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 18: Fracturing Destiny
JP scoffed as he led along by the little Terriermon guard. Despite its small size and fuzzy appearance, the creature was strong enough to keep him from running free despite how desperately he wanted to run.
"We shouldn't have trusted Tamer. Just look at what we've been led to. And he has the D-Reaper inside of him! Gut him! Kill him now before it gets loose again," Beetlemon's Spirit echoed inside his head. Beetlemon's screaming was making it hard to concentrate, but JP couldn't really argue with anything the voice was saying. Truth be told, JP agreed with what it was saying - at least half way. He really didn't want to trust Tamer - how did anyone know that coming here wasn't Tamer's true goal. That Tamer didn't lead them back knowing they'd be taken prisoner as soon as they walked back into the camp?
JP groaned as they were led towards a large tent at the edge of the camp that wasn't there before. These new digimon must have set it up as soon as they arrived because there were plenty of those silver armored digimon standing around it - robot digimon, and others who appeared more animal.
The lead Terriermon parted the tent flap and gestured for them to go inside, "You'll be staying here. It's not our best accommodations, but we needed to have something that could be easily moved. We'll have some guards just outside if you need anything."
Tamer went in first but stopped at the entrance to block it. Perhaps in his stupid attempt to trying to make a plan to escape, he turned to face the guard and asked, "What if we need to go?"
"One of the guards will escort you to the latrine! Now get in there!" Terriermon answered, shoving him inside. They were corralled into the tent more roughly than they would've liked, and Terriermon closed the tent flap so hard that it made a sort of slam noise.
"So what's your plan to get us out of here?" JP asked Tamer while massaging his wrists.
"Step one? Check the entrance," Tamer replied, walking back to the only entrance to the tent. He threw the flap open to see the large metallic robot domineering over him with its arms crossed. Tamer swung the flap closed and took a few steps back. "Yeah, didn't think that was going to work. Still had to try though, right? Okay…next step is to find a way out somewhere else."
"Do you actually know what's going to happen or are you just making this all up as you go?" Koji asked the boy.
"It's a little bit of both really," Tamer smiled his big toothy smile as he proceeded to walk the entire length of the large tent.
JP had to admit, the tent was a lot larger on the inside than it appeared. It was about the size of his school's cafeteria - with assorted cots lined up along the walls with pillows and blankets. In the center was a stove filling the tent with smoky heat that ventilated out of a flap in the canopy. Scattered around the room were several tables with chairs occupied with other kids their age. JP was able to recognize a few of them from the train station, and concluded this must've been everyone who'd received mysterious summons from Ophanimon.
"Well, look who it is! If it isn't the Pipsqueak!" one of the boys called out to another, coming over towards Tomoki who suddenly shied away. The first boy greeted Tomoki with a shove while the second mumbled some kind of joke that the first laughed at. Suddenly, all of Tomoki's issues made sense to JP. These boys must've bullied him in the human world - perhaps in their school or maybe in his own neighborhood. Whatever it was, it made sense that Tommy was always both timid and very angry all the time. The poor kid's hands were trembling but JP noticed them slowly curling into fists. It was unmistakable on Tomoki's face, even if the other boys didn't see it. Tomoki was holding himself back.
"I'm surprised to see you still alive little Tomtom! Let me guess, you've been hiding behind these guys?" the first boy teased Tomoki. This boy had messy black hair and glasses that appeared to have taken more than a few scratches suggesting he'd been through quite a bit of trouble since he got here. "Poor little Tomtom. Too scared to actually be useful to anyone. Sorry if this guy has given you any trouble."
Tomoki began to wind his fist back so he could strike at the boys, only to be pulled back by Zoe. She quickly snapped at the boys, "Hey! Why don't you back off Tomoki! He hasn't done anything to you!"
"Oh man! You've got a girl sticking up for you now? Geez Tomtom, I didn't think you could get any more pathetic!" the second boy said, sticking out his tongue at the little boy and sneaking a rude gesture. This boy was just a little taller with spiky blonde hair that reminded JP of more than a few jerks he knew back in his home. Just listening to these boy's torment Tomoki made JP's own blood boil and, for the first time, JP felt inclined to listen to the murderous intent of the Guardian Spirit's voice inside his head. Even if he was directing it at someone other than the Tamer.
"Hey! Why don't you two leave Tomoki alone before I make you?" JP suggested angrily.
"What? We're just saying hi to Tommy here," the first boy said. "Name's Teppei. And this is Katsuharu!"
"Sup?" Katsuharu said with a wink towards Zoe.
"We go way back with Tommy here. Way more than you guys anyway," Teppei explained.
"Not in a friendly way, I bet," Zoe placed her hands on her hips in disgust at the two boys.
"Oh? Did you want to get friendly?" Katsuharu asked.
Zoe responded with a grimace and took a step back, although this didn't really deter Katsuharu from pressing on, "How about you ditch the pipsqueak and come hang out with us for a while? We can show you around the camp! These digimon have got all kinds of food and games and stuff! This has been the best place since we got here."
"I'm going to stay here with my friends, thanks," Zoe said firmly, barely holding back the small wretch that could only happen when someone threw up in their mouth. Katsuharu and Teppei eyed up the rest of the group, casting their gaze jealously on JP before moving onto Koji.
"Wait, Koji? You're alive!?" Teppei blurted out.
"We thought you were dead!" Katsuharu added with a pointed finger. "What are you doing here? And with these guys no less?"
"Trying to figure out how to leave," Koji replied quietly, crossing his arms dismissively.
"Leave? Why would you want to leave!? We've got an army of digimon protecting us and giving us anything we could ever want! We're living like royalty!" Teppei declared cheerily.
JP frowned, "You guys don't want to go home?"
"Honestly, if we get stuck here forever, I wouldn't mind! No homework! No chores! Just free food and all the games we can play!" Katsuharu answered. That did sound like paradise now that JP could hear it.
"Why not stay for a while? You guys could use the break," Beetlemon's voice echoed inside his head. It was very tempting after all the trouble they'd been through. Unfortunately, the thought of sleeping on a somewhat comfortable pillow was dashed when Koji pointed out the obvious.
Under his breath, Koji whispered to the others, "It's not safe. Those digimon are out there hunting for us."
"Maybe it's not all bad? We do have an army of digimon and Cherubimon protecting us," Zoe reasoned.
"I don't want to stay here," Tomoki said quietly, rubbing his arm anxiously as he looked at both Katsuharu and Teppei. JP couldn't blame the poor kid either and he pulled him away from the group.
"Come on, Tomoki. Let's go find some beds," JP said quickly, trying to get Tommy as far away from those two as possible. He could hear the two boys continuing to mock Tomoki as they walked away, something all too reminiscent of what JP had gotten used to at school. Tomoki sniffled a little and JP could see the boy struggling to hold back the tears forming on his face, so the boy lowered his hat to hide his moistening eyes. JP wished he had something to make the kid feel better, but he didn't. All he could do was pat him on the back and whisper, "Never cry in front of them. They only make more fun of you."
"They always make fun of me. What does it matter if they see me cry or not?" Tomoki choked out, between heavy breaths. JP could see the boy was doing all he could to hold back his tears. It was strange to see this kid who'd so fearlessly jumped into danger suddenly turned into a broken mess because of some bullies he knew back in their world. He should've offered Tommy some words of comfort, but right now, all he could offer the kid was a hand on his shoulder as he guided him towards one of the beds.
He sat Tomoki down and took the bed next to him, watching the little boy quietly sob as he tried to keep himself from crying too hard. JP really wished he could offer the boy something. Anything to make him feel better. He glanced back at Zoe who was suddenly in a heated argument with the two boys from earlier while Koji appeared completely apathetic to the whole thing. JP would've believed it if Koji weren't hanging around Zoe and eyeing the two boys impatiently, as if Koji were spoiling for a fight that wasn't about to happen anytime soon. Not that it would help. The last thing they needed was the unwanted attention of the guards for starting a fight.
"Where do you get off picking on Tommy like that?" Zoe spat at the two boys.
"Who do you think you are sticking around a brat like that? I guess I was wrong to think you were cute if you hang out with a twerp like him," Teppei stuck his tongue out at her angrily. "I mean, has he even told you what he did? Do you know who you're hanging out with?"
"What the hell matters what he did? Tommy's the sweetest kid and I won't just stand back while you make fun of him…you…pezzo di merda!" Zoe snapped angrily at the boy, barely able to keep the Italian from slipping out in a fit of rage. A little bit of the accent slipped out too when she screamed it too. In the end, she was left covering her mouth in embarrassment while awaiting the boys to start laughing at her, too. Not that she would let them get away with it.
"Whoa! Do you speak another language?" Katsuharu gasped out in excitement.
"What was that? That was awesome! Do it again!" Teppei laughed.
Zoe couldn't tell if they were mocking her or not and didn't know how to react. All she could think about was how she'd accidentally cursed in Italian. The fact that Katsuharu wrapped an arm around her shoulder wasn't helping as he said something that she didn't quite hear. Right now, all she wanted was to get out of this situation as soon as possible.
Thankfully, Koji pulled Katsuharu's arm off her, "Back off, creep."
"Says tall, dark, and gloomy," Teppei pointed out. "Seriously! You look like you crawled out of a coffin."
Before Koji could retort, a bright flash of light appeared above his head and a book fell on Teppei. The boy doubled over and massaged the back of his head, "Ow! Who threw that!?"
Teppei looked over his shoulder in search of any of the offenders but didn't see anyone who would've been capable of tossing anything that heavy. Zoe was fairly sure she knew who it was too. Going by the light, it had to be a portal. And only Tamer could…wait, didn't Tamer say he couldn't control where the portals went? So what was this? Still, at least she had a chance to get away from them.
Just as she stepped away from the boys, another bright flash appeared above their heads and a burning piece of wood from one of the fireplaces just narrowly missed them.
"AH! WHO IS THROWING FIRE!?" Katsuharu shrieked.
"Okay, this isn't funny anymore!" Teppei shouted.
"You sure seemed to think it was funny when it was someone else being made fun of!" Zoe protested.
"Oh! So you're throwing stuff at us now!?" Teppei protested angrily. Zoe couldn't even believe the audacity of that though. How the else was she supposed to be throwing stuff at him?
"Sure! We're hitting you in the back of the head. While we're right in front of you. And not holding anything!" Zoe snapped back, accidentally letting out another curse in Italian.
"Forget this and forget you guys! We're out of here!" Katsuharu said as he stomped away from them with Teppei following on his heels, just as another flash of light produced a bowl of soup that landed where they'd been just a second ago. Both boys jumped as they hurried along to get as far away from them as was possible inside this tent. At that moment, she noticed Tamer poke his head out from behind one of the tables and quietly hurrying to join them.
"I thought you couldn't control your teleport digital gate thing," Koji began quietly.
"I can't. I was actually trying to teleport them into that tub of water that I'm pretty sure is a kiddy pool. As you can see, it wasn't working out that way," Tamer answered with a big grin. "You two handled that very well. Well, as well as anyone could have handled it."
"So what have you figured out? Any place to escape?" Zoe asked. She was anxious to get out of here if it meant getting as far away from those boys bullying Tommy as possible - mostly because they were giving her the creeps now and she didn't want to be anywhere near them at the moment.
Tamer shook his head somberly, "Sadly not. When they said they had guards at every entrance, they were not kidding. I don't think there is a way out of here that doesn't involve fighting our way through a bunch of guards. And as you saw, teleporting out still isn't a bright idea."
"So then what else can we do?" Koji asked quietly.
"For now? Wait and see. Sooner or later, an opportunity will present itself - whether a distraction or otherwise," Tamer answered quietly.
"How can you be so sure? This isn't one of those predetermined destiny things is it? Because I am hitting you if it is!" Koji said more calmly than he'd ever said to either Katsuharu or Teppei. Zoe wasn't sure how he could say it so calmly, but that was probably Koji's way of indicating he was serious about hitting Tamer.
"If it was, do you think my next step would be sit around and wait?" Tamer asked.
"I mean, your other plans have been wander around and hope we get to what we're looking for," Koji folded his arms. Tamer opened his mouth to retort but quickly shut it. It didn't take a genius to realize this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon so Zoe looked towards the others - JP sitting beside Tomoki and trying to calm him down. Not wanting to listen to any more of this argument between the two boys, she quietly went to go join the other two.
"I'm just saying, you shouldn't let them get to you like that," JP said quietly.
"And what makes you such an expert?" Tomoki asked between grit teeth and teary eyes - more upset about what he'd been through than he was clearly ready to talk about. Zoe just took a seat on the bed opposite the little boy listened patiently as he vented his frustrations. "All they ever do is make fun of me no matter what I do? What would you know about that?"
"I'm the fat kid who keeps chocolate in his pockets. I know everything about that," JP answered so quickly. It was so quick that it completely caught her off guard. She'd never expected JP to just come out and admit to being away of that. "What I'm saying is crying will only make them do it more. The only way they'll stop is if you don't let it get to you."
"All that means is they're going to try harder to get on me," Tomoki replied.
"Well yeah, until they get bored and go find something else to do. The thing with people like that is they get bored very quickly. After a while, they'll stop bothering you," JP said.
"That feels like running from the problem. It's like Tomoki said, they'll still make fun of him only they'll be doing it out of sight," Zoe pointed out to him.
JP raised an eyebrow at her, "Well, what would you suggest then, Zoe?"
Zoe closed her eyes and gave it some thought. There really wasn't a better answer she could give since she'd practically shied away like Tomoki did as soon as their attention was on her. But ignoring it wasn't much better of an option. After a moment, she said, "Tomoki needs to stand up to them so that they don't feel like they can just do this wherever they want."
"Just like you did when they turned on you?" Tomoki asked. Even from this far away, the little boy could tell that she had not fared as well against the bullies who had been tormenting him.
Despite that, she pressed on, "Okay, it could've gone better but the fact is I tried."
"I've been trying. I never stopped trying. They won't leave me alone," Tomoki said quietly.
"Do you at least know why they do it? They were saying you did something," Zoe asked, wondering what silly thing Tomoki had done in the past that would make him the target of their bullying and mocking.
"It doesn't matter. It's in the past and you can't change that. And believe me, I've tried," Tamer said, appearing behind Tomoki and JP. The two boys jumped off the bed in shock of Tamer's surprise as he sat down on the bed behind theirs. "There's no point dwelling on what you can't change. What matters now is what you're going to do about it."
"Nothing. I deserve it," Tomoki said quietly.
"Care to explain that sentence little man?" JP asked.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," Tomoki said, sitting back down on the bed he was on.
"It's alright, Tomoki. You can trust us. At least, you can trust them. I'm pretty sure you have no trust for me at this point and I wouldn't expect you to," Tamer said, trying to coax the information out of Tomoki. Tomoki kept his gaze fixated on his shoes, suddenly finding them a lot more interesting.
"Not helping," Koji said to Tamer.
"I hurt someone," Tomoki finally said someone. "But it was an accident! I didn't mean to do it! I…I just-"
Tomoki's eyes started to well up and JP began rubbing the kid's back, "Hey! It's okay! You don't have to talk about it anymore if you don't want to."
"Y-yeah," Tomoki sniffled, rubbing his eyes and trying to keep his face hidden behind his hands.
Zoe couldn't help but wonder what Tomoki had been trying to say. What had Katsuharu and Teppei been talking about earlier? Zoe didn't know and she was a lot more comfortable with not knowing. Because whatever it was, she just wished Tomoki would feel better. And that he could make up for whatever it was one day. Even if that day was far away.
"I'm sorry, Tomoki," Tamer said sheepishly.
Without a plan to escape, they ended up settling in for the night inside the tent. Around dinner time, the armored Terriermon came back inside with a few other digimon to set up a serving table where all the children lined up to eat their free food. It was a delicious spread of fried pork cutlets served on bowls of rice with a side of cabbage and miso soup. Tomoki got into a small scuffle with Katsuharu and another girl when he got in line, and they only stopped when Terriermon scolded them to play nice or not eat. But that didn't stop Katsuharu from trying to trip up Tomoki as he walked back to eat at his table with the others.
He would've lost his meal if Tamer hadn't been there to catch the bowl and Tomoki from hitting the ground. What made it worse was that half the tent started laughing at Tomoki's near accident, prompting the boy to snatch his bowl and hurry to their table to eat. Thankfully, Katsuharu didn't try to escalate it any further, but that didn't stop Tamer from trying to teleport him again into a pot of water. Only instead, he managed to open up a portal that dropped Katsuharu's bowl of food on his head.
It was funny at first, until Terriermon and the big brown robot marched towards the boy, "Did you just open a Digiport?"
"What? No! My food just hit me in the head!" Katsuharu complained.
"That tends to happen when you're bad at eating," Terriermon remarked with a laugh that Katsuharu didn't appreciate.
"Look, your food didn't get up there itself. That flash of light makes it a Digiport. Which mean someone here is a digidestined. So who did it?" Terriermon said, looking around the tent at the other children they had in their possession. When nobody answered, Terriermon sighed in annoyance, "Okay. I guess we're doing this the hard way. Check their pockets! All of them."
The other guards joined Terriermon and began going down the line to check the pockets of every one there. A few of the children tried to push back, until Terriermon warned them, "If you don't want to be checked, we'll have to assume you're the digidestined! And Lady Cherubimon is going to want to talk to you! I wouldn't want to be you in that case."
"What do we do?" JP asked quietly. "If they come over here, they'll find the digivices for sure!"
"Don't worry, I have an idea," Tamer said, snatching his digivice out from his pocket. "Give me your digivices, quickly!"
"What are you doing?" Koji asked, hesitant to hand hers over. Tomoki and Zoe readily handed theirs over to Tamer, while JP joined him in the skepticism.
"Getting us out of trouble! Now hand it over!" Tamer said, putting his hand out towards Koji. Koji looked towards Terriermon and the other guards getting closer and realizing there wasn't really a way to get around it. He passed it to the boy, and JP ultimately did the same thing after a moment's hesitation. Once Tamer had all their digivices, he hurried over to the edge of the tent and tucked all of their digivices underneath.
"What are you doing!?" JP hissed out in surprise.
"Hiding the evidence," Tamer replied quietly.
"I don't get it. Why can't we just tell them who we are? They seem like they want to help?" Zoe asked seriously.
Tamer hesitated for a second, hurriedly closing the tent tight and stepping away from the edge to face the oncoming guards. Under his breath he whispered to them, "Fact is, Cherubimon was supposed to be your enemy. She should be actively attacking you and any other humans in her sight. Instead, she's helping to hide them and committing the lives of her soldiers to protect them all. That's why we can't tell them who we are. Because this is either a really elaborate trap to lower our guard, or destiny has taken a really a severe detour that requires correction if we're going to prevent a total event collapse."
"What?" JP said flatly, staring in confusion.
"Was that supposed to make sense?" Tomoki asked.
"Yeah, so...I'm just going to tell them who we are," Koji said, stepping away from them to go speak to Terriermon.
Tamer rushed after Koji to stop him but barely made it a few steps before they felt the earth shake beneath their feet. Some of the other kids screamed in a panic and scattered for the entrance. Terriermon did his best to urge calm and he was perhaps the only reason the entire tent didn't break into a mad rush to escape. Or some facsimile of calm since he just kept saying Moumantai over and over again. Koji looked back at Tamer to see him holding his head in his hands and cursing under his breath.
"Please tell me you have nothing to do with this?" Koji pleaded quietly as Tamer sank to his knees.
"Me? You're the one about to do something really stupid," Tamer stated incredulously.
"It wasn't those other digimon was it? They didn't find the fractal code of this part of the Digital World did they?" Zoe asked.
"No…no…this is…what I was talking about earlier: a event collapse. Koji, you can't tell them who we are," Tamer said with one eye forced open. It looked like he was in some amount of great pain, and Koji almost believed he really was. But Tamer had also lied and misled them before.
"Are you going to tell us what that is or are you going to...do that thing where you talk about destiny without ever really getting into specifics?" Koji asked. When Tamer didn't answer, Koji took that to mean no and proceeded towards Terriermon anyway. The ground shook again as Koji took another step towards Terriermon and he opened his mouth to call out to the digimon. "Hey! Terrie-"
The world cracked like glass. That was the only way to describe it. It was like a window appeared in front of him and began cracking like glass. Only the cracks appeared to be floating in the air in front of him. Koji took a step away from the crack, watching as it slowly grew larger and created a rift in the air between them.
"Whoa. Haven't seen that before," Terriermon mused as he watched the crack grow wider between them.
"It's them! They have to be the digidestined!" the brown robot pointed out at Koji and the others. The other guards charged forward to but stopped just short of the ever growing crack between them. One of the orange dinosaur looking digimon inched towards the crack, but hesitated to actually come in contact. Eventually, he picked up a spoon from one of the tables and chucked it at the crack where it vanished in a flash of light.
"What is it that computer guy would say? Prodigious?" Terriermon said with wide eyed wonder, although Koji wasn't sure what about any of this was supposed to be exciting. In fact, Koji was pretty certain the crack grew bigger from the spoon flying at it.
"Do we proceed? This looks dangerous," the yellow fox asked.
"We could always try going around?" the robot suggested, proceeding to march around the crack. With every step he took, the crack grew larger and began to follow the robot as it tried to circle around.
"Fascinating," the robot stopped in its tracks to examine the tracks closely, "I wonder what's causing that?"
"It's okay. It's under control. Koji! Just take a step back from the crack! You too, Guardromon! Step away from the crack," Tamer explained, still holding his head. The robot complied and took several steps away from the crack. With each step, the crack receded and disappeared. Seeing it work for Guardromon was all the encouragement Koji needed to put one step back, which helped to regress the cracks. But he stopped just short of the cracks fully disappearing.
"What's even happening right now? What is all this?" Koji asked, looking back at Tamer.
Tamer didn't respond, still clutching his head in his hands. Just as Koji was about to ask again, Tamer held up a hand to silence him. He finally answered a few seconds, "It's a crack in reality - happens when you do things you shouldn't. Not a lot of time to explain it. Just…step away from the crack and from Terriermon before it gets worse. Same with Guardromon and Renamon."
"Okay…how do you know their names? Most of the humans we've met don't know the names of the digimon," Terriermon asked from the other side of the crack.
"Answers later! Just…step away from each other…please," Tamer repeated loudly, practically shouting. "Tomoki…go get the digivices."
"Are you sure?" Tomoki asked. "I thought we were hiding them?"
"I know…now we need them," Tamer said more gently. "Just…get them…I'm going to fix this. But I need the digivices."
"I…okay," Tomoki nodded, hurrying to where Tamer threw the digivice under the tent. He lifted up the side of the tent and pulled out all five digivices, hurrying to return them all to their owners. As soon as Tamer had his…he pushed a few buttons on his digivice.
In between his grit teeth, he apologized to them, "I'm sorry in advance because I'm not entirely sure what's about to happen. Either we're about to teleport away or you're about to teleport away. All I know is we both need to get as far away from each other as possible before we allow this to get any worse. And to be honest, it's probably for the best. The last thing you need is to get attacked by the digimon chasing us."
"Huh…I always wondered what happened to you," the fox digimon remarked as she watched Tamer work.
"Yeah…hi…nice to see you again," Tamer replied before raising up his digivice. "I really hope no one gets hurt. DIGIPORT OPEN!"
With a push of a button, his digivice burst to life with light.
Koji, Zoe, JP, Tomoki, and Tamer felt the ground beneath them give way. There was barely any time to gasp or scream as they suddenly plummeted downwards into darkness. What little bit of their surroundings Koji could see before the light of the digivice vanished looked like a cavern. But without the light, there was no way to tell how high up they were or what they were falling into.
"WHERE ARE WE!?" Zoe screamed.
"I DON'T KNOW BUT I DON'T LIKE IT!" Tomoki shouted.
"I can't see like this!" JP shouted in the dark.
"Don't worry! I got this! Spirit Evolution!" KOji shouted, raising up his digivice. In an instant, he'd transformed into Lobomon and pulled out one of his swords to light up the cave. It was just in time to see the waves of water beneath them before they fell into it. They all splashed in the water, and used the light of Lobomon's sword to orient themselves in the correct direction up.
"Where are we?" JP asked as he surfaced above the water.
"By the looks of things, underground," Tamer replied.
"Not helping," Zoe groaned. "Wait, where's Tomoki?"
It was then that they noticed the boy splashing in the water, struggling to stay afloat as he rose and sank beneath the surface.
"Help! Can't-" Tomoki disappeared beneath the waves before he could finish and reappeared with a mouth full of water, "Swim!"
Tamer wasted no time diving into the water after Tomoki, resurfacing with one arm around the boy. It was only through sheer effort that Tamer kept his arm around the boy without Tomoki's flailing sending them both back beneath the waves, "Tomoki! Tomoki! TOMMY! Breathe! You need to breathe! Calm down! I've gotcha! Stop flailing! Calm down!"
It took a moment of talking to Tomoki before the boy finally calmed down enough to listen to Tamer. He stopped flailing but that didn't stop him from keeping latched on to Tamer, leaving Tamer to try and keep the two of them afloat on their own. "There, see? Nothing to be afraid! I've got you!"
Tomoki nodded sheepishly as he listened to Tamer's silent reassurances.
"Where did you even send us? I know, it's underground! But where underground? Are we even still in the same part of the Digital World?" JP asked.
"No idea. The important thing is I prevented you guys from blowing a hole in reality worse than the hole Grumblemon made in the Digital World," Tamer explained.
"Any time you want to start making sense," JP replied.
"I-"
Before Tamer could explain any further, they all felt something hit their feet and steadily push them out of the water. It was a solid piece of footing like a rock rose out of the depths of the water and it shook as it spoke.
"Who are you kids and what are you doing on my head?" It seemed weirdness was in no short supply today.
Author's Notes: Where are the digidestined now? Why did the world appear to crack around them? And what about the other children who were left behind on top of the tent? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 due out in six weeks on April 1st, 2022 at 8 PM CST. I'm going to apologize in advance for this delay but I'm going to use that time to take a brief break from writing and editing to spend time with my fiancee as we plan out our wedding. Let me know any thoughts you guys have in the reviews section! And hey, don't forget to follow to keep up with the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all for now! No previews this time. Just me saying I'm signing out until next time!
