Digital Prey Chapter 3
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| Digital Prey |
| A Digimon Tamers Fanfic |
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| Chris Teet |
| 1/4/2011 | | | Renamon gritted her teeth, facing one of the direst situations of her life. The vulpine-esque Digimon was trapped on the edge of a cliff by Stalkermon; a powerful Digimon who had taken her tamer hostage to force her to agree to cooperate with being hunted. Renamon had proven herself a challenging target despite Stalkermon being superior in overall power, but her luck had run out as the terrain had conspired against her to leave her cornered against her pursuer, who now appeared ready to take her life. "I must thank you, Renamon; you have finally provided me with a satisfying hunt. I almost regret having to bring it to an end now." Stalkermon said, raising the barrel of his weapon and looking through the scope at her and slowly squeezing the trigger. However, mere milliseconds before the coup de grâce could be delivered, the targeted Digimon abruptly leapt straight up and executed a full 360-degree back flip "If my life is to end, it will be on my own terms, not at the hands of a sadistic pig like you!" To say that Stalkermon was surprised was an understatement; he watched in disbelief as the Sniper Shot blast intended to terminate his quarry sailed through empty space, watching as his target executed the graceful acrobatic maneuver which sent her over the edge of the cliff. He rushed to the edge just in time to see her disappear into a layer of fog below. He then silently withdrew his last Searcher bot probe and launched it, the small robot descending into the obscuring mist and returning a few moments later. A somber expression overcame his face as he looked into the fog, "She truly had an incredible spirit; even in the face of inevitable demise, she would rather sacrifice herself rather than allow herself to face defeat. Never before have I encountered such a Digimon, and I fear I never will again... say?nara, Renamon." A short time later, Stalkermon returned to the clearing where Renamon's tamer Ruki Makino had been imprisoned since this whole ordeal began. She looked up as she sensed someone approaching, letting out a fearful gasp as she saw the malevolent Digimon's figure emerge from the forest. "Wh-where's Renamon? What'd you do to her??" demanded the young girl, her mind filling with dread. Stalkermon stopped several feet from where Ruki hung, suspended from a tree branch by the net that had been used to abduct her and had subsequently been her prison. "She has been destroyed, although not by my hand. She leapt from the edge of a cliff before I could finish her." "Damn you! You're lying!" shouted Ruki, her dread growing to terror and heartache at the prospect of losing her partner. Stalkermon shook his head and was opening his mouth to speak when he was cut off by a strong, feminine voice from above, "He is only half right." Both hunter and hostage shot their gaze skyward, looks of shocked surprise on their faces as they uttered the name of the being they now beheld, "Renamon!?" "But how? I saw you leap off the cliff, there is no way you should have survived the fall!" Renamon looked down on the two from a branch of a neighboring tree as she spoke, "I did not expect that I would, but there was a ledge hidden by the fog that I landed on." "But my Searcher bot did not detect you." Stalkermon responded, still trying to make sense of this strange turn of events. Renamon crossed her arms as she regarded at her dumbfounded opponent, "Because I had teleported out of the area before your probe got there." Stalkermon gave a brief laugh, shaking his head as he grinned maliciously up at her, "You truly are full of surprises; quite a clever fox indeed. Now the hunt can continue!" With that last remark, he withdrew his remaining Searcher bot probe and launched it at Renamon like a robotic shuriken. Renamon narrowed her gaze in a fierce scowl, raising a fist which became enveloped in a pale blue flame, "I think not!" she then swung her fist outward, striking the incoming Searcher bot with a powerful backhanded blow which sent it flying away, the razor-sharp rotor blades slicing through the rope that connected Ruki's net to the branch before the probe slammed into and embedded itself in the trunk, destroyed. Ruki grunted and grimaced as she hit the ground, her former prison coming undone as it was no longer held closed. The human girl quickly got to her feet as her partner alighted on the ground next to her, ready to defend her liberated tamer. "So, he wants to see how strong you can be? I say we show him your true power!" said Ruki, unclasping her digivice from her belt and drawing a card from the leather pouch on her opposite hip. "Agreed!" nodded Renamon, not even having to see the girl sliding the card through the slot on the side of the device to know what was about to happen next. As sparks spewed from her digivice from the power possessed by the card being slid through the reader slot, the girl shouted out a familiar and well-practiced command, "Card slash... Matrix Evolution!" "Renamon evolve..." shouted Renamon, her voice echoing as a blinding flash of light enveloped her. When it dissipated moments later, the familiar figure of Renamon was replaced by her perfect-level form; a twirling, taller figure clad in robes and a tall hat reminiscent of a Shinto priest, though her face and exposed feet were still similar to that of her previous form. The being dropped into a crouch as she ceased twirling, then stood and spread her arms out before lowering them to her sides as she spoke her new name with a tone of authority, "Taomon!" Stalkermon growled, looking on at the two before him, "Damn you, I told you what would happen if you broke the rules, now you will pay the price!" he then drew his gun, leveling it at the easiest target available; Ruki. "Hunter Barrage!" Just as Stalkermon opened fire, a transparent shield formed around the young human, the volley of shots striking it and dissipating harmlessly. The hunter then looked up at Taomon just as she raised the sleeves of her robe to aim at him a flurry of small red paper talismans erupting forth as she returned fire, "Kofuusatsu!" The talismans exploded on impact with Stalkermon's weapon, destroying it as Taomon landed on the ground before him. The frustrated hunter then unsheathed his machete and charged his quarry, yelling as he closed on her, "I will delete you, if it is the last thing I do!" he then slashed repeatedly at Taomon, though his attacks proved futile as she almost effortlessly parried and deflected them with her sleeve-enshrouded hands. After doing this several times, she suddenly grabbed his arm and pivoted in place, pitching forward and throwing Stalkermon bodily over her shoulder, who then impacted the ground with tremendous force; easily enough to shatter bones in a human body. Taomon then leapt up into the air, looking down at the prone form of her antagonist with a cold, quiet rage which echoed in her voice as she spoke, "This madness has gone on long enough. For your unforgivable transgressions, I condemn you to the deepest depths of hell." She then produced an enormous calligraphy brush as long as she was tall from one sleeve of her robe, drawing the Sanskrit symbol for 'truth' in midair as she shouted an incantation, "Bonhitsusen!" The symbol then glowed brightly, projecting a beam of light which then struck Stalkermon. He then screamed as his body was dissolved into red bits of data which flickered away into oblivion like embers from a fire. Taomon gently alighted on the ground near where Stalkermon had lain; a shallow impression in the ground from the force of his impact marking his final resting place. She then looked down at the sole remaining physical trace of his existence; his pith helmet which had been knocked off his head when Taomon had thrown him. She then sneered at it with disgust, slamming her large foot down on it and crushing it into oblivion with its owner. She then looked to Ruki, the young girl running up to her and throwing her arms around her partner who in turn gently reciprocated the gesture, the two sharing a wordless embrace as they were once more reunited, neither one needing to speak a word to understand perfectly what the other was thinking and feeling. After a few moments, the two relinquished the embrace, Ruki smiling up to Taomon as she spoke, "Let's go home." Taomon nodded silently, all too willing to grant her tamer's request. The two were then surrounded in a transparent hemisphere with a Yin-Yang symbol for a floor which then levitated into the air before whisking them away. The following days in Ikeda passed without incident. Neither Ruki's mother nor her grandmother had the slightest idea of the experience she had gone through, though they did notice a change in her behavior as she became more sociable and actually seemed to enjoy herself for the rest of the visit with Ruki's aunt Haruna. As Ruki and her family rode the train back to Kushiro airport to return to Shinjuku, the young girl gave a small smile as she gazed out the window, knowing that Renamon, her iron-willed partner and guardian was with her and that together, the two could overcome any kind of adversity they would ever face. End Chapter 3 A/N: And thus concludes Digital Prey. I certainly hope everyone enjoyed reading this story. I know I had some readers worried with the ending of chapter two, but come on, what's a good trilogy without a cliffhanger, right? This was my first attempt at a Digimon fan fiction, and I don't think I did too badly if I may say so. I envisioned this story taking place between episodes 18 and 22 of the series; When Renamon had gained the ability to evolve to Taomon and before the abduction of Culumon which led to the protagonists going to the digital world to rescue him. I also based the location the story was set in on real-world places; since the parts of the anime set in the real world were based on the (mostly) real Shinjuku, I tried to replicate the real Ikeda, Hokkaid? and surrounding areas as best as I could without going there in person (Google Earth, Wikipedia, and YouTube proved invaluable in this endeavor). Again, I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story, please read & review and let me know what you thought of the story! Credits: Digimon Tamers and all associated characters © Toei Animation, Bandai Entertainment Story, Stalkermon, Haruna Hata © Chris Teet