Chapter 15: Shifting Sands
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the few OCs in this fic.
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Suzie was walking through Shibuya with her dark-haired older brother, Rinchei. She was really enjoying her day and was very happy to spend it with her brother as well as her partner. Rinchei actually looked a bit bored, though and was walking with her hunched over and with his hands in his pocket.
She missed Henry, though.
Still, it was nice that Rinchei took some time out to spend with her.
"Let's go to the pet store! Can we, Rinchei?" the girl asked excitedly as they walked past it. The eighteen-year-old suppressed a grimace at the thought. The store was bound to be awfully smelly and she knew they couldn't have any pets. Still, how could he refuse his little sister?
It was then that the little girl's digivice started to beep. "Maybe we should take care of that bioemergence, Suzie," Rinchei suggested.
"Okay! Let's just follow the digivice signal and go there!" the girl exclaimed, running off toward the signal as Rinchei followed her. He was definitely going to get a workout from this running, especially since it took them several minutes to reach the emergence site which was in a half-done construction site.
The duo ran into the digital field. "Rinchei, this is going to get really scary!" the girl warned playfully. The older teen just rolled his eyes as they walked through the fog, not buying it.
In the center of the field was a dragon-like digimon with purple fur and a ruby in the center of his forehead. Suzie used her digivice to see what digimon it was. "Dorumon, Rookie Level, Vaccine whatever that next word is… Go get him, Lopmon."
"I don't think he wants to fight," Rinchei told his little sister.
"I think Rinchei's right," Lopmon said. As a matter of fact, the dark haired teen walked slowly toward the digimon, kneeling. "Come on, little guy. Come here."
At first, Dorumon was hesitant, but upon seeing that the teen wasn't going to hurt him, he walked toward him slowly and cautiously. Once the purple beast got up to him, Rinchei scratched the back of his ear. "That's not so bad, isn't it? My name's Rinchei," the teen told him.
"Dorumon…"
###
In the meantime, Jeri was spending time with Ai, Mako and Impmon. The group had gotten close ever since the other Tamers disappeared with the exception of Suzie. "So, then Beelzemon shot at the evil digimon and he exploded. It was so cool!" Mako bragged.
"Nah, it wasn't that awesome," Impmon corrected. The group was walking through a park.
"Are you kidding me? I wish I was there so I could see it," the six-year-old shot back. "Seeing it through my digivice wasn't good enough."
"Here's the thing, kid, I don't enjoy killing wild digimon," Impmon told his male partner. "And neither should you."
"He's right, Makoto," Ai told her brother.
Jeri smiled at Impmon. The little digimon had definitely changed since that time in the digital world. She definitely missed Leomon, but it was good to see Impmon make amends.
Then, as they were making their way to the nearest jungle gyms, the girl saw Tadashi all alone, skipping rocks on the edge of a small, artificial lake in the middle of Shinjuku Park. He made her worry. Ever since Eduardo Urrutía was detected and confirmed to be the son of Antonio Urrutía, the blond was starting to become a bit of a recluse, something that was starting to worsen ever since his brother and that American, Keith Jackson both received partners. Even the fact that they were both a couple levels below him in didn't help things.
"Hey, Tadashi!" the girl called out, waving. The blond got up and walked toward her, sporting a bit of a smile at the sight of her.
###
They waited by the jungle gym and talked as Ai, Mako and Impmon played. Jeri spent the time listening to her friend's problems. Despite his prejudices, the brunette kind of wanted more than a friendship, especially since Takato was gone, but she wasn't going to push it. He would make that step when the time came.
"So, anyway, I guess Professor Urrutía's trip to the digital world to rescue his son was cancelled," Tadashi told her.
"I feel sorry for him," the girl replied.
"Well, I… I'm not sure what to think of that. You see, I wanted to go to the digital world and the Watchmaker said he would take us there when the time came. This seemed like the perfect excuse and since that Digimon Queen is there now, I guess it's too dangerous to go now." The blond paused for a few seconds. "Did you know Satoshi Terayama before he moved away?" Tadashi inquired.
"No, I didn't," Jeri responded.
"Well, I guess he's working with the Queen." The blond shook his head. "I can't understand why, either."
"You'll get to go someday," Jeri assured him. He smiled back slightly.
"Yeah, even if we have to fight that Queen chick all the way from over here. I guess her name is Marie Cauvin and she doesn't have any surviving parents or family, period. She ran into Antonio's son and fancied him so she followed him to the digital world after brainwashing a bunch of Tamers. You know, I hate that we have adults that are Tamers now."
Jeri was somewhat shocked that he would say that. "Don't worry about it. Besides, in five years, we'll all be adults too."
"Yeah, but I don't want to grow up. Childhood was way too short, okay," he started to shake his head. "And I hate that adults tell us all what to do. Now that there are tamers that are Adults, that's exactly what's going to happen and I know it."
"Don't worry. We can savor our teenage years," Jeri assured him. "It's not like we have to grow up right away. And besides, Kurita and Keith are on their own team."
"Yeah, I just hate the possibility." Tadashi frowned.
"How about this: What do you say we get a group together and go to my house this weekend?" Jeri suggested.
Tadashi thought for a couple minutes, still frowning. "Sure."
###
He was ready. His bag was all packed and he was ready to go to the digital world. He just needed to make a few phone calls.
After making calls to a number of team leaders, all of whom trusted him implicitly, he pulled his large duffle bag over his shoulder. "You prepared, Huckmon?" he asked the dragon-like digimon that was lying on his bed in a domineering tone.
"Yes, sir! It will be great to get back to the digital world," the digimon responded happily as he got up and started following his partner out of the house. This was the best time to get to the digital world since the boy's parents were currently out of town and getting to that portal would be a hitch. The skinny red-head made his way out of his house and toward the portal, arriving there after about ten minutes. Already, there was a team waiting for him along with his second-in-command, an obese twelve-year-old named Joey who had brown hair and glasses with thick rims.
"We are ready whenever you are, boss," the brown-haired boy said in a raspy voice. The red-head gave him a look with his blue eyes of disappointment.
"Where is Kyle's team?" he asked, annoyed.
"Nowhere to be found," Joey replied. "I don't think he took your use of blackmail seriously." The obese teen sneered.
"Figures. Oh well, good thing I posted those doctored naked pictures of him on the school's website already." Though those pictures were actually of Kyle's head on the body of an unflattering-looking picture the red-head got off the internet. Not that he goes on those websites other than for blackmail... "Oh well, I guess we have to go on without him. It's a shame too, since his partner as well as the Lucemon that that one fat kid has would have been really useful for this."
"We don't need those idiots. Don't worry about it," Joey replied, clenching his teeth.
The red-head gave him a mad look. "You're right, we don't. Not with all the teams headed for the digital world tonight." Then he spoke to the rest of the group. "Remember, you will all serve me, Roger Volkmann of the Triumvirate. To the digital world!"
"To the Digital World!" the group cheered as Roger headed into the portal.
From far nearby, another three Tamers watched. "This is bad, man," one of them commented, this one obviously prepubescent. "Really bad. We've got to do something."
"There's nothing we can do. Even if we took these guys out, there are a bunch of other teams going to the Digital World," another voice, one that had authority responded. "Plus, if we took him out, he would pin the blame on us. He's got too good of a reputation."
"If you tell me, this guy's a douche," a third, far raspier voice spoke. "We have to do something while this dirtbag's not in the Digital World or else things are going to go bad. And didn't you hear? He's already got allies there!"
The second Tamer thought about it for a second. "I know. You know, this makes me wish the original Tamers of Shinjuku were around. At least they can reach Mega."
"So, did he really get naked pictures of you Kyle?" the first Tamer asked.
"He probably photoshopped my head onto a girl's body or something like that. I wouldn't put it past him. Don't worry about, though." Kyle thought about things for a second before thinking of the person who gave him his partner in the first place. "We need to find Mr. Immortal. He should be able to help."
###
Keith Jackson was enjoying the training session he was having with Gigimon and Kurita's partner Liollmon. The heavy boy had finally gotten his partner to the Rookie level just that morning when Gigimon turned out to be too tough to handle.
"So, are we done?" Gigimon asked his Tamer, panting as they finished the session of a mock battle.
"Yeah, we're done." Keith turned toward his training partner, barely noticing a third Tamer come up through the elevator with a purple-furred digimon by his side.
"That's it for the day, huh?" Kurita asked, picking up Liollmon as he walked toward his new friend.
"Yeah, more or less," the blond American responded before hearing a beep on his digivice. He pulled the device out of his pocket and saw that he had an e-mail through one of his accounts. Strange, nobody's supposed to use that account except for emergencies. He read the e-mail, his eyes getting wide as saucers.
"Kurita? Is that you?" Kurita turned around to see Rinchei walking up to him.
"Oh, hey, bud, how's it going?" the blond man asked his acquaintance from school.
"Not bad, I guess. I got a partner the other day while taking care of a bioemergence with my baby sister," the bother of Henry Wong replied.
"That's crazy." Kurita smiled and kneeled down to talk to the purple-furred beast next to his friend. "So, what's this little guy's name?"
"My name's Dorumon and don't you forget it!" the digimon snapped.
"Oh, sorry. Good to meet you anyway," the large blond responded before turning toward his other friend who seemed to be sending a video message through his digivice and was speaking in rapid-fire English of some dialect he couldn't understand. Or maybe it wasn't English. Kurita tried guessing the language, which sounded to him like a cross between Spanish and German phonology-wise but with far more consonant clusters. He had to guess that it was some sort of Slavic language, possibly Russian, though he couldn't swear to that since the only Slavic language he had much exposure to in the past was Czech as spoken by some immigrants living in Germany when he went there a couple years before.
"So, what's going on?" Kurita asked his friend when he finished talking.
"Not much. You mind going on a trip with me?" Keith asked with a bit of a smile.
"Where are you going to go? Russia?" Rinchei asked.
"Well, I was going to go talk to a couple of other Tamers. It turns out there's a situation in the digital world right now and someone we know in common is involved."
###
Inside the digital world itself, the various teams that served Roger had arrived in the area surrounding the Queen's citadel. The red-haired leader of those groups was heading straight into the citadel's meeting room along with his partner, Huckmon, who seemed rather nervous about the whole thing. Also, his right-hand man was with him as well, his partner Mercurymon trailing behind.
After rolling his eyes at the burly guards in the room, Roger sat down at the table.
"It's about time you showed up. I was wondering if you really existed or if Crimson had just made everything up about you," the Digimon Queen said with a smile. Roger found her French accent incredibly sexy, so he smiled.
"Yeah, well, I'm here. So, what's the plan to take over the digital world?" Roger asked.
"First, your title?" Crimson requested.
"Oh, that's easy. Kami no Hi. God of fire."
"Dude, that means Fire of God, not God of Fire," the goateed Tamer corrected since he absolutely hated it when foreigners butcher his native tongue. "The correct term would be Hi no Kami or Hinukamui, if you want to really say Fire God."
"Then again, he already has a number of titles such as 'Tamer of the Americas', if I remember right," the Digimon Queen commented. "You're quite the celebrity."
The red-head thought about it for a second. Then he remembered that there was someone that wasn't around to actually use his title. With a grin, he spoke. "I know what I'll call myself: the Legendary Tamer."
"Stealing Ryo's title, I see?" the Digimon Queen asked. "I like it. By the way, before you join the team, there is something I want to see."
"And what's that?" Roger asked.
Suddenly, and without provocation, Joey took off his shirt, much to Roger's horror. "Take him out from under your spell immediately!" the American ordered the Queen and immediately Joey put his shirt back on before the mind control was ended.
"What just happened?" Joey asked the group.
"Oh, I just thought I'd put on a little show for myself. That's all," the Queen replied, much to the annoyance of the other two members of the Triumvirate.
"I think it's time we laid some ground rules," Crimson suggested, sitting back and hating that the Queen did something that almost destroyed their pact.
"Yeah, first off, there's going to be no controlling any of my Tamers unless I authorize it!" Roger yelled.
"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. So, when will you authorize it?" the Queen inquired.
"Maybe I'll use it as a punishment for when they fail missions," he said.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," the queen replied. "Still, I wouldn't mind seeing your friend Joey here naked at least once. Do that and it's a deal."
"He's twelve you old pervert!" Roger yelled again.
"You know, lady, you were the one who told me you were under-age when I hit on you, remember?" Crimson asked calmly.
Joey was glaring at the Queen with so much vitriol that it was amazing the woman's hair didn't set on fire or something. "Okay, fine, you have a point. None of that."
Roger could already tell he wasn't going to have fun working with this girl. "So, how old are you, anyway?"
"Fourteen. You?"
"Sixteen," the skinny red-head replied.
"See, our age differences aren't too bad," the queen teased. "But if you insist, then it's a deal."
"Deal!" Roger exclaimed.
"Deal," Crimson said quietly, getting ready for the next part of his agreement.
###
Antonio bolted upward upon hearing the doorbell ring, putting on his bathrobe and running straight to the door. Maybe he's back. Maybe… His thoughts were interrupted when he opened the door and got Keith Jackson along with two other guys.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" the large Chilean man asked the blond. "And did you lose weight?" Then he realized he wasn't dressed. "Let me go put something on. Make yourself at home."
Antonio ran into the room as everyone else entered into his living room and sat down. He put on a green shirt and some long, beige pants. "I'm so sorry about that, by the way."
"By the way, these are Kurita and Rinchei,"
"Good to meet you guys. Sorry you saw more of me than you wanted to. So, Mr. Immortal, you've got a lot of explaining to do."
"Immortal?" Kurita asked.
"Actually, it's Mr. Immortal, but oh well, not that it matters. I currently go by Keith."
"And Keith's not your real name? What are you, like the Doctor or something? Is your name a source of shame for you?" Rinchei inquired jokingly.
Keith looked at the guy with surprise. "What? How would you know about the end of Series 6? The revived series hasn't even started yet."
"Hey, it's a popular theory," the skinny Japanese guy replied. "So, you're from the future or something?"
"A future. It's gone now," Mr. Immortal replied. "And if you're wondering, I'm actually closer to a companion of the Doctor than the Doctor himself. Kind of like Jack Harkness, but asexual instead."
"You've never been in any kind of relationship?" Kurita asked in shock.
"Nope. You see, in order to avoid the heartache of living for hundreds of years while anyone I get involved with is bound to die, I basically decided to stay celibate," Keith explained. "I've had lots of friends over the years, though, and it is kind of interesting to see what everybody's decedents are like, so living forever isn't too much of a drag. Plus, think of all the things I get to learn." By the end of his little explanation, the guy was actually smiling.
"Yeah, he's crazy like that. And, I take it your current look is only a hologram," Antonio guessed.
"Yeah, you're absolutely right."
"Soooo, what do you really look like?" Rinchei inquired.
"I'll show you but you're going to have to keep everything in this room a secret from now on," Keith explained, somewhat nervous.
"Dude, if I told the government, they'd probably dissect you simply because you're immortal," the skinny Japanese guy assured him.
"Yeah, man, I'm with Rinchei," Kurita added.
Keith altered a few things on his digivice and his form changed from a bespectacled and nerdy scientist to one of a hairy Olympic weightlifter without glasses. He even had the same large nose; he was just considerably larger, muscle-wise, despite being the same height.
"Holy crap, look at those muscles," Kurita gasped in shock.
"Okay, now back to the whole thing. Guess what? Roger Volkmann just took an army to the Digital World," Mr. Immortal told Antonio, who reacted in shock.
"What? You have got to be kidding me," the large Chilean said in response, shaking his head. "Somehow I knew that guy was bad news."
"Yeah? He seemed trustworthy at the time, but I guess appearances can be deceiving."
The other two Tamers seemed rather confused by the whole thing. "Uh, what's going on, exactly?" Kurita spoke.
"Roger Volkmann, along with a Japanese guy named Satoshi Terayama helped Antonio and I during the D-Reaper invasion against a powerful Digimon named TysiachaGlazkovmon. There were a number of Mega-levels there as well and Roger and Satoshi both partnered themselves with two of them." Keith narrowed his eyes. "From the look of it, both Roger and Satoshi have made a pact with the malevolent Tamer who calls herself the Digimon Queen."
"She stole Rika's title? Couldn't she have come up with something original?" Rinchei asked getting looks from the rest of the group. "Okay, I'll admit that the Digimon Empress is probably used all the time in fanfic, but it would be better than jacking the title from somebody else."
"Personally, I think that's the least horrible thing about this lady," Keith said. "In fact, I'd say she's after Antonio's son specifically."
"And how did you figure that out?" the Chilean Tamer inquired.
"I examined the Tamers in her inner sanctum. They all have similar body types to you and your son. Then there's the case that the Digimon Queen came from the same orphanage your son was being held at. Believe me; I have a lot of spare time at Hypnos."
"So, I take it you want us to help defeat these guys?" Rinchei asked, smiling.
"Not until we get some experience. Hmm…" Keith's thoughts were interrupted by Antonio.
"What about you. Can't you get your partner to Mega anymore?" the larger man asked the Immortal.
"No, I can't. It seems that, despite being an egg again, TysiachaGlazkovmon's conversion of him into one of his slaves damaged his data so I have to start all over again and get his level back up to at least Ultimate again." Keith put his chin on his fists and gritted his teeth. "It's all so unfair."
"Well, we'll have to plan something. Saxum and Echelon both cancelled my trip to the digital world," Antonio told his friend before giving him a look.
"No, you are not going to the digital world alone. You're going to have to have a team and a strong one at that, end of story," Mr. Immortal told the Chilean.
"Maybe Tadashi's team," Kurita suggested.
"Out of the question," Antonio told the blond man. "Number one: they're underage. Number two: they have duplicates in the Digital World."
"Not anymore," Keith objected. "It turns out that they left the digital world to parts unknown about twelve hours ago."
"Wait, what do you mean duplicates?" Kurita asked, confused.
"They're temporal duplicates created by time travel. You can thank the Watchmaker for that one," Mr. Immortal explained. "Okay, this is what we'll do: we'll evacuate some of our allies to the real world from the digital world such as Daemon. Then we'll train for the next month or so before finally breaking into the digital world to beat the living tar out of Satoshi and Roger as well as Marie, the Digimon Queen."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Kurita said.
"I would rather go as soon as possible, but with these armies, I guess we have no choice," Antonio said, not entirely resigned to the fact that his son is currently in a world with those duplicates.
"I'll come along as well," Rinchei said.
"Now, are you both eighteen?" Antonio asked, getting nods from both teenagers. "Good."
"I made sure they were before coming here, Tony," Keith responded. "So, I guess we'll head back."
Antonio nodded. "You using that digital bridge program you designed?" the large Chilean asked.
"I didn't design it. You did," Mr. Immortal said before they moved toward the door.
###
After arriving at Keith's apartment, the group hung out together and talked. "So, how long were you planning on waiting to tell us that you were some sort of time-traveling immortal?" Kurita inquired, a bit peeved.
"I only share that fact with either my closest friends or my teammates," Mr. Immortal said. "Same with my real name, especially since I have a temporal duplicate living in the United States. Wouldn't want anybody to go after him because of me."
Rinchei nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a bummer," he said while getting up and turning on the DVD player to put in a movie. "So, how old are you, anyway?"
"As ancient as the pyramids," he said, though the two Japanese guys couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.
"How many millennia?" Kurita inquired out of curiosity.
"Not telling," the American said with a cheesy smile.
###
Alice was definitely getting used to living again. She wasn't adjusting too well, though, and she would have to take the seventh grade a year late, but she didn't find the adjustment too horrible, especially since her grandfather decided to take a couple days off from work at Echelon to spend time with her.
"Now what would you like to do?" the red-head asked her as he drove her through San Francisco in his truck.
"Hmm… I don't know. I know Ed was born in Lancaster. Maybe we can go there," she suggested.
"Lancaster's a ways away. So, did you like Ed?" Rob McCoy asked her.
"As a friend, yes, nothing more. And sheesh, Grandpa, I'm only thirteen," the blonde teased.
Professor McCoy couldn't help but smile at his granddaughter. Just then, though, his cell-phone rang and he pulled over to answer it, seeing it was work. He answered it and it turned out that Babel was on the other line. "Hello?"
"Professor McCoy, it's a bit of an emergency. We just got intel back from a number of our Tamers such as Kyle Dibenko and Mr. Immortal and it turns out that one of our best, Roger Volkmann has gone rogue."
Rob's eyes narrowed. "And what is he up to? Be quick, since I'm spending the day with my granddaughter," he ordered, irritated that they would be calling him with such information.
"We're talking about the number one Tamer in America. And it turns out that he convinced a bunch of other Tamers to join him in the Digital World. Also, according to Mr. Immortal, he has teamed up with two other Rogue Tamers that are already there."
McCoy was glad that he had pulled over since there was no way he could possibly drive listening to this. He wiped his sweat off his brow and continued to speak. "You mean that he joined forces with the Digimon Queen and Crimson?"
"That's right. And they've started an invasion of the western Digital World." The red-haired man just sat in silence as Babel relayed all the information they had at the moment.
"Okay, I'll come in later on today. For now, though, keep an eye on this guy. Worst come to worst, we'll gather a team of our best Tamers and send them to take care of the Triumvirate."
"The thing is that Mr. Immortal has already gathered a team of five, all adults. Unfortunately, two of them are still in training. He plans on heading straight into the digital world in a month."
"Where are these all from?" Rob asked.
"Two from Japan and one from Chile, not counting Mr. Immortal. The fifth's from Spain."
"And I take it Mr. Immortal is in Japan? Why don't you have him bring Rentarou Satsuma with him as well?"
"That would be a good suggestion, especially since Inspector Satsuma has a pair of Tamers working with him directly, both adults as well."
Rob smiled. "Okay, then, have a nice day."
"You too."
Although Professor McCoy wanted to have someone help out in the digital world, he realized that technically it was out of Echelon's jurisdiction and he couldn't really do much about it. However, he realized the threat that a group of Rogue Tamers had, and was willing to make concessions at the right time.
It was a few minutes before he finally spoke to his granddaughter again. "So, let's go to Oxnard."
"Lancaster," Alice corrected. "Though, come to think of it, Ed did mention having cousins in Oxnard. I wonder how much of a family resemblance there is," the blonde girl told him, scratching her chin.
Rob was glad to have her back, especially since it was starting to get a little bit too dangerous where she was.
###
Kurita plopped himself on the bed, wearing what he normally wore for bed, namely a white t-shirt and boxers. He was glad that the day was over with and was definitely a little exhausted from it. The truth was that it was all a lot to take in and he had a hard time believing that his newest friend could possibly be some immortal Tamer, or at least a very long lived one that was stranded in the past by the very man that his brother Tadashi had been searching for off and on.
Speaking of a certain blond, Tadashi opened up the door and walked in. "So, how was your day of training?" the blond inquired.
"Alright, but tiring." In fact, Liollmon was already fast asleep in the corner on top of Kurita's rather full clothes hamper. "Keith's partner is still at the In-Training level but I wouldn't be surprised if that digimon digivolves really soon."
Tadashi snorted. "I can't believe that guy's got a partner, and he's got Takato's partner of all things."
"Come on, bro, we don't know that. For all we know he'll digivolve into something completely different," Kurita told him. "In fact, that's what he thinks might happen."
"Something different? Like what?" Tadashi asked, curious and doubting.
"He hasn't said yet," Kurita told his younger brother. "So, anything new, bro?"
"Well, my team faced another Ultimate today, though the only one of us who got there in time was Ayaka and she ended up digivolving her partner herself. Can you believe it, man? I thought I was the leader here!" Tadashi's description seemed like more of a rant than anything. Kurita wondered what was with his younger brother. He seemed to be getting more and more cynical now for some reason and Kurita didn't like that one bit.
"Well, just think of it this way, little guy. At least you have an Ultimate on your team other than Suzie's partner now. Also, look on the bright side, you have something to work towards," the far larger teen told his younger brother.
Tadashi grimaced in response. "Yeah, I guess." Then the boy turned and walked out the door.
Kurita took a deep breath. He hoped that his brother didn't end up doing anything foolish.
He glanced at his orange digivice that bore a white ring around its center screen and wondered how the other Tadashi that Keith had mentioned was like.
He could only hope that he was doing better than his brother here in this world.
###
The truth was that Gigimon was starting to act a little weird. For one thing, he was eating like a pig and had completely cleaned out Keith's fridge, completely ruining the guy's somewhat strict, high-protein diet. Keith hoped that this was merely a sign that his partner was on the verge of digivolution and not getting fat.
It turned out the first assumption was the case. At one point, his partner just arched upward, as if a round digimon like him could do that.
"Gigimon, what's wrong, man?" the muscular blond asked his partner, wearing much the same outfit that Kurita was.
The digimon's eyes went wide before he started to glow.
"Gigimon digivolve to…"
This was the moment of truth for Keith. Was Anubimon's assumption about his partner's digivolution line being the same as it used to be correct or would his partner turn into another Guilmon.
The truth of the matter was that it turned into an almost totally different digimon than Takato Matsuki's partner, not even close. Heck, it didn't even turn into a BlackGuilmon. About the only thing that it had in common with Guilmon was that it was a small red dragon, although it was definitely a lot smaller than Takato's red dino and had no hazard symbol on his body. He had a v-shaped head and a microphone in one hand. "… Shoutmon!"
The dragon looked at his Tamer, who smiled in mirth. "You digivolved. Congratulations."
Shoutmon gave his partner a thumb's up. "Yeah, that's was bound to happen sooner or later."
"You remember anything from before you were an egg?" Keith asked, hopeful.
The small red dragon thought about it for a second, scratching his chin, before he spoke. "Not a thing."
The blond man let his arms down in frustration. He was worried that his partner would never remember what the two of them went through together. In response, Keith got up and went to the bathroom, leaving a somewhat shocked Shoutmon in his wake. As soon as he shut the door, he broke down in tears at the thought that the one person he was with almost his entire life couldn't remember a thing about the past, turning on the shower to prevent his partner from hearing him.
He didn't know how he was going to survive with his partner being the way he was.
###
He remembered the first time he met his partner. It was an average day at school and suddenly a plume of smoke appeared in the middle of the field during PE class.
He knew exactly what was going on from frequenting all those Digimon message boards: there was a digimon emerging there. The blond decided to go there. He was thirteen and wearing gym clothes consisting of a white shirt with a thunderbird on it and a pair of red pants. He didn't know what to expect, but he ran toward the digital field like his life depended on it, even though the digimon that emerged might actually be hostile.
Instead of a hostile digimon, he came across an unfamiliar red dragon who eyed him with curiosity. He was a shy person, though, and he had a hard time saying anything, so the rookie spoke up in his place.
"My name's Shoutmon. What's yours?" the digimon asked, smiling. In response, the blond gave the digimon his name.
"So, what brings you to my world?" the blond inquired nervously.
"Well, I just escaped the wrath of an extremely powerful digimon. The Sovereigns actually sent me here to get a partner, just in case the Tamers can't beat this guy," the red dragon explained rather cheerfully considering he had just been kicked out of his world.
"Well, I hope we can be friends," the blond said with a smile, surprised that he hit it off with such a digimon so quickly.
"Yeah, definitely!" Shoutmon exclaimed, shaking his new friend's hand.
All the sudden, a sphere of light appeared in mid-air, forming a red and blue digivice. The blond immediately grabbed hold of it and looked at his partner's info.
"Shoutmon, Rookie Level, Vaccine Attribute, Small Dragon Digimon." Shoutmon's Tamer chuckled. "I can't believe it. I'm actually a Tamer."
The fog started to lift and the new Tamer noticed everyone from his class looking on in surprise. "Well, little buddy, I guess you're going to have to get out of here before someone tries to kidnap you or something," the blond joked, but the red dragon was already running from the crowd that ran after him. It seemed that everybody wanted to be a Tamer.
"Man, what was that?" one of the guys that didn't chase after Shoutmon asked. He had short, curly, light blond hair and blue eyes.
"His name is Shoutmon and he's my partner," the new Tamer boasted with a grin.
###
Yamaki's reaction to the news that an American Tamer, quite possibly the most powerful one other than Mr. Immortal, had gone rogue was a lack of sleep. As it was, sleep was eluding him quite a bit these days with everything happening from the disappearance of most of the core group of Tamers including the only ones that could reach Mega to Kurita receiving a partner from an unknown source to his upcoming wedding to Riley.
He hoped that Takato's team could get back in time for that, especially since there were still a couple of months before the blond Japanese man finally got hitched.
Still, everything was getting to be a bit too much for the man. In some ways he wanted a promotion so he wouldn't be dealing with all this stuff quite so much. The blond got up out of bed and walked out of his room, wearing dark blue pajamas. He put on his sunglasses for some reason and then brewed some decaf tea all while thinking about everything. He wondered where all the pieces fit.
In fact, he wondered if in fact the American Tamer known only as Mr. Immortal was the one that gave Kurita his partner in the first place. Maybe Mr. Immortal even gave Keith his partner. There were far too many questions and not enough answers. All Yamaki knew about Mr. Immortal from Echelon's files on him was pretty bizarre. The man normally when by the name of Carmine Reed, however, he went by a large number of aliases, not all of which were known by Echelon. The Tamer also had a Shoutmon for a partner, a digimon that wasn't in any of Hypnos' databases.
The blond man sighed at the whole thing, wondering when any of it would make sense.
###
A/N: As for Roger, he's probably the least sympathetic member of the Triumvirate since Saito/Crimson is a well-intentioned extremist and Marie/Queen would be a normal girl if it hadn't been for Coonmon nurturing her worst desires into something horrifying. Roger's just a bored rich kid who used his prestige to convince a host of other Tamers to join him.
And then there's Keith/Carmine/Mr. Immortal, the Watchmaker's former companion. I'm actually working hard to prevent him from taking over the story and he won't appear again until Chapter 19. I'm also trying my best to prevent him from turning into a Gary Stu. Hopefully I can do that. To be honest, the OC that he resembles the most to me was Shaun from Adventure 02: A Revision, who despite having massive Gary Stu traits, ended up getting deconstructed like crazy toward the end. Thankfully Mr. Immortal can't reach Mega like Shaun did. Also, his immortality wasn't intentional and will get a good explanation. Plus there's that whole can't have a relationship ever rule that he inflicted on himself…
I almost deleted the scene of shirtless Joey Krenzel (agh! The agony!) There was also a scene in the last chapter that didn't make it, though all it established was that Taizou's mom was a nurse. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of this habit of inserting random scenes of Fan Disservice… *shudders*