Disclaimer: Usual drill…I don't own Digimon, you don't sue…
DIGITAL MANIFESTKEEPERS
Chapter: 3 Meetings made, Stories exchanged, Battles joined
Takato Matsuki greeted the new day with a smile that was almost like another sun. He was full of energy and was looking forward to talking to those new Tamers and, more so, to seeing the look on Jeri's face when she saw the 'surprise' that they had in store for her. This is going to be great; he had told Henry last night right before they parted ways. Jeri's going to be so happy when she sees Leomon again. Henry had smiled at his friend's eagerness, and Terriermon had teased the poor kid about it, making comments that had Takato blushing furiously and causing almost no end of amusement for his two friends. Once they had sobered up they moved on to some more important matters, such as the new Tamers that had dropped in quite unexpectedly. The two kids didn't look like they had covered themselves with much glory, looking like some freaky cross between grizzled war veterans and frightened rabbits. This lead to some very obvious questions being asked; just who exactly were they? Henry had doubted that they were Tamers, mostly because of the difference in their digivice design. Did that mean that they were like Digidestined? And more importantly, what were they doing in the digital world? What could be going on there and did it pose a danger to the real world? And back to the digivices, Takato was curious about them, especially the dark colored one. The kid who owned it hadn't seemed very happy when that subject came up though.
I wonder what could've happened? Takato wondered. Did he end up like Ken from the show? Did he go to that weird Dark Ocean dimension? There are times where I wish that the show explored that part of the digital world more since we know so little about it. As Takato filled up a bag with his parents special "Guilmon Bread" for his partner's morning meal, he wondered if they should let Yamaki know about this little development. He felt that it would be a good idea since it would mean that the new kids would have a more permanent place to stay instead of crashing at a Tamers' place until Hypnos could arrange for them to be sent home, but he preferred to hear their story first; the whole story and not just what Yamaki chose to tell them. Not that Takato thought that the shade-wearing agent would hold anything back, he did trust the adult after all. It was the memory of a certain incident that happened after the D-Reaper invasion that gave him pause. In a last-ditch effort to defeat a merciless computer program that threatened them all, Hypnos and a group called the "Monster Makers", without their knowledge, created a program that not only reverted D-Reaper to its most basic form (thus negating its threat) but also sent their partners back to the digital world. Of course, the Tamers had eventually gotten their partners back, and while some of them like Takato had been quick to forgive and forget, there was no doubt that a small schism lay between the Tamers and Hypnos. Rika had voiced her own distrust during the Parasimon invasion, but then, that was Rika.
Takato left his parents bakery at around quarter after eight, stepping out into the summer sun and ran off into the direction of Jeri Katou's house. He supposed that he could have called her, but he wanted to talk to Jeri in person. More importantly, he wanted to see her. He cared for her, probably more than he could put into words, but then, he didn't need to. Actions do speak louder than words after all, and when it came to Takato, his actions had a way of speaking so loud that buildings shattered like glass. Literally.
Yet, despite all the challenges he had faced; despite all the enemies that he had fought, Takato had yet to tell Jeri how he felt about her. Maybe he didn't need to, but a little vocal confirmation would do wonders for his nerves. The irony to it all was that he had confessed his feelings once, except that it was to a D-Reaper clone of Jeri.
Sometimes he thought that the whole universe revolved around making fun of him.
As he ran down the streets, his eyes spied a familiar figure with dark hair, an orange vest, and a ridiculous rabbit perched on a shoulder. "HEY, HENRY! TERRIERMON!" He called out. The boy looked up at the sound of Takato's voice as the goggle-headed child ran up to him.
"Hey Takatomon," said the ever-sarcastic Terriermon. "What's your hurry? Is Rika chasing you? I tell ya, you really need to stop making comments about her shirt." At this Takato blushed. He had completely forgotten about that awkward moment down in the tunnels. Leave it to a dog-bunny with a machine gun mouth to bring something like that up again.
Henry fixed his digital friend with a frown. "Just ignore him. He's been like this ever since I rescued him from the clutches of 'Princess Susie'."
"HEY!"
Takato laughed at Terriermon's indignant cry. "I can't believe that she still does the whole Princess Pretty Pants treatment to him. Man, you'd think that when she got Lopmon for her partner that she'd have eased up on Terriermon."
"Yeah," said Henry smirking. "Well, you gotta admit, Terriermon is just that desirable. If it wasn't for me he'd have to beat off every five-year old in Shinjuku with a stick."
"What can I say?" Said Terriermon puffing out his chest proudly. "I'm a real ladies mon…HEY!"
The two friends shared a laugh at Terriermon's expense. It wasn't often that the tables got turned around on the little smart-mouth rabbit.
"So, what's going on, Henry?" Asked Takato. Henry shrugged.
"I was just walking down to the park; decided I'd stop by your place first and see if you were up. Guess that I wasn't needed to drag you out of bed."
"Are you implying that I would've overslept and shown up late?"
Henry's grin said it all. Do I even need to answer that?
Takato tried to fix Henry with a serious gaze, but failed. "All right! All right! It was smart of you to check up on me to make sure. Man, Rika's right when she calls you 'Braniac'."
"Someone has to be the smart one around here. Anyway, where are you going? This isn't exactly the direction to the park…"
Takato put his hand behind a head and laughed nervously. "Well, I wanted to see Jeri, and tell her that we're having a Tamers meeting down at Guilmon's place and that – uh – she should be there today." Henry nodded his head in understanding, although in his mind he wondered why Takato didn't just call Jeri and tell her. Oh, well. It wasn't his business anyways. And besides, who knew why Takato did half the things he did? Rika was right. He could be such a Gogglehead at times.
"Hey Henry," said Takato. "You mind walking with me?"
"Sure," Henry said and together they resumed walking.
"So, have you come up with any more theories about those new Tamers?"
"Mmmm… no not really, though I did tell my dad about it last night. He's going to talk to Yamaki today and see what they can set up."
"Hmmm…"
"What?"
"Hmmm? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about their digivices."
Okay… "Yeah. They do seem rather interesting. I'm curious as to how they use them. Last night, that one kid… what's his name…"
"I think he said his name was Ryan…"
"…Ryan used that Digimon Analyzer the same as we do, except his digivice doesn't have anything that shows how he could have activated it. I wonder if they activate them by just thinking about it…"
"Wow! Now that would be interesting! It would certainly make things easier, that's for sure."
"I don't know about that, Takato. It might actually make things harder. Remember what was up with Ryan's digivice?"
"Yeah, so?"
"It might mean that their bond with their digimon is closer, and that might make it harder for them to digivolve properly. Maybe Ryan made a mistake before he got here, and his digivice's appearance is like a physical manifestation of that mistake."
Takato looked at the ground thoughtfully. "I guess… I never thought about it that way…"
"TAKATO! HENRY!"
The two Tamers and Terriermon jumped at the loud voice that called their names. Looking ahead, they saw a young brunette girl in a green dress racing up to them with a look of supreme happiness on her face. Takato blushed lightly.
Well, at least she saved me half the trip, thought Takato as the girl named Jeri Katou stopped in front of them.
"What're you guys up to?" Asked Jeri with an excited giggle in her voice. Terriermon looked at Takato and smirked.
"Hey, Takatomon? You wanna field this one?" Takato jumped a bit but did so, stumbling over his words a bit as he spoke.
"Uh…Ha! Ha! Ha! Yeah, um, well, you see Jeri, we're having a Tamers meeting at Guilmon's place, and we'd like for you to come with us. We – uh – have a surprise for you."
Real smooth, Takato, Terriermon's thoughts almost mirroring the brown-haired boy's exactly.
"Sure, Takato," Jeri said happily. She would have gone anyway, if not because she was curious about this "surprise" that the others had for her (she loved surprises) then just for the opportunity to be with her friends; to be with Takato.
Jeri smiled a knowing smile at the boy, who returned it shyly. Terriermon struggled to hold in his laughter.
Rika Nonaka exited her room and headed towards the bathroom. She had woken up later than usual in an attempt to dodge her mother; despite her promise to her grandmother to be more accepting and open-minded about her mother's choices, Rika had no desire to face her right now. As she entered the room where their visitors slept, her eyes fell on the two forms on…
She stopped. Two?
"Renamon!" She called, and no sooner had the name left her mouth that the vulpine digimon appeared beside her.
"Yes, Rika?"
"One of the Tamers and that stripy, orange dino are missing. Did you see where they went by any chance?"
Renamon's eyes narrowed. "No Rika, I did not," she replied coolly. She was perplexed. While Renamon hadn't been on the grounds of her partner's home, she was close enough where she SHOULD have noticed something. Curious…
Rika sighed in frustration and walked over to the sleeping figure of the blonde haired boy named Chris and nudged him roughly with her foot. "Wake up!" She demanded harshly.
"Zzzz… Snort! Huh? What…?" The boy awoke with a start, waking up the small lizard that was his partner in the process. The two blinked profusely at the cause of their interrupted sleep.
"Nnnng… Chris, what's going on? We under attack again?" Complained Caramon.
Rika didn't wait for a response. "Your friends are missing," she said, indicating a folded up blanket where the duo had slept during the night. Renamon stood in front of it, looking intently at something that lay on top of it. "Any clue where they might have gone?"
Chris stared at the girl, trying to come up with an answer and diffuse what looked like an increasingly dangerous situation at the same time. Fortunately, fate had decreed that Ryan should show some for site today.
"Rika," said Renamon, handing her a piece of paper with a fairly legible message was written on it.
Chris,
Went out to with Richoemon to walk my brain. We'll see you and the others at the concrete thing in the park. Later.
-Ryan
" 'Walk my brain?'" Rika asked as she handed the note to Chris, his eyes visibly relaxing when he realized that death, either from a rogue digimon or the girl, was not eminent.
"Yeah, he does that when he needs to do some serious thinking. No biggy," Chris said.
"Hmmph. Does he even remember how to get to the park?"
Chris' right eye twitched and he forced a grin. "Uh… probably not. We are new arrivals and everything. But then, I never would've credited Ryan with having an abundance in brains." He turned to Caramon and snickered. "Remember when he went off on his own and had that run in with Sukamon and Chuumon?"
The lizard digimon laughed. "Yeah, that was hilarious!"
Something tells me that I don't even want to know, Rika thought.
Probably could've used a shower, Ryan thought. Then his stomach growled grumpily at him. Probably could've used something to eat before I left too. During their stay in the digital world, they had found out about the whole food trick as Ryan had called it; by which he meant that they had found that as long as they were in the digital world they didn't need to eat, with Chris accidentally discovering it while they were marching through a desert during their first few weeks in that place. The heat had been messing with them badly that day, and it did some strange things to their minds, which, ironically, yielded only positive results.
Sometimes he thought that the world enjoyed playing with his head like that.
The thing was, he had gotten so used to how things operated back in the digital world that he had all but forgotten that he needed things like food and water just to stay going, and if he didn't have other things on his mind he would've wondered when the last time he had emptied his bladder had been. Fortunately, for the benefit of everyone's sanity, his thoughts were currently preoccupied with the up and coming meeting with the other kids. On one hand it would be nice to discuss this with people who had already been around the block before, but there was the matter of his digivice. The way that the others had talked he felt as though they were already lumping him with the digimon that had been chasing him and his troupe for the past few weeks. Maybe they weren't too far from the truth, since he had already experienced some very negative results concerning the dark-colored gadget as his friend and partner could attest to; that and its most recent color change didn't bode very well either.
It was something that Ryan knew that he wasn't going to feel comfortable talking about, even though he knew that he should. Sighing, Ryan ran a hand through his hair and thought of the first thing that described his emotions exactly. Why can't we ever get the easy ones? In time, this thought would become almost a tradition.
"Hey Ryan?" Asked Richoemon. "What're you thinking about?"
Ryan looked at his partner. "Who says that I'm thinking about anything?"
The tiger-striped dinosaur gave his friend a look of annoyance. "C'mon Ryan, we've been friends and partners for how long now? The only time you go off somewhere without Chris and the others is when you're doing some thinking. Now spill!"
Ryan chuckled. "You know me too well."
"Yeah. With you it's kind of like reading a blank page." At that Ryan frowned.
"Okay, Richoemon; first, that's not funny. Second, get your own lines, I already used that one on Chris."
"I can't help it," said Richoemon crossing his arms. "I don't know any other jokes. I have only you, Chris, and Caramon for material."
Ryan grimaced. "Terrific. We make quite the comedy team. You don't know any jokes and I only know bad ones. Somehow I just know that I'm being a bad influence on you."
"And you're trying to change the subject Ryan. You still haven't told me what's on your mind."
"You really do know me too well."
"Blank page Ryan."
"Oh shut up," Ryan grumbled before sighing. "It's just that I don't know where to begin…"
"Try starting at the beginning…"
"Richoemon…" said Ryan growing exasperated. "The thing is we only know half the story and the others are going to be bombarding us with questions that we likely won't be able to answer. We don't even know why we were being chased all the way to that stupid temple and I still don't know how to explain this…" pointing to his grayish black digivice. "And I'm not in the mood for telling any long-winded stories." He thought for a minute and sighed again. It was starting to become a bad habit. "For that matter, I don't think our host is going to want to hear one either."
"She sure seemed angry last night," Richoemon said.
"She's probably got something going on and we just happened to crash land at a bad time. It's not our business though."
Richoemon was silent for a moment. "Hey Ryan, what was that big shiny ball in the sky last night?"
"What? Oh, that was the moon."
"Moon?"
"Yeah. Remember how back in the digital world the Earth was in the sky?"
"Yeah."
"Well we have something similar to that here with the moon and sun."
"Sun?"
"Yeah, the big bright ball that's in the sky right now."
Richoemon looked up and suddenly his eyesight was assaulted by the brightness of earth's closest star. Crying out from the temporary blindness he stumbled forward, and as Murphy's Law would have it, a toe claw caught on a crack in the sidewalk. Gravity took care of the rest and the poor digimon crashed to the ground. Ryan hurriedly knelt to check on his buddy, and after he had made sure that he was all right, Ryan helped the dino back to his feet.
"I should probably tell you that it's never a good idea to look at the sun like that. You can damage your eyes." Richoemon grumbled a bit, and Ryan grinned as he thought of a way to mess with his friends mind. "By the way, you should also know that if you step on a crack, you break your mother's back."
"WHAT!?"
After much laughter on Ryan's part, followed by many apologies and attempts to relieve his almost frantic friend of his fears by explaining to him that stepping on cracks most definitely does NOT break any mothers back, the pair resumed their journey, getting lost at least twice in the process. During their search, Ryan and Richoemon had received a lot of looks from the people around them, causing Ryan to almost curse himself for being so used to his friends appearance and for forgetting what it was that set digimon apart in the real world. Seeing as how all the looks were ones of curiosity and not of fear, and that no one seemed to be in a hurry to call the authorities, he was able to relax a bit and put his worries on the back burner to chew over later. The only real trouble that they had encountered involved a little girl who took an 'interest' in Richoemon, which is to say poking and prodding, and asking obscenely loud questions (despite her mothers attempts to silence the child) about his friend. Ryan had tried passing the dino off as his little cousin 'Jamie' who was wearing a suit down to a friend's birthday party in the park, but for some reason the little girl didn't buy it.
The amount of people who were passing by with amused and curios looks on their faces led Ryan to believe that he was in a city full of crazy people. But so long as those crazy people didn't try to take Richoemon away from him, he found it hard to find a reason to complain about it.
It was sometime past nine O'clock when the pair arrived at the edge of the park. Heaving a sigh, the two walked on in, leaving the craziness of the city behind them. After a few minutes of aimlessly wandering (and Ryan complaining to Richoemon about his apparent inability to distinguish scents) their ears picked up some commotion coming from a familiar stairway.
"Do you think that's them?" Ryan asked Richoemon. Before the little dinosaur could speak, a sudden burst of indignation from up the stairs suddenly gave them their answer.
"OHHH… GUARDROMON! BE CAREFUL! THE IDEA IS TO SURPRISE JERI! NOT FREAK HER OUT!"
"Oh, dear. Sorry."
Richoemon and Ryan both exchanged glances. "It's them," they said at the same time, and then proceeded up the stairs. As they neared the hut, they caught a glimpse of what Kazu and his friends, Guardromon, Kenta, and Marine Angemon were up to. Ryan winced. He felt really bad for Leomon right now. Just what possessed the guy to actually agree to sit still for something like this? What he saw had to be the most primitive and poorly executed attempt at camouflage he had ever seen in his life. Bushes had been mutilated, and their excess parts broken off and draped over the great Lion, or stuck in his proud mane. From the look in Leomon's eye, Ryan had to wonder why the kid's weren't dead yet, or at least unconscious.
"Ummm… You mind explaining to me just what exactly is going on here?" Ryan asked, breaking the group out of their version of Arts and Crafts. The two kids and their digimon spun around, shock etched onto their faces, but it quickly dissolved from the visor wearing kid once he saw who it was.
"Hey, you're that Ryan kid from last night! What's up?"
Ryan shrugged. "Nothing too much hopefully. And this…?" Indicating the mess that was Leomon.
"Oh, well, Kenta here got the idea to hide Leomon in some bushes as a surprise for our friend Jeri…"
"I did not! This was YOUR idea!"
"Pipupi!" Cried the little pink digimon that fluttered nearby.
"That's right!" Replied Kenta.
Ooookay, thought Ryan, not really comprehending a single thing that was just exchanged between them. Turning back to Kazu he said, "I don't suppose that it occurred to you to just simply cover him in gift wrap and stick on a sign that said 'do not open 'till Christmas'. I'm sure that would've gone over better." Leomon growled menacingly but Kazu stuck to his guns.
"Hey! We're just tryin' to do somethin' special for his partner Jeri. I mean, the last time she saw him he was being deleted and…"
"Whoa! Whoa! WHOA! T on the field! Leomon was deleted?"
"You don't have to talk about him as if he wasn't here," said Kenta, but no one paid any attention to him.
Ryan's head was spinning. Too much information too fast. Partners? Jeri? Deleted? ARRRGH! Leomon you never said anything about ANY of this! To top it all off came the rebuttal from his subconscious; you never did ask. Taking a deep breath he spoke. "I guess we do have quite a lot to talk about huh?"
"Well, obviously," retorted Kazu. Ryan glared at the kid, but mostly ignored the comment.
"Leomon, why don't you go brush yourself off and stay out of sight or something. We'll call you when we need you." The great beast nodded gratefully and stood up, leaving the group to their own devices, and Kazu looking a little disappointed. Ryan looked over at Kenta. "Okay, from the beginning. What's all this about Leomon?"
Some time later…
Ryan lay on the ground, watching the clouds go by. A blade of grass stood at attention from its spot in between his teeth, and his eyes held a far away look in them. Kazu and Kenta were outside the stone hut playing the card game version of their partners while the real life version watched their moves intently, Guardromon every so often interrupting with an exclamation about what Kazu had in his hand (and earning a number of expletives from Kazu as he did so). Kazu had offered to teach Ryan how to play but he had politely refused. He needed some time to think things through. Richoemon lay on his stomach next to him; occasionally snapping at the bugs that flew to near and making a snack out of the grass around him ("You're just going to puke it up later." "Am not!"). Earlier Kazu and Kenta had given him a brief overview (and edited too, Ryan was sure) of the events that had led to Leomon's partnership with Jeri Katou and his eventual deletion at the hands of Beelzemon. Actually, Kazu did most of the talking, paying special attention to the scene where Takato had merged with Guilmon and kicked Beelzemon to the curb. As for how it was possible that Leomon was able to be alive when he was supposed to be dead, well, Kenta supplied this bit of information. It sounded mostly theoretical, drawing greatly from what he had gleaned from the TV show about some place called "Primary Village". Apparently it was a place where digimon were born, or reborn if they had the bad luck of getting knocked off. Ryan didn't know for sure if he could put too much stock into the idea though; Being that it was a kid's show, Primary Village sounded like something that was designed to appease parents whenever a digimon got killed, but then, a few months ago the idea of a TV show actually being real was something he would have laughed at. Ha, ha then, not so now so he guessed Primary Village was a bucket that could hold water after all. There was something though that tugged at the back of his mind like the sound of a dripping water faucet. Something just didn't sit right.
A shadow fell over Ryan's face, and he turned his eyes up to see a red, gold-eyed dinosaur looking at him with a goofy smile on his face. "Hiiiii!" Guilmon cried happily. Ryan couldn't help but smile back.
"Hey," he said as Guilmon cheerfully sat down next to him.
"Where're Rika and your other friends?"
Ryan shrugged. He seemed to do that a lot more lately. "Still back at the house for all I know. I decided to get an early start this morning."
"How come?"
"I needed to do some thinking before we had our little get-together. A lot happened to us when we were in the digital world, and I kinda needed to organize events in my mind."
"What was it like for you in the digital world?"
"I don't have any other experiences to compare it to really. On one hand it was dangerous, and confusing; absolutely nothing like what we had back home. Maybe if I had more experiences with the digital world I could tell you for sure…"
Guilmon nodded in understanding. "I think I know what you mean. I was born in the real world, and I didn't know any other place before then. But even this world seemed strange to me, but Takato says that's just because I was a baby and didn't know any better. The digital world was a new experience for me, but until after the battle with D-Reaper I had very little knowledge of it, so I couldn't really say how I could connect with it."
Ryan felt his curious at the mention of D-Reaper. The kid's talked about it a lot, but he had never heard of it before. Something else to put on the back burner for later I guess.
"And now?" Ryan continued with Guilmon.
"Now it's almost like it's a second home to me, but it just wouldn't be the same if Takato wasn't there with me."
Ryan nodded. "Home is where the heart is."
"Huh? My home is in my chest?" Responded Guilmon, confused.
"You should probably ask Takato about that later," said Ryan. Man, and I thought Richoemon was weird.
"So this is where you've been hiding," spoke a cool voice from behind them. Ryan took a look and was a bit surprised to find Renamon standing behind them.
"How do you do that?" Asked Ryan.
"Do what?"
"Just show up out of nowhere without making a sound." At this, Renamon smiled secretly.
"How did you leave Rika's house?" Renamon replied with an almost teasing sound to her voice. Ryan gave the fox a quizzical look.
"The front door," he replied. The fox digimon's expression went from cool amusement to unreadable in a second, but her eyes never left Ryan's. "What?" He asked feeling a bit uncomfortable. Renamon said nothing, and soon vanished into thin air. Ryan and Richoemon blinked a couple times before looking at Guilmon.
"Do you ever get used to that?" Richoemon asked.
"Get used to what?"
"Never mind," grumbled Ryan.
A few minutes after the brief encounter with Renamon, Rika and Chris with Caramon perched on his usual spot on Chris' shoulder showed up. Renamon appeared next to the redhead and the two exchanged a glance. Whatever was in the Kitsunes facial expression (or lack of, thought Ryan) couldn't have been anything good as the girl frowned slightly. Ryan wondered what kind of bond they could have that allowed them to communicate like that.
"Aaah…" Chris sat down across from Ryan, waving briefly at Guilmon and Richoemon before stretching out lazily on the grass. "Oh, man," he began. "I can't BEGIN to tell you just how good it feels to take a nice, hot bath…" Ryan growled, but Chris didn't pay any attention. "If I was home, I would've cleaned out the entire fridge, vegetables and all. Let me tell you, my friend, I'll never look at soggy brand flakes the same again. Even Oatmeal looked appetizing…" Ryan's stomach now matched his earlier growl.
"Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Why?" Asked Guilmon innocently. "I like talking about food, especially if it involves bread and peanut butter." Now both Ryan's and Richoemon's stomachs growled. Richoemon sat up, almost surprised at the sound. Caramon laughed.
"Don't worry Richoemon. That's just your stomach letting you know that it's hungry. I'll explain the concept to you later."
"Are you saying that Tony the Tiger there doesn't know about eating?" Came a voice that could only belong to one Rika Nonaka. Chris struggled to hold in his laughter (muttering "Tony the Tiger" in between snickers) while Ryan paled a bit at the name before responding.
"Well," Ryan said clearing his throat. "He never seemed to anything except for the occasional drink of water. We just sorta figured that it had something to do with the digital world 'cause while we were there we found out that we didn't need to eat anything, so – uh – we sorta forgot about it."
"No large task there," said Chris laughing.
"Idiots," muttered Rika.
Caramon looked over at Ryan. "Hey ,where's Leomon at? I would've figured that he'd be here, waiting for his partner to show up."
Guess Rika had filled them on Leomon's back history, Ryan thought. He indicated the dynamic duo known as Kazu and Kenta. "I found those two getting into the Christmas season a little early, and persuaded them to wait a little bit longer. So now Leomon's off grooming somewhere…" Ryan grimaced. 'Leomon' and 'grooming' were two things he didn't think would ever go together in the same sentence, and apparently so did the others.
" Grooming? Should I even ask what those two numbskulls were doing?" Asked Rika almost crossly.
"Don't worry. It's not as bad as it sounds, though I gotta admit that it definitely changes my definition of weirdness…"
"Is it any weirder than your little 'run-in' with Sukamon and Chuumon?" Rika asked with a small, almost sadistic smile on her face. The look on Ryan's face was priceless. For a second, all the blood left his face in one mad rush as his eyes expanded to the size of golf balls. And then the blood returned with a vengeance that outdid even Guilmon's own crimson color.
"Wha…? HOW THE…?" Ryan stopped in mid-sentence as suddenly the light bulb clicked on upstairs. He looked over at Chris with an expression that screamed murder. Chris was already on his feet and backing up. "Chris…" Ryan growled.
"Hey," Chris said nervously. "C'mon dude, it's just a joke…"
"I thought we agreed to never, EVER, talk about that again!"
"Well, when we agreed to that I thought you meant between just us guys and mon. You never said anything about people outside our little group…"
"Your dead, Chris!" And with that, Ryan launched himself at the boy, who sidestepped him and took off towards the concrete bunker.
"Oh, c'mon! It's not like I gave her any details! I mean, seriously! I could've told her why Sukamon…"
Ryan gave a bloodcurdling Norse battle cry, causing Kazu and Kenta to look up in surprise. "Dude, what are they on?" Asked Kazu to no one in particular as they watched the uneven chase. Rika watched with a slightly embarrassed look as the comedy of errors began to unfold.
At least they're almost as entertaining as Gogglehead, she mused.
"Uh," began Caramon. "Shouldn't we try to separate them? It looks like he's trying to kill my partner." Noting that Ryan now had Chris wrapped in a headlock.
"Nope," said Rika, patting the lizard on the head. "Let them have their fun."
Richoemon and Guilmon simply watched with wide eyes and open jaws.
Takato, Henry, Terriermon, and Jeri ascended the staircase smiling comfortably in each other's presence. That is, until a sound that Terriermon could only identify as a 'commotion' ("You couldn't be any less vague, could you?" Henry had asked the grinning rabbit) reached their ears. Takato frowned. He could pick out a word that sounded like die, and it was being repeated over and over like some demented chant. What was even more confusing was that he could hear laughter, more specifically Rika's laughter, a rare sound indeed. Takato was surprised to realize that it had a beautiful note to it that brought his smile back to his face. It reminded him of that time on Locomon when he had overheard her song, and it made him feel just a little bit warm inside. A sharp cry of pain suddenly brought an end to the moment, and he raced up the stairs, not bothering to see if the others were following.
Jeri and Henry watched Takato's receding back for only a second before pursuing. "Is this part of your surprise?" She asked Henry.
"If it is, it's certainly not what we originally intended," Henry replied, baffled as the sound of laughter continued from up the stairs.
It didn't take long for Terriermon to throw in his classic Momentai.
The scene that the Tamers came upon had Kazu and Kenta near the shed with their respective partners looking confusedly at the two kids who were, for the moment, the main attraction. One of them, a blonde-haired kid, sat on the ground, groaning and rubbing the back of his head while the other, darker-haired boy, stood over him with a look of satisfaction on his face. The strangest sight of all to behold was the sight of Rika Nonaka, the Digimon Queen, laughing. The rare sound had a musical quality to it that held the Tamers spellbound. As the laughter came to an end, Rika found herself the center of attention. Blushing madly, she glared at her friends, causing Kazu and Kenta to actually take an unconscious step back.
"What?" Rika demanded, but no one was too terribly interested in giving an answer.
No one that is, except for Terriermon, whose mouth and wit seemed to operate independently of his survival instincts. He looked around for a second, as if he expected some calamity to happen. "That's funny," he said resting a paw on his chin in mockery of his Tamer. "I could've sworn that the world was supposed to end."
"Terriermon…" Henry said warningly.
"What? C'mon Henry, when was the last time you saw Rika laugh like that?"
"Uh, actually," Takato interjected. "She was laughing when Guilmon sneezed in the bread dough that we were making during D-Reaper."
"Exactly! And the world was ending right?"
"TERRIERMON!"
Kazu looked back and forth between Terriermon and Rika, wondering why the long-eared digimon was still alive. The way Rika looked right now you'd think that she was about to chew nails and spit out staples. Fuming, you could say, and yet she held back.
Oh, today is just going to full of firsts isn't it?
Jeri, who knew that Henry's partner likely wouldn't stop until Rika exploded, searched for a fast way to change the subject. Her eyes, lighted on the two boys that seemed to have started the whole scene that she had just witnessed (and still couldn't almost believe) and the realization came to her that she had never seen them before.
"Takato?" She asked hesitantly, pointing in the direction of the strangers. "Do you know them?"
Takato smiled. It was time to get this show on the road.
"Jeri, meet Ryan and Chris. They're part of the reason why we're having a Tamer's meeting today. They just arrived here from the digital world last night…"
"HEY!" Shouted a small lizard digimon. "What are we? Chopped liver? Honestly, it's hard to get any recognition around here!"
"Oh yeah," said Takato laughing. "And those are their partners Caramon and…uh…Richoemon. They're Tamers from America."
"As if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves Takato," said Rika with a small smile on her face.'
Chris raised a hand. "Um… not to disrupt anything, but what are Tamers?" This question brought a number of strange looks from the other children and their digimon. "Okay, yeah," said Chris now feeling a little foolish. "In hindsight, it does seem like a dumb question, but a little clarification helps."
"Tamers are people who have digimon as partners," replied Henry.
"Yeah," said Terriermon. "They're usually identifiable by their fancy digivice or their fashion sense." This last barb was aimed at Takato, who bristled slightly, but like Rika from earlier he decided to keep his peace.
"How could you not know about Tamers?" Demanded Kazu. "I mean, here you are with digivices AND digimon and you're telling us that you have no idea…"
"Hey!" Shot back Chris. "We didn't exactly get any job training or even a description when we got these things. They just showed up and dumped us in the middle of a desert. Well, actually it was Ryan's that did it…"
"Okay, yeah, I can see your point." Said Kazu, drawing a number of raised eyebrows aimed in his direction. "But I would've expected Rika to at least give you guys an overview. I mean, we had to fill Ryan in on Leomon since he…"
"AaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Everyone stared at the goggle-wearing kid standing next to Jeri with bewildered looks. Jeri glanced at his flushed face.
"Takato? Are you alright?" She asked worriedly. Takato looked at Jeri with wide, nervous eyes; a drop of sweat traced its way down his heated face.
"Ummm…Yeah, sure! No problem, Jeri! I just thought a…uh… bee stung me. That's all." The boy chuckled nervously under Jeri's gaze and he looked away, humming to himself.
"Wuss," said Rika in a mock scorn, but glad that someone had stopped Kazu from spilling the beans before they were ready. A little drastic and sudden, but at least it was affective. Terriermon giggled and chipped in his two cents.
"Momentai."
Henry sighed. Seeing as how everyone was here now there didn't seem to be any reason to continue beating around the bush like this.
"Ryan? Is your…friend…ready?" Ryan snapped out of his daze and smiled.
"Oh yeah! Well, at least I hope so. If not you can thank Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dummy over there for their taste in packaging." Henry was about to ask just what he was talking about when Ryan turned and cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to the woods:
OK! YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!"
A few seconds went by in which nothing happened, but then, like a breath of fresh air, the massive form of Leomon emerged from the woods. Jeri's eyes went wide with surprise, and she drew in a light gasp of air at the sight that now stood before her. The large Lion-warrior approached the young Tamer and ceremoniously dropped down to one knee as though he were a suitor about to propose to her. The girl almost stepped back, but just seeing Leomon, even if it wasn't really him, alive and well, was enough to freeze her in place. Leomon opened his mouth to speak and Jeri whimpered, like a child lost in the woods. Her name sounded like a soft caress coming from him, and Jeri knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it really was Leomon. Her Leomon. This proved to be too much for the girl and she flung herself at the digimon, tears forcing their way out of her clenched eyes.
"LEOMON!" She sobbed into his mane as he carefully embraced her.
Nothing more was said for the next few minutes.
The children and Digimon all sat in front of the entrance to Guilmon's hut, Jeri having taken up looking at Leomon as a way to ensure that this was in no way an illusion or even some cruel joke. Everyone seemed much more relaxed than they had been earlier, and perhaps that was because of the knowledge that two people who should never have been parted were now once again together.
"So, how did you find him?" Takato asked Ryan as he munched on a piece of Guilmon bread that the red dino had been more than happy to share from his stash. Ryan elbowed Chris, who saw that his mouth was too full of the cinnamon flavored goodness to answer, so Chris took that as his cue.
"Actually, he found us; we were getting clobbered by an Okuwamon and Leomon just happened to be in the area. Being the honorable and noble hero that he is he came to our aid and volunteered to be our guide until we could find a way home."
"Yeah, that sounds like our Leomon all right," Laughed Takato.
"Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be Takato?" Asked Guilmon innocently. "He still smells the same."
"I'll explain it to you later, boy," said Takato, giving the dinosaur a pat on the head.
"Still, considering what happened after he met us, I wouldn't have blamed him if he did decide to just up and leave us," said Ryan, swallowing the last of his bread. "I mean, we just seemed to turn into a magnet for trouble…"
"Getting chased all the way to an abandoned temple for the better part of what might have been a week or two…"
Ryan frowned. "I wasn't referring to that…"
"What was chasing you?" Asked Henry from his spot on the ground.
"A couple ultimates and a bunch of champions," said Chris. "We never did find out why, though now that I think about it the attacks started up shortly after we blew up an Azuredramon…"
"Azuredramon?" Asked Takato, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, check it out." Without thinking, Ryan pulled out his digivice and called up an image of the creature that had attacked them all those weeks ago. He paused before showing it to them, his brow furrowed in thought.
"Something wrong?" Asked Takato.
Ryan blinked. "N-no. It's just that I've never called up an image of a past digimon before. Never knew that I could do that." He shook his head and let the Tamers see. The digimon was a blue, serpentine like digimon that bared a resemblance to Azulongmon, only without the beard, chains, armored headpiece, and horn. The expression on its face was not one of benevolence either, but more as though snarling was as close it could get to kindness on a good day. Below its picture read:
Azuredramon
Stage: Champion
Type: Data
Special Attack: Blue Thunder, Azure Slash
Henry rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Nope, can't really help you there. I've never even heard of that kind of digimon before. How about you Rika?"
"Please, it's almost an insult to even ask. It's a medium class Champion; it stats are all right for its level, but most players don't use it. It's just not in the same league as the more familiar cards like Greymon or Seadramon."
"That's all? No extra abilities?"
"Nope. It's the kind of card players will use for data and not much else."
"Well, I guess it's possible that they thought downloading the data from your digimon would get them to the digital world," said Henry. "It is a popular belief among digimon."
"Yeah, Leomon said as much while we were traveling," Ryan said as he put away his digivice. "But I get the feeling that it doesn't add up."
"What? Azuredramon and the attacks, or the digital world's beliefs?"
"Azuredramon and the attacks. Of course, the digital world's beliefs sound pretty messed up too, so take your pick"
"Okay, so maybe those attacks starting after your fight with an Azuredramon was a coincidence, and maybe they weren't," said Rika. "But we'd still like to hear what happened to you in the digital world." Turning to Ryan she said, "Last night you said that there was a story behind your version of Ken's 'Dark Digivice'; care to elaborate?"
Ryan glowered. "I really don't want to talk about that. And just what is this 'Ken's Dark Digivice' thing that you guys prattle on about?" Henry waved him off.
"Later; right now we'd like to hear your tale."
Ryan sighed and ran a hand through his hair while Crhis and Caramon watched him carefully. Personally, Chris felt that they should tell them, but he respected Ryan's decisions. If Ryan didn't want to talk than he wouldn't badger him about it.
"All right," Ryan said finally. "I'll tell you. I – I think that I NEED to talk about it anyway, and that maybe by telling you you'll be able to provide some insight as to how I can solve this problem." He looked over at his partner with a sad look on his face. "Mine and Richoemon's."
Takato felt as though cold fingers had wrapped themselves around his heart. Why did he have a feeling that this kid's story was going to sound familiar?
"It was around the same time that we found Leomon. Like Chris said, we were getting our butts handed to us by an Okuwamon, and Leomon jumped in to save us. Not that it made much of a difference though; three champions against one very large ultimate didn't make much of an impression and he tore through us like wet toilet paper." The Tamers, who had seen an Okuwamon in action in the second season of Digimon nodded, knowing perfectly well what he meant. "That is, until Richoemon digivolved to the ultimate level too…"
"Did he digivolve…wrong?" Asked Takato remembering what happened when Guilmon digivolved to Megidramon. Rika cast a concerned look in his direction and Jeri clasped one of his hands with her own.
"No," said Ryan. "That's just it. He digivolved right and we lived to fight another day. And then we ran into something…"
"What was it?" Asked Renamon.
Ryan frowned. "We don't really know. At first glance it looked like a regular digimon. The digivice was at least able to identify it as a Mammothmon…"
"And it had a hard time doing even that as I recall," said Chris. "It was like something was interfering with the digimon analyzer."
Ryan nodded. "But there was something different about it. The coloring was off, though to be honest it was a little bit hard to tell since it was night out."
"It could have been a corrupted evolution," said Henry. "Sometimes when digimon digivolve they end up with a darker coloring than they otherwise would have had."
"Yeah, except the analyzer kept insisting that it was your average, everyday, run – of – mill Mammothmon. No frills attached." Chris, remembering what Ryan had done earlier took out his digivice and called up an image of the Mammothmon they had seen that evening. The analyzer showed them a picture of a regular Mammothmon, Brown hair, metallic faceplate, and ivory horns concealing missiles. "This is what the digivice showed us," said Chris. "What we saw though looked like it had just walked out of an oil spill."
Henry studied the stats that were stored in the programs memory, and noticed something. "What's this unknown data configuration?" Pointing to some text below the image. Chris shrugged.
"Not too sure. But it may have had something to do with how the digimon reacted to things. It didn't act normal," Chris almost laughed at his statement. He didn't really know what passed for normal Mammothmon behavior, but from what he saw that night he could comfortably bet that sure wasn't it. "The way it moved wasn't natural; like it didn't know what to do with its body. Plus, it got spooked by our campfire. In fact, I think that the campfire may have been the reason why it attacked us in the first place."
"Why's that?" Asked Jeri, now joining in on the conversation.
"I don't usually ask why a thunderstorm occurs, or why a volcano explodes, but that Mammothmon definitely prompted the question, especially since it seemed about as concerned as stomping on the fire as it was with flattening us, and then Terradramon breathed a fireball at it…"
"Terradramon?" This from Kazu.
"Richoemon's Champion form," said Chris showing them an image of a larger, hairless version of Richoemon. It had two great horns arching out from the back of its head in the same direction as a goats, and its eyes held a look of ferocity that its rookie form seemed to lack.
"So what happened?" Asked Jeri.
"We beat it. Barely. Our attacks seemed to have a hard time touching it for some reason. Even Caramon had to digivolve to ultimate in order to take it down. And for a digimon that tripped over its own shadow, believe me when I say, it didn't go down easy."
"So what's this gotta do with Ryan and Richoemon?" Asked Kenta.
"We're getting to that…" began Ryan but was interrupted as both his and Chris' digivices began beeping in warning. No sooner had they stood up and pulled them out that a flash of light could be seen from the direction of the city, near where the Hypnos towers were located. The Tamers D-Arcs sounded a similar alarm as a familiar mist settled in the area.
"BIO-EMERGENCE!" Shouted Rika as Renamon materialized next to her, and in a flash they took off in the direction of the mist.
"Let's go guys!" Shouted Takato as he and Guilmon quickly took the lead. Ryan, his troubles momentarily forgotten in the heat of the moment looked at Chris and Caramon.
"Hiyo Silver," he said with a grin, before he and Chris joined the Tamers in their race. Chris raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
A short distance away from the group of children, a shadowed figure watched impassively before setting off after them.
The Tamers kept a good pace as they ran through the crowds of people. The going was rather easy, as many of them had seen the flash of light and the fog settle in. The presence of children with digimon at their side running towards the mists only confirmed their suspicions; a bio-emergence was eminent.
The smart ones suddenly remembered that they had an appointment that they had to make and quickly disappeared.
Even though Ryan had been one to have bio-emerged (as the Tamers put it) into the real world, he didn't really have much of a clue as to what it was or how it looked. He had been unconscious during the trip home, so he didn't exactly get the chance to take pictures and ask the tour guide to point out any famous landmarks along the way. Now here was an opportunity to see one and be conscious for it. He was a little bit excited about the prospect even though the outcome would most likely become violent. Oh well, he'd burn that bridge when he'd get there. Now if only his digivice would stop beebing!
I already know that there's a bio-emergence you stupid thing, he thought pulling it out and calling up the map program. It displayed all the signals of the Tamers, themselves, their digimon, and the signals coming from the digital field even though they were faint. Suddenly he pulled up short as he noticed something else on the map, Richoemon almost stumbling when he stopped to look at his partner.
"Ryan?" He asked.
That's weird. It looks like there's another signal…
CRASH!
A large, dark-colored ape-like digimon carrying a massive cudgel landed in front the two. Chris and the Tamers, who had continued running on ahead came to a halt and turned towards the noise. Chris' jaw dropped at the sight of the digimon standing in front of his two friends, its color a sickeningly familiar shade.
"Hey!" he began. "That's…"
"Nuke Fl…" Richoemon began only to be batted out of the way by the digimon's club. Chris' digivice glowed as the creature advanced on Ryan.
"CARAMON, DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"
"DRACARAMON!"
The red sphere that had surrounded the little lizard burst apart, revealing a large, wingless dragon with a body build and structure that reminded Henry of Garurumon. His reddish-green scales glinted in the sunlight, and without wasting a second Dracaramon launched himself at the attacker.
"DIAMOND CLAW!" Dracaramon shouted as his front claws glowed with a rainbow light. Spinning on a dime the ape smashed its club on Dracaramon's jaw, hurling him to the ground.
"DIGIMODIFY!" Shouted Henry as he slid a card through his D-Arc. "Digivolution Activate!"
D-I-G-I-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
"TERRIERMON, DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"
"GARGOMON!"
The long-eared digimon known as Terriermon was immediately replaced by a larger, gun toting, pants wearing version of himself, and he quickly joined in the battle, blasting away with the cannons that had replaced his hands.
"GARGO LASERS!" Green energy blasts fired from the cannons and hit their target dead on, but the creature didn't react to them; didn't even seem to feel them in fact. Without so much as a snarl or a growl, it charged towards Gargomon at an insane speed. Reacting with reflexes instilled in him from his martial arts training and his experiences from dealing with wild ones, Henry slid another card through his digivice.
"DIGIMODIFY! SPEED ACTIVATE!"
With a sudden burst of speed, Gargomon dodged the Ape's attack and laid in with another barrage of laser attacks, which still seemed to show no sign of having any affect.
And all the while, it hadn't made a single sound. Not even to declare its attack.
Rika and Takato were about to order their digimon into the fray when the sound of an explosion caught their attention. Rika's eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. Don't tell me that there's more than one…Looking at her D-Arc she saw two distinct signals around the digital field that they had been heading to. And based off of the readings, they were strong.
"HENRY!" Shouted Takato. "There're more digimon down near the digital field! Do you think that you can hold things here?" Henry felt sweat running down his forehead as Gargomon barely dodged another attack.
"I'll manage," he said shakily at first, before continuing in a stronger voice. "Just get down there!"
Takato nodded and turned to the others. "Kazu, you and Kenta stay here and lend them a hand. Rika and I will…"
"No."
Takato turned to look at Leomon. "No. The others will go with you. I will stay to aid Ryan, Henry, and Chris." Looking him in the eye Takato could see two things; confidence and determination. Leomon wouldn't be swayed.
"Leomon, are you sure?" Asked Jeri with a note of fear in her voice. Takato wondered if she was afraid of losing Leomon again but he pushed the thought away. Priorities first.
"All right," he said nodding. "You stay here and lend a hand. The rest of you with me!" Without waiting to see if anyone was following, Takato ran off towards the other signals, wondering just what was in store for them.
"Jeez. Since when did Gogglehead become such a general?" Said Rika sarcastically as she chased after their unofficial leader.
"C'mon, c'mon…" whispered Henry as he tried to use his D-Arc's analyzer to identify their enemy, but the holographic circle kept coming up empty. This was disturbingly reminding him of that time when they had fought the Devas.
"GOT IT!" Shouted Chris as his digivice rewarded him with the info that they needed. Then he frowned. "Wait, that can't be right."
"What is it?" Asked Henry.
"According to this, that's supposed to be an Apemon! But, it can't be!"
"You mean like a corrupted evolution form…?"
"No! I mean an Apemon! A regular, yellow-furred Apemon!"
Henry stared at Chris for a second and glanced at the digimon that they were currently engaged with. That can't be an Apemon, Henry thought before recalling part of Ryan's and Chris' story where they encountered that strange Mammothmon.
Takato, Rika, Kazu, and Kenta arrived to a scene of chaos. Cars were overturned, lamp posts downed, holes blown indiscriminately in the ground, and, oh yeah, the seemingly endless number of panicking people trying desperately to give the rampaging digimon ample room to continue their reign of terror and destruction. Rika took off her shades and got off Kyubimon as Takato, Kenta, and Kazu came flying in courtesy of Air Guardromon, and they were soon joined by Growlmon. The kids surveyed the area around them and quickly found their quarry; both were humanoid in appearance and dressed in dark colored armor, and one of them was carrying a very large sword.
As yet, neither of them had noticed the children with their digimon. Small blessings.
"Black Knightmon," said Rika as she read off the stats from her D-Arc. "Ultimate level; special attack: Darkness Sword." The image displayed over her D-Arc changed to show the other digimon. "And the other one's Nightmare Blitzmon, Ultimate level. Special Attack: Black Lightning and Thunder Fist." The hologram receded as she looked up. "Terrific, they're both virus types."
"Worried Rika?" Taunted Kazu.
"Only because you're here."
"Ha! Ha – Hey!"
"C'mon you guys," said Takato. We need to come up with a plan. Man I wish that Henry were able to join us. He's great when it comes to plans."
"Well he's not here Gogglehead, so deal with it!"
Takato nodded reluctantly before his face fell into a determined look. Seeing it, you could feel that he was well in control of the situation. Now if only his heart would stop racing.
"All right," said Takato, turning to his friends. All eyes were on him. "There's two of them and four of us so we're going to partner up and double team them."
"Brilliant plan, Patton…" Said Rika.
"I wasn't done yet. Kenta, you and Marine Angemon will back up Rika and Kyubimon. Marine Angemon's a mega and a vaccine so you guys should have the advantage. Kazu, you and Guardromon are with me and Growlmon, but be careful. I don't think that I need to remind you that Guardromon still can't digivolve to ultimate."
"No problem Chumly. We'll hang back while you and Growlmon do the heavy lifting, and if we see an opening we'll take it. If worst comes to worst you guys can always biomerge and send them home crying."
Kenta blinked. Did Kazu actually understand what he was told AND say that he'd follow orders without complaining?
"Gotta admit Gogglehead, that actually does sound like a good idea. And it came from you of all people," said Rika in mock surprise. "I'm impressed. Now which one do you wanna take?"
"Ladies first."
"Kenta, I think Takato's lost it. He actually thinks Rika's a lady."
"Shut up, Kazu!" Shouted Rika as she willed a blue card into existence. Takato did likewise and they both slashed them through their D-Arcs.
M-A-T-R-I-X D-I-G-I-V-O-L-U-T-I-ON
"GROWLMON!"
"KYUBIMON!"
"MATRIX DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"
"WARGROWLMON!"
"TAOMON!"
Taomon with Marine Angemon in tow went after Black Knightmon, her Thousand Spells attack being enhanced by the vaccine effects of Marine Angemon's Kahuuna Waves, while WarGrowlmon charged at Nightmare Blitzmon with his Radiation Blades, Guardromon running interference with Guardian Barrage to keep their foe off balance. The two sides clashed, each one striving for dominance. Windows shattered from the force of the attacks, but at the moment neither group was able to gain an edge over the other.
Yamaki glared at the ruined screens of the control room and swore profusely, unable to grasp how such a thing could have occurred. Fifteen minutes ago Reilly and Talley had been tracking two wild ones and had deployed Yuggoth. The program attached itself to its targets when out of the blue an unidentified data cluster entered its zone of influence, and that's when the control room exploded into chaos. There were no injuries fortunately, but at present Hypnos was now blind until the technicians could get it up and running again on the backup systems.
Until then…
There was the sound of a soft thump and the floor shook worryingly. Yamaki didn't need a seismologist to tell him that there were digimon going at it somewhere nearby, and if he was a good judge of things (despite his previous lack of judgment in the past) those kids were smack in the middle of it.
It irked him to have to rely on children to bail them out whenever things went south. Not because of pride (for that ship had sailed after his problems with Juggernaut) but because they were, as mentioned, children. It didn't seem fair that they should take on these kinds of responsibilities.
But they aren't exactly children anymore, he thought. They had already experienced far more than most kids in their age group, almost as much as the most grizzled veteran in the armed forces, maturing them well beyond their years. He had come to respect the Tamers and their digimon as individuals, but that didn't make things any easier.
Yamaki flicked open a lighter in his hand, and closed it again for the third time in as many seconds. Some habits, such as his concern for the Tamers, were hard to break.
"SCALE BLAZE!"
"DIGIMODIFY! POWER ACTIVATE!"
"GARGO LASERS!"
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
Things were not going well. Even with the addition of Leomon to boost their attacks, the Apemon was not showing any signs of slowing down or even being hurt (despite taking numerous direct hits), while the opposite was holding true for the Tamers. The dark colored digimon attacked with a ferocity that surpassed most wild ones that Henry had encountered in the past, and was almost on par with the Devas. Henry began to get the idea that Apemon's power levels were far beyond what they should be.
I'm starting to think that Gargomon is going to have to matrix digivolve for this one. Looking over to where Ryan stood, he was glad to see that Richoemon was starting to recover from Apemon's earlier attack. Henry smiled. The more the merrier.
"BUNNY PUMMEL!"
Seeing an opening Gargomon charged towards Apemon, green flames licking at his gun barrels. As his cannon flew on its path towards the Apemon's face, Gargomon couldn't help but smirk. Gotcha, he thought.
Then his arm phased out of stability.
What…? Henry's eyes went wide. Did I just see…?
WHAM! Apemon delivered a brutal blow to the side of Gargomon's face, sending data flying through the air as a cry escaped his lips. Gargomon went down like a water logged hacky sack.
"GARGOMON!" Henry shouted.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Leomon shouted. He swung his blade at the Apemon, putting all his strength into it, determined to end this fight no matter what. His blade glowed with energy as it arched towards his enemy.
Only to be countered by Apemon's cudgel, the force of it actually sending Leomon realing back, but he kept his feet on the ground. That's when the Apemon did something different. Its mouth grew impossibly large and an orange glow burned in the back of its throat like a furnace. Henry had the sudden feeling that nothing good could come out of this. Thinking quickly Henry pulled out a card and tossed it to Jeri.
"Jeri! Use this card! It's Leomon's only chance!"
Jeri caught it and upon seeing what it was slashed it through her D-Arc without hesitating.
"DIGIMODIFY! WARGREYMON'S BRAVE SHIELD ACTIVATE!"
A shield with the crest of courage emblazoned on it appeared before Leomon, and gripping it he position the barrier in front of him at the same moment Apemon fired a blast of raw energy from its mouth.
What happened next left everyone speechless.
"DIGIMODIFY! SNOW-AGUMON'S FROZEN WIND ACTIVATE!"
Taomon raised an arm and fired a stream of cold air at the ground, causing ice to form just as Black Knightmon's foot touched down. The sudden change to a slippery, uncertain terrain caused the massive digimon to crash to the ground, and shortly after a string of angry curses could be heard emanating from within his helmet.
"Watch your step…" Taomon taunted.
"ATOMIC BLASTER!"
Twin crimson lasers erupted from WarGrowlmon's chest and smashed into Nightmare Blitzmon causing him to fall, his data briefly destabilizing, but held together. He stood up in time to block a Radiation Blade attack, and with one Thunder Fist, sent WarGrowlmon flying backwards.
"This is taking too long," Nightmare Blitzmon growled. "We must find the Keepers immediately!"
"Go then," said Black Knightmon with a grunt as he blocked Taomon's Talismon of Light attack with his sword. "I'll keep them busy." Nightmare Blitzmon nodded to his companion and leapt into the air, only to be downed a second later by a well timed Guardian Barrage. Nightmare Blitzmon cursed as the ground suddenly rushed to greet him. He crashed hard into the ground, chunks of pavement rocketing into the air, but Nightmare Blitzmon was far from out of the game.
"Data scum!" He spat as he sat up. "I have no time for you!"
"Well I suggest that you make time Chumly! Shouted Kazu as he readied a card for slashing. " 'Cause you're in the School of Hard Knocks and Guardromon says class is still in session! So get ready to pull your butt off the ground again 'cause that's where it's goin to land!"
"Insolent dog," Nightmare Blitzmon said lowly as electricity gathered around him. This boy would pay dearly for interfering with his duty. He did not notice WarGrowlmon coming up behind him.
Black Knightmon swatted the annoying little mega of a fairy and saw that his comrade was in danger. We can't complete our mission if we are deleted, he thought. Only one of us need survive this encounter, and he's the most able to get out of this fight and finish our task. He has to get away, even if it costs me my life. Black Knightmon eyed Taomon as she circled him carefully. As long as she was around he couldn't aid his partner, and as long as the girl kept slashing those cards…
A light went on and swinging his sword in two wide slashing arcs, he hurled two energy attacks, one aimed for the red haired human and the other for the Taomon before turning towards the WarGrowlmon that was approaching his oblivious partner.
Save yourself or save the girl, He thought.
"RIKA!"
Rika stood like a deer caught in a cars headlights as she watched Black Nightmon's attack surge towards her, carving a trench in the ground, all coherent thought shocked from her mind. A shout suddenly brought her back to reality and she was tackled to the ground. "Oof!" Rika hit the ground hard as the attack swept by her, raining dirt and chunks of concrete around her. Looking over to her side she saw Takato laying next to her.
"You alright?" He asked with concern in his eyes. Rika hmmphed before responding.
"I'm fine, Gogglehead. What…" Her reply was cut off as Takato suddenly cried out and doubled up on the ground. "TAKATO!" She shouted. Now it was her turn to be worried. What could be causing him…?
WarGrowlmon's pained cry was answer enough.
Black Knightmon let out a satisfied grunt as his sword smashed into WarGrowlmon's side, felling him almost immediately. Guardromon came to earth a second later as gravity did its job on the damaged robot, as a battered Nightmare Blitzmon prepared to fly away.
It looks like we might make it after all, Black Knightmon thought smugly.
"DESOLATION CLAW!"
A blue energy blast ripped its way through the weakened Nightmare Blitzmon, deleting him instantly along with Black Knightmon's hopes.
Oh, son of a… Black Knightmon thought right before a white light filled the air behind him.
"TALISMON OF LIGHT!"
Black Knightmon's vision of the world shattered.
"See what happens when you guys don't invite me to the party?" Said Ryo Akiyama, the Legendary Tamer himself, in a false I'm insulted voice that sounded more humorous than he let on. Walking towards the other Tamers and their digimon he took in each of their conditions as his partner Cyberdramon landed next to him. WarGrowlmon didn't look so good, and his condition was matched by Takato, who was currently being helped to his feet by Rika and Taomon. The kid had a tired look on his face that had Ryo a bit worried, but otherwise he looked okay. Taomon and Rika both looked fine; well, maybe fine didn't accurately describe Rika given the way she was glaring at him, but physically she looked all right. Marine Angemon fluttered weakly over to Kenta who also looked fine. Guardromon was on his back, singing something that sounded like daisy…daisy… in a flat monotone voice, so you can make the call there. Kazu, who had paused in the act of hugging his partner, well…
"ALRIGHT! RYO AKIYAMA'S HERE! I KNEW THAT HE'D BE HERE TO SAVE THE DAY! THIS IS AWSOME!"
Need I say more?
"Perfect timing as always, Ryo," said Rika sarcastically.
"What can I say, Rika?" Said Ryo grinning. "I'm a fan of last minute rescues. It reminds me of when we met in the digital world."
Rika growled menacingly, so Ryo decided that now was as good a time as ever to change the subject.
"So what's going on guys? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" He looked over the Tamers carefully and then realized something. "Hey, where's Henry and that crazy rabbit, Terriermon?"
Before anyone could answer, an explosion erupted from within the park. Ryo stood dumbfounded for a moment.
"Never a dull day around here," he said finally.
55