Chapter 24: Pickpocket

We all stared at the window as the boy crawled through it. Nobody had expected someone to climb in through the window, but I'm sure that I was more surprised than anyone, mostly because I had met this boy. If his unkempt hair and ragged clothes didn't give him away, his demeanor most certainly did. He stood up defiantly, looking slowly around the room, until his face finally rested on Will. I was going to break the silence, but Will beat me to it.

"Shark?" he asked quietly, still very surprised.

"The one and only," the boy replied in English. He didn't know Japanese, so I figured that only Will, Ken, and I would be able to understand him.

Will ran up to the boy and grabbed his hand, dragging him into some kind of one-armed hug.

"What are you doing here" Will asked him in English, releasing Shark.

"Prep told me your crest was fucked up again, so I came to help fix it," Shark replied.

"His name is Michael," I said, stepping forward and speaking in English. "And I could do without the swearing."

He looked at me for a second, and then finally seemed to recognize me. "You're that Mimi girl, right? Small world. Look, we had this argument once, and I ain't havin' it again."

"Um, mind clueing the rest of us in, guys?" Tai said. Of course, they hadn't understood a word of the conversation.

"Sorry, Tai," Will began. "This is my friend, Shark. He was in my group of digidestined. He doesn't speak Japanese, so, um; I don't know how he's supposed to explain himself."

"I'll explain something about him," I said indignantly. "Michael introduced me to him in New York. Shark belongs to a gang there. He was very rude to us, and refused to call Michael by his name. Be glad you can't understand him."

"What's she sayin' about me, Willyboy?" Shark asked Will. "Actually, forget it. I bet I know."

"Will, uh, could you explain exactly why he's here to us, now?" Tai asked, still rather confused. Will and Shark exchanged a few more words, and then Will began to explain.

"Michael told Shark that my crest might be reacting with some crests over here, so he came here to see if there's any way he can help. And please don't take Mimi's description too seriously. Shark's a good guy, and my best friend," Will said.

"Well, he was very rude the one time I met him," I said, somewhat indignant that Will had corrected me like that.

"That's great, I guess, but how can he help us?" Matt asked.

"Well, he does have a digimon, Uniquemon. We've been trying to gather up strength, right?" Will replied. At hearing his name, a small, round, yellow digimon with a long thick tentacle rising from the top of its head, which was its entire body, jumped out of Shark's back pack. I remembered Uniquemon from when we had met in New York. He was much more tolerable than his partner.

"Yeah, but one more person isn't going to help much, especially if he can't digivolve to ultimate," Tai replied.

"All this gibberish is givin' me a headache," Shark told Will. Will just shrugged, as if to ask Shark to just put up with it for a few minutes. Shark rolled his eyes.

"I guess," Will said, turning back to Tai. "Look, I'll fill him in on everything while you guys keep trying to plan our next move." Will turned to Shark and began explaining the events of the past few days. Shark listened quietly to him, nodding every once in a while.

"Well, what do you guys think? I this guy really worth keeping around, considering only two people can understand him?" Izzy asked.

"Three," Ken corrected. "I speak English."

"I'm learning English," Kari through in. "But I didn't understand anything that just happened."

"Believe me, he's nothing but trouble," I told them. "Shark has no manners and no respect for anything. He can only cause problems."

"Well if none of us can understand what he says, why does it matter?" TK asked.

"It's not like we've had a lot of help lately, guys," Sora said. "He flew all the way to Tokyo to help Will, so I'd think he'd at least try to be helpful."

"I'll take care of it," Shark said with a smile suddenly. I looked over to the two again. They began talking very quietly, and it seemed like they were arguing about something.

Finally, Will turned and said, "Uh, guys, Shark says he can get the digivice back."

"Right," Izzy said. "Have you explained that Myotismon is probably carrying it?"

"Yeah, he says that's not a problem," Will replied. "I don't know how he plans to do it either, but Shark can do some pretty amazing stuff."

"Lead me to this freak and I'll take care of it" Shark said. Of course, once again only three people understood him.

"Well, Will, if he doesn't have a good plan, I don't think it's worth wasting the time on," Joe said.

"Hold on," Ken said. "He might have an idea. We certainly haven't asked him." Ken turned to Shark and asked, in English, "Shark, how do you plan to get the digivice back from Myotismon"

"You just get me to him, and I'll take care of the rest" Shark said.

"That's not very comforting" Ken told him. Shark didn't respond. He just smiled slightly and stared unblinking at him.

"I'm willing to give anything a shot," Davis said. "If he says he can get the thing back, I say we let him try."

"Davis, that's just silly," I said. "There's no good reason to risk getting caught when nobody else even knows what the plan is."

"I'll go," Kari said. "He's Will's friend, and I think Will picks good friends. He picked us, right?"

"I suppose it's worth a shot," Ken said. "If we fail, Imperialdramon can get us out of there."

"Alright, then let's let him try," Tai said.

"What! Tai you can't be serious!" Izzy protested.

"Don't worry Izzy, they'll be alright. We'll send Mimi with them too, since she speaks English. She can make sure they don't do anything stupid," Tai said.

"Wait! I didn't volunteer for this job!" I said.

"But none of us speak English, Mimi. It'll be easier to communicate if we send bilingual people," Tai explained.

"Fine," I sighed. "If there's no other way." I have to admit that I was curious to see what Shark was planning. On the other hand, I really didn't want to get caught by Myotismon, but as long as Veemon and Wormmon were there, we had an effective escape route.

Even in the daylight, Myotismon's castle was frightening. I'm not sure if it was the appearance of the castle, or just the idea that Myotismon was hiding inside of it. Even after five years, it still sent shivers up my spine.

"Alright, Shark, where do we need to get you to?" Ken asked in English

"Will said this guy's carrying the thing around with him. Find him and I'll do the rest," Shark replied calmly.

"Gatomon, lead the way. We'll use the trackers on our digivices to locate the missing digivice." Ken instructed.

"Okay. Everyone stay close, we've got to move quickly to avoid the guards." Gatomon said.

Palmon looked at me nervously. "Mimi, I'm still not sure that this is a good idea."

"Don't worry Palmon, we've got Imperialdramon as a backup plan, so we've got nothing to lose by giving this a shot," I said, trying to reassure myself just as much as her.

Gatomon lead us through the mass of confusing hallways as quickly and quietly as possible, and successfully managed to dodge the guards patrolling the castle. Ken gave directions using his digivice as to where Will's digivice's signal was coming from, but Gatomon often had to improvise in order to avoid detection. Every time one of us made even the slightest noise, I was scared to death that we'd be caught. Somehow, we never were. At last we ended up going down the hallway that led to the gate. We crept along as slowly as possible, so as not to make even the slightest sound. As we turned the last corner, I had to stifle a gasp of fear.

Myotismon was there, but he had his back to us. He was standing in the middle of the room, staring down at the card slots, and then up at the door. He was apparently trying to find a way to open the gate despite not having the cards.

Shark turned toward us and said, "Wait here." He pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and flicked it open, holding it in his right hand.

"Shark, you can't fight him," I whispered as quietly and authoritatively as I could, which was very hard to do, but he held up his right hand, as if to calm me down.

"It's only for self-defense, in case he notices me. Now stay quiet. I'll be back in a second," he assured us.

We were all perfectly silent. Shark took off his shoes, hoping that he could move more quietly in socks. He slowly crept away from the group and into the room, holding the knife out in front of himself. We were all shaking with fear as he slowly approached the evil digimon. I had to do everything within my power to keep from gasping every time Myotismon shifted a little. After what seemed like an eternity, Shark was right behind him, literally inches away. Then, very carefully, he reached up towards Myotismon's hip. With a methodic and fluid motion, he reached cautiously into the digimon's pocket. We were all suddenly very tense. I thought for a moment that the crest of courage would actually fit him better than his actual crest, serenity. The four or five seconds while his hand was in Myotismon's pocket seemed to me like a year. Finally, the hand emerged, with the digivice gripped tightly between the fingers. We all remained perfectly quiet, knowing that we weren't out of the woods yet. Shark began to retrace his steps back to us, every bit as slowly and carefully as before. As he finally approached our group, all I could do was stare in amazement.

Shark handed the digivice to Will, who quickly clipped it onto his belt. Without a word, Shark motioned for us to start back. Gatomon interpreted his gesture, and began to lead us back down the hallway.

I think we all were actually quieter leaving the room, having had our nerves tested so badly by Shark's audacity. Michael once told me that fortune favors the bold, but I still had trouble reconciling Shark's nerve with common sense.

Sneaking out didn't take nearly as long as sneaking in had. Gatomon knew exactly where we were going, so she was able to guide us to the exit in just a few minutes. As soon as we got out into the sunlight we bolted for the safety of the trees. We ran quite a distance into the forest before we finally stopped at the edge of a small stream. We were all still shaking, but we were finally safe again. Shark was the only one who wasn't shaking. Even his digimon Uniquemon was tense, but Shark just leaned back against a tree with a satisfied smile plastered on his rough-looking face.

"How did you pull that off, Shark?" Ken asked in English. "My hands were shaking like mad, and I wasn't even close to him."

"I've been in some tight spots," Shark said simply. "My hood's a lot scarier than that freak anyways. What kind of clown dresses up like that?"

"He's a vampire," Ken explained to him.

"He's a weirdo, that's what he is," Shark said. "I bet him and Elton go way back." Will was the only one to chuckle at the joke. Ken and I didn't make the connection right away, and of course nobody else could understand him.

"Shouldn't we be heading back, guys," Davis said. "If Myotismon ever does realize that the digivice is missing, he'll probably come looking for it."

"Good point, let's head back," Kari said.

"Just a second," Gatomon said. "I'm dying of thirst." The cat digimon ran over to the stream and started to gulp down water.

"Ah, much better," she said, returning to us. "Alright, let's go home.

"I really wouldn't believe it if I didn't see the digivice," Sora said as the group crowded around Will.

"Shark's good at all kinds of stuff," Will said. Shark gave him a quizzical look, not understanding the Japanese.

"I said you're good at a lot of things," Will told him in English.

Shark grinned. "Thanks, Willyboy."

"Do you have a nickname for everyone?" I asked Shark.

"Why, do you want one?" Shark asked sarcastically. "How about I just call you 'Pinky'?"

"If you even say that one more time, I'll have Palmon tie you up and throw you out the window," I said. Shark just laughed.