Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Author's Note: I know that this took a long time to create, and it wasn't just because of FFN.net. I've also been really busy, and writing these long things takes a lot of work. Sorry to those who are interested (thanks for the reviews btw), but it's going to take a long time to write this one.
Secondary Note: I wanted to write this like a real season (just to see if I could), so for a while it may be a little predictable. Please bear with me.
Tertiary Note: I hopefully fixed the HTML tags on this version
Episode VI
The Emperor's Fall
Joe's voiceover: I was having some doubts about whether I was ready, but I've found that I'm indispensible to the team. Without me around, who would keep them out of trouble? And when the trouble turned into Scoripomon, my sense of responsibility ignited, revitalizing my crest and allowing Ikkakumon to digivolve to Zudomon.
"So, are you afraid of dying?" the figure was more menacing than ever, his grip perilously loose.
"Yes!" TK screamed.
"Can you have Hope?"
"How can I when you're doing this to me?"
The man shrugged and let go, watching as TK plunged downward toward the bottom of the mountain.
TK woke up sweating, but he was getting used to this. It was already morning. The sunlight trickled through the windows around him, illuminating a few stray locks of hair as he sat on his comfortable mattress. In the background he could smell someone cooking, and whatever it was smelled good.
Carefully he placed Patamon, who was curled up in a bundle next to him, back under the blanket, and got dressed before going out to see who was out in the kitchen.
Ken stood in the kitchen, absently using a spatula to move around some eggs that were frying in the pan. He had already cut some bread off to the side, and he had set the table with a number of white plates.
"Good morning Ken, what're you doing?"
Ken blinked, as if he was surprised to find someone else in the kitchen, and then turned around to look at the doorway. "Hey TK! Up early?"
"Couldn't sleep. Nightmare. How about you?"
"Ah." Ken detected something odd in TK's voice and decidedly not to pursue the question. "I had one too, but it turned out…odd. I thought I might as well get up and get breakfast started."
"Where's Babamon?"
"I saw her when we woke up. She told me that she had to go, and that she would see us again soon. She also said that we could take or use anything in this house, so I thought I might as well make breakfast."
"Huh, that's odd." TK thumbed his chin. "I wonder where she's headed."
"Search me. All I know is that she disappeared right after that. I found a lot of stuff in the fridge, so I decided that we might as well use it."
"Good idea. Need any help?"
"Sure, I think there's some ham around here somewhere you can cook."
As the others began to stumble out into the kitchen, TK and Ken managed to finish cooking a whole bowlful of eggs and several plates worth of ham and bacon. Yolei pronounced the spread as "gorgeous". Davis and Veemon did not even bother commenting, they just dug right in. Laughing, everyone else joined them.
"So, now what?" Gatomon asked once everyone, human and Digimon, had taken the edge off their hunger.
"I suppose we get moving again. After all, we've got a crest now…and maybe we can find some more." TK smiled at Davis.
"That's right, and once we have them, Veemon will be able to Digivolve…right buddy?"
"Right." Veemon struck a pose that he must have seen on television wrestling.
"I guess we can't stay here. I mean, sooner or later Reaver's going to figure out where we went." Cody noted, drinking a little out of his glass of water.
"Sure thing." Armadillomon rolled up so his head was at Cody's eye height. "And we don't want him to find us here, do we?"
"Okay then, I have a great plan!" Davis suggested. "Let's go back down that other road that we didn't take yesterday. I have a good feeling about that one."
"I like it too." Yolei spoke up. "But first, let's break up and see if there's anything that we can take from the house."
Half an hour later, bags bursting with all sorts of useful stuff, Davis led the others out of the house and back into the wilderness.
"Just a few more hours Joe." Gomamon murmured as he rolled over.
Joe stood back and laughed. "If anyone ever deserved it, it's you old buddy, but we can't give it to you. Up and at 'em."
Gomamon groaned.
"C'mon, let's see a little get up and Gomamon." Joe laughed down at his slumbering partner.
Gomamon rolled on his side and cracked one eye at his human partner. "Now who's making bad jokes?"
Tai, looking semi-awake, grunted a few times and then walked over to clap Joe on the shoulder. "I know that I didn't get a chance to really tell you last night, but you were right. And I think that your heart knew that there was a way to win. Thanks Joe, you're the greatest."
"Yeah, what a man." Mimi exclaimed.
Joe flushed bright red at the old joke.
"That Togemon told us that we should sneak through the forests on our way to the Pinnacle. It would be best if we did it in the early morning when it's darker and harder to see us." Gabumon appeared around a tree stump, carrying a plate of baked fish in his hands. "Matt wants you guys to try this. He says it's a new recipe."
"Thanks Gabumon." Joe took the rough plate of tree bark from Gabumon's paws, placing it down beside Gomamon. "Are you sure you won't get up. I'd hate to have to eat this all by myself."
Gomamon's eye opened again and he examined the fish. "I certainly must admit that I'm considering it Joe."
"I've re-evaluated our situation several times, and I must admit that I am extremely pleased at the increase in the probability of our success." Izzy hove into view, carrying his laptop in one hand, the ever attentive Tentomon hovering over his shoulder. He was hitting buttons on the screen with his free hand, his eyes fixed firmly on the screen. "I would say that with Gomamon's ability to digivolve into Ultimate, our combat capabilities are dramatically increased. Furthermore, the possibility that others can reactivate their crest in much the same way is now very real."
"That's great Izzy." Sora came over from the direction of the fire with Biyomon trotting behind her. "I'm glad that we seem to have a better chance."
"Anyway, as soon as you and hero-boy down there finish eating, we'll be on our way." Tai concluded.
"Sounds good to me." Joe replied. "Hey Gomamon, save some of that for me!"
"How come I have to walk?" Veemon looked tired. "When Patamon always rides?"
"'Cause you need the exercise to stay a lean fighting machine. Besides, I don't have a hat you can ride on." Davis responded quickly. He had learned that the best way out of a bad situation was to flatter his partner exuberantly.
"I guess so." Veemon replied, looking upward.
Patamon, who had heard the whole conversation, elected not to respond.
TK walked up next to Ken and tapped him on the shoulder. The dark-haired genius was so busy thinking about something else that he did not even notice until TK tapped him again.
"Huh, what? Oh, hey TK."
"Hey yourself Ken, so what're you thinking about?"
Ken shrugged. "Oh, nothing."
"Nothing my eye. You'll have to do better than that Ken."
"I'm just thinking about something. Really I am."
TK shook his head, almost knocking Patamon off. "Ken, that may work on your parents, it may work on Davis and it may work on Cody, but it's not going to work on the rest of us. I have a big brother you know, a brother who is a Digidestined. I've watched him beat himself up for a number of reasons, several of which were fabrications of his own imagination. I know the signs, and so do Yolei and Kari. So what's up?"
"I was just thinking about evil." Ken sounded uncomfortable. TK looked around and saw that Yolei, Kari and Cody were all bunched up behind them. He made eye contact with Kari and nodded once. Kari looked into his eyes, looked at Ken, and nodded back, a gleam of understanding in her eyes. Quietly she gestured Cody and Yolei to slow their pace, leaving a large space between the different Digidestined, with Ken and TK in the middle.
"What about?"
"About the evil that used to be inside of me…"
"That old one again. You know we trust you, and you know that you'll never do anything like that." TK patted Ken comfortingly on the back while Wormmon looked on supportively.
"It's not that." Ken sighed. "I know that I'm not evil anymore, but the problem is worse than that. You see, I wonder if the fact that I was evil robbed me of some of the things that it meant to be good."
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"I wonder. You guys are all so full of love, and friendship and courage. I stand up to evil when I'm angry, but I don't know if I have it in me to use the rest of those traits. I'm kind to people, that's my crest, but somehow it seems almost empty. Like I was doing it out of instinct and not because it really meant anything to me."
"That's crazy Ken."
"Really, look at those others whose evil turned to good. BlackWarGreymon was not truly evil, just confused. Oikawa, in a moment of weakness, let a much greater evil posses him. And to get back to good look at the price they had to pay. Both of them died to do that."
TK sighed, and walked silently for a moment before lifting his eyes to meet Ken's. "Ken, there are some questions I can't answer. That's because I don't know how. The ones you should really talk to are Yolei and Cody."
"Huh, why them?" Ken looked up, startled.
TK looked back and Ken could see the change. This was not TK, basketball star, or TK, student, or even TK the friend. This was Takeru, Digidestined, bearer of Hope. "Cody because of all of us he was the one who took the longest to forgive you fully. And because he would have had to have seen the most profound truth to do so. And Yolei because she knows you better than you think, and because she believes in you strongly."
Ken looked at him, and felt something inside him spark in recognition of what he saw there. And then, very quietly, he nodded.
"Good. Now let's worry about something else, like getting killed."
"Everybody duck!" Cody yelled, looking over his shoulder.
There was a moment of hesitation and then twelve bodies hurled themselves off of the small trail they had been following, into the thick green of the surrounding brush. Davis throttled a curse as it threatened to break out of his throat as he went straight through the hedge-like barrier. Branches and twigs tore at his jacket, but he made it through intact and onto the ground in much the same way. Still trying to ignore the smarting in his arm, he tilted his head up to see what had startled Cody so.
Above them there was a sudden buzz and the yellow shape of a Flymon in flight buzzed overhead, filling the air with a peculiar sound, almost as if the air was vibrating in place. The flash of color was enough to warn Davis of what was going on.
"Good eyes Cody." TK whispered.
"Thanks TK." Cody was still watching the sky nervously.
"I wonder if he's seen us?" Davis wondered absently, still staring at the sky.
There was another sound, this time a dreadful roar. The Flymon came back again, flashes of yellow color appearing in the air above the bushes in which they were hiding, but this time the roar seemed to have more purpose than before. It grew steadily, exponentially louder and, after a split second, Davis realized that they had probably been seen. Everyone else made a similar connection at the same moment, and quickly they started creeping backwards, where a ditch provided deeper cover and thicker bushes.
"Brown Stingers!"
Bright red stingers longer than Davis' arm slammed into the ground, sending dirt flying as they embedded themselves halfway down. Davis' eyes widened at their proximity, and he already knew what those deadly projectiles could do to unprotected human flesh. Jerking around, his heart sunk as another flash of yellow, and another, appeared overhead. The buzzing sound grew until it was roaring back and forth in his ears, nearly deafening him.
"Come on, their whole army must have found us!" TK shouted, running past them.
"Everybody! Run!" Davis shouted unnecessarily, scampering over the uneven terrain looking for a way out.
They had been hiking about halfway up a hillside, sticking to areas of thicker cover in order to keep themselves hidden from just such an attack. Now, they scrambled desperately up the hill as a series of incoming projectiles struck closer and closer to home, following them in a trail of red stingers, like the footprints of some unholy beast of prey. Grass twisted in their wake, and they topped the hill only to find themselves looking at a pile of rocks. The pile looked like a deformed mountain, a collection of granite slabs running up and down a section of the hillside, marking place like some temple erected by nature herself. But whatever they were, their presence had thinned the soil, and they were now the only cover available.
Davis looked around quickly, reaching for his D3 when TK suddenly pointed.
"Look, a cave! Everybody inside!"
Everybody turned and, sure enough, there was a huge gaping crack in the wall. TK reached it first and headed in, followed closely by Kari, and then by Davis with Veemon behind him.
Ken struggled up behind him, watching out for Cody and Yolei who were still behind him. There was a moment as the dark gap loomed before him, inviting in its careful darkness, its concealing nature. Then a red stinger shot out of the air and slammed into the archway, burying itself above the crack. With a sudden roar the rock around the doorway fell down, hiding the entrance in stone. For a moment he stared at the unyielding surface and cursed himself for not being faster, wanting to pound on the barrier that now separated him from safety. Cody's voice brought him out of his trance.
"Over here!" the shortest Digidestined pointed at a hole in the wall directly across from Ken, another crack of the same type. Armadillomon jumped through first, followed by Cody, then Yolei and Hawkmon, and then, as another salvo roared in and began to collapse that entrance too, Ken and Wormmon.
"So they've escaped another trap. No matter, they won't get far. Far enough that is." Reaver muttered to himself as the Flymon broke off their now useless attack.
Ken flipped over on his side. He fumbled for a moment in the darkness, fingers searching his belt, and then he finally came up with his laser pointer, which he had carelessly stuck there. Using his thumb, he flipped the thing on, illuminating the cavern somewhat with a faint red light. Unfortunately, it was too much of a laser to spread light in a way even remotely helpful for him. Fortunately, using that light, Yolei was able to pick around in her backpack until she found what she was looking for, her pen/flashlight, and then she turned it on, bathing them in a sudden influx of white light.
"Okay, we're all still intact. Now what?" Cody asked.
"I don't know, I'm worried about the others…" Ken let his voice trailed off.
"It's okay Ken. I'm sure they're safe." Wormmon responded after a long moment.
Ken thought for a moment, concentration creasing his brow, when suddenly he shot upright. "Of course, I still have the scanner!"
He rummaged around in his bag for a few moments before coming up with the flat shape of the critical item. Quickly he opened it up, its light illuminating the small dark space. Around them he could now see the shape of smooth boulders and other rocks closing in on them, but he ignored them. After a few seconds of start up the familiar map screen opened up, displaying a detail map of the cavern.
"Well, that's helpful." Yolei noted sarcastically, but Ken was already zooming out. After a moment, he could see several different caves, and in one of them, there was a set of six white dots appeared. Ken touched them hurriedly, and a new screen opened up, listing their six missing companions in full detail.
"Whew. They're all unhurt and all right." Ken pressed the button labeled COMM and there were a few clicks. They broke off when the screen flashed, and a small window, like a videophone, displayed an image of a bunch of rocks faintly illuminated by light. From them they could hear a voice.
"Guys." It was Kari. "My Digivice just went off, just a moment while I…" her face appeared on the screen and her eyes widened in amazement. "Ken, Yolei, Cody!"
"We're all safe and sound. You?" Ken asked tensely.
"Oh, we're just fine. We were arguing over what to do. Any suggestions?"
"According to the scanner we might be all right if we keep going downward. There are many caves and ours might meet up with yours somewhere. I don't think that we want to go back up to the surface, even if we could."
"That's what we'll do!" Davis' voice interrupted, sounding small, in the background, and Yolei giggled.
The scanner beeped under Ken's fingers, displaying a quick message:
WARNING: Proximity of enemy units increasing.
Probability of successful triangulation on this unit: 37%
"Uh, Kari, just head downward and see if we can meet up. The scanner just warned me that we stand a chance of being detected. Okay?"
"Gotcha."
"Right." Ken hit the END TRANSMISSION button hurriedly, and then hit the buttons that followed until the scanner was in what it called "Stealth Mode". Unfortunately, that meant that he could barely determine which tunnel they were in, let alone what channel his friends were in. Acting on a memory of probing the computer, he opened the DISPLAY menu and hit a few more option switches. The monitor blanked for a moment before flaring up, lighting their way much more effectively than the flashlight had.
"Okay." Yolei stood up, turning off the flashlight. "So we just head downward, right guys?"
"I guess. Although my feathers tend to crawl if I'm underground too long." Hawkmon shivered dramatically.
"Well, I'm glad I'm at home underground. You ready Cody?"
"Of course Armadillomon. It looks like I don't have another choice, doesn't it?"
"I'm with you Ken." Wormmon looked up.
"Well, let's get going." Ken shrugged after a moment, looking at the darkness.
Fortunately they did not have much of a choice of where to come out. The caves were dark, but they were also straight. There were no branching corridors to explore, no different tunnels that they could opt to follow until they arrived at whatever destination they would arrive at. On the other hand, there were few pitfalls. Mostly it was walking through the darkness, which held its own terrors. In the distance one could hear the steady dripping as water rippled downward, echoing through the caverns in a way that made everybody shiver. In a way it sounded as if there were lost miners down there, frantically searching for a way up into daylight. Here and there they ran across dark bodies of water, small by above-ground standards, but in the darkness looking as vast as oceans, and as black as oil. The first time Wormmon got near one, he swore that he saw a giant fish in the water, and everyone else avoided them afterwards, minds creeping with the horrors that would live in the roots of the mountains, avoiding the daylight. Here, down in the bowels of the Earth, it was easy to forget that above there were such things as the sun, that there were stars in the night. Here there was only the echoing blackness, and in it, the echo of your worst fears. At first they spoke often, but the oppressive blackness began to lay thick upon them like a huge blanket of silence until they stopped trying to disturb its sovereignty over this dark place.
"Uh, Ken?"
"What is it Cody?"
"I don't mean to interfere, but I think that Wormmon's getting exhausted. After all, he has really short legs. And I don't think the rest of us are doing well either. Can we take a rest?"
"Of course we can Cody." Ken stopped suddenly, mentally smacking himself as the light from the Scanner illuminated their exhaustion. Inside he wondered if the fact that he had ignored them was do to the strain of being in the lead, or if he was such a stranger to Kindness that he did not know when to exhibit it. For a moment the blackness of the cave was eclipsed by his feeling of emptiness inside.
They sat down, illuminated faintly by the light of the Scanner, sitting on the most comfortable rocks they could find in that forbidding blackness. Ken thought about his doubts and suspicions, and, after a moment, decided to voice them. He opened his mouth, only to have it dry out on him before he could say anything. Quickly, he tried to moisten his lips, only to have them dry on him again, and he had to cough to clear his throat.
"What is it Ken?" Yolei asked, shape indistinct in the darkness.
"Is something wrong?" Wormmon asked, hugging Ken's leg close.
"Uh guys…" Ken paused again in an attempt to clear his thoughts. Here it goes. "I wanted to ask you something because you're my friends and I know I can trust you to answer me right, okay?"
"Sure Ken." Cody looked confused, at least as much as he could when his face was virtually invisible.
"Is it possible to discover all of the light if you were lost to the darkness once?"
There was a moment of uncomfortable pause before Yolei asked quietly, gently, "What do you mean?"
"I was just…thinking. When I was the Digimon emperor something inside of me died. I know now that what I did was wrong, and I don't want to beat myself up about it again, but now I start to wonder. Somewhere inside of me the evil from the dark spore still survives, permeating my very being. I can feel the call of darkness, calling me to come serve it, come reap its rewards."
"You can fight against that Ken. You always could." Wormmon stood up for him.
"I know old friend, I know, but it's not that. I know that I can deny that call as long as I don't give up, but I'm wondering if that evil poisoned me?"
"How so?" Yolei asked, still sounding quiet and subdued.
"I think that the evil is still there, in my blood, poisoning my life. And I think that it's horrible. I mean, look at me. In all my life, ever since Osamu died, I don't think I've ever truly understood those things that make us special. I feel something for my parents, but I don't know if it's love, like the rest of you feel. I don't know if my friendship is deep enough to save us, or if my courage is enough to stand up to that evil inside. I wonder if I lost something to the evil of the dark spore, something so powerful that once it's gone, it can never be replaced. I just don't know if I have that stuff that's inside the rest of you that makes us Digidestined."
There was another moment of awkward silence as the words echoed off the close arrayed walls of the cave into some distant infinity before another voice answered.
"I always wondered how long it would take before someone learned that I was a fraud." Everyone started because the voice was Yolei's, and it sounded like she was about to start crying. "Before they realized that I didn't really deserve to be a Digidestined like the rest of them. Before they understood that I was nothing, a mere accident, and should be treated as such."
"Huh?" asked Cody.
"May I inquire into just what is going on?" Hawkmon sounded astonished.
"Yolei, what are you talking about?" Ken shouted, regretting it instantly as the echoes bounced off the darkened walls for what sounded like miles.
But even in the dim light she refused to meet his eyes. "Because I'm a fake Ken. A lousy fake. We had an entire world to save, millions of innocents depending on us, and I was more interested in boys than I was in my job. I was stubborn because I was unwilling to give up, and that kept me going on, but I always wondered if I deserved to be a Digidestined because of who I was. Because inside I knew that I didn't have what it took. That I was too interested in dating and in fashion and in how I looked to really worry about what was going on in my world. And it haunted me sometimes, I mean, here we are, trying to save the world from the latest scheme of the bad guys, and I'm worried about how I look, or fighting with Davis for no reason. I knew the truth then, I don't deserve to be a Digidestined."
"Yolei, you can't…"
"I can too Ken. Look at Cody, he's always fought the good fight because he knows that someone has to, and because he believes in what we're doing. Look at TK and Kari and the older kids, who understand what's at stake and are doing their best to save both worlds, even if they can't do what we can do. Look at Davis, who is so stubborn that he can't give up in the face of evil. And look at yourself, who is so determined to keep anyone from sharing your fate. Compared to that, how can I be considered a Digidestined Ken? Look at them."
"I am looking." Ken's voice was gentle, and his hand extended slowly to rest on her shoulder in the gloom. "I am looking, and that's why I believe in you. Maybe you have flaws, but you've fought against them, haven't you. I mean, nobody who truly didn't want to fight would ever have allowed themselves to end up fighting against MaloMyostimon, would they? And nobody who didn't believe in themselves could ever have done what you did, could they? We're a team, and there's nothing that ever fought against you that you couldn't handle. And you're ready for the next challenge, whether you admit it or not."
"You may have made mistakes," Hawkmon's voice was, as ever, calm and unruffled, "but you learned from them. And you tried not to repeat them. And in the end, when the crunch started and the battle truly began you tried to do your best to help us save the world, didn't you?"
"Because that's what being a Digidestined is all about." Cody started talking now. "At the beginning, I wasn't really certain of what I was doing. And I hesitated a lot. I understand now that what I did turned out for the best, but it might have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. I was upset to no end when Shakkuomon destroyed MarineDevimon, but he was only trying to save my life and the life of everyone still in the hospital. I learned that sometimes we have to do those things that we don't want to do. And that the important thing is to hang onto our optimism even as we do them.
"After all, at the beginning, I was the one who wasn't focused, right? I really didn't want to fight, and even though the Emperor made me angry, for some reason what we did there just didn't seem as important as the real world. But I learned too.
"And that's what all this is about. Being one of us is mostly learning how to be one of us. Neither you or Ken has anything to worry about now. Sure you may have made some mistakes in the past, but you everyone on the team has, and you only have to pay the price as long as you think you have to." Armadillomon's country accent made Yolei smile, drying some of her tears.
"And that's that Yolei. You're valuable and we need you. And I guess that answers my problem. I make my own worth, don't I?"
"Yeah Ken, you do. Together we can do anything." Cody was clearly grinning in the darkness.
"Thanks guys." Yolei sniffed, but it was the sniff that signified the vanishing of tears. "I don't know what I would do without you."
"Heaven forbid, you might have to cook…" Hawkmon mumbled.
"What?!" Yolei nearly shouted while trying not to laugh.
"He's right you know. Last time I was at your house, I tried the lasagna you tried to make. I know that tomatoes can be hard to find, but red chili peppers are just not the same thing you know." Cody was now grinning in Yolei's direction.
"I'm sorry. How was I supposed to know?"
"You could have tasted them."
"See Yolei." Ken laughed. "We're in this together. And if you think your cooking is bad, wait until you get to watch me try and clean a bathroom."
"One day genius." She wagged a finger under Ken's nose, or as near as she dared get in the darkness. Her voice sounded dark and threatening, but the hint of tears was completely gone. "One day, you'll get yours. Oh, I'll be so happy."
Ken just grinned. "Thanks guys. I owe you one."
"Watch out, I might just collect." Cody taunted him.
"Owe us one what? Will it be something we can eat?" Armadillomon asked.
Kari sighed. TK and Davis were fighting again. They were not doing it over anything important, or anything actually worthwhile, but they were going at it quite seriously. It seemed to be their preferred method of overcoming the oppressive silence that surrounded them, attempting to negate its effects. As a result she did not have to listen to the spooky drips of falling water, or the tinkle and tumble of small dropping rocks, but to the constant low mutter of two arguing boys, and a variety of expressed opinions on everything from science to sports. The low muttering was randomly interspersed with cries of "What?", "Are you out of your mind?", "Do you even know what that word means?" and "Did you hit your head on something?". She knew why they were doing it, and she was rather glad they were.
"We've got a problem." that was TK, in front, stopping.
"What?" Davis demanded.
"No, not a problem with the soccer field. I mean that there are two different ways we can go."
"Oh, well that can't be too much of a problem."
"Really, and how do we deal with it?"
Kari came up behind them. "I remember Ken telling us that we had to go downward, to see if we could join up with them. Let's try that a while. Which path goes further down?"
"This one." Gatomon pointed.
"All right, follow her."
"I hear something." Hawkmon's sudden exclamation stopped the group in its tracks.
"Where?" Ken asked.
"What?" Yolei asked.
"The answers are: down the tunnel, and I don't know."
There was a faint noise that touched on the edges of Ken's hearing. It was a faint sound, much like the crack of broken branches. As he concentrated other sounds began to emerge from the mist of darkness surrounding them. Sounds like the continued cranking of rusty gears, or the faint whirring of some kind of belt. Noises that Ken associated with industry.
"Right guys. I think we have a problem."
"What kind of problem Ken?" Wormmon poked his head up curiously.
"Something's up there, and it sounds industrial. I don't want to use the Scanner because it has already given us hints that it can be detected, so we don't have the faintest idea what we're walking into. But, given how this whole world seems to be under the control of Khartan, I would have to assume that it's his operation. So we'll have to proceed quietly."
"Can't we go around it?" Cody asked, absently scratching Armadillomon.
"No Cody, we can't. The cave seems to be very regular, and it has no side passages. I'm afraid we're stuck, unless you can think up something."
As Cody shook his head, Ken looked around. He was right, the cave appeared to proceed straight down into the depths of the earth. Just as a test he turned off the Scanner, removing their light. Sure enough, the cave in the direction that the sound was coming from was faintly illuminated, and soon their eyes adjusted to the gloom. The light was a strange orange, and it barely illuminated enough to see, but it was definitely there, and Ken strained his eyes to see what was ahead. Unfortunately all he could see was an inconvenient corner further up the passage blocking his sight. Quietly, he started to creep forward, leading the others on behind him.
As he peered around the corner, he muffled a curse. The cave opened very far back in a huge cavern. The reason that the cavern was so huge was quickly revealed in the now bright orange lighting. Everywhere Digimon scrambled, most of them rookies, but there were a few in-training here and there, scurrying here and there. Normally this would have not bothered Ken, but every Digimon there was wearing something else, something that looked exactly like his Dark Rings. They were acting quickly to dig out the cavern, wielding what looked like mining equipment as they rushed too and fro, eyes glowing red. Here and there loomed more dangerous looking Digimon, not wearing the rings. They were making the cracking noises with the whips they were carrying.
"What's going on?" Cody asked. The disadvantage of being shorter was that he was counting on Ken and Yolei to tell him what was going on. Right now he sounded curious instead of frightened.
"It looks like a slave labor operation or something. Right Ken? Ken? Are you all right?"
Ken was shaking in rage, his teeth bared and his face pale. His eyes were dangerously sharp and focused, and he looked truly angry. One hand was shaking slightly, trembling as the muscles controlling it underwent spasms of their own in an attempt to slow him down. Teeth began to grate together for a moment. Then, with a visible effort he pulled himself together, concentrating again. His voice, when it emerged, cut like a saw.
"My Dark Rings!" he grated, like a drill cutting stone. "They're using my Dark Rings." One fist slammed into the dirt. "How could they use what I did for more evil. How could I have let them."
"I don't think they're yours Ken. You never seemed to really understand them. Perhaps this is where the Dark Spore got them from. Please calm down Ken, being angry does us no good." Wormmon tried to reason with his enraged companion.
"Besides Ken, now we have to ask the real question. Now that they're using them, what are we going to do about it?" Yolei looked over, pushing her glasses up further on her nose unconsciously.
"We stop them." Ken's voice was flat and decisive.
"How do we do that? Maybe we should just leave them alone." Armadillomon suggested.
"No. This is personal." Ken left no room for disagreement.
"All right, if it means that much to you, we do this together." Yolei stated. "Right guys?"
"Right." Everybody chorused.
"Thanks everybody, for sticking with me. Wormmon, who's the guy in the middle who looks like a floating trash can?"
"It is a floating trash can. Meet Garbagemon, an apt name for a disgusting Digimon. He may look like he's just a smelly version of his namesake, but he'll take you by surprise if you do. He is an Ultimate, although it doesn't really show. Just stay clear of him Ken."
"Most of the other guards look like Bakemon. Hmm…we can handle them no problem, I'm only worried about the Garbagemon. He looks like the only Ultimate there. Look, I have a plan. See that lump of black rock over there? I can feel the darkness of the black rings, and I can feel the power they exude. That rock reeks of it. I think that it's a version of the control spires, and that if we can destroy it, we nullify the black rings. Here's the plan, Yolei, you stick back and cover us while Cody and I go up close and personal with that stone. After that, we hit the Bakemon and hope to free enough friendly Digimon that we can take that overgrown garbage can out."
"Why do I have to stay back?" Yolei asked.
"Because you're the only one who can. Normally I would like us to all stay back, but with only our Champion forms available, you're the only one with a true ranged attack. Just keep those guys off our back when we go in, right?"
"Okay. I guess."
"Thanks Yolei. All right guys, let's do it."
The calmness and order of the mine erupted into chaos in one confusing moment. For one second everything was quiet, and then there was a rush of rocks from one end of the cavern. A set of astute eyes would have noticed six shapes dart down, but the noise was lost in the general background of the mine. Only when two dark figures climbed to the top of a rather large uncleared boulder were they obvious, and by the time anyone got around to noticing them, it was already too late.
"Wormmon digivolve to…Stingmon!"
"Armadillomon digivolve to….Ankylomon!"
"Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!"
Ken leapt off the rock, landing on Stingmon's back, his favorite seat, as the insectoid Digimon shot off into the narrow confines of the mine. Fortunately the guards were to confused by the sudden appearance of three Champions to do much, and Stingmon got through without a scratch. At the end of his run as he zoomed above the heads of workers and guards alike, he rose up into the air, both arms extended. Two different energy blades slid out from their sheaths and Stingmon plunged downward like an avalanche.
"Spiking Strike!"
"Junk Chunker!" the Garbagemon finally woke up, but his shot missed the diving Stingmon.
The black rock exploded and the Dark Rings died all at once. The explosion resonated throughout the underground caverns.
The effects were obvious. Black collars collapsed almost instantly and fell off, and the red glow left the eyes of the Digimon that they had been surrounding. Immediately all work in the mine stopped. There was a moment of pause, and then everything exploded into fire and disaster.
The Bakemon rushed forward, but the Digimon so recently freed from their opponents evil dominion were in no mood to be of an assisting nature. Even as the white ghosts rushed forward they were met with opposing fire, a wall of different attacks that exploded through nearly half the cavern. Roars and explosions stopped the guards dead, and almost immediately everything changed their plan from attacking to retreating before the furious assault. Everywhere there were flashes of the different colors of Digimon skins as the different groups slammed into each other repeatedly, trying desperately to tear each other from limb to limb. One moment the Bakemon were pushing forward, black claws flashing now that they were too close to use their whips, battering their way through their opponents. The next a tidal wave of rookie Digimon would thunder forward, unleashing a vigorous barrage of attacks from their variety of inbuilt weapons. Only a small circle of calm encircled Ken and his companions. Unfortunately, it was a circle that contained Garbagemon.
"Ken, he has to destroy us to save his operation." Stingmon was speaking urgently as he watched his opponent carefully. "We're the only Champions here, he has to stop us."
"Let him try." Ken's voice was still full of anger. "The horror he has created with the Dark Rings will not be allowed to continue."
"Right, I won't let him through."
"Junk Chunker!" a blast of pink ooze shot at Stingmon's head, but he was already lifting off, putting air under him as he soared upward. The blast merely shook loose a large section of the wall behind, exposing other tunnels.
"C'mon Ankylomon, let's give them something to worry about." Cody stood right by Ken's side, looking determined, his face as if carved from stone. Ankylomon shot forward, clanking as he charged, and then rolling into a ball at the last moment. "Tail Hammer!" he roared.
The attack struck home, and now Garbagemon's small size began to work against him. The attack did not truly damage him, but it batted him backwards against the wall, putting a dent in his trash can armor that he seemed to have a lot of problems getting rid of. Even as he tried to get up, a series of Blast Rings send him and the rocks around him flying.
"All right guys, let's get him!" Yolei shouted.
"Altogether now!" Ken roared, pointing his arm out, the skills he had perfected as the Digimon emperor coming back to him.
"Right! Blast Rings!"
"Tail Hammer!"
"Spiking Strike!"
There was a massive series of explosions in one corner of the cave, and then the rock began to collapse. For a moment everything was covered in dust and then a voice spoke from inside.
"Junk Chunker!"
Stingmon jerked upward as he rose out of the dust, falling headfirst into a pile of nearby rocks. He groaned once as he went in, and then there was only the sound of falling gravel from the explosions. Garbagemon appeared from the dust and cloudy darkness, slowly approaching the fallen Digimon, his bazooka tracking to follow.
"Goodbye fool." He grumbled.
"I guess that it's my turn to take care of the garbage. Vee Laser!"
A new shot crashed into the Ultimate, sending him flying. Through the hole he had blown in the wall, ExVeemon shot out, with Davis, TK and Kari following.
"All right!" Yolei cheered.
"Time to get out of here!" TK yelled.
"Huh, but the others…" Ken trailed off as he looked around. During the series of explosions that had wracked the room all the other Digimon had disappeared. Apparently none of them had wanted to be present for this sort of battle.
"We can get out of here Ken. This guy is a little out of our league." Cody tugged on Ken's shirt urgently, trying to budge him into moving.
"No, we can't. If nothing else, we have to cover the other Digimon while they escape from wherever we are. We've got to hold him off." Ken was staring. His blood was still boiling from the rings, but something else inside of him was responding. He could feel a roaring in his ears, but it echoed with the sounds of the singing sea, of the tides coming, unstoppable, to cleanse the barren shore.
"How are we going to do that?" Yolei asked.
"I'll tell you how. With that!" TK pointed at Ken. In the middle of his chest there was a pinkish-purple glow, and in the middle of it lay the stylized pattern of his crest, the Crest of Kindness, glowing with a ferocity matching what was in his heart.
"I can feel it Ken!" Stingmon levered himself back onto his feet.
"Go for it!" Ken snapped.
ExVeemon…Stingmon…DNA Digivolve to…PAILDRAMON!
"All right, we got it covered now!" Davis jumped up in the air, shooting a fist up exuberantly.
"Well, it looks like it's time to take out the trash!" Paildramon thundered, bringing both arms up in front of him.
"I've missed that." Ken was almost teary eyed now.
"Paildramon, or the bad jokes?" TK asked, running up beside Ken.
"Both."
Garbagemon did not even bother responding, instead throwing himself forward, one hand bringing his weapon back into firing range.
"Try that and I'll pop your can like a balloon. Sting Strike!"
The Garbagemon flew back again, this time howling in pain. But instead of fleeing, he rose again, hate filling his eyes. One hand pulled his weapon around, gleaming as it shone with pent up destructive energies.
"Junk Chunker!"
"Desperado Blaster!"
There was a sudden flash of fire, and then nothing.
"Well, we can go back to the surface now." Kari noted clinically, observing the map on the Scanner.
"And we can fight if we need to." Davis shouted. He sounded as confident as ever.
"I'm glad that we have a better chance now." Ken smiled at them. "And I'm glad that I can lend something back to the group."
"Hey Ken?" Cody asked as the group started to leave.
"Yeah Cody?" Ken looked down at his friend.
"Remember when you said that you owed us one?" Cody asked.
"Yes…" Ken's voice was hesitant.
"Well…" Cody's voice dropped off as he began to whisper conspiratorially.
After a moment, Ken, looking extremely nervous, dropped back to talk to Yolei who was walking in back.
"What's up Ken?"
"Well Cody, he said that I should…I mean that he thought that…" Oh well, Ken thought to himself. Leaning over gently he kissed Yolei on the cheek. Fortunately they were almost within the concealing shadows of the tunnels once more, and it prevented Yolei from looking like a tomato. As she blushed furiously, she shot a glance at Cody who was walking ahead. She could barely see him, but she knew that he was smirking tremendously. I'm either going to hug that kid, or kill him, she thought as she tried to keep her face from catching on fire.