Once more, it's back to the tamer's universe. I have to keep it balanced in order to keep the time lines lined up, after all. That way, when everyone meets up once again, they will be in sync. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
The powerful kick connected with the skeletal creature, the force knocking SkullSatamon across the rugged landscape and causing the lower-leveled digimon that watched from the shadows to finally flee permanently. The viral ultimate seemed shocked by both the transformation and unexpected strength of Justimon. He did, however, recover quickly, rolling to his feet in a series of dry clicks.
"Fascinating," he chuckled. "But do not assume victory is yours yet." Twirling his staff around and swinging towards the mega, he cried, "Skull Hammer!"
Justimon responded to the approaching threat by raising his right, robotic arm that transformed and formed an energy blade that moved to meet the staff, "Voltage Blade!"
As the two attacks connected and stopped the other, DemiDevimon cackled in impressed glee. When Justimon moved further towards SkullSatamon and grabbed hold of the deadly-looking staff, the bat's excitement only increased.
"Take him out," the rookie cheered. "Destroy him with his own walking stick."
"Never shall I allow it," stated the ultimate in his raspy voice. "My power shall not become your strength," he declared as he shoved his opponent away.
"Nope, it'll be mine," sneered the rookie.
The red and black skeleton stared at the small virus for a moment before chuckling dryly, "So that is your plan. I see. You have a great deal of confidence and ego to try such a thing. Still, I will not give way. Your prize shall not be easily won."
"Won't it?" asked Justimon as he leapt into the air and his right arm enlarged. As his larger, robotic fist slammed into the ground, he announced, "Thunderclap!"
Shockwaves radiated out from the impact point, cracking stone and upturning rock. The brittle, leafless tree that clung to the rough surface uprooted and fell. When it reached SkullSatamon, the viral ultimate was knocked flying back until he landed in a painful-looking heap. He stayed still for a few seconds.
Then, with surprising speed still at his disposal, the skeletal digimon sat up and pointed his staff at the mega with a cry of "Bone Blaster!"
The silvery humanoid rolled out of the attack's path, red scarf trailing behind, and raised his own arm, "Justice Burst!"
Like orbs of blue lightning, he fired powerful energy bursts that caught SkullSatamon in the ribcage. With a dry, raspy, but surprisingly loud scream, the ultimate began to come apart. As he did in the past, DemiDevimon dove into the cloud of dissolving data. The dying creature turned his skull towards the bat and grinned in resignation.
"Congratulation, cowardly plotter, on using others to bring your power. I know you will not live long to enjoy your prize. Those who reach too far for great, potential power are likely to take too many risks and fall."
"No, I've planned it all out," muttered the rookie. "Nothing will stop me."
"We'll see," sighed the ultimate before vanishing completely.
"What was he talking about earlier?" asked Justimon. "What did he think you're planning?"
Blinking his yellow eyes in surprise, DemiDevimon took a moment to answer. Even then, his voice sounded falsely cheerful and forced. It gave the mega further unease about the small digimon.
"Don't worry about what that crazy bag of bones said. It was nothing important. The important thing is that we have only one more target before we're ready. You know, to gain revenge against those traitors that killed you and weakened me."
Very, very slowly, the vaccine nodded, "Alright. Where are we going next?"
"We're looking for Puppetmon, who is likely in the forest level. If we go back the way we came…"
The mega grabbed the viral rookie and leapt across the landscape, "To the cave, then."
The tower was tall and strong, allowing the princess to overlook her kingdom. Her window opened out to face the great ocean that bordered her homeland. Her palace stood upon the shores, impressive in design and structure and overshadowing anything else in the area. The castle's ruler, princess of all she surveyed, felt a great sense of pride at what she saw. Nothing could compare with her castle…
Calumon tripped and fell over part of the sand castle, crushing the section beneath the in-training's weight. Princess Suzie swiftly became Suzie Wong again as her kingdom crumbled back into grainy particles. The tiny white creature glanced up towards her as his ears shrank down.
"Sorry," he frowned.
"That's okay," the girl smiled as Lopmon helped him up. "We'll make another one. And it'll be even bigger and better. With more towers and a wall awound it."
"And bakery with yummy goodies?" asked the former Catalyst. "And a really tall building where Yamaki, Riley, and other people do boring stuff all day?"
The young girl laughed, "It's a castle, silly. Not a city." She grabbed a handful of sand and began her reconstruction, "They don't have offices, subways, apartments, or school. They have kings, queens, knights in shining armor like Gallantmon, and horses. And, of course, pwetty pwincesses in dwesses."
"But what will Yamaki and Riley do? The stare at computer screens all day. What would they do in a castle?"
She thought for a moment before declaring, "They could be Woyal Bodyguards! If someone is gwumpy or mean, Mr. Yamaki can glare at them thwough his sunglasses until they get scared away. Then, he and Miss Wiley can watch you, Calumon. You can be the Woyal Jester."
"What's a Royal Jester?" questioned the small digimon.
The tamer shrugged, "Someone who makes people laugh, have fun, and be happy. And they wear a funny hat with bells."
"Yay! Ding-dong, jingle-jingle," Calumon cheered, his ears expanding to their full size. "Ding-dong, ding-dong, jingle-jangle-jingle."
She giggled at the hyper-active antics and glanced at her calmer partner. Lopmon might try to be all grown-up and mature, but the grayish-brown and pink rabbit smiled faintly at the in-training currently pretending to be wearing a hat that rang with each step. Even her big brother, Henry, wouldn't be able to act completely serious when Calumon was around. The little guy was just fun to be near.
Suddenly, Suzie noticed that Lopmon's gaze was on something behind her. The girl turned and looked down the shoreline. Yamaki was still there, were he'd been flicking his lighter while acting serious and boring. But he wasn't alone anymore. The hooded figure, Destiny, was now there. In addition, she could see Kenta and his pink partner.
"Hey, more friends," announced Calumon as he caught sight of the arrivals before gliding towards them excitedly.
Smiling, the young tamer picked up her partner and followed after the creampuff-loving digimon. While Yamaki's expression (as much as could be seen around his dark sunglasses) was grave, the white digimon joined the adult with eager anticipation for whatever might occur. MarineAngemon circled the in-training for a moment, looking equally excited to see him, before flying towards the running child and rabbit.
"Pi-pi-puh pii," the mega coaxed.
While she didn't actually understand the pink creature's words, his insistent gesture and a quick movements gave her the impression that he was trying to convince her to hurry up.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," she replied, carrying her rookie in her arms still.
"Hello, young one," greeted Destiny when Suzie finally joined the group. "I see you are well. I hope you've enjoyed your short break from the challenges, even if you did not expect to have it."
"It was fun," the child nodded. "But Wyo was supposed to be here. You said we would find him."
"And you shall," assured the cloaked figure. "Though you do not realize it, you will be having to find that he is lost in more than one sense. But in order to help him, there are other things you must be ready for."
"Like how some new, tough, evil opponent that will be showing up soon for us to stop," interrupted Kenta. "Of course, she didn't mention that before we started the rescue mission."
"So, in addition to locating and retrieving Ryo Akiyama, we must now defeat a presumably powerful enemy with a mere fraction of our forces," summarized Yamaki.
"Do not fear," Destiny instructed. "I bring more than ill tidings." She reached into her dark cloak and pulled out two white rectangles dangling on pair of thin golden chains. Suzie vaguely noticed that Kenta wore one of these odd necklaces around his neck already. When the young tamer was handed one, she immediately placed it around her neck. Yamaki, on the other hand, studied the blank surface for a few moments while Calumon stared in fascination from his perch on his partner's head. "I bring gifts to aid in your mission."
"Gifts? Is this because yesterday was my pawty?" asked Suzie. "I told Daddy I'd open the pwesents later."
"This is not a birthday present. Instead, it is a tool to be wielded responsibly, in order to help you in your endeavors," the cloaked being clarified.
Once again, Kenta interrupted, "They're crests. She's giving us crests."
"Like the cartoon?" questioned Suzie, blinking in surprise. "I saw some of them. They got the sky wrong and didn't have any pink lights at all. And the D-awcs looked funny."
"They made the show before they really had the chance to learn about the digital world," the glasses-wearing tamer explained. "It's made up. But apparently 'crests' are real."
"Oh, neat," smiled Calumon. "Those crests are really cool. Um… what's a crest?"
Kenta drew himself to his full height and adopted a lecturing tone that would have impressed his teacher, "A crest is an item of power from the television show that drew on the inner strength of the human partner based on one of their most prominent positive traits. Like brave Tai was Courage, compassionate Sora was Love, dependable Joe was Reliability, and smart Izzy was Knowledge. According to her," he pointed towards Destiny, "ours are different traits than those on the show. Which means it won't be Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Sincerity, Reliability, Hope, Kindness, or Light. In the show, the crests let their digimon reach the ultimate level."
"But Lopmon can alweady turn into Antylamon," reminded Suzie. "With a blue card. Why would we need a cwest, then?"
"An item of power is far more versatile than you think," Destiny remarked. "When the time comes, you will discover their purpose." Taking a step back from the tamers and digimon, she added, "Ask Floramon to point you towards the site of their old home and go there to find friends and enemies alike. And remember this. Victory shall be delivered by the one you least expect."
She took another step back and opened a portal, quickly vanished from view. The group stared for a moment at the earlier occupied space. Then, the children and digimon shrugged it off. The fact she did this fairly often diminished the shock factor. Yamaki, with less experience at the impossible, took a little longer to get past the disappearing act.
Suzie glanced up at the adult tamer, "Aren't you going to put on your cwest, Mr. Yamaki?" She grabbed hold of her white rectangle, "It goes awound your neck, like this."
The man stared at her for a moment before sighing, shaking his head slightly, and following her and Kenta's example. He slid the golden chain over his head, knocking Calumon off his usual perch in the process, and allowed the crest to rest next to his tie.
Nodding in satisfaction, Suzie turned her attention back to her own rectangle. On the show, crests weren't shaped like cards and they had funny pictures on it. Maybe it was just another thing that was different on T.V. than in real life.
"You're knowledge of the television show is proving to be useful, Kenta," Lopmon commented. "I don't think Rika will refer to your obsession as childish anymore."
The boy grinned, "When we get home, all of you are coming over to watch them. I have all the episodes and I intend to properly educate you. Crests, Dark Masters, Digi-Eggs, and DNA digivolving. We'll cover everything."
"Oh boy, cartoons," cheered Calumon.
It was humiliating, annoying, and boring. The pace was agonizingly slow and they seemed to have no real sense of fun, but Behemoth went along with it. Being left alone in the forest wasn't much of a better option either. It preferred the open spaces which gave it plenty of room to race and terrorize the digital world. There might be more digimon available to possess on the forest level, but it could still end up alone and abandoned in the vegetative, constricting, entangling mess for a long time if the tamer with too little intelligence to be sensible and leave it. Given the choice between solitude for an indefinite amount of time and remaining with Kazu, the motorcycle felt it was better to be a "good, little, demonic bike."
"And then, all the beautiful girls in the room stared in adoration as I played with the Power card and my WarGreymon took out his final defense," the boy bragged. "And that's how I won that contest about three months ago."
"I thought Rika said you lost that contest in the preliminary round," remarked Guardromon.
"She must have been thinking of another one."
Behemoth was beginning to wonder if being left to rust in the smothering, shadowy, enclosing forest alone might have been the better choice, however. The tamer never stopped talking and, with the hat-wearing youth riding it, the sentient vehicle could hear every, single, bragging story he came up with. Honestly, the unending stream of unbelievable tales made the bike question how the robotic champion could still be sane.
The demonic motorcycle gave a bored rumble. The unexpected sound caused the boy to pause in his current conversation and tighten his grip on the handlebars uneasily. The bike would have smiled if it had the mouth to do so. At least he still feared the vehicle. It honestly wondered why Kazu decided to climb back on. Did he have a death wish? Was he truly crazy?
It was confusing. The tamer even said leaving Behemoth would be the wise thing to do. He was obviously paralyzingly scared the sentient vehicle would repeat his earlier insanely fast ride. But that didn't stop him from bringing it. Maybe his crazy actions were related to his earlier comment about Beelzemon joining the tamers. Because of that simple fact, Kazu tried to ride it originally. Did them sharing an ally (supposedly) mean that Behemoth wasn't supposed to terrorize the tamer?
It followed the viral mega after their initial meeting because the dark digimon possessed a hunger for destruction, chaos, and power that rivaled its own. In fact, there had been no reason to control Beelzemon's mind even if it wanted to. The red-eyed demon already acted like his thoughts were consumed with acts of violence. They were made for each other.
But if he truly changed, as Kazu claimed, would he still have that evil streak that appealed to Behemoth originally? Likely not or else the annoying tamer would be dead. And if Beelzemon was different now, should it even bother trying to find him? Did it even want him back as a rider if he no longer wished to race across the countryside at high speeds?
Surprisingly, the sentient vehicle realized it did. It liked the viral mega. It didn't want to find another rider to terrorize the digital world. Behemoth would stay with Beelzemon, even if he no longer sought to terrify and destroy everyone around him. Turns out, the bike did feel a sense of loyalty towards the dark digimon.
Loyalty. Was that why Kazu decided to bring him along? Because he was loyal to his friends and now he and Behemoth shared a common friend? Did that mean the tamer was loyal to the motorcycle and vice versa? That actually made some sense.
"Oh, goodie," a voice chuckled cheerfully from above. "Some new toys to break."
Dropping out of the trees was a vaguely humanoid-shaped digimon that seemed to be made entirely out of wood. On his back was a large X-shaped piece of wood that had strings connecting the four ends to his feet and his white-gloved hands. He wore a bright red hat and his nose was long and pointed. In his grip was what looked like a combination of a hammer and a revolver. The digimon wasn't as tall as some of his brethren, but the motorcycle could sense that creature's power was that of a mega. Behemoth's engine rumbled uneasily, cautious of the strange, powerful being.
"Wait a minute, I remember this guy from the show," exclaimed an excited Kazu as he dragged out his brown-ringed D-arc. "Puppetmon. A virus type mega digimon. His Puppet Pummel will show you this guy's not toying around," he read from the holographic screen before glancing back up. "I can't believe I'm facing one of the four Dark Masters. That is too awesome. Wait until I tell Kent-hey, give that back!"
During the tamer's ecstatic babble, the wooden mega grabbed one of his strings, swung it through the air, and snagged his D-arc. Now, with a mischievous grin upon his face, the living marionette addressed the boy.
"Look at how shiny and nice this is. I wonder if it'll break if I smash it with a hammer."
"Unhand that, you manner-less cur," demanded Guardromon.
"Make me," the mega shot back. "This game is called 'Keep Away.' If I get away, I get to keep it. Doesn't that sound fun?"
Laughing childish, he leapt into the treetops and vanished from easy sight. Behemoth, on the other hand could tell which way the troublesome creature was moving. With a deep growl, it began edging forward. If the stupid kid was going to be loyal to it, the bike intended to return the favor. Besides, going after the pest had to be more fun than what it had been doing earlier.
Glancing down at the demonic vehicle, Kazu seemed to understand the unspoken request this time. He tightened his grip and braced himself.
"Shut up, Rika," the boy muttered softly, adding further evidence to Behemoth's belief in the tamer's insanity. In a louder voice, he instructed, "Guardromon, follow me as fast as you can. Behemoth…"
At its name, the sentient motorcycle took off at high speed towards the fleeing Puppetmon. Trees, roots, bushes, and a nervous passenger limited the velocity it could achieve, but the bike was still racing as the robotic champion flew after.
The last time that we saw the bike's viewpoint, all of you seemed to enjoy it. So here is another sample of that. And I also included Suzie's views as well. Both she and Behemoth have interesting ideas on the world.
I've also included some more clues on what some of their crests will turn out to be. One is more obvious than the others. Your guesses are welcome. In fact, any type of feedback is greatly appreciated. Hope you liked it.