Chapter 11: Lightning Strike

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

"Who do you think it was?" Claire asked as they surveyed the area. Lunamon was looking around as well, trying to find evidence of the new tamer.

"We have no way of knowing. There's nothing that could possibly give away the identity of this person."

"Maybe if we thought about it…"

"Speculation is pointless. The tamer either came by and had their digimon load the data of whatever digimon appeared here or…"

"Or, what? Simply took the egg?"

"That's a possibility. But why? It wouldn't make any sense."

"Maybe the person's trying to get together more Tamers."

"Maybe. Plotmon, did you recognize the digimon we saw when Beckenstein sent a tracer after it?"

"No, it didn't look like any species I've ever seen."

"I agree. It looked almost as if Guilmon and Veemon had a baby."
"Did you know about my species before meeting me?" Lunamon asked.

"To be honest, no. This proves there are many unknown digimon out there."

London, England, the previous morning…

The young man going up the elevator in the apartment building had brown hair and blue eyes, fairly light skin, a beak-like nose and freckles across his face. His clothing was a light-blue shirt underneath a leather jacket and a pair of gray trousers with far too many pockets. He had an orange digivice with a purple ring around the screen and next to him was a small, purple, beetle-like digimon.

He quickly got off the elevator, his partner digimon close behind, and walked to the door of the apartment where the tamer he wanted to talk to lived. Unfortunately, the tamer's sister, a sixteen-year-old black girl with long, wavy hair was the one that answered. "[Oh, great, it's another one of his friends]," the girl said in Spanish before speaking in English with a British accent. "Ricardo's just inside. I'm not sure if he'll be available, though, since one of his friends from America is here."

"I called him last night saying I will come," the boy responded in heavily accented English.

"Okay, come on in I guess." The girl led him through the almost immaculate house that was decorated with various pictures and mostly earth paint colors, and took him to the room her brother lived in, which wasn't nearly as well-kept as the rest of the house. The most normal thing about the bedroom was the bed in the far corner against the right wall and the dresser against the left wall. Other than that, there were numerous photographs on the wall, all linked in webs. Ricardo was talking to Steven about the various operations the Tamer's Brigade had been undergoing when the duo walked in. Ricardo met the dark-haired boy with a smile and introduced Steven to him.

"Dmitri, this is Steven, Steven, Dmitri."

"It a pleasure to meet you," Dmitri replied. "And this my partner, KoKabuterimon."

"KoKabuterimon, huh?" Steven asked while shaking Dmitri's hand. "That's an unusual digimon."

"True, it is. So, where are you from?"

"Russia."

"Yeah, Dmitri's one of the Russian Tamers we rescued a few months ago."

"You not British, are you?" Dmitri asked Steven.

"Nope, I'm American. To tell you the truth, I've never been to another country until Ricky's partner took me someplace the other day."

Dmitri nodded in understanding. "I have a cousin that lives in America. We haven't seen him in years, though."

"Yeah, it's a pretty big country."

"That's what I know. You don't happen to live in New Mexico, do you?"

"No, you're one state off. I was born in Connecticut and live in Colorado. I did meet a guy from there the other day; I believe his name was Cody."

"I don't know him."

"That's the only guy I know from New Mexico. I think my friend Nate was born in Massachusetts and my friend Broc was born in Denver."

Dmitri simply nodded. "Yes, my cousin taught me some English, just to say hello and have small talk. He went to Russia for a little bit a few years ago. He was raised speaking Russian."

"Yeah, I definitely don't know who he is. As far as I know, Nate's monolingual and his dad probably doesn't speak any other language or anything. Don't know anything about his mom. Broc's the same way. So, when are we going to find my bro?"

"Again, we need to find the location of that compound," Ricardo said, "We have no way of knowing where it is until my agent there responds."

"What if he doesn't?"

"I don't know. We attempted to interrogate a Somnus agent who tried to kidnap one of us one time… it didn't work. He had no idea other than that he was supposed to call some number and meet someone. We tried setting up a trap that way, but the person that we were supposed to meet didn't show. Sending an agent of the Brigade was a last resort."

"Let's just hope that it works and that he didn't get his brain sucked out by these guys."

"Those blokes don't know what they're dealing with. His partner digimon is in a safe spot, waiting until we get the call. Until then, we just have to train. So, Dmitri, you want to join the brigade?"

Dmitri nodded. "I figured it would be the best way to make a difference."

Ricardo agreed and pulled out a blue card. "Now, let's train." He slid the card, creating a Baalmon that had to crouch in order to fit in the room. The digimon then teleported them all out along with their partner digimon."

Pyongyang, Korea

It turns out that Al Qaeda wasn't the only group that attempted experiments involving the digital world that backfired. In fact, North Korean spies were the ones that gave the Islamic militants the information on the digital world in the first place. It didn't take long for the whole program to blow up in their faces as a squad of Vilemon came in through a dimensional rift caused by an experiment that the heads of state were watching and slaughtered everyone in reach. Even the Dictator of North Korea was there. The resulting backlash, causing a slew of Champion and Ultimate level digimon to come out of the hole, also caused South Korea to invade the north out of necessity. Now the country was united again, but at a horrible cost.

After getting whatever civilians they could out of the capital, the government in Seoul surrounded the city with landmines and declared it a no-man's land. Never mind that it was mainly the center of the city that was invaded. The Burmese, the Iranians, the Iraqis and numerous other developing nations also received the information from the North Koreans for such projects, but thankfully, most of them had sense to actually dismantle their programs. The ones that didn't ended up paying the consequences.

Steven had already had that talk the night before. It was near dark in Korea, though, which felt strange to the red-head. "So, what are we going to do?"

"Training. Most of the digimon in the area aren't very nice," the Colombian tamer commented, adjusting his sunglasses slightly. "This area has the highest rate of Ultimate-level bioemergences.

"So, have you ever used this teleportation feature to visit the guys in Japan?"

"A couple times, though it was real brief. It doesn't help that none of them speak English except for Jian Liang and Ruki.

"What is the mission?" Dmitri asked.

"Simple, we'll be rescuing some hostages. There's a family that didn't get out of this city in time and has been trapped here for months."

"That's sounds pretty scary," Steven commented.

"I know. Ready?" Steven and Dmitri both nodded along with their digimon. "All right, you should digivolve."

"Card Slash! Super Evolution Plug-in S!"

"Ryudamon digivolve to… Ginryumon!

"KoKabuterimon digivolve to… Blitzmon!"

Blitzmon was a large, armored humanoid digimon with blue and yellow armor. His shoulder pads, helmet and parts of his legs and chest were blue while the rest of his chest, parts of his arms and legs where yellow. In addition, there was gray armor in a few spots on his arms and chest. He also had a large horn on top, much like his lower form of KoKabuterimon.

Baalmon simply stayed at his level.

Then the team set forth.

It took awhile, but they reached the place where the hostages were being held. It was eerily quiet walking down the empty streets of Pyongyang, since absolutely no one was allowed there. Soon, they reached a building.

"This is it," Ricardo said. They're supposed to be on the top floor. Baalmon?"

Baalmon didn't respond, instead reacting to what Ricardo said and running up the walls. The digimon then broke into the side of the walls, and tore them off, throwing the piece of concrete down to the street below but at a comfortable distance from the Tamers. In response, the enemy digimon inside the building returned gunfire. Baalmon quickly disappeared and then the digimon, a squad of Commandramon, were all taken out. Baalmon then landed on the ground and picked up the Tamers and remaining digimon.

"Okay, I'm kind of curious. How come this guy didn't just bring us straight here?" Steven asked.

"He can't teleport to a place he hasn't been to. We have been to Korea in the past so that isn't a problem. That and we take pictures of wherever we go."

"Oh, okay. So you guys went to Afghanistan on your own?"

"No," Baalmon finally spoke. "I went by myself in the guise of a US intelligence officer. That was how I came here as well. When I found a good spot to teleport to, I just went back to England, grabbed Ricardo and took him there so he could snap photographs."

"Exactly," Ricardo said, supporting his partner, "You remember the pictures on the walls of my room, don't you?" Steven nodded. Dmitri moved on ahead, Blitzmon's bulk barely being supported on the concrete. However, as they turned the corner, Blitzmon jumped in front of his Tamer and took a few knives head on, sparking with electricity.

"Sealsdramon…" Ricardo indicated, his eyes narrowing with spite. He had encountered quite a few of the vicious champions in the past, so he knew what they were like.

"Let me get these guys. Ginryumon!"
"Got it!" Ginryumon ran around the corner and unleashed an attack. "Metal Armor Blade!" The dragon created a spear with his mouth and shot it forward, piercing the armor of several of the attacking Sealsdramon at once like a shish cabob. At the same time, Blitzmon had recovered from his injuries enough to strike a finishing blow to the squad. "Mjolnir Thunder!" he shouted, striking the ground with lightning and electrocuting the enemy, causing them to disintegrate.

"Good job," Ricardo commended.

"Eh, it was nothing. I'm sure Baalmon could have defeated them instantly." Dmitri nodded in agreement.

Baalmon headed forward. "The hostages are this way. At the same time, I sense an Ultimate level."

"You can take him on, right?" Steven asked.

"I should be able to… Actually, there are two of them."

"So prepare yourselves," Ricardo warned.

The team walked down the hall, Baalmon attempting to keep guard. Then, as soon as Baalmon turned the other way, he got struck with water.

"How good of you to come to the party…" The enemy digimon was one that Steven definitely didn't recognize. It was a skinny digimon with a beak on its face and a small amount of gray hair underneath what looked like a yarmulke. It was wearing a blue cape and had baggy dark blue pants on. On top of that, it was holding a massive weapon, a sort of staff with a crescent-shaped blade on one end and a type of gun barrel on the other end that it held with its long, skinny arms. Steven's digivice identified it as Sagomon, Ultimate Level, Virus Attribute.

When Baalmon got up, he steadied his knife and charged forward. Sagomon responded by blocking with the crescent blade on its staff. The two struck each other for a few seconds.

"Blitzmon, you should do something to help," Dmitri told his digimon.

"Same with you, Ginryumon!" Steven exclaimed.

Blitzmon nodded and moved forward, charging his hands with lightning. "Thor's Hammer!" he yelled, attacking Sogamon head on. The digimon was shocked by the attack since it had an element disadvantage, but wasn't damaged too much, though the distraction gave Baalmon the opportunity needed to strike him with his sword, slicing across his stomach and causing data to spray out.

Then Blitzmon attacked again, gathering lightning with the horn on his head and ramming Sogamon in the gut, all while shouting "Thunder Toppler!" That attack electrocuted Sogamon and caused him to disintegrate. Steven and Dmitri were surprised that the battle went so well.

"Baalmon…" Ricardo muttered. His partner digimon knew what to do without him saying and responded with a simple nod. Then the digimon created a disguise for himself that made him look like Sagomon.

"So, what is he doing?" Ginryumon asked.

"I think he's changing form to trick the Ultimate that's with the hostages," Steven replied.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," Ricardo confirmed. "You see, there's a chance that if the digimon finds out that his partner was defeated, he'll kill the hostages." This caused a look of fear to come on Steven's face as Baalmon went through the door to the next room.

"What we do now?" Dmitri asked.

Ricardo gestured towards the door to the room next to where the hostages were and the two other tamers followed him. Then they waited and after a couple seconds, the wall came in and Baalmon was attacking a small, purple, ball-like digimon with black eyes and a sword. Steven recognized it as it came crashing through but checked his digivice just to make sure. "Tekkamon, Ultimate Level, Virus Attribute."

"Steven, you go take the hostages out of this building while Dmitri and I take on Tekkamon," Ricardo ordered.

"Alright, got it!" Steven exclaimed, around the hall with Ginryumon while Tekkamon, Baalmon and Blitzmon went all out. He ran to the door that the hostages were behind and motioned to them to come to him. There were five of them, two adult males, one female, and two children, both girls. It also turned out that none of them spoke any English, only Korean.

The quintet followed him out the door and then to a stairway that Steven noticed along the way. The group ran out with Ginryumon tailing them and making sure there weren't any other enemies lurking about. Then they went into the streets.

Unfortunately for them, the fight ended up leaving the building when Baalmon flew out the side of it and into another, nearby edifice, breaking a window in the process. Then came Blitzmon, who managed to prevent himself from slamming into the other building by using his arms to shield himself.

"Blitzmon!" Steven heard Dmitri yell as the Russian ran out the building. Now Tekkamon was up there, ready to stab Blitzmon with a sword. "I must help him!" Dmitri said, fumbling through his cards.

"Ginryumon, help them."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm down here and the battle's up there!"

Blitzmon managed to tear a hole in the side of the building to give him somewhere to position himself, but was still at a massive disadvantage. Dmitri realized this and just about broke down, dropping his cards in the process.

"Dmitri! What's going one!"

"We all going to die and it my fault, can you not see?" Dmitri said.

Steven's look went from concerned to motivated. "It doesn't have to be that way. How'd you get a digimon partner anyway?"

"Simple, I created blue card and made digivice. Then I scanned all the data I could on digimon from fanfiction I read, about group of kid who went to the digital world and turned into digimon. My favorite was Blitzmon, so I scanned him. The entire story was in English, but I read every chapter. I learned many new words from it." Dmitri picked up one of his cards. "Then after that, I met partner. Unfortunately, the government got us. The rest is history. There no way I want anyone to suffer the same fate as us. So I join the Tamers' Brigade!" The card he was touching turned blue, much to Steven's astonishment. He didn't know what was going to happen next. Now though, he could only guess.

The red-head realized exactly what once he saw Dmitri sliding a blue card into his digivice. All he remembered of Impmon becoming Baalmon was that Ricardo scanned a special card and he reached that level, but didn't think much of it, just assuming that it was something from the card game. "[Card Slash! Matrix Evolution!]" he yelled out in his native Russian, causing his digivice to shine and then shoot forth light into the air. The light then hit Blitzmon and the blue beetle changed form into what looked like him crossed with a tank with a very similar color scheme.

Much like Blitzmon, Steven didn't recognize this digimon, so he used his digivice to view it. Bolgmon, Ultimate Level, Variable Attribute. His attacks are Ultimate Thunder and Electron Cannon.

"[Now, Bolgmon!]" Dmitri yelled and the beetle attacked, yelling out "Ultimate Thunder" and launching lightning shaped like a pair of balls attached to each other. Unfortunately, the attack missed.

"[Card Slash! High-speed plug-in B!]" Bolgmon was now far faster than he was before and when Tekkamon attacked him, unleashing a sword blast and then aiming at him with his skull. Bolgmon's speed allowed him to grab onto Tekkamon's head and hold him up to his cannon.

"Electron Cannon!" he yelled, engulfing the enemy digimon with a blast and disintegrating it.

"Thank you," Dmitri told Steven.

"No problem. That's what I like to do, cheer everyone up, even if I've got plenty of problems myself." Then Steven noticed something amiss. "Uh, where's Ricardo and all the hostages. On the other hand, where's Baalmon?"

"He took the hostages to safe place while we distracted Tekkamon." Bolgmon then came down from the building and Baalmon reappeared with Ricardo.

"Good work. It's good to finally have a Tamer at the Ultimate level before he actually joins the Brigade."
Steven smiled. "It must be. Now, when can I join?"

Ricardo looked him in the eye. "I believe that you can join as soon as you want to. Just keep in mind that you will have to train with another Tamer until you can reach the Ultimate Level on your own. I have just the person in mind, too. He's kind of a loner."

Steven nodded his head. "Alright. How soon can I meet him?"

Poland

Steven didn't know what to expect when the brigade met together. There were five of them, six including Dmitri, each from a different part of the world. That Steven could sit on such a meeting was an enormous privilege.

"I would like to introduce you to Steven McClosky and Dmitri Tartakovsky. These two were instrumental in helping with the hostage situation in Pyongyang," Ricardo said, glowingly. "Now I would like to introduce you to the Brigade. This is Gregor Schröder, from Germany," he pointed to a tall, spiky brown-haired guy with brown eyes, a pointed skin and a muscular frame.

"This is Arnold De Haven from Australia." Arnold was a short, guy with brown hair that covered one eye and in turn was covered by a black beanie. He had blue eyes and was wearing a white shirt and black trousers.

"Over here you have Olivia Bentley, from Manchester, England." Olivia had blond hair as well along with blue eyes. Her complexion was quite possibly the palest in the room, too.

"And that is…" Ricardo was just about to name off the final tamer, a black-haired boy from Argentina when a red-haired girl just barged in, followed by a yellow fox standing on its hind legs. The girl had her hair down and looked as if she had just woken up. That didn't mean that she wasn't wearing her normal clothes: a white shirt with a blue heart on it and a pair of blue-jeans.

"Sorry I'm late. Could you guys possibly choose a better time for a meeting than the middle of the night?"

"This is Ruki Makino from Japan and her partner is Renamon. You may remember her from the D-Reaper invasion," Ricardo explained.

"You know, this is an official meeting of the Tamer's brigade and last time I checked, you weren't a member," Gregor said. The brown-haired boy spoke in an American accent, surprisingly.

"Well, excuse me. Last time I checked, Ricardo told me that I could come. Besides, he invited me to this meeting." Violet eyes met Ricardo's brown ones. "So, how about you make me a member already. I could kick this guy off the council in a heartbeat."

"I thought you didn't want to be a member," Ricardo said.

"I figured that Asia could use better representation than this, especially if you want to get that one renegade tracked down."

"Renegade?" Steven inquired.

"Yes, there's a Tamer that's been causing all sorts of havoc lately. All we know about him is that his partner is a Keramon. It's quite messy, actually."

Steven nodded and smiled. "I'm sure we can beat him."

"That is, if we can find him. Of course, we still need to go through and check each city for Tamers. Now that the summer holidays are upon us, we can do just that. So, now we have Dmitri as a new recruit along with Steven. And all in favor of Ruki being a part of the council raise your hand." Everyone raised there's except for Gregor, who opposed, along with Dmitri and Steven, who didn't know whether they were supposed to vote or not. They actually weren't supposed to, so it was a good move on their parts.

"That settles it. Ruki Makino is now on the council. And another thing: Steven hasn't reached the Ultimate stage yet. Gregor, would you do the honors of training him?"
"Uh, I don't work with nobody, I'm sorry."

"All in favor, raise their hand…"

Before the others could raise their hands, Gregor interrupted. "Okay, okay, I'll do it. Sheesh. Just don't expect me to work with him afterwards."

"Excellent. And yet another thing: there are two tamers training in Afghanistan right now while Ibrahim is monitoring them. If anyone would like to volunteer to train them, raise their hand." The guy from Argentina, apparently named Eduardo Argyrós raised his hand along with the blond from Australia, Arnold. "Well, that settles everything for now. Remember, we need to start looking for other tamers. Also, Sean is still on his mission in California and may be calling for assistance any day now, so be prepared. Meeting adjourned."

A/N: Don't worry about remembering the characters at the end of the chapter. For the most part, they don't do much in this fic. In fact, with the exception of Gregor, I pretty much thought of them while writing this chapter.

Don't worry, things'll get back to Vegas soon, though even the next mini-arc won't take place entirely in the town due to the events that unfold real soon.