Part 2: The Digimon Kaiser's Trick!
"Hmm, a lot smarter than I thought," they heard a light, yet dark voice chuckle. "Now why would I send out something as worthless as Woodmon on purpose!"
"Ken?" Miyako questioned while looking around, recognizing the voice.
"Call me the Digimon Kaiser!" the voice commanded in anger. "You are not worthy enough to call me Ken!"
"Come out here and fight!" Takeru demanded, looking around himself. He could barely see his hand in front of his face due to how thick the fog was.
"Oh, but I am," Ken chuckled. "How do you like the fog?"
"I knew it! He wouldn't send out something that's so vulnerable to one of our own Digimon!" Iori said, wishing he would've caught on earlier.
"What's creating this fog?" Miyako asked while squinting her eyes. "This fog is so thick."
"Where is he!!" Daisuke demanded, growing slightly frustrated. "I can't see him anyplace."
Everyone else gave out murmurs of, "I don't know," and, "How do we get out of here." All of sudden, they all heard someone scream out, "Help me...let me go!"
"Hikari-chan!" both Takeru and Daisuke cried out, recognizing the voice.
It was Hikari who had screamed. They looked to see where she was, which was right behind Iori, but she was still standing there. They couldn't see her very well, though, since it was so foggy. The only thing that was barely visible was her outline.
"What's wrong," Iori asked, looking back.
"I, uh, saw a bug," Hikari laughed nervously, putting her hand behind her head.
"Oh, okay," Miyako responded slowly, surprised that Kari of all people would scream just from seeing a bug.
"Well, I'll leave my Digimon here to finish you off!" they heard Ken say. "I have a little friend for you! His name is Pinocchimon and he's stronger than ever!"
Takeru gasped and a look of fear appeared on his face as memories of his encounters with this Digimon saturated his mind. He then saw the outline of a small, wooden marionette appear. A dark, sinister grin spread across his hard face as he lightly chuckled with his hi-pitched, airy voice. As he walked towards them, some of the fog lifted, which allowed them to see one another better than what they had earlier.
'Pinocchimon (Puppetmon)? No! He tried to...to...kill me! I was hoping to never see him again! Sure I acted all calm and cool after that incident, but in reality, I was just trying to show all of the bigger kids that I had grown up, that I was big and brave like my brother, not that I was still shaken up over the trauma.'
"Takeru," Patamon questioned, noticing the apprehensive look on his human partner's face. He was curious as to why Takeru was being so quiet.
"Pinocchimon? But we...we...destroyed Pinocchimon! How could he be back!"
"Remember what Gennai said! Everything was reformatted in the Nursery (Primary Village) for Elecmon to hatch and raise!" Patamon reminded him regrettably seeing as how that applied to Pinocchimon as well. "I guess that goes for some of the Dark Masters too!"
"Which means he's back!" Takeru muttered, his teeth gritted.
"But how could he evolve to a ultimate (mega) so quickly?" Tailmon asked. "It takes years to evolve that high naturally."
"Excuse me, but what is a Pinocchimon!" Daisuke asked.
Digianalyzer On>
Takeru: This Digimon means business and was one of the strongest Dark Masters to ever serve Piemon (Piedmon)! He has this terrible habit of controlling you like a puppet and is very cold and heartless. Man, I was hoping to NEVER see him again!
Digianalyzer Off>
"Takeru, what's wrong with you? Are you okay? It's nothing but a dumb old doll!"
"That 'dumb old doll' tried to kill poor Takeru when he was just eight years old," Patamon informed Daisuke. "He tried to shoot him."
"Luckily, he got away from Puppetmon all by himself," Tailmon added.
*Note: I think I'll go back to using "Puppetmon"...I've always liked that name better than "Pinocchimon" even though both names makes sense regardless of which one you use*
"Nice to see you all again!" the puppet smiled. He then looked over at TK and grinned. "How's my favorite target doing!"
"Puppetmon," Takeru growled, his fists clenched even tighter.
Puppetmon lifted up his mallet and shot at the group, but their Digimon took the hit for them. Lucky for them, the mallet wasn't shooting bullets. Instead, it shout out a type of energy ray.
"No...Fladramon!"
"Hawkmon!"
"Armadimon!"
"Patamon!"
The feline Digimon noticed that Kari didn't blink once when she took the hit for her. In fact, she looked rather pleased.
'What is wrong with her? Hikari acts like she doesn't even care!'
"We have to get that Dark Spiral off of him!" Daisuke said.
"It won't help!" Patamon said gloomily, realizing the seriousness of their situation.
"What do you mean?" Miyako asked. "We get rid of the spiral and he becomes good, right?"
"Wrong! He hates us regardless! Especially my brother and me!"
"Yamato-san? Why," Miyako questioned.
"It's a long story, we'll explain it later!" Patamon said.
"That means we attack and try to win!" Daisuke determined.
Everyone nodded.
"C'mon Hawkmon, we need you!" Miyako said, holding up her D3. "I'm sure a little of your Samurai skills is exactly what we need for this whacked out Digimon!"
"An excellent deduction, Miyako-san."
"Are you up to the challenge, Armadimon?"
"I sure am, Iori!"
"Digimental...Up!" both Miyako and Iori called out.
The two Digimon both evolved to their Armored forms.
"Hawkmon, armor evolve...
A light surrounded Hawkmon as his body started to grow. His wings stretched out and turned to coils, as did his legs, a shuriken on the each of them. A white mask covered his face, and a giant shuriken appeared on his back. Over top the mask was a small, green thin-lined teardrop, which represented the crest symbol of purity.
"...Shurimon, bursting with Purity!"
"Armadimon, armor evolve..."
Armadimon's body was surrounded by a bright, yellow light and was engulfed in a cocoon. He then broke out of the cocoon, no longer a land creature, but a large, insectoid Digimon. He now had drills for his hands and his nose, and his body was more metallic looking. Also, decorating his body was purple crop circles, which represented the crest symbol of knowledge.
"...Digmon, the wisdom of steel!"
"What are you two waiting for! We want to fight too!" Tailmon urged.
"Yeah!" Patamon nodded.
"We'll sit this one out, Tailmon."
"How come?" Takeru asked, looking at Hikari in slight surprise. "We could really use you out there."
"Um...just in case.."
"Party pooper," Tailmon muttered, her arms folded.
Takeru shrugged, wondering what she could've meant. He then started to sweat a bit as he stared over at Puppetmon. He was terribly scared. Patamon noticed.
"I know that out of all the evil Digimon you've encountered, that Puppetmon has been the worst for you, Devimon being another, but you have to face him, Takeru."
TK nodded.
"You're right. To get over your fears you have to face them!"
"That's the spirit!" Tailmon cheered.
"C'mon buddy...Digimental...Up!"
"Patamon armor evolve..."
Patamon's short and chubby body started to glow. He grew taller and leaner and wings grew from out of his back. Yellow hair grew from his head, and his tail and his stubby feet turned to golden hooves. His color was now, no longer a tannish orange, but was now a beautiful, majestic golden yellow.
"...Pegasmon, the hope that gallops across the heavens!"
"Digmon and I should go for the Dark Tower!"
No one heard Iori. They weren't really listening, nor did they notice him..
"Listen you two, let Iori-kun go for the Dark Tower! Digmon is the perfect Digimon for the job! The rest of us try to defeat Puppetmon!"
Iori frowned and did what "Takeru" had suggested.
"C'mon Digmon," Iori said in a gloomy manner. "Let's go and destroy that Dark Tower."
"Alright, Iori!"
The others fought against Puppetmon, which was pretty easy for the group, especially since the fog had lifted a lot more. None of the Digimon had any trouble seeing child-like Digimon.
Pegasmon used his Shooting Star attack on the deranged puppet. Pegasmon opened up his wings and gracefully shout out the golden, like stars. Fladramon continued to use his Fire Rocket attack whenever the others were out of range and Shurimon used his Kusanagi attack, which consisted of him unstrapping the giant shuriken on his back and threw it at Puppetmon. The shuriken spun fast like a buzz saw as it nearly sliced off the puppet's arm, but he evaded the attack just in the nick of time.
The three eventually destroyed the Dark Spiral that was wrapped around his arm - thanks to Shurimon's Kusunagi attack slicing it off, along with Fladramon's constant attacking using Fire Rocket - but Puppetmon still wanted his revenge for his defeat years earlier.
"I'll get you, you annoying kids!" Puppetmon growled in determination. "Sure your Digimon are on levels I've never encountered before, but I can still do away with them! I'm an ultimate (mega) and I have the advantage!" He stopped for a moment and smirked again. "Hey, why not surrender to me and save yourselves some trouble!"
"After what you did!" Takeru argued. "You're working for the Digimon Kaiser voluntarily, and you tried to hurt me!"
"Can you blame a guy for wanting to have a little fun?" Puppetmon replied playfully, no remorse or regret in his voice.
"Using me as a shooting target doesn't count!" Takeru shouted, growing annoyed over how the Digimon was acting, as if they were playing some type of a game.
"Aww...the baby is scared," the puppet mocked while dancing around, sticking out his tongue.
TK jumped off of Pegasmon's back, after he landed, and stood in front of Puppetmon, who stopped dancing. The boy was now much taller than Puppetmon, and towered over him.
"I'm no baby anymore, Puppetmon, and we are going to defeat you!"
"I highly doubt that," he responded, not feeling at all threatened. "How about we play war, just like before, one on one. I'll even let you choose the weapon of your choice or maybe that automatic I had you use before." He then started to laugh loudly and started to wipe tears from his eyes. "You could barely hold that gun up that I threw you! You even set it off! I bet you would've shot yourself eventually! It was so funny! I tied your worthless brother up, then you, trying to be heroic, said that you would play war if I promised not to kill him. You then picked up that gun and ran away from me right into my mansion. You had your chance at a shot, but it was too heavy for you and that's when the real fun began!" He then laughed even harder, holding his stomach. "I liked my little version of Hide & Seek."
*Note: I'm sure you all know about this "cut" scene. In the original, when TK was with Puppetmon, he was chasing him all the around that house of his shooting at him. They just painted over the gun that Puppetmon had. I honestly can see why they wanted to cut something like that out. It isn't really all that pleasant and an eight year old trying to hold up a gun, an automatic in fact, or an eight year old being given a gun to begin with wouldn't have gone over too well over here, even if it TK was going to use it in self-defense. Puppetmon threatened to kill Yamato if Takeru didn't play, which is why he did. And it is true, he did give Takeru a real gun to use in the game.*
"A gun?" Miyako blinked.
"This is getting serious," Iori stated. He had joined Miyako and Daisuke when he saw Takeru hop off of Pegasmon's back and left Digmon to tend to the Dark Tower. "Guns are no joke!"
"TK, don't go and get yourself killed!" Daisuke called to him.
"No, Takeru, don't do it!" Pegasmon pleaded.
"I'm not going to do anything," Takeru shouted back to his friends.
"Okay, I'll stop. I was only toying with you. I'm not really bad. I just like the power of being stronger than everyone else."
Everyone looked at Puppetmon skeptically. He noticed and waved his hand to them.
"Hey, if you don't believe me, I'll tell you where the Digimon Kaiser is and his base."
"Why should I believe you!"
"Because it isn't like you to hold a grudge against somebody or to hate a person or Digimon for that matter. You forgive everyone."
Takeru got an exasperated look on his face because he knew the strange Digimon was right.
"I don't trust that wooded mess," Miyako whisperred.
"Neither do I," Daisuke whisperred back.
"Where is Ichijouji," Takeru demanded.
"You hurt my feelings!" Puppetmon then started to cry like a child who had just been yelled at by an adult. "I shouldn't even help you. You don't even trust me."
"Can you blame him?" Tailmon rolled her eyes.
"Here I am, apologizing and you don't believe me."
He started to blow his nose and took out a handkerchief that seemed
to appear from out of nowhere...
******
"What is that moron doing!?!" Ken nearly shouted from his secret
spot, monitoring his current ally. "He better not rat me out!"
******
"Wow, he's actually crying!" Miyako noted. "Do you honestly
think that he really meant what he said?"
TK looked like he was about to make the most important decision in his life and thought for a moment. He then gave the wooded Digimon a slight look of disgust, and sighed, finally speaking up.
"Well, if he's really willing to be our friend..."
"...then I guess we should give him the benefit of the doubt," Miyako nodded.
"I don't agree," Iori said while shaking his head. "I don't trust him!"
"I don't know what to think in this case, but if you all feel we should, then I'll take my chances," Daisuke reluctantly, and slowly, agreed, "even if that chance means trusting Puppetmon!"
"If you are truly good, then I guess we can forgive you," Takeru spoke up for everyone.
"No, Takeru-san, Daisuke-san, Miyako-san. I don't believe him! He doesn't look anywhere near honest to me!"
"You should've listened to the kid," he started to murmur. He then gave off an evil smirk and laughed, "But it's too late! You shouldn't be so trusting. That's one of my ultimate attacks, 'Lie'!"
"You jerk!" Takeru shouted, angrier than he had ever been in his entire life.
"I knew we couldn't trust him! You all should have listened to me!"
"Aww, such harsh words," Puppetmon yawned as he raised his mallet. "Bullet Hammer!"
"Takeru!"
Pegasmon jumped in front of Takeru, pushing him back, as his mane started to stand on end. "Silver Blaze!!" he called as silver streaks shot from his mane, blocking off the bullets that Puppetmon had shot.
They continued to fight, until Tailmon told Hikari to let her fight,
but Hikari still refused.
********
The Digimon Kaiser watched in amusement...
"They have no idea what's happened."
"Let me go!" a voice demanded.
"Oh, pipe down you brat!" Ken shouted.
********
Iori had succeeded in destroying the Dark Tower earlier, even though,
for some odd reason, Kari had tried to stop him before he had joined back
up with Daisuke and Miyako. She had kept telling Iori to just give
up and just to leave the towers alone. He ignored her and let Digmon
continue with his task, which caused the girl to grumble some.
She was also cheering for Puppetmon, Tailmon noticed, when the others were figting against him. She would either quietly cheer for him, or just remain emotionless and quiet. Tailmon just shrugged at her partner's strange behavior.
"If you won't let me armor evolve, then I'll just do it on my own!"
"No, wait...you-you shouldn't!" Hikari protested with a slight stutter.
Tailmon didn't listen.
"Tailmon, armor evolve to...to...what's wrong?"
Nothing happened.
"What the..." She then came to a shocking realization. "You're not Hikari! I would be able to evolve if you were!"
"You're very smart." Hikari's gentle, sweet look turned to that of a cold one as an evil smile spread across her round face.
"Yeah, they are smarter than they look," Puppetmon laughed.
"Not...Hikari?" Takeru managed to say.
"Oh no, if it's not her, who is it then?" Miyako asked.
Tailmon then attacked her.
"Neko Panchii (Cat Punch/Lightening Paw)!" the cat like Digi called while attacking the fake Kari. Between scratches and punches, she demanded, "What have you done with my Hikari! Bring her back now!"
"Hey, watch it," the fake Kari pleaded in a somewhat deep and spooky voice.
Tailmon refused to stop as she threw her punches harder, socking her one last time in the face. The fake Hikari stood up and held her jaw where Tailmon had applied the last hit. "You shouldn't have done that," she darkly murmured as her body started to take change. Her legs vanished, her teeth became jagged and sharp, and her eyes grew wide. Her hands were now covered with a strange linen material, just as the rest of her body was.
Everyone blinked as they saw the spooky, hideous creature that now floated before them.
"It's a Bakemon!" Miyako gasped out, sickened at the sight of the ferocious, ghost-like Digimon.
"He has no Dark Ring or Spiral, so that must mean that this Digimon works for the Digimon Kaiser voluntarily!" Iori deducted.
"Even if he were wearing one, it wouldn't work since Digmon destroyed the Dark Tower," Miyako pointed out.
"He's pretty smart. Maybe there's another one hidden someplace, but I think you're right." Iori looked down at his Digivice, scanning to see if there was another Dark Tower nearby. "I don't think he has one hidden anyplace. I don't see one here on my Digivice."
"Give us back Hikari!" Daisuke demanded. "What have you done with her!"
"Does it really matter?" the Bakemon snarled.
Bakemon then attacked the kids using his Hell's Hand attack, which consisted
of his shooting out claws from his hand. Their Digimon tried to protect
them, in their devolved forms, but got knocked back in the process.
*********
"Destroying that one Bakemon should be easy," Ken responded as if this
was a show to him. "I don't even care...I got what I needed."
"How can you be so cruel and mean!" the real Hikari asked from behind him. She seemed to be in a small, digitalized forcefield.
"Hey, if nobody crosses me, then I wouldn't be. You annoying insects have crossed me for the very last time!"
"They can't see us?"
"Nope. We're well hidden and they don't even see us!" He then laughed at the irony of the situation. "We're right in front of their eyes and yet they don't see us!"
Kari then screamed at the top of her lungs.
"TAKERU...TAILMON....IORI...MIYAKO...DAISUKE...HELP ME...WE'RE OVER HERE....BEHIND THE--"
"BE QUIET!!!"
Ken stepped through the forcefield and back slapped her, which caused the timid girl to fall. She gave out a small yelp of pain as she held her now slightly red, stinging cheek and stared up at Ken in utter surprise. She didn't think that he would do something like that.
"This will keep you quiet you annoying insect!" he muttered as he removed the forcefield and grabbed a rope. He then proceeded to tie her up, even though Hikari tried her best to get out of his grasp, but it was of no use. The girl's torso was now tied, and Ken had managed to just finish tying up her ankles.
Ken then walked away from her coolly and sat back down at his computer and started to type on it. He then turned back to face Hikari, while still seated, and gave her an arrogant grin. Hikari's eyes were now wide with fright. She was now hanging over what looked to be a bottomless pit. It had digitally appeared from out of no place.
"Try to get out of that! If your friends do come, they'll be in for a big surprise if they get close enough! It's either them or you!" He then thought for a moment to make Hikari's situation even more deathly and her chances of getting rescued even more unlikely. "Hmm, to make sure...I think I'll have Puppetmon help out a bit."
"Let me go!" Hikari struggled, trying to get lose of the tight ropes.
Ken ignored her pleas and proceeded in using a transmitter.
"Puppetmon, if those fools discover where I am, I want you to use that
very special power of yours...if you catch my drift..."
***********
"Right, I get what you're hinting at!" Puppetmon smiled playfully.
"Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!"
"Hikari!" Takeru called, ignoring the tiny fact that Puppetmon seemed to have been talking with himself. "I thought I heard her!"
"That was only me," the Bakemon responded nervously waving his ghostly arm around. "Yeah, that's it! I was practicing my best Hikari impression."
Takeru ran towards the Bakemon and shouted out angerly, "Where is she!"
The Bakemon attacked and knocked Takeru back.
"Are you okay?" Miyako asked in concern, helping the taller boy up.
"You shouldn't rush into things like that!" Iori scolded.
"Yeah, that's my job!"
Everyone sweat dropped from Daisuke's statement.
"Now you jerk," Daisuke continued, "where's Kari!"
"How would I know!"
"Yeah, I told you I did, but noooooo, you wouldn't listen to me," Puppetmon mocked.
Takuru looked like he wanted to knock Puppetmon out. He had a look of true hatred, one that had never been witnessed or seen by any of them. He was ready to apply that anger to both the ghost and the puppet.
Pegasmon, who had devolved back to Patamon, offered to fight for Takeru.
"Just let me evolve to Angemon, Takeru."
TK didn't even hear his small friend, and only had one thing on his mind, the well-being of his childhood friend.
"Where's Hikari, you creep!" Takeru shouted, his fists bawled.
"Wouldn't you like to...AHHH!!!"
Tailmon attacked the Bakemon used her Cat Punch attack again and knocked him down. When Bakemon was knocked down, the fog lifted completely, revealing the Digimon Kaiser, along with Hikari hanging over a deep pit. It was like they were in a room and with the use of Ken's computer, it made it look as if they weren't even there, which is why no one noticed that the Bakemon had replaced Kari.
"Takeru!" Kari called.
"Hikari!"
The Digimon Kaiser stood in front of her - not too closely - near the pit, his whip in his right hand.
"If you want her back, you'll have to surrender to me and if you come within 3 feet of this pit, it'll trigger---"
Takeru and Tailmon didn't even listen and attacked. Takeru tried to punch him and Tailmon tried to scratch him, but he just evaded by moving just in time to dodge both oncoming attacks.
"This was all just supposed to be a game," Ken spat, slight annoyance in his voice. "Too bad they just can't accept the fact that they lost! Well, time to go!"
Ken jumped and a MegaSeadramon appeared, his landing right on it. He then took off riding his MegaSeadramon, leaving Hikari hanging over a pit.
"Hikari!" everyone called.
"Takeru!" Hikari gasped, noticing how he was about to run towards her.
"I'm coming, Kari!"
"TK...NO...DON'T!!!"
"Don't worry, I'll get you down!"
"TK, don't come any closer!"
Takeru didn't listen to her and started running towards the pit anyway when something stopped him, knocking him back...