Reviews:

Music Chick: Yes it is. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is.

Sweet Cari: Thank you. That is the sad truth, but it is what it is.

Sakura0410: Why thank you. I'm glad you liked it. It was the safest, easiest explanation to have but they had to make it convoluted and confusing. For Sora, you'll find out soon.

Ackbarfan5556: That makes me happy, knowing that I wrote it in an emotionally evocative way.

Greymon Leader Batx flashpoint: I love your reviews so much, Greymon. This one knocks it out as well. You are so right. That's a question they will all have to face at some point.

Clefeifei: Nice to hear from you again, Fei Fei. I think it has more to do with the fact that Matt doesn't understand why she won't help out and he's frustrated with Tai for not getting her there. Other than that, I'm glad you liked that chapter and the other two before this one as well.

Hey, guys. Welcome back for the next installment. Thank you all for your well wishes and congratulations on my degree. It really means a lot. I'm glad that the last chapter had the impact that I wanted it to have. For now, we have one last relative slice of life moment before those are completely gone before the end and it involves, as I call them in my universe, "The Three Digi Caballeros": Davis, Ken, and Cody. You'll see why I call them that.

Here are the voices that you should hear for them as you read:

Davis: Bryce Papenbrook (Griffin Burns in the movie)

Cody: Aleks Le (Switching out Bryce)

Ken: Derek Stephen Prince (as usual)

I'll address the rest later. For now, enjoy.

"Hey, isn't that Mr. Imura?"

Matt looked up at the sound of his brother's voice and gazed down the walkway. The mysterious man talked on the phone behind one of the granite columns, but the two blonde-headed brothers were still able to see him clearly.

"Yeah," the older blonde nodded. His eyes narrowed. "I wonder what he's doing."

The brothers quietly got as close as they could before hiding behind the column that was two behind the one where Imura was. They listened to what he was saying, but couldn't make much out from their position.

As Imura talked on the phone, Matt noticed that the man would look over his shoulder in the brothers' direction as if he knew they were there. There was no indication he had seen them, but Matt saw his eyes narrow as he tucked the phone further against his cheek. His voice lowered to a barely audible level. To Matt, it felt like the man wanted no one else to overhear the conversation that was taking place. Why, though, was a mystery. Something didn't seem right.

"Hey, TK, do you trust him?" Matt whispered.

The Jedi of Hope shrugged. "Not really. Why? Do you suspect something?"

Matt opened his mouth to give his answer, but then they both heard Imura speak in a louder voice.

"Okay, I'm on my way," said the man. He ended the call and left, unaware of the two brothers watching him.

Matt cocked an eyebrow. "On his way where?" he said to himself before turning back to TK. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"I do too," the younger brother replied. "What do you think it is he was talking about?"

"I don't know, but I plan to find out. If he wasn't Menoa's assistant, I would swear he's Yakuza."

TK snickered. "That's stretching it a bit, don't you think?"

"Something about him just…" Matt's eyes went down to his tattoo. No other lines had disappeared yet, but that did not give him any sense of security. It would only be a matter of time before the whole thing was gone.

One thought entered his mind. He needed help. And he knew just the guys to fill that role.

"Where are Davis, Ken, and Cody?" he asked. "Are they available?"

TK shook his head. "No, they're out of town. They went to Atlanta," he replied. "Davis said something about going to a city they had never been to before."

Matt chuckled. "Atlanta? As in America?"

"Yeah." TK then stopped. Matt wondered if he was thinking what he was thinking of too. "Wait. Didn't Menoa say she's a professor there?"

The older brother nodded. "I think so." He smiled as a light bulb turned on in his head. "That's perfect. We can use them to dig up more information on Menoa and Imura."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course. They are three of our best, brightest, most powerful warriors. They look danger straight in the face and laugh."

"LORD BABY JESUS, HELP ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Ken Ichijouji screamed as the pretzel loop came up on the roller coaster ride. He squeezed his eyes shut and white knuckled his shoulder restraints as the coaster dove down and turned over.

"REALLY HEAVY, MAN!" Cody Hida shouted, his eyes also squeezed shut.

Mixed in with their terrified screams were the joyful shouts of an adrenaline junkie. Davis Motomiya thrust his arms out like Superman and laughed like a hyena. He wished the coaster would go faster as it came out of the pretzel loop.

"YEAH BABY!" he shouted. "GIVE ME MORE!"

The coaster then went through a double corkscrew. Cody and Ken screamed again, but not with as much terror as before. Davis laughed, whooped, and hollered. He didn't want it to end.

Finally it arrived back at the loading and unloading station. The rows of the suspended roller coaster came down from their vertical positions with the help of assisting hydraulics into a normal upright position. He was ready to go for another round, but as he turned his head side to side to look at his two friends, the laughter came running out of him.

"You guys look so funny!" he cackled.

Ken and Cody's faces were pale, their eyes wide with fright. Their breath came out in heavy gasps, having had the air sucked right out of them during the pretzel loop.

"Why did we let you talk us into riding that, Davis?" The youngest of the three said in a hoarse voice.

Davis' laughter settled down as a hissing sound came from the ride. They were about to disembark.

"You guys know you loved it. I heard ya screamin'," he replied.

Cody and Ken couldn't get out of their seats fast enough as they pushed their shoulder restraints up and darted toward the exit. The burgundy-haired nineteen-year-old put his black Atlanta Falcons snapback hat on with the back turned to the front and followed his friends. He wore a black Jason Williams Memphis Grizzlies jersey with a white tank top on underneath to protect his nipples from the material. Davis reached into one of the pockets of his olive green cargo shorts and pulled out his black sunglasses with orange lenses before putting them over his eyes. A lightsaber hung on his belt.

"WOO!" he exclaimed with a fist pump once they exited the attraction. "Yeah! Who's up for round two?"

"NO!" Cody and Ken shouted.

Davis' face fell in a pout. "Party poopers," he grumbled. "All right. Let's go see what's next."

He walked with his head held high, humming the titular song from 'The Three Caballeros'. His two friends stumbled around like they had too much to drink. It was times like these that Davis was so lucky to have friends like them. After all they had been through together, there was no better group of people that he would go through the fires with than Cody and Ken.

The three of them were in Six Flags Over Georgia for the weekend to see a new city and have some fun. Davis went to a culinary arts school to become a ramen chef. The days were long and hard as he perfected his recipes. This was his first chance to have a break in forever so he didn't want to think about ramen or anything related to noodles for a couple of days.

The burgundy-haired male took his hat off to wipe the sweat off his forehead. It was a scorcher in Atlanta. The sun was out, surrounded by clear blue skies. A perfect day if it wasn't so hot. Last Davis checked, it was in the mid-nineties Fahrenheit. With the humidity, it felt a couple degrees hotter. Even so, it was still not as bad as Tokyo. Tokyo in summer was worse than a sauna. People never went out during the dog days of late July and August unless they absolutely had to. Compared to that, Atlanta was a blessing.

"I hate this heat!" he shouted. His stomach then rumbled. "And I hate having an empty stomach too."

"Davis, let's take a break from rides for a bit," said Cody. "I'm hungry."

"Me too," Ken echoed.

Davis looked back at them. "All right," he said. "Let's see what we can find, guys."

Even in this heat, Ken did not have a single drop of sweat on his face, neck or shirt. After all these years together, Davis still had not gotten confirmation on whether or not the dark-haired Jedi of Kindness had been a desert snake in his previous life. It even reflected in the clothes he wore: A black polo shirt, jeans, and black suede shoes with the lightsaber hanging off his belt.

Ken was also nineteen and a first-year criminal psychology major at the University of Tokyo. His dark hair was cut shorter than it had been when the two of them first met, making him look more mature and handsome. A scar ran along the right side of his face from just above his eyebrow down to his jaw. He received that scar during a battle in the Digital World with TK eight years ago.

Davis and him were still as close as could be. All the years of training together and camaraderie they shared made them inseparable from each other.

Cody, age: seventeen, was still in high school. He was a second year at a public high school near Odaiba. Ken and Davis had picked him up from school the day before, so he still wore his uniform. It was a white shirt with a green tie around the collar and black pants. He also still carried his dark green backpack with him.

Cody had transformed well from the little nine-year-old boy Davis first met into a handsome, mature young man. His bright green eyes were sharp and full of wisdom and his brown hair was cut in a Caesar style. A Seiko watch with a black face, silver rims, and a black band rested on his left wrist while his lightsaber hung off his belt.

The three of them stayed together as best they could while navigating through the large crowds of people. There were a few food stands spread around as they walked along, but one look at the prices made Davis recoil in disgust and move on. Why was theme park food so expensive? He could never understand it. Finally, his eyes rested on a Johnny Rocket's up ahead. He licked his lips as visions of burgers, fries, and milkshakes danced in his head.

"Burger and fries sound good?" he asked his two friends.

Ken smiled. "Sold."

"Yes. Thank you." Cody said with a nod.

The three walked inside and ordered three burgers, three orders of fries, and milkshakes. Davis got chocolate; Ken, vanilla; and Cody got strawberry. Their food came fairly quickly. They then piled into a booth at the far corner of the diner and it didn't take them long to begin a loud, boisterous conversation.

"So Joker's all up in Batman's grill and stuff," Davis said as he took a bite of his burger, which had lettuce, cheese, tomato, onions and pickles on it. "It's obvious he is not going to tell him anything about where Harvey and Rachel are. So what does he do? He treats it all like a game."

Ken chuckled and stuck some fries in his mouth. "Of course Joker would," he said. "Hands down, that's what makes him the best villain against Batman. For Batman, with all his toys, getting inside his head is the way to get him off his game."

"Wait your turn, Ken," Davis teased. "Let me finish." He returned the conversation to where he left off. "As I was saying, Joker treated that whole interrogation like a game. Batman gets suckered in like he knew he would, which is why Joker was laughing as the Dark Knight beat him up, only cementing how much control he has in the scene. He tells Batman where Harvey and Rachel are at. Batman ends up going to where Harvey is while the police go to where Rachel is. Then, as they are about to go in–"

He slammed his hands on the table.

"BOOM! Rachel dies in a ball of fire." Davis' laughter came out in wheezes before getting himself back together. He took a sip of his milkshake. "I tell ya, Heath Ledger could not have played Joker any better. He's the best Joker by far."

Cody shrugged. "Eh, I thought Jack Nicholson was better," he said before taking a bite of his burger––lettuce and tomato only. "His portrayal was more in line with the comics than Heath Ledger's."

Davis frowned. "So what? Jack Nicholson is always more or less playing himself in everything he does. Being the Joker was not that big of a stretch for him," he shot back.

"And that's what makes his Joker the best," the youngest Jedi countered. "He was the only person who could really play the Joker as he is in the comics. The Dark Knight's version was more of a self-described 'agent of chaos' who just wants to burn the world down for fun. Sort of like those terrorists you hear about in the news these days."

"Which is why Heath's performance was all the more believable compared to a cartoonish clown. He had to dig deep to bring that character out. There's a reason why he won the Academy Award and Jack did not."

"Don't get me wrong, Davis. I like Christopher Nolan's movies and I think he's a great filmmaker, but in terms of which is more true to the source material, the Tim Burton Batman movie was better."

Davis opened his mouth to say something in reply when Ken clapped his hands in the middle of the table.

"Guys, come on. That's enough," he said as he slurped his shake.

The leader pouted. "Well, what's your opinion, Ken? Who do you think was the best Joker?"

Ken shrugged. "Jack Nicholson is the only one I've seen, so I have to go with him," he said. "I wouldn't know about Heath Ledger because I haven't watched 'The Dark Knight' nor do I want to. From the spots I've seen, it hits way too close to home for me."

That put a damper on the mood for a few seconds. Davis understood what he was talking about and respected his reason. Ken had not always been the quiet young man he was now. When he was younger, he was a large thorn in the Destined Jedi's side as the tyrant known as the Digimon Emperor. Part of his quirks were he quoted lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Shakespeare. Some of the lines that came out of Joker's mouth were the same things Ken would use to taunt them with.

"Yeah, you were the real life Heath Ledger Joker, Ken," he said with a smile.

"Key word: were."

There was a long pause, with Davis now wishing he could take back what he said. The issue of the Digimon Emperor was still a sensitive subject for Ken, even after all these years. Davis broke that pause by turning back to lighter topics.

"'Anyway, 'The Dark Knight' is absolutely the best superhero movie ever," he gushed. "Nothing comes close to it. That's why the DC superheroes are the greatest."

Cody snorted as he slurped his strawberry milkshake.

The burgundy-haired leader cocked an eyebrow. "And just what happens to be so funny, Cody?" he snapped. "You don't think so?"

The youngest Destined Jedi bit on a French fry and tossed the stubby end into the basket with a sly smirk. Davis knew exactly what was coming. Cody was the captain of his high school debate club and could debate until he was blue in the face. It was an art form to him, and Davis had the "honor" of seeing it first hand. Now he was going to be on the receiving end of it.

"Not really," the younger teenager said. "I enjoyed 'The Dark Knight', 'Batman Begins', the first Superman movie, and the Tim Burton Batman movie. Even so, that's kind of a subjective statement, don't you think? As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In that case, I actually think Marvel is the better universe because of the diverse cast of characters.

"Outside of Batman and Superman, who is really on equal footing with them in terms of popularity in the DC universe? Hardly anyone, if at all. Wonder Woman, maybe, but that's about it. Marvel, however, has a wide range of heroes that have proven successful in all sorts of media for the last fifteen years."

Davis scoffed. "What are you talking about, Cody? Marvel's got nothing on DC. They don't have the amazing villains that DC has to test the heroes and make them greater. Lex Luthor, The Joker, Penguin, Catwoman…"

"Precisely. They don't. Marvel has characters that are more human. They're more relatable, whereas in the DC universe, they're god-like. Sure, they have their own issues, but I connect way more with the Marvel Universe."

Davis' annoyance climbed steadily by the second. The little shit wasn't going to win this battle if he had anything to say about it.

"Name me one Marvel hero that can beat Superman. One. That's all I ask."

Cody didn't say anything. A victorious smirk shot up the burgundy-haired leader's face.

"You can't. Because none of them can," he cackled. "Superman can fly, he has super strength, shoots lasers from his eyes, and he's bulletproof. What Marvel hero can match that?"

Cody smirked and rested his arms behind his head, flashing a smug grin of his own.

"My point has just been proven," he said.

"How?" Davis shot back. "I said that no Marvel hero can beat Superman. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. How does that prove your point?"

Ken then jumped into the conversation. "Ignore Davis. The Marvel Universe suits you best, Cody," he said.

"Ken!" Davis cried, stunned at this 'treachery'. Ken was supposed to be backing him up, not Cody. "I thought we were friends! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am always on your side," Ken winked at Cody, who laughed. Davis was even more enraged as the younger boy continued his rebuttal.

"Remember how I said the DC Universe is more godlike? Wonder Woman is a princess of the Amazons and Superman is an alien with godlike powers. Batman is an ordinary man that uses technology to help him, I'll give you that, but the rest of them are more about powers.

"With the Marvel Universe characters, you see the struggle. You go through the struggles with them like with Spider Man. He was an ordinary kid that was given this great power but only used it wisely when he had to fight evil. You saw Peter Parker's journey to becoming Spider Man. He was relatable. I just happen to like that."

Cody bit into his burger and shoved in some fries. After he swallowed, he continued.

"I would much rather see a movie where Superman is beating the Avengers until the last second when they figure out a plan that can immobilize Superman."

"Which is not hard," Ken said with a shrug. "Just use kryptonite."

"Ken, shut up!" Davis growled.

"The Avengers are bloody, can barely walk, but they pull it off. That's what I would prefer," Cody finished.

The table was silent for several seconds. Davis took a nonchalant breath and ate some fries before slurping his shake. He was waiting for just the right moment to give his own piece in defense of DC. When the fries went down his throat and into his esophagus, he was ready.

"Man, are you way off base, Cody. DC has characters that are 'weak' if we're comparing powers," he teased with a shake of his head. "Batman is also relatable in a lot of ways though. He's a man who's been fucked over by crime his whole life; for crying out loud, his parents were murdered in front of him! Even so, he refuses to kill anyone. I mean, jeez, that's you to a 'T', my friend. Spider Man, if I remember, killed some people. The moral issues in Batman are what make him the greatest hero of all time. Aren't you the one always preaching about morality?"

That stupid, smug grin on Cody's face never left, only enraging Davis more. The boy nodded, accepting the retort quietly.

"I can definitely see a lot of myself in Batman," he said. "But that's not the point. I never said that DC does not have characters that are, in a way, weak. Face it, Davis. You can't outdebate me."

He and Ken laughed, unaware of the storm brewing in front of them.

Davis' breath came out in sharp grunts like a bull about to charge. He gave Cody the stink eye, like he was ready to do something to him. The younger male had sweat dotting his forehead. Ken looked on nervously.

…

…

Davis burst out laughing.

Cody and Ken joined in a moment later and the three of them all laughed together. The tension that had been present a second earlier was gone and the good times resumed.

"You should have seen your face!" Davis cackled while pounding the table with a fist. "You were a shivering bitch."

"And you're an asshole, Davis," Cody returned with a chuckle of his own.

Things then quieted down as they resumed eating their food.

xXx

Ken put his burger down when he heard his phone ring. He pulled the Izumi Smartphone #1 from his pocket. The cover was a magenta color to go along with the light of the rosebud-shaped tattoo on his wrist. He quickly answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ken."

He smiled. "Matt. Hi. How's it going?"

Matt sighed over the phone, which raised an alarm in Ken's mind. "Could be better right now honestly."

The dark-haired male cocked an eyebrow. "Why? Is everything okay?"

Cody and Davis stopped eating and gazed at him curiously.

"What's going on?" Davis asked.

Ken raised a finger to his lips and shushed, telling him to be quiet so he could listen to what Matt had to say. The blonde Jedi of Friendship was the closest thing he had to an older brother now since the loss of his biological older brother Sam, which Ken still blamed himself for to this day. Matt had shown him kindness, love, and acceptance during a time when the rest of the Destined Jedi would have been happy to kill him after what he had done to them in the Digital World. Even now, their friendship was as strong as ever.

"That's not important right now," Matt said. "I need you guys to do me a favor. It's urgent."

"Anything for you, Matt. What is it?"

"I need you guys to do a background check on a Kyotaro Imura and Menoa Bellucci. She's a professor at Georgia Tech there in Atlanta and he's her assistant. Since you guys are already there, I thought I'd ask you. That's all the information I have on them, but it should be enough to get you in the right direction. I don't trust them."

Ken shot up at the woman's name. He had heard of her when he was perusing the Internet while bored one day a couple of years ago. He was searching up other kid geniuses in the world that were just like him and found an article about a Menoa Bellucci. His mind was blown from the first sentence on her profile. She was the youngest student ever accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at fourteen; she obtained her Ph.D. at nineteen; and she was the youngest professor hired to teach full-time at Georgia Tech. Ken had to admit that he was impressed.

"Wait. The Menoa Bellucci?" he asked.

"Yeah," Matt said in a surprised voice. "You know who she is?"

"I do. She was a child prodigy the same way I was, but way more successful. She got into MIT at fourteen, graduated only in two years, then got a Masters and doctorate from there by nineteen; all in computer science and engineering. To boot, Menoa was top of her whole class in all three programs and had her own patent at twenty. She's brilliant."

"Wow."

Cody and Davis' eyes were wide with awe and disbelief.

"Geez, Ken," said Davis. "She's basically you."

Ken waved a hand to shut him up as Matt resumed talking.

"Okay, then that makes your job easier. Since you know so much about Menoa, focus on this Imura guy. He's really the one to watch out for."

"How do you know them?"

"That's not important. The point is, Ken, you guys need to move fast." A short pause came and went before he finished with, "We don't have a lot of time."

Ken opened his mouth to ask why when Davis snatched the phone out of his hand.

"Davis!" he exclaimed, reaching to take it back but his friend kept him at arm's length. "Give it back!"

"Yo, yo, yo. What's up, Matt?" Davis laughed, sounding like a homeboy. "We're just hangin' down here in Atlanta, G–A, having a good time. I'm telling ya, man, these portals are a godsend. We can go anywhere we want without wasting a single yen."

Ken tried muscling his way through Davis to get his phone back, but the leader was quick to keep him away.

"All right. We'll take a look for ya," the burgundy-haired Jedi said. He smirked. "Out on the dating scene again? Never thought you'd be the type that was into guys, Matt."

"Hm?" Ken and Cody hummed in surprise. Matt was looking at dating guys now? That didn't sound right.

Davis cackled at Matt's response. "I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We'll look into him. See ya." He ended the call and tossed Ken's phone back to him. "Man, the guy cannot take a joke sometimes."

"Matt's dating again?" Cody asked.

Davis shook his head. "Nah. He just wants us to check somebody out."

"Why would Matt want us to check out someone that he's interested in?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's kinky that way. Who am I to judge what his fetishes are?"

Ken and Cody laughed.

"Davis, I will say it again. You're weird," said the youngest Destined Jedi.

The dark-haired Jedi cleared his throat. It was sad hearing how far Matt had fallen since his relationship with Meiko ended. He barely saw the blonde-haired Jedi of Friendship anymore and when he did, Matt was always quiet and kept to himself. He wasn't the same confident person Ken had first met eight years ago.

During that week after Meiko had broken up with him and Matt had locked himself away from the world, Ken honestly thought that he was going to lose him. First he lost his biological brother, then he worried that he was going to lose his surrogate older brother, the one who brought him out of the darkness and into the light. Luckily he came out of it and apologized to everyone for what he put them through. Even so, it was still a work in progress with Matt and Ken hoped he could do something to bring that smile back.

"It's a shame what happened to him and Meiko though," Ken said. "They really had something going on."

Davis nodded. "Yeah," he replied sadly. "Honestly, dude. How do you and Yolei make things work when she's halfway across the world?"

"We stick with it and know that we'll be together again soon. She's only gone for a semester, which makes it easier on me." Ken grinned to himself. "Besides, whenever I find the time, I use a portal to go see her in Spain."

A smug grin shot up Davis' lips. "And jump around in the sheets with that unfinished church in Barcelona in the window, I imagine," he teased.

Ken's face turned a dark red. That was none of Davis' business. "The Segrada Familia, you mean."

"Whatever it's called." Davis stood up with his empty tray. "All right ramblers, let's get rambling. We're not gonna find info just by sitting on our butts and spoiling ourselves."

Ken and Cody looked at each other and shrugged before getting up and dumping out their trash.

Hope you guys enjoyed that reintroduction to Davis, Ken, and Cody. Their intro in the movie was very disappointing. I wanted more. Plus we didn't really learn much of anything about the boys after twenty some-odd years of not being on screen in the flesh in terms of their relationship and what they're like now as young adults. Hope that was a bit more satisfying. The intro scene of Reservoir Dogs and Quentin Tarantino movies in general was inspiration in writing their whole scene.

Just like I had with Menoa, I'm sick of how NYC and LA get all the attention in anime and I wanted them to be somewhere else just to show we are not losing anything by changing the city they go to. Plus it helps I lived in Atlanta for a month a few years ago. Dallas and Miami were also considered as possible places before I settled on Atlanta. The ride the three of them were on was Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Over Georgia.

As I alluded to up top, the voices you guys have heard for the characters should remain the same from where they are in the movies (Josh Seth as Tai, Nick Roye as Matt, etc.). I have largely no complaints on 95 percent of the cast other than Davis and Cody. The voices did not match their characters. Why no Brian Donovan you ask? Because I wanted Davis to sound a bit more grown up and I think the transition from Brian (11 year old Davis) to Bryce (19 year old Davis) is a smooth one that makes sense. I was disappointed when I saw they had cast Bryce as Cody instead. He would have been absolutely perfect as Davis. Not to say Griffin Burns did a bad job, but I think he would have been a better fit for Cody.

Aleks Le is of course widely known for voicing Zenitsu in Demon Slayer (freakouts and screaming galore, in case you don't know), but listening to his softer voice made me realize he was the perfect choice for my vision of Cody. Max Mittelman and Griffin Burns (as I said above) were also considered. And like hell I would even consider replacing Derek Stephen Prince as Ken XD

As always, be sure to leave a review and subscribe if you have not yet. Next time, we get a scene I believe we should have gotten instead of the "lizard face" scene. I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about ;-) See you all later.

Tootles.