-x-
Chapter Seven
Mistakes were made
WARNING! The following chapter contains major spoilers for:
"The Sixth Sense", "The Empire Strikes Back", "The Usual Suspects" and...
"Titanic"... I guess...
Having had enough practice, from past visits in the human world, Patamon didn't have any trouble, acting like a stuffed animal, on the spot. So when two girls crossed paths with him and TK in the school's corridors, as they made their way to the computer lab, the day after the SkullGreymon-incident, he immediately stopped talking and froze, to initiate the act.
The girls walked past them and giggled.
"How cute" one of the girls teased, looking back, before they turned the corner and TK sighed and moped.
He waited until their laughter faded in the distance, then he spoke to his partner again:
"Okay look, man: No offense but – this is kind of humiliating..."
"Sorry..." Patamon mumbled saddened.
"It's not your fault... It's just – impractical... Anyway where were we?"
"You said, you're tired of Izzy calling you an idiot"
"Right, so let's brainstorm"
"Brainstorm?"
"Yeah, I wanna show up to the meeting with some sort of plan..." he said contemplating, "I mean, Izzy will probably have a better one and shoot mine down anyways, but at least I can say I'm contributing."
"Gotcha" Patamon said, "So... how do we make a plan?"
"Seriously, man?"
"I'm sorry! Izzy always does that!"
"Ugh... alright, let's start with the basics" TK said impatiently "Anything we can use to our advantage? You know basic stuff... like, that Agumon can't aim for shit."
"Oh! That's a good one!"
"Yeah, but we already know that" TK said dismissively, "We need something new..."
Patamon stared ahead for a few seconds, thinking intensely.
"Wait! Does the Emperor know about the rookies?" he asked, "We can surprise him! Let's come at him with everything we got!"
"Nah" TK argued, "Gatomon ratted them out, remember? She mentioned that they weren't there, so we could kill the Emperor and tell 'em whatever"
"Don't you mean..." a voice behind them said, with a soft chuckle, "She... catted them out? He he..."
Patamon looked over TK's shoulder and his eyes grew easily twice their regular size.
The voice belonged to a Digimon looking like the Grim Reaper; he wore a grey cloak with a red hood. His face (if there was one) was hidden in the shadow of the hood, only his glowing blue eyes were visible. His hands were invisible and he carried a large, golden scythe and a spiked mace on a chain.
It was -
"Phantomon!" Patamon exclaimed, jumping away from TK's arms, "TK, quick! Digivolve me!"
TK sighed.
"Patamon, calm down."
"No, he's behind you! Watch out!" he continued, quickly flying between him and Phantomon,
"Calm down! He's a ghost!"
"I know he's a Ghost-Digimon! That's why I can take him out as Angemon!"
"No, I mean – I know, you can – you already did! He's a ghost-ghost!"
"Huh?"
Patamon tilted his head.
"What do you mean, ghost-ghost?"
"I mean, he's dead!" TK explained, "You killed him in this world, when we fought Myotismon. He's been haunting me ever since!"
"Ooooh!" Patamon said, "Now that you mention it, he does look kinda see-through... But – I killed him. So, why is he haunting you and not me?"
"I can't go to the Digital World" Phantomon said, "That's why I keep following him. He's your partner, so that's the next best thing."
"He keeps popping up every once in a while, making stupid puns..." TK said rolling his eyes, "Don't worry about him... He's just here to make fun of us. I guess, because he can't do anything else to us."
"He he, I guess you saw... right through me, eh?" Phantomon giggled.
"God dammit!" TK growled.
"Is he around often?" Patamon asked, looking up at TK concerned. He had returned to his position in TK's arms since they continued on their way to the lab.
"Occasionally" TK shrugged, "Could be worse, I guess... The most annoying part is, that I am the only one who can see or hear him."
"Really?" Patamon asked taken aback, "But wait, I can see him, too!"
"I guess, that's because you killed him" TK suggested.
"Nah" Phantomon said, "If I wanted to, everyone could see me"
"Then why don't you do that?" TK asked threateningly through gritted teeth.
"Because it's way funnier, if people constantly think you're crazy" Phantomon laughed.
"Yeah..." TK muttered defeated, "Go figure..."
They reached the lab.
"Phantomon" TK said, "Can you do me a favor and shut up in there?"
"You killed me" Phantomon argued, "Why would I do you a favor?"
"Fair enough... keep cracking lame jokes then... just don't expect either of us to pay attention to you..."
He opened the door. Only Yolei and Poromon were already there.
"Sup, Wannabe?" he sighed.
"Hey" she answered, but hesitated before continuing, "It's TK, isn't it?"
"Are you serious?"
"Sorry!" she said blushing, "I'm really bad with names... Plus, we've only known each other for two days!"
"Funny" he said slumping into a chair, "Feels like half a year to me..."
"In a good way?"
TK hesitated.
"So, Poromon" he deflected, "How are you liking our world so far?"
"It's really nice" Poromon said, "It's so relaxing compared to the Digital World. Yolei showed me a movie last night. It was really good! Way better than the bollocks movies we have in the Digital World..."
"What did you watch?"
"'E.T.'" Yolei replied, "I felt like he could really relate to that one. You know, being new to a foreign world and stuff... making friends..."
"Being chased by narrow minded government agents" TK said cynically, "Good choice, though" he added positively surprised.
"Thanks" Yolei said blushing again, "I wanted to go with 'Titanic' at first, but... that one's like 4 hours so... we'd need more time for that"
"Huh..." TK said, "Never saw that one"
"Really?" Yolei exclaimed, "You haven't?"
"Nah, too much hype" TK shrugged, "Is it any good?"
"Oh, it's amazing!" she said dreamy, then she chuckled, "Spoiler: The ship sinks at the end!"
TK stared at her.
"Yo, what the hell?" he said baffled, "I just told you, I haven't seen that one, yet! Why would you ruin it for me?"
"But..." Yolei said startled, "Everyone knows that..."
"Oh, my bad!" TK said sarcastically, "I guess it's just like with 'The Sixth Sense' then, huh?"
"Yes! Wait... why?"
"Because everyone already knows, that it turns out, Bruce Willis was a ghost from the very beginning!"
"What?! No! Stop it! It's not like, I told you who dies at the end!"
"Oh, great so at least one of them dies, huh? Good to fucking know! Hey, let me help you out a little, too: Did you know Darth Vader is Luke's father?"
"The ship sinks! Obviously people are gonna die!" Yolei shouted jumping out of her chair, "What's wrong with you?! I haven't seen Star Wars, yet! Just stop it, okay?"
"Actually, that was just a lucky shot, I expected you to know that one." TK admitted, "Also, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You haven't seen Star Wars! Also, no it's not obvious, that people die! Ever heard of Lifeboats?"
"They didn't have enough!"
"Okay, you're doing this on purpose now, aren't you?" he said, now standing up, too, "You're almost as annoying as Kevin Spacey in 'The Usual Suspects', pretending to be a dumb cripple, when he's actually Keyser freaking Söze!"
"What?!" Yolei shouted, now pressing her hands on her ears, "I can't hear you over the sound of the ship crashing into an iceberg!"
"Stop being a fucking coward and fight me fair and square!"
Yolei removed her hands from her ears and said:
"I'm not fighting you, at all! Everything I told you about the movie, so far, is common knowledge!"
"Spoil me again!" TK demanded ignoring her claims, "Spoil. Me. Again. I dare you! I double-dare you, motherfucker!"
"What did you just call me?!" she asked outraged.
"Oh, I'm – sorry... I was in character... that was – uncalled for..." TK apologized, "Anyways, you better think twice before spoiling me again! 'Cause you don't know who you're messing with! I'm Takeru Takaishi! I watched movies with twist endings, when you were still in diapers!"
"Oh, oh..." Patamon said to Poromon, watching the back and forth with growing panic, "This is bad! What do we do?"
"I don't know!" Poromon said equally upset.
"Well, if they keep spoiling each other like that" Phantomon chimed in, "They might end up... rotting away!"
"Okay, that wasn't even a good attempt" Patamon said dry.
"Who are you talking to?" Poromon asked confused.
"Nobody!" Patamon said quickly, "Forget about it, we need to stop them!"
"But how?"
"Izzy!"
Izzy froze, when he heard a female voice calling his name. He was on his way to the computer lab for the next mission. Slowly he turned around, to see who called for him.
It was Kari. The girl hurried to catch up to him.
"Oh good, it's just you" he said relieved.
"What do you mean 'it's just you'?" Kari wondered, "Who did you expect?"
"Someone, who might ruin my day" Izzy answered plainly, "You're not that annoying, though"
"Oh..." Kari mumbled, looking at her feet, "Thanks for that..."
"Kari, let's be realistic: You can be quite annoying" Izzy said, "That being said, that's leagues above our new recruits..."
"So, anyway" Kari said, "You got a plan for Agumon?"
"I got one... All we need, is a full crew, and we should be good to go. So, I'd say our chances for success are fifty-fifty."
"That's probably fair..."
"Actually make that fourty-sixty"
"Positively or negatively?"
"Is that a serious question?"
"Sorry... so, what's the plan?"
"I'm gonna go ahead and adapt your brother's attitude on this one"
"Huh?"
"The way I see it, I'll have to explain everything trice anyway... So, just wait a little longer."
They slowed down, as they closed in on the lab; They heard to people yelling at each other – or rather, one person yelling something unintelligible and the other one shrieking 'no' repeatedly, in a rapid fashion.
"I would like to say something, along the lines of 'Don't let that come from our lab'..." Izzy said dry, "But I suppose it's futile..."
They exchanged a quick glance as they stepped in front of the door; The noise definitely came from inside the computer lab.
Kari sighed and slid the door open.
The scene unfolding in front of them was bizarre, to say the least; Yolei was sitting on a chair in front of a desk, near the door, her back turned to the monitor. TK was standing over her, grabbing her by the wrists, yelling, what sounded like movie-spoilers, at her, while she was struggling to free herself. Meanwhile, Poromon was jumping up and down next to his leg, weakly hacking into it in order to make him stop, while Patamon was flying next to the two staring at them helplessly.
" - and you know the best part?!" he shouted.
"PLEASE STOP!"
"Turns out it was her boyfriend AND the freaky boyfriend of that other chick!"
"Let go!"
"You'll only plug your ears again! Get used to it!"
"Stop, stop, STOP!"
"Well" Izzy said calm, turning to Kari, "I guess that settles that."
Puzzled, Kari looked at him ("And guess what!" "No, no, NO!" "It actually WAS a game, all along!").
"Same time tomorrow?" he continued, turning on his heels and walking away.
"Uh, Izzy?" Kari gasped running after him, to stop him.
At the same time, Patamon had noticed the two. Seeing a chance to stop the fighting with Izzy's help, he quickly followed them, outside.
"Save your breath, Kari..." Izzy said, when he reached the exit of the building.
"But we need to save Agumon!" Kari demanded, following him outside.
"We will" Izzy sighed, "However, I do value my sanity a little more."
"But -"
"I am not gonna put up with that shit!" Izzy insisted.
"Izzy! Izzy!" Patamon called out, barely managing to fly through the closing front door of the school.
Izzy rolled his eyes and turned around.
"What?"
"You gotta help us!"
"Why?"
"If we don't stop them, they might hurt each other!"
"I said 'why' not 'why not'... Also TK seemed to have it under control"
"Come on, Izzy!" Kari begged, "We gotta work together!"
"Why am I supposed to clean up this mess?"
"Because you're the smartest one here!" Patamon said.
"Nice one, try again..."
"He's right, though!" Kari said, "You can talk them out of this!"
"I tell you what, Kari: You settle this. You are peace-incarnate, anyway."
"Uuuum..."
"Run along" Izzy said, waving his hands toward the school, signaling her to go, "I'll wait here."
"Okay, fine!" Kari said hastily, and ran back inside, Patamon following her closely.
"Kari?" Patamon asked, as they hurried back towards the lab.
"Yes, Patamon?"
"Why is TK so angry?"
"You tell me" Kari replied, "All I saw, was him yelling spoilers at Yolei for some reason... Wait, did she ruin a movie for him? That sort of thing really triggers him"
"Yeah, but I meant in general" Patamon explained, "Yesterday the TV wasn't turning on, so he started yelling at it and hitting it. It was really weird..."
"Oh, that! Yeah, we think, after he discovered the meaning of his crest, he got really dedicated to living it..."
She shrugged.
"Can't say for sure, though..."
They reached the door.
"Wait" Patamon said tense, "Do you hear something?"
"No..." Kari said nervously.
"Weird, right?"
"Yeah" the girl answered.
She swallowed and slowly opened the door.
Nobody was inside. The room looked a little chaotic, presumably from the fight before, but that was about it.
"Huh..." Kari said taken aback, "Where are they?"
"I don't know" Patamon said and started to fly around the room.
"They're not here" he concluded.
"Okay..." Kari muttered, "Well, I'll go look for them, you go get Izzy. You know – since the coast is clear and all..."
"Got it!" Patamon said, flying out again, while Kari made her way to the hallways to find the others.
Ten minutes later the crew had assembled in the lab, including Tai and Matt (Who had joined in to see how Gabumon was doing) – but excluding TK, Kari, Cody and Yolei.
"Where are they?" Veemon asked annoyed.
"Good question" Izzy agreed arms crossed.
"So, they were fighting, by spoiling movies for each other?" Veemon continued in disbelief.
"Definitely sounds like the kind of fight TK would get into..." Tai muttered.
"Well, he wouldn't spoil a movie to anyone unprovoked" Matt argued.
"And she started it." Patamon added.
"So?" Izzy asked annoyed, "Who gives a crap about who started it? We got a huge delay for the mission, on our hands, because Wannabe apparently is careless concerning spoilers, while TK sees them as a declaration of war!"
The door slid open.
"Finally!" Izzy said annoyed.
He turned around, but it was only Cody and Upamon.
"Oh, that's right…" Izzy recalled, "You two are late, too… What took you so long?"
"I'm sorry" Cody apologized, "I was just -"
"He was busy kicking ass!" Upamon cut in excited.
"No!" Cody muttered, blushing, "Cut it out, Upamon…"
"But it's true!"
"It isn't"
"You got into a fight?" Tai asked raising an eyebrow, "I thought, you were all 'peace and love'."
"It wasn't a real fight, it was Kendo practice." Cody sighed.
"Whatever, that old fart didn't stand a chance!"
"That old fart is my grandfather" Cody explained patiently, "Also, I lost."
"What?" Upamon exclaimed, "No way! That game doesn't make any sense! You totally killed it!"
"Please, stop…" Cody murmured embarrassed.
"Don't listen to him!" Veemon giggled, clearly enjoying Cody's humiliation, "Keep going!"
The door opened again.
"Guys" Kari said stepping in, "I found Yolei and Poromon."
The other two followed her in.
"Tentomon?" Kari added, surprised to see Izzy's partner.
"Hey" Tentomon said relaxed, "How is it going?"
"Before you ask" Izzy said, "He brought me Matt's Digivice. We used it for a little test and I'm happy to say, that it worked and we managed to digivolve Gabumon like this."
"Wait" Kari said in awe, "You mean -"
"You digivolved him remotely?" Veemon cut in baffled, "From this World?"
"Okay, calm down" Izzy said, "It's not as great as it sounds. For one, Garurumon - that's Gabumon's Champion-level, by the way – he told us, he didn't feel as powerful, as he was when Matt was with him. So for now, we wont use him for anything, other then to defend the rest of our Digimon, in case of an emergency. Also, I will need the partner of the Digimon, I want to digivolve that way, as well as their Digivice. And well, we needed you rookies as reinforcements, so I assume, I don't have to explain to you why that's the biggest problem with that idea. And while we're on the topic of our fucked up team" he added, looking at Yolei, "Where is TK?"
"I don't know..." Yolei said, avoiding eye-contact, and kicking around on floor with one foot, uncomfortably.
"What happened?" Izzy asked suspiciously.
"Nothing!" Yolei defended herself, "We were talking about movies and suddenly he accused me of spoiling 'Titanic' to him and then he started spoiling -"
"How do you even spoil that movie?" Tai interrupted, "Isn't the sinking ship on the freaking poster?"
"Thank you!" Yolei said relieved, "That's what I was saying, too!"
"Yeah also, we know that part" Izzy cut her off, "We saw him yelling descriptions of twist endings for other flicks at you."
"You saw that?"
"Yes..." Izzy sighed, "Caused a beautiful mixture of anger, annoyance and suicidal thoughts. Or homicidal, depending on who you ask... What happened afterwards? Cut to the chase."
"But why didn't you help me, Izzy-Senpai?"
"Did you hear my description? Did it even remotely sound like anything, I would want to be involved in, even if I gave a flying fuck, who was in the right and who wasn't? What happened after that? Obviously, you two left the room, shortly after Kari and I abandoned you."
"Yeah..." Yolei said looking away again, "I freed myself and ran away from him. Then he ran after me and lost him, somewhere in the corridors."
"Wait" Kari intervened, "You told me, you didn't know what he did after you left the room."
"Well, I meant I don't know where he ended up, after I lost him!"
"But..." Kari said confused, "That's not what you said at all..."
"Look, I just misspoke, okay?"
"Wait, a minute!" Patamon said suddenly, then he spun around so he was looking towards the wall, "You saw what happened, right?"
"Uh... Patamon?" Tai asked concerned, "Who are you talking to?"
"Hold on!" Patamon hushed him, before turning around again, "Come on! Tell me! Why'd you stop following TK?"
"Wow, TK is missing and Patamon is going insane" Izzy recapped dry, "Fantastic, we're off to an excellent start!"
"No, no, no! Listen to me!" Patamon said hectically, "I know this sounds crazy, but Phantomon has been haunting TK! He saw what happened, for sure!"
"Phantomon?" Izzy asked raising an eyebrow, "How would a Phantomon get to this world? And since when can he turn invisible? And how would you be able to see him then?"
"No, you don't understand! I killed him when we fought Myotismon and now he's following TK around!"
"Okay, A) That sounds highly unlikely" Izzy argued, "And B) Even if that was the case, why would he be here, if he was supposed to follow him?"
"That's what I was asking, too!" Patamon said, before turning around to face the wall again, "Come on, now! Just show yourself and tell them!"
"Coming to think of it" Kari said suddenly, "Sometimes, when we were hanging out, it did seem like TK was talking to somebody... but when I asked him who he was talking to he always changed the subject."
"So, he isn't imagining things?" Tai, Izzy and Yolei asked bewildered.
"Jinxed" Izzy added calmly, "To both of you, by the way"
Tai sighed and opened up his bag. After a quick search he found a coke inside and threw it over to Izzy.
"Huh, there you go" Izzy said opening it up and taking a sip.
"Okay, Phantomon, just tell me then, alright?" Patamon asked, "Just this once!"
Yolei, who had been scribbling something on a piece of paper, suddenly raised her arm, looking to the floor and blushing madly. In addition she started to squeal in order to get Izzy's attention. She looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Yes, Wannabe?" Izzy said.
Yolei held up the piece of paper. It read: "Okay, okay! I know where TK is"
"What a shocking twist..." Izzy sighed, "Alright Yolei, tell us"
"Finally…" the Emperor mumbled, "That's it… subside… yes, there you go…"
"Um… watcha doing?" the worm said with a nervous chuckle upon entering the Emperor's control room. The large dark chamber was rather barren, almost empty, save for a large desk in front an enormous wall of surveillance screens allowing the emperor to watch multiple parts of the Digital World at once.
"Everything alright K? You're kinda scaring me…"
"Get lost, magg-" the Emperor started, but froze a second later, "What did just call me?"
"K…" the worm muttered, clearly afraid, before hastily adding, "Uh, as in 'Kaiser', you know… it's German for 'emperor'…"
"Do you even realize what you could also read into that?!"
"ImsorryIwontbringitupagaindonthitme!"
"Ugh… you're pathetic…"
The worm glanced at one of monitors in the center of the wall, once the Emperor had turned around in his chair again.
"Holy cow!" he said surprised, "You black-ringed that Ultimate-level in the industrial area?"
"Oh yes, that piece of shit won't be a nuisance to me anymore" the Emperor replied dark.
"So, you found a way to get Ultimates more easily?"
"No…" the raven haired boy said annoyed, "It's still way more effort, than to catch a champion level… But at least I'll be able to control them like this"
"Yeah, SkullGreymon doesn't really obey to anyone…"
"It shouldn't have been SkullGreymon in the first place, maggot!" the Emperor barked, "The rings corrupt Digivolution. As long as I don't have a workaround for that, I'll have to capture them like that. But now I have a new lab rat, so that shouldn't take too long."
"Oh, So that's what you're using him for! I was getting worried you would actually -"
"Oh, I'm using all of him! And that includes everything I have of him so far, so don't you even start, you slimy -"
"But you said it yourself, the ring corrupted him, when he digivolved" the worm cut in, "Wouldn't a corrupted Digimon be too dangerous to -"
"I said: don't even start!" the Emperor demanded, "This is none of your business, so shut the fuck up! Or do you want me to use the whip on you again?"
"Nonono it's cool, it's cool… I'll just shut up…" the worm said backing off slightly.
"Finally…" the Emperor sighed, focusing on the monitors again.
"Now take a look at that…" he added suddenly upon gazing at the monitor in the bottom left corner, "Look who we got here…"
"Who is it?" the worm asked curiously, now also looking at the screen. It displayed an empty roof in the industrial area west of Temp City. On it, was a lean eleven year old boy with blond hair, raising his fists toward a Digimon that looked like an enormous gear, almost as big as the boy himself, with a golden rim, a face with a mean smile and two smaller, silver colored gears for hands.
"What is this idiot doing?" the Emperor asked.
"Looks like he is fighting this Hagurumon" the worm suggested.
"Oh, you don't say!" the Emperor snarled sarcastically, "That was rhetorical!"
The boy swung at Hagurumon hitting him right next to his face – before clutching his fist, obviously groaning in pain, since his opponents body was made out of metal.
"My god, what a moron…" the Emperor mumbled.
He then typed on his keyboard, causing the freshly mind-controlled Ultimate-level on the other screen to move.
"Now, isn't that convenient timing, though…" he commented
"You're sending that guy after him?"
"Shut up"
"Isn't that a little overkill?"
"Will it be overkill, once the damn cavalry arrives?" the boy shouted, before standing up. He walked over to the worm and kicked him, sending him flying toward the door.
"Get out!" he yelled after him.
"Ow!" the worm squeaked, "Okay, I can see you're pretty worked up, I'll just let you be!" he grunted hastily before hurrying out of the chamber.
"Now" the Emperor muttered, "Let's see, what we can do with you…"
"You send him to the Digital World?" Izzy asked baffled.
"I didn't mean to!" Yolei cried.
"By accident?!"
"What's wrong with you?" Matt cut in furious.
"I got one of my arms free - and I panicked! So I -"
"So, you did the most logical thing in the world, and pointed your D3 at the monitor and opened the gate because that would get you out of that mess" Izzy continued for her, nodding slowly, "I get it"
"You do?"
"Of course not!" Izzy barked, "How is that the best strategy you came up with? Actually scratch that, I already know the reason... But why didn't you get sucked in, too?"
"When he realized, I opened the gate, he let me go, so I backed off and threw my D3 in the corner, so I wouldn't go through the gate, and I told him, to do the same, but it was too late..."
Izzy stared at her.
"Amazing!" he said, throwing his hands up, in absolute disbelief, "Just when I thought, we've reached the peak of incompetence!"
He buried his face in his hands, growling infuriated.
"By the way, you do realize that you risked loosing your D3, by doing that as well, right?" Izzy asked, removing his hands from his face again, "For all we know it could have been sucked in by itself ending up at some random location in the Digital World!"
"Sorry, Izzy-Senpai..." Yolei sniffled.
"Also, why did you cover up for her, Poromon?" he asked Yolei's partner, "I thought, you were the proper, honest, polite one!"
"Well, I would have" Poromon said ashamed, "But she kept begging me not to tell any of you. So, I couldn't bring myself, to do it."
"Wow..." Izzy mumbled, "And so loyal, too... She truly doesn't deserve you..."
"I'm sorry, Izzy-Senpai!" Yolei sobbed.
Izzy ignored her.
"So yeah, I guess, we were all in the mood for a rescue mission, anyway! So let's go, shall we?"
Kari and the rookies lined up in front of the PC and she opened the gate. As usual the tidal wave burst through the door, washing them into the Digital World.
"What the fuck…" Matt said having been caught off guard by the sudden flooding, "… was that?!"
"Dammit" Tai muttered, "Forgot about that fucking tsunami again…"
"Does that happen every time?"
"It does" Izzy said calm, "Well, we better get used to it…"
"Yeah, I feel bad for that poor janitor, though…" Tai commented.
The industrial area of Temp City was a maze of old factories and power plants. From a distance it was not hard to confuse its skyline with a forest: Countless small towers, antennas and chimneys reached into the cloudy sky above. But there were some flat roofs, too. Like the one TK had decided to fist fight a Hagurumon on. Mano y mano.
"Fuck..." TK moaned and fell to the floor. He had just taken a heavy hit and was now bleeding from his temple.
Hagurumon cackled.
"What's now, huh?" he mocked TK, "No more big talk?"
"Uh, if anything, I talked small..." TK slurred dazed, "Seriously, did I ever say I'd kick your ass? Did I miss something?"
"Okay, how about this" Hagurumon said, "Turns out you where right this is a ton of fun!"
"I feel like I didn't say that, either..."
"You did."
"Really? Well, fuck me then... looks like I already have brain damage... Why are you doing this, anyways? You don't even have a black ring!"
"Well, if you can avoid being mind-controlled by supporting the Emperor, than why not do it, you know?"
"Coward..." TK muttered.
"Now..." Hagurumon said, ignoring his quip, "Let's see, if you can still fight. Go on..." he added challenging, "Put a dent in me."
"I - uh... see what I can do..." TK said, slowly swaying left to right.
"Come on, you were so eager! What happened?"
"Uh, I think a concussion" TK grunted, "And a broken hand... Gotta be real, this isn't as epic, as I hoped it would be..."
"Coming to think of it" Hagurumon said looking around, "Why did you think, fighting on the roof would be epic again? Honestly, I don't see it."
"I was banking on killing you, by throwing you off the roof" TK explained.
"Huh" Hagurumon said meshing his gear hands and spinning them, "Well, saying that, didn't help your chances, I can tell you that much."
"Yeah, I kinda blew it there, didn't I?"
"Tell you what" Hagurumon said closing in on TK, driving him closer to the edge, "We'll stick to that idea. Let's just - tweak it a bit, alright?"
"Can I throw you off, without killing you?" TK asked squinting his eyes in confusion.
"I was thinking more along the lines of throwing you off"
"Gotcha... wait! How high up are we?"
"Four stories"
"You know what would happen to humans, dying in the Digital World?"
"Can't say" Hagurumon shrugged, "Guess, you wont be reborn, though"
"Uh, can I fact check this, before I give you my answer?"
"Nope" Hagurumon said lunging out.
TK backed off, until his shoes hit the rim of the roof, almost causing him to stumble and lose his balance.
"Shit..." he mumbled, "Hey, one more thing!"
"What?" Hagurumon said annoyed freezing in place.
"If you see a human girl with purple hair and round glasses..."
TK paused.
"Then what?" Hagurumon sighed impatiently.
"Kill her, too"
"Sounds like a dying wish I can respect" Hagurumon shrugged getting ready to strike again.
Clang!
Hagurumon froze in the middle of his motion. It wasn't hard to see why; an enormous dagger had pierced right through him from behind, effectively splitting his face in half.
"FUUUUUUUU-!" the Digimon screamed in pain before exploding into data.
The blade hit the floor just as a large yellow frog-like Digimon leaped onto the roof and picked it up.
"Bull's-eye!" Frogmon called out excited.
"Holy. Shit." TK said baffled, "Who the hell are you?"
"Frogmon! I told you not to kill anyone!" Cody said looking over her shoulder, as he had been flying in on her back.
"Oh, that sounds more familiar..." TK mumbled sitting down on the floor.
"What?" Frogmon said confused, "I thought, that was for last mission!"
"It's for every mission!"
"Oh, oops..." she said while Cody, Davis and Veemon climbed off her back, and Flybeemon landed next to her, dropping off Yolei, Kari and Gatomon, "Well, you gotta tell me!"
"I did! All of us did!"
"Yeah!" Frogmon said, "For last mission!"
"Guys..." TK said, who was now lying on his back staring up to the sky, "This hospital is kinda weird... why is there no ceiling?"
"Oh, god... TK?" Kari said concerned running over to him closely followed by Patamon.
Kari covered her mouth with her hands once she saw his bruised, somewhat bloodied face.
"TK, you're hurt!" Patamon gasped, "What happened?"
"I challenged him to a fist fight..." TK mumbled, "one on one... he won..."
"What?" Kari asked baffled, "Why?"
"Uh, because it was either that… or ten on one... He was alone when he found me so I took my chance..."
"Oh, gotcha..."
"Okay, get him out of there" Izzy said, "Fast. TK have you seen any TV's or something?"
"There's offices downstairs... I guess there could be some... didn't see one, though"
"Good, get him downstairs and find a way out" Izzy instructed.
"Uh, here's the thing about that..." Gatomon said peeking over the edge of the roof.
"There they are!" another Hagurumon down from the street yelled pointing at them. As soon as he did, the rim of the roof exploded. The blast threw Gatomon backwards across the roof and straight into Kari's arms.
"Whoa! What was that?" Davis asked startled.
"Are you okay?" Kari asked concerned.
"Yeah…" the cat coughed, "Kind of… That's, where I was going with that, by the way. They've got some Tankmon and some Mekanorimon down there."
"What the hell are Tankmon?" Yolei asked visibly shocked.
"Take a wild guess" Gatomon replied facetiously, "But they are Champion-levels, if that's what you're asking."
"Then what are Mekanorimon?"
"They're champions too" Gatomon explained hectically, "They look like robots – look, can we work on an exit strategy first?"
"Yo, I need to digivolve, Brainiac" Veemon told Davis, "Think you can handle that?"
"Uuuh... sure – I mean..." Davis started, opening his D-Terminal, when Kari stepped in.
"I'll help you with the phrase, Davis" she sighed, "Just follow my lead"
"No, it's cool, I think I got the hang of it!" Davis said quickly, blushing madly.
"O- kay..." Kari said skeptically, but stepped back as he raised his D-Terminal.
Davis took a deep breath.
"Digi-armor eneeeeeeer..."
"-gize." Kai helped out.
"-gize! -gize... I knew it was -gize" Davis babbled, "Dammit I almost had it!" he added frustrated, under his breath.
"Ugh... At least it worked right away..." Veemon grumbled while turning into Flamedramon.
"Okay, guys let's move fast or else these assholes will blast the building apart." Gatomon suggested.
"How many are there?" Flamedramon asked, clearly not too eager to look over the edge himself.
"I saw three Tankmon and four Mekanorimon" she replied, "We should kill... the black rings on those Tankmon first" she added before clearing her throat (and rolling her eyes), "Because I think Mekanorimon don't have enough firepower to bring a building down... and Tankmon do."
"Agreed" Flamedramon said dry.
"TK?" Gatomon asked, nervously looking over to him as Kari was helping him stand up, "Think you can digivolve Patamon, buddy?"
"Digi-what?"
"Yeah... I didn't think so..."
"Okay, you four go then" Izzy said, "But remember: we're not here to clear this area. Just stall them, or destroy their rings, if you can. Don't waste all your energy here!"
"Got it!" Frogmon said excited and jumped off the building.
"We'll see about that..." Izzy sighed, "In the mean time, the rest of you go inside and search for a monitor. I'll tell your partners as soon as you have one."
And so the kids along with Patamon ran through a door on the roof, leading to the staircase, while their Digimon chose the direct way down.
They landed in front of a horde of Hagurumon (which Gatomon apparently didn't even find worth mentioning). In the distance, still a block away from the main event, were two Tankmon, who had a harder time aiming for them now, thanks to the Hagurumon blocking their line of sight. With them was one Mekanorimon. From each side of the T-crossing the building was located at, two more enemies approached; two Mekanorimon from the left and both a Mekanorimon and a Tankmon from the right.
"So" Gatomon said smirking, "We wanna use these guys for cover or -?"
But she was interrupted by a Hagurumon launching at her. She sighed and hit him with a Lightning-paw, killing him on the spot.
"Or do we wanna take care of these little suckers first?" she continued loudly toward the rest of the horde.
The Hagurumon stared at her for a second – then they immediately scattered in sheer panic.
"Bloody hell!" Flybeemon commented taken aback, "You went straight to murder there!"
"Yeah, well..." Gatomon shrugged, "But hey, from what I've heard, I guess, I can count on you, to keep your mouth shut, eh?" she added with a wink.
Flybeemon sighed, but Frogmon spoke up, before he could say anything else:
"Okay, I take the three in front of us!" she grinned, readying her shuriken.
"No" Flamedramon objected, "You and Flybeemon stay back, so the four from the sides wont get into the building. Gatomon and I take the front."
"You mean, I take the front and you sweep together the leftovers" Gatomon chuckled confidently.
"Whatever!" Flamedramon growled.
"Okay, but I take the right!" Frogmon demanded.
"Fine! Just go!" Flamedramon commanded sprinting toward the trio in front of them.
He quickly got into struggle with the Mekanorimon, who approached them faster than his allies, thanks to a pair of rocket boosters on his back. Flamedramon had a hard time landing a hit on his nimble opponent, since one of the Tankmon had decided to support the robot by firing at Flamedramon with the machine guns attached to his arms.
Gatomon on the other hand had little trouble dealing with the remaining Tankmon; as soon as she reached him she jumped onto him and quickly crawled around on his shell, using her speed and small size to her advantage. She continued this until she was right at his back. Not hesitating even a second she struck the black ring at his waistline with her Lightning-paw. Since Tankmon was too heavy, for the attack to push him even an inch, the full force of the strike was taken up by the ring, which broke under the immense stress.
"Wha-?" Tankmon said confused, coming to from his mind-controlled state, "What? Where am I? What's going -?"
"Long story short, I just freed you from being mind-controlled" Gatomon explained quickly, jumping off him, "You're welcome"
"Wha- oh my -" he stuttered, "That's right! That ring! Holy crap, I don't even know what to say! How can I ever thank -"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" she said hastily "You wanna repay us? How about you help us destroy that black ring on your buddy over there?" she added, pointing at the other Tankmon.
"Sure!" he said looking over – immediately firing his main cannon.
While he did manage to obliterate the ring, he also killed his former comrade in the process.
Gatomon face-palmed and sighed.
"Oh, uh... sorry!" Tankmon said, "I – I can do better! Let me help you with this -"
"No, no!" she said quickly, "It's okay, we take it from here!"
"You sure?"
"Yup!" she said indignantly, running over to Flamedramon, to help him, "Enjoy your freedom, buddy!"
Once she closed in on Mekanorimon, she whistled to get his attention. The robot turned to block her first attack, giving Flamedramon the opportunity to strike; he aimed carefully and struck the black ring, wrapped around the base of the glass dome, on the top of his head. The ring shattered and once Mekanorimon recovered from the attack, he expressed his confusion in a similar fashion.
"What the – oh, you freed me!" he exclaimed gratefully, "Thank you so much. Is there anything I can -?"
"Piss off!" Gatomon shouted at him, "Come on, get lost! Move it! Go, go, go!"
"Okay, okay!" Mekanorimon said taken aback, and turned to leave the area.
"I don't know what your problem is" Flamedramon said, amused by her outburst, as they returned to the others, "Let 'em kill each other. Less work for us."
"Look, I'd rather avoid any unnecessary casualties, so the rookies wont get on my fucking nerves!"
"You mean like that Hagurumon you murdered, like, half a minute ago?"
"No, your looking at that the wrong way." she argued, "You see, by doing that I saved like twenty of them"
"Touché"
With a scream the Mekanorimon, Frogmon was fighting, exploded.
"Whoops!" Frogmon said startled, "Uh, you guys won't tell anyone, right?"
"You know what?" Gatomon sighed, "Let's just stick to killing everyone, while nobody's looking..."
"Sounds good to me..."
"Oh, no you don't!" Frogmon said suddenly.
They looked and saw that her Tankmon had turned around, and fled back the way he came. Frogmon sprinted after him.
"Wait a minute" Gatomon said puzzled, "I get that the Hagurumon fled: they weren't black-ringed. But the black-ringed ones usually fight to the death, don't they?"
"Oh, god dammit!" Flamedramon cussed and ran after Frogmon.
"It's a trap, isn't it?" Gatomon asked dry.
"Yeah! Go figure! I'll go get her, you help Flybeemon!"
When he turned the corner into the street Tankmon came from, he could hear Gatomon scolding Flybeemon, for struggling at keeping the Mekanorimon at bay. More importantly, though, he saw Frogmon slowly catching up with her opponent. He shot two fireballs at the floor behind him, in order to speed up. At the next crossing, he managed to shoot past her and stopped in front of her arms spread out, so she would stop, too.
"What gives?!" she said frustrated, "I was catching up!"
"Yeah, probably straight into a tr- ARRRGH!"
Before he could finish his sentence, a blue laser beam was shot at him from the top of the slope to their right, the crossing street was leading up, hitting him in the shoulder and tossing him to the side. He had turned back into Veemon, before he even hit the ground.
"Whoa!" Frogmon said surprised, "What the hell was that?"
She tried looking to her right around the corner, but Veemon yelled:
"Get back! He hit me in the shoulder and I devolved instantly!"
"Well, who was it?"
"I didn't see..." he said while getting back up. He looked in the direction the laser came from – and immediately started sprinting back towards Flybeemon and Gatomon.
"HOLY SHIT! Run! RUN!"
"What?"
"Just go! That's an order!"
"Aw, man!"
"Guys, move into the building" Izzy cut in, "We got an exit: First floor, first room to the left."
"We really could have used that info ten seconds earlier!" Veemon complained.
"Boo hoo, for you"
"Shit..." Veemon panted, "He got me pretty good... I can't - run... can you carry me the rest of the way, Frogmon?"
"Uh... this might be a bad time to tell you that I devolved already, then." Armadillomon said.
"For fuck's sake!" Veemon cussed, while forcing himself to keep sprinting, "Why?!"
"Uh, because I need to fit through the door?" she countered, "Look, I'm not that good at devolving on purpose, I can't get the timing right! Also I'm not that fast!" she yelled as she was falling back, "Can you wait up?"
"Crap!"
"I've got you guys!" Flybeemon shouted touching down next to her, "Hop on!"
The two jumped on his back and he flew them to the entrance of the building. He devolved, since he too was too big, to fit through the door. Looking back, they caught a glimpse at Gatomon given up her attempts at stalling the Mekanorimon and soon she ran inside behind them. They ran up the stairs, which kept exploding behind them, thanks to the robots' relentless attacks.
"Open the gate!" Gatomon yelled, even before they reached the room their comrades were in, "Go, go, go!"
Entering the room they saw, to their relieve, that Kari had already opened up the gate. Standing next to the light beam, she waved her friends through. The Digimon made a desperate jump toward the beam, narrowly managing to dive into it, before the Mekanorimon violently burst into the room.
"God dammit…" Veemon panted, once they were back in the lab, "That was a fucking close call…"
"TK" Matt said kneeling down next to his brother, "TK, talk to me."
"Hey, Matt…" TK slurred, "Wazzup…"
"Oh, boy…" Matt mumbled.
"So…" Armadillomon started, "You wanna tell me who attacked you like that, Veemon?"
"Shit, that's right…" Veemon grumbled, "It was a fucking Andromon!"
"Guys" Tai said, but Armadillomon talked over him:
"Really? Aw, man! That could have been a real challenge!"
"Guys"
"What?" Veemon exclaimed, "Are you nuts? That guy is an Ultimate! He could have killed both of us with one hit each!"
"Guys!" Tai shouted, "Where is my sister?"
Everyone who was still on the floor, recovering from the chase, now hastily stood up, clearing the area, they landed at, on the floor, as if to look for a penny or some keys, they dropped there. Unsurprisingly, neither Kari nor Gatomon were discovered that way.
Meanwhile, Izzy returned his attention to the PC. He scanned the map for a bit before finding a red dot in the industrial area they found TK in. Seeing this, he concluded:
"Yup. She's still in the Digital World."
Tai stared at him in disbelief, then at the rookies.
"Oh, my god!" he exclaimed angry, "You suck! All of you!" he added pointing at the rookies.
"How is this our fault?" Veemon fired back.
"Oh, I don't know!" Tai said sarcastically, "Maybe try and check, if everyone's there before you fucking leave!"
"You want me to do a fucking headcount, while we're being flushed back into your shit hole of a world?"
"You know Veemon…" TK managed to say, "I wanted to ask you how you liked our world… since Poromon liked it… but I guess, now I wont…"
"Hang on, I'll boot up the network again" Izzy said and reestablished the connection, "Kari?"
"Izzy? Oh, thank god!" Kari answered relieved, "The Mekanorimon blew up the monitor. Gatomon and I are trapped in here."
"Yeah, we figured. Can you go anywhere, or do they have you pinned down entirely?"
"Well, I hid in a room without a window." Kari explained, "And Gatomon is fighting off the Mekanorimon still, so – yeah. Pretty much pinned down."
"Alright listen, here is what we'll do - "
"Wait a second" Kari interrupted him, "Gatomon?!"
A moment passed the they heard the door to her room open and close.
"I got these two…" Gatomon said, breathing heavily, "I'm pretty sure no one else saw – no, no, nonononono!"
"What happened?" Tai asked on edge.
"Gatomon just devolved…" Kari sighed.
"Huh" Izzy said, "I figured I knew that sound: Ringing endorsement."
"Dammit, I hate it, when that happens!" Salamon, Gatomons puppy like Rookie-form said with a noticeably higher pitched voice, "Dogs suck! Actually, now that I think about it, I feel like cats suck… See what I mean? This is really confusing!"
"Okay, that settles it" Izzy sighed, "I'm sending the crew inside to get you. I don't see you making it five feet with just 'Puppy howl'…"
"Got it…" TK said bemused, standing up "Alright DigiDestined, let's ro- arrrghh!"
And he bend over an empty trash can and vomited into it.
"Yeah, no" Matt said decisive, "The only place, you're going to, is the emergency room."
He went to help TK up.
"Wait, don't -"
"No discussion!"
"No, I meant – argh! Ugh… okay… alright, I think it's all gone now…"
"Wait a minute…" Tai said growing pale, "Does that mean, we're gonna send… just the rookies?!"
"Tai, I don't know, if you noticed" Izzy said, "but we're kind of low on man power, right now."
"Screw that then!" Tai said rolling up his sleeves, "I'm going in with them!"
"Is that so?" Izzy said unimpressed, "You and what partner? I thought we had an agreement, to introduce new members to the team immediately." he closed sarcastically.
"Oh, yeah…" Tai said, sounding like he just remembered a pesky little detail, "Agumon's still being held prisoner, isn't he? Uh, shouldn't we do something about that?"
"Well" Izzy said annoyed, "There was a rescue mission scheduled for today, but somebody felt the need, to send one of us to the Digital World!"
"I'm sorry, Izzy-Senpai!" Yolei cried.
"Shut up"
"Fuck, Izzy can't you go in there?" Tai suggested nervously.
"I can't. I run this show from here for a reason. I've got some tricks up my sleeve, but I need to be out here overseeing everything or else -"
"Okay!" Tai said annoyed, "I get it! Whatever… Matt… Come on, man. Can you just -"
"No, I have my own brother to worry about." the said blonde said stern, "I'm taking him to the hospital. I'm sorry… my condolences, okay?" he added saddened while glancing at the rookies.
"Fuck you, Matt!"
"That wasn't sarcasm!"
"I know!" Tai bellowed, "Fuck!"
"TK, before you leave" Izzy said as Matt and TK reached the door, "Hand Cody your D-Terminal, okay?"
"Why?" TK asked dazed.
"I wanna test something"
"Okay..." he said handing the Device over.
Matt and TK left and Tai started pacing around the room.
"Okay then" Izzy said, "Rookies, you're up. Get in there, take Matt's Digivice, he left it here, that way you should end up close to the burrow, our Digimon use as a hideout. There's a waypoint on your D3's that will lead you straight to it. Once you're there contact me, I'll give you instructions from there. Oh, just press the button in the bottom right corner of your D3 twice and I will get in touch with you. No more yelling to get my attention. Now hurry up!"
Cody opened the gate and once the rookies and the water were gone Tai slumped down into a chair near Izzy's desk, burying his face in his hands.
"Fuck…" he said desperate, "I'm gonna lose my little sister! Everything's fucked!"
"Tai, you forget that I am still overseeing this shit show." Izzy said calm, "Not all hope is lost."
"Tell him, Izzy" Kari said on the other end, "Tai, calm down it's gonna be fine"
"That being said" Izzy added, "In case this whole thing goes south despite that fact, I just want you to know, that I'm sorry… It's funny, even after seeing you throw yourself in harms way, for the sake of others – so often in fact that I started to question, whether you're suicidal or not – It feels like we could actually lose you this time…" he continued sounding genuinely concerned, "And honestly, I don't know how to feel about that. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I failed to compensate for their idiocy…"
"Oh, god!" Tai shouted in agony.
Kari sighed.
"You guys are not reassuring, right now."
Kari tensed up, when the door to her room opened and was relieved to see, that it was Salamon who had returned, from sneaking around the building, trying to find another monitor.
"Well, the good news is no one else is in here" Salamon sighed, "and there is another TV in here."
"Really?" Kari said hopeful, "Let's go, where is it?"
"You wanna hear the bad news first?"
"Oh, yeah... that's a thing, too, huh?"
"Well, it was next to the stairs near the entrance... aaand the Mekanorimon blew that one up, too."
"I see your point now" Kari said shaking her head, "I am way too optimistic..."
"Don't sweat it" Salamon said sitting down next to her, "Also, I occasionally saw a few of our enemies passing by on the main street in the front. The area behind the building looks kinda empty, though. Might be our best shot?"
"We don't know where the nearest monitor is, though..."
"Good point"
"I still think you could have just – you know, let those two Mekanorimon live. From what you've told me, they probably would have been grateful. Maybe they would have helped us."
"Old habits -"
"Die hard..." Kari sighed, "I get it..."
"Yeah, but to be fair, so did those Mekanorimon! Hey ho!"
She went to high-five Kari. The girl hesitated but accepted.
"Just so you know" she said, "I'm not doing this because I think it's funny... I'm doing this because you're adorable as Salamon and I didn't wanna miss out on this chance."
Beep
"Kari? Salamon?"
"Izzy?" Kari said standing up.
"The rookies are nearly with you" he said, "I see which building you two are in, but I don't know the floor you are at."
"First floor, from the front of the building" Salamon explained, "But we're closer to the back and there's a slope leading up to it. So, ground-floor from the back."
"Guys, ground-floor" he relayed to the rookies, "Same spot I told you earlier"
Suddenly, they heard a massive bang behind the wall at the back of the building. The brick wall caved in a bit. Someone was trying to get in from the outside.
"Izzy?" Kari said anxious as she and Salamon backed off, "Can you tell them to hurry?"
"Well -"
The wall broke apart as something slammed into it. Kari backed into a corner shielding her head with her arms, while Salamon was ready to fight back:
"Puppy howl!"
The intruders froze. There were two of them behind the hole in the wall.
"Why?" a familiar voice said strained.
The dust settled. It was Frogmon. Next to her was Flybeemon.
"Oh, it's you!" Kari said relieved.
"Thanks... for that..." Flybeemon said dry, when the stunning effect of Salamon's attack wore off.
"To be fair, I didn't expect our allies to burst in through the freaking wall!" Salamon argued, eye-rolling.
"Can you move again?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah..." Yolei said massaging her neck.
"Then move!" he continued, "You know the plan, get them out of there, then get to the TV you saw earlier"
Kari and Salamon climbed onto Flybeemon's back, but just as they were about to take off, the street between them exploded, knocking all of them to the ground.
"What the...?" Kari said dazzled. She looked around to see who attacked them. She slowly started to get back up, when she spotted him: A tall, slender robot, his body constructed of metal plates, tubes and wires, with only his right leg and left arm having some exposed flesh on them. He wore a black ring around his neck, and his eyes were glowing red.
"Andromon..." Kari said wide-eyed.
"Don't worry!" Frogmon said leaping towards the android, "I got this!"
"Crap!" Flybeemon exclaimed, following her.
While she was approaching him from the right, Flybeemon took the left, effectively flanking Andromon. And thankfully so, because Andromon, focusing on Frogmon, opened up his chest plate and fired a single missile at Frogmon. The rocket appeared to be homing, since Frogmon dodged and it flew in a curve, hitting her anyway. The impact devolved her all the way back to Upamon and cast her along the street back to the kids.
"Okay, nice one!" Upamon said, "But good luck hitting me now!"
She went to attack him again, but Cody was faster; he snatched her out of mid air as she was jumping toward their enemy and carried her around a corner, into cover.
"No. You. Don't!" he said sternly, while she was trying to free herself.
"Well" Kari said nervously, as she and Yolei joined Cody, "At least we still got Flybeemon and – wait!"
She stopped and looked around.
"Where are Davis and Veemon?"
"Are we there yet?"
"You have the damn waypoint on your D3, Brainiac!"
"How come, it got so freaking cold so fast?"
"Because our world is weird! What, you have the attention span of a fly? I thought even you must have noticed by now!"
Davis and Veemon where flying on Kabuterimon's back. The enormous blue bug was Tentomon's Champion-form. He had a gray armor piece on his head that was reminiscent of a Samurai's helmet, but with a large horn on its brow. The trio was crossing over the woods which stretched far south from the burrow, towards an energy source Izzy had ordered them to investigate. Their surroundings grew more and more cold as they progressed, and at this point everything below them was covered in snow.
"Guys" Kabuterimon said with his low growling voice.
"Are we there?"
"Dude, just shut up and let him talk!"
"See that big overhang up ahead?" Kabuterimon continued.
They looked and saw what he meant; an elevated plateau, with only a sparse amount of trees on top. The edge stuck out over a large portion of the remaining cliff side almost forming a roof over the area below. It looked like it was supported by columns, but on closer inspection it became clear, that apparently it were icicles that had grown larger and larger as time had progressed, now forming massive columns of frozen water.
"Looks, weird enough to me" Veemon shrugged, "That could be it."
"Are we there?"
"Please, let that be it! Please, god!"
They landed and now they could see clearly that the cliffs face was retracting further under the plateau, behind the icicles. It led into a cave further back. There was blue light weakly emitting from the inside, pulsing.
"Thank god..." Veemon sighed relieved.
He went to walk inside, but stopped and turned around to Kabuterimon.
"Hey, can you carry us to the industrial area as well?"
"Don't think so" the bug answered, slightly exhausted "Or if I can, I probably can't make it back to the burrow"
"Alright, gotta evolve me here then. Got it. Brainiac, move it."
When he and Veemon entered the cave, Davis stopped and looked around in awe – only for Veemon to kick him in the leg.
"Move!" he shouted, "We're on the clock!"
They hurried through the interior of the cave, which was completely covered in ice crystals. Crests were embedded into the larger crystals, all of them glowing blue and pulsing in perfect unison. Davis walked up to the egg, which rested on a small throne like structure, made of upwards pointing icicles. The crest of friendship – or envy, as the DigiDestined knew it – was embedded into the back of the structure.
Davis picked up the egg which, in its shape, looked almost more akin to a peanut than an actual egg. It was completely black, with some golden accents on the sides which gave it a look, like it had jaws and sharp teeth. On its top there was a gold and silver horn, taking on the rough shape of a lightning bolt. Right behind the horn was the crest of friendship engraved in blue.
"Huh" he said surprised, while his D-Terminal absorbed it, "That was easier than the others."
"Probably because nobody's nagging us, to cradle our enemies to sleep..." Veemon muttered, "Now come on, digivolve me! I'm ready, let's go!"
"Alright..." Davis said uncertain, "Here goes nothing..."
"You almost did it, last time" Veemon sighed, "Keep calm and focus."
Davis blinked.
"Why are you so nice all over sudden?"
"I'm not, asshole!"
"Oh, okay..."
"I just figured, death threats can only motivate you so much. Now get going!"
Davis closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He raised the D-Terminal above his head.
Beep
Davis opened one eye.
"Hey, what's your status?" Izzy asked.
"Status?" Davis asked puzzled.
"We got the egg!" Veemon answered instead, annoyed, "Izzy, can you be quiet for a second? You're breaking Brainiac's concentration."
"He has that?" Izzy asked, clearly raising an eyebrow, "So, you're trying to use the egg? Because that wont be necessary, anymore. Mission's over."
Since he couldn't see Izzy, he chose to just stare ahead for a moment.
"Come again?" he said in disbelief, "You were breaking up there"
"I said: The mission is over."
"You're breaking up agai- fuck it - what do you mean, the mission is over?!" Veemon shouted, "What the fuck? I was ready to save the day!"
"Oh, my heart is just bleeding for you..." Izzy said dead panned, "Take Kabuterimon to the desert, the others spotted a TV there. I just talked to him, it's not too much of a detour, so he should be able to make it. Veemon, your job is to make sure everyone goes through the gate safely. Should you not make it through yourself, just take Kabuterimon back to the burrow and stay there until the next mission."
"Fine" Veemon said, "I need a break from Brainiac anyway... But wait! Why wouldn't I make it through myself, though?"
Izzy didn't answer right away, so Veemon continued:
"They're being chased again, aren't they?"
"Precisely"
Flybeemon circled widely around Andromon trying to hit him with his stingers. But nearly every shot bounced off Andromon's metal body – he didn't even react to the projectiles hitting him. The robot pointed his arm at him, but for a brief moment, he seemed to struggle with his movement. He fired his blue laser at him but since he was having trouble just before, he slightly lagged behind, barely missing him as a result. Seeing a window for a counter attack, Flybeemon shot his purple lightning at him, stunning him briefly.
While it didn't exactly give him the edge in the fight, it did give Kari an idea. She had seen this before while she was watching the fight: Previously, Andromon had tried hitting him with his rockets, but Flybeemon kept flying very close to the surrounding buildings, so the missiles didn't have enough space to turn, causing them to crash into the facades instead. But even at that time, Andromon had brief moments when he slowed down or even froze entirely. As if he was fighting the ring's effects!
"Andromon!" she shouted, deliberately walking out of cover and into the middle of the street.
"Kari, what are you doing?!" Tai asked in a slight panic.
"You do realize, we can see what you're doing, through your camera, right?" Izzy added.
Kari ignored them. She needed to talk to Andromon, and just Andromon.
The android turned, and took a step towards her. Flybeemon used Kari's involuntary distraction and stunned the Ultimate again.
Kari prayed it wouldn't work against her efforts. On the other hand, it probably was the best they could do in case Andromon decided to attack her.
"You know me..." she said insistently, "Don't you?"
"I -" he started but Flybeemon stunned him again, since he took another step toward the girl.
"We want to help you" she said, not once breaking eye-contact with him.
"I know your voice" Andromon spoke his first complete sentence. He sounded like a text-to-speech program, like every word he spoke was recorded separately from the rest. In short there was no emphasis in any word he spoke – and if there was it sounded just wrong.
Kari took a step closer.
"I'm Kari" she said, "I'm one of your friends"
"Kari" Andromon repeated, "Are you the one, they call Queen Kari?"
Kari went to answer, but suddenly Flybeemon closed in and tried to destroy Andromon's black ring – Andromon didn't even look at him, when he hit him with his metal fist. Flybeemon was hurled into a wall next to Andromon, devolving on impact.
"Hawkmon!" Yolei called out, but Cody held her back.
Hawkmon got back up, holding the back of his head and slowly made his way over to his companions. Concerned he looked at Andromon the entire time, while awkwardly making his way past him.
"Alright..." he mumbled, "Don't mind me... coming through..."
"I'm a DigiDestined" Kari continued, slowly walking up to him until she was directly in front of him, "I'm Tai's sister."
Without a warning Andromon reached out to her with both hands, grabbed her by the shoulders and picked her up.
"Kari?!" Tai exclaimed.
"Don't worry..." Kari said softly.
Andromon held her at arms length. His eyes quickly flickered up down, as if he was scanning her head to toe, to confirm his suspicion. It didn't exactly help making her less uneasy, but she understood. She noticed how the ring was glowing dark red now; the Emperor was fighting to stay in control.
"You are Queen Kari." Andromon said, "You are the little sister of Lazy Tai."
Kari sighed, since she wasn't to keen on her new title.
"Yes..." she mumbled, "I am Queen Kari, Lazy Tai's little sister..."
Andromon started shaking slightly.
"You are my friend" he said, "My friend, my friend my friend myfriendmyfriendfriendfriefriefriefrifrfrfrfrfrfrfrfr"
He dropped her and raised his hands further, now shaking violently.
"Andromon?" Kari said afraid, sitting on the ground, looking up to him.
His hands reached up to his neck – and snapped the black ring clean in half.
He let his arms drop, holding on to both halves for a second, then he dropped them to the ground and they dissolved half way down.
"That was a thing" he said monotone.
"Yeah" Kari said with a shy laugh, "It was..."
"How is your brother?"
"Oh, fuck..." she heard him sigh on the other end, "Holy fucking shit!"
"He's, uh... recovering..."
"You better run"
"Huh?"
"THEY TURNED HIM! ATTACK!"
Suddenly, explosions started going off everywhere. It was raining debris and fire; apparently their remaining enemies had heard the commotion from their fight with Andromon – resulting in them bringing together all the Emperor's allies in the industrial area to attack them at once. From all directions there were Tankmon, Mekanorimon and Hagurumon closing in on their position.
"Flee" Andromon said loudly, "I hold them off"
"How would you do that?!" Yolei screeched in terror, "There's so many of them! And how would we do that? They're everywhere!"
"Cody, the D-Terminal!" Izzy commanded, "Give it to Kari! Kari, use the egg of light!"
"Would that even- "Kari started as she hurried over to the others, but a shot from a Tankmon blew up the facade of a building next to her. She was thrown to the side and with a short scream of pain, she hit the floor.
"Kari!" Tai said, "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine…" she said while getting back up.
"You're bleeding!" Salamon said concerned and looked at her left leg.
"It's no big deal, we need to go!"
"Here!" Cody said, as the two caught up to the rest of the crew and passed her TK's D-Terminal. They ran into the direction, Cody and Yolei had arrived from, but even that wasn't ideal, since they saw some black-ringed Digimon in the distance.
While running, Kari raised the D-Terminal above her head, shouting:
"Digi-armor energize!"
Salamon jumped ahead, started to glow and finally transformed in mid air.
"Salamon armor-digivolve to…" she said, while growing larger than a regular horse, "Nefertimon!"
Her body had taken on the form of an enormous white lion. She had Gatomon's gloves on her front paws and purple stripes on her tail, exactly like her champion-form. She wore the death mask of an Egyptian queen on her head, giving her the appearance of a sphinx. Similar to Pegasusmon she had angel like wings on her back, as well as silver, gold engraved armor plates on her chest, shoulders and front legs.
Nefertimon stopped in front of them, kneeling down so they could all climb onto her back. Once the trio and their partners were all safely on top of her, she started running. Thanks to her enormous wings, she was able to take off rather quickly. It was a bumpy ride, though; everyone was attacking them yet again. Looking over her shoulder, Kari saw that Andromon was only able to hold off a few of them. Explosions were going off all around them, and while Nefertimon managed to dodge the attacks fairly well, there was a number of blasts, threatening to throw them off.
"OH, GOD NOOO!" Yolei screamed.
"Calm the hell down and hold on!" Nefertimon demanded.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
"Just hold on!"
"Izzy are you serious, right now?" Tai asked massaging his temples, when his friend switched channels, "You really trying to kill me, aren't you?"
"Shut up Tai, this is important" Izzy said dismissively, "Guys, what's your progress?"
"Progress?" a voice o the other end hissed.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"Uh, actually that was me this time" Veemon said, "And what I meant was: What do you mean progress? We're at the TV, man! I thought you can see us on the map!"
"Splendid, now when I give you the signal, you open the gate."
"Got it" Veemon said.
"Great, awesome" Tai said frantically, "Now, switch back, alright?"
"Fine, I'll humor you" Izzy said and unmuted the rest of the team.
Immediately the room filled with Yolei's panicked screams:
"OH JESUS! PLEASE DON'T! PLEASE DO-O-OON'T!"
"On second thought maybe you should keep Wannabe muted…"
"They're all next to each other, Tai. Why do you think, I muted them in the first place? Nefertimon, you are still on target keep going like this."
"I think, I see someone in the distance, is that them?" Nefertimon asked.
"Yes, you should be able to see them"
"Who the hell is Nefertimon?" Veemon asked confused.
"You'll see in a second. Now, get ready Davis. Timing is of the essence!"
"What?"
"It's important!"
"Oh, come on!" Veemon huffed, "Who the fuck is chasing them? An ar- oh, my god! Did they piss off the entire city?"
"Don't panic" Izzy said, "I prepared something for the occasion. Nefertimon, keep going straight ahead. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid you being affected as well."
"Can you just tell us what the damn plan is, already?!" Nefertimon asked annoyed.
"How about I show you instead?" the red head replied hitting a key on his laptop. Through Kari's camera, they saw the sand of the dunes below being thrown high into the air, creating a massive dust cloud all around them.
"Whoa!" Veemon ad Davis shouted in unison.
"You know, a more concrete warning would have been nice!" Nefertimon hissed.
"At least they stopped firing at us!" Yolei said shaking.
Just a moment later, they watched their vision clearing up, as they emerged from the cloud.
"Davis, open the gate!" Izzy said.
The area surrounding the TV was apparently completely unaffected by Izzy's diversion, so the cloud was forming a perfect square around it. Thankfully, Davis had already opened the gate, so everything that was left to do for Nefertimon, was to head straight for it. Tai and Izzy witnessed, how she devolved shortly before they reached the TV, sending all of them flying (and screaming) into the beam of light.
Upon realizing what was about to happen, Izzy quickly turned in his chair, pushed himself backwards away from the screen, and watched, unfazed, as it vomited out their team mates along with a torrent of water. Coughing they remained on the floor, when suddenly Davis was ejected, too. He landed on Cody.
"Crap" Veemon, who was still in the Digital World, said, "They blew up the TV... Anyway, I'm off with Kabuterimon. See you guys."
Izzy glanced at the monitor.
"You're heading in the right direction. The cloud should reach the edge of the forest, so it should provide you with enough cover to lose them quickly."
"Man" Veemon said, "Is there anything you can't do with hacking?"
"I literally threw sand into the air" Izzy said, "Honestly, I figured this would be a strong contender for the most useless thing I could do, so far. Good thing, I remembered it, though. I'll keep the channel open in case you need me to guide you back to the burrow."
"I think, I'm gonna be sick..." Cody said, crawling over to the trash can TK had barfed into earlier.
Meanwhile Yolei sat on the floor, rocking back and forth, clutching Hawkmon tightly and mumbling:
"They're gone... they can't hurt us anymore... we're safe... we're safe..."
"You're smothering me..." Hawkmon choked.
"That was a train wreck..." Izzy concluded somberly.
"Well, we freed Andromon" Kari argued.
"Oh, sure the mission wasn't completely irredeemable." Izzy agreed, "However, it shouldn't have been a thing, in the first place! You should probably see a doctor for your leg, by the way." he added watching her, as Tai helped her back onto her feet; Kari had a large cut on her left leg, which was bleeding badly.
"Yeah..." she mumbled, "Oh, by the way: If you lose a lot of blood in the Digital World, would that be like losing it in the real world?"
"I would assume so..." Izzy said alarmed.
"Oh" Kari said calm, "So, that's why I feel dizzy..."
"Oh, my god!" Tai said annoyed, (his sister had a habit of brushing off her wounds and sicknesses as "no big deal", no matter how life threatening they actually were), "I get you to a doctor..."
He walked her to the door. On the door step he turned around one more time.
"You guys still suck!" he said to the rookies, "If you would've just fucking left immediately, Kari would fine! But no!"
"Whatever" Upamon said pouting, "Your face sucks!"
Tai flipped them off over his shoulder, while leaving and Cody threw up into the trash can.
"Mission accomplished, everyone..." Izzy moaned.