"Prove him wrong?" Takato asked. "But if it's about power, then how do we do that if we're not fighting him?"
"Oh, fighting him is a part of it, yes. But the difference between proving him wrong and fighting him is that the former ends with proving him wrong, and the latter ends with Zhuqiaomon being reduced to nothing more than a free floating cloud of data."
"So I'm going to cut in for a moment here and say that Zhuqiaomon is one of the strongest Digimon in existence." Gorou stated. "I'm also going to guess that when you said that they 'recently acquired the power to change his mind', you meant that they achieved Mega?"
"Only Takato and Guilmon have actually done that, but we can do it, yeah." Henry stated.
"Guilmon and Takato?" He asked, before shaking his head. "Nevermind, not important. What kind of Digimon is Guilmon's Mega Level that you're so confident that he can fight -and delete- one of the Sovereigns?"
Do I tell, or...
"Tell me, have you ever heard of a Digimon known as Megidramon?"
His eyebrow rose. "Yes, but I don't see what that has to do with-"
His eyes landed on Guilmon.
And then shot open, surprised.
"You're joking." He stated.
I said nothing.
"You are joking."
I said nothing.
"How... do you know about Megidramon?" Takato asked.
Gorou's eyes widened with no small degree of horror.
"You're not joking." He realised.
He leaned back, taking a deep, calming breath.
"Okay. That's... That's not." He looked up. "Holy shit."
"I imagine that Megidramon is often met with such a reaction."
He gave a half nervous, half insane laugh.
"Okay, lost again." Daisy stated. "Who or what is Megidramon?"
Gorou released a shaky sigh. "Megidramon is... a Digimon." He shook his head. "A very... dangerous Digimon. You see, back when I first got here and found out about the D-Reaper, I also began searching for other threats to the Digital World." He paused. "Megidramon was one of the first that I found. It's a Digimon whose very existence is a Digital Hazard- that is, something that can threaten the Digital World itself."
He manipulated something out of sight on his end of the connection, and an image of Megidramon appeared on the screen a few moments later.
"Simply by being, Megidramon has the capability to damage the Digital World. It's presence can corrupt data, distort reality, and destabilise existence. If it kept doing such a thing, it could cause the Digital World to collapse- quite literally destroying the world entirely. It could easily become worse than the D-Reaper!" He laughed again, nervous. "And that's the kind of power that kid now has on his side! A living, breathing, speaking Armageddon."
Everybody in the room- save for Rika, Henry, the Digimon, the DigiGnome, and myself, looked at Takato in a new light.
"Funny, isn't it?" I asked to the silent room. "That the Mega Level form of the childish and young Guilmon partnered to the mild mannered and pleasant Takato is the dragon of the apocalypse."
"Guilmon, distraction!"
Guilmon's stomach grumbled.
For a moment, everybody stared.
"Thanks for that Guilmon." Takato whispered in relief, turning to his partner. "You can't be hungry already, you only ate an hour ago!"
"But Takato!" Guilmon looked panicked. "I didn't get to eat it all!"
"Dragon of the apocalypse, ladies and gentlemen." Gorou sounded much more calm. "Okay. Okay. Over the shock now, just got to deal with the fact that- no, stop." He shook his head.
"Anyway, back to more serious points." I turned to the children. "It's important to note that you don't have to do this, but... If you do, Zhuqiaomon will stop wasting his time trying to destroy Humanity, so you won't be wasting time and effort fighting whatever minions he can scrounge up."
"We'll go." Henry stated.
"Henry-"
"Dad..." Henry trailed off. "If we do this, we'd be helping people. How couldn't we do it?"
Janyu looked... torn would be a good descriptor of it. I saw pride warring with concern, alongside fear, and resignation.
"If you have any better ideas, I am all open to suggestions." I noted. "The last thing I want to do is involve children in this, but... they are already involved. And they are all far too stubborn for their own good."
"I.. do not like this plan." Janyu admitted. "But... I don't have any better ideas."
I nodded.
"Before this happens, however," I looked at them again. "You have to tell your families."
Takato's and Rika's head's snapped up.
"What-" "But-"
"Don't start." I stated. "It's bad enough that you've gone this long without telling them. As much as you may not like to, you will have to. They are your parents, and they do deserve to know about the danger you've been regularly putting yourselves in, and the danger you're about to."
They winced.
I glanced over to Henry and Janyu. "You two might want to tell the rest of your family too. I can't imagine that Henry's mother will be pleased when she finds out what her son has been up to."
They also winced.
"I'll be grounded for life." Henry moped.
"Wait." Takato frowned. "What about Jeri?"
"Jeri and Leomon will not be coming with us." Ever. "Unlike you six, Jeri and Leomon won't survive getting caught in a battle between several Mega Level Digimon. They haven't reached Mega, so, as much as I don't like saying it, they'd just be getting in the way. Aside from that, we also need someone here to watch over Calumon, and Leomon is more than capable of handling any errant Digimon that decides to try and make a snack of him." That's my reasoning and I'm sticking to it.
It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Leomon would be much, much safer out here, where he would be significantly less likely to get killed.
And even if someone did decide to try and kill him, Jeri had a Blue Card and knew what to do with it.
"Regardless, now that she's awake, I'll be going to have a chat to her. Be back here in two hours, and I'll take you all to the Sovereign's domain."