Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter 16: Fear of the Unknown/ Part: 2

"So what else have you found out, Dad?" Asked Henry Wong as he entered his father's office and sat down, who was currently going over some algorithms from his recent studies of the new Tamers digivices and the strange Snimon that had bio-emerged in Shinjuku three days ago. The elder Wong sighed.

"Not much unfortunately," Janyu said in resignation. "The data from the Snimon that Chris analyzed three days ago contains a shifting algorithm…"

"We know that already," said Terriermon in an irritated voice. "You've reminded us of that each time that we've gotten together on this. Well, rather Henry got together with you on this. I'm just along for the ride, and each time it's basically been the same!"

Henry glowered at his long eared partner.

"Terriermon…"

"Sorry Henry," said Terriermon, lowering his voice and adopting a passive look. "It's just that all this techno-talk hurts my head, and each time there's nothing new to report. It's either the algorithms are difficult to translate or the data shifts too much. I'm tellin' ya, I could start quoting all the terms that the two of you have used in the past three days…"

"Name one," said Henry with an amused glint in his eyes. Terriermon huffed and crossed his arms indignantly.

"I would, but I can't even pronounce it."

As Henry sighed once more at his rather rambunctious partner, Janyu laughed.

"He is right you know," said the elder Wong. "I've been trying to crack this code for the past three days and still I'm not having any success with it. It's almost as if the codes were written in an entirely different language, and the way that the Snimon's data was constructed and manipulated to the extent that it was… I can see similarities between it and the digivices that Ryan and Chris carry, but the programming is substantially different. It's almost as if they were created by two different people from two different countries."

"But wouldn't there be similarities that you can track even if that were the case?"

"As I noted, some lines of code carry over, particularly in Ryan's digivice since the data that infected his digivices and partner, I believe and based off of Chris's story of what happened to them I have no reason to doubt this, came from a digimon that had similar features as the Snimon. Though it would appear that the Mammothmon that Ryan and Chris fought wasn't as well developed. In either case, there is a repeating code here, but only as far as the data manipulation programs. The rest is… different. I don't doubt that they took similar blue prints to start with, but however those new digivices and strange digimon came into existence, they branched off quite some time ago and went down a different pathway. Sort of like how a digimon digivolves."

"I see…" said Henry as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Janyu sighed.

"If only we had all of Hypnos's systems fully on line…"

"Is Hypnos still down Dad?"

"Not entirely," replied Janyu. "A fair majority of the major systems, the tracking program and Yugoth to name a couple, are back on line, but due to extreme system malfunctions when the Black Knightmon and Nightmare Blitzmon arrived here in the real world, their effectiveness is greatly reduced. While we can still detect digimon, they have to be of an extremely high level in order to be properly detected, and that alone might cause the circuits to become fried again."

"How high are we looking at?" Asked Terriermon.

"Possibly Ultimate and Mega."

"Great," lamented Henry. "So basically, until Hypnos is back up and running at full capacity we're vulnerable."

"Not completely," said Janyu. "Like I said, the tracking system works, and so does Yugoth, but only for the higher level digimon that attempt to realize in the real world. Anything lower is well within your area of expertise to handle."

"Nice of you to look at it that way I guess, but with new digimon like that Apemon and Snimon arriving…"

"I know, Henry," said Janyu, his face taking on a tired look. "Believe me, I know. I would rather that you didn't have to be involved in this, but I have to face the facts that you are. I had to before back during the Deva invasions, D-Reaper, and finally Parasimon."

Henry smiled softly at his father, and Janyu smiled back before returning to his computer screen and began to type away as he once more began to go over the distinctive lines of data that had been infuriating him for the past three days. Janyu couldn't help but wonder if he was fighting a losing battle.

Suddenly Henry's D-Arc gave a cry of alarm and the boy stood up as he took it out and called up the tracking program, his father giving him a raised eyebrow as he waited for his son to tell him that he had to go, while at the same time wondering why the Hypnos alarm system hadn't gone off yet.

Might be a low level digimon, the man thought.

Almost as soon as it had begun though, the alarm that was coming from the half-Chinese Tamer's digivice suddenly silenced, causing both to blink at it in surprise. Even Terriermon looked incredulously at the green trimmed device before turning to look at Henry.

"Do you think that it's broken Henry? Can I shake it and see?"

Henry ignored the long eared digimon.

"I… guess that it was just a false alarm…"

Janyu tilted his head to one side.

"Has it ever done that before?" He asked. Henry shook his head.

"Never."

"Why don't you let me take a look at it? It could be that Terriermon has the right of it and that it might be broken."

"But what if there really is a digimon out there? The others might need my help!"

"I'd like to point out that the Hypnos alarms hadn't gone off, so that may indicate that the digimon, if one even realized, was at too low a level to be detected, therefore I'm certain that your friends are suited to handling the situation on their own. True, digimon aren't the type of creature to underestimate, but you have all proven yourself to be quite resourceful for a bunch of kids. It's probably just a regular Wild One anyway. Don't worry about it."

"Gargo Cannons!"

A green colored energy blast slammed into the massive form of the orange colored dinosaur known as Terradramon, the power from the force of the impact proving too much for him to stand up against and he fell backwards, the dino putting a little push into his fall so as to avoid crushing the human child that stood behind him.

CRASH!

"TERRADRAMON! YOU OKAY?!" Shouted Ryan before going into a coughing fit from the dust that his digital partner had raised upon landing on the ground.

"Rrrrgh…" came the intelligent reply.

Well, at least that's something, thought Ryan sarcastically as he turned to face the strange Gargomon that was now looking at him curiously.

Uh oh…

"Hmmm… Didn't know that you could digivolve a digimon bonded through a Mjolner. Looks like Loki didn't give me all the details. Again. Oh well." Gargomon took a moment to fiddle around with some kind of device attached to his recently fired hand cannon, and it changed its shape to resemble the Gatling gun that Ryan had seen previously on Henry's partner.

Wha…? How'd it…?

The Gargomon giggled and pointed the gun arm at Ryan and the boy tensed. But before either one could even begin to make a move, a concentrated blast of fire rocketed towards the Gargomon and impacted him with deadly force, causing him to cry out in pain and knocking him backwards. Green laser blasts flew upwards, but were far beyond the mark that Gargomon had originally been aiming towards, giving Ryan the impression that the long eared, gun toting digimon couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the way that he was presently handling the battle, but previous experience told him that would change soon enough.

The ground shook slightly as behind him, the great form of Terradramon rose up and readied himself for battle. Ryan couldn't help but smile at once more seeing the Champion level digimon back to his normal self.

"Ryan?" Asked the digital dinosaur in a gruff voice as his gaze became fixated on the Gargomon that was struggling to get up from off the park ground. "You might want to sit back and let the grown ups handle this one."

"I'd hardly call this a conversation between mutual and consenting adults…" began Ryan but Terradramon simply roared and charged towards the Gargomon, his mouth opening and his claws rearing backwards to take a swipe at the Gargomon. Looking up at his oncoming assailant, the Gargomon found all the reason that he needed to get to his feet quickly and then leapt into the air, his long ears extending outwards and catching an air current as his remaining cannon hand morphed into another Gatling gun, and began to blast away with a barrage of Gargo Lasers. However, due to their decreased intensity in comparison to the cannons that he had been using earlier, the laser blasts had little effect on Terradramon as he let loose a roiling ball of fire. Gasping in surprise, the Gargomon ducked underneath the fireball and continued to blast away, cursing under his breath before reformatting one of his Gatling guns into a cannon and firing away. This time, Terradramon was ready for the attack and leapt backwards. Though the blast was still strong enough to make Terradramon a little unsteady on his feet despite having missed him, nevertheless Terradramon kept his footing and once more shot at the Gargomon with another roaring fireball.

Why's this Gargomon keep changing the way his hands look? Wondered Ryan as he looked down from his digivice, having taken a moment to analyze the digimon that he was seeing and finding its stats to be virtually identical to that of the standard Gargomon despite the obvious differences in wardrobe and weapons. Ryan observed the Gargomon carefully as he quickly fiddled with the cannon hand before reformatting it back to its original Gatling gun shape.

I wonder if it takes up a lot of energy…

As Ryan watched, the Gargomon smirked at the oncoming fireball and dodged to the side, the searing flames roaring past him. And then, without a moment's hesitation the Gargomon flew in, his ears streaming behind him to cut down on wind resistance before slamming one of his Gatling guns into Terradramon's face. With a cry of pain and surprise, Terradramon teetered to one side before Gargomon brought out the other arm and gave the other side of Terradramon's face the same treatment. To Ryan's growing horror, Terradramon fell to the ground with a groan, kicking up dirt as he landed, and setting off a small shockwave as he did so. Instinctively, Ryan raised his digivice to face his partner, but then uncertainty hit him. Memories of the data that still dwelt within his body and digivice, and of Terradramon's corrupted form, flashed through his mind and he felt fear seize him up.

What if the data that's still in me makes Terradramon digivolve wrong? His mind whispered, speaking the fear that he refused to name aloud from the darkest recesses of his heart.

The Gargomon landed softly on the ground, contrasting Terradramon's own personal meeting with that force called gravity before raising his Gatling guns and swiftly shifting them both to their cannon forms, aiming them at the orange saurian at near point-blank range. Terradramon's eyes opened slowly at the sound of his opponent giggling.

"NOOOO!!!!" Shouted Ryan in desperation. "DON'T DO IT!!!"

Gargomon's cannons began to power up…

Beelzemon fell backwards as he was crushed beneath the weight of the winged lion-like creature that had jumped at him. Raising his claws to fend off the creatures sharp looking fangs, the former Demon Lord couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu at the situation. The last time he had been in this position had been at the hands of the great dragon, Megidramon, the dark, evil form of the Pineapple Head that was called Guilmon. The fact that this situation involved Leomon, just like it had last time, only served to drive the irony home to him.

"Grrrrr…" Beelzemon's arms strained against the force of the creature that was on him. He was giving it all that he had to keep the beast back, and it still wasn't enough! This was insane! Leomon was supposed to be a Champion level digimon! Of course, he had changed into… whatever digimon this thing was, but if he was any judge of power it had to be somewhere on the level of a Mega! And to Beelzemon that didn't make much sense!

As the demonic digimon's arms began to fail him, Beelzemon realized that the question of this creature's strength and level really didn't matter as much as getting off of him did.

Dis is going to be a little risky… thought Beelzemon as he positioned one of his boots beneath the winged lion's stomach and, after tapping into the data of some of the digimon that he had absorbed in the past (though it gave him no pleasure in doing so), he gave a great push. Beelzemon grunted as the creature slowly began to lift off of him. It was easily longer then he was tall, and felt to be ten times heavier then Guilmon after one of his eating binges! As sweat crawled down his face, Beelzemon gave one last, hard push and the winged lion creature flew off of him, though perhaps with more force then he had initially intended.

Unless that is he gave himself a boost with those wings of his, thought Beelzemon as he got to his feet and glared at his opponent. The winged lion, still glowing slightly from its change in form circled Beelzemon, growling and baring its teeth. Almost on instinct, Beelzemon reached for his guns, but then paused as he remembered that this digimon had been Leomon earlier. Despite the fact that Beelzemon thought that this version was a fake (even though this belief had been challenged by the accuracy of the Leomon's memories of the real ones time with Jeri), it was the thought of the female Tamer, Jeri Katou, that prevented him from drawing his weapons. Regardless, his hesitation to combat the glowing, winged lion was all that his opponent needed to leap towards him once again, claws extended. Beelzemon gritted his teeth and spun, raising one foot and smashing it into the creature and sending it sprawling to the ground.

"Oh, no you don't," said Beelzemon grimly as he lowered the foot that he had used to kick the beast. "You're not pinning me to da ground dis ti…!"

As soon as the former Demon Lord's foot made contact with the ground he stumbled and groaned in pain. His leg… it felt like it had just been weighed down with lead. And worse…

Leg's gone numb, Beelzemon thought as he gripped his leg with his claws and winced. What is dis d'ing?

Looking up, Beelzemon saw the lion beast walking slowly towards him, energy building up in the back of its mouth. Widening its gaping maw, the strange entity that had once been a Leomon sent a vicious burst of prismatic energy rocketing towards Beelzemon, slamming him full in the chest and propelling him off the roof, the Demon Lord screaming in pain and shock as he suddenly found gravity laying claim over him with the closest ground a dizzying distance below him.

I ain't going out that easy, thought Beelzemon fiercely as he closed his eyes and reached deep into the center of his being, calling upon the power that he had attained back during the battle with D-Reaper. Great, dark feathered bird wings tore their way out of his back as his eyes changed from a deep, blood red to emerald green, while a large energy cannon materialized on his right arm. The transformation to his Blast Mode complete, Beelzemon spread his wings and, upon catching a gust of wind, and soared upwards to once again confront his adversary and meet him on equal terms…

No sooner then he had gotten up to the respective height above the city streets the winged lion pounced into the air and spread its own wings wide, crashing into Beelzemon once again and sending both of them flailing through the air.

Ah nuts… thought Beelzemon as he tried to bring his cannon, Deathslinger, to bear on his enemy.

"Fox Tail Inferno!"

As Ryan watched, helpless to do anything for his partner, a number of small balls of azure fire appeared around the Gargomon that was about to destroy his partner, causing the vaccine, gun toting, jeans wearing bunny dog to pause in his execution as he looked at the flames with a curios expression. Then, as though on some hidden signal the flames flared and melded together in one swift burst of fire, causing the Gargomon to shriek painfully and jump backwards, his gun hands covering his eyes as though he had been blinded by the fire. Terradramon took advantage of the distraction to get into a kneeling position and then swing his tail around, batting the Gargomon away from him and send him flying once more, with yet another yelp of surprise being emitted from the rabbit-dogs lips.

Wha…? Thought Ryan in surprise as he whirled around to see who was responsible for such a timely rescue. For a moment he almost thought that it was the Legendary Tamer, Ryo Akiyama, since most of the stories that the other Tamers had about him involved him showing up at the last minute to save the day like some sort of action hero, but as soon as he saw a girl with familiar red hair tied back in a pony tail running alongside a yellow, nine tailed fox coming towards the scene of battle he saw that he was wrong.

"Hey there," called out the red haired Tamer as she ran onto the scene, her eyes flashing as she pulled up next to him. "Need a hand?"

Ryan blinked before giving a relieved smile at the girl and nodded, grateful for the offer of aid.

Well… I guess Rika'll do just as well, thought Ryan, turning back to the battle as Kyubimon gracefully jumped into the air and coiled into a ball, calling out her Dragon Wheel attack and launching a stream of blue fire that resembled a dragon at the Gargomon, who had recovered enough in mid-air from Terradramon's blow to fire off a cannon blast at Kyubimon's attack and cancel it out before firing the other cannon at the kitsune digimon. The blast roared through the air and smashed into Kyubimon just as she was uncoiling from her ball. As the vulpine digimon fell to the ground Gargomon, with the use of his large ears, gracefully landed and fiddled around with some hidden control mechanism on his cannons before morphing them back to Gatling guns.

"Stay out of this fight fox-o," said the Gargomon disdainfully. "I'm not interested in you. Only the dino-boy and his human partner…"

A shadow fell over the Gargomon, and he looked up to see Terradramon towering over him, a low, guttural growl emanating from the back of his mouth. Terradramon raised one foot and brought it over the gun bunny.

"Aw nuts…" moaned Gargomon as he dashed to the side, barely avoiding the large, saurian foot that crashed into the ground.

While Gargomon was busy dodging and shooting at Terradramon (who was likewise busy trying to stomp the long eared digimon into the dirt, making their fight look oddly like a dance rather then two digimon brawling), Rika ran over to Kyubimon's side to see how she was fairing. The vulpine digimon was struggling to stand, but didn't look all that up to the job. Nonetheless, she did stand and when she did she simply nodded at Rika before charging back into the fray, joining Terradramon in his battle with the Gargomon, just in time to see the giant dinosaur get flattened once more by a well timed Bunny Pummel.

As Rika watched her partner tackle the Gargomon she raised her digivice and activated the scanning program to see what new types of attributes and attacks that this new version of Gargomon had, only to be disappointed to see her D-Arc call up just the original stats that she had seen before back in the parking garage when she had first encountered Terriermon's Champion form.

Oh that's helpful, thought Rika disdainfully as she lowered her digivice and dug into her deck box to find the appropriate card to aid her partner. She considered calling upon the power of a blue card and digivolving Kyubimon to Taomon in order to wrap this fight up quickly, but given that Hypnos as well as herself had adopted the policy of not deleting digimon unless there was no other alternative, Rika felt that Taomon might be too much power to have in a fight against a Champion, especially one that Kyubimon had type advantage over. Although she had to say that the Gargomon's enhancements worried her enough to the point where she felt that Taomon might not be that bad of an idea. Still, if this digimon was disoriented and could be returned to the digital world without having to delete it, she didn't want to cause an unnecessary death unless she absolutely had to, and she knew that Kyubimon felt the same way.

Pulling out a speed-boost card, Rika slashed it through the slot of her D-Arc, and soon enough the effects were seen as Kyubimon swiftly vanished, evading Gargomon's energy blasts and reappearing behind him, using her enhanced velocity to ram the gun bunny from behind before leaping over him and once again coiling into a ball. Blue fire enveloped the kitsunes form and shot out like a serpent, striking the Gargomon dead on. Rika gave a triumphant smirk as she pulled out a power option card and prepared to slide it through her D-Arc to put the finishing touch on her victory…

Suddenly the Gargomon blew away the flames and jumped into the air, his body glowing with an azure light as he aimed his gun barrels at Kyubimon and fired. This time, rather then green lasers erupting from the guns, blue, dragon shaped flames shot out and struck Kyubimon dead on and she once again fell towards the ground. Not relenting in his attack, Gargomon continued to pour on the fire, laughing all the while as he did so…

"Fission Burst!"

Only to be nailed by a ball of fire that had been launched at him, courtesy of Terradramon. Not to be detoured however, Gargomon back flipped to the ground and charged at Terradramon, his gun barrels licking with not only the same blue flames as Kyubimon's attack, but now this time with the orange blaze of Terradramon's.

"Bunny Inferno!" Shouted the Gargomon as he launched a sapphire and orange blaze at Terradramon, impacting with the giant dinosaur at point blank range and sending him crashing backwards with a painful roar.

Casting a worried glance over at Kyubimon, Rika was relieved to see her partner once again getting up. Their eyes locking, both nodded at each other, as if they both knew what the other was thinking. Digging once more into her deck box, Rika pulled out a blue card and raised it to her digivice. Sparks flew as she dragged it through the slot.

"DIGI-MODIFY!" The red haired Tamer called out, and at its sound Gargomon turned to see what was going on, his eyes widening as realization settled in on him. Earlier in the battle he had noted that humans somehow seemed capable of digivolving the digimon that they were partnered with. Already his two opponents were at the Champion level, but he wasn't too concerned about that. He had faced more then two during his service to the Great Lord Loki, even at a type disadvantage, but if these children were capable of evolving their partners even higher, such as say, the Ultimate level, then he was in trouble. He couldn't allow that. Gargomon raised one arm and took aim…

"EEEH-YOW!!!"

Only to have the jaws of Terradramon sink into his arm a second later and haul him upwards, the saurian teeth biting brutally into his arm.

"MATRIX DIGIVOLUTION…" The human girl continued to call out. Gritting his teeth, Gargomon pulled the trigger on his opponent, firing into Terradramon's mouth and abruptly the Champion level dog-bunny was let go.

"TERRADRAMON!" Called out the boy with the Mjolner, almost frantically, but Gargomon didn't take any notice of it. If the digimon he had just shot was dead then that was one part of his mission complete. But if he was expected to survive he had to take down the girl before she could complete…

"… ACTIVATE!" The red haired girl pulled the card out of her digivice and an aura of blue light burst in her right hand and was followed by a sphere of data settling on the Kyubimon that the Gargomon had been sparring with earlier.

Whoops, thought the Gargomon as he adjusted his aim. Change in plans…

"Gargo Lasers!"

"KYUBIMON! MATRIX-DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"

Suddenly Kyubimon cried out in pain as the digi-egg that she was in was unexpectedly shattered and green lasers tore into her body, blasting away excess data until she returned to her Rookie form of Renamon and collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.

No… thought Renamon despairingly as she tried to get back up. Her arms were shaking from the sudden shock of an abruptly interrupted digivolution. Summoning what energy she had left, Renamon coiled her muscles and leapt at the Gargomon, determined to protect her Tamer at any cost, even her own life. As though reliving her first battle with the Gargomon that had eventually become her friend, Renamon phased out of view and reappeared above the Gargomon, landing on top of him and scratching at his face, trying to defeat, or at least distract him long enough for Rika to come up with a way to defeat this digimon. There really wasn't much of an alternative now. Unless they received help now, it was destroy or be destroyed time.

Rika gasped and grabbed her shoulder as she felt the pain of her partner through the link that they shared. Gritting her teeth Rika fought her way through the pain and reached into her deck box once more, trying to find some card that could help them. Maybe if they biomerged…

But Renamon was otherwise too distracted for that to happen. All of her focus was intent on trying to keep the Gargomon busy and keep herself from being flung off the oversized dog-bunny. Looking to her right, Rika saw Ryan just standing there, holding his digivice in a vice like grip and staring at his fallen partner as his data phased in and out of stability due to the intense damage that he had just taken from his fight with Gargomon. Rika had to admit it had looked brutal. Taking a shot in the mouth like that…

Kid looks scared, thought Rika, which she found to be rather odd seeing as how he had been trapped in the digital world for who knows how long, dealing with digimon that kept coming after him and his friends. Maybe the stress of it all was finally starting to get to him. Be that as it may, Rika felt that he needed a wake-up call and get his act back into the game if they were expected to get out of this alive in one piece.

"Hey!"

Ryan jumped; startled at the commanding tone that Rika was addressing him with and turned to look at her. Rika's eyes narrowed.

"Don't just stand there staring blankly, you've got to do something other then hold your digivice! In case you didn't notice, we're in trouble here!"

A blast of green lasers impacted a tree to Rika's left, as though emphasizing her point and the boy tensed up.

"Huh? But… b-but I… I… I can't…Terradramon…"

Rika's eyes narrowed even more. Perfect time for the kid to freeze up...

Stupid Rookies… she thought irritably.

"What do you mean, you can't? You'd better do something, and do it fast!"

Ryan looked over at his partner, feeling completely useless in this fight. His partner's body phased out of stability again, as though sensing his anxiety. Ryan clutched his digivice even tighter, thinking of all the reasons why he couldn't do a thing to help.

How can I? He thought. Terradramon's down and out for the count, and there's not much that I can do on my own. Even if I could do something there's still that code that could throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing. Anything I do might become corrupted like it did last time…

Rika took another look at Renamon to see how she was fairing. It didn't look at all good. Gargomon was starting to shoot upwards, aiming at where Renamon was sitting despite the pain that she was causing to his face with her claws at his doing so. Rika turned once more at Ryan, her patience starting to wear thin. This kid had better snap out of it before…! And that was when Rika saw it. The look on his face. She had noticed it before but hadn't paid much attention to it. It was a familiar fear to her, and she could practically kick herself for not recognizing it sooner. It was the same fear that she had when IceDevimon had paid her a visit, trying to make her his Tamer, and she had feared that Renamon would end up just like him if she digivolved. A blood thirsty, power hungry monster that hunted down other digimon for her own cruel pleasure. Considering what Chris had told them about what happened to Richoemon and Ryan in the digital world, and having seen BlackTerradramon herself, she did not doubt that the same thoughts were running through his mind. Sure, his friend's Champion form was fine, but what about his Ultimate?

Rika raised a hand and placed it firmly on his shoulder.

"Look. Whatever it is that your dealing with, whatever it is that you think could happen… ignore it. It's your faith in your partner that determines what happens to him, so if you have any faith left in your partner or yourself… show it!"

Rika said this last fiercely at the same moment that Gargomon flung Renamon off his back. Pointing his gun barrels at the Vulpine digimon he prepared to finish her off.

A light from behind him once more caused him to pause.

Beelzemon grunted as he tried to break loose from the winged lion, the beast claws pinning him to the side of a building while his mouth was presently mangling his Deathslinger cannon in an attempt to leave it inoperable.

"You know…" growled Beelzemon as he tried to wrench his gun free of his assailant's mouth. "Da least dat you could have done was tell me why I couldn't interfere wid your little friends fight. I'm pretty sure dat would make a whole lot more sense then this pointless fight, but since we're fighting now…"

With one last burst of energy, Beelzemon ripped his cannon free and smashed it into the side of the lion's skull, sending him soaring through the air to impact on the rooftop of a nearby building. Beelzemon flexed his muscles, working out the soreness that had developed since being pinned before flying after his prey, dismissing Deathslinger and drawing the double barreled rifle from the holster on his left leg. As the winged lion began to get back to its feet, Beelzemon put a stop to its movement by landing next to it and kicking it down viciously before pointing his rifle at the creatures face.

"Don't move," he said and the creature, upon seeing that Beelzemon now had the upper hand complied. Beelzemon smiled. "Good. Now… you wanna tell me what's going on? Like, who you are, what you're doing here, why you're impersonating Leomon, and what da deal is wid dose new kids? Tell me! I want answers!"

The lion beast grinned at him.

"Too much to answer too soon, except that I can't allow them to fall in the hands of Loki."

Beelzemon blinked.

"Huh? Loki? Who's dis Loki? And if you want to keep dose kids out of his hands so bad den why're you keeping me from helping one of dem now?"

"Because he needs this," said the winged lion. "Ryan's fears have to be conquered, and if he feels that someone is always going to be there to help him out and prevent him from facing those fears, then he'll be helpless when his pursuers come calling for him."

Beelzemon scoffed.

"And you couldn't tell me dis why?"

"Because you still would have insisted on helping him anyway, Impmon. Because you won't stand by and let a comrade fight on their own. Call it friendship, or a desire to redeem yourself if you want, because of your past actions… though I must say that your dark wings certainly add to the fallen hero aspect. Nice touch…"

"I didn't come here to be complimented on my good looks," growled Beelzemon as he cocked his gun. "Now, answer da rest of my questions."

"Well… for starters…"

Suddenly the winged beast's aura of light flared, blinding Beelzemon and he was quickly knocked back. The lion got to its feet, still glowing brightly.

"I'm supposed to be undercover here," said the entity. "Loki can't know that I'm here. No one can, lest my presence invite their full attention. Right now they are, shall we say, distracted by outside occurrences, but if they knew that I was here, they'd take a real interest in this world. Needless to say, I'm going to have to do something about this. Oh, and one last thing. I am Leomon…"

As the glow around the winged beast began to brighten even more, assaulting Beelzemon's senses, the former Demon Lord pulled back his fist, tapping into a power that had laid long dormant within him.

"We'll see about that," he said as orange energy began to flicker around his right fist, forming the visage of a great lion's head, almost regal in its appearance and boasting all the savagery of the beasts of the jungle.

A blast of white light shot out of the lion creature's body, aimed at Beelzemon just as he launched his attack.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

There was a massive explosion at the top of the roof, and then all was silent.

"Dragon Fang!"

The Gargomon shrieked in pain and horror as a massive, energy charged arm blade sheared through his Gatling guns, effectively amputating and literally disarming him at the same time. Not to be outdone however, the little rabbit leapt into the air and spun, apparently trying for a Champion level version of Terriermon's Terrier Tornado attack. Normally this would have been considered a wasted effort by the Tamers and digimon that stood facing this digimon, but seeing as how it had been pulling out so many new and unexpected maneuvers they couldn't discount their opponent having some sort of variation on its lower level form. Taking no chances, Mega Terradramon charged forward, spreading his wings to catch air and allow him some loft as he slashed with his arm blades. There was another cry of pain and one, long ear went flying into the air, separated from its owner before shattering into shards of data. Gargomon collapsed, groaning softly as he glared at the Ultimate level digimon that towered over him. He had sorely underestimated his opponents. If it hadn't been for that last minute digivolution to the Ultimate level by a digimon that he had believed to be finished, and the distraction of a lowly Rookie that he should have deleted without any problem…

But then, here he was, and no arguments about should have, would have, could have was going to change a thing about his current predicament. One of them, the red haired girl was approaching him. Not close enough for him to do anything, even if he were capable, but close enough where they could clearly see and hear each other. Gargomon recognized her. Most digimon did nowadays. A fair number of them had been made aware of this girl back when her will had called to the digital world seeking a suitable partner to tame, and even afterwards from the D-Reaper war…

The Digimon Queen… Gargomon thought as he coughed, feeling exhaustion overtake him. He chuckled lightly to himself. Those kids and their digimon… those Keepers… have allied themselves with some pretty powerful humans. Loki must be made aware of this…

Reaching into the core of his being, Gargomon prepared himself. He wouldn't be taken alive. Not if he could help it, and his sacrifice would aid his master…

"All right," said the red headed Tamer as she looked at the Gargomon fiercely. "You're going to tell me what's going on here right now…!"

Rika never did get the chance to finish. With a small smile, Gargomon's form disintegrated, leaving nothing but individual bits of data floating in the air. Once, a long time ago she would have ordered Renamon to load the data, but that time was long gone. Her eyes firm and hard as steel, though brimming with tears at the thought of another digimon leaving life's embrace despite its actions, Rika turned away shaking her head as Renamon approached her. They smiled at each other.

"Good work, Renamon," Rika said with a note of pride in her voice, as well as relief at seeing her partner still alive and well despite the rough treatment that she had experienced.

"It'll take more then a rabbit to finish the likes of me," said Renamon coolly, though slightly playful now that the battle was over, though it was so subtle that only Rika could have noticed. Chuckling warmly the two of them looked over at Ryan who was standing over with his partner, hugging the orange dragon's knee tightly, grateful that his partner was alive and in one piece.

Ryan pulled away and looked up at Mega Terradramon, tears of relief rolling down his face.

"You okay, buddy?" Ryan choked out after a brief moment.

"Ryan?" Coughed the dragon, his voice sounding strained and harsh as though it bothered him in some way. "My throat hurts…"

The winged lion stood over the inert form of Impmon, contemplating the battle that he had just thought, and of the future complications that this encounter might have.

He won't remember at least, thought the beast. At least that's something, but there's nothing to keep him from trying this again, or having his memories resurfacing later on. There's only so much that I can do in this world, and it pains me that I must suffer through its limitations but that's the way of things and I cannot disobey the laws as they were set down. To do otherwise would mean to unmake the universe as it exists and then there would be the ultimate chaos…

The winged lion sighed and looked down at his paws, taking note of the faint golden lines of energy that were tracing their way across them. He was running out of time. Leomon would resurface and he would recede, and he couldn't be here with Impmon when it happened. That would burden the lion warrior with far too many questions. Questions that he could not answer on his own. That was what happened when you returned from the great beyond… you lose the experiences that you had in that other world. Leomon had agreed to it, even though that he knew what it meant and the problems that it might cause.

Sighing once more the winged lion, ancient guardian from the land of two rivers, turned and strode towards the edge of the roof, taking a moment to admire the tall spires that mankind had built for himself in his cities. They rivaled anything that had come before, including the cities of Sumer…

But thoughts of the past were nothing to him now. Only the present mattered. Spreading his wings the lion took off, catching an air current and soared away. He had to find a place where he could change in peace…

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