Tamers Unlimited

Sixteen year-old Takato looked at the cards in his hands and picked one, laying it down triumphantly. By and large, he considered himself a normal kid; average height, average build, average grades. He got into trouble a bit more often than most of his classmates, but that was mainly due to how flighty he was. His brown hair was a mess, and he had given up on doing anything with it a long time ago. The only really strange thing about him was his eye color; a red color that most would expect was natural. By and large, Takato was a cheerful, happy, carefree person, even if his progression into his teenage years had made him a bit awkward.

If Takato had a flaw, it would be that his imagination would often get the best of him, and that he can occasionally let his feelings, as well as his imagination, cloud his judgment. But for all that he tends to act goofy, carefree, and childish, he is quite capable of donning a more adult image when circumstances become serious.

"With this, DarkTyrannomon evolves into MetalTyrannomon."

"Oh, man, overkill!" Hirokazu, who had just lost, exclaimed. "I can't believe you actually pulled that off!"

Hirokazu was Takato's childhood friend; they'd been brought together by their fondness for Digimon. Most of the time, he won the card games they played, but this time was an exception. Hirokazu, like Takato, wasn't particularly exceptional student; he got by in class, certainly, but not in any way that particularly drew attention. He had blue eyes and brown hair, the former of which was shielded from the sun by a visor, and the latter of which was kept in a spiked hair style thanks to it.

While most think that Hirokazu lacks a sense of purpose, Takato knew that he really was a good friend and that he would help out to the best of his abilities as he knew that it was the right thing to do. On the other hand, he had a bad habit of getting mouthy, which often got him into trouble.

Takato just laughed happily at his victory, and after a moment, Hirokazu joined him.

"It's about time for us to go, Takato." Hirokazu said after calming down.

"I'll be along in just a minute; let me put these away." Takato said, as he shoveled his cards into a shoe box. He didn't notice that the collection tin was perched on the edge of the Dinosaur stature until it began to fall. Even then, he couldn't keep it from falling.

"Aw, man." Takato said with a grimace as he rushed to the edge. However, he stopped after noticing something. There was a card he hadn't seen before; a blue card. He quickly slide to the ground and picked it up.

"I don't remember having a card like this…" He said to himself. He picked up his card reader and ran the card through it. There was a flash of light bright enough to make him close his eyes, as well as an electric shock powerful enough to make him drop both the card and the reader.

He opened his eyes after a second.

"What was that?" He wondered, before noticing something. His card reader was smoking. "I-it broke?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, strange numbers and words flowed across the screen. However, he was soon distracted by the school bell, and panicked, realizing he was going to be late.


After school, he was feeling a bit disappointed. He'd been late and had been forced to wait in the hall, had been laughed at by the entire class, was caught not paying attention, and what's more, his teacher had confiscated his notepad. Not to mention the fact that the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

He quickly hurried to the dinosaur statue; he wanted to get his cards and go home.

When he got there, he was shocked to find that his collection tin was glowing with light and sparking with electricity. He quickly pulled himself into the dinosaur and, after a moment of hesitation, grabbed the box. He had been prepared to be shocked, but nothing of the sort had happened. Not sure what was going on, he frowned slightly. After a moment, he shook the box open, and found the source of the light. He barely had a chance to recognize it as his card reader before it transformed. The device left in its wake was mostly silver, but it had a ring of black around the screen, as well as two black buttons.

"What's this?" He whispered to himself. "My card reader turned into this?"

He silently pushed the buttons, but the only reply he got was 'No Data'.


Takato rushed home to his parent's bakery, said a few distracted words of greeting to his parents, and went up to his room.

He hurriedly opened his collection tin and dumped out everything inside. He quickly fumbled through the cards, but failed to find what he was looking for.

The Blue card was gone.

He looked back at the strange device; the words 'No Data' were still flashing on its screen. The last thing he'd done with his card reader had been to slash that blue card. After which, it became…whatever this is. And then the blue card was gone.

Obvious conclusion, the blue card was the reason his card reader had changed shape.

But what had it changed shape into?

Takato glanced at all the cards around him. He had a thought, but quickly dismissed it and turned away. But that didn't keep him from looking back after a few seconds.

"Maybe…a Digivice?" He wondered to himself.

He shook himself.

"No." He told himself firmly. "That's crazy talk. And even if it was true, and this was a Digivice, what about my partner?"

He was torn from his thoughts when he heard his mother call. He put the device on his desk, and began to walk away. He was interrupted while doing so by some beeping and a light.

"Huh?" He turned back towards the device. It stopped glowing, and a hologram came into existence above it; a circular screen. There were words on it, and he stepped closer in order to read them.

"Partner Out of Range?" He spoke aloud.

He looked at it in silence for several seconds.

"Heh." He laughed a little, and couldn't keep the smile from his face.

He picked up the device and just looked at it.

"My…partner?" He rolled the thought over in his head.


He awoke the next morning with his Digivice held in a death grip.

He looked out the window; the weather had cleared up sometime during the night.

He looked at his Digivice again. It still said 'Partner Out of Range'.

"Come on." He told it. "Get within range already."


After School, Takato sat in the Dinosaur statue. He'd played several games with Hirokazu, but he had been so distracted he barely even remembered them.

He took out his Digivice with a sigh. He had a feeling he was going to be distracted a whole lot; at least until his partner got within range…

"Huh?" Takato said. The message was gone, and in its place was a sort of compass. The compasses arrow whirled around randomly for a second, before settling on a direction.

Takato had a thought.

"Will this lead me to my partner?"

Obviously, he received no response.

He licked his lips, which had suddenly gone dry and slid from the statue.

He lifted his Digivice, and followed the arrow.

If his partner was here, he had to find him. He felt it; something was definitely about to begin. He had to find out what.

He must have made quite a sight; a kid running through a city following a strange compass. But he couldn't care less about that. He followed his Digivice's directions through the city until he found himself at a rundown area, which had no obvious entrance. He looked around for an unconventional one, and found it.

He had to slide down some pipes, squeeze through some small passageways, and finally, crawl through a tiny, dirty, trash-filled, rat-infested tunnel, but he found himself at some sort of construction sight. He honestly didn't care where he was, though, because there was a bright light coming from the ground and his Digivice was pointing right at it.

"Well, here we are." He said before walking down a flight of stairs to the light. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, the light was gone, and in its place was a hole. Takato only got a glance at it, however, as the entire area was filled with some sort of fog that seemed to erupt from the hole. The force of the eruption was such that Takato had to cling to the railing.

"What was that?" He wondered, before forgetting about it completely when he noticed a shape in the fog. He was about to say something, but he was beaten to it.

"So, you're my Tamer, huh?" The Impmon asked, looking at him through the fading fog.