Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Emperor ❯ The Black Market ( Chapter 5 )

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

Chapter 5: The Black Market

"I'm just saying, y'know." TK said. "It was really...weird, seeing you do that. We didn't like it at all." He tapped his fingers sharply on the felt table.

Everyone sitting at the circular table turned their attention to Matt, peeking down at the pair of cards face down in front of him, just flipping the tops of the two up so only he could see. "It's nice that you're willing to do the dirty work, but you went too far. You crossed the line. As digidestined, we've got a certain standard to keep up to. An interrogation is one thing, but that was plain...sadistic." He tapped the felt sharply as well, passing the play onto Izzy.

"I mean, like, when Jack Bauer interrogates someone it's nothing like that. You get the sense that he's a good guy doing whatever it takes to save his country. There's a fine line." He tapped the felt as well.

"It was...scary, basically. I know you've said many times you're past it, and I believe you, but...I saw a part of the emperor yesterday." Cody concurred, thinking for a moment before tapping the table.

"Alright, alright, I get it." Ken peered down at his pair of cards, then at the five faceup in the middle of the table. "Maybe I lost control there, but...that's partially what I was shooting for. Giving the impression of insanity, I have no doubt it loosened the tongue of that Renamon." He tapped the table as well. "But, if you guys have such a problem with it...I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I'll be more careful from now on. Sorry if I offended anyone."

"You mean it this time?" Cory said quietly.

"Hey, give me a break, alright?" Ken shot back. "I'm can't change the past, so I'm doing what I can to make amends."

"Let's put it behind us." Davis said. "Alright, everybody show what you got."

TK threw down a ten of spades and ace of hearts. "Pair of tens, ace kicker, plus the pair of sixes on the table." He recited.

Matt glanced over to his right at the wall, then pointed at Izzy. "Keep it moving." He mumbled.

"If you don't have anything, why do you keep checking?" TK said, looking at Matt with a raised eyebrow. "When you've got nothing, you either fold or raise, you're wasting money."

"Don't tell me how to play." Matt retorted. "I know what I'm doing."

"Obviously not." TK snickered.

"Izzy?" Davis asked.

"Well, looks like I've got three pair here-" he began.

"Izzy, it's a five card game, you can't have three pair." Ken said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head.

"Then why are there seven cards?" Izzy dared to ask.

TK rubbed his forehead. "So you can pick three cards from the table to combine with your two hole cards. Do you even know how to play Texas Holdem?"

"Sorry, sorry...so I've got the two pair, sixes and queens." Izzy said quickly, showcasing the two queens in his hand.

"I was hoping a nine would come on the river...nothing." Cody said, pointing over to Ken.

Ken gave a slanted smile as he flipped his two cards face up. A six of hearts and four of diamonds. "Full house." He nodded. "C'mon, let's see some." He tapped the felt right in front of him.

Davis pushed the pot of chips over to Ken, who nodded in satisfaction.

"I don't get these card games." Veemon finally said from the corner. "I mean, it doesn't make any sense. What's a spade or diamond supposed to mean? And what makes Ken's hand better than everyone elses?"

"Maybe I'll tell you one day." Davis replied. He then pointed to the bed, where Kari, Yolei, Tai, Joe, and Mimi sat. "Anyone wanna buy in?"

The five digidestined shook their heads, giving various explanations for their disinterest.

"I'd love to, I love poker, but..." Joe began as he reached into his back pants' pocket. He pulled out a black and brown wallet, a chain trailing from it's corner back to his pocket. He unzipped it and looked inside. "...yep, cleaned out."

Ken was starring at Joe, wearing a light smile. "What the hell is that thing?" He asked, pointing at the chain.

Joe looked down at the grey metal rope extending from his backside to the wallet. "It's a chain." He said, an unspoken 'duh' hanging after his sentence.

"Get rid of it." Ken said flatly.

"Why?"

Ken began to stack his chips. "Because you look retarded." He snickered.

"It's not about looks! It's a security thing, this town is full of sticky-fingered thugs who's hands are constantly feeling around in other people's pockets-"

"Nobody wants to steal your bus pass." Ken interrupted. "Gimme a break."

Joe shrugged and put the wallet back in his pocket.

"Where's Sora? When she gets here we can go." Tai wondered out loud.

"Driver's License test I think." Kari said. "She'll be here soon I'm sure."

"How is a Driver's License more important than saving the world?" Yolei said under her breath.

"You'll understand when you get around driving age." Tai answered. "It's the most important thing in the world in the mid-to-late teens. Trust me."

And then, the bedroom door blew open. Sora burst through the doorway, breathing heavily. "S-sorry. Some druggie was causing problems at the testing center."

"You pass?" Matt asked.

"Yeah." She panted.

"Nice. Now let's go." Matt pointed at the computer. Ken stepped up to the screen along with Izzy.

"Destination: File Island Sewers." Ken announced.

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The gaping hole into the sewer system stood before them, embedded deep into a grassy hill, tilting downwards into the earth. Moss clung to the floor, walls, and ceiling of the concrete tube. Water dripped down it, dripping into a much larger river of dirty fluid. The surrounding area was more forest, having been long vacated by digimon due to the smell, as such the grass was overgrown up to the digidestined's waists. Tall, thick trees populated the area, blocking out the sun and restricting the distance in which they could see in any direction.

"Why does it have to be a sewer?" Mimi said to herself.

"It is a black market." Izzy said. "I mean, I wouldn't exactly expect to find it in the Primary Village or anything."

"Alright, let's go." Ken said, pulling out his rod. "Be careful, I'm sure I don't need to tell you what a black market implies." He marched forward, down the tube into the actual system of sewers. One by one, everyone followed.

"Where's the monolith?" Matt asked from near the front.

"Don't worry about it, I know where we're going." Ken responded.

Izzy ran his hand across the sewer wall, knocking moss off into the stream at their feet. "If this really is the entrance to the Black Market, they do a hell of a job hiding it. I'd bet alot of things nobody's been through here for years."

"They do hide it quite well." Ken agreed. "You'd never guess it."

The narrow hallway turned into a sidewalk of sorts, concrete walkways on either side of a river. They proceeded down it, eyeing the river. Every now and then, an air bubble or splash would come up to the surface, though nothing ever directly disturbed them.

"Man it smells terrible down here." TK commented. "I guess if you want to get into the Black Market you need to really want it."

"I don't know much about it." Izzy started. "But the name 'black market' is pretty revealing. You can buy severed digimon parts, buy all kinds of information, and hire mercenary digimon. That sort of thing. And of course, anything goes, so pretty much everything ranges from barely legal to flat out illegal."

"Do you have anything specific you're looking for?" Kari asked Ken.

"Well...if we can dig up some information on the Emperor, that'd be fantastic. Barring that, maybe we could see if we can't hire some mercs, and I guess we should have a look at the hardware-"

"There you go again!" Cody hissed from the back.

"Oh, gimme a break, give me a break..." Ken moaned, grabbing his forehead.

"Kid's got a point." Matt spoke from the middle of the pack. "I mean, we've gotta do some questionable things, but do we really need to be funding shady digimon and purchasing questionable items? I mean, I know it's for a good cause, but we shouldn't dip so far into the side of evil."

Ken sighed, then turned around to face the group. "Good point, Mister Richard James."

Matt went a scarlett red, his hands curling into fists.

"Or is it Mister Randolph Patterson?" Ken continued.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Matt hissed. "C'mon, let's...keep going." He put his fists in his pocket and pushed into Joe, causing the line to continue moving.

"Matt, what's that all about?" TK dared to ask.

"Shut up!" Matt repeated, his jaw clenched.

TK looked up at Ken, who was walking backwards to keep an eye on the scene behind him. Ken caught his glance. He put his left hand out, his thumb sticking straight up at the ceiling. He put out his right hand, his thumb and forefinger grasping his left hand thumb. He pulled back on the thumb, making a popping noise with his mouth. He then raised his left hand up to his face, leaning back and putting the tip of his thumb into his mouth, making a chugging noise with his throat.

"Do you wanna die?" Matt spat up towards Ken, flashing an obscene hand gesture up towards the front of the line.

"You rock stars are strange people." Ken said lightly before turning back around and continuing.

The dozen walked on for several minutes, passing through the disgusting and bland system of tunnels. Izzy seemed to turn green with every further step he took, and everyone else was far from comfortable as well.

"Ken, could we get some...I dunno, air freshener in here?" Davis finally asked.

Ken looked up at the ceiling. "That has got to be the biggest waste of power that has ever crossed my mind. You think this stuff grows on trees?" He pointed down at his rod.

"C'mon, man, we're dying!" Davis whined. "It can't take much! Please?"

Ken rubbed his eyes hard. "Fine...but if I run out of power in the middle of a fight with MetalSeaDramon or something, I swear I'll come back from the grave to put my foot up your-"

And then, the orb from his belt glowed a violent red, a small beam of light emerging from the top of it and going straight up into the roof of the sewers.

"Hold it." Ken said, holding his hand out. "We're under the monolith."

Everyone froze, looking up at where the light hit the ceiling.

"Alright, now what?" Mimi asked.

"Hello?" Ken called out. "RedVeggiemon? Hello?"

The wall to the left of the group slid open just about eight inches. A red blob with a mouth and eyes and two spiked bludgeons for arms waddled out. The wall quickly shut behind him, shutting with enough force to create a small vibration.

"To what do we owe the honor?" The RedVeggiemon asked, eyeballing Ken up and down. "If you're here to try to shut us down, there's gonna be an entry fee."

Ken grinned down at the particularly dirty and stench-riden RedVeggiemon. "Not today, friend. We're here to browse the wares."

"Huh?" RedVeggiemon raised his eyebrow. "Aren't you all the digidestined?"

"Yeah. Look, it's a long story. We've had to make some adjustments to our usual modus operandi. Now are you gonna let us in, or do I have to grease the wheels?"

"Nah, I'm not allowed to take tips. If someone found out it'd be my ass on a barby. We don't judge down here in the black market, anyone with money is allowed in."

"Nice to know some people can't be bought out by the emperor." Ken replied as the RedVeggiemon waddled towards the edge of the walkway.

The RedVeggiemon sneered. "Nobody can buy out the black market. Though the Emperor comes around here alot."

"Just as I hoped." Ken said. He watched the RedVeggiemon reached over the edge into the water with his right tentacle, feeling around in the murky river. "I hope you're paid well for this."

"Never well enough." A second later, his dripping-wet appendage emerged. "Alright. What you wanna do..." a second later, a bright red ring appeared in the middle of the river "...is jump into that ring. Don't worry, you won't get wet, the water there is an illusion. You'll slide down for a bit and come out in a small concrete room. Knock on the wall opposite the slide three times, and it'll slide down. Enjoy."

Ken looked behind him at the group, winked, and walked up to the edge of the concrete as Wormmon jumped up into his arms. He pushed off the edge hard, leaping into the air over the sewer water. His feet neatly landed into the ring, and as advertised, fell through without creating a splash. His body disappeared without disturbing the water. Or rather, the illusion of water.

"Little trusting, isn't he?" Izzy muttered as he stepped up to the edge as well.

"What, you don't believe me?" The RedVeggiemon whined. "Jeez, I'm trying my best here."

"No, you did fine...it's just a shady business." Izzy jumped off the edge and into the ring as Tentomon clinged onto his shoulders.

"Alright, wait four seconds, then the next can go." The RedVeggiemon instructed.

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Sora slid down the tube with Biyomon last, emerging from the darkness out into the concrete room. With all twelve digidestined and their partners, the chamber had become quite crowded. There wasn't a light source except for the tiny bit that came down through the short tube, so it may as well have been pitch black, causing for some jostling and bumping among the two dozen.

"Alright." Ken walked up to the wall opposite the tube and put his first up in the air at head level. Slowly, almost like the leg of a grandfather clock, he knocked back and forth on the concrete three times.

Sure enough, the wall began to slide downwards into the earth, light filtering through the developing crack near the ceiling. Slowly, the world outside the concrete box was revealed to the digidestined as the wall disappeared into it's slot in the ground.

It was a well-constructed cave, any stalagmites and stalagtites having been dealt with by nature or digimon. It was a square-shaped tunnel, perhaps fifty feet in diameter, seemingly extending into eternity. Every couple hundred feet, a large door was embedded into the rock. This pattern held true for both sides of the cave. On the ceiling, powerful lights beamed on the cave, providing an adequate substitute for the sun.

"I was half expecting the Morlocks." Izzy said quietly as he walked out of the concrete room.

"I was hoping for the Morlocks." Ken exclaimed. "Not very active, is it?"

"Well, it's not exactly the marketplace at Agrabah." Kari said as she, along with everyone else, began to proceed down the tunnel. "Now what?"

"Let's have a look at what they've got." Ken said quietly, making a beeline for the first door on his left. Everyone followed, wary of what could be lurking behind any of any of the doors.

"Be careful." Yolei said as Ken rapidly approached the door, his hand out for the knob. The door was a light brown, the knob lever-style and silver.

"Don't worry. I know where we are and what to expect." He stopped in front of the door and pushed his hand down on the lever. It gave, and he pushed it inwards. After it got about six inches open, he stuck his head through the crack.

"DAH!" He immediately pulled his head back, slamming the door closed violently. He spun around and began running away from the door. "AHHH!" He rubbed his eyes viciously, wildly running through his fellow digidestined without restraint, forcing them to wildly jump out of his path. "AHHHH!"

"Ken, what's wrong?!" TK yelled at his backside.

He tripped, falling face first onto the floor, still holding his eyes and screaming. He curled up into a fetal position, beginning to shake quickly.

The door slowly swung open a few inches, and a Meramon stuck his head out. "What?" He said sharply.

"What's going on in there?" Tai asked, afraid to look for himself.

"All your deepest fantasy, come true in one hour." The Meramon spoke listlessly, as if a robot. "Foursome, role-play, cross-species, you name it, we offer it." He pulled his head back into the room, then emerged a second later with a laminated piece of paper. He presented it to Tai. "May I interest you in a package deal?"

Tai took it delicately, then flipped it over to the side that featured pictures and writing. He quickly regretted it, throwing it back at the Meramon. "AHHH!" He turned around, running off in a similar fashion to Ken just a moment ago. "AHHH!"

"God, it's a digi-smut hut!" Izzy finally exclaimed.

"Couldn't you have figured that out before our magic man and leader got...incapacitated?" Davis gestured at Ken, still rocking back and forth on the ground in the fetal position, mumbling incoherantly. Tai had fallen over and was pounding his forehead into the ground.

"Thank you, no, no!" TK yelled to the Meramon, trying to close the door. "Peddle your perversions to somebody else!" He managed to get it shut as the Meramon slipped back in.

Kari was kneeling next to Tai, who was now lying on his stomach, rubbing the top of his head. "I think he's alright..." she said slowly.

"Not if he saw what I'm imagining he saw." Matt said, looking down at the two pathetic figures on the ground. "I dunno, I'm thinking a...Guilmon riding a Mamemon with a Pixiemon riding the back-"

"AHHHH!" Ken started screaming again, rolling back and forth on the floor.

Yolei sighed. "This could take awhile."

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"You gonna be alright?" Izzy asked Ken as he sat cross legged on the floor, rocking back and forth.

"I guess. But god damn they need a warning sign. Or put it in the back or something." He shuddered. "I mean, what the-"

"Okay, this door isn't any good either." TK reported, running back to the group as they continued trying to comfort Ken and Tai, pointing at the first door on the right side of the cave.

"What is it?" Cody asked warily.

TK put his thumb and forefinger of his right hand together, then put them up to his lips and took a long, exaggerated puff, tilting his head back.

"Ah." Sora said, nodding.

Matt looked around slowly at everyone else, then slowly started to move towards the door TK had come from.

"Matt!" Sora hissed in his direction. He stopped midstep, quickly rewinding his paces back to where he was to start.

"C'mon, let's check out some of the others." Joe finally said.

"Some of us aren't ready!" Tai said in a singsong voice, still in his fetal position on the ground. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H-"

"Suck it up!" Kari said, following Joe along with everyone else sans Tai.

Tai blinked a few times, then slowly unrolled himself and pushed himself up. He hurriedly ran up to the rest of the group.

"You got told off by your sister." Davis said quietly, supressing a laugh.

"Shut up." Tai growled.

A moment later, Ken stood before the 2nd door on the left side, preparing himself to open it. This door was black, with a golden handle, again lever style.

"Okay, okay, I'm good. I can do this." He said, more to himself than anyone else. And then, he plunged his hand down on the lever and pushed it open.

To the great relief of everyone, this looked like an ordinary shop. There was a glass desk in the left corner, behind which sat an Apemon. Inside the desk, various strange objects could be seen. Shelves lined the walls, holding several items, from Gatomon tail rings to Gargomon machine guns.

"Oh yeah, baby, now we are talking!" Ken said, dramatic emphasis on each word as he slid into the shop.

"Can I help you?" The Apemon growled.

"Possibly." Ken said, his voice suddenly going very silky and smooth. "Mister Apemon, you're looking at the digidestined." He stepped to the side as the other eleven of his cohorts stepped in slowly and nervously. "Now, we're looking to take down a certain Digimon Emperor." He looked up at the ceiling and licked his lips. "What can you offer me?"

"Well, just about everything you see." He motioned around with his hands. "We've got...Tankmon missiles and launchers, the laser from a Centarumon's arm, a Deputymon's revolvers set...oh I know-" He reached below the desk and brought up a small figurine of a Dokugumon. "-voodoo. Very nice. You squeeze it on the top of the head, fires a very powerful and strong poison thread. Squeeze it harder, and-"

Ken raised his right index finger and shook it. "Nah nah." He reached into his belt and whipped out his magic rod. "You see this?"

"Yeah." The apemon growled. "You tryin to say I'm stupid? Course I can see it-"

"Anything you've got on display in this shop, I can create with a flick of my wrist. I need you to show me something...special, something truly useful, or I'm just wasting my time."

The Apemon looked around. "If that rod can do...what you say...what the hell are you doing here?"

"Power don't grow on trees." Ken said. His eyes scanned the room quickly again. "Or does it?"

"Alright, alright. But I need to see some money first." The Apemon insisted, folding his arms over his chest.

"And what makes you so sure I'm buying what you're selling?" Ken asked.

The Apemon merely pointed down at the desk in front of him.

Ken shook the rod quickly, and two wads of american hundred dollar bills popped up on the desk where the Apemon pointed.

"Thank you." The Apemon turned around, walked up to the shelf behind him, and reached up to the top shelf for a wooden square box about a foot long. He brought it down, then tapped the top twice. A number pad appeared on the top. He typed in a very long sequence of numbers, that took at least twenty seconds to put in, before it popped open. Laying inside the box, among some rolled up pieces of paper, was a very familiar looking crystal.

Ken's eyes popped open. "Now that, my friend, qualifies as special. Please describe the method in which you acquired this piece."

"Not part of the deal." He replied gruffly.

Ken shook his rod, causing a golden armband with twenty encrusted diamonds to appear on the desk.

"It's a...it's a customer privacy thing, I promise everyone who comes here their exchanges are never shared with anyone else-"

Ken waved his rod again, creating a massive, seven layer, white and pink cake to appear in the middle of the shop. The digidestined quickly moved to the edges of the room to avoid being squashed.

"Um...I really shouldn't, stealing straight from the Emperor's stash is dangerous enough as it is, talking about it to customers could really get me...and somebody else, in alot of trouble."

Ken waved it again, and the top of the cake popped off, and a female Apemon emerged from it.

"I like the way you think, but...I have...issues down there..." he pointed downwards.

Ken waved his rod again, and the Apemon's eyes popped open. He glanced down, a smile finally crossing his face.

"Holy...I'm back in the game!" He grinned. "Alright. Here's the scoop. The Emperor has several dozen very well hidden drills all over the world, and he uses them to dig for power he uses to convert to his crystals. They get transported from all over the world to here, where they get put on trucks and get driven to the temple, then they get loaded onto a train and taken to the docks. Then, they get put on planes and get flown to the land of the ice and snow in Server. Somewhere in that series of handoffs and trips, they get dropped off at his secret base. Or at least, that's what happened this time, it probably changes every time. He's got a couple of people in places working for him, making it all possible."

"Interesting. Very hard to keep track of anything." Ken rubbed his chin. "And you got this how?" He gestured at the crystal.

"Well, I've got some friends in places as well. It wasn't too hard to pick one out of the transports during exchanges. I know they're quite powerful, and worth alot, but I can't find a buyer."

"Well you just found one." Ken said, grabbing the box that held the crystal. "And if you've got more, I'll take em all. Name your price."

"I've got five more in the back, but I better see half a mil on this desk when I get back." He turned around, walked back up to the shelf, slammed his palm on a book, and the shelf right beside it disappeared into the ground. He strolled into the newly exposed chamber.

"C'mon, Ken, haggle with him. That's the fun of buying big ticket items!" Mimi said from behind the cake.

"Hold on...I've got an idea." Ken said. "Besides, he could charge a million bucks a piece and it'd still be profit to us.

A minute later, the Apemon emerged with five crystals. Ken, sure enough, had a new heap of money on the desk. "Hey buddy, you keep copping crystals every chance you get, and I'll keep buying them."

"Sure thing. It's a hell of a risk, but nobody lives forever." The Apemon responded, giving Ken the five crystals.

Ken promptly absorbed the half-dozen crystals into his rod, feeling incredible energy and power running through it. "They are powerful." He enthused. "It's...it's incredible." Then his face fell. "But...this whole digging operation...the Emperor must have countless crystals already."

"Not as many as he used to." The Apemon winked.

"Yeah, alright. If that's all you got, we'll see you around. Keep copping them crystals." Ken smiled weakly. "Let's get out of here, check out some of the other shops."

"Alright." Tai turned around and opened the door, slipping through the threshhold.

And then, a loud crack sounded in the air, followed seconds later by Tai falling back into the shop. A dribble of blood dripped from the center of his forehead.

Nobody wanted to see it, so reactions were slow. Eventually, however, gasps and mortified looks overtook everyone in the room. The dribble of blood tracked down his head, into his hair.

"Holy-" Ken muttered, running around the cake, pushing through his friends, and jumping over Tai's body to get outside.

Sure enough, Cory was standing to the right of the shop, holding a golden, slightly smoking revolver, pointed at the doorway.

"He was long overdue for retirement." Cory said icily. "I suppose this makes you the unquestioned leader now.

"You...you-" Ken started.

"I've upped the ante, kid. To hell with honor, to hell with fair fights, and to hell with digimon. What, you honestly thought you'd be immune just because?"

"How could you...in cold blood-"

"Why don't you go home and come back when you're ready? This is my world now, so we're playing with my rules."

Everyone else piled out of the shop, starring unbelievely at Cory.

Kari's fists clenched, her jaw clamping. "You...bastard." She hissed.

"Consider this a lesson. You got sloppy and paid for it. Now, I'm going to leave before the next phase kicks in and I get wet, but any one of you could be next when I get an open shot."

And then, in a flash, he was gone.

A few moments of silence went by, as slow as a world champion's game of chess. Then, the digidestined began to break down, well up, and cry over their lost leader.