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 6 - The Lion King
Davis took Kari's hand and led her away from the chaos in the cafeteria. Davis was always incredibly athletic and could easily outrun every member of the digidestined. Even some of the digimon if he had the right motivation. Yet Kari had almost no difficulty keeping up with Davis - she couldn't tell if that was because he was deliberately running slower so she could keep up or if this was another thing wrong with the world that only she had noticed. That only she could notice. Well, her and Sora. But she looked over her shoulder and saw no sign of Sora or the others behind her.
"Davis! Where are we going?" Kari asked, trying to get him to stop. "We left the others behind!"
"Forget them! I'm worried about you!" Davis said, stopping Kari dead in her tracks.
That was nothing like Davis. He would never say he didn't care about the others. Yes, Davis had always been singularly focused on winning her heart but he wouldn't be so heartless to abandon the their friends. And she felt disgusted just by having her hand in his like this. Kari stopped running, and her hand slipped out of Davis's grip as he continued without her. He slid to a stop after a few short steps and looked back in confusion. "Kari! What are you doing?"
He held his hand out towards her but Kari flinched and took a step backwards. She didn't know who this was but the Davis she knew wouldn't be this singularly focused on her. He looked liked Davis, he sounded like Davis, but this wasn't Davis. She swallowed a lump in her throat and opened her mouth to ask who this was. But she paused as she realized she couldn't ask that question aloud. If this…thing…had replaced Davis, could it also easily replace any of the others? Could she even trust that this was the real Davis in front of her.
No, those kinds of things only happened in horror movies. And yet, she'd seen enough in the past few days to know something was horribly wrong. Not just with the world but with reality. Thinking quickly, she said, "I'm not going to leave our friends, Davis! I'm going to get Gatomon!"
"No! You're going to get to safety!" Davis answered defensively. "I don't know what's going on with you but whatever it is has messed your head up! You're remembering things that didn't happen! And do you seriously want to put Gatomon in danger!? She'll get infected! You're acting crazy right now and I don't think you should be anywhere near this!"
Kari couldn't believe what she was hearing. This not-Davis was trying to convince her that she was the one acting crazy. No. She'd put up with enough of that. "It's not just me! Sora remembers things the same way I did! And I'm not going to leave her behind!"
"Kari! Please! Be reasonable!" Davis said to her, extending his hand out towards her again. "Let's get you to safety! Then I'll-"
"I'm going back!" Kari said. "I'm going to get Gatomon! And Veemon too since you don't seem to care about him!"
Davis didn't appear to react to her words and she didn't stick around long enough to find out if he actually had a reaction. Kari spun on her heels and hurried back towards the cafeteria - fighting her way through the fleeing employees trying to escape the danger. Yet she didn't see a single one of the digidestined - and Kari began to worry that they weren't here.
She reached the cafeteria just in time to see a Gazimon mindlessly scavenging the tables - licking up the food on half eaten plates and lapping up still full cups of assorted drinks. It stopped upon seeing a glass of water and used its claws to slice the table apart - smashing the glass and spilling water all over the floor.
Kari squeaked and sank to the floor, hoping that none of the digimon saw her. She looked across the legs of the tables for any sign of the digidestined, all while anxiously watching the legs of various digimon passing through the tables. However, she couldn't see any sign of the others. But it was also hard to focus on finding them when she could easily see Ogremon smashing his large bone club against the tables in a fit of madness. Was any part of him even aware of what he was doing? Or was Ogremon now completely at the mercy of the virus? In truth, it was very hard to say because she hadn't seen Ogremon in so long.
She crept along the floor, quickly making her way behind one of the serving counters. The smell of warm food under heat lamps made her hungry and she was tempted to grab something to snack on in the moment. Unfortunately, another Gazimon and a Betamon were busy chowing down on everything they could reach on the serving trays. They knocked over trays of food as they hungrily devoured what was in front of them, smacking their lips and licking their faces to clean off any mess. Kari always knew digimon to be ravenous, but the way these ate were so feral that Kari felt like she was looking at a completely different species.
A loud burp startled Kari and she had to cover her mouth to muffle the squeak as she continued along behind the counter, trying to get a better look in search of the others. But there was definitely nothing. Maybe they'd escaped? That was when she hear a beep from her D-Terminal which made a noise so loud, that the eating digimon stopped briefly to examine their surroundings. After a moment of silence and finding nothing out of the ordinary, they went back to eating the remaining food.
Kari cursed her own forgetfulness, quietly sliding the D-Terminal out of her pocket, setting the machine to silent before flipping it open to read the message. It was a message from Davis that read, "Where are you? We got separated and we can't find you!"
Kari carefully considered her answer. The message came from Davis, sure -but what if it was not-Davis messaging her? Or what if it really was Davis the whole time? The debate died in her mind the moment she heard the Betamon snarl - what was she thinking coming back here? She quietly typed her response and hoped none of the digimon would notice her.
"I'm in the cafeteria. Where are you?"
After a moment, Davis gave his reply.
"Getting our digimon! Don't worry! I'm coming to save you."
Kari didn't know what to think of that answer. Was Davis actually coming by himself? Or was it going to be not-Davis? Part of her was relieved to know she'd spotted the fake as soon as she recognized it, but then she was terrified by the very real concern that someone who wasn't Davis had grabbed her arm and almost led her to danger. But then another problem came to mind - they couldn't bring their digimon back! Not when they weren't sure who was or wasn't infected! If they fought against infected digimon, there was a very big chance that they would get infected themselves if they weren't already.
The only safe thing to do would be to send in Meicoomon but who knew if the little digimon could fight? And even if they could, would Meiko be alright with it? She'd only just gotten Meicoomon back after all, so there was no way she'd agree to Meicoomon going in by herself.
But what about the others? Would they even give her a choice? She could see the likes of Matt and Sora being mad about what their partners were going through.
All these thoughts ran through Kari's mind, stopped only when she heard a snarl coming from above her. She glanced upwards to see the feral Gazimon staring down at her. It growled at her, saliva drooling from its mouth as it snarled at her. Kari gasped, wanting to run away but too paralyzed by fear to do anything against the claws that were dangling over her. In one motion, the Gazimon could end her but it hadn't. It just stared at her like it was waiting for something and Kari couldn't quite figure out what that was. But she knew she didn't want to be here. She would've given anything for safety - for Tai to magically appear and be all better, for Angewomon to appear and blow the Gazimon away.
Anything.
She closed her eyes as she waited for the attack to happen but was alerted by a loud whistling. She opened her eyes to see a flash of light, and an orange blur leapt forward - followed by a loud crash and the sound of shattering plates.
"GEY AWAY FROM HER!"
Kari knew that voice and peered over the counter top to see Leomon staring down Betamon and Ogremon. The Gazimon who had been leering down at her from the countertop was now half buried in shards of broken plates and glass. Kari had never been more relieved to see a friendly digimon, but a question came to mind - why was Leomon here? As far as she knew, Leomon never reformatted after their battle with the Dark Masters. So what was he doing here? And if he was fine, why hadn't he appeared before now?
"Are you alright, Kari?" Leomon asked. She nodded sheepishly, still trying to puzzle out how Leomon arrived here at all. He wasn't a digidestined and he didn't have a digivice to open a gate between the Digital World and this one - had he come the same way the infected digimon had? And how could he feel so safe battling the infected digimon like this? Was he already infected or did he just not know?
"Where are the other digidestined?" Leomon asked.
"On their way," Kari answered, still staying behind the counter. Ogremon smashed his bone club on the ground and let out a powerful roar before he charged straight at them.
"Stay behind me!" Leomon instructed, drawing his sword and raced back towards Ogremon. The two traded blows, blocking and parrying each other's attacks as they tried to hurt each other. It wasn't long before Gazimon and Betamon rushed into the fight as well, and Leomon was forced to fight all three at once on his own. Thankfully, the infection made their movements sloppy and sluggish. It seemed none of the three were able to strike at Leomon at their full strength as the infection ravaged them.
More than once, one of the digimon snuck up behind Leomon and Kari gasped, "Look out!"
Thankfully, the skilled warrior digimon was able to swing his sword around and knock the flanking digimon away.
"Howling Blaster!"
A stream of blue fire shot out from the glass wall and hit Gazimon and Betamon from the side, destroying the two digimon as they burst into data. Both Ogremon and Leomon leapt away from each other as the stream of fire came their way. As the stream ended, Matt and Davis rushed in followed by Flamedramon.
"Kari!" Davis called upon seeing her. He rushed straight for her, stopping only when he realized Ogremon was there and that he'd brought his bone club straight down in front of him.
"Fire Rocket!" Flamedramon roared, throwing a ball of fire straight at Ogremon. Ogremon didn't even make an attempt to block the attack, instead barely acknowledging Flamedramon or Garurumon's presence as the attack hit him square in the chest. Ogremon did briefly massage where the attack hit, but then growled at Leomon as if it were his fault that the attack struck him. Then Ogremon charged again straight for Leomon.
As Leomon blocked the attack, he shouted, "Go to the others! Quickly!"
Kari didn't need telling twice and raced towards Davis. In that moment, she wasn't concerned whether or not this was the real Davis. She was just relieved to see some familiar faces coming to her aid. Davis threw his arms out wide to greet her, prepared to throw her into a great big hug. But just before he could, Gatomon leapt out from behind him and used his shoulders to leapt onto Kari's arms first. "KARI!"
"GATOMON!" Kari said with a sigh of relief, holding Gatomon in her arms.
"Really, Gatomon!?" Davis grumbled, massaging his shoulders quietly and grumbling about his moment being ruined. Gatomon answered by sticking her tongue out at him and nuzzling closer to Kari.
"I'm glad you're safe! The others said you ran off in another direction!" Gatomon said.
"Yeah! What was that about? You literally ran away from us as soon as the attack happened," Davis answered.
"I'll explain later," Kari said, rushing to join Davis and Matt. Flamedramon leapt in front of them in case Ogremon charged at them. Thankfully Ogremon's singular focus on Leomon meant he only ever attacked the lion. It seemed that even in the throes of a mind altering infection, Ogremon's rivalry with Leomon held enough sway over Ogremon. But then it occurred to Kari - if that was true for Ogremon, could the same be true for their own digimon? Would part of him still have enough recognition of their partners to attack?
"Ogremon! I know you're in there! Please stop this! I don't want to destroy you!" Leomon pleaded with the ogre, but it wasn't clear if Ogremon was actually listening to him. Ogremon just roared in answer and smashed his club down on Leomon again and again, as if swinging his club enough times would finally break Leomon's sword.
"What's Leomon doing here?" Matt asked.
"Who's Leomon?" Davis asked, watching the pair of Leomon and Ogremon trading blows with each other.
"We told you about him, remember?" Kari answered, but the blank look Davis gave her said that he either hadn't been paying attention when they told him or he'd completely forgotten. She couldn't hold it against him if it was the latter since it was a long time ago. But if it was the former, then she was going to have to tell him off about not listening later.
"But what is he doing here? He's dead! And how did he get to this world?" Garurumon asked.
"How did any of these digimon get here? It doesn't matter! Let's just get to safety before any of you guys get infected!" Matt said, climbing on to Garurumon's back. He held out his hand to help the others up onto Garurumon's back and they retreated away with Flamedramon running along side them.
"I'm glad you're safe, Kari. Seriously, why did you run off on your own like that?" Davis asked again. "That's the part that's still confusing."
"I don't really know how to explain it. You…well, someone who looked like you grabbed my hand and pulled me away, saying you had to get me out of danger," Kari answered him.
"What? Kari! You ran off in another direction without us," Davis replied nervously, giving her that worried look that she'd seen too many times. She wanted to believe that Davis wasn't trying to lie to her - but part of her wasn't sure if this was actually Davis, or the not-Davis who'd pulled her away. Or if both Davis's were the same person and he was just lying about what happened. Or if this was just…ugh, just thinking about all of this was making her head spin as she tried to make sense of it. She shook her head and massaged her forehead as Davis went on to add, "I tried to ran back to you but then one of those Gazimon started chasing us up the stairs."
"Yeah. It only stopped when Cody smacked it with the fire extinguisher. Still, we all thought it was weird that you ran off in another direction. Davis wouldn't shut up about you. He literally wouldn't stop freaking out," Matt added.
"Like you wouldn't be the same way with Sora," Davis fired back.
Kari couldn't help but smile - feeling just a little assured that she had the real Davis here with her - and tried to explain what happened from her perspective. "That's the thing. Whoever it was, they weren't you. They looked like you and sounded like you, but the moment they said to 'forget the others' was the moment I knew it wasn't you. No matter how much you worry about me, you'd never just abandon the rest of our friends."
"Of course I wouldn't. But I didn't see you running with anyone," Davis said.
"Me either. You literally just ran off away from us," Matt added in agreement.
Kari couldn't believe that it happened again. The way everything happened and the way the others remembered it didn't line up at all. And she seemed to be the crazy one for remembering things differently from how it happened. She wished she could think of way to explain what happened without sounding crazy but wasn't sure if they'd believe her or not. Then she remembered Sora - Sora remembered things differently as well. Perhaps she'd had her own different experience?
"Sora! Sora remembers things the way I do! Maybe she she remembers it this way too! Where is she?" Kari asked them quickly.
"She's with the others trying to keep all the digimon from getting out!" Matt said, just as Garurumon leapt through the hole that all the digimon used to rush into the cafeteria. They found themselves out on the street, their ears drowned in the sounds of screams and sirens as several other infected digimon rampaged around the city.
Over head, Kari could see Garudamon, Angemon, Stingmon and Aquilamon leading a swarm of Kuwagamon and Flymon through the air. Occasionally, one of the partner digimon would turn in the air to take a shot at their pursuers before continuing on. And it was working to some degree but their digimon were relentless in their pursuit.
"There's so many of them!" Kari gasped in surprise.
"Yeah! This is much worse than with the Kuwagamon earlier. That was just one. This is a whole army." Matt explained. "We came to get you first to make sure you were safe."
"Izzy's already working on figuring out where all the digimon came from. There must be a gate or something that's wide open somewhere," Davis added.
"We find the gate and we can close it," Flamedramon shouted. A snarl from ahead alerted them to the arrival of a Mammothmon that snarled at them angrily. Flamedramon rushed ahead of them and created balls of fire in his hands. "FIRE ROCKET!"
He threw the fireballs forward and struck the Mammothmon square in the eye on its helmet. The rabid digimon gave a loud wail before turning around and wandering down a side street away from them. At least this digimon had enough sense left in it to not want to pick a fight it couldn't win. It didn't get very far before it was hit by a spray of needles that struck it in the trunk. Mammothmon gave one final roar before slumping over onto a store and exploding into a cloud of data.
And down from that street came Mimi riding atop Togemon along side Cody atop Ankylomon. Mimi waved at them, "Kari! You're safe!"
"Yeah! We've got her! What's going on?" Matt asked her.
"We've managed to keep the digimon from getting past this block," Mimi explained with a cheer.
Cody added, "We've managed to keep the fighting isolated to this area but the infected digimon are popping up everywhere. It's been hard to fight them without getting too close. Joe and Ikakumon are on top of a nearby building blasting away at the streets to keep the digimon isolated to a few square blocks."
"Okay, then we better help keep the digimon from getting too far into the city," Flamedramon said. "Davis, I should digivolve to ExVeemon so that I can DNA Digivolve with Stingmon!"
"Got it!" Davis said, hopping off of Garurumon's back. He looked back towards Kari and frowned, "Promise me you won't wander off again, okay?"
"I won't," Kari said, offering a half smile although she could see the concern on Davis' face. But she wasn't sure she could keep that promise, especially since things regularly changed on her without any way for her to control it. And even if it did, what was to stop the others from remembering it differently from how it happened for her?
Davis must've sensed her hesitation because he looked to Gatomon, "Keep her safe."
"Don't worry. She won't get out of my sight again," Gatomon answered, clinging tightly to Kari's body. Davis nodded his understanding and hurried into Flamedramon's arms. Then with one leap, Flamedramon leapt high up onto a nearby roof and disappeared.
"Wouldn't it be faster for Flamedramon to become ExVeemon so he could fly?" Gatomon asked with a tilted head.
"That's Davis," Kari said with a half smile.
"Focus," Matt said, turning over his shoulder to look at Kari and Gatomon. "You two should go help the others clear out the swarm. That way, we can have more of us down here trying to keep the digimon from getting too far into the city."
"Got it!" Kari and Gatomon said in unison.
"RARGH!" They all looked up to see a large red Kuwagamon diving down towards them with its mouth wide open.
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
From behind them, a ball of fire in the shape of lion soared over head and struck the Kuwagamon in its open mouth. The digimon snarled angrily before crashing down onto the street, slamming into several street parked cars before stopping at a traffic light. From the building they'd just left, Leomon climbed out with a sullen look that disappeared as soon as he laid eyes on them.
"LEOMON!?" Mimi gasped in surprise.
"It's good to see you are safe," Leomon waved sheepishly. Mimi leapt for joy, hopping off of Togemon and rushing towards Leomon. "I can't believe it! You're here! And alive! But how?"
It was the question of the hour, but Leomon didn't appear willing to answer. "I'll tell you after all of this is over. We have a more pressing fight on our hands."
"Aren't you worried about getting infected?" Kari asked, wondering why the lion digimon didn't turn tail and run at the first sign of infection
Leomon smiled as he proudly beat his chest, "I'll die before I allow fear to rule me. I won't run when others are in danger. Now let's put this fight to an end."
"Okay! Follow us! We're gonna keep the digimon in this area so that they don't get loose on more of the city!" Mimi said excitedly, leading the way excitedly with Leomon in tow. Kari and Gatomon were about to head out as well when they received a beep on their D-Terminals. This time it was a message from Izzy.
"Isolated the source of the digimon. Mass of energy in a parking garage across from us. Can't isolate specific location."
After reading the message, Kari glanced towards the nearby parking garage and noticed several large holes on every level. At first glance, it seemed like they were just damaged by the many rampaging digimon. But on closer inspection, it was clear that all the rubble and debris was on the outside of the building - suggesting that the digimon charged out of the garage and not into it. And from inside, they could vaguely hear shouting and the sound of gunfire.
"That sounds like trouble," Matt said.
"It's also where Izzy said the gate is from. If we get there, we can stop all these infected digimon from pouring out," Gatomon pointed out.
"Let's just be careful. We don't know what we're going to find in there," Garurumon said. With that, Garurumon rushed towards the parking garage - entering on the ground level and making his way past many crushed cars and people hiding behind the cover of their vehicles. They headed up various levels, until they were one floor from the top.
At the far end of this level, they saw a bright white light swirling in a vortex - a gateway to the Digital World. Garurumon slid to a stop just at the top of the ramp and stared at two figures in front of the portal. One was unmistakably Agumon in his armor. And if that was Agumon, that meant the other was Tamer also in his armor. In his hand was a gun which he was using to shoot at every Digimon charging through the portal. Some digimon died instantly, others took a few more shots, but all of them turned to data and left a small cloud of data in their wake. Gatomon instinctively covered her nose while Garurumon was suddenly weary to proceed further.
"Is that…Tamer? Did Tamer cause this?" Gatomon asked.
Upon saying his name, they saw Tamer spin around in place and he trained his weapon at them. "Did you guys try to open a portal to the Digital World!?"
"Why would we open a portal to the Digital World?" Matt fired back angrily.
"I don't know! But who else could?" Tamer replied.
"You!" Matt answered with a pointed accusatory finger. If Tamer's helmet hadn't been on, Kari was sure they would've seen a flash of pure anger fly across his face.
"Don't you dare pin this on me!" Tamer said, adjusting his aim towards Matt.
"Tamer! Don't! He's still a digidestined!" Agumon said, as if Tamer needed to be reminded of a reason to not kill him.
"And he's been especially annoying lately," Tamer added, the gun in his hands humming to life as he seemingly prepared to shoot Matt in the face. Tamer appeared almost menacing and the fact that Matt wasn't backing down meant this was only a recipe for disaster.
"Stop fighting!" Kari shouted at them, finally making Tamer lower his weapon. Suddenly another Triceramon charged through the portal and Tamer spun on his heel to shoot it twice between the eyes. The Triceramon fell to the ground, sliding to a stop in front of Tamer who fired one more shot at its head. The Triceramon gave an unceremonious grunt before it turned to data.
"We need to close this gate now before more infected digimon pour through," Tamer said, raising his weapon again.
"So close it already!" Matt shouted.
"Can I finish?" Tamer asked, as two more infected Vilemon rushed through the portal ready to attack. Before either digimon could fall upon them, Agumon and Garurumon blew them away with blasts of fire - turning the assailants to data. Tamer aimed his gun back towards the portal and continued. "I've tried closing the portal! Several times! It's like something is keeping it open! But it might just need more of us to force it closed. If all three of us at once point our digivices at the gate, that might be enough to finally stop these digimon from pouring through."
"That doesn't even begin to make sense!" Gatomon said. "Why would more digivices work if one wouldn't?"
"It doesn't, but when has anything around me ever made sense? Now are you willing to try it or not?" Tamer asked with a shrug.
Gatomon looked up at Kari expectantly, as if she was waiting for her approval to actually do anything. Kari wanted to trust Tamer, but memories of Tamer keeping the gun pressed to her head were still fresh in her memory. Was he even still himself? He seemed to be, but he was also ready to shoot Matt a moment ago. Kari hated the uncertainty but didn't have time to think it over. Not with more infected digimon pouring out of the portal to attack them.
"We're right behind you, Tamer," Kari answered, ignoring the sigh she heard from Gatomon and Matt's unmistakable grumble.
"Okay," Tamer replied, firing at two more infected digimon that came through the gate - an infected Gabumon and Gatomon. It felt surreal for Kari, seeing the two infected digimon come charging out of the gate only to be deleted with a few shots. Was that what awaited their partners? Mindless drive to attack everything they saw only to be cut down - either by Tamer or another digimon. Just thinking about it gave Kari chills.
She didn't want to see that fate ever befall any of their partners. She and Matt climbed off Garurumon's back and they rushed forward to Tamer's side, all three of them facing the glowing bright portal in front of them. All three raised their digivices and shouted, "Digiport Close!"
The gate boomed like thunder and began to shrink, closing like two eyelids coming to meet each other. It was nearly closed when a large mechanical claw came through and started prying the portal back open.
"Oh come on!" Tamer said, firing his weapon at the claw to no effect. He kept shooting at it, joined by Garurumon and Agumon who breathed fire on the mechanical claw but that only managed to anger whoever was prying the gate open.
Kari lifted up her digivice as Gatomon leapt out of her arms. Her digivice whistled to life and light sprang forth, "Gatomon! Digivolve to! Angewomon!"
Angewomon was almost too big to fit inside the parking garage and had to awkwardly hunch over to kept from hanging her head against the ceiling. Still, she at least had enough clearance to knock an arrow into her bow and aim, "CELESTIAL ARROW!"
The arrow shot out of the bow and struck the metallic claw between two of the blades. They could hear the digimon on the other side roar in pain, the claw partially retreating through the yawning portal. But that didn't stop it's other claw from coming through - this one made of flesh and colored blue. And there was something oddly familiar about the shape - although Kari couldn't quite place why that was.
"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
A lion shaped fire ball soared past them and struck the others claw, snapping them out of their stupor as they attacked again.
"PEPPER BREATH!"
"HOWLING BLASTER!"
"CELESTIAL ARROW!"
All three attacks struck the blue claw, and the digimon roared again. The blue claw retreated back through the portal and the gate was finally free to close. Just behind it, they could see the smoking remains of a utility van surrounded by a final layer of ash all around it. Tamer holstered his gun and proceeded towards the burnt out van, examining it carefully.
"What's got your attention Tamer?" Agumon asked.
"I don't know…but looking at this wreck is giving me a headache for some reason," Tamer answered quietly. After a moment, he stood up and turned around. "Thanks for your help Leomon."
"Do…do I know you?" Leomon asked with a tilted head.
"It's Tamer and Agumon. They're infected so they put themselves in those suits to protect our digimon from getting infected," Matt explained quietly, his tone just barely giving away how annoyed he was.
Leomon nodded his understanding and put a hand to his chest, "It's good to see you again, Tamer."
"So what's your deal? I thought you were dead," Tamer replied, folding his arms.
"I wish I could answer that question. I remember the battle against Puppetmon and MetalEtemon. I remember the hammer coming down on my head. Then I remember waking up in the Digital World as digimon were being ravaged by the virus," Leomon explained calmly. "I had to fight my way through all the digimon until I found that portal that led me here. I don't know how it led me here or why."
"I see, I see," Tamer said, before pulling his gun on Leomon.
"TAMER!" Matt snapped.
"What are you doing!?" Leomon gasped, drawing his sword from its sheathe and taking up a defensive posture.
"Trying to make sense of a world that is increasingly not making sense: first the virus, then portals opening on their own, and now you!" Tamer said keeping his weapon drawn.
"So you think I have a part in this madness?" Leomon asked.
"No. But I do think it's weird that you showed up!" Tamer answered.
"Says the guy who pulled a gun on Kari," Matt snarked. Tamer glanced at Matt ever so briefly before returning his attention to Leomon.
"I think we should go back to the Digital World to-" Tamer began only to suddenly yelp as Agumon sank his fangs into him. Tamer trained his gun on Agumon for a second before holstering it and kicking the orange dinosaur off. "Agumon! Stop it!"
Agumon tumbled backwards and bumped into a car, leaving a sizable dent when he crashed into it. The little digimon massaged his head and looked up at them in confusion. "Ow…my head. What happened? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"You don't…remember?" Kari asked quietly.
"I remember being very hungry," Agumon said, before his attention turned to Tamer's leg. "Was that me?"
"Yeah. It was," Tamer answered.
"Oh…" was all Agumon managed to say before he trailed off into silence, staring down at Tamer's leg without another word. Kari wanted to say something to break the silence but couldn't bring the words to escape her mouth. Instead, she stared defeatedly at Tamer as he moved beside his partner.
"The infection is getting worse. We need to get out of here," Tamer said, helping Agumon up to his feet and raising up his digivice. "Digiport Open!"
And like that, they were gone in a flash, leaving them all standing there in the ruins of the parking garage surrounded by the data of defeated digimon and smoke.
Author's Notes: The crisis is under control but now there are more questions than answers: Who pulled away Kari? How is Leomon alive? How many more things is Kari going to experience that the others don't? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer due out in six weeks on Friday May 5th at 8 PM CDT. Let me know what you guys 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 I've got for now! Until next time, this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!