Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter 15: Fear of the Unknown/ Part: 1

Ryo Akiyama stepped out of the train and out into the subway, taking a look around before setting off into the crowd of people, grateful for once that people hadn't taken a look at him long enough to recognize him. There were some disadvantages to being a celebrity in the famous line of commercial products known as Digimon, and with the revelation that the world portrayed in both the card game and the television show by the same name actually existed, his face had become even more recognizable, especially since his disappearance for a year, to emerge right before the devastating events of D-Reaper, and then later with Parasimon. His face, his image had become almost synonymous with the digital life forms that continued to invade and occasionally threaten the real world, and as a result some people adored him, others who had adored him began to revile him, and still more who had had nothing to do with digimon or just simply didn't care enough about it had begun to sit up and take notice of him. There were times, quite a few of them in fact, where Ryo was envious of the other Tamers who had somehow managed to dodge the publicity that he was receiving, in spite of Hypnos's best efforts. But then, he was a more public figure than the others. The only one who could understand what he went through was Rika, and though she could, at times, be sympathetic and lend a listening ear, she wasn't going to hold his hand through all the tough times that he went through.

Now that would be interesting, thought Ryo with a small smile as the mental image of Rika doing just that came to mind. And kind of nice, come to think of it, but I doubt that she'd do that anyway. Besides, with the kind of things that I've been through both here and in the digital world, I don't think that I need to rely on anyone just to handle a few amorous fans. Or even a few un-amorous. I've got more important things to worry about then my own comfort anyway.

A flash of grayish-blue eyes, and a flicker of dark hair passed through Ryo's mind as he recalled his encounter with the girl who had called herself simply Raven. A girl, if he wasn't mistaken, who was searching for the two Tamers that now resided in Shinjuku with the others.He began to wonder just what their purpose was, and about their digivices too. They were strange things, in some ways resembling the Tamers digivices in function as well as in appearance, but at the same time completely different. There were no slots for slashing cards, and they had proven themselves fully capable of handling evolution up to the Ultimate level without any extra data processor, such as the crests from the TV show or the Tamers Blue Card, and had also shown themselves able to merge both human and digimon together (from what he remembered from Janyu's explanation, it was to use the human partner to filter out and substitute damaged and corrupt data until that data could be repaired), and that Henry's father, Janyu Wong, had claimed that the digivices had some sort of algorithm similar to a digimon's, making them alive after a fashion. So… were they as alive as any digimon? And what else were they capable of doing? And were they dangerous? Well… okay, Ryo felt that that last question was a little ridiculous sounding, but because he and the others knew so little about them he felt that the question had to be asked. They were an unknown variable, and he had already seen strange digimon entering the real world and engaging these two kids. They had to be important for something. And just what were Keepers? He had heard that word being tossed around before, back during the battle with that Black Knightmon and Nightmare Blitzmon. Now those were, shall we say, unique digimon. He had never seen or heard of them before, and certainly not from any expansion pack that he had seen, and he considered himself well traveled when it came to that sort of thing. At least his digivice had recognized the digimon. Ryo disliked having to go into a battle not knowing anything about his enemies.

I wonder how that Raven girl is doing, thought Ryo as he climbed the stairs leading out of the subway tunnels. She was pretty determined to continue searching on her own, and now that these two kids showed up…

Ryo sighed, wondering just how he was going to get in contact with her or bring her home. Unlike the girl he had no easy way of entering or exiting the digital world, and his visits were chaotic at best, and usually were courtesy of a Sovereign like Azulongmon or, as it was in most cases, plain old destiny.

He preferred it when it was Azulongmon. At least then he had a choice and had a way to get home when he was done with business.

Wish that I could get in touch with Azulongmon as easily as he can with me, thought Ryo. At least then I could ask him to keep an eye out for that girl.

As Ryo exited the subway and entered the busy streets of Shinjuku, his mind wandered back to his most recent experience in the digital world. There had been unusual data anomalies and increased digimon migrations between the worlds, among all quadrants. The Sovereigns were doing what they could to manage the problem, but with the strange anomalies and disturbances in the fabric of digital space, apparently beyond the known boundaries of digital space, there was little that they could do without having the situation dissolve into complete chaos. Which was why they, or rather three of the four Sovereigns (Zhuqiaomon not liking the idea) had summoned Ryo to investigate the matter and, if he could, deal with it. Ryo frowned.

It's too bad that I didn't find anything useful for Azulongmon before I was forced to go back to the real world. Though I think that news of that girl would have interested him. Too bad that weird storm kicked up when it did. I imagine that she wouldn't have sent me back to the real world if that hadn't started up. I wish that she came back with me though. That storm didn't look all that safe even if she thinks that she can handle herself, and now that we have her two friends here while she's still out searching for them… I should tell the others about this. I mean, most of them already know, to an extent, but I think that we may have to mount a search and rescue mission. How ironic. I wonder if Ryan or Chris know how to contact her family. Since she seems capable of moving in and out of the digital world it would only make sense to get in touch with her folks, especially if she makes frequent trips home to pick up supplies. She did have a bag when I met her…

Round and round Ryo's thoughts went as he began thinking of a way to help the dark haired girl that he had rescued, so to speak, on his last trip through the digital world. It was rather overdue, and perhaps now would be the best time to clue the others in on the full story behind his most recent excursion to the digital world, how he met Raven, her mission, and what Ryan and Chris knew about her. Though the Legendary Tamer would have tried to help her regardless of whether or not she had helped him get home, he felt that he at least owed it to her, and in that sense he was going to do whatever it took to try and bring her back to the real world.

Rika and Takato walked side by side as they headed down to Jeri's home, shadowed by their two partners Guilmon and Renamon who were doing likewise, watching their partners with a curious gaze. Takato occasionally glanced nervously at the red headed girl that walked next to him before jerking his eyes away and trying to focus on the sidewalk in front of him. Memories of the talk that they had back at his place, his dream and Guilmon's dream girl comment obviously still haunting him and making him edgy around his friend. He wasn't sure how Rika had taken it. Sure, she seemed embarrassed and was probably more than a little irritated, but she had been unusually quiet when they were finishing up their lunch, taking only enough time to say "at least you're not stalking me", as though reminding him of their encounter in the alley when she had asked him why he kept following her around, which he most certainly hadn't been doing, but that was besides the point. What was, was Rika's overall lack of response that was bothering Takato, and when it came to Rika Nonaka, someone who tended to get irritated over the strangest things, this was cause for worry.

Just take it easy Takato, thought the goggle wearing boy as he tried to force his heart to stop its edgy race in his chest. Momentai. I mean, this is Rika we're talking about. Sure, she can be a little intimidating, and downright scary from time to time, but she couldn't be angry or anything about what we talked about could she? I was just answering her questions and… well… Takato paused in his thinking. Why did she bring up that dream anyway? She didn't like me talking about it the first time I told her about it, and I never brought it up again after that. Besides, it's not like anything came out of it anyways other then that we met and we were both Tamers.

Takato's gaze slid back over to the girl that walked next to him and jerked away once again. Only this time Rika noticed and she turned her violet eyes at Takato and frowned.

"Well? What?" She half asked, half demanded, and Takato had to force himself to not fidget or quicken his pace as his heart rate sped up in fear and his face began to become just a little bit warm.

"Oh… nothing…" stammered the boy as he obstinately tried to stop the conversation from going anywhere that could potentially be dangerous.

Rika eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at Takato out of the corner of her eye, suddenly feeling a sense of déjà vu at the situation but not really knowing why.

"Mm-hmm!" Scoffed Rika, not believing him one bit. She continued to stare at the boy, as though her glare enough would put enough pressure on the boy for him to crack and spill what was bothering him. He had shown himself to be especially susceptible to that kind of thing in the past and few could get Takato to open up when he was trying to hold something in. Jeri could have done it far more easily though, and in a much softer way given how the boy felt about her, but Rika wasn't Jeri so she had to make do with the tools that she had available to her. Not that she couldn't be soft towards people when she wanted to, it was just that certain people and situations warranted that part of her personality to come out, and though she was like that towards Takato on the rare occasion as they were friends, their friendship was such that the present situation did not allow for that softness to come out.

As they walked, Takato kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, and Rika could tell that he was resisting the urge to look back or say something. The nervousness that danced behind his crimson eyes, and the tension in his motions certainly told her that much.

You'd almost think that he was around Jeri right now, thought Rika sardonically as she began to go over in her mind what it was that could possibly be making her human friend this nervous around her. Not that this was hardly surprising. She tended to make Takato a little nervous around her anyway since she had such a strong and sometimes forceful personality. Everyone had commented on it at one time or another, usually in a negative light but they had to admit that she wouldn't be Rika without that strength, and it definitely came in handy on multiple occasions. But it wasn't like Takato was always like this around her, just when he did something that irritated her, so what was it that was making him act like this now? What had happened recently…?

No sooner was the question asked then it was answered, and Rika rolled her eyes at the obviousness of it.

Can't believe that he's nervous about that! Well, okay. I did threaten him when he first brought it up but I wouldn't have called us friends at that time either. If nothing else we were less than acquaintances, but he should know by now that things have changed between us. He'd have to do something a lot more stupid then have a dream about me to make me hurt him. Sure I'd be irritated, but enough to hurt him? He still has to pull that off.

"All right Gogglehead," said Rika as she came to a halt, crossing her arms as she did so. Looking over his shoulder nervously and blinking in confusion, Takato did likewise.

"Um… what's up, Rika?"

"Not you, that's for sure," said the red haired girl as she stared apathetically at the boy. "Something's bothering you and I want to know what."

Takato rubbed the back of his head and gave his friend a nervous smile.

"I-It's nothing. Really!"

"Has anyone told you what a terrible liar you are, Gogglehead? So spill it already. You better not be worried about that talk we had at lunch or…"

Takato's unconscious flinch told Rika all that she needed to know. Rika sighed.

"Takato… let's just get one thing straight between us. It was just a dream all right? Sure, it's a little weird that you dreamt about me and everything before we actually met in person…" Rika then shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it all that much, and you don't need to worry about talking about it as if our friendship was something fragile and weak. Or are we not friends?"

Takato's face softened and he brought his eyes up to meet Rika's.

"Of course we're friends."

"Then stop acting like I'm going to pummel you every five minutes just because of what we talked about. Not that I want you telling the others of course," Rika said, adding that last part to make sure that there were still some lines that shouldn't be crossed, though the smirk on her face told Takato that at the very least, depending on the circumstances, she'd only be irritated with him if he ever did talk about it with any of the others. "But between you and me, you shouldn't worry about it." Rika's smirk suddenly became mischievous. "Much."

"Uh… okay?"

Rika's smirk turned into a smile, and she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips, cocking her head to one side as she did so.

"Good. Now that that's settled, shouldn't we be going down to Jeri's? I'm pretty sure that our talking about a dream that you had about me is the last thing that Jeri needs to be hearing about when we show up on her doorstep."

Takato's face suddenly adopted a slightly red look to it, and he just stared at Rika blankly, not sure as to what would be the best way to reply to that. Rika rolled her eyes and sighed while behind her, Guilmon turned to look up at Renamon, a look of confusion on his face.

"Now why would Jeri not want to hear about Takato's dream of Rika? I'm sure that she wouldn't mind…"

Renamon looked at the crimson saurian with a look of cool amusement on her face before turning away and chuckling lightly under her breath. Guilmon cocked his head in confusion.

"I don't understand. Why're you laughing, Renamon?

The Kitsune digimon kept her azure gaze on the two Tamers.

"You'll understand when you're a little older, Guilmon…"

"Ohhh…"

Before the four friends could resume their journey, a red, topless sports car pulled up to the sidewalk and a friendly voice hailed them from the driver's seat.

"Hey! Rika! Renamon!"

Rika, Takato, Guilmon, and Renamon all turned to the driver, all except Renamon having looks of surprise on their face at the familiarity in the voice of the car's owner towards them. As Rika's eyes traced up the lines of the vehicle that sat before them before settling on the man who sat in the driver's seat, she nearly frowned in irritation.

"Oh. Hey Tom…" Rika said in a deadpan voice, and Takato's eyes widened even further in surprise.

This is the guy that Rika's mom has been dating? Whoa…

The man that sat in the car was of medium build, with long blonde hair and a face that only partially reminded Takato of the way that TK looked at the end of the second season of the Digimon show, only with less emphasis on the character's strong face, and had eyes that were more a light shade of gray rather than that of the blue that the fictional Digidestined character had. He still had the same, easy going smile that TK had though, and it was enough for Takato to feel at ease in his presence, but not entirely so, as he had never met the man before. First impressions were so important. From some of the stories that Rika had told him and Henry about the man who had caught the famous Rumiko Nonaka's eye, he was a decent sort. Rumiko had met him on one of her regular photo shoots, and it seemed as though there was an instant attraction. At least, that was how Rika told it. By her account, they got along well but she was still adjusting to the idea of her mother going out and having a relationship with someone again, especially now after so long of not having a fatherly type figure in her life. She had grown used to being independent, and though she had come to trust her family, Renamon, and her friends more, this was opening up old doors that she thought that she had closed a long time ago and she had to readapt to experiencing certain emotions again, just as she had to back in her early days as a Tamer.

To put it simply, there wasn't going to be an easy road, but it was going to be easier than the last time Rika had to go through this sort of thing.

Tom chuckled at the tone in Rika's voice; it being something that he was now quite used to.

"Nice to see you too, Rika," said Tom in a joking tone before indicating the passenger seat. "I was going off to see your mother when I saw you, and I thought that you might like to see her too…" The blonde haired man cocked an eyebrow at the brown haired, goggle-wearing boy next to her. "…Unless that is you're busy."

"Actually…" Rika trailed off, wondering how she should answer this. On one hand she didn't want to sound disrespectful, especially not to the man that her mother liked, but she also wanted to see what Jeri was up to, having not seen her in a while. Rika felt like kicking herself. She never had any trouble voicing her opinions before around people, especially to those who were close to her, but this she felt was different. How she acted could affect her mother's relationship, and since Tom made her mother happy she didn't want to be the one who was the cause of it ending.

"It's okay Rika," said Takato from next to her, and the girl frowned at him.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

Takato stammered a bit, surprised by Rika's outburst, but quickly managed to find the appropriate things that he needed to say to answer his friend.

"Well, I mean… it's okay if you go with Tom and see your mom. Jeri won't mind, in fact, you know that she'll understand. I mean, family is kind of important…"

Tom watched Rika look at the boy with a slightly annoyed, analytical expression on her face before looking over at the other child. In his eyes, he could easily say that he had never before met two people who were more opposite in his life, and he had found it rather interesting that Rika associated herself with him. She tended to be calm and well collected, graceful and professional even while this boy was nervous, awkward, and rather goofy looking with those goggles on his head, making Tom think of him as one of those fans of the well liked television show and card game known as Digimon. Of course, there was the crimson dinosaur with the strange, hazard marking on his chest that walked behind them with the Renamon that was Rika's partner, so it was highly likely that he was a Tamer like she was, and that they had become friends through that. Rumiko had told him some stories about Rika's adventures and the friends that she had made since becoming a Tamer… Tom leaned in and studied the boy carefully. There was something about him that seemed rather familiar, though he had never met him before. Maybe it was from a description…

Tom's eyes lighted on the yellow goggles that were perched on the boy's head and something clicked.

"You must be Takato," said Tom as he snapped his fingers, and the boy turned to look at him.

"Uh… yeah. That's me… uh… sir."

Tom chuckled a little at the use of the word sir.

Kid's pretty respectful isn't he? Tom thought with some humor.

"Thought so. Rumiko's told me a little bit about Rika's friends, and your description came up. I had asked Rika about you once and she told me that the best way she could describe you was that you were a Gogglehead. Didn't know that she was talking about the head piece that you wear," Tom tipped the boy a wink, and Takato cocked his head in confusion. "The way she said it I thought that she used it more as a pet name or an insult. Either that or both."

Tom grinned as both Takato and Rika's face began to turn a little bit red (though in all fairness, Rika's was much less so than Takato's, almost to the point of being barely noticeable), and Takato coughed lightly and rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Uh… well… um… ah… I'm still kind of trying to figure that out myself…"

Takato's face flushed even more at the way that must have sounded and he wished that a hole could just open up beneath him so that he could disappear. This was starting to become just a little bit ridiculous, and Rika wasn't helping with her glaring at him as though he were doing something wrong.

"At this point," scowled Rika as she folded her arms across her chest. "I'd say insult. At any rate, I should probably go with Tom anyway. At least this way I can keep him from embarrassing me in front of my friends." Rika fixed Tom with a merciless glare, and the blonde haired man simply grinned, though to be honest he was starting to feel almost as nervous as the Takato kid was right now. In all honesty, Tom didn't know why Takato was acting this way. Back when he and Rika were talking about her friends, she had spoken of Takato quite highly, having a bit more to say on his own development as a Tamer in comparison to Henry, Ryo, Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri, though perhaps not quite in the same light as Ryo and Jeri. But then when she had approached each Tamer and digimon the way that she spoke of them said volumes to Tom, and with Takato and Henry, Tom had sensed a great deal of trust placed with those two, Jeri a sort of admiration, Ryo an intense but friendly competitiveness that hinted a little at past disappointment, and Kazu and Kenta (whom she referred to regularly as the dimwit duo) quite a bit of annoyance (though less so for Kenta as opposed to Kazu) but still a fair degree of trust, if not toleration.

Given the sort of things that Rika dealt with on a regular basis, Tom wasn't at all that surprised that she would trust those that she had known the longest the most. Still, with Takato, he was a little disappointed in the packaging, at least at first glance, but as he looked the boy over he found that that didn't matter so much. Looks, he had decided a long time ago, didn't matter so much as the person that was inside, and Takato definitely seemed like the kind of person that he could trust.

Rika walked around to the other side of the car and opened up the passenger side door. Climbing in, Rika pulled out the seatbelt and buckled herself in before looking over at Takato, a serious expression on her face as she pulled out her violet shades and placed them on her face.

"Just remember what we talked about, got it, Gogglehead? And say hi to Jeri for me, okay?"

Takato nodded carefully, a warm smile on his face, and Tom raised an eyebrow, but did not comment on it. Not yet anyway. He would wait for a while yet before venturing onto unexplored territory.

Putting the car into drive, Tom pulled away from the sidewalk and went back into traffic, honking the horn and waving at Takato before leaving him behind, Renamon disappearing from the red dinosaurs side to follow her partner as they went on their way to meet Rika's mother.

Takato watched Rika drive off with Tom, a small smile on his face as he watched them go before turning away and resuming the journey from where he had left off.

"Come on, boy," said Takato quietly to Guilmon, who took a moment to watch the car go with curios eyes before bounding after his friend and partner, laughing childishly as he did so.

Richoemon looked up at his partner. The boy had been very quiet since Yamaki had given him that information about his hometown apparently not existing. Richoemon could sort of see how that was affecting him. Ryan had once told him that he had lived in that town, Greensborough all his life and up until he had gone to the digital world, had never lived anywhere else. Although Richoemon couldn't really understand living in only one place for one's entire existence, he did get the idea of what Ryan was now feeling. He was basically told that his home wasn't real, and that he didn't exist either. Not a very comforting thought in Richoemon's mind, but he just didn't know what to do about it. He just didn't have enough experience with life to know how to help his friend get through this kind of thing. Well, except…

"You know," began the little orange lizard as he blew some of his hair out of his eyes. "Yamaki did say that he was going to double check on all that stuff that he looked into for you and Chris."

Ryan glanced down at his partner and frowned.

"You know, I really hate it when you open up conversations like that. First, it's blunt and has no subtlety, and second, it makes me think that you can read my mind."

Richoemon laughed lightly.

"Well, we are partners you know, so I should be able to read your mind. Besides, it's like I said. You're like a blank page to me Ryan, real easy to read. As for being blunt, I'm not much of a fan of what Chris and Caramon once called dancing around a subject. I kind of find it annoying and it doesn't get anything resolved."

"Can't argue with you there," admitted Ryan. "And yeah, you're right about what you said with Yamaki. I know that I should have more hope then this, but it just seems weird that a government agency as advanced as Hypnos finds it difficult to track down any information on me, Chris, and our hometown. I know that these things can sometimes take quite a bit of time, but this just seems a little too weird to me. Maybe I've been watching too much CSI or something…"

Richoemon blinked.

"Um… I don't know what you mean by watching CSI…"

Ryan sighed.

"That's something else that's going to be filed under later. In short though, it's a fictional story where people solve crimes…"

"Krimes?" Said Richoemon, trying out the word and cocking his head in confusion. Ryan sighed once again.

"You are one really deprived digimon, you know that?"

"So I've been told," said the orange, tiger-striped dinosaur, nodding in agreement.

"What I'm getting at is," continued Ryan, getting back to the original subject. "Is that my perception of how an agency like Hypnos is influenced by fictional events from a story that sometimes has to alter real life operations in order to quicken the plot of a story." Ryan paused. "You do know what a plot is right?"

"Chris and Caramon mentioned something like that a while back, when we met up with them again so I get the idea. It's like destiny right?"

Ryan closed his eyes and mentally counted to three before reopening his eyes and fixing his partner with a look of tired amusement.

"It's… not quite like that, but I guess that the worlds are similar enough for us to work with. Anyway, what happens in that story that I told you about, and what happens in real life may be similar, but they also happen to be two different ways of doing things, and one isn't real and also slightly inaccurate. You get it now?"

Richoemon nodded. He did sort of understand.

"Things that are done at Hypnos are not what you expect them to be because of what a story with similar traits has done, right?"

Ryan smiled, relieved at his partner.

"Precisely. I just have to have more patience with Hypnos and more hope as well. I'll tell Chris about what I found out today and offer him my theories on the matter and we'll just wait and see."

"Mmmm… okay. So why are we out here then? It's not like you need to do much thinking about this. At least, it doesn't sound like you do…"

"Richoemon, my habit of taking a walk to think is more for my own comfort and piece of mind, and also, as I called it, a habit. It's just something that I do when I usually come up against something that gives me a certain amount of stress."

"Oh. So… does that mean that you're an expert at walking now?"

Ryan looked at his partner with a raised eyebrow, noting the triumphant smile that Richoemon had on his face.

"Rie…" Ryan said slowly. "You're really asking for it, you know that?

Richoemon responding laughter made Ryan narrow his eyes at the orange dinosaur, and the boy shook a fist threateningly at his friend, though it lacked any seriousness behind it and was more playful in gesture and appearance. Before the two could continue with their latest round of teasing, Ryan's green trimmed digivice suddenly cried sounded an alarm. Startled, Ryan pulled it out and called up the analyzer program to see what the source of the alarm was.

"Digital field! Over there!" Exclaimed Richoemon, pointing a claw towards a fog that had sprung up a ways off, close to the park's interior, right where they had been heading.

Oh that's funny, thought Ryan. The digimon for once is faster then the digivice. Now what do I do now? I mean, the answer's pretty obvious. I have to go down there and scope out the trouble, but I don't really know how the Tamers go about this sort of thing besides pummeling the digimon. Do I wait for back up or…

Ryan glanced down at his digivice before looking back at the digital field. The fog barrier was expanding. If his digivice had anything to say about it, something was definitely coming. Ryan groaned mentally. He really didn't want to have to do this, but he didn't see that there was any way that he could refuse to get in there and get his hands dirty, so to speak. Ryan hated fighting, especially when all that came out of it was harm. He'd fight, but he preferred to find another way to work things out before going down that road. He had seen what a life of fighting did to digimon, and what it did to people as well, and what he had seen so far did not really give him a very positive outlook on that sort of lifestyle. And with the strange digimon that were popping up now he wasn't at all sure that he could handle them if things turned violent. Each fight that he, Chris, and the Tamers with the dark colored Wild Ones had shown that they were stronger then the average digimon. Maybe he should wait for backup or something…

However, before Ryan could really settle on a decision Richoemon dashed forward, seemingly making the decision for him and running out into the streets just as a car rushed towards him.

"RICHOEMON!" Shouted Ryan, knowing that his warning came one second too late. The car's tires squealed as the driver pushed down on the breaks…

And came to a stop.

Ryan breathed a sigh of relief as he rushed out into the road, waving politely at the shocked and angry driver in front of him (who was currently shouting something incomprehensible at him, which was probably for the best considering his age) before grabbing his partner by his arm, and dragging him to the other side in frustration. Ryan glared at his partner as irritated car honks accompanied their departure.

"Richoemon," began Ryan, as though he were a parent addressing a disobedient child. "What did I tell you about looking both ways before crossing the street?"

"Sorry Ryan. But the fate of the world waits on no mon."

"Yeah. Neither does traffic…"

The fog continued to expand.

Rika sighed as she leaned her head on one upraised hand, a slight gust of wind from the cars motion playing with her hair.

Bored, thought Rika as she glanced at the people and vehicles that they passed by, catching a glimpse of Renamon as she temporarily materialized nearby before disappearing once more with the same warrior like grace that she had possessed since they had first met. Rika was kind of regretting dropping the chance to see Jeri again just to hang with Tom and her mother, but she it couldn't be helped now. She had made her decision and that was that. Unless a digital field suddenly materialized there was very little that she could do in regards to her situation.

"That Takato sure seems like an interesting character," spoke up Tom with a relaxed smile. "Sometime you should introduce me to your other friends. In the time that I've known you and your family I've only met one of them. Makes me wonder what the others are really like."

Tom's smile became almost devious.

"I'm interested in seeing what it is about this Ryo person that you get all worked up about."

Rika raised an eyebrow as she glanced at the blonde haired man, looking rather un-amused by what Tom seemed to be implying but didn't want to raise it as an issue for discussion. That might lead down a road that she didn't want to go down. Tom glanced at her.

"Not interested in talking?"

"Not about Ryo," Rika replied curtly. "But then, I don't usually talk about myself either, so why now?"

"Because I'm interested," said Tom debating as to whether or not he should tell her about the decision that he had made a short time ago. Rika did have a right to know, since it involved her mother, but he wanted Rumiko to be the one to tell her. "I want to get to know you more, so why not? I mean… it does look like I'm going to be around for a while…"

Tom let that sentence trail off, and Rika once more raised an eyebrow, but Tom didn't elaborate, letting the silence restate the question that he had asked earlier. Rika returned her gaze to the streets.

"Ryo's… Ryo. I guess that's the best way I can start things off. I met him a couple of years ago at a card tournament and he beat me." Rika chuckled a little mentally as she remembered that day. "I remember that I was shocked and angry about what had happened when I played against him, and I took it as a personal failing. Losing to someone like him, with his perfect attitude and deck… it was rather hard for me to accept. When I went to the next tournament, I was better and wanted to prove my skills against him but he wasn't there. I beat everyone there and became the Digimon Queen, but because I didn't get a chance to take on the previous champion, the one that beat me, my victory left me feeling rather… empty. Bored. I was upset that Ryo didn't show up, but he was trapped in the digital world so how was I supposed to know? I didn't even know that the digital world was real at the time, let alone that he was stuck there with a half-crazed Ultimate level Cyberdramon as well. Looking back on our second meeting I know that I should have been more understanding when he didn't recognize me at first. He's had a lot more to worry about then some girl that he beat in a tournament before entering the digital world."

"Sounds like his noticing you is something that's important to you," said Tom. Rika scoffed.

"Please. That hack? Why would whether or not his noticing anything about me be at all important?"

"Just the way that you talk about him, that's all. Like now, you've already admitted that his not remembering you when you met up in the digital world had left you feeling irritated…" Tom glanced once more at Rika but she gave no clue that as to whether or not he had hit the mark. "…And when you do talk about him I get the sense that you're disappointed with something about him, or over something that he's done. I don't know what your relationship with this Ryo is except that he's a friend of yours, but I see that it bothers you sometimes, and I'd like to help you handle your problems, even though I know that you don't like it when that happens."

Rika glanced one again at Tom, debating as to just how much trust she should put in this man, who really was nothing more than a stranger to her. Sure, her mother liked him, but that didn't necessarily mean that she had to, even though she found him tolerable enough. She didn't like moments like this, where Tom tried to be the father figure to her. It brought back memories of her real father… but Tom was only trying to lend a sympathetic ear. Something that any of her friends would do for her, as Takato had done when she had told him about her father, and later Henry. Once again she was reminded at how lucky was to have friends like that. Friends that she could trust with what was on her mind and in her heart, as people like that were sometimes in short supply.

Now if only Ryo could be like that, thought Rika.

"Look," Rika began, deciding to trust Tom for once, if only for her mother's sake. "If Ryo could be trusted to stay in one place long enough and not just up and disappear the way he does, and then come back and not offer any explanation as to what had happened, as to why he left or what he had been doing, then I wouldn't mind him so much. I might even see him as a very close friend," Rika's eyes flashed as she remembered a time shortly after their partners had been forced to return to the digital world, when Henry had pitched the Tamers the idea to send messages to their partners. She had refused at first, but in the end Ryo had convinced her, despite her own denials to the contrary. It was a decision that she hadn't regretted since.

"So it's a matter of trust," said Tom in a low voice as he turned the corner, but before anything else could be said Tom suddenly stepped on the breaks and the car came to a halt.

"Wha…?" Began Rika in surprise as she noticed the rather long line of cars that had stopped up in the road. Renamon materialized next to her and scanned the area.

"This is new," muttered Tom in a slightly irritated voice. Renamon ignored this as her azure eyes settled on a distant pair of figures that ran across the street, one of them being hauled across by an arm. Both had a familiar outline to the vulpine digimon.

Well, well, well… looks like Ryan and Richoemon are out causing trouble, thought the kitsune with dry amusement.

And that was when Rika's D-Arc gave an alarm.

Beelzemon paused in his interrogation of Leomon as he felt something tug at the edges of his senses. Looking over his shoulder he saw a dense fog settle close to the center of Shinjuku park and he flexed his arms.

"Looks like we're about to have company," said the Demon Lord looking over at Leomon, gauging his reaction. Leomon simply stared at the fog, his eyes narrowed in concentration as though he were having an inner debate with himself.

"Hey," said Beelzemon, snapping his claws together. "Snap out of it. We've got some business to attend to here. A digimon's bio-emerging and we've got to take care of it if it's going to be dangerous."

Leomon turned to face Beelzemon, and the Mega level digimon suddenly backed up a bit, seeing something in Leomon's eyes that made him feel suddenly uncomfortable.

Something's different about him, the Demon Lord thought.

"Ryan will be there," said Leomon simply.

"Oookay," said Beelzemon as he remembered that the name belonged to one of those new Tamers that had shown up a few days ago. "All the more reason for us to go out and help him, don't you think?"

With that said Beelzemon started to turn, but Leomon's voice made him halt.

"No. You will not interfere."

"What? Are you nuts or something? Isn't this Ryan kid a friend of your…?"

Beelzemon's words died in his mouth as he turned back to face the lion digimon, and his mind was shocked beyond almost all coherency as he saw that Leomon now had glowing lines of gold energy crisscrossing all over his body. As the biker Mega stood there, the glow intensified and Leomon advanced on Beelzemon. Burning wings of light sprung from Leomon's back as he fell forward onto his arms, his appearance altering to that of a quadruped lion with wings, but of little else Beelzemon couldn't really tell, the light was just too bright for him to make out much else before he had to close his three eyes.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!?!" Shouted Beelzemon as the light grew in intensity.

The light wrapped figure advanced once more before leaping at him.

Ryan and Richoemon entered the digital field and came to a halt as they took a look at the area around them. After a few moments Ryan pulled out his digivice and activated the analyzer program, scanning the area for any potential hostiles.

"Over there!" Said Richoemon, once more beating Ryan's digivice to the punch. For some reason the green trimmed digivice beeped, as though in irritation with Ryan's partner for taking over its job.

Looking up, Ryan saw a figure, about the size of a human but wider, advancing towards them and entering into view. Ryan's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the digimon, but was even more surprised at the differences that he noted in its appearance. He knew that digimon tended to look alike, have the same if not similar mannerisms as their clones with only occasional differences between them, from random stripes, pigmentation, extra claws or horns, body structure, and how their special attack came out, but this came as something of a surprise to him.

The digimon that now approached them looked like the Gargomon that he had seen in action before. Green and white fur with large ears and pants, but it also came with extra additions such as dark colored body armor, shoulder guards, and kneepads. His arsenal was also dramatically different. Rather then the rotating Gatling gun barrels that made up Gargomon's primary means of engagement, this one had miniature, single tube energy cannons mounted where hands normally would be placed.

Why do I have a bad feeling that things aren't going to go very well here? Thought Ryan as he stepped forward and showed the digimon his hands, one empty and the other holding his digivice in an attempt to show that he meant no harm to the Gargomon.

"Um… excuse me…" began Ryan, wondering what sort of protocol he was supposed to follow here. Not that it mattered. He had caught the Gargomon's attention anyway. It took one look at him before focusing on the digivice in his hand before raising one of its cannons and aimed it at him.

That's not good, thought Ryan as fear suddenly began to take hold of him.

"The Mjolner boy," said the Gargomon in a warm, almost child-like voice that belied its threatening gesture. Ryan felt chills go down his spine. He wondered if this was what it felt like to deal with a psychopath. "Give it to me."

That's really not good…

"I don't suppose that you could tell me why first," said Ryan as the Gargomon narrowed its eyes at him. "I mean, this thing is kind of connected to me, so I don't know how it could be of any use to you." Ryan licked his lips nervously. "But I would like to know why you find it so important."

Something else clicked in his mind.

"Hold on. Did you just call my digivice a Mjolner?"

Gargomon didn't answer. He just continued to stare at Ryan for a moment longer before his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ahuramon's shade…" the Gargomon said in almost a whisper. The name Ahuramon catching Ryan's attention.

What the…?

Gargomon cocked his arm and pointed it at Ryan.

"Sorry kid. But I'm going to have to dispose of you. My boss, Loki doesn't have any use for humans linked to Mjolners. Digimon either," the Gargomon added with a touch of resignation, indicating Richoemon who got into a defensive position in front of his partner. "And even less for those that are touched by Ahuramon. Can't have that running around. Tough break but that's business. You understand though right?"

Not really, thought Ryan as he lowered his hands.

"Can't we just talk about this?"

Gargomon's cannons began to power up in answer to Ryan's question.

Why can't we just get the easy ones? Wondered Ryan for the hundredth time as his digivice began to glow and a sphere of data materialized around Richoemon.

"Gargo Cannons!"

"RICHOEMON! DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"

Rika Nonaka raced through the streets, her course aimed towards the park. She had left Tom's car as soon as she saw the digital field, offering a quick apology and explanation (Tamer duties, she had said) for Tom to deliver to her mother when he saw her before rushing off. Tom had called out her name, probably out of instinct, but he had not pursued. He knew what she had to do, and though Rumiko probably wouldn't be happy about it she would understand. Well, not anywhere near as well as Rika's grandmother would, but Rumiko had handled all the other times that Tom had let her go before without getting angry at him, but for some reason Rika felt that things between Rumiko and Tom in regards to her Taming duties were different from what she was led to believe.

Enough of that, thought Rika fiercely as she came to a halt in front of a street, waiting for there to be a safe enough distance between vehicles for her to cross. I have something more important to deal with right now…

But something tugged at the back of her mind. Something about what Tom had said to her. Something about being around for a while when he wanted to talk to her and get to know her a little better. Something about that bothered her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it…

An explosion rocked the trees in Shinjuku Park, kicking up smoke and fire within its embrace. Glancing around at the streets as she felt her adrenaline increase, Rika dashed across, Renamon appearing behind her and grabbing her from behind, lifting her upwards and then phasing out of view, just before a truck rushed by where the girl had stood, its horn blaring loudly. Rika and Renamon reappeared safely on the other side of the road and the red haired Tamer nodded her thanks to her partner before they once again took off, Renamon vanishing into thin air and Rika sprinting towards the interior of the park, a roar of anguish and the sound of something heavy hitting the earth reaching the girl's ears.

A/N: Sorry for leaving it off here on a cliffhanger, and sorry for not posting last week, as I had been intending to do. Some things just got in the way, and this was a particularly long chapter, and I wanted to focus on some character aspects before getting down to the nitty gritty battles. Next chapter is going to feature some heavy action with more developments with Leomon as he squares off against Beelzemon, as well as Ryan and Richoemon as they tackle the strange Gargomon. 'Till next time then. Later.

-Crazyeight

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