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A Small Problem

"W-What did you do?" Takato Matsuki asked, both his voice and eyes filled with disbelief.

Lopmon kept quiet, partially because she was a little ashamed. Her first encounter with the Tamers' de facto leader came almost immediately before his bio-merging with Guilmon for the first time, so she always thought of him as the group's white knight who was steadfast in the face of any challenge. Seeing both Takato and Guilmon currently unsure of what to do about the situation in front of them made her feel as though she had really done something wrong.

To top things off, the scene in they had stumbled on was far from a conventional one. Guilmon's expression seemed to be going back and forth between shock and sadness as his gaze alternated between the utility shed he used to live in and the Tyranomon wedged in its entrance.

"That sounds like a loaded question to me," Suzie Wong answered, not nearly as worried as Lopmon was. This wasn't really a surprise to Lopmon, of course, as Suzie's confidence had always grown with her ability as a Tamer. She was far from the little girl she had been when they were first partnered together over three years ago.

"I just don't understand how this could have happened," Takato said, trying his best to be the understanding person he usually was.

"Is how this happened really more important than just figuring out a solution?" Suzie asked innocently.

"I think so," Guilmon muttered sadly.

"Let's agree to disagree."

"Have it your way then," Takato said with a sigh. He turned his full attention to Lopmon. "Okay, what happened?"

"Uh..." was Lopmon's initial reply, as she was unsure how to respond. Lying was out, as she had never been very good at it, but she didn't want to go against Suzie.

"You don't have to say anything, Lop," Suzie cut in quickly. "Remember that you have rights."

"No one's going to get in trouble, Lopmon," Takato assured her, his voice now completely calm and supportive. "I just think this would be easier to sort out if we had all the facts."

Looking from Takato to her pleading partner and then back again, Lopmon took a deep breath. "Well, when you put it like that..." she began.


"It started with a bio-emergence a little earlier this afternoon. We were the closest, and since the digimon in question was only at Champion-level, we figured we could handle it on our own. Not to get sidetracked, but I don't this to sound like I'm bragging. We just know that you guys are older and busier now, and we just want to do our part, so-"

"Take a breath, Lop," Suzie said to stop her rambling.

"Right, sorry... Anyway, we head towards this digital field, which is a couple blocks away from the park. Except that by the time we arrived, the field had already dissipated and Tyranomon was wandering around the street, smashing cars and the like. Naturally, we saw this and assumed the worse, so we didn't waste any time jumping into the fray.

"I lept forward, taking Tyranomon by surprise and knocking him off his feet. He didn't retaliate right away, so I decided that was the best time to give him a warning. I told him he had one chance to leave peacefully, and that I wouldn't hesitate to destroy him if he continued to threaten this city."

"You did say that, didn't you?" Suzie commented.

"I believe in being fair but firm! And it payed off. Turned out that Tyranomon really wasn't interested in starting a fight. He was just a little disoriented from finding himself here in the Real World. So, just like we always do when wild digimon surrender peacefully, we offered to take him to the portal under the shed. That's where things got complicated."

"I figured that much," Takato remarked.

"Well, you know how it is. Typically, it's the smaller digimon that agree to return home. It didn't occur to us until we got here how difficult getting Tyranomon to an underground portal would be."

"That doesn't explain why you didn't just call someone to come help you."

"I said the same thing, but Suzie kept insisting that we'd be able to figure things out for ourselves. So, we sat and thought about it for a while. We knew we couldn't move the portal, and digging up the park to get closer to it didn't seem like a good idea, which didn't leave us with many other options. That's when you showed up."


"Sorry..." Lopmon said meekly as she turned towards Suzie. Despite believing that no harm could come from telling the truth, Lopmon couldn't help but feel as though she had committed some kind of betrayal. Thankfully, her partner wasn't as disappointed as she thought she would be.

"Don't worry about it, Lop," Suzie replied. "Asking you to lie is like asking Terriermon to stop talking."

Over the course of the story, Guilmon had digivolved into Growlmon and was in the process of pulling Tyranomon from the shed's entrance. There was a momentary struggle, probably more the result of the saurian not wanting to cause any more damage to his former home, but soon the wild digimon was set free.

"Well, there's that problem solved at least," Takato commented to no one in particular.

"Antylamon could've done that," Suzie chimed in. "We're not any closer to getting this giant bozo home."

"No offense!" Lopmon added quickly after noticing Tyranomon tilt his head at Suzie's words. The last thing they needed was the for the digimon to become upset because of name-calling

"I know," Takato said as he pulled out his D-Power, pushing a couple buttons and pointing it in the general direction of the portal. "Just give me a sec."

"I already tried this and nothing happened," Suzie declared as she did the same with her own device.

"Well, it should!" Takato shook his D-Power next to his head. "If the D3's can open the digiport, than our digivices should at least be able to manipulate the portal a little bit."

"Based on what evidence?"

"Hey, cut me some slack! I'm trying over here!"

"Don't you let your fiery temper get out of control with me!" Suzie snapped back, jabbing one of her index fingers up at Takato's face. "I'd like to keep my head on my shoulders, thank you very much!"

With that, both D-Powers lit up. Lopmon wasn't sure if a direct result of their yelling or just a coincidence, but she wouldn't get a chance to ask. The lights the devices emitted converged on the shed, resulting in a larger version of the portal appearing at the entrance. Without hesitation, Tyranomon strolled over to the portal and disappeared.

Lopmon didn't speak, waiting on someone else to be the one to break the silence. Aside from Growlmon returning to his Rookie form, there was no movement for quite a few seconds.

"So..." Suzie finally said, a nervous grin on her face. "What are the chances we can just forget this ever happened?"

It was at that moment that the portal closed, quickly followed by the shed's gate falling off its hinges.

"And what are we supposed to say to the others when they see this?" Takato asked.

"Can we fix it?" Guilmon asked, still saddened by the state of the shed.

Not that Lopmon felt his feelings were unjustified. She was sure that if she returned home that night and found the apartment collapsing in on itself, she'd be upset as well.

"I'll talk to Dad later and see if he knows anyone who can help out," Takato answered, trying to sound reassuring.

"And if he doesn't?" Guilmon persisted.

"We'll think of something, boy."

"Yeah..." Suzie added. "No reason to worry about anything."

"You're not out of hot water just yet."

"Oh, come on! You never would have even known this was me if you didn't happen to come by at the worst possible moment." Suzie then went silent, as she often did when she was thinking something over. "Why are you out here anyway?"

"That's..." Takato hesitated, having obviously not been expecting the question. "...not what we're talking about."

Lopmon then heard another set of footsteps climbing the stairs towards them. She was never one to believe in coincidences, but she found herself questioning this upon turning and seeing Rika Nonaka slowly approaching them.

"What the hell happened here?" Rika asked once she saw the shed.

"I'm more curious about what's happening here," Suzie replied, mischievous smile forming on her face.

Rika's attention snapped away from the shed. Much like Takato, she was caught off guard by whatever Suzie was insinuating. "Don't know what's going through your head right now, but it's not that."

"If that's the case, then you wouldn't mind telling me when my brother's gonna get here." Suzie casually looked away from Rika and up at the trees as she spoke.

"Does it matter?" Rika growled before looking over to Takato, who laughed nervously.

"I think it does a little bit."

"Hold on, Suzie," Lopmon whispered, not quite following what was going on. "I thought we didn't want Henry to find out about this." If anyone would lecture Suzie for breaking the shed, it would be him.

Suzie returned her focus to the two older Tamers. "He's not coming, is he?"

"I'm still confused."

Lopmon didn't get many answers after that, but Suzie did explain to her what blackmail was during the walk home.


So I was working was what was going to be my next project for this site and ended up throwing it out. I realized there wasn't much of a story there, with my favorite parts being subplots that could easily be repurposed at a later time. This story came about as something to do while I regroup. I've been meaning to try writing a few oneshots anyway, and realized I had just enough ideas for Tamers focused stories that I should just create a small collection instead. As far as what to expect here, tone and length may vary a bit. I can see myself just writing single scenes, shorter than this one, as well as more complete stories. I'm also playing with the idea of including loose arcs that connect the individual entries here, but don't hold me to that.

I've added a brief guide to my other works to my profile for newcomers. I do see this as part of the same continuity as my other fics, though I'm not sure how much I'm going to call back to them just yet. There is the fact Mirrors left Takato and Rika trying to figure what (if any) kind of relationship they wanted to have, but I feel like accepting something like that is barrier to entry with most fan fiction.

All that said, thanks for taking the time to read. Leave a review if you feel up to it, and hopefully I'll be able to update soon.