Chapter 9
Seraphimon watched them run for a moment, and then focused his attention on Kari. He gently floated over to her, setting down and crouching by her arm. He lifted it slightly and placed his hand on the gash. Kari winced for a moment, then a bright, yellow glow covered her arm for a moment. When he removed his hand, the wound was healed, not even a scar remaining.
"TK?" she asked, as she stood. "Is that you?"
"Not quite," he replied, his voice oddly metallic and echoing. "I am Seraphimon, a mega-level angelic digimon."
"But TK is in there, somewhere, right?" Kari asked, running her hand down his chest-plate.
"In a manner of speaking," Justimon replied, moving to join them. His arm had reverted to a normal look, the blaster having receded. "We are both digimon, but we are a fusion of our human and digimon forms. We have the power of our mega forms, with the intellect and knowledge of our human forms."
Before they could say anything more, an x shaped blast of energy struck Seraphimon in the back. Justimon whirled to face the direction that the blast had come from, his arm reforming into a blaster again. Seraphimon stumbled for a moment and then launched into the air, energy forming around his hands as he prepared to defend himself and his friends.
"Wait!" Kari cried as a large, blue humanoid dragon crested the hill at a run, with Davis close on his heels. Behind him were Cody, riding on top of a massive digimon that very closely resembled a dinosaur called an ankylosaurous, and the rest of the older Chosen. "TK wait, that's Veemon's Champion form, Exveemon!" Seraphimon paused at her words, but Exveemon didn't. Using his large bat-like wings to launch himself into the air, he tackled Seraphimon, sending them both plummeting to the ground.
"Kari, we're here!" Tai called as he rushed forward, trying to grab her into a hug. Kari slipped underneath Tai's arms and rushed to Davis.
"Davis, call Exveemon back!" she cried. "That's TK you're attacking!"
Tai and the others looked at her as if she had just gone nuts.
"Kari, that's a digimon," Tai replied, as if explaining things to a child. "That can't be TK."
"It is!" Ken replied, joining them. "He and Angemon know a technique that allows them to merge into a single, powerful digimon. Davis, call ExVeemon back, before TK has to defend himself!"
"What are you guys so worried about," Davis grinned. "It's not like ExVeemon can loose to that overgrown suit of armor."
"Matt, is that Angemon?" Gururumon growled to his partner, sitting astride his back with Sora.
"I guess so, buddy," Matt replied, shielding his eyes from the sun as he tried to watch as Seraphimon nimbly dodged ExVeemon's attacks.
"He's sure powerful," Greymon growled from Tai's side. "I agree with Kari, Davis. Call ExVeemon back before he gets hurt."
"That's enough!" Davis cried. "I am so sick of hearing about TK and how great a Chosen he is! He's not that tough and I'm going to fucking prove it! ExVeemon, take him out!"
"Davis, don't be an idiot!" Ken cried. "Seraphimon is a mega level digimon! ExVeemon doesn't stand a chance against him!" And a moment later, Ken was proven right.
ExVeemon crashed into the burning desert sand quickly followed by Seraphimon landing just beyond his reach.
"A piece of advice," Seraphimon growled. "Stay down. We both know that I can turn you into data in a second. Don't give me a reason to."
"Davis says I can beat you, so I'm going to," ExVeemon growled, struggling to get up.
"Look, I've had a bad day," Seraphimon sighed, relaxing out of his fighting stance. "If you want to fight, go find someone else. I'm done here." With that, Seraphimon dissolved into a field of data that moved apart and reformed into Angemon and TK.
"Justimon, take off," TK called. "Get in touch with the others and contact me when you get a meeting set up." The cyborg digimon nodded and flew off, leaving TK to face the combined forces of his friends.
"Bio-merge, huh?" Tai asked, leaning against a chain-link fence in the park, where they had moved to after leaving the digital world.
"Yep," TK nodded, remaining fairly silent, simply holding Patamon in his lap.
"So are you going to say anything?" Cody demanded.
"What do you want me to say?" TK asked.
"Let's start with the part where you just vaporized those digimon," Davis growled. "Who gave you the right to start killing digimon?"
"Azulongmon," TK shrugged.
"Who?" Izzy wondered, sitting next to Mimi on a bench.
"Azulongmon," TK repeated, looking up. "Don't tell me, you don't know who that is, right?" After a few confirming nods and scowls, he continued. "Azulongmon is one of the Four Guardians of the digital world. He protects and guides the Eastern Hemisphere of the Digital world from danger and evil. He's the one who chose us to become Chosen."
"And why haven't we ever met this guy?" Joe wondered. "I mean, where was he when we were fighting the Dark Masters?"
"Trapped," TK shrugged. "Piedmon and the others sacrificed a lot of their power to seal away the Guardians when they began to take over the digital world."
"So, they weren't even at their full power when we faced them?" Mimi wondered.
"Nah, they'd gotten back to full power by the point where we faced them," TK shrugged. "That's why they didn't just come and annihilate us when we first showed up in the digital world. They were too weak from sealing the Guardians."
"Fine, when did Azulongmon give you permission to start killing random Digimon?" Cody demanded.
"They attacked us first," TK defended.
"So what?" Davis demanded, leaping to his feet and pacing around the park. "We've never killed digimon before! What makes you think that I'm going to let you stay in this group?"
"Who the hell made you God?" TK retorted, standing. "Let's get some things strait, huh? First, you can't throw me out. This isn't some damned club where you can kick out people you don't like! We work to preserve the balance of power in the digital world. Second, I don't answer to you, I answer to Tai! He's my leader, not you!"
"Listen you little," Davis growled, reaching for TK's shirt.
"STOP!" Both froze as Tai pushed off of the fence and moved in between them. "TK, Davis, both of you back off."
"Immature idiot," TK muttered, moving back to the bench he had been sitting on before.
"TK, calm down for a second and tell us how you met this Azulongmon," Tai ordered. TK fidgeted in his seat for a moment before sighing and shacking his head.
"I can't, Tai."
"TK…"
"No, it's not my place to tell. I'm keeping secrets from you guys, yes, but they aren't my secrets to tell."
"What, now it's alright to hide things from other chosen?" Cody demanded. "Maybe he's lying."
"That's enough!" Ken yelled before anyone else could say anything. "Tell them, TK," he whispered, his fists clenched.
"Ken…"
"I said, go ahead and tell them! I'm not going to be responsible for anymore friction between you and your friends."
"Ken, my friends and I are getting along fine, it's Cody and Davis who want my head right now," TK countered, standing and moving over to place a hand on Ken's shoulder. "Look, they want me out, and I'm not taking you with me, alright? I'll survive alright, but you need these friends right now."
"No, I want you to tell them," Ken reiterated.
"Well, then you have a problem, since I won't," TK countered, moving over to retrieve Patamon. "Not like this, man." He moved to leave, but stopped as Ken began speaking.
"As you all know, my brother, Sam, was killed in a hit-and-run accident when I was very little. A few days before he died, he and I were messing around on his computer, when a digivice came out of the screen. He took it as his own and was planning on messing around with it the next day, but he died before he could do anything with it. I got an email several days later that hinted that I was the one that the digivice was meant for. I took it and traveled to the digital world, meeting Wormmon and a friend of mine, named Ryo Akiyama."
"We know him," Tai nodded, his face darkening slightly.
"Well, we moved about the digital world for a time and he taught me some of what he had learned in the digital world. We ultimately ended up fighting a reincarnation of Millenniummon and succeeded in destroying him."
"Ken, don't do this to yourself."
"Be quiet, TK. They have a right to know. When Millenniummon died, however, he unleashed one final attack. Trapped in his back were a number of small seeds called Dark Spores. When Millenniummon deleted, the Dark Spores exploded out of his back. One headed straight for Ryo, who was exhausted from the fight. I managed to push him out of the way, but the Spore implanted itself in my neck.
"The purpose of the Dark Spores was to unleash the hidden potential of a digimon and to make it smarter, faster, and stronger, but while heightening it's darker tendencies. It worked the same way on a human being. For a time I was a genius and the best athlete in Japan. But I was also a bastard, mean to my parents, abusive to my partner, and disregarding of the feelings of others. Finally, I decided that the digital world belonged to me, and me alone. I dubbed myself the Digimon Emperor and set out to conquer what I saw as mine.
"TK, Ryo, and a group of other Chosen assembled to try and stop me, and they ultimately succeeded, but only after I had already inflicted massive harm upon the digital world."
The assembled Chosen remained silent for the moment, desperately trying to absorb what they had just heard. Their thoughts became partially interrupted by the sound of a basketball hitting the pavement. TK stood several feet away, on a basketball court, in front of the basket, dribbling a basketball. He gently bent his legs at the knees and lifted off the ground, letting the ball go at the height of his jump. It sailed across the court and dropped neatly through the basket.
"You knew." Kari's accusation was the first thing to break the silence.
"Of course I knew, I was there," TK replied softly. "Gennai came to me and wanted to assemble everyone together to fight off Ken when he began to make serious inroads into the digital world. In my arrogance, I convinced him that I could handle it with some help from some other Chosen. And all I really succeeded in doing was getting several Chosen badly wounded, and getting one killed."
"TK, what happened to Dani wasn't your fault." The group looked up at the new arrivals. Ryo stood in the front, a large blue dinosaur-like digimon hulking over his shoulder. Next to him stood a tall, blonde American. He wore a pair of khaki-shorts and a white t-shirt under a Hawaiian shirt. A small, bunny-like digimon clung to each of his legs, one green and white, one brown and white. Next to him was a lanky redhead, dressed in black leather. Standing next to her was a Guardromon, a machine digimon that looked like a steam-powered robot. The final member of their group was a blonde haired woman, roughly the same age as everyone else, with piercing green eyes. She was dressed in a black, min-skirt and a white tank-top that accentuated her curves, with a black leather bomber jacket over her shoulders and open-toed sandals. Next to her stood a Floramon, a flower-like digimon, with blossoms for hands and feet.
"'allo TK," she greeted, her eyes catching and holding TK's.
"Kat," TK breathed, standing.