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 v3.0 - Bold New Frontier is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier
Chapter 7 - Zoe Takes The Wind
It took them about an hour to move each of the unconscious Goblimon into a large storage storage room, mostly because the Goblimon were too heavy for the Kokuwamon to carry on their own. Kumamon could manage at least one on his own, but Beetlemon was the only strong enough to actually lift more than one over his head. To be safe, the Kokuwamon tied the Goblimon up with ropes to make sure they couldn't break out and when they woke up.
"Now that we've got our home back, we'd be happy to let those digimon camped outside in to stay with us!" one of the Kokuwamon said.
"Speaking of which, shouldn't we go out and tell the digimon at the camp?" Zoe asked as they finally went to lock the room shut.
The moment she uttered those words, the Goblimon behind her started cackling wildly. The sound made the hair on the back of her head stand on end as she spun around to face the laughing digimon. Watching the laugh spread to the other Goblimon made it unsettling, scaring the crap out of her.
"What are you guys laughing about!? We just kicked your butt up and down this factory!" Beetlemon growled at the digimon angrily.
"You idiots have no clue! We'll be out of here once the others get back from the camp," the laughing Goblimon said.
"Yeah! And then you'll be sorry!" another Goblimon jeered, gnashing its teeth at them. And just like that, Zoe was no longer intimidated by the Goblimon.
"Okay, that's not as intimidating as you think it is. You look like a puppy yipping at me," she snickered, trying not to break out into full on laughter, noticing one of the Kokuwamon barely hold back a laugh. It seemed they were already on the same page with the other Goblimon and were no longer as afraid as they once were. She was happy to see their confidence was back and began, "So we need to go help out the camp."
"Beetlemon and I can head down to the camp now. We can at least try to help them fight off the Goblimon," Kumamon said quickly.
"Ugh, I thought we were done with this already," Beetlemon groaned.
He stoped whining as soon as Zoe slapped his chest, "JP! We have to help as many of these digimon as we can!"
"I know. I just wish we didn't have to keep doing this kind of stuff," Beetlemon groaned, turning around to head towards the factory entrance.
"I'll get as many of the Kokuwamon as I can and we'll hurry to meet you guys there!" Zoe said, hurrying out of the room with them.
As she slammed the door shut, she heard one of the Goblimon taunt them, "Thanks for making their jobs easier! Killing you will be easy when they don't have to look for you!"
The elder Floramon was no longer certain what to think of the fight. The boy calling himself The Digimon Tamer had done nothing but run around the arena for hours, baiting Woodmon around before changing direction and dashing back. In fact, this had gone on for so long that many of the crowd started to leave out of boredom. The boy's stamina went without question.
But Woodmon appeared worn out by tactic. The tree digimon was ready to collapse just from chasing him around for so long. Woodmon was barely able to keep a walking pace. He looked just about ready to fall over. It was a unique way to defeat Woodmon and not at all how she foresaw this fight going. If the boy was The Digimon Tamer, she expected him to win the fight in some grand and epic battle. But to win by running around for hours?
Who would've seen that coming? And she refused to recognize this boy as The Digimon Tamer for winning in such a cowardly and undignified manner. Woodmon continued his pursuit of the boy, carefully positioning his chase to make up for his lack of speed by trying to limit the boy's movements to a specific side.
And the plan appeared to be working, as Woodmon finally cornered the boy against a far wall. He was going to capture the boy and crush him in place. At least, that's what she hoped was going to happen. The boy stood in place and stared up at him without reacting, and his indifferent expression was cause for concern. As if he wasn't worried at all. And just as Woodmon was about to capture the boy, he faltered. Woodmon was so close. All he had to was wrap his arms around the boy. But he didn't. Instead, he tipped off to the side and fell over.
The boy stepped around Woodmon's unconscious form and crossed his arms, "Oh good. I thought for sure he still had a bit of fight left in him."
He took a moment to regain his composure before looking up the Elder Floramon, "I hope that wasn't too boring. I really don't like to fight if I don't have to."
The Elder Floramon did her best to retain her composure. The boy had certainly defeated Woodmon in the most unexpected way. She wrestled with having to accept this boy. The stories said the Digimon Tamer was some kind of great warrior. The stories also said the Digimon Tamer was wild and unpredictable.
This was certainly one. But it wasn't the other. She wanted to see someone who can bring an end to the war. Not run around for hours until their opponent collapsed from exhaustion. There was only one way to settle this, "Fine. I'll do it myself."
"Sorry, what?" the boy said. The Elder Floramon took a few steps back before making a running leap into the center of the arena. What remained of the crowd of onlookers gasped in surprise as she took center stage. They cheered while others shouted at her to give a more interesting fight.
The boy's shoulders slumped as he groaned, "Are we really going to do this? Because I don't want to have to fight anyone if I don't have to."
"Unfortunately for us both, you have to!"
Beetlemon and Kumamon made it outside to see smoke coming from the camp, accompanied by the distant sounds of fighting and screams. In their attack of the camp, it seemed the Goblimon set fires to scatter the digimon and confuse everyone still down there.
"It figures that taking the factory was too easy," Kumamon grumbled under his breath.
"If you think about it, having them split up like this makes the fight easier for us. We cleared out the factory and now we can clear out the attacks at the camp. Besides, I could use a good stretch after sleeping for as long as I did," Beetlemon cracked his knuckles cheerily in a display of optimism he never would've shown as Junpei. Kumamon just raised an eyebrow at him and looked out past the barricades towards the camp.
To call it at a fight would've been generous to the Floramon and Mushroomon. What little resistance they could mount was barely even a threat to the Goblimon who were casually striking down any digimon brave enough to stand up to them. Perhaps dumb would've been a better adjective. But there was another digimon there among them - a giant flying cross between a mantis and a wasp with scythes for hands that circled around beheading any digimon trying to run from them.
"Okay…was that digimon there before?" Beetlemon asked.
"No. He's either the one leading the Goblimon or he just saw the fighting and decided to join in," Kumamon answered quietly, readying his ice powers to freeze a pathway of ice for them to slide down towards the camp. But it was exactly what they needed to hurry down towards the camp.
Beetlemon went first, entering the camp by leaping into the air smashing a Goblimon into a fire. A move he immediately regretted as the screaming Goblimon started running around and spreading the fire in a panic. His shoulder slumped in annoyance, "Okay, that was a bad move on my part."
"Don't worry about it. I'll use my ice to put out as many fires as I can. You protect the digimon," Kumamon said. He turned and use the same frost powers to freeze the nearby campgrounds, cooling the camp so quickly that many of the fires were either extinguished or put out by the water as the ice melted. On the one hand, this was good for the camp.
But for Beetlemon, it was a challenge because it meant his electricity powers were useless. One stray electrical arc would travel along the ice or water and hurt any of the digimon he was trying to save. Which meant the next best thing was for him to run out and start hurting as many Goblimon as he could with his fists. It wasn't as effective as shooting electricity at them, but it was better than accidentally hurting the digimon they were here to help save.
Beetlemon dashed around the camp, trying to stop as many Goblimon as he could while shouting at the scattered Floramon and Mushroomon to run to safety. But not every digimon was on board with simply running away. A few of the Floramon and Mushroomon he saved, just ran over to fight another Goblimon.
"Stop trying to fight them! Get out of here! We'll handle this!" Beetlemon scolded a Floramon.
"STOP TRYING TO HELP US!" the Floramon shouted back at him, charging straight ahead towards the Goblimon ahead of it. Before it even had a chance to look back at the Goblimon, the Floramon was knocked to the ground by the Goblimon's club. Beetlemon rushed forward to save the flower digimon, but couldn't reach them in time to stop the Goblimon from crushing the Floramon's head in.
"No!" Beetlemon shouted, charging at the Goblimon. The green little goblin gestured at him with its finger before swinging its club in the air and running away. And that just made Beetlemon angrier. How could it just run after it struck down a defenseless digimon like that? He raised up his voice and roared, "GET BACK HERE!"
"Boss! We got a couple of party crashers!" the Goblimon shouted to the air, getting the attention of the flying green mantis digimon. It circled back around in the air towards Goblimon and Beetlemon, hissing and gnashing its teeth at them in a fury of hunger. Beetlemon slid to a stop as it slammed into the ground in front him, hissing angrily and bearing its bladed arms in its direction.
"Who the hell are you? Another little bug trying to play hero?" the mantis growled, making a point of showing its teeth.
Beetlemon didn't know what offended him more - the smell of its breath or the insult. And now that it was right in front of him, he could see just how big this digimon actually was. It had to be about the size of a house. But Beetlemon put on his bravest face and snapped back, "Oh hi, kettle. I'm pot. You're black."
"What?" the digimon hissed. He was sure that if it had eyes, it would be blinking in confusion. Beetlemon should've guessed that this thing had probably never even seen a kettle or a pot before. Or knew what that expression meant. In fact, it looked like the creature was at a complete loss of how to respond to him. Or it was angry. It was hard to tell when the only part of it with a face was its mouth.
And now that Beetlemon had time to think about it, another question came to mind for him, "How do you even see? You've got no eyes! Or smell without a nose. Not that you'd want to with how bad your breath is."
The giant mantis digimon grunted, "I'm going to eat you now."
"Promise you'll eat a mint first?" Beetlemon asked. The mantis responded by lunging at him, an attack he only narrowly avoided by leaping out of the way at the last possible second.
"Too close!" Beetlemon remarked as he rolled to a stop beside a tree. He looked up briefly to see the mantis had swallowed a tent and was busily crunching it to pieces in his mouth. Good. He could use the opportunity to sneak around behind the mantis and get him from behind.
"Snimon! Boss! He's over there!" one of the Goblimon shouted out, gesturing towards him. Well, so much for that plan. At least he knew what the digimon was called now - Snimon. That was a hell of a name too. He turned and started running from the flying mantis, hoping to lure it out into the woods and away from the camp so that he could freely use his electrical powers to zap the bastard out of the air.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN AWAY FROM ME!?" Snimon roared from the air, swinging his blades to cut down the trees in his way. Beetlemon kept going, hoping to create a big enough space for him to set up his attack. But once he thought he was far enough away, he turned around to face the flying digimon and wound back his fist - letting the electricity arc and spark its way around him.
"LIGHTNING BLITZ!"
The electricity shot skyward - tracing a path through the air towards Snimon just as his blades were about to come down. But at the last moment the electricity arced back down towards the trees and set it ablaze, stopping the giant bug in the air. For a moment it paused, staring at the flaming tree in disbelief before he howled with laughter, "Did you think that would work? We're in a forest! The sky is my domain! Every single one of your electric blasts will just arc back down to the ground through the trees!"
"Wait…is that how it works?" Beetlemon asked, looking back at the flaming tree. He vaguely remembered the teacher mentioning something about it science class but he hadn't really been paying attention. And now Beetlemon was quietly regretting his decision to take his studies less seriously than he probably should've been. No, no, he had to focus. There wasn't time to focus on things like this. He needed to focus on what really mattered right now. And right now, the thing that mattered the most was stopping this monsters rampage. And with no other recourse, he turned and ran further into the forest as Snimon continued after him.
"RUNNING WON'T SAVE YOU! GET BACK HERE COWARD!" Snimon roared at the top of his lungs, something JP did his best to ignore as he continued running for his life from the giant insect. And as he fled, he gained a new appreciation for why the Goblimon had run earlier.
Zoe rushed out to the camp with a group of Kokuwamon at her back, surprised that neither Kumamon nor Beetlemon had gotten a handle on things despite everything that was going on. Goblimon ran back and forth around the camp, destroying everything they could get their hands on and hurting everyone they could touch. Kumamon was overwhelmed trying to put out fires with his ice powers, but Beetlemon was nowhere to be seen. She sighed and shouted, "We have to stop the Goblimon! Protect the camp!"
"We're on it!" the Kokuwamon shouted, scattering in every direction to take on as many Goblimon as they could at the same time. There wasn't much she could do if she tried to go up against those guys, though, so she did the next best thing and went to go help some of the wounded Floramon and Mushroomon. The least she would be able to do right now was help get the injured as far from the fighting as possible.
She approached one of the Floramon nursing a broken leg and was met with a glare, "Oh great. It's you! I bet you guys are the ones who brought this mess on us!"
"On you? We're trying to help you!" Zoe protested, helping the Floramon to stand despite its resistance to her help.
"Get off me! We don't need your help!"
"Oh, shut up and take the help!" Zoe argued, helping the injured Floramon limp their way from the camp towards a group of other Floramon and Mushroomon huddled in terror behind some bushes. She set the Floramon down beside the others, noting that they were staring daggers at her after she'd come to help.
"Oh great! You brought more digimon! What's wrong with you?" one of the Mushroomon grumbled, "We were already in enough trouble with those guys from the factory. The last thing we need is more of them."
"The Kokuwamon are here to help!" Zoe spat at the digimon.
"Oh sure! Help! Like that one guy who ran off with Snimon!" another of the Floramon grumbled.
"Will you drop the attitude!? We took the factory to give you guys a place to stay and now we're trying to save your lives and all you do is get mad at us!" Zoe finally exploded. But she saw the glares they were shooting at her. They didn't want her help. She wanted to quit. To just walk away here and now. But she couldn't do that. Not now. She was going to help save as many people as she could. She turned to walk back into the camp, then paused as she recalled they said something about someone running off. She looked back at the digimon and asked, "Wait a second. Who ran off?"
"That one digimon with the blue armor. A Snimon chased him off into the woods," the Floramon answered.
"Which way?" she gasped, realizing they were talking about Beetlemon. She had no idea what a Snimon was but if it was enough to make him run, she was sure he would need some kind of back up. The Floramon gestured back off into the woods, in the direction of Breezy Village and Zoe dreaded to think how far the boy had gone. Especially after last time with the Pagumon. Without a second thought, she rushed off after Beetlemon.
"See! Now you're running too! You're just as useful as the rest of them!" the digimon roared angrily. She really had no idea why she bothered trying to help any of these digimon.
The Elder Floramon was getting tired - both from physical exhaustion and frustration at the boy's constant refusal to fight back. Unless that was his plan too. But that would not prove whether or not he was a great warrior. In fact, it proved he may not be as smart as she initially would've though - using the same strategy twice made him predictable. But the Floramon remained adamant that she could somehow get the truth out of the boy. No matter what it took.
The boy side stepped every swing, dodged out of the way of every attack, and ran at every opportunity. If there was one advantage she had, it was that the boy was slowing down. The disadvantage she had was her age. She was slowing down as well, keeping the two of them on pace with each other despite how tired they were. But that was a good sign. It meant he couldn't keep up his battle of attrition forever. at some point, running would no longer be an option for him. That's when she would have him.
And she could see it plainly that every attack got just a little bit closer to his body, every swing was just that much harder to avoid, how his reactions were getting slower.
"Let me ask you something: is this really how you want to be spending your last few days?" the boy began. Great, he was using his words again. She hated when he used his words, a belated stalling tactic that she didn't care for.
"Shut up and fight," she grunted, making another attempt to stab at the boy with her vines. The boy rolled to the side to get out of the way, making sure to stomp on the vines as he could. She winced in pain but was at least relieved to know that he was going to start fighting back. That meant he was finally out of options.
"That's entirely the problem. I imagine you don't want to keep doing this. You want to go back to better times," he responded.
She was just really tired of talking but needed to keep him engaged to distract him, "That's why we need the Tamer! To end the war! And this war can only end when one side is completely dead."
"Or you can negotiate for peace? That's always an option," he replied.
"Peace isn't an option. It was never an option," she growled at the boy. The boy's shoulders slumped and he stamped on the vines again, sending a sharp pain up her arms. Then he leapt away as she tried to bring her vines around to attack him. The blood rushed to her ears as her heart started racing. This boy, Tamer or not, was not what they needed. His attitude would not bring an end to this war. And she went after him.
Then she heard a loud buzzing in the distance and looked up to see the source of the noise. There was a green figure approaching over the trees of the forest and she turned to face it, "What is that?"
"It's a Snimon! It's coming fast and chasing another digimon! They're both coming this way!" a Mushroomon shouted out from the crowd, one of the village's guards. The Elder Floramon groaned, knowing they would have to end this here. Perhaps it was for the best. She had her answer now. This boy was not the one who could end the war. Now, she had to attend to her duties.
She turned towards the remaining villagers, "Raise the defense! I don't care who either of them are! Don't let them get near the village! Kill them if you have to!"
"On it!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The villagers went to their duties, running to either man the defenses or to meet the approaching attackers. She went to oversee the defenses, marching towards the barricades herself. The boy hurried up from behind her, moving with a sudden burst of speed that was likely his last wind from all the days she'd run.
"Floramon. It doesn't have to be this way. You don't have to fight! Invite them to join you for tea and snacks!" he said.
"When a stranger comes at you with a knife, you don't run towards them with open arms and a hug. We will meet this attack with our defenses and show them they're not welcome here! If you have so much faith in these strangers to not kill you, then you can go meet them!" the Elder Floramon replied. She noted the stunned expression on the boy's face but continued on towards the defenses anyway, content to see that he had nothing to say for once.
The Elder Floramon made her way past the villagers, past the brave Floramon and Mushroomon making their way towards the barricades around the end of the village, and took a place by the village's gate. If the Snimon managed to make it past the defenses, the Elder Floramon would be among the first to face the attacker. And she would help put them in is place.
As the remaining defenders assembled at the defenses, the boy pushed past her and down the road towards the Snimon. She had no idea what that idiot was thinking, but she was sure he would get himself killed.
Beetlemon continued running through the forest, stopping to face the attacking Snimon and shoot lightning back at him. However, he was tired and the Snimon's agility meant he dodged every arc of electricity. And if he couldn't dodge it, he instead sliced apart a tree and threw it at the lightning.
How could one digimon be so fast? It was lightning! It should hit the guy as soon as it flashed, but he was dodging and blocking it. Or at least, he was dodging the arcs of lightning that didn't immediately change direction to strike a nearby tree.
Just as Beetlemon stopped to face his pursuer head on, he heard a clammer of foot steps behind him and turned around to see none other than Tamer running straight towards him. He did a double take as he tried to process that. Tamer should've been held prisoner by the Floramon. So what was he doing here?
"Stop fighting! Both of you! Stop fighting!" he cried out, waving his arms over his head.
That again? Where was all that peace and stop fighting talk when he blew apart an army? Beetlemon instead decided to ignore him and looked back at the attacking Snimon. He was going to wait until the last possible second to attack the giant bug thing. The digimon may have been fast, but there was no way he was fast enough to block a blast of electricity at point blank range.
Beetlemon pulled his fist back and charged up the electrical attack, waiting until he could actually smell the breath of Snimon in his face before he threw his punch forward. And then he struck, full blow straight into the digimon's mouth, "LIGHTNING BLIT-"
And he was promptly dragged into the air by Snimon and taken into the sky, "AAAAAAAHHH!"
Snimon would not be able to dodge a point blank attack against lightning, but first he would have to actually hit the digimon. And that was going to be very hard to do when he was dangling in the air by the Snimon's mouth. The smell of its breath was awful and it took all his concentrated effort to not start throwing up in his helmet. Assuming he had a mouth. Now that he thought about it, did he even have a face underneath the helmet?
Focus! He was in the middle of a fight right now with a giant bug creature. He looked back at the Snimon and began striking the creature in the head, doing everything he could to at least break the grip of its mouth.
Zoe ran as fast as she could, trying to ignore the fatigue and the hunger pangs from not eating. She had no idea how far she was from them, but she had to keep going if she was going to catch up and stop JP from dragging an angry flying mantis back with him to Breezy Village.
"Keep going. You're almost there."
"Huh?" Zoe stopped in her tracks, taking a moment to look around and see who of all people had called out to her. She was sure someone had just spoken, but she didn't see anyone else here.
BOOM!
That had to mean she was catching up. She started on another run, ignoring how much her feet were aching from the days of running and walking. Whenever she got home, she was going to have a nice long soak in her bathtub.
This day was dragging on much longer than it should have and all she wanted was for today to just be over. She followed after the sound of thunder and the flashes of light, in the general direction of Breezy Village, until she caught sight of Snimon flying over the tree tops and Beetlemon hanging from its mouth.
"Let me go you stupid, ugly, bug thing!" Beetlemon shouted as he punched at its jaw. Because of course he was up there! But how was she supposed to help him when she couldn't even get up there?
"MUSHROOM MASH!"
"POISON IVY!"
The loud cry echoed out as hundreds of vines shot into the air, followed by a flurry of mushrooms soaring through the air. The vines whipped around, trying to ensnare Snimon and restrict its movement by limiting where it could be in the air. Then the mushrooms exploded in the air, releasing a thick brown cloud that slowly dispersed out around the ground.
"Cover your mouth!" Tamer shouted. Zoe looked back down to see Tamer running towards with his hat in his hand, revealing hair that was matted down from wearing a hat for so long. He threw it over her mouth and nose, giving her a good whiff of all the sweat he had from days of wearing that hat on his head. She wanted to gag, but he made a point of keep his hat pressed against her face.
"Don't breathe in the spores! You'll…ha…haha," he started giggling, "It's…laughing…hahahaha…the spores are…ha haha hahahaha…laughing gas! Ha! HA! HAHAHA!"
This had to be a joke. She was sure it was until she heard laughing coming from Beetlemon. Powerful, uncontrollable laughter that made him begin to double over. Even Snimon was now cackling manically, but that just loosened his mouth enough to let Beetlemon fall to the ground. He yelped aloud between fits of uncontrolled laughter. That made her tighten the hat around her face even more to keep the spores from entering her lungs. Beetlemon was now laughing uncontrollably and Tamer seemed like he was struggling to restrain the laughter. But that just raised a different question, "How come you're not laughing like Beetlemon?"
"Because I'm not…hahaha…human. I keep…hahaha…telling you guys that. My physiology makes me more resistant to toxins in this world," he replied, trying his hardest to maintain some semblance of composure.
"What are you even doing here? I thought they took you prisoner!" she pointed out to him, wishing she didn't have to get a whiff of his hair with every breath.
"I…hahaha…they let me out…for…good b-behavior!" he answered, obviously struggling to keep his laughter in. She hated the fact that she couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
He looked back up at the sky and raised up his digivice, "We need to stop it before it gets to the village. Execute! Spirit Evolution! Agunimon!"
Tamer disappeared in a flash of fire, replaced by an Agunimon who was barely restraining his giggles. His fists came aflame with fire and he punched the ground, propelling himself into the air as he soared towards the flying mantis digimon. The two of them disappeared behind the trees but she could hear the blasts of fire as Agunimon punched his was around the sky, trying to fight mantis in the air as they played a game of cat and mouse.
But Zoe could see from down here that his movements were sluggish and tired. He had the ability to shoot fire from his fists and he could barely land a hit on him.
"Are you ready to help out?"
"Who's there?" Zoe spun around in surprise, looking around for whoever had been talking to her. But again there was no one there. Was this the voice that Tamer and Tommy had been referring to? Was there some guardian spirit reaching out to her?
"You know it's rude to talk about someone behind their back? Or…to their face?"
Yup. It was definitely a Guardian Spirit. She spun around again, trying to focus in on where the voice had been coming from, "Where are you? You asked me if I was ready to help out! Well, I am!"
"Good. Because I can help you. But first you have to find me!" the guardian spirit said.
"Okay. Where do I go?" she asked, looking around anxiously for wherever the first one was.
"To the heart of Breezy Village, a great tree grows. That is the place where my power rests," the voice answered. Great, a cryptic answer. And did it have to be Breezy Village? She could still hear the explosions in the air from their attacks against both Snimon and Agunimon. At this point, she was certain they didn't care who they were hurting, as long as they were able to keep out outsiders. A lump formed in her throat that she was barely able to swallow down, taking a deep breath before she started running towards the village.
Thankfully, both Agunimon and Snimon were taking their fight in that direction - which meant that the village was probably going to keep their attention on them. As she reached the outer barricades, she found exactly that: the Mushroomon and Floramon were firing attacks into the air from their position, moving only whenever a stray attack from either Agunimon or Snimon went flying their way. And beyond the wall, she could see a large tree whose branches reached so high that it appeared to looked like it was trying to block out the sun.
Her attention went back to the outer barricades where the many Floramon and Mushroomon scattered away. A stray blast of fire from Agunimon flew through the air until it strike the barricade with enough force to shatter it there. With their attention diverted away for a moment, Zoe used her chance to run through the brush towards the outer wall. Just as she reached the outer wall, Agunimon came crashing out of the sky with Snimon right after him. The two plowed right through the wall, leaving a large hole for her to rush in after.
"You have to give him credit, he sure made it a lot easier for you to get past the guards," the voice said.
"Yeah, and he probably has every guard looking in our direction now," she mumbled quietly, trying to make her way past the chaos of the village - past abandoned inns and boarded up restaurants, through a small neighborhood filled with dilapidated homes who looked ready to collapse under their own weight. A few times, she had to take cover inside one of the crumbling buildings as Agunimon and Snimon's fight extended through the village. This led the guards around the village after them, making their path occasionally follow near her. But once the guards were gone, she continued on towards the large tree in the center of the village.
As she drew closer, she felt her digivice vibrate in her pocket and the spirit's voice echoed in her head, "You're so close now. I can feel it."
"Hey!" a Floramon appeared in front of her, stopping in her tracks. This Floramon was different. Her petals were wilted and she sounded older with a voice more raspy that what she was used to. She wasn't sure how the older digimon was still standing given that she seemed ready to collapse at a moment's notice.
"Don't think I didn't notice you sneaking your way into the village. I did. What do you think you're doing?" the Floramon said.
"I'm…getting help," she hesitated to answer, unsure why this Floramon didn't just attack her outright or just demand that she leave. The Floramon tilted its head to the side, her eyes glancing briefly behind Zoe to the village below where the battle between Agunimon and Snimon was ripping the already crumbling village to even more pieces than it was before.
After a long silence, the Floramon just shook her head and quietly mumbled, "All I wanted was for the fighting to end and peace to return to my village. I'm old, and so tired now. Everything I ever did, every choice I ever made was for the good of the village and the people I called family. And I can only assume you're here now because you wish to claim the Guardian Spirit."
Zoe took a step back, "How do you know about that?"
"I'm the village elder. I know all the secrets of my village and it has been my duty to protect them. And yet, even though I knew about it, I could never wield the power of the Guardian Spirit for myself," she replied, turning back towards the large tree behind her. She put her hands together as if to pray towards the tree. And with her prayer, it began to glow. The light condensed to a single point in front of Floramon, glowing brighter as it shrank until it illuminated a single point on the trunk. The Elder Floramon took this small glowing light and turned back to face Zoe.
"This is the Guardian Spirit of the Wind. If you are able to wield its power…all I can ask is that you use it to defend this village," the Elder Floramon asked.
"Well? Are you going to defend the village?" the Guardian Spirit's voice echoed in her mind. Zoe could feel the digivice shaking in her hand, or perhaps it was her own hand trembling.
She glanced back at the village, being torn apart by the battle between Agunimon and Snimon. There was no time to consider things and she nodded, "Yes."
Floramon released the light and it shot forward towards Zoe's digivice. She felt the digivice erupt violently in her hand and instinct kicked in. She mimed Tamer's actions as she raised it over her head, "Execute! Spirit Evolution! Kazemon!"
The light spread from her digivice, throughout her body until it blinded her for the briefest moment. When the light faded, she found herself feeling lighter…taller even. She glanced down to get a look at herself and immediately noticed she was a little bit taller. This was immediately followed by disgust as she realized the pink and purple armor she wore barely covered her body. It exposed her midriff, her thighs, and just way too much skin in general for her to feel comfortable. In fact, it looked more like lingerie than battle armor. She quickly covered herself with her arms, trying to hide as much skin as possible in protest, "Hey! What gives!? Why am I half naked?"
She looked up at Floramon for an answer and saw the digimon lying flat on her back, her body slowly dissipating to nothing. Kazemon felt her heart stop in shock. Had she done this? No, she couldn't have. She looked around frantically to see what had attacked the Elder Floramon. But there was no one else here. It was just her and the dying elder. There was only thing left her to do and that was help the dying digimon. She slid to her knees beside the digimon, "Hang in there! You'll be okay."
"Pink…pink armor…" the Elder Floramon gasped out, pointing upwards. Kazemon followed her pointed fingers up towards the tree and saw the digimon in pink armor hovering over them. As Floramon burst into a cloud of light and data, the energy flowed up towards the pink being and it absorbed the energy again before promptly fleeing.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Kazemon shouted, looking up at retreating figure in pink armor but it was no use. She wasn't going to be able to go after them from down here.
"SOMEONE HAS THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT!"
"Where's the Elder?"
"Stop her!"
Kazemon turned around to see several Mushroomon and Floramon coming towards her. At first, she thought they were coming to help but they quickly surrounded her. It was only then that she understood they were after her. She threw up her hands defensively, "Wait! This isn't how it looks!"
"I'd say it's exactly how it looks! The Village Elder came up here to stop you! Now she's gone and you're holding the Guardian Spirit's power!" one of the Mushroomon shouted accusingly.
"That must mean you killed her and stole!" another Floramon accused. Zoe did the only thing she could and cursed under her breath. She had to get out of this mess…somehow. But she had a Guardian Spirit now! That had to be worth something right?
Author's Notes: Zoe has found a Guardian Spirit's power. But she's found herself in some serious trouble herself now. Will she be able to reason with the digimon who've surrounded her? How much longer can Agunimon hold Snimon back? And what about the mysterious Crusadermon and Dynasmon? What is their endgame and why do they oppose the heroes? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier due out in three weeks on Friday July 2nd at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews section! And hey, don't forget to follow to keep up with all the latest updates and favorite to show support! And now some previews for the next chapter:
"That's not what happened! I swear!" she insisted, but they were not listening to her anymore. They were just after blood now. She stepped backwards from the advancing digimon, realizing there was nowhere else for her to run.
"Psst. You can fly."
"I can what?" Kazemon looked around nervously, trying to figure how the Guardian Spirit could still be talking to her.
"You have wings."
