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 34: The Brothers
"Now where did you get to?" Lucemon's voice echoed inside of all their heads at once, paralyzing them all in fear. Zoe especially was certain she could hear
"Shut up and mind your business!" JetSilphymon's voice shouted back inside of Zoe's head, snapping angrily at Lucemon. It was accompanied by a pained scream from Lucemon that gave Zoe and all the others a headache so hard that she was certain her head would split in half. JetSilphymon doubled over in pain, one eye open to see the others had sunken to the ground in some kind of pain. Except for Tamer, who winced again and began massaging his temple.
"ALL OF YOU STOP RIGHT NOW!" Lucemon roared back inside of their minds. "SHUT UP! I ORDER YOU TO SHUT UP!"
"Make me! You're not my real dad! You can't tell me what to do!" JetSilphymon thought aloud, once again prompting some more screams from Lucemon. After that, there were no further shouts from Lucemon. Zoe sighed as she heard JetSilphymon echo inside of her head. "Is this really what you guys have been dealing with the entire time you've had our powers?"
"Yeah, basically," Zoe thought from inside JetSilphymon's body.
"So, did anyone else just hear Lucemon scream at you to shut up?" RhinoKabuterimon asked. There was a murmur of agreement from the others as they continued to massage their heads.
Only Tamer appeared unfazed, crossing his arms with a satisfied smile, "That would be the actual Guardian Spirits inside of each of your heads now. Their fractured spirits are united back to who they were, you have their voice back inside their head. They're whole again. And now you'll all have the advantage I did back when I first got Agunimon's power. Another voice to distract Lucemon."
"Isn't that bad for us? It's a lot harder to concentrate with one extra voice in our head. Will two really make it any better?" Daipenmon asked, swinging his popsicle swords with each word. The sheer weight of each popsicle made Daipenmon lose balance, making him flail harder to stay upright. In the end, it looked like he was dancing awkwardly.
"That depends on you and how well you learn to adapt to having all those voices in your head," he said with a pointed finger and a great big smile. "But remember, for every voice each of you got, Lucemon also got one. And that screaming was him trying to drown out the cacophony. If it gave you lot a headache, imagine what it's doing to him! Between you four alone, that's four extra voices he has to hear."
Just thinking about it made Zoe's head hurt - she could barely handle it when she had just Lucemon's voice in her head. Even if it was Lucemon pretending to be two digimon. Meanwhile, Tamer over there had the voices of several inside of his head. So she couldn't imagine what it was like to be Lucemon with four voices inside of his head. Five once Tamer digivolved into his digimon form. And that was before anyone counted the voices that Tamer already had in his head.
Still, at least now they had proof that this plan could work. They had a way to block Lucemon out and a way to distract him if he tried to listen in. It was just a question of what to do now. But she found herself smiling at the idea that they might actually stand a chance against Lucemon now that he wouldn't be able to peer directly into their minds.
Lucemon roared with pain as he sank to the ground, no longer able to sustain himself in the air. His hands grasped at his head as he tried to ease the head splitting pain, but it was just too much to handle. To think the digidestined now had the voices of the true Ancient Warriors to scream back at him. How was that possible? They shouldn't have been able to get more voices in their head. He could see Dynasmon rushing to his aid, no doubt to add to the horrible pain in his head. It wasn't so much a physical pain, as it was disorienting and confusing. Like trying to remember something important while having something else as a distraction.
"Lucemon! Are you okay?" Dynasmon asked him, kneeling at his side.
"I'm fine," Lucemon stood up, closing his eyes to center himself where he was. His feet were on the grass of the Digital World. It had been so long since he felt them beneath his feet that he'd forgotten what it was like. He could smell the fresh scent of dew in the air, and feel the breeze on his face. Now that he was grounded and able to distract himself from the ache, he felt almost made it ashamed that he would have to burn this entire world to the ground - but what other choice was there if he wanted to defy his own fate?
The fresh scent of the data on the air made his nose twitch, and it was followed the sounds of fighting in the distance. Another battle had broken out somewhere else. While it certainly wasn't a part of Cherubimon's army now that he was sure they'd been destroyed, there were countless other factions in the Digital World battling each other to the death. He would need more power for what was to come. And while the Dark Warriors were out burning the Digital World for him, he could bide his time and gather his strength for what was to come ahead.
"You should rest," Dynasmon said. "Save your strength."
"You don't tell me what to do," Lucemon scolded, standing to his feet to steady himself and gently taking to the air so that he would no longer have to listen to Dynasmon's concerns any more. He still wasn't entirely sure what caused all the worship everywhere he went - as far as he was concerned, he'd never done anything deserving of that worship.
And it also made people reliant on him. Perhaps that was why he found it so detestable. In the end, he just didn't like others looking to him to solve problems he didn't really care too much about. On the other hand, it did mean he had digimon willing to do whatever he asked. He supposed he should've been happy for that.
Then a memory came to him - one from so long ago that he almost forgot it until now. The day he was sealed in the heart of the Digital World with that monster, there was a flash of light. From what little attention he was able to give his former friends, he could see The Digimon Tamer and the other digidestined standing there talking to them. Was that where they had gone when he lost trace of them? Back in time?
But how? That just wasn't possible!
And worse, it didn't make sense. Lucemon also had similar memories of exactly that not happening. He recalled the Legendary Warriors stopping to rest after such a lengthy battle, before finally going their separate ways. How was this possible? How could he remember the same thing happening two different ways.
His eyes narrowed as he tried to peer into the minds of the digidestined again, only to be met with more shouts and screams to get out. Instead, he found himself in the mind of Ranamon and Mercurymon. Both digimon were having doubts about their allegiance to Lucemon, after he'd killed Grumblemon and flippantly disregarded the loss of Duskmon.
But that was of little consequence. He wouldn't need them for much longer. Then he remembered. Duskmon! Duskmon was still present. And he was still available. Perhaps now it was time to play that card. He closed his eyes and concentrated closely on the unconscious digimon - uttering a single command. "Wake up."
The castle door creaked open to reveal Crusadermon storming out, followed closely by Terriermon. "That's right! You better walk! That's all your useful for, isn't it?"
"Whoa, what did we miss?" Daipenmon asked, almost losing balance again. Annoyed at the weight of his popsicles, Daipenmon finally slammed the frozen treats into the ground. The resulting quake snapped Terriermon and Crusadermon out of whatever argument they were having.
"I'm glad to see you've made it back," Crusadermon said. "I assume this means your plan worked."
"Just see for yourself," Tamer said with a smile, gesturing towards the spirit evolved digidestined behind him.
Terriermon wasn't as impressed and turned his attention back to Crusadermon. "Don't change the subject! You were walking away! So keep walking!"
"Fine, don't let me stop you from getting yourself killed," Crusadermon answered, stopping in her tracks to face off with the tiny little white bunny digimon.
"Do you wanna fight!? Because I'm ready whenever you are!" Terriermon growled, somehow missing the noticeable size and power difference between the two of them. Then again, it was just as likely that Terriermon was just as skilled enough to not care. After all, Terriermon was one of Cherubimon's personal guards. But that didn't seem to bother Crusadermon either as she readied her sword in preparation for a fight.
"Before you two kill each other, can you tell us what you're arguing about?" Beowolfmon asked dismissively.
Both digimon shot Beowolfmon a dirty look, as if they were mentally preparing to add him into the fight. However, it seemed Crusadermon's cooler head prevailed and she put away her sword. Or rather, had it disappear in a flash of light. "Terriermon wants to take a small team to Primary Village to rescue Cherubimon. I said that's a fool's mission. If Lucemon has any next moves, it's to go there and make sure they don't come back. Either by deleting the region to absorb its fractal code, or killing them and absorbing their data. Whichever he does, it's a fool's errand to even attempt."
"Not if we go now and go fast!" Terriermon snapped back. "If there's a chance we can save Lopmon, then I'm going to take it."
"It sounds like you two aren't going to agree about this so why are you even fighting? Why not just go do it?" RhinoKabuterimon asked pointedly.
"Because this idiot wants me to come along and help," Crusadermon said, pointing a finger at the little bunny.
"You know Lucemon better than any of us! Plus you've got strength that we sorely need!" Terriermon fired back. "But instead you're walking away from it! Just like you walked away from Lucemon! I guess we should've known we couldn't trust you when we needed you. Once an enemy, always an enemy!"
"Listen here you little shit!" Crusadermon seethed with anger, grabbing Terriermon by the nape of his neck. Just before the fight could get any worse, Neemon and Bokomon hurried out of the castle doors. Bokomon cradled the little Poyomon in his arms, the blob bouncing playfully despite the sight of Crusadermon throttling the life out of the little Terriermon.
"You want to say that to my face!?" Crusadermon added, holding Terriermon up to her eye level. Terriermon answered by spitting onto her helmet, taking the knight off guard. Then Terriermon leapt out of her grip, and sank his fangs into an exposed bit of skin at the joints of her armor, biting down so hard that he actually managed to draw blood. If nothing else, it proved that Terriermon didn't need raw strength to actually hurt Crusadermon.
"ARGH!" Crusadermon yelped, violently ripping Terriermon off her and slamming him into the ground. The little digimon tumbled along the grass, stopping short of Neemon and Bokomon. It didn't stop him from rushing onto his feet where he prepared to go after Crusadermon.
"STOP!" Poyomon wailed, the shrill voice catching both digimon by surprise. "Play nice! Play nice!"
"Your friends are in trouble and she doesn't want to help! Why aren't you mad!?" Terriermon snapped angrily at the little digimon.
"Mou…mou…" Poyomon struggled to get the words out, lips trembling as it stumbled over the words. Poyomon paused to take a deep breath and finally said the words. "Moumantai!"
Terriermon froze at those words, his mouth hanging open in stunned silence. JetSilphymon remembered Terriermon saying those words a few times before but never actually understood what those words meant. She looked to Poyomon, hoping to get some kind of understanding from him only to be met with the same innocently cheerful smile.
"Moumantai," Terriermon said, inhaling a deep breath and stepping back away from Crusadermon.
"Here's an idea. How about we go instead? The more of us go, the better off we'll be!" RhinoKabuterimon suggested to Terriermon. The little digimon crossed his arm and remained unmoved.
"It would be better. And it would make sure no one else gets hurt," JetSilphymon agreed quickly. In truth, she was sure it would be better to make sure no one else got hurt if no one else needed to. And if they went, they had a chance to get both Gatomon and Lopmon back.
"What are we even talking about here? Going back to get some dead digimon?" Beowolfmon asked. "How does that even work?"
"Digimon don't die the way humans do. If our data isn't absorbed, it makes its way back to Primary Village to be reformatted as a new life. But some digimon, especially strong ones like little Poyomon here, are able to retain their memories. With the strength digimon like Cherubimon and Ophanimon had, surely they would retain their memories as well," Bokomon rattled off to them knowledgeably, while cradling the little Poyomon. Poyomon cooed excited as he was bounced, until a flash of light burst forth from his body. In an instant, Poyomon digivolved into a small, four legged little white fluffy critter with long, thin floppy ears and two little fangs poking out of his mouth.
"He's absolutely right!" the little digimon said. "Oh! I can make sentences now! That's good!"
"That's because you've digivolved! You're growing up so fast!" Bokomon said happily, bouncing the little digimon in his arms like a proud parent. He waved the little digimon in front of them. "Look everyone! He's become Tokomon now!"
Tokomon giggled cheerfully as he was bounced in the air and smiled cheerfully at the others. "So you're going to save the others now, right?"
"That's right," Tamer nodded. "And we can be back by the end of the day if we go now."
"He's awake!" Guardromon said, poking his head through the castle door. It was followed by the door being kicked open by Duskmon, who stumbled out with a hand on his head. Guardromon stepped out of Duskmon's way, arming the weapons on his arms and training them on the hulking black digimon. Duskmon growled one more time as he made his way towards Tamer with his hand out stretched, hissing and gnashing his teeth.
"KiLl…tAmEr…" it managed to gasp out, taking a few more steps before finally collapsing sinking onto his knees. Tamer appeared more than a little unsettled, staring at Duskmon with his eyes wide in terror. Black smoke began to rise from his body, spreading out and dissipating as his form began to shrink until he vanished into a flash of darkness and shadows.
What was left behind was the boy who'd shadowed Koji at the train station in the human world. The one who looked like he could've passed for Koji's twin if he were just a little more moody and cranky. The boy held his hands in his head, eyes wincing in pain as he doubled over.
Instantly, both Tamer and Beowolfmon hurried over to his side to help him with an extended hand. When the Koji-look alike was finally able to open his eyes, he looked up to see Tamer. His face twisted into a confused expression as he murmured out, "It's you."
Then he looked over at Beowolfmon and sprang backwards onto the ground, "WHOA! THAT'S A WOLF!"
"It's okay! We're here to help," Tamer said, stepping closer with an outstretched hand. When Tamer noticed the boy staring up in stunned shock at Beowolfmon, he also added, "Don't mind him. He won't bite. Well, he might but figuratively speaking. He's got a mouth on him. That is to say he'll talk back."
Once again, Tamer demonstrated how bad he was at words. Still, the boy took Tamer's outstretched hand to be pulled to a stand. He massaged his head once as he took in the world around him - his eyes going from one digimon to the next before he stopped on Tamer. "What exactly is happening? Where are we?"
"You don't remember?" Tamer asked with a raised head.
"I remember getting off the train. I remember following my brother until I lost sight of him. By the time I saw him again, he was getting on an elevator going down. I wasn't able to catch in time. So I remembering running to the stairs. After that, nothing. Well, until I wake up here," the boy said, massaging his head and rubbing his neck nervously. "Um…so what's going on? Actually, where are we? And what are we doing here?"
"It looks like we've got a lot to catch you up on," Tamer said with a frown, turning his head to the others. Then Tamer looked to Terriermon, "But I don't think we have time for that, right now. We were about to head out, and we're kind of in a rush."
"You mean you're in a rush," Beowolfmon said, stepping towards the boy. The boy stepped back nervously, positioning himself so that Tamer was between him and the large wolf digimon. Beowolfmon grunted and stepped backwards from the pair, grumbling under his breath about not even being sure who the boy was.
The boy blinked, "Where to?"
"I can't tell you. I'm sorry," Tamer said flatly.
"Then can you tell me on the way?" the boy asked.
"You're planning on coming with?" Tamer asked in surprise. The boy looked nervously at the other digimon, then back towards Tamer sheepishly.
"You are literally the only other human I see, right now. I don't really want to be left alone with them," the boy said sheepishly, gesturing towards the digimon around them. Bokomon appeared to take offense, but Neemon snickered under his breath. "Besides, you might as well tell me what's going on while you go wherever you're going. It's win-win."
Tamer stared at the boy dumbfounded before offering his hand, "What's your name?"
"Koichi," the boy said, shaking Tamer's hand in turn. Nobody missed the way Beowolfmon's head turned towards Koichi, and how he just as quickly looked away. Although Koichi seemed to be the only who didn't notice. "What's yours?"
"I'm The Digimon Tamer. But everyone just calls me Tamer," Tamer said, making a gesture to the other digimon to be quiet before any of them could start adding the other names they liked to call him.
"Yeah, sure. And what's your real name?" Koichi asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That is his real name," Terriermon said impatiently, startling Koichi who didn't seem to notice the little bunny until now. Terriermon went on to grumble. "Are we going or not? The sooner we leave! The sooner we save Lopmon!"
"And Gatomon," Tokomon said happily.
"Sure, I guess," Terriermon said under his breath, grumbling a few other words that JetSilphymon didn't quite catch. "So…when do we go?"
"One second," Tamer said calmly, raising a patient finger at Koichi. He hurriedly scooped up Terriermon, who protested being coddled, before turning towards the other digimon and signaling to them to huddle closer. It was hard for them to huddle close, especially with how large RhinoKabuterimon was. Still, they got as close as they could so that Tamer could speak at just above a whisper. "All of you need to be very careful of what you say around Koichi."
"What are you talking about?" Terriermon hissed angrily, only to be shushed.
"We need to be very careful because he came from Duskmon. If he's like the other Dark Warriors, that means he has a Guardian Spirit in him just like everyone else here," Tamer pointed out. And immediately everyone came to the same conclusion.
"He's got Lucemon inside his head," Daipenmon whispered.
"Lucemon will know whatever he knows," JetSilphymon added.
"Bull. He's not being used," Beowolfmon growled.
"I didn't say he was being used. But we have to assume that Lucemon is using him to listen in on us since he can't peer into our own heads anymore," Tamer explained calmly.
"Then is it a good idea to bring him with us?" RhinoKabuterimon asked seriously, tilting his head towards Koichi.
Tamer could only offer an uncertain shrug in answer, "I don't know. We can't be certain how much Lucemon is seeing through him. Still, it's better for him to be with us than to be left alone here with everyone else. If Lucemon is using him, or at least influencing him, who knows what'll happen when we're not here."
"Don't talk about Koichi like that," Beowolfmon growled again at Tamer.
"Sorry, sorry," Tamer said quietly. "I think that's it."
He spun on his heels to face Koichi, "So, ready to come with us?"
Lucemon smiled, satisfied with what he'd learned from listening through Duskmon. They were going after the reborn Cherubimon and Ophanimon. That was good. He wanted them to get back together. But he couldn't let them know that. He turned his attention towards the distant plains of the Digital World, where fighting had been echoing out between the warring factions of the Digital World. In an instant, the sounds of fighting turned to screams of terror as a bright flash turned a large section of the Digital World into a barren void. Small bits of data flew out of the damaged portion of the Digital World, circling to where Ranamon and Mercurymon likely were. They'd successfully taken the fractal code of another part of the Digital World.
But now he needed them to carry out their next task. He hurried to their location, intent on motivating them to go where they needed to go.
Beowolfmon stared silently at both Koichi and Tamer as both boys chatted idly. They sat atop RhinoKabuterimon's back as they hurried through the Digital World at what could only be called a hurried pace towards Primary Village. Daipenmon sat just behind them, staring blankly up at the sky while JetSilphymon led the way from the front, holding Terriermon in her arms so that he could guide her while they flew over the trees.
He had confirmation - Duskmon was his brother. Had been his brother the whole time. But he kept coming back to the same questions - why didn't Koichi know what was going on? Why didn't Koichi remember anything between the Human World and here? And how did he end up working for Lucemon and being one of the Dark Warriors?
Beowolfmon wanted to approach his brother and talk to him. But another part of him wasn't sure his brother would want to talk to him. No, that couldn't be the case. After all, Koichi had stalked him all the way to the train station. Koichi wanted to talk to him - but he'd only heard any of that from Tamer. And it should've gone without saying by now that he couldn't really be sure that Tamer was being one hundred percent honest with them.
"This is all a lot to take in," Koichi said quietly. "I'd say you were lying if I wasn't sitting on the back of a giant beetle walking through a forest."
"You never really get used to it either," RhinoKabuterimon added.
Koichi crawled over to the beetle's head so that he could look it in the eye, "So you're a person like me, huh? Do I get to do this cool stuff?"
RhinoKabuterimon coughed as he struggled on how to answer the question. Even Tamer began sweating as he tried to answer the question.
"Probably? Do you have a digivice?" Daipenmon asked from behind Tamer.
"What's a digivice?" Koichi asked with a tilted head.
"This is," Tamer said, producing his own for Koichi to examine.
"Oh cool! Where'd you get it?" Koichi asked excitedly.
"Our phones turned into them when we showed up in this world. We don't really know how it works or why it happened but that is what happened!" Daipenmon answered. The boy started patting his pockets excitedly, anticipating his own digivice. But that smile disappeared when he couldn't find anything and he sank back.
"Oh man. Guess I don't get to turn into digimon like you guys. That's too bad. It would've been really cool to transform. Something like a big cat! You know…like a lion! Or a puma!" Koichi said, still maintaining a small flicker of optimism. "By the way. How come you're not transformed like the others?"
"It's a long story. The short version is we needed a way back and my digivice was the only one that could do that," Tamer said, holding up his digivice. "Well, more accurately, I'm the only one who knows how to use it to get us where we're going. And even that has a catch."
Koichi blinked and stared at Tamer for the longest time after he said that. "Then how come we don't just use it now? Seems like it would save us a trip."
Tamer frowned, "That's the problem. The whole digiport thing has been acting finicky with everything going on in the Digital World. I could use it, yeah. But we could end up anywhere. I wasn't even sure we'd get to where we were going before, let alone back here."
Koichi blinked twice and perplexed pointed out, "But you did make it back alright. And you all look fine to me. So what's the problem?"
"We didn't get here on the first try," Tamer admitted sheepishly.
"Do we ever?" Daipenmon asked glumly, reclining back in his chair to avoid looking at the others.
"One time we ended up stuck in a cave…under water…with a whale," JetSilphymon stated, reminding them all of that brief stint they spent on Whamon. Not to mention their run in with Ranamon. Beowolfmon didn't want to have to run in with them again, though that was more because he didn't want to deal with any more trouble than he needed. He already had his brother. Everything else was secondary at this point.
"Wait! If everything you said is true, then where's my brother? Where's Koji!?" Koichi said worriedly, his tone shifting uncomfortably. "Is he alright? He's not…dead, is he?"
"No, he's right there," Tamer said nonchalantly, casually pointing towards Beowolfmon. Beowolfmon felt his heart skip a beat inside of his chest as his brother turned to look at him. Koichi's eyes were wide in shock as he stared at Beowolfmon, his mouth hanging open until he noticed and he closed it shut. Beowolfmon was just as stunned, unsure of what to say to his brother now that Koichi knew he was there.
"Uh…hi," Beowolfmon greeted with a sheepish wave.
"Hi," Koichi said back, just as awkwardly. He raised his hand up briefly as if he intended to wave back but it came down after a moment. Beowolfmon was disheartened, seeing his brother's cheerful demeanor vanish at the prospect of having to speak with him.
Tamer didn't seem to notice how awkward he'd made everything, or the nervous air between the two brothers. In fact, he just didn't seem to know when to shut up as he opened his mouth. "You two probably have a lot to talk about. You've been following him since the train station, and you've known you were being followed since the train station!"
"You knew?" Koichi stared at Beowolfmon.
"Not the first time," Beowolfmon said.
"First time? So you know I've been following you for a while?" Koichi blurted out in surprise.
"YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING ME FOR A WHILE? HOW LONG!?" Beowolfmon shouted back, taken completely by surprise that his brother had been stalking him for so long.
"Maybe tone down the shouting you two," Tamer said with a shush. "What's the point in fighting? Aren't you two brothers? You should get along more! Like this one pair of brothers I knew back when-"
"Nobody cares!" Terriermon snapped at Tamer, saving them all from having to listen to him speak. "We're almost there!"
"Finally! My feet hurt from all this walking. How much longer do we have to stay like this?" RhinoKabuterimon asked. "I can't wait for the chance to lay down. Just relax and get off my feet. Take a nap, even."
"As long as it takes," Tamer answered nonchalantly. "Unless you want to have Lucemon knowing what we're doing all the time."
The irony of that statement wasn't lost on Beowolfmon, since they had brought Koichi with them even though they weren't sure if he was being controlled or not. The others also shifted uncomfortably, clearly no longer comfortable inside of their transformed forms for much longer.
"Well, sorry we're not comfortable. It's not like we're enjoying this situation either," Beowolfmon's spirit remarked inside of his head. Koji could only imagine how annoying it would be to be trapped as a voice inside someone else's head - forced to watch without any control as someone moved around in his body. The longer he dwelled on it, the more horrifying the idea seemed. "Imagine how we feel."
They stepped out onto Primary Village - a large field made of a plush patchwork quilt that reached out as far as the eye could see. In every direction, there were large wooden blocks stacked so high that they towered over the forest and oversized plush toys that only very young children would be seen playing with. And littered all along the plush fields were wicker basket cribs. In some were bright colored eggs with various assortments of colors and patterns. But in others, were small little blobs like Poyomon.
"Oh wow! They're so cute! I wanna see!" Daipenmon said excitedly, hopping off of RhinoKabuterimon and waddling excitedly towards the nearby crib. He peered inside to see the nearest baby, coddling it as it cooed back at him playfully. Everyone was quick to join them, peering into the crib at the small little blob that looked back up with big eyes. After a moment, the small child's coos turned to whimpers.
Koichi was quick to pick up the baby digimon, bouncing it in his arms and rocking it playfully to calm the child, "Aw! There there! Don't cry!"
Beowolfmon was surprised by his brother's attentiveness to the child. It seemed odd to see that he'd have any kind of nurturing instinct, especially after they saw what kind of horror he
"This place is a giant nursery!" JetSilphymon announced, hovering just a little bit higher to see as far as she could.
"Of course. But it's weird. I don't see the caretaker anywhere," Terriermon said anxiously, cautiously staring out across the field.
"Caretaker? Someone actually looks after all these babies? That sounds miserable! Do they ever get a break?" RhinoKabuterimon said, looking up and down the field in surprise.
Tamer scanned the horizon and remarked, "It's weird. It's not like him to abandon the children under his care."
"Who are you talking about?" Beowolfmon asked cautiously, taking care to keep Koichi in his eyes. He told himself he was doing it out of concern for his little brother, but part of him couldn't help but fear what would happen if Koichi became Duskmon in the middle of all this. If his brother was under the influence of Lucemon, there was no telling what would happen. It didn't help that the child wouldn't calm down no matter what they did. To try and help things along, Koichi started pacing back and forth as he rocked the child in his arms to try and calm them down.
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
A fireball in the shape of a lion head hurled itself at them and exploded at Koichi's feet. Koichi stumbled, almost fumbling the child that broke out into wailing. Everyone immediately gathered around Koichi as a lion digimon emerged from the trees with a large sack slung over his shoulder. The lion growled, "That was your one warning! Put the child down!"
"Him. I'm talking about him," Tamer said, thumbing towards the approaching lion.
"Put them down? You're the reason the child is freaking out!" Koichi snapped back.
"All of the new born digimon here are in my care! Put the baby back in the crib and leave!" the lion warned again.
"Who is this guy?" RhinoKabuterimon grunted, positioning himself so that he was clear to charge the lion if things turned into a fight. The lion took note of this and began pacing so that RhinoKabuterimon would have to charge right through the rest of the digidestined to catch him.
"Leomon. Although I'm not sure if he's a friend or a foe," Tamer said sheepishly.
"How are you not sure!?" JetSilphymon asked.
"Leomon tend to die when I'm around. All Leomon now that I think about it. But it's through no fault of my own! It just sort of happens," Tamer answered quietly, his tone carrying just the smallest hint of guilt as he stepped in front of everyone. "Leomon! Where's Elecmon? He's supposed to be the one taking care of the baby digimon."
"I am Elecmon," Leomon growled angrily. Beowolfmon noticed Tamer blink in surprise, his expression turning more grim.
"But how? When did you digivolve? How did you digivolve?" Tamer stammered, stumbling over the idea perhaps just a little longer than he should've.
"There have been plenty of digimon dumb enough to come here and try to recruit the babies here into their war effort. And others who actually tried to destroy the village. I've had to kill a lot of digimon to protect this place," Leomon answered, growling very loudly so that they could hear him. "After a while, I got so strong that I just became Leomon."
He set the large sack down, spilling out its contents of fish that flopped helplessly onto the plush ground. With his now free hand, Leomon reached behind himself to pull out a sword that he steadied at them. With a low warning growl, he asked, "Who are you, human? Digidestined? Haven't seen your type around in a long while."
"Yes! I mean, no. Kinda. They're the digidestined. I'm…well, you and I have sort of met before," Tamer rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "But that was a while ago. Had a different face back then. It's me. The Digimon Tamer."
Leomon relaxed upon hearing the name, but he still kept his sword out. "I see. I'd still prefer it if you left. Just by being here, you're putting all of the digimon here under my care in danger."
"Believe me, we don't plan on staying longer than we need to. We're actually looking for two new digieggs that would've appeared recently - the ones for Cherubimon and Ophanimon," Tamer explained. Leomon remained passively indifferent as he listed to every word from Tamer, if just a little bit annoyed. It was clear he was less interested in helping them and more in getting them to leave as soon as possible.
Leomon gestured all around him, "There are countless eggs coming in every day. Countless digimon dying all across the Digital World. If those two have reformatted, you've got your work cut out for you to find them."
"With how strong those two are, they definitely would've retained their memories. Have there been any digimon like that lately?" Tamer asked.
Leomon sighed, "I couldn't tell you. I've stopped trying to keep track of who is and isn't retaining their memories. All that matters to me is nurturing them until they're ready to leave of their own volition. So you'd better start looking. The sooner that you get out of here, the better I'll feel."
"Then I guess we'd better split up," Tamer said, gesturing in one direction. "The more ground we cover, the faster this'll go. Daipenmon, let's go this way!"
"On it!" Daipenmon said, waddling after Tamer as they headed off in another direction.
"Let's head that way, RhinoKabuterimon!" JetSilphymon said just as quickly, gesturing in another direction. The large digimon nodded and followed along after the flying digimon. Terriermon began to protest from JetSilphymon's arms, wanting to be set down but she ignored him as they hurried further away.
That just left Beowolfmon and Koichi standing there awkwardly. At least Koichi still had the baby in his arms so Beowolfmon had an easy out. Unfortunately, that out disappeared when Leomon took the baby out of his arms and began rocking it to sleep. So now Koichi didn't even have the excuse to not be near Beowolfmon. Beowolfmon was at a loss for what to say and it was obvious Koichi was just as uneasy. The tension between them was so thick that Leomon probably could've cut it with his sword if he wanted. Thankfully, he only decided to do so with his rapier wit. "Will you two go already? I have children to look after!"
"Yeah, because you were definitely concerned about them before," Beowolfmon said without thinking.
"What was that?" Leomon leered.
"Nothing," Beowolfmon said, turning to walk away. Koichi shuffled behind him awkwardly, and Beowolfmon found himself leading the way silently through the field of cribs.
He wasn't sure what to say to his brother - they didn't really have any kind of relationship that was worth talking about. Beowolfmon hadn't even given him much thought until recently - it wasn't that he didn't care about his brother. It was more that he didn't know how to interact with him. Yes, they were brothers. But they both grew up living their lives far apart from each other - they may as well have been complete strangers.
"So…where do you think we should start?" Koichi asked nervously.
"No idea. I don't even know what we're supposed to be looking for. Who knows how they look when they're reborn," Beowolfmon said, stopping to look over at what appeared to be another little baby digimon bouncing energetically in its crib. "Ophanimon was a drunk cat and Cherubimon looked like a brown rabbit. But that doesn't mean that's how they'll look as babies."
"Heh…a baby with a drinking problem," Koichi snorted quietly. "Sorry, that shouldn't be funny. But it kind of is."
Beowolfmon thought about it and wondered if maybe they would find a small baby cat digimon with an alcoholism problem and even he had to admit that the idea was kind of funny.
"Maybe the bottle has wine," Beowolfmon said, prompting another snicker from Koichi. He and Koichi continued to crack jokes back and forth at each other. They mostly just chuckled back and forth but Beowolfmon took it as a win to get a larger laugh out of his brother. At the very least, that helped to kill the awkward silence between them. And it made him wonder if this is what it would've been like to have a normal relationship with his brother if things had worked out differently.
"Come on. Let's keep looking," Beowolfmon said, continuing onward.
They continued up and down the endless rows of wicker basket cribs scattered along the quilt play area in silence, although the mood was noticeably less awkward between them now. They walked around a bit more until they eventually reached the far end of the field. They passed many baby digimon along the way and every single acted like the newborn baby child they were. None of them acted like a reborn powerful angel digimon.
"I don't think what we're looking for is here," Koichi said.
"Probably not," Beowolfmon agreed quietly, putting his hands on his hips as he resigned himself to not finding the digimon. For all they knew, the digimon wasn't here.
"What you look for?" a small childish voice asked out to them. It was a good question. What would they even be looking for? It's not like they knew what either digimon would look like as babies.
"Some reborn cat or a bunny or something," Koichi answered. "It's what you said, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Why are you telling me that?" Beowolfmon asked.
"Because you asked," Koichi answered, raising an eyebrow.
"You silly."
"I am not!" Koichi huffed, face flushing with embarrassment. "You're the one who asked!"
"I didn't ask anything," Beowolfmon fired back, growing annoyed with Koichi. If this is what bickering was like with siblings, then maybe he was better off having never met his brother before now.
"No fight!" the voice squeaked. Beowolfmon and Koichi turned the heads towards a small brown ball with large beady eyes and three horns atop its head. Trailing just behind it was a flat ribbon that tapered off into a split. The head tilted itself to the side as it looked up at them. "You silly."
"You can talk," Beowolfmon said, dumbfounded by the sight of the digimon.
"Hi! Hi!" the ball bounced excitedly in place. "You digidest-digide-destined!"
It struggled over that last word, but smiled proudly when it finally managed to stammer it out.
"Yeah. Well, he is," Koichi said, gesturing towards Beowolfmon. "That's Beowolfmon. And I'm Koichi. What's your name?"
"Conomon," the digimon said happily. "Cono!"
"It's nice to meet you," Koichi said, brushing the little digimon's cheek. It cooed excitedly as it bounced in its crib.
"Who are you talking to?" JetSilphymon asked, landing beside them. Terriermon hopped out of her arms as soon she hit the ground and started kissing the plush ground happily.
"Land! Finally! I was getting motion sickness up there," Terriermon said happily.
"Ter-terri-ermon!" Conomon said happily, bouncing excitedly in place.
Terriermon's eyes opened wide as he looked up at Conomon in his crib. "Lopmon?"
Author's Notes: Together, they've found the reborn Lopmon. But can they find the reborn Gatomon? And can they do it before Lucemon makes his arrival at Primary Village? Will Koichi regain his memories? 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, November 10th at 8 PM CST! Don't forget to share your thoughts in the reviews! If you loved it, be sure to leave a favorite and follow to keep up with all the latest updates! That's all I have for now, this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!