OT- Digimon: Rise of the Viralmon

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This story will by much shorter than the first one (not a lot to cover, but the time gap between this one and the third one is too big for me to combine). It's four years later and it will be mostly TK and Kari, since the size won‘t allow for a lot of the others. Mikain will take a much more active role too.
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Veemon hated being a Rookie. He wanted to be strong. A Champion. Champion-levels were strong and any digimon should've been capable of reaching it. But for some reason, he couldn't figure out how. Until now that is.

It was only a rumour, so it was probably false, but sometimes they were true and this one was worth checking out. The rumour was that here, in the forests of Bino, once home of the feared vampire digimon Shademon, there was someone who could make any digimon below Mega digivolve.

Despite the fact that Shademon and his minions were all dead leaving Bino empty, it was still creepy. It was an island surrounded by mountains making going in an out very difficult. The trees were gigantic and the central mountain was the biggest Veemon had ever seen. If becoming a Champion wasn't so important to him, he wouldn't be wandering around in this forest, hoping to run into whoever it was he was looking for, hoping that rumours were true. Hoping that he'd have some way of knowing if they weren't. Hoping that he’d be able to find his way back out and manage that difficult climb.

A figure dropped down in front of him, causing him to jump back. At first glance, he thought it was that human who turned into Shadowmon and was here to help. Looking harder however, despite the fact that it looked almost exactly like the ninja digimon, it's clothes were much darker and its eyes were red. The faint outline of a skull was on a pocket on its chest. This wasn't the human.

"I take it you are here for help with digivolving?" How did he know? Unless…was it him?!

"Are you the one?" Veemon ventured. The figure nodded.

"Of course," he answered, "Say the word and I will make you a Champion."

"I don't have much money," Veemon started. He didn't want to get on this guy's bad side. The ninja simply waved the excuse away.

"I don't expect anything in return. I know how frustrating it is to not be as strong as you'd like. I found a way to fix that, and now I only wish to share with those who want it." This was sounding too good to be true.

"I want to be a Champion," Veemon stated. The other nodded and pulled a vial of some kind of nasty-looking black liquid from his pocket and gave it to him.

"This will supply the energy to make you digivolve," he instructed, "Just drink it and it'll happen immediately." Veemon nodded and chugged the stuff, which tasted surprisingly sweet, and felt the energy rush through his body. He took off and flew back to the remains of Server, now known as the Server Cluster.

A couple hours later, a psychotic ExVeemon was found to be wildly attacking everything in sight.

***

Patience was not his strongest point. Even though it was much better than most others his age, it still sub par for someone trained as well as him. He knew how important patience for everything to work out! He KNEW it! But he let his impatience get the best of him and because of that, he picked a fight that he wasn’t ready for. A fight he had to wait before attempting. And because of his impatience, he now had to do something he had nightmares about. Something he constantly feared which lead to his impatience.

Twelve year-old TK Takaishi was attending his mother's funeral.

Putting up with watching Trev frequently beat his mother so mercilessly for all those years was simply too much. TK was trained to handle such monsters, but he knew wasn't good enough to beat Trev. Despite the training and frequent practicing, he still could only watch as Trev continued to crush his mother's already broken spirit and feel his patience fade.

A few days ago, though they've been a blur so TK wasn't sure how many had passed, he snapped. Trev had all but killed his mother, and he just couldn't handle it anymore. He tried to defend her. To give Trev a taste of his own medicine. To stop waiting and start doing. Big mistake. As expected, he was no match for Trev and easily beaten. But his mother had a little will left and she tried to help. Trev snapped her neck as casually as he would open a bottle. All because TK couldn't be patient.

Wallowing in his grief, he felt a gentle grip around his arm from the angel sitting next to him. Kari Kamiya was his girlfriend and training partner. Ever since they met, TK couldn't recall one moment when she wasn't there for him. She was always willing to listen as he vented his frustrations at not being able to stop Trev, or the way he was treated for living in a crime-ruled dump called the Warzone. She seemed to know exactly what to say and when to say nothing. She even took it upon herself to train him to be more patient, as hers was exceptional. As far as TK was concerned, she was the sole reason he didn't become as bad as Trev.

The Warzone used to be a decent city, but a crime lord named Mikain had moved in and was somehow able to organize all the crime well enough to render authorities helpless. Many people tried to leave, but it was now at the point where if you lived there, you were scum. Trev had moved TK and his mother there and as a result, all but four of his friends began treating him like dirt. He went from somewhat popular to trash.

Kari was among the four who stayed with TK of course. The other three were Tai Kamiya, Matt Ishida, and Sora Takenouchi.

As his last name implied, Tai was Kari's older brother. TK used to feel somewhat nervous around him considering how protective he was of Kari, but Tai had admitted that he couldn't imagine trusting anyone, even himself, more than he trusted TK with her. He was like a second brother.

Speaking of brothers, Matt was TK's older brother. TK was an accident and, as far as his father was concerned, unwanted. Because of this, his parents had been divorced, separating him and Matt. They didn't see each other as often as either of them liked, but it was enough to stay reasonably close.

Last was Sora. Sora was a close friend to both Tai and Matt and as a result, became something of an older sister to both TK and Kari. She had become as protective over the two as their older brothers and they've become closer over some events in the Digital World four years earlier.

The Digital World was a world created by all the computers and from there, anything electronic could be controlled. The crime lord Mikain had known about this and created a virus that created other viruses that looked like digimon to destroy what they could. It all part of an elaborate scheme to get TK and Kari reveal themselves as the strongest Digidestined, which was someone who could turn into a digimon and were always called to handle threats against the Digital World.

Mikain intended on using TK and Kari to summon a digimon called Imperialdramon: Paladin Mode who was infected by a virus. The virus caused Imperialdramon to become exponentially more powerful and gave him the ability to manipulate the Digital World at will, but it also drove him insane. He declared himself a god and killed whoever didn't worship him.

After destroying Mikain's virus, TK and Kari had awakened the Imperialdramon and were forced to battle him. They defeated him and were about to kill him, but then Mikain's elites, who were Tai and Matt brainwashed into becoming agents Flame and Light, rescued him and brought him to Mikain. Tai had Matt had then been defeated and turned back to normal and Matt revealed that one who did was Trev.

Despite the fact that the virus was destroyed and Imperialdramon hasn't been seen since that day, TK didn't consider it a victory. Even though it was costly, Mikain had gotten what he wanted and there was no telling what he planned to do with it. To prevent anything from happening, TK and Kari had joined a group called the Digital Protectorate, lead by a man named Yamaki who gave helpful information on Mikain's virus during that first experience, and being the only members who could transform, they were the only available field agents starting with simple missions involving helping the digimon cope with how Imperialdramon rearranged the face the Digital World. Many lives were disrupted, but helping gave TK and Kari considerable experience with the digimon and were getting to be quite well known.

Not to say it was just him and Kari fighting Mikain. Tai and Matt were determined to pay him back for making them into enemies. Sora still considered herself in charge of taking care of him and Kari. Two others he had met in the Digital World, Max and Jane, hung around the Warzone, looking for anything that might help incriminate Mikain and trying to bring some form of protection to the other people who were stuck in the Warzone.

Max was cheerful and TK found him almost instantly likeable. Always making the worst jokes he could think of, he always found ways to cheer others up in his efforts to achieve groans and blank stares with his jokes. He wasn't smart, but he did give an occasional brilliant insight.

Jane, Max's girlfriend, didn't start off on very good terms with TK. Her parents were murdered thanks someone named Tyris, who according to her, acted a lot like TK and looked almost identical. Because of this, she refused to trust him and acted like he would betray the team. After getting him and Kari captured, she realized how wrong she was and has since then been doing her best to make up for all she did, though TK had long since forgiven her. After all, it was thanks to her getting him and Kari captured that they were able to destroy the queen virus and that more than made up for what she had done.

Neither of them had found anything to suggest Mikain was responsible for the current incident in the Digital World. It seemed that some rogue digimon was going around distributing a virus to others. The virus made them digivolve, but turned them into lunatics determined to destroy everything in sight. It started with a Veemon who had wanted to be Champion at first, but now was simply too traumatized over what he had done to want to go beyond Rookie. Weakening them to the point that they'd return to their previous levels worked to cure them, but they remembered everything they did. To make it worse, the distributor was always moving and TK had yet to even see him. The virus sounded similar enough to the one Mikain wanted but like with everything else he does, it was impossible to prove. Yamaki had modified TK’s and Kari’s digivices to extract information from terminals found in the Digital World, but so far nothing involving Mikain could be located. Mikain, if nothing else, raised being untouchable to an art form.

"Are you doing okay?" Kari softly asked, sending his thoughts back to the present. He looked at her. Her hair was still cut short like before, only a bit neater now. Her shirt was pink and white and she had pink gloves. Her shorts were a yellowish green. As far as TK was concerned, she had grown more beautiful with each day.

"As well as I can," he admitted. He tried his best to be strong. As bad as it was to be perceived as a Warzoner, it was worse to be seen as a weak Warzoner as they weren‘t allowed to have human emotions. He didn't have to look around to know that there were at least a couple members of his own family who thought that he was responsible. When the funeral would end, Kari would take him to a spot where it was just them and then it would be safe to stop pretending.

"I'll pull you through this," she whispered, "I promise." He already knew she would, she knew he knew, but hearing it made him feel a little better. With his mother gone, it was agreed that the Kamiyas would take him in. Not one of his relatives who lived close enough, except Matt of course, wanted a Warzoner around, but the Kamiyas knew him for who he was and were aware of how badly he needed to be with Kari now.

The funeral ended and everyone got up and started to leave. TK took a deep breath. Even though he wouldn't be living in the Warzone, he was still branded, and there was no doubt in his mind that others will accuse him of his mother's murder. It would be impossible to hide what he was and that meant his life going from one form of hell to another. "I just can't get a break," he muttered as he walked out with Kari at his side.

"I know it'll be hard," she told him as if she knew what he was thinking, which wouldn’t be the first time, "but I'll do whatever it takes to make it easier. Just tell me whenever it gets too hard for you and I'll give you a shoulder." The two stepped outside.

"Like now?" he pleaded. He wouldn't be able to hide his pain much longer. He was answered with a soft kiss on his lips.

"Of course. We'll find a spot. And we’ll get Trev too. I’ll hold him down for you want." Kari was truly an angel.
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Afterword: One thing I hate about doing sequels is the recaps. It doesn't feel right if I don't do them, but they sure get annoying, especially with my plots.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: These first few chapters have a lot of new territory for me, so it may get a be rough.
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TK tried to stay at least visibly calm as he stood in front of Kari’s class. It shouldn’t have been a problem for him to be here since he could hide the fact that he was from the Warzone rather well, but his ex-friends who abandoned him when he was moved to the Warzone were still here. The instant he stepped in the schoolyard, one recognized him and now they were telling everyone where he was from. <Well, maybe the teacher will be open minded enough,> he hoped.

“We have a new student today,” the teacher said in a less-than-enthusiastic tone. He wore a serious look that went well with his brown haired crew cut, grayish-white suit, and glasses. “His name’s Takeru. Unfortunately,” his voice filled with contempt and his black eyes turned cold, “he’s a Warzoner.”

<So much for open-minded.>

“He’s also a Digidestined so we have to accommodate him, but don’t worry. If he causes any problems, he’s out.” Since the roles of the Digidestined were known to almost everyone, it was normal to receive special treatment.

<Too bad it won’t be enough special treatment to make them treat me like a human being,> TK thought bitterly, but kept his voice cheerful for his self-introduction. “I’m called TK for short. Don’t worry about the Warzone. It didn’t have a chance to turn me into a monster.”

“But didn’t you kill your mother?” one asked. The question was like a blow. Knowing the accusations would come didn’t make it any easier to take. He looked at the asker and saw his spiked black hair and cold eyes. It was one of his former friends. Adrian.

“That was my step father,” TK choked out.

“TK’s not a Warzoner,” Kari cut in, “and I don’t want anything to do with anyone who treats him like one.” That certainly helped TK’s mood. According to Tai, Kari was extremely popular and a lot of kids want to be seen with her.

Hopefully her popularity would be enough to make the time needed to make everyone forget where he‘s from bearable.

***

TK stumbled back slightly from the force of Adrian’s punch to his face. It didn’t really hurt and was sloppy enough to easily dodge, block, or even counter, but those weren’t options. TK knew that if he tried anything he’d get in trouble for fighting while Adrian would be let off. After all, the only witnesses were also TK’s former friends.

TK used to admire Adrian. He used to always find ways to cause problems for anyone who picked on his friends without revealing his involvement. Unfortunately, that was now directed against TK.

“I don’t know what you’re doing with Kari,” Adrian growled, “but you keep away. She’s mine.” What?

“Funny,” TK said, “Kari never even mentioned speaking to you.”

“He’s just waiting for the right time,” Michelle answered. Michelle had brown eyes and blonde hair. If it wasn’t for her, TK would’ve spent a lot more time in his “girls are icky” phase which might have prevented him and Kari from being as close as they are.

“It’s obvious that she likes him,” the oversized Kyle said. With his messy red hair covering his eyes which TK couldn’t ever recall seeing, he looked like a real thug, but he only fought when one of his friends needed the help. Too bad TK was no longer on that list.

Three people TK once called his friends now had it in for him. <I guess we weren’t as close as we thought.> “What makes you think Kari likes him?” he asked.

“I don’t think! I know!” Adrian snapped and delivered another punch. Had TK the mental energy, he’d have compared those blows a gentle breeze, but he still wasn’t completely over how close he thought he once was with them.

“She’s my girlfriend,” he said instead.

“That’s only because I haven’t approached her yet! She belongs to me!” TK tried not to smile. Even though he couldn’t do anything physically, he was still fighting back, and winning. Adrian’s biggest weakness was his temper.

“No I don’t,” a familiar voice spoke in a surprisingly icy tone.

<Guess I win.> TK looked at Kari who was glaring at Adrian.

“I’m not your property and I can’t stand anyone who treats his friends like you do!” Adrian paled and ran. He never did like rejection. Michelle and Kyle followed.

In the blink of an eye, Kari’s glare turned into concern. “Are you okay?”

“His punches are nothing,” TK answered hoping to end it there.

“That’s not what I meant.” Figures.

“I’ll be okay. I got used to having them as enemies once, I can do it again.”

***

TK focused on nothing more than listening to Kari’s heart beat, wondering how one as large as hers wasn’t deafening. <There’s a line I should try some time.>

School was done for the day but instead of going home, he and Kari went to the park. It was big and at this time empty spots were easy to come across. Kari wanted to go so she could have the privacy needed to help him pull through the lousy day. TK didn’t need the attention, but time for him and Kari to just be boyfriend and girlfriend, rather than Yamaki’s best team was so rare. There was simply no way TK would pass up times like now when he and Kari would simply lie in each other’s arms without making a noise, only enjoying each other’s presence.

A beep sounded. That could only mean one thing. “I’ll get it,” TK muttered over Kari’s annoyed sigh. These missions came at the worst possible times.

He pulled the rectangular communicator out of his pocket and turned it on, causing Yamaki’s face to appear.

“A viral MetalSeadramon is attacking an Aquamon village,” Yamaki spoke, not bothering with a greeting. He didn’t believe in wasting words when lives were at stake and TK had to agree.

“On it,” he answered as he and Kari stood. Closing the communicator, he focused on his digivice while making certain that no one was watching. Even though it wasn’t a secret, transforming into Shadowmon in front of an audience would likely draw in some unwanted attention, especially from the media.

As soon as the rush of energy ended, Kari climbed on his back while he allowed his mind to adjust to his new height and physical capabilities. It never took long, but moving at a Shadowmon’s speed without a mind that can keep up is an injury waiting to happen.

Now ready, TK took off and everything appeared to barely moving as his strides took large amounts of ground. He had to get to Kari’s home <No. Our home, now,> quickly so they could enter the Digital World immediately and hopefully get there before too much damage was done. Aquamon, like the virus versions TK had encountered years earlier, were weak but skilled fighters and capable of swarming. Unfortunately, against a Mega level like MetaSeadramon, it would take more than any Aquamon village could possibly supply.

Reaching the apartment, he didn’t go for the door. That would take too long. Instead he went around a corner and bolted up the wall and through a window leading straight into Kari’s room. Since Kari’s mother didn’t have any kind of job to go to, TK could almost always expect the window open for these types of emergencies.

Now inside, TK set Kari down and reverted back since the digivice was needed to enter the Digital World, but he only had it in his human form. After a quick glance at Kari to make sure she knew where she was since her mind wasn’t capable of keeping up with the speed, he tried not to laugh at how her hair was practically going straight back.

“Don’t laugh,” Kari said as she straightened her hair back out with her fingers as the two got in front of her computer. They held their digivices in front of it and with a flash, they were sent to the nearest terminal to the Aquamon village. Somehow, the digivices were able to check their minds to see where they needed to be.

***

As Shadowmon again, TK stopped at the ruined Aquamon village. The fish-like warriors could live on water and land and were divided into some that preferred either. Fortunately, these ones liked land.

The giant sea serpent with the metal face was easy to spot, blasting at the retreating Aquamon as they ran through the rubble of what was probably buildings at one point.

“The usual?” Kari asked as the transformed into Darkmon. The usual plan was for TK to take on the attacker while Kari looked after the victims to insure no one else came along and got some bright ideas. It hadn’t happened yet, but with Mikain, anything was possible.

As Kari ran off to help the Aquamon, TK charged at MetalSeadramon. Because his Form relied mostly on his sword and speed, rather than power, it was much more suited to subduing these digimon without causing serious injuries than Kari and her elemental attacks.

TK stopped in front of the serpent and drew his sword. “Kill you!” MetalSeadramon shouted, “River of Power!” The large nozzle on the front of his face fired out a massive blue energy blast.

Wordlessly, TK sprung over it and slashed MetalSeadramon across the face, causing his head to jolt to the side, though it couldn’t have hurt too much. The swing had just enough strength to go through the metal and make a scratch, but no more. Right as TK landed, he leapt the serpent again and slashed him along the frontal area three times.

TK landed again and with a howl of rage, MetalSeadramon lunged at him with a big bite. TK responded with a spin kick with this right foot and knocked MetalSeadramon flying. He landed with a crash and turned back into a MegaSeadramon.

“What happened?” he asked, and then seemed to turn pale, “Oh no, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t,” TK confirmed, “The virus you were tricked into taking did. Where did you get it?” MegaSeadramon pointed his head at the sea at a distant circle of rocks. With a nod, TK bolted across the water.

The island turned out to be extremely small. It was only big enough to hold no more than three people. Yet the distributor was gone, but foot prints that matched the ones at all the other reported locations were visible. Other than that, nothing.

With a sigh, TK rushed back. Once again, he was eluded.

***

“Still no new patterns,” Yamaki muttered as Kari gave him the location TK checked. TK would’ve, but he seemed to be feeling too frustrated at being too slow again.

They were hoping that with the locations being marked, it might be possible to second guess the distributor, but so far the only thing they all have in common is their seclusion. That narrowed it down to a few hundred, and the distributor was not above going to the same spot multiple times.

“Big surprise there,” TK growled, “If I could’ve just been a little faster! I could‘ve caught him!”

“We don’t know that,” Yamaki said, “For all we know, the distributor leaves right after giving the virus. We just have to keep trying until we catch him.”

“And until then, more lives will be lost,” TK countered, “I’m supposed to be among the fastest, and I’m too slow to make enough of a difference! I need to catch him!”

“Calm down, TK,” Kari told him. If he needed to vent, he’d best wait until she could get him somewhere private. “If we get too impatient, we’ll only do even worse.” She felt slight twinge of guilt saying that. <Why did I feel that?> The look in TK’s eyes answered her question. She just reminded him of what lead to his mother’s death.

“Your right,” his voice sounding rough. She wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, “I didn’t mean to remind you of that. I just don’t want you to do anything else you’ll regret.”

“Let’s get Max and Jane to look around the Warzone tomorrow,” TK suggested after a few seconds, “Maybe they‘ll find someone with connections.” It didn’t seem likely, but he had no other ideas.

***

Mentally drained from the lousy day, TK flopped on to Kari’s bed as soon as they left the Digital World. Was this how it was going to be from now on? And would it really get better? He was finding that harder and harder to believe.

“Bad day?” TK sighed at hearing Tai’s voice. He really should’ve felt his presence.

“How’d you guess?” He turned and looked at his friend. He was wearing the gray school uniform which had caused TK and Kari to burst out laughing when they had first seen it. It looked a bit out of place with Tai’s bush-like hair and goggles.

“Well, you didn’t seem to notice me. It takes a lot for that.” Tai sat down next to him.

“What is it?” Kari asked.

“I just wanted to make sure things were going okay,” Tai answered, “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Could be better,” TK admitted. Tai wasn‘t the brightest, but he was perceptive about these things. Maybe it ran in the family. “But it could be worse too.” TK looked at Kari and she understood. He wasn’t ready to bring it up himself, but Tai would keep pressing until he did.

“He had a reunion with Adrian, Jenny, and Kyle,” Kari said.

“I never did like them,” Tai answered, “Still on that anti-Warzoner kick?”

“Worse than before,” TK answered, “Now he’s picking fights with me and talking about Kari like she’s his property.” Adrian knew how protective Tai was of Kari, so that should get him off TK’s back.

“That’s it!” Tai snapped and stood, “I’m going to pound that little-”

“Stop,” Kari interrupted, “That’ll only give him something to use against TK. Even the teacher is against him right now, so we can’t do anything to him.”

“Being a Digidestined is the only thing that’s keeping me from being thrown out,” TK added, “but that won’t take me far. I’ll just make certain Adrian knows you know how he talks about Kari.” Tai visibly calmed down and sat again.

“At least the Digidestined thing is helping you,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Since when did the status of being a Digidestined be a problem?

“Matt and I have decided that the only way to fix things is to get rid of Mikain.” Tai took a deep breath. Whatever he was talking about must have disturbed him deeply. “All the suffering you two have been through were caused by him creating the Warzone and turning me and Matt into Flame and Light. So, we decided to kill him.” TK couldn’t believe what he had heard and he heard Kari gasp. Sure Mikain deserved it, but it was hard to imagine Tai actually being willing to do it.

“Are you sure?” Kari asked after a few minutes of silence. Tai nodded.

“We thought about it ever since you turned us back. He covers his tracks so well that he can’t be brought in, and he won’t ever change. Unfortunately, since everyone knows about the Digidestined, we have no way to get to him without being seen. We’d have to be brought in by him and get to him privately.”

TK recalled Max and Jane saying something similar a few months back. It was so hard to believe that Tai and Matt would be so willing to kill, but then again, Mikain did attempt to turn them into killers. “Only Mikain could get four kids mad enough to want to actually kill him.”

***

TK tried to shake the feeling that he wasn’t alone. It was past midnight and he had just stepped out of his and Tai’s room to get a drink and suddenly felt like he was being stalked. He couldn’t be though. He’d have heard it by now, or at least felt the intruder’s presence. No. He was alone.

<Wrong, TK,> a voice TK had never expected to hear from any place other than his nightmares spoke inside his head, <You aren’t alone with me here.>

“Where are you?!” TK harshly whispered, looking around. Nothing.

<Inside you, of course. You didn’t really think I could be gotten rid of so easily, did you?>

“Leave me alone, Takeru,” TK ordered, “I beat you when I was eight and I can beat you again.” Takeru laughed.

<That type of battle isn’t possible for us. I have a deal to make with you.> A deal? This ought to be good.

“A deal? Forget it. I don’t negotiate with body-stealing viruses.”

<Hear me out. Give me control tomorrow. Just for tomorrow and I’ll never bother like this again. In fact, I’ll even kill the distributor, Trev, Mikain, and anyone else to want and I won’t hurt the ones you do care about.>

That was unexpected. <Give him control and he won’t bother me again? No, wait. He said he won’t bother me like this. And that’s assuming he’s not lying. That means he’ll have some other way.>

“Forget it. I don’t know what you’re planning, but I won’t help you. I’ll just find a way to destroy you for good.”

<I’d have kept my word,> Takeru’s tone turned even more menacing, <but now when I take control, and I will, I’ll be certain to make your loved ones suffer instead.> With that, Takeru’s voice faded and TK was alone again, shaking. Of all his enemies, Takeru was the most terrifying since he knew TK inside and out.

<Maybe I should tell Kari? No.> When he had told Kari about his internal battle with Takeru, Kari began to worry that Hikari lived within her, and even now TK could see the fear was still with her. Telling her would only make it worse.

<It’s probably just a bad dream. That’s it. I’ll go back to sleep, wake up tomorrow and I’ll know that it was just a bad dream. Takeru is dead. He’s never coming back. Never.>
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Afterword: I’m aware that the names aren’t Japanese, but I have enough trouble with English names. Japanese ones are more or less impossible for me.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Sir_Wallace8]

HOLY...thats long..well time to start reading and i noly know the english names
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LONG LIVE THE ARC TROOPER!!.


DON'T CLICK HERE MU WA HAH HAH

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This chapter’s difficulties were mostly the Max and Jane part, but I think it came out well.
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The Skull’s hideout was a real dump. It smelled like it was doubling as fire wood, the windows were boarded up, and the dust had dust. The only furniture was some old wooden tables and chairs. To put it simply, this place was standard fare for Warzone gangs.

There wasn’t anything special about the Skulls. They stole, kidnapped for what little ransom one could expect around here, smashed property, and occasionally killed. These reasons were enough for Max and Jane to go after them, but there were bigger groups that caused more trouble that were given priority. The only reason the Skulls were being targeted now was because their leader was rumored to have been seen with Lector.

Normally Jane would ignore such rumors, but TK wanted her and Max to see what they could dig up on the digivolving virus crisis and she would not ever refuse to help him. She could never make up for all the problems she caused him when he was younger, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try.

The Skulls normally acted very tough, but it would be interesting to see how tough they’ll be when visited by Quickmon and Bunermon. As Quickmon, Jane could effortlessly dodge bullets, while as Burnermon, Max was just immune to them.

Six were gathered around a table. Such a small number wouldn’t take anymore than a few minutes to deal with. Each of the members wore a black suit with pictures of bones pained on.

“Guess it’s time for us to crack some Skulls and take some names,” Max muttered in a tough guy tone to her and she did her best not to sigh. Every time they were about to bust up a gang, Max always came up with a bad line.

“Alright boys, fun time’s over,” she called out. They all looked at her with surprised expressions. “You’re going to answer some questions for us. Do you wanna do this the easy way, or,” she gave them a predatory smile, “the fun way?”

The answer wasn’t surprising. Each of them whipped out a hand gun and opened fire. Jane went into speed mode and whipped her wrist blades around, deflecting each bullet. The blades were actually a part of her arm, so if one broke, it would be very painful, but so far bullets couldn’t do anything more than cause a vibration that gave slight discomfort.

As soon as they stopped and reach to get another clip, Jane bolted towards them, and in the blink of an eye, she had torn through each of their guns with her blades and was now standing with Max again.

Out of what had to be desperation, a big Skull lunged at Jane with his fist pulled back. <Yeah. You’re going to hit me even though I deflected bullets. Right.> She charged at him and delivered twenty blows to his chest and another twenty to his back within a single second and then stopped and watched him stumble a couple steps before falling.

She turned around and faced the remaining members who were already moving. One attacked her with a knife. <This must be how TK feels,> she mused while sidestepping each swing. Even though she was nowhere near TK’s level of skill, her speed advantage over these guys made up for it. He could predict the moves, but they were moving through molasses from her point of view.

<Enough of this.> Eight blows, each too fast for the human eye to see, sent the knife wielder into the wall. She looked around and saw the leader running for the exit. Shaking her head, she bolted after him and delivered a swift blow to the back of his head. He fell to his knees and she stopped in front of him and grabbed him by the throat. “You’re not going anywhere.”

***

Three Skulls approached Max. Two men and a woman. He looked at them and yawned. “Try to at least be as good as a warm up.”

He charged at the middle one and punched him in the face. As he recoiled, Max delivered a swift kick to stomach, causing him to double over and be perfectly set up an uppercut that knocked him over and out.

Max turned around and watched the other man slash him across the chest with a knife, leaving behind a tiny, barely noticeable, mark. Max grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t scratch the paintwork,” he growled and punched across the face, knocking him out.

Looking for the final one, he saw her flip towards him. <What, did I just stumble into some old spy movie or something?> He watched as she delivered a kick to his chest, and then shock appeared on her face as he yawned. She punched him in the head and stumbled back, gripping her fist, her expression pained. Max lunged at her and body slammed her into the table, and she didn’t get back up.

He looked for Jane and saw her near the door holding what was probably the leader. He made his way over to them and pointed his Flame Shooter at the man’s head. “Is he being cooperative?”

“Not yet,” Jane answered, “He keeps denying that he was with Lector, but he’s a very bad liar.” Max faced the prisoner who was staring at the blaster now pointed at him

“I like to burn things,” he said adding a touch of insanity to his tone, “I wonder how fast you’ll burn?” He looked at Jane. “Can I try?’

“Well,” Jane answered, “He’s not being very helpful to us right now, so I sup-”

“Okay, I was with Lector!” the man blurted out, “He was telling us which groups are with him. We’re not exactly big, so we don’t want to get on his bad side!”

“What about Mikain?” Jane asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Does Lector work for Mikain?” Max knew the answer. Jane the answer. The other Digidestined knew the answer. Everyone knew the answer, but no one could prove the association.

“I’ve heard rumors,” the man said, “but I’m not about to risk getting that giant mad at me.” A dead end. So much for getting the information TK wanted.

“We’ll let you go,” Jane said, “but if I learn you’re causing any more problems, we won’t go so easy on you. I may even tell those others about how you tried to ditch them.” The threat didn’t stop the gangs from trying again at first, but instead they usually end up joining larger ones. A temporary solution since it’s impossible to get any cops in here to bring these guys in. According to Jane, only stopping the big guys will end the problems.

***

Mikain, the unofficial ruler of the Warzone, was in better moods. Someone was distributing some sort of virus that caused digivolving and insanity. Normally this wouldn’t concern him, but the virus sounded very similar to what he had driven the Imperialdramon insane, yet the only ones with access to virus were the cyber terrorists of Hexa, who Imperialdramon exterminated, and Mikain’s own organization which couldn’t take the virus anywhere without him knowing.

The fact that someone was giving away such a virus without being identified meant they had considerable resources. A potential rival which wasn’t needed now. This distributor had to be eliminated and fast.

His comm activated and the snobbish tone of Trev, his head scientist, sounded. “I’ve determined what even your so-called intelligence agents couldn’t.”

“Get to the point,” Mikain interrupted. He wasn’t in the mood for Trev’s rants about his genius.

“Fine, fine. The distributor of the virus has shown up on Bino Island. This is his fourth time there, I believe.”

“You better be right,” Mikain warned and switched the comm off. He’d have to assemble a team to hurry in and identify this enemy. Even knowing just the appearance would be enough to hunt him down.

***

TK couldn’t believe his luck. Not only did this call from Yamaki interrupt the teacher’s after school lecture explaining why he shouldn’t be with Kari (something about corrupting her, though he tuned most of out), this sighting was reported by a couple scouts who even saw the light from the digivolution. The resulting Birdramon hadn’t even chosen a target yet, so the distributor’s location was already known.

Now in the Digital World, TK was bolting along the interception path and in no time, Birdramon came into view. “You deal with that,” he said as he stopped letting Kari off his back so she could transform.

“Hope I’m gentle enough,” she answered as TK took off in the opposite direction the Birdramon was flying.

***

“Blazing Wing!” Kari leapt back, avoiding the small fireballs send down by the single of Birdramon’s wing. A fire element digimon.

<Hopefully that means Fire Whip won’t be too dangerous for her.> Birdramon swooped down and Kari dove forward, rolling underneath the giant bird. She then leapt up and turned red. “Fire Whip!”

Birdramon didn’t even have a chance to turn around before the whip struck, turning her back into a Biyomon. An unconscious Biymon. Kari dove towards her and caught her as she fell.

Kari looked the small pink bird over, confirming there were no serious injuries, though she was likely to be sore for a while. <Poor thing. But at least I stopped her before she could do anything she’d regret.>

***

<You won’t escape now!> TK thought as he leapt into the spot where the trees cleared. Inside, he saw <An Assassinmon?!>

Assassinmon were the dark digivolved counterpart of his Shadowmon and were supposed to be extinct. <I’ll just have to make him that way.>

“Well now,” Assassinmon spoke, “I didn’t expect to be caught this soon. But I have better things to do than fight some kid. Dagger Throw!” TK swiftly deflected the swarm of daggers with his sword, but when he was done, Assassinmon was gone. TK looked around and tried to find any trace of where he went, but nothing. Assassinmon were as fast as Shadowmon, so he was long gone by now.

TK sighed as the realization sunk in. <I had him. I had him and he STILL escaped!> Some footsteps sounded behind him. He whipped around and saw about ten of Mikain’s men.

“Is he the one?” one asked.

“Couldn’t be,” another answered, “I think he’s one of the Digidestined.”

TK didn’t bother restraining himself. He charged at them, only making sure to use the flat end of his sword. He was going to take these guys down because worked for the scum who hired his mother’s murderer. Because they likely played a part in the creation of the place that ruined TK’s life. Because they might know something about the distributor. <Because I’m angry.> Because.

In less than two seconds, TK brought them all down but one. Even though the dull end of his sword couldn’t cut, it was still very painful to be hit by. He grabbed the final member and forced him down. “How’s Mikain involved in this?!”

“How should I know?” the man answered, his voice shaking, “We just came here because this berserk digimon thing worried us. We don’t even work for Mikain.” Yeah, like TK was going to buy that lie.

“Wrong answer!” TK snapped and stabbed his sword down right next to the man’s head. “Try again or I won’t miss! There’s plenty of you here for me question if you won’t cooperate!”

“We’re here to identify the distributor!” the man answered, his voice on the verge panic, “Mikain sees him as an enemy but he can’t find him without knowing what he is! That’s all I know!”

Mikain wasn’t behind this? That was unexpected. “Get out of my sight,” TK ordered as he let the man go. The ran off and TK relaxed himself, reverted back, and made a mental note to tell Yamaki this immediately. Then he recalled how he got it and a wave of nausea washed over him as he realized what he had almost done. <I was going to kill these people just because they were associated with Mikain.>


***

“TK!” Kari called as she came running up, relieved he was still there, “The Biymon’s just fine. How did it go with you?” As soon as she finished, she noticed him shaking and then she saw the bodies of Mikain’s men scattered around. Reverting back, she walked up to him. “What happened?”

He gave her a haunted look. “What’s happening to me?” Not understanding what he meant, she hugged him and vowed to make sure she’d know what he meant.
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Afterword: I think I could have handled TK’s “interrogation” better, but I’m not certain how.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: Now we get a return of Jane’s old “friend”.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before deciding what gang to take down, Jane and Max had agreed to first go on a patrol to make certain that they didn’t overlook one that was up to something big, or better yet, making contact with one of Mikain’s lackeys.

Nothing seemed to be happening that Jane could spot. She could’ve handled the patrol as Quickmon, but she was worried that bolting around at that speed would cause her to overlook the small details, not to mention that Max wouldn’t be able to keep up and that would eliminate the second pair of eyes.

“It’s quiet,” Max commented in a suspicious tone, “Too qui-”

“Ah, shaddup,” Jane interrupted. She never liked that line much to begin with.

I’m just commenting as to how quiet this festering-”

“Stop it!” she snapped. The last thing she needed was him remembering how much fun he found that word to be.

Max said nothing. Jane stopped. Max never stopped this early on. She looked at him and he was staring intently across the street. Jane looked and saw a hooded figure walking into a building. It took a few seconds for the identity of the hooded figure to click in her mind.

Tyris as his alternate identity of Phoenix. What was he doing here? “You see him?” Max asked in a serious tone.

“Yeah. Let’s see what he’s up to.” Since Tyris was responsible for causing Jane’s parents to be murdered over a little money, she’s been itching to repay him.

The two crept into the building and Jane peeked in but couldn’t see any guards, or even Tyris. She looked at Max and he gave a nod. The two went in, ready to transform at a moment’s notice. Inside, the walls were lined with computers which was extremely out of place, but for some reason, no Tyris. Anywhere. Could he have pulled one of those disappearing acts?

More importantly, as much as she hated to admit it, were these computers. This looked some kind of place set up by Mikain, but no effort to conceal it or even any guards. This wasn’t right.

“Think we should get some help on this one?” Max suggested, mirroring her thoughts.

“Yeah,” she answered, “but just remember what day it is.” Max looked confused at first, but then his eyes widened.

“That’s right! Must’ve been rough on TK.” At least Max could be counted on to know how to treat his friends.

***

Tyris laughed to himself as he watched his former friends run off from his vantage point of the top of the building he lured them into. Undoubtedly to bring TK and Kari to this facility set up by Mikain. All it took was a quick extermination of all his guards who were disguised as a typical gang that were dangerous enough to avoid, but too minor to be bothered with eliminating, and having the projectors covering everything up disabled.

With TK and Kari brought here, they would work to disrupt Mikain’s plans and thus reignite the battles between the two sides. Hopefully this time it would end with one wiping the other out, or better yet, both wiping each other out.

***

TK didn’t even notice that he was back home. He wasn’t even aware he was standing up. He was too busy thinking about how close he came to slaughtering those men. If the one hadn’t spoke, he would’ve. “What happened?” The voice of Kari’s mother snapped him to reality.

“I don’t know,” Kari answered before TK could find the energy to speak, “I just found him like this. He’s not hurt, but something really got to him.”

“Do you need anything, TK?” Mrs. Kamiya asked.

“No,” TK managed to answer in a whispery voice, “I found something bad about myself.” Fortunately she was perceptive enough not to push. This was something he only wanted to tell Kari.

He allowed himself to be lead to Kari’s room. She sat him on her bed and sat next to him. “What happened?”

TK did his best to organize his thoughts. Good thing his girlfriend was patient because this would take some time and being rushed would make it even harder. She gave him a hug from the side, and it boosted his courage a tiny bit.

“I met the distributor,” he began, looking down, “An Assassinmon. Probably a transformed human. Got away.” He took a deep breath. “Mikain’s men showed up.” He gulped and took three more breaths. Kari made no noise, but her hug tightened. “I remembered how Mikain made the Warzone. What it did to me. What Trev did to me. How he works for Mikain. I took it out on them.” Now that he got it out, it was getting easier. “I questioned the only one conscious. Mikain wants to find the distributor. Sees him as an enemy.” TK looked at Kari, wishing he could forget this last bit. “If he didn’t talk, I’d have killed him. I was ready to kill all of them. Just because they worked for Mikain, I was going to slaughter them!”

Kari looked horrified for a brief moment, but then calmed down. “That did seem bad, but you fought it. You regained yourself. I’m sure you don’t have to worry about losing control. “

TK wanted agree with her, but he remembered how that kind of cruelty was characteristic of Takeru. What if Takeru was influencing him? That thought was both comforting and terrifying. On one hand, it being Takeru that made him do that meant he wasn’t changing for the worse. On the other hand, Takeru having that kind of control over him would be even worse.

If only he could be certain that Hikari was gone. Then he could tell Kari about Takeru, but it was bad enough that he dumped his normal problems on her. She didn’t need him reminding her of her own possible ones.

***

TK wasn’t saying something. Though Kari had no idea what, there was something he was leaving out. Knowing him, there were several reasons not to tell, mainly involving her own welfare. <TK, why can’t you be just a little selfish during these times? Or at least not so stubborn.> Short of threats which would be very damaging to him right now, there were no ways for her make him admit anymore.

Besides, they promised to admit everything to each other. If it got too bad, TK would talk. He just liked do what he could himself first.

“I’m sure that what happened back there was no different than what Jane used to do to you,” she said, more to herself than to him. What TK said reminded her of when Max told her about the phases someone goes through in the Warzone. Even though TK was free, there was no guarantee that the Warzone still didn’t have a hold on him. One of Kari’s greatest nightmares was failing to protect TK from being changed.

The door opened and Max and Jane walked in. Jane immediately looked worried. “Sorry, did we interrupt something?”

“No,” TK answered, sounding much better. Jane gave him a brief hug.

“How was it today?” she asked. With the way Jane acted towards TK now, Kari had a hard time believing that she really was as cruel to TK as she was when they first met, but it was because of that cruelty that she so kind to him now. Even so, Kari could still see the bitterness in the older girls’ eyes. The hatred and anger were still there, but now only directed at those who deserved it, rather than everyone.

“Want me pound someone for you?” Max suggested. TK gave a short laugh. Leave it Max and his dream of being life’s comedy relief to brighten things up. Jane just gave him one of her looks. “Sorry” he said, “Want ‘us’ to pound someone for you?” Unfortunately, he tended to drive any joke he had into the ground, and then he drove it in deeper.

“No,” TK answered, sounding like his old self. “Not one I’d rather not handle myself.”

“Arranged accidents? I can do those.”

“No.” Max looked like he wanted to continue, but then a gave a frustrated look. He must’ve run out of suggestions. Kari realized something.

“You two normally call first. What’s the emergency?” Jane explained about the building they found.

“Let’s go then,” TK said, “I need something to vent on and destroying something Mikain uses should do nicely.”

“Yeah,” Kari agreed, “We should strike now before Mikain realizes this discovery, but it could be a trap, so it’ll just have to be the two of us.” That was only part of the reason. But Kari wasn’t going to say that she didn’t want Max and Jane to see TK act the way he said he did before. Besides, she and TK were good at dealing with traps.

“We know we’d just get in your way,” Jane said, “Our infiltration method hasn’t really changed since Shademon.” The “infiltration method” Jane spoke of consisted of charging in taking down all the guards one by one.

“It hurts,” Max said in an overly dramatic sad tone, “but we’ll just have to take it out some Warzone gangs.” He began patting his fist. “Anyways, let’s go before Mikain notices this weakness, if it is one.”

***

TK looked around building he and Kari were lead to. Impressive how Mikain got so many computers into such a rundown dump without anyone noticing. He obviously had some sort of method for keeping anyone from noticing the insides and a way to keep anyone from entering. Why was this out in the open?

A trap? Not likely. Mikain had no way of knowing about Tyris’ relation to Max and Jane. Even if he did, they just weren’t dangerous enough for Mikain to go out of his way. Sure it brought TK here along with Kari, but Trev would’ve worked better. Not a trap, but what?

“Let’s check the computers. See if they have anything.”

TK went up to the one in front and immediately noticed something. A prearranged digiport, only this one was set to lead to a certain spot, unlike the ones the digivices created, which lead to any terminal in the Digital World the user wanted. “Look at this.”

“I thought they were supposed to take us where we wanted,” Kari said, “Maybe Mikain set that one to only lead to a specific spot. Do we go in?”

“Let’s take a look,” TK answered, “this is too chancy to be staged by Mikain.” Kari nodded and they held their digivices in front and the light from the gateway swallowed them.

***

<What is this?> TK wondered, looking around. It appeared to be some kind facility. Nothing that he had seen before in the Digital World. It was a large metal room with some type of generator in the centre. Computer terminals were lined up all around it. Along the walls were bluish cocoons with some large black figures inside. TK hoped he’d never find out what they were.

He looked behind himself and saw that the terminal that he and Kari emerged from was on a desk and behind it were two large doors that looked completely sealed up. “Now what?”

“Let’s check those other terminals,” Kari answered, “Get what we can and get out. This place reminds me of where we beat Flame and Light.”

<Matrix!> The part of the Digital World Mikain ruled. He had made it inaccessible from even the Digital World itself. That definitely ruled out the possibility of this being a trap. “Probably is,” TK said, “We should be quick. I don’t want to be messing whatever security’s been set up here.”

Suddenly he heard a hiss behind him and some large machinery moving. He whipped around and saw the giant door slowly opening revealing three black figures. They were humanoid, but had slightly insect like triangular heads with beady yellow eyes. Their arms became razor-like blades below the elbow with no hands.

TK used his digivice to identify them.

UNKOWN DIGIMON

Unknown? That shouldn’t be possible. The digivice was supposed to recognize all digimon. TK had a sinking feeling about this.

The door closed behind the three digimon and one pointed a claw at him and Kari and gave a growl. The three charged, their intent clear. “Split?” Kari suggested.

“Do it,” TK answered. Even though it would be safer to fight with Kari at his side, there was no telling what these things could do together. Best to get a feel for fighting them separately first.

TK rolled to the right and transformed while two of them went for him. <Good. I’m the one with the weapon, so focus on me.> As if they had heard, one launched a jump kick. He moved his hands up and blocked, but as the digimon was flung back slightly, TK felt some movement at his left. He quickly turned, a claw slashed down where his shoulder was.

He continued his spin but ducked and stuck a leg out, forming a sweeping kick. The digimon leapt over it and stabbed at his head. He sprung backwards and landed on his hands, but before he could fling himself to his feet, the first one took a swing at his hands from the right. TK pushed down, launching himself upwards slightly, landed in his left hand, and tilted himself so he rolled over and stopped on his feet. <They’re tougher than any normal digimon I’ve ever met. They won’t even let me use my speed.>

Out of impulse, TK whipped out his sword and spun, deflecting a swipe at his back. <These guys are as stealthy as me and Kari!> Using the momentum from the impact, TK pulled a swift spin and ducked slightly to keep the claws from interfering. The digimon leapt over the blade and swung its leg down as it descended. TK spun to the left, dodging it, but on the two digimon from before attacked him from the right, swinging its claws. He backed away, twisting around each swing, and started slowly focusing energy into his sword for a Shadow Blade.

He leapt back, but the digimon paced him perfectly, not letting up its swings. <A bit more,> TK willed himself. The Shadow Blade’s randomness was the only solution for getting through this onslaught, but having to focus so much on dodging made it impossible to build up the attack in a reasonable time.

<Now!> Evading one final swing, TK stabbed his sword which was now covered in black energy. “Shadow Blade!” The weapon took a mind of its own as it unleashed a flurry of stabs and slices at the digimon, who’s arms moved impossibly fast to defend, but not fast enough. As the attack ended, the digimon staggered back and fell to its knees. TK finished it off with a quick stab to the head.

He felt movement from behind. In the air. He back flipped as the digimon’s jump kick shot underneath. TK landed and the digimon tried another but TK leapt straight up and swung his leg down, catching the digimon in the stomach. He picked up this trick from a disastrous fight with Lector, and though there was no chance of it being as effective due to Lector being so much heavier, it still did its job in sending the digimon straight down. It started to get back up, but a stab between the eyes finished it off.

***

Kari dove behind the large generator with the digimon chasing. With those blade arms, going hand to hand would be suicide, and it wasn’t giving her the chance to change her element.

Getting up, she wasted no time spinning around the generator as the digimon’s arms sliced right behind her. She stopped behind the digimon and threw a kick, but the digimon whipped around and back flipped.

Kari instinctively dove to the left as another one attacked with a jump kick while her first one ran off towards TK who was already dealing with one. <I hope his sword gives him enough of an advantage.>

The digimon chased after her, swinging its arms. “Shadow Strike!” Using the small spike that formed on each of her palms, she deflected the blades while working her way forward forcing the digimon to back into a terminal. It sprung into the air suddenly and landed behind her. Rather than turning around, Kari dove under the desk holding the terminal and whipped around as she stood on the other side.

The digimon was coming at her with a jump kick. Kari quickly slid under the desk again and upon exiting, she flung herself to its top as the digimon chased her.

“Shadow Strike!” As she expected, the digimon had come under with her and as its head poked down, she drove the black spike into it, causing the digimon to disintegrate.

***

TK let out a sigh of relief once he saw that Kari was okay. “Were those even digimon?” she asked, “I’ve had an easier time fighting Megas.”

“No idea. Maybe this place will tell us something, but we should work fast. If more come, it probably won’t just be three.” Kari nodded and the two began to look at all the terminals, seeing which one would be easiest to access.

TK’s eyes fell on one containing some kind of log. <Did someone leave this thing on?> Strange. “Look at this one,” he called out to Kari as he began reading it.

It seems that an element of the program is missing. I would wager that it was destroyed when the victim was killed. As it is now, the full effects cannot be unleashed, but we did manage to create a new kind of soldier. I’ve called it the Viralmon. Tests show that the current Viralmon bodies are horribly inefficient in design which severely limits the amount of power they can contain so improvements must be made. Despite this, they’re already strong enough to hold their own against most Mega-level digimon.


“I guess those things were Viralmon,” TK muttered as he changed back. Yamaki had an attachment for his and Kari’s digivices that allowed them to copy this kind of data like a disk. Pointing his digivice at it, he began copying the data. Kari did the same incase something happened; this kind of information was too important to take chances with. But what was it doing out in the open like this?

Best let Yamaki judge how good it is. TK didn’t want to stay any longer, considering how strong these Viralmon are. Not to mention that since this log wasn’t dated, that meant there could be stronger Viralmon already.

Once the copying was finished, TK started to go back to the terminal that lead in here when he once again noticed the bluish cocoons. “Think that maybe those black objects in the cocoons could be Viralmon?” he whispered to Kari.

“Let’s get out before we learn the answer to that,” she answered. TK agreed. The two hurried to the terminal warped out.

***

Yamaki shook his head, reading the information TK delivered. “You say the ones you think you met were almost as skilled as you?”

“Yeah,” TK answered, “and considering how they were simply guarding, I’m guessing they’re the weak ones.”

“It seems convenient that you would find this,” Yamaki said, “but Mikain would never leave something like this in an active facility for you to find.” He took a deep breath. “But we can worry about that later. For now we have to shut this down as soon as possible. I’ll dispatch some people to find another entrance. These external ports are likely in case he loses access to his tower, so he’ll have more than one.

You two are to rest until then. You’ll need to be at your best.”

“We’ll go anytime,” TK said.

“I’m sorry I have to expect so much of you. I have plenty of agents, but you two are the ones who can actually fight for us, but you’re still so young.” TK shrugged it off.

“We were trained for this and if I have the power to help, then I’ll help,” TK said.

“I would never forgive myself if I let Mikain keep hurting so many people,” Kari added, “someone has to stop him.”

“Go rest up,” Yamaki ordered, sounding relieved, “I doubt you’ll be able to just do a simple in and out next time.” TK and Kari nodded and the two left the office.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Afterword: It was nice I could jump into the main plot now rather than spending time getting the characters ready to handle what’s coming.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This whole chapter was a problem. Hopefully I got it executed well enough.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Focus,> TK commanded himself as he stared down his opponent who was several metres away, <Focus. Stay calm. Be patient.> His foe was none other than Kari and they were using the one form of combat TK couldn’t do: a standoff. It was Kari’s way of teach him to be more patient.

They had found a relatively secluded area of the park and were now staring each other down, with their sticks serving as swords out. The idea was for TK to beat Kari, and in a straight out sword fight he‘d win for sure, but in a standoff, things were different.

Swordplay was one of the many forms of combat that he and Kari were taught and even though his experience as Shadowmon put him on top, it wasn’t by enough to make up for a mistake now. If he charged now, the distance would not only allow Kari to read his attack, she would also have time to determine all the moves he could instantly switch to. If he tried a more drastic switch, it would take too much time and she would counter it. He considered pretending to falter his defence, but shot the idea down. The only way Kari would make a move is if he got into a position that he wouldn’t be able to recover from quickly enough and that would defeat the whole purpose of faking.

How many hours had gone by anyhow? Hours? Yeah right. Last time he though a few hours had gone by, it was only ten minutes. Did time intentionally slow down during these moments?

His nose twitched as a strong itch appeared. It never failed. Every time he got into a standoff, that same itch appeared on the same spot of his nose. Probably at the exact same moment too. If he didn’t no better, he’s swear that everyone he did this against arranged it somehow.

He forced himself to focus back on Kari, but that only made things worse. She looked every bit as calm and ready as before. No signs of getting bored or impatient. How did she do it? They were trained the same way so how come she could handle this so much more easily?

The itch on his nose flared up. It was almost enough to make him twitch. He mentally ordered it to go away. There was no way he’d be able to focus with that itch, but he couldn’t scratch it; one hand on the stick would not be enough to guard against the attack Kari would do. He started trying to will it away. He imagined how his nose felt when it didn’t itch and will it feel that way. The itch got worse. How the heck did that happen?

He forced himself to ignore and focus on Kari again, but she was now charging and all ready in swinging range. He moved his stick to block, but while fighting the itch, his grip weakened and the impact knocked it out of his hands. The match was over. <Getting distracted by an itch. Of all the amateurish mistakes to make.>

“How long this time?” he asked as he and turned to face the one timing them and finally gave the itch the scratching it deserved.

“Fifteen minutes,” Sora answered, holding a stop watch, “I don’t know how you two can do that.” Sora’s hair was red and she still had her school uniform of a grey shirt and skirt with a white shirt underneath.

Fifteen? That’s better than usual, great for a normal person, but not for someone trained by Pixiemon. He turned to Kari. “How did I mess up this time?”

“Your distractions were obvious enough that I could see them,” she answered.

“How can you ignore them so easily, though?”

“I switch into my battle mindset. Then it’s no different from ignoring some cuts and bruises.” TK shook his head.

“I can’t jump into that unless I’m directly under attack. I just can’t do it standing around.”

“You can. You just need the right push. Remember: Your swordsmanship is good enough that you could give me all the time in the world to plan out a perfect strategy and still counter it within the first swing. I’m outlasting you not only because of my mindset, but because I know that if I don’t, I won’t have a chance. Even with your last attempt, if your grip would have stayed strong, I don’t think I’d have won. I wasn’t even expecting you to react as soon as you did.”

“How about you two save that talk for when you aren’t with someone who can’t keep up,” Sora suggested in a light tone. TK knew she still saw herself as his and Kari’s protector, so she didn’t like being reminded that her skill level was nowhere near theirs.

“Sorry,” TK responded with a smile, “Forgot we were in the presence of a mere mortal.”

“It wouldn’t bother me so much if this Viralmon thing wasn’t happening,” Sora admitted. She had been told about the Viralmon and Adrian.

“If we do come up with something,” Kari said, “We’ll let you and the others know. I don’t think we can handle this alone, but there’s simply know way for you to beat the Viralmon.”

“Is there at least something I can do about your other problem?” TK shook his head.

“Not yet. Helping me now would only turn people against you and they‘d find ways to blame me. In the off chance they start giving me a chance, then you’d be able to do a lot more.” Sora shook her head, clearly unsatisfied, but didn‘t say anything about it.

“Did Tai tell you about his plan for Mikain?” she asked instead.

“Yes,” Kari answered, “Don’t tell me you’re considering it too.”

“For you two, I’d do it in a heartbeat, so I know how he feels.” TK felt his face turn slightly red. It took some getting used to having a friend who would go so far. “I did try to talk him out, but he’s too stubborn. The only way you can stop him is if you can stop Mikain.”

“I hope you aren’t thinking that doing killing yourself is any better,” TK said. He knew Sora wasn’t kidding when she said she’d kill for him and Kari. Their first experience in the Digital World had brought them that close.

“Of course not,” Sora said, “I just wanted to make sure you knew that I’d do anything to help you.” TK had no idea how to respond to that. It was these things that gave him the slight hope that he would last until people stopped seeing him as a Warzoner.

***

The weekend had come, and so did the call that another entrance into Matrix had been found, though this one had guards Yamaki’s men needed to subdue. It had already been done by the time TK and Kari arrived, so all that was left to do was to enter and hope that wherever it lead to was as important as expected.

Taking a deep breath, TK opened the gateway. He eyed his new surroundings. A dimly lit corridor with pipes along the walls. It was as cold as it looked and the air was stale, but that wasn’t surprising. Mikain would never have special soldiers that needed environments adapted just for them. With a roar, two Viralmon came running in, though instead of blades on their arms, they had bulky ones.

TK transformed and bolted forward, slicing the left one in half. He stopped and the other swung its arm at him, but he ducked and stabbed it through the chest. Those bulky arms were so much easier to handle than the speedy blades.

Kari caught up, now transformed into Darkmon. “Too bad we didn’t encounter those ones last time.”

“Yeah, that would have made things a lot easier.” The two followed the corridor and came to a metal door. TK sliced his sword along where it would open, severing any locks, and then pulled it open.

Inside the first thing that was seen in the high tech room was the large blue pods scattered around, each one containing the black mass which was clearly a Viralmon. Hopefully these ones would stay sleeping like the ones in the last lab.

Six other Viralmon that seemed to be the room’s only population rushed in front. They each had one normal arm and one that had no hand. They pointed the handless arms and green energy bolts fired out.

TK charged at them but at a normal speed that allowed Kari to keep up while flicking his sword around to deflect each bolt. He leapt up and the Viralmon continued firing at him. “Ice Dagger!” Kari’s ice spikes lanced on in the chest, disintegrating it.

The remaining Viralmon split up, with two going for Kari while the other three still focusing on TK. Nice reaction time, but short range was clearly not their specialty. TK landed next to the other three as they aimed back at him, but he whipped around with a swing separating one’s head from its body.

“Thunder Burst!” The attack forced the two Viralmon attacking Kari to leap back as Kari changed red. “Fire Whip!” Her whip seared through one of the Viralmon attacking TK.

“Star Toss!” TK directed his attack in her direction, but she leapt over it and the stars hit a Viralmon that was busy lining up a shot.

“Ice Dagger!” Kari hadn’t even landed when she used her next attack and skewered the last Viralmon focusing on TK. TK charged at the remaining Viralmon and severed it in two with a quick swing.

“Not as bad as I thought,” TK commented as he headed back over to Kari, “I guess it helps when they can’t block our attacks.”

“We have two doors,” Kari said, pointing to the opposite end of the room, “I guess we split up.”

“Let’s try to focus more on stealth this time,” TK said, “If we keep fighting them, we’re bound to encounter some that are too strong.” Kari nodded and the two headed to the doors.

***

It wasn’t long before Kari came across a room containing six generators and doors on each of the walls. She immediately ducked behind one of the generators and climbed up it. Poking her head over the top, she looked at the doors and tried to get some sort of idea as to what door to take.

The one on the far end opened and out came a couple blade arm Viralmon wheeling a cart, heading towards the door on the wall closest to the generator. <That one then.> She leapt across the generators as the Viralmon opened the door. She dropped down without making a noise and dove in as the door closed.

As soon as she landed, she rolled into the shadow of a nearby console. The room had the two blade arm Viralmon along with three others, four of the big arm Viralmon, and seven that had arm lasers. <Now what do I do? Can’t fight that many.>

In the centre of the room was a tank with the biggest Viralmon she’d ever seen. It was at least ten times as big as the normal ones.

Suddenly the tank shattered and the giant Viralmon stomped out, roaring. An alarm went off and the other Viralmon were quick to respond. The laser ones began shooting while the other two attacked the monster from behind. The giant Viralmon didn’t seem even seem to be phased by the assault as it pointed a hand at the shooting ones. A ball of energy began to form and it’s body acquired a blue light. The light burst off and deleted the short range Viralmon. The energy ball split into seven smaller ones and launched at the remaining Viralmon. In a split second, they were gone.

The giant Viralmon straightened and roared, but then it collapsed and disintegrated.

Kari forced herself to calm down. The big one that had just made short of the little ones that gave her and TK so much trouble was dead. Still, she’d better remain hidden and escape once the alarm was investigated.

***

<What’s going on?> TK wondered. He was at the ceiling with his arms and legs out pushing against the walls which allowed him to hang in place and now an alarm had gone off. Viralmon were rushing beneath him to respond and he hoped that it didn’t involve Kari.

Once the Viralmon were gone, he dropped down. Whatever was happening was a great opportunity to gather information.

He ran through the door and noticed that there was no one guarding room. This must have been a real emergency, which meant it couldn’t Kari. Even with him they simply weren’t dangerous enough to the Viralmon for this kind of attention.

Looking around the room he saw scattered terminals and headed over to one. It contained a couple logs which were probably more of Mikain’s Viralmon progress.

We’ve gotten better at designing Viralmon. The newer batches have been improved over the older in every way and are developing different powers. But they still aren’t finished. The data is very difficult to work with, despite the fact that it has been successfully replicated. Even so, the labs are confident they can get an idea of what a Viralmon will be if we can perfect the creation.

<Guess that would explain the different forms. I really hope this is recent.> He looked at the other one.

We’ve taken our first attempt at creating what shall be the Viralmon standard. The results were mixed. On one hand, the powers developed properly. It had tremendous strength and the intelligence to use it’s abilities properly. It began developing powers that at first seemed similar to the virus queen, but were much more specialized; they generally remained around one specific type of energy attack as opposed to the queen’s variety. An intriguing coincidence that will have to looked into. Even so, the energy it used was quite versatile. It created beams, barriers, and shockwaves. After seeing these results, our labs concluded that all the Viralmon had done this, but the earlier versions could not do nearly as much with the energy. Unfortunately, the standard’s body was unstable and it died after 13 hours and it was mentally unstable. Still, progress is progress, no matter how small.

<They’ve already started on the Standard?! The schedule’s tighter than we thought!> That was enough. He’d have to find Kari get out of here. This place could very well contain one of these attempted Standards and blundering into one would be suicide.

He turned around and saw Kari running in. “Glad I found you,” she said.

“What happened?” TK asked.

“A big Viralmon escaped, setting off that alarm,” Kari said, “It killed all the others and died.”

“That might have been a Standard attempt,” TK said, “Let’s get out of here before we encounter any that won’t die so quickly.”

***

After being given the news, Yamaki was silent for a few minutes. “Mikain’s that far along?” he spoke at last.

“Could be farther,” TK answered, “We have no way of knowing how up to date the logs are. It’s strange how he doesn’t date them.”

“More like convenient. Like how it’s convenient they are left out in the open. I wonder if whoever’s doing that is deleting the dates?” TK had no answer but Yamaki continued. “We have no way of answering that now. You can go home, but if you’re not too tired, I’d like you to assist with a recovery.” It looked as if he didn’t want to continue, but he did. “Assassinmon struck again while you were gone, attacking a city. Luckily the city had higher-level digimon who dealt with the attack, but it surprised them, so there’s a fair amount of damage.”

<Assassinmon again?!> Great. As if it wasn’t bad enough that TK couldn’t catch him quickly enough to fight, now he wasn’t there to do anything. <Forget it. I can’t change it. I just hope that it was only buildings that were damaged.>

“We’ll do it,” Kari answered, TK being too lost in his thoughts.

***

Mikain resisted the urge to shatter his desk. Lector had just reported that two of his labs had been infiltrated and in each one terminals containing information on the Viralmon project were left accessible to anyone. Strangely enough, it was only those terminals. Someone had to be arranging this. Someone who had access to his labs. Someone who was arrogant enough to think he could get away with it and had the proper motivations to try it. That narrowed down the list considerably.

An amusing little game this was, using logic to deduce an answer that he already had. He knew full well that the one responsible for this was Trev. Trev had the means and the arrogance to pull it off.

Still, everyone made mistakes and Mikain wasn’t about to make a rash decision in case he was making one. No, he had to have concrete evidence. Besides, setting this up was one thing, but getting TK and Kari to actually get into the gateways was another. They hated Trev, so he must have had an ally is setting this up.

“Shall I go have a word with the traitor?” Lector asked. Lector, it seemed, was positive it was Trev also.

“No,” Mikain said, “Let Trev think he’s ahead of us.” No reaction from Lector. That meant he did suspect Trev. “There’s no chance he’ll be doing this alone, so we must also identify his allies. Then we’ll deal with him.

But for now, let‘s give him a little test to be certain.” He contacted Trev’s comm.

“What now?” Trev didn’t bother masking his annoyance.

“I have a little job for you,” Mikain said, “Two of our labs have been broken into. I want to clear a certain one out and…” He gave the plan. If this worked, it would only would it give real evidence of Trev’s treachery, no way his ego would allow him to ignore this opportunity, but it even had a chance to getting rid of TK and Kari for good.
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Afterword: I think I’ve grown to like writing the standoffs. Too bad there’s only so much that can be done with them.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: The last of this fic’s troubling chapters for me.
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<Maybe I shouldn’t have come today,> TK thought as he tried to mentally brace himself for school. It was hard enough keeping his mind off the fact that Kari saw a newer Viralmon cut down the smaller ones with a single attack but he also kept dwelling on how Assassinmon struck again and he seemed to have another experience with Takeru.

<Forget him! It’s only words! He can’t do anything unless I let him!> He had to remember that Takeru no longer had a body and considering how this was only the second time, Takeru seemed to be weaker than he acted. <I will beat him.>

<Just like you beat Assassinmon?> Takeru asked suddenly. Not here. Not now.

<You won’t beat me!> TK mentally shouted, <I beat you once already!>

<And I beat you before that,> Takeru countered, <I can’t be beaten with a couple swings of a sword. You will give me control whether you want to or not.>

That’s it. Time to leave. There was no way TK could face a day here with everything else that was going on. He just had to find a nice secluded spot where he could fight Takeru off directly. Kari would cover for him.

Someone bumped into him. “Watch it, Warzoner!” Adrian’s voice snapped. Figures it’d be him. TK gave him an even look, noting that he was now in the hallway.

<Gotta be more alert than that.> Unable to come up with a response that wouldn’t cause more trouble, TK turned away and started to move towards the exit, but found himself surrounded.

“Why does Kari like you?” one voice demanded. TK paid no attention to who was speaking; all that mattered was getting away. “I’m talking to you!” Someone shoved him, but he refused to reward the efforts with even a look. He just had to focus on escaping.

<Cut them down,> Takeru said, <Transform and cut them down. It’ll happen in the blink of an eye. No one will ever bother you again.>

<NO!!> That’s it. As long as Takeru was around, TK was not going to set foot in this building. Not until Takeru was for sure wiped out of existence.

“Bet you’re blackmailing her!” another said.

<Must you take that crap? Kill them!> Why couldn’t Takeru stay out of this like every other time?

“You get away from her,” Adrian whispered menacingly, “You get away, or I’ll make you get away.” If not for everything else that was going on at the moment, that threat would’ve caused TK to laugh. There was no way Adrian would last more than five seconds against him. But with everything else going on, it was something else that had to be ignored.

A fist struck him in the back. It didn’t hurt, but it was clear that things were going to get much worse. <Counter it!> Takeru shouted, <Snap his arm off!>

Great. Now Takeru was encouraging the basic reflexes TK had to suppress in every battle to avoid using excessive force. That normally required a clear head which wasn’t humanly possible at the moment.

A kick to his knee. Another one in the back of the same knee. A punch to his left shoulder. More reactions to suppress. More of Takeru’s “encouraging”. More accusations of what he was doing to get Kari to go out with him.

All the voices and hits blurred together, but then one voice cut through. “What are you doing?!” Kari shrieked. Everyone quieted down. Even Takeru stopped, though TK thought he might have heard a chuckle.

“You want to know why I don’t like any of you?” Kari asked. Her voice was quiet, but there was no mistaking the fury. As TK looked at her, he couldn’t help but feel nervous himself. He’d never seen her like this. “TK’s done nothing wrong, yet all of you keep causing problems for him! You act like he’s the problem, but you all keep causing them! I can’t stand anyone who does that! Especially you, Adrian! You were supposed to be TK’s friend and now look how you treat him!”

Somehow, everything seemed quieter. Adrian wore an expression of shock and betrayal. Being associated with a Warzoner was almost as bad unless the one was popular like Kari was. Adrian wasn’t, and now he’d be even less. Good. Maybe being on the receiving end will change things.

Adrian stormed off while Kari took TK’s hand. “How are you doing?” Her soft tone was completely opposite of the anger before.

“I need to get out of here,” he said. Takeru laughed.

<Wonderful performance! Wonderful! I especially loved how you allow yourself to be saved by your girl rather than using some of that training Pixiemon worked so hard to provide!>

“Going back home?” Kari asked.

“Not yet,” TK answered, ignoring Takeru’s taunting, “I need to clear my head first.” Yeah. Clear his head of a certain menace.

***

<Finally,> TK thought as he welcomed the silence. To anyone who might have been watching it looked as if TK was simply resting, rather than engaging a huge mental battle with Takeru. He won again, but it was much harder than usual. <I suppose I should tell Kari about Takeru. If this keeps up, I won‘t be able to beat him. In fact, I should have known that I wouldn’t be able to.> Of course this presented the problem of explaining to her his reason for not telling her, but it was better than losing these struggles.

TK headed back home focusing only on the best way to tell Kari the bad news. She would be mad at him for sure, but she’d never get so mad as to refuse to help him. Unfortunately, she’d also think he doesn’t have much faith in her unless he did this carefully.

A light caught his eye and he snapped back to reality. The light was coming from the window of the Kamiya’s apartment and he was in front of it. The curtains were closed making it impossible to see the source. TK hurried to the door, grabbing the energy to transform at a moment’s notice.

He opened his eyes fell on a big white portal in the living room. Standing around it were Mrs. Kamiya Kari, Tai, and Matt. They looked at him and Matt came over and the two gave each other a quick hug.

“What’s going on?” TK asked his older brother.

“Nice to see you too,” Matt teased, but then turned serious, “I know I should’ve come sooner with you starting school so recently.” TK shook his head.

“The others pulled me through and with Mom gone,” TK’s voice cracked and took a deep breath, “It’s probably for the best that you left it for the others. Remember, I’m not alone anymore.

Now again, what’s going on?”

“We aren’t sure,” Tai answered as TK and Matt went over to the portal, “My digivice started making this funny noise. I called Matt and he said his was too.”

“I came over,” Matt took over, “and our digivices lit up as soon as we met and the portal appeared. It was probably another modification by Mikain.” The only modification to his and Tai’s digivices TK knew of was combining their two Forms into one that was twice as strong. Well, guess this was modification number two.

“It leads to where we were brainwashed,” Tai informed. TK and Kari looked at him.

“How would you know?” Mrs, Kamiya asked.

“Mikain gave us an instinctive knowledge of Matrix’s layout and all portals connected to it,” Tai answered, “Saves us the time of having to learn and remember it.”

“You’re thinking about going in,” Mrs. Kamiya’s voice was flat. She clearly did not like the idea.

“We have to,” Kari said, “This thing’s probably not going away on it’s own and we have to do everything we can to stop Mikain. And if we don‘t do something about the portal, Mikain could send something after us.”

“We’ll be on guard,” Tai assured, “We’re not blundering in.”

“Well there isn’t anything I can do to stop you,” Mrs. Kamiya, sounding tired, “but you all better come back okay. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“We will,” TK answered. The four stepped through.

***

The lab room the portal lead to had deactivated terminals all over and two doors in front. Like all the previous lab rooms, this one had the stale air with a metallic taste. But unlike the others, it was strangely quiet. The room was fairly small, only big enough to have three deactivated terminals lined up against the two walls. The one behind was obviously on, so there was power, but it wasn’t being sent anywhere else, except to give the lights enough for minimal illumination. Up ahead were two steel doors.

“I’d say we were expected,” Tai said. TK had to agree. It was too convenient for this to be so empty now after a portal appearing. “This is the control centre,” he continued, “if it’s abandoned, then there’s nothing left Mikain wants this place for. There’d still be power running in here since the terminal that brought us in worked.”

“We walked into a trap,” TK concluded, “Now how do we disarm it?”

“We take both doors,” Tai answered, “The one on the left leads to simulator that brainwashed us. The other, we were never allowed in, so I have no idea.”

“I guess TK and I will take that door then,” Kari said, “We’re better at dealing with the unknown.” Tai nodded, but TK could see he hated the idea of his little sister doing it. To his credit, though, he said nothing. Matt was obviously going through the same thing over TK.

“I’ll enjoy destroying that simulator,” Tai said.

“Mikain will probably have surprises for all of us,” Matt said, “so we’ll have keep our guard up.” Everyone else nodded and headed into their chosen doors.

***

The room Tai and Matt entered from the corridor the lead to was quite a bit smaller than the control centre. Along the left side were chairs with straps and above each chair was a half egg-shaped cover with wires traveling along the walls. On the right hand side was a large mainframe and a screen which would reveal what the simulation was showing.

“Just as I remembered,” Matt commented, “Shall we break it?”

“Sounds good,” Tai answered, but then movement in the back of the room caught his eye. The object blended in well enough that it wasn’t noticed. In fact, several of the wires from the chairs and mainframe were connected to it.

The wires detached and reeled into the object as it stood and turned face them. Some kind of robot it seemed. The main body was shaped like a cockpit with four arms branching off. The lower arms had three fingered hands at the end while the arms on top had what looked like arm cannons. It began stomping towards them with its birdlike legs and feet. It stopped and a pair of red eyes appeared on the front.

“Flame and Light sighted,” it spoke in a flat mechanical voice, “Preparing termination.”

***

The long corridor’s only illumination came from a lit up terminal. “Let me guess,” TK said they approached, “It’ll give us an update and on the Viralmon.”

After many unsuccessful attempts, we’ve finally created a mostly stable body. The new Viralmon is exponentially stronger than our previous creations. Unfortunately mostly stable isn’t enough. The body tends to weaken as time passes outside its tank and must be put back in every ten hours to strengthen. Though it is unlikely to ever have an opponent that could last this long we cannot afford such a weakness. There are other planets in this universe, and likely other races, so even if I can conquer this one, there is likely to be a more advanced race that I’ll confront eventually. Even if I can acquire the final component of the virus, I’ll still need the strongest army I can muster. The Viralmon can not afford such a weakness. However, the science has assured me they know what’s wrong and how to fix it and are using it as the prototype.

“Why is it these ones are the only ones that we can get into?” Kari asked.

“No idea,” TK answered as they copied the information. “Let’s just move on. There may be more for us.”

They went through the door at the end and looked around. The only object visible was a large container containing the biggest Viralmon TK had ever seen. The body was straight black and the face was hooked like a beak with three yellow eyes on either side. The body was extremely muscular along with the arms and legs. The feet were two toed while the hands had three fingers. It didn’t look like it had any specific abilities, but that would only make it impossible to know what to expect.

“That’s a little bigger than the one I saw,” Kari said. A loud thump sounded from behind. TK looked and saw the door get reinforced. Breaking through that would take some time.

An alarm sounded. “Alert! Prototype awakening! Clear area!” Prototype? That was the prototype of the Viralmon soldier Mikain wanted? This whole situation just got worse. Lots worse.

The tank shattered and the Viralmon stomped out. “Guess we walked into the trap,” TK muttered.

***

The robot pointed an arm cannon at Tai and Matt. Tai dove to the left as Matt moved to the right as the robot opened fire. A chain of fireballs flew out and exploded on the simulator, destroying it.

“Purifying Light!” Matt’s lasers struck the robot’s chest, but only glanced off.

<Time for a stronger impact.> Tai leapt on top of the robot and hammered his claws down, but his hand bounced off, not even leaving a scratch. The robot’s large hand reached up and grabbed him by the head and then slammed him into the ground.

“Lobo Kendo!” As the robot let go, Tai saw Matt swing down his beam swords on it’s arm, but they bounced off with a couple sparks. With unexpected speed, the robot grabbed Matt and flung him into the wall.

Tai leapt up. “Terra Force!” The fireball hit the robot dead on, but didn’t do anything. Tai landed and darted over to Matt who had just gotten up. “Terra Force!”

Matt, understanding what it meant when Tai did a Terra Force next to him, followed up with a slash from his beam swords. The fireball was split open and the flames washed over the robot, but it still didn’t seem to do anything.

A laser fired from the robot’s eye and hit Matt in the chest, blasting him down. He staggered back up. “If that’s what the laser did, I don’t want to think about what the arm cannon would do.”

Tai jumped at the robot. “Terra Force!” This time he tried his tornado rather than the fireball. However, as he pushed towards the robot, it swung an arm and batted him away.

Tai got back up, but one of the hands launched out and grabbed him. Matt landed next to him. “Purifying Light!” This time the lasers were fired into the opening left from the hand launching and the arm exploded. The robot staggered back and the eye began to glow. “Lobo Kendo!” Matt charged in and drove the beam swords into the robot’s eye.

The robot pointed an arm cannon at Matt and fired. Matt flew out, no longer in his Form. Tai rushed in so the robot wouldn’t get a chance to finish Matt off and drove his claws into where the beam swords were. The robot pointed the arm cannon at him, but Tai leapt off causing the robot to shoot itself, destroying the head with a spray of melted metal and fire.

“I never want to fight another robot again,” Matt said as Tai helped him up.

***

“Star Toss!” TK’s throwing stars bounced off the Viralmon’s body. It pointed a claw-like hand at him and a beam fired out. TK dives away, but even with his speed advantage he barely got away.

“Thunder Burst!” Kari had used TK’s opening attack to get behind the Viralmon, but despite the fact that it was Kari’s best attack in her current Form, it didn’t do anything.

The Viralmon raised a foot and Kari leapt up as it stomped down, causing a wave of blue energy to wash over the ground, but luckily it’s range was short so it didn’t reach TK.

As soon as Kari landed, the Viralmon looked at her and opened its mouth. A beam fired out, but Kari managed to dodge it. TK ran up to it and drove his sword into its stomach, but the blade bounced off. The Viralmon swung an arm and batted TK away.

“Fire Whip!” Kari lashed her whip down on the Viralmon, but a blue barrier covered its body. Kari’s whip touched it, and a flash of flame covered her body blasting her back. She landed on her feet and turned green. “Plant Weed!”

The spiked vines wrapped around the Viralmon’s body. There was no way this would hold it for long, but it would give TK the time he needed. He ran forward and leapt up as the Viralmon broke free. He dove down with sword out planted it on the Viralmon’s head, but the blade still bounced off. <You’ve gotta be kidding me!>

The Viralmon’s body turned blue and TK found himself being blasted off by some kind of energy. He landed on his back, but rolled back up and saw Kari dive in. “Thunder Burst!” Once again, the attack did nothing, but the Viralmon grabbed her and tossed her up and then fired a laser from its hand, blasting her into a wall.

TK ran behind the monster. “Shadow Blade!” The Viralmon’s size insured that each blow hit, but there wasn’t any damage done. The Viralmon stomped as TK’s attack began to end, but it didn’t end soon enough to avoid the shockwave and TK found himself behind blasted against the wall.

He got up and ran over to Kari who was trying to recover from the laser blast. “These Forms can’t do anything.”

“This thing’s almost as strong as that Imperialdramon was,” Kari said. The two quickly changed into their angel Forms and flew up, facing the Viralmon.

“Hand of Fate!”

“Heaven’s Charge!” Both attacks hit, but only glanced off without any noticeable damage. TK sighed.

“Guess it’s the trump card then,” Kari said.

“If this thing’s as strong as you said, we’ll have to make it a double,” TK told her. She nodded and they gathered the energy.

Once it was ready, Kari sent hers to TK and he fired. The beam engulfed the Viralmon. It’s mouth opened a screech came out and when the light cleared, as expected, the Viralmon was gone.

Now it was time to get out and fast in case anything else came along.

***

Lector analyzed the room the Viralmon prototype was contained in. Empty and the reinforced doors were destroyed. That could only mean it lost. He entered the corridor and noticed the terminal containing the information on the prototype and Mikain’s plans.

Mikain was right about Trev’s treachery, but that robot in the simulator room was odd. None of Mikain’s robots had that kind of design and they were never in the lab.

He contacted Mikain. “Once again a terminal with the Viralmon information is still on,” Lector reported.

“As expected,” Mikain said.

“I also found an unusual robot, or at least the remains of one. Nothing like ours.”

“I doubt Trev would be sloppy enough to make that kind of mistake.”

“What shall we do?” Lector hoped it would involve beating Trev within an inch of his life. Betraying Mikain was inexcusable.

“Use you sword to destroy the terminal,” Mikain ordered, “That way it will look like TK did it. Then pretend we’re still in the dark. Even Trev can’t be arrogant enough to cross me without help. Until we know who he’s with we must let him think he’s still fooling us.”

“Of course,” Lector responded. The way Mikain handled these problems was exactly why Lector was so loyal to him. <We need a strong and intelligent leader, and there is none stronger nor smarter than Lord Mikain.>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Afterword: One nice thing about having trouble with a chapter is that I make fewer mistakes.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: Once again I’ve created a short chapter with a real important event.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You mean to say that the prototype of the Viralmon standard was almost as strong as the Imperialdramon?” Yamaki asked. Kari confirmed with a nod.

“I just hope that Mikain still needed it,” she said, “I don’t even want to think about how strong the final version would be.”

After a few minutes of silence, Yamaki spoke. “You two, take a break. That fight had to have been tiring. I’ll make certain that we find where the Viralmon standard is being created so we stop it.”

“What about Assassinmon?” TK asked.

“He’s been surprisingly quiet lately,” Yamaki answered, “No new incidents so we need to take advantage of this time.”

“He could pop up at any time, though,” TK protested. Kari began to wonder why he was so insistent. It seemed like he was getting obsessed with fighting Assassinmon.

<Stop that. TK’s not like that. He’s just worried.>

“He could,” Yamaki agreed, “but if you’re burnt out, you won’t be able to stop him even if you can catch up to him. You need to be at your best.”

“That’s fine,” Kari answered, cutting off any protest TK was likely to give.

***

Kari gave an exasperated sigh as TK brought up a map on her computer. The map was of the Digital World and was used whenever either of them had a sudden idea on how to track Assassinmon. But this time is was clear that TK didn’t have an idea.

“TK,” she spoke to him, “Take it easy. We’ll never get Assassinmon if we don’t relax from time to time and that’s what people do with time off. Relax.”

“I can’t,” he answered, “Assassinmon’s making so many digimon suffer. Considering how easily he got away, it’s pretty obvious that we’re the only ones who can take him and if we let our guard down, he‘ll destroy more lives!

All those digimon he corrupted have probably been branded as monsters. They can‘t fit in knowing that they‘ve done, and they probably won‘t be given the chance! They‘ll be the Digital World‘s equivalent of a Warzoner, and I can‘t let anyone else go through that!”

The bitterness in his tone was surprising, but then Kari remembered about the six phases of becoming a Warzoner Max told her about during the time they were going after Shademon.

FLASHBACK

"There’s six phases to becoming a Warzoner. I’ve seen perfectly good people go through all six and become as bad as everyone else. It doesn’t matter how good the person is now, as much as it matters what influences he has." No jokes. This must be a serious thing for him to talk about.

"The first phase is where the person tries to prove that he isn’t like a Warzoner, despite living there. He believes that if he tries hard enough, he’ll prove that he isn’t like the others. That he’ll be able to have normal lives outside of the Warzone and plans on leaving as soon as possible.

The second phase is when the person gets a harsh dose of reality. He begins to realize that he’s been branded by simply living there. He begins to understand that no one outside of the Warzone will give him a chance. Getting a job outside is virtually impossible, no one wants to be associated with him, so living any kind of life outside is just as hard as a life inside. If he can‘t get what he wants, he lowers his standards to the point of begging. The entry to this phase is probably the most painful, but it doesn’t change the person too much." Kari recalled TK at one point saying that he wanted all his old friends back. Then it became him wanting them to tolerate him. It eventually became them pretending not to notice him. It was heartbreaking to watch him go through it all and be unable to do anything to help.

Max continued on. "Third phase is when the bitterness starts to set in. A lifestyle divided between watching his back at all times while jumping at every sound and putting up with the constant prejudice will be starting to reach the limit with this person. He’ll be mad at everyone he once knew and unwilling to forgive them. He’ll hate all the actual Warzoners, but will still try to stay out of their way. He believes that not everyone there is a Warzoner, though, and will try to find them and becomes friends in an attempt to stay above everyone else. This is more or less the point of no return, as it practically guarantees that this person will be going straight into next phase.

The fourth phase is when the bitterness becomes hatred. This person is now determined to make the other Warzoners suffer like he is, but only the ones directly responsible. He still believes that there are plenty of good people in the Warzone, but will show no kindness towards those responsible. This phase is usually triggered by a betrayal from whoever this person decided to trust in phase three. No one ever stays in this phase, unfortunately.

The fifth phase is when the hatred spreads to everyone from the Warzone. He no longer considers it possible for anyone in the Warzone, other than himself or the occasional person who didn’t betray him, to be decent people. He wishes for everyone else who he considers to be Warzoners to suffer, no matter if they did anything or not. He also begins to develop a distrust for anyone outside the Warzone, but his need for friendship from the outside outweighs the distrust. It’s possible, but very hard, to keep someone from going beyond this phase.

The final phase is when hatred for the people within the Warzone extends, not only to those outside the Warzone, but to those this person still trusted in the previous phase. By now his spirit will have been completely destroyed and rebuilt as the monster he tried not to become."

"How long does this take?" Kari asked. She needed to know how long she would have to keep TK from going down that path. The thought of him becoming so hateful was unbearable.

"It depends on the person and the people they‘re around," Max answered, "I’m in the second phase. Thanks to my stupid jokes, I’ve managed to keep myself from growing bitter. Instead, I simply try to make myself laugh, or at least smile. As long as I can smile, I’m immune the Warzone’s effects." That sounded reassuring, but what about TK?

"And TK?" she ventured, but her spirits lifted as Max smiled.

"He’s also in the second phase. It’s obvious even to me that you and him are close and the love you give him keeps him from growing bitter. Sora’s also helping and from you told me about Tai and Matt, I just know that they’re playing a big part too." During the past few days, she told him about Tai and Matt and how close they were to TK.

Max’s smile faded, though, and Kari felt her worry return. "But even if they’re helping now, he’s not immune. He needs a way to keep himself happy, but since he didn’t start out in there like I did, I don’t think it’s possible." Kari felt her throat thicken.

"How can I make sure it doesn’t ever happen?" she asked. Max took a breath.

"Well, first of all, keep being there for him. Always let him, no, force him to vent any frustrations and then help him feel better after he’s done." Well that seemed easy. Getting TK to open up isn’t much of a problem for her. "But that won’t be enough. The only way to keep him from going too far is get him out of there as soon as possible."

END FLASHBACK

Getting TK to open up now was harder than it used to be, and there was no sign of him being anywhere close to getting better. It had taken a good four years to get him out of the Warzone and during that time, him moving into the later phases was a recurring nightmare. Sure he was free from it now, but it was still making him suffer and Kari wasn’t certain she was doing enough.

“Just forget about Assassinmon for now,” she pleaded, “He hasn’t done anything lately and obsessing over it won’t help us catch him.

“So I should let him do what he wants?” he demanded.

<I never said that! What’s going on?> “I never said that,” Kari said, trying to keep her voice even. It’s a good thing Tai was off with Matt, though he was likely going with that insane idea to assassinate Mikain. His getting involved would only make everything worse.

“Don’t you care about everyone that’s suffering because of Assassinmon?!” TK continued. How could he even think that? “You’re no better than Adrian!”

“Of course I care!” Kari snapped but was unable to stop herself from continuing, despite her best efforts, “I just can’t watch while my boyfriend turns into a Warzoner!” That was the wrong thing to say and the look of betrayal confirmed it.

“SHUT UP!!” he shouted and lashed out, striking across the cheek, sending her sprawling. She lay there, stunned, as a look of horror appeared on TK’s face. He turned completely white and used his digivice to enter the Digital World.

<He hit me,> Kari tried to wrap her mind around what had just happened. <He actually hit me. Me. Out of anger. He hit me.>

There was no doubt in her mind that she deserved it. Calling him a Warzoner, the one thing he struggled every day to prove he wasn’t, the one thing that was ruining his life, was worse than any blow either of them could have delivered. But it took a lot for TK to even raise his voice against her, let alone hit her, or make those accusations.

She immediately stood and got ready to go after him, but stopped. <Something else is happening to him. He wasn’t listening before and he values what we have too much to ever risk it. He’s always afraid of destroying our relationship, so he’d never make a mistake like this. If I go now, I’ll only make it worse. First I need a grasp on what’s been going through his head.> This would take a while, but TK didn’t give up easily. He’d be trying to find a way to make things better. <I just hope I work things out first.>

***

After cursing himself with every term he knew, TK looked around. <At least I had enough sense to pick a secluded spot.> A barren field made up of only dirt and rocks.

<How could I say those things? How could I hit her?> The answer was obvious. <Takeru.> The instant Kari spoke, Takeru started harassing him again, but this time he was even stronger. Strong enough to influence what TK was saying in fact. And to make it worse, Takeru was much easier to hear than Kari, so TK couldn’t even figure out how to correct himself. It got so bad that he told Takeru to shut up because he had thought that Kari just called him a Warzoner, but even thinking it had sapped all the strength needed which gave Takeru enough control to make him hit her.

<Thus another relationship bites the dust!> Takeru laughed, <Don’t feel bad! Most relationships fail!>

<I am going to find a way to kill you,> TK mentally growled, though he was actually trying to find something far worse. Death was too good for this monster.

<You can’t kill me! Your little counter attacks get weaker each time. I’m barely feeling them now.> TK hated to admit it, but Takeru was right. It was too much now.

<I should’ve told Kari first thing. This whole mess could have been avoided if she was helping me finish this guy off.>

<But now you’ve lost your chance!>

<No!> TK wouldn’t give up now. He had to find a way to fix things with Kari. Couples have fought before. <But first I’ll have to make sure this never happens again.> Since killing Takeru was out of the question, killing Assassinmon was the key. He was the base of this argument. With him gone, Takeru would lose the only base he has for his influence. <If Kari takes me back…Of course she will!!>

TK focused and transformed.
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Afterword: It’s so strange how often when I get some big event like this, the chapter ends up so short.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[megarush]

boy took me a long time to read it all
but its as good as the first one,no better then the first one
now keep up the good work and keep me in the fasinating world
of your story
_________________
don't mind me.I'm quite quiet.
i look more then i post

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This chapter will probably get disturbing at some points, but I toned it down as much as I could.
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<Where am I?> TK wondered, looking around. His transformation felt normal, but when it ended, he found himself in this strange place.

The sky was dark and filled with stars. The ground however, was nothing more than a barren field devoid of any plant life. In fact, the entire area felt dead, which confirmed that this wasn’t the Digital World. Even stranger though was the fact that there were boulders floating in the air and scattered all over.

Suddenly appeared in front of him. “Miss me?”

“No,” TK growled and lunged. With a swing he cleaved Takeru in half and he disappeared. <That wasn’t him. What was it?> He immediately a dark presence gripping his mind. Takeru’s presence.

Takeru’s laughter rang throughout the area. TK looked around and saw two of him standing on a large rock that was floating closely along the ground. He leapt up on to the boulder and swung his sword through both of them. They disappeared like the first one. He felt something appear behind him and he whipped around, facing Takeru yet again. <What’s going on?>

“I can’t be killed!” Takeru laughed, “Not in here!”

“We’ll see,” TK growled and slashed the Takeru in half. He never actually felt his blade ever hit any of the Takerus, but they still get cut and disappear, so it had to be working. “Where am I?!” TK demanded.

“A place you wouldn’t be if you had just given me control,” Takeru’s voice rang down, though from where TK had no idea. It seemed to come from all directions. “When I gain control over your body,” Takeru continued, his presence growing stronger, “is kill Kari and I’ll make certain you’re capable of watching. Her screams will be burnt into you memory as I kill her in the most agonizing way I can think of! No wait, I mean, you can think of!”

Suddenly TK found himself in the Digital World again. <What happened.> He started to try and find a way out, but his body didn’t respond. <What’s going on?!>. A wave of panic washed over.

Kari came running from ahead, though TK didn’t notice until she came in close. She looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry about what I said,” she told him. TK mentally shouted at her to run, but unless he could make his mouth work, nothing would happen.

TK’s body, on the other hand, did move. He took Kari by the hand and held it so her arm was straight. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice filled with concern, “Why are you still transformed?”

The response was worse than TK expected. He had figured that something really hurtful would be said. Instead, his body’s other arm lifted, formed an elbow, and slammed down on Kari’s arm with a loud crunch, clearing snapping the bone. She screamed and TK found himself pushing her down and it became painfully clear that Takeru was in control now.

<Watch this!> Takeru said. Not like TK had a choice.

<Don’t!> TK begged, <Leave her out of this! I‘m your enemy!>

<Just think,> Takeru said, <If you had given me control, I would have spared her from this.

<Stop!!> TK forced all of his mental energy into stopping Takeru, but he had less control than the first time he was taken over. He could only watch helplessly as Takeru broke every in his angel’s body one by one, feeling each of her screams burning itself into his memory. <Please! Stop! I’m begging you!! Stop!>

Takeru finally did stop, though there wasn‘t much left for him to break. “Star Toss!” He threw the stars next to Kari, who by some miracle, was still alive.

<No more! You made your point!>

<Not yet.> Takeru grabbed two of the stars and drove them into Kari’s back and proceeded to shred her until she wasn’t even recognizable.

<Stop! Stop!> “Stop!” TK shouted and realized he had control once again. Unfortunately, any relief that might have come was replaced by despair as he stared down at what used to be his angel. Tears streamed down. “Kari,” he sobbed, “I’m sorry I was so weak.” He reverted back to normal, fell to his knees, and cried.

He looked up to look at her one last time, vowing he would kill himself if for no other reason than to protect everyone else from Takeru, he saw that he was back in the starry place, and then he quickly understood the reason. “Fake,” he said, the relief indescribable, “That was fake. It never happened.”

“That’s right,” Takeru answered, “a hallucination. I’m not happy with you just living through that nightmare just once. But I must say I’m disappointed in you. That was really the best death you could give? I’ll have to spice it up a bit.”

“NO!! I’ll kill you!!” That would not happen! He would protect Kari from that fate no matter what! Even if it meant killing himself, he would protect Kari and everyone else from this monster! Hundreds of Takerus began popping up along the floating rocks. That many? Fine. He would destroy them all. See how tough Takeru would act when his copies were gone. He couldn’t be making them without draining his strength.

***

Kari had no idea how many times she ran the past events through her mind. Whatever problem TK had, there didn’t seem to be any indication that there was anything worse than normal, for someone branded, at least (she had sworn to never put “Warzoner” and “TK” in the same sentence ever again). So how did that overreaction come from him? Why did he suddenly risk doing something he was afraid of?

<This would be a lot easier if I could tell someone else,> Kari figured, but the more people that knew, the more likely Tai would find out. Considering how protective her older brother gets, TK would no longer feel as safe here as he should.

His obsession with Assassinmon obviously had a part in it. TK considered Assassinmon’s victims to be branded like himself and he didn’t want anyone experiencing what he has to. Not to mention he had to prove to everyone that he wasn’t the monster they all treated him like. With all that, it was only natural for TK to get obsessed. <Maybe if I had seen it coming, I could’ve done something to stop it.>

Even with the obsession, however, TK’s reaction was too sudden. He wasn’t able to hide something like that so well, especially if it involved anything that might damage their relationship. Whenever that happened in the past, it became obvious within minutes.

After all of his friends turned on him, he expected to do the same. Despite Kari’s efforts to show that she would never do so, he was constantly living in the fear that if he even so much as breathed wrong, she’d begin treating him like Adrian does. Even now, she could still see hints of that fear and it may never go away.

What about their enemies? Could they have done this in some way? Not likely. Mikain was human. Trev was human. Lector was a digital human, though according to TK impossibly strong. They were all cruel enough, but none had that kind of power. Neither could anything have been done while he and Kari were prisoners in the Virus Queen’s lair.

All the other enemies, Shademon, the Royal Guards, the Special Forces, Takeru and Hikari, were all dead. At least Takeru was.

One thing that always bothered Kari was how TK had to fight Takeru internally due to him copying himself. What if Hikari had done the same? There was no Darkmon spirit to guide Kari like the Shadowmon did with TK. If Hikari copied herself she could still live within Kari, though there hadn’t been any signs of this so Hikari was clearly gone.

<Scary how they could copy themselves. I wonder how many times-> The answer slapped her in the face. What if Takeru copied himself again? The process couldn’t be without some kind of expense to the original, so maybe there was a new Takeru who was gaining strength! <And with the way TK’s been feeling, there’s no way he’d have the mental strength to fend him off! He should have told me!!>

***

TK stopped and checked his surroundings. No floating rocks. Just tall boulders sticking out of the ground with varying heights. Takeru’s presence was feeling even stronger.

TK had been chasing down all the Takerus and destroying them. They had since lead him away and with Takeru’s presence growing stronger, this could only mean he was heading in the right direction. <You can’t hide from me!>

A Takeru popped up right in front. Startled, TK leapt back. “Nice reflexes!” Takeru’s voice came down again, “That’ll make killing Kari nice and easy!” The nightmare of Kari’s death returned, but TK’s memories of the first one faded until it ended, making it every bit as horrible as the first one. Fear flooded him.

As it ended, TK had to suppress the urge to puke. This was just too much for him to handle. If only he told Kari when it started! If only he didn’t get so arrogant to think he could handle it himself! Then he wouldn’t be in this mess!

“You‘ll never get the chance!” TK shouted as he straightened and unleashed the energy for a different kind of attack. “Demonic Thrust!” Even as he thrust his sword out, releasing the dark flames, he gasped. <Did I just use a Demoninjamon’s attack?!> The mass of dark flames struck Takeru ploughed on through, until it struck one of the boulders. It exploded and obliterated the boulder.

Three more Takerus appeared to his right in front of another boulder. “Maybe I should rape Kari before killing her!” Takeru said. The nightmare returned, but this time it was preceded with Takeru giving the rape he promised, and like before, the memories of the previous were suppressed, making it the worst yet.

“I’ll kill you! Demon Wave!” Tears blurring his vision,TK swung his sword creating a dark shockwave that cut through the Takerus and the boulder, causing it to collapse. This time, he didn’t notice the attack he had performed, or that Takeru’s presence had grown a little stronger.

Takerus began popping up all over the field. Hundreds of them with more coming. TK felt a surge of panic and unleashed another Demonic Thrust, tearing though five Takerus and a cluster of smaller boulders. More Takerus popped up and TK attacked all, no longer aware he was using Demoninjamon attacks, or how strong Takeru’s presence was growing.

***

Kari took a deep breath and prepared to open the gate to the Digital World. She wasn’t sure what she’d do, but if Takeru really was back, then she couldn’t afford to waste any time. Hopefully finding him wouldn’t be too hard.

Before she could activate the portal, her communicator beeped. “What is it?” she said, answering Yamaki’s call.

“Is TK with you?”

“No.” This was obviously about him. “Something’s wrong with him and I’m going to find him.” Hopefully she wouldn’t be expected to explain in detail. She simply didn’t have the time.

“The Digital World is under attack,” Yamaki said. Kari wasn’t surprised. It looks like it was Takeru after all. “The digimon responsible was described as a Shadowmon slowly turning into a Demoninjamon and using Demoninjamon attacks. He supposedly makes the digimon digivolved with that virus look restrained. He started completely demolishing a city. Several towns and villages have also been destroyed. Fortunately everyone sees him coming early enough to evacuate, so no casualties yet. No one suspects TK, and I suggest you stop this before they do.” With that, the communicator’s screen went blank.

<Attacking that wildly with TK’s strength,> Kari thought to herself as she formed the portal. <I have to stop this before Takeru takes over completely!>

***

“Demonic Thrust! Demonic Thrust! Demonic Thrust!” TK wildly fired at the Takerus popping up in his path, the terror of failure growing by the second. Many boulders came along too and Takerus in front of all of them, so they too were destroyed. Yet, there seemed to be no end to all the Takerus.

“You’ll never beat me!” Takeru called down. Six Takerus appeared all around TK.

“Out of my way!” TK leapt up. “Demon Wave!” The black shock wave wiped out the Takerus.

“Not only will I kill Kari,” Takeru continued, “I’ll kill everyone else you’re close to. Matt, Sora, Tai, Max, Jane, everyone! And I’ll do it without transforming so they’ll think it was you! Then I’ll give you back control so you can live out the rest of your days, alone, knowing that everyone you cared about died by your hands!” This time, TK not only witnessed himself doing it all to Kari again, this time her parents, Tai, Matt, Sora, Max, and Jane has also become his victims.

TK cried out and fell to his knees, nearly throwing up. He knew that no matter how hard he tried, that would never leave his memory. He forced himself back up to continue hunting down the Takerus, but the starry place faded and he was back in the familiar fields of the Digital World. And ahead of him was a figure talking to some kind of robot.

The robot had a cylinder-shaped body and four legs. Above it was an image of Phoenix, no, Tyris. TK would’ve loved to deal with Tyris since he sounded as vile Trev, but then he saw who Tyris was talking to.

The image disappeared and flames jetted out of the bottom of the robot and it flew off, but TK no longer cared about that. All he cared about was the one talking to Tyris. Assassinmon.
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Afterword: It took me so many tries to get this chapter’s concept. In fact, I almost skipped it completely, but then I came up with this idea and it fell together.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This would be the end of Takeru’s role for this fic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assassinmon. The one causing all the misery. Unaware that TK was ready to attack. He would not pass this up. He would make sure that Assassinmon did not get away this time.

But then a light came from Assassinmon and TK couldn’t believe who it was he saw. “Be nice if Tyris could be trusted enough to use my normal form,” Trev said out loud, “I‘m not a Digidestined, so transforming and maintaining it isn‘t easy, and the more I‘m in that form, the better the chance Mikain will find out about me.”

Trev was Assassinmon? How could that even be possible? Trev was a human, wasn’t he? <What does it matter? I’m killing him right now!>

TK dashed in while charging his attack. It no longer registered in his brain that this was a Demoninjamon technique. All that mattered was killing the monster who took his mother from him so he’d have the strength to take on Takeru. <I can’t make you feel my pain, but I’ll do the next best thing!> “Demonic Thrust!”

Trev looked up and saw the attack and impossibly had sidestepped quickly enough to evade it. He looked at TK and raised an eyebrow as TK stopped moving to prepare the next attack more carefully. “Is there a problem?” Trev asked in an aggravatingly curious tone. It sounded no more serious then “how’s the weather?”.

This time TK made sure he was perfectly lined up with Trev’s chest and fired another Demonic Thrust. Trev swiftly dove to the left and straightened with a perfectly casual expression. <How did he dodge that?! I should’ve been close enough that he wouldn’t have time!>

Trev spoke again. “I have a very good memory of faces but I don’t remember yours. My sincere apologies if we have actually met.”

<He’s not taking me seriously! Just like last time!> When TK had picked his last fight with Trev, the man treated it like a harmless game. He was that much better, but now TK had his Form and all these powerful attacks! He shouldn’t have any trouble wiping that monster from existence! <Let’s see you dodge this!> “Demon Wave!”

Trev sprung into the air higher at a height that no human could possibly reach and came down as the dark wave disappeared. What was he? “It’s curious how you, a Shadowmon, is using Demoninjamon attacks,” Trev continued, “The most logical reason is that you some how took a partial dose of my serum, but I always give full doses. If I made a mistake with you, I apologize and I’ll complete it if you want.”

Unbelievable! How could he be so calm?! “Demonic Thrust!” TK fired at Trev again, but he simply dove to the right. TK took another shot, but this time Trev dove to the left. A third, but with the same useless results. <Forget it!>

With a yell, TK charged in and did an overhead swing at Trev’s head. Trev tilted his head causing the blade to miss. TK spun and swung at Trev’s chest, but he simply leaned back. With a growl, TK took a stab, but Trev sidestepped and leapt back. TK stopped to attempt to rethink his battle plan. This fight was as bad his last one, despite all the advantages he now had.

“Strange how you’re attacking me, though,” Trev said, “The virus is programmed never to attack me. I would never make it possible for one of my creations to turn on me. Have I done something to offend you?”

“Demon Wave!” There! Hopefully the interruption would throw Trev off enough. No such luck. Trev sprun into the air and landed behind TK.

“Another curiosity is how you could be becoming a Demoninjamon. My serum causes the digimon to digivolve into their next level within the same alignment. Since a Shadowmon is normally digivolved, he couldn’t dark digivolve into Demoninjamon. Only Assassinmon can. As a Shadowmon, you should be changing into AngeShadowmon.

Or maybe that isn‘t the case.” The light signalling a transformation flared from Trev’s location, though TK couldn’t will his body to face him for some reason. “Maybe you’re just too weak, right TK?” So he knew all along. What a surprise. “Or should I say…Takeru?!”

That did it. With a cry, TK forced himself to face his nemisis. Trev, now as Assassinmon, leapt back. TK chased in a blind fury. How dare Trev compare him to Takeru?! He must have been in on it! “I’ll kill you! Demonic Thrust!” TK fired again and again, but Trev leapt around each burst.

“I’m tired of this,” Trev said and lunged forward. TK was taken aback by the sudden change and could charge another Demonic Thrust before Trev bolted right past, leaving the sting of a slash TK barely felt. At first at least. Half a second later the pain of being sliced in half kicked in. Half a second after that, TK was human again.

<What have I been doing?!> TK asked himself as the memories of what he did transformed. They weren’t making sense, but no time for that. Trev was moving again as TK stood back up. Unfortunately, that was all he had time to do before stopped in front of him and swung his sword. TK leapt back, but it was too slow and he was cut along chest.

He staggered back, gripping the wound while trying to block the pain, but Trev attack again, turning the cut into an “X” patter. TK fell to his knees, the pain from the attack and knowledge of what he had done while transformed too much.

Gathering what little strength he had, he forced himself to face Trev, hoping to see some kind of last second life saving plan, but all he saw was Trev’s sword lunging at his head.

***

Kari, transformed into Darkmon, wasn’t certain what made following TK easier. The digivice’s radar or the trail of destruction. Everything, cities, towns, even empty fields were devastated. There was no longer any doubt in her mind that Takeru was behind all this.

Even so, she only made it in time to see Assassinmon sending his sword at TK’s head. TK was on his knees. Fortunately there was just enough time for one response. “Ice Dagger!”

The ice spikes shot right over TK’s head towards Assassinmon’s chest. He immediately stopped his attack and leapt to the left, but one of the spikes tore through his arm causing him to cry out. He staggered back, clutching it while TK fell over. It was then Kari noticed all the blood around him. Her heart froze.

“I can’t believe I let my guard down!” Assassinmon snarled and ran off. Kari paid no attention, now only focusing on TK who had a huge chest wound. No, two of them it seemed.

Now what? What ever it was, she had to do it fast, before the blood loss killed him. She had nothing to wrap up such a large wound in time and there were no hospitals left that she could get him to quickly enough. “TK,” she whispered, “You can’t die now. Please hold on. I’ll save you.” She didn’t build up such a strong bond with him just to let him die so soon.

Bond? That’s it! Their bond allowed them to transfer energy in their angel Forms for some kind of super attack. What if she tried it now? They were both human so technically it should work. It would have to be focused differently, but performing the technique once gave all the knowledge needed for experiments.

She concentrated and quickly figured out how to do it. She knelt down and put her hand over him and felt herself grow weak, but his chest began closing up under a pink beam. In only seconds, TK appeared to be as good as new, but Kari was exhausted, and fell to her side.

TK’s eyes opened and he tilted his head towards her with a haunted expression.. “Kari?” he choked out.

Even though her body was weak, her voice wasn’t. All the frustration she felt towards him and all the fear she felt at almost losing him came out at once. “Why didn’t you tell me about Takeru?!!” TK’s eyes went wide.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I pieced it together! I can’t believe you’d hide this from me!! We promised to tell each other everything!! Do you have any idea what it was like to watch you go through so much without having any idea what‘s been going on?!” With new strength, Kari forced herself up and flopped on to him with a sob. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?! I almost lost you today! I was afraid that I’d have to…to…” She didn’t even want to finish the though of what she’d do if Takeru took him over.

“I thought I could beat him myself,” TK answered in a weak voice, “I remembered how scared you always are of Hikari still being alive.”

“I’d put up with that for you,” she told him, “You know I’d do anything for you.”

“At first I thought I was beating Takeru,” TK said and explained what he had gone through. How he had gotten harassed constantly in his mind but had successfully fought him off each time, and how he did mean to tell Kari, but the incident with the lab had distracted him and Takeru attacked again to start their fight.

“Don’t do that anymore,” she begged, “Next time something like that happens, tell me first thing. Forget about my feelings and just tell me. Promise you will.”

“But-”

“Promise me!!”

“Okay, I promise!” There. Kari knew TK would easily give in such a vulnerable state and as much as she hated taking advantage of it, she had to make certain that this incident would never repeat itself.

***

Takeru could feel his grip on TK’s mind fade. That grip is what allowed him to speak and without it, he’d be left unable to speak to TK again, unless he was able to regain it. If he didn’t, TK would be able to write him off as a bad memory and undoubtedly Kari would be working extra hard to make certain it stays that way, and TK would not fight Takeru alone again. Quite simply, the current form of attack was now useless which made it impossible to possess TK.

In other words, everything had gone exactly to plan.

It was amazing how that living ego Trev could come up with a plan that would work so well, despite a four year delay. Originally the first copy Takeru and Hikari were expected to kill the Digidestined. The second Takeru copy was set up since the Shadowmon spirit would’ve allowed TK break out sooner that expected. It was supposed to happen with the Digidestined’s deaths. The copies would be helpless against the mental assault that they’d have received. Takeru would then use TK’s despair to reenergize himself and since TK and Kari would try to comfort each other, she’d be close enough for him to leapt into her body.

Just like she was now.

Takeru focused and sprung himself out of TK’s mind and into Kari’s. The mental defence was powerful. It was like hitting a steel wall, but there was still enough weakness to slip in for a short while. Kari wouldn’t notice his presence. She wasn’t even devoting her mental strength and remaining was difficult, but Takeru didn’t need much time. He quickly went through her mind and found what he was looking for: the memories of Hikari. Since he and Hikari started out as one virus, all he needed was one memory as sort of a “reminder”.

Grabbing one small one of Hikari taking a step, Takeru allowed himself to be ejected. He’d go back to Trev now. Forget possessing TK. Now he’ll get his own body. Truth was, TK and Kari made so much contact, that the mental fights weren’t actually needed. They were just too much fun to pass up.

A very devious plan from Trev indeed. Wait, not Trev. Trev’s boss, whoever that was. Not Mikain, but someone else. Takeru hoped he’d meet this mystery leader someday.

***

TK tried to straighten out his memories. The starry field with the army of Takerus was fading like a dream. To replace it were the horrible memories of the destruction caused by the hallucination. If those places didn’t evacuate, everyone would’ve been slaughtered. <I’m supposed to be helping them, not taking their homes away!>

He couldn’t feel Takeru anymore, but he couldn’t feel him prior to his attack either. That meant Takeru could only be waiting for another moment to strike. If he had gained control over TK, there’s no telling how much damage he’d cause. Those nightmares would’ve come true. There was only one way to stop it from happening.

Standing up, he faced Kari who still seemed worn out, but was at least standing. He took his digivice and held it in front of her. She gave him a confused look. “Take this. I can’t use it now.” A look of pure shock appeared on her face.

“Why not?!” She sounded more surprised than she looked.

“Takeru almost took control over me. I can’t take the chance of him having as much power as I do and my Form seems to be the key to his possessions.”

“But, he’s gone, isn’t he?”

“That’s what I thought before, but I was wrong. Take it, please. I can’t fight Takeru again. I’m too weak.” Kari took it and hugged him.

“You’re not weak. If Takeru shows up, we’ll fight him together. I’ll keep your digivice, but the instant you want it, it’s yours.” TK nodded, though he wasn’t certain he’d be taking it again. It was just too dangerous.
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Afterword: This chapter was one of the first things I came up with for the story.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[Shadowbass]

This update isn't a chapter unfortunately. Seems the computer we're using doesn't read CDs anymore so it has to be taken back and hopefully fixed. I've backed up everything on DVD, but our other computer can't read them, and all of the plans and everything for this story on this computer (with my planning style, writing them down would simply be an unneeded step). So unless some kind of miracle happens, I won't be able to continue this fic until either it gets fixed, or we get a new one that can read DVDs.

Luckily though, I have other ideas I haven't really touched since switching computers (by then I was focusing completely on Viralmon, forbidding myself to touch anything else), so I'll be working on those while waiting.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[megarush]

sure i'll wait
if i wait then goodness will come later
and this goodness is this story that i like
_________________
don't mind me.I'm quite quiet.
i look more then i post

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: Our computer’s finally fixed, so I can continue at last.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mikain spent a minute thinking about what his agents told him. After tracing all the destruction, they witnessed an unusual battle between TK and a supposedly extinct Assassinmon. The Assassinmon actually beat him which shouldn’t have been possible, and even stranger, TK had used Demoninjamon attacks. Could this Assassinmon be with Trev? Part of the mysterious third party?

<More unknowns than I like. I have to take advantage of this setup and deal with TK and Kari.> “Get me Lector,” he ordered as he contacted Trev.

“How are your stealth Viralmon?” Mikain inquired. The stealth Viralmon were able to become completely invisible and had vision many times greater than any human, but to develop those abilities, practically all their fighting strength had to be sacrificed. Of course with more time and access to the later versions, that could be corrected, but Trev was never considered trustworthy enough for that.

“A waste of my time!” Trev snapped, “I can’t believe you’d waste my genius on such garbage! I finished them all in my sleep! If you’d put me in charge of the main project, your army would be ready by now and-”

“Enough!” Mikain snapped, “We have a limited time frame! Bring all fifty here!”

***

Kari stared at TK’s digivice. She couldn’t believe he’d give up like that. If only she’d clued into Takeru faster. <When we get back, I’ll make him tell me everything Takeru did to him.>

“I’ll keep it safe for you,” she told him, “And when we get back, we’ll work this whole problem out. I’ll do whatever it takes to undo any of Takeru’s work.” TK just nodded.

She suddenly felt something behind her and turned around, seeing a team of Mikain’s soldiers, more than she cared to count. <Now what?>

“The boss requests your presence,” one of them said, “It would be rude to turn him down.” Kari grabbed her digivice but remembered she was still holding TK’s and that neither of her Forms had a belt to clip it on to.

She quickly handed it to him. “I can’t fight while holding this.”

“I’ll help,” TK said, “I can take these guys without transforming.”

“No,” Kari gently pushed him back, “You don’t have a strong enough mental state. Look at you, you’re shaking already. Let me handle this.” TK took a deep breath and ran off to some overturned rocks. Kari faced the soldiers and focused. She and TK had only fought them a few times in the past and won easily enough, but they did have some skill and were never this numerous. But let’s see how they handle Darkmon.

Kari focused and reached for the energies. Nothing. For some reason she was cut off. Why? She stared the digivice. It seemed normal. The soldiers weren’t moving, obviously thinking that this was a purposeful opening, but that wouldn’t last. She had to fix this and fast. She clenched her fist in frustration and then realized something. That was the hand she normally held her digivice with. But since it’s empty, that would mean <I have TK’s digivice! I gave him mine!>

This was bad. She couldn’t transform with someone else’s. That meant fighting these guys as herself. Easier said than done.

Four ventured towards her. She put the digivice on her belt hoping it wouldn’t be damaged. Two of them lunged forward and punched at her face. She shot her foot out and kicked the left one in the stomach, turned her back to the right one, and jolted her elbow back, catching in him in the face as she put her foot down.

The rest poured in. She felt two coming from behind and she back flipped over their heads, kicking them in the back on her way down, landing on her hands, and springing herself back up.

She whipped around hoping the find the closest member to attack, but was answered by a fist colliding with her mouth, sending her stumbling back. She regained herself, but got punched again, and then kicked across the head, spinning her to her knees. Using the spin, she stuck her legs out and spun on her hands, tripping at least five opponents.

Setting her feet back down, she leapt over the downed men and as she landed, drove her palm into another’s face and then followed with two punches to the stomach and a kick to the head, sending him down. She turned around and saw another charging with a punch. She blocked it and punched him, but then she felt in an impact on the back of her head. As her head went forward, the one she was attacking delivered a blow to her stomach, causing her to bend over, but she jolted her head back up as fast as she could, catching the man in the jaw and then kicking him in the stomach.

She was about to turn her attention to the one who hit her from behind, but he kicked her in the side. She ignored it and responded with a blow to the stomach and two to the head. A pair of arms grab her from behind lifting her up and another comes up with a cocky sneer and begins punching her in the stomach.

Kari spit out the blood coming from her throat and wrapped her legs around her grabber’s knees and pulled as hard as she could, causing him to fall on to his back. She forced herself down as they fell, causing him to receive a very hard impact with the ground. She then flipped up, kicking the other man in the jaw and knocking him into the air.

Kari stood and looked around seeing a bunch rushing her. Suppressing an exhausted sigh, she lunged at the nearest one and ducked down. She performed a sweeping kick, tripping him, but instead of letting him fall, she grabbed him by the ankles and begun spinning. The others had all reached her and were all knocked away by her unexpected weapon. A few more began to approach, but more carefully and staying in a group, but Kari simply let go of the one she held, throwing him into them.

She felt more movement from behind, and whipped around, wondering how much more it would take for these guys to stay down. Unfortunately, the thought was just distracting enough for her opponent to deliver three punches of the face. As she recoiled, he leapt up and hammered both his fists down on her shoulders, forcing her to her knees, and then he pulled a fast kick that met her mouth and sent her into the air. The next thing she felt was her back meeting the hard ground.

***

Lector couldn’t understand what was happening. His men should’ve been beaten already. The two strongest, TK and Kari as he recalled, should’ve transformed and trounced them, leaving just enough time to get the stealth Viramon in place, so they could learn where the two lived. They would watch over the city and look for either TK and Kari or the light from going in and out of the Digital World.

Instead, only Kari was fighting and she didn’t even transform. She wasn’t arrogant so she couldn’t be taking them lightly, so what was it?

Best not to react yet. Though there was no doubt in Lector’s mind that he could defeat them both, he wasn’t confident he would if they had set up a trap. Best to just stay back and watch.

***

Kari kicked her legs up and landed on her feet, hoping her enemies were more worn out than she was. Those last few blows they got in showed how much she was slowing down.

A fist struck her across the jaw, but she stayed standing and grabbed her assailant’s arm, and pulled on it hard enough to toss him into a couple others.

One charged at her with his fist raised and she heard two more come from behind. She ran at the charger and leap up with her knee out, catching him in the face, sending him down and she then flipped around and landed behind the other two and slammed their heads together.

More came. Another from behind. She sent her elbow into his stomach and then jolted her fist up. One punched at her from the side, but she ducked and performed a sweeping kick, knocking both attackers off their feet. So they were more burnt out than she was.

She looked around and saw only three standing. Finally time to end this. She lunged at one and delivered a series of punches that sent him down. The other two leapt at her, but she leapt up with a spinning kick, catching them both in the head causing them to crash down.

<I did it,> she realized, but knew it wouldn’t last. They recover soon enough and try again. <I have to get TK and myself out of here!> She hurried over to where TK was hiding and he was staring at the digivice he was accidentally given.

He looked at her apologetically. “I wanted to help. I tried to force myself to risk transforming, but I can’t access the energy.”

“That’s because I gave you my digivice by accident,” she told him, not wanting him to start coming up with something else to blame himself for, “Let’s get out of here now! I don’t have another fight in me!” TK nodded.

“And you were right about me not being able to help fight. I couldn’t even tell I had the wrong digivice.”

***

“Stay here and rest,” Kari whispered as she helped TK lay down in her bed. As they headed to a terminal, TK’s trials caught up with him, he grew so tired that he couldn’t even stand up without leaning on her.

“Haven’t felt this worn out since the training,” he commented and closed his eyes, “If Yamaki calls, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

“I’ll make it clear you won’t be able to do anything,” she assured, but TK was already sleeping. She placed a kiss on his forehead and walked out to the living room to explain what had happened the best she could.

Tai and her parents were already waiting and looking concerned, but before anyone could say anything there was a loud crash and the door leading outside went flying. They all looked and Lector with a small group of Mikain’s soldiers.

“Hello Strongest,” he said, “My boss would like to meet with you.”

Of all Mikain’s lackeys, why did it have to be this behemoth? Kari tried to transform. Nothing. Why? She got her digivice back - <Oh no! I forgot to switch digivices with him! I still have the wrong one!>

Tai charged at Lector, covered in the light showing his transforming, but Lector’s hand lashed out and struck him across the face, stopping the transformation and sending him flying into a wall. He landed but didn’t get back up.

Lector walked over to an easy chair. “What are you doing?!” Kari’s father demanded.

“This,” Lector answered and kicked the chair, sending it flying into Kari’s parents, knocking them out. He looked at Kari. “In case you’re curious as to how I know you live here, the light from the digiport you used gave you away.”

Now what? If she tried to switch with TK now, Lector would get to him. <TK said he’s more agile than he looks, but he still has a lot of weight to throw around. Maybe I can turn that against him. A quick throw will buy me the time I need.>

She charged at him with a punch. He would block and she would kick his legs out and throw him out the window. He sidestepped. Before Kari could leap away, she felt his fingers hit her in the back of the head. Even though it was clearly a tap, it was still enough to send her on to her stomach.

She sprung herself back to her feet and spun to face Lector, but before she could back flip away, he jabbed his index finger into her stomach. If felt more like a hard punch from a small fist and she fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. What kind of monster was this guy?

He casually gave her a slap across the cheek that lifted her off the ground and she bounced off a wall. She got up, shaking her head to clear the ringing out of her ears, but felt Lector’s oversized hand grab her by the head and lift her up. “Where’s your boyfriend?” he asked, “You always fight together. And why haven’t you transformed?”

Before Kari could come up with an answer that would result in her being let go, Lector shook and dropped her. She saw Tai, transformed, grabbing him from behind. “Let go or I’ll crush your skull,” he warned.

“Get out of here, Kari!” Tai said, “It’s not safe for you to fight here! I’ll hold him off! You and TK are our best chance at taking down Mikain!”

“But I can’t leave you here!” Kari tried to protest. Tai wasn’t a match for a Lector.

“You have to! Think about what could happen if you keep fighting here! It’s not safe!”

“Not safe?” Lector raised an eyebrow, “Now why would that be?”

<TK> TK couldn’t beat Lector four years ago at his best. What chance would he have now? And Kari couldn’t win without swapping digivices which would lead Lector right to him. <And it looks like I’d only be able to win as Angewomon, but I can’t use that Form without enough space to fly.>

Clenching her eyes against the tears, she nodded and ran to her room as Lector casually broke out of Tai‘s grip. TK was still sleeping, much to her surprise. He must have really been tired out.. She shook him awake.

His eyes opened and widened when they met her’s. “What’s wrong?” he asked quickly and then a crash sounded. “What was that?!”

“Lector’s here!” Kari answered in a hurry, “Tai’s holding him off but we have to run! It’s too confined in here for out angel Forms!”

TK closed his eyes. “And our others are useless.” He took a deep breath. “Lector’s probably smart enough not to let us choose the battle field. He’ll take your family so Mikain use them as hostages.”

“I know,” Kari answered, “But at least then we can plan something.” TK nodded and the two opened the digiport as they heard a loud thump and Tai crying out.

<I‘ll get you, Lector,> Kari vowed, <I’ll make you pay for everyone you hurt.>
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Afterword: This chapter was pretty rough, but that’s what happens when something cuts me off from it for so long. Hopefully I’ll have an easier time getting into the future ones.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[megarush]

sorry i can't read it to it fullest now but i started it and it really good
i'll give you my full comments tomorrow
_________________
don't mind me.I'm quite quiet.
i look more then i post

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: This one was easier for me to get into.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tai hit the ground as Mikain’s guards threw him into Mikain’s office. “Hello, Flame,” Mikain said as Tai stood back up. He tried not to smile. This was the perfect chance to deal with this monster.

“I’m not Flame,” he said, “Never say that name again.” Mikain raised an eyebrow.

“You think you can order me around? In my own office? You’re confident, I’ll give you that, but you can’t kill me.” Mikain gave a tight smile. “I can see it in your eyes. You have every intention of killing me, but you won’t.”

“We’ll see about that!” Tai snapped. He transformed. No problems there. Mikain looked him in the eye.

“You won’t kill me,” he said with an amuse expression.

<For Kari and TK!> he thought to himself and lunged with his claws aimed directly at Mikain’s heart, or whatever he had that passed off as one. Mikain sidestepped with surprising speed and Tai felt Mikain’s fingers strike the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward.

<What was that?> he wondered, turning around. Mikain casually smoothed out a wrinkle in his suit. He lunged again, this time stabbing at Mikain’s head, but Mikain sidestepped again. This time, however, Tai was ready.

He stopped and faced his enemy and took another stab. Mikain’s hand shot up and knocked Tai’s away and uses his other hand to deliver an open-palm blow to Tai’s chest, knocking him on to his back.

What was going on here? The speed of that blow meant it was no worse than a tap, yet it felt like it was Lector hitting him. <But this guy’s supposed to be human!> He faced Mikain again and saw him flick an imaginary piece of lint off his shoulder.

Tai raised his hands. This fight was going to take everything he had. “Terra Force!” Mikain didn’t move as the giant fireball sailed towards him. Instead he backhanded it sending off in another direction.

Tai was left speechless. As impossible it was to believe, this guy was stronger than Lector! “You misunderstood me,” Mikain said, “when I said you wouldn’t be able to kill me. You assumed I meant you wouldn’t be able to bring yourself to do so, but only a fool would ever take such a gamble. My apologies for not making myself clear.”

<I can’t beat him,> Tai realized, <He’s got me completely outclassed.>

“Now I must defeat your Form so there won’t be any interference when we see if we can’t remake you into Agent Flame.” With that, Mikain lunged with amazing speed and drove his fist into Tai’s stomach. Tai nearly felt the blow come out his back as he crumpled over, but Mikain followed with an uppercut causing Tai hit the ceiling and crash back down.

Tai forced himself to stand back up and desperately stabbed at Mikain’s chest. He would NOT allow himself to become Agent Flame again! He would not! Mikain knocked his hand again and stabbed his fingers into Tai’s throat. He suddenly couldn’t breathe for a split second and then he was human again. Mikain then gave him a tap across the head and all was dark.

***

Kari looked around the well-lit entrance hall of Mikain’s tower. After Lector’s attack, she and TK report to Yamaki who said they were likely taken into Mikain’s tower. He had help he was going to call, but Kari and TK refused to wait. This was too important, and it wasn’t like Yamaki had anyone else capable of confronting Lector. <It’ll probably take both of us to beat him, so TK’s going to have to get his nerve back.>

At least he was still trying, constantly looking at his digivice and mumbling curses to himself.

She decided to clear her head by examining her surroundings. The walls and floor were off-white and the floor was lined with a red carpet. It was rectangular and had a door at the end, but it also branched off to the left. To the right was a desk with a computer. It looked like the entrance to a typical company building.

Except that it was empty. No guards outside either, even though this place was supposed to be guarded like a fortress. What was going on?

“Kari,” TK muttered. She didn’t like his defeated tone. “I won’t blame you if you hate me. I can’t make myself transform. Every time I grab the energy, I almost hear him laugh.” She took his hand.

“When we’re done with this, you’re going to tell me what he did to you,” she said, “I’ll help you get through, but for now, just try your best. It’s going to take everything we have to beat Lector.”

“What makes you think you’ll even live to see that stupid oaf?” a cocky voice asked. A voice that filled Kari with a fury she hardly ever experienced. The voice of the man who was directly responsible for all of TK’s suffering. Trev.

“I knew you’d be here,” he said in his Assassinmon Form, “Mikain thought that he could freely turn Tai back into Flame but he didn’t count on your interference! What a fool! Still, it does give me the chance to take you two down! Just think, TK! You’ll be seeing your mother again!”

Kari transformed into Darkmon and shoved TK away, hoping he’d be able to transform soon. Hopefully Trev wasn’t too much better than TK because the angel Forms had to be preserved for Lector.

Trev was already leaping in with an overhead swing, but Kari noticed his front leg ducking back a bit. She drove to the left as he kicked, and stepped back as he landed with a spin and a swing with his sword with passed right in front of her head.

“Ice Dagger!” Thanks to the swing, his back was turned and exposed. He’d dodge to the right because of the angle she aimed them at, but she had already prepared a Plant Weed to intercept. Unfortunately, he whipped his sword behind him and deflected the daggers. <He didn’t even look to see where they were!>

Wasting precious moments to realign the attack, she tried it anyway. “Plant Weed!” Even as she said it, he had lunged at her with another overhead swing. Big mistake. “Thunder Burst!” As soon as she threw her fist out, she realized her error. Trev wasn’t lunging, he was jumping with a pose that looked like a lung and making very little distance. Just enough, in fact, to drop right in front of the Thunder Burst, which he then swung his sword through, spewing the electricity back into her and sending her into a wall.

<He’s better,> Kari realized. Since she’d only heard about his skills from TK, she assumed there was some intimidation due to the role he’s had in TK’s life, or maybe because he was bigger and adults were stronger than kids, or even because TK only fought him when driven by rage. So many reasons for him to beat TK but they could all be compensated with the Forms and her support. But now she saw the real reason. Despite their years of intense training, Trev was better. Just. Plain. Better.

Trev stood in front of Kari and extended a leg as she stood. He hunched over and held his sword out with both hands, and then he split into four and each one moved to surround Kari. <That speed illusion is much better than TK’s, but it can still be countered.>

The weakness speed reliance had was an inability to stop in time for surprise obstacles. Time to give him one. “Fire Whip!” She started to lash it out, but felt movement behind her and dove forward, looking back. She saw Trev leap and and swinging his sword, despite the face that his speed images were still present and even though she had dodged, the blade still cut into her back. Not deep enough to be serious, but enough to hurt and send her down to her stomach.

<TK,> she pleaded, trying to ignore the pain and strand up, <please transform. I can’t beat him by myself.>

***

TK gripped the energies to transform. <That’s right!> he thought he heard Takeru say, <Do it! I’ll control you again!>

<Stop it!> TK ordered himself, <Takeru’s gone! That’s just my imagination!> Now to try again. He focused, but stopped as soon as he thought he heard Takeru’s laughter.

What was wrong with him? Takeru was gone, he was positive of that. Those voices were just his imagination; the real Takeru would wait until he did transform. Yet, they bothered him so much. Why? All he did was make threats. Sure they seemed real at the time, but in the end, that’s all they were. Not like Mikain and Trev who did shatter his life.

So why could he be so willing to fight Trev and Mikain, but not Takeru? Trev had superior skill while Mikain had his resources, but what did Takeru have?

<My weaknesses,> TK realized, <Takeru knows me inside and out. He knows where and how to strike. I have no defence against him.> Wait, that was wrong. He did have a defence. Kari. Her love for him had pushed him through everything and she constantly worked to make his life better. She was his defence. <A defence that I neglected before. That’s the only reason Takeru made his move. As long as I don’t keep anything like that from her again, he won’t be able to get me!> Heck, if Hikari had lived inside Kari like she used to fear, he’d offer the defence for her! How could he forget that?!

The realization left him feeling both relieved and like the world’s biggest idiot. How could he have been so stupid?! The first thing he and Kari were taught were to always depend on each other. Alone they were strong, but together, they not only combined their abilities, their presence added courage and mental strength to each other. <We cover each other’s weaknesses!>

Kari cried out. TK returned to reality and saw her go down to a slash in the back she couldn’t fully dodge. She landed on her stomach and Trev stood over her. TK immediately transformed into Shadowmon and smiled at how good it felt. Then he saw Trev’s images disappear. <That’s not a speed trick. He’s created actual images! But how?>

Forget it! Kari was at Trev’s mercy! <If I don’t protect her and be the partner I’m supposed to be, then I have no right to be part of her life!> Through the Warzone, Trev took his family and most of his friends from him, he would not take his girlfriend too!

<This time, Trev, you’ll die!> he thought as he lunged with a swing from his left at Trev’s neck. Trev leapt away as TK predicted, but he was away from Kari. She looked at him with surprise.

“You transformed!”

“I realized just how helpless Takeru was with you around,” he said, “Now let your Form heal. You’ll get in the way in your current condition. Besides, I have a score to settle.” Kari got up and reverted back to normal.

“I’ll be back in as soon as my Form’s ready,” she said as she ran off. TK didn’t bother to see where and instead faced his nemesis.

“So you still haven’t learnt?” Trev sneered, “Gonna need your girl to die for you like your mother?!” TK fought the flash of anger Trev’s words brought. It would take everything to beat Trev and being distracted by his words would only guarantee another loss. He would not lose this time.

“Star Toss!” Trev sidestepped to the right, but the attack wasn’t intended to hit. When Trev fought, he focused himself perfectly, which meant no more mocking.

TK charged and took a swing at Trev’s chest. Trev brought up his blade and blocked it, but TK used the impact to perform a quick spin and swing at Trev’s neck. Trev ducked down and rolled to the right. TK followed with a stab at his head as Trev stood, but Trev evaded with a backwards somersault.

The inability to land a hit was expected, but it didn’t matter. <Once Kari’s healed, we’ll overwhelm him.> “Star Toss” TK took another shot and Trev twisted around it.

“Dagger Throw!” With the added momentum from the spin, Trev’s daggers went faster than TK’s stars, but he was ready to turn that move against him.

“Mirror Veil Jitsu!” Folding his hands in front with his index fingers raised, he formed an invisible barrier that would reflect the daggers with the force they would hit it at. Trev, however, wasn’t waiting for that and sprung towards TK, going over the rebounded daggers and swinging his sword on to TK’s shield.

Seeing the cracks form on the barrier, TK got ready to dodge. He couldn’t move while forming the shield and he couldn’t take it down do to it trying to reflect Trev’s assault, but it wasn’t meant for non-projectiles.

The shield shattered and TK leapt and twisted around Trev and spun as he landed, swinging his sword at Trev’s legs, but Trev jumped and came down with his sword pointed straight down. So much for keeping him on the defensive.

TK rolled to the right, but as he stood Trev landed, whipping his sword at TK. TK leapt back half a second too slow and was slashed along the chest, though not as badly as Kari was along her back.

TK staggered back, mentally pushing away the pain, but Trev followed with a jump kick. TK quickly moved his arms up and blocked it, but the force pushed him down while Trev used it to push himself upwards allowing him to finish with a downward swing. At least, TK hoped it would finish with that.

TK blocked with his sword, using his free hand to push against it’s dull side, and his shoulders trembling under the impact. He desperately kicked at Trev’s legs, but Trev leapt over his head.

TK rolled back to his feet and facing Trev who was now charging a stab using a double-handed grip. Because of how close Trev was when he started, TK had barely enough time to dive left, but the Trev’s blade tore into his right shoulder, narrowly missing the bone.

Trev angled his sword towards TK and did the same with his charge. TK dove right but Trev followed with his sword mere centimetres away from TK’s head. TK leapt back, but Trev kept moving. He tried diving to the left and took a swing with his sword, but because of his injured shoulder, he could only swing with one hand and Trev’s grip was too strong for it accomplish anything.

Trev once again angled his stab in TK’s direction. <That was his plan. Injure my shoulder to make my swings weaker. Now I can’t guard against his charge.> All he could do now was dodge until Kari was ready.

Trev stopped suddenly, looking up. He began to shake.

<What’s going on?> TK wondered, <He had me.> He looked where Trev was looking and saw he was under the catwalk. He quickly dove away from Trev and out from underneath so he could look at what Trev was seeing.

What TK saw was Lector. Lector looking very angry. He stormed off though TK couldn’t tell where from his angle. “Oh no,” Trev said, “Oh no. He was supposed to be helping Mikain with the project! Everything’s ruined now! Destral‘s gonna be mad!” What was he talking about? Didn’t he work for Mikain? And who was this Destral? More questions than TK liked.

Trev looked at him. “I can’t play with you anymore today!” He bolted towards the computer and dove inside the screen. <Don’t you need a digivice to enter the Digital World?!>

He reverted back to normal and welcomed the relief from his Form’s injuries. Kari ran up and hugged him. “I knew you had it in you!”

“I’m sorry it took so long,” TK said, “I kept forgetting how much stronger you make me and how much I make you. If I had, Takeru would’ve been helpless.”

“It’s in the past now,” she assured, “I’m sorry I didn’t step in. My Form was ready, but he was already chasing you with that stab and I was having a hard time finding a way to hit him without hurting you.”

“Trev has that affect,” TK agreed, “But we can get him now. He’s running scared so we won’t get a better shot at him.” Kari nodded and then the two, hand in hand, headed over to the computer.
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Afterword: The mysterious Destral won’t be showing up until the next story.
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[megarush]

You really made my day with your story
we won the semi finals in football and this really good story
i'm sure i'll be happy for the rest of the night
_________________
don't mind me.I'm quite quiet.
i look more then i post

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: I could’ve done this sooner, but I have to be careful now not to write myself into a corner.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TK looked around to see where the portal took him. It didn’t take long for his eyes to find the last thing he wanted to see. A blue containment field containing a gigantic Viralmon. Not good.

The room itself had little light, most coming from the terminals connected to the walls. Kari headed over to the nearest one and looked at it. A look of dread appeared on her face as she looked at TK. “If I’m reading this right,” she said, “That thing over there is the Standard.”

“You mean the Viralmon Mikain’s been aiming to create?” TK asked. Kari nodded.

“Looks like it was just finished, so he hasn’t set things up to mass produce it yet, but considering how strong the prototype was-”

“We’d best hope that thing doesn’t wake up,” TK finished.

A growl came from the containment field. TK faced it and the Viralmon broke out with a growl that almost sounded like chuckle. <That thing was waiting for us!> TK realized. Why else would it break out so easily that moment? Maybe trying to revenge on Trev should’ve waited.

***

<What’s going on here?> Tai wondered as he stared at his cell’s door. The room was very dark except for some light that came in through the small barred hole on the door. No furniture either.

But the condition of the cell didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was why this revival of Agent Flame consisted of a scan of Tai’s memories and the energies his Forms uses for its attacks. The scan was unpleasant, it felt like a carving knife was tearing through his brain and he began remembering his times as Flame, mostly working with Matt who was Agent Light at the time. It didn’t seem like much had been done, but Tai had a feeling that things were actually going to be worse.

His door suddenly opened. He jumped up and instinctively reached for the transformations energies. He reminded himself that a field to prevent transformations was set up, but then he realized something. He had the energy. The field must be down.

<This is getting weird. Is this one of those simulations?> No, couldn’t be. The simulations required his memory to be suppressed. He cautiously stepped outside and saw Mikain’s guards, each cut in half. From their expressions they didn’t even know it happened. Who could’ve done that? <TK’s capable of it, but he’s not that ruthless. Wait a minute, what about that Assassinmon that’s been causing all those problems? Anyone who can avoid TK and Kari that much could do this in their sleep. So why was I released?>

The answer came almost immediately. <According to TK, the Assassinmon is not Mikain’s ally. So he released me so could cause as much damage as I can. This IS Mikain’s top lab after all.> He grinned. Normally he wouldn’t dream of helping an enemy of TK or Kari, but his time, while rescuing his parents, he’d make an exception.

***

“Lord Mikain!” Mikain looked up as Lector barged in, “I’ve confirmed that Trev is Assassinmon.” Really. That was a surprise. Trev didn’t seem like the type to get his hands dirty.

“What’s he doing now?” Mikain asked.

“He ran into the lab where we developed the Viralmon Standard and I’ll bet he’s already disable the field we use to prevent the usage of Forms.” Mikain nodded in agreement.

What a dilemma. On one hand, allowing Trev to rum amok in the place containing all the needed information to mass produce the Viralmon Standard was not acceptable. On the other hand, stopping him now would prevent his allies from being identified. Memory scans were possible, but Trev would have undoubtedly given himself some sort of defence against them.

Mikain’s terminal lit up with a warning buzz. It seemed that someone was making an unauthorized communication. “Well now. It seems that Trev solved our problem of what to do with him himself. I’ll confront him personally.” Lector nodded. “I have no doubt Trev will have released our prisoner. Are the new Flame and Light on schedule?” Lector nodded.

“Science team is ready to begin field testing.”

“Good. Yamaki isn’t so stupid as to allow TK and Kari to engage us alone, so it looks like that field test will be happening. I trust TK and Kari followed Trev?” Lector nodded. “In that case they’ll undoubtedly be fighting the Standard. I want all data we have copied to as many other labs as you can. Doesn’t matter where. Now, about after the battle with Standard-”

“I’m sure the Standard will beat them.”

“I believe so too, but I don’t believe in taking chances. If they do win, I want some sort of surprise set up.” Lector nodded and left.

Mikain keyed in the commands to his terminal to create a portal. He linked it to a portal generator that would allow him in instantly reach any part of Matrix and set it to lead him to the source of the communication.

Once through the portal he spotted Trev in his Assassinmon Form using the communications terminal in the small communications room. How did he get a Form?

“Here’s the update,” Trev said in a panicked voice, “I’ve converted whatever factories I could to produce the robots Destral needs. He can carry out his conquest, but I haven’t been able to find where the Viralmon Standard is going to be produced. Matrix is big and Mikain doesn’t trust me enough. The one that is finished is currently battling the two strongest. It should be strong enough to kill them.

To make it worse, Lector caught me. Yes, that Lector. You need to get me out of here now! If Destral finds out that our full mission will not be completed, do you have any idea what he‘ll do to us?! Get me out of here now so we can turn this into something that won‘t make him so angry!” Trev switched off the console and looked at Mikain. He stepped back.

“What?” Mikain said, “No arrogant comments about your ‘superior’ intelligence? No remarks about my size? No high and mighty attitude?”

“Keep away from me,” Trev said, “You have no idea who my allies are!” Mikain lunged at him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and lifted him up. He began to squeeze slightly. Not hard enough to break anything, but enough to hurt.

“I doubt they’ll be able to help you when I crush you like an empty can.” The wall behind Trev exploded with the appearance of a robot that looked like a large wrecking ball with a smoking cannon barrel in front. Smaller lasers opened up around it and it began firing. Mikain dropped Trev and leapt around the bolts. <That’s not one of my robots! What’s it doing here?!>

It stopped firing and a metal tentacle reached out from the top and wrapped around Trev, pulling him away. “You’re through, Mikain!” Trev shouted, “I serve a power that even that stupid Imperialdramon you worked so to get doesn’t compare to!” The robot flew off.

<If your real boss really is that powerful,> Mikain wondered, <then why hasn’t it tried anything yet? And why does the name “Destral” seem so familiar?>

Mikain tried to think, but quickly remembered a possible weakness he had. A weakness that only Lector knew of. Amnesia. Mikain could only remember as far back as a month before he began creating what is now the Warzone. It bothered him slightly, but it never actually affected him and childhood memories weren’t exactly helpful when developing strategies. <But if a potential rival is in those memories, I may need them.>

Things were going out of control. He had TK and Kari to deal with and now this Destral character. Well, best to focus on the known threats first. With TK and Kari out of the way, dealing with the unknown will be much easier.

Mikain smiled to himself. Only when the possibility of losing was so strong were these games so fun.

***

The Viralmon Standard opened its mouth and a brownish black beam fired out, forcing TK to dive left while Kari dove right. Considering the strength of the prototype, there was only one way to deal with this. <So much for the rescue. We won’t stand a chance against Lector now.>

TK transformed in Angemon and Kari into Angewomon. He gathered all of his energy and felt Kari’s allowing him to mix it in as he sent some to her. They fired the beams and they washed over the Viralmon. It screamed as it was engulfed and TK felt himself become human.

The light from the beam cleared, but to TK’s horror, the Viralmon was still there. It’s armoured body was covered in cracks, but other than that, it seemed unharmed. In fact, its body seemed to be just a shell, meaning the Viralmon’s real body is on the inside and unscathed.

He and Kari looked at each other, and he could tell she was thinking the exact thing he was. <Now what do we do?>

Well, even if the attack didn’t kill it, the armour looked like it was in bad shape. Maybe their other Forms could finish it off. Maybe the body underneath was more vulnerable. Not likely, but it was obvious that this thing was waiting for them and there was no way it would let them it escape. <We have to do what we can.>

TK changed into Shadowmon and charged. The Viralmon raised a massive fist and swung it down. TK leapt over the swing and landed on it’s shoulder. He drove his sword into a large crack and twisted. The Viramon’s body flashed blue and TK found himself flying off.

He somersaulted and landed on his feet as the Viralmon looked at Kari who had just become Darkmon. “Ice Dagger!” She backed away, firing, but her ice spikes shattered as they touched the Viralmon’s massive bulk. The Viralmon hammered its fist down sending a surge of orange energy to rocket towards Kari and before should could move, it blasted her into the wall.

TK got ready to try another charge now that its back was turned, but it held a hand back and whitish blue lasers flashed out. “Mirror Veil Jitsu!” TK brought his shield up just in time, but after three impacts, it shattered, and two more hit him in the chest, sending him down, but also causing the others to pass by overhead.

“Plant Weed!” TK stood and saw Kari’s vines wrapping around the Viralmon who didn’t even struggle. “Planet Weed! Plant Weed! Plant Weed!” More and more vines came out, covering the Viralmon. For a moment, TK felt hopeful that maybe her attack was pinning it down giving them time to escape. No such luck. The Viramon suddenly made a quick flex and all the vines were torn off.

It began moving towards Kari and TK noticed a crack on the Viralmon’s head. <If I could get my sword in there, I might be able to end this.> He bolted towards it and jumped. As he came down, he swung his sword down into the Viramon’s head, but even though it went through the crack, there were no signs the Viralmon was harmed. The Viralmon lashed out a hand, slapping TK off. As he hit the floor, he flung himself back to his feet.

Kari ran next to him and TK immediately saw that she was yellow. He got ready to carry out her plan. “Thunder Burst!” As Kari formed the attack, TK charged and swung his sword through it, causing the electricity to wrap around the blade and leapt back on to the Viralmon’s head, swinging the sword down into the crack again. The electricity shot into the Viralmon’s body, but the Viralmon still didn’t seem affected. <Come on! That had to hurt! Did we even fully penetrate the armour with these cracks?!>

He sprung off before the Viramon could bat him off again and landed next to Kari. The Viralmon put its hands on the ground and lasers began bursting out. TK grabbed Kari and ran around the room, barely keeping ahead of each bolt.

“I hope the terminal doesn’t get hit,” Kari said.

“At this rate it won’t matter,” TK responded, “We just aren’t strong enough to hurt that thing. If only we could do that attack more than once.”

“Too bad our current Forms are too different to use it and there‘s no way we‘ll last long enough for our angel Forms to recover enough.”

<Can’t believe we’ve been doomed by our Forms being different! That was supposed to be an advantage!> Wait a minute. If the attack required similar Forms, then what if…”I got it,” TK said, “I know how we can do that attack again.”

“How?”

“The attack our Forms to be very closely related to each other like Angemon and Angewomon, but Forms are alternate bodies. We have a third set. Our human selves.”

“WHAT?!” TK didn’t have to look to know how wide Kari’s eyes were. This plan was truly insane, but sometimes insanity was what it took.

“We have the energy at all times, but we can only channel it through our bodies using the digimon Forms, but we can still use it as humans, like when you healed me after my struggle with Takeru and Trev.”

“But our Forms can’t survive it! Even if we can do it, it’ll kill us!”

“And the Viralmon won’t?” Kari sighed.

“I guess your right. We’ll have a better chance at surviving the attack than we do the Viralmon.”

A few more seconds and the lasers stopped. TK slowed down, his legs throbbing, and looked around, noting that only the walls were damaged. None of the equipment was harmed. <That’s no fluke. That thing even has control over that kind of attack. I can see why Mikain wants these things so badly.>

He and Kari reverted back to their human forms and concentrated. He focused on grabbing the transformation energies but without touching his digivice. He found it just as easily, but the mental grip felt like his insides were caught in a bear trap. Seems the digivices were just there to guide the transformations, but also to somehow access the energy in a much safer way. <Of course, we aren’t even supposed to be able to access the energy without one, yet we’re doing it. Still, this is really going to hurt.>

“I got my energy,” TK said in a strained voice to Kari.

“I got mine,” she answered sounding just a strained, “If we don’t live through this, remember how much I love you.”

“You too.” TK took the energy from Kari and sent his, and almost collapsed from the agony. It felt as if a whirlwind of razors were grinding him inside out. <Focus! I can handle pain! Focus!> He sent the energy into his right fist and thought it would explode from the pressure.

His eyes met Kari’s. She was ready. “Now!” he commanded, not trusting their ability to be able to read what other was doing in this condition. He threw his fist out and his yellow beam intertwined with Kari’s.

The Viralmon looked surprised as the attack struck. It let out a screech and TK watched the armour flake off as the light engulfed the monster. It cleared and the Viralmon was…gone!

<We did it! We beat it!> He collapsed to his knees. <We did it! Took everything, but we did it!>

“Let’s get out of here,” Kari said, breathing heavily, “There may be other surprises.” TK nodded forced himself to stand, his body screaming in protest. Some rescue this turned out to be.

The two stumbled over to the terminal and warped back out. Once TK’s feet touched the ground, he fell over and heard Kari do the same. <No! Not the place for a nap! Move it!>

He forced himself to stand and saw people standing around. Since when did Mikain visitors? <Wait, he doesn’t. He has guards.> That little realization set off a warning bell in the back of TK’s head. <So what if Mikain has guards? That’s expect- uh oh!>

TK tried to stand up and face the guards. <Maybe if we do a surprise attack, we might pull this off. Yeah. Sure. If it’s just a couple guys who are focusing on something else, well past the retirement age, and have back problems, then maybe we’d have a chance.>

TK didn’t have to look to know the answer. <Now we need the rescuing.>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________
Red Green's words of wisdom:
"Duct tape is like the Force. There's a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!"

"If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

"Shut up, Harold!"

[megarush]

your story is still good plus your cliffhanger are great
i always wonder what going to happen next
_________________
don't mind me.I'm quite quiet.
i look more then i post

[Shadowbass]

Foreword: I hate these long chapters. It’s always so hard to start them, no matter how close I am to finishing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again the patrol turned up nothing involving Mikain and Jane could’ve sworn she’d already taken down a couple of the gangs they’d taken on today. <Only in the Warzone do gangs mesh together.>

She reverted back to normal and checked her digivice for any sign that TK and Kari were here. Not likely, but with everything that’s been going on, she had to make certain not to miss any chance to help.

The digivice revealed two extremely faint blips. <Those are the weakest signals I’ve ever seen!>

“Find something?” Max asked.

“We’d better check this,” she said. They followed the signals and soon wound up near Mikain’s tower. According to the radar, the two blips were inside. Why? What was Mikain doing?

“Right into Mikain’s Fortress of Evil,” Max said, “About time we get to break into one rather than some stupid cave or forest!”

“Don’t transform,” she said, “You’ll have to track them so I can rush us in.”

“I know, I know. Let’s just go, already!” She transformed to Quickmon and lifted Max on to her back. He positioned his digivice so she could see the radar without it obstructing her view.

After comparing the location of the blips to her current, she took off and raced up the walls of the tower until they reached the same height and then she began running circles to stay on the wall while cutting through it with her wrist blades. In no time, they were in.

As soon she stopped to look around, she noticed a large group of guards. They seemed to be gathered around something since their expressions, what little of them she could see, expressed pure shock.

Only one solution for this: Hit now, hit later, hit some more, and then once everybody’s down, consider asking a question or two.

Max transformed into Burnermon. “I’ll see to whatever they were guarding,” he said. Jane nodded and launched herself at the guards, blasting through them, delivering swift punches to each. Within three seconds, they were all down.

She looked to see what Max had found. “TK! Kari!” She rushed over to her two friends. Max was already kneeling over them.

“They’re okay,” he said, “They just passed out.” Okay? They were in the worst condition Jane had ever seen anyone. It looked like their bodies tried to explode, but couldn’t quite pull it off.

“We better get them to Yamaki,” Jane said. Max nodded.

“I can’t believe anything exists that could do this to them. Couldn’t have been those losers you took out.”

***

TK emerged from the healing tank; a special container that gave off energy waves that would allow physical injuries to heal faster. A recent invention that made TK wish that the technology could be carried over from the Digital World to the Human World.

No, forget that. He wasn’t sure how long he was in there. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours, but every second wasted increased Mikain’s chances of getting ready to mass produce the Viralmon.

“So you’re out,” Kari said. TK nodded, turning his head left to look at her. She looked like she’d had yet to see any action, except for the terrible state her clothes were in. TK had no doubt he was the same.

“We’ll have to be more careful next time,” TK said, “I think the only way to stop the Viralmon is to destroy Matrix.”

“Never easy,” Kari sighed, “And of course, dealing with Mikain’s guard robots will undoubtedly be easier than fighting another Viralmon.” TK nodded.

“We’ll need a different entry point. There should be an external one, and if we’re lucky, Mikain won’t have dealt with what Trev did to his security yet.” Mikain would never be stupid enough to ever be cut off Matrix, no matter what happened, but this time his cautiousness could work in TK’s and Kari’s favour.

“Planning your moves already,” Yamaki asked, walking in, “What happened there?”

“We encountered the Viralmon Mikain wanted,” Kari said, “It was even stronger than Imperialdramon. And I don’t just mean a little stronger, it was nearly twice as strong.”

TK had no doubt that behind his sunglasses, Yamaki’s eyes were wide open. “We need to get back and make sure he can’t produce anymore. Trev’s the Assassinmon and isn’t working for Mikain. He’s working for someone named Destral, you should probably get your intelligence teams working on figuring out who or what he is.”

“I will but I’m working getting you two some back up-” Yamaki started, clearly struggling to absorb all this new information.

“None of your agents are strong enough,” TK interrupted, “Trev left us an opening that Mikain notice anytime now, so we have to take it! If we move now, we could probably get to the outside areas of Matrix and we can set something up, but we have to move now.”

TK transformed and lifted Kari onto his back and bolted off to the nearest terminal, not listening to Yamaki’s protests. Things had to be done now.

***

TK had to admit, the hiding place for this terminal was very clever. It was part of the trash behind Mikain’s tower, the screen was off, and all the connectors went underground, making it look like a piece of junk left by its owner. This kind of hiding place meant it had to be important.

Opening with his digivice, he and Kari found themselves standing outside a large steel fortress. Other squareish buildings were all over and everything was made up of metal. The sky surprisingly was blue and clear.

“Now what?” Kari asked, “Should we attack?” TK considered. Attacking now could give just the surprise needed, but on other hand, barging in unprepared was disastrous, but then again if they took too long, more Viralmon would be made.

Before TK could come to an answer, he heard a buzzing sound was heard. He looked up and saw several hatches open on the fortress and dozens of small objects flew out. Each one had a triangular body, but the bottom had an upward curve, and at each point was a nozzle.

TK and Kari transformed into Shadowmon and Darkmon and leapt back as the small robots began to fire small red lasers. Then doors along the bottom a group of hunched over skeletal-looking robots rolled out with laser cannons for hands and wheels for feet. They fired bigger red lasers.

So much for surprise.

TK flicked his blade around and deflected the lasers from the grounded robots and began to run around the area as the small robots fired on his location. Impossibly, the grounded robots had no trouble tracking him with their lasers.

“Star Toss!” He threw the stars at several fliers, hoping to bring them down first. They looked the weakest while grounded robots looked like they’d take some effort. The fliers he aimed at scattered, but one was hit. One. Out of dozens, one went down. This wasn’t working.

He bolted over to Kari who was dancing around, flinging Ice Daggers in all directions, but barely hitting any flies and the grounders were moving around too much to take any hits. “Star Toss,” He threw the stars over her and managed to hit three that were aiming right at her head.

He ran over to her. “Throw me,” she said and turned red. TK nodded and performed a sweeping kick knocking her legs out from under her. He grabbed them and did a spin before throwing her up. “Fire Whip!” She spun around lashing the whip, but the fliers kept their distance.

TK charged at three grounders with his sword out while throwing more Star Tosses with his free hand. Three more fliers went down. He cut through a few grounders, but more were coming in. It was beginning to look hopeless.

“Ice Dagger!” Kari ran over to him, firing her ice spikes as fast as her arms would move, but only four fliers went down. TK deflected the lasers as he moved to meet her. “Should we try the Angel Forms?!” she asked.

“I can’t!” TK said, “My flying isn’t nearly good enough to get through this, and the speed drop would take too long to adjust to!”

“My flying isn’t too great either! How did Sora ever get so good?!”

“We should ask her next time we get the chance!” <Assuming we get out of this at all.>

“Let’s get back to the terminal,” Kari suggested, “We can’t fight this many!” TK wanted to protest, but she was right. They couldn’t win this.

<But then how can we stop the Viralmon from being created? There has to be another option!>

“Guided Missile!” TK watched a series of missile’s fly overhead and obliterate a group of fliers. TK looked around and saw Jane, Max, Sora, and Matt.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he and Kari ran over to them.

“Helping you!” Sora answered, “We’re the back up Yamaki was trying to get a hold of!”

“What on Earth made you think you two could handle this alone?” Matt demanded, “We may not be as strong, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re my little brother! Even though we aren’t as close as we should be, I’ll still fight to the end for you and the one who is always there for you.”

“We aren’t as close as we were during our first time in the Digital World,” Sora said, “but I still love you and Kari and I’ll still protect you two with my life. I ended up fighting Takeru alone remember and I still pulled through by thinking only of you two. I won’t let you take such a risk alone.”

“If it wasn’t for you two,” Jane said, “I’d have caused irreparable damage to my friendship with Max and permanently ended it with Sora, but because you forgave me and stood up for me, I’m even closer to them now. I can never repay my debt, but I’m going to keep trying.”

“Transformers was a rerun,” Max said with a shrug, “so I didn’t have anything better to do.”

TK let out a laugh, not at what Max said, but because of how stupid he just felt. He and Kari had been waging these battles against Mikain and Trev thinking that because they were the strongest, they were the only ones who could do anything. <Just because the others are weaker, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have included them.>

“You’re right,” Kari said, “We should’ve been doing this together from the start. We might have even won already if we had.”

“Never mind that,” Jane interrupted, “We need to get through those defences and fast. Your Forms aren’t too good for so many enemies, but my Guided Missile is perfect.”

“We’ll keep these little guys out of the way,” Sora said.

“Once we track down Tai,” Matt said, “then we can handle the rescue while you two deal with stopping anymore Viralmon from being made.”

“Right,” TK agreed, suddenly feeling much better about this mission. It was finally time to bring down Mikain for good.

***

“Guided Missile!” Jane’s missiles turned at least ten of the fliers into fireballs that engulfed a few that couldn’t get out of range. Their lasers pelted her Form’s armour, but they weren’t much more than pebbles. Harmless, but enough could still cause damage.

Five of the grounders rolled in front of her at a reasonable distance and opened fire. Her body shook from the blasts. The damage was minor, but that would soon change unless she did something.

No problem. She switched to Quickmon and lunged at them, weaving around the almost-still light show and drove her wrist blades through the five robots. As she stopped, she heard more fliers shooting at her from behind. She spun to face them and deflect their lasers with the wrist blades as she leapt back. Once clear, she took them down with six Sonic shots.

She looked around to see where she could take down the most robots and saw Sora streaking by in the distance with a chain of small explosions of the flier she was shredding through. <Good idea. I should do that with the grounders.>

Her though was interrupted by a screaming pain in the right arm. From the corner of her eye, she saw a laser go right through it. <So much for that idea!> She quickly switched back to Tekmon and destroyed the assaulting grounder with a Track Laser and charged up a big Guided Missile barrage.

She fired and took out a large swarm of fliers, had to be thirty at least, but when it cleared, there were still countless flying around. <There’s just no end to them!>

***

“Burning Fist!” Max jumped over one of the grounder’s laser blasts and drove his flaming fist into its head, crushing it. Two others rolled behind him, but he was already responding. “Flame Shooter!” He shot right between the robots and they scattered to avoid, allowing Max to charge at the left one. “Blazing Fist!” As the robot raised its laser cannons, he punched it in the face, disintegrating the head.

<You scrap heaps may have been programmed with some nice moves, but I’m a Warzoner! You can’t outfight me!> “Flame Shooter!” He fired both his fireball shooters at the remaining grounder, which weaved around the shots, but still managed to aim its lasers at him. Then three fliers lowered a bit and positioned themselves above the grounder, also aiming.

“Let’s get serious,” Max said with a smirk, “Flame Shooter!” His fireballs hit the fliers causing them to drop around the grounder. Though it probably wasn’t damaged, the smokescreen allowed Max to dive away as the robot fired at where it thought he was. He charged in as the smoke cleared. “Burning Fist!” As the robot looked at him, he punched though its head.

One rolled in front of him firing. Max twisted around the lasers. “Flame Shooter!” His fireballs took the robot apart, but one of the lasers hit him in the left shoulder, sending him spinning and down.

He quickly checked the wound and it looked like it didn’t get far past the armour. <Only hurts a little, but another shot there would be trouble. Better heal.” He switched to Freezemon as three more grounders lined up behind him.

“Ice Slasher!” He threw a large axe at the robots and they shot it pieces, but it gave him time to charge his next move. “Final Freeze!” The ice beam froze the robots and the force of the impact shattered them along with a few more that were joining in.

“Final Freeze!” This time Max directed his attack at the sky taking down a large swarm of fliers, but more quickly replaced them. He performed two more Final Freezes, but there still seemed to be no end to the little pests. <Can’t outfight me, but they can overwhelm me. This is going to take a while.>

***

Sora blasted through the skies shredding her claws through the fliers before they knew she was coming. She barely felt each impact on her claws, but the robots disintegrated under each hit. She was destroying them by the truckload, but there were still more than she could count, and more were still coming out of the fortress. <There must thousands! Tens of thousands even! Maybe even more than that!>

She heard a spray of lasers fire from above and she quickly swerved to the right and faced the assailant. It was a dark blue humanoid robot, but it had silver wings on the back and a silver chest. Rocket fire came from the wings, the back and the feet. On each arm was a grey blaster that obviously fired the lasers. The face had a thick black line going across and had two triangular red lights seeming to be angry-looking eyes.

<Is that a guard robot too?> The robot fired its lasers again at her. She flew towards it, spiralling around the shots and swipes at its head. The robot stopped shooting and swerved under her swing and then looped behind her.

She turned and chased after the robot who flew backwards while firing its lasers again. It dove between two buildings, or at least Sora thought these big metal boxes all around like a city were buildings, and she chased after. <If I could just get in one hit. I should at least be able to set it up for a Blazing Wing.>

The robot suddenly made a left turn, but Sora kept going straight and began charging a Blazing Wing. Once she came to the alley on the building’s far side, she entered it as suddenly as the robot did. The robot came around the other side pointed its guns at her.

“Blazing Wing!” She fired as soon as the robot came into view, but it bolted upwards. Sora was ready, however, and had already begun flying upwards and was moving to intercept, but the robot bolted backwards. <How can this thing match me so easily after all my training? A robot can’t be that smart!>

***

With the door blasted down, TK and Kari followed Matt through the terminal filled rooms and corridors. More of the grounders rolled in, but the lack of space simply made them targets for Matt’s laser. TK and Kari were transformed, but conserving their strength for any surprises.

Before long, they found themselves in a large room lined with metal doors. “Guess this is the detention area,” Matt said, “but where are the guards?”

“Keep your guard up,” TK warned. They began checking each cell one by one with Matt cutting the doors open. Suddenly a portion of the ceiling in front of the collapsed and a figure dropped down.

TK couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was a robot-like version of Matt’s Form. “What the heck is that?!” Matt demanded, he looked at TK, “You and Kari go on. I’ll deal with this fake!”

“It’d be better if we all attacked,” Kari protested, but Matt shook his head.

“With Mikain you can never tell if it’s a guard or a distraction. You two go on just in case it’s the latter. I won’t lose to this glorified wind-up toy.”

“He’s right,” TK told her, “The only way to get through Mikain’s tricks is to be fast enough so he won’t have time to set them up. And we still have to make sure we‘ll have enough power to handle Lector. I just know he‘s going to get in our way.” Kari sighed.

“You’re right,” she conceded, “Let’s keep going.”

***

“So,” Matt said staring at the copy, “Mikain missed Agent Light so much he had to resort to making you.” “Light” didn’t answer. Was it even capable of speech? Well, it didn’t matter. Talking wouldn’t send this thing back to the scrap yard.

“Lobo Kendo!” he called as he charged, bringing out both his beamswords with an outward swing at Light’s chest. Light sprung straight up and came down swinging a beamsword. Matt dove out of the way and spun himself as he landed to face Light with his laser aimed. “Purifying Light!” Light twisted to the right and fired its laser at Matt, but he managed to dodge by twisting left.

Light charged with a beamsword raised. As it swung, Matt moved his left beamsword to block, but the impact pushed him back. <Stronger than it looks! This’ll be harder than I thought!> Light pointed its laser and opened fire. Matt dove left narrowly avoiding, but before he could get his laser ready to fire back, Light dashed in with another swing. Matt blocked with his beamswords, but this time the impact knocked him on to his back.

He started to get back up but saw Light coming down with a stab. He rolled away and spun back to his feet, but Light threw a kick that caught him in the face, sending him back down. He somersaulted as he landed, but Light fired its lasers forcing him to dive and roll left.

“Lobo Kendo!” Using his right beamsword, he began deflecting the lasers and charged with his left ready to swing. Light stopped shooting and blocked Matt’s swing, pushing him back. <How can this thing mimic my attacks and be so much stronger?! Not to mention it seems to know my fighting style!>

Matt charged with another left swing. Light sidestepped right but Matt intercepted with right. Light leaned back causing the swing to overshoot and then swung its left into Matt’s sword and then swung its right at his arm, forcing him to yank his arm away, but he lost grip of the energy blade, sending it sprawling away. Matt leapt back and located his lost weapon, but Light lunged with both swords aimed at his neck. He quickly pointed his remaining sword up and it blocked the swing, but he found himself stumbling back as Light pushed him against a wall.

With both hands on the hilt, he struggled against Light’s weapons, but his arms were beginning to tire.

***

The next room had many terminals, but all of them were destroyed. And in the centre TK saw the culprit.

“Tai!” Kari exclaimed and reverted back to normal. Tai, in his Form, looked at her and turned back to human with a big smile.

“Kari!” The two ran over to each other hugged.

“I was so worried,” Kari said, “You couldn’t beat Lector and I was scared of he’d do if you tried your plan to stop Mikain. I’m so glad you didn’t.”

“I did try to kill him,” Tai said. Kari gasped and pulled back. TK was glad for his Form’s ninja mask, otherwise everyone would see his jaw drop. “I tried, but,” he took a deep breath, “but, he beat me.”

“What?!” TK blurted out. Tai looked at him apologetically.

“We fought and he won,” he said, “He didn’t even take me seriously.”

“How?” Kari asked, “Did he have one of those barrier to prevent transformations?” Tai shook his head.

“I transformed just fine,” Tai said, “I lost because Mikain’s just too strong. In fact, he‘s even stronger than Lector. And to make it even worse, his movements were flawless. Not one wasted. He’s at least as good as you two.”

TK sat down, his legs no longer feeling strong enough to support him. Here he and Kari were, making a big deal about fighting Lector when Mikain was even worse! He kept thinking back to his first fight with Lector and how easily Lector beat him. <To be even better than that monster. What is going on here?!> “This isn’t right,” TK said, “We’re stronger than any digimon, and digital humans are no better than normal humans, so what’s with Mikain and Lector?

I though Lector was just some freakish anomaly, but Mikain too? And they just happen to be working together?”

“Yeah,” Tai said, “I don’t buy it as a coincidence either. But we should worry about that later. For now let’s work on getting Mom and Dad out of here. I found where they’re being kept, but I want to cause damage I can to draw out any nasty surprises and disable others, but with you two here, we should be able to get them out now. Are the others here too?” Kari explained what everyone was doing. “A robot Agent Light?” Tai muttered, “I wonder- forget it. Let’s go.”

“How’d you get out?” TK asked as they rushed to next set of cells.

“With Trev being the Assassinmon,” Tai answered, “I’d guess he was caught so he let me out to cause problems.”

The entered the cell block. It was a large round room with cell doors located all around the wall and above were layers of catwalks and more cells.

Someone dropped down. It appeared to be a robotic Agent Flame. Somehow, TK wasn’t surprised. “Mikain was must really miss you,” he commented.

“Now I get it,” Tai said, “Mikain said something about reviving Agents Flame and Light, but all he did were some scans of my memories and powers. Guess he was gathering data to make the robots.”

“You and Kari get to your parents. I’ll deal with this guy.” With that, TK charged and swung. Flame blocked with its claws, but TK used the impact to power a spin. Flame blocked again, but TK pressed his attack. Those claws would give sooner than his sword.

***

Tai tore open the door he recalled leading into his parents’ cell. He wanted to do this quickly so he and Kari could go back up TK and then he could go help Matt.

He looked inside, but he didn’t see his parents. Instead he saw a frightened guard. “What’s going on here?!” he demanded, “Where’s my parents?!”

“It was Trev!” the guard answered in a panicked tone, “He locked me in here while he took them along with some kid that looked like that TK kid who keeps opposing the boss!”

“Where did they take them?” Kari asked calmly.

“To some guy called Destral. He might be some sort of rival for the boss, but I never even heard of him before! That’s all I know! I swear!” Tai felt his strength leave him. In all his efforts to make certain it’d be safe to get them out, he ended up allowing them to end up with another enemy. An unknown one no less!

“Let’s worry about that later,” Kari said to Tai, “TK and I came here to make sure that Mikain doesn’t create anymore Viralmon.” Viralmon? Did Mikain actually create the type he wanted already?

“Fine,” Tai agreed. He left the cell and saw TK still swinging with Flame blocking, but on the defensive.

He raised his arms and gathered his fire energy. “Terra Force!” Flame leapt away from the fireball and Tai ran over to TK. “I’ll handle Flame! You and Kari go on and cause what damage you can before Mikain and Lector get involved!”

TK looked him. “What about-”

“Kari will explain! Now go!” TK sighed and nodded. He ran off and Tai faced Flame. “Terra Force!” Flame responded to Tai’s fireball by forming one the same way and throwing it. Flame’s fireball went through Tai’s, but Tai dove under it and spun for his next attack. “Terra Force!” This time it was the tornado version, but Flame leapt to the right and then charged stopping right next to Tai as his attack ended and hammered both fists into his back, causing him to crash down.

He immediately pushed his hands into the ground, launching himself back up to his feet as Flame’s claws drove down to where his head was, but it quickly reacted with a swift kick, but Tai was ready and leapt back. Flame threw another Terra Force, and Tai dove right to dodge rather than meet it with his own. <Flame’s a robot, so it’s been made stronger and has limitless endurance. Guess Mikain didn’t miss me and Matt so much after all.>

Still, even though it was physically superior, it was still just a machine and a machine imitation could never replace the original.

Tai lunged and took a few stabs at Flame with his claws. Flame leapt around them and threw few of his own even faster than Tai expected. He quickly dodged one from the right, and then the left, but the third came too fast, so his arms shot up and he put Flame’s arm in his strongest grip and found himself being pushed back.

He pushed forward as hard as he could, but Flame suddenly stopped and Tai stumbled forward and then Flame’s hand struck him in the face, sending him on to his back. Flame leapt up and used the Terra Force tornado but Tai back flipped to his feet and the leapt away from it.

“Terra Force!” Tai hurled the fireball, hoping Flame wouldn’t be able to dodge with its attack ending and still in the air. No such luck. Flame managed to twist itself around the fireball as it landed and then charged at Tai faster than he could respond. The blocked the blow Flame delivered, but was pushed into the wall and then Flame followed up with its other fist punching at Tai’s head while still pushing. Tai tilted his head and Flame’s fist went through the wall, but Tai was unable to push himself free of Flame’s grip.

***

TK and Kari stopped in the room they had been reunited with Tai in. “Now what?” Kari asked. She had just finished telling him what the guard told her and Tai.

“Let’s go help Matt. He’s been fighting longer, so he’ll probably need it more. Then we’ll help Tai and find a way to stop all of this place’s security. Knowing the others, they’re still fighting.”

“We may have to change plans,” Kari muttered and pointed in the direction she was looking. TK looked and saw Lector in front of a doorway looking angry.

“Should’ve known you were here!” he snapped and drew his sword, “The boss was right!”

“Then I guess if I get past you I can get to where Mikain’s hiding,” TK said. Lector made no response, but his eyes told TK that he was right. Mikain was probably dealing with this stuff personally.

“You go on,” Kari whispered from TK’s side, “I’ll deal with Lector. We probably won’t get a better shot.”

“Remember how strong he is,” TK warned.

“Like I’d forget. Just go and remember what Tai said!” TK nodded and rushed past Lector as Kari switched to Angewomon hoping she’d be alright.

***

“The boy is on his way to you right now,” Lector’s voice sounded from the com link leading to the room Mikain was waiting. He had come here to track down Trev but quickly learnt of the Digidestined invading his fortress. If nothing else, they were brave.

“Understood,” he answered, “Deal with the girl but remember that listening for our agents tracking down Trev is more important.” He signed off and waited for TK to arrive.

He was glad in a way that TK and Kari defeated his Viralmon. It made knowing that these two kids who opposed him for four years were still alive much easier to take. Foes didn’t come more worthy than that.

He looked at the sword he brought with him. He would only use it on those worthy of having a duel with. He specifically wanted to fight TK because he had a Shadowmon blade. When a Kunaimon digivolved to Shadowmon, the sword didn’t appear. Rather, they forged it by hand and there was something about handmade weapons that made them so much better in Mikain’s eyes. He was positive that his blade was made by hand too, and he maintained it like it was.

TK, in his Shadowmon Form, burst in. “Nice entrance,” Mikain commented, “And I must congratulate you on getting in here, but I’m not surprised. Not with all the trouble you caused me in the past.

Strange though, how we can be such enemies, yet we haven’t actually met until now. Still, when I take over all worlds, I’ll see to it that not one detail of all the difficulties you and your friends will be left out by the historians. I’ll want everyone to know who my worthiest adversaries were.”

TK didn’t speak. Instead to switched to Angemon and drew his staff. <So he knows that I’m not a normal person. Good.> Mikain smiled. “You’re right. Talk is meaningless. I’ve been looking forward to this duel, so let’s begin.”
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