[b][u]A few hours ago...[/u][/b]

The sound of machine gun fire echoed through the halls of the tower, followed by the screams of several Commandramon. Wild laughter rang out afterwards as a green, dog-eared Digimon charged through the doors, the gatling cannons on his arms screeching as they continued to fire. 

"Here, humie humie humie~! Gargomon's here to find himself a Tamer!" He bellowed as he looked over the room he breached. But where he expected humans to be stored in their pods, he found only shriveled up corpses. Gargomon frowned. "Oh come on! That's the third useless room now. How the hell's a guy supposed to find a Tamer if they're all dead?" Before Gargomon could complain more, however, he howled in pain as something hot hit him in the back. Crashing down on the ground, he pulled himself back up and whirled around to see three Mekanorimon advancing on him, laser beams charging in the orbs on their chests. 

Grinning, Gargomon raised his guns and fired, sending a storm of bullets at the trio of Champions approaching him. The Mekanorimon at the front of the group took the brunt of the damage and fell over, damaged, as his fellows fired more lasers at Gargomon, who tried to leap out of the way, but still caught one beam in the side. Gargomon crashed into the wall, scowling. He pulled himself up, bellowing a warcry, and charged straight towards the two remaining Mekanorimon, guns blazing as he rushed them. Despite taking two more laser blasts to the chest, Gargomon closed in on the mechanical Digimon and swung his arm cannons, trying to bash their heads in. As his arm crashed into one Mekanorimon's head, Gargomon ducked under an awkward claw swipe from the other and jammed his other arm cannon into its chest, cackling gleefully as he opened fire point-blank. The guard collapsed to the floor, bleeding data as Gargomon let loose a shudder of pain at his laser wounds, turning back around to find...the first Mekanorimon aiming a fully-charged laser blast at him. 

"Oh, that's just fucking great-" Was all he could managed to get out before the Mekanorimon fired, the laser blasting Gargomon through the wall and out of the tower, sending him crashing towards the ground below. 

___

The dog Digimon awoke, groaning as he pulled himself up off the ground. Why did he suddenly feel so unbalanced? Why were his arms so short? [i]Where the fuck were his guns?[/i] And then it hit him. He had devolved to a Rookie again. 

A few seconds later, an inarticulate cry of rage echoed through the area. 

___

Alice smiled down at the Tanemon in her arms, petting it as she looked back up at the little village around her. The creature was cute, but given that none of them were joining up with any of the other humans, it was probably a safe bet to say that none of the Tanemon were going to be any of their partners. As she knelt down to put the Tanemon back down on the ground, Alice perked up as she heard her Digivice beeping. Pulling it out of her pocket, she raised an eyebrow as it displayed an arrow pointing to the left. And it seemed to be growing larger. Looking to her side, Alice saw a long-eared green thing flip through the air, landing down in front of her with a flourish. 

"So. You're my Tamer, huh?" It asked in a surprisingly deep voice, rubbing its chin before staring derisively at a few of the other teenagers around. "Ah, what the hell. I could've gotten worse. Name's Terriermon, never bothered to give myself one of those stupid nicknames, so don't bother asking. Now, what's your name, girlie? Can't exactly go around calling you 'Power Battery'. Seems a bit rude." 

Alice was slightly taken aback by Terriermon's attitude, but she sucked it up for the moment. This whole escapade was the most social interaction she'd gotten in a while, considering she didn't really know anyone at school well enough to talk to. 

"Alice." She said, noting how her Digivice had begun glowing. "And you're one to talk about being rude." She snarked as she began to converse with her new partner, occasionally trading barbs back and forth.