Chapter 7: Steven and Ryudamon

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, just the OCs.

Saturday, June 14, 2003

The boy felt the warm wind beat against him as he applied sunblock to his pale skin. Here he was, looking over Las Vegas from the mountains to the north. He had never been here, but he dreamed of coming here.

"So, what are we doing here?" his partner Digimon, a large, yellow champion-level dragon with black armor asked. The Digimon, Ginryumon, walked on four clawed legs.

"We're going to find him. The description has to be him," the tamer said, looking into his mirror. "I know most of the time those anti-Digimon websites are a pile of garbage, but this has to be right. The description matches him exactly."

The partner nodded. "I don't know. It was actually a pretty vague description."

"Still, there's some hope that he went here. I gotta go check, especially if we can't go home right now."

The tamer looked at his Digimon with his blue eyes. "At the very least, we can try to find the other Tamers in this city. I read that there were several of them."

Nathan felt a rush when he received his new cell-phone. Heck, he had no idea that that was the one of the reasons they went to Fry's electronics that day other than getting a replacement monitor for his computer. He looked at the device: a flip-phone with a large screen and a full keyboard that could be accessed by sliding the phone so that he could send text messages.

"Alright, now, don't go over your minutes, got it?" Johnny Beckenstein told him.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for the phone, though." Luckily, Beckenstein already put a number of contacts in Nathan's phone including Marcus, Diego, Marika and Claire. Nathan decided to dial Marcus' phone, which was his home phone after a few rings, Marcus' mom came up and then Nathan asked to talk to Marcus who was woken up by the phone ringing.

"What's up, man?" Nathan practically yelled into the phone.

"Nothing much; you just woke me up!"

"Yeah, I just got a cell phone."

"Sweet, man. How much you paying a month?"

"Nothing. It's a government phone since we're tamers."

"Oh, man, that's awesome. When am I going to get one of those?"

After that conversation, Nathan decided to send a text to Diego after calling him and getting no answer. At the moment, he was walking out of the store with his father just ahead of him. "So, what now," he asked his father.

"Now, we go home."

Dracomon didn't like staying at home alone, but there he was, playing video games. He saw Nathan play the game in question the day before. It was some type of game called an RPG. Dracomon decided to play his hand at it, even though it required basic reading ability to play.

He could understand everything that they were talking about. Somehow, he could read it.

Apparently, being born from an American-made Digimon game meant that he could read English automatically. It was something he didn't expect by a long shot and neither Nathan nor his father knew about it. Still, he had to break out a dictionary sometimes to understand some terms.

Another unexpected thing happened just as Nathan was walking through the front door. "Oh my god, Sephiroth killed Aeris! That…"

"Since when could you play Final Fantasy?" Nathan asked, causing Dracomon to look at him with an incredibly shocked look on his face.

"Can I go out of the house again yet?" Dracomon asked, shutting off the game console. He was going to have to start the scene over again.

"Uh, no. How could you play that game without knowing how to read?"

"I can read."

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't know."

"How was your morning, Dracomon?" Johnny asked as he was walking into the house.

"Sephiroth killed Aeris. The nerve!"

"He was playing Final Fantasy VII," Nathan said, stating the obvious. "Oh, and he didn't know he could read."

"Well, that saves some work. You know Gaomon had to take literacy classes when he got to the real world."

"Hmm… How long has he been here?"

"Honestly, I don't know. He's been here a lot longer than the time he was partnered with Diego."

Later on, Marcus came over to hang out. Nathan was surprised to see his friend Marcus so annoyed. The two were with their partner Digimon, sitting on the couch and trying to figure out what to do the rest of the day, and it seemed like Marcus was fuming. "Uh, what's going on?" Nathan asked.

"Bearmon…"

"Yeah, what about him."

"He ate all the food in the house last night! Man, now my mom's going to have to go get some and restock everything. Heck, even all the seasonings are gone!"

"Whoa, that is serious. Heck, even Dracomon doesn't eat that much."

"Yeah, that's good." Marcus glared at Bearmon, who was mesmerized by the TV.

"Well, I guess you could always feed him over at Somnus. What do your parents think about him?"

"They don't even know he exists. Alright, man, I'll do that. Man, I really didn't expect something like this to happen."

They did a few other things, such as talk about the day before. Apparently, Marcus still couldn't let go of the fact that Diego didn't like what he did to get his partner. Nathan was starting to see the logic in the guy's objections, but that couldn't change Marcus' opinion of the guy.

However, Marcus did see something about Diego that could have helped. "You know, I probably should have taken him to West Side instead of you."

"Yeah, why's that?"

"Cause he's Mexican."

"He is? I thought he was like Spanish from Spain or something."

"Well, either way, he's not white."

"Um, I thought Spaniards were considered white people. There's almost no difference between them an Italians. Either way, Diego doesn't talk like most Mexicans."

"His family was probably in the States for awhile."

"His parents moved to this country."

"Oh yeah."

"Besides, his mom didn't seem Mexican. And then his dad didn't have a Mexican accent."

"You know, this is going nowhere."

"What's a Mexican? Isn't that a type of restaurant?" Dracomon asked, walking over to the two boys.

"Eh, it's just someone from Mexico," Marcus said.

"Watch, he's actually Chilean or something," Nathan commented.

"Dude, what do Chilean's look like?"

Johnny Beckenstein walked into the room hearing that. "I actually worked with some Chilean's once. Some looked like people from Spain while others were mostly German."

"So, where's Diego from, anyway?" Nathan asked. "Marcus thinks he's Mexican."

"You know, I need to ask him. How about you call him and ask, Nathan?" Johnny sat down in the recliner and changed the channel. Nathan felt that his suggestion was a good idea, so he figured he'd call Diego and offer to take the guy out to ice cream or something. Cold Stone sounded pretty good right now. Maybe after that they could go play some Laser Tag, provided they had the money.

Nathan opened his cell-phone up and called Diego's phone. He simply got an answering machine message.

Diego was eating some ice cream with a Chicano friend of his who was skinny with dark skin and hair when his phone went off. "That number again," he commented.

Gaomon had a ring of vanilla ice cream around his mouth. He listened intently to the conversation while wiping it all off with a napkin.

"Yeah, who do you think it is?" his friend asked.

"Beats me. So, after this, you want to go play some laser tag?"

"Oh, yeah! You mind if I use your phone to call a few friends. They can meet us there."

"Sure, go ahead."

Nathan tried again with the home phone. "Hey, is Diego there?" he asked, getting a kid on the other line.

"No, he ran off to California late last night. Our parents are ticked."

"California? What's he doing there?"

"How the heck should I know."

"So, when's he due back?"

"The note said a couple of days. Don't know if he's telling the truth or not."

"Alright, bye. Tell him I called." Nathan hung up after a good-bye from the kid and walked into the room. "Well, Diego's of town."
"Well, I'll be. He didn't say he was planning on any vacations," Johnny said.

"Yeah, he went to California to blow off some steam. I'd say we should go after him."

"No, leave him alone. He probably needs it with his brother and everything."

"Well, I better get going," Marcus said. "My mom's going to be cooking spaghetti tonight."

"Can I have some?" Bearmon asked, getting up after his partner.

"Sure. I'll try to sneak a bite for you. Just don't raid the fridge again, got it?"

"Hey, I was hungry!"

Johnny smiled at the kid. "Just be careful on the way home," he said.

"Okay, man, I will."

However, things didn't go as planned. Marcus and Bearmon were being followed and they didn't know until the last second. A number of tranquilizer darts hit them while he was still in Nathan's neighborhood and the two found themselves passed out cold.

"So, this is the first of our Tamers of Vegas, huh? Is this guy on the list?" a man asked with a bit of a foreign accent, picking up Marcus and dragging him into his car.

"No, he's not. There are several black boys on the list but none have his stats. He's far too tall and too old," a woman responded. "Still, are you sure we should be doing this?"

"We've gotta help him. There's gotta be a way to sever the Tamer-Digimon relationship."

"Funny, we follow the list and we don't get anyone with partners and yet when we find a Digimon, the kid wasn't on the list."

The man was done putting Marcus in the car when he walked over to pick up the Digimon in disgust. "Despicable."

"Where are we going to take this one?" the woman asked, starting up the car.

"California would be the best bet. They wouldn't know to look there."

Several hours later, Somnus picked up a signal from a Digimon emergence. Johnny got the call while he was eating a burrito at some restaurant. They also had a to-go plate for Dracomon. "Hello?"

"There's an emergence on the south side of town again. It's at Southern Highlands Golf Club."

"Oh, great, a golf course. How's Cody doing? You think he can go with us?"

"Tests have shown that he was completely unaware of his actions. He seemed to have a narcotic of some sort in his system but now it's gone. If you want, we can send him in a car down there."

"Yes, that would be all right. We only have him till tomorrow, anyway. Will his partner Digimon fit in the car?"

"We'll just have him use that card to devolve it."

"Good. I'll see him down there. Continue to keep track of emergences. Also, get a hold of Marcus while you're at it. We'll pick him up on the way."

"We're on it." Johnny hung up the phone.

"Let me guess, another emergence," Nathan surmised.

"Yes. Ready to go?"

Nathan nodded.

They stopped by Marcus' place but he wasn't there, which was a mystery. He didn't even call to check in. Since Nathan didn't know where he was, that made the other guy's mother all the more worried. After that, they decided to pick up Claire, who was home.

"What's up?" she asked, getting in the back seat of Johnny Beckenstein's truck, her partner Digimon in her arms. Dracomon was in the other seat.

"Bioemergence," was Johnny's simple response as he pulled out his cell-phone and started driving. He had a suspicion about Marcus so he decided to call for some extra help. "Hello, I want you to send out the emergency tamer to guard the golf course from any unwanted visitors. Also, I want agents on watch at the houses of each of the Tamers."

"Got it, Mr. Beckenstein." After that, he hung up the phone.

"So, how's your day going?" Claire asked.

"Pretty good. I got a cell phone," Nathan bragged.

"Oh, I've had one of those since sixth grade."

Nathan grimaced. "Wait, what? How come I didn't have one, then?"

"Just be glad you have one now, son," Johnny responded.

"So, can I get your phone number?" Nathan asked Claire.

"Sure."

"Just don't constantly text each other, kids," Johnny told them.

Eric wasn't happy. It was his first day off in a while and he got to spend it with some friends. Anthony wasn't around for some reason, apparently having had to go out of town for an emergency, but there were a bunch of others eating at the restaurant he was at, including a brunette girl sitting next to him when he got the call. She had brown eyes, and was wearing black-rimmed glasses and a bright green shirt.

"So, what was that about?" she asked.

"My side job. There was an emergency and my boss wants some help. To make matters worse, I have to stop by the apartment to go get some tools." Then he turned to the rest of the group, "Sorry, guys, I'll have to take a raincheck!"

"No problem, dude!" one of the guys, a spiky-haired red-head said as Eric ran out the door.

It took him a few minutes to get to his apartment. He lived on the second floor of a building in a massive complex. Opening the door, he called out for his partner. "Come on, Gabumon! We've got some work to do."

The pelt-wearing reptile ran up to him and the guy held out his rectangular digivice and yelled out the phrase: "Biomerge activate!"

A dome of mist was smack dab in the middle of the golf course. A balding, middle-aged golfer made the mistake of shooting his golf ball into the digital field and, being unaware of what was happening, walked right into it.

Then a massive white wolf with dark blue stripes appeared in front of him, growling. The old man was frightened by the sight of the Digimon and tried to run, but to no avail. Just as he was about to lose a large chunk of his abdomen, another Digimon crashed into the wolf.

"Gururumon, huh?" the Digimon's tamer commented. "Ginryumon, just hold him for a few minutes. We need to wait for any other tamers in the area to get here."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Oh, yeah." Then the tamer turned to the golfer. "You get out of here okay? Remember that you were saved by a Digimon Tamer."

The man nodded and then ran off. The tamer turned to the Digimon. "Don't worry, Ginryumon, you're doing a good job."

The dragon was simply wrestling with the wolf. "I need a little more strength."

The tamer was pretty muscular and had red hair. He was also wearing a green button-up shirt over a black shirt and some blue jeans. He pulled out a card from his deck. "Card slash! Attack Plug-in A." he slid the card though the digivice, giving the dragon the strength needed to pin Gururumon to the ground.

"You do remember that the last time we dealt with an emergence it turned out to be a trap, right?" Ginryumon asked.

"Yeah, but this time we're prepared. At least this time we don't have a chance of Jake's partner digivolving into…" Then Coredramon broke through the barriers. "Alright, finish him."

Ginryumon did so, ending Gururumon with a slash to the throat. The Digimon quickly turned into an egg.

Ginryumon came face to face with Coredramon, who had no idea what to do. As the mist dispersed, it became apparent that there were, not one Tamer, but three and their partner Digimon, each with shocked expressions on their faces. "Hey, what's up, guys?"

Nathan was the first to speak and his face changed from shock to a smile. "No much. So, are you from this side of town or anything?"

"Nope, just passing by. Do you know anyone who looks like this?" the unnamed tamer asked, holding up a photograph. Nathan looked at it, examining it. Claire walked over too and so did Cody, who was wearing a full blue shirt instead of a tank top like the one the day before.

"Looks kind of like someone we know, but just a little. He's a lot paler, too," Nathan said.

"So, you don't know this guy? Oh well, thought I'd try the lead," the tamer said. "We got separated a while ago and well, I thought I'd check over here. Heard there was someone with his description here."

"Yeah, well, sorry I couldn't help you find your friend," Claire said.

"No problem," the guy winked at her, causing her to get all giddy.

"So, what's your name?" Nathan finally asked.

"Steven McClosky." Nathan's dad showed up a few seconds later, after the others made their introductions.

"So, there was someone else here," Johnny said dryly.

Steven eyed the man and responded warily, "Uh, yeah. You know these guys, huh?"

"You could say I'm their boss. Well, Nathan and Claire's, anyway. So, who are you? Are you from this side of town?"

"No, I'm just passing through on the way to Cali, looking for someone. You see, that someone may have been kidnapped by some anti-Digimon people."

"Yeah? Why don't you come and stay at Somnus for a little bit. We have something to talk about."

"Sorry, I can't. I'm kind of in a hurry." Steven actually wanted to avoid Johnny Beckenstein since he didn't exactly trust the guy.

"Don't worry, we're not anti-Digimon people. In fact, I helped bring down the D-Reaper."

"I find that hard to believe."

"I know you do."

Steven turned to Nathan. "Do you know this guy?"

"He's my dad. Trust me, if he were with the anti-Digimon freaks, I would know."

"Besides, if that was the case, why would I let these kids go home at night?"

"Thank you."

Suddenly, AncientGarurumon showed up, landing in front of the kids. Ginryumon got in an attack stance. "That was a quick battle," the Mega Digimon commented.

"Indeed it was," Johnny responded. "You can go back to whatever you were doing, now, if you'd like."

"I was having fun, but I don't think my friends would expect me back so quick."

"How about we all head back to Somnus. You kids'll have to de-digivolve your Digimon, though. You should probably head back home, though."

"Who says I don't want to hang out with these guys. You're right though, I should probably head back home. It'll be kind of a boring night. Well, see you guys!" With that, AncientGarurumon flew off.

"Ugh, I was going to ask who he was," Nathan grimaced.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "Okay, kids, if you're going to all fit in my car, you're going to have to devolve your Digimon back to their in-training forms. You think you can do that?"

Nathan nodded. Steven was still suspicious. "Um, I'm not sure if I can."

"If you want to find your friend, you're probably going to need our help."

"How can you help me?"

"Simple, I have hackers at my disposal. They may be able to find who you're looking for."

Nathan slid the devolution card twice and so did Cody and Claire. Nathan then handed the card to Steven. "Just trust us."

On the way to Somnus, Claire was uncomfortable with Cody right next to her. She was on the right side of the truck while Cody was in the middle and Steven was on the other side. Each of them had their partners' in-training forms in their laps, Lunamon's was Moonmon, Veedramon's was DemiVeemon, Dracomon's was Babydmon, and Ginryumon's was Kyokyomon.

Claire just hoped that Cody would forgive her for what she did the day before and that the boy wouldn't turn into what then. In reality, Cody didn't remember a thing. Then there was Steven who hoped that he knew what he was doing.

It turned out that the red-head could trust the other kids and the one giving them orders. After they got to Somnus, they talked for a little bit while walking, though the guy was still on guard.

Then, they ran into someone unexpected upon opening the doors to the meeting room. A middle-aged Asian man was sitting down at the head of the table, eating some food with chopsticks. He had red hair and a goatee.

Upon seeing the kids walk in, the man got up and walked over to them.

"Mizuno?" Beckenstein asked, prompting a slight smile from the stranger.

"Why yes. I figured it would be time to meet the Tamers of Vegas. Now, which one of you is Diego Guevara?" the man asked.

"Uh, he's not here right now," Nathan said.

"And who might you be?"

"I'm Nathan Beckenstein. My partner is Dracomon, or Babydmon as he is now."

"Good to meet you," Mizuno shook the boy's hand.

"Nice to meet you too."

Mizuno then looked over the rest of the group and walked over to Steven. "You're Steven McClosky."
Steven was taken aback. "How did you know?"

"Somnus has been monitoring news reports for anything suspicious. You disappeared along with your brother after a massive explosion rocked several city blocks in Denver, Colorado. The force was far stronger than most Champion or Ultimate level Digimon."

Steven still had a look of shock on his face and Nathan was really surprised too, looking at the new guy in disbelief. "You can reach Ultimate?"

"No and none of us did, either. You see, my brother's partner… is far stronger than any Digimon I have ever come across."

That was about the time the door opened again and Eric walked in.

"Eric, what brings you here?" Johnny Beckenstein asked.

"Shibumi wanted me here."

"Wait, Shibumi?" Nathan asked and Mizuno raised his hand.

"That would be me. Well, Eric, it is good to finally meet you. My entire schedule has been filled up for quite awhile."

"What does he want with you?"

Eric was followed in by Gabumon, revealing who he was to the astonishment of the kids in the room. "What did I tell you about revealing your identity to the kids?" Beckenstein scolded.

"Hey, they were bound to find out sooner or later," the big guy responded with a smile on his face.

"As it is, with the type of threat that may be surfacing soon, we will need a unified team," Shibumi added.

"So, what's your brother's partner supposed to be, anyway?" Nathan asked Steven.

"Lucemon." While handing his squarish digivice over to Shibumi, Eric turned his head and looked straight in the guy's eyes.

"Please tell me you're joking."