Hmm, this one was a bit shorter than I though. Eh, there was a couple of long pauses... I'll draw it up to that... plus a scene that I thought about putting in but couldn't think of too much to write more that a few sentences.

Anyways, shoutout to MadDogLucario96, DigimonAT0318, and Whiteling for the reviews.

Nothing much more to add here so let's get to the next chapter.

Chapter 41: Angel of Steel! Shakkoumon!

Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. November 6th, 2002. 1501 Hours.
P.O.V. – Daisuke Motomiya

We're certainly up against the wall here now. BlackWarGreymon has destroyed all six Holy Stones that we've tried to defend and we have nothing that can be able to stop him. We just keep getting trashed by him and he goes on to destroy the stone. Now we're down to searching for the final stone and just trying as hard as we can to stop him from getting to that one. If he destroys it, the balance of the Digital World will probably be the least of our worries. After class was over, we all hightailed it as fast as we could to quickly get back to Headquarters and then head back into the Digital World to look for the Holy Stone. To mostly anyone who didn't know us, we all looked like a couple of crazy kids as we ran through the streets like our lives depended on it. We arrived with the exception of Iori a few moments after three.

As Miyako started to get things set up, the computer went off as it received a message.
"Oh, it's an email from Ken-kun. He says that he and Osamu-san will be a little late, so we should go on ahead of them. Says they'll meet up with us as soon as they can." She explained.
"Iori-kun is late." Hikari noticed.
"What is he doing?" I growled. Now is not the time for any hold ups, especially with something like the Holy Stones and BlackWarGreymon.
"He'll be here soon." Takeru tried to assure me, but it really wasn't helping my nerves. The computer beeped once again.
"That's Ross-san." Miyako said. "He says he'll be on his way first chance he gets today too."

The door to the warehouse opened up and Iori ran in panting.
"I'm sorry!" He apologized.
"You're late!" "You're late, Iori!" Both myself and Upamon shouted as I walked up to him.
"It was my turn to clean the teachers' room." He told us.
"Saving the last Holy Stone or cleaning the teachers' room, which one is more important?" I questioned him.
"That's not the point…" exasperated Takeru.
"Miyako-san!" Hikari turned her attention back to her. Miyako nodded and we all walked to the screen and held up our D-3s.
"Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children… let's roll!" She cried.

Digital World. November 6th, 2002. 1506 Hours.
P.O.V. – Third Person

Things were far from quiet at a large industrial plant that resided near some docks in the Digital World. The area was pretty cloudy, but that seemed to always be the weather whenever BlackWarGreymon was in the area. The warehouses near the docks didn't stand much of a chance when BlackWarGreymon blasted apart a few of them with his mighty attacks.
"Where is the Holy Stone?" He questioned. He took off into the air and soon flew over to the large chemical and oil tanks of the industrial plant. "Black Tornado!" He spun his way through the tanks and caused massive damage in them before they combusted and exploded; devastating the plant.
"Such beautiful destruction…" Archnemon had a smile on her face as she looked at the carnage through a pair of binoculars. She and Mummymon were sitting in the Dune Buggy as they kept their distance away from the rampage of BlackWarGreymon.

Mummymon, on the other hand, was having some different thoughts as soon as he heard her say those words.
"A-Archnemon, don't tell me you've fallen in love with BlackWarGreymon!?" Her immediate reaction was quick. Her face turned angry in a flash and she smacked him hard in the face with the binoculars.
"Don't be ridiculous!" She roared at him.
"I'm so glad…" He expressed relief as he massaged the welt on his head that he got from the hit. He then passed out and landed face first on the wheel, blaring the car horn. She got him off of the horn and pushed him back up.
"I swear…" She mumbled as she looked ahead to the ruins of the plant.
"It must be around here." BlackWarGreymon looked around the destruction he laid. "Where is the Holy Stone?" He took off once more and soon got closer to the two disguised Perfects. Archnemon immediately realized the danger they were suddenly in.

"If we stay here, we'll be blown to pieces too!" She worried. She turned back to her partner. "Mummymon… Mummymon!" She tried to wake him back up. As soon as he woke back up, he tried to kiss her.
"Archnemon!" She pelted him once more with the binoculars as the mummy thought he was dreaming.
"Wake up!"
"Ow…" He moaned as he rubbed the second welt. The nearby destruction soon got their attention as he looked ahead and saw BlackWarGreymon with a large crane right in front of them; it looked like he was very much aiming for them. He soon let the crane go and it was well on its way to crushing the two of them. They both shouted as Mummymon set the car in reverse and floored it, getting them out of the way before being crushed. After that, they decided it was best to put a healthy distance between them and the devastating Ultimate.

The two of them drove for several miles until they finally slowed down near a strange little town.
"We should be safe here." Mummymon assumed as he stopped the car. Archnemon sighed before the nearby sound of a gong ringing soon filled the air followed by the sound of a string instrument that sounded very East Asian in sound. The two hopped out of the car and suddenly realized the town was very Chinese in look.
"Hmm…" Mummymon scratched his chin. "It appears we've ended up driving into the Digital World's Chinatown." To his surprise, he got struck in the back of the head by Archnemon's binoculars for the third time. "Ouch…" He groaned as he clutched the back of his head.
"Anyone can see that!" She yelled at him. "Don't say it with such a straight face!"
"Stop hitting me so much or I'll become dumb!" He augured with her.

"Quiet!" She covered his mouth to shut him up. Suddenly, she soon caught whiff of something on her nose as a nice smell filed the air. "It smells like good Chinese food…" She let go of Mummymon who had to take some quick breaths. "Smell it, Mummymon." He sniffed the air as well and soon a large smile crossed his face. He got back up and both of them had very excited looks on their faces.
"Archnemon, how about some ramen?" Mummymon suggested.
"Sure! To fight the Chosen Children, we'd better eat well and get strong!"
"Exactly!" The hopped back into the car and drove deeper into town.

They soon stopped outside a restaurant where they were sure the smell was coming from the place. They walked inside and saw it looked very nice, though there were no customers around. The two of them just shrugged their shoulders and took their seats. A small Digimon floated over to them. It looked like a tapir but the bottom half of its body was all covered in smoke and floated above the ground slightly. This was a Digimon known as Bakumon.
"Pork ramen." Bakumon said as he got to them. It appeared that he was their waiter. Both of them just stared at him in confusion. "Wonton ramen." He smiled and bowed.
"Ah! I'll have that." Archnemon decided.
"Me too." Mummymon nodded along with her.
"Coming up!" Digitamamon shouted out from back in the kitchen.

P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi

"BlackWarGreymon seems to be around here, but I wonder if Ken, Osamu-san and Ross-san will know…" Daisuke said as we followed him to the general area that we tracked BlackWarGreymon to. It looked like a large town that looked Chinese in nature. Maybe this was the Digital World's Chinatown.
"Hey, they got Stingmon, Growmon and Strikedramon, it'll be fine!" assured V-mon.
"Yeah, you're right. Those guys can take care of themselves if it comes to that."
"Hikari-chan, you want a drink?" Miyako offered her a bottle of mineral water.
"Sure, thanks. This water tastes great."
"This is our store's specially!" She held her arm out.
"It contains minerals and it's good for your body!" Hawkmon followed the same motions. Then they both had more sly looks on their faces.
"Next time you want some, stop by Odaiba Ai-Mart, please!"
"Please!" Both Tailmon and Hikari chuckled.
"Such great salesmen." Tailmon said.
"Really!" Hikari added before the four of them all laughed.

"They get along even better since they became able to Jogress Evolve." Iori observed and sounded very disappointed. I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Iori-kun, we'll be able to do it too."
"Takeru-san…"
"Patamon and Armadimon act like they've already Jogress Evolved." I pointed over to them. The two of them were laughing as Armadimon was throwing Patamon up in the air and shouting out some made up names about what they would Jogress into. It was too much for me and I laughed along with them.
"Hey, don't you smell something good?" Hikari announced causing us all to turn our attention back to her. We all closed our eyes and smelled the air… and found something familiar in the air.
"Yeah!" Miyako exclaimed. "It smells like tasty Chinese soup!" As if on cue, Daisuke and V-mon's stomachs grumbled.
"I'm so hungry…" Daisuke nervously laughed.
"Me too…" V-mon chimed in.
"Since we're in the Digital World's Chinatown, let's have some Chinese food!" I suggested.
"Takeru-san?" Iori questioned.
"It's settled!" Daisuke yelled.

The others started to walk away but I noticed Iori was holding still.
"Iori? What's wrong, dagyaa?" Armadimon asked as Iori's fists were clenched and shaking. "You don't want to come?"
"Thinking about Chinese food before fighting BlackWarGreymon…" Now I felt guilty for suggesting that. "They're not serious! I… I even feel anger!" He growled while looking down.
"I-Iori…" He looked up to his partner. "I'm starving too, dagyaa…" Iori's anger seemed to subside quickly. He looked disappointed again.
"Armadimon… Maybe it's because I'm so rigid, as I've been told, that I can't Jogress Evolve with Takeru-san." Oh, Iori… He soon caught up with us, but he still looked pretty down trodden.

P.O.V. – Third Person

Unbeknownst that the Chosen Children were coming straight for them, Archnemon and Mummymon were happily enjoying their ramen soup as soon as it had arrived.
"This ramen is great!" Mummymon declared.
"And the soup is exquisite." Archnemon added her praise.
"Excuse me!" He waved down Bakumon.
"Cantonese ramen." Bakumon spoke softly as he floated over.
"What are the ingredients of this soup?"
"Tientsin ramen." replied Bakumon. Mummymon grew a slightly annoyed look.
"I said ingredients."
"Spicy ramen!" Archnemon slammed her hands against the table and stood up out of her chair.
"We can't talk to you! Call the manager!"
"Vegetable ramen?"
"Ugh, is all this guy can say is different kinds of ramen?" Mummymon groaned.

A few moments later, Digitamamon, dressed in a chef's hat and apron with a little panda on it, walked up after Bakumon got him.
"I'm the chef and the owner, Digitamamon." The egg Digimon told the two customers.
"What are the ingredients of this tasty soup?" Archnemon asked in a surprisingly more calm manner.
"I can't tell you that." Mummymon practically snapped.
"What!?" He roared as he stood up from his chair now. Digitamamon soon got angry himself.
"It's a trade secret!"
"Who do you think we are?" Archnemon threated him. "You want us to scramble your brains all over your wall!?"

P.O.V. – Takeru Takaishi

As soon as we turned the corner and walked through the front door of the restaurant we smelt that soup coming from; we found ourselves staring right at Archnemon and Mummymon who were yelling at Digitamamon.
"The Chosen Children!" They exclaimed. We all got in a defensive posture before Daisuke noticed Digitamamon.
"Huh? Digitamamon? You run a Chinese restaurant too?" Is that really important right now Daisuke?
"The one at the Western restaurant is a friend of mine. He told me about you. You, the Chosen Children are…"
"Yes, yes, enough with the introductions." Archnemon jumped in front of him and had a sick grin on her face. She soon morphed back into her Digimon form and laughed. Mummymon followed suit and he too laughed as he reverted to his Digimon form as well before he aimed his gun at us.

"V-mon, evolve! XV-MON!"
"Hawkmon, evolve! AQUILAMON!"
"Patamon, evolve! ANGEMON!"
"Armadimon, evolve! ANKYLOMON!"
"Digimental Up!" Hikari shouted.
"Tailmon, Armor-Evolve! Light of Smiles, NEFERTIMON!"
"Blast…" "Curse of the…" Aquilamon and Nefertimon dived towards them almost immediately.
"Acid Mist!" Archnemon delivered her terrible attack and paralyzed the two of them while the rest of our Digimon went after Mummymon. He just sinisterly giggle as he gunned them down, leaving us all in shock as we were suddenly defenseless.

"Jogress Evolution!" Daisuke hurriedly shouted, all the while forgetting a key element to that idea.
"But… Stingmon isn't here!" XV-mon told him.
"Ah, you're right…" Daisuke grabbed his hair in a very worried look. "What is Ken doing?"
"Hikari-chan, us two…" Miyako turned to her Jogress partner.
"Okay." Hikari nodded as Nefertimon devolved back to Tailmon.
"Aquilamon!" "Tailmon!" "Jogress Evolve!" Oh, no! Nothing happened!
"Once more!" Miyako insisted.
"Okay!"
"Aquilamon!" "Tailmon!" "Jogress Evolve!" Damn it! Same result!
"Aquilamon and Tailmon must have no energy for the Jogress Evolution because they're too hungry!" I guessed. Worst timing ever for this to happen.
"N…no…" feared Iori.

Archnemon and Mummymon chuckled once more as they took a step closer to us. They clearly knew they had the advantage on us.
"Help!" Digitamamon exclaimed as he and that tapir Digimon ran out the back door.
"Pork rib ramen!" The smaller Digimon shouted. Both Archnemon and Mummymon's eyes widened and they reverted back to their human disguises and ran right after them.
"Wait!" She exclaimed before we turned around and saw them entering their car.
"What are the soup's ingredients? Tell us!" Mummymon yelled as they drove away. That was… odd. And just on cue, Ken and Stingmon showed up.
"That was…" Ken said before he ran inside the restaurant. "Guys! Everyone okay?!" He asked us as we gathered our devolved Digimon.
"Archnemon and Mummymon got us…" Daisuke explained. Ken's face darkened.
"I knew that buggy was them… Listen, we need to go after them right now!"
"Yeah!" Daisuke agreed and I nodded with him. "Where's Ross-san and Osamu-san?"
"Not too far behind me, I just went on ahead. We'll need MechaRaptormon's help for sure when dealing with those creeps." Ken told us as we started to get up.

"Wait!" Iori shouted. We all turned to him as he had a serious look on his face. "Our true enemy is neither Archnemon nor Mummymon." He reminded. "Our focus should be on protecting the Holy Stone from BlackWarGreymon. In order for us to even have a chance to defeat him, we have to store up our energy to Jogress Evolve." He made a really good point. If we were going to defend the Holy Stone, it couldn't be on an empty stomach. Iori stood up… then had a smile on his face as he clapped his hands together. "Let's have some ramen!" Looks like he came around.
"Iori-kun…" I muttered.
"He's right." Daisuke agreed.
"Ramen, ramen!" V-mon and Patamon cheered. Everyone else agreed with the idea as well before Hikari suddenly realized there was a bit of a problem with that idea.
"But Digitamamon and the other one ran away…" She said.
"Not to worry!" Miyako gave a big smile. "We'll just cook it ourselves!"
"Let's do it, let's do it!" Both Tailmon and Hawkmon were now the ones cheering. We all got up and headed for the kitchen to get to work.
"I'll boil some water, then!" "Pass me those noodles." "I'll contact Onii-san and Ross-san to help us as well." "It already smells so good!" "I'm practically drooling over here."

P.O.V. – Third Person

Archnemon and Mummymon soon drove quite a bit of distance away from Chinatown as they began to look through the think bamboo jungle they had entered. After a few moments, the car's engine began to give out loud noises and the exhausts were coughing up some thick black smoke as the car began to slow down to a crawl before stopping.
"Gahh…" Mummymon gave a worried sound.
"What's wrong?" The spider woman asked him in an upset tone.
"I uh… I wanted to speed up, but I think I forced the engine too much."
"You idiot!" Suddenly, the engine exploded and blew the hood off the car. Mummymon jumped out and started to flail his arms.
"Th-the engine's going to burn like this! Water, water, water!" He shouted as he tried to look for something to put out the fiery engine. Archnemon jumped out as well and began coughing due to the large plume of smoke that was coming from the engine.
"I'm going with you!" She ran right after him.

After a couple minutes of walking, Archnemon soon realized that she lost Mummymon somewhere in the bamboo forest.
"Mummymon?" She called out. "Mummymon?" Now she was getting slightly worried. "Mummymon-" Mummymon suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of her and it caused her to scream in fear as she was frightened.
"Be quiet…" He told her.
"Don't scare me like that!" She yelled at him.
"Shh…" He put his finger up once more. Everything got suddenly quiet as neither of them made a sound. "I can hear it."
"Hear what?"
"The sound of water drops."
"Eh?" She opened her ears and listened out for any sounds. She soon heard a drop of water and knew that Mummymon was indeed correct about what he was hearing.
"You're right."
"Hmm… Over there!" He pointed towards a direction and the two of them ran the direction.

They ran for a minute before they reached a clearing where they saw a pond with dark brown water and some boulders with a sign.
"Wh-what the hell is that?" Mummymon questioned the water. He suddenly smells something familiar as they get up to it. "This nice smell…" Archnemon looks at the sign.
"It says 'Spring of Chinese soup.'" They look at the water and soon make a connection. "That delicious Chinese soup…"
"So the soup for that Chinese restaurant's ramen came from here, huh?" He dropped down to his stomach and stuck his tongue out to get a taste… only for Digitamamon and Bakumon to jump out of the bushes and land on his head; causing his sharp teeth to nearly bite off his own tongue.

"You can't drink from the holy Chinese soup spring!" The egg Digimon shouted. He got off Mummymon's head who screamed out in pain.
"You two were hiding in this place!?" Archnemon glared at them.
"Look at that!" He motioned them to look at the sign.
"'You are now allowed to drink the holy soup without permission. If you drink it without permission, you will be punished?'" She read off.
"That makes me want it even more!" cried Mummymon. "You'll be the ones to be punished." Digitamamon and Bakumon were quickly wrapped up in a Snake Bandage before being thrown into the bushes and Mummymon went back to what he was doing. He took a quick sip of the pool. "Yum!" He exclaimed before the whole ground began to shake.

Something began bubbling from the pond before a large wave exploded and dragged Mummymon into the soup.
"Mummymon!" Archnemon shouted. He tried to stay above the ranging soup waters before he grabbed something. It was the gold band of a Holy Stone that began floating out of the soup. Mummymon hung on desperately to the large smooth rock but the band eventually fell off and he landed back in the soup. After that, the stone glowed bright… and soon caught the attention of BlackWarGreymon.

Daisuke and V-mon put their bowls down as they finished drinking the soup that the group made.
"It came out pretty good." Takeru admitted to the other Chosen Children as they all began to finish their meals.
"The soup is great!" Daisuke said.
"We're also good chefs!" Miyako claimed.
"Hey, I was the only one who was actually cooking!" joked Ross.
"It was really good!" Osamu bowed. Iori and Takeru looked at each other and chuckled.
"Iori-kun." Takeru put down his chopsticks. "Maybe now… we'll be able to Jogress Evolve." He believed. He turned and give him a confident grin. "That's the feeling I get." Everyone suddenly got surprised when there was a large glow coming from outside.
"This is…" Daisuke shot up out of his seat.
"The Holy Stone's light!" Ken shouted.

"I can't believe the Holy Stone was here…" Archnemon muttered as Mummymon flailed in the soup.
"Archnemon! Help me!"
"Shut up!" She growled as she picked up a small bolder and tossed it at him. He caught it before realizing what it was.
"It's heavy!" He sank back under the waves just as BlackWarGreymon landed right behind Archnemon.
"The last Holy Stone…" He looked ahead.
"BlackWarGreymon…"
"I'll destroy it!"

P.O.V. – Iori Hida

"Hold it!" Daisuke shouted as we all got in between BlackWarGreymon and the Holy Stone. "We'll protect the last Holy Stone!" He declared.
"How many times do you need to learn your lesson?" BlackWarGreymon asked us.
"I am a slow learner." Ross gave a determined smirk.
"Those kids are so pesky!" Archnemon growled as I could see Mummymon climb out of the water. "BlackWarGreymon, finish them off!"
"I don't take orders from you!" He created a small Gaia Force in his palm and sent it towards them and blasted them into the bamboo forest. That might have actually been of great help to us. At least they probably won't try to distract us in the fight now.
"Iori-kun…" Takeru got my attention. "It's finally time for our Jogress Evolution."
"Yes." I nodded. He has to be right… it has to be now or never with this fight.
"Angemon, I'm looking forward to it, dagyaa!" Ankylomon shouted.
"Ankylomon, let's do our best!"

"Ken!"
"Daisuke!"
"XV-mon!" "Stingmon!" "Jogress Evolve! PAILDRAMON!"
"Osamu!"
"Ross-kun!"
"Growmon!" "Strikedramon!" "Jogress Evolve! MECHARAPTORMON!"
"Hikari-chan!"
"Miyako-san!"
"Aquilamon!" "Tailmon!" "Jogress Evolve! SILPHYMON!"

"Gaia Force!" BlackWarGreymon sent out his devastating attack which cause all three Jogress Digimon to jump out of the way of the large explosion.
"Desperado Blaster!" BlackWarGreymon dodged the burst of fire.
"Howitzer Blast!" He ducked under the large cannon shot.
"Top Gun!" The Ultimate Digimon turned and clawed the attack into nothingness. This is bad… that Jogress needs to come now!
"Iori-kun!"
"T-Takeru-san!"
"Have confidence."
"Yes." Upon saying those words, our D-3s glowed. We broke the final barrier!
"Ankylomon!" "Angemon!" "Jogress Evolve! SHAKKOUMON!"

P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery

Talk about perfect timing with the Jogress, and the result was quite astounding. Shakkoumon looked like some sort of holy golem that towered over the battlefield, even slightly taller than MechaRaptormon.
"Sh-Shakkoumon?" Takeru and Iori exclaimed as they saw their Jogress Digimon. "We did it!" Iori jumped into Takeru's arms and they spun around in joy before getting serious once more. Four Jogress Digimon started down the Dark Tower Ultimate.
"The battle… has just begun!" Daisuke shouted as we all got ready for the final fight. Would Shakkoumon help turn the tables?

God, if you're listening, now would be a good time for it to be the case…

One certainly can hope.

Have to say, this is probably the most Team Rocket-ish that Archnemon and Mummymon get in the series and I really couldn't think of another way around it. Still, I do like to think that I've made them at least some what more imposing throughout these chapters.

Oh, and of course I have Ross to mention the obvious Attack of the Clones reference.
Dooku: "Brave of you, boy. But I would have thought you'd learned your lesson.
Anakin: "I am a slow learner."

Take care and see you soon, everybody.

"Push the button, Frank."