Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon Tamers: The Next Level ❯ Episode 12: Emergence ( Chapter 12 )

"Renamon, Biomerge to..."

As Rika held her digivice, shining with a bright light, over her heart, she felt her body melt away into nothingness. The gap left was quickly filled as she felt her consciousness merge with Renamon's. Their combined body experienced a sensation as if passing through water, the ripples of which gently molded it into a new form, that of the graceful mystic warrior...

"Sakuyamon!"

"This light," Rika said softly, her voice awed, "I had almost forgotten how warm it was." It filled every pore of her being, yet it was never overwhelming; it merely held the promise of never ending joy.

"Yes," Renamon agreed, "it has been too long since we've felt like this. Now, once again, we are one."

******

"Terriermon, Biomerge to..."

Henry's digivice, raised high by his head, flared brightly and his physical being dropped away. For a moment that seemed infinitely longer than the span of a blink of an eye it actually was, it seemed he was floating in a vast void. The void vanished, filled with Terriermon's strength as his body broke apart and reformed into the walking battle platform known as...

"Mega Gargomon!"

"Such a feeling of strength," Henry said, flexing the muscles he jointly had. "Right now I feel like we could do anything." Their new form contained an abundance of sheer power right at his fingertips.

"Told you it was like riding a bike," Terriermon told him. "Now, we have the power to protect our loved ones."

******

"Guilmon, Biomerge to..."

One second, as Takato brought his glowing digivice near his heart, he was Takato, and the next second he simply wasn't. This was quickly followed by the sense of being something more that he used to be as he joined with Guilmon. Their strength burst outward, altering their form accordingly to become the heroic knight...

"Gallantmon!"

"I know we've done this more recently than the others," Takato told Guilmon, "but something about biomerging along with everyone else makes it feel even better." Now, all of his friends were reunited after many years and, though it started off with a fight, he wouldn't have changed anything.

"Now that you and I, and all of us, are fighting together, Takatomon," Guilmon answered, "nothing will come between us."

******

"Do you think we'll ever be able to do that?" Kazu asked his partner. Guardromon could do nothing but shrug his shoulders with a loud creak.

"Well," he replied, "I'm afraid I really don't know. I would rather like to find out what we'll become."

For a brief second, the memory of Black War Kazumon came into his mind's eye, but he shook it away. "If I remember my old cards right, there were several things that Andromon digivolved into. Maybe we'll become one of those?"

"We'll just have to wait and see when the times comes," was all Guardromon could say.

"I bet it'll be cool as hell though..."

******

"We all ready to go?" Gallantmon asked. Sakuyamon and Mega Gargomon nodded. Climbing onto Guardromon's back, Kazu nodded as well, and they were off.

"What's the plan?" Henry asked from inside Mega Gargomon.

"First we have to determine its intentions," Takato suggested. "For all we know, it may be friendly."

"Our luck doesn't run that way," Rika said with a slight grunt. "We should be expecting a fight."

"Well, it looks like we'll find out soon," Takato told everyone. "The caves are just ahead."

The Tamers topped a rise in the scenery and the caves came into site. The area was mostly barren with only a few scruffy shrubs poking out of the rocks. Several caves of various sizes and shapes dotted the cliff wall, and it was in front of one of the larger ones that a beastly looking Digimon was raging.

As the Tamers closed the distance, the strange Digimon began to resemble something close to humanoid. Its body resembled that of a human, though it seemed unable to straighten up. Long tatters of what might be cloth were draped across its back. The major feature that differentiated it from a human was its mismatched arms. One was muscular, yet rough, while the other was much too large for its body, looking like a ghastly, clawed club. It was with this faintly metallic arm that it was raking the surface of the rocks, causing the occasional shower of stones.

"Fight me!" it yelled, striking stone once again and causing a shower of sparks. "Come out and fight me!"

Rika flinched backwards from the sound of its voice. It wasn't in fear; rather, it was in shock. Something about the voice...

"Who are you?" Gallantmon called out. The Digimon turned to face him, a baleful look in its red eyes.

"You must be my enemy," it said, mouth opening in what seemed to be a grin. "I like strong enemies. When I destroy them, I get even stronger!" With that, it let out a loud yell and charged towards the group, claw arm brought back to strike.

"Scatter!" Sakuyamon ordered. The strange Digimon's attack met empty ground as the Tamers spread out, surrounding it. Guardromon readied grenades as Kazu pulled out his digivice and brought up the analyzer.

"Says here that's Revenmon," Kazu reported. "Mega level, Virus type. The power of its Revenge Claw attack is matched only by its fervor for battle."

Revenmon demonstrated how right the analyzer was as, with a cry of "Revenge Claw!" it swung its glowing claws at Gallantmon. The heroic Mega managed to bring up his shield, and the two collided, each trying to overpower the other. Gallantmon brought his lance up, swinging it in a wide arc trying to catch the side of Revenmon's head. The other Digimon anticipated and ducked out of the way, slamming a shoulder into Gallantmon's unprotected side.

"That cloth on its back..." Rika thought to herself.

"Looks like we got our answer," Terriermon said, readying missiles. "That's definitely not friendly."

"Gallantmon!" Kazu yelled out as the knight went down under the attack. "We've got to help him out, Guardromon!"

"Right! Guardian Barrage!" The twin ports on Guardromon's wrists opened up, and several whistling grenades shot towards Revenmon. Whirling, Revenmon brought up his claw to guard, but the impact still pushed him backwards and raised a large cloud of dust.

"Thanks, Kazu!" Gallantmon called out, preparing for another attack.

"Mismatched arms?"

Mega Gargomon beat him to the attack, however, as various ports and pods opened all over his body. "Mega Barrage!" A salvo of missiles and machine gun fire arced towards the crouching Revenmon.

"Revenge Claw!" Revenmon thrust its long bladed claws into the ground, and a multitude of glowing spikes erupted from the ground, prematurely exploding the warheads and deflecting the shots.

"Nothing's working!" Mega Gargomon called out in frustration.

"It can't be..."

"Rika?" Renamon asked. "Is something wrong?" They were still in a defensive position after avoiding the initial attack

"Rika!" Gallantmon shouted as Revenmon crouched, looking for the next opening to attack. "How about a little help?"

"Revenmon seems familiar somehow," Rika said quietly, trying to process her thoughts. "Like something we've seen before..."

"What do you mean?" Renamon asked, taken aback. "I know I've never seen anything like Revenmon. Rika?"

"We have to start working together!" Mega Gargomon told Gallantmon. "I'll distract him with more missiles while you come around back."

"Right," Gallantmon nodded, readying his lance. He glanced at Sakuyamon briefly, but she hadn't moved.

Suddenly, something clicked inside Rika's head and she began to realize. "It's all wrong... The cloth on its back should be red and its body should be blue..."

"Mega Barrage!" Another spread of missiles shot off at Revenmon who dodged out of the way, bringing up its misshapen arm once again. It was enough opening for Gallantmon to circle around and power up his attack, "Lightning Joust!"

Rika replayed everything that Revenmon had said, noticing clearly for the first time the dual quality of it, as if it were two beings in one body... If that were true then... "Not Revenmon..." she said softly.

Gallantmon's energy lance crashed into Revenmon's back, sending it crashing face first into the ground and several meters across it. Its large arm clawed the ground as it struggled into a crouch, head turning between his opponents.

"It shouldn't be Revenmon!" Sakuyamon shouted over the battle. "It should be Justimon! Ryo!"

******

Kenta paced back and forth in the room that served as the brain center of Takato's little operation. It was dreadfully boring have to stay behind while the others went for some excitement. At least Suzie wasn't giving him a headache, especially after finding the large garden in the courtyard. Kenta glanced into the courtyard and saw Suzie lying in a clearing next to Lopmon, staring at the Real World sphere high in the sky.

His thoughts, too, strayed to the Real World and everyone he had left. He supposed his parents were nearly out of their minds with worry, but he found his thoughts lingering on Alice mostly. When he had first spotted the girl in his class, he hadn't figured that he had a chance with her. Sure, she wasn't as unobtainable as the popular girls in the school, but confidence had never been one of his strong suits. Kenta chuckled at the memory of the first time she had spoken to him.

It had been during a slow time in class and he had pulled out a slip of cardboard sealed in plastic from his binder. Emblazoned on it was the picture of Marine Angemon; in fact, it was a Digimon card that Kenta had kept. He was wondering what might have happened to his old partner when Alice leaned over.

"I haven't seen one of those in forever," she said in his ear. Kenta blushed slightly and attempted to hide the card once again.

"Well, ahh," he said quickly, "I, umm, just found it on the ground, you know..."

"In that good condition?" Alice replied. "Those lost their popularity a long time ago."

Kenta opened his mouth to make something else up, but he closed it again and hung his head. "I know, now you're going to tell everybody that I still have Digimon cards."

"Well, actually," Alice corrected him, "I just find it interesting. Digimon stopped being cool when the world found they were real, but you still carry a card with you. Why?"

"It just reminds me of something, someone," Kenta admitted. "So, I keep it around."

"Reminds you...? You don't mean... Did you have a partner too?" Alice asked.

Kenta had to balance to keep from falling out of his chair. "Too??"

"Well," Alice said with a slight blush of her own and her eyes downcast, "he might have been under better circumstances, but as it was I only call him that."

"What happened to him?" Kenta wondered. Alice was about to reply when the sensei broke in.

"Alice McCoy! Kenta Kitagawa! Kindly save your conversation for later!"

Quickly, Alice and Kenta snapped back into their seats with a mumbled, "Yes, sensei."

The sensei returned his attention to his desk and Alice leaned over one more time. "I'd like you to meet me after class. Maybe we could talk some more?"

Kenta nodded; he was pleasantly surprised that he had made it through a conversation with a girl without falling all over himself.

A loud beeping ripped Kenta back to the present, and he looked around for the source. The source was in fact a large red light on one of the control panels. A Datamon moved its fingers over several buttons and turned to Kenta.

"It would appear we have an incoming message," Datamon said, "but I'm not sure who it's from."

"Umm, answer it, I guess," Kenta suggested. Datamon pressed another button and a voice sounded from a speaker nearby.

"Is anyone there?" it asked. "Can anybody hear me?"

Not knowing what else to do, Kenta pressed the button handily marked 'send'. "I can hear you, can you hear me?"

"I hear you," the voice responded. "Who is this?"

"You called here," Kenta told the speaker. "That's my line."

"Fair enough. My name is Janyuu. Janyuu Wong."

******

"What did you just say?" Kazu asked, eyes wide in shock. "Did you just say that Revenmon is Ryo?"

"How can that be?" Henry asked. "Ryo's back in the Real World. Didn't you say he was backpacking?"

"That's what I was told," Rika said in her defense. "I don't think I'm wrong though. Revenmon's voice, it sounds like a double voice, like when Renamon and I talk as Sakuyamon. Look at him; he looks like some twisted parody of Justimon."

"But why would Ryo be attacking us? We're his friends."

"Maybe," Henry suggested, "it's like when Guilmon digivolved into Megidramon. Perhaps he's forgotten who he really is."

"The real Ryo has to still be in there," Rika said, "we just have to wake him up."

With that, Sakuyamon slowly stepped forwards towards Revenmon. Momentarily confused by this change in tactic, the beastly Mega only shifted warily.

"Ryo!" Rika continued. "Big brother, it's me. You have to remember me!"

"Big brother?" Takato repeated.

Revenmon growled as Sakuyamon continued to advance and started to speak with difficulty. "R... R... Ri... RI!" Suddenly his eyes narrowed and he launched an attack. "Revenge Claw!" Sakuyamon quickly brought her staff up, but the force of the blow quickly powered through the block and she went sprawling to the ground.

"Sakuyamon!" Gallantmon cried out, positioning himself to rush over to her aid.

Instead, Sakuyamon got to her feet herself. Despite several large gouge marks in her breastplate, she waved off any assistance.

"Are you absolutely sure about this, Rika?" Renamon winced, feeling a drop in power.

"Definitely," Rika said, wincing as well from the shared pain. "I know Ryo's in there somewhere."

"Urrgh," Kazu grunted in frustration. "I don't know what to do. On one hand, Revenmon is hurting all of my friends, but on the other, that's supposed to be Ryo... What should I do?"

"Ryo," Rika continued as Sakuyamon advanced again slowly. "You have to remember me, I'm your little sister..."

Revenmon only growled once again and leapt to attack. One more time Sakuyamon brought up her staff to block. The blow never landed, as Revenmon was slammed out of position by a full body charge from Guardromon.

"Guardromon, what..." Kazu began.

"Kazu!" the bronze robot yelled back. "It doesn't matter if that's Ryo! He's hurting our friends so the only thing we can do is hope to knock a little sense into him!"

Slowly, Kazu nodded in agreement. "You know, Guardromon, I don't think I could have put it better myself. Let's knock some sense into him together!"

Two words slowly formed on the screen of Kazu's digivice.

"Biomerge Digivolution."