Digital Monsters: Back In Action

By Charles Xavier

…

Casino PicoDevimon

…

"Duck season!"

"Wabbit season!"

"Duck season!"

"Wabbit season!"

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck continued bickering about what hunting season it was, so that Elmer Fudd could shoot at least one of them. However, Bugs' quick wits and clever craftiness never failed to reveal Daffy's own flaws when trying to outsmart somebody.

"Wabbit season!" Bugs said.

Daffy, now fed up with this pointless argument, grabbed the barrel of Elmer's gun aimed it at his face, shouting: "DUCK SEASON…FIRE!"

…

Agumon, Gabumon and Piyomon were sitting together with their eyes stuck to Sora's TV, watching a very unusual cartoon called 'Looney Tunes'. And that was certainly what the Digimon thought about these cartoons. Every minute there'd be something crazy happening in it. For example, just after the Digimon saw Elmer fire his gun, it was hard for them to believe that Daffy's head was still intact to the body, and only his bill was out of position…for it was seen placed behind his head instead of front. And even though the program was subtitled in Japanese, none of them could quite figure out why some of the characters were speaking with funny lisps.

"Boy, these Looney Tunes are crazy." Gabumon scratched his head. "They are funny, but crazy."

Sora Takenouchi more than welcomed Agumon and Gabumon to stay at her place, while Taichi and Yamato were still busy joining in the demonstration marches in Tokyo. Piyomon seldom got to hang around with Agumon and Gabumon anyway, after Sora's flower shop, so called 'Flowers R Us', was growing into a huge success. Such as success that Piyomon has had to help Mrs. Takenouchi with all the swarming customers each time she needed a hand.

"Are you guys watching this show again?" Sora came into the room, seeing what the Digimon were up to. "Here…I know a better channel than this." She picked the remote control and switched over to the Japanese Disney Channel. "This guy is ten times as funny as any cartoon I've ever seen…even Dr. Slump!"

…

"WHOOOOOAAAAAAAA!"

…

Goofy was on, up to one of his silly antics again. Sora couldn't restrain herself from giggling at the clumsy toon, simply acting like nothing but a buffoon and just…a goof.

"Piyomon, I want you to stay here with Agumon and Gabumon." Sora said, heading for the entrance door and putting on her shoes. "I need to go out tonight and shop for a few items. There's some macaroni cheese in the microwave if you're hungry, but for Pete's sake, if you want order pizza, please call me first to ask my permission!"

"No problem, Sora!" Piyomon replied. "Have we ever let you down?"

"Yes, you have…do you remember that time you guys ordered a triple Mushroomon pizza WITHOUT asking and left it standing in my kitchen to stink for a whole week?"

"Um…no?" The Digimon shrugged; they were too idle to recall the incident when their minds were adrift away to the television.

Sora sighed stressfully. "Look…just call me before you order anything, all right?"

"Fine, fine. We'll do it, Sora." Agumon said, waving his paw at her to 'shoo' her away. "We'll call you if we're going to order food."

"Okay, then." Sora opened the door. "I might return a little late. So if my mom comes back before me, just tell her I'll be back before midnight. Wakarimashita ka?"

"HAI!" The Digimon all shouted together, and Sora shut the door.

…

Outside of the building was a humongous moving picture of PicoDevimon, designed with neon lights. The animation consisted of PiceDevimon presenting a cheeky grin, while opening his wings to reveals bags of money underneath his arms. By this appearance, Eddie could most likely tell the attitude of the casino's owner: a sleaze bucket. And that's what he was, no doubt. He was bossy, overly strict and couldn't give a toss about his employee's personal problems if there were any. All he cared about was making business in his place…some of the anime from Toei came here for a part time job to earn more money. And PicoDevimon was some of the few anime in Tokyo who was known to pay his workers fairly and decently…but not always.

"Well, this is it: Casino PicoDevimon." Hikari said to the toon detective. "Takeru's bound to be in there somewhere, I hope."

She led the way towards the grand entrance, where two macho security guards in black suits were standing on both sides. Just when the guards made way for Hikari, Eddie and Tailmon and opened the doors for them, somebody from inside was coming out, accompanied by a small child who was apparently getting kicked out. Eddie, Hikari and Tailmon stopped when they saw a little boy being escorted out of the casino by another security guard.

"Now run along back to your home, little boy." The guard knelt down and told the blond boy kindly, waving a finger at him. "This place isn't suitable for young kids like you to be playing about in."

"For God's sake, that's the third time this month you people have thrown me out of here! Do you have even the slightest idea of who I am?" The boy snapped back at him annoyingly. "Don't you even recognize these wings I have on my back?"

"Sure. I recognize those wings." The guard answered sarcastically. "But it's little too early for Halloween, don't you think?"

That had done it, and the boy was outraged now. Without warning, he evolved into his Satan mode. And Eddie was almost scared off his pants, when he saw he had changed into a giant monstrous beast.

"RAAAAAAA!"

"AIIIIEEEEE!" The beast picked up the terrified looking guard, pleading for mercy. "PLEASE…PLEASE! FORGIVE ME! I'm sorry…I'm so sorry! I'd forgotten that it was only you, Mr. Lucemon! Please put me down!"

Satisfied to see how guilty the guard felt, Lucemon put his victim down gently and changed back into his original form.

"That's better." Lucemon said, wiping his arms and straightening himself up. "Now if you don't mind, I'll be returning back to the casino. And tell PicoDevimon that if he or any of his workers ever force me to leave again, I'll have him for dinner!"

"Of course, Mr. Lucemon." The guard smiled forcefully and delivered many bows to him as the Digimon marched back inside. "Have a pleasant night, sir."

Uninterested to talk about this bizarre encounter, Eddie, Hikari and Tailmon entered the casino.

…

"You are certain that Takeru will turn up?"

"You betcha he would, sir. Or my name isn't PicoDevimon!" The fiendish little Digimon said to the monitor screen. In his private office, Archnemon and Mummymon were present. Both stood firmly behind PicoDevimon's desk like toy soldiers, facing the screen to their boss. Between them, stood a suspicious stranger in black, dressed in a thick sweater, dark jeans, heavy boots, bore leather gloves and had a woolen ski mask worn over his head to conceal his identity. "That sucker would go through anything to find Hikari here! Why, I'll even take her hostage if I have to get his attention…she should be showing up here any minute now!"

"Very well." Mr. Chairman said. "Here is the two million yen I promised to give you for his capture…do use it wisely."

The stranger in black stepped forward to PicoDevimon's desk, and set down a black suitcase. Opening it up, PicoDevimon almost spun off his chair when he gasped graciously at the heaps of money inside. For a second, he felt like he was in sweet Heaven.

"YOWZAS!" PicoDevimon cried. "I've hit the jackpot!"

"Don't let me down, PicoDevimon." Mr. Chairman spoke severely. "Do not fail me, or else I'll get mad…and you wouldn't like it when I'm mad." The monitor screen zoomed out sharply, showing the person standing behind Mr. Chairman: Judge Doom. Doom demonstrated as he slipped on his rubber gloves and opened a large barrel of fresh DIP beside him. PicoDevimon and his friends felt their stomachs churning when setting sight upon the horrible toxic liquid before them. They began to sweat drop fearfully. "Doom here will be very happy to deal with you, if you make me mad."

…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up here and be amazed when you see Wizarmon's Wonderful Abba-Kadabra tricks!" Wizarmon announced, standing on a wooden stage among his audience. With him was his lovely assistant, Floramon. "I will show you tricks that no magician has ever dared to attempt, tricks that will turn your heads upside down so far that you won't even remember what hit you. So I strongly suggest to all you adults not to attempt or recreate any of these acts or tricks you are about to see at home under any circumstances whatsoever."

Wizarmon removed his hat and presented it to his audience.

"See here, that nothing is inside my hat. Not a fly, not a piece of hair, not speck of dust. So now, with my trusty magic staff, I will take all risks and summon upon into my hat, the most ferocious and most abominable monster ever to walk upon this Earth! So terrifying that all those who have set eyes upon it have been left mentally scarred for life. So horrific that Hell itself had to spit it out because there was simply no room… Now don't any of you walk away or be frightened…I am a highly trained professional, and I am fully aware of the highly dangerous act that I am about to perform. Rest assure, that nothing should go wrong at anytime…or you can call me the worst magician ever to exist in Japan!"

With his magical powers, Wizarmon waved his staff above his hat and chanted some magic words…

"Hocus Pocus, Magic Maker! Show me the accident in all of nature!"

A puff of smoke clouded the stage. But when it cleared, everyone could see Wizarmon's face. And he wasn't frightened…no, far beyond it: he was PETRIFIED. He could have wet his pants at that moment, if only he were desperate to go. His blood quickly ran cold when he saw the monstrosity that was sticking out of his hat. Floramon recoiled back with extreme dread, her lips mumbling gibberish as she didn't know what to say. The audience gasped quite gruesomely, but none of them were as afraid as Wizarmon. And rather ironically, some of them were giggling because…

"YOO-HOO! Lover boy, it's Lena Hyena!" (1)

Yes, cartoon character Lena Hyena had magically popped out of Wizarmon's hat. And those who were familiar with her knew exactly what she adored most in the whole wide world: men. And Wizarmon was of no exception to her.

"OH, NO! NOT YOU AGAIN!" Wizarmon tried to run away from the man-crazy toon, but Lena caught him before he could make his escape by grasping his arm. "Floramon, please help me!"

"Come to Lena! HOO! HOO! HOO!" Lena dived back into the hat with Wizarmon's arm, trying to pull him down inside with her. Wizarmon did what he could to hold back, while Floramon took his other arm and pulled away from Lena's direction, starting a tug-of-war game against her.

"Don't worry, Wizarmon. I'll get you out of this!" Floramon exclaimed.

While the amused audience watched what was happening, a few of them walked away and went to play the Roulette games, run by Bokomon and Neemon. Bokomon was taking in everybody's bets, while Neemon was the one hosting the game. This was a favorite game for both men and women, and it was hard getting seats around the table.

"Okay, dokey! Let's spin that wheel!" Neemon said as the wheel began to spin. "Around and around it goes…when it stops, nobody knows!"

When the wheel stopped turning, there was a loud noise mixed with cheering and crying that filled the whole table. Eddie Valiant had never expected the Japanese to act so wildly when it came to gambling. He thought they'd act more formal, since that was how they always behaved. But then again, they had to have some fun every now and then.

Following Hikari and Tailmon across the casino, they soon reached the Women's Changing room.

"Mr. Valiant, would it be all right if you waited outside here while I get dressed?"

"Sure, Hikari. Take your time, I'll be around here."

So Eddie stood alone, waiting patiently outside. While doing so, he couldn't help notice the Black Jack table nearby. Over there, Piemon was dealing cards to his players: Starmon, Revolmon, and a couple of people who looked disturbingly like members of the Yakuza.

"Hit or Stay, Mr. Starmon?" Piemon asked him politely.

"Well, looks like I'm going to win this round again!" Starmon laughed; he currently had 20 and there was a VERY slim chance of his rival Revolmon in winning this time. How much further would his luck push him after all? He had already won three times in a row, and he was happy to double his bets and go on to win a fourth round. "Sorry to have to do this to you, pal."

"Aw, damnit! You have to be kidding me here!" Revolmon realized that this wasn't his day. In rage, he took out his guns and raised them high towards Starmon. "I suspect you're cheating!"

"No, don't you go crying to me, Revolmon. You know I'd never do that to you; this is all being played fair and square. And I'm sure tomorrow will be a brighter day for you…it's just too bad you had to get 19 now." Starmon didn't mean it, as usual. He only pretended to care. "And if I was cheating, then you could strike me down on my knees, call me Charlie and HIT ME!"

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, sir!" Piemon announced once he gave Starmon his next card. "You've just hit 22! You loose, I'm afraid, leaving Revolmon the winner of this round!"

'WHAT?! BUT…B-B-BUT…"

"BWA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Revolmon laughed victoriously at the devastated Starmon, looking pale as ever. "Serves you right…serves you right…SERVES YOU RIGHT! AH! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAAAAA!"

Revolmon began firing his pistols inside the casino aimlessly. And little did he observe that one of his shots bounced up to the ceiling, making a large dent of it fall directly onto his happy face. Now Revolmon was coughing up dust, and Starmon was the one laughing back at his clumsiness.

…

"Hikari?"

"Catherine…?" Hikari was given quite a surprise when she bumped into Catherine in the changing room. "Catherine, it is you! How are things going with you?"

"Ca va bien, Hikari. And I hope everything is going zee same with you and Tailmon, non?" Catherine bent down to give a wave at Tailmon. "How iz zee petit chat doing tonight, huh?"

"I'm fine." Tailmon answered. "How's Floramon doing with Wizarmon's new act recently?"

"Uh…well…I am not too sure, but I believe zat it iz going fairly well."

…

Floramon was losing the battle with Lena Hyena. Already she had succeeded in dragging Wizarmon's upper torso down inside the hat. Now all that remained outside for Floramon to hold onto was Wizarmon's legs and bulging bottom sticking out of the hat.

"Uh-oh. This isn't looking good at all!" Floramon said to herself. "Hold on, Wizarmon! I think I can get you out there this time!" Floramon pulled back with all her might…only to tear Wizarmon's pants off completely. "Whoops…"

The audience laughed again when they were able to see Wizarmon's bare legs and more humiliating, his red polka dot boxers.

…

"PicoDevimon iz becoming more and more impossible everyday, since business haz not been doing so well lately. And especially tonight wiz zee whole Takeru matter going on, you know." Catherine was glad she wasn't the only anime working tonight. She was happy to see her old friend come and cheer her up. "PicoDevimon's given me a longer night shift since most of our workers are off in zose protests…c'est incroyable!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Hikari said, looking a little unhappy when her mind thought about Takeru.

"Oh, no offense, Hikari. I did not mean it zat way about him." Catherine apologized and took her friend's hand dearly. "Pardon…it iz my fault. I did not want to upset you about Takeru."

"Oh, it's all right, Catherine. You don't have apologize." Hikari wiped off her serious face and changed it into a smile. "I'm sure Takeru is…"

Hikari paused when she heard a deep male voice somewhere in the room, and all the other women froze too.

"Hey, hey, hey! This is pretty nice place with all you hot ladies…I don't think I've ever been thrown out of here before."

"AAAA!" All the women shrieked in terror when a small purple Digimon was seen running about, dashing past the showers, toilets, over women, between their legs and laughing hysterically like a filthy pervert. When the Digimon made its way up to Hikari and Catherine, the girls rolled their eyes down to the floor to see a sniggering Impmon hugging their legs, and looking up on their open dresses.

"Hey, girls! Great view from down here!" Impmon gave a high whistle, gazing up at their underwear. "I should come here more often!"

Hikari and Catherine felt fully embarrassed and their faces blushed. But then after that…

"BAKAAAAAAA!" Now furiated, both of the anime screamed out and constantly whipped Impmon with their towels aggressively. "BAKA! BAKA! BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!"

Tailmon and the women joined in on the beating.

"Hey, stop that! Stop! Stop! STOP! This is no way to treat a Digimon!" Impmon's words weren't able to get across to the dozens of angry women beating him senselessly for his moronic behavior. "Ladies, I'll be good! I'll be good!"

Impmon was driven out of the changing room, and Eddie was the first one to see him rush out of there like a speeding race car.

…

Floramon was STILL fighting to save Wizarmon from the hideous Lena…or what was left of him. Only half of his leg was sticking out from the hat now, and the poor Digimon was holding on for dear life to it.

"I've still got you, Wizarmon, and I'm still going to get you out of there. Believe me, I'm not pulling your leg this time!" The audience laughed at Floramon's unintended pun joke. "Gosh, that Lena's strong. I've never seen anything quite like this befo…"

Before Floramon could finish, her sweaty hands accidentally slipped out from Wizarmon's leg, letting it drop right into the hat. The audience fell silent when they realized that Wizarmon was gone.

"Oh, dear." Floramon picked up Wizarmon's hat and tipped it upside down, hoping that something was to drop out. But her thoughts proved wrong and nothing came out. "PicoDevimon's not going to be happy about this."

…

"HMPH! I loathe zat Digimon!" Catherine snorted. "Zat imbecile is always up to no good!"

"I don't understand how he manages to get his way past security." Hikari thought. "Impmon's been banned from this casino four times already. It makes me wonder what PicoDevimon's guards are doing every day."

"Ah, who knows?" Catherine shrugged. "It's tough being zee boss around here, n'est-ce pas?"

"You're right there, Catherine." Hikari walked over with her friend towards their own lockers, unlocking them with their personal keys. "So how have you and Michael been getting along?"

"Ah, mon Dieu...I do not think our relationship iz going to last much longer. I feel zat Michael haz been drifting away from me recently; we have not spoken in zee last two weeks…and I think he haz some attraction on your other friend, Mimi."

"Honto desu ka?" Hikari said, placing her hand onto her locker's handle. "I haven't noticed that at all."

"Well, mon amie. Perhaps you should open your eyes a little more towards your friends; you've been thinking far too much about Takeru ever since he got thrown out of Toei Animation."

"I'm only worried about him, that's all." Hikari looked unhappy again. "He's gotten himself into so much hassle lately. I mean, look what's happened to him now. He's made world history in becoming the first anime fugitive in Japan!"

"Oh, Hikari." Catherine conforted her. "You should always look on zee bright side, no matter how much gets life you down. It iz like what us French say…que sera, sera: whatever will be, will be. And I have a sixth sense that he still likes you…but do you still like him?"

"Nani?"

"I believe zat you and Takeru share something very special in common together, even from zat very day you two first met." Catherine nudged her friend and whispered in her ear. "It iz very clear to me zat Takeru was not writing zose silly scripts for fun. And you know zat too."

"…"

"He worked day and night, trying to think up ways to express his long admiration for you, which tells me zat Takeru was simply too shy to tell you in real person, non? But no matter how hard he tried, you only shied away from him."

"Yeah, but…what's your point?"

"You know exactly what my point iz…you have to face it, Hikari. He's in love with you, and you feel zee zame way about him too. Stop trying to rezist it or it will make Takeru only more unhappy..."

Hikari wanted to take Takeru off her mind. So she turned to her locker and opened the door; though she had no expectation to find that something very cramped, but something very alive, was waiting for her inside.

"SURPRISE!" A gigantic spider-like creature jumped out of Hikari's locker and grabbed Tailmon by firing a cobweb rope onto her and pulling her away. "HEE! HEE! HEEEEEEE!"

At that instant, all the women inside the changing room screamed again and went down onto the floor. The creature took Tailmon into her arms and spun around to face Hikari and Catherine, grinning at them villainously.

"Archnemon!" Hikari yelled, stepping forward to protect Catherine.

"Sorry I had to crash in there, but you know how much I love making surprise entrances…but for now, it's time for you and your Digimon here to come quietly with us, Miss Yagami…or else!"

"Or else what?"

"Or else…" Tailmon attacked Archnemon by sinking her teeth into her hands and biting them fiercely. "…YEEOOWWW!" Archnemon dropped Tailmon at once and waved her hands in pain. Tailmon took this time to run to Hikari's side and confront her enemy.

…

Eddie heard a clamorous voice inside the Women's Changing room, and it didn't sound like somebody had broken a fingernail. Far worse, it sounded like pure danger. So regardless that women were only allowed inside the changing room, Eddie took no chances and raced inside undetected.

"AAAAAAAAA!" Eddie was welcomed with an endless chorus of more screams from the Japanese women that were more than shocked to see him. For that second, Eddie felt that his nose was about to leak, from looking at the splendid sight of them. But his eyes were moved elsewhere, when he heard a woman's voice saying:

"Get back, Hikari!"

Eddie ran past the gawking women and stopped when he found Angewomon wrestling against Archnemon. Archnemon didn't have too much difficulty handling with Angewomon, and she easily finished her off by taking her arms, swinging and tossing her aside, making the angelic Digimon smash through the wall and end up collapsing in the shower room.

"Angewomon!" Hikari cried. But Archnemon wasn't done yet. She crawled through the hole she made in the wall and approached the recovering Angewomon lying on the floor. Archnemon was going to take action before her opponent had time to get up, but something hard and solid struck her on the back of her head…literally. It felt like a small pebble or stone.

"Hey, eight legs!" Eddie shouted at her from behind. Archnemon snarled back and scowled at the man presenting his badge at her. "I'm placing you under arrest for being a public nuisance, causing disturbance to a Toon Detective in the middle of solving a case, and most of all, attempting to assault these nice young ladies scared straight because of your ugly face!"

"RAAAAA!" Archnemon shot cobweb balls at Eddie, who leaped aside to avoid them. But he had to look sharper when Archnemon was planning her second move. She jumped on top of him and tried to stomp on him with her legs. Eddie, however, quickly rolled and slid past her attacks and got himself out of the mess. "Grrr! Hold still, you smelly human!" She chased the detective up to a corner where the fire exit was located. But there was also small fire extinguisher box attached to the wall there, and Eddie wasn't blind to see it. "I eat humans like you for breakfast!"

"Then, open wide!" Eddie smashed the box and took out the fire extinguisher, spraying it directly into Archnemon's face. "Have a taste of this, chum!"

"AAARGH!" Archnemon shut her eyes as she became blinded temporarily. Eddie made this opportunity to escape and went over to Angewomon to see how she was doing.

"You okay, buddy?" He asked, helping Angewomon get onto her feet. "We got to get you and Hikari out of here now, or this place is gonna beat the hell out of us!"

When Angewomon was had enough energy to walk again, she followed Eddie towards Hikari. She took her by the hand and led her out of the changing room immediately, leaving Catherine, Archnemon and the scared stricken women behind.

…

"Hold it right there!" A mummified Digimon pointed his heavy guns at the three, emerging out from the Women's Changing room. "Leaving so soon?"

Mummymon wasn't alone: he had ten guards around him, all pointing pistols at the group and ready to fire if they were to make a wrong move. Eddie couldn't find a way out of this; the guards didn't look too kindly on them anyway, with their shady sunglasses and cigarettes hanging from some of their mouths. He had no idea how handy these people were with guns, and he didn't want to find out. As for Angewomon, she wasn't quite at full strength, after having taken some damage from Archnemon. She probably wouldn't survive taking on Mummymon now.

So Eddie gave in by raising his hands. Hikari and Angewomon had no choice either but to do the same.

…

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" PicoDevimon smiled broadly when his guards dragged in Eddie, Angewomon and Hikari into his office. "Three troublemakers in my own casino…? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! I'm very surprised to see you, Hikari, backstabbing on me like this!"

"What are you talking about?" Hikari answered back. "It was Archnemon who…"

"Silence! You're talking to the guy who runs this joint!" PiceDevimon broke out, flapping his wings fumingly, sitting on his small chair. "I won't take any of your pitiful reasons!"

Archnemon, Mummymon walked into the room. They were followed by the stranger in black seen earlier, who soundlessly shut the door behind him.

"We've searched everywhere, PicoDevimon." Said Archnemon. "There's no sign of that boy anywhere."

"We checked the bar, we checked the restaurants, we checked the toilets, we checked the changing rooms, we checked the monitor screening rooms, we checked the ventilations shafts…hey, we even checked your bedroom, and we asked the naked ladies there and they said…"

"All right, Mummymon. He gets the picture!" Archnemon whacked her partner on the head with her fist. "We couldn't find him!"

"Find who…?" Eddie joined in on the conversation. "Who are you bozos brains referring to about behind our backs?" He had a weird hunch that he knew the answer…but he wanted to see how open these Digimon would be to him.

"You hear that, guys?" PicoDevimon burst into laughter. "This dumb crackpot doesn't even know who we're talking about! And he calls himself a Toon Detective, what a nincompoop!"

Archnemon, Mummymon and all the guards laughed together with PicoDevimon.

"Yeah!" Mummymon said. "Too bad he couldn't figure out our plans to take care of Takeru!"

That last word went echoing in the room, as everyone stopped laughing. Archnemon rewarded Mummymon with another whack on the head for his foolishness in giving away the name to Eddie.

"Takeru!" Hikari clamored out. "What do you intend to do to him?!"

"Do to him?" PicoDevimon sniggered. "Now why would we want to tell you that?"

While everyone was diverted to PicoDevimon's attention, Eddie was the sole person to spot something flying outside the glass window wall behind PicoDevimon's chair. At such a far distance, it was hard to distinguish what was coming closer and closer to the casino. However, it was heading right for them at an alarmingly high speed. It gave Eddie the chills when he thought that a military missile was coming this way to blast them all to smithereens. But then did he learn that his fear wasn't true, and nobody was aware when Eddie let out a mild smile…seconds before Angemon came crashing through the window, scattering sheds of glass everywhere. And that gave Eddie and Angewomon the advantage to dispatch PicoDevimon's guards as fast as they could.

"Hikari!" Takeru appeared as he slid down Angemon's back.

"Stand back, Takeru!" Angemon ordered when a few of the guards pointed their guns at him. "This might get a little unpleasant for young eyes to see." Takeru jumped out of the way when the guards fired. Angemon reacted swiftly by swinging his staff, bouncing away all the bullets that could have inflicted him. Angewomon then tagged in and took out the guards from behind, picking up them up and tossing them over PicoDevimon's desk. PicoDevimon, in the meantime, was desperately searching his papers and his drawers for something he needed at times like these.

"Mr. Valiant, behind you!" Hikari pointed out when she saw a guard sneaking up behind Eddie's back, ready to smash him on the head with the champagne bottle he held in his hands. Eddie was too busy with the guard in front of him, and couldn't hear Hikari's warning. Though, Eddie bobbed down when his opponent swung his fist, and as a result, the guard behind him smashed his bottle against the other guard, making him fall to the floor. Eddie wanted to congratulate him for doing him a favor, and he expressed his gratitude by jabbing him in the face.

PicoDevimon finally found what he was looking for; he opened his lowest drawer and dragged out a wooden case. Clicking the locks and opening it up, he picked up a heavy silver Magnum inside and loaded the bullets that were provided with it. "Heh, heh, heh!"

"Get them, Mummymon!" Archnemon roared at him, making so much effort to hit Angemon and Angewomon with his machine guns. But to no avail, his eyes weren't that sharp enough to make a direct hit on them. "You blind bat! Take 'em down now!" Archnemon whacked him on the head for the third time. And that gave Angemon and Angewomon time to fly down on the two Digimon and uppercut them in the jaw. Archnemon and Mummymon went falling backwards, landing onto PicoDevimon's desk and smashing it into half.

"YOU CAN STOP RIGHT THERE, FOLKS!" PicoDevimon's voice spurted out, and the fight came to an abrupt standstill. "I'm impressed with that daredevil stunt back there, but that hasn't changed anything as far as I'm concerned." All eyes found him flapping beside the broken window, cocking his gun point-blank at Hikari's head. "You come with us now, Takeru, or else your little bird of paradise here will have her feathers blown away!"

"Let her go!" Takeru demanded. Angemon, Angewomon and Eddie came to his side to support him while PicoDevimon's cronies regained their strengths and watched their boss do his business.

"Looks like the tables have turned on you, Takeru. HA! HA! HA!" PicoDevimon nudged Hikari's head with his gun. "Your worthless rescue attempt there conspicuously failed…you oughtta rehearse that sequence more often, I'll tell ya! Hoo! Hoo!"

"I SAID LET HER GO!"

"No chance, kiddo!" PicoDevimon growled. "Either you surrender right now, or Miss Yagami here is gonna get it!"

However, before events were going to get more intense, somebody came knocking thunderously at the door.

Everyone looked startled. "Someone go see who it is!" PicoDevimon said, gritting his teeth stressfully. But no one went over to open the door, because just then, a fist smashed through the wood…all jumped back in dismay. The door was violently kicked down the next second, and in stepped Rinchei Lee, Jaarin Lee, Jenrya Lee and Shuichon Lee. Then there came last but not least, Catherine.

"It's the Lees!" Hikari cried cheerfully, wishing she could rejoice this minute.

"THE LEES!" PicoDevimon screeched.

"The Lees?" Eddie asked confusingly.

"THE LEES!" Angewomon, Angemon and Takeru told him.

"AAAKKK!" Archnemon stepped back. "Curse those Lee children!"

"Dear God! Not them!" Mummymon shivered, embracing Archnemon. "I hate those four…they give me horrible nightmares whenever I'm asleep!"

"Oh, no!" One of the guards bellowed. "How did they figure out what we were up to?!"

"Oh, you can take zat from moi!" Catherine intervened. "After zee attack from Arachnemon and hearing zat you people took away Hikari, I had an intuition zat something clearly waz not right. So I telephoned zee Lees to come and sort zings out over here…and what do I find? My own boss pointing a Magnum gun against my dearest friend…! And you know what zey say on zat that television program on Toei whenever zere is trouble brewing…if zere is something strange in zee neighborhood, who are you going to call…? ZEE LEES!"

"We thought you'd be up to no good sooner or later, PicoDevimon." Rinchei remarked. "We train five long hours non-stop each day at the Tokyo Training School for the traditional Chinese Martial Arts!"

"So now…" Jaarin positioned herself into a Chinese stance.

"…we're going to…" Jenrya did the same and continued the sentence.

"…kick your…"

…

"AAAAAH!" Mummymon screamed out like a baby when he heard Shuichon finish the sentence to them. "Did you hear that, Archnemon? That ungrateful little girl just said the 'A' word in front us! She can't do that…this is a PG rated movie!"

"It's normal to have swearing come in a PG rated movie, you numb nuts!" Archnemon shouted in his ear. "Why the hell do you think the parents need to watch with their kids when they're watching this film…so that they can go potty train them at the same time?"

"Really…? I didn't know that."

"Mummymon…" Archnemon murmured. "I really think you should go out more often…you're worrying me, seriously…let's just get back to the movie, okay?"

"Sure."

…

"You Lees are too late!" PicoDevimon said. "I still got Hikari by my side, and if any of you take one step closer, I swear that I'll pull this trigger!"

"Oh, no?" Catherine raised her brow and headed towards the Master Switch on the wall near the doorway. She fiddled cheekily with the switch, and it made PicoDevimon become nervous.

"No…you wouldn't dare!" He shook his head, his body tingling all over.

Catherine nodded and flicked the switch, making all the lights fade to total darkness…and the room became a black-out.

Then all havoc ensued.

"GET HER!"

"HEEEEYAAAAAAAA!"

"WODOOOOO!"

"WATCH OUT!"

"OUCH!"

"OOF!"

"ACK!"

"EEEK!"

"I'VE GOT YOUR TEETH!"

"COME BACK HERE WITH MY TEETH!"

"AH! MY FOOT!"

"YADAAAAAA!"

"DON'T LET 'EM GET AWAY!"

"AIIIEEEEE! MERCY!"

"ROUNDHOUSE KICK!"

"UGGHHHH!"

"I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR LEG!"

"YEOOWWWCH! THAT'S MINE, MUMMYMON!"

"OOPS! SORRY, ARCHNEMON!"

"BOFF!"

"BAFF!"

"WOOOOOO-KATOOOAAAAAA!"

"I'VE GOT YOUR HEAD, HIKARI!"

"GET YOUR MISERABLE HANDS OFF OF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY DETECTIVE!"

"PICODEVIMON?!"

"MR. VALIANT! I'M OVER HERE WITH TAKERU, HURRY!"

"ERRR!'

"AAAAAARRGHHH!"

"HEE!"

"HAE!"

"HO!"

"OUCH! THAT'S ME, ANGEMON!"

"SORRY, TAKERU!"

"YAAA! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE POINTING THOSE ARROWS, ANGEWOMON!"

"MY MISTAKE, TAKERU!"

"KEEEEEEYAAAAA!"

"D'OOOOH!"

"D'OW!"

"HEY, YOUR ZIPPER IS OPEN!"

"REALLY?!"

"NO, TAKE THIS…HEEYA!"

"BRAAAK! NO FAIR!"

"MOTHER!"

"UHNNN!"

"TAKE ZIS, YOU OVERGROWN POISSON!"

"WOOOOOOOOOF! RIGHT IN THE…AHHH…"

Catherine switched the lights back on when all went quiet.

In no less than twenty seconds in darkness, the whole room had been transformed into a pig sty. Books were ripped and torn apart everywhere, wine and champagne glasses were broken, bottles were smashed, the furniture was toppled sideways or upside-down, and on the floor was Archnemon, Mummymon, PicoDevimon and all of his men lying unconscious and out cold from their short-lived battle. Standing among them were Eddie, Hikari, Takeru, Angemon, Angewomon, the Lees and of course Catherine.

"Well…that was a cinch." Jenrya spoke out first, clapping his hands together. "But I was expecting more of a challenge back there…I personally could have taken them all out in ten seconds flat!"

"Yeah, right!" Jaarin came over to him and yanked his ear. "I'd love to see you try, Mr. Perfect…I had to save your big butt out there from Arachnemon and Mummymon when you were seconds away from becoming mince meat!"

"Hey! What about me?" Shuichon whined. "I was the one who took care of that ball shaped Digimon!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rinchei intruded. "Let's all think realistically, guys. You all know that I was the one that took out all of those guards, including Arachnemon and Mummymon. So correction there, Jaarin, I was the person that punched their lights out!"

Eddie and the others watched in amusement as the Lees continued to argue among each other. But none of them made any alertness to the stranger in black hiding behind a torn up sofa…slowly, he crept up against the wall, and carefully sneaked his way towards the open doorway to make his smart getaway. Yet…

BRRIIING! BRRIIING!

The ringing on the stranger's cell phone attracted everyone's ears, and he was discovered immediately.

"Stop zat man!" Catherine shouted.

The stranger took to his feet at that instant and rushed to the doorway…but he was not successful. Eddie took him down in one tackle and pulled him down to the floor with ease.

"Mmmmphph!" The stranger struggled to get free, moaning within the mask he wore. Eddie turned him around so that his eyes were facing the floor. He took his left arm and locked it behind his back, holding it tight. "Rtt oo oof mi!"

Jenrya was the one who went over to answer the stranger's ringing phone from his pocket.

"Moshi, moshi…?" Jenrya said. "…no sorry, she's not here. This is Jenrya speaking…you sure you have the right number…? Honto…? Are you positive this is her's…? U-huh…hai…okay…right, that does it!" Jenrya hung up the phone impolitely without saying goodbye and strode angrily towards the stranger. "Who are you? And what have you done with our friend?"

"Mmmphphph?" The stranger sounded like he had no idea what the boy was talking about.

"Don't play dumb with us, buster! I know you've got her somewhere!" Jenrya waved the phone vigorously in his hand. "This is her personal cell phone for crying out loud, and you took it away from her!"

"Is that so…? Well, I guess it's time to see who this lame brain is!" Eddie reached his hand over the ski mask and gradually slipped it off, to unveil his true face. "What the…? You…? What in Sam Hill are you doing here?"

"Let go of me!" The stranger burst out.

"No…no…" Hikari covered her mouth in shear shock. "No…!"

"It doesn't make any sense…" Takeru removed his hat and looked somberly down at the stranger.

It was impossible for Eddie to believe, and so was it for Takeru, Hikari, Angewomon and Angemon. The Lees felt most alarmed to see who the stranger was also…well, except for Jenrya: the stubborn boy wasn't quite convinced by what his eyes were telling him.

"Wait!" Jenrya came forward and bent down to the stranger. "Don't let appearances deceive you…this is obviously a mask! I've seen this all the time on that cartoon show with the talking dog!"

Jenrya took the stranger's nose with his fingers and tried to rip it off by pulling extremely hard on it.

"OOOOW!" The stranger cried in pain. "Stop it, Jenrya! Let go! It's me…IT'S REALLY ME!"

"Oh, gomen…" Jenrya let go grinning innocently and stepped away. "It really is you."

And it was no lie; the stranger was in fact none other than Sora Takenouchi.

…

(1) Anybody who's actually seen 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' should remember this character.

Author's Notes: I'm a bit disappointed that I only received a few reviews on my last chapter…please keep reviewing guys, you're the only ones that keep this fanfic alive! (Well, kind of).