Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Emperor ❯ Adeel Achmed ( Chapter 6 )

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

Chapter Six: Adeel Achmed

Some people have been asking me if there's going to be any romance or couples in this fic...I'll go ahead and say now I haven't planned things out to that degree, I'm more of a fan of just letting things happen as they happen.

But since couples are popular here on fanfiction, and I don't want to surprise people, I'll go ahead and say a few things. I'm a pretty big Takari fan, so that's likely to sneak in. Inbetween Taiora and Sorato, I lean to Taiora more, so it's possible that could pop up. I don't particularly care either way, but I don't mind Mimato, so that's another possibility. I have an extreme dislike for KenXYolei, so you won't be seeing any of that. You might see Ken hook up with a new character I introduce into the story at some point.

That's about it for couples that I'm aware are used often on fanfiction.net. However, if you have a request, please leave it in a review. If I'm...alright with the idea of the coupling, I'll go ahead and put it in the fic. I know this is unusual, but I wasn't planning on using any couples at all. So I'd like to get some suggestions from my loyal readers as to which direction to move. I'm quite flexible, so go ahead and knock yourself out.

And thanks to everyone reading my fic. If anyone's interested, you can contact me personally through the stuff in my profile. I'm interested in meeting anyone who likes my fics.

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"I shoulda gone first." Ken said, sitting on the ground crosslegged, looking away from Tai's body, shaking. "What was I thinking? I mean, I'm the leader now, I've got the magic stick...jeez I'm stupid." He put his head in his hands. "Jeez."

"D-don't blame yourself." Matt said hurriedly, crouching down over Tai. "I mean, any one of us could have gone first. I'm sure Tai would have...oh jeez." He started tearing up again.

"Wait." Kari said quietly, looking at Ken's back. "That's right! You're the man with the magic stick! Of course!" Her face lit up as she ran over to Ken. She kneeled down over him. "You can bring him back...can't you? C'mon, wave the stick! Bring him back!"

Ken shook his head, not turning to look at her. "If I thought I could, I would...I'd give anything to, trust me. But to bring people back from the dead is beyond me. I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly! You can anything! C'mon, wave the stick! Please?" She said, her voice getting higher and higher.

"I'd sacrifice this stick if it meant bringing Tai back, but it's not happening." He repeated.

Then, quite suddenly, a crushing blow hit Ken full force in the back of the head. He was thrown forward and quickly rolled over, only to have Kari pick him up by the collar via strength usually not found within her and slam him against the cave wall.

"You selfish bastard, do it!" She hissed, her eyes glowing a vibrant scarlett. "Do it! I know you can, you just don't want to! Bring him back!"

"Kari, I can't! Okay, I can't! I'd love to, but it just can't be done!" Ken insisted, fighting the urge to respond to her violently.

Matt and Izzy came up behind her and managed to claw her off Ken, pulling her back a few feet. She starred at Ken for a few seconds, breathing laboriously and her eyes still fiery.

After a moment, her chest stopped heaving. Humanity came back to her features. "I'm...I'm so sorry, Ken. I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just...just..." she began to break down into tears again.

"It's okay...I understand." Ken said soothingly. Izzy and Matt let her go, letting her drip back to the cave floor.

"Please, Ken. Bring him back. I'll do anything." She said through her tears. "Anything."

Ken sighed, rubbing his eyes with his left hand. "Kari, I'm dead serious, this is well beyond my power, probably even Cory's power. It's just-" He pulled his hand down and gasped when he laid eyes on Kari removing her shirt.

"Please...I'll do anything..." she said, her voice taking on a strange feminine allure. "Anything at all."

"Ah! No, no, no!" Ken said, fumbling for his rod as Kari began to unhook the front part of her bra. "No, this is not okay!" He said quickly, shaking the rod, causing Kari's shirt to suddenly pop back onto her torso.

"Oh, playing hard to get?" She said, layering her voice in sensual tones. She reached up for the collar of her shirt, beginning to rip it apart down the middle with her hands.

"Ah! No, no, do not want!" Ken said, panic lacing his voice, starting to run away from Kari. She gave pursuit, even as her shirt fell away in tatters.

"Huh. I never knew Ken was gay." Davis mused, watching the awkward scene.

TK, standing behind Davis, glowered at the back of his head for a second before smacking it with his open palm. Davis spun around.

"Ow!" His head stopping spinning when it came around to TK. Reflexively, as he rubbed the back of his head, he looked downwards, then froze. "Hey, dude, cover up."

Slowly, TK looked down and went a scarlett red. Slowly, he removed his white hat and lowered it down to his crotch region, covering it. "Dammit." He said under his breath.

Kari was, again, undoing her bra. Ken tripped trying to run away, and rolled over just in time for Kari to savagely jump on top of him. Her bra fell away as her hands began to grab at his pants, trying to pull them off his legs.

"Stop it!" Ken commanded, trying to resist the urge to use his rod to deal with the situation. He tried to gently push her off with his legs, but she had become a vicious sex-driven animal. "God, I need to start wearing a belt." He muttered. "Help!"

Joe ran up to the odd scene and ripped Kari off with great force, nearly taking Ken's pants with him. Kari fought for another second or so, then slumped over in Joe's grip, sobbing bitterly.

Joe let her go to the ground as Ken got up and composed himself.

"What just happened?" Davis asked, watching Kari cry on the ground.

"Well...I think she just went through the Kubler-Ross model in less than a minute. The first four stages anyway."

"What's that?" TK asked.

"It's how people deal with grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, then..." he looked back down at Kari, sobbing on the ground. "...well, acceptance comes later."

"Hopefully." Izzy said, looking down at her sad figure. "We...should leave." He said sadly.

Agumon was looking down at Tai's body, perhaps more sadly than anyone sans Kari. "Now what do I do?" He said in almost a whisper.

"Yeah. Nothing for us here." TK said slowly.

"Don't be so sure." Came a voice from across the cave. Everyone swiveled their heads to look at the source.

Standing right in front of the door opposite them was a new figure. Another teenager, so it seemed. He was of middling height and well-built, with black hair just slightly spiked at the front. A small bit of facial hair covered his chin, forming a goatee. He wore fairly plain clothes, a blue, longsleeve shirt, black pants, and white running shoes.

Ken reached for his rod, ready to cause some fireworks in a hurry. "And what might be here for us?" He said slowly.

"Pardon me. My name is Adeel. Adeel Achmed."

"Well...Mister Achmed. How did you come across this place?" Ken asked, still resting his hand on his rod.

"What, you mean this?" He waved his arms around, slowly beginning to walk towards the group. "I know a Wizardmon who used to be a Merc."

"No, no...I mean this world. You know where you are, right?" Ken asked.

"Oh." Adeel said, nodding his head. "That I do. The digital world is more home to me than the real one, in fact."

"How odd." Izzy said. "We've never seen you before."

"I do my best to be invisible." He replied, continually coming closer and closer.

"And why might that be?" Ken asked, refusing to let his guard down after what had just happened.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm just like all of you." He said soothingly.

"That's the second time this week I've heard someone say that." Ken shot back. "The first guy who said it happens to be a power-hungry mass murderer."

"Your suspicion is, admittedly, warranted." Adeel conceeded. He began reaching into his pocket, just a few meters from the group now.

"Slowly, please." Ken asked, watching his hand in his pocket.

Slowly, Adeel pulled out a digivice. A D-3, to be precise. This one, again, was colorless. Ken's eyes widened.

"You'll excuse me if I'm having an unfortunate case of Deja Vu." Ken said. "Please explain yourself in detail."

"As you wish. As I say, I am one of you. A digidestined. A bit of a late bloomer, so it happens, but here I am. I've been raised in the states, and up until this thing came into my life-" he held up the digivice "-I've had a life too boring to even be worth telling you all about."

Ken's eyes danced from his D-3 to Adeel's face. "I see. And you've decided to show up at this particular moment...why?"

Adeel rubbed the bridge of his nose, now stepping right in front of Ken. "Well, I believe I can be of assistance in fighting the Emperor...but also because I sensed something terrible had happened here."

"You sensed right." Cody said. "Cory showed up and..." he gestured with his head towards Tai's body.

"Huh." Adeel said, walking up to the corpse. "Oh Jesus...Tai?"

"You know him?" TK asked immediately. Suddenly, Kari stopped crying and looked up at Adeel.

"I know of him." He responded. "I know he was the leader...but why?"

"Why what?" Sora asked.

"Why did he kill him?" He asked.

"Because he's a terrible, evil person who seeks to off the digidestined so he can accomplish his evil goals?" Mimi said.

"No, no...it's not that, it's-"

"You can bring him back." Kari suddenly said, looking up at him from the ground.

Ken sighed. "Great, back to stage one." He said under his breath.

"No, no." Kari pushed herself up. "He can, he can, I can feel it." She began to approach him slowly. "Now, in our hour of greatest need, the knight in shining armor emerges from the shadows to turn back the clock and give an innocent boy a second chance at life!"

Ken stepped in front of her, pushing her back. "Adeel, I am so, so sorry. Tai's her brother, she's delirious. Give her a few days, I'm sure she'll be back to normal and apologize herself."

"She's right." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ken said quickly.

"I can bring him back. Or rather, I know how to." He said.

A long pause of silence followed this statement. And then, Kari started to sob again.

"I knew it!" She screeched through tears. "I don't know how...I knew it. How?" She said quickly, her head tilting back up to Adeel. "Azulongmon's digicores?"

Adeel shook his head. "Azulongmon doesn't have the ability to bring back the dead. Raw power won't do it."

"Then what is it?" Ken asked. "And please don't screw around, you have no idea how gruesomely Kari will slaughter you if you're not serious."

"I'm serious. I know how to bring him back...but..."

"But what?" TK snapped. "If you know how to bring him back, do it before Kari kills herself, for god sakes!"

"Calm down...it's just...I don't think I should." Adeel said finally.

"What are you talking about?" Davis said. "Of course you should!"

"I'm sorry, but...I should explain." He admitted. "What happens when a digimon dies?"

"They get reconfigured back to primary village." Izzy said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, but, what else?" Adeel continued. He waited for everyone to shrug. "When a digimon dies, it could be several different forms, potential. From baby to mega. But when they get sent back to primary village, they're reborn as babies. What do you suppose happens to that surplus of energy?

"Huh. Never even thought of that." Izzy said to himself, sounding disappointed. "I have no idea."

"Well, it gets saved and stored in a special place. The valley of the digital lost souls, so to speak. It gets held there until Primary Village needs it to generate more baby digimon. However, the surplus is usually much bigger than what the Primary Village needs, so over the centuries, the buildup of extra power has become enormous."

Ken couldn't help himself. His eyes ignited with a vicious fire. "How enormous?" He said silkily.

"I'm guessing enough to create...I dunno, at least three thousand megas. Probably more, I don't really know." He then noticed Ken looking as if he just walked in on a Jessica Alba, Keira Knightley and Angelina Jolie threesome. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to stop you right there."

"What?" He said quickly.

"The vaults in the valley of digital lost souls have one purpose, and one purpose only. To fuel the primary village. I'm afraid I can't let you use it for...whatever you're thinking about."

"Listen, the Emperor has one thing standing between him and digital world domination." He pointed down into his belt at the rod. "This. And it needs fuel to run. I'll do whatever I need to keep it filled, got it? And if what you're saying is true, I think we might have hit onto something big. Big enough to defeat the Emperor."

"Ken, I'm sorry, but it's not happening. You'd be interrupting the natural order of things in the digital world. It'd be an act of incredible evil to tap into that power for anything other than-"

"I don't care!" Ken suddenly hissed, advancing threateningly on Adeel. Before anyone knew what was happening, he had grabbed his collar and was holding him up in the air.

Everyone had their eyes on Adeel, calmly hanging up in midair. Slowly, Ken lowered him back down to the ground, his eyes reverting back to their usual blue. "Sorry, sorry. Keep going." He said hurriedly, shaking his head rapidly.

"What's this got to do with Tai?" Kari asked, having since picked herself up and stopped crying.

"Well, Tai's...soul, for the lack of a better word, has gone to this valley. And it's still there, and will remain there for no doubt thousands of years until his life energy is called on by the Primary Village."

"I see." Ken said, seemingly having completely returned to normal after the odd outburst of emotion. "So we could go to this...valley...and retrieve Tai?"

"Well...yes, we could. I've been there once, and know how we could...cheat the system to get him out of there."

"And you don't think you should because it's...'evil' or 'wrong' or something, nevermind we'd be reviving the leader of the group that's trying directly to fight the forces of evil." TK said through gritted teeth.

"Well, yes. I mean, it's very sacred to the Harmonious Ones." Adeel said slowly.

"Well, we can explain it to them, I'm sure they'll understand it's for the greater good." Davis said.

"It's not that. They might understand, but...when we do it, the alarms are gonna go off. You see what I'm saying? The valley is very, very well hidden. But if we go, and try to do what we need to do, I'm afraid we're gonna get a visit from Azulongmon himself."

"Okay, so, we explain ourselves then." Cody said casually. "Big deal."

"I'm worried...the commotion we'd cause...Cory's a smart guy. Evil genius."

"What, Cory knows about you?" Izzy asked.

"Oh, very well." Adeel said quickly. "I...I think he might have killed Tai because he knew it would draw me out. He knew I would come, and then go to the valley so Tai could be revived. Then...somehow, through our actions, he could discover the location of the valley. And then..." Adeel blinked a few times.

"So?" Davis said sharply. "You've got a hunch. We need our leader, we can't not bring him back over a hunch. And what makes you so sure we can't defend the valley from Cory?"

Adeel turned to Davis. "I like your spirit. I really do, kid. But I know Cory well. I don't really wanna talk about it, but trust me. It's not every day that you figure out an evil genius's plan before it's already been acted out. We can't play into his hands." He looked at Tai's corpse. "I'm sorry, I know Tai is...a huge loss, but we can't play into Cory's hands. The consequences could be catastrophic if he gets his hands on the valley."

A loud click sounded behind Adeel's back. He felt cold steel press into the back of his head. Ken had created the oversized silver revolver in his hand again while Adeel was looking at Ken, and had pressed it into his head.

"Hey, hey man, I'm on your side. You still don't believe me?" Adeel said casually.

"Oh, I believe you." Ken said menacingly. "You just don't understand how we do things around here. You don't just...come around and taunt us with the idea of reviving our dead leader, then just say you can't do it because of a hunch."

"Listen, the truth is, I never should have said anything. The girl-" he gestured at Kari "-started babbling, and it just...came out!"
"That's a shame." Ken hissed. "You're free to speculate as much as you like about what the Emperor plans to do, but you're bringing Tai back. That's your purpose among the digidestined, don't you see? You didn't just come out of nowhere in our moment of need for nothing."

Adeel sighed. "Your emotions will be your downfall. A wise leader would recognize the weight of the situation. There's another reason why Tai should stay dead."

"If you like your brain where it is, it better be a damn good one." Ken said.

The eleven others watched, seeing the raging half of Ken come out again, but this time not caring as they fully believed in what he was doing.

"Cory needs all the digidestined to fulfill his ultimate goal. He needs them alive." Adeel said slowly.

"And I suppose you would have killed one of us had Cory not already done it for you?" Ken said. "If that's true, why did Cory kill Tai? And what's this 'goal' you speak of?"

"Because he thought I would come and revive him, but if I don't, his entire plan goes down the drain, don't you see?!" Adeel said, touching his speech up slightly with a snarl. "All he wants to do is locate the valley, but if we don't behave as expected, he'll be done! I don't know what his goal is, I just know he needs all of us alive."

"Not good enough." Ken said, a steely cool entering his voice. "We're going to the valley, Adeel." Ken said. "Unless you want to see how the inside of your head looks splattered on the ground."

A short pause. "Unlike you, Ken, I'm interested in the greater good and know when to block out my emotions. You'll just have to shoot me. If we go to the Valley, I fear both worlds are doomed. If I'm to die either way, I'd rather not take everyone else with me."

"How noble." Ken said. "Do you really believe I won't find the valley? I'll rip this world apart if I must. Same goes for the Emperor, you think he'll stop at anything to find it? Don't act as if you know some great secret, Adeel. If it exists, it will be found with or without your help."

"Very well. Do what you gotta do."

Ken slipped his index finger into the trigger guard. A short pause followed. Then, quite suddenly, Adeel's chest convulsed and he fell to his knees, his eyes glossed over for just a split second.

And then, he pushed himself back up to his feet, even as Ken lowered the weapon downwards towards his new head level.

"Hold it!" Adeel said. "Don't shoot. I'll do it. I'll bring Tai back."

Ken snickered, absorbing the gun back into his rod. "You talk the talk, Adeel. But you don't walk the walk."

"It's not that." Adeel said slowly, looking over at Kari, who was standing next to Tai's corpse. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Ken dared.

"Maybe another time. Tai still has a role to play in this battle."

"You think?" Sora said under her breath. "I mean, it's not like he was our leader or anything."

"Yes. Yes. Very well, I'll show you the valley. But we're only there to bring Tai back." He glanced at Ken. "Understood?"

Ken nodded languidly.

"It's easy enough to get there, so long as you know how." He began holding down the large button on his D-3 while pressing the other two buttons over and over. "It's sort of like morse code."

"And we're going to physically get there...how?" TK asked.

"We'll be there in a moment. Think of it as sending an email and attaching yourself to it." Adeel responded.

And then, the group disappeared in a flash, leaving the cave completely empty.

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"They don't have, like, corpses here do they?" Mimi asked as they looked down an extremely long valley covered in sand. The wind blew violently in all directions, seemingly at once, causing sand to kick up and provide constant annoyance.

"It's not like that. The energy is kept in a liquidized form. It's like crude oil almost." Adeel responded. "Alright, let's have ourselves a look."

"At what? This valley is completely empty." Davis said.

"Davis, this is the digital world. Think about it for a second." Adeel said. "This place is protected by what you might call a firewall. Hold on." He hit a few buttons on his D-3 again in rapid succession, and quite suddenly, massive machines appeared along the walls of the valley.

Red and towering to the very top of the valley, the machines were in a rough box shape, a massive gray tube sticking out from the side of each one, connecting it to the walls. Each machine seemed to shake and gurgle slightly, putting strain on the metallic bolts that held it together.

"Damn." Ken said quietly. "How far does this valley go?"

"I'd rather not say." Adeel said. "Lemme see..."

"How do we find Tai?" Kari asked, looking at all the massive machines.

"Humans don't often die in the digital world, so I should be able to isolate him. Can I borrow your computer?" Adeel turned to Izzy.

"Fine, but you screw anything up on it and you're gonna be feeling that revolver in the back of your skull again." He said, lacing his voice with menace as he removed his backpack.

As the yellow laptop powered up, Adeel noticed Ken had walked up to one of the machines and was stroking it affectionately. "Oh, my my." He moaned.

"Ken." Adeel said warningly.

Ken slowly stepped away. "Of course." He said casually.

"Now..." Adeel said, hammering away on the keys. "Here we are..." he pounded down on the enter key, and suddenly, the machines began to move very quickly down the valley, as if on an accelerated treadmill. This went on for a few seconds, until the machines were practically blurs, and then, in an instant, they froze.

Adeel pointed to the one to their immediate left. "Score." He went up to it. "Alright, everyone brace yourself." He knocked on the metallic skeleton of the machine. A portion of the metal armor scaled back to reveal a small screen and keyboard. He began pressing the buttons on the board slowly until the screen came to life. "Yes. There he is." He said quietly. He began typing more and more rapidly.

And then, in a flash, the sky cracked open and Azulongmon extended his head down from the heavens. His nose stopped just a few dozen feet above the group.

"I don't recall allowing an unscheduled withdrawal." He said quite seriously. "How did you find this place?"

Ken slowly pointed at Adeel.

Azulongmon sighed. "Adeel, I told you never to return to this place. Especially with company, and especially when your goal is to cheat my system."

"I had to." Adeel said quietly. "I wasn't going to, but...I had to come."

"You better have an extremely good reason." Azulongmon said warningly. "This is a sacred place."

"The Emperor killed Tai." TK said suddenly. "Does that qualify as an extremely good reason?"

"Regretable, and most unfortunate, but this is war. Casualities are to be expected. I might expect all of you to do something rash to bring him back, but I would have thought Adeel to be smart enough to know coming here was not an option."

"Azulongmon. You have to understand. I would not have come here if I didn't have to. Tai's murder was more than just unfortunate."

A long, awkward pause ensued. After several seconds, Azulongmon sighed. "I hope you realized what you've done. Very well, bring Tai back. But from now on, we must work under the assumption that this valley is compromised." He snaked back into the sky, disappearing in an instant.

"What's going on, Adeel?" Davis asked. "Is there something you need to tell us?"

"No. It's nothing." He responded, typing on the keyboard again.

Davis glanced over at Ken, who shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly, the large machine began to shake violently. A blue light emerged from the top of it and arced down towards the group. Slowly, it began to descend on Tai's corpse. Everyone stepped back from the body and watched with great interest.

The small light entered Tai, and his eyes popped wide open. He huffed and puffed heavily several times. "Jesus." He said inbetween breaths. "What the hell happened?"
Kari just froze for a minute, watching Tai push himself back up to his feet. Then, she began to tear up again. "Oh, Tai." She moaned.

Tai looked around at everyone staring at him, then at the surrounding landscape. "Where are we? What's going on?"

Ken walked up to Tai. "Tai." He seemed to be making an effort to sound balanced, but his voice shook slightly. "We thought we lost you." He leaned in and gave Tai a dignified hug.

"Is someone gonna tell me what's going-ugh." He returned the hug quickly, then pushed away. "C'mon, guys."

Matt finally spoke up. "Cory...he shot you. You were dead."

Tai snickered. "Don't be dumb. If I died, what am I doing alive?" He asked sardonically.

"It's...complicated." Joe added. "You've been given a second shot, Tai."

"Are you sure?" Tai looked down at his arms. "I don't feel like I've been dead."

"Tai!" Kari suddenly yipped, running up at Tai from behind and jumping on his back, knocking him over. "I thought I'd lost you!" She said, gripping onto his chest hard.

"Okay, okay..." he tried to unbuckle her hands around his chest, but they wouldn't come undone. "Are you guys for real? Was I..."

Everyone nodded.

"My god...how did-"

"Thirteen happens to be the lucky number of the digidestined, Tai." Ken said, pointing at Adeel. "We've got a new member, and he brought a wonderful welcoming gift. The gift of life."

Adeel turned to Ken slowly. "So...you trust me now, do you?"

"Adeel. There are few things more worth my admiration than what you've just done for us. Yes, so long as you don't abuse it, you have my trust." Ken slowly walked up to Adeel, his hand stuck out towards him.

Adeel took it slowly. "As you say. I'll do all I can to assist in this battle against the Emperor."

Kari finally released Tai. "Oh, Tai. I can't believe you're really back." She looked at Adeel. "Thank you...so much, I don't know what I would have done."

Adeel nodded. "Don't worry about it. You're welcome. Alright, everyone. Hold on." Adeel pulled out his digivice.

"Where is this place?" Ken asked quickly.

"Oh." Adeel nodded slowly. "It can only be accessed by someone who's been there before. Remember the maze in the temple on file island?"

"Sure." Mimi said. "Course I do."

"Solve the maze, and you'll arrive here, but only if you've been there before or have the invitation of someone else who has. Should you ever need to return here, that is how you find it."

Then, in a flash, the group disappeared.

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"So, do we keep checking this place out or go home?" Cody asked, looking down the long tunnel of the Black Market.

"We should call it a day." Ken said. "I think we've made some decent headway."

"Ken." Cody said, turning back to him. "I think I understand now."

"Meaning what?" Ken inquired.

"You're right. We need to do whatever it takes." He looked over at Tai. "I'm sorry I caused so much trouble, but...I get it now. It's just...seeing Tai die right before my eyes. I get it. I don't want to have to see that again. Do whatever you need to do, I won't object anymore."

"Thank you." Ken said, nodding.

"Ken." Kari suddenly said. Ken looked over to her. She stood next to Tai, looking up at him with reverence. "I get it too." The positive glow in her eyes had died out. "I never thought I'd say this...you know me, you all do. I want blood."

"Sorry, what?" Ken asked, his voice slightly raspy. "Blood?"
"Yes." She said, her fist shaking slightly by her side. "If he wants to go mano et mano...I think we need to respond. Up until now, we've done everything through digimon." She nodded slowly. "It's time for us to fight."

"I like it." Davis said. "Gives us more manpower and security." He looked down at Veemon. "Yeah, let's take matters into our own hands."

Ken nodded. "Your wish is my command." He pulled out his rod, shook it twice, and a metal rack about four feet tall and eight feet wide with four shelves appeared. Each row was lined to capacity with guns, from the smallest hand pistols to the most terrifyingly large assualt rifles.

TK's eyes flared up as his brain acknowledged the rack. "Oh, my my." He said quietly to himself. Casually, he walked up to it and reached into the bottom, pulling out an AK-47. "Oh, hell yes."

"I'm game." Izzy said, looking the rack over. "We may as well do something useful."

"I've never held a gun in my life." Joe conceded.

"Same." Mimi said.

"Don't worry about that." Ken said, waving his rod, causing the weapons and rack to disappear. "I'll take care of all that tomorrow. We meet in my room tomorrow morning at ten to discuss where we go from here."

Everyone nodded, as Izzy slowly brought the digiport up on his laptop.