Chapter Four - "Task Group Forty-Seven"
"The NSA!?" Takato exclaimed, but Jeri shushed him and signaled for him to be quiet.
They rounded a corner and found themselves spying on a deserted street. Deserted except for the fact that Jordan Burgess and his men were staring a group of figures that looked like heavily armored Power Rangers. Takato heard a clicking sound and turned around to see Jeri loading a gun which scared him. She seemed too delicate and precious to be holding a weapon of that caliber, and it seemed worse than ordering a Digimon around somehow.
"What are you doing!?" he whispered. "If they're Digimon in disguise, why can't you just zap them with Henry's device?"
Jeri shook her head.
"They've found some way to take human shape," she explained in a hushed voice. "Meaning that as long as they're in this world in their human shapes, I can't force them back. The Juggernaught Apparatus only works on Digimon, and technically they aren't data for the moment. We have to deal with them in secular means. If they die here, then they die in both worlds - and don't talk much more, they have heightened senses and physicality. They might hear us and knock our blocks off."
Takato took Jeri's advice, and Jeri checked her watch briefly before looking up at the showdown between the Power Ranger's knockoffs, and the personified Digimon. It looked like something really bad was about to go down, and Takato wondered where Keyana and the shady waiters from the restaurant were.
"NSA Task Group Forty-Seven," she explained whispering. "Those are field agents- the ones from Fortunado's, the Thunderground."
Takato snorted getting a sever look from Jeri.
"Sorry," he said. "The government is using Power Rangers to fight Digimon?"
Jeri sighed.
"No, they use ablative armor generators," she said. "Its integrated into their DNA and can be activated externally using things they call Thunder Blasters- they look like high tech watches and with the press of a button releases certain chemicals into their bloodstream which duress the generators to activate. Its one of the most advanced technologies on the planet, rumored to be obtained by extraterrestrial means. With those generators, they're like living weapons."
Then they strained their ears as Jordan Burgess began talking in a very quiet voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a silky voice that made Takato's insides icy. "I see that you see fit to follow myself and my cohorts around in important business meetings. For this invasion of privacy, there will be a most unpleasant backlash. Stand down or be destroyed."
Jeri breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good," she said getting a weird look from Takato. "No, not that they're about to fight. Good, because they know that there was only one undercover operation going on tonight. Stupid Americans ... they found the story of a quote unquote business woman from Iparc Technologies so convincing they set up their own covert operation on the same night. Neither one of them know that I'm an agent, and if it weren't for them, my mission would have gone successfully."
"What mission?" Takato asked.
"Well," Jeri began. "I was sent under the guise that Iparc Technologies was interested in a merger with Technowerx, but in actuality I was trying to get some incriminating evidence so that D.A.D would be able to take action without just walking blindly into a bad situation."
"D.A.D?" Takato asked confused as was common tonight.
"Department of Anomalous Defense," she sighed. "A perfect acronym as any. It's the present-day version of Hypnos. They specialize in weird stuff, and that's who Henry works for. His dad and Riley started it."
"I
see," Takato said feeling as insignificant and wasteful as ever. They were
both part of the government. They had continued working trying to save the
world, and Takato had run off to
She nodded.
"I called him while I was at the restaurant before the power went out because of Saidenmon's biomerge." she said. "He's bringing weapons that he designed himself to better combat Burgess and his cohorts. We don't know if regular bullets'll harm them. Rika's here too. She's one of the topmost strategic officers in the Japanese army so Henry got the government to lend him their best tactical and field agents, who just happened to be his childhood friends."
Takato looked down at his shoes. Rika, Jeri, and Henry all had important jobs, and the only reason he even knew about it was because he happened to date someone from this Task Group Forty-Seven who was behind one of those futuristic looking suits around the corner. Something else still bothered him.
"If Keyana works for this NSA group," he began. "Then why did she tell me that she worked for the CIA instead?"
Jeri shrugged.
"Extra undercover junk I guess," she said. "It didn't work because they blew their cover. Too many of them kept checking on your friend Mrs. Butler. They realized Jordan suspected something before he had a chance to act and they left originally starting going one at a time so as not to draw attention to themselves, but they panicked and all flooded outside when Burgess and his men stood up. They were afraid that they were going to go after Keyana and defeat her before she could get any help-"
"And Burgess's cronies went after them," Takato finished. "Looks like they're about to fight!"
Sure enough the Thunderground and the Digimon were getting ready to fight. Most of Burgess's men looked unimpressive while Task Group Forty-Seven looked like they could press a button and make guns come out of ever joint in their armor. Then he realized he shouldn't be so envisioning remembering what Jeri said about these not being normal human beings. In one swift motion, all hell broke loose.
Each Thunderground member had a unique weapon to their name, but they were seemingly useless against the unarmed offense because Burgess's men were too fast for them. One of the men in green armor tried throwing his lightning-speed and razor-sharp boomerang and one of the men, but they simply leaped twenty feet into the air without so much as a grunt, and landed crouched on the ground as it came back around soaring in his hand. The one in silver armor, who Takato reconized as a woman because her chest plating stuck out to accommodate her, had a giant indestructible mallet that they kept swinging at her opponents unceremoniously.
"HWAH!" she would scream each time she pivoted the weapon, but they would just bend straight backwards solidifying Takato's associating with them and Agent Smith from The Matrix.
Another one, dressed in gold suggesting he was the leader, had two swords. One was a thin curved red katana that was glowing with some strange luminescence, and the other one was a broadsword made out of pure gold and silver. Because the broadsword looked as if it were heavier than the small lightweight katana, Takato was amazed at how this fighter maintained his balance. It was no wonder he was the leader. He slashed away at impossible speeds grunting with each swing and thrust, but couldn't get a hit.
Then there was the one dressed in red armor that had an endless supply of red translucent dice that he kept rolling in a cupped hand and throwing at the Digimon. It seemed that, depending on what number the two dice would total there was a different effect. Takato watched the sunglass-wearing cronies effortlessly escape flash grenades, several types of gases, land mines, bombs, and even a high pitched glass-breaking screech that emitted from the dice when they totaled seven. There was also one of the female NSA operatives in emerald with a long electric whip that she swung around without avail because the enemies would jump back and up every time she began to swing.
There was another pink female that tried confusing the Digimon with dizzying acrobatics ending in picture perfect martial arts maneuvers, but couldn't get a hit. A blue one had what looked like some kind of grenade launcher, only it sprayed ultra high pressure electrified water, but they dodged this as well, in addition to the last girl who was wearing yellow attacking with a double-edged scythe lance that Takato reconized as a swallow but she couldn't hit them with accuracy either!
And then there was the last member of the Thunderground all in black who had sat back watching everyone go crazy. He was short and plump, and didn't look like he had a weapon. Moments after the failure of his yellow companion he stood up straight cocking his neck from side to side.
CRACK! CRACK!
"All right mother fuckers!" he screamed drawing their attention. "Fuck this motherfucking bullshit!"
CLICK! CLICK!
At once he had two weapons, one in each hand. One looked like some kind of machine gun, and the other like the blue fighter's weapon, only his was a grenade launcher. He pulled the trigger aiming right for Jordan Burgess and a single grenade flew from the barrel. Burgess didn't move or flinch and it seemed almost like slow motion as the grenade made its way swiftly to its target.
KA-BOOM!
"Holy-"
Takato gasped before Jeri pinched him. Takato was sure that the small mushroom
cloud that erupted where Mr. Burgess had been standing could be seen by his
mother back in
"WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH!!!" went about twenty car alarms along with car alarm horns that emitted on long. "BEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP!"
"Heh," said the black operative unconcerned at the absolute destruction around him. "Happy Independence Day motherfuckers!"
"Do you think he got him?" Takato whispered, and Jeri shrugged.
"The PJA can't read human bio signs," she sighed getting back to her feet. "Even if he were alive, I couldn't tell."
But they got their answer soon enough. The blue operative had gotten to his feet and began spraying the blaze with fire. Sprawled on the ground, but without as much as a smolder or wrinkle on his white suit, Jordan Burgess got up looking quite unfazed. He squinted a bit as if his head hurt for a brief second and rubbed his ears.
"Try again?" he uttered with a big grin on his face. It was then that the sound of a racing car could be heard coming down the road. "What the-"
The car came to a stop around the corner where Takato and Jeri were hiding. It was some kind of supped-up red convertible with flawless paint so well-washed, you could see your face in it. Because of the tinted windows, Takato had to wait until the driver of the luxurious car got out of the front seat along with the passenger who was in the back seat. It was a blue-haired rough looking man with his locks slicked back sleekly with a ton of hair jell in a blue jumpsuit, and a strong but beautiful looking woman dressed in black Levi's, and a halter top with a familiar looking broken heart symbol on it.
"Henry?" Takato uttered in disbelief of how much his friends had changed over twenty years. "Rika? Is that you ...?"
They looked down, their important selves, joined by Jeri who patted Takato on the back as she joined the other three government workers.
"Takato?" Henry said squinting and Rika cracked what Takato could tell was an infrequent smile and acknowledging nod. "What are you doing here?"
"I-"
"You'd better stay out of the way," he said uncertainly. "We're going to take care of these guys."
"But I can fight too!" Takato said wanting to feel wanted and relevant, but Rika shook her head.
"You don't know how to operate these weapons," she said in a voice that was soft but had an ultimate tone hidden subliminally in it that said she wouldn't be questioned. "Besides, you're too cute for this. I bet you've got yourself some beautiful wife or something to look forward to."
"Actually I-"
"No time," Henry said. It was the second time he had heard those words spoken to him in a sharp annoyed voice; once from Jeri, and now from Henry. "Tamer Group, let's move!"
And with that they rushed forward with elaborate and large chrome weapons just as the Thunderground began fighting again. That was the last straw.
"Well," he said feeling a few salty tears stinging his eyes. "Looks like you guys don't need the looser, Takato, around anymore. I'm going back to my stupid useless life in my stupid apartment ..."
And with that and a sniff, he walked away as the sounds of battle resumed.