Chapter Five: Tamers Tales Two: Goggleheads and Redheads

"Does your leg hurt?"

"No…"

"Does your stomach hurt?"

"No…"

"Does your head hurt?"

"No-"

SLAP!

Ryo nearly fell over as Rika's palm collided with the side of his face.

"How about now?" she spat. "Does it hurt now?"

"Rika, I-"

SLAP!

"I gave you one job to do, Ryo. ONE JOB." She wiped her hand on her jeans, angrily glaring at Ryo. "What was the last thing I told you two knuckleheads before we all jumped into that portal?"

"You don't under-"

SLAP!

"Rika calm down…"

"Stay out of this, Wong!" Rika turned her attention back to Ryo. "Answer me, Akiyama!"

"You…you said to make sure we didn't do anything stupid or heroic…"

"And?"

"To…to watch each other's backs."

"I gave you one job and you," Slap! "Blew it!" Slap! "BIG TIME!"

"Rika! You don't understand!" Ryo mumbled, backing away from her

"Then enlighten me oh wizened one." She snarled, sarcastically. Behind her, the others were trying to console a borderline zombie Tai.

"We got…there were so many…it's complicated…"

"Tell us."

Ryo looked past the still flaming Rika to see Tai's eyes clouded with tears. He looked so much older than he really was, as if Ryo's appearance had suddenly aged him.

"Please…" Tai continued. "What happened?"

Ryo sighed, took a deep breath and began…

Three hours earlier

"Come one, Biyomon, Digivolve!"

"Sora, I…I can't."

"Why not?" Sora sobbed in frustration, glancing outside the grimy shop window at the chaos outside. Once the screaming had started, she and Biyomon had ducked into the nearest store and tried to sort themselves out. It hadn't taken long to figure out that once again their little city was under attack from vicious viral Digimon. Sora had been trying to coax the little bird Digimon into Digivolution for the past hour or so but something was holding her back.

"I just don't feel well, Sora." Biyomon groaned, holding her wings up to her head. "I feel all…woozy."

"Biyomon, our friends are in danger…" Sora pleaded. "There are gangs of murdering Digimon roaming the streets and this mist is clouding the city. We need you, Biyomon. We need Garudamon."

Biyomon sniffed back a tear. "I'm sorry, Sora. I just can't."

Sora Sighed and pulled her partner to her chest. "Don't worry, Biyomon. Someone's coming for us. You'll see."

"Quite right you are, my dear."

Sora spun around to see the source of the voice. A young woman sat on the counter only it was plainly obvious from the start that she was no woman. Leathery, black wings jutted up from her back and a black silk dress hung on her voluptuous frame.

"Who…who are you?"

Sora flinched as she waged her finger at her; her left arm was bony and dead looking, capped with a gold claw for a hand.

"I am not important right now, Sora darling." She licked her lips. "But in the interest of formality," she floated off her perch and made an exaggerated courtesy in midair. "My name is Lilithmon. I'm a Mega level Demon Lady Digimon. My Nazar Nail and Phantom Pain will leave you weak in the knes and I've just been dying to meet you, my dear."

Sora hugged Biyomon tighter to her chest as she scooted towards the door. 'Wh-what do you mean?"

Lilithmon made a grand gesture with her claw, indicating the mist. "You see all this? My friends and I dropped in all the way from the 3rd realm just to wish you a Happy Birthday." She giggled as Sora's eyes widened in shock. "All this is our little way of saying "Thank you"

"Thank me for what? I haven't done anything for you." Sora nervously glanced behind her, making sure she had enough room to sprint.

"No…you haven't." Liltihmon smiled, grimly. "Not yet." She glanced at the door. "If you want to run, be my guest. Just be aware that the other Demon Lords aren't as, charitable, as I am."

"Look…I don't know what you're getting on about and I don't care! Stay the hell away from me!" Sora burst through the door and ran outside…

Right into the mouth of a waiting Demon Lord.

At first Sora thought she had stumbled into a cave. It took a moment for Sora to realize that the small dark area she was standing in was a mouth. It took another second to realize that the squishy ground she was standing on was a tongue and the row after row of razor sharp "stalactites" were in fact teeth. After Sora came to grips with all of this, she did what any sensible, level headed person would have done when faced with a similar situation.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

Sora tore out of the demon's mouth to the amusement of her would-be predator. Sora whipped around to come face to nose with the longest Digimon she had ever seen. From tip to tail, he took up nearly three blocks, most of which was made up of a long, razor filled mouth that Sora had been standing in not a moment before. It resembled a large alligator with armor plating on its head and blue ridges lining his back.

"You ssssssure are quick, birthday girl." The monster chuckled through his teeth. " That'sssss what I call fasssst food. But you really should have lissssstened to Lilithmon. You'll find I'm not sssssso friendly."

"Who…who are you?" Sora managed to stutter out, clutching Biyomon tighter.

"They call me the Demonic Beasssst." The monster hissed. "I dwell in the darkesssssst corner of the Digiworld and I am the foundation for all thingsssss evil." He snapped his jaws with a deafening clap. "I am known assss the Lord of Envy. Leviamon issss my name. I come to ssssswallow thosssse who opposssssse the Demon Lordsssssss. My Gauda attack and Cursssse of the Deep will leave you feeling quite ssssseasssick"

"We'll see about that. Ready Biyomon?"

Biyomon shakily nodded. "I'll try."

Sora drew her digivice. "Let em have it!"

"Biyomon digivolve to….Yokomon!"

"What?" Sora gasped as Biyomon reverted to her in training form. "What's wrong with this thing?" Sora shook her digivice until she realized no light shone from its screen.

"Awww, what'sssss the matter? Issss your toy broken?" Leviamon sneered.

"Sora…" Yokomon said weakly.

"Time to die, human girl." Leviamon taunted. He raised his tail high in the air. "CAUDA!" his tail slammed into the ground. For a moment, there was nothing. Then the ground beneath Sora gave way and she fell into nothingness.

Sora shut her eyes as she suddenly became weightless. This was it: the end. It was Datamon all over again only this time, Tai wasn't there to save her. In the few, brief moments that she was falling, Sora's mind suddenly flashed back to when she was only five. She had been out with Tai climbing a tree when she froze on one branch, scared to go any higher but too afraid to climb down on her own.

"Tai! Let's go back…" Sora said, fearfully glancing down "We're too high!"

Tai looked back down at her, smiling. "Come on Sora! Only one more and you can see the whole city from up here!"

"But…" Sora sniffled. "I'm scared…" Tai leaned down, offering her a hand.

"It's okay, Sora. If you need help, just take my hand!"

Sora reached her hand up…

Sora reached her hand up...

Suddenly her arm jerked as something caught it. She swung briefly, holding on to Yokomon as she looked up to see her savior. Her throat closed up and for a moment she forgot to breathe. He came... Her hero pulled her up while something was happening behind him. Gasping with relief, Sora threw her arms around the boy's neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Tai…you came."

"Um…excuse me?"

Sora froze as a voice that definitely didn't belong to Tai spoke. Slowly pulling back, she studied the young man who had saved her life.

It was no surprise that she had thought of Tai; the boy could have been his brother…well, distant cousin anyway. Curious amber eyes stared back at her from behind thick, yellow goggles. The goggles, in addition to the blue sweatshirt and jeans he wore, made a strong impression that anyone could have mistaken for Tai. But he was younger and his hair was definitely tamer. Tamer…why did that word seem to fit him?

"Oh…" Sora said, disappointed. "You're not…"

The boy stared intently at her for a moment, lifting his goggles to do so. Leviamon was nowhere to be seen but the cries of battle weren't far away. "Um…hi. I'm Takato Matsuki."

"Oh…"Sora said again, blushing. "I thought you were someone I knew…"

"What's your-" but Takato was cut off as a huge red lizard, covered in sliver armor slammed through a skyscraper, landing on his feet.

"TAKATO!" the beast roared. "HELP!" the sound of steel on cement caught their ears as Leviamon came back, dragging his metal scales on the ground, running his long tongue over his dagger like teeth, menacingly.

"Foolish humansssss" Leviamon hissed. "Who are you to challenge a Demon Lord with only one…meassssssly…ultimate?"

"Count again, leather face." A deep voice growled from beside her. Sora looked left to see a black dragon covered with a metal mask, snarling as a boy with spiky brown hair, shuffled a pack of cards, nonchalantly beside him.

"He thinksssss he'ssss ssssso tough…" the other boy said, mockingly to Takato, barely taking notice of Sora. "Ready, Takato?"

Takato nodded, pulling out a card of his own. "Let's skin this lizard."

Suddenly Ryo fanned his deck out in front of Sora's face. "Pick a card, any card."

Sora glanced at the strange boy for a moment before drawing a card and taking a look at it.

"Machinedramon" She glanced at the picture of the Dark Master and then back at Ryo. "Why is Machinedramon on a playing card?"

Ryo winked at her. "You'll see." He slid the card through a strange Digivice. " DIGI-MODIFY! Machinedramon's Giga Cannon Activate!"

"What?" but something was happening to his partner. The dragon growled as a cloud of data streamed from the Digivice and formed on his back. When it cleared, a pulsing metal cannon was in its place.

"Oh…my…" Sora gasped, eyes wide

"GIGA CANNON!" the dragon cried. Two bursts of white hot light streamed from his cannon. Leviamon tried to scramble away but caught both blasts in the side as he was turning around. Leviamon howled in anguish as a hole in his tough skin began to poke through.

"Now's our chance! Hit him up, War Growlmon!" Takato pulled a strange Digivice out and ran the card through one end. "Digi-Modify! Power Boost Activate!

War Growlmon's chest opened and two balls of spinning flame charged. Leviamon froze, trying to scramble away but it was too late.

"ATOMIC BLASTER!" the flaming beams punched through the hole that the Giga Cannon had created. Leviamon screamed in agony as pulsing flame filled his body. His mouth opened and fire poured out. His eyes rolled back into his head and he exploded in a cloud of data.

"Do you have the D-Tainor, Ryo?" Takato asked.

Ryo (as his name turned out to be) pulled a small, black device as Takato ran up to the lizard. "I'm Ryo Akiyama, by the way. The grumpy dragon over there is Cyberdramon" He said to Sora as he pulled what looked like a blank card out of his pouch and sliding it in the device. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sora…"Sora responded. "Sora Takenouchi"

Ryo looked back at her. "Really?" he asked, glancing at Yokomon. "Wow, Goggles is going to flip a lid…"

"Huh?"

"Nice to meet you Sora." Ryo said, closing the device and aiming it at the lingering data cloud. He opened the device's cover and all at once the data in the air started swirling and condensing above the device. Ryo gingerly put it down and grabbed Sora's arm. "Run for your life!" They tore off down the street with Cyberdramon carrying Yokomon gingerly in his jaws. They stopped at the end of the block as a blast of energy shot straight up into the sky from the device. It lingered for a moment before dissipating. Ryo, Takato and Sora walked over to the machine to see a big, green OK on the screen. Ryo popped it open and on the previously blank card, there was an image of Leviamon, howling with rage.

"YES!!" Takato and Ryo cried, punching the air.

"Wait…what did you just do?" Yokomon asked.

"Some Digimon are just too dangerous to be allowed to regenerate so Yamaki and the Monster Makers made us this!" Sora and Yokomon shared a confused glance but Ryo went on. Ryo flourished the device. "It's called a D-Tainor. Traps any nasty Digimon in the form of a harmless playing card. Well, not totally harmless but you get the idea."

Sora rubbed her head. "I really don't…First Lilithmon and now these two?"

Takato and Ryo suddenly became very grave. "Lilithmon? Where?"

"HERE!"

Sora cried out in shock as a mangled claw grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up into the air. Sora felt something sharp prick the back of her neck and the last thing she remembered was Takato yelling something indistinguishable as he grabbed on to Lilithmon's dress…

"TAKATO! SORA!" Ryo cried as Lilithmon flew away with the Digidestined and Tamer in tow. Cyberdramon's soft growling alerted him to the presence of fifty or so Mephistomon tearing down the street, claws extended.

"Let's get out of here." Ryo said, getting on Cyberdramon's back. "We need to find Rika and Henry and figure out where that hag took Takato." Ryo gave Lilithmon's retreating figure one last look before setting off in search of Rika and Henry.

"I must have fought my way through a hundred Mephistomon before I picked up your signal." Ryo finished, looking around at the Digidestined. He managed to recount his adventures without boasting of his accomplishments or complaining about his hardship. He just said it; and Tai really respected him for that.

"So what now?" Davis asked.

Tai took a deep breath. "We've got to find Sora and Takato."

Tai looked around, expecting a chorus of dissent but everyone was just staring vacantly into the fire.

"Yeah…" Ken said. "We do."

"What about Matt?" Joe asked.

"Matt's going to be fine." T.K said. "He hooked up with Noriko and the others so he'll at least have friends. We need to focus on finding Sora and Takato."

"How?" Izzy asked. "We can't track Sora's Digivice, remember?"

"No, but we can track, Takato's" Henry said, popping up his locator. He looked at it for a moment. "There. They're being held in the Fuji Broadcasting Tower."

"What is it with Evil Digimon and the Fuji building?" Mimi sighed.

"Good, defendable building. Control of all communication in the city. From up there you can see anything coming at you. It's a perfect fortress." Izzy said.

There was silence for a moment as everybody shared a look with each other. They knew what it would mean to go try to rescue them and none of them seemed to care what the cost was.

"We're with you, Tai." Ryo stood up, voicing everyone's opinion. "Even if we can't find Takato…we'll help you get Sora out of there." Henry and Rika nodded.

"Yeah…" Tai said, distantly.

"Momentai, Tai." Terriermon giggled

"Huh?" Tai asked

"It means don't worry about Sora. She's with Takato! He's a bright little ray of sunshine, he is! Tough as nails! Reminds me a lot of you, actually. He'll pull her through until you show up!"

Tai sniffed. "How can I not worry about her?" Tai angrily wiped the back of his eyes. "I should have stayed out there instead of sulking in here like a sewer rat. I could have helped them…I could have helped her…this is all my fault…"

T.K sighed. "Well, since Matt isn't here to do the honors, I guess I will." He cracked his fist and connected it with the side of Tai's face with a resounding smack.

Tai sat back stunned for a moment. Then, without warning, he started laughing.

"T.K! Look what you did!" Davis said. 'You made him crazy!"

"No, no, it's not that." Tai said, wiping his eyes and looking up at T.K "You remind me so much of Matt, you know that?"

T.K pulled Tai to his feet. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"It was meant as one." Tai looked over the assembled group of kids and Digimon. "It's going to be a tough march to the tower."

"We can take anything those demonic scumbags can throw at us!" Gatomon said, confidently

"And throw it right back!" Patamon cheered

Tai turned to Rika who stared at him for long time. During their silent interchange, a sort of understanding passed between them. Even if everybody else fell or got hurt or got scared, Tai knew he would always have Rika right beside him. Something in her brash attitude, unwavering confidence in herself and her friends and brutal battling ability filled him with the strength he needed to pull Sora out of the mouth of hell itself. And if he died, she'd make sure Sora got home alright.

The thought of Sora imprisoned in a TV tower, miles from her friends and loved ones filled Tai with equal parts fear and determination. The thought of losing his best friend, the love of his life (corny as it sounded, there was no other way of describing it) made him weak in the knees. The thought of never arguing with her about soccer or helping her in her mom's shop or talking to her late at night when they were supposed to be studying made him want to break into a million pieces and lie there on the floor. But he had to be strong. He had to be brave. For her

Rika looked at Tai and knew that here was a fighter who wouldn't quit, who wouldn't surrender until either he was dead or Sora was safe. One Gogglehead was like all the rest and that meant brave, strong willed and determined; a perfect ally for what was to come.

Even though she'd never admit it to anyone, the thought of losing that stupid, lamebrain, idiot Gogglehead made her sick inside. The thought of never again hearing him argue with Kenta about which Dark Master was the coolest or listening to him gush girlishly about his favorite pairings (and hear him mumble darkly about how Sorato was "never fully developed and totally random"; whatever the hell that meant) made it hard for her to breathe. The thought of never kicking his ass at Cards again or being forced to watch the damn TV show again (something she now wished she had done more of) or never helping him bake his family's bread loaves and cream puffs made her, the Digimon Queen and the toughest Tamer in the universe, want to break down and cry. But she had to be strong. For him.

"You ready?" Tai asked her. By now everyone was watching their exchange like a championship fight. The rest of the team would help. They would fight alongside Rika and Takato to their dying breath. But this was their battle and the rest of the Digidestined and Tamers knew that.

Rika raised a brow. "Are you? The armies of Digi-Hell and five all powerful Demon Lords are waiting outside to obliterate us if we so much as sneeze. You think you can handle that?"

Tai looked away for a moment "To be perfectly honest…" He looked back, grinning. "I don't think they can handle us!"

They both glanced up. Ten thousand Ultimate Digimon ready to rip anything that moved to tiny little shreds were up there. Five Demon Lords with all the powers of darkness at their disposal controlled them. Ten thousand Mephistomon and five Demon Lords stood between Tai and Rika and Sora and Takato.

And if they had any sense about them, they would be scampering back to hell as fast as their little wings could carry them because it is a well known fact in the Digiworld that getting between a Gogglehead and a Redhead who cared about each other and trying to keep them apart was just about the worst mistake anyone, human or Digimon, could ever make.

AN: READ AND REVIEW IF YOU WANT TO SEE MEGA LEVEL ACTION, ANGST AND EXCITEMENT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!! EVEN IF YOU DON'T, REVIEW ANYWAY!!