Chapter 12

"Davis! You gotta let me fight!" whined Veemon as he watched the other digimon take on Piedmon. "They need my help!"

"No way, Veemon!" replied his partner sternly. "You heard what Tai said, you need to save your strength. With Agumon not doing so good, Imperialdramon is our only shot." Though he said it, he too was rather anxious. Seeing the other digimon being beaten while just sitting there was not exactly his idea of fun.

Davis looked around and noticed that Ken seemed to be having the same problem with Wormmon. Apparently Veemon wasn't the only one willing to jump back in the fray so soon. What if... Davis shook his head. Tai and the rest of the older Digidestined had taken on Piedmon before and they knew just how strong he was. Going against what the old leader had said would be foolish.

"But Davis, I'm fine!"

Than again, he was prone to foolishness...

The goggle boy looked down at his partner and grinned. "All right! I'm sick of just sitting here! If you say you're ready to fight, then so am I!"

Looking a little too excited, the little blue digimon looked up and shouted, "Yeah!" With a nod, the two stood up and made a dash for where Ken was crouching. The boy genius looked up quickly, but relaxed when he realized who it was coming toward him.

"Davis, what is it?" he asked, but he had a feeling that he already knew the answer by the look in the other boy's eyes.

"I can't just sit here anymore while the others are getting the stuffing kicked out of 'em!" Veemon, who stood next to his partner gave a harsh nod, trying to show that he really was fine.

Ken didn't look so sure. "Tai told us to rest up for a bit, and I think he's right." But he didn't have time to add more as Wormmon looked up with pleading eyes and said "But Ken, they need our help." Just seeing the look on his digimon's face made his resolve waver.

"I want to help fight too, but I don't know if - "

"Davis! Ken!" came a voice from further into the forest. All four turned to see Kari running toward them, Gatomon in tow. As she reached them, she gave a relieved sigh. "Oh good, I'm so glad I found you. I was afraid that maybe Davis had gotten too restless already."

Feeling suddenly guilty, Davis quickly straightened up. "Of course not! Tai told us to stay put, didn't he? Don't you worry, Kari, as long as I'm here, nothing will - "

"We need your help," continued Kari, ignoring Davis' ramblings, "Tai has a plan, but it'll only work if we all work together and time it just right."

"Of course," repied Ken, glad to finally have the chance to help out, "just tell us what we need to do."

Matt suddenly ducked behind a tree as a large blast flew past him. He glanced to his right, and seeing that Tai and Agumon had managed to dodge it too, kept moving toward the battle. Once they were close enough, he turned to his partner tucked under his arm.

"You sure you're all right?" he asked, a little concerned considering the beating he had taken not so long ago.

Tsunomon nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Matt pulled out his Digivice, and with a high squeal and a bright light, Tsunomon became Gabumon, who was just as quickly replaced by Garurumon. Climbing on his partner's back, he cried, "Alright, let's go Garurumon!"

As the two of them raced away, Tai and Agumon watched them. "If they can just stay out of trouble, they should be fine," Tai said, more to reassure himself than anything.

"Do you think they'll be ok?" asked Agumon, "Maybe I should digivolve to draw Piedmon's attack."

The boy looked down at his partner, "No way! We need to make sure you have as much strength back as possible! They're just going to fill everyone in on the plan, and Garurumon is made for speed so they should be able to dodge any attacks."

Agumon looked at the ground. Tai could tell that his partner was getting antsy just sitting there, but it couldn't be helped. For his plan to work, Agumon would need to be well rested. Digivolving into WarGreymon again would take a lot out of him, but they needed another mega to fight Piedmon. He had a gut feeling that WarGreymon would only get one shot. Even though Agumon insisted he was ready to fight, the Child of Courage could tell that he was still exhausted.

"Wolf Claw!"

Tai quickly turned, just in time to see WereGarurumon's attack miss it's target. "There's one," he mumbled, "That must mean Matt managed to get the plan out already. Now all we need is - "

"Celestial Arrow!"

Tai punched the air and let out a "Yes!" as the arrow hit Piedmon square in the chest, knocking him backwards. Now was the time!

"Agumon!" The Digidestined raised his Digivice, Agumon more than ready for what was coming.

"Agumon warp digivolve to... WarGreymon!"

"Alright! You go, WarGreymon!" shouted Tai as his digimon took off, "You know what to do!"

"Right!" The mega digimon looked around to see that as instructed, all of the digimon had begun encircling their opponant. Seeing Angewomon in place, he stopped and readied himself to attack. He was still tired, but he wasn't about to let that stop him.

Piedmon looked on in amusement. 'So, they think they can win by surrounding, do they? A tactic that would work on lesser digimon, but assuredly won't work on me!' He was winning, and he knew it. All of the other digimon were almost completely exhausted by now; Aquilamon had even reverted back to Hawkmon and was now resting in Yolei's arms, and the only mega present he had soundly beaten once already. He smirked. Despite the minor injuries he'd already obtained, he had no doubt that he was still the strongest digimon there.

The clown digimon glanced around him. There was still one area they had yet to close up. "Fools," he muttered to himself, "Do they honestly think such sloppy offenses will work on me?" He straightened up, laughing to himself, waiting for the opposing digimon to make the first move. 'As long as I can take care of WarGreymon permenently, the rest of them are of no concern to me. Soon this little game will be over, and the Digidestined will once and for all be eliminated.'

Suddenly, Angewomon raised her bow toward Piedmon and let a holy arrow fly once more toward the mega. As if on cue, WereGarurumon, Garudamon, MegaKabuterimon, Zudomon, and Shakkoumon all let their strongest attacks fly. Piedmon jumped to dodge the attacks with ease. Noticing a few were aimed a bit higher in case of such an occurance, he grabbed his swords and flung them in opposite directions, breaking the attacks and proceeding to head towards WereGarurumon and Angewomon.

'Now it's my turn!' WarGreymon gathered up all of his strength and with as much energy as he could muster, let out a loud "Terra Force!" It headed straight for the other mega who was still mid-air.

"Well played, WarGreymon, but I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that! Clown Trick!" Putting both hands together, he shot the ball of energy directly at the oncoming attack. But as the two attacks collided with a loud roar, Piedmon felt stinging pain shoot through his whole body, and instead of a soft landing, he hit the ground with a thud and a cry of agony.

"Yeah! How do you like that, you deranged circus clown!?"

There, no longer hidden amongst the trees, stood Davis, Ken, and Imperialdramon.

Piedmon cursed to himself as he tried to stand. They had left the opening on purpose, keeping the strongest digimon, one he had never seen before, a secret until he could attack him while completely unaware. He had underestimated them, again.

"No way," whispered Tai as he watched the mega get to his feet. He could still fight? This had to end now, while he was still weak. Turning to his partner, he noticed that WarGreymon was now resting on one knee, but the fact that he had not yet devolved was a welcome surprise. "WarGreymon! You have to finish him, now!"

The digimon's eye's narrowed. "Right!" As if he had just begun the fight, the mega sprang up and ran at Piedmon.

Davis and Ken looked up at their partner too.

"Let's finish this once and for all!"

"Let's cream that guy, Imperialdramon!"

"Terra Force!"

"Positron Laser!"

Frantically, Piedmon tried to dodge, but between the powerful last attack and the countless smaller ones before, he was too slow. As the two attacks hit him, he let out a last loud cry as his body broke into tiny bits of data and flew away.

Tai stared at the spot in disbelief. "We... won," he said, blinking. But his mouth suddenly curved into a large smile as he cried out, "We won!" Cheers went up from all of the surrounding Digidestined as each went to find and congratulate their devolved partners. The leader ran up to Koromon who was laying on the ground panting. Picking him up, he squeezed the little digimon and started jumping around. "Alright! Great job Koromon, you did it!"

"Tai, could you please stop squeezing me so tight?" whined the pink digimon, wincing.

"Tai!" cried Davis who was now carrying DemiVeemon in his arms. The younger boy stood directly in front of him, looking overly excited. "Did ya see that!? We creamed him! The way we showed up last minute and had Imperialdramon attack - "

"You did good, Davis," said Tai simply with a grin, cutting him off, deciding to not remind the other boy just who's plan it had been. But as Kari took that moment to run up to them, a tired Gatomon in her arms, Davis' eyes lit up even more - if that was indeed possible - as he called out to her.

"Kari! Weren't we awesome!? We - "

"You did great, Davis," she said politely as she turned to her brother, smiling. "Great plan, Tai! Who would have thought that it was you who thought of it?" She couldn't help but tease him as some of his rash actions during battles in the past came to mind.

Tai looked as though he would have roughly folded his arms across his chest with a huff had he not had Koromon in them. Instead he simply made a slight scowl as he said "Hey, if I'm such a bad leader, how'd I get the job, huh?" Not being able to help himself, he grinned widely as he added, "At least it worked. And this time Piedmon's gone for good!"

"Unless of course you somehow screwed it up, again." Matt smirked who had walked up behind him, giving Tai a rather hard pat on the back, Tsunomon letting out a little giggle himself despite his cuts and bruises.

Not sure he could take abuse from both of them, not to mention the other Digidestined that were beginning to gather around him, he did the only thing he could. "Well, if he does come back, I'm not the one to blame." The older boy glanced at Davis who up until that point had been trying to find someone else to babble to.

"Huh? What?" stuttered Davis, trying to understand exactly what he was getting at. Chibimon giggled quietly at his partner's confused response.

Tai looked down at the boy, and smirked, "Well, it was you wasn't it that was just bragging about how you defeated Piedmon. So if he were to come back a third time, it'd be your fault, wouldn't it?"

"B-but he won't! We got him for good this time!" cried Davis, not appreciating the fact that the teasing was now being directed at him.

"Come to think of it, wasn't it you that got sucked into the hole in the first place?" added Yolei.

Davis just stood there with his mouth open, a distressed look on his face. "But - I - That's - "

The rest of the Digidestined and their partners burst out laughing as the younger boy sighed heavily and hung his head. Still laughing, Tai said, "Cheer up, Davis! One of us probably would have sooner or later, well, maybe. Let's just get home; it's gotta be getting pretty late by now."

"'Pretty late'?" Joe nearly shouted in disbelief, "Do you have any idea how mad my mom will be when I show up around two in the morning?"

"Well, Joe may be exaggerating a bit, but he's right," said Izzy, "My mom's probably getting pretty worried too."

Davis' eyes went wide and he blinked a few times before speaking. "Is it really that late?" When all he got were nods in return, he practically dropped his partner as he grabbed his head and moaned. "I am so dead! I just went out for a little while 'cause I was bored, and I had no idea I'd be out fighting evil digimon and saving the world and stuff so I said I'd be back soon, but when I get back so late who knows what they'll do to me!? Maybe they'll lock me in my room for a week! Maybe they'll shave my head so I'll be too ashamed to go out in public! Or maybe they'll make me be Jun's slave so I'll have to wash her clothes, clean her room, organize her Matt pictures, paint her toenails..."

Having heard enough of his babbling for a lifetime, Tai sighed as he turned to leave, trying to surpress a laugh as Matt's face turned bright red from both exasperation and embarressment, Kari quickly following behind him. He had already had more happen to him in this one day than he had bargained for, and he was quite ready to go back to being bored. At that thought, he smirked.

'For a while, anyway.'

The End

A/N: Wow, has Joe said ANYTHING up until now?? o_O Oops... Ah well, he got his line, lol. I also realized after rereading some of the earlier chapters (since I was forgetting a few minor details like how late it was...) that the one time I refered to Davis' digimon in the In-Training form, I called him "Chibimon", which is his Japanese name. I probably did it because I really have a hard time calling him Demiveemon, so I decided to just leave it Chibimon. I figure everyone will know who I'm talking about anyway. Anyway, that's it!! It's finally over! I can't believe I finished it... UH, I mean... heh... No, I always had plans to finish it, it's just that I am extremely slow and, well, that can sometimes lead to things going unfinished for a VERY LONG TIME. Like this fic, heh. Anyway, I hope you all liked it! Well, anyone that's read it, anyway, lol. This story may not have a lot of fans, but that's alright. I enjoyed writing it, even if my sis stopped reading. XD Not sure if I'll write anymore Digimon fics in the future, but it all depends on what kind of mood I'm in. I still have to post the rest of OGAG, but after that, no more fics... I have a Hikaru no Go one I started, but it was more just because... OH! I DO have another Digimon one I started! It's darker, though. Not a humor fic. Lots more angst, lol. But I just can't help it, after all, Matt IS my favorite character. So yes, perhaps I'll post again in the future, but unless I feel inspired, don't expect it to be anything like this one. Though I will admit, I had so much fun with Davis... He alone might be able to convince me to write more. XD

Only the future will tell...

Until then, I hope you enjoyed it, and please tell me what you thought of my little fic!