Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Emperor ❯ Needles in a Haystack ( Chapter 9 )

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

Chapter Nine: Needles in a Haystack

"So basically, you're letting the poor population of File Island get horribly addicted to an extremely destructive drug for an extra hour and a half just so you can work out?" TK asked, seated on a grey cushioned chair, his arms reaching above his head, grasping a cushioned metal bar and slowly pulling it up and down. The bar was attached to a metal wire, curved around a wheelie, and was attached to a series of black stacked weights. When he pulled down, the weights came up, making the repeated process difficult.

"There's nothing we can do about the drug. That's gonna be distributed far and wide, we can't change that." Ken responded, standing a few feet away, doing dumbbell curls with a pair of orange weights. "We've got two objectives right now. Maximize the power of our partner digimon through digivolutions and find a way to obtain a large supply of power."

"What about the mercenaries?" Davis asked, laying back on a bench press bench, pushing up and down on a weighted metal bar rigged to the contraption arcing above the bench. "I thought we were gonna try and buy all of em out before Faustian hit."

"I'd rather not waste time. We might manage to get their services for awhile, but eventually they'll sell out to the higher bidder. And that will be the Emperor. It's not worth spending time on. I wouldn't expect mercenaries to be able to resist Faustian, or have any semblance of loyalty." Ken responded. "Anyway, since we're skipping school and ruining our minds, I figure we shouldn't ruin our bodies. Need to come here and blow off steam every now and then."

"Ken, I like the way you think." Davis grunted, pushing the bar upwards with great effort. "You do need to come around here sometimes. It helps."

"Definitely." TK said. "But you said so yourself." He gritted his teeth and pulled down hard, bringing the weights up. "We've got five days to a week to mount a serious counter to the emperor, or he's gonna bring the might of the entire digital world down on us. And then, either we're dead, or we're stuck in the real world sitting on our hands. Either way, the Emperor's got a free run at the digital world." He pulled down on the bar again.

"A couple hours won't make that big of a difference. Besides, this helps clear the mind. Makes us more productive." Ken said.

"Fair enough." Davis said, straining again with the bar. "No sense in derailing our entire lives just because we've got 120 hours before the world we're sworn to protect becomes a den for junkies."

"Yeah..." TK looked around at the assorted people working out at other machines. "...but I hate going out in public. I mean, I keep thinking everyone looks like Principal Lopez, or Mister Peterson. If we get spotted by anyone who's heard of our phony stories, our cover is blown. I'm supposed to be kidnapped and sold into the teenage prostitution ring. Besides, I hate wearing this clothes." He looked down at his sweaty white and green striped tanktop and extremely short gold shorts.

"I could see that." Davis mused. "You being kept in chains in a basement on a dirty cot, blindfolded every few days and driven around town to some pedophile's apartment...I can only imagine the rich and glorious afternoon you two would share."

"Does it have to be a pedophile? I mean, nobody wants to be the sex toy of some forty year old guy with a beard and potbelly. Do you suppose teenagers ever purchase afternoons of animal lust with teenage prostitutes?"

"It could happen." Ken said, setting the weights down. "What, you suppose Kari shops in the Highton View Terrace underground for sex slaves?"

TK let the weights fall back into their inactive position and leaned back. "Kari could never afford me. I'm the Prime Rib of the teenage prostitution market, not some two-bit hooker. She hasn't got two quarters to rub together."

"I had a dream like that once." Davis set the bar down on the two metal tabs near the bottom of the arc and sat up. "You know, I'm chained to the bed naked, she comes in with knee-high boots. a leather corset, and a whip." A look of bliss overtook his features. "Mmm."

"I had that dream once." TK admitted, looking around at everyone. "Then I've had it the other way around too. It's a kick, man."

"I'm sure." Ken replied, looking around at everyone. "Look, nobody's even looking at us. TK, your face is all over the news and these people don't even look twice. These people don't care. Don't worry about it." He leaned in closer to TK. "So, who could afford you?"

TK looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Sara Berrian." He said slowly, looking back down at Ken's face.

"Very nice." Ken enthused. "I like your taste. Yeah, she's got money alright."

"I heard she's got a spot reserved on Sweet Sixteen already." Davis commented, glancing around at everyone.

"I hate that show." Ken snorted. "I think Paris Hilton created it in the interest of trying to clone herself."

"What do you think she's in to?" TK asked, his eyes glazing over. "Spanking?"

"Oh, I can guarantee you'll be leaving that house with asswelts." Ken said quickly, giving a wry smile. "Your ass will look like a pepperoni pizza."

"Daddy like." TK said, his voice going low and deep.

"You guys wanna go run for a bit? I think I am." Davis stood up and began walking off towards the stairs a few meters away.

"Yeah sure." Ken got up and followed, TK close behind.

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"So he broke up with you because he suspected they were fake?" Kari asked, slightly bewildered, looking at Sora. "They're not even that big!" She continued to rapidly peddle the stationary bike, occasionally looking down at the electronic chart in front of her attached to the handlebars.

"I know!" Sora said bitterly. "Stupid as hell."

"Did he have any proof or reasoning behind it?" Yolei asked, from the other side of Sora, peddling fiercely on a bike as well.

"No. He just came up to me, asked me to be honest, and asked if they were real. I said yes, he got all mad and offended, then he left. Said something about them looking fake." Sora responded, the RPM rate on her bike jumping considerably as she talked.

"Who cares, even if it is? I mean, what's the big deal anyway?" Kari asked.

"I think it was an honesty thing. But seriously, Kari, would you date a guy with a fake...well, you know..."

Kari looked up at the ceiling. "I have no idea. I can honestly say I've never thought about that."

"I'd have a hard time respecting the guy." Yolei admitted. "I mean, it'd be like finding out Babe Ruth corked his bat, or Jesus Christ used special effects. Wouldn't be right."

"I guess." Kari said slowly. "Now what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna let it be." Sora said confidently. "If he comes to his senses and comes back, fine, but I'm not chasing him."

"Yeah, that works." Yolei said. "I can't say I thought he was anything special. I mean, he was alright, but whatever."

"Yeah." Sora agreed. "Can't say I really thought he was sponge-worthy."

A moment of silence passed. "I don't get that reference." Yolei finally said. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Does sponge-worthy mean, like, someone worthy of getting involved with seriously and cleaning up after?" Kari asked. "Like, with a sponge?"

"Nevermind." Sora said quickly. "Never...nevermind."

"Isn't this great?" Kari said. "Inspite of everything going on in the digital world, we're all able to carry on with our lives and act normal."

"I'm not letting that bastard screw up my life." Sora said, peddling harder again. "That's just what he'd like to do, I'm sure, but it's not gonna work."

"That's the spirit." Yolei chirped. "So anyway, you two gonna check out the theater over the weekend?"

"I wasn't planning to. What's happening?" Kari inquired.

"They're having a crappy movie marathon." Yolei responded. "It's gonna be great, all day and all night, they're showing failure after failure." She grunted. "If it wasn't for the damned Emperor I'd spend the whole weekend there."

"I'm not paying to see a crappy movie. Especially when everyone acknowledges it's a crappy movie! That's letting the lazy directors and producers who make crappy movies win and think they can get away with making crappy movies and still make money!" Sora said, beginning to ease up on the pedals.

"That's just it! It's a celebration of crappy movies! The movies are so bad, in fact, they actually become good. The badness is actually funny, and you're laughing so hard at how bad the movie is, it becomes good." Yolei insisted.

"I won't be able to laugh at a bad movie when my mind is on how the Emperor is less than a hundred hours away from having our number." Kari said dismissively.

"Kari. Sora. How often do you get the opportunity to watch Plan 9 From Outer Space on the big screen? If you pass this chance up, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Listen, I've got it all planned out. They've got a showing late saturday night, well after we get home. We'll all go together. C'mon, the worst movie ever made!" Yolei continued.

"No! I'm not paying an hour's salary to watch a crappy movie!" She stopped peddling and jumped off. "I'm going to the pool."

"Oh, dammit!" Kari suddenly hissed, jumping off the bike and crouching down on the left side of it.

"What?" Yolei asked quickly, jumping off as well and ducking on the left side of her bike.

"Leo's on the stairmaster across the room." Kari whispered. "He might have heard about our stories. I'm supposed to be emo, you're-" she pointed at Sora "-supposed to be rehabbing from a meth addiction, and you're-" she pointed at Yolei "-supposed to be at home worshipping a grasshopper."

"Those are some long odds, we barely know him." Sora shrugged.

"Calm down. If he recognizes us, we'll just pretend to be someone else. Now let's hurry up and move." Yolei began moving towards the hall which led to the locker rooms. Sora and Kari were quick to follow.

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"I had the dream last night." Izzy began. "Again." The trio of he, Matt, and Tai were jogging on three consecutive treadmills in the machine room. "You know, the jellyfish flying through the air, and...and-"

"The go-kart with the glowing wheels and dancing twinkies?" Matt finished. "Yeah. It doesn't mean anything. It's one of those nonsense dreams. Stop thinking about it."

"But I keep having it." Izzy said slowly. "I mean, if it was one time, sure. But it's happened like seven times now."

"Well, it sounds like a bad trip. I really don't think you should be thinking about it too hard. Especially given our time frame." Tai said matter-of-factly.

"I had the dream last night too." Matt said, dancing his eyes around the surrounding area. "You know. The dream."

"Now that dream means something." Tai said, smiling.

"I dunno about that. But, it is easy to interpret." Izzy conceded.

"Sure." Matt looked behind him at a couple of women jogging on treadmills. "Do you think women have those dreams?"

"What do you mean?" Izzy asked, looking around awkwardly.

"Well...you know how men fantasize about...women..." Matt put his hands up in front of his face, a few inches apart, then put them together, fingers interlaced.

"Yeah." Tai said slowly, looking around as well.

"Do you think...women fantasize about men..." he repeated the hand movements, his fingers interlacing before his eyes.

A few moments of silence passed, each of them looking back and forth at the two others rapidly.

"I dunno." Izzy finally said.

"That...is weird." Tai said, squinted his eyes. "I mean, maybe."

"I've always thought about that. But how do you ask something like that?" Matt mused.

"You don't." Tai said sternly. "Hoo boy...you don't. Okay? You don't."

"Well, what if we made an arrangement to have Sora 'accidentally' walk in on you two..." Izzy put his hands out in front of his face a few inches apart, then meshed them together, like Matt had.

"That'd pretty much be the only way to know." Matt said mystically. "So, if she kept watching, we could assume that they...liked that."

"Not really. Some people can't take their eyes off things they hate either. Like a trainwreck. You can't look away no matter how horrifying it is." Tai said.

"What the hell are we talking about?" Matt said, snickering. "I mean, what the hell?"

"I dunno." Izzy admitted. "When you let your mind wander, crazy stuff can happen, y'know?"

"Well, let's stop. This is-this is weird." Matt said quickly, slamming his fingers down on the plastic board in front of him, bringing the treadmill to a halt. "I'm out of here."

"May as well. We've got fifteen minutes until we meet in the lobby." Tai followed suit. Izzy close behind. "I gotta admit, Ken was right. I do feel better."

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"I just feel so stupid, y'know?" Joe said, running across the hard floor, racket in hand, catching the blue bouncing ball with a backhand and whipping it into the opposite wall. "Two hours last night, I'm destroying this guy in C.T.F. Just, destroying him. I've never done anything like this before. I've never been great at Unreal Tournament, you know? So I'm just feeling great, and I know I need to get to bed, but I don't want to mess up my mojo." He backhanded the blue ball back into the wall. "Finally, I start to wonder why he hasn't said anything the entire game, or doesn't give up and leave."

"That should have been the first clue." Cody said, nodding, forehanding the ball into the wall hard with his racket.

"I know, but I was hoping. So I check the guy's ping. It's zero! He's a bot!" The ball came zooming right at him. He neatly flipped it back towards the other side of the white room. "I've been gutting this A.I. bot alive for the past two hours thinking I was the greatest thing since sliced bread."

"Did you ever get to sleep?" Cody asked, swinging baseball style at the racquetball, flinging it across.

"Yeah...not as much as I would've liked." Joe said bitterly. "But whatever. I'll be fine."

"I'm sure." Cody watched as Joe hit the ball into the intersection between the wall and floor, killing its bounce and sending it rolling back towards them. "I just went straight to sleep last night. Too terrified about this Faustian stuff for anything else. I'm surprised I got to sleep, really."

"I know what you mean. But there's no sense in letting it turn us into emotional wrecks. I'm gonna keep doing normal stuff as much as I can." He bent down and scooped the ball off the ground. "We got five days before the digital world becomes completely overtaken by this drug. It's scary, but stressing won't do anything."

"That sounds so weird coming from you." Cody said, looking behind him at the glass door. "We should proably leave now."

"I've changed, man. The digital world does that to you." Joe said, nodding. "I have got to say, I feel fantastic."

"Definitely." Cody opened the door and peeked his head out, looking down the hallway. "We've gotta hurry up and shower. C'mon."

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"So I trust everyone's feeling alright?" Ken asked, pacing in front of the ten other digidestined just outside the gym facility.

"Yeah, this felt fantastic. I'm not gonna lie." Kari admitted.

"Sure, but we should get started now." Izzy said quickly.

"Alright." Ken cast a quick look around him. "We've got two primary missions. First, we've got to find out how to get all of our digimon to the ultimate level, then to mega. We need twelve megas in five days if we want to have any hope of keeping ourselves alive after that tenth facility goes online. The second primary mission is to obtain a source of power large enough to compete with the Emperor. He's sitting on enough of the stuff to reconstruct the Great Wall of China, we're basically chasing his car, trying to catch his exhaust fumes in a butterfly net, and use it for power. We gotta change that if we wanna survive and win in the long run."

"Primary? Fancy military talk up in here." Matt said under his breath to Tai.

"We do have a secondary objective. Buy out every digimon we can to fight for us. It's just temporary, they'll jump over to the Emperor before long, but if it can buy us a few extra days it'd be worth it." Ken said thoughtfully. "But, it's just secondary, so we shouldn't go out of our way."

"Sounds good. What's the specific plan?" Joe inquired.

"Well, we've still got the black market to explore, so we'll definitely have that as our first target." Ken began. "We've got solid chances to find crests, power, and allies down there. I wouldn't rule out finding a way to unlock megas either, though I really have no idea how to go about doing that."

"Maybe we should call in some help." Yolei wondered out loud. "Talk to Gennai, maybe get the harmonious ones to come down and show this Emperor kid what's up."

"That's my emergency plan." Ken said, putting his hand out towards the group like a professional speaker. "They're safe where they are now, but if I pull them down to confront the Emperor, who knows what could happen? If something happens to them, we're really in trouble." He put his hand up to his chin. "Alright, so...Cody, Davis, Izzy, and Joe, you guys go to the market and have a look around. Move quickly, and if anything of interest shows up, give me a call. Kari, Myself, Matt, and Mimi, we're going to File Island. Alot of stuff relevant to us seems to happen there. Sora, Tai, T.K. and Yolei, go to the...let's say northeast section of Server.”

“You crunched the numbers on this?” Izzy asked, looking skeptical.

“Yeah. The way I see it, we should be able to cover File Island in one day. We can move fast, each group has at least one flying digimon. The black market is hard to say since we don’t know how many shops there are, but if we step things up I think three days is the worst case scenario. Server's huge, but I looked over some maps. I think one group could cover it in ten days. So, the group that starts there covers half of it in five days, the 2nd group covers four-tenths of it in four days, the third group comes in on the fourth day and gets the last part. That means the third group has the 5th day free, or we've got a third of a day to spare. That leaves room for any problems that might come up, or if we find something big that'll take time." Ken detailed expertly.

"Not alot of room." TK commented. "But it works."

"You're not accounting for the fact that, with every passing moment, more and more digimon are getting hooked. We're gonna run into them over the next five days. A lot of them." Kari said offhand.

"We'll just have to work quickly. We can't waste time fighting." Ken said simply, shrugging.

"Do we...kill the digimon?" Sora asked slowly.

"Good question." Ken said, pointing at Sora emphatically. "Tricky subject. They're perfectly good digimon under the spell of the Emperor. But of course, they'll do whatever he asks to get their fix, and junkies are usually pretty crazy individuals. So, if there's an option to simply incapacitate them, by all means take it. But..." he looked around again quickly "you gotta do what you gotta do."

"Alright." Joe said uneasily. "We should go."

"I want everyone staying in touch with everyone else constantly. I'm the only one who stands a chance against the Emperor head on, or against a particularly large force of drugged digimon." Ken said. "Alright. We're gonna go around the building into the back alley. Nobody ever goes back there, so we can use the digiport. Someone call Mimi."

The eleven began walking in a single-file line, down the sidewalk in front of the gym.

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"Okay so, Ken gave me the map he was making." Davis said, looking down at the piece of paper in his hands. "We've got twenty shops mapped out so far, so we go down to the eleventh row and get started."

Cody looked around. "We're a long way away from File Island, so I'm hoping we can avoid the junkies. It should be fairly untainted by the Emperor."

"Even so, let's be cautious." Izzy said. "This is still the black market, and I'm sure they've heard of Faustian by now. Who knows how that changes things."

"Uh-huh." Joe said absentmindedly, holding up a FA-MAS rifle. "C'mon everyone, get out the hardware."

"Do we really wanna be flashing guns around inside the shops? Looks a little menacing, don't ya think?" Cody commented, looking at the large rifle Joe was gripping.

"Menacing is the goal. We're the digidestined, this is the black market, the Emperor is scaring the living hell out of everyone. If digimon see us toting big weapons, they'll think we're serious about taking this guy down a peg." Joe insisted. "I know this is a...bit different than what you usually see from me, but I think this is something we've got to do."

"Right, right." Izzy said, looking down the long pathway into the darkness. "Everyone, let's see some firearms." Izzy de-holstered a CAR-15 from the back of his belt and brought it up to bear. "Thank god for paintball."

"If you're thinking this is gonna be anything like paintball, you might just wanna put the gun down now." Davis said airily, pulling two Ingrams out from inside his jacket. Using his index fingers, he pulled the hammers back of the Uzi on the opposite hand of the finger.

"One time I got hit in the back of the head with a marble shot from a paintball gun." Cody said nonchalantly. "Damn kids." He went over to the wall and picked up a Pancor Jackhammer leaning up against it. "Just as well, I guess I wasn't hiding this guy anywhere."

"Cody...that's your gun?" Davis asked skeptically.

"Yeah. What about it?" Cody said, casually holding the gun across his chest.

"The Pancor Jackhammer never even went into full-scale production." Izzy said warily. "Rumor is only two working ones exist in the real world. Cody, no offense, but you're..."

"I'm what?" Cody said, looking at the barrel of the Jackhammer.

"Short and small." Davis finished. "I'm sorry, but should someone of your stature really be shooting an automatic shotgun?"

"That gun fires out 12-gauge rounds at a rate of four rounds per second. How you can even carry it is beyond me." Izzy said. "When you start firing it off, the force created is gonna throw you a good few feet at least."

"Don't worry. I've already used it, these aren't exact copies of real world guns. They're lighter and faster. Never underestimate Necromancer Ken." Cody said dismissively.

"Veemon, we need some wheels." Davis said quickly, cueing his partner to take the form of Raidramon. The four, along with three partners, jumped on, and the electrically charged Armor Champion took off.

"We should give our guns names." Davis said, holding up his Uzis. "I'll call mine Stacy and Tracy. They're twins."

"Who the hell gives their guns names?" Joe asked, rolling his eyes.

"The dudes in the army and boot camp." Davis responded. "C'mon, name your gun. It really helps personalize the whole experience of using a gun."

"I don't want to personalize me blowing away poor innocent digimon." Cody said, looking down the pathway as doors flashed by.

"You know what's a beautiful name? Michelle." Izzy commented, looking at his CAR-15. "Black, sleek, balanced...I think I'll name my gun Michelle."

"Can you guys quit screwing around?" Gomamon asked impatiently. "The real thing you should be asking yourself is what cliche line will you use when you're shooting up drugged digimon."

"Well..." Davis looked up at the ceiling "...there's Dirty Harry."

"What's that one?" Izzy asked, looking up ahead towards doors in the distance.

"Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" Davis said flatly. "Well, I mean, with feeling."

"You've got...Diehard." Joe added.

"Yup." Cody said casually. "Maybe we should just shut our mouths and shoot. Just a thought."
"Maybe. I'll see what I feel like when I get there." Joe said.

"Alright, first stop!" Raidramon screeched to a halt. The four jumped off onto the rock floor, three partners following.

"Raidramon, stay here and be ready to take off at a moment's notice." Davis instructed. The group went up to the bronze door with the silver handle embedded in the wall, twisted the lever, and popped the door open.

Izzy swung in first dramatically, waving his rifle around quickly. He took a quick scan of the room, right to left. The walls were lined with shelves, which were in turn lined with large white folders, creating very nearly the illusion of the walls being made of these folders. A desk stood near the back, a Divermon seated behind it, looking at the gun's barrel with wide eyes.

"Hey, hey. Do you mind?" The Divermon said grumpily. "Business is slow enough without people coming in and waving around pieces. Jesus." He looked down at the ground.

"Sorry." Izzy said quickly, lowering the weapon. "It's just...every time you turn a corner you're afraid you'll run into some digi-junkie who thinks you're standing inbetween him and his fix."

"Yeah, yeah. Well, that damn drug hasn't touched this place yet. Won't so long as I can help it. I can't make any promises, but I'd like to think the black market can't be bought out, if you get what I'm saying." The Divermon looked around at the shelves, clearly hoping Izzy would follow suit and inquire about the wares.

"We'll see. This stuff...nasty. Just wait until you see it." Izzy looked around at the shelves, moving forward to allow Joe, Cody, and Davis to file in. They all kept their guns out, but allowed them to hang around their shoulders by the strap.

"What's all this?" Cody asked, looking at the shelves.

"Oh. Here at Divermon's Information Shack, we sell information. Simple as that. You got something you wanna know about anything in the digital world, odds are we've got it on file." He gestured at the walls of shelves. "If we don't, we can track it down."

"Alright, nothing to see here." Davis said dismissively, spinning around. "Let's move out."

"Hold it." Izzy said suddenly. He walked up to the desk slowly, looking around at the shelves. "How long does this market extend down the tunnel?"

"I've memorized that one." He said happily. "There are a total of fifty-four shops, so twenty-seven rows. You're on the eleventh row, twenty-first shop. Now, that one's free, but anything else is gonna cost you."

"Freebies in a black market?" Cody said, looking around shadily. "How nice."

"Yeah, business is slow. I mean, competing with fifty-three shops..." he shook his head. "Anyway, anything you guys would like to know?"

Izzy licked his lips, glancing about. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, but..." he reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a pen. "You got some paper?"

"Uh-huh, sure." He reached below his desk into a drawer, pulling out a pad of paper. He set it down on the desk before Izzy.

Izzy began rapidly writing on it. "There's alot of stuff I'd like to know, so it happens." The Divermon watched his fingers work like a well-oiled machine on the paper. "I'm going to make a list here. If you can answer all the questions on the list...well, there's something really nice in it for you."

"Well, I can't give you an estimate until I figure out what the information is and how much it's worth. And if we don't have it, it's gonna cost even more, and-" The Divermon began.

"I've got money." Izzy interrupted. "Just send me the bill." He slid the slip of paper across the desk. "I'll be back tonight, hopefully. If you can answer all of that, you'll never have to work another day of your life again." He spun around on his heel and went for the door without another word. Awkwardly, Davis, Joe, and Cody followed.

"Well, that was nice." Joe said after the group had walked back out into the cave and shut the door, though he didn't sound particularly thrilled.

"Maybe a little too nice. You think he's good for it?" Cody mused out loud, looking at the door.

"He doesn't have our money yet, so it's worth a shot." Izzy looked down the cave, hand over his mouth. "Lemme see...thirty-three shops left." He took a quick glance at his wristwatch. "It's eleven fourteen. So if we want to punch out at five, that's one shop every ten and a half minutes or so."

"If we could finish it all today, that'd completely change our time budget. We'd end up having an entire day surplus." Joe said excitedly.

"As long as there ain't any lines, we can pull ten and a half minutes." Davis said, jumping on Raidramon's back.

"We're the only one's I've ever seen here so far, so I think the odds are looking good." Izzy said, following Davis up onto Raidramon. "I'll be counting the seconds. Let's get going!"

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"Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner, but he knew it couldn't last." Ken sang, happily spinning around on his heels and doing cartwheels as he walked with the rest of the group.

"Maybe Davis was right." Matt said, watching Ken energetically dance about. "I think he is gay."

"Not a chance." Kari said quickly. She then leaned up right next to Matt's ear and began whispering. "When we met in his room two days ago, there was a dirty magazine in the corner. He's straight as an arrow."

"I know a guy in America who's bisexual." Mimi said casually, looking to her left into the forest of trees. "You think that might be it?"

"Eugh. I hope not." Matt squinted his eyes at Ken, who had entered a handstand on a smooth, large rock up ahead.

"Get back. Get back." He folded up into a somersault. "Get back to where you once belonged."

"I don't think that's how it goes." Matt said, stopping Ken mid-dance.

"Then what is it?" Ken asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I dunno, but I don't think that's it." Matt responded, falling into step with Ken as he caught up with him.

"If you don't know what it is, who are you to say that it's wrong?" Ken said, his eyes constantly darting about.

"I'm just saying. Look it up sometime, I don't think that's it." Matt shrugged. "I don't really care. What's up with you anyway? You're acting like a guy who just lost his virginity." Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he stared at Ken. "You didn't...did you?"

"Of course not." Ken said, snickering. "I fell asleep last night listening to Let It Be. I've been in a hell of a mood all morning, but I'm not inclined to sing in a gym. If you get my meaning."

"Absolutely. One time I was humming the beat from Kashmir on a treadmill, and after a few minutes someone came over and hit me in the back of the head with a medicine ball. Said I was driving him nuts. You know, a few months later, he tried to sue me. Said I got the song stuck in his head, he couldn't do anything because he couldn't focus. Weird stuff." Matt nodded his head. "But he didn't win. I bought him a nice set of albums as sort of a parting gift."

"That's good-"

"Hey." Kari said from behind the pair. She and Mimi were just a few steps behind. "If we could hold the talk for a second, Izzy's sent a message." She pulled up her miniature computer screen from the d-terminal in her hand. "He says the timetable's been bumped up. He says if he can average ten minutes a shop, he can finish the whole thing today. Plus, he's found an information shack that could blow this whole thing wide open."

"Excellent." Ken said, rubbing his hands together. "That gives us plenty of extra time."

"Nice to see you're doing so well." Mimi said, looking at Ken oddly. "Did Mister Doom and Gloom pack up and leave?"

"No point in being negative all the time." Ken said airily. "We should start a flyover of the island if we want to make good time. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to get my wings."

"What, so you can fly?" Matt said, watching Ken reach into his pants' pockets. "Three of us have flying digimon, you don't have to-"

"No, this could be fun." Kari said excitedly, watching Ken dig around. "I get to hold onto his ass!" She cried out.

"Oh, c'mon! Please!" Mimi interjected.

"No me!" Matt said suddenly, without thinking. "I mean-dammit!" He kicked at the ground.

Suddenly, Ken pulled out a mini-CD player and a small album case. The front cover showed several men in black suits crowded around each other, a large spotlight focused in on them. He popped the casing open, pulled out a small CD, popped the top of the CD player with his thumb, slid the CD in, and slapped it back closed. He whipped out a pair of folded-up earphones, folded them out, and snuggled them onto his ears. He grabbed onto the wire trailing from the left ear, went down it until he was gripping the small black and gray plug at the end. He shoved it into the small CD player, into an outlet on the right bottom corner. "Baaannd on the runnn...baaannd on the runnn..." He began singing.

"Uh-huh." Matt said nonchalantly. "That's nice."

"Can I still hold onto his ass?" Kari asked sardonically.

"Well the undertaker drew a heavy sigh, seeing no one else had come." Ken continued to melodize. "And a bell was ringin' in the village square, for the rabbits on the ruuunnn..."

"It occurs to me we are in the belly of the beast." Matt said loudly, right next to Ken's ear. Ken pulled down the earphones around his neck. "Should you really be distracting yourself like that?"

"Hey, I might have five days left to live. If I wanna listen to Paul McCartney, I'm listening to Paul McCartney." Ken replied tartly, moving to put the earphones back on.

"And the jailer man! And Sailor Sam!" Came a tune from inside the trees to the left. In an instant, all four digidestined had pivoted towards the source, whipping out an assortment of powerful guns, going down to one knee. The partner digimon followed suit, getting down in battle-ready crouches. "We're searchin' eveerrryyyoonnneeee..." sure enough, Cory emerged from behind a thick tree, casually spinning about. "...for the baannnddd on the ruunn-"

"You ever record yourself singing and listen?" Ken asked, whipping his rod out in his left hand and taking aim at the Emperor, even as his right hand held the M-16. "Because you suck."

"I'm hardly interested in commercial success. I sing because it's fun." Cory said simply, waving his hand dismissively. "It's a nice album, really. I think the title track gets overplayed a bit, I enjoy Jet and 1985 more."

"I like Let Me Roll It best personally." Ken said, smirking. "Check the hardware, boy. You like?" He gestured with his head at the M-16. He quickly reached for his neck with his rod hand, pulling the earphones off and casting them to the side along with the player.

"It's a nice gun." Cory admitted, shrugging. "It hardly gives you the right to show your face around here. This is my territory now. My facility's been open for twelve hours, and already over half the island answers to my call. By this time tomorrow, the entire island will be mine. I'm afraid you're too late."

"That's a shame." Ken hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to watch this." The Emperor nodded slowly. "I thought you'd be smart enough to stay away from this place. But now that you've shown up, undermanned might I add, I thought I'd watch up close."

The tip of Kari's Sturmgewehr 44 exploded in a fiery rage, a stream of led pouring from it, flying through the air at high speed at Cory. However, the bullets died in midair right in front of him, falling to the ground harmlessly.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Cory said smugly, looking down at the wasted bullets. "Kudos for actually pulling the trigger though. Not everyone is capable of firing on live targets."

"What is it you want to watch, exactly?" Ken asked, glancing around quickly.

"As of..." he pulled up his right arm sleeve and looked at a wristwatch "...just about five seconds ago, an announcement was released in my Faustian den to all my members. Four members of the digidestined are on the island, and I'm closing off my storages of Faustian until they're dead. So in a couple of minutes here...do I really need to say what will happen?"

"Jackass." Matt muttered under his breath.

"As you saw back at the lab, these digimon will be deranged and are more than willing to die in their attempts to kill you." Cory continued, ignoring Matt.

"Why the warning?" Ken asked, still not taking his gun or rod off Cory.

"That isn't your concern." Cory said shortly. "Now be grateful you have the warning and leave." He spat.

Ken licked his lips slowly, choosing his words carefully. "I don't think so. I think we'll stick around and see how your junkies stand up to the digidestined." He threw in a smirk.

A flash of anger, perhaps discomfort, passed Cory's face. Ken saw it clearly, like one might see an elephant in the middle of a family of mice. He had been watching for it. A split second later, it was gone, but Ken had what he needed.

"If that's what you want." Cory said, shrugging. And then, in another uneventful split second, he was gone.

"Cha-ching!" Ken said excitedly, standing straight up. "We've hit gold!"

"What are you talking about?" Mimi asked, whirling her head about, awkwardly pointing her Sako M90 wherever she looked.

"Cory. He wanted us to leave. He didn't want us to stay here. There's something here. Something he knows we want and could use against him. Something big!" Ken said excitedly, though he to was pivoting back and forth like a tornado.

"Why would he want us to leave when he has the chance to kill us?" Matt asked quickly, starting to sweat. "Can we please leave?"

"I don't know. Maybe he doesn't have complete faith in ability to actually kill us. He'd rather us leave, make sure we don't get whatever it is that's here." Ken said, twirling his rod around. "We're not going anywhere. Not a chance." He grinned psychotically. "I'm not leaving until we get whatever it is the Emperor doesn't want us to get. Besides, a lack of confidence isn't one of his usual traits. Whatever he's throwing at us, we're throwing it back."

Matt gulped loudly. "You're the boss." He gripped the upper barrel of his Thompson Sub Machine Gun hard, his knuckles going white.

"We should get out of the forest. Too easy to get amushed or attacked from behind." Kari blurted, taking off down the path at a sprint.

"You heard the girl." Ken said simply, giving pursuit. Mimi and Matt followed.

"Does it bother you? We're the elders, and a good few years older than both of them, but they're the one's...taking charge." Mimi commented as they ran.

"I thought about shooting first, but...y'know, I thought about actually killing someone, and it was hard." Matt admitted.

The rows of trees ended quite suddenly, as was the nature of File Island. Almost instantly, they had landed right in the middle of a snowstorm. The white flakes were blowing to the south fiercely, riding a nasty wind, nearly blinding the digidestined. After a moment of attempting to see through the storm, Ken shook his rod. The wind died down instantly, thus causing the flakes to begin slowly floating straight down towards the ground.

"Everyone, get ready to shoot! And I want ultimates!" Ken yelled.

At that moment, a collection of brush near the edge of the forest shook violently as a Betamon emerged from it. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in Ken's smooth motions as he pointed the barrel at the enraged digimon, pulled back on the trigger, and blew a dozen led balls through the digimon's flesh. The impact threw the corpse back as blood poured from impact and exit wounds. It hit the ground, already long dead.

Silence came next. The snow continued to fall. Kari, Mimi and Matt looked at, then a the Betamon corpse, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

And then, the entire forest shook. Dozens on dozens of digimon jumped from the limbs of trees and the undergrowth of the ground. They roared and growled, having reverted back to a feral state in their addiction, all humanity gone.

Then, the day sprung to life to the tune of a quartet of automatic weapons opening fire.

--------------------------------------------------------

"This is stupid!" Yolei yelled over the gale-force winds as the four digidestined and their three partners rode on the back of Aquilamon. "For all we know, whatever it is we need to find is microscopic! We can't expect to find anything by doing a flyby!" The group was looking down at the portion of Server that had been set aside for today. "We need to be going over every inch with a comb!"

"We don't have time for that!" Tai insisted. "Izzy was very specific in his instructions! He even gave Aquilamon the exact miles per hour he had to fly at in order to finish with one portion a day! I'm not just going to ignore all that work!"

"If whatever it is we're looking for is big enough to be spotted from up here, we wouldn't be looking for it! Unless there happens to be a Digi-Great Wall of China that can provide us with what we need, we're wasting our time!" Yolei continued to argue.

"It's two hundred feet! Maybe you just need to have your eyes checked out!" T.K. shouted flatly, peering down towards the ground. "It's not like we're in orbit. Now start looking!"

"Also, we need at least some sort of idea what we're looking for!" Yolei continued. "I mean, maybe the blades of grass down on that field happen to hold massive amounts of power, or those liliacs can allow digimon to reach the ultimate level, how are we supposed to know we've found it even if we do find it?!"

"We just have to hope it's unusual. Attention-grabbing. This is all we can do." Sora said calmly.

"We're looking for something very old." Agumon said. "Like a temple or something. From what I know about this world, most things regarding digivolutions involve doing something in an old temple. Like lighting a candle, or flipping a switch."

"For real?" Tai asked incredulously.

"It's a metaphor." Agumon said simply. "The point is, we probably just have to supply power to something that's probably in an old building or cave. Something."

A light roar sounded through the air, but nobody paid any heed. It sounded like the wind. After several seconds, however, the roar began to pick up in volume. Finally, as it approached the volume of a bulldog growling, everyone turned their focus to the right.

They should have turned sooner. Looming right there, smoke emitting from the tail as it rocketed towards Aquilamon, was a Dark Shot Missile. The orange blur was on collision course with the crew.

Panic finally hit. Yolei instinctively slammed her first down onto Aquilamon's back. "Fly!"

Instinctively, Tai reached inside his jacket and pulled out his Beretta. Gripping it tightly, he extended his arm towards the speeding missile and pulled back on the trigger. Bullet after bullet shot from the mouth of the small pistol as he held the lever back against the grip.

The bullets flew into the missile's orange casing, deflecting off harmlessly. However, one of Tai's wild shots hit near the nose, which was pressure-sensitive to ignite the explosion on impact. As it registered the force of the bullet's impact, the casing blew off under the force of a massive explosion inside. The missile erupted into a fireball, growing quickly in midair, threatening to engulf the four digidestined and four partners.

Aquilamon gave a great burst of speed, attempting to escape the wrath of the fire, but it wasn't humanly possible to outrun an explosion. The orb of destruction engulfed the crew. Before they could even begin to mentally prepare, they squeezed their eyes shut and awaited incineration.

But all that came was a sticky blast of cool fluid, like a powerful tidal wave of kool-aid. The blast was still powerful enough to blow Aquilamon out of the sky and send him spiraling towards the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" Tai screamed as they went tumbling towards the field below.

"Strawberry!" Yolei yelled back.

"What the-" Tai began, but Aquilamon suddenly violently righted himself, causing everyone's head to spin as if they had just gotten off a roller coaster.

"Oh, jesus!" TK yelled, gripping hard onto Aquliamon's feathers. "It is strawberry!" He was looking down at Aquilamon's back, spying a collection of a red, sticky substance. "Crushed strawberries!"

"What the hell?" Tai groaned. He began to wipe himself down, serving only to spread the strawberry goo all around his body. His entire back and head was covered. "You suppose the Emperor thought we were allergic?"

"This isn't funny! Strawberry doesn't come out easily!" Yolei moaned, trying to scrape the substance off her pants.

"You know this how?" TK asked wryly, waving his hat in midair madly, throwing strawberry goo everywhere.

"Cherry bomb, strawberry pie, you know the rest." She said quickly.

"I hate to interrupt, but we need to land." Tai said suddenly, looking off towards the missile source with his telescope. "He brought friends."

"Any chance they're packing peach and cherry? I could make a nice fruit platter." TK said sarcastically.

"TK, I'm gonna need you to stop talking." Sora said warningly, looking down at her shirt, covered in red goo. "Say another word and I'll put my foot up your ass."

"Down, down!" Tai repeated, pointing down towards the ground.

"No, stay up!" TK yelled suddenly, bringing his HK33 automatic rifle up to his chest. "He wants us to land, delay our timetable! Keep looking, I'll deal with this." He pulled a small scope out from his chest pocket, slid it into a slot on the top of the rifle and brought it up to his eye.

"Don't miss!" Tai warned. "Aquilamon, nevermind. Keep going."

"Is anyone else not okay with the fact that our lives are in the hand of a prepubescent boy who's firearm training comes from Counterstrike?!" Sora said, her voice a few octaves above normal.

Nobody spoke for a few seconds.

"I'm not saying anything. Last time we played he racked up like 24 kills in five minutes. I got no place to talk." Tai grumbled.

Then, a series of seven shots were squeezed off into the distance from TK's gun, ringing loud in the air. The group watched as one of the missiles exploded in midair, the fiery orb engulfing and destroying the other missiles.

"Very nice." Sora conceded.

"I'll keep an eye out for more. You guys keep looking." TK said gruffly.

"Too bad Kari can't see you like this, eh?" Tai said, snickering.

"Your mom saw me like this last night." TK shot back tartly.

Tai looked off, mouth halfway open, into the distance. "Well, that was completely uncalled for." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeeaahh...that's what she said." He said casually, still looking off through the scope into the distance.

"Jesus." Tai groaned, turning his attention back down towards the ground.

"Just messin wit ya." TK said. "I love the smell of gunfire in the morning."

"I think you and Ken have a gun fetish or something." Yolei said, glancing at TK's back. "Weird as hell."

-------------------------------------------------------

A psychotic Geckomon jumped up and clawed at Ken's back, slashing away fabric and flesh of Ken's shirt. Ken groaned in pain, spinning around and clubbing the Geckomon with the butt of his rifle. As it fell away, he shot several rounds into it, peppering it with small holes that quickly began to spew blood.

The snow was littered with the bloody corpses of various digimon, ranging from in-trainings to ultimates. Even further disturbing the peace and serenity of the snow-covered region were the dozens of still-alive digimon, juiced up on steroids and desperate for another hit, encircling the four digidestined and their partners. Without regard for their own safety, or for possible strategy that could increase the chances of their success, the digimon dove in to attack like tidal waves of digital flesh.

The four digidestined held out their automatic weapons, razing anyone who got within the crosshairs of the gun with a stream of bullets. Thanks to a trial by the fires of hades himself, Mimi and Matt found themselves having little problem blowing new holes in these drug-addicted digimon.

The four partners, DinoBeemon, Angewomon, WereGarurumon, and Lilymon, made rounds through the sea of digimon, dealing out brutal justice to anyone who got in their way.

A Leomon charged on Mimi, fists out and ready to lay down nasty punches. Without thinking, which was really the whole trick to using guns, she pointed the barrel at the chest of the Leomon and fired. The gun erupted with the usual brt-brt-brt staccato sounds, sending led balls through the torso and out the back of the Leomon. The force of impact stopped the forward momentum of the digimon, then began to throw him backwards. Several bullets finally ripped through the heart, sending the Leomon to the floor, blood pumping through chest wounds with every heartbeat. As soon as that threat was dealt with, of course, another would arise, in this case a Pixiemon slamming his wand over her head.

Angewomon hovered from high above, shooting her celestial arrows down like raindrops on the crowd of junkie digimon. Her glowing pink arrows embedded themselves into the chest of a Meramon, instantly melting the flame-type digimon into nothingness. Like a faucet of death, arrows continued to rain down from the sky into the chests of the desperate digimon, dispatching death to all they crossed. Lilymon fired her flower cannon into the face of a Phantomon three times, draining her momentarily but completely blowing the head of the Phantomon off.

Kari, bleeding from her cheek and left abdomen already, was pivoting and dancing about coolly, unleashing her Sturmgewehr 44 on anyone who got in her way. Inspite of the heat of the battle, Matt couldn't help but watch her with one eye, impressed with how she was handling this extremely difficult situation.

Of course, Matt needed both eyes to blow down the Kuwagamon with his Thompson. After shooting the beast in the eyes and distracting it, Weregarurumon came in with a vicious kick to assist in finishing the job.

DinoBeemon began his quick dance through the crowd of digimon, slashing quickly at anyone who got in his way. Too fast to follow with the naked eye, all one could do was follow the trail of digimon who collapsed to the ground with gashes along their body. The Faustian addicts clearly stood no chance against the digidestined, even with the augmentations of the drug, for they were far too disorganized and still too weak. Nevertheless, they didn't even think about diving in and attacking.

"How many are there?!" Mimi yelled, even as she poured smoking led into the body of a DemiVeemon.

"More than I can bother to count!" Ken yelled back, bringing his rod up to bear. "Hold on!" He waved the rod down through the air quickly, waited a second, then brought it back up. An explosion rocked the forest area, uprooting trees and foilage. A chorus of screams indicated that quite a few digimon had been hit by the blast. Ken spun to his left and pointed at a large snowbank, bringing about a similar explosion that sent digimon flying through the air. He continued to pivot around to the left, stopping at short intervals and invoking further eruptions of fire. With every blast, more corpses, blood and guts littered the battlefield.

Finally, Ken had ravaged the entire surrounding area with explosions, dealing with a vast majority of the digimon which had crowded around for a shot at them. After the final blast sounded, Ken collapsed to the group, panting, covered in sweat.

"Ken, you alright?!" Kari exclaimed, constantly casting around looks for further digimon.

"Yeah!" He forced out. "Clean up!" He put his head down into the snow, trying to catch his breath.

With just a few scattered digimon left, it was simple mopup duty. Kari razed the landscape with speeding bullets, kicking up snow wherever she shot, occasionally throwing in a splatter of blood when she hit a digimon. Mimi and Matt followed suit.

Then, it was over. Half of File Island lay dead at the hands of the digidestined, in the snow, slowly sinking through to the ground. Everyone froze for a moment, looking around at the carnage, then Matt ran over to Ken.

"You alright man?" He asked quickly, grabbing his back and rolling him over. "A half dozen explosions and you're half-dead? This could be a problem."

Ken, still panting like a dog, weakly pointed his rod up into the air. Swirls of data came down from all around and entered the orb at the tip, causing the glass sphere to glow for a few seconds before settling down.

Kari and Mimi approached the two, investigating themselves for injuries. Mimi was bleedy savagely from her thigh and side of her head, Kari still from the cheek and abdomen.

"Ken, use the rod!" Kari encouraged. "You can use it to revitalize yourself, can't you?"

"Isn't that sort of a contradiction? Using the rod, which drains him of energy, to re-energize himself?" Matt mused, looking down on Ken's clothes, which had gained five pounds from sweat.

"Kinda." Ken wheezed out, closing his eyes and leaning back. "I could do it, but it'd take alot of power." He took a deep breath. "I'll just...take a nap." He began to doze off.

The digimon crowded around, taking their rookie forms once again. Wormmon crawled up next to Ken, his face falling as he looked down on him as he fell to sleep. "Poor Ken." He moaned.

"The Emperor doesn't have to take power naps inbetween his usages of energy." Mimi looked off into the distance. "This isn't fair."

"He talks about it sometimes. At night." Wormmon began. "His reserves of power are so small, he puts a great strain on his body in an attempt to conserve it. The Emperor has such a large storage he doesn't have to think about conservation. Or that's what he believes."

"Let's not forget the rod is artificial. The Emperor's command over power is natural." Matt added. "We don't have time to sleep. Now what?"

Kari looked around at the snow. Though it was now clean and seemingly undisturbed, it still carried the weight of hundreds of dead digimon. She swallowed hard. "Wake him up and tell him to juice up. Whatever he has to do, it doesn't matter. More digimon could come at any second, and we have to keep moving."

Matt began shaking Ken vigorously. Slowly, his eyelids began to flutter open. "How many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall?" He asked dreamily.

"What?" Kari asked as Ken shook his head violently.

"Nothing." He said quickly. "I thought I said I wanted to take a nap."

"Use the rod." Kari commanded. "Whatever it takes, just do it. We don't have time."

"Y'know...some of us...have to think about...saving power." Ken said stiffly, his breathing still labored. "Don't tell me...what to do."

"Just do it! Everything's moot if we can't acquire a large source anyway, so you might as well." Matt said.

"Very well." Ken huffed. He took a deep breath, then listlessly waved the rod in the air. A green glowing ring expanded outwards from the orb. Ken, immediately within the perimeter of the ring, was suddenly drier than the Sahara, and was no longer working hard to get air into his lungs. As the ring expanded out to Kari, Mimi, Matt, and the digimon, they too found their minds, bodies, and spirits rejuvenated as bloody wounds disappeared and new life was seemingly pumped into their brains.

"Alright. Now what?" Matt asked, looking down on his suddenly impeccable white shirt and blue pants.

"The island should be clear for the most part now. Unless Cory gets directly involved. There's something here he doesn't want us to have. We're not leaving until we have it." Ken instructed. "And we better hope there aren't many addicts left, because I'm starting to run low." He gave the rod a shake.

"Right." Matt said. Trying not to think too hard about what they had just done, the group trotted off through the snow.

------------------------------------------------------------ ---

Several Hours Later....

"Well, that was pleasantly productive." Izzy said happily, slamming the door back into it's groove in the wall. "The entire black market has now been effectively scouted, we've purchased the temporary loyalty of about two thousand mercenaries, and now..." he reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled a small purple notepad out halfway, showcasing it to Cody, Davis, and Joe. "...we might just be able to blow this whole thing wide open."

"How much was the charge?" Davis asked, glancing at the door Izzy had just emerged from.

"Nine million." Izzy said indifferently. "It's no thing though, Ken can generate money like it's nothing. To him it's just paper with funny symbols on it."

"So we're done." Joe said, relieved. "What's the time?"

A short pause followed as Izzy checked his watch. "Seven Forty Five."

"We would have made good time if it wasn't for the stupid DemiDevimon in the shroom shop who only spoke Chinese." Davis lamented. "We spend half a goddamn hour trying to translate what he's saying only to find out all he's got is magical fungi."

"You know what would have been great? If we left after seeing all the mushrooms on the shelves, like I said." Cody said bitterly.

"I thought they might have been bombs!" Davis protested.

"Actually we lost the most time with that Monzaemon who wouldn't stop talking about marshmellows." Izzy recalled. "I still think we should have pumped his gut full of led and moved on, that took like an hour."

"Hell no. That Monzaemon was a valued black market customer. If we kill him we alienate the entire market."

"Yeah, yeah." Izzy grumbled. "I wanted to be out of here by five. Goddamn time wasters."

"So can we leave now?" Joe asked. "We've managed to map out the entire market without running into a single enemy, and well ahead of schedule might I add. Our luck has been running just a little too long."

"Sure. Tomorrow we'll probably stop by and buy out every weapon and armor shop for the hell of it. And I've made arrangements to pick up our mercs at about noon tomorrow, so-"

Suddenly, the cave shook violently, knocking clumps of dirt and rock from the ceiling down to the ground. The digidestined and their partners nearly fell over.

Davis spun around, looking down the cave. In the distance, he could make out the smoke and flame of an explosion. Another, a few meters closer to the group than the last, erupted a second later, bringing even more debris down on the cave floor. In the areas close to the explosion, entire portions of the walls and ceiling began to collapse in.

"Does this cave have an exit at the other end?" Cody asked, starring down the tunnel as yet another explosion rocked the cave, continuing the cave-in process.

"Cave goes for several miles after the shops end." Izzy said, trying to remain calm.

Davis took in a deep breath as more explosions, each one getting closer to them than the last, rocked the cave and brought down tons of dirt and rubble to the cave floor. "Oh crap." Was all he could think to say, a mortified, deer-in-the-headlights expression overtaking his features.

Armadillomon jumped into action, morphing into his Digmon form, even as the explosions threatened to bring the entire cave down around them. He began to spin his drills, sticking them deep into the ground, drilling a hole through the rock.

"Everyone grab on and hold your breath!" He cried as he began to disappear into the ground. Silently, everyone complied, still unable to look away from the approaching explosions. In a flash, Digmon disappeared into the ground, burrowing at great speeds.

The four digidestined and three partners had deathgrips on Digmon's back, shutting their eyes tightly against the sea of dirt they were cutting through. After going down a few meters, Digmon cut right and went to the side for a few short seconds before turning upwards. They could feel the explosions cause a vibration through the layers of sand and rock, no doubt destroying the entire black market. The connotations of this hadn't yet occured to them, as they were desperately trying to hold air in their lungs.

Digmon kept hitting segments of rock, slowing his progress as he attempted to drill through or go around. Slowly, upward progress was made, but nobody was even sure how deep they were.

After forty seconds of drilling, Digmon finally hit air, coming up like a daisy in fast motion in the middle of a grassy field. As soon as the dirt was cleared, everyone stumbled out and took massive gulps of air.

"Crap!" Izzy choked out inbetween breaths, trying to avoid falling over. "So...much for the...market!" He panted.

"Are you kidding me?" Davis wheezed, walking around with his hands on his head. "How about you be grateful you're alive?"

Izzy took several big breaths before attempting to talk, brushing a layer of dirt off his clothing. "That market was our ticket to cheap firepower! Plus, I don't know if we can get our mercs now!" He spat at the ground, unleashing a dirt-filled loogey. "Yeah I'm alive now, but without the firepower and manpower I was anticipating to have we won't be alive long!"

"Screw it." Joe said resignedly, taking off his jacket. "Let's punch out and discuss this later." He began violently shaking his jacket, creating a large dirt cloud. "I got this from the Men's Warehouse two days again too."

------------------------------------------------------------ -----

"This place looks...familiar." Matt commented, looking through the hole in the wall, down a skinny bridge that extended all the way across the room. The room was massive, curving up into a cone the closer it got to the top, an ocean of lava below, bubbling violently.

"Yeah it looks exactly like Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings." Ken said, walking out onto the pathway. "Except the bridge goes all the way across."

"Careful!" Mimi interjected, watching Ken walk out onto the bridge. "It doesn't look very strong."

"I'll go by myself." Ken said confidently, strolling ahead. "Can you guys keep an eye out and yell if something comes up?" He pointed at Wormmon emphatically. "Stay." He commanded, anticipating Wormmon would object.

"Uh-huh." Kari said, glancing around inside the massive lava room. "What a place. I don't think I've ever seen it before."

"For all the times we've scaled infinity mountain, we never thought to check inside the place." Mimi added. "They shouldn't hide the entrance so well."

"There's a reason it's hidden." Ken yelled back, over the roar of the flowing lava. "What we seek is here, I'm willing to bet my computer on it."

And then, as if on cue, a hand emerged from the lava below, the arm extending at great speed up towards the bridge. Ken glanced down and watched it stretch up and up, until the hand was parallel with Ken's waist. Just a few feet from him, balled in a fist, Ken watched the hand, moving his hand to grip his rod.

"The lady of the lava?" Ken muttered, watching the hand slowly unfurl. Slowly, three crests revealed themselves to be sitting in the palm of the hand. "Finally something in this world's that's easy." He glanced about, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The hand came closer and closer, almost too slow to see. Ken slowly began to reach out for it as well, waiting for it to come within his grasp.

And then, they were right there. Ken blinked and shook his head, the heat from the lava below starting to get to him.

His fingers lashed out and grabbed the trio of crests, and then he took off at a dead sprint back down the path. The arm quickly disappeared back into the depths, and the room began to quake violently.

An AncientGreymon emerged from the bubbling lava as soon as the arm disappeared, soaring up to the bridge above. Kari, Matt and Mimi saw it and stepped out onto the bridge. "We've got company!" Matt called out, pulling out his rifle.

Ken, still sprinting, pulled out his rod. He glanced downwards and saw the AncientGreymon. "There's always gotta be something!" He growled.

"You running hot?" Kari asked, aiming her own gun downwards. Gatomon, Wormmon, Palmon, and Gabumon peered over the edge as well, ready for battle if it was needed.

"Hot enough!" Ken responded. "Let's see some ultimates! We'll all attack at once and hope that buys us enough time to escape!"

The skinny bridge began to crumble. AncientGreymon had attacked it, and the cracks in the rock were quickly catching up with Ken. He was almost back to the entrance, but he could feel the surface below his feet falling. He threw himself onto the small ledge before the bridge began, rolling towards the entrance to ensure he wouldn't be dragged down with the rubble.

"You alright?" Mimi asked, aiming her gun at the AncientGreymon, which was hovering before them where the bridge had been a moment ago.

"Yeah." He groaned, getting to his feet. He saw the partners glow as they began the transformation to ultimate. "Faster, faster!" He pointed his rod at the AncientGreymon, the orb beginning to glow blue. "You guys might have to carry me out!" He said. "Let's just hope I don't go into a coma!"

"Hold on, let's think about our options-" Matt began.

"We don't have options! This is the only way we're getting out of here! He's a mega, we're four ultimates and four humans with four guns, I have to be the clincher!" Ken looked over at the partner digimon, who had taken their ultimate form. "Now!"

As one, a celestial arrow, garuru kick, flower cannon, and insectoid alert were shot off at the AncientGreymon, which was in the process of launching an attack itself. The four attacks, while certainly felt by the crest guardian, hardly managed to put it out. Four streams of bullets from powerful, automatic machine guns flowed into the flesh of the mega digimon at the same time, but they did little to alter the eventual result of the battle.

Continuing to fire away with his rifle, Ken fired off a blue orb of energy from his rod straight into the heart of the beast. The orb erupted onto the digimon with little bravado, only a few crackles of what resembled static electricity danced along his skin. However, the actual results spoke louder than special effects. The force of impact threw the powerful digimon back, falling away and down, arcing back into the lava below.

As soon as the orb had left the rod, however, Ken had collapsed on the ground. Mimi, Matt and Kari turned their attention to him as soon as they were sure the AncientGreymon's journey would end in the magma. Matt put his arms around his upper torso, picking him up.

"You gonna be alright?" Matt asked. There was no response. Matt turned him over in his arms as the group ran out of the mountainside entirely, back out into file island as they knew it. The mountainside was covered in small bushes and underbrush, which made downward progress somewhat difficult as the vines were very thick and strong. As they began a rapid descent down the side of the mountain, Matt noticed Ken wasn't breathing.

He felt for a pulse on the neck. Nothing.

"Cardiac Arrest!" He cried suddenly. Kari and Mimi stopped their run down to crowd around Matt.

"Dammit! Now what?" Kari said, looking up cautiously at the mountainside entrance.

Matt grabbed the rod, twirling it around so the orb was pointed downwards. "Hopefully he thought ahead." He lightly tapped Ken's chest with the orb. A srrkktt sounded off from the rod, and Ken's chest popped upwards a few inches. His eyes popped wide open and he took in a deep gasping breath. After a second, he shook his head back and forth, blinked rapidly five times, then grabbed his rod back.

"Thanks." He grumbled, looking up at the entrance to the mountainside. "I would have said something but...it didn't occur to me until after I shot."

"Not a problem." Matt said, taking off down the mountain. Ken, Kari and Mimi followed. "You still got the crests?"

Ken opened the enclosed fist of his right hand, revealing the trio of small emblems. "I wanna talk to the asshole who decided to protect it so well. Shouldn't the greater powers of the digital world want us to be able to get these?"

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"So, things were going extremely well...until the cavein?" Ken asked, pacing around in front of his bed, his face twisted into a nasty looking frown.

"Yeah. We were ahead of schedule, we had mapped out everything, and we had two thousand mercs on reserve. Plus, we had planned to come back tomorrow and buy out all the guns and crap." Izzy explained from the other side of the room, leaning against the closet door. "And then, a bunch of explosions just ripped off and completely destroyed the place."

"Once again, the Emperor is one step ahead of us." Ken mused. "Pity. Now, I believe you said something about a nice surprise for me in an email?"

"Today wasn't a total loss." Izzy said, reaching into his chest pocket and pulling out the small purple paper pad. "I asked a few select questions of someone with knowledge, and managed to get them answered." He flung the pad over to Ken, who caught it and immediately flipped it open.

Slowly, a much more pleasant expression overtook Ken's features. A hint of a smile even crept in as he slowly flipped through the pages of the pad, reading some of the questions and answers quickly.

"Good....very good...very, very good." He moaned to himself. "Very well done, Izzy. Do you trust the source?"

"Well...I didn't know the mon, but he was running what appeared to be a credible business." Izzy said thoughtfully.

"This is the black market we're talking about." TK reminded, sitting down near the foot of the bed. "Credibility doesn't exist down there."

"True, but I think we should move on under the assumption these claims are legit." Ken decided. "If a black marketeer was selling false information, he'd get whacked pretty quickly." He nodded. "I can definitely use this."

"How'd you guys make off?" Tai asked, leaning against the bedroom door.

Ken reached into his pants' pocket and whipped out the trio of crests. "They're blank, which is unusual." He said, showing the plain surfaces to everyone. "But they're crests, and I'm certain they're quite potent." He flipped one over to Davis, then another to Yolei, and another to Cody. "We'll figure it out tomorrow. And I'll have a new set of plans laid out by then as well. I think I know what we need to do, just gimme the night to think."

"It only cost us half File Island's population." Mimi said bitterly over the speakerphone next to Ken's bed.

"You weren't saying that during the battle." Ken said loudly. "You're only having regrets now because you're thinking about it too hard. So please stop thinking."

"Easy for you to say." She responded, trailing off.

"We came up dry." Yolei admitted. "We just played tag with a bunch of dark shot missiles all day basically. Sorry."

"Don't worry. We've got four days left." Ken looked up at the clock above the bedroom door. "It's getting late. Tomorrow, everyone goes to Server and we start combing areas 2, 3, and 4, pending my new plan that I will develop tonight." He pointed at the door and gave a small bow. "Good night."

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Holy crap that ended up long. <_< Whatever. Thanks for reading this much. R&R please! Last chapter let me down with just the one review.