A/N: Tajeri Lynn is back at FFN's world-famous Digidome so you amigos can catch second wind of "Takato Wong". And inspired by the Digidestined of Courage, I am going to explain what happened in the previous chapter. Here goes!
Previously, on "Takato Wong"….
Takato Wong…
"You could hang out with a chick."
"I'm short! Can you blame me?"
"Why are they called chicks? They don't even have any beaks…"
"Momentie, Takato."
HEY! All the lines belong to…Terriermon, get off the editing room! You're not cleared to be here, amigo!
"Un, un, uh! I have a contract that entails me the right to use the room. By the way, what does that mean, 'entail?' Is that something to do with animals?"
Sigh…Well, before I talk this over with Terriermon, I'll just say Digimon 03 is from Foxkids and Toei Animation. Move on to the next chapter, amigos…
Takato Wong
Phase B: Into the Mat
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"ShinJUKU, Japan! How in the hell are you doing tonight?!"
Boos resounded the Shinjuku Funplex as a lone boy was in the ring, carrying a microphone on one hand and a brass-laden championship belt on the other. He wore a flowing red coat to match his deliberately ruffled scarlet strands swaying from his head like spikes. The fans at Crazed Combat Wrestling, CCW, did not dig this individual one bit.
Takato and Susie were at the fifth row to the front, laying on red plastic fold-up chairs to witness the spectacle. Terriermon was on Susie's lap, wearing a doll's gown, in fact. Susie had long missed playing with dolls, so she started her little habit with a dressed-up Terriermon by her side. Terriermon denied the idea, but Takato capitalized and told the digimon that since he wasn't going to pay for the tickets, he had to pay up some other way, and so cross-dressing became the bargaining price. Terriermon slanted his eyes in irritance, further realizing they were on the fifth row, and all the rows before them were the ones with the steel chairs to offer the wrestlers.
"Takato, you bought us the cheap seats!" whined Terriermon, his ears sagging down to Susie's dress.
"Hey, you want to go back to Henry, old pal?" Takato spoke, shuffling his beige jacket to remove some popcorn that the fans were aiming at the red head.
"Are you kidding me? Henry would kill me if I went to school with him. He'll be blaming me if he gets an F on Biology. Besides, it's not like we get to go this often at CCW. All the blood and guts those guys put through! Mmm!"
"Oh no, Terriermon. Not blood. Blood is absolutely scare-wy. We're not going to see all that scare-wy stuff, are we, Takato?" Susie turned to her brother.
"No, no, of course not…It's the day show, so it's much less violent. Plus, the seats always come in cheap."
"Boo, Takato! Hear someone make noise for you. BOO!" Terriermon spoke with ears clasped around his mouth, amplifying his guttermouth voice.
"You don't look so happy, Tewwiermon," smiled Susie as she held a handful of salted popcorn. "I've bought popcorn for you. Want some?"
"Gee, thanks, Susie. For someone who put me in a dress, you sure know how to win me over," the dog-bunny digimon replied as the kernels fell upon a napkin atop Susie's lap. Terrermon grabbed a kernel and lobbed it so his mouth can catch it.
The audiences looked up at the spectacle, which still wasn't so grandiose.
"Now that you have FINALLY given me the attention that my intellect deserves," the lithe, 5 foot, 130-pound wrestler spoke up with his broken-record, boyish voice, "I've got some news that'll make you quiet just a little mite. You see, I, Katch Kindred, the Larcenist of Lockdowns, and my tag team partner, Jarvis Thatch, had just received word from the office that we were mandated to defend the CCW tag titles here today…But guess what, losers? Our opponents, the so-called Dauntless Duo, just got pulled over for speeding an hour ago! Hah hah hah! That means that officially, the Duo are unable to compete. Referee, be a good official and declare us the winners!"
Amidst the deafening boos and flying soda cups, a little heat was burning up..
"WHAT?!" said Terriermon, who turned to Takato. "You bought us REAL cheap
seats, Takato! We got screwed out of the main event! If that's not peachy
enough, there's no blood, there's no steel chairs, and I'm in a dress! You cost
me two hours I can never get back!"
"Terriermon, I couldn't know that we'd get ripped off like this. It pi-" he saw Susie, and corrected himself. "It tees me off too that this has happened. Don't think you're alone," he spoke unhappily.
"You really know how to make our lives more difficult, Takato. Remember the time you turned Guilmon into that Gidra-whatchamacallit? Believe me, I almost got a heart attack!….Do digimon have heart attacks? Do they have hearts?"
Takato's eyes narrowed at the thought. That old feeling was building in him. "Don't go ballistic on me, Terriermon. We don't want to upset Susie while she's enjoying herself. And DON'T remind me about that."
"Enjoying herself, huh? Susie!" called Terriermon urgently to the tongue-tied teenager. "Are you having a good time in this show?"
"Well, um, so far, things were going nicely, but-"
"Did you hear that, Takato? She agrees with me. She just said 'but'! To me!"
"I know you are, so what am I?" commented a goaded Takato as he fished some popcorn from Susie's bucket to gulp down his bored gullet, not making eye contact at all with Terriermon, and deliberately as well. If there was one thing the digimon didn't like, it was being talked at without being looked at.
"OOH! Brawl time!" a whacked-out Terriermon jumped at Takato, ears and all aimed at the young man's face.
"Hey!" Takato yelled as he and the digimon rolled over their seats, trying to force each other flat onto the snack-ridden floor. The Wong's arm was lengthy, but Terriermon's ears were thicker and the strength swerved over them was astonishing. Teaching each other a lesson was a match in itself.
"Here's my 20 dollars!" promised Terriermon.
"Hey, it was MY 20 dollars, in case you haven't noticed!"
"Takato! Tewwiermon! Stop fighting! Why do you have to fight over everything?" Susie chided helplessly, although she got a little mad as well. She grabbed Terriermon and tried to pull him off so he'd be his cute little self. But Susie yelped as muscular hands grabbed her back among a roaring semi-circle of wrestling fans, who were just loving this.
The red head atop the ring looked at the spectacle down below, and quickly he screwed the sphere on the microphone, creating a crowd-displeasing shriek. The crowd had their attention back on him, most of them anyway, but Takato and Terriermon's struggle was eye candy for a show that was technically over.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" yelled Katch, noticing bouncers had stormed over the guardrail to restrain the two. "Hold it, bouncies, hold it! Let 'em go for the moment!" He quickly began waving a hand to all four sides of the squared circle, shouting "Let them go! Let them go!" With that, the whole ring was resounding with the chants of "Let them go! Let them go! Let them go!"
Then, he saw the big burly owner of CCW telling the bouncers to throw away the duo, who were now trying to push the bouncers down. The crowd reaction roared so loudly that Susie held her ears.
"Wait a minute! Is that Mr. Saner that I see? The big shot CCW guy? Hey, Saner, I'm talking to you! I said let them go!"
Saner turned his sights away from the ensnared duo and watched the red head, mouthing to himself, "The hell you doing, Katch?" The CCW owner told the bouncers to keep Takato and Terriermon out of trouble until the boys in blue can steer their way into the dome.
"Hey, you, little brunette and your girly doll! Eyes groundside here, you two!" shouted Katch in that annoying boyish voice, whipping his belt across the ring apron listlessly, as he began to quiet down. "Since me and Jarvis are the tag team champions, and since NO ONE but you wants to show off what they really can do, I'm making you a preposition. Come over here to the ring."
"OOOHHHH!" the crowd chanted, before chuckling a few guffaws here and there.
"Huh?" Takato said as he watched Katch, irritated that this arrogant, overbearing shorty was forcing him into the limelight. Gogglehead Boy had never put himself through guys of Mr. Kindred's caliber, if one can call this man's talent "caliber". Takato had only watched the fights from a safe distance, so it had been these past 10 years. He had never done martial arts, either, despite Janyuu and Henry's expertise in tapping their chi within. As for Terriermon, what could the little guy do against Kindred, or for that matter, Mr. Thatch, who still hadn't shown up? The dog-bunny was choked by his own ears through manipulation by a bouncer, who was making him pass out. 10 years of viewing wrestling wasn't going to help them through this…Right?
"Takato, what does that loser want?" asked an annoyed Susie, a welcome sight emerging above the mire of raucous spectators and muscular bouncers.
"He wants me to fight him," Takato whispered to her, before reverting to an evil-eye stare at Katch, "just so that he can send me out to dry and keep me from getting arrested."
"Not 'me', brunette. The correct answer is 'we'. I know who the girly doll is..A digimon, and never in my life have I ever locked up against one, especially a digimon who had what it took to save this stinking city." Boos were resurrected in the dome.
"This city doesn't stink!" Takato replied, as the bouncers' grip around his chest grew even weaker. The fans cheered on the so-called hometown hero. It wasn't long before Terriermon himself was released, and he jumped on the guardrail, going "Rrr!" towards Katch.
"So, you are going to compete, you and your girly mon?"
"That's Terriermon! And I'm not girly!" Terriermon removed the dress off himself, ready to play the game, and folded the dress into a neat square before throwing the dress over to Susie, who jumped and caught it with her two hands. "I'm sorry," he said to her softly.
"No problem! I wouldn't want you to mess your little dress!" she smiled.
"So we ARE doing this? Thatch, come on and let's get this over with!" Katch called his partner, and he threw away his belt and the microphone.
With wills united against the tag teamers' cause, Takato and Terriermon jumped over the guardrail as the CCW fans began patting their backs for good luck. They looked at one another if they really wanted to do this, but neither man nor mon was willing to back out of an offer if the other was going to take it. They smiled tauntingly at each other, wishing good luck as the inadvertent duo stumbled about the slippery floor. That was when both challengers were grabbed by the back of their necks and thrown smack dab into the ring apron. At once, the bell rang, and that noise was perfect for the duo's current feelings at the time. Whoever said wrestling was fake was definitely a target on Terriermon's list; nobody lies to Terriermon!
Takato slumped on his back, turning and seeing a bespectacled cruiserweight with blue hair curved down to his neck, as well as a shadow-black trench coat. Thatch grabbed Terriermon and threw him at the center of the squared circle.
"Come on, Takato! Get back up!" Susie shouted, waving Terriermon's flower-patterned dress like a signal of life.
Takato groaned, and struggled to get himself up, aching as he got a bruise on his left leg. "Urr…"
Meanwhile, Katch raised up the weakened Terriermon by the minute hooves of his feet. Suspended upside down, Terriermon was on dream street, wondering why all of a sudden some topsy turvy blue head was running toward him. Jarvis grabbed the digimon's head while Katch still held on to his legs, and both spun circularly as the double-team neckbreaker sent a crashing noise erupting from the surface of the ring. Susie screamed while the other fans shouted "OH!" loudly in reply. Terriermon's eyes spiraled as the digimon felt a foot pressed down for the three count, or was that ten? It didn't matter, he could use the break…
Straightening his squared glasses, Jarvis was laughing at the cheap pinfall attempt before his eyes caught a yelling Takato flying over Terriermon and whacking the co-champ's belly with a wicked steel chair. Jarvis tottered away from Terriermon so the referee shouted that only a two-count was made.
A stunned Katch Kindred went behind the Wong and grabbed Takato by his bruised left leg. Takato yelped at the pain and retaliated by launching his right leg out of the floor, and while his back hit the floor jarringly, the right foot caught Katch by his jaw. Kindred spat saliva, shut his eyes and fell down like a felled redwood tree. Takato hooked his leg, and got a one-count. However, Katch was still down. Another pinfall was what Takato did next, and still Katch raised up his shoulders.
Takato ran up to Terriermon, tapping at his cheek. "Terriermon, wake up! We've got to get out of here."
"What are you talking about, Henry? I'm already out of it..Oohhh…", Terriermon spoke, talking face away from Takato.
"Argh! I should've gotten arrested instead!" Takato grabbed Terriermon over his shoulder for convenience, and as he turned to the outside he saw both Katch and Jarvis leap with a double clothesline that hooked his neck and sent both him and Terriermon falling off onto the cruel mat. Takato got grabbed by Katch, who was still rubbing his kicked jaw, and Jarvis pounded on him with fast jabs. Takato grunted as his oxygen was forcibly pummeled out of his gut, and he tried to get off of Katch, but Katch felt more careful with his grip than were Saner's bouncers.
Terriermon, got up and saw Takato's pain. "Heh, heh. I guess they're beating him up for me…Loser!" Then, his smile sank into a crevice of a frown. "Hey! On second thought, if he loses, I lose too! Not going to let a bunch of nobodies scratch at my pride. Not gonna happen." He grabbed a steel chair, and tried to pull it, and sweat was beading at his head as he lifted the comparably massive weight. "Umm! There's a reason why I only throw these things! Wait, I got it! Hee-yah!" he kicked a hoove under the rim as to give a slight lift of the chair, and before it fell down, Terriermon spun his ears and catapulted the chair right onto Jarvis' head.
Jarvis turned around Takato so as to proudly pin him at the center of the ring, and was caught surprised as an airborne chair struck Takato's face, and clanged down a garbled mess.
"Terrier…mon, you idjit!" groaned Takato weakly, as Jarvis dropped him in surprise of the screw job.
"Aw nuts!" said Terriermon. "Why do they always turn around at the wrong time?"
"AH!" Susie said, face gone white.
"OH!" said the CCW fans, who began rolling their fists to the air, chanting, "Holy s***! Holy s***! You F***ed up! You F***ed up!
"You again?" Jarvis said as he grabbed the broken chair and attempted to flatten Terriermon as if he was the fly and the chair was the fly-swatter. Terriermon's tiny form slid out of the way, and then leaning before Jarvis, his ears contracted to the mat. He then springboarded himself and nailed a head-butt to the chair through Jarvis' face, just as the co-champ rose up the chair to hammer Long-Ears down for good.
Jarvis collapsed, stunned again as his glasses tinkered over the ring. Terriermon, holding his wayward noggin as best as he could, was careening about to make the pin, but he saw a semi-conscious Takato held upside down by Katch Kindred, who was planning to drive the youth's head down to the floor. Takato was struggling to shake himself free from Kindred's grip, so the lag time was available. Not wanting to risk his partner's injury from Kindred's piledriver maneuver, Terriermon leapt in cross-body formation over Takato's form, and the new addition to the burden was enough for Katch to go flat on his back. Takato growled triumphantly and hooked the foe's legs over his own shoulders, and then, he saw a rectangular shadow overlapping his form. Takato and Terriermon leapt to the sides as a giant ladder smashed over Katch's chest, the steel being murder to his belly. The red head held his chest achingly, writhing his legs hopelessly to get off. Jarvis sneered and banged a fist on the ring, because now he missed the intended spot, and proceeded to grab another ladder. While Jarvis was busy, Terriermon opened the broken chair and set it at the center of the ring. Stopping by the far end, Terriermon jumped over the dented seat of the chair, got on the supple steel ropes and, smiling at a bewildered Jarvis, somersault-plunged himself out of the ring and into the man! Both fighters on the outside couldn't stand up after the stunt.
Susie leapt over the guardrail with a bottle of water for Takato.
"Susie, get out of the ring! You could get hurt!" said Takato in panic, leaning his face out through the ropes.
"You're having a great show!" Susie perked a smile, which was always more infectious from the presence of those puffy cheeks.. "Here, some water to cool you off, Takato," she offered the bottle, which Takato took and nodded in gratitude. "And watch out for that mean Katch. He's setting up a ladder on the corna."
"Where?" he turned around, and saw Katch aim a gyrating hurricane kick at his chin. Susie quickly leapt back behind the ring so as to watch the struggle safely.
"That your brother, sis?" a fan spoke next to her. "He's crazy as hell!"
"He's not vewy crazy. He's super crazy! Hee hee!" She clapped her hands ecstatically.
"Kids…" the fan mumbled to himself.
Still clutching the bottle of water like it was a godsend, Takato was driven to the turnbuckles by Katch, who begin whipping Takato's T-shirt laden belly with fierce karate chops. Takato yelled as the whips made his skin redden. He couldn't see his chest, but he sure could feel what was going on.
Laughing, Katch whipped Takato's arm to send the unwitting challenger to the corner where the ladder had been arranged. At the middle of the struggle, Takato unscrewed the cap of the water bottle with his teeth and flung the water at Katch! Katch sputtered the drips of water and then, Takato, murmuring "Heaven help me", grabbed one elbow and spun, throwing his foe's figure onto the ladder!
Katch hit the ladder and his eyes spun black, and as the competitor rolled away from the ladder, Takato, knowing full well what it took to stop Katch, madly sprung up to a top turnbuckle. Stumbling on the top and holding the ropes with his hands, he stood up, shutting his eyes at the insanity he was about to do, and then soared, flexing his arms and legs like an angel swimming over the air. The velocity of the splash crushed Katch, who squeaked a small breath, and Takato, laid down over Katch, sighing in relief as the referee got down the 1, 2, 3.
The fans echoed and deafened as they circled their arms again, shouting "CCW! CCW!" Popcorn flew over the squared circle like confetti, and soda cans splashed tart contents over the fallen opponents. Ironically, the praised victors were never professionals in the very company this show had promoted.
"YAY!" Susie said as she jumped and squeezed Takato's bruised face in her arms. She felt Takato laughing wickedly, for never did he think he would actually beat Katch and Jarvis in their own game. Susie saw the weary, chuckling Terriermon drag his form upon the ring apron, and she let go of a stumbling Takato so she could joyfully raise up Terriermon in victory. Proud that he was, the dog-bunny digimon, fur ruffled and a slight cut on his little head, formed "V" symbols with his fingers.
Straining harshly with eyes tightened, Takato held his chest and hugged his left leg as the referee paced over to him, dropping the two title belts now honoring him and Terriermon. Takato watched the instruments of glory for a few seconds or too. But having taken this fight only to keep himself from having a record, he resolutely slammed his palm and shoved the belts away from the ring, where they cluttered audibly. He rose his head, stood up and walked over to shake the palms of his unconscious foes. "You did a good job, but I think I'll stick with watching you fight," he commented to them as he waved a hand to beckon Susie and Terriermon to follow.
The bruised Wong chuckled and held his friends, or family, they were both the same. "Come on, Susie, Terriermon. Back to the hard stuff now. I'm getting late for work."
To Be Continued….
A/N: I might edit this. Feedback, perhaps?
OOC, maybe? Well, this story is unarguably based more on the human cast than the digimon cast, and fleshing them out in a future setting has lots of interesting ideas. I also wanted to put in an action sequence so that you could understand the stuff the characters will put up with in the future chapters.
By the by, Susie's words are similar to the decade before this story. She doesn't sound the same, exactly, but she loves keeping certain words just to play around with friends and family. She's not going to remain 7, and we all know that.
Until then, keep reading, amigos!
