Guest: The Tamers weren't supposed to know that Ruki was watching them. That was a plot hole on my part, heh.

Jenrya here. Last time, Takato was losing his duel with Yudai and when he asked me for help, I told him I couldn't and that it was always better to walk away. Takato and Hikari then apologized to each other for their earlier argument, with Hikari telling him that she reminded him of her brother. I remembered my training with my digimon sensei and our conversation about data in the card game. Takato, Hikari, and I went to confront Yudai, when another boy showed up, named Natsuki, who gave Yudai an Evolution card, and Yudai's Yuki Agumon evolved into Allomon. I decided to help and used my own Evolution card to evolve Terriermon to Galgomon. Yudai's Allomon degraded into data and we fled before the Hunters arrived.

Yuko wore her usual smile when Yamaki walked into his office. "Good morning, sir," she said as she handed him a mug, "Your morning coffee." She placed a stack of paper on his desk, "And the reports from last night. Intel has already gone through it, but aside from the one at the park, they just seem to be rumors."

He grunted. "I'll look through them later. What Hunters are on-site?"

"I believe all of them, sir."

He nodded. "Good. I want to see all of them now." He sighed, "The conversation with Minister Hashima from the other day's worried me. We need results and we've tolerated those Tamers long enough."

Yuko hesitated. "Forgive me, sir, but the Tamers are helping to stop the Wild Ones…"

"They're all agents of chaos!" he barked before pointing at the door, "Get the Hunters in here now!"

She bowed. "Yes sir, right away."

He watched her leave and then he pulled off his glasses to rub his eyes. This was not the first time Minister Hashima had threatened to cut their funding or even replace him, so why was he so worried now?

He tensed as the answer came to him. It was because The Doctor was back. That slimy, wild-haired man even gave Yamaki the creeps.

His office door swung open and four young adults in matching jumpsuits marched inside. The boy in blue and white bowed. "Hinkon reporting."

The boy in red and white gave a short wave. "Yeah, Nimrod here.."

While the two boys wore pants and combat-style boots with their uniforms, the lone girl while wearing the same short-sleeve jacket top, wore a mini skirt and knee-high boots with her pink and white uniform. She glanced at Nimrod before bowing even further than Hinkon. "Artemis reporting for duty, sir."

The last Hunter was taller than the others and wore a purple and gray uniform that seemed closer to kevlar than cotton, and an open trench coat that flowed behind him like a cape. While the other three wore various visors or mechanical devices over their eyes, this man's face was covered by a metal mask, leaving only his unkempt, bushy brown hair visible. "Orion at your command, sir."

"Yes, I know who all of you are," Yamaki sighed.

"Sorry, boss," Nimrod said with a grin, "So, what's up?"

Yamaki pulled a flat square of metal out of his briefcase and placed it on his desk. "That's a tracker program I developed recently. I want it installed on one of those Tamer digimon."

Orion bowed. "Of course, sir." He reached for it but Nimrod snatched it first.

"I'm your man, boss," he declared.

Yamaki narrowed his eyes. "That's a one-time prototype, so don't let it get damaged."

The Hunter studied the object before snickering. "These are that cheap, huh?"

Yamaki glared. "If I need to replace it, it's coming out of your pay. Now get out there and do your job."

The Legacy of Courage

Chapter 6

Ambition-Takato Matsuda

Takato grinned as Guilmon descended from the sky, the white wings on his back vanishing with a burst of data. The human studied the card in his hand, the first one he pulled from the deck he bought that afternoon. "This White Wings card is kind of rare, so maybe that'll give us an advantage."

In his mind, he saw Ruki, Jenrya, and Hikari arguing with each other, trying to get Takato to embrace their philosophy about being a Tamer. His head was starting to ache again. "Um, Guilmon, why are you fighting?"

The dinosaur cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's the reason that you're fighting?"

He grinned. "Because you want me to."

Takato groaned. "No, that's not…" He rubbed his eyes. "Why do digimon fight?"

Guilmon was quiet for a moment. "Because we just do."

He frowned; was Guilmon just being naïve, or was he being truthful? Maybe there was no deeper reason for being a Tamer. Maybe the only reason for their existence was to fight.

"Hey, Takato," Guilmon said, "I think we'd be better in a fight if I could evolve."

"Yeah," Takato nodded, "But I don't know how."

"But Terriermon can evolve if Jenrya uses that card."

"I don't have that kind of card," Takato admitted, "I've been trying to look for it, but I can't buy every booster pack out there."

Guilmon cocked his head to the side and Takato frowned. "I'll explain later."

"Well, look what we have here!"

Guilmon growled and Takato hissed. Nimrod was hovering in the air above them.

Takato ran next to his partner as the Hunter dropped from the sky. He smirked as he cracked his knuckles. "I've been looking to blow off some steam and I find the freak with the goggles. Perfect."

Takato looked around; open fields in every direction. They could run but had nowhere to hide. "Why don't you just leave us alone," he protested, "We're fighting the digimon that are just causing trouble, same as you."

Nimrod shrugged. "Not my problem. I'm paid to fight, so that's what I'm gonna do."

"Wait, so you're just here to fight?" he asked, glancing at Guilmon, "I thought you hated us."

Nimrod shrugged again. "Truth is, I really couldn't care either way. I just want to fight strong opponents." He flexed the fingers on his right hand, a slight sound of grinding metal gears filling the air. "So let's go."

Takato gritted his teeth; as he grabbed his deck. "Alright, do it, Guilmon, looks like we've got no choice. Go!"

Nimrod charged with a loud grunt. Guilmon blasted a Fireball, which Nimrod avoided by darting to the side. He launched at the digimon but Guilmon pirouetted aside, causing Nimrod to swipe open air.

"Attack him!" Takato ordered.

"Rock Breaker!" Guilmon shouted as he swiped at the Hunter with his claws. Nimrod thrusted his arm forward and a blast of light shot from the top of his wrist. Guilmon grunted and Takato swore he could see stars floating around his partner's head.

Nimrod darted back to his feet and grabbed Guilmon by the neck with his left hand while he held a black square in his right. Takato had no idea what that was but he wasn't going to find out.

He started flipping through his deck when Guilmon suddenly blasted a fireball into the Hunter's face. Nimrod hissed as the lines of cybernetic metal on his head started to melt. He threw Guilmon to the ground and grabbed his face.

"Great job!" Takato called, "But let's get out of here."

Takato and Guilmon did not stop running until they made it to the concrete building. Once inside, the human held his breath until he was certain he did not hear anything in the forest outside. "I think we're safe," he breathed, "The Hunters can't track Tamer digimon, so…"

He blinked and chuckled. "You already knew that, didn't you?"

Guilmon grinned. "Of course, Takato, you told me."

The human rubbed the top of Guilmon's head. "I'm still gonna wait a while before I leave."

Nimrod sprayed the medication onto his face and hissed as his singed skin and metal wire sizzled. He dropped the bottle back into his pack and pulled out a mirror. The damage didn't look too bad. He'd need some repairs, but his skin should heal on its own.

He turned his attention to the tracer device and frowned. There was a large crack along one side, probably when he'd dropped it after that digimon's sneak attack. Hopefully, it still worked.

He shrugged and dropped it into his back pocket. He tried, at least. Time for a break.

"Honey, are you awake?."

Ruki opened her eyes and stared up at her plain, wood-beam ceiling. "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Good," her grandmother said, "I'll start breakfast, so hurry up and get dressed."

Despite the words of both grandparent and grandchild, neither one moved. Finally, the orange-haired girl grumbled a response and pushed herself onto her knees. Satisfied, the grandmother shut the door and walked down the hall.

Ruki shed her pajamas and yanked her uniform off its usual spot on the wall. "Renamon."

The fox appeared behind her. "Yes, Ruki?"

"The card that guy used last night."

She heard her partner shift slightly on her pawed feet. Ruki guessed her wariness made sense. The human had made it clear last night that she didn't want to talk about that goggle-head, the pacifist with the Terriermon, or the so-called Chosen Princess.

"I don't know," Renamon finally answered, "Until a few years ago, aside from the Chosen, digimon were never affected by devices from the human world."

Ruki glanced over her shoulder and the fox woman shifted again. "As you already know," she said quickly.

"Yeah," the orange-haired girl said, "And the Chosen had crests, but no one knows where they came from."

She opened the top drawer of her dresser, which was filled with stacks of cards, nearly a hundred and no magic evolution card!

She growled and slammed the drawer shut. "Renamon!" she snapped, "I'm not going to let some weak, wimpy Tamer be stronger than me! We're going to fight even harder and push ourselves to the limit. We don't need some magic crutch to evolve. We're going to do it the right way."

"Yes, Ruki. Of course."

The human squeezed her fist, her nails threatening to pierce her skin. That's all that card was; a crutch. She didn't need it! She'd make everyone fear her again!

"Was it just the card?" Takato asked into his phone.

"Yes," Jenrya replied over the speaker, "As far as I know, it's just the card."

"What booster pack was it in? Do you know the release date? Or maybe the printing schedule?"

"I told you before, I just found it in one of the packs, that's all. I'm sorry. If you're that desperate, maybe someone's selling one online."

"I tried," Takato responded, "Some of them are charging more than a house, and those cards don't look like yours."

"Look, I already told you what I know."

"Well, where'd you hear all this from?"

"I, um…"

Takato squeezed his phone tightly. "Jenrya, it's really sounding like you're hiding stuff. If you know more, please tell me."

Jenrya hesitated again and then sighed, "All right, look, all I can really say is that someone taught me about digimon-"

Takato tightened his grip on the phone. "You had a teacher? Who?"

"I-I can't tell you that. I'm not sure about his name. He never really told me."

"He never told you?"

"No. He was pretty eccentric. Terriermon even called him insane. Anyway, he found me after I'd already found the Evolution card. He told me that there was a one in a hundred chance of finding that."

Takato felt his heart drop. "One in a hundred? That's almost impossible! How'd he know that?"

"T-that's all I can say right now. I've got to go. Sorry."

Jenrya hung up before Takato could press him for more.

"I don't know.," Hikari told him during lunch, "I can't evolve Plotmon right now." She pulled her pink-trimmed D-Arc out of her bag. "With how much trouble everyone seems to be having, I wonder if these new digivices are defective somehow."

Takato studied his own orange-trimmed device. "Defective?"

She nodded. "Um, I never really wanted to ask this before, but what did you hear about me? You know, in those stories."

"Um, well, some forum somewhere called you The Pure, and that you were the Priestess. Um, you had the power of Light and-"

He trailed off as he noticed the shocked expression in her eyes but also the wild smile on her mouth. "Pure? Priestess?" She stared at her lap and muttered, "Well, there's Angewomon. Maybe things got muddled or something." She looked back at him, "But Pure? What does that mean?"

He shrugged.

"What about the others?"

He pulled out his phone. "Here, I think I've got it in my browser history." Truth was, he'd saved the link long ago. "Here, ."

He cleared his throat before reading, "The First Tamers were also called Chosen. There was Taichi Yagami, the Courageous Knight of the Sun, Yamato Ishida, the Loyal Warrior of the Moon, Sora Ishida, the Affectionate Queen of the Wind, Koshiro Izumi, Curious Researcher of Lightning, Mimi Tachikawa, Beautiful Princess of the Earth, Jyou Kido, Faithful Healer of Water, Takeru Takaishi, Hopeful Bishop of the Heavens, Hikari Yagami, Purest Priestess of Light, Daisuke Motomiya, Miraculous Armourer of Gold."

"That's all? Nothing about Miyako or Iori or Ken?"

"Who?"

She frowned. "They were all just forgotten. And Yamato and Sora weren't married. They were only a few years older than me!" She put her hands on her hips. "I guess facts really do get twisted and-"

She shook her head. "Sorry. I got really off track. The point I was trying to make is that my partner's um, default form was always her Adult level. Even when she'd regress to her Child form, she'd always return to her Adult form. When we woke up from being in the Digital Gate, she regressed because of the amount of time we spent there, but she should've evolved to Tailmon by now. So, it's either because something's different with the world now, or it's because of the new digivices."

Takato studied his D-Arc again. "But what? Some kind of limiter or something?"

"But why?" Hikari asked, "Why would the Digital World give us new digivices without the ability to evolve?"

"So the Chosen could just evolve their partners?"

"To Ault. Fully Evolved and Mega usually required something extra." She shrugged, "I'm sorry, but I'm as much in the dark as you are."

While he sat in the art club that afternoon, he stared out the window, tapping his pen on his notebook. If all it took was an Evolution Modify Card, then why were there not more Tamers with Adult partners? Why had the few he had met only had Child levels? And then there was Ruki. She was a card champion, she would certainly have Evolution cards, so if that was all it took, why was she fighting with Renamon and not one of her evolved forms? Maybe Ruki had the answer. Where could he find her?

"What's that, Takato?" Juri asked, looking over his shoulder.

His face turned red. He tried to cover up the drawing but Juri darted around him and grabbed the notebook. "Oh, this looks like the digimon you were drawing the other day."

Takato snatched it from her hands. "Yeah," he said in a low voice, "I'm calling him Growmon, short for growl."

Juri grinned. "That's really cool, Takato. You should be a game designer after high school."

Takato blushed. "Thanks, Juri," he smiled.

"But guess what?" she grinned, "The administration asked us to design a banner for the upcoming festival! Isn't that great?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "That sounds like fun." He spied Kenta walking past the door. "Um, we'll talk more about it tomorrow."

She frowned. "Oh, well, I was hoping maybe we could start tonight…like at my house?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, gathering up his things. He raced out the door and tackled Kenta from behind. "Takato!" he gasped, "What the hell?"

"You've got all the info on Ruki Makino. Where does she live?"

Takato checked the information on his phone again before glancing up at the street name. "I guess this is it."

"Aren't we gonna knock on the door?" Guilmon asked from beneath his trench coat.

Takato peered through the spaces between the planks of wood in the fence. He would never have guessed Ruki lived in such a traditional Japanese home; she seemed anything but traditional.

Guilmon hissed. "Takato, a digimon!"

He hissed. "Where?"

Before the red digimon could answer, a familiar voice said, "You were right, Renamon. It's the two losers."

Takato spun around and stared. Ruki and Renamon were standing behind him, but Ruki was wearing a black skirt and matching blazer, which was open, revealing a white blouse. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but seeing Ruki dressed as a typical schoolgirl made his jaw drop.

"Well?" the orange-haired girl snapped, "What do you want?"

"I, uh, h-how'd you know it was us?"

"Your scent," Renamon said, tapping her nose, "I am a canine, after all."

"What do you want, gogglehead?" Ruki snapped, "I've been pissed all day, and taking it out on you will be just the thing."

"Oh yeah?" Takato snapped, "You haven't beaten me or Guilmon yet! Plus, we beat a Hunter before!"

Ruki's face stayed the same but her eyes twitched slightly. "Oh really?"

He beamed. "Yup!" He gestured to Guilmon. "We fought off Nimrod, so beat that!"

Her eyes narrowed slightly and Takato cleared his throat. "Uh, but we're just here to talk."

Guilmon looked at him and then at the orange-haired girl. "Are you two going to fight?"

"What?" Takato blinked, "No way! She's a girl." He lowered his voice, "Plus, she'd kick my ass."

Ruki chuckled. "All right, tell you what, just for that, I'll hear you out. You've got five minutes. What do you want?"

He glanced at her house. "Are you gonna invite me in?"

"No. Your time's ticking away."

"All right, all right. You know that Jenrya's got an Adult partner, right?"

She growled. "Yes, I'm aware. Get to the point!"

He cleared his throat. "Well, I want to know, how do you evolve your partner to Adult? It can't just be the modify card, because then there'd be plenty of other Tamers with Adult partners, right?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I've never seen one of those Evolution cards before. Where'd he get it?"

"He said he found it in a booster pack, but, yeah, it's rare."

Ruki nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought. As far as I knew, the only way to evolve your partner was to win battles and load the data. The more data your partner has, the stronger they get."

Takato glanced at Guilmon. "Oh, really?"

"Yup. Your time's up." She unlocked the gate and started up the pebble path.

Takato opened his mouth but then decided not to press his luck. He and Guilmon started walking down the sidewalk.

"Hey!" she shouted.

He turned back to her. "Next time we meet, Renamon's loading your partner's data. And one more thing, you tell anyone else where I live…" She kicked a small bird feeder near the gate. "That's gonna be your…"

"I get it," he said.

She smirked and continued up the path, letting the gate slam shut behind her.

Takato walked down the sidewalk, his mind once again churning. If all it took to evolve to Adult was loading data, why did Jenrya and Yuudai need the card?

Guilmon stopped and hissed. "What?" Takato asked, looking around, "Another digimon?"

They spun around and the boy standing behind them held up his hands. "Woah! You ruined the surprise."

Takato focused on the pair of goggles on the other boy's head. He narrowed his eyes. "You were with Yuudai. You're the one that gave him that card."

The boy bowed. "You can call me Natsuki."

"What do you want?"

"Believe it or not," he said, putting his hands behind his back, "I've got an offer for you."

Takato blinked. "What? And offer?"

"That's right. I saw your conversation with Ruki Makino. Do you want your partner to evolve to Adult that badly? Well, I've got the secret."

"You do?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes, "The same thing you used on Yuudai? The one that almost killed him and his partner?" He glanced at Guilmon and then shook his head. "Well, no thanks! I'm not gonna let something like that happen to Guilmon."

Natsuki was quiet for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, maybe you'll change your mind after I load your partner's data."

"What?" Takato gasped, "What did I do to you?"

"You destroyed my test subject. Besides, Tamers fight, it's-"

"What we do," Takato replied with a growl, "Yeah, I've heard that before."

Natsuki pulled a rectangular device from his belt. Was that his digivice? A blast of light shot from the small monitor on the top of the device and a large tank creature appeared before him. "Tankmon!" Natsuki ordered, "Attack!"

Before Takato or Guilmon could react, Tankmon fired a shell from his cannon nose that struck the sidewalk in front of them. Both human and digimon went tumbling backwards before coming to a stop. Takato climbed to his feet while Guilmon jumped back onto his before charging, claws and teeth ready.

Tankmon whipped up his gun barrel hands. Takato gasped and grabbed the first card in his deck. He grinned at the cover. "All right. Card Slash! Knightmon!"

Knightmon's shield appeared in Guilmon's hand and Takato grinned. That will keep his partner safe from-

"Hell Drive!"

Tankmon's treads suddenly whirled and he shot forward, faster than a bulky Digimon should. He smashed into Guilmon, deleting Knightmon's shield and sending the red Digimon flying backward. Guilmon landed and propelled himself forward, claws slashing. "Wild Scratch!"

Tankmon threw up his left arm to shield himself from the dragon-digimon's assault while whipping around his right. "Machine Gun Arm!" Bullets ripped across Guilmon's body before he was once more thrown backward into the ground.

Natsuki laughed. "I think it's clear you're outmatched. Tankmon, finish him."

Tankmon pointed his cannon nose at the moaning Guilmon. "No!" Takato cried, "Hang on, Guilmon." He flipped through his deck before finally finding the right card.

Takato heard Tankmon inhale and then force the air through his nose. "Hyper Cannon!"

The brown-haired boy rammed the card through his D-Arc's sloth. "Card Slash! White Wings!"

Angelic wings appeared on Guilmon's back and the Digimon took to the sky, seconds before Tankmon's attack destroyed another chunk of sidewalk.

Tankmon grunted but Natsuki only smirked slightly.

"Takato!" Guilmon called as he hovered in the air, "I'm ready to tear him apart!"

His partner grinned. "You got it. Go."

Guilmon dropped from the sky, ready to dive-bomb Tankmon, no doubt hoping to take off his head. Natsuki suddenly laughed. "Rushing head-on into a Digimon whose entire move set is offensive attacks?"

Takato froze. Damn it! "Guilmon, pull back!"

It was too late. Tankmon laughed before firing another missile from his nose cannon. "Hyper Cannon!"

The missile shot into Guilmon's chest and the dragon tumbled along the ground before crashing into a building wall. "Guilmon!"

A light suddenly burst from Takato's hand! It was his deck! One of his cards was shining with a bright, white light. He let the cards fall to the ground as he studied the card in question. An Agumon card? Why was it…?

The familiar image of the Agumon vanished, replaced by a solid orange background with a stylized D in the center.

His heart fluttered and he gasped. This was the card! It was the card!

"Card Slash! Evolution activate!"

Guilmon leaped to his feet and screamed. "Guilmon evolve to Growlmon!"

Natsuki gasped. "That card. Where did you get it?" He narrowed his eyes, "Right, that other guy had one too…"

Tankmon cleared his throat as he stared up at Guilmon's evolved form, a towering red Digimon that wouldn't be out of place in a kaiju movie. "Hey, uh, boss…? This guy looks like he might be a bit of a problem…"

Blades shot out of Growlmon's forearms. "Exhaust Flame!" he screamed. He trampled towards Tankmon, the ground thundering with each step. He swung his blades but Tankmon slid back on his tank treads.

"Hyper Cannon!" the tank screamed, firing a missile from his gun barrel arm.

Growlmon grabbed the missile in his teeth and twisted it, throwing it into the sky where it exploded. He then breathed in and exhaled a blast of fire. "Exhaust Flame!"

"Tankmon!" Natsuki ordered, "Time to go."

"Right!" Tankmon twisted around and shot across the ground on his tank treads. Growlmon's attack scorched the concrete sidewalk. Natsuki leaped onto his partner and they vanished into the shadows.

Takato grinned. "Way to go, Growlmon! We…" His face fell, "We…"

Growlmon roared, thrashing his tail about, knocking over street lamps and benches. "Growlmon!" Takato cried, "What are you doing?"

The massive dragon dinosaur whipped around to face him. Takato's heart froze at the sight of his partner's massive teeth, dripping with saliva. He took a step forward and Takato stumbled backward, staring up at his advancing partner. "Oh, Guilmon, what have I done to you?"

Next

The Legacy of Courage

Chapter 7

Ramifications-Takato, Hikari, Ruki

Did you enjoy it? Any criticisms or suggestions?

Author's note: I'm pleased to announce that I have a book scheduled to be published. If you're a fan of my fics here, please consider following my facebook page BCCharles46/