"And with my memory back up to six, I digivolve my Wargreymon into Omnimon! Say goodbye to your Gallantmon!" Takato let out a loud lawn, setting his hand on the ground as he rubbed his tired eyes. Kazu had wasted no time today in getting his rematch with Takato and boasted that the new additions he had made would turn things in his favor. It had been an Omnimon-centric deck that focused a lot on removing his cards as he was Digivolved. Normally this wouldn't have been anything Takato couldn't have dealt with but a poor night's sleep had left him all but drained. Kazu didn't mind and took this chance to show off his Omnimon.
"And you're just the start chumely! With Omnimon I'll make it all the way to the Digimon queen herself." Kazu's boast was cut short by an unimpressed scoff from Kenta.
"Sure and maybe when you go against Rika in the regionals she'll show up half asleep too and just hand you the win. Heck maybe after that it will become a brand new meta." Seeing how it bothered Kazu, Takato forced a smile and a chuckle before letting out another loud yawn. Kazu folded his arms looking at Takato with a disappointed gaze.
"Those four years must have done a number on you. Is Guilmon just as tired? I can't believe I missed out on that wild Digimon. It was DemiDevimon too! Low on the bad guy totem pole but man is his design wicked." Takato didn't appreciate how enthusiastic Kazu sounded, recalling the damage the DemiDevimon had caused before getting away at the end. The call with Yamaki hadn't gone all that much better, though no blame was tossed at either himself or Guilmon. GARMR hadn't detected the Digimon, so Yamaki had grilled Takato to try to get as much info as possible.
Rookies and below were typically allowed easy enough access though often with the caveat that they had been "approved" by GARMR. As Takato understood it, it was basically like running a test on a Digimon. Most that came nowadays usually were responding to a child partner and their D-ARK. This made GARMR's job easy as it meant the Digimon was on the whole less likely to cause problems.
In a scenario where the Digimon was seeking to Bio-emerge without a partner the programming of GARMR would assess things like the Digimon type, its personality, and even its evolutionary line to see if it could be granted access. If it wasn't, the system would simply reflect it backward with an equal force as it used to reach the space between the Digital and human worlds. A much level handed and kind approach compared to the previous Juggernaut Program.
With all that in mind, how a Digimon as deliberately hostile as the DemiDevimon from yesterday managed to get through was the big question. Though perhaps larger still was where it had gone and the presence of the Copiepimon that was seemingly working with him. While there was at least a trace of DemiDevimon's bio-emergence, no such thing was true for the Copiepimon. Yamaki hadn't responded to that news at all, but Takato was certain he was thinking about it just as much as he was. Maybe even more given the growing need for HYPNOS in a post-Digimon world.
The encounter with DemiDevimon had not been the cause of Takato's exhaustion.
"Just had a bad night's sleep was all" Answered Takato with another loud yawn, followed by wiping away the forming wetness around his eyes.
He had made it home later than either his Dad or Mom had wanted even with the explanation by Yamaki. Bedtime captured him as quickly as he had laid down upon his bed. Takato remembered thinking about how comfortable his bed had felt at that moment, and Guilmon agreed.
Sure, his thoughts about the problem faded in the comfort of his pillow. faded with the comfort of his pillow. But as Takato closed his eyes and let himself drift to sleep it felt like he had woken up again.
Calling it a nightmare couldn't do the surrealistic scene before him justice. Floating structures reminiscent of buildings bleeding into buildings like ink within water.
Water itself spread across the ground as though the ocean had been emptied across it, but despite stepping into it Takato could not feel the wetness on his bare feet. He could see the lines and vaguest glimpses of the streets below his feet but watched them form and crumble away into nothingness with each step. He craned his head, trying to make sense of this senseless scene. Calling out, he found that he had no voice, and indeed could hear nothing at all. Not the shifting waters, not the landscape above his head, and not even the empty air.
Takato had once heard descriptions of those born blind or deaf. People assumed that they only experienced darkness or silence. But reality was even stranger- even the deaf and blind could hear and see at least something. But this? This was different. This felt like true nothing, and that left Takato uncomfortable.
"Uck..ick... uck... ick.." The sound of tears broke the true silence as if a light of god casting away the darkness called nothingness. Takato's head spun around to see, in the distance, the vague form of someone. Takato could barely see them, the space between them left them blurry and misplaced, but he was sure they had fallen onto their knees.
"Uck...ick... uck... ick..." Tears kept falling as Takato approached her. Her, it was a her. He was sure it was a girl that cried. As his steps took him closer, he started to make out more of her. She had soft pink hair tied in twin tails that might have been nice but had been soaked wet and left lifeless. Her puffy dress was pink and that as ruined and tattered as it was had been colored a mix of pink and red.
Her shoulders rose and fell, shaking with the falling of tears that sent ripples across the water beneath her. Takato realized he had stopped walking, raising a hand towards her as he said words that failed to make a sound. In his other hand, he felt the sharp piercing of the bauble he had picked up from the encounter with DemiDevimon.
Takato brought it up, looking as the blood ran down his palm and dripped into the water. Her tears and his blood fell through the wase. They emerged in the mirror-reverse of the world as mighty and terrible figures that ross rother in awesome power. Her tears became a cage that would save everything and his blood became a dragon that would destroy everything.
The cage sought to imprison the dragon wishing to free it but it would not be contained. The dragon lashed out, striking against the black bars that would be its care. With each crash of its tail, each bang of its horned head, and each roar the world died more and more. But the cage would not relent, would not bend nor give in to the dragon's horrible wrath. It sought to free the world from grief and sorrow, and a world devoid of absolutely everything was well enough what it would want.
Their stalemate lasted for an eternity. The dragon while contained destroyed the universe. Every world, every star even the space had been reduced to that same horrible nothing. The cage meanwhile was content to leave itself and the dragon.
After all, even that rage was something she would save.
But Takato was pulled back by his friends and pulled back from his cries of futile at the scene and away from the girl, who had raised her head to turn to him.
"Hey, don't look but seems like your fans want to watch you lose." with a snide grin, Kazu motioned to the entrance to the rooftop where they were playing their games. Takato raised tired eyes to see the door leading to the roof cracked ever so slightly. If he had been more awake he would have easily spotted the various girls, each from different grades, looking through at them. Instead, they just looked like a mass of unseemly eyes.
Still, he made an effort to wave at them only for the door to close quickly and the murmurs that followed to be left in their exit. Takato laughed, feeling himself awaking with it. Kazu let out a laugh too and though Kenta kept himself mostly quiet.
"Now let's finish up here unless you want me to make you look bad in class too." The thought was enough for Takato to look back at his hand and instantly piece out how to take out Kazu's Omnimon.
"Just make sure you held on to your receipt, okay?" Takato though still tired found energy enough to raise his voice in defiance "First I digivolve my Guilmon into Growlmon!"
"So there was another Digimon with him? Copiepimon, right?" Takato nodded. The rookie-level Digimon had a frightening power that almost took him and Guilmon by surprise.
Almost anyways.
"So wouldn't that make it two bio-emergences instead of one?"
"What, like they came as a joint deal?" Kazu placed both hands behind his head, stretching with little care. Takato listened intently though.
"Or maybe Copiepimon came first?"
Yamaki hadn't said, though the man's mysterious nature didn't surprise Takato in the slightest. Still, he had thought the same as Kenta had. It was the only thing that made sense, but that left an even bigger question.
"How would it get past GARMR?" Takato spoke aloud, and not entirely to Kenta or Kazu. Truthfully he had been wondering about it since yesterday after he had spoken with Yamaki, but between his poor sleep and school, there hadn't been time to think about it.
"Hmm, maybe there's a back door? I mean how do hackers get around security and firewalls? Back doors!"
"That's scary. Do you think it could be the Americans? Or what if it's some kind of Digimon in the Digital World?"
Takato thought about how HYPNOS had collected data and information before better tracking the possible emergence of Digimon. Who was to say that they had stopped at all? He wasn't someone for conspiracy talk but if Japan had HYPNOS other countries must have had something similar. If that was the case then maybe it had involved America or some other country. After all, Japan was not the only country that had seen Tamers appear, but it was the one where they appeared more regularly. Takato figured that would explain Yamaki's lack of a response. Still, where would that leave himself and the other Tamers? Fighting wild ones like four years ago most likely.
Takato frowned at the thought. Digimon was made for the capacity for change. Normally this was expressed through fighting and evolving, but they came to their world for something more. At least, that's what he and the other Tamers thought. Without the danger of the D-Reaper, there wasn't any worry about any kind of attack by the Sovereigns themselves. If Wild Digimon were going to keep entering their world, he hoped they wouldn't behave like DemiDevimon or the Copiepimon.
Suddenly, a sound came from his pocket and Kazu's and Kenta's. All three reached out and watched as a red screen overtook their D-Arks.
"Huh, what's this?" Kazu lifted his D-Ark overheard.
"Maybe you broke it? But mine is red too. Hey, Takato what do you thin- Huh? Hey, Takato!" Takato left Kenta's voice behind him, turning away as he ran from the rooftop at full speed. The girls hidden behind the door gasped, taken by surprise at his speed and how quickly he descended the stairs.
A red screen like this meant a hostile Digimon was nearby, but without Guilmon or any of their partners, they were in danger. The school's levels were a blur as Takato ran out from them and exited through the school entrance, ignoring the cries of both his classmates and teachers alike.
"Guilmon!" Takato yelled urgently at the screen as the image of his parent's bakery came into focus. That was another great feature of the D-Ark, letting him and other Tamers see and speak through their partners directly.
"Takato! You won't believe it but your Dad is making Gallantmon-shaped cookies! He's going to make some that are powdered cookies, some that are covered with frosting, and one that's chocolate flavored!" Guilmons elation made Takato smile but inside he wished whatever Digimon was emerging had stayed inside of the Digital World, at least until after he got to listen to Guilmon.
"Guilmon there's another wild Digimon close to where I'm at. I don't know if it's the DemiDevimon or the Copiepimon, but you need to head to where I am. I'll give you hyper wings but be careful." At his words, and with a quick swipe of a card, the scenery changed suddenly as Guilmon turned and ran outside of his parent's shop and home, rushing with speed that blurred the street. Takato let Guilmon go, confident that he would find him soon through the connection they shared. In the meantime, he needed to find the Digimon and do what he could before anyone got hurt.
His D-Ark beating loudly, Takato took off down the down corner of the school's wall following the growing noise towards where the new wild one would emerge from.
And then, with speed built up, Takato nearly fell over stopping himself all at once. Heat and ragged breath assaulted him just then. His legs though far from having reached their limit still felt tired and worn. Takato felt the back of his shirt cling to him from the thin layer of sweat built up on it. Just how hard had he been running anyway? The question would have to wait, however.
At the end of the wall where the buildings of the city began, and in sight of the school and all who had jumped up when Takato Matsuki had run from school, was the girl from yesterday Akemi Homura.
Though it hadn't gotten too dark, the sun had set far enough that resting against her made her look almost otherworldly. Homura's raven hair defied the shine of the setting sun, just like darkness would stand against light itself. Takato felt a slight gust of wind, cooling his hot face though not even the girl's skirt shifted against it. It seemed to Takato as though she did not belong right where she was, though the reason scarily eluded him.
Her impassive, stone-like gaze peered at him without a single blink. Takato, without thinking, swallowed. A sharp knife in his parched throat, he was quickly brought back to his senses. The wild Digimon, and Guilmon heading towards him fast. Takato couldn't waste time being dumbfounded like this.
Takato steeled himself and marched forward. Not towards the girl, he told himself, but past her and even beyond that towards the wild Digimon. Towards meeting with Guilmon and working to defend the world from threats beyond its limits.
As he approached her, his shoulder nearly grazing hers, she spoke.
"Matsuki Takato. You're looking for the Digimon, right? I'll show you where to find it." Homura's voice stopped him in his tracks and Takato turned to meet her flat unreadable purple eyes. He wanted to ask her who she knew he was tracking a Digimon. Furthermore, how she knew where the Digimon was. Why she had suddenly shown up now, why she had suddenly left yesterday.
But above all else, he wanted to hear her answer the question he had asked her.
Takato asked none of these questions, instead he pulled out his D-Ark its screen still shining red, and presented it to her.
"The Digimon is probably going to be angry or aggressive. If you can just tell me where to find it I'll go by myself." However mysterious she was, or whatever questions he had, Takato didn't want her to get hurt. Without Guilmon there wasn't much difference between himself and Homura, but even still he was a Tamer.
Homura said nothing, simply turning and stepping down onto the sidewalk with a quick right turn. She signaled with a turn of her head to follow her.
She led him in mutual silence for some time before they headed down the steps leading to a subway station. Takato looked at the oddly empty station, vacant of both people and even the sound of the leaving or incoming trains. But Takato let the soft footsteps of himself and Homura echo as she stepped towards and then jumped down onto the train tracks.
"Come." she waved at him, and Takato followed. He took out his D-Ark and allowed the light from its screen to illuminate the dark tracks as the light of the station faded from view, leaving both himself and Homura.
Though the Digimon was on his mind, Takato's gaze was focused on Homura.
The train station being empty wasn't all that strange. The emergence of Sandiramon had been in such a tunnel after all. But even then people had been running away or had even been seen above close to the entrance. Not so here, where he didn't even remember seeing someone at the entrance. Maybe they had already run away from the Digimon but then why hadn't he heard anyone as they approached the station together?
Uneasiness set itself within Takato, and he clenched his D-Ark harder than before. Something felt off with the whole situation. As he kept looking at Homura, he wondered if he shouldn't have been more insistent that she let him go alone.
The silence broken up by the sound of their shoes crunching against the gravel between the metal tracks didn't help either.
"Hey," like a large pill, Takato swallowed the silence, though Homura did not turn or say anything to him "You must have had to go home or something yesterday, but, ah, do you like Digimon?"
The silence returned right, and Takato silently cursed himself for asking the same question.
"Digimon." As the word left her mouth and echoed against the walls of the tunnel Takato felt the wrongness of how she said it, but she continued "I've never given them any thought, if I'm honest."
'Then why are you helping me with one?' Takato wanted to say but bit his tongue.
"I'm sorry if that's not the answer you wanted to hear." and despite her apology, Takato felt an irrational, alien pity towards her. It didn't matter to him that she said didn't like Digimon, plenty didn't, but she hid behind an apology to end the conversation. He knew she wanted to say something more, that apology told him enough.
But the flaky, crumpling feeling beneath the heel of his foot put an end to the conversation. Homura stopped, and Takato glanced to see a flower crushed beneath his foot.
"It's here." Uttered Homura solemnly before Takato looked back up eyes widening as people, of all ages and sizes, stood around. Dozens of them were in a trance, eyes vacant staring off into the void. All of them had a symbol resembling a butterfly pressed against their neck.
The uneasy feeling returned in full. Takato wondered if this had been the work of the Digimon they had been looking for. Some sort of power to place them into a trance and take them underground, maybe. Digimon normally only approached people to become their partners, if they wanted that in the first place. But this? He hadn't seen something like this before.
Takato walked ahead and with that one footstep step a loud, bell began ringing. The sound, amplified by the tunnel, made him clutch his ears. Looking up at the ceiling he made out the multi-eyed form of a… thing. Its form was crudely shaped, held with butterfly wings and a mustache right under the mass of eyes. The thing looked out of place, not because of how it looked but because of how it appeared to him. It looked less like a real thing and more like a panel from a storybook brought to life but without the sense of reality that should come with it.
The scene changed before his very eyes, bleeding away as the people fell into the environment around him. The tunnel bled away and matched the same form of the winged bell ringer. A nightmarish landscape of nonsense. It moved and shifted like a stage play.
On instinct, Takato raised his D-Ark to scan the winged bell.
"Huh? No Data?" Takato felt a heavy feeling in his stomach but had no time to waste. In one instance the winged bellkeeper dove at him, forcing him to dive to the side. Landing on his feet he ran towards Homura, who was still unfazed, grasping her hand in his as he took off running.
"This way!" he shouted, feeling himself moving faster than before even with someone else in tow. Looking back, he saw that in contrast to his hot face and breath, she had remained cool and unflustered.
They ran into the unknown as the train tunnel had altogether faded. Takato was unsure about what had been unfolding before him. Digital Fields usually only had a fog that helped stabilize the Digimon emerging. Certainly, some Digimon could change their environment to how they wanted it like with the IceDevimon, but this was at another level This was Something that more resembled the Digital World's own changing and often chaotic landscapes.
But the digital world was naturally random and chaotic, this landscape... this place, felt more hostile. As if it was by design.
"Guilmon!" Takato shouted at his D-Ark, only to be met with unstable images that brought grumbled sounds. Wherever he was it also acted just like a stronger Digital field, keeping him from being unable to see what Guilmon saw or letting Guilmon hear him. A panicked thought hit him just then. Without Guilmon both he and Homura would be left at the mercy of that strange Digimon and this stranger place. No, not just them but all the people that had been taken by it.
However, his feelings of helplessness were interrupted by something smacking into him, pulling Homura away from him and causing him to land on his shoulder savagely. Takato hissed, eyes clenched shut before he opened them wide with the presence of danger. He glanced around trying to find Homura but instead being confronted by what had crashed into him.
Much like the Bellringer this was another thing that stood out as wrong to him. At its base where its legs might have been were butterfly wings. Connected to those wings ran a dark column that connected it to a cotton head with a similar black mustache. In what Takato assumed was its arms and hands, was a long staff with the shape of a butterfly at its end.
Takato stood up, biting against the pain he felt in his shoulder. His eyes darted quickly looking around for Homura.
He saw nothing but the endless shifting and malice landscape before him.
The creature said and did nothing, moving gangly like a puppet on strings as it approached Takato slowly. Takato took a step back, and with another crunch, two more of the same creature sprouted into being.
The pain in his shoulder faded, and he turned towards how quickly he had been corned. He grasped his D-Ark tightly and swallowed the hard lump in his throat. Despite the odds, he still had faith that Guilmon would find him soon and that as soon as that happened he and he would take on these weird Digimon together, find Homura, and save everyone.
The thing approached him.
But Takato held faith and hope in his heart as he moved to run.
Just as all three lunged towards the in-motion Takato, the sound of rolling thunder tore them apart. All three of the cotton-headed creatures had holes rapidly blasted into their bodies. The Bellringer, alone, was engulfed by a fireball that knocked Takato off of his feet.
The air was briefly driven from his lungs by the impact, hazily Takato looked up as a figure landed in front of him.
It was Homura save for two major differences.
One was the shield that rested on her wrist. Simple in its steel design it was embroidered by three jewels across its surface. In Homura's opposite hand was a gun.
She turned to Takato, dropping the empty clip before effortlessly sliding another one into it an pulling back on its barrel, Looking at it one more time, seemingly satisfied with it, she slid into her shield where it faded from sight.
Homura leaned over stretching out her hand to him.
Though she offered him support, her eyes told a different tale. Disappointment, but acceptance of that disappointment. Like a parent accepting the outcome of a child.
"You came here to find the Digimon, right? Leave the Witch's Familiars to me." Takato took her hand, bringing himself back onto his now-shaking feet, filled with more questions than ever before.
But Takato could and would ask them later.
Homura led the way once more down the directionless space. She seemed to have known her way around the place, or if she didn't she was very good at hiding it. Just another question, Takato figured.
"Dar…volve… to…!"
The sound came with the shaking and bucking of the very space they occupied. Pieces like props on a stage fell and scattered to the ground next to them before fading altogether.
He heard the echoes of familiar roars that grew with the strength of the shockwaves coursing through the space around them.
Suddenly a fog began spreading across their feet, and Takato knew they had made it.
Stepping forth, however, Homura pushed him to the ground as a towering metal foot placed itself on the ground with thundering power. Takato looked up, tracing the metal frame of the three large claws. They ran up a large arm that was attached to sickly purple skin. Through the dense fog, ominous yellow eyes pierced through them. The eyes themselves were shielded by the same metal as the claws and the arm that held them. Three horns, one at the snout and two at the sides of the head confirmed it for Takato as to what this was.
"Metal… Greymon!" Or at least, the Virus variant of MetalGreymon.
After four years of peace, an ultimate-level Digimon had managed to find its way to their world.
But what happened next would burn itself into Takatos very soul for an eternity.
"GUILMON DIGIVOLVE TO…." Takato twisted his neck so fast and hard that he almost felt like his body wouldn't have kept up with it, eyes opening as far as he could as the familiar voice, the familiar red glow burned brightly across from them, and the MetalGreymon.
Shunting away the fog with the explosive power of Digivolution, Takato knew who and what stood in its place.
"GROWLMON!"
And atop the seemingly impossible sight of a second Growlon, of a second Guilmon, was a pink-haired girl with a brightly glowing D-Ark.