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 12: Rescue

It didn't take long to actually find Tsunomon in a small forest clearing, sitting beside a pond with a frown. It was no surprise to Zoe, quietly recalling all the times she'd spent going off to be by herself in school. She heaved a heavy sigh and sat beside the little digimon, "Hi, Tsunomon. Do you mind if I sit here?"

Tsunomon didn't answer, adjusting his gaze so that he didn't have to look at her. However, Zoe could see the scowl on his face in the water's reflection. It was obvious he didn't want to talk, and she wasn't about to force him to. Just by the look of him, she got reminded of Tomoki - the little boy who'd been bullied a few times too many and simply didn't want to interact with anyone else.

"Well, whatever you're going to do, just do it already," Tsunomon whimpered quietly, shifting his eyes to look at her reflection in the water.

"I'm not going to do anything!" Zoe protested, noticing Tsunomon recoil from her tone. Realizing her mistake, Zoe scooted backwards and apologized, "Sorry. I didn't mean to…snap."

"Sure," Tsunomon sighed. Zoe wanted to explain but couldn't work up the nerve to do so. But if she didn't want to be like the other kids she'd dealt with in the past, she realized she would have to. But why did it have to be so hard? She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and pressed onward anyway.

"What did you think we were going to do?" Zoe asked, certain she didn't want to know the answer.

"Push me into the water or hit with me something. That's what all the others do," Tsunomon answered quietly.

"We just wanted to make sure you were okay after you went off on your own," she explained to the little digimon.

"I'm fine," Tsunomon answered.

"Well, you sure don't look it," JP sat down on the other side of Tsunomon, positioning himself so that there was a little more distance between himself and the little ball. After a moment, he produced a chocolate bar from within his pocket and offered it to the little digimon.

"You still keep chocolate in your pocket?" Zoe asked, wondering just how long he had been keeping it there and why he never placed it in her bag. Then again, it was probably for the best that he never asked. There was no telling how much of the contents of her bag would be ruined if she had to carry his chocolate around back in there too.

"I don't want any," Tsunomon turned away, keeping his focus on the ground beneath him.

"Suit yourself," JP said as he gleefully unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite out of it. They sat there silently for a while after that, accompanied only by the sound of JP happily eating his chocolate while Zoe tried to think of what to say to the little digimon. After all, what could she say? She could try relating but she was sure Tsunomon wouldn't like to be reminded of what he had to go through every day.


Tomoki was a little confused by the room he was taken to - it looked nothing like the dungeon he'd been expecting. Actually, he was fairly sure he was in a children's play room. The giant fluffy bear called Monzaemon sat him down a large plastic chair meant for little kids and put him in front of a small wooden table. Tomoki had expected some kind of interrogation, or maybe even a kind of torture. Not a plate of cookies and a glass of milk to be slid to him from across the table. Even weirder was Monzaemon's return with what appeared to be a mix of PlayStation and Nintendo game console, and controllers that looked like a combination of both.

"Hit him in the head! Then run away! Escape to help your friends!" the Guardian Spirit's voice said, urging him to escape in a dramatically and unnecessarily violent manner. And he contemplated doing so - Monzaemon did just jump them out of the blue. For all intents and purposes, he'd bullied them.

"So! It's time to find out if you're here to play…" Monzaemon began. A chill ran down Tomoki's spine at the accusatory tone.

"-or here to play!" Monzaemon declared. All the fear vanished as Tomoki raised an eyebrow at the bear.

"Best out of three in Super Ultra Mega All Stars Battle Force Smash Wins! If you win, I'll let you and your friends go! If you lose, you and your friends will be prisoners here!" Monzaemon declared as he set up the game. Tomoki blinked in confusion as Monzaemon placed one of the controller in his hands. He had no idea what happened to the others, but if this was their only chance to be saved then…

"Bash him in the head with it! Break his thumbs! Then escape while he's confused!" the Guardian Spirit's voice echoed inside his head. Tomoki shook those thoughts out of his head, wishing it would calm down. Besides, Monzaemon didn't even have thumbs! If he was supposed to fight this creature, couldn't he at least do it in the video game? Besides, he really wanted to play a video game. It had been way too long since he sat down to play one. And this might be the only way to save Tamer, Koji, and Neemon.


"Will you slow down! Where are we even going?" Koji asked quietly, doing his best to keep up with Tamer as he hurried further ahead of their group. Agunimon spun around with his hands behind his head and cracked a smile. Koji didn't care for that confident smile, or the fact that he was making no effort to conceal himself. This prompted Koji to grumble, "And will you get down!?"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Koji. They're just toys. There's not much they can do about it. Unless you're afraid of getting hit by pellets?" Agunimon replied.

"Sure, one pellet. But there's a lot of toys around here! One pellet might not hurt, but getting hit by a hundred of them at once would probably suck," Neemon pointed out. Koji didn't miss the dismissive shrug from Agunimon, or the excited smile on his face. This guy was enjoying it, wasn't he?

Or perhaps it was a shiver, since Agunimon stammered out his answer, "Thank you for that, Neemon. Your bouts of insight can be outright terrifying."

Agunimon shook his head as he spun back around, "As for where we are going, we're heading after Monzaemon. It's been a while since I've been in Toy Town but his house should be in this direction, past the wooden blocks but before…the…legos…"

Agunimon trailed off as he turned around a corner and froze at the very sight of something. The voice inside his head echoed, "Your friend can be very stupid, apparently."

Or he was shocked by what he saw, and Koji was just at a loss when he rounded the corner and saw it too. Instead of the house that Agunimon promised, there was a large stone castle patrolled by large groups of toy tanks, wooden toy soldiers, robot action figures, assorted stuffed animals with toy weapons, what appeared to be legos assembled vaguely in the shape of dinosaurs, and toy planes patrolling overhead.

"You didn't mention a castle," Neemon said rather loudly, and Koji had to shush him. The last thing they needed was to be noticed.

"It wasn't here last time," Agunimon mumbled out, quietly ushering them back into cover behind the large wooden blocks. He poked his head out briefly to get another look and sighed, "I was really hoping I was just imagining that the first time. Okay, we just need ideas to rescue Tommy! Let's see…they're just toys so full on frontal attack sounds like the idea of the day."

"You're joking," Koji felt his mouth fall open.

The inheritor of Agunimon's powers is a moron. Talk him out of it before he gets himself killed," the voice echoed inside his head. Koji didn't need to be told twice, and was about to open his mouth when Agunimon ran out from behind cover.

"Nope! We can take these toys!" Agunimon declared, winding his fists back and shooting fire from his fists. As soon as he did, an alarm started blaring and the various toys turned to face Agunimon.

"This is a terrible idea," Koji buried his face into palm.

"Nope. It's a great idea! LET'S GO!" Agunimon shouted, charging straight towards the defensive line of toys. Perhaps he could survive - after all, the guy seemed to know was doing. That or he was really lucky. Maybe thinks were going to work out?

"Please help him. I don't want to see my friend's powers go to waste on a moron," the voice inside of his head echoed. Koji really didn't want to, though, and was content to just watch the idiot get himself hurt. But as he watched the toys line up in formation to attack, Koji felt a pang of guilt inside of him and groaned. Not helping was the voice pleading with him to jump in and act. He really didn't want to do this. Finally, he ran out from behind cover to follow Agunimon.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Neemon said, following from after them.

"WHY WOULD CHARGING IN BE A GOOD IDEA!?" Koji shouted as Agunimon just ran on in with alarms blaring all around him.

"They're toys! What's the worse they could do?" Agunimon shouted back, just as one of the toy tanks rolled towards him. The cannon rotated to face him and then fired. The resulting blast missed Agunimon's head and punched a hole in the side of the wooden blocks.

"That! That is the worst they can do!" Neemon exasperatedly cried, diving for cover behind some of the wooden debris. Koji ducked in behind him just as an explosion rocked the field.

"I thought you said they had pellets!" Koji shouted after Agunimon.

"They were pellets the last time I was here," Agunimon answered.

"And when was the last time you were here!?" Koji shouted.

"About two faces ago. I definitely had more hair back then," came Agunimon's nonsense answer. Again with saying stuff that made no sense. What did two faces ago mean? He didn't have time to think about it or get too upset as Agunimon began fighting the toy soldiers. And just like the tank, their weapons were just as dangerous and explosive as their real life counterpart.

"Are you going to help?" Neemon asked Koji.

"In a minute. I want to see if getting knocked around will knock some sense in him," Koji answered quietly.

"You do know he's the only one who knows how to get back to your world, right?" Neemon asked. Koji didn't and he was annoyed that Agunimon felt the need to leave that part out. The voice in his head surmised that Agunimon probably did it on purpose, but Koji wasn't sure why he would leave out something that important. A way back home? Koji's fist tightened around his digivice as it sank in that if he wanted to get home, he would need to keep the idiot from getting himself killed.

"Dammit!" Koji grunted before finally running out from behind cover, holding his digivice over his head and calling out, "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"


"It's lonely when no one wants to be around you," Zoe finally said to break the silence, thinking on her own life at school. Tsunomon glanced towards her, but quickly put his attention back on the ground when she looked at him. She didn't blame him for it. He probably didn't want to open himself up to it.

"Tell me about it. You try to be nice but everyone freaks out when you do," JP added, and now it was Zoe's turn to shoot a sideways glance towards him. She shouldn't have been surprised since JP's brand of flirting was creepy, but it never occurred to her that he noticed it. Or that he was aware of how off putting he was. And perhaps she had been too harsh with him. Granted she wasn't going to put up with his flirtations or his unwanted advances; but she could still be nice to him.

"They deserve what's coming to them," Tsunomon said quietly, finally breaking his silence.

"What was that?" Zoe asked, unsure she heard the little digimon properly.

"Those jerks back at the school. They hate me…and all I ever did was try to be nice. They deserve what they get!" Tsunomon said again with more anger.

"Okay, I'm getting Tommy vibes here," JP worried. Zoe hated to admit it but she agreed. Tsunomon was sounding more than a little like Tomoki lately, and she really didn't like that idea. But, maybe it was just a misunderstand? Or maybe he was just being dramatic or exaggerating his anger? After all, it wasn't like a little digimon such as himself could do much damage anyway.

"What are you talking about, Tsunomon?" Zoe asked, feeling her voice shake.

"Don't worry about it. You humans shouldn't be getting involved in digimon problems anyway," Tsunomon answered.

Zoe was scared now and quietly asked, "Tsunomon…what did you do?"

"I think I'm going to go back and check on the school," JP said quietly, standing up quickly as he readied to run back.

Before he'd even taken a step, Tsunomon grunted, "I wouldn't bother. The whole school will be gone soon anyway."

Zoe didn't want to believe Tsunomon was capable of doing anything malicious, but the way he was talking was terrifying to her. Not a little guy like him.

"Okay, what exactly did you do?" JP asked, his tone shifting from concern to quiet accusation.

Tsunomon sniffled quietly, the anger in his voice choking as the little digimon quietly broke down, "It's supposed to rain today. And when it rains here, it rains hard. The plains flood. And Togemon didn't have time to reinforce the levees. She's been too busy trying to get everyone to be nice to me. Like they ever would. They need to be patched up after every rain, otherwise they get washed away."

That didn't seem right. It had been bright and sunny when they went after Tsunomon. She glanced upwards through the clearing in the sky and and noticed some dark clouds beginning to form where there had been none not too long ago. In fact, it was moving in surprisingly quick given that there had been no clouds at all just a moment ago.

"Tsunomon, did you have anything to do with the storm?" Zoe asked quietly.

She didn't expect the little digimon to bite back at her, "Do I look like I have any control over the weather? I didn't do anything. I'm not going to do anything to hurt them. I'm not that kind of digimon."

Tsunomon paused as his scowl calmed, "But I don't have to help them either."

JP snapped at the little digimon, "Wow, you're a little twerp!"

"Like you actually care about them. You probably care about them as much as you pretend to care about me," Tsunomon looked away bitterly. Zoe was stunned by that accusation and tried to think of a way to counter it, but was too furious to think of anything. They'd run all the way out here to make sure Tsunomon was okay, and he seemed to think it was all an act.

"Hey, we came out here to make sure you were okay!" Zoe retorted back at the little digimon.

"I don't remember asking you to!" Tsunomon snapped back. She wanted to say something else to Tsunomon but it slowly dawned on her that this would be a wasted effort. Especially when they had the school to worry about. All she wanted was to make sure that Tsunomon - she figured he would be hurting but to be willing to do nothing while others were hurt.

"JP! Hurry back and help the others," she finally said.

"Already on it," he said, turning back and rushing back towards the school. That just left her and Tsunomon.

"Their deaths won't fix your problems, you know that Tsunomon?" she asked.

"But it will make it go away," Tsunomon countered. That was definitely not an answer she was prepared for.

"So you're okay with doing nothing while your teacher and all your classmates die?" Zoe asked, "I get it. I really do, but this isn't the solution."

"And what? You think me going over to help them will suddenly make them like me?" Tsunomon snapped back, "I tried to be nice! I tried to be friendly. They just don't like me! And for what? Because I came from somewhere else? Because that makes them better than me? All helping them will do is let them live long enough to keep thinking that! So why bother?"

Zoe reasoned, "Because they're your classmates."

"Yes, they are. And all my classmates did was leave me out of everything and ignore me when I tried to be friends with them. And after all that, you want me to go back there and just save them!?" Tsunomon reasoned.

"Yes!" Zoe said.

"Yeah, sure. Save them so things can go back to how they are, with me trying to be their friend and them forgetting about me on purpose so they don't have to be around me," Tsunomon snapped back. Zoe didn't know what else to say Tsunomon. She had no idea how to reach out to him when he'd been hurt so deeply. And now of all times, she really wished the Guardian Spirit would speak up, offer some advice, or at least say something. But all she got was silence. And she knew for a fact the silence could hear her thinking every one of those thoughts.

"Fine, stay here!" she snapped back, pausing to add, "Just…be safe. Please."

As angry as she was at the little digimon, she couldn't bring herself to be cruel or wish harm on him. Tsunomon was just a kid after all. Just like her. She turned around and hurried back towards the school


Toy soldiers and tanks continued firing on the two, while toy planes buzzed in just close enough to draw their attention away. Lobomon hated how stupid this plan was and growled at Agunimon, "So much for your plan! There's no end to these guys!"

"Well, yeah? They're toys! They just put themselves back together!" Agunimon said back, picking up one of the toy soldiers and slamming it into another, before kicking them both towards a stuffed animal holding a foam sword.

"Are…are you serious!? And you wanted to charge right into these guys!?" Lobomon fired back at Agunimon.

"Why not? They're still just toys. Come on, we're almost to the gate!" Agunimon shouted, rushing straight through the swarm of toys slowly closing in around them. There had to be a better option than that one. But if there was, the voice in his head was being very quiet. Which meant resigning himself to charging after Agunimon. They rushed past all the toys, entering into a large atrium that appeared to be made by a six year old. Gone were the stone walls, replaced by pink dry wall covered in crayon drawings, hand drawn pictures, and smears of paint. Scattered along were the floor were more wooden blocks, assorted blankets, and pillows.

"This is not what I expected in this place," Lobomon commented as he followed Agunimon down a hallway that went further into the castle.

"Yeah, Monzaemon never had the best taste in interior decoration. He's inclined to make things appeal to younger kids because of all the toys. If you ask me, the only goo part is the game room which is quite nice," Agunimon said, leading the way further into the castle.

"Where are we going, anyway!?" Lobomon shouted from behind Agunimon, looking over his shoulder to see the army of toy soldiers following after them.

"Not sure! But Tomoki has to be around here somewhere," Agunimon shouted back.

"So we just search the entire castle?" Lobomon asked, looking back once more to see the entire army was still following just behind them.

"AH! STOP HITTING ME!" Tomoki's voice rang out from further within the castle. Despite the shriek, Lobomon couldn't help but feel that it sounded wrong. That didn't sound like someone being tortured. It sounded like whining.

"Or we follow the screams of terror!" Agunimon said, charging ahead without looking back.

"Wait," Lobomon called after him, but Agunimon was already sprinting ahead. Lobomon groaned as he hurried after Agunimon, hoping to catch up and at least explain that something was wrong. After all, Tomoki didn't sound like he was screaming from pain. It sounded like he was screaming in delight.

"YOU'LL NEVER GET ME!" Tomoki's voice echoed louder, his tone sounding defiant but not from physical pain. Lobomon was sure now that they had definitely misunderstood the situation. He finally caught up to Agunimon standing before a locked wooden door from which he could hear Tomoki's voice and the voice of what must have been Monzaemon.

"TAKE THIS! AND THIS!" Monzaemon's voice declared.

"STOP IT!" Tomoki wailed again.

Lobomon was relieved that Agunimon was no longer in a position to ignore him and tried once again to explain, "Agunimon, listen! Something sounds off about this! I think we should-"

"NO TIME! RAAARGH!" Agunimon shouted as he kicked the door open, revealing a brightly lit room where Tomoki and Monzaemon were playing some kind of video game. And maybe sitting just a bit too close to the television.

"Hah! I got you!" Tomoki squealed in delight, jumping up and down while doing a little victory dance. Monzaemon hung his head quietly in silent defeat. Neither seemed to notice that Agunimon had just kicked the door in or the clatter of toy soldiers marching just behind them. Annoyed at the turn of events, Lobomon cleared his throat to get their attention and Tomoki finally took notice. The little boy jumped with glee while Monzaemon started waving quietly.

"Oh hey! You guys got out on your own! That's cool, we were just coming to get you down, too!" Tomoki declared.

"Yup. That was the deal. Tomoki beat in a game which means you must be friendly and therefore not here to attack Toy Town," Monzaemon said in agreement. Lobomon wasn't sure where to begin addressing that backwards logic.

"Makes sense to me," Agunimon said in agreement, just as the toy army caught up to them.

"What the hell do you mean makes sense? That doesn't make any sense at all!" Lobomon groaned in frustration.

"Of course it does! Being good at video games means you enjoy fun, which means you are a child at heart and therefore would never think to harm Toy Town or its denizens!" Monzaemon explained happily, gesturing to ever assembling toy army to step down before they started harming anyone.

Lobomon was sure they had given plenty of reason for these toys to protest that order. He personally wanted to contest the logic of the order, and explain how being good at a video game didn't equate to being pure at heart or whatever. Hell, he wondered how Monzaemon would react if he ever got introduced to a 'troll' or 'hacker' when Agunimon elbowed him in the gut. Lobomon winced as Agunimon whispered, "Don't question it if you don't want to fight our way back out of here."

Lobomon bit his tongue to keep himself from retorting, instead looking back at Monzaemon to ask, "So, just to be clear, you didn't need to be saved?"

"No. I thought you needed to be saved. That's why I was playing this game!" Tomoki replied, gesturing towards the controller in his hand.

"Was all of this just a big misunderstanding!?" Lobomon half yelled in surprise.

"It definitely seems that way, yes," Agunimon nodded in agreement. Lobomon really hated Agunimon right and would give anything to shut him up at this moment.

He was about to do it too when Tomoki asked, "Wait a minute, where's Neemon?"

Lobomon looked over his shoulder and realized the Neemon wasn't behind him. And now the object of his ire was that stupid rabbit who knowingly let him run off into danger. The rabbit was probably still sitting behind that debris they were using for cover. Although, as he dwelled on it, that must've meant that Neemon was definitely the smart one since he was the only one with the sense to not run into an army that was shooting at them with explosives.


Zoe reached the edge of the forest just as the rain started to pour. Just like Tsunomon said, the rain came down hard and the open field was already covered in slowly swelling pools of water. At the rate it was going, it was only a matter of minutes until they were up to their knees in water and the school house was swept away. Just ahead, she could see JP carrying some of the smaller digimon in his arms to help them get to the safety of the school. Bokomon was standing just at the door with his book over his head, calling for any more of the students to hurry inside before the rain swept them away. Meanwhile, Togemon was nowhere in sight.

She hurried through the slowly rising water, reaching Bokomon just as it got to her ankles, "Where's Togemon?"

"She went off to go make sure the levees were still holding!" Bokomon answered, looking around worriedly. "Where's Tsunomon?"

"He's not coming!" Zoe answered.

"What do you mean he's not coming? Did you leave that little mon alone in all this!?" Bokomon gasped.

"He didn't want to come back and I couldn't make him if I wanted to," Zoe explained, scanning the horizon for any sign of Togemon. But the rain was starting to come down harder and the surrounding environment disappeared in the downpour. And it was only going to get worse from here.

"I don't know, but she went that way," Bokomon pointed off just ahead of them.

"Then that's where I'm going!" Zoe said, raising up her digivice. "EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! KAZEMON!"

"I'm going to go check on Togemon and make sure she's okay," Kazemon said, fluttering into the sky and heading in the direction that Bokomon had pointed. How was it that she found herself having to help total strangers twice in the same day? And why wasn't the Guardian Spirit saying anything to her?

"Well what do you want me to say? That Tsunomon has been through a difficult life and I don't really have any advice to offer to someone who doesn't want to listen," the voice finally said, breaking whatever vow of silence it had taken.

"You didn't have to leave me to figure out the answer by myself," Kazemon answered aloud, hurrying through the rain but not really sure if she was going in the right direction because of how thick the rain was. She kept her arms in front of her to shield her face, and scanned the ground below for some sign of Togemon or any kind of levee.

But it was hard to make out anything in this downpour. Eventually, she came across a figure just below her struggling to stack rocks and dirt up in front of what looked like a current of water. That had to be Togemon and Kazemon descended.

"Togemon! What are you doing?" she asked.

"I need to reinforce the levees! The downpours flood the river and these barriers are the only thing keeping it from washing away the school!" Togemon said hurriedly. From where Kazemon was standing though, she could see that the force of the waters was too much for Togemon to quickly patch up by herself. She could only see one way to buy the cactus more time and flew to stand atop the levee.

With a flick of her wrist, Kazemon threw her arms forward and launched a powerful blast of wind against the current, "HURRICANE WAVE!"

The blasts of wind didn't stop the water torrent of flood water, but slowed it down and diverted the flow enough to give Togemon time to reinforce the levees with dirt and wooden logs. Kazemon felt herself strain under the force of the river, especially as the flood waters continued to flow unimpeded.

"Hang on! I'm almost done!" Togemon shouted over the roar of the winds and the rain.

"I'm trying!" Kazemon shouted back, feeling herself ready to give out as the down pour continued.

She admired Togemon's strength to be able to keep going despite the downpour, more so as she realized Togemon would've had to do this by herself fairly often to keep the school from being washed away.

"There! The levee should be reinforced! We need to head back to the school, now!" Togemon said, finally setting the last of the wooden logs into place.

"Finally," Kazemon said, ceasing her wind and taking a moment to catch her breath. All she did was shoot wind from her palms but she felt winded from doing it. It was just as well too because lightning flashed across the sky. In a storm like this, it would be too dangerous for her to try flying back.

"We need to hurry! You don't want to be outside in this weather during a storm!" Togemon added.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Kazemon grunted, suddenly finding renewed vigor as she got up and started hurrying along side Togemon back towards the school. By the now, the water was half way to her knees and still slowly rising. And their run was reduced to little more than a hurried walk as they waded through the rising waters.

"I thought the levee was supposed to keep the school from flooding!" Kazemon answered.

"No, the levee just keeps the river from washing the school away. We'll be knee deep in water for a few days after this rain is done," Togemon answered back. Kazemon couldn't believe what she was hearing but was far too exhausted to argue. Especially as lightning flashed over head again and thunder roared a few seconds behind it.


JP was relieved when he finally saw Kazemon and Togemon appear through the falling rain. Kazemon collapsed immediately upon one of the desks while Togemon did a quick headcount of the students. Then she gasped, "Wait! Where's Tsunomon?"

"He didn't want to come back! He's at some clearing in the forest with a pond!" Kazemon answered.

"What!? In this weather!? That little digimon will be swept away! I have to go rescue him!" Togemon said, turning back around to rush back outside into the rushing waters only to be stopped as lightning flashed across the sky.

"It's too dangerous right now with the storm. We'll just have to wait it out and hope that he is okay," Bokomon reasoned.

"If he's even there still. The little guy didn't sound like he wanted to come back. Hell, he sounded like he wanted you guys gone," JP answered without thinking.

"That doesn't matter! I thought you humans would understand that better than anyone. Regardless of whatever personal feelings there are towards Tsunomon, he is still my student and I will not let him put himself in danger," Togemon answered. She charged out back into the forest again just as the lightning flashed one more time.

"She's going to get herself hurt," one of the class digimon said.

"I hope Togemon comes back alright," another whimpered.

"JP! Do something!" Kazemon told him. JP felt his heart sink with the pressure on him now to do something. Why did he have to do it? The little digimon didn't even want to come back!

"Tsunomon didn't even want to…come…back," JP pointed out just as the realization dawn on him. No, Tsunomon couldn't have been willing to do that, could he? The digimon was just a kid! Crap…if anything happened to the little twerp, JP wouldn't forgive himself. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of if he should move or not. But he hurried off after a moment to rush back into the water.

Lightning flashed one more time as he raised his digivice aloft and shouted, "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

The energy formed around him and made him into Beetlemon. Lightning flashed and thunder roared, as he hurried after Togemon and they waded through the water until they reached the forest. From there, it was only a little further until they reached the forest clearing where they'd left Tsunomon. In the small time they'd been away, the rain had flooded the pond and drowned the entire clearing. It looked more like a swamp than a forest now. But there was no sign of the little digimon anywhere.

"This is where we left him," Beetlemon said, quietly cursing as he realized what had happened.

"Are you sure? I don't see him anywhere!" Togemon asked, looking around frantically and wading around the clearing in search of any sign of the little digimon. He couldn't blame the cactus either - but JP wasn't sure how he'd missed it before. Everything from Tsunomon's tone to his manner of speaking practically screamed what he'd intended.

"Maybe the flood water washed him away?" Beetlemon offered, trying to offer some measure of comfort and quietly hoping the same was true. He tried to ignore Guardian Spirit's voice telling him they both knew better than that. The little digimon was gone. And if he was, there was undoubtedly nothing left behind to be recovered.

"He was my student! My responsibility! He has to be here!" Togemon said frantically.

"I'm sorry. But we should head back!" Beetlemon tried to tell Togemon, but she was too busy wading around in search of the little digimon.

"Not until we find him!" Togemon declared.

"If you're looking for Tsunomon, I regret to inform you that he didn't survive," a voice said behind them. Beetlemon spun around to see Wizardmon. Or at least, a digimon who looked liked Wizardmon had fallen in a vat of white paint. And the confirmation of what he'd feared was…not what he needed right now. It wasn't what any of them needed.

"What did you do to him?" Togemon jumped forward with her fists raised.

"I apologize for my lack of tact, I didn't mean to imply I did anything. Only that I witnessed him do nothing to prevent his own demise," the digimon answered. Togemon's arms sank at the sound of that.

"And you didn't save him?" Togemon gasped.

"He wouldn't let me," the digimon replied quietly. Togemon sank to her knees, her unchanging expression now coming across as eerie. As if she herself couldn't process what she'd been told.

"Who even are you?" Beetlemon asked, just as lightning flashed once more over head.

The digimon took off his hat as he bowed, "I am Sorcermon. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but we have no time for niceties. Time is of the essence and we need to go now."


Author's Notes: Who is the mysterious stranger Sorcermon? What do they want with Beetlemon? And will the two groups reunite with each other? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 - In His Name due out in three weeks on Friday October 15th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys thought in the reviews section. And don't forget to favorite to show support and to follow to keep up with all the updates. That's all I have for now, let's go look at previews for the next chapter!

"When are we going?" Koji asked.

"Right now, actually," Sorcermon answered, snapping his fingers.

Koji instantly felt sick, as if he'd just gotten off a very nauseating roller coaster ride and felt the need to throw up. He collapsed to his knees and retched, feeling something he hadn't eaten make its way up out of his stomach - but what came out was just straight bile.

"Oh man, you too?"