Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon

Flickering Flames

Partner. I'm here partner. My heart is always with you. You just need to find it.

Earlier:

"I'm going." Neo declared. Tai suddenly had the strange device on his hand, and caused the pink ball to change into a tall armored warrior who flew away.

"Right! Let's go!" Rei exclaimed.

"No." Both boys said instantly.

"Hideto, you stay here too."

Hideto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He responded.

A rumbling could be heard in the distance. Neo sighed. "Just stay behind me and don't get lost. Also get me my umbrella. It looks like a storm's coming."

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RODEO BULLET!

Tai jumped off WarGreymon's shoulder while yelling, "Charge!" WarGreymon quickly obeyed and flew straight into the bullet storms. The others flinched as WarGreymon narrowly avoided the explosive bullets.

"NO!" Kari screamed when she realized that the bullets were now heading towards Tai.

Before the bullets hit him, they curved and raced toward WarGreymon. While most of the others were relieved that Tai was safe, Izzy's mind started racing. How did he know that the bullets would follow WarGreymon? We didn't get any info on Callismon and he just got here as well!

WarGreymon stopped in front of Callismon and quickly swerved around the bear, causing Callismon to get hit by his own attack. The blast made Callismon stumble on his feet, allowing WarGreymon to land a few blows on him.

Callismon recovered and began to hit back with powerful blows. As fast as WarGreymon was, he couldn't fully avoid the punches and had to guard with his gauntlets until he could return a few hits of his own. WarGreymon was forced to move back.

While the other Digidestined watched the intense match, Matt glanced at Tai for a moment and saw him looking at something on his hand. It looked like a watch. "Now's not the time to check if the game's on! Matt thought as his attention snapped back to the fight when WarGreymon managed to hit Callismon in the face again, forcing the bear to stumble back a bit.

TERRA –

DEEP FOREST!

Callismon quickly shot a round into the ground, creating spikes which crashed into WarGreymon, disrupting his main attack. WarGreymon roared and slammed into Callismon pushing the two away deeper into the park. Tai stopped looking at the watch on his hand and faced the Digidestined. "Guys, get to safety." He yelled. "We'll hold him off while we can!"

The Digidestined quickly obeyed and brought their partners out of the danger zone. Tai then went and followed his partner. He fiddled with his watch, which appeared in his hand instead of his digivice. "Man, Izzy's going to have a field day with this thing." He chuckled. So far he easily figured out how to scan Digimon and obtain files of their data… but it didn't feel much like he figured it out, it felt more like he was remembering something that he had forgotten.

Tai thought about what he had seen while he was down. He didn't what to think about some of the things he had seen, but right now he remembered that this creature was dangerous. The Bearer of Courage managed to reached the brawl, and saw that WarGreymon wasn't in the greatest of conditions. His armor was dented and a couple of his claws had snapped off. Callismon's body bore many fresh cuts and stab wounds. Tai found a couple of WarGreymon's claws protruding out of the bear's flesh.

Both Digimon stood undaunted as rainwater soaked into their wounds. Tai scanned them both and saw that both of them were running low on health. With another strike of lightning, the two lunged at each other, starting another round of their brawl. Tai looked through Callismon's data, hoping to see some weakness WarGreymon could exploit. His attack is powerful, Tai noted, and his defense isn't bad either. Terra Force could finish him off, but everyone would be in danger if it misses.

An explosive round of the Rodeo Bullet made Tai stumble on his feet. When he looked back to his digivice, he found that the data had switched over to WarGreymon's data. Tai gave a groan of exasperation as he fiddled around with it to try to get back to Callismon's data.

DEEP FOREST!
MEGA CLAW!

The attack created cracks and spike all over the battlefield, causing the remaining trees to become uprooted.

"Stats, Hunger," Tai muttered as he tried to figure out the device in the rain. "These are useless! Uplinks, Attacks, Personality – Wait, Attacks? …Hmm that's new."

Time to take a gamble. "WARGREYMON!" He called to his partner. His words became lost in the noise of the battle. Tai went back to his digivice and entered some words into it and pointed it towards his partner. "Please let this work." He prayed. UPLINK!

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The Digidestined scrambled out of the park. They scurried to get out of the rain and found some refuge under an alcove. They could still hear the explosions coming from the park. The rain started to come down heavily, obscuring their view even further.

"Hey you guys!" A voice exclaimed.

They turned around and saw a guy holding an umbrella. He had white hair and wearing a t-shirt with peace signs on his sleeves. "Have you seen a girl in a wheelchair? Or a tall guy pushing her?"

"No…" Matt answered.

"How about a guy with tall hair and goggles?" The boy asked. Another explosion could be heard over the rain and thunder. "Um, nevermind." He said before rushing toward the sound.

"Hey wait!" Joe exclaimed, but the guy already headed into the park.

"Just who does he think he is?" Mimi sighed.

"We can't just let him go alone!" Joe pointed out. "He could be killed…. Or worse!"

"It's not like we can help him now." Yolie sighed.

"Come on guys!" Matt exclaimed hotly. "We're not losing anyone else today!" He entrusted Tsunomon to Kari and rushed out of the alcove.

"That includes you!" Sora growled as she pulled him back into the alcove.

Matt struggled but couldn't break free from her powerful grip. He squirmed a bit before relenting to her. "Fine." He sighed. Another blast came from the park demanding the Digidestined's attention, it attracted all of them except for Izzy. The Bearer of Knowledge was thinking over their random encounter with the boy, who didn't seem to have been surprised by the Digimon. Maybe... He thought.

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The plan seemed crazy, seemingly impossible, and cool. Not to mention he got the instructions uploaded directly into his head. Hehe, today was just full of excitement.

RODE BULLET!

Speaking of which…

WarGreymon narrowly dodged another round of the explosive bullets that devastated the trees behind him. They were getting weaker, but a direct hit would still be devastating. The dragon warrior took cover behind one of the many large spikes that resulted from their battle. Callismon lost sight of him because of the explosion. The bear gave an irritated growl and yelled at WarGreymon. "COME OUT YOU WEAKLING! I WON'T LOSE TO YOU LOT AGAIN!"

"Again? What's he talking about?" WarGreymon muttered. "What's wrong old man? Is Alzheimer kicking in already?" He taunted.

Callismon roared and started firing blindly.

RODEO BULLET! DEEP FOREST! RODEO BULLET!

Explosions detonated and swiftly decimated the remains of the park. WarGreymon heard a sharp squeal coming from a side of the park. He looked over and saw Rei and Hideto standing near the battlefield and Tai had a grim look on his face as well. Callismon also noticed the new arrivals, and a smirk grew on his face.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tai exclaimed, half hoping to draw attention away from them.

"We… got lost?" Hideto said sheepishly.

"How touching." Callismon growled. "The Gang's all together at last. I won't fail this time!" He roared as he aimed his gun at the human pair.

"NO!" WarGreymon exclaimed as he shot out of his cover to intercept the shot.

RODEO –

"REI!" A sharp voice intercepted. Callismon shifted his attention over to the source. Neo stood on the opposite side of the park. The bear digimon paused for a moment, his eyes widened. "What are you doing here?" He whimpered.

NOW! A message said in his mind. WarGreymon quickly charged and blindsided Callismon while he was distracted. "Who called for an airlift?" WarGreymon said as he lifted Callismon into the hectic skies. Thunder thrashed along with the bear, who roared indignantly. "LET GO!"

"IF YOU SAY SO!" The dragon warrior roared back as he chucked Callismon back down to the ground. The spikes on the ground pierced into the bear's flesh on impact, pinning him into the ground.

Above, WarGreymon poised himself above and raised his Dramon Destroyer. Though battered and cracked, the gauntlet shimmered with a warm orange energy. Blue sparks danced around the weapon like the lightning behind him. Then the dragon warrior descended down like rain, crashing down on the immobile Callismon.

WAR DRIVER!

Callismon shuddered as the attack struck him directly on the stomach. His data shook as it became more and more unstable. The bear gave one last look at WarGreymon and left a sinister chuckle. "You'll never be as strong as him." He growled weakly.

"Deamon will never see me coming." WarGreymon said between breaths.

"I never meant Deamon. The past can never be forgotten, it will always find you." Callismon gave a vicious chuckle as his body dissolved away, his data spreading in yellow pieces.

With the threat gone, WarGreymon gave a tired sigh and collapsed on to the ground, degenerating down to Koromon.

Tai quickly ran over and picked him up. "Good job buddy, you were awesome."

"Thanks." The in-training said. "…I did well, right?"

Tai smiled at his partner. "You're the best, buddy." He chuckled. Above them, a ray of light shone through the clouds, the rain had lightened up. "Come on let's go to the others, they must be getting worried by now."

"Right… I'll just sleep for now… I'm tired… tired..zzz." Tai tucked the little Digimon under his arm and looked around for the other three kids, but could not find them. "Maybe they left?" Tai thought as he raced to the last place where he saw his friends.

After a while he found them resting under an alcove. They cheered when they saw him.

"Where have you been?" Sora asked.

"I… got caught up in something." Tai said sheepishly. "So, did I miss anything important while I was out?"

Matt sighed and patted Tai's damp hair. "We'll fill you in as we go." He sighed and led the group to the long journey home.

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"So Callismon failed." Deamon sighed. "Oh well, he didn't really accomplish much the first time either, but at least he managed to capture the Bearer of Hope."

Deamon and his allies sat in a circle. Ken helped an irritant Tk in their cage. Tokomon slept in a smaller cage beside theirs.

Dagomon chuckled, playing with the six beads in around his neck. "Only one more and everything shall be ready."

"Indeed it might be." MarineDevimon agreed. "But what of the Digidestined? Could they really stand up to our might?"

"If they do we'll crush them!" SkullSatamon cheered. "Crush them into paste! HEE HEE HEE!"

"The Digidestined may be troublesome, as I've said, but more memories are returning to me with each moment. If most of them are true, then they'll tear themselves apart once the truth comes out."

"When do you think we can attack them again?" Dagomon asked.

"It might take a few days. Creating all of those portals at once took more from me than I expected." Deamon admitted. "All we can do is wait and watch until then."

"Sounds reasonable." MarineDevimon said.

"So who wants to hear a story?"

"NO!"

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Callismon's data floated in the ruins of the park. Neo hopped along the mud next to the fallen trees. "Rei! Hideto! Where are you?" He exclaimed. "Ugh, those two always find trouble." Neo passed through another cluster of data.

Neo reached the area were Callismon got deleted. He noticed some movement in the area. "Guys?" He asked out loud. Neo looked at the data flying towards the area, collecting into one spot. He waded through the mud and picked up the data cluster. In a flash of light, the cluster reformed into a pulsing black sphere. The pulsing grew rapidly until the sphere shattered again leaving something else in his gloved hand.

Neo looked at what remained and gave a small chuckle. "Heart huh?" He commented as he slipped the small black trinket into his pocket.

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The first arc of the story is DONE! Hope you guys have enjoyed this so far.

The next part will come as I plan it out.

Thanks to the people who faved and followed since last time,

and again thanks to:

Suntan140, Kojo208, Brendanmudk, and Kawaii123

for reviewing!

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