Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Emperor ❯ Fire with Fire ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 3: Fire with fire

"I don't think your computer is gonna cut it." Tai said. "Gennai has a habit of only appearing when he wants and being very inaccessible."

"Well, if he ever wanted to appear, now would be the time..." Izzy responded. "And I think I can track him down."

"How?" Joe asked. "You suppose he got a text message program?"

"No...last time we saw him, I managed to track down his signal in the digital world and saved his code to a file." Izzy began. "I know you guys probably don't get it, but you know how you use the find function in a word procession program to track down a particular word or phrase?"

"Sure." Kari said.

"Well, this is kinda the same thing. Once I know where he is, I think I can hail him."

"Brilliant." Ken said under his breath.

"Good thing we've got you around, we'd be completely lost at every turn without you." Cody complemented.

"Thanks." A moment of silence. "Got him."

Everybody jumped up and gathered around the computer. The screen featured a rough map of the digital world. Every few seconds, a portion of the screen would be highlighted, and then the screen would zoom in on that part, presumably getting closer and closer to wherever Gennai was.

"Just a second..." Izzy mumbled. "There we go." He pointed at the middle of his screen. "Right there. Let's see if we can't get him here..." He began typing again. "You guys might want to..." he flicked his hand back and forth. "...back up."

Slowly, everyone gave the computer a bit of room, well aware that all sorts of things can hop right out of the screen when dealing with the digital world.

"You don't suppose he'll play coy?" Yolei asked. "I mean...this is serious, we need him here now."

"We've gotta hope..." Kari trailed off.

And then, the computer began to glow. Slowly, a light beam emerged from it and arced gracefully down to the ground. It rose up and began to take human form. Finally, the light died out and a familiar man was left standing there.

"You called?" Gennai asked. He tossed the hood of his robe down, exposing his face. "That tracking business was a nasty little trick you know." He commented to Izzy.

"Glad you like it." Izzy said, crossing his arms. "I'd say it was worth it, wouldn't you?"

"We'll see." He looked around at the dozen. "I assume you're inquiring about the new emperor?"

Tai sighed. "See, that's what I'm talking about! You know he's out there, you know he's a threat, and we have to hunt you down? You should have been here yesterday! No, forget yesterday, how about six weeks ago, before this guy decided to vaporize an entire...frikkin village?!"

"I'm not all-knowing, friend. I didn't find out about this kid until a few days ago. And I didn't know about the village until it hit the evening news." Gennai responded.

"Okay, then where the hell were you last night? Or this morning? Or..." Tai shook his head. "I'm sorry if I'm coming off a little hostile, but it sounds to me like you were sitting back and watching. There's still alot about the digital world we don't know, we need you."

"I understand." Gennai said slowly. "I confess I made a mistake here. I thought you guys could handle it."

"Well, we got handled." Matt responded. "He forced us into an ugly retreat with pocket change."

"Whoa, whoa." TK interrupted. "Twelve champions and a giga cannon is not pocket change. That's insulting! We would have had a hard time taking out twelve champions and a giga cannon with ultimates!"

"And need I remind you guys, we were about to win until the cannon showed up." Davis threw in. "It's the cannon that kills me, we had him otherwise."

"It doesn't matter what we think. It's pocket change to him." Matt continued. "Did you see his jacket? He had twenty of those crystals! He uses one, and we're running back into the real world with our tails between our legs! It's like a guy with a thousand dollars on him is walkin down the street and gets held up by some lowlife bum with a gun, but the guy gives him fifty bucks. The robber thinks he's Clyde frikkin Barrow because he's never seen fifty bucks in his life and runs off, guy runs off with nine hundred and fifty bucks and forgets about the fifty bucks in twenty minutes. That's what we are, guys! We're the bum! We're supposed to take him for all he's worth, force him to the edge before we pack up and leave! Instead, we get a taste of what he's packing and run!"

A long five seconds passed, with everyone starring at Matt. "Where do you get this stuff?" Ken finally asked.

"It's-it's a song I'm working on."

"Well, I dunno where you're going with that, but for the sake of your musical career, scrap it. That's not a song, that's a...that's a joke, and it's not going anywhere." Tai said, stepping in front of Matt. "I'm trying to give you some really good advice here, just throw it out."

"Oh, oh, and you've appeared on stage in front of three thousand at the Amphitheatre...how many times?"

"Don't play that game with me, I listen to music, and I know enough to say-"

"You ever make the top 100 on the billboards? How many times have you made it on the Today Show?"

"Everyone makes it on the today show! It runs every day for three hours, they got more hours then they know what to do with! I could go outside and drink out of the sewer and get on the today show!"

"If you two are done." Gennai finally said, silencing the room. "Interesting metaphor, Matt, I'll want to hear that song when you're done. And you're right. He beat you with one crystal, not even five percent of what he's packing. That's not good. Not good at all."

"Well, it's not our fault we keep losing our powers as soon as we get it." Patamon commented.

"He's right." Agumon agreed. "As soon as the initial crisis passes, you take away our ability to go to ultimate or mega."

"And as soon as Malomyotismon hit the turf you took away the DNA digivolving stuff." Armadillomon added.

"Well, that's the way it has to be. It's a very precise balance, I give you enough power to defeat the forces of evil, and after you do, you give it up to be used for other purposes, I think it's perfectly fair." Gennai touched his hand to his chest. "What, you need an ultimate digimon to go blow up your school? You want a mega so you can go provoke a world war?"

"Okay, but we do need it now." Joe replied. "And I'm sure you can concur that it's for a good cause. Do you really want this Emperor fellow to do...whatever it is he plans to do?"

"Of course not." Gennai said. "You'll get whatever you need."

"Of course, it occurs to me if we had what we needed this morning, we wouldn't be sitting around here talking about how we got trashed by some snot-nosed kid who likes jewelry." Davis grumbled.

"You know, I am doing my best here! I dunno what happened in the last two months, but I'm gonna need some understanding and support from you guys if this is gonna work." Gennai hissed.

"Sorry. They're just a little embarrassed from the last two days." Izzy reasoned.

"I can imagine." He looked around the room. "Alright." He walked over to the bed and sat down. "You guys want ultimates? Done. You want DNA digivolving? Done. Are we good?"

"I think you're short a pair of megas." Tai said, pointing at Agumon and Gabumon.

Gennai looked at the pair, rubbing his chin. "I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best. This Emperor kid's been poking around with the digital world's structure. He's trying to make it impossible to digivolve to mega, and I'm afraid to say the kid's a genius. But I'll see what I can do."

"It occurs to me," Ken began "that it would be an advantage if we" he pointed at himself, Davis, Yolei, and Cody "could go to ultimate as well. I mean, a DNA digivolved digimon has the same power as an ultimate, but takes two digimon to create, so we'd be doubling-"

"No dice, Ken." Gennai shook his head. "I can give you back what you had and lost in the past, but giving you something new is a Centaurumon of another color. Now, it's feasible that there is a way for you four-" he motioned toward the quartet of new-generation digimon "-to reach the ultimate level, but you'll have to find it for yourself. If I can help, I will, but the onus is on you guys."

Davis failed to supress a giggle. TK looked over at him, squinting his eyes.

"What?" He dared to ask. "What? Onus?" Davis giggled again. "Oh yeah, that's SO funny. Yeah, Onus, real nice."

"Sorry, it just sounds like-"

TK pinched his eyes. "You know, in a time of crisis, we need a serious, responsible leader. Could you be any more childish? What is wrong with you, seriously?"

"I don't get it..." Kari said slowly. Sora leaned over and whispered in her ear for a moment. After pulling away, Kari couldn't help but shoot a sarcastic look at Davis.

"If we're done." Gennai said loudly. "I'll be on my way. Give me about ten minutes to set things up, and then you can come in-"

Suddenly, the computer screen went blue. Everyone turned to it, attracted by the loud 'typing noise' coming from the speakers. A sentence was being typed out in the middle, letter by letter. After a few seconds, it was done.

Azulongmon sends his regards

Then, the words mashed together in the middle of the screen in the form of a glowing orb, then emerged from the computer screen. The light beam flew into Gennai's hands and took the form of a short staff with a fist-sized orb at the end.

"Hmm?" Gennai hummed, looking it over closely. He flipped it about in his hands, examining the orb, then the staff itself.

"What do we have here?" Izzy said quietly.

"Ah." Gennai finally said. He then slowly motioned towards Ken with his left hand. "This is yours."

Ken crossed his arms over his chest, not moving. "What, is this a joke?"

"What are you talking about?" Gennai asked.

"I don't cosplay." He put his palm up to his forehead, leaning his head forward onto it. "That was one time. One time! And while we're at it, I don't play D and D either, so-"

"Ken. Azulongmon wouldn't use one of his precious digicores on a joke. Come here." Gennai responded quietly. Ken immediately complied, recognizing something serious was at hand.

"Now." He began, his voice much more neutral and flat than before. "I need you to be honest. Are you past it? Because if you aren't, I'm wasting my time, and quite a bit of Azulongmon's resources. I don't care if you aren't, I only care that you be honest."

Ken glanced around, going slightly red. "Yes, I'm...I'm past it. I'm positive."

"Good." He then placed the staff in Ken's hands. He took it slowly, then raised the orb up to his face and peered into it.

"So what's going on here?" Mimi finally asked. "I'm lost."

Gennai stood up. "I can give you ultimates. Hell, I can give you megas. But this...Emperor is more powerful than anything than we've ever faced before, potentially. Four years ago, we got taken to our limits fighting the Dark Masters, give this guy a month or two and he'll have the all four Dark Masters cloned a hundred times over and marching all over the place. You thought Myotismon was tough? Give this guy time and he'll have a thousand of em, kneeling at his feet. We've got to play his game."

"Interesting." Ken said slowly, holding the rod.

"This Emperor possesses unique powers. He can absorb just about anything inside the digital world, pretty much anything that's alive, and convert it into his crystals. He can do anything his little heart desires with these crystals. He can make a nuclear bomb, a burrito, a paper airplane, whatever. Those crystals represent power itself. And what he can do with them is limited only by how much he has and his creativity."

"I see...I see..." Ken muttered, rubbing his hands all over the grip.

"None of you can do what he can do. Why? I don't know. But this staff has the power to emulate what the Emperor does. So basically, this staff is capable of absorbing things inside the digital world and converting it into...let's call it power, which Ken can then do whatever he wants with."

"Incredible!" Izzy said under his breath. He got up and walked over to Ken, looking at the staff closely. "This changes everything."

"Yes, yes it does. Azulongmon took the liberty of filling the tank for you, but please don't waste, it cost him a digicore." Gennai responded.

"Why does he get it?" Davis asked, scratching his forehead. "I mean...I know we don't have an official agreement, but I am sort of the leader here-"

"Do you remember two months ago, when Ken opened the portal to the Dark Ocean?" Gennai asked rhetorically.

"Sure." A couple of them chorused.

"Ken may be as good as good can be now, but he used to be evil. And you can't change the past." Gennai pointed at Ken's chest. "There's still darkness in there. He may have it well under control, but it's still there."

"So this...whole business with power and manipulation and absorbing...requires that darkness?" Ken asked.

"Yes. It's not exactly a...nice thing, absorbing things and recycling it for your own purposes." Gennai nodded. "So it's sort of an...awkward situation."

"So Ken would be like Mace Windu?" Izzy asked.

The entire group set their eyes on Izzy.

"Can you explain that-" Sora started.

"Shut up!" Tai hissed. But it was too late.

"Well, you know Star Wars, right?"

Everyone gave varying degrees of nods.

"Alright, well, Mace Windu is a jedi. He uses Form VII lightsaber combat, which is a very violent form that's borderline dark side. He uses alot of jedi powers that borders on the line between light and dark."

"Thanks alot, Pandora." Tai hissed. "You might wanna go get some peanuts."

Sora blushed. "Sorry."

"But he's a jedi, so he's on the side of good. So he has to be careful with using these powers. He has to keep himself under control and always be able to bring himself back to the light. Like, when he lightsaber fights, he uses his anger to augment his power. That's like, the foundation that the sith build their combat on, channeling anger into power."

Joe snickered, his hand over his mouth. "Can you believe this kid?" He muttered to himself.

"So, that's kinda what Ken has to do now. He has to use 'evil' powers to help the good guys win. He has to be careful, walking across the line of evil without crossing it, and always being able to come back afterwards."

"Alright, alright, can we stop with the stories and metaphors?" Tai finally said. "Yes, Izzy, it's like Mace Windu. Whatever."

"Okay. Ken, we clear? If you're really over the whole emperor thing, you'll be fine. But if you've got any...inhibitions or issues with this, I need to scrap it now."

"No." Ken replied, but with a hint of a squeak in his voice. "No, I've got it. I'll do it."

"Good. Using it isn't particularly complicated, and you're a smart boy...it's pretty much point and shoot. Remember, keep the tank full." Gennai said with a wink. "I'd hurry towards Digi-China Town, I've heard rumors something's going down."

"Alright. I've always wanted to be a wizard." Ken remarked, his face starting to lighten up a bit.

"Oh yeah. Ken?" Gennai said, moving towards the computer. "This...Emperor is like nothing we've ever faced before. He's a serious threat to both worlds. And the digidestined, namely you now, are all that stands in his way. So, when things get rough, you're gonna have to let some morals go in the name of the greater good."

"What are you trying to say?" Ken asked, hugging the rod tightly to his chest, looking up at him.

A short pause. "You gotta do...what you gotta do." And then, Gennai became a shapeless beam of light and flashed back into the computer.

"Well, looks like we've bought back into the game." Izzy said abruptly. "Let's get going. Digi-China Town it is."

Everyone gathered around the computer, ready for round three.

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"Alright then." The group looked around. Open plains made up most of the area, with Digi-China Town set up just to their right. It was a hubub of activity as usual, digimon shopping and eating authentic Asian objects and food. All was well, for the moment. "Nothing yet..."

"Just as well." Davis said. "Am I the only one who remembers Gennai asked for ten minutes first?"
The group groaned. "Right, right!" Izzy said, facepalming.

"Well, you didn't remember it until it was too late to matter, so maybe you should just-" TK started.

"C'mon, guys." Tai interrupted. "We're here, so let's just go scout around. We can use up ten minutes that way."

The group walked into the China-Town replica, everyone cautiously peering about for any sign of trouble. But they couldn't help but notice some other things as well.

"It's beautiful." Kari commented, walking up to a shop window and looking in at some figurines. "This is such a nice place." She pressed her cheek up to the window. "We can't let him. He can't have this place." She pushed off the glass and took a seat on a bench right next to the front door. "We can't let him have it." Inspite of what she had to say, she was talking quietly, softly, almost as one already defeated, or drained.

The group looked about at the large crowds moving from one place to the next. "She's right, for more than one reason. The population here is dense, if he absorbs this place he'll probably make a house made of crystals." Tai commented.

"Looks that way." Izzy checked his watch. "So long as nothing happens for three minutes, we're looking good."

"Great." They heard a passing Demidevimon comment. "The digidestined, I suppose this mean the Emperor fellow will be here any minute." He kicked off the ground and started flying away.

"Oh, that's real nice." Davis hissed. "Have a little faith, huh?"

"Yeah right." They heard the Demidevimon say as he continued flying away. "Good luck, you're gonna need it."

"Can you blame him?" Tai asked. "I mean, I think we can win too, but running away from the battlefield is pretty smart."

"As long as we're promoting cowardice, maybe we should try and get the place evacuated." Davis spat.

"Why do your best ideas come when you're being bitter and sarcastic?" TK asked. "Let's see if we can't clear the place-"

And then, a mass of mechanical whirring could be heard off in the distance. Then, a jarring explosion rocked the entire town, sending everybody to the ground. They could hear fragile objects crash to the ground, shattering inside the shops.

Slowly, the group stood up, watching assorted digimon jump up and begin running around in a panic.

"Nice emergency evacuation plan!" Joe yelled. The group bolted for the front entrance. "Everyone, get inside and stay inside!" Those who could hear Joe seemed to follow his advice. Hopefully everyone else would follow suit.

They got to the front gates of China Town. Using the outer walls of the town as cover, they peered out. Off in the distance, they could make out what appeared to be a dozen digimon of considerable berth.

"Tai, what do we got?" Izzy asked warily.

Tai whipped out his telescope and peered out at the collection of digimon. "I've got...twelve Tankmon...but I don't think they're run-of-the-mill Tankmons..."

"Oh, great." Yolei said to herself. "What now?"

"I'm not sure...but those arm turrets have been modified somehow. I've seen them somewhere, but can't place it...and the armor looks thicker from here...I think the cannon's bigger too." He pulled the telescope down from his eye. "Hit the deck." He said calmly before flinging himself face down to the dirt.

The group followed suit, even as another explosion generated a small earthquake. More telltale sounds of things breaking and shattering sounded off. After a few seconds, the aftershocks subsided and everyone got back up.

"That didn't feel like a hyper cannon, that was way more powerful." Izzy commented. "Something's not right...hold on." He pulled out his laptop. "I think I can figure this out."

A few awkward moments passed, everyone bracing for another explosion. Finally, Izzy spoke up. "Those are Palidramon's guns..."

"Oh great. He's gone and made ultimates out of champions!" Ken yelled. "When does the madness stop?!"

"That isn't it..." he continued to type away "he's not firing Tankmon missiles. I think those are Andromon's missiles. The armor...it looks like he's melted down MetalGreymon head armor, or something."

"Great. Great!" Davis spat. "We leave him alone for thirty minutes and he goes and plays mad scientist on champions!"

"Calm down." Tai soothed. "We can take them."

"No, I'd say the boy's reactions are pretty spot on." Came a voice that had the unfortunate habit of starting to talk out of nowhere at inopportune times.

The group turned around wildly, as one, to stare upon the Emperor, standing just behind them, having just emerged from one of the antique shops.

"You!" Matt hissed.

"Yes, me. I'm afraid Davis is right to panic. It's simple math. I beat you less than an hour ago with a single of my crystals, quite handily might I had." He pointed out at the dozen Tankmon. "Now, I must ask, what makes you think you can stand against two?"
"We haven't exactly been...sitting around the last half-hour, if you must know." Tai said slowly. "What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

It was then that the group noticed a small vase, swirls of green and white covering it's surface, in his left hand. He looked down at it quickly, then back up at the dozen digidestined and their partners.

"It's a nice piece, okay?" He lifted it up in front of his face, looking at it. "It'd just be a shame for it to go to pieces like everything else in here."

Davis couldn't suppress a snort. Sora followed up with a giggle.

"What? Having taste makes me less of a supervillian?" He put the vase under his arm. "You know what? Whatever." He looked behind him. "It's a nice piece. Anyway, the point is, I beat you with one earlier, I'm beating you with two now. And you're not walking away from this one."

And then, a third explosion quaked the town. A torrent of further delicate objects hit the ground and broke into a thousand pieces.

"See?" He held up the vase. "Look what would have happened if I wasn't there. Anyway, that's the third warning shot." He gave a mock bow. "Must be going." And then, he was gone, seemingly disappearing from sight.

"Instead of talking, maybe next time we see him, we should just get him." Davis commented.

"Doubt it'll be that easy." Mimi responded. The gang looked out at the Tankmon, who were now marching on the town.

"We can't let them penetrate the town, or it's over." Ken commented.

"Well, wave your magic stick and let's see some fireworks!" Davis grunted.

"I'm thinking..." Ken trailed off, looking at the rod. "Conservation is the name of the game."

"Well, think faster!" Tai yelled. "We've got two minutes tops."

Ken looked around at the digidestined and their partners. "Alright, I've got an idea. Gatomon, how's your aim?"
"You don't worry about that, just tell me what to do." Gatomon replied.

"Alright." He peered off towards the Tankmon, slowly getting closer and closer. "Patamon, you're in on this too. We might not be able to beat them straight, but we can dismantle them." He looked around at all the other digimon. "All of you get digivolving, we'll need it."

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< br> Patamon took his champion form and Gatomon her ultimate, taking cover behind the walls. They pulled out their respective bows and notched an arrow to them.

"Once the first arrows hit, we've got a couple of seconds before they start shooting back." Ken spoke.

"Why aren't they firing now?" Yolei asked.

"They're moving into ideal attack formations. They don't know about the ultimates, or this." He held up the rod "So they think they can take their time." He looked up at Angemon and Angewomon. "Fire fast, accurately, and as one, or this won't work. Once they start shooting the game's over."

And then, Angemon and Angewomon popped up above the wall and fired. Almost as soon as the arrows left their bow, they had another, and fired again. And again. And again.

Finally, the first volley struck their marks. The twin arrows crashed right into a Tankmon, just above the top row of teeth on it's mouth. Their aim, even over this long distance, was true, and the top of the Tankmon's head was severed off. The next Tankmon met the same fate before he even noticed that of the one right next to him. The one next in line also had the top of his head, and thus the most important part of himself, the cannon, chopped off. The army finally started to catch on as the fourth Tankmon was dismembered, and began shooting back.

Angemon and Angewoman ducked down, letting the shells crash into the wall. Unfortunately, the wall was hardly built to take an assualt, and was about to crash down on the group.

Ken raised his rod up to the falling wall, which suddenly moved in reverse, assembling back as it was before the assualt. He then peered out from behind the wall and pointed his rod's orb out towards the charging, now firing, Tankmon.

The four severed Tankmon tops flew over at high speeds, flying over the wall and landing in a heap next to Ken. Three of the four suddenly came together and melded into one, triple barrel cannon. Ken went up to the wall they were using as cover and knocked a large hole near the base of it. The triple-barreled cannon rammed itself through the hole, so as the three barrels were pointing in the general direction of the coming Tankmon. He ran up to the wall and held his rod against it, keeping it standing against the torrent of attacks from the Tankmon.

"Awesome." Izzy said quietly. "It's...it's my every fantasy come true-"

"You're kidding, right?" Joe said slowly.

"Somebody man the turret! Tankmon season is open!" Ken pointed wildly at a butt of the triple-turret, which had a scope and trigger. He then gestured at the Digimon. "Somebody take the other gun, do with it what you will!"

To Ken's dismay, the digidestined all looked at each other, paused, and then began a round robin tournament of rock-paper scissors without even discussing it.

"Oh, come on-"

And then, he saw the digimon doing the exact same thing.

"This is serious!" He squinted his eyes closed shut, rubbed them for a moment, and then shook his head vigorously. "TK, get on the turret! MagnaAngemon, take the gun!"

"Why?!" Davis couldn't help but yell, clearly very eager to man a machine of pure destruction like the turret seemed to be.

"Because I-" A fierce explosion rocked the wall, nearly sending it down on the group inspite of Ken's best efforts. He only barely managed to push it back up. "-said so!"

The group finally broke, a host of ultimate and champion digimon running out from cover towards the firing Tankmon. MagnaAngemon grabbed the large cannon and joined the group,

"Have we gotten so caught up we don't even consider the morality of this whole thing?" Cody yelled. "Those are perfectly good digimon! Is it right to-"

"I've gotta do what I gotta do!" Ken yelled, sweating furiously with the effort of supporting the wall.

TK stood behind the cannon, peering through the scope. "Years of Counterstrike, don't fail me now." He muttered, placing his finger in the trigger.

He took aim at one of the headless Tankmon, running around blindly, waving it's machine gun arms, and fired. An Andromon-variety missile fired from the mouth, almost instantly crossing the distance between the cannon and the Tankmon, exploding fiercely on it's torso.

The cannon rotated, bringing a instantly fresh barrel to the top. He fired again, then again a half second later. The already injured Tankmon was in a fiery blaze, the organic missiles punturing and razing the armor.

A small alarm went off. TK pulled his eye back and saw a small red light on right above the trigger.

"Let it reload!" Ken yelled. The fire of the Tankmon was focused on the digimon now, so Ken was able to take a breather from keeping it up. The group peeked out at the battle.

Courtesy of TK, the digidestined now had the strength of numbers. Which they needed, as they were eight ultimates and four champions taking on eight ultimates and (now) three headless ultimates, in essence. Megakabuterimon fired off his horn blaster at one of the Tankmon, searing through layers armor with the electric charge. MetalGreymon unleashed his Giga Blaster. MagnaAngemon went in with his arm sword. With each attack from the collection of digimon, armor was melted away and the air was filled with a strong acrid smell.

The Tankmon continued to fire away wildly even as their defenses were weakened to the very brink of nothingness. Every few seconds, TK would help out with his triple barrel cannon, each shot causing vicious damage to anything in his crosshairs.

Seeing defenses being worn down, MagnaAngemon jumped into the air and brought his gun to bear. He flew up high into the air, then would come back down and fire a shot at point blank range into the head of a Tankmon. The results were nearly comical, a volatile missile embedding itself deep into the body of the Tankmon before erupting, melting the Tankmon into practically nothing.

Every ten seconds, MagnaAngemon would come back down and dispose more nasty justice to the injured Tanks. In the meantime, the fight waged on. WereGarurumon, having been peppered with machine gun fire down his right chest and a missile in his left arm, punched his arm right into the torso of one of the Tankmon and ripped a series of cords out, effectively shutting down the Tank.

"This isn't right!" Cory suddenly said, watching the fight before him with a twisted face, clearly not comfortable with the indifference everyone else had to killing digimon without a very good reason.

"C'mon, Cody..." Kari trailed off.

TK fired off another shell at an already-scalded Tank, striking it right in the mouth, disposing of it in an instant. "Crash and burn, mother-"

"TK!" Kari hissed. TK glanced over, gave an awkward smile, and quickly went back to the turret.

"Right. Right, that's my bad." He said robotically.

"So we're killing innocent digimon and enjoying it now?!" Cody yelled.

"We don't have time to figure out the how and why of these Tankmon! They're allied with the Emperor, and it's well within their power to level this entire town! We've got a chance to take care of them now, we've gotta take it, whatever that happens to mean doing!" Ken yelled back to Cody. Even as he spoke, ExVeemon ripped open the back torso of a Tankmon and Lilymon blew her cannon right into the hole, causing an explosion from the very heart.

"It's barbaric!" Cody yelled.

"So it'd be okay if we killed them with monocles and high tea with crumpets at noon?" Joe couldn't help but respond.

"This is war! It's what has to be done!" Ken said, bracing the wall for further impact from errant tank shells.

Cody turned away, his face still glazed over, conflicted over what they were doing.

"Time to mop up." TK said quietly to himself. His hand fell on a switch on the right side of the turret, just within his reach around the curve of the barrel. "Gimme a shot!" He yelled.

"Fall back!" Sora relayed to the digimon. They did so, leaving only a pair of Tankmon, both down to the last dregs of armor clinging onto their exoskeleton, like well-cooked ribs cling to a bone.

TK fired. All three barrels fired at once, sending synchronized shots at the two Tankmon. The explosive volleys struck the duo at once, creating a eruption of fire and smoke as they hit. A few seconds later, it cleared, and a pair of twisted heaps of metal were all that remained.

TK jumped up from the cannon, sweating, hopping around. "Done and done." He cricked his neck violently. "And not a scratch on her." He gestured with his thumb at the town.

A collection of battle-worn digimon went came around the wall, de-digivolving back to rookie and collapsing in a messy heap. Their respective partners picked them up, inspecting wounds borne of explosions and gunfire.

"Oh, hold on." Ken ran out from behind the wall, pointing his staff up at the skies. "Need to fill it up."

"No!" Cody yelled. Ken rolled his eyes, facing away so nobody could see, then turned around to face him.

"Yeah. Great idea, we can go home and fill it up! I hear it takes unleaded! If we all pool our life savings, we might just manage to-"

"It's wrong! We're gonna destroy them without even bothering to figure out their story, then prevent them from coming back so we can get the power to destroy more?! Am I the only one who sees what we're doing?!"

Ken looked up at the skies, stuck his tongue out to the side, and sighed deeply. "Alright. I didn't want to have to do this...but...what're you gonna do about it?"

A standoff ensued for several seconds, with both of them looking at each other intently. Cody with frustration, Ken with smug assurance. Finally, Cody backed off to the ground, resentfully.

"Thank you." Ken said softly before turning back to the skies. Glittering power rained down into the orb of his rod. After a few quick seconds, at least quick in comparison to the ones just before it, Ken lowered the staff to his waist.

"Alright, so, we saved the town, beat back the forces of the Emperor, even though he used two crystals, without much difficulty might I add-" Tai began.

Sora abruptly pointed at the digimon, who still were clearly showing the aftereffects of a battle.
"...it's only flesh wounds." Tai said meekly, shrugging. "Good meal, good night's sleep, couple of patches...anyway, and now the Emperor knows we are a force to be reckoned with. We should probably get home, I'd say that's a nice day's work."

"You wanna salvage those?" TK asked, pointing at the used cannons.

"Not much left..." Ken walked over to the two weapons of destruction, thinking. "Ah, what the hell?" He waved at them and they disappeared.

Izzy began the process of activating the digiport.

"So, Ken, I guess you're a wizard now." Davis commented. "You have a title? Ken the...hmm...what's a color that starts with K?"

"The color doesn't have to start with the same letter as my name. Like Gandalf the White."

"Okay, what's your favorite color?" Matt asked. "Blue? Ken the Blue."

"So what, I'm a depressed wizard?" Ken snickered.

"No, it's perfect. You're an emo wizard. I like it." Yolei said.

"But I don't wanna be an emo wizard!" Ken paraphrased.

"Okay. You want a cape? I've got one at home that smells like french fries." Izzy said as the portal sparked to life.

"I've got a sensitive nose and hate fast food. I'll puke."

Everyone burst into a good amount of laughter as the portal absorbed them all in. But, just as they were being thrown back into the real world, Ken and Cody locked in a nasty glare that lasted just a split second. But it was enough to leave the distinct impression that all was not well. Far from it.

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