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 23: Old Friends, Different Faces
Bokomon and Neemon traveled with Gotsumon for some time before they finally reached Primary Village - the only guaranteed neutral zone in the entire Digital World. It was also the birth place of all digimon, where any digimon who hadn't been absorbed by another could come to be reborn. If they were strong enough, they could retain some of their memories when they were born again. If they weren't…well, Bokomon preferred not to think about that.
It was a felt wonderland designed for the many young digimon who would come to call this place home - littered with large wooden blocks, various toys and dolls, blankets, and other assorted items that children could want. They made their through Primary Village, walking past towers of stacked toys until they came across a field of wicker cribs that each held a colored digiegg. The eggs of the digimon that passed on - whether that was peaceful or violent. Which raised a pertinent question to the war that neither side wanted to answer. In fact, the logical answer was part of why neither Bokomon nor Neemon felt desire to either fight in the war or to go to conflict with each other.
Whenever a digimon died, it's data returned here to be reformatted and be reborn as digiegg. For a while, everyone thought only digimon native to this version of the Digital World could be reborn here. The natural digimon as they called themselves. But more than once, a digimon would be born here who held memories of a life as a digimon from the other version of the Digital World. The artificial digimon as they were called. If that were the case, wouldn't that make the war pointless? If the Digital World made no distinction between artificial and natural digimon, then why should the digimon make this distinction themselves? And since no one could truly die from this war, why continue to fight? Wouldn't it make more sense to simply carry on.
But perhaps the differences were merely a scape goat? Bokomon lost plenty of sleep thinking on the possibility that digimon simply enjoyed fighting. That any reason was enough, no matter how petty and meaningless. After all, digimon had fought before the crisis of the old world. Why should they stop in this world? In fact, it seemed the arbitrary difference was more than enough reason for them to continue to fight.
"I…died…again?" a small childish voice seeped out from beside Bokomon. He turned towards one of the cribs and noticed a small white blob of a digimon laying inside its wicker crib. Bokomon recognized a Poyomon when he saw it, but to hear it conversing? It must've been a very strong digimon in its past life.
"I'm sorry for your loss, little one," Bokomon offered his apology to the little digimon for whatever it was worth. The little blob appeared to understand him and nodded its understanding. The fact that it could form somewhat full sentences, even with great effort, boded well for its maturation in its current life.
"Not…my…first…time," the Poyomon answered.
Perhaps it was a soldier who'd fallen in battle. Although Bokomon shuddered to think about what kind of digimon could've been strong enough to retain memories of having died once before. Perhaps it wasn't a soldier at all but another strong digimon? A Sovereign perhaps? Or one of the Devas? Nobody had seen any of those digimon in a long while. Some suggested they'd stayed behind in the old world to stop the calamity. Others said they'd sacrificed themselves to make the escape possible. Whatever it was didn't matter. They were gone. But perhaps here was an opportunity that hadn't been seen in a while.
"Not your first time? That's rough!" Neemon said sadly, reaching into his pocket and producing a small box of juice. "Here! Have a juice!"
"I…don't…have…hands," the little digimon pointed out to Neemon's confusion.
"You don't need hands to drink juice," Neemon answered. Bokomon sighed at his partner's uptake and snatched the juice out of the bunny's hand.
"Poyomon means he can't hold it," Bokomon explained as he pierced the juice box with the straw and held it out for Poyomon to drink. The little digimon sipped the juice happily and smacked its lips after drinking.
It smiled contentedly and sighed, "Yummy! Thank…you…"
"Of course little one," Bokomon patted the digimon's head.
"There's more where that came from!" Neemon said, producing another juice box from his pants.
"Can't…need…find…Gatomon! Stop…fight…with…Lopmon!" the Poyomon said.
Bokomon's heart stopped and his hand went numb as he almost dropped the juice box from disbelief. It couldn't have been! But what other explanation was there? He could see Neemon tilting his head in confusion while he stammered out the answer but there was no way to get the answer out even though it was obvious!
"Hey! What are you two doing!?" Gotsumon demanded as he made his way back towards them.
"We were just talking to this baby! That's all!" Neemon said defensively, gesturing towards the little blob now desperately trying to crawl out of its crib.
"Are you kidding me? We need to lie low and you're out talking to babies!" the Gotsumon grumbled.
"Don't you know who this is!?" Bokomon finally managed to blurt out ecstatically to the digimon around them. Neemon shrugged with a blank expression while Gotsumon crossed his arms in annoyance. Bokomon couldn't believe they hadn't worked it out yet. Actually, he could since Neemon was Neemon and Gotsumon just got here. He could barely contained his own excitement as he happily explained, "This is Poyomon!"
"Yes…I can see that," Gotsumon said sarcastically.
"Yeah, even I knew that!" Neemon answered incredulously, putting his hands on his hips and frowning with disapproval.
"Don't you two understand? This Poyomon is Seraphimon," Bokomon said a little more excitedly, still trying his hardest to keep himself from shouting.
"He's a little small to be Seraphimon," Neemon said. "And not as angel shaped."
"You're kidding me," Gotsumon sighed, frowning as he pointed out the absurdity of it all. "You're telling me one of the most powerful digimon out there and one of the leaders in this war is this Poyomon?"
"Hi!" Poyomon said.
"Poyomon is in the lineage that would become Seraphimon," Bokomon pointed out.
"Yeah, you know who else is in Poyomon's lineage? Dinohyumon! So that doesn't really prove anything! For all we know, this is just some random Poyomon!" the Gotsumon countered. Poyomon was visibly frowning now and looked about ready to burst in to full on wails. Bokomon scooped the little digimon up, rocking it back and forth in his arms.
"There, there! Don't listen to him!" Bokomon said, trying to calm the little baby before the tears started streaming forth. His coddling at least seemed to calm the child down and he cooed excitedly in Bokomon's arms.
"And now you're cradling it," Gotsumon sighed. "How can you even be sure that this is Seraphimon?"
"Because…Ophanimon…knows!" Poyomon struggled to say. "Need…talk…Ophanimon!"
Ophanimon. Of course, Ophanimon would definitely be the one to speak to! They'd just have to go back to her castle and she could verify everything this little one said. And perhaps, the two of them would be able to help them get back on track to finding the others!
"Where is Ophanimon's castle relative to here?" Bokomon asked.
"Hold on!? You're going there? Are you crazy? We're safe here!" Gotsumon blurted out disbelievingly.
"If this is Seraphimon, then they'll need to go back to each other!" Bokomon reasoned.
"Yeah, or it'll make this war worse because Seraphimon will be out for blood!" Gotsumon reasoned. It wasn't a dangerous conclusion but it definitely wasn't the one they wanted to hear.
Bokomon looked to his counterpart to hear his thoughts, for whatever they would be worth, "Neemon, what do you think?"
"He likes my juice so helping him out gets my vote! I'll always help anyone who likes juice!" Neemon said cheerily. Gotsumon buried his face into his hands, grumbling about how it would be safer to stay here. However, he eventually gave in as soon as he heard Poyomon sniffling.
"Fine! Fine! We'll go to Ophanimon!" Gotsumon grumbled. Poyomon cheered in Bokomon's arms, bouncing up and down excitedly.
The digidestined walked for about half a day before finally stopping at a clearing in the woods, far from the beach where they defeated Arbormon. Zoe and JP sank to the ground from exhaustion, both tired and hungry from the last several days of unwanted adventure. Tomoki had been eerily quiet since they left the beach side town, and both of them noticed immediately. Koji was probably the only one unconcerned with Tomoki as he stated, "Everyone get up. We need to keep going."
"Come on! We've had one fight for our life after another for the past few days! I think we deserve a small break!" JP groaned from the grass, barely able to sit himself up as he argued.
"We'll be fine here for now anyway. If those guards wanted to come after us, we would've seen them by now. Besides, it's not like they can catch up to us," Tamer said cheerfully, looking back over his shoulder as if he was unsure of what he was saying.
"If you're so confident, why are you looking over your shoulder?" Koji pointed at him accusingly.
"Honestly, I'm more worried about any of those other digimon coming after us. The Dark Warriors. Duskmon. That kind of thing," Tamer answered quietly. Then he looked back towards Tomoki who'd remained silent since they'd left the village. "Are you alright, Tomoki?"
"I'm fine," Tomoki nodded. "I feel good, to be honest."
"Seriously? You're not joking right? Because it's not very funny if you are," Zoe said quietly, suddenly finding the energy to sit straight up.
"Yeah, that's a bit of a big red flag there, buddy," JP added, shifting uncomfortably from the ground.
"I'm not. I mean…I felt…weird about killing Petaldramon at first," he began quietly, stopping as he scratched the back of his head. "But the more I think about it, the more I realize that it would've been worse if I hadn't. He was really after this Guardian Spirit. He was practically trying to kill all of us already. And…if I didn't, I think he would've just kept coming until either I did kill him or he killed me."
"You can't be sure he would've," Zoe pointed out, looking to JP and Koji to back her up. JP at least appeared to be on her side but Koji was nodding in agreement with Tomoki.
"You're not wrong. We really had no way of knowing what Petaldramon was going to do. And they did attack us before. There was no point in waiting to see how far they were prepared to go just to get the Guardian Spirits. Besides, we all remember how our first fight with them went," Koji stated bluntly.
"You're okay with this?" Zoe gasped, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"If it comes to it, yes," Koji answered definitely. "We all need to be ready for that if it comes to it. Those guys, for whatever reason, are out to kill us. Better them than us."
"Whoa! I didn't sign up to be any kind of executioner!" JP protested.
"You weren't protesting when we stopped the D-Reaper," Koji pointed out.
"That was different! That guy was on a rampage!" JP countered.
"And it's not like we actually killed him. Tamer over there just absorbed him or whatever that was," Zoe said, pointing at Tamer who just stood there with a surprised look on his face.
"And what about Petaldramon?" Tomoki blurted out, his voice shaking with restrained in anger.
"Guys!" Tamer suddenly shouted, speaking so sternly that it caught all of them by surprise. All four of them stared at Tamer as he crossed his arms disapprovingly. "We shouldn't be fighting over this. We're all going to need to work together if we're going to get ahead of all this."
Both JP and Koji quickly leered at him.
"You were the one who decided to not mention that you had a killer monster inside you head," JP pointed out.
"Would you prefer if I told you everything I don't tell you guys? Perhaps you'd like to know my birthday? Maybe how I use the bathroom?" Tamer asked with a big smile. If he had been trying to calm them down, he was failing. And if he was trying to rile them up, then he was succeeding. Tamer must've sensed that he'd angered them though because he quickly back pedaled, "Look, my point is that not everything I do has some kind of grand purpose. Like with the D-Reaper, I didn't tell you guys because I didn't think it was important. To be honest, it still hasn't stopped screaming inside my head about getting out."
"Right, like the whole part about this being our preordained destiny with the fate of the world in the balance," Koji answered sarcastically.
"Exactly," Tamer answered, either missing or completely ignoring Koji's tone of voice.
"Man, you're annoying," JP grunted angrily, turning away from Tamer as he made his way back towards the others. "I don't know why any of us put up with this! Why do we have to deal with this!?"
"Because our world will be destroyed if we don't," Zoe reminded them all, more than a little peeved that this was admittedly the only reason she didn't just stand up and leave. That and because Tamer was the only way they could get back to their world. But right now, outright demanding to leave was starting to look like a very good option.
"Yeah, don't remind me. It's not like I want to think about the fact that our world will get blown up if we don't do this," JP grumbled. "But I meant why us specifically? What makes us so special?"
"I have my kendo, and you have that sleight of hand stuff for whatever that's worth," Koji offered, side eyeing Zoe and Tomoki. "I'm not really sure what you two bring to the table."
"HEY!" Zoe and Tomoki blurted out at him.
"That really just proves how much more seriously we need to take this. Do or die, y'know? We need to be ready to kill whatever is coming for our world," Koji murmured quietly. Both JP and Zoe were silent at that, but it was still plain on their faces how uncomfortable this entire conversation had just made them.
Sensing their unease, Tamer clasped his hands together and said, "There's no point dwelling on this. Let's rest up and then we can keep moving."
"That sounds good to me," Tomoki nodded, stretching his arms and falling backwards onto the grass. It was odd to see him wearing such a contented face even though he'd just killed a digimon not too long ago. Of course, that moment of content was ended when they felt their stomach's rumble from hunger and they all realized they hadn't eaten in a while. Tamer wandered off afterwards and came back with assorted fruit in his hands that he'd collected and they all ate quietly and rested.
It was hard to say how much time passed as they rested, but it was safe to say that tensions were fairly high between all of them. Koji and Tomoki were unnervingly comfortable with killing whatever they were up against while JP and Zoe were bothered by the idea. And in the middle was Tamer who appeared more interested in keeping the two sides from arguing than settling the issue of dealing with whatever danger they were here to face.
Just as they were getting comfortable, they were alerted to a disembodied screaming that grew louder. All five of them up stood up, scanning their environment around them for the source of the noise when they were blinded by a sudden flash of light followed by a thud.
"OW!? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS LAND ON ME!?" came the first voice, sounding young and boyish.
"I SWEAR IT'S NOT ON PURPOSE!" came another raspier but smaller voice.
"Everyone get behind me!" Tamer shouted as he rushed forward, pulling every to stand behind him as the light faded. It took a second longer for them to get enough of their vision back to see who their new arrivals were. The first was a young boy with fiery brown hair wearing a dirty black shirt and pants beneath a worn white robe with gray trim. The other was a small orange dinosaur that was barely shoulder height.
"What's with those guys?" the orange dinosaur asked with a pointed claw.
"Agumon?" Tamer blurted out in surprise. The orange dinosaur turned to look at him and blinked, smiling and waving.
"Hi!" the dinosaur said, only to find himself lifted up into the air in a hug by Tamer.
"Agumon! It's you! It's really you!" he said ecstatically, spinning in place as he hugged the little dinosaur.
"Do you know those guys, Tamer?" JP asked.
The fiery haired boy tilted his head and answered, "I can't say I know who you guys are. Do you mind putting my best friend down?"
"Actually, I don't mind this. You're not a very huggy person and I could definitely use more hugs," Agumon said quietly. The fiery haired boy scoffed and watched as Tamer continued hugging the dinosaur for a few more minutes before finally setting him down.
The boy looked around the Digital World in a stupor, taking everything he was seeing in before glancing back towards JP, "Hang on a second, how do you know my name?"
"I mean, you are getting a bit of a reputation, Tamer," the orange Agumon said with a smile. "Don't let it go to your head, though. The last thing we need is your ego to be more inflated."
"The Digimon Tamer. I don't like going by just 'Tamer' and I'm going to kill it before it sticks!" the fiery haired boy said firmly. "I won't go answering to that nickname! Or perhaps I should call you Agu!?"
Agumon just chuckled at that. "It would be a lateral move."
"Okay, I'm confused. What's going on? Why does that digimon keep calling that kid by your name?" Zoe finally asked Tamer. He didn't answer, as Tamer's expression went back and forth between joy and concern.
"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know," their Tamer answered, approaching the fiery haired boy with his arms crossed. "What exactly are you doing here?"
"Well, we were on an assignment chasing down a Metamorphmon, when it forced open a Digiport and now we're here. Well, I say digiport - it was more like trying to make a door by running through a wall. So who knows where or when it and we are," the fiery haired boy answered. "I can't say I'm surprised we ended up here. This place looks like a right mess! Look at all these cracks in reality! It's like looking through a broken window!"
"What? How does he know about that?" JP asked worriedly, recalling the fracture in reality that Koji nearly caused.
"Yeah…about that…the cracks didn't actually go away. They're just no longer visible. Well, visible to you. I can still see them and it gives me quite the headache," Tamer answered sheepishly.
"Tell me about it," the fiery haired boy said.
"What do you mean? I thought we'd settled all that!" Zoe huffed, placing her hands on her hips expectantly.
"I mean don't you worry about it because you can't see it! Out of sight, out of mind!" Tamer said, trying to assure her and patting her shoulders.
"You're not very good at being reassuring," the fiery haired boy remarked, adjusting the goggles on his face to cover his eyes. "Hope you don't mind, but I'm getting a headache just looking at all of this. At least the tint makes it a little less blinding to look at."
"Tamer!? Will you tell us who this guy is already?" Tomoki finally asked, gesturing to the fiery haired boy.
"Well, I'd be happy to tell you as soon as he tells me his name," the fiery haired boy answered, gesturing back towards Tamer.
"Look, let me handle this!" Tamer told the boy off with a warning finger, before turning to the others others. "Right, so remember how Gatomon was talking about knowing me but didn't recognize me? Well, the reason she didn't recognize me is because I had a different face back then. That face. That guy over there is me…two faces ago."
There was a pause as Tamer pointed at the fiery haired boy followed by a loud symphony of, "WHAT!?"
"That's you?" Koji asked incredulously.
"You're me?" the fiery haired boy said. "Am I supposed to be that…lanky?"
"Oy!" was all Tamer managed to say before the other boy went on.
"Two faces? So you had a face between this one and that one!?" Tomoki asked.
"And seriously? Red? I'm more of a blue guy myself. And what's up with the hat? It's stupid!" the fiery haired boy continued, criticizing every part of their Tamer that he could see. Not that any of them wanted to argue since there was an unexpected catharsis to watching Tamer get dressed down like this. Even if it was happening from himself.
"Oh, is that how it's going to be, mister wore the same set of clothes for a hundred thousand years!" Tamer replied, earning an indignant scoff from the boy and a cackle from the orange dinosaur.
"TAMER!" Tomoki shouted, only to be answered by both boys.
"What?" both Tamer and the fiery haired boy answered at the same time.
"This is going to be annoying. Look, when we say Tamer, we mean our Tamer! That one!" JP groaned pointing at Tamer with the hat. The Agumon was on the ground laughing his butt off now while the other Tamer crossed his arms indignantly.
"But I'm The Digimon Tamer! The first one! The original!" the fiery haired boy said, pausing for a second as he realized what he'd said. "Actually, I'm fine with this! Let me keep my full name and he can go by the contraction."
"Yeah, that's too long and I'm not going to remember that. So I'm calling you Cape from now on," JP said firmly to the boy's annoyance and Agumon's uproarious laughter.
"It's a cloak!" he protested angrily.
"Maybe a thousand years ago it was," Tamer rolled his eyes. "It was a robe before that!"
"Wow, this is beautiful," Koji said, watching the two Tamers proceed to argue amongst themselves. "Tamer is so annoying that he even annoys himself! Who would've thought?"
"I would've," Zoe said quietly, a sentiment they were all in agreement with. The only one who actually seemed to be enjoying whatever was happening was the little yellow Agumon who was struggling to contain his growing laughter. It would've been contagious if their current predicament wasn't so concerning.
"How do you get anything done if you can't even get along with yourself?" JP asked the two boys who seemed ready to begin throwing punches at each other. Neither version of The Tamer seemed to have an answer to that beyond silently taking a step back from each other.
"Right. We should probably sort this out and send you back to…your time…hang on! How are you even here? Time travel shouldn't be possible!" Tamer remarked, pointing a finger at his younger self. Cape's shoulders slumped at his future self, as if he'd heard the most confounding words he'd ever heard.
"Are you stupid? I told you that Metamorphmon just rammed open a digiport! Without destination coordinates!" Goggles spat out.
"That doesn't open a portal into the future!" Tamer responded.
"It does if there are no coordinates! We literally could end up anywhere! That includes any-when!" Cape fired back. "And just look at what you've done to this place! It's no wonder we ended up here. I would've thought this was a battlefield if I didn't know any better."
"Well the Digital World is at war," Tamer replied.
"Still?" Cape remarked with wide eyed surprise.
"Well, this has been an enlightening and ultimately useless conversation!" the Agumon finally spoke up from fits of laughter. "How about we adjourn this meeting until next time so that my Tamer and I can go find Metamorphmon and you guys can go back to whatever you were doing!"
"Oh no, you don't!" Tamer interrupted quickly. "I'm not letting you just go off into this version of the Digital World by yourselves! Things have changed!"
Both Agumon and Cape looked at each other dumbfounded, then back at Tamer. Cape adjusted his goggles over his head and asked, "And this war is different from our war or how things are in our time period how? Last I checked we were in a war. That's how we ended up here!"
"And that's why we'll be coming with you!" Tamer remarked.
"Whoa, what exactly are you volunteering us for here, Tamer?" Zoe asked.
"Helping my younger self not get himself killed going after this Metamorphmon!" Tamer answered. "If anything happens to him, then I blink out of existence. And then you'll all be in trouble."
"I'd argue the fact that you're still here means I'll be fine," Cape pointed out.
"Except I have no memory of these events," Tamer answered. "Time is literally in flux and all of reality is at risk…wow, that's mouthful. Whatever's happening here wasn't supposed to happen. Or…isn't supposed to happen? The point is this didn't happen for me!"
Cape rolled his eyes, "Or you've got awful memory…oh great! I'm going to be forgetful in the future!"
"To be fair to your future self, this is the…hundredth time this situation has happened to us? After a while, all the being sent to other worlds, realities, and timelines just blend together," Agumon said.
"Wow, and I thought we had it complicated," Zoe said scratching her head.
"You get used to it," Agumon said with a smile. "Honestly, sometimes it's better to just go with the flow than it is to think too hard about it. Just do what comes natural!"
"Now that's some thinking that I can behind because right now, I want to lay down and get some sleep!" JP said, taking a moment to stretch his arms out and lay back down on the grass.
"I agree with that," Koji said, laying back into the grass himself. "I don't know about you guys but I'm exhausted! I could use a break!"
"See! Sounds like you guys know exactly what you have to do!" Agumon said. "What about you future best friend?"
"I'm going with you two to make sure past me doesn't accidentally kill current me," Tamer answered with his arms crossed.
"And apparently I become a fussy parent in the future!" Cape rolled his eyes and turned to leave, looking down at his digivice. It was smaller than theirs, more pocketable and seemingly having more functions than theirs did. Tomoki and Zoe in particular watched curiously as various images projected out from the display - a map showing various red dots, what looked to be a messaging system, and other assorted functions that they couldn't make out because of the strange language. "Am I supposed to assume you two will come along as well? You sure keep looking at my digivice!"
"I'm just curious," Tomoki said quietly. "Your digivice is so much smaller than ours."
"I just assumed you lot were all compensating," Cape answered quietly, to Zoe's annoyance and Tomoki's confusion.
"Compensating what?" Tomoki asked, receiving no answer as Cape continued examining his digivice.
"I'll tell you when you're older," Tamer answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head as he said that.
"Map says the target is in that direction. We should get moving before it gets away," Cape said, marching on with Agumon.
Tamer hurriedly went after them, "Hey! Don't just wander off!"
"You're not my mom!" Cape fired back.
"No! I'm you!" Tamer replied.
Tomoki and Zoe looked at each other quietly.
"Well? What do you think? Should we go with?" Tomoki asked Zoe.
She nodded, "I kind of want to. The fact that Cape exists-"
"It's The Digimon Tamer!" Cape shouted from ahead of them.
"-means that…well, it'd be interesting to see what the two of them have against each other. Besides being annoying. And you heard him! Agumon is his best friend. We can always talk to him and get some info on Tamer," Zoe said quietly, already thinking about how much serious info they could dig out of Agumon. "Hey guys! We're going with Tamer! We'll see you later!"
"See ya!" JP waved from the ground.
The five members of their group proceeded quietly through the forest, with Tamer talking animatedly with the little yellow dinosaur beside him, "Really though, Agumon! It's really good to see you after all this time."
"And it's good to know you'll still be you a long time from now!" Agumon said back cheerfully. From the front, Cape groaned and ran a hand through his hair. Both Zoe and Tomoki were annoyed at the missed opportunity to speak with Agumon, seeing as Tamer basically never stopped talking to him. But Cape? Cape seemed ready to tell his older self to go away. However, he repeatedly appeared to bite his tongue. Unknowingly, both Zoe and Tomoki found themselves following closer after Cape - especially since Tamer and Agumon had slowly begun to lag behind as the two of them went back and forth talking.
This wasn't lost on Cape, who hissed, "Did you two want to say something?"
Zoe jumped back at his words, surprised at how much venom his tone carried.
"We were just…surprised to see that you're Tamer…well, our Tamer but younger? Is that right? I don't know, this whole thing is weird," Tomoki said quietly, scratching his head as he struggled to make sense of all of this.
"Imagine how I feel. I'm looking into a window at my future self and I don't exactly feely too confident about who I become," Cape replied quietly, staring at his future self as he continued talking to Agumon. "I mean the fashion sense alone is painful to look at! That's before we get into the personality differences!"
"So that really is you. You're really him?" Zoe asked for clarification.
"I don't know. The thing about our kind is we should be able to recognize each other on the spot. But I didn't recognize him at all. It was like looking at someone else?" Cape replied quietly. "Or…more like someone else pretending to be me."
"So he isn't?" Zoe scratched her head, having a hard time following.
"He could be. That's the thing about when digital life forms die. When we reformat, we don't always come back right or the same. But we should still be able to recognize each other," Cape replied. "And when I look at him, I see someone I recognize but not myself. Just someone else using my name. I suppose that's what happens when you reformat twice though…a different person pops out and there's not much left of who you were."
His words hung in the air for a moment as he glanced back at his future self, leaving Zoe and Tomoki to look at each other skeptically. Then Cape looked to them both and asked, "So how'd you two get roped into whatever he…I…that guy is doing?"
"We answered a call on our phones," Zoe said quietly. "It took us here to the Digital World where our phones turned into these digivices. Then we met him, found out we're here to save the world, and…yeah."
"I see…are some of you missing?" Cape asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tomoki asked.
"It means I thought there were supposed to be seven of you," Cape answered quietly.
"Well, we did find out we're not the first ones? Maybe that's what you're thinking of!" Tomoki said, reminding Zoe of what they'd learned in Gatomon's castle.
"Hmmm, I see. Oh we're here!" Cape said glancing down at his digivice. "It should be just ahead!"
He pointed to the edge of the forest, where they could see smoke billowing up high enough to darken the sky ahead. Zoe and Tomoki felt a pang of worry as they wondered just what they could be going up against that it could willfully punch a hole in reality like what Tamer and Cape had been discussing earlier.
Author's Notes: Are the group prepared to face the danger that is Metamorphmon? What trouble is spelled out for the digidestined now that there is another Tamer here? And will Bokomon, Neemon, and Gotsumon safely bring Poyomon back to Gatomon? 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 August 26th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you think in the reviews section! And hey, don't forget to follow the story to keep up with updates and favorite to show support! That's all for now, this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!
