Ch3
Everyone is aware that the current situation could be worse, yet they're already on the edge. This is not the first time a Digimon is let loose without tamers having their Digimon to fight back, and there seems to be nothing 'that' serious right now. Even after Hypnos lost contact with one of their teams, nothing else happened. If it's a big Digimon, there should be at the very least some commotion, whether it's from a firefighter or police that someone called. Still, they get even more concerned when there seems to be nothing wrong. Because Digimon that don't rely on pure strength might be trickier to deal with.
Inside the meeting room, the tamers could only watch from the same screen that Hypnos has.
"What do you think that was?" Asked Kenta. "I don't see anything coming to the camera, c-could it be an invisible attack?"
"Was it even invisible, or that was just a very fast attack?" Add Takato.
Still in the same room, Yamaki coordinating the team with Reika while listening to the kids. He takes their theory very seriously because these are the ones who stood on the frontlines before. There is something that bogs him, they could detect the Digimon but couldn't identify it. He asked Jian who stand beside him. "What do you think?"
Jian shakes his head. There is a red dot as a pin point location for that Digimon yet it's staying still on the same spot. He asked Yamaki to check if it's broken or not showing the newest position, but Hypnos stuff is working normally. The two keep their eyes on the screen, all while listening to them. All while the second ground team almost arrived at the scene.
When the older tamers fall silent and racked their brains, Mako voiced his own theory. "Maybe.. that Digimon is hiding because it's shy?" He said it plainly, which made Ai pinch his cheek. "And how you know it's shy? We need to ask them first!" the boy pouts. "Hmph! That's why he's not coming back, you don't even care about him."
"What!?" They start to get heated into a little quarrel, and Juri tries her best to calm them down.
Takato and Ruki look at each other, then at Jian. "Can you detect that Digimon height?" she asked Yamaki.
"No. Are you suggesting that this Digimon hiding on the roof or somewhere?" he asked her back.
Ruki nodded, glancing at Ai and Mako. "Their partner is 'shy', or you could say he likes to give park goers some gifts in the night then run away." It makes Takato chuckle a bit. He recalls that Guilmon told him that Impmon dragged him along for that.
"Okay, I'll warn them in advance for that" said Yamaki. "Hiding in trees or high place... we might be dealing with small Digimon then."
Not long after that, a team consisting of five people arrived. These agents dress more like soldiers, wearing armor and helmets rather than Hypnos usual black suits. It's a response after the first team 'wiped' instantly. They also carry a strange device that caught the tamers's attention. It looks like a rifle that has a tube connected into some sort of box that those agents carried in their backs.
"Our team developed a portable gun that shot EMP." Yamaki explained it to them before they even asked. "We never test them, let's just hope that those things work for now."
"Are you trying to revive your old plan?" Asked Ruki, her tone is clearly showing some anger.
Yamaki shakes his head. "I can't just sit around hoping all of you could handle this alone. I can't please everyone, especially those higher ups." He explained further. "I want you to trust me, at least for the things here."
Their chat interrupted by a notice from the ground team, every movement could be seen from a little camera on their helmet. "Approaching location, downed agents in sight." There is an overlay showing their code name, this team codename is 'Echo' and the codename for that voice before is their squad leader, Echo-1. One of the personnel carefully approaches the body of downed Hypnos agent while others are trying to find the Digimon.
"Echo-2, report status" said Yamaki. He switched the shown video to put Echo-2's camera on full display. The moment it's showing more clearly, everyone gasps.
"W-What is that..?" Kazu starts to sweat even inside the cold room. The man in the video breathing erratically and asking for something, his face is very pale and clearly delirious.
Echo-2 trying to shake him, hoping that the agent could give some responses. "He's barely holding on sir his, his..." Echo-2's voice stopped, he checks the man once again. "His blood drained..? There is some kind of dart near-arrgh!"
The sudden scream from Echo-2 shocks everyone, they didn't see anything coming to get him. All they could see was agent Echo-2 fall to the ground as the camera vision was blocked. Yamaki quickly switches the camera to Echo-1 again, then cycles through the rest of the team. Panic sets in as one by one they get taken out, with only one person left, the leader.
No one dares to interrupt them, as it just causes more noise and disturbs their communication. Reika finally asked him when it seemed safe. "What happened? Can you see anything?"
"Something hits them from the dark, right on their face." The agent replied, still panting after running away. He resting behind a tree.
"Yamaki." Jian shows a Digimon card, a small blue rookie level Digimon. "It's possibly DemiDevimon, the dart. Small flying rookie, like a bat."
Yamaki relays the info, ordering the man to not engage as another team almost arrived. When the agent tries to peek, a dart flies towards his face, almost grazing his cheek. "RUN!" yells Yamaki through the mic.
"Tell him to run into another team." Said Ruki.
"What? It's hiding when there is a crowd, are you suggesting that an trap will work?"
"It's a rookie level Digimon, judging by its looks, it's just going to chase after the 'helpless' guy."
"Ambush then."
The agent put his trust in them, running as fast as he could. Just like Ruki predicted, DemiDevimon keeps chasing him while shooting its dart. Clank! One of them hits the battery to power up the rifle, but he's fine. "Keep it up, twenty meters!" Multiple men are ready for ambush, but he needs to keep running. If those men show up, then DemiDevimon might flee from them. "Ten meters! Almost there!" Clank! The dart hits his helmet this time, he's still fine. Only then, he slip and fall to the ground. He's trying to get up, but that's exposing some parts of his face.
Whoosh! Another dart coming in fast. Clank! Fortunately, he's fast enough to block it with his rifle. Watching his prey not able to run away, DemiDevimon flies above him with a smirk on his face. Ready to shoot another dart.
"Now!" The second team comes out of hiding, and all of them aim at the Digimon who's surprised by their presence. Multiple electromagnetic waves hit DemiDevimon, causing some disturbances to his data. DemiDevimon passes out and falls near agent Echo-1. "Ghost, come in."
Yamaki checks the second team's camera. One of them looking at the unconscious Digimon. "Ghost-1 in, target incapacitated, ready for extraction sir." The agent helps his colleagues and breathes sighs of relief, same goes for everyone in the office. "Medical teams arrived sir."
"Good work. Secure the Digimon and head back to HQ, Delta and Charlie will secure the perimeter."
"Yes sir."
This is just a small crisis yet they can't help but feel a bit helpless without their Digimons. Their help is just as big as the threat from their power, no matter what level or size they have. Right now, this is all they have to fight a Digimon without causing too much damage, and that is still hard to do even with a small and low level enemy. Or maybe it was the small size itself that gave them this much trouble.
Takato keeps staring at those rifles, he's still concerned about DemiDevimon but the Digimon seems to have only fainted. "Is that the strongest thing you have?" he asks Yamaki.
The man nodded. "Strongest one that's not hurting them too much." He said it while looking at the tamers. "Let's just hope the next one to shows up is one of your partners, or that little guy."
"Thank you for that." Said Takato.
Yamaki nods to him, then goes back to check on his subordinate. He wants to complain sometimes, he never thought being in the middle of this is hard. As Hypnos leader he needs to ensure human safety, but he also understands why these kids don't want to see those Digimons get hurt. Watching them worry about their partner reminds him of someone, white and small. What's that little guy doing these days?
In one of many places in the Digital World, a place is decimated by the constant battle of many Digimons. Like any other day, there is always a Digimon who steps on this place for the first time and ends up getting deleted. Not many know about this location, it's a lower level of Digital World that's barely habitable. The place itself resembles the ruins of a city with torn buildings all over the place, and the weather in this part of Digital World is harsh, snowy and often times blizzards occur. At first, only a small number of Digimons chose to live there, then they grew in numbers.
In one of those buildings, a yellow bipedal fox runs through multiple buildings. Jumping from one roof to another, trying to shake off her pursuer. Her body still in good condition after some fights with the same level Digimons, but she wise enough to retreat rather than fight them all. She moves down to the fifth floor, thinking that they have lost sight of her.
"That's enough. This gets old very quickly, don't you think so?" A voice echoes from quite a distance. "Allow me to test you myself, Renamon."
Renamon stands with windows on her back, scanning the whole empty floor since her enemy is about to face her. Suddenly, she heard something falling behind her. One Digimon fell from the roof, a Commandramon. They hit the ground before their data dissolved, but how? She's not fighting any of those Cammandramon for an hour or so. That's when she felt something coming and turned her head from the window.
A knife almost grazed her face, she barely leans to the right before distancing herself from her assailant. That was too close, she wasn't even aware of this Digimon presence a moment ago. "Not bad." The assailant is a bipedal lizard-like cyborg Digimon. His body is protected by armor, and that goggle-like thing that covers his eyes makes her more cautious.
Despite his opponent's relaxed state, Renamon not charge in right away. They both have the same main weapon, speed. But Sealsdramon is a higher level Digimon, she's not comparing Digimons solely with that, but level still means something. "Killing your own friend, Sealsdramon?" She calmly asked him.
"That was an okay distraction, I still appreciate the praise from a hero though." He played with his knife a bit, not attacking immediately as well. "It seems that my lord was kind enough to send me to you, I don't see any good targets among those acquaintances of yours."
Blam! A fast blow comes from his front, Sealsdramon able to block it with his right claw. He glances at his claw, it's trembling a bit. His position also pushed back a little bit, showing how dangerous his opponent is.
It's not fast enough, and she knows it well. With his enemy not moving, she decides to back off again, creating more distance between them.
"Did I poke something? I'm just stating the fact, Renamon."
"That's not for you to decide what the truth is."
They are starting to take a stance, ready to clash this time. But then there was a tremor. The unstable building shakes as giant footsteps can be heard. They glance at each other, both showing the same confusion. Whatever that is, they didn't expect it to be here. It's getting louder and louder, and the tremors get harder as well. They could feel it's right beside the building they're in.
Both look at the ground from a window and shocked. "I see, my lord is angry that my work is slow today." Said Sealsdramon. Meanwhile, Renamon is more surprised by the Digimon that just arrived.
"H-How did you-" She can't even finish her words.
There is a hole in that building a few seconds later—a big one. It's only for a moment before that building collapses and burns to the ground.
A very bright light blinds him for a moment, he slowly adjusts his eyes to finally see what's going on. It's a green palm leaf. What? His mind didn't get it at first glance. Did the leaf move a bit before? That must be it, and it gave sun a chance to shine its light on his eyes. The leaves are on his side again, protecting him from the heat and giving him time to get his mind back on track. His mind is still hazy, and he felt a strong pain in his head the moment he opened his eyes.
What is going on? Where is he? Everything still scrambled, and he is trying his best to put his memory together. "It was... night, right?" He asked himself out loud in the hopes that he could easily recall what'd happened. "I'm.. I'm in the middle of fighting.." he mumbled. Some mental image starts to form in his mind, the night, that roar, he was fighting Caturamon!
"Lopmon! Terriermon!" Impmon instantly tries to get up, but his body screams not to do it, and he could feel a jolt of pain almost on every part of his body especially on his left arm. "Agh! Ugh.." he groans from the pain and fatigue, then panting in defeat.
"I-Impmon..? Did something happened!?" He could hear Lopmon's voice from his left side.
"W-W-What!? We got attacked!?" Then Terriermon's voice came from his right.
Impmon lifts his head a bit, trying to see what's going on. It turns out they rest right on his sides, 'cuddling' him a bit. Only then does he realize that his head rests on soft 'pillows', they used their ears so his head didn't rest on the ground, then the other ears placed like a blanket for him. "W-Where is that damned dog!? Where is it!?" Yelled Impmon, frantically looking around to find the deceased Deva.
They looked at each other, then to Impmon, and nodded at the same time. "Impmon, Caturamon is.. gone." Said Lopmon calmly. "You beat him, Impmon. It's over." he continued. No answer from Impmon, he just sighs and stays silent for a few minutes. Terriermon about to say something but stopped by Lopmon, giving Impmon some time to put everything together.
"This... isn't a dream right?" he asked nervously, followed by chuckles. "You guys.. real, right?"
Pulling his ear that's on Impmon's body, Terriermon slaps his forehead gently, more like a tap. Then he keeps his ear to cover his eyes. "Do I need to slap you harder? Geez, moumantai Impmon, moumantai~" He could feel Impmon nod silently. It seems that his friend finally wake up. They stay in that position for an hour or two, and Terriermon lowers his ear again to cover Impmon's body.
Waking up the second time, Impmon tried to move his body but unable to do so. He manages to pull his right arm and pinch Terriermon's ear. "Can you get off me already, stupid bunny."
"Ow ow ow! Cut that out!" Protest Terriermon, he slaps Impmon face and gets up. Lopmon does the same, he doesn't want to cause more bickering between them. Surprisingly, he got different treatment from Impmon, the purple imp let him rub his eyes and yawn first without any complaints.
Impmon stretches his body a bit, every little movement sends a little jolt of pain. "I'm not your big pillow to cuddle for, don't do that ever again." He looks at his gloves, very dirty and worn out. His neckerchief isn't in any better condition either. Nothing much he can do about it, so he tries to focus on other things first. He turned his gaze to Lopmon and asked him. "You okay?"
Lopmon nodded and asked him back. "I'm more worried about you, Impmon."
"That's right." Sneered Terriermon. "We did that for your own sake, your welcome." He huffed at the imp before pouting.
"And what does that mean, bunny boy?" Impmon on the other hand frowned because he's clueless about what Terriermon is talking about.
"It was last night, can you show me your back first?"
Since it's Lopmon who asked him, Impmon shows his back to Lopmon. There are scars on his back, small yet quite a lot. Lopmon tries to touch it very gently, and he still lets out groans and whimpers with each touch. His hands are trembling, this hurt more than anything he felt earlier, even more than his left arm that was bitten by Caturamon. Terriermon sits right next to him, staring at his trembling hands. He glares at him and about to get angry, thinking that Terriermon about to mock him, but his face shows a worried expression.
It's just a brief look at his scars, Lopmon still doesn't have anything to treat his scares. "You didn't recall what happened after the fight?" Impmon shakes his head, all he could recall is Caturamon about to eat Lopmon, the rest of it are blurry memories. "After passing out, we took you here and you shivering through the night, that's why.." Lopmon tilts his head a bit, he doesn't need to finish his words.
"Oh, come on. You left out the part where he keeps calling our name." Said Terriermon with a chuckle. Impmon is embarrassed, he won't admit it or believe that he cares about them a lot more than he initially thought.
"Says the one who panicked when he did that." Lopmon isn't really fond of teasing them but he just did that, maybe out of boredom or because he's just happy to see them again after a long time. The reaction from Terriermon quite funny as he has the same feeling like Impmon. "Come on guys, nothing's wrong with that. You two are closer than you ever thought. Like.. a couple perhaps?"
"WE'RE NOT!" Yelled both of them at the same time, and that just makes them more angry when they see Lopmon holding his laugh. "Shut up! Don't copy my words!" They say it to each other.
Lopmon giggles when watching them almost get into a fight, which he then stops by standing between them to break them off. It feels good to see his friends again, even though it's not everyone just yet. He also feels closer when it's only a few of them.
After a few jokes and some more rest, they get back to serious stuff again. "So, what now? We're not going to listen to that dog, right?" When he sees them look at each other with those nervous looks on their faces, Impmon almost snaps. "Are you.. okay, convince me. Cause the last time I followed his words, I.." He doesn't need to explain it again, they still remember it very well.
It's hard for Impmon to accept it and that's understandable, but they can't just sit around and do nothing. "The Sovereign's views on our bonds with our partners have changed, I think it's something important if that's the last thing he tells us on his death door." Said Lopmon.
"That's.. not the problem, Lopmon." Impmon looked away, his hands trembling from anger. "After all of that, I can't.. I can't just trust him."
"Deva has their order coming from Four Sovereign, I was one of them before. Back then, they were not trusting us, but now.." He tried to say something so Impmon would change his mind. "Also, didn't you see something weird about him? Caturamon act nothing like him before you defeat him, if he is still his old self, then he would taunt you first instead of fighting your strongest form."
While Lopmon is trying to play nice, Terriermon isn't beating around the bush. "Then what's inside your head? Oh, let me guess, nothing. That's the only lead we have right now." Impmon sighs, then grunts. He finally agrees, albeit not too keen on this idea. "Moumantai Impmon, what's the worst that could happen? I mean, well.. maybe those pesky brats gang up on us again"
Lopmon got confused and asked them. "You got attacked?"
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" They stared at Lopmon, shocked. "We got attacked by multiple groups of Digimon, barely got some rest. And that tin can swept by that light on top of that."
"Well there were some Numemons before Caturamon chased me, they-" Suddenly, they heard some Digimons coming towards them. A bunch of Numemons. "They caught up on me again I guess"
Impmon gets up and takes a deep breath. "Give me some break already!" he said while stretching his body, preparing to digivolve. "Let's get these chumps some nice lessons, then find that birdie and his friends." Before Impmon could move, his shoulder held by Terriermon.
"Stop acting tough, don't you see your own body? I don't want you to scream my name all night long." He scoffs at him. "Don't act like you're my guardian or something, okay? I can fight myself."
"Hah! If I'm not doing that, you've already gone bunny boy~"
Lopmon also gets up and walks past them. "See, like a couple worried about each other~" He said it with a giggle.
"SHUT UP!" They replied at the same time before racing to be the first to enter the fight. Unfortunately for those Numemons, they won't get what they want even after finding their target today.
Standing in the middle of three huge Digimons, the boy is still able to keep his composure, just like his partner. This isn't the first time he has seen them, or seen a huge Digimon, for that matter. There should be four of them, it seems that the other one has something more important to do. Out of these three, one Digimon isn't really fond of his presence. He and these Digimons have been working together for a while, yet this one just has strong distrust towards humans. It's not that he really scared, in fact he understands their point of view of distrusting humans.
The one who kind of hates him is the bird-like Sovereign, Zhuqiaomon. This Digimon keeps downplaying what he and his friends had achieved before, especially with the battle of D-Reaper. "Do we really have no choice? Again!?" Said the Sovereign. Flame appears on the side of his beak when he huffs at the tamer below him.
"Why are you still doubting them? Have some manners. You are embarrassing us." Replied the dragon-like Sovereign, Azulongmon. "You know very well that we need any help from them right now."
The other one, a turtle-like Digimon who has two heads, leans both of his heads toward the boy. "Please excuse this friend of mine, our temper have been tested quite a lot lately." Said the right head. "Your name is Ryo, correct? Did you get hurt on the way, boy?" Asked the other head.
Ryo nodded. "I'm fine thanks to Pajiramon, just a bit tired. Can we just get to the point? I'm not trying to be rude but he said something happened at my home." He asked them bluntly.
Ebonwumon's left head turns to his peers and makes a little cough to get their attention. The other two Sovereigns stop their debate for now. Azulongmon switches positions with Ebonwumon to explain it. "Some DIgimons are trying to cross the world, at once." He explained shortly. That's enough for Ryo to grasp the dire situation, especially when the four sovereigns asked for help from him. "A lot of portals suddenly appeared a moment ago, we managed to close them as soon as possible. That's why there are only three of us right now, he's still on his way back after checking some areas."
"So some of them have crossed already, but.." He couldn't help but worried about his friends. Unlike him, they didn't have their partners on their side. "I need to go back, they need my help."
"No! Use your brain a bit, brat!" Zhuqiaomon scolds him, he feels like his point of trusting this matter to humans is bad. "We don't even know how those portals are opened, as far as we know, the only Digimons who could open the gateway are us and our Devas."
Ebonwumon leans his head down. "We can't act recklessly, opening a gateway to both worlds could benefit our enemies as well. We can't bring them to this place even if we could open the portal. It's too dangerous for them to jump into this world without their partners." Ryo is stunned. He can't see any solution for now. In the end, they need to risk the chance of unwanted Digimons crossing both worlds to bring all of their partners.
"Ryo, we give you a task to gather them, those Digimons." Said Ebonwumon. "Once they are together, we can open one portal safely."
It looks simple at first glance, just gather all of their partners before coming back to earth. But he knows this is almost impossible with the state of Digital World, lots of Digimons fighting and even some of them clearly targeting them. "But where? Roaming around blindly isn't a good plan."
"We just got their rough location, but not their condition or any detail. Except.." Zhuqiaomon huffs angrily. "Just this time, I'll help you personally this time. There is one of them that I can fetch quickly. If we spread out, that wretched creature will try something again." Ryo didn't expect this at all, and that's not giving him any sort of relief. Even Zhuqiaomon who's skeptical of humans, is willing to help him, showing how bad this problem has gone.
Pajiramon who's guarding the sovereigns place is surprised to see Ryo come out not long after they arrived. The boy looks calm, yet he could feel something different from his vibe, and somehow he felt pressured by it. "Why the long face?" Asked the sheep.
With a sigh, Ryo shakes his head. "Nothing." He replied. "They say you'll come with me."
"Yes, I am. Now get up, don't waste my time."
Pajiramon lends his hand down in front of him, then brings the tamer to his back along with his partner. As much as he doesn't like this human, he could see himself stuck with him for a while.
Finding a Digimons that's not showed in this season isn't that hard (I keep checking wiki before writing each section), But choosing.. well, so many choices makes it hard. I'm trying my best to describe it, or no, depends on the plot. And yes, haven't put a note about the main guy in this story till third chapter. Always wanted to write why I did this, why I choose that, but what's the fun of telling it now.