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 v1.3 - The Other Tamer is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer
Chapter 2 - The Ternary Virus
"Are you kidding?" Davis asked, but something about this didn't sit right with Kari. Despite his protest, she grabbed a hold of Davis' hand and ran down the bleachers away from the charging Kuwagamon. With his hand in hers, all of Davis' protests disappeared despite DemiVeemon complaining about wanting to fight from his bag. Gatomon, Jun, Tai, and Agumon followed right behind them.
They'd barely made it on to the grass as Kuwagamon came crashing onto the bleachers, sending anyone still on the bleachers flying into the air. The mere sight riled Davis up who stopped in his tracks and he pulled his hand free of Kari's, "Gah! I can't just run away! We gotta fight this guy!"
"That's a very dumb idea!" Agumon shouted. "The thing it's got is contagious! DemiVeemon could get it just be being near Kuwagamon! And if DemiVeemon gets it, it'll only be a matter of hours before he's just like Kuwagamon! Do you really want that on your conscious?"
As he said that, Kuwagamon charged straight past them and towards the center of the soccer field, sending the players scrambling out of his way. Kuwagamon growled and snarled his teeth at everyone around it, but did nothing else as everyone fled away in panic. That seemed to be enough for the Kuwagamon as it curled up into a ball and went to sleep soundly.
"So what else do we do?" Davis grumbled quietly. "Because if this thing is as dangerous as you're saying, we can't just sit back and let it go around infecting things!"
"We can't send it back to the Digital World, that'll just spread the infection. And we can't leave it here," Agumon said quietly. "Really our only option is to kill it."
"That's what I was going to do!" Davis protested.
"From a distance!" Agumon added quietly. "It has to be quick. One and done, from a distance to avoid any blow back."
"That can't be our only option," Kari interrupted sheepishly, feeling uneasy about this specific approach. They'd killed plenty of digimon before but this specific time it felt almost wrong. "You said it was a disease? Isn't there a cure?"
"Believe me, the Ancients spent a very long time trying to find a cure for this disease. Exploring every reality, every world, looking for some kind of permanent cure to whatever this is. If there is a cure, they were never able to find it," Agumon said quietly.
"What? Who are the Ancients?" Tai asked curiously.
"Um…nothing," Agumon said quietly, averting his gaze from Tai to the boy's concern.
"Agumon, now's not the time for secrets," Tai tried reasoning with the little dinosaur, but he seemed unwilling to have the discussion. Kari couldn't help but note the irony of Tai being kept out of the loop and wanting answers.
"And now's not the time to talk about this. We'll have this discussion later," Agumon assured his partner. "Gatomon, DemiVeemon. I'll leave this to you guys. Digivolve to Angewomon and ExVeemon. Then hit that Kuwagamon with your strongest attacks from as high in the air as you can. Stay clear of the data cloud as it dissipates, otherwise you risk infection!"
"Got it!"
"Understood!"
DemiVeemon and Gatomon looked to their partners who gave a hesitant nod of approval. However, Tai was quick to groan, "I don't get it, why don't we just use you Agumon? MetalGreymon could probably clear that Kuwagamon out no problem."
"Sure, and it'd take two city blocks with it! I'm not strong enough as Greymon to kill it in one hit, and WarGreymon would probably level half the city. It has to be them. One Celestial Arrow and one Vee-Laser will have a lot less collateral damage."
Tai frowned and crossed his arms, clearly annoyed at being left out of getting to be the hero for the day. Not that Kari could blame him - whether it was Tamer or the Tai that she remembered, she could easily recall that sitting idle was a nightmare for him. Jun wrapper her arms around Tai from behind and patted his hair, "Don't worry, Tai! I'm sure you and Agumon will get to play the hero another time!"
"I guess," Tai stuck out his lower lip and pouted.
"If we're done messing around! Time to digivolve!" Davis said, lifting up his digivice.
"DemiVeemon! Digivolve to! Veemon!"
"Gatomon! Digivolve to! Angewomon!"
"Veemon! Digivolve to! ExVeemon!"
The two digimon digivolved in flashes of light and ascended into the sky, high above the soccer field just over where Kuwagamon was resting. Kari watched the two of them hover hesitantly, knowing that they were just as apprehensive about this plan as she was. This felt all wrong somehow, but if this digimon was just as much of a danger as Agumon said - then there was no other choice.
As she thought this, she noticed Kuwagamon standing - staring at them. She didn't know when it had awoke or when it had turned its attention on them. But it was snarling now and it was ready to attack. It gave out a violent hiss and charged forward, foaming at the mouth as it gnashed its teeth.
"VEELASER!"
"CELESTIAL ARROW!"
Just as Kuwagamon was feet away, the two blasts came down and struck the digimon in the head - killing it and turning it into a cloud of data that burst forth around them. Everyone raised their arms up to protect themselves - everyone except for Agumon who tried to cover his mouth and snout with his claws that were barely able to cover anything. When the dust settled, Agumon was left standing there with his eyes wide in horror.
"Agumon? What's wrong?" Tai asked nervously, concerned for his partner's shaken expression. Agumon just looked up from his clawed hands to Tai, the panic written clear across his face. Kari had never seen the little digimon like this and had no idea what to make of it - to think something, anything, could shake Agumon who had stared down BlackWarGreymon without even flinching. And now here he was, shaking - looking more terrified than he'd ever appeared in his life.
"We…we're dead," Agumon finally said.
"Wait, seriously?" Davis blinked in disbelief.
"Keep the others back!" Agumon said quickly, grabbing a hold of Tai's had retreating away from the group to put some distance between himself and them. "Crap…crap!"
"What's with him?" ExVeemon asked as he descended beside the others. Angewomon tried to land beside Tai and Agumon, but the dinosaur darted away from her with Tai in tow.
"Keep away from me! From us!" Agumon shouted. "I'm infected! We're…infected! We're going to be like Kuwagamon!"
The image of Agumon going on a rampage went through Kari's mind - he wouldn't have been strong or be able to cause much damage. But Tai wouldn't have been able to stand the idea of watching his partner turn into a mindless monster. That was before we even counted Tamer. Thankfully, Davis had a twist of genius and he said. "What if we just take you back to the Digital World? If you die there, wouldn't you just come back better at Prima-"
"No!" Agumon interrupted. "Even if you did get me to the Digital World, and even if I didn't instantly infect any one else there, reformatting wouldn't cure me. The infection will just reformat with me. I'll reborn in a digiegg and hatch into a crazed monster that'll kill anyone that gets near me."
"you can't just expect us to kill you, can you? We're not doing that!" Kari said nervously.
"Yeah! And what about me? How am I infected, Agumon?" Tai asked his partner quickly, trying to understand what Agumon was saying. That was right. Even if he was going by the name Tai, this was still the Digimon Tamer. He was still a digital being. Just like every other digimon. And if Agumon was infected, that meant Tai was as well. But that wouldn't be easy to explain to someone who thought they were just a normal human. To someone who was living a lie. And the hesitation was plain on Agumon's face. Tai was beginning to pick up on it and he asked nervously, "Agumon…what's going on?"
Agumon gestured at his digivice, "You know that button? The big one? If you press it, it'll tell you everything."
Tai looked down at his digivice with a raised eyebrow, unsure if he should believed his partner or not. Jun grabbed a hold of Tai's hand before he could press the button, stopping him. She gazed at Agumon, her voice shaking as she asked, "This will help, will it?"
"I'm not sure…It might? I don't know," Agumon said quietly. The meaning of the question was completely lost on Tai. Just beneath the surface, Jun had really been asking if she was going to lose Tai again. It was the same question Kari had. And she didn't want to think about watching him die again. Even if none of this made sense and she was sure he hadn't been around until a few days ago. No matter how much of the present situation wasn't adding up, the only thing she didn't want was to watch her brother die again.
"Okay," Jun released Tai's hand.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Tai assured her. "We'll figure this out and then we'll go out to a movie."
"I'll hold you to that," Jun said weakly, rubbing her arm nervously. Tai looked down at his digivice and pushed the button Agumon referred to. A soft light shone from the screen and flew straight into Tai's eyes. It lasted for all of a second before the light stopped. He stood there blinking stupidly and smacking his lips. Then he wretched.
"Is that coconut?" he began, scrubbing his tongue with his hand in disgust. "Agumon! You had one job!"
"You still didn't eat it and you're the one who made the personality like coconut water," Agumon countered.
"That was my fault," Jun raised her hand quietly. "I heard coconut water was good for you and kept suggesting you drink it after soccer practice."
Tamer da spat on the ground, continuing to rub at his tongue. "Bah, I'm gonna have to live with that for a while. So what's going on? You wouldn't have woken me up unless something serious was going on. I assume that's why I feel like someone is splitting my head open with an axe."
"We have a problem," Agumon began, explaining the situation to Tamer who just stood there listening intently. But his expression changed to panic once he heard the part about becoming infected with a virus. He immediately covered his mouth with his soccer uniform and leapt back from Agumon.
"It's not just me, it's you…we both have it," Agumon explained to Tamer. Tamer slowly lowered the neck of his shirt from his mouth and stared ahead in wide eyed disbelief. He appeared to be lost in thought for a few moments before he finally had an answer.
"Okay…okay, here's what we'll need to do," Tamer finally said. "Where's Izzy at?"
They went over to a nearby park to lie low while both Kari and Davis desperately tried to message the others with their D-Terminals. In that time, Tamer paced back and forth between the trees nervously while lost in thought.
"What's wrong?" Kari asked him quietly.
"Thinking. It…this wasn't supposed to happen," Tamer said quietly. "It feels fake. It's not real. And I don't know what to do. It's like I wake up from one dream into another. And I want to wake up, but if I do, it'll just be into another dream. But what if that dream is a worse nightmare than the last?"
This wasn't supposed to happen? Kari wondered if that meant even Tamer suspected that their current situation wasn't supposed to happen. And if that was the case, did he also remember the battle with Myotismon differently? How she remembered it? Or was he like the others and he could only remember it the way they did? And if he did remember it the way the others did, would that mean he would suspect something was wrong with her?
No, this may be her only chance to find out the truth. She asked, "How do you remember New Year's?"
Tamer looked at her with a raised eye brow, "I wasn't there for New Year's. I've been asleep for a while."
"I mean the battle with Myotismon. The final battle. The one where we beat him," Kari clarified, concerned with how Tamer's attention was turning towards her.
"What makes you ask that?" he asked curiously, clearly trying to bait a better explanation out of her than she was willing to provide. Perhaps this was something he needed to know to get them out of here. She was about to tell him everything but was stopped by Izzy calling out to them.
"I came as fast as I could!" Izzy said, running into the park to meet them. Despite the fact that it was a weekend, he was dressed in a surprisingly formal suit complete with bowtie and vest.
"What's with the get up, Izzy?" Davis asked the boy as he panted. "And seriously, we need to get you out into the soccer field for a day. You're really out of shape."
"I literally just ate!" Izzy complained, rubbing his stomach. "Ow, stomach cramp. I was celebrating my parents' anniversary when I got the call. Mimi went to go get Tentomon and Palmon. Is everyone alright?"
Kari was stumped by that. Was Mimi with Izzy when they messaged him? And why were they together? Last she knew, Mimi was still in America with her dad! If she had been living here, how come no one said anything? Had something happened between the two of them in this crazy world that no one talked about? Was it another one of the discrepancies she was expected to know?
"No, we're not," Tamer said, minding his distance from the others. "You have that office of yours, right? Is there any chance you can isolate a piece of the network as a Digital Space? Some place separate from all the others?"
"If I had a little time. Why?" Izzy asked, finally standing up and stretching his back out.
"How soon can you get it up?" Tamer pressed, his voice sounding more urgent and rushed with every passing second.
"I…I don't know? A couple of hours?" Izzy answered, sounding uneasy as Tamer's tone became more aggressive. "What is this about? Why are you so nervous?"
"We're infected with a highly contagious disease that only affects digital lifeforms. It's called the Ternary Virus - the virus works by affecting the binary code found in all forms of Digital Life, sliding between the various 1s and 0s to insert the occasional random 2. Hence the name Ternary. The good news is it's slow acting. The bad news, is when it finally inserts enough 2s…well, it's fatal and the Ancients had no cure. Worst of all, we may have to stay out here for a while because the virus is also able to jump to electrical equipment. Even being near a computer infected with the virus would be enough for it to jump," Tamer finally said to Izzy's surprise. Izzy's mouth fell open and hung there for a moment as he begun to process everything he'd been told.
Then Izzy finally nodded, "I'll head to the office and get started. But how are we going to get you there? If it affects electronics, it's not like I can take you into the IT department without messing every computer there!"
"We'll digiport over once you have it set up," Tamer answered. "Until then, we're going to stay here, in this park. It's full of organic matter so nothing here should be affected. And stay away from the Digital World for now as well. I don't know how that Kuwagamon got infected, but we can't make any assumptions about the current state of the Digital World until we know what exactly is going on over there."
Gatomon blinked, "Hold on, you're not suggesting that-"
"-the disease might already be running rampant in the Digital World. Which begs the question: how did an infected Kuwagamon get into our world? Did it slip through a crack in reality? Or was it sent here deliberately? And if it was deliberate, then by who?" Tamer asked rhetorically. He left the question hanging there just long enough to realize how uncomfortable he'd made everyone and he held up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, just thinking out loud. We'll have to sort this out. For now…"
He paused, looking at his partner cautiously. Agumon looked back up at him expectantly, as if he knew what the boy wanted to say but was merely too afraid to actually utter the words himself, "We're going to have to make a quick field trip to the Digital World to figure this out. Message us with the D-Terminals when you have the Digital Space set up."
"We'll let you know what we find out," Agumon said cheerily, as if he'd forgotten that he was infected with a very contagious disease. Without another word, Tamer and Agumon disappeared in another bright flash of light.
Izzy sighed, "Great, and you guys couldn't have told me this over a message? I was at my parents' anniversary!"
"We all kinda panicked when we found out they were infected," Veemon said sheepishly. "But you should've sheen this Kuwagamon! It wash all kindsh of out of it! It wash angry at everything, it wash jusht wandering in circlesh, but it also sheemed kinda tired? If that makesh shense."
"I…wow, this sounds like some kind a Digital version of the rabies virus," Izzy postulated.
Kari noticed Jun had been quiet since Tamer came back, and had been rubbing her arm anxiously the entire time. She clearly wanted to say something but appeared to be having trouble finding the words. No doubt she was worried about getting Tai back - Kari was worried too. But part of her also reminded herself not to get too sucked into what was happening. After all, none of this matched up with her memory of events from New Year's Eve and Myotismon.
"He'll be back, Jun," Kari said, uncertain of if she believed it or not. But that seemed to be enough for Jun who nodded quietly.
"We should probably tell the others what's going on so they know," Davis finally said, opening up his D-Terminal.
"Tell everyone! The other digidestined across the world should know too!" Izzy added quickly. "The fewer of us going to the Digital World, the better it'll be for everyone. We don't want to risk this infection going crazy."
"I'll just head home then," Jun said quietly, beginning to walk away by herself. However, Kari quickly chased after her.
"Wait! I'll come with!" she said quickly to a confused Jun.
Jun seemed taken aback at first and she replied, "You don't have to do that, Kari. I'll be fine."
"But I want to," Kari said more sternly.
Jun blinked a few times before nodding, "Yeah, okay."
"I still don't know why you dated him," Gatomon said quietly, sticking her tongue out in disgust. Jun's smile disappeared and Kari had to chastise her partner.
"Not the time Gatomon," Kari told the little cat. Gatomon adjusted herself and leapt up onto her shoulder, wrapping herself on Kari to get comfortable.
"Right, right, sorry," Gatomon said half apologetically. It wasn't a great answer but it was better than nothing.
They headed home, down the street and past the rubble from the building that Kuwagamon rammed into. Thankfully the damage wasn't too bad and nobody was seriously injured, but that didn't stop police from cordoning the area off as a hazard. But that left Kari to wonder how people would take this affair. There was the Odaiba Incident to think about after all, the first time Myotismon showed up and slaughtered children in his search for the eighth digidestined. In his search for her. And attitudes towards digimon hadn't been popular ever since.
Then again, that was how she remembered it. That didn't mean that was how things were now in whatever this topsy turvy world was. She wished she'd been able to finish telling Tamer about her suspicions. Had he sensed something wrong with the world as well? What would he have said in that situation? If only she'd thought to ask him sooner. She just hoped he was fine.
"Mei! Mei!" they heard a voice calling out from amidst the gathered crowd. Both girls stopped, following the voice through the crowd to see a dark haired high school girl with red glasses. She called out through the crowd in a panic, calling out again and again. "Mei! Come out Mei!"
"Oh no," Jun frowned, quietly hurrying towards the girl. Kari hurried after her, scared that someone had been seriously injured when Kuwagamon showed up and nobody noticed.
"Is someone hurt?" Jun asked the girl.
The girl stopped in her tracks, pulling her hands close to her chest nervously - as if in a panic.
"It's alright, we want to help," Jun assured the girl, gesturing towards herself and Kari. Kari waved nervously as her gaze went over her. Then it shifted onto Gatomon and her eyes widened in surprise.
"That's a digimon, isn't it?" the girl said at just above a whisper.
Kari was taken aback by that question as Gatomon did her best to remain silent, staring at the teenage girl silently. After a long extended stare, Gatomon finally meowed at Mei to help sell the fact that she was a cat. But that did't convince the girl at all, who pointed at the cat, "You and I both know that cats don't wear gloves or have rings on their tails. That's a digimon isn't it?"
"Uh-" Kari and Jun stuttered over themselves, trying to come up with some kind of explanation to convince the girl otherwise. That was, until the girl reached into her purse and produced a small device. A digivice, just like the one Kari used to have.
"You're a digidestined," Kari gasped in surprise, unable to believe what she was seeing. This girl had a digivice, which meant she was a digidestined. But Kari couldn't remember her from the time they travelled the world or among the children Oikawa implanted. So who was this? And where had she been before.
"Digidestined?" she repeated in confusion. "I thought everyone who had a digimon had one of these."
That was right. But having a digivice must've also meant she was a digidestined. So how did she get this? Then Kari noticed people around them had started eyeing them suspiciously. They had to know more but this wasn't the best place to talk about it. They had to get out of here. "We all do, but let's talk somewhere else. There's too many people here and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."
They hurried further down the street away from the gathered crowd, and down into an alley just out of sight of the crowd. Once they were sure they weren't followed and that no one was listening, Kari introduced herself, "I'm Kari Kamiya, and this is my partner Gatomon. And this is Jun. She's not a digidestined but she can help."
"I'm Meiko Mochizuki," the girl finally introduced herself. "I was out with my friend Mei when that giant red beetle showed up and we got separated from each other. Next thing I know, that digimon disappeared and I still can't find Mei!"
"Who's Mei? A digimon, too?" Jun asked seriously.
"That's right. Her full name is Meicoomon. She's a digimon just like Gatomon, but brown with green eyes," Meiko explained quietly. Kari looked at Gatomon nervously, wondering if Meicoomon had accidentally been afflicted with a virus just like Tamer and Agumon had been. Just like Kuwagamon before them.
"We can try to help you find her. Is there any place she would've gone?" Jun asked Meiko quietly.
Meiko shook her head quietly, "No. We're not from around here so I don't know where she would've gone. I can only imagine how scared she must be to be on her own."
Just like the others the first time they got lost in the Digital World. Kari offered Meiko a smile and said, "Don't worry. She can't have gone far! We just have to go out and find her!"
"R-right," Meiko said.
"Let's go and look!" Jun said, walking out of the alleyway and putting up her hands to call out into the crowd. "Mei!"
It was good to see Jun had something to distract her from Tai, for now at least. Kari was worried she may not have taken it well. But at least she was still willing to help people.
"Mei!" Kari followed along, calling out into the crowd in search of a brown cat digimon.
"Kari, something about this feels off," Gatomon whispered quietly into her ear.
"What do you mean?" Kari whispered back quietly, calling out for Meicoomon into the crowd.
"I have that feeling again. The kind I had when Kuwagamon showed up, but this one feels stronger. I don't know what it is but it's making me nervous," Gatomon answered quietly. Kari didn't like the sound of that. What could be coming that would make Gatomon uneasy. There was so much happening in just a short amount of time. She reached for her D-Terminal and began messaging the others so that they would at least know what was going on - first Kuwagamon, now a girl with a missing digimon partner, and now another feeling of a strong digimon coming? What was going on today?
Not long after she sent the message, she received another one from Davis, 'Veemon feels it too. Stay safe, please."
"You too," Kari messaged back, looking up nervously.
They looked around for quite some time, searching the surrounding area for some sign of Meicoomon but there was nothing.
In the Digital World, Tamer and Agumon arrived in the familiar blanketed fields of Primary Village. The home of all the digimon reborn - where they would be raised by Elecmon until they were old enough to take care of themselves.
"Why here?" Agumon asked his partner nervously.
"I was actually aiming for the Hollowed Bastion. I've been asleep for a couple of years, cut me a break!" Tamer replied when he saw the look his digimon partner was giving him.
"We'd better get out of here soon before we infect any of the babies," Agumon said quickly, covering his mouth.
"Right!" Tamer said, readying his digivice to open another gate when he finally noted something amiss. A dense fog floated around the village that hadn't been there before, and it was hard to say where it was coming from. Then the two of them noticed the many smashed eggs along the ground.
"No," Tamer growled quietly, his voice shaking with anger as he took in the scene around them.
"How could this have happened? Where's Elecmon!? What happened?" Agumon looked around, taking in everything around them. "Who did this!?"
They got their answer in the form of a snapping noise coming from beside them. Both Tamer and Agumon looked towards the noise to see the back of Elecmon, peering into one of the cradles tending to one of the babies. Though it was hard to imagine what he could be doing that involved such noises. Tamer and Agumon looked at each other nervously then towards the red digimon. "Elecmon?"
The snapping noise stopped and the red digimon stood up on its hind legs. It turned to face them, and they could see the blank look in the digimon's eyes. The vacant empty expression as the remains of a digiegg were scattered around its mouth. And in its mouth was a small black ball of fuzz that whimpered at them up until Elecmon closed its mouth in a sickening crunch.
"Crap," Tamer gasped as he took in the sight of Elecmon licking its lips, before it slowly made its way towards them.
"That's new. Has the virus ever made a digimon do that?" Agumon asked.
"Heightened aggression is a symptom. Reduced mental capacity is another symptom. It's possible that Elecmon is acting purely on instinct now and doesn't realize what he's doing," Tamer swallowed. "And if that's the case, it's time to get out of here!"
"Faster please," Agumon swallowed as the digimon rushed towards them. Tamer pushed a button on his digivice and opened a gate for them to step through, rushing through it before Elecmon could catch up to them.
Once Tamer closed the gate, he frowned, "This situation is a lot worse than I'd imagined. Elecmon eating newborn digimon? Kuwagamon getting into the Real World. This all feels off."
"What're you thinking partner?" Agumon asked.
"I'm thinking…I'm thinking we need to go find the pain in my neck," Tamer replied.
"You could just call it by its name," Agumon reminded his partner, only to be met with a scoff.
"I'd sooner jump into a fire," Tamer replied.
Sora and Matt were out on a date at a sushi restaurant they'd both been wanting to try when they got the message from Davis about everything going. Both were taken aback by the news. Matt was annoyed, but that had more to do with Tamer than anything else. She knew him well enough to know when he was scared about something, no matter how big a front he tried to put up.
"We should probably have a meeting about this," Matt said quietly. "If there is a virus going around that could kill our digimon, we need to be careful."
"Should we leave Biyomon and Gabumon at home then?" Sora asked. "I don't think they'd be okay if sitting by while we go out. The isolation would drive them nuts."
"It will, but what's the alternative? They get infected and turn into a rabid digimon like Kuwagamon?" Matt responded quietly, clearly giving this more thought than he was comfortable giving. Sora took his hand in hers, holding it firmly and smiling at him to get him to lighten up.
"Don't worry. We'll figure it out," she said.
"I hope so," he said, just as they got another message from Kari. This one was talking about new girl name Meiko looking for her missing digimon partner Meicoomon. And that Gatomon was sensing something else coming. Something else much bigger and stronger.
"Well, that settles it then. We should definitely get Biyomon and Gabumon! Let's go to my place first, it's closer!" Sora said, messaging the others that they would be getting their digimon.
"I love it when you have a plan," Matt smiled as he watched his girlfriend finish sending the message. Once they finished paying for their meal, the pair hurried outside and made their way to their apartment. They began hurrying down towards the station to take a train back to Sora's place, making it onto an empty train car. It was nice to have a moment to themselves, and the pair were about to get comfortable next to each other when their digivice's started beeping.
"What's that?" Sora stopped, looking down at her digivice in surprise.
"The digimon that Gatomon was feeling?" Matt wondered aloud as they examined their digivice.
"It could be me."
The pair looked up from their digivices to see a white reptilian digimon wearing a tattered red hood and goggles on its head. Matt instinctively put himself between Sora and the strange creature, calling it out, "Who are you?"
"Calm yourself, digidestined. I will explain everything once this train leaves the station. My name is Hackmon," the digimon introduced itself quietly, staring at them intently as the train doors close. Once the train left the station, Hackmon went on to explain. "I'm sorry for alarming you, but it was urgent that we met as soon as possible. A grave situation has befallen the Digital World and we fear it's only a matter of time before it affects your world too."
"Is this about the virus that the others were messaging us about?" Matt asked nervously.
Hackmon nodded, "My master, Homeostasis, sent me to this world to monitor it for any signs of infection and to track down the source as we believe it may have moved to this world. But the truth is, we're not sure where it came from. And we may be left no other recourse than to reboot the Digital World to remove any trace of the infection."
"Reboot the entire Digital World? Okay, I know I'm not very tech smart but how do you reboot an entire world!? It's not like there's an off switch to the Digital World," Matt answered to the digimon, who made no attempt to argue his point.
Instead, he turned his attention towards Sora. And she knew exactly what question was on her mind, "Why are you telling us all this?"
"Because we may be able to avoid that outcome if we can isolate the source of infection and destroy it," Hackmon explained. "If we can't, then Homeostasis will have to proceed with the Reboot to protect the Digital World."
"Okay, and what is the source of the infection?" Sora asked seriously.
Hackmon frowned and hung his head quietly, "I wish I could answer that question. The last time this infection appeared, the only option available was to contain the affected digimon in the space between worlds outside reality. That was when the Ancients were still around. Perhaps one of those digimon found their way back to the Digital World? Perhaps it was unleashed by someone? Or perhaps it appears as a part of the natural progression of all Digital Life. Whatever the case, it is here and it will destroy all digital life if it is not stopped."
Sora and Matt looked at each other, then back to Hackmon. The entire Digital World was at stake again. Par for the course with being a digidestined, but this felt different. Sora looked towards Matt and whispered, "What do you think?"
"I don't know what to think. This is an awful lot happening at once. We've gotta tell the others," Matt whispered back.
"Should we tell him about Tamer and Agumon?" Sora asked. "They don't really have the best history with Tamer."
"Who cares what Tamer thinks? This Homeostasis thing has always been open and helpful to us before. But Tamer hasn't. I say we tell him what we know," Matt whispered back. Sora was uncertain of this, unsure if this Hackmon actually was who he said he was. Still, Matt was right. Tamer had withheld things before and if this was a situation where the Digital World was at stake, then it was better to be open and honest with each other.
"Okay, we'll help find the source of this infection, but we think it's best if everything is open and honest between all of us," Sora began. Hackmon bowed his head in agreement.
"So we think we should tell you what we know about Tamer," Sora continued. "He's infected. And so is Agumon."
Hackmon's expression was unreadable, but he was silent for a moment. Hackmon closed his eyes and frowned, "Then things are more dire than we could have foreseen."
Author's Notes: A new danger has appeared in the Digital World, the Ternary Virus! But how could this virus have appeared in the world!? Who let Kuwagamon into the Human World? And just how is Meicoomon related to all of it? Find out all of this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer, due out in twelve weeks on Friday October 7th at 8 PM CDT! Let me know what you think in the reviews section! And don't forget to follow the story to keep up with all the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all for now, this is leonardo1123581321!