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Chapter Eight
Evil Downward Spiral
"God, I'm fucking bored!" Veemon complained.
He was sitting at the entrance of the burrow next to Garurumon, who was tasked with guarding it. He was an enormous, white wolf, even bigger than Nefertimon. His pelt had blue tiger stripes and he had red claws on his paws.
They had spent the past three days there, since Kari and TK were both recovering from their injuries.
It was noon and Garurumon was lying in a corner next to entrance, resting his head on his front paws and staring blankly ahead. Occasionally he responded to Veemon's ranting with ambiguous murmuring and grunting:
"Hmm..."
"I mean, is bubbly small talk the only fucking way you spent your free time?"
"If you say so..."
"Oh shit, alright I get the hint" Veemon muttered, "You know you can tell me, if I get on your nerves. I can deal with it. I'd tell you to go fuck yourself and then leave you be!"
"No..." the wolf said, "Sorry, that's not it. I'm just down... not really in the mood to talk... I can listen, though."
"Man, you're a just the perfect partner for that emo kid, aren't you? A match made in heaven"
"Come on now!" Garurumon grumbled, "Don't call him that! Also I'm not usually like this..."
"Then what are you like?"
"I don't know..."
"You don't know?" Veemon laughed.
"I'm really bad at self reflection, okay?" Garurumon said defensive, "Ask the others... I guess, I'm nice... at least that's what I've heard..."
"Wow, you sure proved your point..." the rookie-level said shaking his head, "Is that why you can put up with emo kid as your partner? Because you're nice and stuff?"
"I said don't call him that!"
"Fine, but only because I'm looking for some serious advice."
"Advice?"
"Guys!" Tentomon chimed in, "We were talking about restaurants and we need another opinion: What do you think is the best restaurant around here?"
"Tentomon!" Biyomon and Palmon shouted.
"Huh?" he said confused, "What?"
He looked at Garurumon who was covering his face with his paws.
"Oh, uh..." Tentomon said awkward, "Well... okay, I guess I know Garurumon's answer..." he said flying back to Biyomon and Palmon.
"I see what you mean, now..." Garurumon said trying to gather his composure, "Bubbly small talk sucks!"
"Oh, my god!" Veemon growled, "It's a restaurant! Get over it!"
Garurumon ignored him and took a deep breath.
"So, what's that advice you're looking for?" he said, clearly eager, to get as far away from the subject of restaurants, as possible.
"Right, I wanna find a way to deal with my annoying ass partner without – you know – killing him!"
"I don't know, if I'm the right candidate for that..."
"That's right" Veemon said, "You wouldn't know."
"I don't know – try being nicer?"
"No, no, no! You got that wrong! This isn't a 'me'-problem!"
"Apparently it is, since you're asking me for advice, what you could do, to make things better..."
"No, I'm asking for alternatives for killing him!"
"I can't help you with that than..."
"Fucking typical!" Veemon hissed and got up.
He was about to walk back inside, when Garurumon suddenly stopped him:
"Wait!" he whispered and his ears perked up, "Do you hear something?"
Veemon stopped and listened closely.
"What?" he said quietly, "I don't hear anything"
"It's like a swooshing sound..."
"Wait, I think, I hear it too, now... What is that?"
"It's coming from above..." Garurumon said and carefully snuck forward so he could peek out from under the tree.
It was already too late when they spotted them: Two missiles flew directly at the burrow and hit the tree above. The explosion ripped through a massive root, that formed an arch over the entrance. The root broke off and fell. Garurumon leaped forward trying to dodge it, but it was to late: The chunk of wood landed on his hind legs, burying them underneath itself. Garurumon roared in pain.
Suddenly something big blocked out the sun. A massive creature broke through the tree tops and landed violently in front of the burrow, causing the ground to shake.
The Digimon looked like Greymon, but his skin was of a dark blue, and the stripes on his back were black. Instead of the Skull he wore on his head, it was a metal mask of a similar yet simplified shape and there was red hair sticking out from under it, at its back. His left arm was covered in a massive metal sleeve with three long claws on its end. The creature closed the metal plates which covered two barrels embedded into his chest (apparently where they fired their rockets from). Two tubes on each side of the chest plates led into his body, connecting to his inner organs. He had black tethered wings, reminiscent of those an insect or a fairy would have and additionally he wore a black spiral on his right arm.
"MetalGreymon…" Garurumon growled strained, "Dammit! Veemon, what do we -"
Veemon was gone.
"Oh, come on!"
"Why, hello there"
Garurumon looked up to see the Emperor standing on MetalGreymon's back. The boy grinned and pointed a black D3 at Garurumon.
"You know, I was actually just planning to burn this place to the ground and catch those pesky little rookie-levels with my black rings." he said and a stream of data started to flow from Garurumon to the D3, "But it seems, with you I found something even more useful…"
"What are you doing?" Garurumon said irritated.
The Emperor ignored him, opened his D-Terminal and send out a number of black rings. One of them headed straight for Garurumon. The wolf narrowly managed to destroy it with blue flames he shot from his mouth. However, the rest of the rings flew right past him, directly into the burrow.
Just before they disappeared out of sight, a large ball of lightning flew the opposite way out of the burrow and collided with them, destroying all of them in one go.
"What?!" the Emperor shouted.
Kabuterimon flew out of the burrow, grabbed the root pinning down Garurumon's legs and threw it at MetalGreymon. He shot another lightning attack after it in order to speed it up.
The root hit MetalGreymon in the face and the dinosaur stumbled backwards.
"Well..." the Emperor said smug, when MetalGreymon stood stable again, "This day keeps getting better and better"
Izzy stretched at his desk. His final classes for the day had been canceled, so he had decided to spent his extra time in the empty computer lab. He had breezed through his homework in record time and was now considering to do some more testing, for what he could do in the Digital World.
Kari and TK had mostly recovered, although she was still unable to run and he had his right hand still bandaged up. But still, the team had decided to meet up again, hopefully to finally initiate the Agumon rescue mission.
But the others still had classes, so Izzy still had time to kill.
He was just reaching into his back to grab another chocolate bar, when he heard a beeping sound from his laptop, telling him that someone from the network was reaching out to him – only the sound didn't just come up once, but over and over, rapidly repeating itself.
He looked at the screen. As usual a message popped up, as a reminder, in case he missed the initial signal – and since the button to contact him was apparently being spammed right now, every second or so a new one popped up.
Irritated, he connected to Matt's Digivice at the burrow.
"What is it?" he asked somewhat annoyed, "I told you to press the button tw-"
He was cut off by literally everyone on the other end talking over each other. Panicked voices from the hideout mixed together, to a horrendous wall of sound. The only words Izzy could make out clearly, were "Izzy", "attack", "terrible" and "hurry" - but only because they repeated them in a frenzy.
"Calm down!" he exclaimed, "One at the time! Veemon, what's going on?"
"We're under attack!" Veemon said frantically, "It's the Emperor!"
"Shit!" Izzy said hectically, opening up a live-feed to one of the surveillance cameras surrounding the burrow: The camera showed the entrance to the burrow and Garurumon in front of it – and with him were a blue corrupted looking version of MetalGreymon and the Emperor standing on his shoulder. Izzy noticed that something was off about this view of the burrow, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Shit, shit! Tentomon, get to the Digivolution spot!"
"Wha- oh, right!" Tentomon said, overcoming his initial confusion, "Okay, I'm ready!"
Izzy plugged his Digivice into a special port on his laptop and hit the middle button on its right side.
"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon!"
"Hurry!" Izzy shouted, "He using black rings!"
To his relieve he saw Kabuterimon's attack fly out of the burrow, just a moment later, obliterating the black rings the Emperor had send out.
"Keep them busy" Izzy commanded, "The rest of you: Is there a way to get out on the backside?"
"Yes!" Biyomon said, "There's a small gap. I think we can squeeze through there!"
"Perfect, do that! Get outside, keep going that direction and look out for a TV"
Suddenly it dawned on Izzy what was off about the cameras.
"Did any of you move the surveillance cameras in the area?"
"What?" Palmon asked, "No, why would we?"
"Nope" Veemon said.
"Me neither" Biyomon replied.
"Fuck!" Izzy cussed, "I thought so! Of course he can use them, too! What was I thinking?!"
"What do you mean?" Veemon asked.
"Just go!" Izzy barked, "I'll go get help!"
With that, he shut his laptop, took it under his arm and ran out of the lab. While doing so his mind was racing; who should he get to help? There was an obvious answer – one he didn't like. He sprinted down the corridor, towards that location, anyway. They didn't have long. Just Kabuterimon and Garurumon against MetalGreymon? And both of them weakened? They needed support, right away!
He turned the corner and barely managed to stop, as he would have otherwise bumped into a teacher heading the other way.
The teacher was a tall black haired man in his twenties. As usual he wore an open lab coat and a shirt with a big star on it beneath, along with some cargo shorts. He had just started teaching at their school but Izzy knew him from occasionally having classes with him.
"Sorry, Mr. Nishijima..." he said out of breath.
"Izumi" the teacher said, "Shouldn't you be in class, right now?"
"Uh, second years have the rest of the day off" Izzy explained, "Don't think they gave us a reason, though – or, if they did, it wasn't a very good one..."
Mr. Nishijima briefly looked away contemplating.
"Yeah, that actually sounds pretty accurate to the way our school administration handles its politics..." he admitted.
"Well, I'm sorry but I'm in kind of a hurry, so..." Izzy said walking past him.
"Oh" Nishijima said, "Okay then, take care!"
Izzy had only walked a few feet, before he stopped again; He still needed a way to get his support out of class…
"Uh, Mr. Nishijima?" he said turning to face his teacher again.
Nishijima stopped and looked back.
"What is it?"
"I'm having a bit of an emergency" the red head explained, "Or rather, one of my friends does and I need to get him out of class, so he can deal with it."
"Um…" Nishijima said scratching the back of his head, "I don't know if I can help you with that… I mean if his parents called the school office, that would be a different story, but… just a… friend… that would…"
He trailed off. Izzy noticed how his gaze found his left hand, which was holding his Digivice. Slowly and subtly he turned his hand, so it would obscure the teachers view. Then, just as slowly, he slipped it into his pocket.
Nishijima snapped out of it, now looking Izzy straight in the face.
"I'm sorry, what was I talking about?"
For a moment Izzy considered his options: Could he take advantage of the fact that Mr. Nishijima apparently lost his train of thought? Was there a way abuse this circumstance, so he could subtly manipulate him into helping him, anyway?
But Mr. Nishijima cut his contemplation short:
"You know what? Let's give it a shot. Maybe I can help you after all"
"Really? Okay, sure. Let's go then!" Izzy said, surprised at first, but then he quickly jumped on board, so the teacher wouldn't change his mind.
"So, who is it?"
"Ugh…"
"What's the matter?" Nishijima asked puzzled, "I thought you were friends?"
"Considering the context, I may have used that term a little… eh, whatever. It will make more sense, once you get to know us better…" Izzy muttered.
"We're gonna go back for them, tough… right?" Biyomon asked while she, Palmon and Veemon hurried through the forest, behind the burrow.
"As rookies?" Veemon asked baffled, "Well, it depends: You wanna go back to kill yourselves or to get them out of there?"
"Very funny" Biyomon said dry.
"Huh… I didn't realize I made a joke."
"Hey!" a familiar voice called from a distance, "Over here!"
"Huh?"
They looked to their right, to see who it was. They saw a person waving their arms at them. They made their way through the woodwork, to get a better look.
While they ran towards them, Izzy reestablished the connection:
"Good, I see you're already about to meet up with our reinforcements."
"Are you serious?" Veemon asked in disbelief as soon as he recognized, who was waving at them, "That's the best we can do?"
It was Davis.
"Hey guys!" he said excited, "Who are we fighting today?" he added rubbing his hands.
"God dammit!" Veemon growled.
"Well Veemon, everyone is in class right now, and I only got to get one of them out." Izzy explained patiently, "Not only can he be send directly to your general location, without any problems because you're already there, Veemon – but he can also digivolve you. Now, can you give me one good reason, why you should complain about this?"
"I'm glad you asked" Veemon said smug, "Because I prepared a list."
"Veemon!"
"Fine! Let's work with him! Whatever… But just so you know: I don't like our chances."
"Duly noted"
Davis pulled out his D-Terminal and opened it.
"Oh yeah, by the way, Izzy" Veemon said seeing this, "It was your idea to get him, so you hold his hand, while he tries to say the thing"
"Fine by me" Izzy sighed.
"No, wait!" Davis said suddenly, "I got this, okay?"
"What, did you practice in front of the mirror, while I was gone?" Veemon giggled.
Davis hesitated.
"Just -" he said blushing, "Let me handle this, okay?!"
"Davis -" Izzy started but Davis already held up the D-Terminal.
"Digi-armor eneeeeeergize!"
"Holy shit…" Veemon mumbled in disbelief and started to glow, "He actually did it! I mean – he still sounds like a retard, saying it but - he actually did it!"
"Before we throw a fucking party for him" Izzy intervened, "I have just one question: He did use the egg of courage, right? You know, since we know, it turns you into Flamedramon? Just so we can avoid a fish out of water situation like with Manbomon?"
"Uh no, he used the new one"
"Why do I even bother…" Izzy growled, "Well, fingers crossed, I guess… Or – brace for impact! Whatever you prefer…"
Just a few hundred feet away, Kabuterimon struggled against MetalGreymon who had him pinned against the tree above the burrow, on the right side next to the entrance, holding him in place with his metal arm. Garurumon tried to help his friend, jumping toward the dinosaur, shooting his flames at him, but MetalGreymon hurled him into the tree with a single whip of his tail. Garurumon growled and hit the floor unconscious, before turning back into Gabumon.
"Gabumon!" Kabuterimon shouted, but had to watch helplessly as the Emperor let loose another black ring, putting it around Gabumon's neck.
"Okay then" the Emperor grinned and pointed his D3 at Kabuterimon "That's better. Now we can handle this in peace."
"What - what's happening?" Kabuterimon asked startled as it looked like the Emperor's D3 was absorbing his data.
"Don't worry" the boy said tauntingly, "This wont hurt one bit…"
"Huh, you're right…" the bug said surprised, "This doesn't hurt at all! I don't feel any- wait a minute!" he added suspiciously, "What are doing to me?"
"Why would I tell you?" the Emperor huffed, "It's not like I'm gonna ask, if you're okay with it."
"Damn it, that's a good point!"
"Now, just relax… Make this easier for all of us…"
Suddenly a bolt of blue lightning came in from the right, hitting MetalGreymon's metal arm. His arm was shoved to the side, but that wasn't all: Massive ice crystals quickly grew at the point of impact. The sudden new weight dragged the metal limb down and it hit the ground, freeing Kabuterimon in the process.
"What?" the Emperor shouted, "What was -?"
A large, wolf like creature leaped across, in between Kabuterimon and MetalGreymon and landed between them and Gabumon.
The creature appeared to be akin to a blue, quadrupedal lizard wearing a black suit of armor, covering everything but their head and tail. They wore a black face mask, covering the upper half of their head. Its lower edge was shaped like a row of teeth and the lightning shaped blade, that was present on the egg of friendship was attached to its forehead. There were two large thorns attached to the armor plate on their back near the shoulders and one in between them. All of them had a similar lightning-esque form. The creature also had the crest of friendship painted on their chest plate.
"How about you pick on someone your own level?" the new arrival growled with Veemon's voice.
"You mean like you?" the Emperor said raising an eyebrow, "You look like one of these in-between-champion-and-rookie-levels, your team can access with these weird eggs."
"Uh, yeah – to be honest I couldn't think of a good one-liner..." the armor-level admitted, "But hey, this shitty in-between-level just fucked you up really good, didn't he, asshole?"
The Emperor didn't respond. Instead he gave MetalGreymon a sign and the Ultimate shot off the end of his metal arm briefly, before immediately reattaching it, completely shattering the ice encasing it.
"You were saying?" the raven haired boy said dead panned.
"I..." the creature began, taken aback, "Yeah, I got nothing, can't argue with that. However!"
And he shot out more lightning from the blade on his head, this time in a line at MetalGreymon's feet, freezing them in place.
"Go! Let's move! NOW!" the Armor-Digimon barked.
"Damn it!" the Emperor shouted, "Kill them!"
The armor-level jumped towards Gabumon, who was still out cold, picking him up with his mouth by his neck, like a lion would do with their cubs. He jumped around the left side of the burrow, while Kabuterimon remained on the right.
"Where to?" the bug asked loudly.
"Where Ishy told ush to go, earlier!" the lizard answered, unable to speak properly, since he still carried Gabumon with his mouth.
"Uuuuh..." Kabuterimon started, "What?"
"Ishy!"
"What?"
"Your fartner!"
"Ummm…"
"Jusht follow ee!" the newcomer interrupted annoyed, circling the burrow a little more so he was in front of his companion again leading the way.
They heard a shattering sound behind them; MetalGreymon had freed himself from the ice. Mere seconds later, the first rockets hit the trees around them.
"Ugh!" Kabuterimon grunted and looked over his shoulder, "I think we can outrun him! Looks like he's to big to fit between the trees! They're slowing him down!"
"Sure, wut hish rocketsh sheem to do jusht fucking fine!"
"If they weren't homing, I'd say this won't be a prob- ah!"
One of the missiles hit a tree just next to Kabuterimon, with its shock wave pushing him to the side.
"I'm okay!" he said, "I'm – oh, never mind looks like I'm devolving…"
He turned back into Tentomon.
"You guysh really shuck ash shampionsh…" the other Digimon sighed shaking his head
"Shut up, Vee- uh…"
Tentomon looked at him, questioning.
"Who are you, now? I've never seen this form."
"Raidrawon"
"Raidramon?"
"Yesh"
"Raidramon?"
"Yesh!"
Since his bug eyes enabled him to look in multiple directions at once, he stared directly at Raidramon for a few seconds while flying next to him.
"What?" Raidramon asked annoyed.
"You look nothing like a dragon…"
"Sheemsh to we a fucking thewe, for ee…"
"I don't know what you said, but I'm sure it made sense in your head."
"Up your'sh!"
The following rockets strayed further and further from the path, the two took. Another hopeful glance back the way they came, revealed to Tentomon:
"They're falling behind!"
"Jusht keep going anyway!" Raidramon commanded, "Shee that glow uf ahead?"
"Yes!" Tentomon said excited, "That's gotta be the gate! I think we can make it!"
He looked at Raidramon and gasped.
"What?" Raidramon asked impatiently.
"Gabumon still has the black ring!"
"Oh..."
Raidramon briefly glanced to the side – then he bit down harder destroying the black ring.
If Tentomon's face could emote, he undoubtedly would have looked horrified.
"That was risky as hell..."
"Oh, don't craf yourself" Raidramon said, "It worked, didn't it? I felt the thing under wy fucking teeth, go cry ee a river, I knew what I was doing!"
"Uh..." Tentomon said, as they closed in on the TV Davis found (he stood beside it, waving his arms, as if that would help them, see the gate better), "Yeah, whatever you just said! Let's get outta here!"
They jumped into the light beam and as Raidramon turned into Veemon, light turned into water, and finally the Digital World turned into the school's less than unimpressive computer lab.
"Holy shit, that was close!" Izzy sighed in relieve, as Davis hit the floor after the rest of his team mates. The red haired boy put his head back, and covered his face with his hands.
"Pff! Wasn't that close" Veemon argued unimpressed, "They were like ten miles behind us!"
"Veemon" Izzy said from behind his hands, "Don't test me..."
"Come on, Tai! Hurry up!"
"Sora, you look way too excited for a life or death situation"
Tai was following a redheaded girl down the hallway to the computer lab. She was a sporty girl, slightly shorter than Tai, with shoulder length hair and crimson eyes. Her name was Sora Takenouchi.
"It's not like, I'm not worried!" Sora said, somewhat beaming, "But you gotta admit: It's kinda awesome! Being back in the game, I mean. That life or death stuff... I can do without..." she added awkwardly.
"Yeah, let's call it 'being back in the game'..." Tai huffed, "Also, if it's so awesome, why didn't you show up to the first three missions? You keep saying, you were busy."
"I was!"
"That's a lame excuse"
"No, it isn't!"
"It is. What's more important than saving the world? Or the – Digital World..."
"Fine..." she muttered, "My mom figured out what was going on, so she made me take care of the store, because she was 'sick'..." she added with air quotes.
Tai shot her a look, eyebrows raised.
"You mean, you blabbed?"
"I -!" Sora started – before she sighed defeated, "Yeah... Look, I got really excited, that we finally had some action, again! And then Mimi wrote me, that she was coming, too! It just slipped out..."
"Well, at least she told one of us beforehand..." Tai grumbled, "Also, you thought Mimi was good reason, to come as well?"
"I never said that..." Sora mumbled embarrassed, avoiding eye-contact, "Anyway" she deflected, "My moms all out of excuses, now. So, I'm gonna take my chance." she closed with a satisfied smirk.
"Five bucks, she's gonna have some ridiculous reason, to ground you, by tomorrow" Tai suggested dry, knowing the protective nature of Sora's mother, well.
"You know what, if she does, I'm just gonna yell at her for an hour and tell her, that I hate her." the girl said relaxed, "Worked the last five hundred times" she shrugged.
"So, is it a bet?" Tai asked once they came to a halt in front of the door to the lab.
Sora looked at him smugly.
"It is, Yagami." she said shaking his hand, to seal the deal.
"But wait, how do I get my money, when you're grounded?"
Sora shot him another look, eyes narrowed, before sliding the door open.
"Sora!" Biyomon called out, clearly far beyond excitement.
She immediately flew across the room straight into her partner's welcoming arms.
"Biyomon!" Sora exclaimed happy, kneeling down while holding her.
They hugged for a moment, then Sora looked up, to the rest of the crew again.
Everyone else was already there, Matt was the only one missing – and Joe and Mimi, of course.
"Oh, you are the new guys, right?" Sora said standing up again, looking at the rookies, "I'm Sora." she continued with a welcoming smile.
The rookies introduced themselves equally friendly, except for Veemon, who kept as introduction as brief as humanly possible ("Veemon" he said nodding), and Hawkmon who looked at the floor, while mumbling his name unusually timid.
Sora quickly made her way around the room, greeting her old friends individually; Kari with a hug, TK with a fist bump and Izzy with a quick wave as she arrived in front of him. Since he wasn't to keen on physical contact, he returned the greeting in kind, adding a nod and a quick, appreciative smile.
"So" Sora said with a small chuckle, looking around once more, "Looks like Mimi is late again, huh?"
"Mimi?" Izzy asked bewildered, "She's more than six thousand miles away... as usual... why would you expect her here?"
"Because she wrote me she'd come here!" Sora said baffled, "Just a few days ago! You're telling me she came all the way to Japan for like three days?"
"Close" Izzy said simply, "She was here for a solid day. If even..."
"What? Doesn't the flight alone take half a day?"
"Yeah, coming to think of it, her time line really doesn't make much sense." Izzy contemplated, "So, either she was bullshitting us, and she spend about a week here, shopping, before finally deciding to meet up with us..."
He paused.
"Or?" Sora pressed.
"Or she..." he continued, raising his shoulders helplessly, "Or she's insane – hell, I don't know!"
"God dammit!" she cussed, frustrated.
"What's your deal?" Tai asked incredulously, "Does she fucking owe you money? Why are you so pissed off about her not being around? Isn't that like – the opposite of how it usually works?"
"Just – forget it, okay?" Sora said irritated shaking her head.
She sighed, before talking to Izzy again:
"What about Matt?"
"Detention." Izzy stated plainly, "He texted me, apparently he was being snarky to a teacher."
"He got detention for that?" Tai asked in disbelief, "Who did he sass?"
"Ms. Iino"
"Is he insane?"
"Huh, that's exactly, what I asked him." TK said surprised, "Anyway, Joe isn't coming, either." he added toward Sora.
"Yeah. I figured" Sora said, puzzled, that he would bring him up, "Duh!"
"Chill, I thought you'd wanna know..." TK said annoyed.
"In any case, quick recap for you guys" Izzy said looking at Sora and Tai, "Sora, you are aware of the Agumon-situation, right?"
"Yes, Tai told me"
"Good"
"About a million times..." she added.
"Right" Izzy said irritated, because of the interruption, "So, as I was saying."
Izzy briefly retold the assault on the burrow.
"So this spiral" Yolei said, "Is it like a black ring for Ultimates?"
"That's..." Izzy said taken aback by her sharpness, "Probably it. The rings seem to corrupt Digivolution and they appear to be inefficient for Ultimates in general. So that's probably an update for them... in any event, to wrap this up: I sent in Brainiac over here" (he pointed at Davis), "So he could evolve Veemon, and help the others escape. And by sheer luck, we managed to pull it off"
"Hey!" Veemon said, "Cut me some slack man! My strategy was great. The trees slowed him down, as expected, and if he tried to fly and attack from above the tree tops, he wouldn't have hit us in a million years!"
"That might be true, but still: Running from your overpowered enemy is hardly a strategy."
"Wait a minute" Kari said, "So, Davis was removed from class because of you? Why didn't you have Mr. Nishijima pull me and TK out, too? We could have helped!"
"I couldn't. He barely agreed to try with Davis. That brings me to my counter question, though: Why didn't you two ever mention, that Davis was in the same class as you? Kind of an important detail, to gloss over, don't you think?!"
"Look man, he's been getting on our nerves in class for nearly four months, now." TK explained, "We were used to ignoring him, because – you know, 'never feed the troll' and shit."
"Hey!" Davis protested.
"Gotta admit, that is kind of a fitting description..." Izzy sighed, "Anyway, I feel like, it's pointless, explaining the stupidity of your reasoning here, so let me set down a new ground rule, instead: Unless we have reasons to suspect, there is a mole in our group, there is no good reason, to keep crucial information like this, from your team mates! On that note, has anyone else something that important, they kept to themselves for whatever reason?"
Davis raised his hand.
"Davis..." Izzy said threatening, "I swear, if you say, you forgot to tell us, you were in TK and Kari's class -"
"Uh, no!" Davis said quickly, "No, I have something else!"
"Go ahead..." Izzy said cautiously.
"I wanted to say, I have soccer practice the same day as Tai."
"We never had practice together!" Tai cut in.
"No, I meant, you use the court, the period before we do."
"That's what I thought..." Izzy said, face palming slowly, "Now then..."
He sat up straight again and cleared his throat.
"As for today's agenda: It's time to put a stop to this. Today is the day we free Agumon."
"Fucking finally..." Tai said rolling his eyes.
"And you know damn well, who's fault that is, Tai!" Izzy said, with a quick glare towards Yolei.
"I'm sorry..." she winced.
"That being said, this has been going on for too long, indeed. This latest incident has shown that. I didn't even mention the fact, that he used this strange data-absorbing maneuver, he used on SkullGreymon, on Garurumon and Kabuterimon as well."
"He didn't absorb any data, though." Tentomon said, "We weren't drained or anything... I don't know what he did, though."
"What's important, is that he is definitely plotting something." Izzy pointed out, "And I am not willing to let him complete his goal, whatever it may be!"
He sternly looked at each of his team mates.
"This ends now! Not only are we going to get Agumon back" he added standing up from his chair, "Today, we will bring down the Emperor for good!"
"Ahem!"
Cody cleared his throat and crossed his arms.
"... Using none-lethal methods only." Izzy finished, sighing about the loss of momentum in his closing statement.
"Well, obviously!" Sora said, confused by this exchange, "Agumon is our friend. We don't wanna kill him!"
"No, that was for the Emperor, too."
"Oh... but why would we -?"
"Sora, trust me on this one" Gatomon stepped in, "You do not wanna go down that rabbit hole."
"Love, huh?" Sora said contemplative, after learning the true meaning of their crests – most of them, at least. The last thirty minutes they had spent traveling to the desert temple, where, according to Hawkmon, the egg of love was located. That time they had used, to bring Sora up to date, about the events of the past week.
"That's not too far off, I guess…" she continued, trailing off and looking absently at the towering walls of the narrow ravine, they were currently passing through.
"Consider yourself lucky…" Veemon mumbled, "At least with yours there is a connection. With the others, its like they deleted the original names and went 'I don't know, that guy's pretty lazy, let's give him sloth instead!'. So stupid…"
Izzy cleared his throat and said:
"I'm starting to suspect, the entity that sealed you away, Veemon, watched us for a while and figured it was too unlikely for us, to bring our positive attributes to the forefront. So, they decided to take the easy route instead."
"Eh, kinda makes sense to me" Tai shrugged, "I mean just look at Joe. I don't see him taking responsibility for any of us. Or him being honest… or sincere…"
"Face it" TK said, "each of us was kind of an asshole, in their own right. I don't think the old crests would have worked for any of us"
"Ahem"
"Okay, except for you, Izzy."
"But why wasn't mine changed then?" Kari asked.
"Maybe, because yours was lost" TK suggested.
"Really? A god couldn't do anything about that?"
"Well, I believe the separation could very well be responsible, somehow." Izzy argued, "Especially if it turns out Gennai was to blame for this, after all. But – if that's the case, I assume there wasn't much thought being put into that, anyway…"
"No" Kari said, "It doesn't make sense, there's gotta be another reason. You guys aren't that bad!"
"Kari, if the nicest person on the planet tells you, that you are 'not that bad' chances are, you are still pretty bad" Izzy said.
"But wait" Veemon said to Sora, "So, your bullshit-crest is lust, right? How did you activate it?"
"I… uh…"
"She made out with Tai for like a minute" Izzy said dismissively.
"It was just one kiss!" Sora said defiantly.
"Yeah and that didn't work…" Tai said, staring ahead, "So, you kissed me again… and again… it was really awkward… and weird…"
"Wouldn't have been that weird, if you would have returned even one of them!" Sora hissed, now staring ahead, too, with her eyes narrowed.
"No, that would have made it super weird!" Tai countered, "Also, it took me like a year, to convince Agumon, we weren't a thing - even like that! He probably still wouldn't believe me, if I wasn't completely weirded out by that!"
"Hang on" Veemon said, "How old were you?"
"Eleven" Tai and Sora said.
"Gross…"
"Psst! Kari!" someone whispered.
The brunette girl looked behind. It was Davis. Lagging a bit behind, he waved her over to himself. She looked ahead again, rolling her eyes, but then slowed down, until she was walking next to him.
"What?" she asked quietly.
"Uh, you know…" he stammered, "I was just wondering – uh, if maybe this weekend we could like… watch a movie together. You know in the theater and stuff, there's this -"
But Kari cut him short:
"Davis, my brother is right in front of us. I don't know if you have any idea how protective he is of me, but trust me: you don't wanna find out the hard way."
"But -"
"Last time a boy from our school asked me out, my brother found out about it, and after that, the guy didn't show up for two weeks. I don't know what happened exactly, but when he was back again, he looked like he hadn't slept once, while he was gone. You better think twice about this."
"Oh, come on!" Davis said still confident "You didn't even hear me out!"
"Davis -"
"Look, I thought we could watch that new 'Star Wars' movie. I heard it's pretty romantic, too."
"That movie sucks!" TK shouted over his shoulder.
"Shut up!" Davis hissed.
"Hey!" Tai said suspiciously, now looking back, too, "What are you two talking about, back there?"
"Nothing!" Davis said quickly, turning pale and walking a bit away from Kari, who sighed and quickened her pace again to rejoin the rest of the group.
"Ooh, busted!" Armadillomon said teasing (her and Cody were in the back, too).
"Shut up, Armadillomon…" Davis mumbled.
"Alright people, heads in the game, you're nearly there." Izzy said, "Once you exit the ravine into the valley, turn to your left. It's literally right around the corner."
"Finally!" Tai groaned.
They entered the desert valley, Izzy was talking about. They made their way toward the temple, through a number of large rocks, scattered across the sand. They were only able to see its entrance clearly once they closed in on it, since it was embedded into the cliff side; it consisted of four enormous round columns, two on each side of a tall gate, leading in. There were two surveillance cameras placed on the two inner columns.
"Izzy, was it really necessary, to take the scenic route?" Tai complained, "I mean, there's cameras here, too. So, he could see us here."
"True, but it would be odd, if you spent enough time in there, so he could catch up to you, if he spotted you here." Izzy argued, "So these are irrelevant. For now, at least."
"Ugh, sure…" Tai moaned, as they entered the temple.
The room in front of them was perfectly cubic in its shape. Seven columns were embedded into its walls, each of them having one of the crests engraved into their pedestals. The egg of love rested on a block in the center of the chamber, with that very crest inscribed into it. The egg itself was silver and was shaped like a short bullet, the crest of love engraved into it upside down, aligning with the peaked dome shape of its top. Its bottom rim was reminiscent of saw teeth and there were two ax blades on its sides.
The egg emitted what looked and behaved like hundreds of fireflies, at first glance, but upon closer inspection they were just small orbs of light. They lit up the room, flying around, seemingly aimless. However, most of them seemed to be attracted to the crests, gathering in their grooves, making it seem like they were glowing on their own.
"Look Sora, it's our crest!" Biyomon called out excited.
"Yeah, funny how that worked out." Sora agreed with a soft chuckle and gave her partner, who she was carrying in her arms a quick squeeze; apparently the long absence of their partner, had made both of them extra cuddly.
Veemon shot the bubbly exchange an annoyed glance and even Hawkmon glared at them for a moment, before rolling his eyes and mumbling very quietly:
"Whatever…"
"Did you say something?" Yolei asked him.
"Err -" he said clearing his throat, "Uh, no. No, nothing… really"
Yolei went to say something when suddenly a giant wall of stone, lowered from the top of the entrance, closing it and blocking their way out.
"Hey, what the hell?!" Tai shouted.
"Thank me later" Izzy said calm.
"Huh? Why?"
"Attention, maggots!" a voice from outside the temple announced loudly.
"That's why, Tai"
"Open this gate, step outside, hands in the air and admit your defeat. Maybe I'll spare you. Come on now! I want you to meet my new partner!"
"God, I wanna kill him!" Tai said angry.
"Well, fucking great!" TK moaned.
"Should I grab the egg now, Izzy-Senpai?"
"Everybody relax!" Izzy exclaimed, "We have a plan, remember?"
"Yeah well, I thought we had like a minute more or something!" TK explained.
"It will work out" Izzy said, "I've taken this into account. Gatomon, Veemon, get to work."
"It was on the left, right?" Gatomon asked.
"Final warning!" the Emperor shouted.
"Yes, back the direction you came from. Remember, three feet deep, should do the trick. After that, I can take care of the rest. Tai, I'll open the gate and you walk out there."
"There's no way, I'm gonna walk out there by myself!"
"Tai, you know -"
The stone gate exploded. The group had to retread deeper into the room in order not to get hit by the debris.
"Well, there goes one of our cameras" Izzy said dry.
"Soooo…" Tai said awkwardly, "Since you can't open the gate anymore, you still want me to go out there?"
"Should I shoot again?", MetalGreymon said with his deep, growling voice.
"Nah, let's not rush it." the Emperor said grinning, "I wanna enjoy this…"
Suddenly a silhouette appeared in the dust cloud of the destroyed gate. A slim figure with its hair's shape reminiscent of a bird's nest.
"Take a look at that…" the raven haired boy mumbled, "Well, well, well! What do we have here?" he added as Tai stepped out of the cloud, "I assume, there's no need for introductions, eh?"
"Yeah, just so you know, the only one, this idiot was ever loyal to, is me. Better go running back to your shitty Airdramon, Airdramon-bitch!"
The Emperor glared at him.
"MetalGreymon" he said cold, "I want you to point every single one of your weapons at that guy down there."
"Ha!" Tai said pointing at the Emperor, "Joke's on you! He doesn't have that many- whoa-okay, I stand corrected. That is really intimidating…"
"Actually, I wanna give you a chance" the Emperor said, "I'm a fair man."
"Dude, you look like you're ten."
"Whatever!" the younger boy barked, "I wouldn't waste my chance, if I were you. Now, do you wanna live to see your friends die? Or do you want us, to kill you first?"
"Pff, I'd love to see you try -"
"Fire!"
A barrage of missiles rained down on Tai, engulfing him in flames and smoke.
"More!" the Emperor demanded, "More – actually you know what, stop. I think we got him."
Silence fell upon the valley, as the echoes of the explosions faded in the distance. The ground where the missiles hit was blackened and a massive column of smoke rose into the blue sky, from the spot where Tai used to stand.
"Yeah he is dead" the Emperor concluded dead panned.
"Think again!" a voice from within the smoke called out.
"What?!"
The cloud slowly cleared, revealing that Tai was still standing. Smirking, he brushed some dirt off his shoulder.
"Tai, cut the one-liners" Izzy said in his ear, "That's not part of the plan!"
"Yeah, yeah…" Tai whispered.
"What – HOW?!" the Emperor yelled, "How are you still standing?! That should have vaporized you!"
"Well, it probably would've helped if your new partner could hit anything more than a few inches away."
MetalGreymon growled.
"Seriously, there was this one time, when Gatomon was still our enemy: He tried hitting her, but nearly killed my sister instead – who was standing like ten feet away from her."
"Oh, don't even start with that!" MetalGreymon said threatening.
"Oh yeah, and he was like ten feet away himself"
"That does it!"
"Hold it." the Emperor said dismissively, "Something's wrong here and I wanna know what it is, before we waste any more of your energy."
"Tai, you're supposed to try and sway MetalGreymon to our side, not taunt him!" Izzy intervened, "Didn't you have a great plan to turn him? How about acting it out?"
"Right, my plan!" Tai said under his breath, "All jokes aside though, it probably didn't work because of OUR FRIENDSHIP!"
The Emperor and MetalGreymon stared at him.
"What?" they asked.
"Our friendship!" he repeated, "Remember our friendship, MetalGreymon?"
The Emperor sighed.
"I'm just gonna cut this short" he said face palming, "No, he doesn't. See that spiral on his arm? That's my newest invention. Designed to make Ultimates bow to my will, without fail! Thanks to the Evil Spiral, you're old friend is gone! Replaced with a -"
"Really, asshole?" Tai interrupted him, raising an eyebrow, "Evil Spiral? That's the best name, you came up with?"
"You cannot hope to beat its glory!" the Emperor shouted quickly.
Tai cautiously looked up at MetalGreymon's face.
"Buddy?" he asked hopefully.
The dinosaur looked back at him, stone faced.
"Well, shit..." Tai cussed, "That played out better in my head..."
"Congrats, Tai." Izzy said disillusioned, "A new low."
"Come on, man!" Tai hissed, "I was improvising!"
"You had a plan! You even said so, just now!"
"Hey, up yours! You really put my on the spot here!"
"You know what, Tai? Your plans suck and it's a good thing you're not the leader anymore, because, guess what: you shouldn't be."
"Fuck you!"
"Wait, who are you talking to?" the Emperor asked, "You know what, screw this! Let me down, I'll deal with him myself! Keep your eyes out for the others!" he commanded MetalGreymon before climbed down his back and jumping off his metal arm.
"Now then..." he said taking a black whip off his belt, "You asked for it."
"Bring it, asshole!"
He ran towards Tai and swung the whip. The whip made contact – and passed right through him.
"What!? How did -?"
He slowly put his hand forward – right through Tai's chest.
He jumped backwards.
"What –? No!"
"See you 'round, cunt." Tai said grim, "Uh, Izzy you can stop the -"
He vanished.
"NO!" the Emperor yelled. He immediately ran back to MetalGreymon and climbed onto his back.
"Destroy the temple!" he ordered, "Now!"
But it was too late: A shooting star came in from the left and hit MetalGreymon in the eye. The dinosaur roared in pain and stumbled to the side.
"Watch out!" the Emperor yelled when he saw the flashing of a silver colored dagger; Frogmon jumped them from behind a rock the other side, aiming for the arm with the black spiral. MetalGreymon turned to face her. He shot off his metal arm, hitting her in mid air. She managed to hold on to its claws, so they wouldn't stab her. It was about to shove her into the ground, when a powerful punch hit the dinosaur in the right arm. Hastily, he reattached his arm, turning to slash at Gatomon, who had nearly hit the spiral – but a blue flash of lightning later, the metal claw was covered in large ice crystals and so it crashed into the ground instead.
"You..." the Emperor hissed upon recognizing Raidramon, but then he looked around at the four attackers coming at them, "Wait, there was more of them! Where -?"
"Booya!" a female voice shouted from the top the cliff above the temples entrance which was now behind and to the right of them.
The boy spun around and looked up; A red griffin rushed at them. They had the front legs of a lion and the hind legs of an enormous bird. Their shoulders were draped by what looked like Hawkmon's wings. The creature wore a metal helmet which looked exactly like the egg of love, but elongated and with its blades extended into the shape of wings. Yolei was sitting on his back, shouting triumphantly as she rode him into battle.
The griffin's blades lit up briefly, before releasing a crescent-shaped shock wave towards the Ultimate. The impact shoved him away from the temple. Immediately the griffin followed up his attack, by diving toward him head first, and headbutting him.
"Good job, Halsemon!" she cheered, as the dinosaur stumbled.
"You're welcome!" Halsemon replied.
However, while stumbling forward, MetalGreymon, managed to raise his metal arm while he did so and slammed it into the ground, both catching himself from falling and shattering the ice in the process.
Now the attackers formed a rough half circle around him, keeping him away from the temple. Frogmon leaped toward him and at the same time, Pegasusmon fired another shooting star at him. MetalGreymon managed to dodge the Pegasus' attack, while turning towards Frogmon simultaneously; he opened up his chest plate and fired a rocket from the barrel on the left side. He yanked his torso around to the right and fired another missile, this time from his right chest part, in the direction of Raidramon, who had deliberately kept his distance, and was now preparing to fire more lightning at his enemy. The Emperor was holding on to his back for dear life, at this point.
Frogmon dealt with the rocket, heading her way, rather well, throwing a shuriken at it and causing it to explode before it reached her. Still, the shock wave was enough to throw her back. Raidramon on the other hand was less lucky; while he too, managed not to get hit directly, the explosion was much closer to him, hurling him through the air. Unfortunately he devolved to Veemon, too. Cursing he hit the sand.
"Fuck! Rookie, hurry up!"
"Uh, on it!" Davis said nervously, emerging from his hiding spot, on top of the cliff at the end of the valley, opposing the temple. Next to him, there was a short ravine below, broader than the one they came from but still too narrow, for someone as big as MetalGreymon to navigate properly inside.
"Digi-ener – god dammit! Gimme a sec!"
"Come on, idiot!" Veemon screamed frantically, "Not now! Hurry!"
"Shit, calm down! You're stressing me out!"
"What the fuck is going on?" the Emperor shouted confused, "How the FUCK did you get out of there?!"
Gatomon jumped onto MetalGreymon's shoulder, trying to crawl over to the arm with the black spiral, but the Ultimate shook her off rather easily. He threw her behind himself and fired his metal claw after her. She was hit and got caught up in between two of the individual claws. Suddenly, Frogmon jumped in from the side, kicking the piece of metal away and freeing her again.
MetalGreymon turned around facing his opponent's again, his back now turned to the ravine. The Digimon spread out again, now forming a line, parallel to the cliff's edge, in front of the entrance to the canyon. Halsemon had flown over to the side of the battlefield, taking cover behind a rock.
"Stay here!" he told Yolei, who nodded and climbed off his back.
It seemed to be a good decision, because MetalGreymon now opened fire again, shooting missile after missile at his foes. What followed was chaos; explosions went off everywhere, creating an enormous cloud of dust and smoke. At one point a glowing orb shot out of it, quickly taking on the shape of Patamon. Unconscious, TK's partner was flung through the air away from the ravine and into the sandy valley.
When no one was approaching him anymore, MetalGreymon stopped and waited for noises or movement from within the cloud.
What he couldn't see, was what was going on behind the cloud: Halsemon and Gatomon were together, front and center, while Frogmon was off to the left side.
"Guys" Izzy said, "I need you to do exactly as I say, now."
Just a moment later, MetalGreymon got what he was waiting for:
"On my mark!" Frogmon yelled and the dinosaur turned his head to his right, immediately firing a rocket at her. That was his mistake; apparently Frogmon had hurried over to her team mates and all three of them now attacked him head on.
Frogmon tackled him, Gatomon struck him in the chest with a lightning-paw and Halsemon shot another powerful blade of wind after him. All of that still wasn't enough to drive him into the canyon.
However, it didn't take long for that to change, as a flaming fist emerged from the dust, mere seconds later hitting the Ultimate in the face. Flamedramon's punch send MetalGreymon tumbling into the ravine. The Emperor finally lost his grip and fell off MetalGreymon's back. He quickly got up and ran deeper into the canyon, while MetalGreymon kept stumbling further in, behind him.
He turned around and pointed his D3 at his so-called partner after recognizing how bemused the latter looked.
Meanwhile Halsemon and Frogmon had made there way up to the edges of the ravine, on either side of MetalGreymon, while Gatomon and Flamedramon remained in front of the Ultimate, blocking his way out. They effectively surrounded him.
"Dirty, stupid Jews!" the boy spat, "You think this will be enough to take down my partner?"
His D3 started to glow and so did the spiral. MetalGreymon stood up right again, growling threateningly.
"I think this is as good as a time as any" Izzy said suddenly, "Tai, how about, you relay my message, to our dear Emperor?"
"Yo, asshole!"
The Emperor looked past MetalGreymon and the other two Digimon; Three kids stood at the ravine's entrance, Sora, with her partner Biyomon standing next to her, Tai, having a mischievous grin on his lips, and Yolei carrying an unconscious Patamon.
"Wanna know how we got out of that temple?"
"Not particularly in the middle of a standoff" the Emperor replied facetiously, "But I suppose after I killed most of you, I might be a tad curious."
"Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna tell you anyways: You see, we used a little trick and made ourselves a nice tunnel."
"What are you saying?" the Emperor asked bewildered, "You couldn't have dug a tunnel through all that massive rock that fast! Are you implying you just – deleted the rock to make a tunnel?"
"I'm glad you asked" Tai smirked, "But I never, uh – implied anything about deleting shit." He added, looking up.
The Emperor followed his gaze – and gasped once he saw, what Tai was looking at. An enormous strip of rock, hovered above MetalGreymon's head, undoubtedly from what Izzy had removed to make a tunnel. It was floating at a steep angle, so it was primarily above MetalGreymon.
"No!" the Emperor yelled, but it was too late: the strip started breaking apart and in large chunks it rained down onto the Ultimate. Since they weren't too high above MetalGreymon, they didn't gain enough speed on their way down, to seriously injure him. However, they were heavy enough to knock him to the floor and, at least some of them, remained on top of him pinning him to the ground.
Meanwhile the Emperor ran further to the back end of the ravine, so he wouldn't get hit by any falling rocks. Over him, at the edge of the ravine's side, was Kari. She watched him and decided to walk after him (since she couldn't run) and keep an eye on him. The walls of the ravine dropped away at its back, so there was a chance he could climb up the slopes to the side and slip away. After all, that was how they got onto the cliffs themselves.
Once MetalGreymon was down, Gatomon immediately took her chance, rushing over to the arm with black spiral, Flamedramon following closely behind. But surprisingly the dinosaur started to move again; he swept his metal arm over the ground, too fast for either of them to react. He smacked Gatomon into the wall to their right, knocking her out, and send Flamedramon straight up flying out of the canyon.
"Oh, come on!" he yelled, but thankfully he landed not too far away from the canyons entrance.
Now MetalGreymon slowly forced himself up again, somehow managing to get the heavy chunks of rock off his back.
"MetalGreymon!" Sora shouted.
Now freed from the weight on his back, MetalGreymon stopped, to look why she talked to him directly. He paused surprised to see, what was happening in front of him:
Sora was standing next to Tai – holding his hand.
"What are you doing?" Tai whispered.
"What do you think? I'm improvising!" Sora hissed back, her lips barely moving.
Then she addressed MetalGreymon again:
"You always said, we would make a great couple, didn't you? Guess what, you got what you always wanted. We're a couple, now."
She gave Tai's hand a quick and forceful squeeze.
"Uh, yeah!" Tai said nervously, understanding her hint, "We're totally dating, now! Didn't wanna admit it at first, but it turns out you were right all along, buddy."
MetalGreymon stared at them.
"Prove it." he demanded, growling.
"Um..." Tai said wide-eyed, turning pale.
Suddenly Flamedramon jumped down from the canyon's left wall, landing a flaming punch directly on the black spiral.
"Oh, thank god!" Tai sighed incredibly relieved.
"Yeah! Thank god!" Sora growled, through gritted teeth, ripping her hand away from his.
Flamedramon's attack didn't destroy the spiral, but it seemed to damage it; tiny black splinters flew away from the point of impact. MetalGreymon slammed into the opposing wall.
Halsemon now took off from the cliff side flying a quick circle, to gain speed and than headbutted directly into the damaged spiral shattering it completely. However, coordination apparently wasn't at its peek yet, since Frogmon had leaped off her side of the canyon, simultaneously to Halsemon's approach. She landed on a chunk of rock, and pushed herself off towards MetalGreymon, tackling into him, just after Halsemon had destroyed the spiral. The Ultimate fell over backwards and hit the ground, starting to glow and devolve.
"He's on our side, now!" Halsemon protested.
"Sorry! I didn't know you destroyed the thing!"
"Is that why you aimed for his belly, then?"
"Get off my back!"
MetalGreymon shrunk down to a tiny ball, not bigger than Upamon. As the glow faded, they could see how he had become a pink ball, with slim rabbit like ears. Unconscious he lay on the floor.
"Koromon!" Kari said, recognizing Agumon's in-training form.
The Emperor, who was the closest to Koromon at this point, chuckled briefly, before walking over to him to pick him up.
But before he could reach him, he was thrown to the ground: Kari had jumped on top of him, tackling him to the floor, in order to keep him away from her friend.
"Get – off!" the boy barked and after a short struggle, he overpowered her, throwing her off of himself. She rolled away and hastily got back up on her feet, limping over to Koromon and picking him up.
"You are NOT taking him again!" she screamed furiously, holding Koromon closely to her chest, while staring the Emperor down.
"Geez... You guys are taking this way too seriously..." the Emperor mumbled shaking his head, but then he looked past her and saw that the rest of the team had almost caught up. He turned and ran for the end of the canyon – only to realize that it was located at the edge of a tall cliff, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. He turned to the right, but there were TK and Davis, already blocking his way. He glanced the other way and saw Cody standing there. Turning to face the rest of them he realized, they had all caught up to him. He was surrounded. He looked over his shoulder, down the cliff.
"Huh, that's convenient..." he said calm.
"Convenient for you, dickhead!" Davis called out, pointing at him.
"Davis" TK sighed impatiently, "Inconvenient means, that it's bad for him! He probably misspoke!"
"No, he's right" the Emperor said smirking, "It is convenient for me"
"Guys careful!" Izzy stepped in, "He just did something with his D3"
The Emperor put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. The others jumped and started looking out for incoming enemies.
"Ha ha!" he laughed, "That alone was worth it!"
He turned sideways and jumped of the cliff.
"Oh, my gosh!" Yolei gasped.
But then they saw the Emperor's Airdramon fly away from the cliff, carrying his master on his back. The boy looked over his shoulder, calling out to them on more time:
"Adieu, dirty little Jews!"
Back in the lab TK stared at Izzy in disbelief, after hearing the latter's opinion on the mission.
"What?" the red head asked, mildly annoyed.
"Dude, you're way too positive about this." TK said, still taken aback, "I expected you to yell at us for letting that prick escape. This is just - weird, man..."
"Well, I got it out of my system earlier..."
Previously, Izzy had rigged a building in the industrial area to blow, which he had originally planned to detonate upon the teams eventual return, to clear the area. Upon witnessing the Emperor's escape, though, Izzy had made the split second decision, that a vent for his frustration was a more pressing concern. Fortunately (for Izzy at least), there was a large number of casualties in the area, due to the collapse, so the images of destruction were satisfactory and somewhat productive for them.
"The only downside is, we have one less strategy for the industrial area in the future... Anyway, to be honest I was never completely convinced we would ki-apture him, today. I only said that, to boost your morale. And I gotta admit the way he used that cliff for a quick getaway, caught me off guard, as much as you. Uh, well – maybe not – as much, but eh, you get the idea."
"You think, Koromon is gonna be okay, Izzy?" Kari asked worried, looking at the still unconscious in-training, now resting in Tai's lap.
"I highly doubt, there's anything like coma for Digimon" Izzy said, "He'll be fine. But that's the point, I was going for: He was our main objective. So, in my book, this mission was still a success. And let me tell you, from the bottom of my heart: I am so glad to see, that we can actually accomplish something, if everybody knows their god damn role and sticks to it. Even if it still took hours of prep work... That said, I'd rather find out what he is plotting, by interrogating him, once we caught him. As opposed to – you know, see his plan to come to fruition. So, let's bring him down as soon as possible!"
And with that, Izzy dissolved the meeting. Since they didn't have a safe place for the Digimon to stay in the Digital World anymore, Sora took Biyomon home with her – earning her a snarky remark by Tai, that she was definitely going to be grounded, because of that (she stormed out, without even looking back at him).
On the way to the door, TK stopped Yolei.
"Hey, uh..." he said awkwardly, "Thanks for going back to get Patamon in the desert."
"Oh, um..." Yolei said nervously, "Sure thing..."
"You okay, buddy?" TK said looking down at Patamon, who he carried.
"Yup!" Patamon said cheerful, "Never better!"
He looked back up and saw that Yolei was still looking at him – and quite intensely, too.
"So..." he said, somewhat uneasy, "I guess we're... even?"
"Oh, thank god!" she exclaimed relieved.
"Yeah, but you know what?" he told her, when they left the room, "Next time I'm about to spoil something to you – just run, okay?"
"Yeah, I get it... But wait, you're not gonna do that to me again, are you?" she said with a nervous laugh and when he didn't reply she added anxiously:
"Are you?"
"We'll see..."
The group slowly exited the lab, until Tai, Kari and Izzy were the only ones left, with the remaining Digimon.
"Just so you know, Matt will be here, shortly" Izzy informed them, "He's gonna take Gabumon home with him and from the looks of it we just outvoted him, on whether he should also take Palmon with him, or not. You know, since his Dad is the most relaxed about our Digimon. So, I'm not too sure, if you wanna stick around, to see how he takes those news... especially you, Tai..."
"You're right!" Tai said grinning from ear to ear, "I'm really on the fence about that!"
"Well, I've had enough fighting for today." Kari announced, "No need to see you two at each others throats. I'm going home."
"Eh, fine..." Tai sighed, rolling his eyes, before following her to the door.
They said goodbye to Izzy and made their way down the hallway. Half way to the school's entrance, Tai put his arm around her shoulders. Surprised, she look at him and he said:
"Good job today, sis. You did it. You saved him."
She looked at the floor.
"No..." she said quietly, "I wish, I did, but... it was all of us, together..."
"Are you kidding?" Tai said, now stopping, putting his hands on her shoulders and holding her at arms length, while looking sternly into her eyes, "You tackled down that asshole, so he couldn't kidnap Koromon again!"
"Even if he got him, that wouldn't have changed much" Kari insisted, "We had him cornered!"
"Yeah, we saw how well that worked out!" Tai scoffed, "He would have taken Koromon with him, when he escaped!"
"I..."
"Face it, Kari" Gatomon chimed in, smirking, "You kinda saved the day"
Kari's face lit up. She looked up at her brother, who smiled back at her.
"I knew, you'd have my back, sis" he said.
She hugged him.
"Thank you, Tai" she whispered.
"Hey, I'm thanking you here" he said grumpy, as they walked on, "I swear, even when people owe you, you act like you owe them..."
"No, I don't" Kari muttered, wiping her eyes.
"Sis, on my last birthday, when I got excited about the gift you bought me, you teared up and thanked me, for loving it! You do that way too often!"
Kari laughed and they exited the building.