That night in Tk's apartment Patamon spoke with his partner, "Boy, Tk, what got into you. I've never known you to take the lead like that. And to attack the emperor like that, I thought my partner had died and been replaced by Tai."

"I'm not sure what came over me, I guess I just thought somebody had to take control. We couldn't just let him get away with kidnapping Davis."

"Well whatever it is that came over you, I liked it. The emperor won't stand a chance if that's who he's got to fight against. You were awesome."

"Thanks buddy, but it was no big deal." At that Tk went out to the kitchen and fixed he and Patamon some dinner. His mother was working late yet again. He was used to it though, he'd gone days without seeing his mother before and he was sure it would happen again. The two best friends enjoyed a nice meal and went to bed early.

When Tk woke up the next day, he woke up and prepared for the day. He remembered last minute that tryouts for the basketball team were that afternoon after school. As he got ready to go he sent a quick message to Kari to let her know that he wouldn't be able to go to the digital world that day, but to go ahead without him if everyone else wanted to.

At that he ran off to school, hoping he could make it there on time. He barely made it and prepared himself for another day of boredom. He didn't really like school, he was a pretty smart kid, though he didn't really work very hard at school. He just naturally understood a lot of things. He learned things quickly and therefore school was often very boring to him. Perhaps that's why he enjoyed the digital world so much, no matter what they faced in the digital world it was always a challenge. School just wasn't much of one anymore.

Oh well, he was pretty sure basketball was gonna be another way to challenge himself and he was excited to start playing again. The day went quick and before too long, Tk was at basketball tryouts. Kari had messaged him and said that none of the rest of them could go right after school either, so nobody was going to the digital world.

He didn't really know anyone else trying out except for Ken. He approached Ken and said, "Hey, Ken you excited to try out?"

"Yes, it should be fun, but I mostly play basketball to keep in shape for soccer," the slender genius said quietly.

"Yeah, that's right, I heard you were really good at soccer. I'm sure you're pretty great at basketball too."

"I'm alright I guess."

Tk quickly learned that Ken was more than alright at basketball. He struggled with the shooting drills, but he was an excellent passer and by far the best ball handler there. It became quite clear that he would likely make the team and probably be the starting point guard.

Of course that was nothing compared to how well Tk played. He was fairly tall for his age but wasn't the tallest on the team. He easily scored close to the basket and was quite accurate with his outside shot as well. It became clear that he was the team's best shooter and would likely play on the outside with Ken. The rest of the players and the coach were all very impressed by all of his skills.

Near the end of the tryout they all split up and played some quick games of 3 on 3. Ken and Tk were put on the same team and they dominated everyone. Ken delivered precision passes and Tk took them with ease to the basket for two points. After their last game they walked off the court together, "Wow, Ken we make a great team. You're an awesome point guard. It should be a lot of fun playing together."

Ken couldn't believe it, but he did have a lot of fun playing with the blond digidestined and smiled back, "Yeah that was fun."

Tk made his way home after tryouts and finally saw his mother at home. "Hey mom, your home," Tk said, a bit surprised.

"Yes, I am, but only for a little while, I've gotta go out and cover an event tonight for the paper."

"Of course you do. Hey mom, I had basketball tryouts today, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make the team."

"That's great Tk, you're a great player, I'm sure you'll do great."

For some reason nothing sounded more insincere than when someone uses the same adjective over and over again. He got the feeling that his mom wasn't really involved in the conversation. Like her mind was elsewhere, probably on her work.

"So when do you have to head to your event?" Tk asked sadly.

"Hmm?" she asked clearly not paying complete attention to her son, "Oh sorry, um really any minute now, the press have to be there early. I bought some chicken for you, its in the fridge when you're ready for it." At that she made her way back to her office to get her computer.

Tk just stood there and whispered, "Okay, goodbye, Mom," before heading into his room to hang out with Patamon. Tk ate his chicken early that night and went to bed again.

That day after school there was a second day of tryouts. The coach had excused some of the boys who had either already secured a spot on the team or had failed to impress at all. Tk had been one of the ones that were excused, but he decided he wanted to go anyway just to be able to play some more. He told Kari he couldn't make it again and she replied that they weren't sure if they were going to go at all.

Tk took notice that Ken wasn't there. He assumed the coach had excused him. There were a few other decent players, but he didn't have as much fun playing as he did when he played with Ken the day before. As he sat down to take a break he heard his phone ringing in his bag. He pulled it out and saw that it was Matt calling him and he answered it.

"Tk, are you going to the digital world today?" asked Matt quickly.

"I hadn't planned on it, why what's wrong?"

"My digivice started beeping I think Gabumon's in trouble."

Tk startled at that, "Oh no! Do you want to come over, I'm sure I can get us into the digital world."

"That's the thing Tk, my band has a gig like right now. If it just involved me I'd drop it in a heartbeat, but I just can't leave the guys out to dry. I was hoping that you would go for me and help Gabumon. I'll feel a whole lot better if you're there. I need you to do this for me, buddy. I can't stand that I can't be there for Gabumon."

"Sure thing, Matt, you know you can count on me. I'll see if the others can join me, who knows what we'll be up against."

"Thanks, little bro, I knew I could count on you. Message me when you know something."

"Will do Matt, I've gotta head home so I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Tk, and be careful."

"Always," replied Tk and at that he hung up, grabbed his bag and ran for the exit. He pulled out his D-Terminal while he ran to send a message to Kari. He opened it up to find that he had one waiting for him from her. "Tk, we just discovered a distress call from one of the partner digimon, can you make it to the digital world?"

He awkwardly responded while trying not to run into things as he went, "I know, its Gabumon, I'm on my way now, I'll see you guys there." In about ten quick minutes he was home and ready to enter the digital world. He filled Patamon in on what was going on with Gabumon and pulled out his digivice.

He quickly found himself in the digital world. Not far from where he entered he saw the other digidestined huddled around something on the ground. He got closer and realized that it was Gabumon. "Gabumon, are you okay?"

"Is that Matt?" Gabumon asked clearly in a daze.

"No, its Tk. Matt couldn't make it. He sent me to make sure you were alright."

"I knew Matt wouldn't forget about me," said the digimon, "I feel better already." He started to get up when Davis began to speak to him.

"What happened, Gabumon, who did this to you?"

"It was the digimon emperor, he attacked this little town and put all of my Gazimon friends in jail."

"I knew it, that jerk, we better go break those guys out of prison!" cried Davis as he threw his fist into the air excitedly.

"Wait Davis, we should think this through it might be a trap," Tk said before he turned his attention back towards Gabumon, "Is there anything else you can tell us?"

"Yeah, he put up this weird black spire thing in town and told us that as long as it was there he would control the whole area."

Davis was getting upset. He didn't like that Tk got all the credit for being the hero last time they were in the digital world and he wanted to prove to Kari that he too could be a hero. "That's it, we should bust those Gazimon out of prison and destroy that stupid tower, Veemon are you ready?" cried Davis as he prepared to have Veemon digivolve.

"Wait Davis!" yelled Tk. "We can't go rushing into this. We don't know what we're up against. It might be better if we figure out a way to sneak in and discover a bit more about the enemy. We might even be able to free the Gazimon without a fight."

Davis was furious this time, "You know what Ts, I'm tired of you always dissing on me. Who put you in charge anyway? Just because you don't have a digimon that can digivolve, doesn't mean we should run away from a fight. Veemon and I could take that whole tower down ourselves and take out whatever digimon slaves might stand in our way." By the end of his rant he found himself mere inches away from Tk's face.

Tk was starting to get upset as well, he didn't like feeling useless and especially didn't like Davis pointing out how useless he was. "Not every problem can be solved by fighting. Stealth might be our best bet, especially since, as you so arrogantly pointed out, we're not at full strength, only three of our digimon can digivolve. Sometimes its best to use your head more than your fists."

"Oh yeah, well I'll show you how I like to use my fists!" yelled Davis as he took a swing at Tk. His fist connected with Tk's face and the boy took a step back before he lunged back at Davis, tackling him to the ground. They started wrestling around and at one point Tk had pinned Davis long enough punch him in the cheek. They rolled around for a minute or two before Kari screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ENOUGH!" everyone stopped when they heard her and she took a few deep breaths before continuing, "This fighting is accomplishing nothing. We've got digimon to save and you two idiots are rolling around fighting over how we should save them. Tk, Davis is right, likely we will have to fight in order to free those digimon."

Davis interrupted with a "Ha!" as he and Tk got up.

But Kari continued, "And Davis, it might be in our best interest to get inside and see what's going on. We'll have a better chance to win if we know what we're up against."

"You're right Kari, I'm sorry I was being such an idiot," apologized Tk.

"Yeah me too, I'll do whatever you want to do Kari," added Davis.

"Wow, boys can be real lunkheads," said Yolei bitterly.

"Hey guys, I think I just had an idea," cried Cody from the top of a nearby hill. Cody had seen some nearby trees with black pod type things hanging from them. They decided to use them as fake dark rings. Some of their digimon wore them and escorted the children and the rest of the digimon right into the city. They didn't look a whole lot like dark rings, but the Veggiemon guards weren't too bright and didn't seem to notice. They managed to find their way all the way up to the prison before they had to take out a few guards in order to free the Gazimon.

They went to leave the prison only to see a large group of Veggiemon heading their way, "Great idea guys, now how are we supposed to get out."

"Well, we could go out the back way and go up to the top of the hill," suggested Gabumon, "You guys wanted to destroy the spire anyway didn't you?"

They ran out the back way only to run into more Veggiemon. They managed to get around them, but the group was separated. Davis, Yolei, Cody, their digimon partners, Gabumon, and all the Gazimon found a road that led straight to the top of the city. Tk and Kari were forced down a side road that led to some weird cave in the hillside.

When Davis and the other reached the top of the city they saw that the only way down was over a cliff. "This is just great I knew we should have just stood and fought from the beginning. Now we're trapped. Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"

"You'll be more than trapped once I'm through with you," said RedVeggiemon as he cornered the digidestined at the top of the hill.

Veemon could tell that his partner was down and decided to jump in and try to save the day. "Don't worry Davis, I can take this guy down." Veemon ran towards the champion digimon and was immediately hit hard by the creature's roots. He got up slowly, "Don't worry Davis, we'll beat this guy no problem just give me a couple minutes.

Davis couldn't believe what Veemon was doing, it seemed so stupid. Why would Veemon take a beating like that? He couldn't watch as his little buddy just got hit again and again by the angry vegetable.

Meanwhile, Kari and Tk had managed to hide in that cave and avoided being seen by the searching Veggiemon. "Tk, we're separated from the others, what are we gonna do? Gatomon and Patamon can't even digivolve. We'll be in real trouble if they find us."

Kari seemed really scared and even though Tk didn't know what was gonna happen he knew he had to be strong. After all, he had promised Kari that he would protect her and he was determined to be her rock. "Don't worry Kari, we'll figure a way out of this. Besides these Veggiemon are weaklings, I bet Patamon could take them all on himself and we've got Gatomon too, it'll be okay."

Gatomon had decided to investigate further into the cave while Patamon stayed by the entrance to watch out for enemies. "Hey guys, I found something back here. They look like digi-eggs," Gatomon yelled from around the corner.

Kari and Tk got up to investigate as well and sure enough, around the corner were two digi-eggs. One had the crest of light and the other the crest of hope. "Are these our digi-eggs? But we've already got our digimon," wondered Kari.

"Well you'll never know unless you try to pick them up," Patamon declared as he came up behind them.

Tk started forward, "Here goes nothing," he said as he bent down to pick it up and it came up with ease. The digi-egg glowed along with Tk's pocket, he pulled out his digivice and saw that it was transforming into one just like the new kids had. "I guess this means, I'm one of the new digidestined too, alright!" Tk said cheerily.

Kari stepped forward and lifted her own egg and she too got a brand new digivice.

"This is great, now Gatomon and I can armor digivolve and get us out of here," cheered Patamon.

"Yeah, let's do it!" cried Tk as he and Kari both activated the eggs and Patamon and Gatomon armor digivolved to Pegasusmon and Nefertimon respectively.

Back at the top of the mountain, Veemon was still getting quite the beating. He had been backed up against the black control spire and was being bashed into it. Cracks started to form at the base of the spire and Davis couldn't take seeing his friend be beaten like that. He rushed forward and tried to get between RedVeggiemon and his partner. Gabumon ran after him trying to get him back to safety, but Davis was thrown backwards by the RedVeggiemon's attack and his digivice fell out of his hands towards Gabumon.

A bright light began to glow from the digivice and Gabumon somehow digivolved to Garurumon. Garurumon charged forward and attacked the RedVeggiemon easily destroying the dark ring that had enslaved him.

Just as the battle was finishing up, Tk and Kari flew up on the backs of their newly digivolved digimon. "Hey guys, is everything okay?" called Kari happily as Nefertimon landed.

"Yeah everything's great thanks to Garurumon," replied Yolei.

"How did you manage to digivolve Garurumon?" asked Tk, "I mean Matt's not here and nobody's been able to digivolve since the emperor moved in."

"I'm not sure, I was overcome by the light of Davis's digivice and I digivolved," answered Garurumon.

Cody had made his way over to the control spire. "I wonder if the cracks in the control spire have anything to do with Garurumon's digivolution."

"What do you mean Cody?" asked Kari.

"Well Gabumon told us that the digimon emperor said the spire would help him control the whole area. Maybe cracking the tower shorted it out and allowed Garurumon to digivolve with the help of Davis's digivice."

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense," said Tk to himself, "I wonder if completely destroying it would release the digimon from under the power of the dark rings."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," said Kari as she and Nefertimon took to the air again, followed closely by Tk and Pegasusmon.

"Hurry up guys, the Veggiemon are regrouping and I think they're gonna attack again," yelled Davis as they took flight.

Pegasusmon lined up for the attack and shouted, "Equus beam!" as a green light shot out of the front of his head. The attack was a direct hit creating a gash in the bottom of the spire.

Nefertimon flew in behind him and shot her tablet at the gash calling out, "Rosetta Stone!" The tablet his the gash and cracked the spire clean through. It fell to the ground with a crash and the Veggiemon were freed from the control of the dark rings.

"Way to go guys! You did it!" cheered Yolei as Tk and Kari landed and their digimon returned to their usual forms.

"Yeah that was amazing, good work you two," added Cody.

The children decided to it was best for them to head home. They asked Garurumon to stay and protect the village, to which he whole-heartedly agreed. On the walk back to the TV it was clear that Davis and Tk had no desire to talk to each other. Yolei, Kari, and Cody could tell it was going to be hard to get the two boys to work together.

When Tk returned home he quickly gave Matt a call and told him that Gabumon was safe.

"So you're saying he was able to digivolve without me? How did that happen?" asked Matt.

" I think it had something to do with Davis's digivice. They are powerful little devices. Remember how his exposure to Tai's digivice helped Leomon digivolve. I think it might have had something to do with that."

"Yeah I guess that makes sense. So did anything else interesting happen?" Tk sat there deciding whether or not he wanted to tell his brother about his fight with Davis. He decided against it, but his extended silence betrayed him. "What is it Tk? I can tell something's wrong."

"Its nothing really. Davis and I got into a bit of a fight is all, no big deal."

"Wow, its like Tai and I all over again. Don't worry bro, you'll probably be best friends in no time."

"I doubt that Matt, he's such an arrogant jerk I can't stand him. I'm not sure how we're gonna be able to work together."

"Well you're gonna have to figure it out, because I have a feeling the fight against the digimon emperor is only just beginning."