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Disclaimer:
Most of the characters herein are trademarked by Bandai and/or Toei. This work is derivative of season 3 of the Digimon television series (Digimon Tamers) and is in no way meant to imply ownership or infringe on any trademark or copyright.
A link to a picture of Coyomon can be found on my bio page.
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WILD CARD
By Eqgz
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Chapter 1
Getting to Know Her
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There's an intricate and subtle dance of evaluation that goes on when digimon first meet. So much can go wrong, leading to unnecessary fights and, often, deaths.
I know this all too well.
That is why I planned my first meeting with Renamon well in advance. I had heard of her from other digimon and then cautiously watched her from a distance for a while. After only a short time, I knew I had to meet her.
I was smitten.
But I wasn't a fool. I had seen how feral and touchy she could be. Our first meeting had to go well.
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The Big Ugly emerged just after sundown, not too far from Rika's home. She and Renamon were sure to be on him within moments. I settled myself in a big chestnut tree to watch the fight.
Renamon was magnificent. Big Ugly was a cloud of data before he even realized how outclassed he was.
She took a few good hits but nothing she couldn't shrug off with ease. Rika loaded her with a couple of unnecessary mods that just slowed her down. Or so it seemed to me.
I was so taken with the sight of Renamon, back arched, arms outstretched, drinking in the data, that I almost missed my entrance.
"Nicely done" I said as I dropped out of the tree. "I was going to offer to help, but you finished him off so fast I didn't get the chance."
Renamon and Rika were both instantly on guard. Renamon crouched into a fighting stance and Rika thumbed her digivice, looking at my stats. The dance began.
"Coyomon" Rita read out loud to Renamon. "Rookie. Some nasty-looking special attacks but nothing you can't handle."
Renamon's ice-blue eyes narrowed and she crouched lower, her thigh muscles bunching as she prepared to leap at me.
"Hey, wait" I said, "I'm a good guy! I'm not here to fight you.''
"Good guy, huh?" Rika said, her lip curling, ''Prove it."
Rude little brat.
''Well,'' I said in my most polite voice, angling my ears back in a friendly way, "I've been sitting in that tree since you got here. If I wanted to fight, I could have smacked Renamon with a sucker punch right when she was most distracted by that over-grown feather-duster."
Rika actually grinned at that. The Big Ugly had been an extravagant bird-type.
''Who's your tamer?" she asked. Another step of the dance.
''Well...'' I said, trying to sound embarrassed. I even curled my tail around and nervously fiddled with its tip. "I haven't actually got one at the moment."
The tension was instantly back in the air. Digimon without trainers were 'wild ones' and almost always belligerent and destructive.
Rika scowled and said, ''You should have taken your cheap shot when you had the chance, fuzzy.'' She turned to her partner, who was trembling with eagerness for another fight. ''Renamon--''
I didn't wait for the rest. I had heard it before. I flipped up and back into the trees before Rika got out,"--walk all over him!''
If I hadn't been prepared for almost anything, Renamon would have caught me. She was that fast. As I shadow-walked away on my secret path I could hear Rika yelling at Renamon, urging her to get me, and Renamon's growls of frustration as she tore through the trees searching for some trace of me.
All in all, our first meeting had gone pretty well. The next one was a bit trickier.
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I was getting pretty good at intuiting where wild digimon would bio-emerge and so it was only three days later that Renamon and I had our second meeting.
The Big Nasty that lumbered out of the fog was a huge, brute-force type. He was Champion level at least, maybe even Ultimate, that looked to be half machine, half dinosaur. I'd never fought an opponent that powerful before and I hesitated for an instant before deciding that another chance like this might not come along for a long while. And, as I said, I was smitten. Infatuation can make you do dumb things.
I cut loose on him before he even knew I was there and stunned him a bit right at the onset. So far, so good, I thought. Now all I have to do is keep from being flattened while I wear him down. Fortunately, he was as slow as he was large. I had no trouble dodging his ordinary attacks. Even his tail whip seemed to wallow through the air, which was good because he was so strong he'd only need one solid hit to pulverize me.
My attacks seemed to just bounce off of his armored hide without doing any damage at all but I was picking my spots carefully and timing them to hit just when he was exposed, so I knew I was hurting him, even though he didn't show it.
Big Nasty's special attacks were a bit more worrying. His flaming breath wasn't too bad. He telegraphed it by rearing back and sucking in air first, so all I had to do was make sure I dodged far enough to be out of the splash area. No, the worst were the missiles. They were fast and maneuverable and I had to keep a careful eye on his shoulder-mounted pods in order to catch the first signs of their launch sequence. My fur got singed in several places and the concussions knocked me around a bit, but I avoided taking any major damage from the first two salvos.
After a couple of minutes Renamon arrived with Rika in tow. I couldn't spare much attention for them but I did hear Rika command Renamon not to interfere.
''It'll be fun to see Coyomon get stomped.'' she said.
''But Rika...'' Renamon began.
''No.'' Rika snapped.
I was really beginning to dislike that kid.
I soon realized that Big Nasty's timing was predictable. I positioned myself carefully as he inhaled for a blast of fire and ducked behind his left foot just as he let go. The big dummy thoughtlessly tracked me and roasted his own foot. He wasted time bellowing in pain and rage as I readied a special attack. As his weight came fully onto his other foot, I hit it with a Fang Flurry, pushing energy into it with every ounce of strength at my command. The flashing storm of tooth-shaped particles tore into his leg and Big Nasty shrieked and toppled over like a high-rise collapsing.
''Timber!" I cried. I couldn't resist the jibe. Besides, it gave me a second to rest. Big Nasty hit the dirt so hard the shock bounced me off the ground. Over the massive whump of tons of meat and metal hitting the ground, I heard a completely unexpected sound; laughter. Renamon was laughing! Okay, it was more of a chuckle but, from her, even that was amazing.
I risked a glance at her and saw that Guilmon and Takato had joined the crowd along with a couple of digimon and a lot of people I didn't know.
Big Nasty was struggling to his feet and the timing of my next attack had to be perfect. I used his tail as a ramp to launch myself into a soaring leap as I gathered the energy for an Earth Splitter. Not the sort of attack you might expect to see used by someone on a ballistic trajectory through the sky but I'd experimented a bit and found it worked pretty well in certain unusual circumstances.
Big Nasty was managing to get his feet under him, ponderously lifting his huge head when I nailed him. I hit the back of his skull with both feet, right where it joined his spine, just as I unleashed the Earth Splitter. The crackle of energy slicing into him was deafening even though I had my ears pinned close to my head.
I've told myself a dozen times not to anticipate. I know that's the best way to get clobbered but I had already planned on what to do once I had rebounded from Big Nasty's skull. The problem was-- there suddenly was no skull to rebound from.
The Earth Splitter must have worked even better than I'd hoped. He broke up into a cloud of data and I went plunging down through the air where his body had been only an instant before. Fortunately, the spray of bits hid my floundering fall and ungraceful landing from the watching crowd until I was able to regain my feet and start downloading the data.
I'd never felt such a strong surge of energy before. I shuddered and gasped as the pulsing, crimson radiance soaked into me. Taking on the big guys sure had its advantages! I struck a nonchalant pose as I pulled in the last stray bits and grinned at the crowd. They were all gaping at me. I languidly raise one hand and snapped my fingers. "Piece o' cake!" I said. I'm such a liar.
Guilmon actually applauded and cheered, "Yay, Coyomon!"
I gave him my 1000-watt smile and tipped him a wink. What a sweet little guy.
Renamon was not the type to gawk but her icy gaze was fixed on me, eyes wide and pupils dilated and that was worth all the applause in the world to me. The rest of the crowd was murmuring to each other, nobody seemed to know what to do now that the threat had passed but Renamon certainly had something in mind. She suddenly strode toward me head lowered and eyes narrowing.
I let the smile drop from my face. I didn't think she was going to attack, certainly not without Rika's permission, but grinning into an advance like that would be a sign of weakness in any case.
Rika stopped talking to Takato when she noticed what was going on. "Renamon?" she said uncertainly. Renamon didn't hesitate or even blink; she just kept coming.
Didn't automatically jump when she heard her mistress's voice? Well, that's a pleasant surprise, I thought.
I stood as relaxed as possible, one hand on my hip, as she approached. It wasn't easy; the way she moved made me think of a gleaming sword, thirsting for blood. She stopped an arm's length from me and gave me the icy-blue once-over for a moment that seemed to last an eternity.
It was obviously my move, so I did the only thing I could think of: I raised an enquiring eyebrow.
"I'm impressed" she said quietly in that velvet death voice of hers.
I raised the other eyebrow. "Coming from you," I said, just as quietly, "that is quite a compliment."
She began to say something else but Rita's angry voice cut across the parking lot. "Renamon!"
"Yes, Rika?" Renamon answered her without turning away from me.
"Come here," Rika yelled, "Right now!"
Renamon paused before answering, still gazing at me. It felt like a very long pause. "As you wish."
She turned away and waked back to Rika's side and stood there looking away into the distance. I just stood, enjoying the view of her perfect rump as she stalked away like a well-oiled machine until Guilmon came trotting up to me.
"Coyomon, that was great!"
''Thanks, little buddy! Hey--'' I lowered my voice conspiratorially ''D'you want to play some ball?''
''Sure!'' he cried happily and then looked me over in puzzlement. ''But where's the ball?"
''Oh, you know this vest of mine,'' I said, lifting the edge with one hand and reaching beneath it with the other. ''It's got all sorts of things hidden away in it!'' With a flourish, I pulled out a big red ball-- much too big to have been under my vest-- and tossed it into the air. Guilmon shouted happily and took off after it.
What I actually had inside my vest was a small portal to a little cache in the Digital Dimension. I could carry about a backpack's worth of stuff under my little vest. Very handy.
I raced off after Guilmon, jumping the cars he was forced to run around and we started a game of Make-Up-the-Rules-As-You-Go.
Of course, I was also listening to the conversations going on behind me. With ears as big as mine, it wasn't hard.
''You know this guy?'' Rika demanded of Takato.
"Sort of," he admitted sheepishly. ''He and Guilmon have played together in the park a few times. He seemed harmless.''
''Harmless?" Rika was outraged. "Did you see what he did to that armored dino?"
"Yeah! Wasn't it cool how he--'' Takato's voice trailed off, his enthusiasm killed by Rika's glare.
''I think he's dangerous and we ought to get rid of him.'' she growled.
A kid I didn't know joined the argument. ''Oh come on, Rika! What's he done that's so bad?"
His partner, a little digimon with prehensile ears, spoke up. "Yeah! He seems really nice.''
Rika was about to reply when Guilmon abruptly ended our ball game. He lunged at the ball just as it bounced off a truck tire and accidentally skewered it on his claws. The ball popped with a sharp bang and poor Guilmon was left with two ragged shreds of plastic. The surprised look on his face was so funny I had to laugh out loud.
''You killed the ball, little buddy! I guess that means you win!''
''I do?''
''Yup! And your prize is--'' I reached under my vest again, pulled out a pastry, sniffed at it as if I wasn't sure what it was, and held it out to him. "--an apple fritter!''
''Don't eat that!'' Rika shouted, stomping toward us with Renamon and her friends at her heels.
Both Guilman and I turned to look at her.
''Why not?'' we both asked at the same time.
''There might be-- something in it.''
The whole group stood, frozen for a moment, until I broke off a piece of the fritter and ate it in a very pointed manner.
''Just because I don't have a tamer doesn't mean I'm a bad guy." I said as I handed the rest of the fritter to Guilmon. ''Why does everybody think that?''
Poor Guilmon was too upset to eat his pastry. "Why don't you have a tamer, Coyomon?"
Trust that uncomplicated little guy to cut to the heart of things. I looked from Rika to Renamon and back again. "I did--" I said in a voice just barely loud enough for them to hear. I sounded like a kicked puppy, even to myself. "--once."
Everybody tried to talk at once but I was already turning away. I ran off up the road while the commotion continued behind me. Rika had to order Renamon not to follow me and the little digimon with the ears (I should talk!) tried to follow but couldn't keep up when I took to the rooftops.
I stopped on the top of a cell tower a few miles away that was my favorite lookout spot and settled down, watching the city bustle beneath me, uncertain about how things had gone. But Renamon had been impressed-- no way that couldbe bad.
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