Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Tamers No More ❯ The Spread... ( Chapter 9 )

"Takato…" a voice spoke in the darkness. Guilmon's voice was slightly higher than normal. This was because of two things. One, it was the middle of the night. The night scared the young digimon. Black. No light. Lonely. Filled with things planning to eat you… Terriermon had teased him numerous times about it. The digimon just shrugged him off, but he still was jumpy at night. Things had a habit of jumping out at you…

The other thing bothering the digimon was his partner. Guilimon had at first found the idea of his friend being a digimon interesting and even cool. These ideas were wiped away as Takato had a brake down. Guilimon didn't "get" what that was, but he knew it was a bad thing. He also didn't get why or what had caused this. The red digimon was still Takatomon, that much the digimon knew. After going on and on over several matters, something had clicked in the former human's mind. A smile, something Guilimon hadn't seen him do since the change, came to the boy. The wild glee in it had scared Guilimon more than he already was. Takatomon had jumped up and dashed away.

"Takatomon! WAIT!" the red digimon had screamed and had headed after him. The former human had run at a jog for over an hour, heading in a deliberate direction, only slowing to avoid wondering eyes. Guilimon had followed suit. The two digimon were now in the city. Guilimon welcomed the unnatural but pleasant light of the city. The thoughts of things popping out at him had left.

***

Takato had finally reached the extent of his body's metabolism. It was strange. A human body would go until it hit its limit. Then, pain would register and force a person to slow. The digimon's body didn't do this. As energy ran down, the symptoms of fatigue and pain never came to Takato. His body could continue to run as hard as he wanted. The only thing he registered was extreme hunger. The boy concluded that digimon's bodies encouraged them to eat and replace energy rather than soreness and the need to relax. The boy forced himself to slow down. It came to him that with this body, he needed considerably more food to function. Otherwise, he could quite literally run himself to death. Yet another reason Takato wanted out of this body so bad. It had come to him in the shelter. He had designed Guilimon. It was his designs and will that had birthed the infant digimon. The tamer had concluded that Guilimon wasn't the only thing he could create. The cards. They were another part of it. Maybe that factor was something he could affect too. The plan had formed. Get home, Get something to make the cards he'd need, and slash them with the D-arc. He could regain his body. This plan however had a crucial flaw. Takato's parents had to not be home. This wasn't going to happen and the boy knew it. The solution came to him instantly. Use Henry's arc! Takato knew that Henry's dad worked late. He also knew he had a considerably better chance of explaining what had happened to Henry than Mom or Dad. The former tamer grinned again as Henry's apartment building came into view.

***

"Ooooooooh Crap…" Henry thought to no one. He was at Takato's house. He could hear his mother bawling inside. Henry's deduction about Takato being at Guilimon's shelter had been right, but he'd missed them by bare moments. The ground was still warm where Guilimon had sat. Fearing what he'd find, the tamer had gone to Takato's apartment as his plan B. The hallway to his place was brightly lit, the crying the only thing disrupting the calmness of the hall. The door was open, a shoe propping it. "Knock, knock." He called as he walked in. Takato's father poked around from the room inside and to his left. "Oh, its you Henry…" he spoke, his voice as if he had expected someone else to show up. The man led Henry to the living room. There, Takato's mother was sobbing softly. Standing next to her was a police officer. He was a young man, his blond hair in typical buzz cut, under his blue hat. He continued to ask the woman questions, not noticing or not caring about Henry's entrance. After finishing with her, the officer briskly asked if Henry knew where Takato was. Henry wish he did, but answered the expected no. The man shrugged and went back to a notepad he'd been writing on. The officer quickly closed up his routine and left leaving the scene with speed. Henry guessed he didn't want to hang around to long…

After the man left, Henry decided it was safe to have a look around. "May I use your bathroom, please?" he asked quickly. Takato's father waved him off. Henry got up quickly and headed towards the restroom, quickly turning and ducking into Takato's room beforehand.

"Hmm…nothing wrong here…" Henry said to himself. The room was typical Takato. Crap everywhere, clothes thrown about, drawers open and picked though…. Hey wait!! Henry quickly went up the open drawers. He knew his sudden hunch was right. There was a single claw mark running along the side of the 2nd drawer. So, Impmon had been here after all. Henry quickly scanned the rest of the room, finding nothing else amiss aside from a few scraps of blue cloth and the fact that Takato's D-arc wasn't there. Henry assumed that Takato had it on him. Wherever he was…

The tamer started to leave, but then came to the decision he had to pee. Amused by the slight irony, Henry entered the bathroom. The smell of something burnt quickly hit his nose. The tamer turned the light on with a soft click revealing the source. Takato's D-arc. Or what was left of it…

***

"Stay in the room Stay in the room Stay in the room Stay in the room.." Takato kept this as his mantra as he quietly crept by the door of Henry's kid sister, Suzie. "Oh, do you want some more tea Mr. Bunny?" the small girl said to someone inside. To Takato's amusement, he could hear and smell what had to be Terriermon inside. Henry had mentioned before how Suzie had a habit of playing with the digimon like this. The former tamer grinned as he tip toed (or tip clawed as you might put it) past the room. Guilmon was behind him, and quickly stopped and put an ear to the door. The red dino smiled as he heard Suzie purposely spill something on poor Terriermon.

"OH! Did you wet yourself Mr. Bunny?"

Guilmon's mouth opened, the digimon about to start howling with laughter. Takato, amusing as it was, dashed to his partner and clamped his jaw shut. Takato put a claw to his lip in the classic

"Shhh!" command before they headed on. Takato for a moment realized that he'd didn't remember where Henry's room was. To his alarm though, he found he knew which one it was by smell. Unnerving was a term that applied. The room itself was a sharp contrast to Takato's own. Clean and neat. No trash, neat and tidy. Takato had always thought that Henry had been too much of a neat freak. The tamer decided to get back to his task. There was time for debating Henry's habitual cleaning later. He needed to find a few things.

"Guilimon." he said, his digimon snapping his head out from Henry's bed sheets. Takato realized briefly he could smell crumbs or something edible on the sheets, explaining his digimon's searching.

"Ok boy, I need you to look for Henry's d-arc for me. It should be here somewhere…" Takato trailed off. His digimon quickly began to search the room, jamming his snout under and into everything . The items Takato had decided to find were thankfully nearby. Henry had a nice wood dresser with a neatly set thing of pencils and paper just waiting for him. The former human forced his claws to be as flexible as they'd get as he clumsily put pencil to paper. The tamer struggled for about 15min to produce a pair of crude and rather ugly cards. The names had been floating in the boy's mind since the idea to do this came to him. The "Mimic" and "Reverse" cards. The mimic card would give the tamer something to use the other card on. Since he was already "mimicking" Guilimon the card wouldn't do anything to him. Then when he slashed the "Reverse" card, he would become himself again. No claws, no sharp teeth, no tail. The tamer would do anything just to see his old tailless rear again. The fact that it was Henry's arc wouldn't matter… "Guilimon, did you find it?" Takato asked, the anxiousness evident in his tone. The dino popped his head up again, a baggy with something inside hanging from his mouth.

"Is that…?" Takato started, his nose too acute now to be wrong. His digimon had found a stash that Terriermon, he assumed him anyway, had left in the room. Both Guilimon's could smell a peanut butter sandwich inside the baggy. Guilimon was visibly drooling, and Takato also knew he was doing the same. The original Guilimon quickly became aware of his Tamer's thoughts.

"I found the thingy and left it over there!" Guilimon quickly shouted, pointing a claw to Henry's bed. On it was the d-arc. Takato didn't hear it so much as felt it as Guilimon used the distraction to devour the prize he found. The digimon was a lot smarter than Takato had thought. At least when it came to food anyway…

***

It was Takato's D-Arc! Henry remembered the red casing and shape of it. The arc was very far-gone though. The casing was broken open, wires were pulled and frayed. The source of the smell was the fact the thing seemed to have been set on fire or something as traumatic. Henry had remembered a few weeks ago when he'd cracked the screen of his arc. He'd dropped it during a battle, the fall making a good crack in the view screen. To his amazement though, the next day the crack was totally gone. Henry had guessed the arcs had self-repairing measures built in. As he picked up the charred remains of Takato's arc though, he knew that those parts were not going to work here. "Just what the heck did Takato do???" the tamer spoke to no one. His urge to relive himself gone, Henry put the burnt arc in his pocket next to his own. Wait! Henry kicked himself mentally. He left his own d-arc at home. "stupidstupidstupid" he though to himself. Henry began to leave, but something not of his control stopped him dead in his tracks…

***

"Not fair…" Takatomon scowled at Guilimon. The former human quickly snatched up the green thingy that made digimon digivolve and began to fumble with it. Guilimon watched as the tamer poked several buttons with his claws before picking up the small pieces of paper he had been drawing on earlier. "Whatcha going to do Takatomon?" the digimon asked timidly. The giddy look his partner had wasn't comforting. "These" he spoke, briefly flashing the crudely done cards at him. " are going to make me human again!" Takatomon yelled to himself. Guilimon smiled but he wasn't as sure of this as his partner was.

"DIGIMODIFY: MIMIC!!" the tamer called out, as he violently slashed the card though the d-arc.

***

Henry felt a sudden sick feeling hit him. It was as if someone had punched him in the gut. The sick feeling changed to pain. The tamer almost cried out as he felt his whole body surge with a painful energy. It felt like someone was ripping his cells out one by one. Then, as suddenly as it came, it had ended.

***

"Ok, now for the other one." Takato spoke enthusiastically. The boy was a second closer to having his body back. It would be over!

"DIGIMODIFY: REVERSE!"

***

Another sensation hit Henry. This one was different though. Shooting pains felt like they were being injected thought the tamer's body. Henry started to fall…

***

"WORK! Please work!!" Takato screamed at the piece of green and white plastic. Guilimon watched as his tamer violently slashed the cards over and over. Nothing was happening. Takato slashed the 1st card a 3rd time, not bothering to slash the 2nd card again.

"Damnit!" he cried. The tamer started to cry again.

" I don't want this!" he screamed at no one.

"Why!? I want to be Takato! Not a guilimon! TAKATO!!!"

***

Henry felt the pains hit him several more times as he fell. He was aware of only the pains as they racked his body. He briefly felt his head smack the sink as he fell. He'd have a heck of a bump there later…

The tamer blacked out. The world came back to him as he felt someone shaking him. "Henry! Henry!" it called. It was Takato's father. Memory came back to him and he remembered his sudden fall. "Are you ok?" the man asked , the fatherly tone in full effect. "I'm fine…really." Henry stuttered. He knew he needed to get home. "I just…slipped." He stammered, pulling himself to his feet. "Are you sure? That's a pretty nasty knot there.." the man argued. Henry glanced at his reflection in the mirror beside them. A rather big bump was centered directly in the middle of his forehead. Henry grimaced as he gently touched it. The boy didn't notice how pointed the knot was…

"I'm fine." Henry spoke quickly. The surprising harshness of the tone made Takato's father give up trying to stop the boy. "Ok, just be careful getting home." He said as the tamer hurried out the door. "And if you see Takato…well you know…" he trailed off. "Don't worry, I will." Henry spoke. To his slight surprise, the whack on the head had given him a good idea of where Takato would be next. Home.