DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story (except where stated).

DEVIATIONS

Chapter 3

My Way or the Highway

"This is all your fault you know…" Rika said spitefully as she glared at Takato, sitting on the line of seats opposite her in the van as it drove down unknown roads.

"What? Why?" Takato asked.

"If you had just let Renamon destroy your little pet without any fuss then none of this would've happened…"

"Hey, I'm a Tamer just like you…why did you attack us in the first place?"

"I've told you before Takatomon, if that is really your name…" she told him, teasing him about what his partner called him.

"It's Takato…Guilmon just thinks I'm a digimon for some reason…"

"He's stupid, that's why…like Tamer like Digimon…" Rika mocked.

"But why did you attack us?"

"I told you, Renamon defeats enemy digimon and loads their data to become stronger so we can take down any threat…"

"But in the TV show, the Digidestined were a team…"

"This isn't the TV show you idiot!" Rika replied, irritated by what this boy seemed to assume. "There is no destiny, there is no team, there's just me and Renamon! You have a lot to learn, and I'm going to save you a lot of time by taking away your partner…"

"Looks like you're losing your partner too…" Takato said, taking note of their situation. Rika frowned sadly. "What are you going to do without Renamon?"

"I don't care about her; she just fights for me…"

"That's horrible…"

"I don't care what you think either…" Rika replied spitefully, silencing Takato, who looked sadly down at the bench leading away next to him, before looking up and trying to make conversation again.

"Look, maybe we should start over. I'm Takato Matsuki, what's your name?"

"My name is Rika Nonaka, and from now on you're just the Gogglehead…"

"Huh, why?"

"Because I don't like you, and the sooner I take care of your partner and get you out of my life the better…"

"That's friendly…" Takato said sarcastically.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Rika asked, glaring at the boy, who paled in fear as she balled her fist.

"No…" Takato replied fearfully.

"Good…" Rika replied.

"So...do you play the card game?"

"Well duh, I'm the current tournament leader…" she noted.

"Oh, so you're the 'Digimon Queen'?" 'Glad I didn't go to her house in that case, looks like she would've pummelled me to smithereens…'

Rika frowned and grunted. "I can't stand that title…" she replied. "Given to me by bozos who don't know how to keep their mouth shut…"

Takato frowned, before trying to ask a question. "Can we be friends?"

Rika glared at him. "I only make friends with the best, and no-one is better than or equal to me…" she replied.

"Yikes…you must be lonely though?"

"I have Renamon…" she replied.

"But what if you lose her?"

"Then I don't need anyone…"

Takato frowned; any attempt at trying to talk to her in this situation seemed to be fruitless. He tried to look for some kind of view of where they were, but the windows were blacked out, and the vehicle lit in the back only by a single light-bulb. There was no hope of escaping through the only door, that which they had been loaded in through; it was locked from the outside. Takato sighed; their mystery trip was likely to get worse…

Renamon reappeared not far from the parking lot, in Shinjuku Park, dropping Guilmon unceremoniously on the ground and glaring at him.

"Thanks…" he said to her, but she ignored him.

"I am going to free my Tamer, I will be back to destroy you…"

"Aww…" Guilmon complained. "Can't we be friends?" he asked. Renamon ignored him, and vanished again, Guilmon frowning afterwards at her disappearance. "Come back!" he called, but to no avail, as he began to sulk. "Takatomon, come back…" he pleaded to no-one in particular.

"Aww, missing your little human?" asked a teasing voice, and Guilmon looked up to a tree to see a purple imp with a red bandana and white face. "You finally get you chance to get away from that, take it!" he ordered.

"But Takatomon is my friend!" Guilmon replied.

"Friend? Pah, what kind of friend leaves you sitting in the middle of a forest?"

"Renamon put me here…" Guilmon replied.

"Another pathetic Digimon, following orders from her master even more than you…at least you sneak off to play hide and seek!"

"Takatomon said that was bad, I'm not going to do it any more…"

"And if Takatomon told ya to jump off a cliff, would ya do it?"

"What's a cliff?"

Impmon groaned. "Smell ya later ya bread scoffing doofus…" he complained, leaping away as Guilmon sniffed the air, his eyes suddenly turning feral.

"I have to save Takatomon!" he decided, running away through the park. Henry cocked an eyebrow from his hiding place behind a tree, glad that the other Digimon didn't see him when he was leaving. He decided to follow Guilmon to see if he could figure out at all what was going on.

"Let go of me!" Rika ordered to the agent that seemed to have her in a grasp she couldn't break, as they were taken into an elevator.

They had been taken in via the back entrance to the building they now noticed was the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, or just 'those two towers'in Takato's mind.

"Quiet…" Yamaki scolded, as Rika continued to struggle.

"Let me go!" she yelled again, as they were pushed from the lift as it reached its floor and into a corridor. Takato looked around, the past few minutes had been confusing and disorientating, and it continued to be so as they were escorted along the hallway, attracting attention occasionally from employees, but none of whom dared to ask. They stopped outside a room, and Yamaki held out his hand to Rika.

"Your device…" he ordered menacingly.

"Never…" she replied, before trying to attack the agent that unclipped her D-Arc from her belt, to no avail. Yamaki smirked upon receiving the device, before turning to Takato.

"And yours…" he ordered.

"I don't have one…" Takato replied, knowing that it was underneath his hooded top, and hoped it was unnoticed. Yamaki grunted in annoyance, before turning away.

"Lock them up for the time being until we decide what to do with them…" he ordered to his agents, who nodded and proceeded to push the pair of Tamers into a jail cell, locking the door afterwards.

Rika, alarmed by what was happened, banged on the door with her fists while Takato watched.

"Let me out!" she ordered, before growling as her fists went numb. She, without exclaiming in pain, held the bruise in her other hands and angrily sat down on the seating in the cell.

"Um…are you okay?" Takato asked, noticing that her fists were now bruised and how she was clutching them.

"I'm fine…" Rika replied assertively. "Why didn't he take your D-Arc?" she asked annoyed.

"I hid it under my top…"

"Great, and so our only chance for modifying comes from a useless Digimon…"

"You know, you could be a bit nicer to me, I did save your life…"

Rika growled. "You didn't save my life, your partner endangered us all…what the hell is his problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed Gogglehead? He's completely out of control, he doesn't even listen to you in battle and he has random spurts in power…"

"Yeah, but that's not his fault…"

"I don't care…he should be dead by now, there is no way any Digimon could survive a fight with Renamon…without being a complete freak-show…"

Takato frowned, looking at the ground, as Rika stood up, walking over to the handle on the door, but finding the handle to do nothing, and recalling the keyhole being on the other side.

"I'm getting out of here…"

"How?" Takato asked, bewildered by how she intended to do so.

"I'll find a way…" she asserted.

"Maybe we should wait for them to come for us…" Takato asked.

"Are you really that stupid? Lord knows what they'll do to us, they'll take our Digimon…think of all the damage we've caused in battles…"

"I see your point…"

"So you can wait for them to come and get you if you want, but I'm getting out of here…" Rika replied, preparing to attempt to kick the door in. Her foot met its metal frame, and she silently cursed in pain as it didn't even budge, the thick door resisting any attempts to escape. She turned to Takato, staring on in surprise at both her attempts and her pain. "What are you staring at?" she insinuated.

"Um…nothing…just looks like that really hurts that's all."

"Well it doesn't, so stop being an idiotic freak and help me."

"I know for a fact you'd kick my ass with ease, so I don't think I'll be much help, plus that looks like it really hurts…"

Rika groaned at the boy's nervousness, standing back from the door. "Renamon, where the hell are you?" she asked, naturally to no reply.

Henry frowned after the long walk as he watched Guilmon arrive at the back of the towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, somehow avoiding capture on the way there. Henry put it down to pot luck, he could just as easily have run through somewhere really busy like Akihabara and be captured in a second, or worse, injure someone. Guilmon paused, sniffing the air, before heading forward and smashing a door down, a move that surprised Henry.

'What is he trying to do?' the boy thought, watching as the Digimon went inside, as the realisation came that he really couldn't do anything. Guilmon would be captured within the next few minutes if this was where they took Takato and that girl also, and he didn't want to be involved, particularly since he could just walk away and see if Takato came in to school the next day. But, he wanted to help, rather than feeling that he'd seen one of his friends, regardless of how new a friend it was, be taken and not intervened. He sighed, and turned to walk away.

Chance or no chance, Henry's eye was drawn to a 'diversion' sign on a road, and, despite it being unintentional in its meaning, a thought came to his mind, as he turned back to the towers.

'Maybe…'he pondered, considering that there was one thing that he could do.

The sound of something slamming into the door alerted Rika and Takato and broke the silence that had descended on the chamber.

"Rika…" a voice called through the door.

"Renamon!" Rika replied, standing up and walking to the door. "Break this door down…" she ordered.

"It doesn't move, I will need more power…" she replied.

Rika clutched for her D-Arc, groaning when she noted its absence. "They took my D-Arc; I can't use my cards…"

"Then what should I do?"

Rika frowned, even if Renamon could find her D-Arc, she had no way of giving her it, and she had no cards to use. Plus, she would definitely attract attention when she went to find it. She considered another idea.

"Try to break the lock…" she said, unable to see Renamon nod in response.

"DIAMOND STORM!" echoed through the chamber, the words dulled somewhat by the door. The lock rumbled, but continued to hold fast, and Renamon and Rika both growled in annoyance.

"Try again!" Rika said.

"Someone's coming…" Renamon replied, vanishing into thin air.

"She just appears and disappears, can't she just teleport in here?" Takato asked.

Rika glared at him. "She doesn't teleport, she becomes invisible to anyone but me…she can't walk through walls!" she said to him, vexation in her voice.

"Sorry…just a thought…" Takato muttered. Rika glared at him.

"Tell us how to activate this device…" a stern male voice ordered through the door, along with the sound of plastic touching metal as it sounded like he tapped it on the door.

"Never…" Rika replied.

"Not unless you open the door…" Takato replied, Rika glancing to him. She had to admit, it was a good idea, although she'd never tell him so.

"Pah, then we'll simply break it to get our answers then…" the voice replied, Takato and Rika frowning at the lack of a result.

"How can you keep us here?!" Takato asked, his anger at whoever was keeping them captive growing.

"The Japanese Government is currently dealing with these threats with its agency, Hypnos. You appear to have associated yourself with these threats, and so you will be questioned and arrested for any damage caused in your actions" replied a second male voice.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Takato replied. "You can't do this to Digimon, they're…well…they're cool!" he replied, Rika slapping herself on the forehead at his idiocy.

"Can't you do anything right!" Rika snapped at him.

"What the hell?" the second man said through the door, distracting Rika from her glare at Takato, the man's voice in alarm and panic.

"It's the boy's partner…" the first man replied

"PYRO SPHERE!" resounded through the door, Takato beginning to smile as he realised what was going on.

"Run!" the first man said, as the blast collided with the ceiling above.

"Guilmon!" Takato cheered.

"Where do you think you're going?" Renamon said, stepping out from where she hid behind the wall and grabbing the pair of agents, lifting them off the ground.

"Let us go!" the second man ordered.

"Drop the digivice, then we'll talk…" Renamon ordered. The first man growled, before the sound of plastic clattering on the floor was heard by Rika and Takato, ears now pressed against the door. "Good…" Renamon added, before groaning in pain at an unknown attempt at escaping.

"Run!" the second agent yelled, as the footsteps rapidly faded away.

"Gogglehead, get your dino to attack the lock…" Rika mooted, although it sounded more like an order.

"Right…Guilmon, attack the door handle!" Takato ordered, pausing only to be irritated by the nickname, before putting his ear to the lock.

Rika frowned, stepping back and then dragging Takato by the cuff of his shirt back, before he ended up being roasted by the blast. Renamon watched curiously as Guilmon's blast was prepared, far stronger than its normal level.

"PYRO SPHERE!" Guilmon roared, and the lock exploded, the door swinging open. Takato ran forward to hug his partner.

"Thanks boy…" he said.

In comparison, only a mere glance was had between the redhead and her fox-like partner, as the fox passed Rika her D-Arc.

Guns were cocked, attracting attention from their reunion, as emotional or unemotional it may be, as they turned to see agents pointing guns at them along the corridor.

"Did you really believe you could escape?" Yamaki mocked. Renamon frowned, as Takato panicked and Guilmon looked on somewhat dumbly. Rika sighed at the way things had turned out.

Renamon glanced aside, looking for a way out of this situation, but her ears began to hear a ringing sound as the fire alarms went off, surprising the guards, who looked around in confusion, Yamaki looking around in anger as Renamon pulled them over to a fire escape.

"How did you let them escape?" Yamaki cursed, turning to the agents from before. "You have let a dangerous menace escape onto the streets of Tokyo!" he shouted, the man paling in fear at the head of Hypnos in anger.

Henry breathed a sigh of relief as he left the bathroom of the ground floor, checking that no-one had seen him activate the fire alarm. The alarms had begun to resound through the building, sending everyone into a state of confusion, so he needn't have worried. He just hoped he'd been able to help, but he couldn't be sure. He quickly joined the stream of people leaving the building, hoping that he'd been out of sight as he exited the building.

Nearby, out of a fire escape, two humans and two Digimon ran, quickly escaping from sight of the building as employees began to line up. Takato breathed a sigh of relief once they reached the park after passing over a bridge, the trees obscuring any views of them, as they began to slow down, Takato stopping to breathe for air.

"We made it…" he said happily. Rika grunted, walking away from the brunette and his dino-like partner. "Aren't you going to celebrate?"

Rika turned around, determination on her face. "Next time we meet Gogglehead, that dino is toast, so me helping you is a one off thing, got that?! I'm not helping you again if they get you!" she yelled.

"Um…okay…" Takato replied.

"Good…" she answered, walking away, Renamon in quick pursuit. She clearly had no interests to be in a team with them, something that saddened Takato.

'I thought we were working together well…' he thought morosely, before turning to his partner. "Thanks for rescuing us…" he said, his partner nodding.

"I'll do anything for Takatomon!" the saurian replied happily.

"Then could you do me one thing…"

"Huh?"

"Could you start listening to me?" Takato asked in desperation.

"When didn't I?"

"When in battle, your eyes go all weird, and you just stop listening to anything I say…"

"Do I?"

"Yeah, and I really need you to listen to me so people don't get hurt…"

"Okay Takatomon…" the dino replied, leaving Takato unsure whether his request had actually been noted or if the next battle would be just as feral. They began to walk back to the hideout, thankfully passing few people as the orange light of the encroaching evening began to arrive. Takato turned to his partner, trying to stop another habit.

"And one other thing…"

"What?" Guilmon asked cheerfully.

"Can you stop calling me Takatomon?"

"I thought you were Takatomon?"

"No, I'm a human being, not a Digimon…"

"So?"

"Humans don't have 'mon' on the end of their names…"

"Really, why not?"

"Because we just don't…" Takato replied.

"Oh…okay Takatomon…" he replied, Takato groaning in frustration. This problem wasn't going away, and neither were any of his other problems. A question plagued his curiosity, as he looked back into the dino's eyes.

"How did you get in there anyway?"

"Huh? I ran up some stairs…"

"Did anyone see you?"

"Yeah, why?"

Takato groaned; Guilmon completely lacked any knowledge of subtlety. "Never mind…" he replied, frustrated. "You're going to have to be more careful though; you can't let other people see you..." he explained.

"Okay Takatomon, I'll stay hidden from now on…"

"We'll need to be more careful, Rika and Renamon will probably lure us into a battle again…"

"Who's Rikamon?"

"That girl with the red hair…and she's not a Digimon either…"

"Okay Takatomon…I'll be more careful…"

"Good…" the brunette replied, as they reached the hideout, and Guilmon entered. "I've got to go home now, I'll see you tomorrow…I'll bring bread too…"

"Yay! Bye!" Guilmon cheered, waving to his partner with his claw, Takato waving slightly in response as he walked away, heading through the emptying park and passing the playground.

'Damn, I completely missed Henry out on his card game…' he realised, the sight of the dinosaur reminding him. He slapped himself on the head for what he had inadvertently done. 'I hope he's not too mad, I really messed up that chance to have a friend who actually likes Digimon…'

"Hmm…" Henry pondered, arriving back at his home. The day had been surreal, first of all he had seen a Digimon battle, and then he had seen the government taking action. He'd set off a fire alarm in a government building, an act he had begun to regret, and he hoped there wouldn't be serious repercussions later on, as his sister walked up to him.

"Hey Henwy!" Suzie greeted, hugging a plush toy.

"Hey Suzie…" he replied, lacking any enthusiasm in his voice.

"What's wong?"

"Nothing…"'…except everything…I have to go and find out more about this Digimon stuff from Takato tomorrow…'

---

Rika groaned; stepping into her house, Renamon hidden from view as her grandma greeted her.

"Good evening dear…" Seiko said, smiling from the kitchen, and noticing her down mood. "Anything the matter?"

"No, nothing…" Rika replied. She stopped short at being rude to her grandma, although was rarely open with her about anything. Her mother, on the other hand, was a completely different story. Rika walked down the hallway, stepping into her room and falling onto her futon, groaning.

"Stupid Gogglehead…"

"Are you okay Rika?" Renamon asked, appearing from nowhere.

Rika frowned. "Of course…tomorrow's just another day to go Guilmon hunting…"

Renamon frowned, clearly Rika didn't care for Takato saving her life, from the fox's own attack of all things (something she cursed herself for, even though it was unintentional), and for Guilmon freeing them from the cell.

Time would tell if she would ever manage to call them 'teammates', or whether she would kill the pair of them first.

TO BE CONTINUED…

And so a diversion (or rather, a deviation, see what I did there) from the original storyline takes place. Hypnos' act will have repercussions later, as will the events of their battles and escaping. Please review.

Next time…

Will Rika and Renamon be able to destroy Guilmon? Will Hypnos continue to pursue the Tamers? Will Henry manage to find out anything more about them?

Find out in 'I Hate Cute', Chapter Four of Deviations.