Chapter 10

The crest glowed. Wormmon could feel the energy that he thought he would never feel ever since the days with Ryo run through him again. He started to glow as Ken's digivice light up and gave off a loud, high-pitched screech that signaled the digivolving process.

"Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon" Wormmon said joyously.

There, standing in front of everyone, was a huge humanoid bug with dragonfly wings coming out its back.

"Whoa" Veemon said. "Who's this?"

"Meet Stingmon. This bug digimon is fast and agile when he wants to be. Don't make him mad though. He's attacks, spiking strike and spinning spiking strike, will make you wish you were being stung by a swarm of bee's." Ken said simply.

So, your worm can digivolve. You'll need more than a fly to beat me. Vexilmon laughed.

"A fly!? I'll show you a fly. Spiking Strike!" Stingmon said, outraged. Two sharp, glowing stingers came out of Stingmon's armor and he struck Vexilmon's wrist with lightning speed. This made Vexilmon drop Yolei, who was caught by Matt.

What? How can he hurt me!! Vexilmon yelled angrily, holding his wrist.

"My attack may be physical, but my stingers are created from energy. So in a way, I have a beam attack." Stingmon said. If he could smile, Stingmon most certainly would be.

Arrgh! Vexilmon exclaimed in irritation. He then lifted his hand and snapped his liquidated fingers. All the controlled digimon started to attack.

Ha! You think you're so slick. You have no idea of what I'm capable of. Vexilmon said and whacked Stingmon with his hand, making Stingmon fall to the ground. Vexilmon then floated a little higher to survey the battle. He snapped his fingers again and around a hundred ringed Snimon came up from the woods, twenty surrounding Vexilmon, the rest attacking head on. All the digidestined looked to their partners.

"Digivolve!"

The air filled with digivolution sounds and the now champion digimon or armor digimon leapt into battle. Izzy looked on, with the hope Tentomon would be coming back soon.

"Get Vexilmon. He's the target, not some ringed digimon!" Davis yelled at the digidestined's digimon. Flamedramon kicked away an attacking Tyrannomon and leapt into the sky.

"Fire Rocket!" Flamedramon said and his body became encased in flames. He was going to take out the Snimon that protected Vexilmon so the others could get clear shots. However, Vexilmon had other plans.

Venom Explosion. He said and a ball of acid came shooting at Flamedramon and whacked him right in the stomach. Davis caught Veemon before he hit the ground.

"Oh man. Not again." Davis said, exasperated. He looked around and his eyes fell on Ken. Stingmon was standing next to the Kaiser, looking at the battle. Ken, on the other hand, was punching some buttons on a small electronic device. Davis was infuriated.

"What do you think your doing!?" Davis yelled. "This isn't the time to be playing games."

"Patience. Good things always come in small packages." Ken said, barely acknowledging Davis, who was running up to him.

"Small packages my-"

"Perfect." Ken interrupted Davis from swearing. "All right Stingmon. You'll have one shot, that's all. Can you do it?"

"Yes, Ken." Stingmon replied

"Good." Ken said, pressing the small gadget into Stingmon's hand. "And remember, aim for the body."

"That digimon is going down. Don't worry, Ken." Stingmon said as he leapt into the air. Stingmon easily avoided the many attacks thrown at him as he made his way towards Vexilmon.

"Twin Sickles." The Snimon said and around forty pink scythes were shot at Stingmon. Stingmon, having great speed, zipped upward and all the scythes missed.

"You'll need more than fly's to defeat Stingmon." Ken called from the ground, mocking Vexilmon's earlier statement. In response, two Tyrannomon shot at him, who made Ken run out of the way; smiling.

"Hey Vexilmon, catch." Stingmon said. He threw the small device over the Snimon and straight towards Vexilmon. Vexilmon quickly caught it in his hand.

What is this? A child's game? If you think you're going to stop me with this, you are pathetic. Vexilmon laughed as he looked at the item. Ken took out a similar device from his pocket.

"You're not even close to the truth." Ken said and pressed a button. The device Vexilmon was holding started to beep.

Are you trying to scare me with little sounds? Because it isn't working. Vexilmon said. He was about to throw an acid ball at Stingmon when it happened. A huge blue beam came out of nowhere and hit Vexilmon straight on. Vexilmon screamed bloody murder as the beam propelled him away. A huge spurt of acid fell down as Vexilmon was hit and disintegrated into dust. Stingmon watched as the beam sent Vexilmon flying for what must have been more than a mile before it dissipated and stopped. Vexilmon took off; a small stream of acid dripping out of him. As Stingmon descended, most of the digimon that had been attacking were just getting their rings broken off and the digidestined were looking at Ken for an explanation. Ken looked incredibly happy for a person who is usually always angry.

"Yes! It worked." Ken said with enthusiasm none of the digidestined had ever seen. "And I thought my computer couldn't handle those power levels. How fortunate that I was wrong."

"Ken? Explain." Tai said.

"It's quite simple, if you think about it." Ken said. "I had created a program that modified the power cells that are scattered around my base, connecting to the main energy source. The modifications made the base practically become a floating laser pen. The device Vexilmon held was a locating device and this," Ken held out his gadget, "is the triggering mechanism. Once Vexilmon was in possession of the locating device, I was able to lock on to his location and zap him. Unfortunately, my computer can only handle one shot or it will short circuit and who knows where that beam would go."

"Now what?" Cody asked. "Are we going to follow Vexilmon or what?"

"Well... I think our best bet would be to-" Tai stopped contemplating the situation when he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, get back here, you! Come on, I only want to talk. Here boy, I got a treat for you." Tentomon coaxed desperately as he chased the still ringed Bakemon straight toward the group. The Bakemon didn't say anything, but he did seem to have an irritated look on his face. When the Bakemon saw that he was trapped, he turned around, ready to attack. Tai jumped up and pinned the Bakemon to the ground.

"Mind helping me, someone." Tai said, trying to hold the struggling Bakemon. Ken walked up calmly and did something to the ring that made it unhinge from around the digimon's waist. The Bakemon instantly stopped struggling and Tai got off of it. Ken held the ring to the sky to look at it while the Bakemon flew away.

"That piece of garbage." Ken stated as he studied the ring. "Vexilmon completely wiped out the controlling program and put his own in. And to make matters worse, it can easily be transferred from one ring to another. Who knows how many digimon have dark rings on that aren't under my control."

"This usually would be the time where I'd say it's your own fault. However, we have bigger fish to fry and I want to get out of here before Vexilmon sends anymore of his minions." Yolei said.

"It will get dark soon. We should keep walking until then, and then set up camp. I doubt that Vexilmon would bother coming after us since we injured him so much, though I am concerned about his ringed slaves. Ken? Do you think you could figure out where Vexilmon's hiding?" Matt said.

"He's most definitely heading north- northwest. That's probably where he's living. It's a good chance that if we ambush him there, he will be caught off guard and be unable to fend with his slaves. Though, the trip might take a long time." Ken said, still looking at the ring, close to pouting.

"We have to be prepared to fight more slaves. If anything, we can't be surprised by whatever may be thrown at us." Tai said, making a fist.

Ken started walking away silently, his valued dark ring in his hand. Everyone else nodded in agreement with Tai and started to follow Ken.

***

"Rations, the dinner of champions." Matt joked as the digimon jumped on one of the bags, almost ripping it to shreds as they grabbed the food. As the sun settled behind the mountains of the digital world, the group decided to set up camp. The digidestined hadn't run into any trouble ever since the battle with Vexilmon. Joe was the one that suggested they stop, and no one complained, though Ken didn't see why they should rest.

"Yogurt!"

"Tuna!"

"Potato salad!"

The digimon rattled off the different food's Joe had brought with him from the real world. Soon, all the digidestined were around the fire, except for Ken.

"Yo dude! Don't just stand there. Sit with us." Davis said to the young Kaiser, ignorant to the surprised looks he was getting from the older digidestined.

"I don't believe it's customary to dine with your enemies." Ken said, giving Davis an odd look.

"Well, it's not customary for an eleven-year-old Japanese kid to become the next Hitler, but there you are." Davis counteracted in a teasing voice. "You know the rules, you have to be at least fourteen before you can have devious thoughts and twenty before you can have world domination. But since you're the exception, I think it's OK for you to join us."

Ken raised an eyebrow as everyone cracked a rib from holding back laughter. Davis then came up, clapped Ken on the shoulder and steered him toward the group. Ken was still looking at Davis weirdly as he grabbed an apple and sat down far enough away to not be part of the group, but close enough that he wasn't disowned.

"You are one really strange person, Motamiya." Ken said, and for some reason, that made everyone burst into laughter.

Once dinner was finished, there was the question of who would stand guard.

"It'll go from oldest to youngest. Joe, you're first." Tai said to the group of males standing around him.

"I don't want to be first. You know I'm no good at standing watch." Joe complained.

"How about Davis?" Matt said

"I need my sleep! You go." Davis exclaimed.

"There's no way I'm going to be the one responsible if everyone get eaten."

"Oh for the love of the god's. I'll stand guard." Ken said, entering the argument. "I wouldn't trust any of you watch a newt, let alone Vexilmon or an enslaved digimon."

With that, Ken started to climb the tree with some difficulty, since he only had one good arm. Everyone looked on.

"Okay, I'm not sure if I should thank him for volunteering or yell at him for insulting us." TK said as watched Ken settle himself on a high branch.

"Thinking about it makes my head hurt." Davis said. "Let's go to sleep before we can't see an inch in front of us."

They all walked back to the fire, arguing about who will sleep where and with whom.

Crack! The fire startled Izzy from sleep. He turned to see the digimon Kaiser kneeling by it, poking the wood with a long stick.

"You're still up? Don't you ever sleep?" Izzy said in a quiet, tired voice.

"I'm used to being up late working on projects. It took me the course of forty-eight straight hours to perfect the dark rings and another day to construct the towers. I can handle a few sleepless nights, believe me." Ken said, putting his hands close to the heat.

"Did anything happen while we were asleep?" Izzy asked, all sleep out of his voice.

"No."

"Oh."

They watched the flames in silence, neither one wanting to talk to their enemy. Absent-mindedly, Izzy reached over, grabbed the dark ring from the pile of bags and started looking at it. This was the first time Izzy had ever seen an intact ring off a digimon.

"This is written in digicode, isn't it?" Izzy asked, curious.

"Yes, it was the only way to make them work." Ken said proudly.

"And you can decipher the hieroglyphs?"

"Of course. Can't you?" Ken snubbed.

"I've tried for years. But by doing so, I've been able to learn a lot about the digital world." Izzy explained

"What are you talking about? The digital program is only on my computer. I'm still trying to understand how you opened a gate without my PC."

"Wait a second. Are you telling me that you think this is a program?" Izzy asked, shocked.

"Well isn't it?" Ken said

"No! Geez, this changes everything! I thought you knew but you haven't got a clue. The digital world is real and so are digimon." Izzy said, stunned by what Ken just said.

"There's no way... It's impossible." Ken said stubbornly with a hint of anger in his voice.
"If they aren't real, than how are they able to come into the real world?" Izzy asked, trying to make Ken understand. Izzy couldn't see the Kaiser's face, but from the dragging silence, he could tell Ken was thinking about the question.

"How about this." Izzy proposed, "Give us a chance and I promise you that things will change. We don't want to fight you, especially us older kids."

"And why should I?" Ken said, seeming annoyed.

"Because, whether you'd like to admit it of not, your one of us. That crest of Kindness is yours. That makes you digidestined." Izzy smiled.

"This crest can't be mine." Ken said, taking it out of his pocket. "The only reason it appeared was to help Wormmon digivolve. The trait definitely doesn't fit me and besides, I'm on the side with darkness, remember."

"Ironic, isn't it?" Izzy said. He laid back down and closed his eyes. "The evil digimon Kaiser is the bearer of kindness. I guess Genni has a sense of humor after all."

Silence was the only response.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you. How far will it take to get to Vexilmon?

"Around four hours. And knowing our adversary, we're bound to run into more controlled digimon than we can count."

"Well then, I guess we should get to sleep. Think about my offer, it's your choice" Izzy said, turning to a more comfortable position. Soon, his breathing became slow and steady, a sure sign that he was asleep. Ken looked once again at the fire, rubbed his eyes and opened his battery-run laptop.

***

Yolei was the first to wake. She carefully maneuvered herself out of the blanket that covered both her and Mimi and stood up. Each blanket held two people; both were the same sex. Yolei smiled as she remembered the argument from last night. It started with Davis wanting to sleep with Kari, but Tai wouldn't let him. After a long, pointless argument, Sora decided that boys would sleep with boys and girls with girls. Yolei looked around, wondering if she should wake her friends, when her eyes drifted to a figure to the right of her. There, perpendicular to the others was Ken, lying on his back with his hands resting on his chest, eyes closed and using his closed laptop as a headrest. Yolei suddenly got the zoned out look in her eyes and she moved over there. She kneeled at the side of the Kaiser and slowly her hand went toward him. However, Ken woke up before Yolei could get near enough to him. Ken's eyes snapped open and he grabbed her arm and twisted it around to her back, not even looking at who it was.

"OW OW OW! Ken it's me!" Yolei cried, snapping out of her trance.

"What the... Inoue?" Ken said, surprised as he released her arm. "What do you think you're doing? I could've broken your arm!"

"I realize that." Yolei said as she massaged her arm.

"Don't do that again." Ken scolded, rubbing his forehead. "If something comes at me while I'm asleep, I react. What were you doing anyway?"

Yolei hesitated, thinking of what she had been going to do.

"I'm not sure. I remember looking around, then spotting you. After that, I don't remember until you were about to bust my arm." Yolei said, confused about her answer.

"Ken narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but decided not to pursue it. As Ken stood up, Davis let out a moan.

"It's too early to be yelling" Davis groaned. "Can't you wake up like normal people?"

"What, at noon?" Yolei shot back, but Davis had already gone back to sleep. "Grrr. Ken, give me your whip. I'll show him how normal people feel when they've just woken up."

"I've a better idea. Why don't you go take out the breakfast food, while I try to pick up on Vexilmon?" Ken said, stretching his tired muscles. Yolei gave him an annoyed look, but she complied. Ken then turned to the other's and a small, amused smile appeared on his face. He put his finger to his lips as he had done to call his digimon and an incredibly loud whistle came from his lips. He watched as everyone who had been sleeping peacefully suddenly bolted up with extremely tired looks on their faces. Ken walked away before they realized what had happened.

After breakfast, the group packed and started on their quest to where Vexilmon was hiding out.

"The location I pinpointed this morning must be where Vexilmon is hiding. However, there is a complication that I believe you all should know about." Ken explained as they walked through the forest.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked.

Ken let out a small sigh, then continued talking.

"The signal of Vexilmon has completely disappeared. I'm simply following a weak and old signal, which was Vexilmon's last location."

It took a minute for everyone to comprehend that.

"Are you telling us that we're on a wild goose chase!?" Mimi asked, bewildered.

"NO! At least I hope not." Ken said with defiance.

At that moment, everyone started arguing.

"Hey, HEY! Stop it, people." Tai said loudly. Everyone turned to look at him as Tai leaned against a tree, facing the group. "We're to close for our emotions to get the better of us. Now then. Ken, how certain are you that we aren't on a false lead?"

"Do you not trust my judgment?" Ken said angrily.

"We have to." Tai said, annoyed.

"Then we are on the right track."

"Good, that settles it." Tai said. He gave one of his friendly smiles, when out of the blue, everyone heard a high voice.

"SUPER BLADE!"

A long, narrow sword came from behind the majority of the group and flew between Kari and Davis. The blade barely missed Davis's ear and landed on the tree Tai was leaning on. A small lock of Tai's brown hair fell from where the sword landed. Tai's eyes widened to dinner plates as he turned his head to see the shiny blade next to him with a small, narrow handle at the end.

"My hair! My beautiful hair." Tai cried.

The bushes rustled and up jumped a white porcupine with blades for quills. A dark ring was around the digimon's wrist.

"Hello. My name is Blademon. I may look small, but my super blade attack will turn you into a shish kabob." The little digimon said.

"Great, the first defense of Vexilmon." Ken said.

"How do you know it isn't one of yours?" Davis asked.

"Easy. Mine won't attack anyone if I'm with him or her."

"That's right, Kaiser. I'm with master Vexilmon, and I have orders. So without further ado... Super Blade!" Blademon exclaimed. He grabbed a blade from his back and threw it with great precision. It went straight for Davis's head. Davis was too shocked to say the digivolving words and everyone else couldn't move in time. The blade sped towards Davis and he screamed. Davis's digivice glowed and screeched.

"Veemon digivolve to... Ex-Veemon"

When Davis didn't feel any metal pierce his skull, he looked up. An inch from his face, Blademon's sword was pointed at him, Ex-Veemon holding the end and giving Davis a big dragon-like smile. Davis looked at the blade, shaking and stuttering as it was lowered.

"Whoa! Cool digimon Davis." TK said, impressed. Davis was still in shock of what just happened. Yolei stomped over to Davis and flicked him on his head.

"Don't pass out on me now. We still have a digimon to free." Yolei said.

Blademon raised his arm to throw another blade, but Ex-Veemon stopped him.

"Vee-punch." Ex-Veemon yelled and Blademon was thrown into a tree. Blademon then tried to jump on Ex-Veemon but wasn't able to get too far.

"Vee-Laser!" Ex-Veemon said and the X on his stomach glowed and an X shaped laser came out and threw Blademon against the tree again. With Blademon injured, Hawkmon, who was closest, attacked the dark ring with his "Feather Buzz saw." The ring cracked and turned to dust. Blademon shook his head and ran away. Davis stood and admired his champion digimon.

"Wow, a flying blue dragon. That is so COOL!" Davis yelled. Ex-Veemon gave him a big smile before dedigivolving back into Veemon.

"I did it! I did it! I did it!" Veemon said, jumping up and down.

"That was very good, Davis. The laser from Ex-Veemon will benefit us greatly. Unfortunately, we don't have time to celebrate. Let's get Vexilmon's hideout as early as we can." Ken said. "So let's get moving."

"You party-pooper." Davis exclaimed. "Don't you ever have fun?"