Reunion
"Wh-what?!"
Henry jumped out of bed, quickly glancing at the alarm next to him. Having confirmed Terriermon wasn't playing tricks on him he dashed out of his room into an accelerated version of his morning routine. Needless to say Terriermon didn't help his situation, as he positioned himself in awkward parts of the hallway, determined to delay Henry as he rushes between bedroom and bathroom.
"Honestly, Henry, moumantai!" Terriermon goaded, as Henry sped out of the bathroom half shaved. "Just because you're a few minutes late doesn't mean the others are going to turn on you."
"They may not turn on me, but it's still rude to turn up late when we organised this weeks ago," Henry explained as he took off his shirt again, realising it was worn the wrong way round. "In any case some of us need more time in the morning to make ourselves presentable."
"I don't see the problem, I'm sure they won't mind if you appear a bit scruffy. Unless you were trying to impress someone," Terriermon had a scheming little glint in his eye, "So who is it? Could it be the innocent Jeri Katou? Or maybe you're a glutton for punishment and pushing for Rika."
For some strange reason Henry began to blush, though he couldn't remember why, "Yeah they're cute and all, but I don't see them that way, it'd get too weird. Besides, they have other people vying for their affections."
Before Terriermon could respond there was a knock on the door, and standing in the doorway stood a chocolate version of Terriermon, except with three horns and pink highlights. Next to Lopmon stood a girl in off-pink trousers and a Chinese blouse. She wore her hair in two small buns and was currently scowling at her brother for taking his time.
"Henryyyyyyyy," Suzy started, "If you don't get a move on we're going to miss the train, and we'll be even later after that to meet the others!"
"Relax, Suzy," Terriermon replied, "I'm sure your 'fwiends' are gonna still be at the park when we get there."
"Hey, I was 9 years old at the time, and r's were really hard to pronounce!" Suzy puffed out her cheeks in irritation.
"Now now, Suzy, Terriermon was only teasing," Lopmon said calmingly, "Though we really should get a move on."
"I know, I know." With one final check of his hair, Henry was finally ready to step into the open world. "Okay guys, let's go. If we hurry we might be able to catch the train on time!"
After a frantic dash to the train station, the Wong gang jumped onto the first train in the nick of time, and soon arrived at the park only a couple of minutes late. Once they caught their breaths back they walked over to Guilmon's hideout, where they saw the rest of the Digimon Tamers.
"Henry Wong, late for a Tamers get together? The world must be ending!" Kazu joked. He was one of the taller boys of the group, yet always wore the same cap, even from 3 years ago.
"Really?! Then we should get you to safety Kazu! Though I don't know how to protect you from the end of the world…" Guardromon, Kazu's partner, started to panic. A bulky robot digimon seemingly made up of steam engine parts, Guardromon started to look around for a suitable place to shelter his Tamer from the coming Apocalypse.
"It's a phrase, nimrod. Honestly, has anything I taught you over the last couple of years sunk in?" Kazu sighed at the social ineptitude of his partner.
"You can't really talk Kazu, you only just got here a couple of seconds before Henry and Suzy did," Kenta pointed out. He was a bespectacled boy, around Henry's height, wearing a rather smart short sleeve shirt for such an informal outing. His partner, MarineAngemon, was floating around his head. He was a tiny winged pixie-like digimon, with heart on his chest and wearing a gold collar and a permanent grin, chirping merrily without a care in the world.
"Well everyone's here now and Jeri's brought us some food to eat, so let's have a picnic!" Takato declared. The de facto leader of the group, Takato never left home without his signature goggles, something which was associated with him for the last few years.
"Aww, but we were just about to start a game of tag!" Mako complained, a young boy wearing a blue t-shirt and white shorts.
"I'm sure there'll still be food left over once you've had your fun and games, you can go play and come join us later," Ryo assured them. The oldest of the group, Ryo seemed to have a carefee attitude, while somehow embodying the essence of 'cool'. His partner, Monodramon, was already with the small group consisting of Ai, Mako, Calumon and Guilmon. A purple dragon with gold highlights, Monodramon's happy and playful personality hid a darker, more feral form that Ryo's partner usually took, yet today he was just enjoying playing with the other Tamers and their Partners.
"Thanks Ryo! Suzy, you, Lopmon and Terriermon should join us!" Ai called out, a young girl wearing a maroon dress. The twin sister of Mako, they both looked up to Suzy ever since they first met, and soon treated her as their leader, ever keen to do what Suzy was doing, no matter how weird or crazy it might seem. With that, the group of tamers broke into 2 groups, one which sat down to have a picnic, the other spreading out for a game of tag.
"I swear those kids have so much energy, it's like they've taken too much sugar," Impmon sighed. The Partner of Ai and Mako together, Impmon was a purple creature, with pointy ears and tail, wearing a red handkerchief and gloves.
"Did you realise how old you sounded just then?" Renamon noted. The Partner of Rika, she was a fox-like humanoid digimon with yellow fur, bushes of white highlights and wore violet gloves with yin-yang imprints on them.
"Oh yeah, toots? Well you have a few grey hairs yourself," Impmon retorted.
As the two digimon engaged in a rather interesting debate about digimon aging, with Guardromon chipping in every now and again, the Tamers on the picnic mat were engaged in a very different topic.
"Seriously, chumley, we need to change your look, something that gives you more of an edge, otherwise you're never gonna get laid," Kazu 'sagely' advised Kenta, "And cute as he might be, I don't think your Partner is gonna help shed your metro image" he said, glancing over at the pink pixie digimon, who joined in on the tag game and was currently being chased by a very determined Calumon.
"There's nothing wrong with caring about my appearance, and MarineAngemon is a Mega!" Kenta fought back.
"Dude, unless they like digimon as much as we do you're gonna sound like a nerd to all the girls," Kazu teased.
Jeri giggled at the two friends arguing, "I remember there was time a when you guys thought being into girls wasn't cool."
"Yeah, but that was before you grew a great pair of ti-OUCH!" Kazu recoiled as Rika sent a punch into his side.
"Careful what you say, Shioda," Rika threatened. "Keep your perverted things to yourself."
Kazu rubbed the spot where Rika made contact, "Dammit, that really hurt! Ryo you better control your wom-."
Rika sent another punch at the Tamer, and this time he looked down for the count. Everyone was laughing, with Kenta and Jeri checking to see if Kazu was okay, though Henry noticed Rika had developed a slight blush; nevertheless the redhead continued drinking her tea as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
"Er, maybe you could have gone a little bit easier on him, Rika?" Ryo reasoned with the redhead.
"Hm? I thought that was easy," Henry made yet another mental note to never get on her irritable side.
After a few minutes Kazu finally came round (much to the redhead's disappointment) and continued on as if nothing happened.
"Where was I? Ah well, it doesn't matter," Kazu went on, "cos starting next week, we'll be in high school; a whole new place where the lovely ladies of Shinjuku get a lucky opportunity to spend time with this guy."
Kenta sighed next to his best friend's claims. "Somehow I don't think it'll be as easy as you think."
"Don't worry, my main man, I'll show you all the tricks that'll drive the girls wild."
"Yeah, with rage…"
As Kazu tried to persuade Kenta into his "womanising" schemes Jeri turned to Takato with a worried look on her face.
"You don't care about that stuff, do you Takato?" She asked anxiously.
Takato rubbed the back of his head, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, "Of course not, I'm too, er, young to worry about that stuff."
"You're the same age as all of us, Takato, don't try and kid yourself," Henry pointed out. "In any case I'm glad we're all finally going to the same school, what's it like Ryo?"
Ryo, who was heading into his second year at the high school, just shrugged. "You get used to the change from junior high to high school quickly; other than the workload it's pretty much the same. One thing they may emphasise is club involvement, but don't worry I've got you covered."
Before the others could ask what he meant, all their phones started to ring. When they picked it up the group was greeted by the same person, someone who was once their enemy and now by a twist of fate their 'employer'.
"Good afternoon, Tamers," said Mitsuo Yamaki, Leader of Hypnos, "We just got word that a group of digimon has Bio-Emerged near the train station on the other side of town. They're not too big, so it would be good practise for Kazu and Kenta to deal with the situation."
"You betcha, c'mon Kenta." Kenta nodded and turned towards the park.
"MarineAngemon! We've got to go, some digimon have appeared!" Kenta called to his partner.
"Okay!" the pink pixie replied, floating back towards him as they headed towards the park's exit.
"Hey, tinhead! We've got a job to do, get your butt moving already!" Kazu called to Guardromon.
"Very good, Kazu, let's journey forth to victory!" his partner rallied, running to Kazu's side.
"We'll probably take a while, so we'll see you guys next week at Opening Ceremony!" Kazu called to the other Tamers, as he and his partner hurried off after Kenta and MarineAngemon.
After a couple more hours the day finally drew closer, casting an orange glow over the entire park as the Tamers packed up their things to leave.
"We'll take home Ai and Mako, they live along the way to our homes," Jeri said as she went with Takato and the twins towards the park exit along with their digimon partners and Calumon. "We'll see you at school!" As the group walked off, Henry noted a slight spring in Takato's step.
"Noticed have you?" Rika said, as Henry turned towards her, "Can't believe gogglehead hasn't made a move yet. They couldn't be more obvious of a couple if they held a neon sign above their heads."
Look who's talking, Henry thought, looking between Ryo and Rika. "Maybe they've secretly hooked up and haven't told us."
Rika shook her head. "A girl like Jeri wouldn't keep something like this all bottled up. Especially something that lovey-dovey," the red-head sighed, "Ah well. Ryo and I are heading in the other direction, so we'll see you at the start of term."
And with that they made their move, leaving the Wong gang heading towards the train station on their own.
As Henry's other three companions slept on the train, having run themselves into a state of exhaustion before gorging on food until they were in perfect bliss, Henry's mind started to wonder. The city lights streaked by as the night sky came up, and the young Tamer began to think about last night. He had a strange feeling, as though something big happened in his dream, but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Something had stirred within him, a feeling that he might have figured out if Terriermon hadn't smacked him into reality the next morning. Tried as he might, however, Henry couldn't remember the dream, and let out a deep sigh of discontent as he stared into the night sky on the way home.
Author's Note: More than anything this was simply a way of introducing the other characters. I apologise in advance if any of them seem out of character, I kinda wrote them based off of my memories of them and quickly glancing through some episodes. Also, even though I don't think it was changed in the english version I aged Ai, Mako and Suzy up by 2 years, reducing the age gap slightly between the Tamers. Therefore in the original Tamer series Ai and Mako would be 6 years old and Suzy would be 9. I figured it would be important to keep the age gap small to make the relationships seem more personal, especially between Suzy and Henry.
I take it from the response that last chapter's competition didn't really work out and the clues were too vague :P . The inspiration for my title was from an anime called Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, a really interesting show which may seem complicated and confusing at first but got me hooked on it really fast, and I highly recommend it if you have the time. How is that related to this story compared to the other Horizon-themed shows out there? One of the key points in the show was probably the inspiration behind me writing this story, but I'll explain that in a later chapter.
Now as always there are two sides to every story, and I think I've been neglecting her long enough...also I like ellipses...