Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v2.0: In His Name is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier
Chapter 2: Who Leaves Fire Lying Around?
Zoe leapt back in surprise, trying to process what she was looking at. There was a three headed dog thing in front of them, spitting fire, and screaming about finding something that he seemed to expect they would know where to find. They needed to calm it down but how exactly do you calm down a dog that had just blown apart a section of the village? They had to run. She wanted to run. But her legs were frozen to the ground and refused to move.
And of course Takuya of all people was either completely ignorant of the situation or was too busy trying to be funny to notice the serious danger they were in. He simply walked up to the dog, "If you're trying to ask for our help, this isn't a very polite way to do it."
The dog just snarled back at them, prompting Takuya to sigh, "I see you get invited to many birthday parties."
The dog growled, "I only need one of you. DIE!"
It lunged at Takuya with its mouth open, baring its fangs and sending spit everywhere. Takuya didn't realize the danger he was in as his attention was now on an unattended market stall.
"Ooh, what's that!?" Takuya ran towards one of the stalls at the same time Cerberumon was about to collide with him - narrowly avoiding being mauled. Takuya picked up a strange green fruit left on display and gave it a nice strong whiff, "Awesome! I was starving! Hey, Tomm…uh…Tomoki! Do you want some? I think they're apples…could be pears? It's definitely edible!"
Zoe was stunned. Was he not taking the danger seriously? Was it all just a joke to him? The fact that Tomoki had started sniffling and whimpering again wasn't helping. Of course, none of this stopped Takuya from passing out the strange fruit to them, "Here you guys go! You're probably hungry too! I haven't eaten anything since I woke up!"
He thrust the fruit into her hand before she could reject it, then proceeded to eat the fruit he kept on in his hand. Which he promptly spit out while retching, "Blech! It's not ripe yet! Who sells fruit before it's ripe?"
By now, Cerberumon was rounding on Takuya again and he was angrier now, "You're mocking me. You're mocking me and you're going to die now."
He lunged again with his mouth open, just as Takuya threw the unripened fruit away. And it went right into his mouth, disappearing into his throat as the dog started choking and gagging. Takuya dusted his hands off before looking back at the dog, "What's with him?"
Zoe was floored. He couldn't be that stupid. No one was that stupid. He had to be faking it. Like he was faking his own name. He had to be doing all of this on purpose.
Takuya walked back over to the dog - the same dog whom he'd accosted and asked, "Hey, you okay?"
The dog squirmed and writhed before finally coughing up the half eaten fruit that it was choking on. It gasped for breath, tears running down its eyes as the first fresh breaths of air finally made their way in. Takuya just pet its head, "See, this is why you should always chew your food before you swallow."
"I'm going to start killing you now. I'm not sure if or when I'll stop," the dog replied, baring his teeth before charging at Takuya and lunging forward. His teeth sank into Takuya's arms and he dragged the boy behind him - crashing straight into a building and disappearing.
"Well…he's dead," JP remarked, "Like we will be if we keep standing around out here! Let's go!"
"Wait! What about Takuya!?" Tomoki asked, his voice about to crack like he was going to start crying.
"The dog dragged him off to do who knows what to him! We'll be lucky if the same thing doesn't happen to us! Now let's get out of here!" JP said, grabbing both Zoe and Tomoki by the collar and spinning them around to run. Once she was facing the other way, Zoe's legs rediscovered their ability to move and they hurried off down the street in the direction the crowds had run earlier. They'd barely made it down the block before something grabbed them and pulled them into one of the buildings, covering their mouths to keep them from screaming. Of course, all that did was stifle Tomoki's panicked screams to a low cry.
"Keep it down! Do you want him to find us?" a voice asked.
"Like hide and seek?" another said.
"Calm down! All three of you! Seriously, stop! We're going to let you go if you promise not to scream or do anything to bring that big scary digimon here!" the first voice said. Zoe finally stopped struggling long enough to notice their captors - a white...thing wearing a pink waist band and yellow rabbit wearing red pants. To be honest, this should've been the least surprising thing to happen to them today but Zoe was still stunned in surprise. The white thing did something of a bow as it introduced itself, "I am Bokomon. And this is my counterpart Neemon. Who are you, humans?"
"I'm...Zoe," she introduced herself.
"JP."
"T-Tomoki."
Bokomon nodded and waved "It's a pleasure to meet you. Now what are you doing here?"
"More importantly, do you think my finger smells weird?" Neemon asked, plucking his finger out of his belly button. Zoe stuck her tongue out in disgust, "Gross."
"Stop that, Neemon. You'll scare them!" Bokomon slapped the rabbit's hand away.
Neemon's tilted his head to the side, "Because I'm the one scaring them right now."
"That's not the point!" Bokomon corrected angrily, turning to the children, "I apologize about him. He's a bit slow. But seriously now, what are you humans doing here? Humans haven't been seen in the Digital World in such a long time."
"Honestly? We all just got these crazy calls and messages telling us to get on a train. Next thing we know, we're here and there's a crazy dog blowing things up," JP explained at a whisper, peeking back out the door nervously.
"That's Cerberumon. He's looking for the missing Human Spirit of Fire or something like that. He's never come here before, though. And it can't be a coincidence that you showed up around the same time he did!" Bokomon reasoned.
Zoe threw up her hands defensively, "Hey! We're not with that guy if that's what you're asking us!"
"Not at all! What I mean is that we of the Digital World learned a long time ago not to make light of any coincidence. No matter how unlikely. It's entirely possible that you were meant to be here," Bokomon reasoned. Zoe just blinked and stared at that explanation. What the hell was he going on about destiny and coincidence for? Wait, was he the one who sent the message?
Neemon slapped Bokomon across the back of the head, "Ignore him. He gets like that and no one knows what he's talking about. Anyway, are you guys thirsty? I think I have juice boxes in my pants!"
"Neemon! I'm talking about the fate of our world!" Bokomon grumbled, tending the spot on the back of his head.
"Fate of your world? Destiny? We don't want anything to do with that! We're just trying to get home," JP explained.
Bokomon frowned, scratching his chin, "Hmmm…If anything would know what to do, I suppose it would be the Book of Legends. Let me see if I can find it."
He retreated further into their home, towards a book case lined with many thick and ancient volumes of literature that looked on the verge of falling apart. As Bokomon traced the books, he stopped on a large one with a faded green cover written in a language Zoe had never seen before. Bokomon made a show of wiping the book cleans and blowing a fine layer of dust off it. He set the book down and it landed with a considerable thud on the floor.
The pages were just as old and ancient as the cover, faded to a dusty brown from a lifetime of being used for work. As Bokomon flipped through the pages, she noticed horrifying images scrawled on some of the pages - depictions of massive battles between angels and demons, a vampire slaughtering children, a puppet turning controlling people through string, a monkey playing a guitar whose melody made ears bleed, a clown skewering people with swords, and an image of a red blob consuming all it came across. Then Bokomon stopped on a page opposite a picture of ten warriors surrounding an angel as the angel tumbled down into a pit. Bokomon frowned, "Ah-ha! Oh...well I found a section on the spirit, but nothing yet on children suddenly appearing in our world by train. Let me keep looking."
"What's the story of the spirit, anyway? Why is Cerberumon looking for it?" Zoe asked.
"Who cares? I just want to go home!" Tomoki cried.
"I was just thinking maybe there's a clue as to why we're here in that legend or whatever. At the very least, it'll help to pass the time," Zoe thought aloud.
Bokomon rotated the book to face them and pointed at the image of the ten warriors, "The spirit is said to be the remains of one of ten legendary warriors from a time forgotten. According to this tome, the ten warriors worked together to face a great evil - trapping it and burying it in the heart of the world so that it could never escape."
"And what happens if Cerberumon gets this spirit?" Zoe asked.
"He will inherit the power of the ancient warrior it belonged to. And if we know anything about how he acts, nothing good can come of it," Bokomon warned.
"This all sounds kinda hokey," JP countered, "Ancient power? Sealed evil in the center of the world? Can we skip to the part about going home?"
"Yes, I'm sorry. Let me get back to looking," Bokomon said as he continued to turn the pages. As he continued searching, Zoe noticed Tomoki whimpering quietly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hey Tomm-Tomoki! It'll be alright! We'll get home in one piece! No problem!"
"That's what Takuya said before the dog ate him!" he whimpered. He was right...they were in a lot of danger here in this world. And if they did get back to their world, they had to be sure to tell Takuya's parents about what happened to him. Well, first they needed to figure out what his real name was. Or if he even had parents.
Cerberumon was shocked at how quickly the human named Takuya had turned the situation around. At some point, between when it took a bite of his arm and when it ran off, the boy ended up on his back and was riding him with his arms in the air, "WHEE!"
"GET OFF ME!"
"But I've never had so much fun!" the boy replied.
Cerberumon growled, "How are you even holding on with that mangled arm!?"
The boy petted his head as he answered, "You got me in the first twenty-four hours of the reformatting cycle. You could tear my arm off all day and it'll just grow back! Like a worm...but not as disgusting."
"Twenty four hours? What…what are you? Some kind of digimon?" Cerberumon growled.
"Pfft, I wish. I've always wanted to try digivolving. My best friend had all the fun…what was his name?" Takuya remarked, "Sorry, my head is still a little foggy."
"I'm going to enjoy killing you," Cerberumon growled, turning on his side to try and ram his back against the wall of a nearby building. The boy's attitude would certainly improve if he were smeared against the side of the building like the bug that he was.
With a great roar, Cerberumon leapt onto his side and rammed his back against the wall. The boy's weight vanished and Cerberumon was sure the boy was no longer holding on. The dog took a moment to steady himself, relieved to know the human was finally gone off his back and smiling gleefully at the thought of finally shutting him up. Until it occurred to him that he needed the human alive! The humans were the only one who could find the spirits he needed! And he'd just killed one of them!
"That was fun! Let's do it again!" the boy's voice said with far too much cheer.
No. That shouldn't have been possible. Cerberumon turned around and saw the boy dusting himself off, "Next time, maybe we can do it without my suit getting dirty. That was a mess."
Cerberumon staggered for a moment, barely able to comprehend what he was looking at. The boy was alive and fine. At least, at first glance. On closer inspection, Cerberumon noticed the boy was missing a hand from the arm down. But the boy didn't appear to be in pain or bothered by it. In fact, he seemed gleeful as the arm began to grow back in a flash of light.
Cereberumon's mouth fell open in surprise, "What…what are you!? WHAT ARE YOU!?"
"Ancient," the boy remarked with a gleeful smile, "Now, I believe you were giving me a ride?"
The anger came back. He didn't care about the spirit now. He had four other humans for that. Now, just wanted to destroy whatever this abomination was in front of him. Cerberumon roared as he charged in with his mouth open, "DIE!"
"You need to get some new lines," Takuya said as Cerberumon tore into him.
They weren't sure how much time passed in silence as Bokomon continued flipping through the pages of his book, in search of a way back to their world. Eventually, the silence grew too much for JP to bare and he asked, "Hey, Bokomon. Do all your names end with mon?"
"Yes. We are all digimon of course," Bokomon replied.
"We keep hearing that word. What is a digimon?" Zoe asked, equal parts intrigued about the word and annoyed that no one had bothered to tell them what it meant.
"We are. It's short for Digital Monster!" Bokomon said as he continued flipping through the pages, "But you know all about that."
"No…no, we don't," Zoe answered.
Bokomon stopped flipping through the pages, looking up at them in surprise, "How can you not know what digimon are when you're here in our world!?"
JP threw up his hands, "We just said we just told you! We got texts on our phones to get on a train, and next thing we know, we're here. We have no idea what's going on!"
"Keep it down!" Neemon said, "He'll hear us and we'll be in trouble!"
As if Neemon's words challenged the universe, a wall came crashing down from Cerberumon charging through. Everyone screamed and coughed as dust filled the air. Zoe instinctively push Tomoki down to the floor and she threw herself on top of him to shield the boy from falling debris. Cerberumon didn't even seem to notice them as he continue on without them. And he had what looked like Takuya in his mouth.
"Takuya!" Tomoki gasped in surprise
"Was that your friend?" Neemon asked.
"Oh dear. It looks like they're running back to the train station," Bokomon added nervously, gesturing after the dog.
"The station? If Takuya's alive, then we'd better go help him," Zoe said as she rose from the ground.
"Are you kidding? Forget that! What are we going to do against that thing besides get ourselves killed?Besides, Takuya was the one antagonizing the stupid dog!" JP protested.
"Yeah and Takuya is the only one who seems to know what's going on! If anyone is going to get us out of here, it will be him!" Zoe countered.
JP opened his mouth to argue but paused, "You…you may have a point. Okay, so how do we help him?"
Zoe put a hand to her chin, mulling over what she'd heard, "Hm…that guardian spirit thing you were talking about…Where would that be?"
"Hang on. Please tell me you're not going to get involved in whatever that crap is!" JP protested.
"No…but if that spirit thing can help us, I don't see any reason why we couldn't just use it!" Zoe reasoned, turning back to Bokomon, "Where would we have to look?"
"No one knows. Cerberumon's been looking for months and he's never once come close to finding it," Bokomon said. That wasn't good news. For them or for Takuya. But that didn't mean they could just give up. And she didn't like the idea of just sitting around while Takuya was getting mauled by that dog thing. It wasn't like hiding here in this ruined building would do them any good anyway.
She poked her head out of the wall to make sure Cerberumon was gone and saw a hole in the wall across the street were Cerberumon had gone charging through. And beyond that, she could the other side of the building and a gaping wall in the next building - continuing on in an endless tunnel through the various edifices in its way.
"Well…we better start looking," Zoe said, "Let's back track to the station and go from there."
"Are you crazy!?" Tomoki whimpered, "You want to follow the giant killer dog!?"
"No, not that. Well, kinda? I was thinking if we stay behind it all the time, we can be sure we don't end up in front it," Zoe reasoned.
JP sighed and scratched the back of his head, "I get what you're saying and I hate it. But it's not like hiding here will do us any good. The guys can break down walls apparently."
"If it gets that dog thing out of our town, I'll come with you!" Neemon said.
"I'll come as well," Bokomon said, tucking the book under his arm, "If nothing else, the book is heavy enough to hurt anyone I hit with it!"
"I don't like this," Tomoki said, pushing his fingers together.
Zoe patted his shoulder, "Don't worry. We'll be right next to you the entire time. Let's go."
Cerberumon roared as he continued dragging the boy across the town. But it didn't matter how much he smeared the boy against the walls or how much he mauled him. The child just regrew the parts of his body that were damaged. The boy said it was because he was in the first twenty-four hours of his…whatever. That didn't matter to him. He just needed to keep ripping him apart until the twenty-four hours were up. It was just a battle of attrition at this point.
At least until a new idea occurred to him in a moment of genius. Why bother ripping him apart? He could just toss him down a portal into the dark realm and let that be the end of him. Let's see how long his regenerative powers would last him against the endless destruction of the dark realm!
"Portals of Darkness!" Cerberumon roared to conjure a portal wreathed in black fire on the floor of the train station - revealing the blackened void of the dark zone where no light could shine. The boy's head perked up at the sight of it and he remarked, "Ooh! What's that? That looks like fun!"
"Let's see how much fun you think it is after you spend eternity in darkness!" Cerberumon roared at the top his lungs, whipping his head to throw the boy straight down into hole.
"HERE WE GO!" the boy cried out enthusiastically as he fell into the hole with his arms out excitedly. Cerberumon could only growl in anger. At least the boy wasn't his problem any more. He prepared to close the portal when he noticed a small glimmer of red light on the other side of the portal. That couldn't be right. That was the realm of darkness!
No light could shine down there! Nothing could permeate the dark miasma! And yet there it was! Was it the boy? Perhaps making one last mocking gesture? Or was it…it couldn't be. The spirit was supposed to be in this town, not in the realm of darkness.
But the realm of darkness was transient. It was everywhere. Was it possible that this is what he was missing? The guardian spirit was hidden in the town within the realm of darkness. If that were the case, he couldn't let the boy get to it first. He leapt in after the boy, bringing legs close to his body so that he could descend faster.
Yet the boy turned in the air to face him, striking a relaxed pose as he fell, "Hey! This was fun! Thanks for throwing me in here! Did you want to jump in, too?
"DO YOU EVER SHUT UP!?" Cerberumon roared.
"Why would I want to shut up? There's just so much to say! It's not my fault no one wants to listen. Or if they get angry," he answered.
Cerberumon was going to enjoy obliterating him once he had the Guardian spirit. Yet, it seemed the further Cerberumon descended, the further the red light went from him. As if it was repulsed by him and trying to felled. The harder he tried to reach it, the further away it was. And after some time, he felt the burning sensation - and Cerberumon realized his body was alight with fire. He screamed in terror, "MY BODY! IT BURNS! WHAT IS THIS?"
Cerberumon tried to pull away from the light and escape, but attempting to flee only seemed to make the fire burn hotter until Cerberumon could only scream in pain. Yet the boy was unharmed. In fact, the boy was now holding the red light in his hands, "Hmmm…what's this? Spirit of Fire…I know that name…why do I know that name?"
No, it shouldn't be possible. Was he communing with the Guardian spirit? But it should've been long dead! There should be no way for it to commune back with him. Yet here it was talking to him. And the boy turned his head and nodded as if listening intently to a conversation only he was privy to. Then the boy gave one last nod, "I understand. Then I accept."
He raised the light over his head and cried out, "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"
The light shone brighter and fire erupted from the boy - blasting Cerberumon away and back out of the portal of darkness to the Digital World. It wasn't possible. The boy…the thing had the Guardian Spirit. He needed to stop it now! Before the boy learned to use its awesome power against him.
Zoe, Tomoki, and JP made their way back to the train station, following the trail of destruction and fire left in the wake of the rampage of the dog digimon. Until suddenly the sound of destruction fell silent. Some of the digimon began poking their heads back out of their homes, wondering aloud if Cerberumon was gone and if it was safe to come back outside.
But Zoe was nervous. She was worried the silence might mean it was too late to save Takuya. If that was the case, they really were screwed - since he was the only one who seemed to know anything about this place. No, she needed to be optimistic about it. Tommy was already terrified enough for all of them. They didn't need to all be in that boat together.
It didn't take long for them to get back to the train station, where they found a giant hole that hadn't been there before.
"Oh great, I hope they didn't wreck the station!" JP said, "Otherwise, it doesn't matter if we're stuck here for thirty years. The train will never be able to arrive!"
As soon as he said that, a pillar of fire erupted from within the hole and threw Cerberumon out of it. The dog digimon crashed on to the tracks, struggling to get back onto his feet, "No! THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT!"
"Oh come on! It was right back where we started?" JP pointed out.
"Talk about a coincidence," Zoe added quietly.
"Coincidence, or destiny?" Bokomon mused. As he said that, they saw a figure climb out of the pillar of fire. A tall figure with long, flowing, and wild hair silhouetted against the flame. The flames died down and they could make out crimson red armor with a white trim and horns over the helmet. It was worn by a humanoid figure with long flowing blonde hair which it brushed out of its hair, "Whoa…Blonde now. Huh. I don't think I care for it."
"Hey, did that voice sound familiar?" Zoe asked.
"It sounded like...Takuya?" Tomoki blinked.
It sort of did now that Zoe dwelled on it. But how could that be Takuya? They looked nothing alike.
"That's a digimon! It must be the Guardian Spirit!" Bokomon said excitedly, opening up his book and parsing the pages once again in search of more information that was undoubtedly useless for them, "Let's see. Fire. Red armor. Long hair. Big. Hm-hm…hm-hm…Ah! Found it!"
He turned the book over to face them and showed a crude drawing of the digimon standing before them, "I was right! It is The Guardian Spirit of Fire! Agunimon! But the spirit is powerless without someone to channel its power. If that is Agunimon, then it's power must be wielded by that friend of yours."
"You do know that we just met each other today, right?" JP pointed out to Bokomon only to get ignored.
"NO!" Cerberumon roared in anger, "That power was to be mine! EMERALD BLAZE!"
The giant dog spewed out green flames at Agunimon who calmly leapt out of the way towards them. He waved, "Oh, hey guys. You know the train isn't supposed to come back for another thirty years, right?"
"We came looking to help!" Zoe pointed out in surprise. Agunimon just blinked in surprise, staring at her until she grew more annoyed, "What!?"
"Sorry…just not used to that. Most of the people I meet are usually just trying to kill me," Agunimon said sheepishly, "So…that's a nice change in pace."
That would've been meaningful if Takuya didn't keep saying that his head was so fuzzy or that he was confused. So either he was making all of that up, or parts of his brain were working better than others.
"By the way, did you get shorter?" Agunimon asked.
"No! You got taller!" Zoe pointed out to him. The digimon blinked again and looked at him, "Did I?" Huh…weird. Oh wait, is that what it meant by taking my power? So I'm a digimon, now? I always wondered what it would be like to get all those cool abilities."
Cool abilities? Was he referring to spitting out fire like Cerberumon had? Was that something they were going to get to do once they got their powers? The idea would've sounded cool if they hadn't been roped into this against their will. Speaking of which, the fires burned down and Cerberumon emerged from them to face them, "That power isn't meant for you! Give it back!"
"Be right back," Agunimon turned and charged for the giant dog. The two grappled with each other for a moment, shaking the ground beneath them as they struggled against each other. Despite his larger size, Cerberumon claws weren't enough to keep up with the fact that Agunimon had hands. Hands he used to eventually throw the wolf over his shoulders and suplex him back onto the ground. Cerberumon howled in pain as Agunimon pushed him away and moved to put distance between them.
But it wasn't long until Cerberumon was back of all fours and staring Agunimon down, "Grr. What are you? Who are you?"
"Y'know, I've been thinking on that question since I woke up. Who am I? Honestly, I couldn't remember anything. But it's been slowly coming back to me. I'm the guy that digimon like you fear! The guy who helps people when they're in trouble! My name…my real name is The Digimon Tamer!" Agunimon said triumphantly. At least, that's what Zoe thought he was going for. To be honest, that name was completely meaningless to her and sounded a little hokey.
"Never heard of you!" Cerberumon growled.
Agunimon blinked, "Okay…today is just a day for firsts."
"Don't worry. It'll be your last! Now die!" Cerberumon growled before charging forward again.
Agunimon took a step back and braced himself for the impact. As he did, his wrists came alight with flames that grew and spread their way across his body. Excitedly, the digimon cheered, "I've always wanted to try this! PYRO PUNCH!"
He threw his fist forward and a spiral of flame erupted from his palm, erupting forward and engulfing Cerberumon. The Digimon howled as the flames swallowed him, leaving only his silhouette visible. And even that eventually disappeared as the flames burned so hot that Zoe eventually had to turn away.
Once the flames cleared and the heat died down, Zoe looked back to see a small cloud of glowing light where Cerberumon had been before.
"What happened?" Tomoki asked.
"Agunimon destroyed Cerberumon. When digimon die, all that remains is the leftover data," Bokomon said, pointing at the cloud, "Now the data, the fractal code if you will, can be either allowed to reformat so that Cerberumon can be reborn! Or it can be absorbed by Agunimon to empower him so that he may become stronger than who he was before!"
"Sounds good to me," Agunimon said, reaching out his hand towards the data. At that exact moment, the glowing cloud of light flew away from Agunimon - upwards and away to some distant figure standing atop a nearby building. Another tall, humanoid figure wearing glistening pink armor. The light wrapped around the pink figure, dancing around its body until they started to glow. And as abruptly as they appeared, the figure turned and left.
"Hey! That was mine!" Agunimon protested.
"Who was that?" JP asked, "Where did they come from?"
"No idea," Bokomon said, "But whoever they were, they must've been incredibly powerful to be able to absorb the data from so far away."
So much had happened so quickly that Zoe's head was spinning and she could barely keep her thoughts straight. For now, she should concentrate on what was in front of her right now. Agunimon or Takuya had just said his real name.
The Digimon Tamer.
That name still sounded so stupid. And he'd used the power of the Guardian Spirit to defeat Cerberumon. She wanted to be happy about that but all it meant was that they were now involved in whatever prophecy thing was in that book Bokomon was talking about. After all, if Cerberumon was after it, there was no doubt in her mind that others were after it. Not to mention all the other kids who got on trains too.
She hoped they were okay, wherever they were.
Agunimon's body flash with bright light and he shrank down to size, turning back into Takuya again. The boy was standing there, examining himself, "Aw, I liked being tall. I'm not sure about the hair though. I don't think blonde is really my color."
"That was…pretty cool," Zoe said to him, "So…The Digimon Tamer…that's kind of a long name. Do you mind if I call you Tamer?"
Takuya turned his head to face her and offered a smile, "Sure…now then…how do we get you guys home?"
"So…are we not going to talk about what just happened?" JP asked, "The pink thing or Tamer getting the spirit of fire or whatever?"
"I thought you just wanted to go home?" Tamer remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean, I do! But isn't using that Guardian spirit thing going to cause us problems?" JP asked, "If Cerberumon was after that, doesn't mean others are as well? What if someone else shows up?"
"Well we wouldn't want trying to get back to your world to be too easy," Tamer remarked, "Oh, speaking of, I just thought of how to get you guys back to your world."
"Really? When? How?" Tommy asked excitedly. Tamer gestured into the distance, "The Hallowed Bastion!"
"The Hallowed Bastion!?" Bokomon gawked, "You know where that is?"
"Of course! I haven't been there in a while but it would be nice to pay it a visit," he remarked.
"To be in a place of such knowledge," Bokomon clasped his paws together, "I must come with you! Please, may I?"
"Hang on. What's the Hallowed Bastion?" Tomoki asked.
"It's a center of knowledge and wisdom!" Bokomon said dreamingly.
"The Hallowed Bastion isn't a library," Tamer said.
"But there's a way there for us to get home?" JP asked.
"Yeah. But it's kind of a walk," Tamer said, "It'll take us a few days. We'll probably want some supplies."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get ready and get going!" JP said.
Zoe had to admit, she was a little excited to know there was a way home. And she didn't want to have to wait a second longer.
In another part of this new Digital World, the pink armored warrior called Crusadermon continued through the desert until it was a good distance away from the town. It looked back once out of concern - both for the arrival of the humans and for their discovery of the Guardian Spirit of Fire. That was exactly what was supposed to happen. Which was the problem. It was what was supposed to happen but not what they wanted to happen. And that gave the pink clad warrior pause because for the first time in its long bitter crusade, it had doubts about their goals.
"Crusadermon. You seem troubled."
The pink armored digimon turned around to see another digimon clad in white armor, a helm with pointed horns, and draconic wings growing from its back.
"Dynasmon," Crusadermon acknowledged the new digimon.
"What's on your mind?" it asked.
"The humans have the Guardian Spirit of Fire," Crusadermon answered.
"Is that not as our master foresaw?" Dynasmon asked.
"I thought it was what we were trying to avoid. Their arrival and their acquisition of the spirit is the first portent of our doom," Crusadermon pointed out.
Dynasmon grunted and crossed his arms, "I see what bothers you. Worry not. They need to be allowed into a false sense of security."
"I'd feel more comfortable about this if we weren't the ones at risk," Crusadermon answered.
Dynasmon raised his arms up in praise, "Do no worry for the actions of a few humans, my friend. Rather, sing praise and glory to our Lord and Master. Rejoice in his good news for our salvation is at hand!"
"You really need to stop talking like that," Crusadermon groaned, familiar with her partner's habit of becoming dramatic. But perhaps he was right. Better to have faith than worry about the details.
Author's Notes: What's next for team now that Takuya has revealed himself as the Digimon Tamer? Will they make it to the Hallowed Bastion? And what plans do Crusadermon and Dynasmon have in store? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v 3.0 - Bold New Frontier due out in three weeks on Friday March 19th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys thought in the reviews! And hey, don't forget to follow the story to keep up with updates and to favorite to show support! That's all I have for now, let's look at previews for the next chapter!
"Well, we're stuck here together. Might as well get to know each other. So...what's everyone's story?" Tamer asked again.
"Why don't you go first? Since you're so eager to do this," she said.
"Yeah okay. So...my name is The Digimon Tamer, you know that part," he began, "I'm...several hundred thousand years old. I'm an Ancient. And until...a couple hours ago, I was trying to stop a runaway train. That parts still fuzzy. I vaguely remember a fox, a robot rabbit dog thing, and a spider. My favorite color was blue back then but I'm kinda rocking this red."
"Y'know, there's no point in us playing this game if you can just make stuff up," Zoe grumbled.
