DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or any video games, books, films, TV shows or pieces of music referenced in this story. Original characters owned by me are stated in my profile.

Chapter Eleven: Eskimo Kisses

Wednesday 13th October - 3:45pm

Kirkfield Park

"It's this way!" Takato shouted and pointed to his right.

"We know, Gogglehead. It's not just your D-Arc that has a compass!" Rika replied as she and Henry ran to catch up with the brown-haired boy.

The three Tamers were heading for a Bio-emergence signal located in the middle of the forest in Kirkfield Park. According to their D-Arcs, the Digital Field was emitting an insanely powerful signal. Rika couldn't shake a nagging feeling that she had seen this signal before, but she couldn't remember where.

"Oh, no…" Henry groaned as they reached the emergence site to find an unremarkable patch of trees, not a wisp of fog in sight. "The Digital Field must have already dissipated! He could be anywhere by now."

"No, he's near. I can smell him," Guilmon growled, sniffing the air.

"Are you sure that's not just Henry's socks? They are pretty rancid!" Terriermon quipped from his seat on top of his Tamer's head.

"Terriermon…"

"Momentai! And wash your socks!"

"Are you quite finished?" Renamon asked as she phased into existence behind the bickering partners and grabbed the rabbit by the ears.

"Uh, yes?"

"Good. Guilmon, can you track him?"

"Um, I think so…" the saurian replied as he began to sniff at the floor cautiously, moving towards a small cluster of bushes nearby. "I think he's in there."

"What? That can't be right!" Takato exclaimed in confusion. "How could something so small be giving off so much power?"

"You've obviously forgotten that fight with Vilemon," Rika replied, her voice tense. "What I don't get is why something with so much power is hiding in the bushes."

"Maybe it's scared, or doesn't want to fight," Henry suggested, peering into the bushes.

"Yeah, right. And how many times has a Bio-emerging Digimon not tried to kill us all?" the redhead chuckled sarcastically.

"Um, actually there was this one Angemon who got lost on his way to the 'Eastern Quadrant', whatever that is…" Takato began, but was cut off by an incredulous look from Rika.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, he's telling the truth," Henry chipped in. "He was actually a really nice…"

The blue-haired boy suddenly stopped talking and took a step towards the bushes. What he had taken to be a pair of oddly-shaped leaves were actually a pair of large, green eyes staring out at him. The eyes blinked twice, then disappeared back into the plant.

"He's definitely in there - I just saw him!"

"Are you sure?" Terriermon asked his partner, jumping down to the ground.

"I'm sure - he looked right at me. All I could see was that he had these really big green eyes."

"This is getting weird. Why isn't he doing anything?" Takato complained.

"I don't like this…" Rika muttered, walking cautiously towards the bushes.

"Careful, Rika…" Renamon warned, following her Tamer closely.

"Rika?" a high-pitched voice squeaked from inside the bushes.

Wait a second, that sounded like…

"Eskimo Kisses!"

A long-eared white and purple…thing leapt from the bushes and attached itself to Rika's face. The Digimon began rubbing its face against the redhead's nose, causing her to yelp in shock and fall flat on her backside. The girl pried the creature off of her face, her eyes widening in recognition as she looked at her widely-smiling attacker.

"Calumon?"

"Rika!" the small Digimon squealed joyfully and broke free of the girl's grip, wrapping his little arms as far around her chest as he could.

"Okay…either that's the weirdest attack ever, or that thing just hugged Rika," Terriermon said slowly, his eyes widening and jaw dropping open in shock as the redhead returned the hug with a small smile. "That's it! I call mind control!"

"Terriermon…" Henry sighed, bending down and flicking the rabbit's right ear.

"Moment-OW! Hey, that hurt!" he replied, jumping back on to his Tamer's head when he realized that there wasn't going to be a fight. "Bad horsey! Bad!"

Meanwhile, Rika had managed to disentangle herself from Calumon and climb to her feet. The hyperactive Digimon looked at Terriermon curiously for a few seconds before breaking out in an enormous smile again.

"Hey, that looks like a good idea!" Calumon cried, extending his ears and floating up to land on Rika's head. Surprisingly, the girl didn't bother trying to remove him.

"Okay, I'm completely lost here!" Takato complained, looking from Rika to Calumon and back again. "I'm guessing you know this guy?"

"This is Calumon. He used to live with Jeri and Leomon and always hung around with them back in Japan," she replied and frowned, looking up at the purple and white Digimon who was currently doing a handstand on her head. "Which reminds me - what the hell are you doing here?"

"Oooh, I know that one! Everyone else was busy, so I was trying to find someone to play with when a mean monkey and a scary dog put me in a cage and took me to the Digital World, but I escaped and ran away! Then I found a milkshake tree, but I got picked up by a funny-looking data stream before I could pick any and it threw me out here."

"That's…odd," Henry muttered and shook his head. "What's a data stream?"

"A big pink beam of light that makes you go to places," Calumon replied, flying off of Rika's head towards Guilmon. "Hi there, what's your name?"

"I'm Guilmon," the dinosaur replied happily and giggled as the smaller Digimon leapt onto his head.

"Wow, your head sure is comfy!"

The two Digimon ran off into the woods, laughing and playing like children. Takato quickly shouted to his partner telling him not to go far and sighed in exasperation when the saurian failed to reply.

"Peas in a pod…" Terriermon grinned at the boy's irritation.

"So, what are we going to do about Calumon?" Henry asked, continuing when he saw his fellow Tamers' confused looks. "I mean, he's going to need a place to stay and stuff - and before you suggest it, my house isn't an option. It's way too crowded already."

"He'll stay wherever he wants to," Rika smirked. "When he was in Japan he only stayed at Jeri's house one night out of every three. Damn, that reminds me - I'll need to get in touch with her and tell her where the little cream puff is. She'll be worried sick."

"I just realized something…" the blue-haired Tamer said, a look of confusion passing across his face. "Why was Calumon speaking in English if he's from Japan? Well, I know he's not from Japan, but you know what I mean…"

"That's…you have a point. Calumon always spoke Japanese when he was in Japan, I wonder how…ah, damn it - I know what this is," the girl sighed and shook her head. "Back in Japan there's an organization called HYPNOS that monitors Digimon activity and helps the Tamers out wherever it can. Their top computer nerds wrote some extra code for our D-Arcs and did research into Digimon physiology. When I left they were said they had discovered a 'Babel Program' embedded in a Digi-core that allowed Digimon to speak the language of whatever country they emerge in. Apparently it doesn't work for partner Digimon, but they don't know w-"

"Uh, guys?" Terriermon interrupted in a nervous voice. "We have a problem…"

The redhead growled in irritation and turned to berate the rabbit-like Digimon, but froze when she saw the source of his worry.

Stood at the edge of the patch of trees, staring straight at Renamon, was Janyuu Wong.

"D-dad?" Henry stammered as his father took a cautious step forward.

"She's…that's impossible…" the man mumbled as he took another step forward. "You're a Digimon, but that's not…you can't be real!"

"Dad, I can explain," the boy started to say as he intercepted his father.

"Henry, I think he's out of it…" Terriermon whispered in his Tamer's ear, drawing Janyuu's attention.

"You're…you're alive? But you're just a doll…Suzie dresses you in tutus and makes you have dinner parties! You can't be alive!"

Rika chuckled at the rabbit's discomfort. "What's the matter Princess Pretty Pants? Don't you like being Suzie's little Barbie doll?"

"I don't…this is…this is…" Janyuu sighed and shook his head as he sat down heavily on a log. "This is WONDERFUL!"

"Gah!" Takato yelped, nearly jumping out of his skin at the man's joyous cheer.

"I can't believe it! You're alive! True Artificial Intelligence! If we had only known where all our work would lead all those years ago…oh, I remember when Renamon was just a sketch in Shibumi's notebook - he would be so happy if he could see this!" he ranted, leaving his audience confused.

"Wait a second, did you say 'Shibumi'?" Rika interrupted with a frown, continuing when Janyuu nodded. "Are you…Tao?"

"Wow, nobody has called me that in…a long time. It's Rika, right? Where did you hear that name?" the man asked, calming down slightly.

"Mr Mizuno…erm, Shibumi mentioned it to m-"

"He's AWAKE?" Janyuu shouted and leapt to his feet, grabbing Rika by the shoulders. "When did he get out of the coma?"

"I…I don't know," the girl replied, stopping her reflexive kick to the man's groin with an inhuman effort. "Would you please let go of me?"

"Oh, sorry," he replied and released the girl. "Last I heard Shibumi was in a coma after a car crash. I never heard that he'd woken up…"

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?" Terriermon shouted from atop his Tamer's head. "Who is Shibumi, what do you mean by 'all your work' and why aren't you running and screaming like a normal person?"

"Terriermon…"

"Oh, would you just MOMENTAI ALREADY? I know you were thinking the same thing!"

"Uh, I'm with Terriermon on this one," Takato said, scratching his head in confusion. "What were you two talking about?"

"You might want to sit down - this could take a little while to explain," the man advised, motioning towards the log he had been sat on himself. When the children were sat down, he began to talk.

"When I was in college back in the eighties, I was part of a group called the Monster Makers. There were six of us - Me, Shibumi, Babel, Dolphin, Daisy and Curly. We were working on a project sponsored by a large software firm to create Artificial Intelligence. What we made exceeded everybody's greatest expectations - our creations were capable of social interaction, they developed personalities, made friends and enemies - basically, it was a huge success."

"I sense a 'but' coming here…" Terriermon joked, earning him a knuckle-rap to the head from his Tamer.

"But," Janyuu said with a grin. "We lost our funding and the project was abandoned when one of the sponsor companies went bust. A children's entertainment company found our old production notes and drawings and turned it into a worldwide franchise."

"Wait, you can't possibly mean that…" Henry gasped as he joined the dots in his head, staring at his father with wide eyes.

"Yes, I do. I, along with the other Monster Makers, am the original creator of Digimon."

"I…whoa…" the blue-haired boy mumbled, shaking his head in wonderment.

"So, you're the one to blame for my tiny little arms and legs! Just how the hell are me and Henry meant to kick butt when I'm only two feet tall? No wonder Airdramon wiped the floor with me…" Terriermon exclaimed in mock anger.

"Terriermon!"

"Kick…Henry, have you been using Terriermon to fight?" the man gasped, shock and outrage plastered across his face.

"No, dad it's not like tha-"

"After I tried so hard to teach you that violence wasn't the answer, that you could always find a way to talk through your proble-"

"So that's where he gets it from," Rika interrupted with a smirk. "Mr. Wong, I've lost count of the number of times Henry has gone on about that stuff - usually at the worst possible time."

"Yeah, Rika's right!" Takato piped up, shooting Henry an encouraging grin. "Henry really doesn't like to fight - before Rika showed up the only reason he did it was so that I wouldn't get eaten alive by the first Digimon that appeared! He must have saved my life about a dozen times."

"Look, dad, it's not like we go looking for these fights," the half-Chinese Tamer added. "When a Digimon Bio-emerges, they usually attack us straight away and we have no choice but to fight. If we didn't stop them, they'd kill dozens, maybe even hundreds of people before someone else took them down."

"I…this is a lot to take in…" Janyuu sighed, rubbing his temples to ease his growing headache. "I'm gonna take a walk, think about this for a while."

"Um, Mr. Wong?" Takato said nervously. "Would you mind not telling my parents about this? My mum would freak if she knew about Guilmon…"

"I assume that's your partner? Where is he?"

"He's…around," the boy shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"I see…and don't worry, I won't say anything about this to anyone. They'd probably throw me in a mental hospital if I did anyway!"

"Oh, T-er, Mr. Wong? You might want to know that Shibumi, Dolphin and Babel have been trying to contact you and the other Monster Makers. They need help with finding a solution to the Digimon attacks." Rika called as the man began to walk away.

"Thank you, I'll look into that. Do you know how I might get in touch with them?"

"You just need to call the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and ask to be put through to Marilyn on Floor 29, Section Delta. Sorry, I don't know the number."

"Marilyn, eh? Oh, Dolphin - you and Marilyn Monroe…" Janyuu muttered with a grin. "And don't worry, I can Google the number."

As the man walked away, Henry breathed a long sigh and slumped to the ground, almost unseating Terriermon as he did so.

"That was…" the Tamer began, trailing off as he struggled to find a word to describe the last few minutes.

"Unexpected?" Renamon suggested with a tiny smirk, disappearing into thin air a second later.

"Where's she going?" Terriermon asked with a frown.

"To keep an eye on Dino-boy and the cream puff," Rika replied and rolled her eyes. "She'll make sure nobody else finds out our little secret today."

"I don't…I mean I…I can't believe my dad…" Henry stammered, shaking his head slowly.

"Hey, I just realized something," Takato said slowly, scratching the back of his neck. "Digimon is a massive success, so if your dad created it then why aren't you rolling in money?"

"Who knows? Probably some legal technicality or something," the blue-haired boy suggested absent-mindedly. "Don't you just love lawyers?"

"WHAT?" Terriermon shrieked in outrage. "That's not fair! I wanna live in a mansion with a…a fifty-foot swimming pool! And an Alienware computer! And a team of chefs cooking delicious meals 24/7…And a chocolate fountain…And a Ferrari cake…"

"And he's out of it," Henry smirked as a far-away look entered his partner's eyes and the rabbit began drooling uncontrollably.

Nonaka Residence - 9:34pm

Rika breathed a sigh of relief as Calumon finally nodded off. She had spent over half an hour trying to get the little cream puff to stay quiet and go to sleep. Why did he have to insist on staying at my house? There's no way I can keep him hidden for ever! the redhead thought bitterly as she picked up her mobile phone and dialled the number for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

["Tokyo Metropo-"]

"I need to speak to Marilyn, Floor 29, Section Delta," the Tamer interrupted in a whisper, growling quietly in frustration as she was put on hold.

["Yamaki here, who is this?"] a man's voice grumbled down the phone.

Wow, it's gotta be, like 6:30am over there! He really is a workaholic.

"It's Rika. I thought you might want to know that I've found another one of the Monster Makers - Janyuu Wong. He should be calling you tonight, or this morning or whatever it is for you."

["I know, he already called. 'Tao' has already agreed to assist us with our work."]

Wow, that's some fast thinking… "Good. There was one other thing - you wouldn't happen to be looking for Calumon, would you?"

["How did you…?"]

"He Bio-emerged a few hundred metres away from my house. He said something about being kidnapped by a monkey and a dog."

["Oh, you have got to be kidding me…"] the man muttered down the phone and sighed.

"Yamaki…" Rika growled, recognizing the blonde-haired man's 'Oops…' voice. "What did you do?"

["Jeri, Kazu and Kenta entered a portal to the Digital World three days ago. They were going to rescue Calumon."]

"Then why don't you just get them back?"

["We…can't…"]

"WHAT?" the girl hissed, fighting to stop herself from shouting down the phone. "You're telling me you sent Jeri to the Digital World with no way back and only the Dimwit Duo for backup?"

["Actually, Akiyama Ryo went as w-"]

"Are you insane? That's even worse! Now the city is defenseless!"

["I am fully aware of the implications - and believe me, this was not my idea. Jeri, Kazu and Kenta left without telling anyone. When he realized what had happened, Ryo went after them. At least he was kind enough to tell us where he was going first."]

"This is…it's like a bad joke…" Rika groaned and shook her head. "You had better find a way to get them back, or I will ride Kyubimon all the way back to Japan and throw you down that portal myself! You got that?"

The redhead hung up the phone before Yamaki could answer and slumped onto her futon, being careful not to disturb the sleeping form of Calumon. With another quiet groan she let her hair down, rolled him over gently and slipped under the covers beside the little cream puff.

"Renamon, if he snores…"

"I will make sure he does not."