Chapter 9

"Kari, do you realize how lucky you are?" Joe asked as he wrapped a bandage around her arm. "The pH level, the acidity, of that acid was incredible. If Yolei hadn't taken it off when she had, your arm may very well have just been bone by now."

Kari shuddered as that image popped into her head. Kari, Yolei, Mimi, Joe, TK and Tai were in the kitchen of the base with their digimon. Kari had her eyes closed in pain as Mimi and Yolei her arm still. Vexilmon's attack had given Kari second degree burns that covered her arm.

"Done" Joe said triumphantly and Kari opened her eyes. "Try not to jostle your arm too much, but it should be all healed in a week or so."

"A week!" Tai said, sounding devastated.

"It's all right Tai. We'll think of an excuse to tell Mom." Kari comforted her brother.

"It's not just that. I'm worried about everyone's safety. I thought you said Vexilmon wasn't very strong?" Tai said to his sister.

"He didn't seem very strong before. I guess I was wrong." Kari said sorrowfully

"Listen Tai; standing around isn't going to defeat Vexilmon." Joe said, putting a hand on Tai's shoulder. "Come on, you can talk to Matt about a plan. I know he could use a break from Davis and his plan's."

Joe led Tai out the door. TK looked back at Kari.

"I guess I should go too. If you need me, I'll probably be holding Matt back from punching Davis in annoyance. See you later." TK said and also walked out. The remaining girls in the room sighed.

"What a day! First I get pulled into the digital world and then ambushed by the last of the Dark Masters." Mimi said. "Good thing that boy Sam was there." She smiled. "Or is it Ken?"

Gatomon, who had been drinking some water, choked and started to cough.

"How did...what are..." Yolei stammered

"Just a hunch. There aren't many Japanese digidestined who can run that fast." Mimi looked at the nervous faces in front of her. "Don't worry, no one else has figured it out yet. You did a good job of disguising him, and his identity is safe with me. But I hope you know what you're doing by hiding the Kaiser."

"Mimi, why didn't you tell me?" Palmon said, looking a bit betrayed.

"Sorry Palmon, I wasn't sure until now." Mimi smiled "By the way, where is he?"

"Beats me. I don't think Ken liked the fact his enemy's have now saved him three times" Yolei said, all nervousness melting off her face as she smiled slyly.

"Yeah, but now we're in his debt. Without him doing that insane stunt, we'd have never made it out of the plains alive." Kari said. "Maybe he actually care's about us."

"Yeah, or maybe he was lonely all by himself." Yolei joked and they all burst into laughter at the thought of Ken actually being lonely.

*An hour later*

TK and Kari were sitting by a window that showed the huge shaft of the engine room.

"I'm sorry." TK said suddenly.

"For what?" Kari asked, confused.

"I should have been the one to get hurt, not you." TK said frustrated.

"Are you still thinking about that? We have more important thing's to worry about. Labor Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow; it's a national holiday. If we don't beat Vexilmon by that time, our parents are going to worry about our whereabouts." Kari suggested.

"That doesn't give us much time, does it?" TK laughed sadly

"No, it doesn't. But I think we can do it." Kari gave a feeble smile. Just then, They both heard running footsteps. TK and Kari turned their heads to see Davis coming at them at top speed. Davis slid to a halt in front of where the two were sitting.

"We have to get to the control room now." Davis said, breathing heavily.

"Why?" TK asked, confused.

"Your brothers are getting ready to beat Ken into a pulp." Davis said to them both.

TK was up instantly and running next to Davis up the stairs.

"What happened!?" TK said.

"They found out about him."

"Davis, what did you do?"

"Hey, not everything's my fault" Davis huffed. "It seems your half brother didn't like the fact that someone else besides you was wearing your hat. So Matt flipped the hat off Ken's head before he could move, and that showed that blue hair of his. I think you can guess what happened next."

Davis and TK ran through the hall and soon they saw the control room. Inside, Tai and Mat were trying to swipe punches at Ken as Sora looked on. Cody was just standing there next to Izzy, who was holding his arm, while Joe was keeping Yolei back from assisting Ken and Mimi was nowhere in sight. Ken was easily able to dodge the punches due to the fact he had many years of training in the Japanese form of self-defense, Judo.

"I thought I smelled a scumbag." Tai snarled at Ken. "I just didn't think you'd take them with you."

Tai pointed at Yolei, who was struggling against Joe's group, yelling at them to stop fighting. Joe and Izzy didn't look too happy about holding their comrades and friends back.

"You seriously believe that, don't you?" Ken said, also snarling as he dodged a right hook. "You even stupider than I gave you credit for."

Unfortunately, that statement made Tai snap and he ran straight for Ken, fist back, ready to punch Ken into the next world. Ken nimbly sidestepped, grabbed hold of Tai's arm when he jabbed his fist out and twisted it around to his back. Ken then used his other arm to put Tai in a headlock and kicked his legs out from underneath him, making Tai fall to the ground. This was all done in a matter of seconds and with amazing precision. Ken took a step backward to get into a fighting stance, but Matt came from the side and punched Ken in the face with all his strength. Ken immediately fell to the ground with a split lip. Matt then started punching Ken multiple times in the gut. Tai picked himself up and joined in the punching. Ken was trapped under them both and had no way of getting out. Tai and Matt were just about to punch him at the same time when TK and Davis decided to intervene and tackle both of them away from Ken.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Matt yelled at TK as he pinned him down. "Don't you realize who that is!?"

"YES! Now calm down!" TK said

"You traitor!" Tai yelled and tried to throw Davis off.

"QUIET!" A voice said. Everyone turned to see Mimi standing with Kari. "No one's betrayed anyone. And if you hadn't acted like hotheaded apes you would have realized that."

Not one of the digidestined had ever heard Mimi talk like that to her friends. They all looked at her in awe while Ken got up and looked in hatred at the two that had been beating on him.

"I'm sure that they can explain everything" Mimi said, indicating the younger digidestined. "There's no need for fighting right now, especially since we're all on the same side when it comes to battling Vexilmon."

Sora could feel the tension vibrating through the room. As she looked on, Sora watched Yolei wrench herself out of Joe's, ran up to Ken and whispered something to him. Ken nodded, turned on his heel and walked swiftly out of the room with Yolei flanking him.

"All right. Start spilling." Matt said.

*In Ken's quarters*

"Great." Ken said sarcastically. "Another injury to add to my collection."

He took a wash cloth put some water on it and started wiping the blood from his lower lip.

"Sorry." Was all Yolei could say.

"I told you this would happen" Ken said angrily. "But does anyone listen to the genius? No."

"Look, you aren't exactly the most respected person, OK. We all thought you were mad because they would be another setback to your plans once Vexilmon was destroyed."

"And yet you did not foresee this fight? I was only disguised with a freakin' hat and sunglasses." Ken said. He finished with his lip and washed out the cloth. Ken then lifted up his shirt a little to see if any damage had been done to his side injury, not caring that Yolei was in the room too.

"I did try to help." Yolei said sincerely. "But you saw how Joe was keeping me back. I bet if Tai hadn't yelled at him to do it, Joe would never have even laid a finger on me." Yolei sighed. "Do you think they've explained the situation yet?"

"It's a possibility. Why?" Ken asked, tucking his shirt back in.

"Well, if they are done, then we can make amends." Yolei smiled. She walked out of the room. Ken shook his head, sighed and walked out of the room behind her. As they got closer, Ken and Yolei heard the voices of Kari and TK.

"We need his help and he need's ours. Please try to understand." Kari said.

"Not to mention the fact that Ken saved all our lives." TK said.

Tai looked at his sister in a skeptical face.

"You do realize you're defending your enemy, right?" Tai said.

"What better way to defeat darkness than with darkness." Cody answered metaphorically. They all heard footsteps and looked up to see Ken walking slowly toward them with a neutral look on his face. Tai walked over and stared at him, as though sizing Ken up.

"I can't trust you or forget about what you're doing." Tai said slowly. Ken stared back blankly. "But... we are allied for now, and I will accept that. Truce?"

Tai reluctantly held his hand out. Ken looked at it for a second, then grabbed it and quickly shook it.

"You've got it." Ken said in a flat voice.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Everyone, listen." TK said. "We need to figure out exactly how to defeat Vexilmon, or we don't stand a chance against another attack like the one in the plains."

"Humph." Ken snorted. "Vexilmon's not going to kill you"

"Really?" Davis said in sarcastic enthusiasm. "Then explain every attack we had."

Ken looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You did notice how he fled every time too, right?" He said "Vexilmon knows we'll never defeat him. So he's using a strategy worse that quickly killing us. He's tormenting us, teasing us, demoralizing our spirits."

"I guess that makes sense." Tai said. "But how would you know that that's what Vexilmon's doing?"

Ken gave his usual half smile.

"I did that all the time to you digidestined. I'm sure Davis remembers that time when we first got 'aquatinted' how I had chained him to the cliff wall. I could've easily have killed him or destroyed his digivice. However, tormenting and torture usually is much more fun and rewarding."

"Just what I wanted to hear." Davis said very sarcastically. "But we have to defeat Vexilmon, and I doubt playing his game is going to work."

"So what? We're not going to defeat him by sitting on our butts, waiting for him to show up." Sora said. "I say the best thing to do would be to go after Vexilmon."

Just then, Kari screamed in distress.

"What is it?" Tai asked, immediately at her side.

"The D-terminal. It crashed and there's no way to get to that map of Vexilmon's movements."

Everyone looked at his or her D-terminals. Sure enough, they all said "cannot comply". All of the sudden, the screen went blank and a message showed up.

Digidestined,

I hope this computer problem doesn't come as much of a surprise. I was able to transfer this specially programmed virus into your D-3's when your keeper of light was hit by my attack. Don't bother trying to reprogram it, it won't work.

-Vexilmon

"This is not good." Yolei said.

"Without the map, we will have no way of knowing where Vexilmon is." TK said somberly.

"That's where your wrong, Takashi." Ken said. "I can sense Vexilmon's presence if I focus. I can be our map."

"Then we better get going. If we don't get home in about twenty-four hours, our parents will kill us." TK said. "And I really don't want to see my mom when she's angry."

***

Not much was heard, except for the occasional birds singing in the forest. Everyone was incredibly quiet, even Yolei. They all had a feeling of dread as they walked away from safety and into a trap. The people with bags were loaded down with supplies and first aid equipment. Ken, of course, was leading the band with Wormmon at his feet. The digimon refused to be left behind. Ken had electronic items, including a laptop computer, with him and everybody was on high alert. It seemed the slightest sound was making everyone jump. However, after an hour of walking, the idea that they wouldn't get attacked settled in and the group relaxed. The girls even started to hum a popular Japanese song. When all of the sudden, Ken looked up and stopped abruptly. Davis crashed into TK who knocked into Tai who whacked into Ken.

"Ow. Hey, why'd you stop?" Tai said.

"Silence. Something's wrong. It's too quiet here. I'm trying to figure out if Vexilmon's here or not." Ken said sharply

Everyone looked around. A buzzing noise was faintly heard, but then it got louder and louder.

"Get down NOW!" Joe shouted.

"Twin Sickles." A Snimon yelled as it came into view. A dark ring was around its waist. The two pink beams shot toward them, but missed and knocked down a tree. Tai jumped back up, but by that time, Snimon was gone.

"Huh? That was weird." He said.

"Yolei? Yolei!" Hawkmon cried. "Oh no, she's gone."

"What? How?" Izzy asked.

"That Snimon must have grabbed her before she was able to duck." Tai said angrily.

Davis's face hardened and he started running in the direction of the Snimon and everyone followed him.

"Davis, wait." Ken yelled after him. "Vexilmon is over two miles from here. There's no way he could've controlled that digimon. Something's wrong."

"Then we'll have to find out what that is." Davis called over his shoulder and continued running. Davis left the group in his dust as he barreled down at top speed into the forest, with Veemon right behind him. Ken thanked the god's for his blessed gift of speed and was easily able to pass everyone else and catch up with Davis, leaving Wormmon to Kari.

"I have a question." Mimi said in an exhausted voice as she slowed down. Running was not her thing. "Why are we following those two? I mean, why not let Birdramon fly at least one of us to catch up with them."

"Mimi does have a point. Not all of us can run well and we should stop those two from getting completely lost or killing each other." Izzy said.

"Oh fine. Hey Biyomon, up for a little digivolving?" Sora said and Biyomon nodded. Her digivice let out a screech and Biyomon started to digivolve.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, Ken caught up with Davis and was running along side with him.

"You're an idiot, you know." Ken said, easily jogging in sync with Davis. "First off, you don't even know where to look, and second, one armor digimon isn't going to stop or even hold off Vexilmon."

"Shut up Ken. You're getting on my nerves. And hey, how'd you catch up to me so fast. I left you in the dust." Davis said annoyed at the fact that Ken was right.

"You forget, I'm the 'Rocket'. There was a reason why I beat you so badly in soccer. Your only going at half the speed I usually go."

"Humph." Davis huffed and went back to running in silence. Ken laughed at Davis's envy as he ran. The thick forest suddenly opened up into a clearing. In the middle of it, a figure stood with it's back turned; lavender hair could be seen hanging down from underneath the helmet it wore. Both Ken and Davis stopped running when they saw the figure.

"Yolei!" Davis said and started walking to her. He was roughly pulled back by his shirt collar.

"Hey," Davis exclaimed. "What's the big idea?"

"Haven't you heard of the phrase fool's rush in where angel's fear to tread? It's probably a trap." Ken said sharply.

"As a matter of fact, I have. Geez, between you, Izzy and Cody, it's like we have a walking philosophy book." Davis said, annoyed. Ken was about to make a snide remark when Yolei turned around and walked up to them.

"Hello Davis." Yolei said, looking at him. She then turned her head to look at Ken. "Hello Kaiser."

"What the..." Ken said. Yolei never called him Kaiser, none of them did. However, it was too late. "Yolei" took her arm and grabbed Davis's throat, lifting him up with the strength no twelve year old girl should have. Davis started choking instantly, unable to get air. "Yolei" threw him to the ground and Davis gasped and coughed while clutching his neck. The fake Yolei started moving toward Ken with a malicious look on her face.

"Davis? If there were ever a time for your digimon to digivolve, now would be it." Ken yelled at the fallen Davis as he backed up. Davis stood up, but was still coughing and unable to say the digivolving words. Ken started to get into a fighting stance.

"Poison Ivy." A voice said from the sky.

"Whoa." Ken cried as vines wrapped around his, Davis's and Veemon's waist. The vines then lifted all three of them up and they landed on one of Birdramon's talons. Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were on both sides of Birdramon with their partners.

"Welcome back, you guys." Mimi smiled. "We thought you could use a hand."

"Or vine." Palmon said as she unraveled her vines from the boy's waists.

"I never realized Yolei was that strong...or evil." Tai said densely.

"That's no Yolei!" Sora exclaimed. They all looked down. "Yolei" was looking up at the digidestined with a scowl on her face. As if on cue, the fraud Yolei turned back into the Bakemon she really was. The digidestined saw that the Bakemon had a dark ring on its waist as it sped away.

"A Bakemon touched me? How disgusting." Davis said in a raspy voice.

"Follow him." Ken ordered.

"Tentomon, find out where that Bakemon's going." Izzy said.

"Right." Tentomon said and buzzed down into the forest in hot pursuit of the ghost digimon.

"Hey guy's? What's that splotch in the sky? It seems to be getting bigger." TK said, afraid of the answer.

"Vexilmon, and he's coming at us fast." Ken said without even looking up.

"WHAT!!!" Everyone yelled. Birdramon tried to land, but a bunch of Airdramon with dark rings on them came up from behind and knocked the digidestined to the ground and making the digimon dedigivolve. When the digidestined looked up, Vexilmon was towering over them in mid-air, Yolei being held by her neck in his hand and a look of sheer terror etched on her face. Like before, around twenty Tyrannomon surrounded and trapped them.

You would think that after a near death experience, a person would take a hint and give up. Vexilmon's mocking thought-voice said. I'm sure, Kaiser, that you are surprised that I was able to control digimon, even thought I was not in range. Those rings of yours are useful... after I reprogrammed them, of course.

"How dare you use my technology against me." Ken said angrily.

Well, I don't see anyone stopping me, now do I. He said, amused. This made Ken incredibly angry.

"Who do you think you are, Vexilmon!?" Ken screamed at the acid digimon.

I am your executioner. The question is, who are you? You are no dark digimon, like me. Yet you are also no digidestined. You have no crest and you toil with darkness. Those traits a digidestined do not make. Vexilmon said, tightening his grip on Yolei's neck. Is it possible your brother was the true chosen one?

Ken didn't care about how Vexilmon could know he had a brother.

"My brother was a selfish, always in the spotlight, super smart brat." Ken scowled. "But he's dead now, thanks to me. Don't you dare talk about him with me."

You stole his digivice, then killed him. You broke you promise of not touching it and because of that, you paid with his life.

I've broken a lot of promises from him." Ken yelled angrily. "He always wanted me to be a kind person, but hey, guess what? I'm the digimon Kaiser."

"Tha...that's not true, Ken." Yolei gasped from Vexilmon's choking grip. "You're still kind. If you weren't, we would all be dead now."

"You could've handled well without me."

"Ken, without your help, we wouldn't have been able to get out of the plains alive." Kari said.

"And without your kindness, we would have never been as safe as we were when you protected us in your base." TK said.

"You're are kind." Sora said and Ken held his head in mental anguish as Vexilmon looked on, entertained.

"You can still be good" Matt's voice said

"Ken?" Voices at a distance said.

Ken looked around at the faces in confusion.

"Why did I care about what happened to them" Ken thought.

"Ken!?"

"My brother may have been digidestined, but why did the digivice react to me."

"Ken!" More voices.

"Wormmon has been with me from the beginning, no matter what I did. He cared when Sam didn't."

"Help us!"

"But Sam did care. He wanted me to be a kind person and I let him down."

"It's now or never." The voices cried

"I'm not going to let my brother's memories be thrown away in vain!" Ken thought in determination.

Suddenly, a bright light shot from Ken's digivice. The light actually started to mold and shape into what looked like a crest. When the light died down, everyone could see it was a crest, and it had a strange design on it. The crest floated down and gently landed in Ken's palm.

"What's this?" Ken asked to nobody.

"It's your crest, Ken." Wormmon said in a voice so that Vexilmon couldn't hear him. "It's the crest of kindness. Now I can digivolve."

Ken clenched the crest in a tight fist. He looked at him partner, then at Vexilmon.

"You should have never come out of hiding, Vexilmon." Ken said softly but sternly. "And I plan to send you back from which you came."

Oh really? And just how do you plan to that with you silly crest.

Ken had a determined look on his face, and when he looked at his partner, Wormmon had and even more determined look. Ken held the crest between his two fingers.

"Wormmon! Digivolve!" Ken cried.

Author's quick note: Labor Thanksgiving day really is a holiday for Japan. It happens around November and I estimated that was around the time of Chimeramon's battle.