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 24: Metamorphmon
Lucemon sat, or rather floated, in the air in a reclined sitting position. He frowned as he listened intently to everything Crusadermon said. And to Crusadermon's surprise, he was nowhere near as high strung as what he was often made to sound. He seemed earnest in listening to her, nodding along and only occasionally asking clarifying questions. She told him everything that had been happening on the surface since his internment - about the fall of the Guardians of Destiny and the end of the war, the final death of the Dark Masters, and the schemes of Myotismon. Not to mention the current state of affairs with the unification of two Digital Worlds and the ongoing conflict between the digimon of the two worlds. Once she finished, Lucemon tilted his head to the side with an amused smile on his face.
"Good, everything is proceeding as I wanted it to," Lucemon said with a smile, making both Dynasmon and Crusadermon nervous. How exactly was any of this going according to his plan?
"I feel like we're being left out," Dynasmon added quietly, only to be snarled at by Lucemon.
The angel digimon began pacing in the air, floating back and forth with a hand to his chin as he contemplated the situation. Crusadermon watched him carefully as he glided across the empty space, wanting to ask a question but to nervous to actually ask it. Lucemon seemed to sense her hesitation though and shot her a sideways glance, "Do you have something on your mind?"
Caught, Crusadermon fumbled the words out of her mouth, "I was just…wondering what the plan is?"
"To survive, of course. To change destiny and seize it for ourselves," Lucemon said, raising his hand in front of him and tightening it into a fist. "That is the goal."
"No, I meant, how are we supposed to achieve that? I understand that the plan has always been to lull them into a false sense of security, but how exactly does allowing fate to play out as it's supposed to help us?" Crusadermon asked cautiously, not wanting to earn Lucemon' more after watching him flatten Dynasmon with minimal effort.
Lucemon turned to her with a smile as warm as it was icy, the kind that wanted to share a secret that revealed your drink was poisoned. And his words were just as comforting, "Did you know that I once saw one of the most well kept secrets of the Guardians? It was how they, above all others, acquired their vast knowledge of prophecy and destiny. And I saw my own destiny, my entire life played out before me. Every second laid out before me, including the events that would lead to my own death. And I refused it, ironically fulfilling one of the steps that would lead to my own demise! But still I fight against it! I don't want to die. Not like that. So I thought, how could I avoid it? And the answer was staring me in the face. I knew exactly what I had to do to avoid my own destiny! Because I know what would lead to it! And I changed it! A small change, but one that guarantees my defiance!"
"And what about us?" Crusadermon asked, noticing that Lucemon conveniently left out any mention of them not dying.
Lucemon didn't answer. Instead, his smile slowly turned into a frown as he massaged his temple, "Oh, that's not good. There's two of them now."
"What?" Crusadermon blinked in stunned disbelief. She glanced over to Dynasmon, hoping he would have some kind of explanation but he simply shrugged in answer.
"There's two of the Digimon Tamer running around now. And I don't like it," Lucemon said more sternly, his tone becoming far more angry. "That's not good."
Crusadermon now felt a new question burning in the back of her mind. One that she wanted to ask but wasn't sure Lucemon would answer if she even did. How did Lucemon know there were two Tamers running around?
"We'll have to split up to cover more ground," Cape stated, scanning the ruins of the village. Several of the buildings were still burning, and columns of smoke were rising up high enough to darken the sky. If this was Metamorphmon, Zoe was scared to think how powerful it would have to be to do this on its own.
"You can't be serious? That's a recipe to get ourselves killed!" Tamer protested loudly.
"By 'ourselves', do you mean 'all of us' or 'just you and me'?" Cape asked back with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes!" Tamer replied. Cape rolled his eyes while Tamer scoffed.
Still, Zoe had to agree with Tamer. Splitting up sounded dangerous, "Yeah, is this a good idea? If this digimon is this strong, shouldn't we all stick together?"
"Yeah, we don't really know what we're in for with this Metamorphmon anyway," Tomoki added quickly. "What if he wants us to split up? Or it starts picking us off one at a time?"
Cape and Agumon looked to each other then back to the rest of them. "Metamorphmon will pick us off, but usually by pretending to be one of us and tricking us. Don't worry, Agumon will go with you two to keep you safe, while my future self and I will go that way. If anyone finds it, we signal each other to regroup. No one engages alone."
"Are you just ignoring our concerns?" Zoe asked Cape.
Cape put a hand on his hips, "I don't actually remember asking any of you to come with. This is Agumon and my assignment, not yours. But since you're here, you might as well help to cover more ground."
"Okay, but why aren't your or I going with them?" Tamer retorted, believing he had his past self in a gotcha moment.
Cape rubbed the bridge of his nose, his expression contorting into one of annoyance as he explained, "Because, me, you're not going anywhere that's too far from me because you're convinced that my death will lead to yours even though we both know the fact that you're still here means I'll be fine. And someone has to keep an eye on the humans, so it may as well be Agumon since he can take care of himself and gets along with others better than we ever have. Is that clear or would you like me to explain it more slowly? I can make a flow chart if it'll help you out."
Agumon snorted as he tried to hide a laugh, although Zoe and Tomoki weren't so sure they could see the humor in the situation. Tamer seemed to realize his younger self had a point and groaned, "Fine. And how do we stay in touch?"
Cape tapped his ear, "Agumon and I have comms. Now let's get going already. This thing already has a head start on us!"
Cape turned on his feet and started walking, followed by Tamer who let out an annoyed groan. Tamer turned around briefly to tell the others, "Sick together and wait for us if anything happens! Agumon! Keep them safe!"
"You got it, buddy!" Agumon said, putting a clawed hand to his head in a kind of salute. Once the two were out of sight, Agumon turned to both Zoe and Tomoki with a big smile. "Yeah, we're not doing that. Who wants snacks? I'm hungry!"
Agumon slapped his claw against a nearby tree and knocked down several apples and bananas that fell into his other hand, to the amazement of both Tomoki and Zoe who clapped in awe.
"Wow! That was cool!" Tomoki cheered excitedly, grabbing an apple and taking a bite of it.
"How did you get two kinds of fruit to fall out of a tree?" Zoe asked with a raised eyebrow, taking an offered banana.
Agumon answered by tossing one of the bananas her way. "It's the Digital World! Don't think too hard about it if you don't want to get a headache! Now, who wants some kiwis?"
Agumon struck the tree again and made some more fruit fall out of its high up branches. Even though Zoe glanced up and saw there were no fruits hanging anywhere of this tree. Yet every time Agumon struck it, more fruit fell out of it. Deciding that Agumon was right, Zoe proceeded to peel the banana and take a bite out of it. "Won't they be mad if they find out we were just sitting here eating?"
"Probably. No point worrying about it," Agumon said, having a seat and taking another bite out of his apple. "So who are you guys? We met some digidestined before but it wasn't any of you. At least, I don't think it was. I remember only one of you had a hat…and also you had an angel for a partner but I might be remembering wrong. Also, weren't you a red head?"
He looked at Zoe when he said that, confusing her as she tilted her head, "No?"
Agumon frowned, "Hmmm, well it was a while ago…we got stuck in some kind of weird white space full of other digimon."
Zoe and Tomoki looked at each other curiously, not sure if this was Agumon copying Tamer's knack for telling outlandish stories or if he was actually being serious. Agumon must've sensed their unease and laughed about it, "Don't worry! Just pretend I say some weird things sometimes. So who are you two?"
"Tomoki," the little boy introduced himself.
"Izumi, but my friends call me Zoe," she answered.
Agumon eyed them up carefully, seemingly inspecting them before finally asking, "So where are your partners?"
"Partners?" Zoe repeated quietly.
"You know! Your digimon friends? Sort of like Tamer and I are partners! Although I'd say we're best friends first and partners second," Agumon said curiously, eyeing around them as if he expected some digimon to just magically appear.
"Were we supposed to have any?" Tomoki looked to Zoe for some kind of explanation but she wasn't sure what to say to that. Perhaps Agumon meant the Guardian Spirits they had? Is that what he meant?
"He's referring to the previous digidestined's partners. Such as Gatomon and Lopmon," Kazemon's voice echoed inside her head. Zoe had to put a hand to her head, having forgotten what it was like to have a voice echo inside their head. It had been quiet for so long that she forgot they were even there. Zephyrmon apologized for Kazemon causing her a headache but that just made it worse.
"Are you alright?" Agumon asked, patting the girl's shoulder.
Zoe massaged her temple and nodded, "Yeah, it's just Zephyrmon and Kazemon. They haven't talked in a while so it gave me a headache."
"Really? Mine talk all the time," Tomoki replied, surprising both Zoe and Agumon. She'd figured that Tomoki's Guardian Spirits would've become more quiet like her own. She didn't think they were still talking, and she was amazed that Tomoki wasn't having a headache as it happened. Zoe still barely managed the headache of having so many voices in her head.
"Doesn't that give you a headache?" Zoe asked the little boy.
Tomoki massaged his temple, clearly his head hurting from the noise of his spirits. "Sometimes, but I guess I'm just kind of used to it by now. It still gives me a headache but it doesn't hurt as much. But it's weird because they've been really loud all of a sudden and I don't know why."
"What are they saying?" Zoe asked.
"Hmm…Kumamon wants to punch Tamer. The other Tamer, I mean. Cape! And Korikakumon wants to to walk away. After he puts an axe in Cape's head. They really don't like the other Tamer," Tomoki answered nonchalantly. Zoe really didn't care for how violent those Guardian Spirits were. Maybe they were the reason Tomoki was so indifferent to the idea of killing other digimon.
"Oh, you're those guys! Cool, I was wondering when you'd roll around," Agumon said in realization, scratching his head. His expression became uneasy as he continued examining their surroundings. "Hmmm, I guess I'm not around anymore. That's too bad. I hope you're taking care of my best friend for me."
And now Zoe was concerned for Agumon. She had no idea what happened to him beyond the fact that he wasn't around anymore, since Tamer didn't really go into detail about it beyond the fact that apparently the dinosaur was now in his head. Whatever that meant. Yet Agumon seemed completely unfazed by the fact that he was dead, treating it as though he'd been given a weather forecast. And she didn't understand it, how could he be so calm about it?
Agumon appeared to notice her watching and asked, "Something bothering you?"
"Doesn't that bother you? Finding out you're dead?" Zoe asked him intently.
Agumon just tilted his head, raising an eyebrow at her, "No. Why?"
"You just found out you're going to die!" Zoe pointed out to him. Agumon stared at her for the longest time as he slowly chewed a bite of an apple, making Zoe just uncomfortable enough to scoot away.
After chewing slowly for the longest time, Agumon swallowed the apple and smacked his lips together in satisfaction. "So I'm going to die. We're all going to die someday. What good is worrying about it going to do me? Let's say I do avoid it or that I find a way to weasel out of that death. Doesn't change the fact that I will still die. All that'll do is change the when and where."
"You're okay with just no longer being around?" Zoe asked. "What about Tamer? You seem fine with the fact that he'll still be around when you're not."
"Tamer's people are naturally long lived. Plus they get a natural 'get out of jail free' card so death doesn't really stick to them the way it sticks to you or me. Besides, he's a big boy and can take care of himself. He seems to be doing well for himself, too. Although I don't think I like the new body. It's very lanky and skinny and the red really doesn't work for him. Never thought I'd see him in a hat though," Agumon answered calmly. He made a show of taking a big bite out of a banana he was holding, not even bothering to peel it before eating it.
"So you're just okay with it?" Zoe asked again. "I mean…what if that's your destiny? Are you okay with how things will be?"
"Is that what this is about?" Agumon asked her. Zoe gave it a moment's thought before nodding. In the end, that was ultimately the thing she'd meant to ask him. If he at all wondered why he wasn't around in Tamer's future and, if he did know, why it didn't bother him.
"Yes," Zoe answered. "How can you be so calm about any of this? You literally just found out you died! You're going to die! Aren't you even the tiniest bit curious about how it happened? If you can change it?"
Agumon smiled, "We're all going to kick the bucket one day, so there's no real point in worrying about it. Besides, I'd rather spend my time enjoying my life than worrying about what I should or shouldn't be doing - let destiny sort itself out. Me? I just go with the flow. Life's more fun that way! If I spent as much time worrying about it as you are, that's all I'd ever do. I wouldn't be enjoying my lunch And you know how I know that's true? You've spent more time talking about this than you have eating your banana."
Zoe looked down at her half eaten banana, then back up to Agumon who'd moved on to a mango - still somehow avoiding the question of how he was producing so many differing types of fruit from the same tree. Then again, he had a point. She'd been so worked up about the whole death thing that she hadn't eaten. She took another bite of the banana, thinking on what Agumon said. Even if he had a point, the fact that his own mortality was staring him in the face at her. Nice moments like this were hardly enough to distract her from the fact that her own impending mortality was staring at him.
"It's still bugging you, isn't it?" Agumon asked, pulling Zoe out of her thoughts. She nodded quietly and was glad that Agumon hadn't grown annoyed with her yet. He must've gained infinite patience for this sort of behavior after spending so much time around Tamer. He just chuckled quietly. "Well, I suppose if fate bugs you that much you can always go fight along side Metamorphmon."
"What?" Zoe blinked, alarmed by whatever Agumon was implying.
Agumon shrugged and explained, "I suppose we should've mentioned that part when we first showed up. When Tamer and I said we were on assignment, he meant a military assignment. There's a war being fought back in our time - between Tamer's people and digimon like Metamorphmon who aren't so big on the whole 'our entire destiny is planned out and unavoidable' thing. For whatever it's worth to you, you're not the first one to have a problem with it and you're definitely not going to be the last. That's the whole reason this war is happening in the first place. The truth is, you could turn on us if you want. Kill me and my Tamer now so that he won't be around to become your Tamer."
"So Metamorphmon is just trying to not die, too?" Zoe asked.
"More like avoid it's destiny. I mean, we're all going to die. But whatever destiny has in store, it doesn't like it. Whatever that is," Agumon answered with a shrug, stopping to take another bite of fruit. "Which is why a lot of digimon are on the same side as Metamorphmon. It's all about defying destiny. Whether you know what it is or isn't. Free will versus predetermination and all that. Of course, you could make the argument that all they're doing is fulfilling whatever their destiny is. After all, if you don't know what destiny has in store, how can you avoid it?"
"I don't know, how?" Tomoki asked, not realizing the question was rhetorical.
Agumon shrugged, "No idea. But some people got it in their heads that if they kill the Ancients, they can accomplish that."
Zoe was just as unnerved by Agumon talking like this as she was when Tomoki was talking about killing the other digimon. He really was too comfortable talking about this stuff and she wasn't sure she liked the direction of this conversation.
"Don't put ideas inside Kumamon's and Korikakumon's heads," Tomoki said quietly. "They're really on board with the killing thing."
"And what do you want to do?" Agumon asked Tomoki curiously.
"I don't want to hurt you, if that's what you're asking. You're nice," Tomoki answered quietly.
Agumon smiled, "You guys are nice too!"
The two Tamers proceeded through the ruins of the village, led by the past version of himself as he used his digivice to track the Metamorphmon. All the while, he traded jabs with his future self, "This is a hell of a mess you've made. Reality is broken all around us and you're barely holding it together. Tell me, since when do we get this incompetent?"
"We don't. It's under control and you've just got to trust me," the future Tamer answered as he followed along.
"Trust you? When you couldn't even keep our best friend alive?" the past Tamer asked sarcastically, striking his future self in a sore spot. The future Tamer fell silent at that, not able to answer because they both knew the answer to that question.
"We both knew it would happen one day," he finally managed to say.
"Yes, but until then, I'm going to hold you to account for the fact that he's not around!" the past Tamer said.
"You do know that means you'll just hold yourself to account, right?" the future Tamer answered.
"Will I?" the past Tamer stopped in his tracks, turning to look at the future Tamer. The future Tamer stopped, sweating nervously under the gaze of his past self. Past Tamer took one step back towards the future Tamer and remarked, "Because something hasn't been sitting right with me since we got here. You say you're me. You have my name. But you're not me, are you?"
"I mean technically? I have a new face and body," future Tamer replied.
"You know what I mean," the past Tamer said, pressing the question on the future Tamer. The future Tamer just stared back silently, swallowing a growing lump in his throat when they heard a loud roar in the distance. Both Tamers turned their heads in the direction of the noice.
The past Tamer jumped on the situation and put a hand to his earpiece, "Agumon. Did you hear that?"
"Yep, on our way there now," Agumon replied.
"Meet you in five," past Tamer said. "Don't think we're done with this discussion."
"I don't think we'll ever be done with this discussion," his future self answered. The both of them dashed off in the direction of the noise, rushing towards the source and preparing to get into a fight against whatever monster was waiting for them ahead.
"This way," Agumon said as he led both Zoe and Tomoki towards the source of the noise echoing through the ruins. They hurried through the ruins until they came across a large red dinosaur looming over a small white dog with pink ears and a tail.
"There they are! Let's go!" Zoe said, readying her digivice and ready to jump in.
"Not yet," Agumon said, raising up his arm to stop her.
"What? Why?" Zoe blurted out, looking back and forth between the digimon in danger and Agumon.
"Metamorphmon is a shape shifter. We don't want to jump in to this fight helping the wrong side,"Agumon said at just above a whisper. He pushed Zoe and Tomoki down to the ground and put a claw to his ear. "Tamer! We got two digimon here. A Tyrannomon and a Labramon. Which one is the Metamorphmon?"
Agumon waited silently for a second as he kept his eye on the two digimon in front of them. "We may not have a second. The Tyrannomon is about to eat the Labramon."
"What's going on?" Tomoki asked nervously.
"He says they're still on their way," Agumon answered quietly. "We can jump in to help, or we can wait. But if we jump in, we might help the wrong one and Metamorphmon will be the one to get the jump on us."
"Is there a way to tell?" Zoe asked.
"Nope. Once Metamorphmon changes, the transformation is perfect down to the tiniest detail. You could try to question it, but we don't really know either digimon. There'd be no way to tell which one is telling the truth," Agumon answered. Zoe looked back to the two digimon, Tyrannomon roared at the Labramon who whimpered and backed away against the wall. She didn't like this. It felt so wrong.
"We should jump in anyway," Kazemon's voice echoed inside her head. Zoe wanted too, as well. But if she did, there was no guarantee that it would actually do any good. In fact, Agumon was right. They could jump in and end up helping Metamorphmon. "It doesn't matter. We need to help that Labramon. That is why I lent you my power, isn't it?"
"And what if we help Metamorphmon by mistake?" Zoe thought back quietly.
"We're not going to find out which is which by sitting back here," Zephyrmon answered. They were right. Zoe clicked her tongue in frustration and rushed forward to go help. She raised up her digivice and prepared to transform into Zephyrmon.
"Execute! Spirit Evolution!" she declared, transforming in a flash of light into her Guardian Spirit form of, "ZEPHYRMON!"
"Wait no!" Agumon called after them, but she could already hear Tomoki following her lead and becoming Kumamon. The two of them ran forward and slid between Tyrannomon and Labramon. The two digimon took a step back in surprise.
"Who are you?" Tyrannomon roared.
"The digidestined. One of you is a Metamorphmon and we're here to stop you!" Zephyrmon declared.
"It's him! It destroyed the entire village, then disguised itself as that dog and now it's pretending to be a weakling!" Tyrannomon roared, pointing at the Labramon. The little dog digimon whimpered and stepped backwards away from Tyrannomon's pointed finger.
"Don't listen to him! Tyrannomon is the Metamorphmon in disguise! He burned the entire village to the ground and turned himself into a Tyrannomon to finish me off!" Labramon whimpered weakly.
"Just sit tight! We have a friend on his way who can help figure this all out!" Kumamon declared to the two digimon.
"There's no time! We need to destroy him or else he'll destroy us!" Tyrannomon roared again, taking a step towards Labramon. Labramon whimpered weakly, whining under the threat of Tyrannomon.
"Just wait there! No one has to get hurt until we know who's who!" Zephyrmon warned the giant red dinosaur. But it fell completely on deaf ears.
"That thing destroyed my entire village! You wait if you want but I will avenge my village!" Tyrannomon roared at the top of his lungs.
"Stop him! He's only trying to destroy me before you figure out who he is!" Labramon whimpered. "He destroyed my village and killed everyone here and he's trying to finish what he started!"
"Nobody's finishing anything until we know what's going on!" Zephyrmon said again, still trying to stop the situation from escalating before it got worse. Amidst all this, she noticed Agumon standing off to the side - hesitating to jump in as he spoke into the earpiece that Cape had given him.
"Enough! My entire village is gone and I will have revenge! FIRE BREATH!" Tyrannomon roared, shooting out a ball of flames from his mouth at Labramon. The little dog yelped and leapt towards Tyrannomon, dashing through the red dinosaur's chest with such speed that he burst out the other side. Tyrannomon let out one final gasp before he fell over backwards and disintegrated to data. Then Labramon turned towards them, it's mouth widening into a large smile that was too big for its head.
"Thanks for making that easy for me," Labramon said, readying itself to charge at Kumamon next. Thankfully, before it could, Agumon tackled the Digimon from behind and wrapped his arms around its neck.
"Don't panic! We need to work together if we're going to beat this thing!" Agumon said as Labramon desperately tried to shake him off. When that didn't work, Labramon convulsed - bones snapping as its limbs contorted in unnatural ways and it's body writhed to grow larger than the Tyrannomon. "It's changing! Attack it now!"
"But-" Zephyrmon began, hesitating to actually do it. How could they? Agumon was still on the digimon. If they attacked it, they might accidentally hit Agumon.
"DO IT!" Agumon said a little more loudly. Zephyrmon looked towards Kumamon and saw the look in his eyes, he'd already determined he was going to attack. And he didn't hesitate to rush in, pulling his fist back to create a spear of ice in his arms. "ICICLE PUNCH!"
Just before he could throw the ice, the mutated Labramon leapt forward and tackled Kumamon - striking the bear so hard that he went flying backwards into Zephyrmon. She felt the wind get knocked out of her as they went flying backwards into the remains of a wall, breaking it in half as they crashed through and sliding along the ground until they came to a stop.
"What the hell?" Tamer sputtered out. Zephyrmon looked up to see the two of them standing over her in confusion. Tamer helped Kumamon up and asked, "Are you two alright?"
"And where's Agumon?" Cape asked, keeping a tight grip on his digivice and scanning their surroundings.
"Over here!" Agumon called out, clamoring over the remains of the wall to join them. He got halfway over it when a clawed arm reached out from behind him and pulled him back behind the wall.
"No! That's not me! I'm me!" another Agumon called out, now struggling to get over the wall.
"That's not good," Cape grimaced, looking down at his digivice and fiddling with it. "Hang on, I'll have it in a second."
"We might not have a second," the second Agumon said as he ran towards them.
"Digimon Tamer! That's Metamorphmon!" the first Agumon said pointing at the other Agumon.
"Both of you stay back right now!" Tamer shouted at the two of them, raising up his digivice and pointing at the two Agumon. "Stay back! Just…stay back. We'll sort this out."
"I can't tell which is which," Kumamon said anxiously, examining the two digimon nervously and hoping some kind of obvious sign would show itself.
"It's a near perfect copy," Cape said. "Agumon! Quick! Brave!"
"Courage!" both Agumon answered at the same time. Cape and Tamer both cursed. Zephyrmon shot Tamer a confused look.
"It's a challenge. Code words to tell friend from foe. The challenge code is Brave, the answer code is Courage. The problem is they both said it," Tamer explained quickly, still keeping an eye on both Agumon.
"Is there another one you could use?" Tomoki asked.
"A couple, yeah but I'm not sure they would do any good. Not if Metamorphmon got the codes," Cape replied. "Example: Love!"
"Heart!" both Agumon said in unison.
"Well, that's annoying," Tamer said quietly, massaging his temple quietly and mumbling something to himself. Zephyrmon's mind raced to think of a way to distinguish the real Agumon from Metamorphmon but that was hard to do when both Guardian Spirits were screaming in her head to just outright kill both Agumon to be safe. There was no way she was going to do that but judging by the way Kumamon's legs were shifting, she surmised he was being told the same thing too. But he seemed more willing to act on it.
"Kumamon, don't," Zephyrmon said, worried he'd actually do it.
"It would solve our problem though," Kumamon pointed out.
"We don't hurt our friends," Zephyrmon countered.
"We literally just met him about an hour ago," Kumamon reminded her.
"You said you didn't want to hurt him! Are you seriously saying that now you're okay with doing that!?" Zephyrmon asked, her voice shaking with anger. Kumamon looked her way and frowned, shoulders slumping as he took a step back.
"Wow, what a team of heroes you've got here. They can't even agree on how to handle this," Cape frowned at his future self.
"We could work a bit on the whole team work thing, yeah," Tamer replied quietly.
"Really? You're going to bicker now?" Zephyrmon asked the two versions of the boy who merely pointed at the other and accused them of starting it. Despite the talk of teamwork, it seemed those two needed to learn teamwork more than either she or Kumamon did. They needed something that Metamorphmon wouldn't know. Something like…
"Agumon! How do you like to live your life?" Zephyrmon asked.
"For my best friend!" the first Agumon said.
"I just kinda go with the flow," the second Agumon said. That was all the answer Zephyrmon needed. She soared up into the air and aimed her feathers directly at the first Agumon.
"HURRICANE GALE!"
The feathers flew like arrows from her wings and hair, striking the first Agumon. The Agumon clicked his tongue angrily and its body began writhing and contorting, shifting and growing irregularly until it changed into a blob that was both reptilian and insect like at the same time. Tentacle like appendages hung off its back like wings, although it could barely lift itself above the ground despite how hard it tried to fly. Metallic arms jutted out of two of these appendages, acting like hands for the creature and there was a metal helmet that appeared to be covering its head, although that didn't explain why the eyes were everywhere else on its body. Zephyrmon nearly gagged just by looking at it and she could see Kumamon and Tamer both recoil in shock.
"What's that?" Kumamon blurted put, covering his mouth.
"Metamorphmon's real form. I always forget how disgusting it looks in person. No wonder they always change their shape," Tamer answered, holding up his hand to block the sight of the creature.
"Good work figuring out it was the fake!" Agumon said, scrambling over to Cape's side. "Okay, partner. Are we ready?"
"Ready! Go get him!" Cape said, holding his digivice forward so that light shone forth from it, erupting out and wrapping around Agumon.
"Agumon! Digivolve to! Greymon!"
A large orange dinosaur erupted out of the light from where Agumon stood moments ago. This new digimon Greymon was the size of a two story building, wearing a dark brown skull with three horns on its head and. He roared at the top of his lungs and rushed towards Metamorphmon, tackling the creature directly into the ground and opening his mouth to shoot fire into its face, "Nova Blast!"
The blast hit the blob creature head on, but the attack barely did anything to hurt it. Instead, the digimon just roared back angrily and threw Greymon into the air. Directly at Zephyrmon. She just barely managed to fly out of his way, "Greymon!"
The dinosaur crashed into the ground beside Tamer and Cape, both of whom ran between the dinosaur and Metamorphmon.
"You know he's an Ultimate!" Cape shouted, "You can't take him by yourself!"
"You know I don't pay attention in the mission briefs!" Greymon protested.
"We'll need to coordinate our attack to take this digimon on," Tamer said. "Kumamon! Zephyrmon! Circle around and I'll attack from the front! EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"
Kumamon and Zephyrmon both went in opposite directions, circling around behind Metamorphmon as Tamer finished transforming into Agunimon.
"Agunimon. As in Agumon?" Cape's shoulders slumped as he looked at Tamer.
"You're just jealous that I can be a digimon now," Agunimon replied.
"I think it's cool," Greymon said, admiring Agunimon's appearance.
"Thank you Greymon," Agunimon said with a bow. Amidst their talking, Zephyrmon noticed Metamorphmon charged towards Kumamon raising its many tentacles into the air to strike down. Just before it could, Kumamon created a wall of ice between them. Zephyrmon saw her chance and pulled Kumamon out of the way just as Metamorphmon crashed into the ice wall - shattering it and sending ice flying everywhere.
"CAN WE FOCUS!?" Kumamon shouted at Agunimon and Greymon.
"Right!" Cape shouted.
"Sorry," Greymon apologized.
"He's not surrounded anymore! What's the plan!?" Zephyrmon said, gently setting Kumamon down on the ground. Metamorphmon was using its distance to protect itself, holding its false arms in front of itself as it generated a small glowing ball of light.
"It's trying to escape and force open another gateway!" Agunimon shouted.
"Then the plan is we stop him!" Cape declared, signaling at Greymon with his hands. Greymon nodded in understanding and the two charged in, moving around Metamorphmon in opposite directions to surround the digimon.
"Is anyone going to fill us in?" Zephyrmon demanded.
"Blind and pin! Just follow my lead," Agunimon explained quickly, running in just behind them. Kumamon and Zephyrmon nodded, following Agunimon to just in front of Metamorphmon. Cape dashed forward holding his digivice in front of himself.
"Oy! Right here!" Cape shouted, pushing a button on his digivice and unleashing a blast of light that shone across its many eyes. Metamorphmon threw up its hands to block out the light, leaving it open for Greymon to tackle it from behind and pin it to the ground.
"Okay! Now we move in! Kumamon! Freeze it in place! Zephyrmon! Use your feathers to pin it to the ground!" Agunimon instructed, all three of them rushed forward together - following along with his plan.
"ICICLE PUNCH!"
"HURRICANE GALE!"
Kumamon froze Metamorphmon's arms to the ground, while Zephyrmon's feathers pinned its many tentacles. The digimon lay there, struggling to break free from its restraints as Greymon continued to keep it pinned to the ground. Its body began to twist and bend again, trying to take a shape that could break free against the ice and feathers. But every time it tried, the ice and feathers would snap that limb back into place so that it couldn't move.
"We've trapped it! Now it's time to finish it off!" Cape cried out.
"ON IT!" Greymon roared, leaping backwards to make room for the others to attack. He led the attack with his own blast, "NOVA BLAST!"
"CRYSTAL BREEZE!"
"HURRICANE GALE!"
"PYRO DARTS!"
A blast of fire, ice, and feathers rained down on Metamorphmon and the digimon howled in agony. Despite that, the digimon was still alive if angered now - furiously struggling to escape from its confinement. With one more roar, it broke the ice and the feathers pinning it to the ground and reared its attention on them.
"It got out!" Zephyrmon shouted out. "It's going to escape!"
"Then we let it!" Cape said, holding up his digivice. "Digiport Open!"
He thrust it forward and a portal of glowing white light opened in front of them before the digimon. It was exactly what Metamorphmon had been trying to create to escape earlier, but it wasn't even trying to break through it.
"Are you crazy! I thought we were trying to stop it!" Kumamon shouted.
"We are! PUSH HIM THROUGH!" Agunimon shouted, running into a leap and kicking Metamorphmon backwards into the portal. "Pyro Tornado!"
As he said that, he kicked off Metamorphmon's chest with a blast of fire and flipped backwards onto the ground. The kick thrust Metamorphmon backwards but it grabbed onto the edges of the portal just before it was pushed through.
"What are you doing!?" Zephyrmon shouted. "What is it doing!?"
"Trust us and push him through!" Cape shouted.
"Okay! Icicle Punch!" Kumamon said, winding his fist backwards and throwing a fist full of ice forward.
Zephyrmon didn't get why they were doing what they were doing but she followed along and threw more feathers forward. Then it was Greymon's turn as he fired one more fireball directly at the digimon. "NOVA BLAST!"
All three attacks hit their mark, pushing Metamorphmon backwards into the gate. Still it held on as hard as it could to be kept from being pushed all the way through. But that was exactly what Cape appeared to be after because he pushed a button on his digivice, "Digiport Close!"
The portal of light slammed shut on Metamorphmon, slicing the digimon in half so that it's back half disappeared completely while the front half of its body was left to fall onto the ground. It made a few sputtering noises as one of its tentacle arms reached out towards them, before it finally burst into a cloud of data. A beat passed as they all fell over backwards onto the ground and reverted back, except for Cape and Greymon.
Greymon dedigivolved back to Agumon and rejoined Cape who was busy fiddling with his digivice. Zoe didn't understand how either of them could still be standing after the exhausting fight they'd just gone through. Even Tamer was on the ground panting from the fight.
"Getting old are you?" Cape asked his older self.
"Seriously? I can do this all day!" Tamer replied, pushing himself and dusting himself off.
"I'm sure you can," Cape said, walking past Tamer towards Zoe and Tomoki. He put his hands on his hips and smirked at them, "You two did great. Thanks for your help."
Zoe didn't buy it and shot Tomoki a look, certain that the past version of Tamer was being sarcastic when he said it. Tomoki returned the look and they both looked up at Cape skeptically. She could hear both Zephyrmon and Kazemon saying that while he was annoying, this was one of the rare times he was being sincere. At least, they seemed sure of it until Cape said, "I can send you both home if you'd like. Get you away from all this so you can go back to living your life as you'd wish."
"You can?" Tomoki asked, curious on his sincerity.
Cape nodded. It was tempting and Zoe gave some serious thought to going home. But then she remembered what Tamer had said before. What Gatomon had said - if they chose to leave, their world would be in danger. Not to mention the cracks in reality that formed just because Koji did something he wasn't supposed to do. If they left now, is that what was going to happen? Would Cape even allow them to? Would Tamer?
"I think we'll stay," Zoe said shooting a nervous look at Tomoki who nodded in agreement.
Cape raised an eyebrow in surprise but breathed a sigh, "If you say so. We should head back to our little section of reality."
Cape turned to rejoin Agumon but stopped as he past Tamer. He looked at his future self, crossing his arms as he said, "I'm still not entire sure you're me or that I'm you. Truth be told, I don't think I'll ever accept it."
Tamer was silent to that and Cape left it at that. He raised up his digivice and shouted, "Digiport Open!"
Another portal of light opened in front of them. Agumon looked back once, "It was nice to meet you guys! Have good lives!"
Then the dinosaur leapt through the portal and disappeared, leaving just Cape. He looked back at them one more time, specifically at Tamer and remarked, "So I'm going to turn into you one day, huh? That'll be a lot to deal with…and I'm not ready."
Then he leapt through the portal and it closed on them.
"He always says that," Tamer said of his past self, turning away from his past self.
"What was that about?" Zoe asked, trying to puzzle out what Cape meant about being unsure of his future self.
"It's nothing. Let's go find JP and Koji," Tamer said, pocketing his hands and leading the walk back. He said it was nothing, but Zoe got the distinct impression that it wasn't nothing.
Author's Notes: What was the meaning behind the conversation between the past and future versions of the Tamer? What is Lucemon's secret plan? And just what does that mean for the digidestined? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier due out in six weeks on Friday October 7th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you thought in the reviews section! And don't forget to follow and favorite the story to show support! That's all I have for now, this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!
