David dreaded entering school that day. As an elementary school student, he probably couldn't wait for high school. It's funny how two years of reality slaps you in the face. David growled at the "Gun Free Zone" sign that was posted in front of the building, knowing just how worthless it was. When you toss several hundred people with conflicting beliefs and personalities into a small building, it becomes the most volatile place in the world.

David got a reminder of why just seconds after getting onto the school's grounds. He stopped as he noticed a goth boy being pushed down onto the ground in front of him. He immediately recognized Brad and already had a guess on who was pushing him around. Brad didn't seem perturbed at all. In fact, he smirked.

"What's wrong, Adam? Heard Mandy's locked up in the nuthouse?" Brad asked mockingly. "I'm surprised you're here. I heard they suspected that you raped her."

Adam stormed up to Brad and kicked him in the gut, his anger showing in his face. David knew it was stupid, especially with Adam flanked by both JR and Evan, but he rushed in and pushed Adam back, standing between the two.

"Knock it off! Both of you," David growled.

"Like you're one to talk," Brad remarked with a cringe. He slowly got up.

"Two of my favorite people," Adam remarked, cracking his knuckles. He looked around, but found teachers were starting to come out and corral the students in and lead the freshmen to their classes. "Lucky for you, I don't have time for these games. Come on, guys."

As Adam and JR walked away, Evan stopped and glared at David. "Tell your buddy that he will get his."

"And I thought you told the cops Stan didn't do it," David sniped back, remembering how Evan was left injured in an alley.

Brad smirked upon hearing this, which angered Evan even more, but he kept his calm. "It's still his fault I got hurt. That's all that matters to me." Evan trudged off after this.

David sighed. If this day was already starting like this, he knew the year was going to be Hell.

"Why'd you stop him?" Brad asked suddenly.

David jumped, completely forgetting that he was there, taking only a second to recollect himself. "You may be an asshole, but even you don't deserve that," David told him with a growl.

"How naive," Brad criticized. "That line of thought will get you killed, Tamer."

"Is that a threat?" David glared at Brad.

"Should it be?" Brad's expression became smug, one that left David suspicious of Brad, but not enough to prove anything. "Heard your partner took a beating."

"Fuck off," David told him with a death glare before walking off towards the building. He watched the mass of students being herded in by teachers that tried to look happy. David wondered if they were just as miserable as he was in reality.

Blue Card Diaries
Chapter 6: Academia and War
By: Izumi Ryu
Tamers Diaries Concept by: Lord Archive
Disclaimer: Digimon is owned by Toei. I do not claim any characters except the originals that appear.

Jessa stood among a handful of girls exchanging gossip. Normally, she'd be joining in with her friends, but couldn't find anything to pass on. Truth was she had nothing to share with them. If work didn't take up her time over the summer, David and V-mon did, and there was no way she could talk about that.

"Earth to Jessa…" another girl told her. "You awake?"

Jessa's snapped her attention to the girls, all of them staring at her. She just missed part of the conversation while lost in her thoughts. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"Really, Jessa," Lisa, a smaller girl her age shook her head. "It's bad enough with you hanging out with guys like Stan. I heard rumors that you've befriended David, too?"

"And? Why does that bother you?" Jessa asked, annoyed at the girls.

"Because who you are friends with affects us, too. Those losers shouldn't even be in the same building as us," Renee explained, she glared at the girl. Renee was the type that if she really wanted to, she could get on the cheerleading squad with ease.

"Though, to be fair, David wouldn't be near as bad as Stan if he just didn't seem so standoffish," Lisa cocked her head back with a thoughtful expression.

If his IQ ever drops low enough, I'll tell him you're interested, Jessa thought.

"Jessa, I'm telling you now. Stop hanging out with the Reject Brigade. You're lucky I haven't told everyone to turn on you," Renee told her.

Jessa cringed at the thought. When someone like Renee does that, they aren't kidding. The level of torment they deal out is enough to make even the strongest person commit suicide. The idea of her being subjected to that scared her.

The sound of something hitting metal echoed throughout the hall. People backed off and cleared the area around Evan, pinning Stan against a locker by his shoulder. Stan had cringed, but otherwise, looked defiant.

"Stan!" Jessa called out in worry.

Renee put a hand on Jessa's shoulder, stopping her from going to help him. "Looks like Evan's about to do us a favor," she told the girl. "Hopefully, after this, we'll never see him again."

Stan glared at Evan from his position, appearing more annoyed that scared. Though, he was surprised when the bully slammed him against the locker. "Funny way of repaying the guy that made sure you stayed alive," Stan remarked.

"No," Evan told him. "You're the bastard that distracted me. I'm going to enjoy this." The bully cocked his fist back, all the pent up frustration building up.

The moment Evan threw the punch, Stan ducked, sliding his shoulder from under Evan's grip and squatting down. Evan's fist, thrown with all of the boy's strength, hit nothing but steel. Pain not only shot through his fist but his entire arm, causing Evan to yell out in a mix of pain and frustration. Stan ducked out from under Evan and started to walk off.

"I'd have the nurse check that out if I was you," Stan shrugged, not even paying attention to the boy, still doubled over. Of the on-lookers, there was a mix of pure laughter and astonished expressions.

"You'll pay for this, too!" Evan called out to Stan.

Stan glared back at Evan for a second, continuing to walk away. "Sorry, the cops already made me pay for enough as is."

Jessa, Renee and Lisa just gawked at the scene. Renee suddenly looked at Jessa, more confused than ever. "When were you going to tell me Stan grew a backbone?" she asked, watching a teacher take a look over Evan as others tried to corral the students back to class.

"When did you care?" Jessa asked, looking at her 'friend' in contempt before walking off to her next class, ignoring the girls' appeals to come back. Truth was, even Jessa didn't know what was going on with Stan.

V-mon was travelling high on the buildings of the city, trying to stay out of view of any other humans. The city was bustling with activity as the adults traveled on their day to day activities. Even with children in school, the amount of people didn't even look like it dropped.

It made it easier for threats to pass by unnoticed.

V-mon came to a skidding halt as something caught his attention. He turned around and looked down between the buildings into the alleyway. A full-grown man lied prone on the ground, three gashes along his back like what happened to Evan before. An impish demon stood over the man. It raised one of its three-clawed arms, about to deliver the deathblow to the human.

V-mon didn't think. He kicked off the edge of the roof to launch himself at the demon, but there wasn't enough time to save the man. It slashed the man, forcing him to draw his last breath. V-mon flipped around, his foot leading into the fall. "Evilmon!" V-mon called out, just a moment before before impact.

Evilmon turned to look up at V-mon, only to be kicked straight into the face. The momentum forced him onto his back and slide across the asphalt as V-mon refused to let go. Just before they were about to crash into a brick wall, V-mon kicked off of Evilmon and backflipped onto his feet. V-mon then turned and ran to the fallen man to check if he was alive. Unfortunately, the man was no longer breathing. V-mon cursed himself but shook it off, needing to focus on the new threat.

"Was that wise, V-mon?" Evilmon chuckled as he got up.

V-mon glared at him. "I should've known it was one of your kind causing problems lately."

"Was I that obvious?" Evilmon cackled. "Looks like I've been a little too careless." Then, Evilmon spread his wings before taking flight. "Of course, it's careless to confront me without your Tamer now." Evilmon fired a black beam at V-mon, trying to catch the dragon in another hallucination.

V-mon dashed towards Evilmon, the beam impacting the ground behind him. V-mon rushed towards one brick wall, and jumped towards it. He kicked the wall and launched himself towards another.

"Beat Slash!" Evilmon called out, slicing the air as triple air blades rushed towards V-mon's landing spot. V-mon kicked off that wall, to the next, the blades cut into the brick wall, leaving scratches in it.

V-mon suddenly grabbed onto a light fixture and swung himself on top of it. He didn't waste any time in jumping from that position, launching head first into the demonic digimon. "V-mon Head!" V-mon called out as he slammed into Evilmon head first.

Evilmon hit the brick wall with the force of a bullet before falling to the ground. V-mon landed not too far from him, standing over Evilmon with a glare that promised death. "That's it?" V-mon asked.

"Heh…for now," Evilmon chuckled, not a single iota of fear being betrayed in his eyes, just exhaustion from the beating he had been given.

"You act like I'm allowing you to live," V-mon told him, raising a fist to deliver the final blow.

Both V-mon and Evilmon paused for a second, realizing something in the air around them had changed drastically. V-mon turned around to see fog had started to billow out in the area around them. "Not now," V-mon grumbled.

Taking advantage of V-mon's distraction, Evilmon suddenly got up and shot into the air. V-mon panicked and looked up as Evilmon flew off. "If you survive this, you can try again later!" Evilmon shouted as he flew off, away from the Digital field.

"Get back here!" V-mon called out, watching Evilmon fly away. V-mon shook his head and quickly turned his attention back to the Digital Field.

The silhouette of the new digimon loomed over V-mon. The child digimon could only look up in fear as he realized what he was up against. "Oh, no…"

Several boys filed into the locker rooms, chatting amongst each other. David and Jared were breathing heavily as they entered the room last. David leaned against the wall, thankful it was near the end of the day. "You'd think I'd be used to that by now," David grumbled between breaths.

"I think that's my fault, really," Jared admitted apologetically. "Coach was pushing you harder than he should have."

"Why? Was he dragging me into some sick revenge on you?" David asked, glaring at him. David hadn't missed the rumor mill regarding Jared's decision to leave the track team.

"Partly," Jared said. "I think he was scouting you. He's been paying close attention to you."

"Yeah, well. I don't care what he wants me for, I'm not interested," David told him, walking for his locker once he was able to regain composure. "I might have considered it before this summer, but…"

"If it wasn't for that, you wouldn't be in as good of shape as you are now," Jared told him.

As they rounded the corner into the aisle their lockers were in, David stopped to notice that the floor of the aisle was completely littered with clothing, books, supplies and whatever else could have been found. Two locker doors were wide open, the locks that were on them completely destroyed and ripped off. David looked down and realized he was standing on one of his cards.

"Seriously?" David asked to no one in general as he picked the card up. David recognized his street clothing along with Jared's in the mix.

"That…is probably for hanging around me. But why did you bring your cards?" Jared asked.

"Why do you think?" David asked, glaring at Jared. David continued gathering the cards he could reach. "Quit gawking and help me sort our stuff."

As David reached for another card, his hand was suddenly crushed underneath the foot of another classmate. David yelped out in pain which caused laughter around them.

"Whoops. Sorry, didn't see you," the jock said before crushing David's hand even harder. "If I had, I would've stomped harder." David cringed harder at that, trying not to give the goons any more leverage.

"That's enough," Jared told them, shoving the lead jock off and getting him to get off David's hand.

"Oh, please," another jock said, shoving Jared against a closed locker. "You're a has been, Jared. The best you'll accomplish here is being the fall guy."

"The what?" Jared asked.

"Knock it off!" an older man yelled. The jocks backed off as Jared brushed off and checked himself. David slowly stood up. The gym coach walked up to them. "Jared, I see you're causing problems, now."

"What do you mean? They…" Jared tried to defend himself.

"They were fine until you showed up," the coach told him. "You're nothing special. So don't think you can walk from this."

The coach looked down at the mess. He leaned down to pick up a card. "I didn't expect you to be into this nerd stuff, David."

"Does it matter to you?" David asked.

The coach looked at the Tamer, scrutinizing him. "Everything matters, son. The more people know about you, the more they judge you. It would do you some good to realize that."

"I never cared what people thought of me before. I don't see any reason to start," David shrugged.

"And that is the mindset that creates people like Jared here. When you stop caring about what people think of you, you set yourself up for failure in life," the coach told him. The coach scanned the locker room. "Looks like you got frustrated and broke your lockers."

"They were like this when we got here," Jared spoke up.

"Sure they were," the coach said sarcastically. "They flew off the locks and launched the contents out themselves."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Jared spoke up.

"Listen. It doesn't matter what you think. Not anymore anyway," the coach told him.

"Thought you said everything matters," David remarked.

The coach glared at David. "I said everything. Not everyone. Get with the program boy. Now, clean this mess up, get dressed and get outta here. I'll give you the benefit of a doubt now. But next time, you'll find yourselves in detention faster than you can blink."

The coach then took the card he picked up and tore it up before throwing it away. David glared as the middle-aged man walked off. "Son of a bitch," David muttered under his breath.

"Hope that card wasn't important," Jared said.

At that, a beep came from among the pile thrown stuff. David's eyes widened as he recognized his D-Arc. "I really hope so…"

David and Jared rushed to gather everything they could stuff as much as they could into their bags. The moment David grabbed his D-Arc, both of them bolted out of the locker room. Their sudden rush caught the coach's attention for a moment, before he decided to ignore it.

V-mon made a mad dash out of the alleyway, plowing through the legs of various people. At this point, he didn't care about being found anymore as he found himself chased by a serpentine dragon flew overhead. Airdramon simply intimidated the humans, causing them to run and taking away any cover V-mon had.

"Stop right now, V-mon! Your father waits for your return," AirDramon told him.

"Like Hell!" V-mon shouted back.

"Your punishment is to be severe enough already. Don't make this harder on yourself." AirDramon then rained needles down into the concrete, surrounding V-mon in a makeshift cage.

V-mon stopped in his tracks, his escape foiled. V-mon looked up at the air dragon in defiance. "What? Didn't you hear from your buddies? Oh, wait. Greymon killed them."

"What?!" AirDramon hissed, his red eyes flashed with fury.

"Besides, if you knew what's happened since I've been here, you wouldn't be taking me back," V-mon told him flatly.

AirDramon glared. "What heresy have you committed, child?!"

"V-mon!" David yelled, approaching the battle with Jared following him.

"A Tamer?!" AirDramon roared. "Your father…"

"Has no say in it," V-mon told him. "One of us dies, here and now."

"That I'll agree with," AirDramon glared, shifting his attention towards David and Jared. "But your partner dies first!"

"David! Move!" Jared barked as AirDramon fired off a Needle Storm attack at the boys. Jared and David dove in opposite directions as the attack flew past them, the needles embedded into the sides of buildings.

David rolled on the ground and into a crouched position, grabbing his D-Arc and a card. "No more messing around," David said. "Card Slash!" David swiped the card through the D-Arc's card reader. "Shining Evolution!"

"V-mon evolve!" V-mon cried out as the cocoon of bright light flared around him, surging energy through him as he changed into the much more massive dragon form. "V-DRAMON!" His new form roared as it crushed the cage of needles AirDramon trapped him in earlier.

AirDramon turned around to V-Dramon, now sensing the bigger threat to him. "Heathen!" AirDramon hissed, firing off another barrage of needles at V-Dramon.

V-Dramon raised his arms in front of him in a cross-block as the needle barrage struck him, bouncing off harmlessly. "V-Breath Arrow!" V-Dramon fired back a white hot arrow out of his mouth, aiming head on for AirDramon. AirDramon moved to the side, easily evading the attack.

V-Dramon fired off three more arrows, only for AirDramon to weave between them with ease. "Damn it!" V-Dramon cursed in frustration.

"God Tornado!" AirDramon shouted as he started flying in a circle around V-Dramon, causing a cyclone to form around the traitor. "This is the end, traitor!"

"No," V-Dramon told him. V-Dramon swung his arms out, dispersing the tornado before attempting to grab AirDramon, he only grabbed air, as the enemy dragon dashed out of reach. "David! Let's end this stalemate!"

"Got it!" David said, picking up a card from his deck. Looking at it, David looked horrified. He picked the deck of cards up, frantically searching for the card he needed.

"What's wrong?" Jared asked.

"Coach threw away the Aero Wing card!" David yelled in frustration.

"What?!" V-Dramon asked, glancing back at his Tamer.

AirDramon rushed in at that moment. He had an opportunity to get in close and take it. As he got in close, AirDramon hissed "Now, you die!"

V-Dramon turned around, his eyes widened in shock at AirDramon getting so close. AirDramon wrapped tightly around the younger dragon, pinning his arms down against his body. "Crap!" V-Dramon cursed.

"V-Dramon!" David called out as he took out a card, immediately sliding it through the D-Arc. "Grapple Chip!" he called out.

V-Dramon's struggles against AirDramon's grip became stronger, harder for AirDramon to keep hold. The serpentine dragon was thrown through the air as V-Dramon spread his arms, breaking free.

AirDramon's eyes flashed in annoyance. "That boy is a nuisance!" he hissed in frustration. "I should have killed him when I had the chance!"

"Deal with it!" V-Dramon taunted, staring up at the enemy dragon.

Jared looked at David from the distance he stood, knowing it would be suicide to go near him at the moment. "Tell me you have another anti-air measure," Jared said.

"I might," David said, picking up another card out of his deck, this one featuring a quadruped dragon with a lightning bolt-shaped horn. "Hope this works. Card Slash!" David slid the card through his device. "LighDramon's Blue Thunder!"

V-Dramon himself, started to spark with lightning engulfing much of his body as the attack built up power. "Now that's what I'm talking about! Blue Thunder!" V-Dramon threw his arms toward AirDramon, throwing a blast of blue lightning toward AirDramon.

"Stupid move!" AirDramon yelled as he jerked to the side, letting the lightning attack pass by him harmlessly, now diving toward the ground behind V-Dramon. David stood firm as AirDramon charged at the Tamer.

David smirked, unnerving AirDramon.

The lightning attack made a U-turn, chasing after the air serpent. AirDramon let out a high pitched shriek as his tail was struck, sending electricity coursing throughout his body. The dragon plummeted into the ground, leaving an indent in the pavement.

V-Dramon walked up to AirDramon as he writhed on the ground in pain, still charged with electricity. "The Dramon are the real traitors, the real blasphemers," V-Dramon growled

"Hardly," AirDramon chuckled. "The Dramon are purity. We're perfection, superior to everyone. You killing me won't prove us wrong."

V-Dramon remained silent for an uneasy moment. Almost no sound could be heard in the block, other than Jared asking David, "What the Hell are they talking about?" David shrugged in response.

"No, but it'll be very satisfying." V-Dramon charged up another blast from his mouth, intending to kill AirDramon at point blank range.

V-Dramon was suddenly engulfed in light, feeling weaker as he gathered more power. Suddenly all that power leaked out as V-Dramon reverted back to his child form. "Damn it!" V-mon cursed to the air, realizing what was wrong.

AirDramon chuckled before breaking into mad laughter, echoing off the buildings surrounding the street. "Pathetic, you deserve death!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of yourself," David said as he walked up to V-mon and AirDramon. V-mon looked up at him in confusion, thinking he was nuts. "You took too much damage from that last attack. You can't even get up, can you?"

AirDramon's eyes flashed red in pure rage, struggling to prove the tamer wrong as he writhed on the ground. "Insolent human!"

David took a card from his deck, before sliding it through. "Which means V-mon can still kill you as he is now." As soon as he said this, a pair of swords appeared in each of V-mon's hands.

The child dragon jumped up onto AirDramon, aiming the swords around the serpent's head. David slowly walked up to AirDramon, signaling for V-mon to hold off on the finishing blow. "Now, talk. I might let you live depending on what you say."

V-mon looked up at David, eyes widen in fear as his tamer said that. "David, are you nuts?"

"He's either mad or naïve," AirDramon muttered. "Count your days, Tamer. None of your kind have long to live."

"Bold words coming from someone that's down and out," David growled.

"My life is meaningless now, just a minor setback to your extinction," AirDramon taunted.

"Fine then. All yours, V-mon," David told him.

"Finally," V-mon muttered. David turned around and walked away as V-mon drew his swords back, then hacked into AirDramon's neck, cutting right through it to decapitate the digimon. The head, then the rest of the body, dispersed into data particles as the swords disappeared.

"So much for the rest of class," Jared told him as he confronted David, glancing at his watch.

"That's for the best," David told him. "Meet at my home, I'll call Stan and Jessa." David turned to glare at V-mon. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

V-mon fidgeted nervously as four human teenagers looked at him intently. Where to starrt with what was going on, he didn't know. He didn't think he would need to deal with the Dramon ever again once coming here, but AirDramon's arrival proved him wrong. The difference from the other digimon, AirDramon intended to come here, looking for him.

That fact scared V-mon the most.

"V-mon," David told him. "There was more to this fight than normal. What was this about?"

"My father sent AirDramon to find me," V-mon told him. "I'd be dead if he took me back right now."

"Why?" Stan asked.

"Because of David," V-mon shrugged. "It was bad enough that I ran away from the Dramon, but I commited heresy when I befriended you guys."

"And I thought I high school was harsh,"Jessa remarked, remembering the threat her friends made to her.

Stan glanced at Jessa. "Renee again?" he asked.

Jessa merely nodded, still looking at V-mon.

"What was with AirDramon's threat?" Jared asked. "He made it sound like it was his lifelong goal to exterminate humanity."

"Not just humanity," V-mon told him. "All non-Dramon. They gathered around an extremely powerful digimon, worshipping him like he's a god." V-mon shuddered. "And apparently, he's as powerful as my father says he is. There's no other way AirDramon could have appeared at will like that."

"Just what we need, a crazy cult with enough firepower to wipe us out," Stan remarked.

"We'll manage," David told him.

"What makes you think that?" Jared asked.

"I don't think they can send a large enough force yet. If they could, why bother just sending AirDramon?"

"I...didn't think about it that way,"V-mon said. "I had..."

"Other thoughts on your mind?" David finished for him. "You're right to be concerned, but we have time. It's not like we can go in there ourselves anyway."

"Which would be suicidal until we grew in power," V-mon told him. "But don't forget they're growing too."

"He's growing, they aren't. Why would they need to?" David asked. "They think they're superior to anyone, right?"

V-mon shook his head. "No, they all seek 'pure' power. Untainted power."

"Either way, if all they can send is one at a time, then we'll just have to deal with them one at a time, no different than before."

V-mon shrugged. "Sounds about right, but we need to keep on our guard. All the time if necessary."

David went silent, weighing the gravity of what V-mon said. He knew the destruction of a digimon that came in rampant, but the idea of a digimon with intent to kill dropping in at any moment, that thought scared him.

"Can you two fight alone like that?" Jessa asked them.

"We have to," David simply replied, looking down. "There's too much riding on this."

Stan got up from his seat, at that moment, walking to the door. "Stan?" Jessa asked.

"You shouldn't have to fight alone," Stan said, stopping as he grabbed the door knob.

"What can you do? Put out a Craigslist ad for Tamers?" Jared asked, arms spread to the side.

"No. I'm doing more research on the one lead we have," Stan replied.

"But we ran into a dead end on Alice," Jessa replied.

"What about her family? What happened to them?" Stan asked. "I'll find out what I can." Stan opened the door and left, closing the door behind them.

David rubbed his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell him this isn't a game?"

"He knows," Jessa told him. "I think that's what changed him."