knowledge that Mr. Yamaki scared the living daylights out of him, kept him on this job, in spite of long hours, miles of walking, vague reports of ghosts and goblins, and no love life to speak of.
Take this latest 'assignment'. Ritsu, with all his training in computers and his business degree, was asked to look into reports of a flying white rat stealing apples from shopkeepers in the area. He was convinced that it was the ramblings of some drunken college students. Nothing was here. Nothing… "What was that?" Curious, Ritsu looked around a corner.
There was a small white…creature, laughing and eating an apple with a small bizarrely shaped…squiggle. Quickly, Ritsu grabbed his communicator. "Get a trap here, I've found something!"
==Hypnos lab
"Sir," one of the technicians reported, "the Juggernaut system is ready to be tested."
"What is this thing?" Babel asked, staring down into what looked like a pool of greenish water.
"This thing," Reilly replied, "is how we plan to stop the threat of Digimon. Based on what we've discovered so far, we've developed a special system that can attack Digimon without harming any purely biological organism."
"That means us." Dolphin whispered to Janyu, giving him an elbow. Janyu sighed, shaking his head.
"If I may continue?" Reilly asked icily. "As I was saying, this system is specially designed to attack Digimon. As you all know, Digimon are able to absorb data and use it to increase their own power. What this system does is use that innate ability to absorb data to introduce a fatal series of data codes into the Digimon. It's like a trojan horse computer virus; the Digimon is tricked into accepting what it thinks is digital data, then is destroyed as the data carries out its true purpose."
"Digi-logical warfare." Dolphin muttered, remembering several anti-war protests he had been in. "And this 'Digital World' you spoke of?"
Yamaki answered. "Once the system is perfected here, we will modify it and send a Juggernaut wave through the digital world. There will be no more Digimon. There will just be…ink on a card."
"That's gonna cause a lot of havoc." Babel noted. "If what you say is true, doing something like that will pretty much crash the entire Internet. And what's to stop Digimon that survive from rebuilding?"
"That's where you come in." Yamaki answered. "You created Digimon in the first place, and you are our best hope for wiping them out. You know how these things work better than anyone on our staff." Yamaki turned away, walking back to his office.
"Charming person." Dolphin said sarcastically.
Reilly's eyes narrowed. "He has his reasons. I suggest you get to work." She also left.
"I don't like this." Janyu said. "That Yamaki guy's…I can't describe it, but I could almost feel the rage coming from him."
Babel nodded. "It's personal, I'd guess. Well, we'd better get to work. Shame Curly, Dolly, and Shibumi aren't here."
One of the technicians walked up. "Are you the Monster Makers?" The three nodded. "Chief Technician Ramone. I'll be working with you on the Juggernaut project. Don't let Yamaki or Reilly get to you, they've been under a lot of strain."
"Are they that serious?" Janyu asked. "Do they really want to destroy all Digimon?"
"It's the most logical way to remove the threat. What if some kid found a Digimon that winds up levelling Tokyo? Or they get a mind to invade."
"But it was just a stupid college project." Dolphin said. "How could something we did all those years ago become this?"
Ramone shrugged. "They survived and evolved beyond what they were supposed to. If you need me, just call."
==And, just outside the building…
"So, they nabbed the squiggle and the creampuff." Impmon had trailed the humans that had captured Calumon and Unown back to the Hyponos building. He tried to shake off the very bad feeling he had as he closed in on the building. "I gotta be nuts! This is where all those other Digimon got carted in. Maybe they got some huge Digimon in there that they're feeding. Be a sweet setup, usin' those pathetic humans to do all the legwork."
Impmon stared at the entrance for a few more minutes. "Ahh, no one's loadin' their data except me. I'll bada-boom anyone who says otherwise." Quietly, Impmon sneaked into the building.
==Just after school
Hearing his name called, Takato looked up, and saw Jeri coming his way. She had been hanging around a lot since she had learned that Takato had an actual digimon.
Not that Takato minded that much.
"I've been looking all over for you." Jeri said, panting slightly. "I thought you might be at the park by now."
"Heh, well, it's kind of hard to cut class to be with your digimon when the teacher knows about it. Where's Hitomi?"
"She's going over history with Ms. Asaji. She really blew that last exam."
Takato sighed. "Yeah. I guess with her being from that alternate universe. It's like she has to re-learn everything."
Jeri nodded. "It must be neat, though. Knowing all the digidestined we see on TV." Takato nodded. He'd felt the same way too, but refrained from asking too many questions. "Takato?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think I'll ever be a tamer?"
Takato tried to hide a shudder. "I don't know. I guess, if I can become one." Takato immediately had a flashback...
==
Kenta's eyes went wide as he walked up to Guilmon. "That's...really a digimon? And you're his tamer?"
"Yeah!" Guilmon said happily. "Takatomon and I are really close friends! And he brings me bread too!"
"That's it then, if Takato can be a tamer, then so can I!" Kenta announced.
Kazu failed to restrain a snort. "You? A tamer? Yeah, and Kari and Izzy got married at the end of 02. It'll never...What?" he demanded, as Takato fell over laughing.
--
"You don't think I'm good enough?" Jeri asked seriously.
"Uh...NO! You could be a tamer, sure." Where's Henry, Takato wondered. "But it's just a lot of work, that's all."
"I could do it, I know I could!"
Ooookay, Takato said silently. "Say, what digimon would you like to have?"
"Me? Oh, I don't know. Patamon, if I had a choice."
"Really? Not Biyomon?"
"What's wrong with Patamon?"
"Nothing! It's just that, well, you kind of remind me of Sora a bit...You're nice and calm and level headed....." blushing furiously, Takato trailed off.
"Smooth as ever, I see." Terriermon's voice called. Takato and Jeri saw Henry, Terriermon hanging onto his back, approaching. "Should we come back later?"
"Terriermon." Henry scolded. He did have to fight a chuckle as he saw Takato stammer, face reddening even more. Jeri didn't even bother. "Off to see Guilmon?" He felt Terriermon hop off, but couldn't see what the digimon was doing.
"Yeah, just the daily bread run." Takato managed.
"Hope you brought seconds" Terriermon whispered to Takato.
"With Guilmon, you'd have to settle for fourths." He was about to continue when Terriermon charged at a tree, slamming his head into the trunk. There was a shout, and a loud thud as a large ball of white fur fell to the ground.
"Gabumon." Henry breathed. "What's he doing here?"
"He must be after Calumon again." Takato said. "I'll get Guilmon. Jeri, come on!"
"No, wait!" Gabumon waved his arms, signalling he wanted to talk only. "Please, listen to me. There's more going on here than you know!"
==Hypnos
Yamaki eyed the two latest captures. "So, where did the agent find them?"
Reilly checked a clipboard. "According to agent Miyakawa, he found them just sitting on the ground, eating."
Yamaki looked at Ramone, who was running some tests. "Well?"
"Hard to say, sir. The white one is a digimon, but his make up is different from the other digimon I've scanned." He called up a display on a second monitor, showing a cross section of one of the Gazimon they had brought in. "This part of the data stream here is what controls the evolutionary abilities of most digimon."
"So?" Yamaki asked, unimpressed.
"With this digimon, that one segment takes up almost all of the creature's code. It's as if this thing is only able to evolve. It may even be able to trigger digivolutions in other digi...Wild Ones."
"Sort of an evolutionary catalyst?" Reilly asked.
"That...might be what it is." Ramone replied, voice sounding odd.
"And the other one?"
"Unknown, sir. Half of our tests don't even show that anything's there. The other half just contradict themselves every time we check. All the systems are fine, I checked them myself." Inside the tube, Unown and Calumon sat there, looking at all the people around them.
Talli entered the lab. "Finished my analysis sir. The unknown creature definitely has an energy pattern that matches the signals we traced several weeks back. And," Talli held a second readout out, "the field these two are generating right now matches the wave pattern we detected earlier, the one that matched the juggernaut weapon. But it's at such a low level right now, it's almost lost in the background with the other energy signals."
"Are you saying that these two...things...are able to generate a juggernaut field?" Yamaki asked, incredulous. Talli nodded. "Right then. Keep this from the Monster Makers; let's see how far they progress without knowledge of this little discovery."
"Shouldn't we tell them?" Reilly asked.
"I'm not convinced of their loyalty yet. If this is some kind of special digimon they created, they might be tempted to try and save it. As long as they can dissect wild ones and tell us how they can be destroyed, so much the better. These two will be extra insurance if they fail us."
==Park
"Calumon's a WHAT?"
Gabumon bowed his head. "I didn't want to say anything, but the creature you call Calumon is the very essence of digivolution, given physical form. For some reason, the Sovereign decided that it would be necessary to trap that force and put it into hiding."
"Hiding?" Henry asked. "What from? What could be so dangerous that this sovereign would have to take away the ability to digivolve from all the digimon?"
"I...can't say."
"Can't or won't?" Terriermon asked. "This guy's nuts. I've been all over the digital world, and I've never heard of this 'sovereign' character."
"The Sovereign exists!" Gabumon insisted. "I don't know why this was done, but it was. Now, the forces that made this action necessary are looking for Calumon here, in this world! If I don't find him first, it could be disaster for both our worlds!"
"What will you do when you find him?" Jeri asked. Henry and Takato blinked. It hadn't occurred to them to ask that question.
Or Gabumon, judging by his expression. "I..had not thought that far ahead. My only thought was to come here and find him. Protect him, if necessary."
"Then we'll help!" Takato said.
"Are you nuts?" Henry asked incredulously. "Takato, we're talking about something that has digimon so scared that they have to give up digivolving!"
"But Henry, what if that's why all the digimon are coming here? Remember when Guilmon and I ran into Sepikmon? He was asking about a catalyst, and he said there'd be more digimon coming! SO far, we're the only ones that have been able to stop them!"
"You're going to fight?" Jeri asked.
"Only if I have to." Takato replied. "Guilmon?"
"Okay, Takatomon, as long as we're together."
"Takato, think about this!" Henry said. "You're saying you're going to fight every digimon that comes to this world?"
"Well, what are we supposed to do? Stand back and let them take Calumon? And what if they take Unown too? That might be Hitomi's only way back home!"
"I'm not saying that we just hand Calumon over," assuming we can trust Gabumon, Henry added silently, "but couldn't we just hide Calumon somewhere else?"
"But what if they have some sort of...I don't know, some sort of super Digimon detector?"
"Takato? Doesn't that sound a bit silly?" Jeri asked.
==Hypnos, near the Super...ahh, skip it...
Impmon wandered around, staying out of sight of the humans. "This place feels weird. Like something died." He could sense that there were digimon nearby, but his sense seemed to be disrupted by something. He saw a giant dome shaped room through an open door.
"Must be down a few floors. I'll.." Impmon trailed off, seeing another human come near. This human, he recognized.
Yamaki stopped too, some instinct pulling his eyes down, focussing on the small digimon. His eyes went wide, then narrowed again. "You." he spat.
"Ummm...long time no see?"
One of the field agents was by Yamaki. Without a word, he spun around, ripped the sidearm out of the agent's holster, and brought it to bear on Impmon. "I've been looking forward to this." he said quietly, taking aim. Impmon managed to dodge the first bullet, then started running, Yamaki close behind.
==
Calumon looked up as the sirens blared and the alarm lights flashed red. "Lots of pretty lights." the digimon mentioned. "But it is kinda noisy. Can we go now?" Unown made some noises. "Yeah, I am a bit bored too. I thought there'd be fun stuff to do here." Unown glowed bluish-white, and a part of the cylinder holding them melted off. The two creatures flew out and, in the confusion, went out a window.
==
"What on earth is all that?" Janyu looked around as the sirens blotted out the conversation. "This is a fine time for a fire drill."
"Doors are locked." Dolphin said, trying to get out of the room. "Whatever's going on, they don't want us to know about it. I suppose I should be insulted."
Babel let out a snort. "Maybe we're too dangerous to be allowed to know what's going on."
"Please. You're starting to sound like that mad scientist from Gundam Wing. I don't know why I watch that show so much...Alice just rolls her eyes and walks out of the room."
"How is your little girl?" Babel asked.
"Oh, she's into the whole 'goth' thing now. Everything has to be black. I hope it's just a phase. Hey, Tao, what about your kids?"
"Well, Suzie's into princesses and Henry's...into computers. And digimon."
"If he only knew." Babel joked, thinking Janyu meant the card game.
If you only knew, Janyu didn't say.
==
Impmon dodged bullets, trying to evade Yamaki, who was firing almost wildly at the digimon. Impmon ducked a round, heard Yamaki stop to reload, and darted down another corridor. "Yeesh, could this day get any worOOF!" He failed to spot the oncoming human in time, and plowed right into her.
"Just great, this place is LOUSY with humans!"
Reilly looked up, trying to catch her breath. In a second, she recognized the digimon. "You?"
Impmon blinked, then remembered Reilly as well. "Ah, NUTS!" He jumped off, tossed a fireball at a window, and jumped out the hole.
Pity it was about three stories up....
"Reilly!" Yamaki yelled as he skidded to a stop. "Where is it?"
"He tackled me and jumped out the window." Reilly indicated the shattered window. Yamaki ran over, looking out the hole. "It was him, wasn't it?"
Yamaki said nothing, trying to control the rage in him. Ryo was gone, and that...thing had the gall to walk in here, of all places...
"Sir." Reilly said, getting up and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Isao." she repeated, a bit more forcefully. "He got away, but we'll find him. We're almost ready to test the Juggernaut system, but we need you to be in control. Go home and rest. I'll take care of things here. All right?"
==
Impmon came to. Looking around, he saw that his fall was broken by an open dumpster, of all things. Still dazed, he could just make out two shapes hovering over him. One white, the other black.
"Are you OK?" Calumon asked, looking at Impmon. Unown hovered beside Calumon, a faint nimbus of energy around it. "That looks like it'd be more fun if you landed on a pillow or in a swimming pool."
Impmon sat up. "Gwahh....Hey, I don't recall asking you here! Now take a hike!"
"Ohhh..." Calumon stepped back, ears retracting into his head. "We were just worried about you."
"I don't need your worry. Or your pity!" A grin appeared. "Your data, on the other hand..."
Unown had had enough. With a high pitched squeal, Unown let off a bolt of energy that stunned Impmon. Then, Unown beckoned for Calumon to follow him.
"Not my day..." Impmon groaned, pulling a banana peel out of his ear.
==That night, Wong residence
"You're joking."
"I'm serious dad."
Janyu sighed. "You're honestly telling me that Hitomi is from another dimension, and that dimension just happens to have actual digimon in it? Along with other creatures that are like digimon, but aren't?"
Henry nodded. "It's weird, but it's the only explanation that makes any sense. I'm more worried about this Hypnos place, though."
"Yes. I think you'd better keep Terriermon under wraps for a while. Where is he right now?"
"Daddy, look!" Suzie cried, bursting into Henry's room. "Pwincess Pwettypants is here for a visit!" Terriermon looked ready to burst into tears.
"Oooookayyyy..." Henry and Janyu chorused.
==Park
Gabumon looked at Guilmon, not sure about the offer. "Come on in." the dinosaur digimon said. "It's nice inside and I have some bread left over."
"I..."
"I'm sure Takatomon won't mind."
Gabumon sighed. It beat sleeping in an alleyway. And Calumon seemed to keep showing up near Guilmon, so it might pay to stay near this odd digimon and his friends. "All right. Um...why is all the dirt piled up in the middle of this place?"
"I buried my bread."
"Oooookayyyy..."
Next episode:
When Gesomon emerges inside the park, it immediately attacks Guilmon and Gabumon, mistaking the two for enemies. Unable to contact the other tamers, it is up to Hitomi, Eevee, and Jeri to stop Gesomon's attack. But what will they do when Templarmon isn't strong enough to defeat Gesomon? And what is Hypnos' interest in Hitomi? Next time, on Digicross Tamers:
'Gabumon! I choose you!'
The Capture of Unown
==Hypnos, Yamaki's office
"Did they say anything?"
Reilly shook her head. "No, if any of them do know about Digimon, they're hiding it pretty well. I don't think Janyu knows about his son, but he's pretty hard to read."
Yamaki nodded. "Fair enough. As long as they do the work we give them, so much the better."
"Sir? Why not just tell them?"
Yamaki frowned. "I don't want to create a situation where those programmers might be forced to choose between Hypnos and their families. This will have to be done slowly and surely." Idly, Yamaki toyed with the lighter in his hand. "We have to make sure the ones who made Digimon in the first place understand the full extent of the danger facing us."
Talli entered the office. "Latest report from our agents. There is still no sign of this 'Shibumi' person, under any of his aliases. If he is still alive, he's not in Japan."
Yamaki's frown turned into a scowl. "Blast it. All of our intelligence says he's still working on these Digimon, but there's no sign of where he's based. What about our contacts in America and Canada?"
"It's a large continent." Talli replied. "For all we know, he could have been hit by a car and is in a coma somewhere. And our agents don't have nearly as much freedom to move about outside of Japan."
"Very well. Tell our contacts in the FBI and the RCMP to stay in contact. They have all the information we can get on this 'Shibumi'." Yamaki looked out the window, gaze roaming over the city. As he looked, his grip on the lighter tightened, knuckles turning white.
Reilly looked at Yamaki for a minute, then left, saying nothing.
==Tokyo, half an hour later.
The only weapon that Hypnos possessed against the perceived threat of digital invasion was the Yuugoth system. It was very effective against Digimon, but, at this point in time, the program could not affect a Digimon once it had emerged into the Real World. The proposed 'Juggernaut' system would correct this limitation, but it was yet to be finished.
It was then left to the small staff of field agents to comb the city of Tokyo, always watching for signs that Digimon were appearing, and making whatever effort they could to limit the impact those Digimon had. Usually, there was little they could do, aside from steering civilians away from observed 'digital fields' and subtly diverting news media away from the site, usually with a combination of covert sabotage and crank calls.
All this was revealed to rookie agent Miyakawa Ritsu, only a few hours after he had signed the contract with the Hypnos agency, binding him to a five year term with the agency, as well as complete secrecy. That contract, and the knowledge that Mr. Yamaki scared the living daylights out of him, kept him on this job, in spite of long hours, miles of walking, vague reports of ghosts and goblins, and no love life to speak of.
Take this latest 'assignment'. Ritsu, with all his training in computers and his business degree, was asked to look into reports of a flying white rat stealing apples from shopkeepers in the area. He was convinced that it was the ramblings of some drunken college students. Nothing was here. Nothing… "What was that?" Curious, Ritsu looked around a corner.
There was a small white…creature, laughing and eating an apple with a small bizarrely shaped…squiggle. Quickly, Ritsu grabbed his communicator. "Get a trap here, I've found something!"
==Hypnos lab
"Sir," one of the technicians reported, "the Juggernaut system is ready to be tested."
"What is this thing?" Babel asked, staring down into what looked like a pool of greenish water.
"This thing," Reilly replied, "is how we plan to stop the threat of Digimon. Based on what we've discovered so far, we've developed a special system that can attack Digimon without harming any purely biological organism."
"That means us." Dolphin whispered to Janyu, giving him an elbow. Janyu sighed, shaking his head.
"If I may continue?" Reilly asked icily. "As I was saying, this system is specially designed to attack Digimon. As you all know, Digimon are able to absorb data and use it to increase their own power. What this system does is use that innate ability to absorb data to introduce a fatal series of data codes into the Digimon. It's like a trojan horse computer virus; the Digimon is tricked into accepting what it thinks is digital data, then is destroyed as the data carries out its true purpose."
"Digi-logical warfare." Dolphin muttered, remembering several anti-war protests he had been in. "And this 'Digital World' you spoke of?"
Yamaki answered. "Once the system is perfected here, we will modify it and send a Juggernaut wave through the digital world. There will be no more Digimon. There will just be…ink on a card."
"That's gonna cause a lot of havoc." Babel noted. "If what you say is true, doing something like that will pretty much crash the entire Internet. And what's to stop Digimon that survive from rebuilding?"
"That's where you come in." Yamaki answered. "You created Digimon in the first place, and you are our best hope for wiping them out. You know how these things work better than anyone on our staff." Yamaki turned away, walking back to his office.
"Charming person." Dolphin said sarcastically.
Reilly's eyes narrowed. "He has his reasons. I suggest you get to work." She also left.
"I don't like this." Janyu said. "That Yamaki guy's…I can't describe it, but I could almost feel the rage coming from him."
Babel nodded. "It's personal, I'd guess. Well, we'd better get to work. Shame Curly, Dolly, and Shibumi aren't here."
One of the technicians walked up. "Are you the Monster Makers?" The three nodded. "Chief Technician Ramone. I'll be working with you on the Juggernaut project. Don't let Yamaki or Reilly get to you, they've been under a lot of strain."
"Are they that serious?" Janyu asked. "Do they really want to destroy all Digimon?"
"It's the most logical way to remove the threat. What if some kid found a Digimon that winds up levelling Tokyo? Or they get a mind to invade."
"But it was just a stupid college project." Dolphin said. "How could something we did all those years ago become this?"
Ramone shrugged. "They survived and evolved beyond what they were supposed to. If you need me, just call."
==And, just outside the building…
"So, they nabbed the squiggle and the creampuff." Impmon had trailed the humans that had captured Calumon and Unown back to the Hyponos building. He tried to shake off the very bad feeling he had as he closed in on the building. "I gotta be nuts! This is where all those other Digimon got carted in. Maybe they got some huge Digimon in there that they're feeding. Be a sweet setup, usin' those pathetic humans to do all the legwork."
Impmon stared at the entrance for a few more minutes. "Ahh, no one's loadin' their data except me. I'll bada-boom anyone who says otherwise." Quietly, Impmon sneaked into the building.
==Just after school
Hearing his name called, Takato looked up, and saw Jeri coming his way. She had been hanging around a lot since she had learned that Takato had an actual digimon.
Not that Takato minded that much.
"I've been looking all over for you." Jeri said, panting slightly. "I thought you might be at the park by now."
"Heh, well, it's kind of hard to cut class to be with your digimon when the teacher knows about it. Where's Hitomi?"
"She's going over history with Ms. Asaji. She really blew that last exam."
Takato sighed. "Yeah. I guess with her being from that alternate universe. It's like she has to re-learn everything."
Jeri nodded. "It must be neat, though. Knowing all the digidestined we see on TV." Takato nodded. He'd felt the same way too, but refrained from asking too many questions. "Takato?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think I'll ever be a tamer?"
Takato tried to hide a shudder. "I don't know. I guess, if I can become one." Takato immediately had a flashback...
==
Kenta's eyes went wide as he walked up to Guilmon. "That's...really a digimon? And you're his tamer?"
"Yeah!" Guilmon said happily. "Takatomon and I are really close friends! And he brings me bread too!"
"That's it then, if Takato can be a tamer, then so can I!" Kenta announced.
Kazu failed to restrain a snort. "You? A tamer? Yeah, and Kari and Izzy got married at the end of 02. It'll never...What?" he demanded, as Takato fell over laughing.
--
"You don't think I'm good enough?" Jeri asked seriously.
"Uh...NO! You could be a tamer, sure." Where's Henry, Takato wondered. "But it's just a lot of work, that's all."
"I could do it, I know I could!"
Ooookay, Takato said silently. "Say, what digimon would you like to have?"
"Me? Oh, I don't know. Patamon, if I had a choice."
"Really? Not Biyomon?"
"What's wrong with Patamon?"
"Nothing! It's just that, well, you kind of remind me of Sora a bit...You're nice and calm and level headed....." blushing furiously, Takato trailed off.
"Smooth as ever, I see." Terriermon's voice called. Takato and Jeri saw Henry, Terriermon hanging onto his back, approaching. "Should we come back later?"
"Terriermon." Henry scolded. He did have to fight a chuckle as he saw Takato stammer, face reddening even more. Jeri didn't even bother. "Off to see Guilmon?" He felt Terriermon hop off, but couldn't see what the digimon was doing.
"Yeah, just the daily bread run." Takato managed.
"Hope you brought seconds" Terriermon whispered to Takato.
"With Guilmon, you'd have to settle for fourths." He was about to continue when Terriermon charged at a tree, slamming his head into the trunk. There was a shout, and a loud thud as a large ball of white fur fell to the ground.
"Gabumon." Henry breathed. "What's he doing here?"
"He must be after Calumon again." Takato said. "I'll get Guilmon. Jeri, come on!"
"No, wait!" Gabumon waved his arms, signalling he wanted to talk only. "Please, listen to me. There's more going on here than you know!"
==Hypnos
Yamaki eyed the two latest captures. "So, where did the agent find them?"
Reilly checked a clipboard. "According to agent Miyakawa, he found them just sitting on the ground, eating."
Yamaki looked at Ramone, who was running some tests. "Well?"
"Hard to say, sir. The white one is a digimon, but his make up is different from the other digimon I've scanned." He called up a display on a second monitor, showing a cross section of one of the Gazimon they had brought in. "This part of the data stream here is what controls the evolutionary abilities of most digimon."
"So?" Yamaki asked, unimpressed.
"With this digimon, that one segment takes up almost all of the creature's code. It's as if this thing is only able to evolve. It may even be able to trigger digivolutions in other digi...Wild Ones."
"Sort of an evolutionary catalyst?" Reilly asked.
"That...might be what it is." Ramone replied, voice sounding odd.
"And the other one?"
"Unknown, sir. Half of our tests don't even show that anything's there. The other half just contradict themselves every time we check. All the systems are fine, I checked them myself." Inside the tube, Unown and Calumon sat there, looking at all the people around them.
Talli entered the lab. "Finished my analysis sir. The unknown creature definitely has an energy pattern that matches the signals we traced several weeks back. And," Talli held a second readout out, "the field these two are generating right now matches the wave pattern we detected earlier, the one that matched the juggernaut weapon. But it's at such a low level right now, it's almost lost in the background with the other energy signals."
"Are you saying that these two...things...are able to generate a juggernaut field?" Yamaki asked, incredulous. Talli nodded. "Right then. Keep this from the Monster Makers; let's see how far they progress without knowledge of this little discovery."
"Shouldn't we tell them?" Reilly asked.
"I'm not convinced of their loyalty yet. If this is some kind of special digimon they created, they might be tempted to try and save it. As long as they can dissect wild ones and tell us how they can be destroyed, so much the better. These two will be extra insurance if they fail us."
==Park
"Calumon's a WHAT?"
Gabumon bowed his head. "I didn't want to say anything, but the creature you call Calumon is the very essence of digivolution, given physical form. For some reason, the Sovereign decided that it would be necessary to trap that force and put it into hiding."
"Hiding?" Henry asked. "What from? What could be so dangerous that this sovereign would have to take away the ability to digivolve from all the digimon?"
"I...can't say."
"Can't or won't?" Terriermon asked. "This guy's nuts. I've been all over the digital world, and I've never heard of this 'sovereign' character."
"The Sovereign exists!" Gabumon insisted. "I don't know why this was done, but it was. Now, the forces that made this action necessary are looking for Calumon here, in this world! If I don't find him first, it could be disaster for both our worlds!"
"What will you do when you find him?" Jeri asked. Henry and Takato blinked. It hadn't occurred to them to ask that question.
Or Gabumon, judging by his expression. "I..had not thought that far ahead. My only thought was to come here and find him. Protect him, if necessary."
"Then we'll help!" Takato said.
"Are you nuts?" Henry asked incredulously. "Takato, we're talking about something that has digimon so scared that they have to give up digivolving!"
"But Henry, what if that's why all the digimon are coming here? Remember when Guilmon and I ran into Sepikmon? He was asking about a catalyst, and he said there'd be more digimon coming! SO far, we're the only ones that have been able to stop them!"
"You're going to fight?" Jeri asked.
"Only if I have to." Takato replied. "Guilmon?"
"Okay, Takatomon, as long as we're together."
"Takato, think about this!" Henry said. "You're saying you're going to fight every digimon that comes to this world?"
"Well, what are we supposed to do? Stand back and let them take Calumon? And what if they take Unown too? That might be Hitomi's only way back home!"
"I'm not saying that we just hand Calumon over," assuming we can trust Gabumon, Henry added silently, "but couldn't we just hide Calumon somewhere else?"
"But what if they have some sort of...I don't know, some sort of super Digimon detector?"
"Takato? Doesn't that sound a bit silly?" Jeri asked.
==Hypnos, near the Super...ahh, skip it...
Impmon wandered around, staying out of sight of the humans. "This place feels weird. Like something died." He could sense that there were digimon nearby, but his sense seemed to be disrupted by something. He saw a giant dome shaped room through an open door.
"Must be down a few floors. I'll.." Impmon trailed off, seeing another human come near. This human, he recognized.
Yamaki stopped too, some instinct pulling his eyes down, focussing on the small digimon. His eyes went wide, then narrowed again. "You." he spat.
"Ummm...long time no see?"
One of the field agents was by Yamaki. Without a word, he spun around, ripped the sidearm out of the agent's holster, and brought it to bear on Impmon. "I've been looking forward to this." he said quietly, taking aim. Impmon managed to dodge the first bullet, then started running, Yamaki close behind.
==
Calumon looked up as the sirens blared and the alarm lights flashed red. "Lots of pretty lights." the digimon mentioned. "But it is kinda noisy. Can we go now?" Unown made some noises. "Yeah, I am a bit bored too. I thought there'd be fun stuff to do here." Unown glowed bluish-white, and a part of the cylinder holding them melted off. The two creatures flew out and, in the confusion, went out a window.
==
"What on earth is all that?" Janyu looked around as the sirens blotted out the conversation. "This is a fine time for a fire drill."
"Doors are locked." Dolphin said, trying to get out of the room. "Whatever's going on, they don't want us to know about it. I suppose I should be insulted."
Babel let out a snort. "Maybe we're too dangerous to be allowed to know what's going on."
"Please. You're starting to sound like that mad scientist from Gundam Wing. I don't know why I watch that show so much...Alice just rolls her eyes and walks out of the room."
"How is your little girl?" Babel asked.
"Oh, she's into the whole 'goth' thing now. Everything has to be black. I hope it's just a phase. Hey, Tao, what about your kids?"
"Well, Suzie's into princesses and Henry's...into computers. And digimon."
"If he only knew." Babel joked, thinking Janyu meant the card game.
If you only knew, Janyu didn't say.
==
Impmon dodged bullets, trying to evade Yamaki, who was firing almost wildly at the digimon. Impmon ducked a round, heard Yamaki stop to reload, and darted down another corridor. "Yeesh, could this day get any worOOF!" He failed to spot the oncoming human in time, and plowed right into her.
"Just great, this place is LOUSY with humans!"
Reilly looked up, trying to catch her breath. In a second, she recognized the digimon. "You?"
Impmon blinked, then remembered Reilly as well. "Ah, NUTS!" He jumped off, tossed a fireball at a window, and jumped out the hole.
Pity it was about three stories up....
"Reilly!" Yamaki yelled as he skidded to a stop. "Where is it?"
"He tackled me and jumped out the window." Reilly indicated the shattered window. Yamaki ran over, looking out the hole. "It was him, wasn't it?"
Yamaki said nothing, trying to control the rage in him. Ryo was gone, and that...thing had the gall to walk in here, of all places...
"Sir." Reilly said, getting up and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Isao." she repeated, a bit more forcefully. "He got away, but we'll find him. We're almost ready to test the Juggernaut system, but we need you to be in control. Go home and rest. I'll take care of things here. All right?"
==
Impmon came to. Looking around, he saw that his fall was broken by an open dumpster, of all things. Still dazed, he could just make out two shapes hovering over him. One white, the other black.
"Are you OK?" Calumon asked, looking at Impmon. Unown hovered beside Calumon, a faint nimbus of energy around it. "That looks like it'd be more fun if you landed on a pillow or in a swimming pool."
Impmon sat up. "Gwahh....Hey, I don't recall asking you here! Now take a hike!"
"Ohhh..." Calumon stepped back, ears retracting into his head. "We were just worried about you."
"I don't need your worry. Or your pity!" A grin appeared. "Your data, on the other hand..."
Unown had had enough. With a high pitched squeal, Unown let off a bolt of energy that stunned Impmon. Then, Unown beckoned for Calumon to follow him.
"Not my day..." Impmon groaned, pulling a banana peel out of his ear.
==That night, Wong residence
"You're joking."
"I'm serious dad."
Janyu sighed. "You're honestly telling me that Hitomi is from another dimension, and that dimension just happens to have actual digimon in it? Along with other creatures that are like digimon, but aren't?"
Henry nodded. "It's weird, but it's the only explanation that makes any sense. I'm more worried about this Hypnos place, though."
"Yes. I think you'd better keep Terriermon under wraps for a while. Where is he right now?"
"Daddy, look!" Suzie cried, bursting into Henry's room. "Pwincess Pwettypants is here for a visit!" Terriermon looked ready to burst into tears.
"Oooookayyyy..." Henry and Janyu chorused.
==Park
Gabumon looked at Guilmon, not sure about the offer. "Come on in." the dinosaur digimon said. "It's nice inside and I have some bread left over."
"I..."
"I'm sure Takatomon won't mind."
Gabumon sighed. It beat sleeping in an alleyway. And Calumon seemed to keep showing up near Guilmon, so it might pay to stay near this odd digimon and his friends. "All right. Um...why is all the dirt piled up in the middle of this place?"
"I buried my bread."
"Oooookayyyy..."
Next episode:
When Gesomon emerges inside the park, it immediately attacks Guilmon and Gabumon, mistaking the two for enemies. Unable to contact the other tamers, it is up to Hitomi, Eevee, and Jeri to stop Gesomon's attack. But what will they do when Templarmon isn't strong enough to defeat Gesomon? And what is Hypnos' interest in Hitomi? Next time, on Digicross Tamers:
'Gabumon! I choose you!'