#andromon is a good mon

[koushirouizumi]

{from Official Twitter here!}

[bethanythebogwitch]

Halloween Digimon

If you follow my blog you know I like Digimon and I like Halloween, so why not combine them and gush over Halloweeny Digimon. I'll be showcasing Digimon species that fall into classic Halloween archetypes.

What's spookier than ghosts? Digimon has lots of ghosts and the most recent and honestly probably the best is Ghostmon. That is such a good design and it's even a friendly ghost as it likes to help people, but turns invisible first because it's really shy. I love it so much!

The rest of the ghosts aren't as friendly. Meet Bakemon, a wicked creature that possesses and destroys computer systems. Nobody knows what's under the cloth it wears and while it isn't good in a fight, it can do really nasty stuff to enemies it catches by surprise. Its name comes from "bakemono" a type of Japanese mythical creature that is sometimes translates as "ghost". Bakemon has a variant called Soulmon who wears a witch's hat and is more powerful.

Combining ghosts with the grim reaper is Phantomon (JP: Fantomon). Its a common evolution of Bakemon that has the power of clairvoyance to foresee then others are about to die. The interior of its cloth body contains a portal to another dimension and its scythe can cut through souls. The weapon it carries is a mix of the grim reaper's scythe and a Japanese weapon called a kusarigama. Phantomon has a variant called MetalPhantomon which is an absolute beast. I love this design of a mechanical grim reaper. I have no idea why it isn't en evolution of Phantomon, they're the same level for some reason. MetalPhantomon is rumored to be controlled by something from another dimension.

Witches are another Halloweeen classic and Digimon has a great example in Witchmon. She is a classic witch, but her design makes her look a bit artificial, kind of like a doll. Of course she rides a flying broomstick and a black cat familiar. She's a counterpart and rival to Wizardmon and both come from Witchelny, the setting of another series of Bandai virtual pet games.

Skeletons are Halloweeeny and while there a few animal skeleton Digimon, the closest we have to a human skeleton Digimon is SkullSatamon. Its lore is pretty bland, just being a fallen angel, but hey, lookit the bones

Speaking of fallen angels, the big red devil with a pitchfork archetype is also represented in Digimon with Boogeymon and its evolution Phelesmon. Boogeymon is obviously named after the boogeyman (I love whwn they play around with the mon suffix) and has a pretty sick design. I love the tattoos and in the lore they let it cast dark spells. Phelesmon puts on some clothes and becomes a charming manipulator that convinces people to sell their souls in exchange for fulfilling their desires. Its name and behavior comes from Mephistopheles, the demon from the story of Faust from German legend who gets the title character to sell his soul in exchange for knowledge.

How about spiders? Digimon has a few spiders, but the best in terms of spookiness is Dokugumon. It was once a peaceful creature, but a virus turned it into a monster that corrupts the network by its very presence. It is a relentless predator that follows its prey no natter how far they flee and its very breath is toxic enough to kill. Just imagine being lost in the woods and seeing this nightmare coming after you

You better believe Digimon has a Frankenstein, and its story is a sad one. It was built as a cyborg Digimon at the same time as another named Andromon. However, the primarily mechanical Andromon was deemed a success while the primarily organic Boltmon was considered a failure due to it possessing emotions. Its creator rejected it and now Boltmon wanders around, consumed in sorrow. It is based on the movie version of the monster in appearance (green skin and lots of bolts), but its lore drawn more from the book version.

You want mummies? We got mummies! Mummymon and is evolution Pharaohmon are excellent Egyptian monsters. Mummymon is a necromancer that manipulates the souls (residual data) of deleted Digimon. I like how its not just a mummy but its design of using leg braces and its gun as a crutch implies that being a desiccated corpse has limited its mobility, maybe due to being stuck in rigor mortis. Pharaohmon is also a mummy, but the sarcophagus and death mask it wears are more specific references to ancient Egyptian funerary rites. It was the absolute ruler of the ancient Digital World and many ruins from its reign dot the land. It can produce a flesh-eating mist to attack and will only cure those affected if they swear eternal servitude to Pharaohmon. This is a clear reference to the idea of a mummy's curse.

Digimon has a lot of vampires, so many I'm only going to showcase one of them. If you want to see more, look for Dracmon, Grandracmon, Bastemon, and Sangloupmon. The one I'll cover here is the vampirest of vampires, Myotismon (JP: Vamdemon). He absolutely looks like a cheesy vampire Halloween costume, but do not let yourself think that he's not scary. Myotismon is immensely cruel and cunning, being a classic evil mastermind while also being very capable of throwing down in a fight by summoning swarms of bats and hypnotizing others into serving him. A testament to his skills at villainy is that he was the big bad of what most fans consider to be the best story arc of Digimon Adventure, the original and definitive Digimon anime, and returned as the big bad of the sequel. Mytoismon has several evolutions including VenomMyotismon, MaloMyotismon (BelialVamdemon), and NeoMyotismon, but the OG is the most Halloweeny of them all. His English names comes from a genus of bat while his original name is literally vampire + demon

Evil clowns are a newer Halloween icon, but are a great one and Digimon offers two: Jokermon and Piedmon. Jokermon is a newer Digimon that has been used as a preevo for Piedmon. It is an enigma that randomly appears on battlefiends, cutting down one side with no rhyme or reason and for its own unknown purposes. Piedmon (JP: Piemon) is also an enigma, a being that appeared from another dimension. Its origins and goals are a complete unknown, but it has incredible power and it thoroughly malicious. It served as a major villain in Digimon Adventure and was one of the most powerful Digimon in that setting, soloing almost all of the heroic Digimon at once. That show also emphasized its cruelty as it decided to sadistically chase and torment the youngest human characters instead of just finishing them off. Its english name comes from the pied piper while its original name comes from the pierrot character archetype form pantomime.

What happens when you merge two Halloween monsters? Well apparently when Myotismon and Piedmon merge they become Boltboutamon (JP: Voltobautamon), a vampiric pirate. It is a being with no will of its own that serve as the herald of an entity called the Grudgeful Hand, an evil intellect born from malicious data that seeks to drown the world in darkness. It or its master is a sadist that takes its time to kill its foes and revels in their suffering. Its original name comes from the volto and bauta, both venetian masks. Its English name appears to be a poor transliteration. There's a lot of that in Digimon.

Those are all great spooky Digimon, but is there a Digimon that is the Halloweeniest? Why yes there is: Pumkinmon and its evolution NoblePumpkinmon (JP: Pumpmon and NoblePumpmon). They were born from a computer virus created during Halloween, but are not malicious. Pumpkinmon is a mostly peaceful Digimon that is shy and wants friends. It is adorable and I love it. NoblePumpkinmon tries to befriend all Digimon and remains neutral between good and evil. It is charming and mischievous and gets along well with both heroic and villainous Digimon. It even makes pumpkin pie. Of all the Digimon showcased here, I think NoblePumpkinmon is the most appropriate for Halloween. This is a holiday of scares and horror, but it's all in good fun.

[hazelplaysgames]

the last two species quests was a fetch quest and a General White chase, if you’ve ever seen that bit of Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door. the former is pretty cut and dry, nothing to even giggle over, but the other one actually states that there’s a Mystery Bulb, which is what i needed info on, was a old fossil that could give clues as to the origins of plants in the digital world.

how the Digital world has a proper fossil record is a question i can not figure out.

other farm quests:

a Vajramon who also wants me to break up a duel between his friends, very much like Woodmon’s before. did have to get an autograph from Imperialdramon DM, but there’s nothing too interesting about that.

an Okuwamon who’s forwarding a message from Minervamon: she heard i beat Mercurimon, so she wants a challenge. it’s sort of awkward if this is meant to be the same Minervamon who Leomon wanted to meet with, since she already fought me in that one. hard to be sure.

a Mammothmon who wants a leg from both an Octomon and a Gesomon. definitely the sort of mon who plays Splatoon and gets takoyaki cravings. the Mammothmon wanted them to make something called the Ultimate Pancakes, and i have to wonder if that was a localization choice.

a PrinceMamemon whose gone sweet on someone, and wants to acquire a DigiPendant as a show of affection. not really much to add on it, it does make me consider ways a Digimon game could offer alternate solutions.

an Andromon who apparently got a part-time gig at an excavation site, somehow got injured, and got word of pulling up something good. it was an ancient box, which, despite being locked up with an equally ancient key, had a Digimon fossil in it. this one and the one from Okuwamon really makes me wonder how the Digimon series has a fossil record.

in any case, that finishes all the farm and side missions that were available. at least, as i understand it, until i clear out the post-game story. i like how, on top of the usual expected rewards for finishing quests, that the mons you fight in these quests get added to the random spawns of the areas they take place. for example, Vermillimon was in the head note of a fetch quest, and it started randomly showing up in the area that was in after finishing that quest. pretty neat idea, helps make an area stay a bit more relevant.

i’m gonna finish out any and all last minute grinding, and tomorrow, go for The Final Battle. hopefully get some good photos of it.

[analyzingadventure]

So I wasn’t sure if I’d watch GG’s episode today or later but

I follow the official Twitters. I saw the official art.

And by accident I heard shit got real, so uh

GHOST GAME EPISODE 13!

Well. We’re off to a great fucking start

First casualty of the series, Gorimon. And we now know for sure what death looks like in GG (the ol’ familiar dust)

NEIN?

(I thought for a moment they’d go for a 999 because this franchise has a History with Demonic Entities but that’s a good curveball right there)

German robot?? Okay, so, hmm. Like when the right eyes first appeared I wondered if it was an Andromon but Andromon’s eyes don’t look like that. Now I’m curious if it’s HiTechAndromon but I’m not sure AND I DON’T WANT TO CHECK!! NO FUN if I just go check it, but, yeah, what Digimon is that

MONITAMOOON, BABY!! OH HOW I’VE MISSED YOU, XROS WARS RIGHTS

Yup, ‘tis a shame but the babies now must come to terms with Death

DER SCHARFRICHTER, OH WE’RE GETTING EXTREMELY GERMAN ALRIGHT LMAO

OH JESUS THE NUMBERS WERE JUST A KILL COUNT, OH FUCK

So, the question is. Does something happen when the kill count reaches 1000? Does the fucker evolve or something? Oh boy

Wait... Was there some small-ish robot Dinosaur Digimon that I’m forgetting..? Not Commandramon but something that maybe evolved from it..? IDK, still trying to figure out what mon the bad guy is

fdghkdgjfghdfgh

Look at that gremlin smile, I love her

OH I KNOW WHO THAT IS, I CAN’T REMEMBER THE NAME BUT I REMEMBER THAT FUCKER

OH WHY DID BOKOMON AND BAKUMON COME TOO, THAT’S SO FUCKING DANGEROUS FOR NO REASON

SEALSDRAMON! That is a weird fucking name, no wonder I couldn’t remember it lol

NO, DON’T TOUCH GAMMAMON

NOT MY BABY BOY

Bokomon

No

No fucking way

Bokomon

Boy howdy am I glad I’ve only known Bokomon for like, less than a week, otherwise I’d be devastated right now

Also I have to fucking mention, the death dust is really beautiful here, like. That’s really pretty.

I’m sidetracked here but I’m genuinely kind of speechless because like. First minor character death and it’s episode 13. I’ve been just sitting here for a minute or two just. Wow, this is happening.

AND BECAUSE OF TWITTER I KIND OF KNOW WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT, AND THAT’S V SPOOPY AND I’M NOT READY

Oh Gammamon, baby boy

OH GAMMAMON, LET ME HUG YOU, BABY

OH GOD

OH GOD

OH JESUS FUCK

GULUS IS HERE, OH GOD OH NO

OH GULUS IS AN ASSHOLE, GO AWAY AND GIVE ME BACK MY BABY BOY

Oh yeah, Seals is just an asshole who wanted a high kill count, gross

Oh fuck dude

Is Gulus gonna revert back ever?? Like usually Gammamon devolves fast--

JELLYMON??

I’m just loving the artistic direction here. Nothing else, just appreciating the excelent fucking art, holy shit

iN THIS WORLD IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED

BABY BOY??

BABY BOY IS BACK???

BABY BOY NEEDS A HUG ;__;

Okay so Digimon can still be reborn in GG, so there is that solace there but jesus fuck

So does Gammamon remember what just happened

Is Gulus like, His Own Person sealed away within the Baby Boy, or does Gammamon know what he did when driven by some dark desires?? GG I CAN’T WAIT TO FIND OUT THE FUCKING BACKSTORY GOING ON HERE

Oh let me hug the baby boy FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

YOU

Ah, they lose their memory of their past lives, I assume?

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT

BLACK AGUMON?!? BLACK AGUMON?! GOTH AGUMON!!! OH MY GOD!! WHO THE FUCK IS GONNA VOICE YOU??? HOLY, WHAT, WHY THOUGH, WHO, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, WHAT

Nope, Baby Boy doesn’t remember Gulus

Oh how I want to ghug the Baby Boy

NEW ENDING

This is really fucking cute

Oh I needed this palette cleanser, lmao fuck

Next Episode! We’re back to the Monster of the Week, eh

Well, that sure was a fucking episode

I think I’m gonna go lay down

[fizzingwizard]

Alright, so, Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 12: Castle in the Sky Laputa!

I mean, I, Guardromon...

... Bicentennialmon?

well, any of the three works :P

Right off the bat, I’ll say this ep gets a ‘meh’ from me, BUT I did love its aesthetic. I’m a big fan of robot stories, especially the Asimov variety. Scrap heap robots are my absolute favs. And I did like the Ghibli vibe going on too. The episode was pretty, and the robot characters were cool... it just wasn’t very fun. At the very least, I was expecting team Taichi/Koushirou/Mimi to be a bit more fun than Yamato/Sora/Jou, but I guess this ain’t 1999 anymore ;)

^The most amusing bit was finding out Koushirou’s laptop can fold like this... which, okay, shouldn’t surprise me, it just looks frigging weird...

me: DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE A KEYBOARD???

koushirou: hush old lady, your first laptop was grayscale only and had Windows 3.1 installed.

Actual content relevant to the episode below...!

We had a promising start when last week’s episode ended on a cliffhanger... or a cliffdropper, I guess, because Mimi’s not hanging onto anything. She’s fallen down and landed on Palmon. Digimon can sure take a beating.

Palmon reaches to see if she can hoist them back up, but...

... it’s too high! Oh well, no choice but to travel on foot. Good thing Mimi landed on Palmon!

Meanwhile, above, Taichi and Koushirou turn to his computer for help. Unfortunately they have some technical difficulties.

Koushirou: Noooo, not the swirling of doom!! My immortal nemesis...

Even Taichi understands that buffering spells death. He’s a 21st century kid, so he’s a little more savvy about computers than 99 Taichi, whose trusty recourse in these situations was "treat the machine like a Bop-It.”

Mimi discovers they are in a Digimon scrap heap. ;_; Good heavens. Apparently robot Digimon are unlike organic (??) Digimon same as robots are different from humans, so the way they die is not quite the same either.

Mimi feels sorry for these trashed creatures. She’s no cold-hearted corporate goon who looks at these guys and just sees dollars. She notices the heart!

She also just wiped that rusty Guardromon’s helmet with her bare hand...

Mimi: Where’s Sora-san when I need a towel!!

Andromon makes his 2020 debut! And he’s just as much the pawn of evil as ever!

Boxing Cactus Go-go-go!!

Togemon gets her prickly hiney owned, but the Guardromon suddenly reanimates and protects her instead. His big strategy is “drop something heavy on Andromon and run away.” It’s super effective.

Who wants to translate the digicode, because I’m not gonna. Ten bucks says it’s something like “target human child exterminate” yadda yadda

When Koushirou’s computer fails, we must rely on our physical skills. Their big plan is “climb down the bottomless pit after Mimi.” There are a few things wrong with this picture:

1) Even if they know how deep the hole is, IT’S STILL QUITE A FALL. Make one wrong move and you’ll be useless to Mimi T_T And these idiots make plenty of wrong moves.

2) If there were handholds like these, why couldn’t Palmon have just grabbed them with her vines and carried Mimi up? Instead she was like, “Nah, can’t reach the top, let’s walk in a random direction and hope things work out!”

3) The Guardromon is taking Mimi to an elevator. Meaning there is a working elevator, meaning there is a way down that would significantly decrease their chances of DYING on the way. Koushirou’s computer can’t figure that out? Also I was expecting some hijinks there... like, they finally make it down only for Mimi to say “Why didn’t you just take the elevator like I did? Boys are weird.”

In his defense, Koushirou’s method of descent is worlds better than Taichi’s.

Hate to say I told you so...

Guardromon takes Mimi to some suspicious water which she uses to nurse Palmon... with a towel

Guardromon presents Sheeta Mimi with a flower to convey that he likes killing pretty delicate things :) run Mimi

The Laputa vibe... it is vibing.

We cut away to Yamato/Sora/Jou for thirty seconds just to point how much Better they’re doing than Taichi’s group. They’ve even realized how that basket was, who needs to put in all that work when we can all fit comfortably on a log! Sora and Yamato flirt. Jou’s going to be sick.

Taichi and Koushirou encounter some broken Solarmon who are being controlled by Soundbirdmon, so I guess it’s official now that we can’t believe any Digimon is truly evil if Soundbirdmon is around. Koushirou goes to help Mimi while Taichi stays behind to fend off these gears. Uh, is it just me or does this team seem very quick to split up.

I like the way Guardrmon cradles Mimi so all we can see is her shocked expression.

Guardromon tries his tried and true method of shooting down something heavy to crush Andromon...

... but Andromon’s like “hah! Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!” and knocks it away. Not very effective...

Guardromon’s guarded his last mon... he starts to go... offline I guess...

In sweeps Kabuterimon to the rescue. In 99 Adventure, he’d have something witty to say, or at least a pun. 2020 Kabuterimon mostly likes to make weird noises. I understand why Agumon and Gabumon’s VA’s were calling him a “weirder uncle than ever” at Digifes...

Obligatory Best Boy cap

Hell Approacheth

Wow!!! Taichi finally got knocked off Greymon! He must have forgot to put on his suction cup shoes today!

So this entire episode, I was wondering what was to stop MetalGreymon from happening and stealing the show from Lillymon. I expected “Agumon just evolved recently and doesn’t have the juice to do it again so soon!” or some such. Nothing more than that. But, nah, we don’t even get that... MetalGreymon happens and he just... can’t... beat Andromon? For some reason? I’m going with “Because he’s Andromon.” Afterward, this very heavy structure falls down and MetalGreymon has lift it a la Atlas to keep Taichi from getting squished, so he can’t continue to beat on Andromon.

... Of course, Togemon gets stuck holding this thing up too... so there’s that...

The reason, of course, is so Guardromon can make one last action surge, grabbing Andromon’s leg, which works, randomly. At least for a moment.

Mimi spends most of this episode being Shocked.

Guardromon takes one final, grainy look at Mimi as he prepares for sweet death. The digicode says “Sheeta.” (kidding like I’d bother to translate it lol)

Andromon RUDELY stomps on his head. Like HELLO Andromon can you not see the dude is having a moment here? Show some respect!

Mimi sheds a Single Emo Tear

Which causes “Your sorrow made me evolve!” Lillymon. She immediately flies out to attack Andromon, leaving MetalGreymon alone holding the heavy metal structure, which promptly crushes him and our heroes. Game Over!

just kidding, the structure just vanishes I guess :/ It’s not very clear...

High kick attack!

It’s not very effective...

Lillymon does seem to have an ability that MetalGreymon doesn’t which cinches her victory over Andromon... her rain of petals interfere with his ability to lock on to a target. Too much organic matter everywhere I guess.

Lillymon covers Andromon in plants rendering him immobile...

... *cough*

Poor Mimi’s had a hard day of watching robots die.

Her affinity for marking graves returns as she leaves the flower Guardromon gave her on his corpse(?).

Taichi looks only sadly as Koushirou explains that Andromon and Guardromon were totes besties, until Soundbirdmon started mindcontrolling everyone. Gee that seems like something that could have been an interesting plot point had it been mentioned y’know earlier.

In sum... yeah, this ep just isn’t fun. There’s no friend moments, no getting to know each other, everything takes a backseat to this robot-protect-girl storyline. I really did like Guardromon, but the episode takes itself way too seriously in my opinion.

That aside... I was happy that Mimi’s episode didn’t involve stinky ugly Digimon falling in love and stalking her so she can passionately reject them. I can live without both of those things.

Mimi having the ability to project feelings onto supposedly nonfeeling things is a very Mimi-like character trait for her and one that I really truly love. It’ll definitely come in handy in the digital world where all is never how it seems. On the other hand, though, it’s not like it’s a trait we didn’t have already... it just belonged mainly to Hikari :P So... yeah.

Next week we’re going to get Garudamon, in a way that looks like it will pale compared to our first meeting with Garudamon in 99 Adventure, BUT that’s okay... because we’ve got plenty of time for the Big Important things to happen, both on a plot level and on a character development level. I am a little wtf??? about everyone getting not one but two evolutions within the same adventure - assuming the kids are going to go home at some point and finally put Tokyo out of its misery. I’d expected this show would be more like 02 with the kids jumping in and out, but tbh I’m not gonna be sad if they just stay in the digital world indefinitely. Also, it’s not like Taichi didn’t get both an evolution and a jogress the first time he came to the digital plane, so obviously things are just working differently in this show!

But as it’ll be a Sora episode, I just hope it’s an improvement on the last Sora episode. There’s plenty of potential following the mini tiff between her and Yamato last week, so i hope we see some follow up to that. Maybe a couple Sorato moments. We didn’t get anything for Taishiro this week :( But since it looks like probably next week the groups are still separated, perhaps the week after we’ll get MegaKabuterimon and see more interaction between Taichi and Koushirou then. *shrug* A girl can dream!

Anyway this ep gets 5.5/10 from me!

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] What’s  Mine Is Mine:  chapter 7

Kaiser’s laughter echoed off of the walls of his fortress as he observed what was going on with the Chosen. The Chosen and his very soon to be acquired toy, he amended to himself. Because one way or another, Motomiya Daisuke would be his. He’d gone to too much trouble already not to have him.

First the whole attack on Andromon’s city, and getting the information that he needed from Andromon himself: that what Yagami Hikari, who’d denied him his prize once already, treasured most in all the world were her Digimon partner – foolish to care at all, let alone over a collection of oddly shaped data – and her brother.

While targeting Yagami Taichi remained a possibility, targeting Tailmon was much easier and far more convenient. Not to mention interesting; while he knew very well of MetalGreymon’s overwhelming power, less had been said about what the small Holy Beast could accomplish, and Kaiser found himself curious to explore.

Not curious enough to target her without an ulterior motive of his own. But he’d technically never said that he wouldn’t put a Spiral on Tailmon if Yagami delivered his prize to him. He would let her think that, and even if he had promised, what matter? Keeping one’s word was for fools. Not for people like him.

He could entertain himself with that another time, however. He found far more amusement in watching how the Chosen tried to deal with his main plain.

On his view-screen, he could see Daisuke struggling against the Chosen. They’d put him on a sort of travois to carry him without risk of falling, hurrying their way to what they thought was a safer area. It remained ‘safe’ only because he hadn’t gotten around to conquering it yet. He could do that in an hour if he wanted to.

But for now they chose to forget that and waited for one of their elders to appear, this one with medical supplies.

As if any doctor could undo what I’ve done to him.

He’d worked hard on the drug between the time he’d moved here and now. If all went according to his plan, it was now busily rewriting the data that made up Motomiya Daisuke. To the outside, he would be unchanged once the fever passed and the changes set in.

On the inside however, he would be a much different person: absolutely loyal to his new master and against whomsoever his master decreed an enemy. He would do anything at all the Kaiser asked of him and would not do something as inconvenient as think for himself.

What reason would he have to, when the Kaiser could and would think for him? It would certainly be more efficient thinking than what Motomiya did for himself now.

Until then, the fool would suffer hallucinations and fever, likely unable to recognize his own allies, and too weak to stand up and run away.

It would've been amusing to let him know in more detail, but since he wouldn’t be aware of what was going on, not quite as much fun. Kaiser’s fun depended to some degree on the ones he played with being aware that they were his tools of amusement.

The hallucinations would have to do. He couldn’t control what Motomiya saw, but he had a feeling that it involved him in some way. He’d done all that he could to develop the serum in such a way that it would conjure up all of Motomiya’s worst nightmares, and what could be worse for him than the Kaiser?

Watching the others try to deal with what he’d done offered even more amusement. They had no sample and wouldn’t have time to develop an anti-venom even if they had. He judged it would’ve taken days to do so, if not longer. And he would not give them that long.

Nor would he have to. He’d told Yagami that in thirty-six hours they wouldn’t like the results of the venom’s effects and that he had the antidote. Depending on how one viewed the situation, he might have lied or might not.

There wasn’t an antidote at all. An antidote would reverse what he’d done to Motomiya and he didn’t want that. But in thirty-six hours, the data rewriting would be complete and he would have his devoted slave kneeling at his feet. He knew for a fact that none of the Chosen would want that.

If they didn’t hand Motomiya over, he would come to his new master anyway. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself, nor would he want to. He would see himself for what he was or would be then: a captive behind enemy lines. And like any good, obedient slave, he would return to his master.

The look on their faces when they realized that he’d set this up in such a fashion that nothing they did could change him back, that they’d lost their precious leader to the Kaiser forever…

That had to be worth extra points in the final score. He could hardly wait to find out how many. Converting the enemy leader to one’s side like this? Flawless.

He might have to do something permanent about V-mon, but that could wait until afterward. A Spiral would take care of him nicely. Perhaps Motomiya could put it on the blue pest himself.

Now wouldn’t that be a wonderful sight to see?

To Be Continued

Notes: Just Kaiser being Kaiser. As he does.

[the-digimon-tamer]

Chapter 25 - Nightmare Motorcycle is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 25: Nightmare Motorcycle

Henry ran up and down the sand where their friends has been a moment before, “Crap! Where’d they go? We have to find them!”

He was about to chase after the beam of light when Leomon grabbed a hold of his shoulder, “No dice! Do you have any idea what’ll happen if you just jump in that? There’s no guarantee that you’ll go where they did. You could end up anywhere! And what good will you do them then?”

“We can’t just leave them!” Henry argued back, amazed that the lion was barely breaking a sweat as he tried to get free. In fact, the lion lifted him up into the air casually, dangling in front of his face, “Don’t worry. They have Renamon and Andromon with them. I can’t think of anyone better to have at your side. Those two can take care of them. What’s important now is that we keep a level head.”

“Moumantai, Henry!” Terriermon patted his partner. Juri looked to Takato, who was still staring off into space silently and tapped on his shoulder to snap him out of it. He didn’t react. It took Guilmon nuzzling him with his snout to finally snap him out of it, “Huh? Oh, hi boy.”

“Are you out of your funk, now?” Terriermon asked gesturing at the beam of light as it moved along the desert sand, “Because we’ve already run into a serious problem and I’m pretty sure you didn’t even notice.”

“Sorry, what’s going on?” Takato looked between them in confusion, finally noticing half of their group were not present, “Where’d everyone go?”

Terriermon chuckled at being proven right while Leomon groaned in frustration. He really hadn’t noticed their friends getting sucked up into the pillar of light! Juri pointed him towards the ever growing distant beam of light and explained, “They got sucked up into this beam of light that went past us!”

Takato raised an eyebrow in surprise, tracing the beam of light skyward, “Beam of light? From what? It’s not connected to anything! It just…sort of goes up forever.”

He traced its path with its finger up the sky until he was pointing straight up, “Well, crap that is a problem. They could be anywhere. They could even be in a completely different world!”

“Yes, we know! How do we find them?” Henry demanded, “Because we’re not going to find them just sitting here doing nothing! Who knows what trouble they’ll get in by themselves? Especially Kazu and Kenta. And you know Rika’s probably going to try and pick a fight.”

“She hasn’t been that bad lately,” Guilmon offered in her defense.

“I think they’ll be fine. They have Andromon and Renamon too. Really, the only one I’m worried about is Kazu,” Takato answered sheepishly, “But if we’re going to find them, we can always go to the Hallowed Bastion. I can track them from there. Come on!”

He turned on his heels and started walking off in a random direction, stopping to check his digivice, and then continued on in a slightly different direction. Guilmon raced after his partner while the rest of them swapped nervous glances. There were so many questions now and Henry asked first, “What’s the Hallowed Bastion?”

“Home City of the Ancients,” Leomon answered quietly, lifting Juri up on to his shoulder, “We should keep up. We don’t want to fall too far behind.”

“How far is it?” Terriermon asked, climbing up onto Henry’s head to sit without asking. He was heavy on Henry’s head, until the digimon spread out his ears to offer some make shift shade. Takato pointed ahead, “That way! Maybe a few days? Actually, we’re going to stop by an old house if that’s okay. I want to get something first.”

“I see time has done nothing to modify your concern for others,” Leomon commented quietly, something Takato chose to ignore. Juri was less sure of that statement. As far as she could think, Takato had always been trying to help others. He’d even been trying to stop fighting between other digimon! She poked Leomon’s head and asked, “What does that mean, Leomon?” 

The lion grimaced, “The last time I saw The Tamer, he was less concerned with the well being of others and more concerned with ensuring they fulfilled their destiny. Whatever that would be. Even if it meant forcing them to watch the people they cared for die.”

None of that sounded like the Takato she knew. Then again, she realized that this wasn’t even the Takato she knew. This Takato was just someone wearing his face and running around with his name. The real Takato was lost…possibly in this world. Thinking about all of this made her heart feel heavy.

And why did Leomon feel the need to bring up destiny? Did he know something she didn’t? She looked back at Leomon, “How do you know all this?”

“I don’t know all the details because I wasn’t there, but supposedly he allowed someone’s mother to die to ensure that certain events happened the way they were supposed to,” Leomon answered. He looked her way and offered a small smile, “It’s alarming but I’ve learned it’s better not to worry about it. It’ll make you paranoid. Make you do things that you normally wouldn’t. I think another one of the digidestined said it best: destiny will work itself out either way, so why worry about it?”

That hardly made her feel better. She felt a lump forming in her throat and tried to swallow it, but couldn’t it. Maybe it was just too hot and dry to do it? Yeah, that had to be it.

…

Impmon followed Makuramon and the hostage Calumon through the endless desert and complained, “Hey! How much farther is this place yous was talkin’ ‘bout?”

“Not much farther, dear Impmon,” the monkey answered playfully, poking the cage he was using to hold Calumon hostage, “Isn’t that right my dear little pet? Oh, what fun we’ll have when I return you to Lord Zhuqiaomon!”

“I don’t think I’ll like your idea of fun,” Calumon’s voice quivered in fear. Makuramon answered by shaking the cage as violently as he could, “Oh, come now Catalyst. I’m sure you’ll enjoy all the little games we’ll play when we finally meet our Lord!”

“I hope you ain’t expecting me to bow coz’ I don’ got no lords,” Impmon folded his arms, growing irate the longer he followed this monkey. It was the smart decision at the time - the monkey had him in a death grip and he’d be dead if he didn’t agree. But now he was wondering if death would’ve been the smarter choice. It would’ve saved him from having to listen to this monkey chatter on and on about crap he didn’t care about. 

A small bright light appeared in the distance, one he hadn’t seen before. Impmon’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Makuramon with a raised eyebrow, “What’s that?”

“That is my destination. I do have a gift to present. But don’t worry, Caturamon will take care of you,” Makuramon cackled. Impmon didn’t like the sound of that laughter and turned to see a snarling dog just inches from his face. He leapt back, preparing two balls of fire in his hands, “How’d you do that?”

“Why is that the first thing everyone asks me?” the dog asked, noticing the cage in Makuramon’s hand, “Is that it?”

Makuramon held out the cage with a big old grin on his face, “Indeed it is! The catalyst given digimon form by the Sovereigns themselves! And do help this poor little fellow. His services were useful in the acquisition of our goal.”

“Alright,” the dog nodded, getting so close to Impmon that his breath made him gag, “Listen well, little one. I am Caturamon, servant of the Sovereigns and guardian of this area. Tell me what you seek and I will help you acquire it.”

Impmon rolled his eyes, skeptical of the wish granting and keeping the fireballs close, “Hey, I ain’t da wishin’ type.”

Caturamon grunted his disapproval, snarling at the imp before blowing out the flames in his hands. Impmon panicked and reignited another set of flames quickly only to have them blown out again. Caturamon then added, “I can do this all day idiot. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Anything you want, you can have at our lord’s grace. But this offer will only come once and won’t be given again. What do you want, child?”

Impmon continued staring skeptically before finally answering, “I want the same thing I’ve always wanted: to survive. If that means bein’ strong or smart, I don’t care. I want to not need anybody’ or anythin’!”

Caturamon stared at the imp in surprise, and that annoyed him, “WHAT?”

“Who hurt you?” was all he asked. Impmon was taken aback by that question because of how close it hit to home, “Who says anyone hurt me?”

“No ‘mon is an island,” Caturamon explained, “To want no one or anything...who hurt you?”

“NOBODY!” Impmon snapped angrily. Caturamon closed his eyes, taking a long and deep breath as if to indicate his frustration. Then he sighed, “Very well. I will grant your heart’s desire: but what that means is power. Power unlike any other. And only one can grant that power. The sovereign himself! Lord Zhuqiaomon.”

“I told you, I ain’t got no lords!” Impmon protested, suddenly finding Caturamon taller than he was a second ago. That couldn’t be right. He was eye level a moment ago. Unfortunately, it took Impmon just a second too long to realize he was sinking into the ground like he were stuck in quicksand. He tried to step out of it, but the struggle only made him sink faster, “HEY! WHAT GIVES!? What kinda trick is this? Get met outta here!”

“Do not resist. All will be well,” Caturamon said, failing to be any more reassuring than that stupid monkey. Impmon growled, trying to grab at Caturamon in vain to keep himself above the ever rising sand. But it was too late now. His arms were now submerged in the dirt, leaving only his flailing hands reaching desperately for something. As it made its way up to his face, he tilted his head up to keep it above the rising earth. With his last breath, he cursed the damned dog and the monkey. He cursed himself for being so careless. Darkness took him, followed by a vision of large bird wreathed in flame. Then a flash of fire swallowed him.

…

They walked for the rest of the day, stopping only at the end of the day to eat bread from Takato’s bag and sleep out in the open. As the night grew colder, they tried to get a fire going but had nothing but the bread wrappers to burn - something that only lasted a couple of seconds before the flames burned out. So they spent that night mostly going cold - something Guilmon vocally complained about despite being in a large desert. 

Juri slept by Leomon’s side, since his fur and his large size made him nice and warm. Sleeping beside him reminded her of when she was younger and her dad had been more open with her. It reminded her of all the times he’d let her fall asleep on his lap while he was working or watching TV, before carrying her to bed and tucking her in for the night. It was probably her best night’s sleep in a long time. When she awoke the next morning, she found that the others had also moved in to be beside Leomon at some point in the night. Maybe he was just too warm to resist in this frigid cold desert. And she was well aware how insane that sounded when she thought it out loud. 

They headed out again after a quick breakfast of some more bread and hurried on in the direction Takato led them. It was another day of endless trekking through arid heat under a baking sun until they saw what looked like several small mounds in the desert. From afar, it looked like a mass of hills. But the closer they got, the more it began to resemble igloos of mud with their doors sealed shut with scrap metal.

“What is this place?” Juri asked, looking around curiously at the many huts. The place was almost like a ghost town, except ghost towns had signs people used to live there. But there were clothes hanging off clothes lines and smoke coming from the chimneys. So someone had to be living here now, right? Takato took one look around, “A village by the looks of it. Let’s see if anyone’s home! HELLO! Anybody here? Were friendly! I promise! Don’t mind the lion! Or the dinosaur. They’re the nicest. The bunny dog thing is more dangerous than they are.”

“Hey!” Terriermon grumbled, sticking out his tongue at Takato and turning his head in disapproval. Takato ignored him and knocked on one of the doors. When no answer came from inside the abode, he banged harder, “Anybody? Somebody? Hello! I swear we’re friendly!”

“Takato!” Henry pulled him back, “What are you doing?” 

“Knocking,” he answered quietly, “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“No, I mean why are you banging on the door? We don’t know who lives in there!” Henry corrected him anxiously, “For all we know, it’s some crazy dangerous digimon who’ll eat our face.”

Despite his concerns, Takato shrugged it off and patted his head, “Don’t be ridiculous Henry. Only Kuwagamon do that and they tend to live under the sand, not in huts this small.”

“Okay, so what if it’s something else? Something that wouldn’t mind eating us!?” Henry pointed out. He and Takato stared at each other for the longest time before he knocked on the door again, throwing all of Henry’s concerns out the window with it. Henry groaned in frustration, just as the metallic door slid open for a little brown bear made of dirt to peek out, “Hello?”

Takato put on his cheeriest face, “Hi! We’ve lost some friends and are looking for them. Then again, we’re also a little lost ourselves. Do you have any water or some food?”

“You’re not with that demon, are you? The crazy demon motorcycle,” the little brown bear asked. Takato looked back at the rest of them with a raised eyebrow, skeptically remarking, “Demon motorcycle? Don’t be ridiculous! We’re not with a demon motorcycle! I’ve seen a crazy puppet, statues comes to life, and even world ending monsters from outside reality and not once have I ever seen a demon motorcycle!”

“What kinda digimon is that?” Juri pointed at the brown bear, “I’ve never seen one before like this.”

“Chuchidarumon. They’re a subtype or Frigimon only made with mud instead of ice and snow,” Takato answered knowledgeably, “They’re a really docile digimon too. Normally friendly. This motorcycle must have you guys really spooked if you’re locking all your doors!”

“Get away from the door! If the motorcycle sees you, it’ll come back!” a voice rang out from inside the hut. The door slammed shut after that, followed by the unmistakable sound of the click of several locks. Terriermon frowned, “Well that was rude.”

“What do you suppose they mean by demon motorcycle?” Leomon asked. Henry shrugged and pointed out, “More importantly, why do they keep talking about the motorcycle and not the rider? I’d think the rider is more dangerous.”

“Does anyone else hear that?” Takato asked, holding up a finger for complete silence. Juri closed her and cupped a hand to her ears, hearing only the distant sound of the wind blowing past. She opened her eyes and answered, “I don’t hear anything.”

Terriermon’s ears perked up and he added, “I do! It’s like a...a rumble.”

“Something’s coming,” Guilmon added, lifting up his nose to sniff the air. Juri closed her eyes again and tried to listen carefully. Nothing. No wait, there was something. A soft hum or rumble. Like an engine. A motorcycle engine! And it was getting closer and louder. Turning her head towards the noise, she saw the unmistakable shape of an unridden motorcycle roaring their way with no one riding upon it. And the headlight of this motorcycle flashed a grim blood red as it raced towards them, like a singular eye pierced into their very being to judge them. She gasped and Leomon groaned, “You’ve gotta be kidding me! They were serious!? A demon motorcycle!?”

“Oh, that is new,” Takato said almost too gleefully, “A self driving motorcycle!”

“Uh...it’s coming right at us,” Henry pointed out.

“We should run,” Terriermon added, pulling on Henry so that he would turn and start moving. Everyone did just that, hurrying towards one of the huts and climbing on top of the mounds to avoid the rampaging vehicle. At first, it seemed they would be safe but that did nothing to slow the machine down or hinder it as it rammed at full speed into the side of the hut. It shook violently, Juri grasping on to her partner for dear life while he dug his sword into its side to anchor them. The others were hardly fairing any better, trying to keep from getting knocked off and hanging on only by digging their hands straight into the mud. The hut shook one more time and motorcycle emerged from the other side, throwing a Chuchidarumon forward onto the ground and running it over. The digimon let out a single pained cry before disappearing into data. During that brief moment the motorcycle passed under them, Juri swore she saw what looked like a small metallic rabbit riding on its seat - so small that it was hardly noticeable. In fact, it was smaller than Calumon of all things. And it didn’t look to have any arms or legs! How was it driving the motorcycle? 

The motorcycle turned on its spot and revved its engine at them, producing a loud roar as it charged again. This time, it raised up its front wheel to transfer its momentum and raced up the side of the hut.

“JUMP!” Takato shouted, as they all leapt off the hut in time for the motorcycle to fly past them and land on the other side. Leomon kept Juri on his shoulder, “Hang tight, Juri. This motorcycle really is a demon!”

“No, there’s someone riding it!” Juri pointed out, “A little rabbit thing!”

“A rabbit?” Takato repeated, eyeing the motorcycle carefully. It had already regained its footing and was readying itself again, rushing their way. Takato ran in front of them and shouted, “HEY! LOOK AT ME! COME AND GET ME!”

“TAMER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Leomon roared out, rushing forward to stop the boy. The motorcycle had already turned though and was rushing right at him. Takato continued onward though, flailing his arms above his head, “That’s right! Over here! Come and get me!”

“What is he doing!?” Juri gasped, closing her eyes to avoid seeing what she thought she was going to see. There was a loud thump and soft crash. Her heart stopped. The only person who had any idea how to get them back had just thrown himself in front of a motorcycle! They were doomed! Royally doomed. She peeked her eyes open a little to see Takato on the sand, cradling something in his arms as he looked over his shoulder at the motorcycle continuing into the distance. Now with Guilmon riding upon it. As he stood up, Juri could make out the metallic rabbit in Takato’s arms and it weakly apologized, “I’m sorry! I saw everything. As soon as I was on the seat, I lost all control. It was like the motorcycle was making me do those things!”

“It’s alright, MetalKoromon,” Takato assured the little bunny and stroking its head. He handed the digimon over to Leomon and announced, “Do you mind holding this? I need to go save Guilmon!”

“HERE I COME TAKATOMON!” Guilmon roared at the top of his lungs, turning the motorcycle to face him. There was something off now about the red dinosaur, something different about him. Almost like he was possessed. MetalKoromon urged Takato, “Don’t do it! If that motorcycle gets you, it’s all over! All it wants is to find stronger riders! As soon as it does, it kicks off whoever is on it and kills everything else. Please! Don’t do it!”

“I’m not letting anything happen to Guilmon,” Takato said, adjusting his goggles over his head to cover his eyes. He looked back at Leomon and declared, “Be ready to knock me off as soon as you can!”

“What are you going to do?” Henry asked. Takato shrugged, “Get on the motorcycle, see what happens, maybe take it for a ride afterwards.”

He ran forward again and Henry groaned, “What’s with the throwing himself in danger act? Is he crazy or stupid?”

“We all know it’s both,” Terriermon remarked.

The motorcycle revved again, and Guilmon shouted, “YOU’RE ALL MINE NOW!”

“Then come get me!” Takato shouted back, standing in front of the motorcycle with his arms wide open. The motorcycle roared its engine and charged in again, going faster than it had before. Still, Takato didn’t move. Just as she was sure he’d get run over this time, the motorcycle’s brakes shrieked as it slid to a stop in front of him. It idled there with Guilmon staring Takato down, “YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT!”

“Yeah, I’m right in front of you. No need to shout. Or be rude,” Takato rubbed his ear. He stepped onto the side of the motorcycle and took hold of the handle bars. Immediately, Guilmon fell off in a daze so that Takato could get on the seat. He was hilariously small on its large frame, scooting as far forward as he could to grab both the handle bars and the foot rests, “So how does this work? Is it immediate or - CONTROL ACHIEVED! NOW WE RIDE! FIND STRONGER! KILL ALL ELSE! Yeah, I don’t think so. Also, why do you sound like Rika? IMPOSSIBLE! CONTROL HAS BEEN OVERRIDDEN! SURRENDER TO MY WILL! I AM THE BEAST! With all that shouting, I don’t doubt it. YOU WILL RESPECT MY WILL! Don’t tell me how to live my life. It’s my body and it’s my choice!”

It was weird. One second, Takato was screaming at the top of his voice and the next he spoke with the calm he’d shown before. And he was arguing with himself using the two voices. 

“Tamer, what’s happening?” Leomon shouted at him. Takato answered, “The demon motorcycle is trying to take over my brain, I think. It’s not very good at it. I HEARD THAT! That’s because I said it as loud as I could. YOU WILL BREAK BEFORE ME BOY! Boy? I’m older than you, I think. Also you look really familiar, have we seen each other before? HOW DO YOU RESIST!? BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! Not with that attitude, I won’t. Maybe you ought to try asking nicely? It’s not going to hurt. AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! I WILL RUN YOU DOWN!”

“Is it safe to get close?” Henry asked aloud. Takato shot him a dirty look and roared, “TRY IF YOU CAN MEAT BAG! TOUCH MY TREADS! I DARE YOU! It’s probably safe. I still have control over the finer motor functions so it’s not like it can make me rev the handle bar. WHY WON’T YOU SUBMIT? You didn’t say please. SO YOU WILL IF I DO? I didn’t say that. I HATE YOU SO MUCH! GET OFF! But I just got comfortable.”

Henry stared at him quietly before asking the obvious question, “Okay, so what happens now that you’re on there? If we knock you off, does the motorcycle just topple over or does it start moving on its own?”

“WHY DON’T YOU COME CLOSER AND FIND OUT MEAT SACK! LET ME RUN YOU OVER! KILL! KILL! KILL! Don’t be rude. Those are my friends and you should treat them with respect. THEY CAN RESPECT MY TREADS! KILL THEM ALL! YES! KILL THEM ALL! Okay, that’s totally uncalled for. And I don’t know, Henry. It’s not going anywhere so I think I’m in control of it but who knows what’ll happen,” Takato replied with a shrug. Leomon readied his sword and marched over to Takato, quietly answering, “There’s only one way to find out. Hah!”

He swung it as hard as he could so that the flat end of the blade struck Takato in the chest. The boy grunted, thrown off the bike and landing beside it with a frown, “Wow! What a trip! I’d do it again if I didn’t have to fight a killer bike for control of my own body. Now where did you come from? I mean...you weren’t here last time I was in the Digital World. Another world? Another version of the Digital World? What’s your story?”

“Not knowing things seems to be a theme for you, doesn’t it?” Terriermon observed. All eyes were on the motorcycle now as it sat there unmoving. Its engine was still running despite having no rider, but it had lost all ability to propel itself forward without a rider to steer or keep it balanced. Then it toppled over into the sand. Guilmon sniffed the motorcycle and Takato dusted himself off, “Well, that’s that. We should not do that again.”

“We? That was all you, Takato,” Henry slapped his back, then looked back down at the motorcycle. They were all thinking the same thing, even though they weren’t saying it. They should probably destroy it. Leomon raised his sword above his head, “Well, let’s finish this!”

“Wait!” Takato interrupted, “If we destroy this, someone’s going to need to absorb its data. The last thing we need is for its data to get loose into the Digital world! Who knows what kind of damage that could do if all that...killing intent ended up scattered. It might drive us all crazy. Or, worse, it could just mean the motorcycle reformats somewhere else. And then we’ll be right back where we started.”

“Are you sure about any of that?” Leomon asked, poking the motorcycle with the pointy end of his sword. The motorcycle revved its engine in protest but that just made Leomon jab it harder. Everyone else leapt back in surprise, covering their ears as it roared even louder. Terriermon commented, “I guess it’s still kicking.”

“But it doesn’t look like it can do anything without a rider so who cares?” Henry pointed out. The motorcycle continued to rev its engine in protest, trying in vain to do something other than just lay on the ground. The noise started to draw attention though as the mud bear digimon started to emerge from their huts en masse to see the motorcycle for themselves. One of them looked at it, “Is it…is it beaten?”

“Looks like it,” Leomon said, continuing to poke it with his sword, “As long as no one else climbs on it, it’ll just lay there and gather dust.”

That announcement drove the motorcycle into a rage as it started roaring its engine as loud as it could, making its rear wheel spin so fast that it began to spin in place on the ground. The Chuchidarumon retreated away in terror until Leomon jabbed his sword between the spikes of the rear wheel to stop it from spinning. The sword made a sickening grinding noise as the wheel became stuck on the sword and the engine finally died. Takato pointed at the motorcycle, “Are you done throwing a tantrum? Because it’s not going to help you get out of your situation. And it’s not going to make us help you get up. So why not stop with this and-”

As Takato continued to lecture the motorcycle, another soft rumble caught their attention. Juri clung on to Leomon, “Earthquake!”

“Not an earthquake! A sink hole!” Takato said, moving back from the motorcycle as the ground opened up just ahead of them. As they retreated away, the hole widened large enough to swallow the motorcycle into it. About a meter down into the hole was a layer of boiling hot magma that consumed the motorcycle. The motorcycle revved its in engine, creating a horrible grinding noise as it sank into the molten crag and burst into flame. One of the Chuchidarumon threw a rock at it as it sank in, “Good riddance!”

“That stupid thing has been terrorizing us for weeks! We could only leave our homes for a few moments at a time before it came to attack us!” another added, “Thank goodness it’s all over.”

Juri shared that sentiment - watching Takato go half insane like that was terrifying. What would possess the motorcycle to even behave like that? Why was it so driven to destroy everything? What had the Digital World ever done to it to make it like that?

The earth began to rumble again, and the surface of the lava began to ripple outwards until the motorcycle emerged. It flew out of the pit that had opened in the ground, driven by a new rider - a tall man wearing all leather under black armor. It wore a violet mask over its face, concealing everything but three glaring eyes full of blood thirsty glee. The rider cheered, “OH YEAH! THIS IS POWER, RIGHT HERE! REAL POWER! OH, I CAN FEEL IT! ALL OF IT! LISTEN UP! I AM BEELZEMON, RIDER OF THE BEHEMOTH, KING OF THE DIGITAL WORLD, DESTROYER OF WORLDS, AND WRECKER OF YOUR SHIT!”

“Well now I’ve seen everything and I hate it,” Takato threw up his hands in frustration, “I mean what did I miss? The Digital World is a lot more surreal than I remember.”

“He smells familiar,” Guilmon sniffed in the Beelzemon’s direction, “He smells like…Impmon.”

Juri squinted her eyes at Beelzemon, unsure there was a resemblance between the digimon. She had only seen Impmon once, and this was definitely not him. But Guilmon seemed to recognize him. Takato blinked and pointed at the digimon in disbelief, “That’s Impmon? He’s a lot taller than I remember.”

“Wait, Impmon is the one who kidnapped Calumon, right?” Henry pointed out. Beelzemon grunted, “Hmph.”

“Where is he!?” Terriermon shouted, “Don’t you know what you did by giving him over to the Devas!”

“So what? That ain’t my problem,” Beelzemon growled, revving the engine of the motorcycle. Takato snapped his fingers, “I got it! You’re infected by the motorcycle! It’s in your head and making you exceptionally violent! We just got to fix that and knock you off.”

“Knock me off? What? Are you mockin’ me!?” Beelzemon roared. He cracked his knuckles and reached for a strap on the side of the motorcycle, producing a double barreled shotgun which he cocked by spinning it in his hand. He pointed it straight at them, “I’ll show you! TAKE THIS!”

“DUCK!” Takato shouted, diving onto Guilmon and pushing him to the ground. Henry followed suit, holding Terriermon close as he dove for the dirt. Leomon followed suit, removing her from his shoulder and hugging her tight as he leapt for safety behind one of the buildings. All of the Chuchidarumon ran away in a panic, running into their homes for safety while Beelzemon roared, “THAT’S RIGHT YOU LITTLE SHITS! RUN! RUN AWAY! AH-HA-HA-HA!”

“So did he always swear this much or is that just the motorcycle?” Terriermon asked, watching Beelzemon rev the engine again as he turned the motorcycle towards them. He grinned ear to ear and revved his engine one more time before turning away from them. He raised his middle finger at them and rode off into the distance, taking one last chance to shout, “I DIDN’T NEED HUMANS’ THEN AND I DIDN’T NEED ‘EM NOW! SCREW YOU DWEEBS!”

“Well, at least we know Impmon’s safe,” Takato said dryly, taking a moment to dust the sand off himself before helping his partner up. Guilmon frowned, “He seemed really mad. I hope he’s not mad at us.”

“I doubt it,” Takato frowned, “We got two choices: go after him to find Calumon or keep going to the Bastion to find the others.”

Juri didn’t like the fact that they had two equally difficult choices to make in front of them and frowned at Henry’s answer, “That shouldn’t even be a question. We find Rika and the others, then we go after Beelzemon. Besides, without Calumon, none of our digimon can digivolve. We’ll need as many of us together as we can to stand a chance. Rika’s our best fighter and Juri’s still new to all this. No offense, Juri.”

“None taken,” Juri waved it off, putting on her biggest smile while feeling more useless than she had a in a while. Leomon was probably the strongest digimon on their team right now, and she hadn’t done anything with him. Rather, he’d taken initiative on everything. She felt like a horrible partner right now.

[tumblunni]

OK i dunno why but I’m gonna ramble about all my digimon in digimon cyber sleuth!! Y’all precious babies kept me going through the bad bits of this game, I cant wait to move on to Next Order and be able to have more affectionate gameplay wit my mons. Cyber Sleuth still hit me in the heart with a certain part of the ending tho, aaaaa T_T

ANYWAY My final team was as such:

Abigail the Blackwargreymon My starter, who began as a Hagurumon! I dunno why but I headcanoned her with the personality of a kind and ditzy robot grandma. I’m just sad that there werent that many good Mega level options that fit for her, I went with Blackwargreymon just cos its very useful and strong. Phyllis and Winston the Beelzemon and Gankoomon The unofficial other two starter digimon. I caught these guys early on and just got really attatched to them, it was a cute mental image to have this Andromon grandma raising a bunch of rookie and in-training babies! Their personalities were cute too, Phyllis was the responsible older sibling with a grumpy face, and Winston was her adorable innocent brother that she spoils to death. She was initially very suspicious of this new human tamer and wanted to protect her bro, but eventually we all became best buds! They hatched from the same egg but went off on wildly diverging digivolution paths, at the start she was a Lopmon and he was a Keramon. For most of the game she was the two different types of Kerpymon and he was around the Meramon digivolution line, so I was glad when I unlocked the lategame royal knights and deadly sins and they could have final forms that suited them better. I wish Bellestarmon was in this game, but I don’t think Phyllis would care for the super sexualized outfit anyway. So just imagine she’s a Bellestarmon with a more serious formal outfit. Tuxedo burst mode! She was also a Belphemon Rage Mode for a while and generally her digivolutions followed the formula of giant power beasties until I found a humanoid type that suited her. Oh and Winston is gankoomon cos it reminds me of a gijinka meramon?? And cos he was the supporting buff guy, and Gankoomon has the very useful ability thats the equivelant of Sturdy from pokemon. Also i laugh that Gankoomon is like the shortest humanoid digimon in the whole game, even with his giant heels! Oberon the Ravemon My absolute speed friend! Not often a heavy hitter, but a lifesaver in battles where you need one guy trying to hold the line and heal everyone against a thing that takes three turns to your one. He’s mostly the reviver and only gets to take someone out when he gets a favourable type matchup. His name comes because he was a Lilamon when I first got him! I just bumped into a Lilamon in a dungeon and thought up a cool story for him. I figured he was a trickstery type enemy who was just fighting on the royal knights’s side for the lolz and joined us cos we seemed more interesting. But then he ended up being a bit of a team mom against his will and ultimately became genuinely good. Freya the Dianamon Mostly just used this one to try all the jogress evolutions, she never got used in battle until the end of the game but was surprisingly good. I headcanoned maybe she’s like a group conciousness of people fused over and over again, so much that none of the originals really exist anymore. She’s like the avenging spirit of a bunch of fallen warriors who fused in order to defend their world, she was born just to fight and has trouble loosening up and expressing her own individual personality. Anyway she evolved into a Dianamon after all that fusing, and she was also a Sakuyamon when i needed a debuffer for one particular boss fight. Sarwari the Mastemon Odd case of a digimon I never got attatched to until after the fact. I just fused a bunch of randoms to see what the new angewoman-ladydevimon evolution looked like, and then she ended up being really cool and useful so I kept her. And she only got her name at the final boss fight! She’s named after my old digimon tamer OC, and thus she probably has the same personality of being a haughty ego kid who secretly hides her inferiority complex under grumpness. Mika the Crusadermon Also based on an OC from that same story! Mika was the partner of another tamer in that group. He started off as just a subversion of the Leomon cliches, he was a very cowardly leomon who always avoided catastrophe through dumb luck. Eventually Crusadermon was his final evolution cos I thought the design looked as cute and sweet and elegant as him, but then the Crusadermon in this game was an asshole. Still not gonna stop the mika train tho! Honorable mention to Maximus the Lucemon Named after my Patamon plushie in real life, and started off as one. It was HELL to unlock and meet the requirements for Lucemon, gahhhhh! And then each evolution for him just gets worse, rookie level Lucemon was the most useful but its stats dont really allow it to stand up in battle. So he fought valiantly and was good as a healer for a while but ultimately I decided to fuse him with Phyllis to give her that exp boost she needed to get Blast Mode before the final boss. Maximus supports us in spirit! ...also I never really managed to headcanon a personality for him, alas :(

[digimentalup]

there’s this scene where tohma/yoshino/ikuto all do the digisoul burst overdrive thing at once and that shit is soooo satisfying... especially if you’re watching all of the seasons in order and you watch this directly after coming off the takuya and kouji show, i mean, frontier

power imbalances between the main characters in general bothers me because i don’t like how it gives the gogglehead (+ his lancer sometimes) that much special treatment

like let’s take a look at how each season has handled everything so far:

adventure: everyone gets their own crests and reaches perfect level, but taichi and yamato unlock warp evolving to ultimate because of some prophecy bullshit, and then they further unlock the... ultimate ultimate(??) level when they fuse into omegamon. tri is... trying to rectify this, which is nice, albeit pretty much every evolution scene (except herculeskabuterimon) has been pretty underwhelming... (looking at you, seraphimon)

02: uhhh armor evolution made this weird and all but, as much as i love daisuke and ken, it is also pretty bs that they’re the only one that could further evolve their jogress evolution AND it got both fighter mode and paladin mode on top of that. not to mention daisuke and v-mon also... situationally (??) have magnamon on the side...?

tamers: ???? ok tamers is. weird with this regard. in terms of the main trio, they all unlock matrix evolution which is really fucking sweet. one of my favorite things about tamers, good shit. dukemon also gets access to crimson mode but w/e i’m cool with that. but then we have fucking RYO who does unlock matrix evolution even though he did jackshit to deserve it and SIGH. then there’s leomon which just sorta... died before it did anything. hirokazu’s guradromon was an andromon (perfect level) beforehand and of course there’s marineangemon which is somehow an ultimate??? xiaochun has lopmon which was an antiramon (again, perfect) beforehand too. ai and makoto’s impmon did of course evolve into beelzebumon (+with blast mode too) but how much do you really consider impmon their partner when they were barely in the season...

frontier: hahahaHAHAHAHA seriously you’d think they’d at least... try to also make koichi special too?? he got different spirits when he finally teamed up with the other kids but even then he still got sidelined in the end...

savers: everyone reaches ultimate + burst mode!! shinegreymon BM also gets access to the geogrey sword i guess but other than that no complains here

xros wars: “power levels??? what’s that???? just keeping fucking slapping everything onto shoutmon and put a bigger number in his name”

appmon: everyone reaches god level appmon so again, no complains here

like as much as i adore the protagonists i just... also want to see the other characters shine too...

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Whats Mine Is Mine:  Chapter 8

“He’s calmed down some,” Takeru said, hovering over Daisuke. Hikari nodded, trying not to let herself worry and knowing that she wasn’t doing a proper job of it at all.

There was so much to worry about. Still no clue as to Andromon’s whereabouts and then the Kaiser’s threats against her partner and now whatever was going on with Daisuke.

There had only been a few traces of whatever it was that had been on the Kaiser’s dart left where they could get to it. Koushirou turned up not long after Jou did and started to run scans on what they had. Neither one of them looked happy about what they saw.

“His fever hasn’t gone down,” Jou reported. “At least it’s not too high, but I’d feel better if it would drop a little more.”

“What I’m seeing here doesn’t make much sense,” Koushirou said a heartbeat later. “This doesn’t appear to be a disease or a poison of any kind.”

“So what is it?” Miyako wanted to know, moving around to where she could see Koushirou’s laptop as he worked. She frowned the moment she could see things there and Hikari wondered what she saw.

“It actually reads more to me like a computer virus. Not a Virus Digimon,” he clarified, for the Digimon who kept staring at him in confusion. He looked around at the others. “You see, we’re all data in the Digital World. That means to an extent, we can be rewritten, under the right parameters. That isn’t something that normally happens, of course.”

“Thank goodness,” Takeru muttered. “But what does that mean? What is it turning him into… a Digimon?”

Hikari almost wished that was the case when Koushirou gave his answer. At least that was something they could’ve worked with.

“I can’t say for certain. This code is too complex for me to understand just by staring it for a few minutes. But given that this is the Kaiser, I don’t think it’s going to be anything that we want him to become. We’re going to have to figure out a way to halt it before our time is up.”

Miyako stared harder at it, as if she could make it all unhappen just by giving it a very stern look. Hikari wished that were true.

“What do you think the odds are on us doing that?” Takeru wanted to know. “I mean, can we? Can it be done at all?”

Koushirou shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not even certain how he made this. But I think I can guess why he gave Hikari that thirty-six hour time limit.”

All eyes were on him now. Koushirou nodded. “In thirty-six hours, the code rewriting will be complete and he’ll be whatever it is the Kaiser wants him to be.”

“And I think we can all be certain that he won’t be our friend.” Iori said, voice solemn.

Hikari held back the cry of rage that boiled in her throat by sheer force of will. How could the Kaiser do all of this? Why would he? Wasn’t it enough to enslave Digimon? Did he have to do this to their friends too?

Koushirou looked at Miyako. “We’ll do all that we can in the time that we do have. If both of us work on it, then we might have a chance to crack the code in time.”

Miyako nodded fiercely. “What do you need me to do?”

The two of them fell into the language of computers and data, which Hikari didn’t understand at all. Instead, she kept her time occupied watching Daisuke, trying to get him to calm down when he started to thrash around.

“Is he saying something?” she asked, leaning forward when she heard vague noises. V-mon sat by his head, one paw resting on the shoulder that had been injured, and shook his head.

“I think he’s just kind of mumbling. I haven’t heard anything that really made sense.” V-mon looked down. “He was trying to protect me.”

Hikari rested a hand on him. “Who knows what this might’ve done to you. It’s like Daisuke to try to protect you, you know.”

“He shouldn’t have to! That’s my job, to protect him!” V-mon declared. He quieted himself a moment later as Daisuke twitched in his unnatural rest. Hikari didn’t want to call it ‘sleeping’.

“Don’t worry. You two can talk it all out once he’s all right again.” Hikari absolutely wouldn’t let herself believe anything otherwise. She couldn’t help a small twinge of guilt watching all of this either.

I don’t regret helping him that day but if I hadn’t, if he’d gotten away on his own, would Kaiser have done this to us? Would he be using this now or would he have done something worse?

She had no idea of what to think about all of this. If she could trade herself for Daisuke and his well-being, she would have. But would it really do any good?

A familiar hand touched her shoulder and she looked up into the worried eyes of her brother. Taichi gave her a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry. Daisuke’s tough as they come. He’ll fight this off,” he reassured her. Hikari tried a small smile back at him. It didn’t feel right on her lips. But she tried it anyway.

He wasn’t going to die. But there were things worse than death.

To Be Continued

Notes: What’s worse than death? Me! And what I have planned.

[analyzingadventure]

Okay I took my sweet ass time but here I am, to do reactions to episodes 12 and 13! In one post! Let’s go!

Lilimon time let’s gooo!

I love Palmon...... Baby...

Ancient weapon factory? Fuck that sounds doPE OH ANDROMON!!! ANDROMOOOON!!!

Oh jesus they’re all dead Digimon?? Oh that’s dark, fuck, nice

ANDROMOOOOOON!!! PLEASE DON’T BE EVIL, GOD

FUCK, HE’S EVIL AGAIN

Togemon is such a good Digimon design. Shaped like a friend, absolutely stellar

OH YEAH, GO GUARDROMON! SAVE THAT GIRL! Guardromon are so underrated, they’re so cool

OH THIS GUARDROMON JUST REALLY LIKES MIMI THAT’S SO CUTE, THIS IS WHAT I’M HERE FOR, BIG SCARY MONSTERS BEING LIKE “oh this tiny human is cute and nice, I will look after it from now on”, FUCK YEAH

Jesus Taichi, IDK if climbing down is a good idea that’s dangerous as fuck dude (I mean yeah Mimi survived and they all have plot armor but still)

Ohhhh it’s pretty... This reminds me of Nausica... GUARDROMON YOU’RE A GOOD MON, I LOVE YOU

Hagurumons! Also I love how off-model the characters are looking rn, I’m willing to bet that’s an old animator veteran who worked on Adventure who worked on this episode because yeah, this looks super familiar and it makes me very happy

RIP, Hagurumons

I wonder who built this weapon factory... OH JESUS Andromon, don’t scare me like that!

GUARDROMON NO, NOO, DON’T DIE

NO

NO NO NO NONONO

GET ‘IM KABUTERIMON, BUT FUCK, NO GUARDROMON!! DARLING!! NOOO PSI STOP KILLING THE BEST CHARACTERS!!! ;__;

Okay but Andromon is really sexy in this episode

WAIT FUCK WAS THAT MUGENDRAMON IN THERE

WAS THAT MUGENDRAMON IN METALGREY’S EVOLUTION SEQUENCE

WAS THAT FUCKING MUGENDRAMON

I NEED TO REWIND I DON’T CARE IF CRUNCHYROLL WILL CRASH FROM IT I NEED TO SEE THAT AGAIN

OH MY GOD MUGENDRAMON MUGENDRAMON MYGENDRAMONSDFDFG

I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE ANYMORE THIS IS LITERALLY THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS BECAUSE HOLY FUCK WHAT THE SHIT DOES  THAT MEAN

On a side note. While I think the Adult evolutions were cooler tbh, that was really fucking cool, the evolution sequence that is. 9/10, very fucking cool, thank you Psi for giving my girl so much love

GUARDROMON!! YOU’RE STILL ALIVE!!!! ;____;

WAIT FUCK NOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCK NO DON’T DO THAT PSI

GET ‘IM MIMI

I like how even Psi is like "dude, Lilimon's evolution sequence in Adventure was dope, we're just leaving it the way it was 'cause we can't top that" lmao

That’s a lot of special effects there

There is just a lot of Ghibli love in this episode

Also fuck Andromon was saved just before he died.... Fucking hell...

Jesus fuck... This was a really good episode but... Fuck...

Like I was gonna be like “And now Garudamon episode! Woo!” but... Jesus...

Poor Jyou, getting motion sickness...

Are we going to get Funbeemon lore in this episode? Lore about the castle in the sky that the Funbeemon work in? Because I’ve wanted to get that lore for a loooooong time

RIP, Jyou

Funbeemon are cute, it’s about time this baby gets some love from Toei!

Jyou is having such a bad day holy shit

Taichi and Agumon... being willing to give the tablet a good smacking.... Thanks I love it

JYOU, BABY... DARLING.... PLEASE GIVE HIM A HUG, SOMEBODY

Okay WereGarurumon evolution sequence. There’s no Dark Master in here but there is a red orb/moon, which is glitching out a bit. What the fuck does any of this mean, Psi you have my fucking attention holy shit

Oh man the way that evolution sequence lowkey evoked the original from Adventure was neat yo

FINALLY, JYOU GETS THE HUG HE DESERVED

Finally, Jyou gets to have the break he deserves and stay on the ground with Ikkakumon. Good for him, it’s what he deserves, poor guy

Digimon Psi said Save The Bees

JESUS CHRIST THAT’S A BIG EXPLOSION, JESUS FUCK

Psi is lowkey getting some of that Adventure Novel energy by being weirdly fucking dark in with a vey specific type of energy

I love how Sora doesn’t even react to Birddramon evolving

TBH I’m maybe just a little bit sad Garudamon is tinier than in Adventure but okay v__v

Agumon copying Taichi... I love them...

Agumon suggested he’d whack the tablet so Taichi wouldn’t get hurt... I LOVE HIM SO MUCH YOU GUYS... AGUMON IS BEST GIRL

Okay, next episode preview!

Yeah it’s AtlurKabuterimon in the next episode, nothing really catching my interest in that episode but sure

ALSO I HAVE NO CHILL I’M GONNA WATCH THE NEW ENDING NOW

TAKERUUUUU ARE YOU GONNA GET TO JOIN THE CREW SOON? PWEASE?

Oh man the art style was so weird for that ending but I was super into it, okay

IDK what else to say now, Episode 13 was okay but 12 absolutely wrecked me, holy shit, ALSO MUGENDRAMON AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] What’s Mine Is Mine:  Chapter 4

Daisuke didn’t think he’d ever been this exhausted, not even when he’d gone up against Ichijouji Ken on the soccer field.

Ooops, he didn’t like to think about that. Anyway, that game had worn him out, and this battle wasn’t much better. So many of their enemies kept going right up against him, and FlaDramon couldn’t get all of their Spirals or Rings. They needed at least a little space to work up a good attack and the more crowded they were, the less chance they had of that happening.

Making it even worse was how much energy they were using when they could get an attack off.

“It’s getting harder and harder to get through those things!” FlaDramon declared. “It’s like the Kaiser made them out of something super-strong this time!”

“That’s just what we needed, super-upgraded materials,” Daisuke muttered, dodging out of the way of one of the enslaved Digimon’s attacks before it could take his head off. “How many more do we have?”

FlaDramon took a quick look around. “Uh, is too many a bad thing?”

“Really bad.”

Daisuke didn’t like retreating from a battlefield. He’d do it if he had to, but he didn’t think this was a thing right now. Sure, they were outnumbered and there were way too many Digimon whose Rings and Spirals just refused to break and they didn’t know where Andromon was. He’d lost track of Takeru while they were trying to get to the Dark Towers and he hadn’t had track of the others since before then.

That wasn’t reason enough to back off, though, was it?

He looked around himself and groaned when he saw what was going on. Almost every Ringed and Spiraled slave that had been in the city now stood between him and where he guessed the rest of his friends were.

This did not look good at all.

“Hello, Motomiya.”

And it just got worse.

The Digimon Kaiser stood not that far away, on top of one of his AirDramon, watching him calmly.

“Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?” Daisuke demanded. He could think of so many better things he could be doing than having to deal with this jerk. Most of them involved relaxing with V-mon or having fun with his friends. Not trying to save a world from an idiot who’d been the one to put it in danger in the first place.

“Not at the moment. But I seem to suffer from a lack of playthings to amuse myself with.” Kaiser tilted his head toward Daisuke. “Perhaps you’d be interested in the job? It’s very simple. All you do is kneel at my feet and obey my every command for the rest of your life.”

“Not interested.”

“A pity. I think it’s a task you were made for. But you’ll give it a try whether you like it or not.”

Daisuke wondered exactly what had happened to Ichijouji Ken so that he thought like this at all. Before he could open his mouth to ask, however, the Kaiser threw back his cape and revealed a long, sharp dart. He took aim and let fly, the dart heading right for FlaDramon.

Daisuke threw himself forward, running on pure adrenaline, and shoved his partner down, not caring that FlaDramon wore armor, not caring about anything aside from the fact he wasn’t going to let anything of the Kaiser’s touch his partner, evne if he didn’t know what it was.

The dart slammed into Daisuke’s shoulder, knocking him flat on his back. He stared up, something warm and wet dripping now from where the dart hit him, and an unexpected weakness washing all over him.

“Daisuke?”

It was V-mon. Why was it V-mon? Hadn’t he been FlaDramon?

But V-mon stood over him, staring down at him, reaching for the dart and then pulling his hand back, eyes round with fear, fear that grew as firm footsteps strode toward him.

Then V-mon wasn’t there anymore, tossed casually backward, and the Digimon Kaiser loomed over him.

“Y-you missed,” Daisuke muttered, his vision graying out for a few seconds. He hoped when it cleared up that the Kaiser would just be a hallucination or something. Instead, his enemy still stood over him, success and triumph clear.

“Oh, no, I didn’t. I wanted to hit you. You’ve always been my target, Motomiya Daisuke. You’re far too good at annoying me.” Kaiser ran a finger down Daisuke’s face. The touch felt far too good, cold against the heat that rose up within him, spreading from where the dart hit. “That dart held a very powerful serum I’ve been working on for some time now. I’m not going to tell you everything that it does, but I will tell you this: if you don’t get the remedy within thirty-six hours, you will not like the results. And I have the remedy. Which I will only give to you if you’re mine.”

Daisuke tried to shake his head and wished that he hadn’t. The world spun around him and he scrunched his eyes closed for a few seconds to fight it.

Kaiser pushed him back down flat. “You stay right here. I suspect I’ll see you very soon.” He stared at Daisuke for another few moments and Daisuke wondered why he looked so hungry.

Then with a flourish of his cape, Kaiser vanished, leaving Daisuke sick and confused.

To Be Continued

Notes: Sorry I’m a bit late here. Been a busy week so far. But now we’re getting to the fun stuff!

[the-digimon-tamer]

Chapter 23 - Visitors Not Welcome is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 23: Visitors Not Welcome

Everyone screamed as they felt themselves pulled down, up, back and forth in an endless void of swirling colors and blinding lights. A few times, it felt like they were drowning in water. Other times, it felt like they were suffocating from air. And sometimes, it just felt like standing on solid ground. Through it all, Kazu screamed, “What the hell is going on!?”

“Language!”

“Really Henry?”

“I’ll do what the hell I want! You’re not my mother!” he spat out. 

“Where even are we?” Rika shouted out. 

“The space between worlds!” Takato’s voice rang out in the endless voice, “This gate is a little sloppier than my usual ones. Give it time! It’ll get better. Probably. We should land whenever we get there.”

“Land where? All I see is bright lights!” Terriermon shouted back. 

“Maybe there?” Juri pointed at what looked like a floating piece of land. As soon as she said that, they all found themselves flying towards the ground at break neck speed. Or falling. The perspective was just plain messy at this point. And as quickly as it started, it subsided as they gently rolled into a mound of sand in the desert. Rough, coarse sand blowing straight into their clothes and battering their face as it struck them. Then the wind died down and they were able to gather their bearings.

Juri dusted herself off, coughing as she tried to get sand out of her mouth, “Is it always like that? If it is, then I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“Only when you’re crossing the boundary between worlds,” Takato answered, poking his head out of the sand and trying to clear it out of his hair to little success . Rika scoffed, “So all the time is what you’re saying.”

He clicked his tongue, “I didn’t say that at all. Ah! Home sweet home! It’s a lot dustier than I remember. Andromon, how long was I gone for?”

Andromon spun his limbs and his neck to remove the sand from his joints, whirring and beeping grotesquely. Once he finished, he scanned around the desert, “Information: The Digimon Tamer’s last recorded sighting in the Digital World was...Error. Time dilations detected, unable to verify passage of time since last sighting.”

“Oh that’s bad. That is very bad,” Takato frowned, retrieving his digivice from his pocket to examine it carefully, “Okay, better be quick then. We don’t want to spend too much time here.”

“Hold up! What was that about time…dials…whatever?” Kazu asked quickly. Takato put a hand over his eyes to block the sun and started scanning the horizon, ignoring Kazu’s question. Kazu called again, “Takato?”

“I thought I already explained this Kazu. Time’s become convoluted,” Takato answered back, “We may have been here for about a minute, but that doesn’t mean time is flowing the same back in the human world. Days, weeks, months, years could’ve passed. And we’re a few days behind Makuramon in that world. Who knows how far behind we are here! Or how far ahead we are! We could be here before Makuramon arrives, which gives us an advantage but it’s not like we know which is which.”

“Okay, that hurt my head,” Leomon grumbled. Frustrated, Terriermon shouted, “Are we going to just sit here and talk about this or are we going to go find Calumon already? This heat is killing me and I don’t like sitting around here doing nothing!”

“Terriermon’s right. We should get moving,” Henry agreed solemnly, wiping his brow, “The sooner we get out of this heat, the better. Where to first?”

“If I had to guess, that would be a good place to start,” Rika pointed off into the distance. Somehow, in the confusion of their arrival, they all missed a giant glowing orb of light over the horizon. It was almost like a second sun, but closer to the ground and nowhere near as blinding. Takato took a good look at it and asked, “Hey, Andromon. When were you going to tell me about the big glowing light in the Digital World that wasn’t here last time?”

“Answer: The light was not present during departure for the human world. This light is unknown at this time,” Andromon answered flatly, staring at it intensely, “Optical Zoom at 50. Moving figure spotted. Unable to identify at this time.”

Kazu pointed straight at it, waving the flag in his hand, “Well I say we go that way! I betcha Calumon is right there.”

Rika raises up her digivice “What about our digivices? I mean, it can detect and identify digimon when they come from the other side, right? Why wouldn’t it be able to find Calumon here?”

“Maybe?” Takato examined his own, “My old one broke and I can’t still figure out how this specific model works. It’s like…going from a computer to a calculator.”

Rika cycled through the options on her digivice but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. In truth, she hadn’t done much to experiment with the digivice since she got it. It usually just set off alarms whenever something happened and powered up Renamon when she swiped cards through the card reader. And from the looks of it, neither Henry or Juri had either. Renamon folded her arms at their hesitation and grunted, “We’ve been sitting idle for long enough and I’m not hearing any better ideas. Let’s go…and everyone stick together. The last thing we need is to get separated from each other in a dangerous place like this.”

“Hang on!” Kazu shouted aloud to stop them. He reached into his bag produced a collapsible pole that he reassembled and a piece of cloth that he mounted on top. With a firm shove into the ground, he shouted, “This is one small step for ‘mon! One giant leap for ‘mon kind!”

“Alright! It’s picture time!” Kenta added happily, waving a digital camera in the air excitedly, “Come on guys! What are you waiting for! Kodak moment for our first time in the Digital World.”

“What is he talking about?” Leomon looked at the rest of them in confusion. Rika closed her eyes, “It’s a thing people do in our world. They take photos of every little thing to make memories of whatever. It doesn’t matter how unimportant it is.”

“Oh don’t be like that Rika! This is important! It’s our first time in the Digital World! Come on!” Juri cheered excitedly, taking hold of the poor girl and dragging her over to the flag. Rika wanted to protest but saw Renamon already perched atop the pole. Rika couldn’t believe what she was seeing, “Not you too, Renamon!”

“I’m curious Rika. Besides, I get a pretty good view from up here. I can scout for danger while our photos are taken,” Renamon answered flatly. Rika sighed in defeat and went along with getting their pictures taken, watching the others assemble beside the flag. Kenta took his time with each photo: first everyone, then just the humans, then just the digimon, the girls, and finally just the boys. Once they were done, Kenta excitedly started examining the pics only to groan, “Oh, what? What happened to my pictures? They’re all fuzzy and blurry.”

“That’s never happened before,” Takato called out, snatching the camera to see for himself, “I definitely remember Dizzy’s computer worked fine. I wonder what happened here?”

“Well we are in another world. Maybe it’s messing with the electronics?” Henry assumed quietly. 

“That sucks. I brought this camera for nothing,” Kenta sighed in defeat. Kazu picked up the flag and declared, “Don't worry about it. We got a lot more stuff to do. Let’s just bring home some souvenirs while we’re here!”

“What souvenirs? There’s nothing but sand for miles,” Kenta pointed out quietly. He marched along with them but sounded entirely annoyed by the loss of his photos. Rika decided now would be a good time to message her mom. She was probably worried sick about her already and started typing her message. She pulled out the D-Terminal and opened the lid. To say it was like nothing she’d ever seen would be an understatement. It was like a crammed keyboard and screen but it ran like it was a brand new computer. Still, part of her was just a little excited to think that her dad used to be one of the characters in her favorite book and that this was his D-Terminal. Without even thinking, she started typing aloud as she spoke, “We made it and we’re all okay. We’ll message you more later.”

She wasn't sure which of the contacts were her mom so she simply hit send all. She closes the lid once the message was sent and noticed everyone was looking at her with the biggest of smiles. It was creepy in how unnerving it was, “What?”

“Just admiring how much more you’ve been opening up lately,” Juri answered, folding her arms behind her back as her smile widened. Rika grunted, closed her eyes and put the device away, “Whatever. Let’s get going already.”

“Leomon, is the entire Digital World like this? Just miles of desert in every direction,” Juri asked her partner aloud. Leomon grunted, “No. I don’t know where this is but I’ve seen a lot of the Digital World: vast oceans, thick forests, steaming jungles, high peaked mountains, frosted glaciers, and more. The whole of the Digital World is as varied and diverse as your world I imagine. Unless I’m mistaken in thinking your entire world is just one big city.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be silly if the world were just one big desert,” Juri giggled quietly. Takato pocketed his hands, “Don’t be too sure of that. There are lots of worlds that only have one kind of environment, if they have any at all.”

“And how would you know that?” Kazu rolled his eyes in disbelief. Without skipping a beat or even cracking a smile, Takato answered, “Got stuck outside reality for a while - it was an abstract void of nothingness. Took me forever to find a way back to the Digital World. Went through a lot worlds in the process. One with naked giants trying to break down a wall, another where the whole world was flooded and dry land wasn’t a concept, another where the only light came from a fire that everyone was really anxious to throw themselves into so it would burn a little longer. That world was…different. Also, does anyone else feel like something is off?”

“We’re in another world goggle head! What part of this isn’t weird?” Rika snapped at him. Takato laughed, “You have me there. No, I was thinking about how…I don’t know…it feels like your world still. Like we never left.”

“Well you said that there were two versions of our world sitting on top of each other. Maybe this is the same thing?” Kenta reasoned quietly. Takato’s eyes widened and he spun around to face him, “Say that again.”

“What?”

“Again! Say it again!”

“I was just saying that maybe there are two digital worlds sitting on top of each other,” Kenta repeated quietly. Takato slapped a hand to his forehead, groaning in disbelief, “Of course! Of course! I’m an idiot! Henry! You’re dad said he invented digimon! But the Digital World is infinitely old! UNLESS! He didn’t build this Digital World! He built another one with his friends. And it started to intersect with this one! I’m an idiot! How did I miss that? It’s no wonder nothing makes sense! There aren’t three worlds sitting on top of each other! There are four! Not just two human worlds with conflicting histories and realities! Two digital worlds! That’s what all of this is!”

“He’s doing that thing where he’s not making sense again,” Kazu scratched the back of his head in confusion. The rest of them nodded in agreement but Terriermon chimed in, “He may not be talking sense but he‘s got more sense than any of us when it comes to this stuff. I say we keep listening to him and maybe we’ll all make it out of this okay!”

“So basically do what my parents did back when they were our age?” Rika took the chance to shoot him a dirty look. Takato frowned at that, throwing up his hands defensively, “Your mom has issues with me. Actually, so did a lot of them. That’s alright.”

“Wait, I thought you said you couldn’t remember much,” Kenta pointed out. Takato smiles back, “Yeah, but being in the Digital World is helping to make it easier to remember things. It’s like...oh! It’s like when you have a horrible headache that finally goes away for the first time.”

He said that with gleefully, and Terriermon commented, “Wow. That bad, huh? It’s no wonder you do crazy stuff some times.”

...

Juri had no idea what any of them were talking about. It was so confusing. But being in a strange new world like this was kind of exciting. And she was eager to learn as much about it as she could.  So she looked to her partner, “Hey Leomon. What can you tell us about the Digital World?”

A big toothy grin came across his face and he beamed at her “What would you like to know Juri?”

“Anything, really. I don’t know a whole lot about digimon. A lot of what I do know is just from what’s been going on,” she answered sheepishly. Leomon beat his chest proudly, “I will be happy to tell you any and all tales that would suit you, Juri. How about I tell you the story of the fallen hero? Or perhaps a tale of the Royal Knights? Stories of monsters and villains. I can even share a little history, but that’s not really my specialty.”

“A story sounds nice. What was that one about the Royal Knights?” Juri asked excitedly. She noticed Leomon begin breathing heavily with excitement as he began, “The Digital World has been home to many a hero in its time. But the Digital Knights were among the greatest of these heroes, gathered together by Imperialdramon during a dark time to help strike back and bring order. Of these heroes, one rose to become their leader: Alphamon, the Knight of the First Seat. In his absence, the Knights are led by Omegamon or some say Omnimon. And there were many strong digimon in their ranks: Gallantmon or some say Dukemon, Dynasmon, BanchoLeomon, Magnamon, UlforceVeedramon, Crusadermon, Examon. Together, they served to enforce order in the Digital World at the behest of its one true ruler: a being they call the king. That which is sublime, they preserve. That which is weak, they protect. That which threatens, they destroy. Some call them the first heroes of this world. But, as with all heroes and all unions, it was only a matter or time before they were driven apart - some say it started with The Great War, the war that threatened to tear our world apart. Each had their own ideas on how to end it, and their unity was tested by it. It broke, as they turned on each other. Some say they slew each other, others say they went into hiding - knowing their struggle was threatening to destroy an already fragile world. Whichever it was, they haven’t been seen in a long time as a result. It is said though, that they will reveal themselves when the Digital World needs them most, doing all they can to save it before disappearing again. In my time I’ve seen at least two: Magnamon and Imperialdramon. If I live long enough, I would like to see more.”

Kazu threw his arms behind his head, “That’s lame. They only show up when you’re already screwed. What’s the point?”

Juri didn’t agree. If anything, she felt the story was kinda sad. What would cause these heroes to turn on each other like that? “So...what was this war thing that drove them apart?”

Leomon sighed, “No one can say for sure. It was so long ago that few digimon remember what the reason even was. The few who did are either dead, in hiding, or no longer with us.”

“Isn’t that a fancy way of saying dead?” Henry looked back, joining the conversation too. Juri looked ahead to see the rest of the group looking back at her and Leomon. She was t sure when that had happened but she was embarrassed to suddenly be the center or attention. Leomon was much more welcoming of his listeners and answered, “Not at all! Life and death is different for digimon compared to you humans. I understand that human life ends upon death. But for a digimon, and all digital life really, that is much more complicated.”

“Yeah, you guys reformat or something, right?” Henry asked aloud, “I remember that part from the books. The weak lose their memories, but the strong can retain their memories and part of their personality, right?”

“That is only if our data is able to disperse freely. It takes time but it can coalesce back into an egg. But for others, that isn’t the case. You noticed I absorbed Indramon’s data when I defeated him. He is dead but not dead. It would be more accurate to say we became one. He is in me or rather, I have absorbed him into my being. We are one entity, sharing thoughts, knowledge, memories, and skills. However, I am the dominant personality. If you’re still following me.”

Juri’s head spun in confusion at that annoying explanation. If it even was supposed to be one. Rika must’ve understood it though because she asked, “Wait, does that mean you know what the Devas were up to? If you have his memories, why don’t you tell us? Renamon! Why didn't you tell us?”

”What else was there to add that we didn’t already know?” she replied matter of factly. Rika raised an eyebrow, “How would we know that? So does that mean you already knew?”

Renamon shook her head, remaining stoic in her answer, “Not at all. In truth, I’ve learned nothing I didn’t already know. Well, besides WarGreymon perishing. That is a serious loss to all the Digital World. And also explains why the devas were in such a panic. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing I could have shared that we didn’t already know. The devas are looking for the catalyst, there’s some kind of danger coming that scared them and the Sovereigns, and they were desperate enough to try and break the barrier between worlds.”

“Is that why digimon started showing up in our world?” Henry asked, looking over to Terriermon. Terriermon’s ears perked up, “Hey! You brought me to your world. That had nothing to do with me.”

“Many digimon knew there was a great danger coming, so we scrambled to become stronger. We turned on each other. How we ended up in the Real World is something I can’t answer though. For me, the gate just appeared and I felt a calling to you. You were looking for a strong digimon partner and i was the strongest there at the time,” Renamon said to Rika, her expression as unreadable as ever. Than didn’t help Rika from looking like she was trying to hide the biggest scowl ever. After an uncomfortably long silence between them, Leomon offered, “To be entirely fair to Renamon, I don’t think any digimon outside the sovereigns really know what’s going on.”

“The sovereigns. If I remember from the show, those are Azulongmon and three others, right?” Kazu asked excitedly, “So are we going to go meet them? Cause dude, that’d be so awesome to get to see those guys in real life! I even have his card! Do you think he’ll sign it?”

He excitedly produced his deck and scanned through it before holding up a card for them to see. On it was an azure dragon with long flowing white hair, wrapped in chains and curling in on itself. Upon seeing it, Takato snatched the card from him, “This was him! Azulongmon! That’s his name! Right! And Zhuqiaomon, the vermillion bird of the south! And there was...um...Ebonwumon! The tortoise of the north! And Baihumon, the tiger of the west! These guys are the protectors of the Digital World! It’s all coming back now! They were...I...uh...oh...”

“Spit it out gogglehead,” Rika snapped at him, “You keep doing that thing where you get excited and talk a mile a minute. Don’t also start pausing for no reason. What is it?”

“Sorry,” Takato shook his head, trying his hardest to avoid eye contact with them, “Renamon, you said WarGreymon was gone, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“What happened?” Takato murmured. Renamon shrugged and looked at both Andromon and Leomon. Both shifted uncomfortably, but the silence said more than words could. Then Leomon added, “We wanted to tell you. We just...weren’t sure how to.”

Takato gave no answer, sheepishly handing Kazu his card back and continuing walking ahead without them. Kazu shouted to get his attention but he didn’t even look back, “Hey! Takato! What’s with him?”

“If he is who he claims, then it’s no surprise,” Renamon folded her arms, “The Digimon Tamer had a partner of his own. WarGreymon - one of, if not the bravest digimon in the Digital World. The two were close to each other in a way that can’t be put into words. Until The Digimon Tamer vanished. WarGreymon stood guard in his absence. If he is The Digimon Tamer, it can be said that he is truly alone now.”

“Why is that?” Juri asked. Renamon started walking after him, “I will explain as I walk...or rather, Leomon can since he was there. My knowledge is second hand.”

Leomon grunted quietly, “She is right, The Digimon Tamer is truly alone now. You recall that conflict I mentioned, yes? The Great War as it’s called. It didn’t just threaten our world. It threatened all worlds. The Digital World. The Human World. All other worlds. A long time ago, perhaps before even the sovereigns themselves, there was a race called the Digital Agents, but they had other names. Today, we refer to them as the Ancients. Although he seems insistent on calling them the Guardians. From atop their holy bastion, they looked down upon the lesser life forms of this world and others - sworn to observe and guide only when needed, for the Ancients had one thing that no other race could. They could see the ebb and flow of destiny: what was, what is, what could be, what must be, what can’t be, and what must not. But something came, something out of the cold dark outside their purview. What it was is forgotten today but the Ancients waged a war against it. A war so devastating that it spread across other worlds like wild fire. In the end, the war destroyed countless worlds and altered the very fabric of reality. The only survivors of that long forgotten war were The Digimon Tamer and his partner WarGreymon. Everyone else perished. And now, with WarGreymon gone, it would seem that The Digimon Tamer is the last. One can only wonder what that kind of isolation does to a mind.”

“All the more reason to keep up with him in case he does something really stupid,” Renamon added, hurrying her pace. Juri’s eyes were fixed on Takato now, wondering what exactly was going through his head. He always became uncharacteristically quiet when something was bothering him. And he was very quiet right now. 

They continued on towards the bright light in the distance in silence after that. Well, mostly silence as Kazu and Kenta chatted excitedly about what exactly they’d get to run into in the Digital World. And soon, they found themselves getting passed by a dozen small glowing balls bouncing along the ground, “What is that?”

“They look like tumble weeds. Digital tumble weeds? Is that a thing?” Kazu said aloud, watching them bounce along. Andromon finally spoke, “Information: These are data fragments from deleted digimon that haven’t reached Primary Village, coalescing into barely sentient entities with barely any will of their own.”

“Oh, that’s so sad,” Juri said quietly, watching the balls bounce along and wondering just who they were before they became this. Could they think? Could they feel? Were they even aware that this is what they were? It didn’t help that Renamon added, “This is the Digital World and that is its only real law: the weak die, the strong live. Don’t feel too sorry for them.”

“What happened here?” Takato asked at just above a whisper.

“Where are they going anyway? There’s no wind,” Kenta pointed out, adjusting his glasses to see what lay just ahead of them. Andromon pointed ahead, “Observation: they’re probably fleeing from that.”

They followed his pointed finger to see Takato still walking with his head down. And just ahead of him was a digimon whose body was made of bright orange flames. It slowly stomped towards him, spreading out his hands to create two burning flames as he shouted, “Who are you and what are you doing in my domain?”

Takato didn’t answer. In fact, he didn’t even seem to register Meramon was there. He just kept walking right up to it. Guilmon had already rushed ahead to growl at him but that didn’t stop either of them from walking towards each other. Rika groaned, “That idiot! What is he doing? Renamon! You have to help him before he gets himself killed to that Meramon!”

Meramon. Juri looked ahead at the digimon and wondered just why Takato was ignoring it. And that was definitely annoying the digimon more. Just as Meramon raised his fist to deal an attack, Renamon and Guilmon dashed ahead, “Pyrosphere!”

“Diamond Storm!”

Both attacks took Meramon by surprise and he instead moved his arms to defend himself, “You fiends, attacking me with your numbers. You won’t beat me with such tactics!”

“Takatomon!” Guilmon called out to him, rushing at the boy and sliding between his legs to throw him onto his back. The boy didn’t even register that he was was on his partner now as the digimon started retreating back to the others - leaving Renamon alone to deal with Meramon. Guilmon slid to a stop beside the others and Rika scolded him, “What’s the matter with you Gogglehead? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Takato didn’t answer and was still spaced out. Henry waved his hands in front of his face and even snapped his fingers to get his attention, “He’s definitely out of it. Maybe we should leave him be for a while.”

“Leave him be? We’re in another world where the first person we met tried to kill us and he wants to...do whatever this is!” Rika shouted out angrily, “You know what? Forget it. Well take out Meramon on our own! Renamon! Kick some of this sand on him to douse his flames!”

“Excellent idea, Rika!” Renamon complied, whipping her tail along the sand to kick up a small cloud of want at Meramon. The digimon roared in disgust, covering his eyes, “More cheap tricks? You won’t get me with that! Learn to fight with honor!”

“I take offense to that,” Renamon spat out, charging straight into Meramon and kicking him across his jaw, “Take this!”

The digimon staggered back in surprise, angered that she’d gotten the drop on him, “Grah! You think you’re so strong! Take this!”

He threw a fireball at Renamon, who managed to leap over the attack and kick more sand at Meramon. Watching the fight play out, Terriermon couldn’t help but state, “I’m all for watching a good fight, but does anyone else think it’s kinda one sided? I mean, Meramon hasn’t even gotten a hit in.”

“And here I thought you would’ve wanted to join in,” Henry murmured. Terriermon shrugged at that suggestion, “I don’t know, I still might if Meramon gets a lucky hit in. If, Henry. If. Don’t look at me like that.”

“Well, I don’t think he’s going to anytime soon,” Kazu folded his arms behind his head just as Renamon got another good kick in, throwing Meramon onto his back. The fiery digimon lay on the ground, holding his hands up in defeat, cursing at them furiously, “You fiends! You’ve defeated me! Just go ahead and finish it already! You…you…dirty, vile cheaters! Using cheap tactics like that.”

“We’re not finishing anything,” Renamon answered seriously, offering him a hand to help him stand up, “As for cheap, you’re the one who attacked a defenseless human boy who didn’t even realize you were there. Now stop your whimpering and tell us why you attacked.”

Meramon became defensive, “You entered my territory! All I wanted was a little peace and quiet, but you crazy digimon keep coming here trying to pick fights. I don’t care if you want to fight each other until you’re all dead just do it away from me! But if you’re so insistent on fighting me to the death, then finish it already so I don’t have to deal with this conversation.”

“I ALREADY SAID WE’RE NOT DOING THAT!” Renamon said more loudly, but it still didn’t seem to register with Meramon. Juri looked at Leomon in confusion, wondering if all digimon were like this. Her partner shrugged back, just as lost as she was. Then Terriermon provided another observation, “Talk about melodramatic. Look buddy, we’re not going to kill you! We’re looking for one of our friends. A little digimon named Calumon. He was taken by a monkey called Makuramon. Have you seen them?”

“Wait, so you’re not here to kill me?” Meramon looked up at them with a raised eyebrow. Rika scoffed, “Are you kidding? We’ve been saying that!”

“He’s kinda slow, isn’t he?” Terriermon turned his head. Andromon shook his head, “Negative. Meramon’s speed is within acceptable parameters for his type. Renamon simply moved faster than he could.”

“It’s called a joke buddy, learn what that is,” Terriermon frowned in disbelief. Meramon pushed himself up, dusting the dirt off himself before answering, “Well, I haven’t seen a monkey ever. And I don’t even know what a Calumon is. Is that a baby digimon?

“I mean…you’re not wrong,” Terriermon answered, earning himself a smack from Henry, “Be nice.”

“What? He is kind of an odd ball,” Terriermon said in his defense. Henry just sighed, covering his face in disbelief at his partner’s own disregard for polite behavior. Juri giggled a little though. It was nice that the fighting was over, especially since it seemed like the only thing that got hurt was Meramon’s pride. Then she looked over at Takato who still appeared to be stuck in a daze. All this had transpired, and it seemed like he hadn’t noticed.

She could feel herself shaking, worried for him. But then the shaking didn’t stop. In fact, it seemed to be getting stronger. Kazu asked, “Is there an earthquake?”

“Not an earthquake, a stampede,” Terriermon said as his ears perked up. He pointed off into the horizon towards a small dust cloud and a beam of light coming towards them, “I can hear it! It’s coming from over there!”

“What is that?” Kenta asked, adjusting his glasses to get a better look. Juri felt her digivice beep again and examined it, watching an image come on screen of what looked like a dog covered in rocks with a plant for a tail, “Jagamon, a vegetable digimon that are known for migrating in large herds. Is that bad?”

Leomon explained, “Only if we get stampeded. Maybe we should move. Meramon, is there a safe place nearby where we could hide?”

“Sure, I’ll just invite you in,” Meramon began with an insincere tone, “It’s not like I said I want to be left alone. What’s with all these visitors I’m getting today? Forget that, JAGAMON! IF YOU COME ANY CLOSER, I WILL DESTR-Wait! I SAID WAIT! Uh-oh! AARGH!”

His threats fell on deaf ears as he was summarily run over by the stampede. Renamon leapt back  to Rika’s side before she could be trampled by the horde of digimon and warned, “We should get out of the way.”

“Good idea,” Henry said, already turning to run out of their path. Henry, Terriermon, Juri, Leomon, and Guilmon carrying Takato all moved to one side of the stampede. Rika, Renamon, Kazu, Kenta, and Andromon retreated to the opposite side. Both groups could only look on at each other and the stampede of Jagamon as they continued streaming past in some kind of collective panic. In fact, when Juri concentrated on what they were all saying, it sounded like they were all screaming, “Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away!”

“What are they running from?” Juri asked Leomon, following the stampede back to see the pillar of light inexorably advancing towards them. Leomon pointed at it, “Likely that. It’s a data stream. They became a lot more frequent in the Digital World lately. We’re not entirely sure what they are beyond the fact that they just pull you to another part of the Digital World. Only it’s entirely at random. Don’t worry. Based on its path, it’ll go right past us.”

Juri traced the path with her own eyes, uncertain of Leomon’s assessment and gasped. It would miss them. It would also hit the others. And they didn’t even notice because they were too busy watching the Jagamon run past to notice, “GUYS! RUN! DON’T LET THE LIGHT HIT YOU!”

Rika shouted something back but it was hard to hear over the roar of the stampeding Jagamon. Juri pointed at the light and shouted again, “LOOK OUT FOR THE LIGHT!”

Rika shouted again. It was no use. They couldn’t hear each other. And then they started bickering - at least that’s how it looked from where she was standing. Henry tried his luck next, “Guys! Look out for the light!”

It was still no use. And then, like some kind of cosmic prank, they finally realized the pillar of light was coming straight at them. It was too late for them to run from it, and too late for Juri or the others to do anything to help them. All they could do was watch in silent terror as the light sucked them up into the sky. Leomon frowned, “Well. That’s bad.”

“We need to go after them!” Juri declared pointing at the pillar of light as it continued on. Before she could even try to run after it, Leomon grabbed her by the shoulder, holding tight despite her protests to chase after it, “I understand how you feel Juri, but that’s not a good idea. If we jump into the light, there’s no guarantee that we’ll go where they went. It’s better for everyone if we don't.”

“We can’t just leave them!” she protested. Leomon nodded, “I’m not saying we abandon them. I’m saying we look for them the old fashioned way. It’ll be easier to start from where we know we are than it will be for us to chase after them and getting just as lost.”

Juri felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach. They'd only been in the Digital World for an hour and they were already separated. Takato was out of it. Half of them were lost, some place else in the Digital World. She hoped this wasn’t a signal of things to come.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Expectations

Taichi had some ideas about what it might be like to be a senior to younger students. It couldn’t be all that hard, could it? What he wasn’t all that sure of – because until a certain day it had never occurred to him that it might even be possible – was being a senior Chosen Child.

Even more, if he’d thought about there being younger Chosen, then he’d not thought that there would be a younger Chosen Child of Courage. Least of all that this new one would be someone he’d known for years now – Motomiya Daisuke.

He moved the Digimental of Courage. Taichi wasn’t really sure of what the Digimentals were, other than the one they knew about had the Crest of Courage on it, and he hadn't been able to move it at all.

There were things he and Daisuke had in common, he guessed. He thought Daisuke would do really good at protecting the Digital World. Dealing with the Digimon Kaiser wasn’t going to be easy.

A human who thinks he can rule the Digital World? The Kaiser had to be a Chosen too – there wasn’t any other way that he’d be able to get to the Digital World – but he wasn’t the same kind that they were. They wanted to spend time with their partners and friends there, enjoying the panoramic views, the adventures, meeting new friends, regardless of how they were shaped. Taichi couldn’t help but worry about the ones they’d left behind. Were Andromon and Ogremon all right? Had Leomon ever hatched and evolved?

Any of them – all of them – could be in danger from the Kaiser. Taichi wondered if he should draw up a list of all their old friends and ask Daisuke and the others to check on them. He guessed Hida-san and Inoue-kun had probably found their own Digimentals by now.

And all he could do was keep babbling for as long as it took to keep the teachers away from the computer room. How long had they been gone? What was going on there?

What he wanted was to go there and find out himself, but if he let his old teacher away, then there was just too much of a risk that the Digital World’s existence would be revealed. That wasn't what they wanted. It might happen someday but that wasn’t going to be today, and not because they were careless.

Taichi wasn’t sure how long it took before he could finally get back to the computer room, just in time to see everyone else falling out of the computer, along with some small Digimon. He blinked a few times, feeling a small pang at not having Agumon with him, and then tried to figure out what was going on.

What he managed to gather from everyone else was that Hida-san now had the Digimental of Knowledge and Inoue-kun had the Digimental of Love. Koushiro and Sora had their own successors. 

Then something else he’d heard sank in. “What? Did you say – the Kaiser captured Daisuke?” His eyes darted over the other boy, checking for any obvious injuries. He wasn’t surprised to see Daisuke just wave one hand dismissively, as if being kidnapped by a megalomaniac wanna-be monarch was just something that happened to him every day of the week.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine. He’s an idiot. I think he likes making stupid speeches more than anything else.” Daisuke held his tiny partner – Chibimon – in his hands. “I mean, he didn’t have to wait until I woke up to put that stupid Ring on V-mon. He could’ve gone on and done it while I was out of it. He just wanted the chance to blather on about how awesome he was.” He wrinkled his nose. “He needs a good smack upside the head.” Taichi wasn’t going to argue that point. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling, though. He’d never been in this kind of situation, but it felt like what his reaction would be. Maybe that was one of the reasons Daisuke shared Courage with him.

“Well, don’t get too ahead of yourself,” Taichi advised. “There’s three of you now, but he’s got a big army.”

Daisuke waved one hand again, setting Chibimon on his head. “We’ll get this done before you know it!”

Taichi blinked again, then had to chuckle. Yeah. He could see what they shared – and he really looked forward to seeing what Daisuke would grow up to be.

The End

Notes: Episode 2 is one of my favorites and I could write about it forever!

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] What’s Mine Is Mine:  Chapter 5

Hikari spied V-mon waving at her as they crossed what seemed an endless stream of enslaved Digimon. Most of them were backing off, though that didn’t make sense to her until she caught sight of the Kaiser, riding his AirDramon still, casually departing. He glanced in her direction and gave a small, triumphant smile, but said nothing else as he soared on out of sight.

That didn’t make any of her worries vanish. If anything, they doubled over as they headed to where V-mon waited.

Within moments she also saw Daisuke, stretched out on the ground, his goggles half off of his head, and his eyes mostly closed. There was some kind of ugly injury on his left shoulder, and he didn’t move when she landed and hurried over to him, though she could see his chest rise and fall.

“Daisuke-kun! Daisuke-kun!” Hikari stumbled to her knees next to him, drawing in stuttering breaths and scrambling for her D-Terminal. The others had to get here, Daisuke couldn’t be dead, he couldn’t!

He turned toward her, eyes fluttering for a few moments. When she could see them, she thought they looked clear and sensible, if tired and in pain. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it?

“Hikari-chan?” Daisuke murmured. “Is that … you?”

“It’s me. What happened?” She knew the Kaiser had done this, or ordered it done. Who else would have? But what happened?

Daisuke just closed his eyes again. It was V-mon who answered, telling of a dart being shot at him, Daisuke taking it for him, and what the Kaiser said afterward.

“Then he took the dart and left. Is Daisuke going to be all right?”

Hikari’s hands flew on her D-Terminal. He probably took it so we wouldn’t be able to find out what that drug of his does. “Sure he is! We’ll fix him up.”

She hoped that she was telling the truth. She sent one quick message to Iori, Takeru, and Miyako, then one more to Jou, hoping that he could get here fast. He was the closest thing they had to a doctor, and even if he couldn’t figure out what the drug was, he’d probably be able to tell something about Daisuke.

Miyako and Takeru arrived first, with Iori moments behind them, and Miyako yelped at the sight of Daisuke laying there, eyes closed and unmoving.

“Is he – is he… ?”

Hikari shook her head. So much was coming painfully clear now. “The Kaiser doesn’t want to kill him. He probably does have an antidote for it.”

“Why?” Iori wanted to know, not moving any closer, back stiff and straight as if an iron pole replaced his spine. “Why would he have a remedy and let us know about it?”

Takeru answered. “Because he wants to hurt us all. If we can’t figure it out for ourselves, then the only way to save Daisuke’s life would be to let the Kaiser give him the antidote.”

And giving it to him would mean giving Daisuke to him.

Hikari’s head drooped. “And he wants me to make that decision.

All of them stared at her, humans and Digimon alike. Hikari stared at Daisuke, unable to pull her eyes way from the wound even as she cleaned and dressed it.

“I saw him, before he did this to Daisuke. That was what he told me. That I’d have to decide to give him what belongs to him. This has to be what he means.”

Miyako shook her head so hard her hair nearly hit most of them ducked away to avoid getting hit by it. “We’re not handing over anyone to the Kaiser!”

“I know!” Hikari groaned. “I can’t do that. We can’t do that.”

But what else the Kaiser did rose up in her mind. Not just the poison – what else to call it? - in Daisuke that no one knew what it would do to him but it couldn’t possibly be good – but the way Kaiser held that Spiral and stared at Nefertimon, as if he couldn’t possibly wait another moment to get it on her.

If I don’t give him Daisuke, then he’s going to put a Spiral on Nefertimon. Or at least try to.

Kaiser hadn’t tried to do this to any of their partners since all of that mess with Agumon. Everyone stayed as in touch with their partners as they could, just in case, and plans were made to how to deal with Viral versions of all of the older Chosen.

No one had considered what could happen if Kaiser got a Spiral on their Digimon. There was a general feeling that since they could armor evolve, it wasn’t a problem. Now Hikari knew it was. She didn’t know why Kaiser hadn’t done so before, but he threatened her partner now, and the specter hung in front of her eyes.

“Let’s get him out of here,” Hikari said at last. “It’s not safe here. We still haven’t found Andromon and he’s probably got a Spiral on him, too.”

They’d sort all of that out as soon as they’d finished getting Daisuke fixed up. Hikari hated leaving anyone in the Kaiser’s clutches to any degree, but they didn’t have any other options at the moment.

A few quick exchanges with Jou via D-Terminal arranged for them to meet in a place without a Dark Tower, and they headed there.

To Be Continued

Notes: So, are the Chosen going to be able to help Daisuke? What do you think?