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 3 - Alpha
"You make it sound like the world is going to end," Matt frowned at Hackmon's statement. The small white digimon bowed his head at that statement, deep in thought as if to consider what he should say next. That only irritated Matt more and he snapped, "Look, don't start keeping secrets on us now. If we're going to work together, you need to tell us everything. So whatever is going on, tell us."
Hackmon grunted his agreement, "You're right. Secrecy won't do anyone any good right now. The fact of the matter is that we had hoped to recruit The Digimon Tamer, to help find a cure. And if a cure isn't available, then to send the infected back into the space between worlds. But if he is infected as you say, he will undoubtedly be reluctant to do so."
"We should probably talk about this with the others," Sora pointed out, producing her D-Terminal to start messaging them. "We're on our way to join up with them if you want to come with us. The more of us there are to talk about this, the better."
Hackmon turned his head out the train window and his eyes narrowed. "That will have to wait. Alphamon is coming."
"Who?" Sora raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"The Enforcer of King Drasil's will," Hackmon said quietly. "We thought he would help us deal with the infection but it seems Drasil had other plans."
"You're saying a lot of things that mean absolutely nothing to us. Who is King Drasil? What is he planning?" Sora asked quickly. "And who is Alphamon?"
"I have to handle this first. I will tell you all later," Hackmon stated. Before either Sora or Matt could get him to answer, the lights of the train flickered as it entered a tunnel. During that split second of darkness, Hackmon vanished from in front of them - leaving them alone in the train.
"I hate it when these digimon do that. I swear, they build us up and act like we're the most important thing but they never tell us anything useful. What was the point of any of that?" Matt grumbled, furrowing his brow. Sora covered her mouth as she watched his face contort that way and he raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"
"You're just cute when you're annoyed," she remarked. Of course it was cute and she meant what she'd said. But she also knew that he'd get flustered by her remark and forget all about the fact that he was very annoyed.
Tamer and Agumon arrived at the Hollow Bastion, walking through its dark and empty halls as they made their way towards the armory. When they arrived, they equipped themselves with a set of old Ancient battle armor that neither had worn in a long time. A full black body suit that covered them from head to toe, underneath another layer of white armor meant to protect them. The only weak points in the armor's protection were the gaps in the joints that allowed movement. And even then, only pinpoint accuracy could hit those small gaps.
"Is this actually going to do anything? We're already infected," Agumon pointed out to his partner.
"It's not for us. It's for the others. That way we can go back to the Human World and not worry about getting any of the other digimon sick," Tamer stated quietly. "Besides, I doubt it would meet with us if we didn't have it."
"Ah! So it's for Homeostasis!" Agumon said with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, is that how you say it's name? I thought it was pain in my neck," Tamer grunted smartly. "Now then…let's go meet with my pain."
"How are we supposed to do that, anyway? It's not like Homeostasis will show up if you ask!" Agumon asked.
"Oh don't worry. I have a plan," Tamer said with what Agumon presumed was a smile underneath his helmet. "OI! PRICK! GET OUT HERE! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING!"
"Yes, because that's going to help," Agumon frowned, surprised at how phenomenally stupid his best friend was being in the moment. Then again, he was infected with a terminal disease so there was no doubt in Agumon's mind that Tamer was just reacting accordingly to his newly realized appreciation of life.
"Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. It only ever seems to want to talk through Kari, anyway," Tamer said, his tone suddenly sounding very serious. Then he did something Agumon thought he'd never see him do. He grabbed for one of the rifles off the weapon rack. He pushed a few buttons and it hummed to life with a bright red light.
"Uh…Tamer?" Agumon asked nervously.
"Let's go threaten a human," Tamer said, seemingly missing the irony of what he was saying. The Ternary Virus caused violent tendencies and while Tamer had a history for that, it was never unprovoked. In fact, Agumon knew him to use trickery and deception - not weapons and violence.
"Tamer, no!" Agumon snatched the weapon out of his hand. "We don't do that. I'd rather use my claws anyway."
Agumon blinked as he considered what he'd said. That wasn't like him either and Agumon was really alarmed by it. But that finally seemed to snap Tamer to his senses as he knocked the weapon out of Agumon's hands. "Damn, this virus is progressing faster than I would've thought."
"Do you still want to head back to the Human World?" Agumon asked
Tamer nodded quietly, "Yes. We have to. How else will we get in contact with Homeostasis?"
"Okay, now I know you're not yourself. You used its name," Agumon said teasingly but that did nothing to lighten Tamer's mood. Instead he just produced a digivice from his pocket and raised it up over his head.
"I'm just trying to keep myself focused. Let's head back. DIGIPORT OPEN!"
As the gate opened in front of them TK take them home, Agumon glanced back once at the weapon on the ground. He could still scarcely believe Tamer planned to use it. At least, until he noticed another weapon missing from its place on the rack. Worry filled Agumon as he feared Tamer may have snuck a weapon past him.
The street lights slowly came on as the sun began to set over the horizon, yet there was still no sign of Meicoomon anywhere despite their search. They'd probably combed several city blocks by that point and they were still no closer to finding the little digimon. Meiko hung her head in silent defeat after hours of searching, "Where could she be? I hope she's safe."
"I'm sure she is," Kari said, trying to comfort the girl despite her own uncertainties. As far as they knew, the digimon would've been nearby when Kuwagamon attacked the soccer field and if she was anywhere near the digimon, she probably contracted the virus. And if she did, it was only a matter of time until she either hurt someone or hurt by someone trying to protect themselves. And could they do that if they were the first ones to find her in that state?
Did it actually matter though? Mei hadn't been one of the kids affected by MaloMyotismon and Oikawa's plan. So they must've met each other sometime ago? But when? And how come they never knew about her?
"When did you first meet Meicoomon anyway?" Kari finally asked.
Meiko paused for a moment, pressing her fingers together nervously before answering, "It was a few years ago, around the time the Digital World appeared in the sky. After that whole thing, Meicoomon suddenly appeared in my room along with this digivice. I didn't know what to do with it and I've been keeping her secret ever since. Thankfully, my parents believe she's actually just a stray and were fine with us taking her in. But she's never been outside for too long and I don't want to think about what she's doing on her own."
"All this looking has me tired and hungry. We should go grab a bite to eat and then keep looking," Gatomon spoke up quietly. Kari hadn't given it much thought but she was hungry now that she thought about it and could really go for something.
"Oh, I know a ramen shop near here! We can go there and grab a bite to eat before we head out and start looking again!" Jun said excitedly.
The suggestion seemed to take Meiko's mind of their search and she nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I could eat something."
They hurried to the nearby restaurant and helped themselves to a quick bowl of ramen. Sneaking Gatomon in would've hard so once there was no way they'd let pets in so they got a separate bowl to go for her which she ate ravenously. Afterwards, they resumed their search for the missing digimon. As soon as they finished eating, Kari received a return message from Sora indicating that they'd gotten their digimon partners and were on their way to help look. It also mentioned something about another digimon they encountered named Hackmon and that they'd explain more when they met back up.
"Good news. It sounds like Sora and Matt are coming to help us look," Kari said happily to Meiko. Meiko didn't seem too happy about the news though.
"Are they nice?" Meiko asked sheepishly, suddenly pressing her fingers together nervously.
"Yeah! I think you'll like them!" Kari said excitedly although that didn't seem to convince the girl who remained silent.
And then…as if they'd tempted the universe, another bright flash of light appeared out on the street ahead of them. Kari gasped as the light grew in size and looked down at Gatomon in shock, "You don't think it's another rabid digimon is it?"
"What else could it be?" Gatomon frowned.
Kari hated that answer and wasn't sure they were ready to fight another infected digimon. And if it was infected and asymptomatic, how would they know? How would they know that it wasn't? The whole thing really was messy right now and it was going to get a lot messier.
A large hand clad in black armor reached out through the crack of light. It was followed by another hand. Then a foot stepped through, followed by the rest of the body as a large Digimon the size of a several story building finally stepped out. A large Digimon clad in black armor with gold trim, a long flowing blue cape, and wielding a large black pole-arm with golden blades.
It's appearance caused another panic as people began running away - either into the subway or into buildings to get off the street.
"Oh crap. We should run," Gatomon said quickly.
"I agree, that thing's massive!" Jun blurted out.
"It's not just massive! That is Alphamon! The Royal Knight of the Empty Seat! He's literally the strongest member of the Royal Knights!" Gatomon said, her voice becoming more panicked and shaken.
"Like Omegamon or Imperialdramon?" Kari asked, thinking back to the two fusion digimon. Those two were the strongest digimon they had - the ones that came out swinging when everyone else failed. And Alphamon was on their level. Now the question was whether or not the Royal Knight had become rabid like Kuwagamon or if still had his senses.
"Yeah, only stronger," Gatomon said dryly. "Why are we still standing here? We should be running!"
"R-right!" Kari said, finally finding the will to move her legs and flee away with Jun. They'd only gone a few feet before Kari noticed Meiko wasn't with them. She looked back to see Meiko frozen in place. "Meiko!"
The girl didn't respond, staring up in awe while every one around her ran away from the sight of the digimon before her. Realizing that Meiko was never going to run of her own volition, Kari raced back towards the older girl and grabbed a hold of her hand. "Meiko! We need to go!"
The girl didn't respond to her, silently staring up at the giant digimon before her. Kari pulled on her hands, and that seemed to finally snap her out of her stupor - finally moving with Meiko away from Alphamon. But just as she finally started moving, Alphamon's attention turned towards them and he started walking towards them.
"He's chasing after us!" Meiko gasped, finally finding her voice.
"We don't know that for sure!" Kari said, catching up to Jun and motioning to the girl to turn down a street. If Alphamon really was chasing after them, then he'd pursue them. If he wasn't, he'd keep walking down the street. And if he was after them…well, Kari preferred not to think about it as they continued running down the street away from the digimon.
They hurried down the street, following the crowd to get as much distance away from Alphamon as they could. Because if they ended up having to fight, they would need to do it from a distance. At least until they were sure the digimon hadn't gone rampant like so many others before it. The street crashed from behind them and Kari looked back to see that Alphamon had turned to follow them, kneeling down with his arm outstretched to reach for them.
"He's definitely following us!" Jun gasped. Kari cursed as Alphamon just feet away, nearly able to grab when there was another bright flash of light and an equally large digimon in white armor with golden spikes and a red cape appeared. That digimon tackled the first one, and pushed him backwards into a building. The resulting crash sent debris and rubble flying. Screams echoed from the street and sparks flew as electrical lines were knocked down.
"Another one?" Meiko gasped.
"That's Jesmon. Another Royal Knight but he's nowhere near on Alphamon's level," Gatomon explained. As she did, Jesmon took a running start and leapt into the air to knee Alphamon in the face. Alphamon took the hit and his armor splintered from the hit. However, it seemed that was what Alphamon wanted as he grabbed a hold of Jesmon's leg and swung him onto the street, then over his head into an upper layer of the building.
Jesmon fell, catching himself before he hit the ground and reading two swords he had mounted on his wrists. He swung both at Alphamon but missed. He tried again, furiously trying to stab the digimon only for every attack be parried or dodged. And with every attack, more debris went flying as the two digimon showed no regard for the many innocent lives all around them.
"I can't stand doing nothing like this! I'm going in to fight!" Gatomon cursed angrily.
"But what we don't know if any of them are infected!" Kari pointed out. "What if you get sick?"
"I won't. I'll just have to fight him from a distance. I'm going to digivolve to Angewomon and fight them from up high. Let's see either of them try to get me while I'm up in the air!" Gatomon said confidently. Before Kari could even try to protest, Gatomon leapt off her shoulder and rushed off in the opposite direction of the fight. It seemed she really was intent on keeping her distance.
"Did Gatomon just ditch us!?" Jun gasped in surprise.
"No, now let's get off the street. This is going to get bad," Kari said, leading the way into an alley so that they were out of sight. Once they were clear, she raised up her digivice - hoping that Gatomon would be safe no matter what happened. A bright light wrapped around Gatomon as she digivolved to Angewomon and soared into the air. Despite her digivolution, neither Alphamon nor Jesmon paid her any attention. In fact, they didn't even seem to notice she was there. That was perfect for her because that meant she could get the drop on them. From up in the air, Angewomon nocked a glowing arrow in her bow. While she took her aim, Kari reached for her D-Terminal and started messaging the others, hoping they were already on their way anyway but she doubted they were even aware since none of them were even here yet. At the very least, they should know that they needed to fight at a distance in case either digimon was infected.
"CELESTIAL ARROW!"
She fired her shot, striking Alphamon's armor and piercing deep into his armor underneath. That finally pulled Alphamon's attention up towards the angel digimon and he narrowed his eyes on her. "Stay out of my way. This doesn't concern you."
"Oh, so you can talk," Angewomon said to the black knight.
"This concerns all of us Alphamon. All digimon, not just the Royal Knights. We need to be united in our efforts," Jesmon said matter of factly. That confirmed it, neither digimon was infected with the Ternary Virus which meant neither digimon was a threat to the world around them. Kari breathed a small sigh of relief, knowing that Gatomon was no longer at risk.
"You're the one who chose to betray us," Alphamon answered with a growl. "Now stand down."
"I don't care what's going on! Both of you stop this fight right now!" Angewomon shouted at the two digimon. "Go back to where you came from and sort out this mess back there! You're putting innocent lives at risk."
"Innocent? Were the humans innocent when they ravaged the Digital World to resurrect Myotismon? Were the humans innocent when they began torturing and experimenting upon our fellow digimon?" Alphamon continued to growl angrily, making his way towards Jesmon so that he was looking the other royal knight in the eye. Now that they were closer together, it was obvious that Alphamon was a full head taller than Jesmon but that did nothing to intimidate the smaller one. In fact, it appeared to embolden him against his superior.
"So you wish to punish the many for the mistakes of a few?" Jesmon asked. "Should all digimon be held responsible because of the actions of the Dark Masters? Should we be held accountable for the genocide of the Ancients?"
"We both know only one was responsible for their disappearance," Alphamon stated. Angewomon was getting annoyed at being left out and nocked another arrow in her bow. She let out a whistle before firing an arrow into the ground between the two digimon.
"Hey! Take this fight somewhere else! I don't care where! Next one goes right between your eyes!" Angewomon warned the two Royal Knights. Alphamon's eyes narrowed on her one more time. Then he adjusted his weapon in his hands and raised it over his head, throwing it like a javelin towards the angel. It came so fast and so hard that Angewomon barely had time to get out of its way, missing it by a hair's breadth. But it was still thrown hard enough that the force of it knocked Angewomon off balance and she struggled to stay in the air against the wind current it created.
"Okay, I see you want to fight," Angewomon finally said once she recovered herself enough to aim her bow again. "It may just be me but I'll still fight you both off if I have to!"
"Then you will die," Alphamon said, raising out his hand towards her. Angewomon had no idea what he was doing and readied another shot just in case.
"LOOK OUT!"
Before Angewomon could fire her arrow, Angemon appeared from beside her and tackled her out of the way of Alphamon's weapon. With his outstretched hand, Alphamon called his weapon back towards him and it answered immediately - returning to his grip. At that moment, Jesmon came at Alphamon again, swinging his blades to stab the digimon from the back. But Alphamon was too fast and blocked the attack with his pole-arm, turning with his hand out stretched to back hand his fellow Royal Knight.
"Thank you, Angemon," Angewomon said.
"Any time," he answered.
The fact that Angemon had arrived meant that Takeru was here, and Kari scanned the nearly empty streets for him. And she did see him, crouching behind a nearby car while messaging on his D-3.
"Wait here! I'll get TK," Kari said, motioning to Jun and Meiko to stay put while she dashed towards TK. She raised her arms up over her head to protect herself and slid to a stop beside him. "TK! We're over there! Get off the street! It's not safe."
"Kari! I'm glad you're safe. Where's Davis and the others?" TK asked.
"On their way!" Kari said, suddenly realizing that Davis had just not followed her home for any specific reason. In fact, he basically stayed behind to message the others. But why? Why hadn't he come with? The harder she thought about it, the more she couldn't think of a reason why he didn't come with. It was another in a long list of things that just didn't make sense to her since Tai first woke her up a few weeks ago. "Never mind that, we need to get off the street before we get caught in the rubble!"
"Right! Where are the others?" TK asked.
Kari pointed to where Jun and Meiko were hiding, "That way."
"Then let's go!" he said, grabbing her hand and dashing back towards the alley. If only Davis could see this. He'd definitely sock TK and tell him to back off his girl. Which brought the question back to her mind. Where was he?
"VeeLaser!"
"Flower Cannon!"
"ElectroShocker!"
"Blast Rings!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
A barrage of attacks made of lightning and energy soared through the air, striking either Alphamon and Jesmon just as the two locked weapons. The two Royal Knights were barely affected by the attack though, shrugging them off as they continued to combat each other. Despite that, Kari was relieved to see more of the others coming to their aid. ExVeemon, Lillymon, MegaKabuterimon, Aquilamon, and Zudomon charged in from another direction to hit at the two warring digimon. And as they attacked, Ankylomon, Stingmon, Garudamon, and WereGarurumon all arrived.
Just further down the street, Kari could see the other digidestined arriving on the scene. She felt a sense of relief finally seeing them.
"Guys! You finally made it!" Kari said happily.
"How could we not? It's hard to miss the rampaging digimon blowing up downtown!" Joe remarked.
"We were already on our way after we got Davis's message anyway," Matt added.
"Don't get too close to either of those digimon! Either one of them could be infected!" Davis shouted out to the others.
"They're not! At least, I don't think they are," Kari said. "They're talking and coherent!"
"All that means is they're not showing symptoms yet!" Joe countered quickly. "Diseases, especially progressive ones, don't show symptoms right away. For all we know, they're still contagious!"
"Right! So keep hitting them from a distance! Got it!" WereGarurumon nodded. "Guess I'm sitting this one out."
"Hmph, more nuisances," Alphamon grumbled. "Hear me, digidestined! Stand down, now. I'm here for one reason and one reason only. The source. Stay out of my way and I won't have to cut any of you down."
"You won't be getting anything here," Jesmon interrupted. "Not while I'm here to stop you. Go back to King Drasil and leave this world alone. The authority of the Royal Knights doesn't extend here."
"Then why don't you leave if you're so compelled to be the rule follower," Alphamon growled back.
"Why don't you both go back where you came from!?" Angemon declared. He pulled his hand back and curled it into a fist, glowing with a brilliant gold flame. Then he punched it straight at Alphamon, shooting the golden light in a beam of pure destructive energy. "HAND OF FATE!"
Alphamon deflected the beam with his weapon directly at Jesmon, who took the hit square in the chest and slid backwards into a shopping complex. He crashed downward into it, revealing the interior of the building. People began fleeing out the doors to escape the rubble while others called out from within for help. Amidst the panicked crowd was a brown cat with bright green eyes fleeing out the open hole in the wall on two legs.
"Mei!" Meiko shouted out to the cat.
"Mei?" the cat digimon blurted out in surprise at the sound of its name. That must've been the elusive Meicoomon, the digimon that Meiko had spent so much time after.
"Another digimon coming to interfere. I'm tired of this. If you won't stand down then I'll kill you all!" Alphamon roared. He adjusted his weapon in his hand, raising it over his head like a javelin again and throwing it directly at the brown cat. She barely had enough to gasp as the weapon came flying straight at her and Meiko shrieked in horror. Thankfully, Angemon swooped down to scoop up the little cat just before the weapon smashed her against the cold hard pavement.
"Don't worry, I got you," Angemon said, cradling the small brown cat in his arms as he ascended higher into the sky.
With Alphamon exposed, the others laid into the Royal Knight with all of their ranged attacks.
"Wing Blade!"
"Blast Rings!"
"Flower Cannon!"
"VeeLaser!"
"Electro Shocker!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
"Celestial Arrow!"
The attacks rained down on Alphamon, who barely flinched at the onslaught. But it was obvious they were having their affect because he was now examining his various attackers, although if it was amusement or concern that drove him was another matter. Eventually, his eyes gaze settled on ExVeemon. "You're one who can become Imperialdramon. Which means you die first."
"Um, what?" ExVeemon asked, stunned as Alphamon held out his hand again and summoned the weapon back into his hand. With the weapon now firmly in his grasp, he raised it up again and took aim directly at ExVeemon. "Oh crap!"
"No!" Jesmon stood up out of his stupor and charged the black knight. He knocked Alphamon over before he could throw the weapon. And as the two fell towards the pavement, another portal of white light appeared beneath them and the two fell through it. Once they were both through, the portal slammed shut and they disappeared.
"Uh? Did we just win?" Davis asked, scratching his head.
"They ran away. That counts as a win to me," ExVeemon said from up in the air.
"I don't know. It doesn't seem like either one of them opened that gate," Ken reasoned, putting a hand to his chin. "If anything, it looks like they were kicked out."
"I agree, that's how it looks. But by who? And why?" Izzy said, scratching his head.
"You mean you didn't do that?" Mimi asked him.
"Well you two geniuses can go work it out once we get out of here," Yolei said, pulling at the two boys' ears.
"Hey! Hands off!" Mimi pulled Izzy out of Yolei's grip. As Kari watched the scene before her unfold, she couldn't help but feel like something about this was off. She tried to place it but couldn't quite make sense of it. It seemed so obvious too. Like it was on the tip of her tongue…but what was it? Before she could work it out, she was pulled from her thoughts by-
"Mei!" Meiko called out ecstatically, as Angemon glided towards her and handed the brown cat to her. "Don't run away like that ever again."
"I'm sorry Mei!" the cat apologized as she buried her little brown head into the girl's chest. "I got scared and ran. And I left you! I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me."
"No, I should apologize. I should've kept a better eye on you," Meiko apologized to the cat, stroking her fur.
"Wait, you're the Meiko that Kari was talking about?" Sora said with a pointed finger, mouth hanging open in surprise. Meiko finally looked up from her partner and took notice of Sora and Matt.
Then it was Meiko's turn to stare back with a pointed finger and a mouth hanging open, "You two are the ones Kari was talking about?"
"You two know each other?" Kari asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah! We're in a class together," Matt explained to her, raising an eyebrow at the coincidence before them.
"Talk about a small world," Angewomon said. Kari wasn't sure how much of that she could accept. Was it a small world? A coincidence? Or was this destiny? Were they supposed to meet each other?
"This is fine and all but we need to get out of here right now," Yolei said again, just as the sound of sirens became impossible to ignore. She was right. They were in the middle of ground zero of a massive battle that happened in Tokyo. This was going to go down as another digimon incident and Kari could only imagine what the headlines were going to look like tomorrow. They all turned and prepared to leave but stopped when they saw the last thing any of them expected to see in that moment.
It was a sight that would've been familiar only to the older digidestined, the ones who were there when Diaboromon rampaged across the internet all those years ago. It was an Ancient wearing full battle armor like the other Ancients had during that time. But this one was accompanied by another - a smaller one that looked like a digimon wearing said armor. A digimon vaguely in the shape of Agumon. Kari blinked as she looked at the pair of them before taking a step back. It was Tamer and Agumon. It had to be. But why were they here and why were they dressed like that?
"It's okay, it's just us. We're in these suits for your protection. As long as we're in them, we can't transfer the virus to any of the digimon," Tamer said through the a microphone on his helmet that added a mechanical drone to his voice. As he stepped towards them, police cars and other emergency service vehicles rounded the streets towards them.
"Before anything else happens, I just want to go on record that none of this was my idea," Agumon said with a raised hand.
Kari breathed a sigh of relief knowing they were alright and she could see Jun hesitating to run up to Tamer and throw her arms around him in a hug. Kari was the only one who stepped towards them, "I'm glad to see you two are alright. What did you find out in the Digital World?"
"The situation is worse than I imagined. I don't think we ended up anywhere in the Digital World that wasn't rampant with infection. Which means we need to talk to the Ethereal - Homeostasis," Tamer replied. "It'll be the only one who knows what's going on. And I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do. But it's the only way I know to call the pain in my neck out."
"What are you talking about? What are you about to do?" Davis asked.
"This," was all Tamer answered. In a single swift motion, he grabbed a hold of Kari and held a gun to her head, spinning her around and holding her with an arm around her neck. It was a pistol Kari had never seen before - glowing red and humming as he pressed it against her head. Kari felt chills running down her spine as she felt the cold steel of the weapon on her temple. "Come on out, Homeostasis. I know you're there."
"Tamer! What are you doing?" Kari gasped, as the others started calling on Tamer to stop what he was doing. At that exact moment, she could hear the police from behind her shouting commands at Tamer.
"Freeze! Release the hostage!" the police shouted.
But Tamer ignored them, keeping his attention squarely on Kari as he said. "I see, so you don't want to come out. Fine, then let's raise the stakes, Homeostasis!"
He wheeled around so that Kari could look straight into the eyes of the many police officers there with their weapons trained on them. Kari was at a loss now. Why was he doing this? Was it the virus? Had Tamer finally succumbed to its madness? Or did he just snap under the strain of having a terminal illness. She didn't know what to think of it. From behind her, she could hear the other digidestined and their partners calling on Tamer to stop. But Tamer shouted back, "Back off! All of you! Step back or Agumon takes off his helmet! Then you all get sick!"
"Tamer! Stop it!"
"Not until Homeostasis comes out!" he barked.
Author's Notes: Has the Digimon Tamer finally snapped? Will Kari come out of this alright? Will Homeostasis make their appearance? And why is Kari struggling with all the inconsistencies around her? Find out all of this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer, due out in nine weeks on Friday December 8th at 8 PM CST! 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!