Digimon: The Rantomon Chronicles

Chapter 19

Zoe stared at her math test in a daze. No matter how many times she stared at the numbers, they weren't making any sense to her. She tapped her pencil on her desk as she struggled to at least get a vague understanding of the problem. After wasting another five minutes, she let out a small-frustrated groan before setting aside her pencil and looking out the window at the sunny day outside.

Her focus wasn't on the math test at all, it was mostly on the fight that happened a few days ago between her, Kari, Rika, and a stray Tyrannomon that seemed to somehow wander into their world. Between her, and Kari's Digimon, Gatomon in her ultimate form, they managed to stun Tyrannomon enough to stop him, but as he began to stir, Rika ordered Taomon to deliver the final blow. Zoe winced as she remembered the loud cries of the Digimon as its data was being eaten away by Taomon's attack. She knew Rika had her reasons, which made complete sense to her. If Rika hadn't finished off Tyrannomon, they would have been back to square one, and more people would have gotten hurt.

Kari on the other hand was devastated at Rika's actions. The Digidestined of light was sure Tyrannomon was being controlled somehow, and wanted to send it back to the Digital World via a laptop. But when she saw what Rika did, she was horrified. Zoe wasn't sure what side to pick. She and her friends defeated Digimon plenty of times before, but they were still alive somewhat. By the way Rika went for the kill, Zoe could tell she had done this millions of times before. Zoe ran through the entire fight again in her head, trying to find something they could have done to prevent killing the Tyrannomon, but a part of her actually thought what happened was best. She let out a sigh and went back to trying figure out the problems on her math test.

Solving complex algebra problems was easier than this.

On the other side of the room, Kari had long ago set aside her pencil to think about the fight. She labeled herself as a very peaceful and forgiving person. She believed there was good in everyone, they only needed to something or someone bring it out in them.

But as she thought about the fight, her temper boiled. What Rika was unforgivable, even to her. The female Tamer killed Tyrannomon without hesitation, and didn't even show a hint of remorse. How could Rika call herself a Digidestined if she did something like that.

Kari then remembered that Tamers weren't really Digidestined. From what she could gather, Tamers were chosen randomly, and they didn't have any real duties. Tamer were only concerned with strengthening their Digimon partner for more fights. And that meant killing whatever Digimon challenged them and absorbing their data.

'How heartless!' she thought. Digimon were living creatures, who had hearts and feelings. Despite their strength, they weren't fighting machines. She's even met Digimon who wanted to avoid fighting all together. To fight and destroy every Digimon that got in your path was the same as being an evil Digimon in Kari's eyes. It was their duty as Digidestined to protect the Digital World and its Digimon no matter what. Tamers were just concerned with their own strength. They didn't care who they hurt, just as long as their Digimon got stronger. There was no way she could agree with such a method. Digimon, or human, no one had the right to kill another living being.

Kari took a deep breath to calm herself, and picked her pencil again to rattle her brain on how to answer the third problem.

In the front of the room, Rika had also set her aside her pencil, only because she was already finished. But she didn't bother going over the problems again, she was more focused on the data Renamon had scanned the other day.

'A virus written specifically for Tyrannomon, and written in some old age Digi-code,' she thought as she drummed her fingers on her desk. 'Something big is coming I can just feel it.'

"Pencils down!" the teacher announced.

OOOOO

"All right Takato get ready to do my homework for the rest of the month," Kazu chuckled as he looked at his hand.

"No guarantees Kazu," Takato replied. Henry let out a sigh as he watched them.

"Come on you guys, you've been at it since class started. I know we have a sub today, and he doesn't care what we do, but can't you at least do something productive?" T.K., who was next to him chuckled.

"I think this as productive as they're going to get Henry."

"Ready?" the capped boy asked the goggle-head, who nodded. "All right! Here! Meramon! And with this Digivolution card, he Digivolves to Skullmeramon! HA! Beat that Takato!"

"That's pretty hard to beat Kazu," Takato said. "But it won't be so hard with Megaseadramon, when he Digivolves to Metalseadramon!" Takato slapped the cards on the table, making Kazu nearly fall out of his chair.

"Arg!!!!! Damn it! I don't want to do your crappy assignments! I can barely do my own crap!" Takato just laughed as Kazu started to rant despite the look their classmates were giving them. Henry just sighed.

"I give up," he groaned.

"Come on Henry lighten up," Takato said to his friend. "We hardly get down time like this."

"Yeah. You've been in your 'thinking mode' since a couple days ago," Kazu added, who somehow recovered from his long rant.

"It's just something Rika told me a couple days ago," Henry replied. "A Tyrannomon attacked her, Zoe, and Kari."

"Yeah. Kari told me about that," TK said. "She said it was stronger than your average Tyrannomon."

"Okay….so what's the big deal?" Kazu asked clearly not getting the point. "They beat it right?"

"Taomon deleted it," Henry replied, making TK grimace, and Takato couldn't help but notice.

"Exactly so don't worry about it!" Henry sighed again. There was no point in explaining something like this Kazu, not at this point at least. Henry wanted more information on this issue. This attack was the fifth attack on the human world. From his experience, Digimon should not be able to move between the two worlds this easily. From what he heard from TK and his friends it wasn't easy for the Digimon they knew either, unless someone had opened the gate. The tamer let out another sigh. There was no way he could figure this out on his own. Izzy had invited him, and the rest of their little study group over again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the Digidestined of Knowledge was having better luck than he was.

TK looked at the three Tamers in front of him, and remembered the call he got from Kari after the fight with Tyrannomon. She was frantic from he could tell, and angry as well. Somehow the Digidestined of Hope managed to calm her down enough for her to recount all what happened before. When Kari reached the point where Rika had deleted Tyrannomon, that's when TK saw why she was so frantic.

"She did what!" he had exclaimed to her. "Just like that she killed that Tyrannomon?"

"Yeah. There wasn't any look of remorse or hesitation in her either! TK how could she be so heartless?" That morning TK had talked to Henry for a brief lesson on Tamers.

"Well…." Henry started unsurely. "There isn't much to tell really. Tamers get their Digimon partner, and fight other Digimon to absorb their data."

"Absorb their data?" TK had repeated with awe. "So in simple terms….Tamers…..kill Digimon?"

"Well if you put it that way then yeah," Henry had replied. "I don't agree with it either, but that's how it is."

'What a cruel way to get stronger,' TK thought. 'I can't accept that.'

"Hey TK! Earth to TK!" Kazu called. TK snapped out of his thoughts and looked up. "Your up pal. Avenge my loss!" TK let out a small chuckle before pulling out his cards and began to play with Takato.

OOOOO

Datamon groaned as Revdromon's voice echoed through the lair. The robotic Digimon couldn't help but ask himself why in the world he was severing under such a master. It was true Revdromon freed him from the Dark Network, but that really didn't mean Datamon had any obligations to dark Digimon. But somehow Revdromon managed to sucker the data Digimon into this odd job of data analysis and collection. Datamon had to admit the job itself wasn't the problem. He had easy access to some of the best data on the digital plane, and he could easily regain his strength here. The only problem he had with this job was,

"Datamon! Get in here now!!!!"

His master. Revdromon had absolutely no patience, and it was starting to become more than the data Digimon could bear. Datamon was assigned to find powerful enough Digimon to invade the human world, and gather a specific amount of data. As easy as it sounded, the plan proved to be quite difficult. Many of the Digimon he experimented with were not strong enough to make the journey, or were deleted halfway through. Then he had to trust the ones that did make it through were smart enough to find the areas with the most amounts of data. The plan became even harder when news of the Digidestined reached them. This was where Revdromon irked him the most. If Datamon were in charge, he would have spent some time to analyze the Digidestined fighting techniques and strategies and plan a counter strategy accordingly. But Revdromon would hear nothing of the sort. The foolish dark Digimon ordered to send more Digimon, which was completely counterproductive in Datamon's view. It took a large amount of time and resources to find those Digimon, and Revdromon was just wasting them. The data Digimon sighed as he answered his master's call. He would find a way out of this.

"Datamon so far the Digimon you have sent have met nothing but failure! We are no where close to the amount of data that is required!" Revdromon yelled. Datamon held in a grunt of frustration.

"I am aware of that my lord. As we speak I am in the process of finding and selecting new Digimon for the task." Revdromon gripped in the arms of his chair in anger.

"How long will the process take?" he asked, already grinding his teeth.

"About two weeks," Datamon answered softly, which was enough for the dark Digimon to explode.

"Unacceptable!!!!!!" he yelled as he hurled his wine glass at the data gatherer. "This process is taking far too long! The deadline will be upon us before we know it! Those damn children! We must destroy them!"

"My lord that might be an even more difficult process," Datamon said. "The Digimon we have sent so far, though powered by your abilities, were no where close to the levels of those children. If you want them destroyed I could find even more powerful Digimon, but that would a month." Revdromon growled, and began pacing around his chair.

"We must make destroying those brats our top priority," he muttered to himself. "With them out of the way we can gather data much faster than ever. But I do not want to wait a month!"

"Might I suggest you use the experiments," Muscalumon suggested with a dark smirk. Revdromon's face brightened at the idea.

"That is perfect Muscalumon! Datamon! Send the experiments to destroy the children!" Datamon's eyes widened in fear at the idea presented to him.

"My lord with all due respect, that is madness! Only two of the experiments are complete!"

"Then that will be the two we send!" Revdromon exclaimed impatiently.

"No, that is not the point! I still need to conduct many more experiments on them to test their stability! They are far from ready yet!" Revdromon growled.

"Then use their battle against the children as the test!" Datamon made a fist.

"You fool! Do you not understand the destructive capabilities of the experiments! Without proper planning and testing they will either have a complete meltdown or turn on us! They are far too unstable for use!!!!!"

"IMPUDENCE!!!!!!!" Revdromon bellowed, and fired a dark blot of lighting at the small Digimon. Datamon cried out in agony as he felt his data being pulled, torn, and ripped all at the same time. He could feel himself overloading, and was prepared for the worst when the attack stopped, making him fall to the ground.

"My…. my…apologies…my…. lord," Datamon muttered weakly. Revdromon smirked at his submissive data gatherer.

"Datamon, Datamon, Datamon," the master chuckled as he shook his head. "Your problem is you think too much. I am well aware of the unstable status of the two experiments. And I know it is highly possible for them to defect during the battle, but that is what makes it so entertaining."

"My…. lord…. please…. reconsider…. they…are not…. ready…"

"Silence!" Revdromon barked. "How long will it take you to finish the tests?"

"A…week…"

"You have three days! Until then keep sending the Digimon we have assigned. Give those Digidestined brats a false sense of security. Then once the three days are over, that will be when they are destroyed!"

"Genius my lord," Muscalumon chuckled. "Though I am disappointed that I will not have a chance against them myself."

"Do not be too disappointed my friend. I have a feeling they would not be worth your time." The muscle Digimon chuckled.

"Yes you are probably right." The dark lord turned to Datamon, who was still recovering.

"Does this suit you Datamon?" The data Digimon looked into Revdromon's eyes that just dared him to say 'no.'

"Yes…. my lord," he mumbled.

"Excellent! Muscalumon escort him back to his lab so he can get started right away on the experiments." The muscle Digimon nodded, and grabbed the data Digimon by the head.

"With those kids out of the way it will make everything go all the more smoother," the dark Digimon chuckled.

OOOOO

The bell rang signaling the end of school, and the start of a long weekend. Zoe held her head as she walked out of the school. Her brain was fried. She had taken tests in almost all of her classes, tests she forgot to study for, but that wasn't the issue. Throughout the entire day she had tried to figure out how rouge Digimon should be dealt, and who was right, Rika or Kari, but she was nowhere close to a solution or a position. She groaned as she made her way home. She just wanted to lie in her bed and sleep for the whole weekend. Digimon and chores be damned.

"Hey Zoe!!" Takuya called out to her.

"Oh, hey Takuya," she replied half heartedly, but the goggle-head didn't seem to notice.

"Guess who made the varsity soccer team?" he asked excitedly. Zoe rubbed her temples and held in a grunt.

"You?"

"Yeah! Not just me though. Davis, and Ken too! The coaches said it's close to impossible for freshmen to make the varsity team! But that just proves we rock!"

"Congratulations," she replied. Takuya raised his eyebrow.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"No, not really. I just have a lot on my mind that's all."

"Like what?" Zoe stayed quiet for a while before speaking up.

"Takuya, is deleting Digimon wrong?" she asked.

"Huh? Where's this coming from?"

"Just answer the question." Takuya thought for a minute.

"Well I guess if you have no other choice…" he started, but Zoe cut him off.

"But what if it's not the Digimon's fault? What if it's just being controlled? What then?"

"What's going on? Where's this coming from?" Zoe then told the warrior of flame the incident that occurred a couple of days ago.

"And that's what happened," she said once she was finished.

"Oh I see. That's a tough one then."

"Thanks, Takuya, you're real help," Zoe said sarcastically.

"Sorry, but from what you're telling me both Rika and Kari have good points. I mean it's wrong to delete a Digimon that can't even control itself, but if Rika didn't, that Tyrannomon would have caused a lot more damage. I'm gonna have to side with Rika on this one."

"So you're saying it's fine to delete a Digimon like that, even though it has no control of its actions?"

"Well what other choice do you have at that point?" Zoe was about to answer when she saw a cloud of fog form around the park.

"Oh no! A digital field!" she exclaimed. Takuya smirked as he reached into his pocket for his D-Tector.

"Well Zoe looks like you're going to get your answer!"

OOOOO

Takuya and Zoe rushed into the Digital Field and saw that Takato was already there with Gulimon.

"What do we got Takato?" Takuya asked his fellow goggle-head.

"I'm not sure yet. It hasn't biomerged yet."

"Takato," Gulimon growled. "It's coming." Takato nodded as he readied his cards. The ground began glow as a massive figure began to rise. First the creature's large wings sprouted from the ground, and began to flap to make itself rise out of the ground faster. Takuya and the others struggled to keep themselves grounded as the wings began to form a powerful gust of wind.

"This thing is huge!" Zoe exclaimed. In a matter of minutes the large Digimon was fully in the real world.

"Parrotmon!" Takuya identified. Takato quickly analyzed the Digimon with his D-Arc.

"Parrotmon: Ultimate Leveled Bird Digimon! Good luck giving a cracker to this parrot. His Sonic Destroyer and Bird Claw will rip to shreds the second you get close!"

"That's an ultimate?" Zoe asked. Takato nodded as he grabbed a card from his pocket.

"Which means it won't be easy. Gulimon go!" The dinosaur didn't need to be told twice, within a blink of an eye he was rushing towards the bird Digimon.

"It doesn't matter what level he is!" Takuya exclaimed as he pulled out his D-Tector. "I beat this thing once, I'll do it again! Let's go Zoe!"

"Right!"

Execute!

Spirit Evolution!

Agunimon!

Kazemon!

"Digi-Modify! Digivolution activate!" Takato exclaimed as he swiped the card.

Digivolution

Gulimon Digivolve to...

Growlmon!

"Pyro Blaster!"

"Pyro Punch!"

"Hurricane Wave!" The three attacks collided with Parrotmon, but the large bird didn't even flinch.

"What!" Agunimon exclaimed. "Not even a burn?"

"Those attacks had to have some effect on him!" Zoe said.

"Probably because it's an ultimate," Takato figured. "We'll need more power to defeat it." The Tamer was about to reach into his pocket for his blue card, when Parrotmon made his move.

"Bird Claw!" The parrot thrust out its talons towards Takato, who quickly jumped to the side, but Parrotmon came in with his other talon. Before Takato could be pierced, Kazemon swooped down and grabbed him.

"Thanks Zoe."

"Don't mention it."

"Pyro Darts!"

"Dragon Slash!" Once again, the combination of attacks had no effect on the ultimate. As Agunimon and Growlmon were about to attack again, Parrotmon slammed its tail into, sending them flying against the Digital Field.

"Takuya, are you alright?" Kazemon asked from the air.

"Feels like I got hit by a truck," Agunimon groaned.

"Gulimon how about you?" Takato asked his partner.

"I'm fine, but this guy is really strong."

"Well it looks like we'll just have to turn it up a notch!" Takuya as surrounded himself with data.

Slide Evolution!

BurningGreymon!

"Pyro Barrage!!!" The rapid flame blasts bounced off against the rough skin of Parrotmon, but Takuya kept firing. Parrotmon took a step back from the endless fire, and covered itself, but Takuya kept the attack going.

"BurningGreymon has him on the ropes! Growlmon get ready!" Takato reached into his pocket and grabbed a blue card.

"Digi-Modify! Matrix Digivolution activate!"

Matrix Digivolution

Growl Matrix Digivolve too...

WarGrowlmon!

"Atomic Blaster!" The powerful blast was enough to send Parrotmon flying into the barrier of the Digital Field. From the burns around its body, and how slowly he was getting up, it was clear the Digimon was weakening.

"Let's finish him off!" Takuya exclaimed as he and WarGrowlmon charged to deliver the final blow. Kazemon looked at the ultimate level Digimon and saw that it was struggling to get up. She realized that the Digimon couldn't even defend itself. To attack it now would be...

"Takuya wait a minute!" Kazemon called. BurningGreymon stopped in his tracks and looked at his fellow Legendary Warrior.

"What is it Zoe?"

"I... it's just..."

"What?"

"I mean..."

"Just spit it out already!"

"I'm...not...sure..." she whispered.

"Huh? I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"I don't think..."

"Guys, hate to interrupt, but he's getting up!" Takato announced, breaking the one sided conversation. BurningGreymon turned around just in time to see Parrotmon charge up its attack.

"Sonic Destroyer!" The powerful lighting attack collided head on with BurningGreymon and WarGrowlmon, completely consuming them, and sending them flying back.

"Takuya!"

"WarGrowlmon!" Kazemon looked back at their opponent and saw that he was charging up another attack to finish the two off. She looked at BurningGreymon and WarGrowlmon, who weren't moving at all. If the attack hit them, they would destroyed for sure.

"I have to stop him no matter what!" Zoe decided.

Slide Evolution!

Zyphermon!

"Plasma Pods!" Zyphermon shot the pods at Parrotmon, who was knocked back, causing his Sonic Destroyer to be redirected upwards. Before it could recover Zyphermon flew up in close.

"Hurricane Gale!" The attack collided with Parrotmon's eyes, successfully blinding it. While it thrashed around trying get back its senses Zyphermon attacked with another set of Plasma Pods, and knocked Parrotmon to the ground.

"Zoe!" BurningGreymon called as he got up along with WarGrowlmon. "Get out of the way!" Zyphermon quickly flew upwards after seeing Takuya consume himself with fire.

"Atomic Blaster!"

"Wildfire Tsunami!" The powerful combination engulfed Parrotmon and completely exterminated it, leaving nothing but small red dots of data. The fighters let out a sigh of relief as they saw the Digital Field lift. Takuya and Zoe powered down to their human forms and Takato tried to figure ways to get Gulimon to power down.

"I guess we could get you to stand on your head again."

"But that makes me really dizzy. And it hard to get myself in a handstand like this."

"Well then I guess it's running laps then. Good night Takuya, good night Zoe. If I'm sleepy during class tomorrow you'll know why."

"Don't worry I'll give you my notes for history!" Takuya promised.

OOOOO

As Takuya walked Zoe home, he couldn't help but notice something was wrong. It took him a while to convince her that he should walk her home, and even as they walked she was silent. Usually she would go off on something funny that happened in school today and then he'd probably say something stupid, then they'd both share a good laugh. But she seemed like she was in her own little world.

'Must be a girl thing,' he figured.

Zoe felt at a loss. During the fight when she saw Parrotmon helpless, she thought back to the fight with Tyrannomon. Out of impulse rather than thought, she called out to Takuya. She wanted to tell him that he and WarGrowlmon didn't need to finish off Parrotmon, and that Parrotmon was probably lost and confused. But she hesitated, not sure how Takuya would react, which gave Parrotmon enough time to recover and counterattack. Was that what they risked when they spared their opponents? She knew Parrotmon wasn't really evil, but it seemed dead set on attack them, and probably wouldn't stop even if they had let it go. But it was a living creature too, didn't it have the right for a second chance? If they had let it go, would really keep attack, or given the chance, would it have eagerly gone home? There were just too many uncertainties. Too many variables. Zoe let out a groan.

'This is just like math.' Zoe sighed mentally. The day was over, and she was still no where close to an answer. In fact this fight just confused her even more. How should rouge Digimon be dealt with? And what do you do when it is immobile and can't fight anymore? The warrior of wind let out another mental sigh, she wished there was a rule book or a code of conduct for Digidestiend she could read.

Zoe wished she could tell the future, but even she could tell that something big was coming. And when it arrived the question of the handling of rouge Digimon wouldn't be only unanswerable question of her plate.

AN: GUESS WHO'S BACKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!! AFTER TWO YEARS OF HIATUS DIGIMON: THE RANTOMON CHRONICLES IS BACK ON TRACK!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!! (Deep breath) Seriously though, I'm really really really really really really really really sorry for taking two years. It was a mixture of losing where I was going, lost of interest, another fic, and lack of Digimon exposure. When I first posted that AN, I got a few reviews, but then after a while they stopped coming. So I figured "No must like this story anymore. Oh well, I was getting kind of bored writing it." So I set it aside and worked on another fic, Seven Deadly Jewels. (A Card Captor Sakura fanfic. Check it out if you want to see what I've been up to all this time.) But then the site introduced the hit system, and I was able to see that people were still checking out the story even though they weren't leaving reviews. At that point though, I had completely lost all my knowledge and interest in Digimon, so I didn't think to try the story again. Then, last summer I got bored, so just for the heck of it, I decided to watch some Digimon episodes they were showing on TV. That picked up my interst in it again, so I looked up more episodes on YouTube. That, and I saw people began to leave some reviews on the story again. So I decided "Maybe I should to pick it up again." But after sitting on my chair for an hour, I realized I lost where I was going. So I reread and rethought everything, but it was still on the boring side. So I decided to drop it again. Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I was watching a DBZ episode. I watching that and a Digimon Frontier episode at the same time. Then something clicked. I won't tell you what cause it will give too much away. But anyway, something clicked, and went on my computer and started typing up this chapter, with a new direction for the story. So yeah that how it happened. Even though this chapter may not seem like much, trust me, things will pick up! And don't worry about anymore years of hiatus, I'm sure about the story and the pacing this time. Though it may take a while for me to get the wording right for the fights. But I'm sure I'll get back into it once everything picks up. Anyway, like I said in the beginning, Digimon: The Rantomon Chronicles is back for sure! So be sure to check out next chapter!