Before getting to this chapter, I have an apology to make. I only just this week noticed that I had Anonymous Reviews disabled for my story. I'm not sure how this happened, as I didn't make any actual effort to do so - maybe it was default and I just didn't notice before. Whatever the case, I certainly didn't mean to lock people out of giving their input! You should be able to give a review now regardless of whether you're a user or not. Sorry about this!
All right, with that out of the way, it's time for the chapter. Enjoy!
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Chapter 8: Narrow Escapes
The Allomon stalked through the streets, scanning the quiet, darkened homes. So many targets...but how to strike to do the most damage? It wouldn't be worth it if he only tore down one or two. He wouldn't stand for it. It wasn't his job to cause any destruction - just to scout the area where they were entering, and figure out why their scouts weren't returning. But he loved to cause mayhem, and he just couldn't resist causing a bit of an uproar before he had to go back.
In his distraction, he didn't notice the figures nearby. Then they were on him. Something wrapped around his arms, legs, and neck before he could react. Their grip seemed tenuous, but his failure to register that immediately allowed them to drag him down so he was laying on the ground and in poor position to break free.
"Nice catch, Darkwolfmon," said a voice. Even in the dark, the Allomon could make out two creatures in front of it. "This is a nice big one. Okay, just what exactly were you planning to do?"
"Des...destroy stuff," replied the Allomon uncertainly.
"That's really specific. In any case, I don't think we can let you do that."
"Screw you."
"Now, now, I'd think that politeness would be a good idea. You see, I've got a very powerful comrade here who would just love to get on your case and under your skin...and he's got the weaponry to back it up. And if that wasn't enough, it's not just us two around here. You're dealing with five opponents, and even with your size, you won't be able to take us all." The Allomon would never have admitted it, but he was getting nervous. "And we're charged with protecting this area, and we do our job well."
"So, I'll give you a choice. You can either resist and try to attack, and be quickly slaughtered, or you can go back to your own world, leave Emperius for good, and never show your ugly hide around here again. Either way is just fine with me, though it would be a lot more fun to just kill you..."
"All right! I give...this isn't worth my life. But I won't forget about this."
"I'm sure."
The Allomon sighed in defeat, and used the force given to him to open the gate to his return. As his consciousness wavered, he wondered who it was that browbeat him into submission.
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"So, that's what we're going to do now? Bully our enemies?"
"Come on, Andrexmon, you thought it was fun."
Andrexmon scowled. "We're not doing this for fun, Burnreptimon."
"Yeah, yeah. Look, you looked into his eyes just like I did. Anyone who could look into his eyes and not see 'giant wuss' is really slow to catch on. I wouldn't have suggested that tactic if I wasn't sure it would work."
"How can you tell that a large dinosaur is a pansy just by looking into its eyes?"
"I have my ways," replied Burnreptimon mysteriously as the rest of the gang came out of hiding.
"Nicely done, you two," said Bolteaglemon. "I admit, I had my doubts, but I guess he was as weak-kneed as he looked."
"If only they were all that easy," said Skydramon wistfully. "We would have a lot easier time of things, wouldn't we?"
"Hey, I'm not complaining," Darkwolfmon chimed in. "I like having an opportunity to practice with my Nightmare Tangle, especially on larger creatures. If I can get the larger creatures to submit to it, all our battles will be-what was that?"
Everyone looked to where Darkwolfmon looked. A posse of cars was driving their ways; as if that wasn't bad enough, two helicopters were tagging along, searchlights blaring brightly. Evidently, someone in one of the houses had seen either Allomon or them, and had called in to the authorities.
"Scatter!" ordered Burnreptimon. "Meet back you-know-where!" They all split, racing away from their pursuers any way they could.
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Burnreptimon ran hard and fast. In order to not draw attention to himself, he couldn't boost himself up with his Pyre Rush, but he was a lot faster than any human anyway. After several minutes, he slowed and stopped to catch his breath. He turned to look behind him, and saw no one; it appeared that no one was chasing him.
He resumed his escape, walking now instead of running. He tried to keep his wits about him, keep his guard up, and keep a low profile. Even so, he worried that he might miss someone who was after him.
The click of two pistol hammers and a loudly whispered "Freeze!" told him that his fears were justified. He stopped in place, not wanting to provoke his followers further.
"Turn around and keep your hands in front of you!" ordered the same speaker. Burnreptimon complied and turned around. There were two men, one who appeared to be a police officer and one who seemed to be a government agent. The officer was the speaker; the agent appeared too cowed to say anything.
"Damned monster...I should shoot you right now," spat the officer. "Terrorizing the neighborhood, attacking people...if I wasn't under strict order to keep you alive, you'd have a bullet in your head right now. Hell, I'm not beyond defying those orders, either."
This was not going well. Burnreptimon decided that silence wasn't going to help him. "Look, you don't have to worry about me. I don't mean anyone any harm-"
"Shut up!" Apparently, the officer would have none of it. "Don't try to act innocent! We've seen how things stand! All you and your kind care about is our destruction!"
"Easy, easy!" Burnreptimon tried to calm him, but the officer wasn't biting, and his fingers were twitching. No choice, gotta act fast.
He crossed his arms in front of him and raised his Heat Field just before the officer began firing. The bullets were aimed right, but as they passed into the Heat Field, they melted almost instantly. Instead of a solid projectile, Burnreptimon only had to endure several globs metallic liquid splattering against the scales on his forearms and muzzle as the officer emptied the entire clip on him.
"Bastard!" howled the officer. He needed to reload, and that time that he needed was just what Burnreptimon needed. He enveloped himself in flames and dashed forward. He snatched the agent's unfired weapon out of his hands, and then grabbed the officer's gun. It took only a moment of wrestling before the weapon became too hot for the officer to handle, and he was forced to relinquish it.
"These things are dangerous," hissed Burnreptimon condescendingly as he used his hands to melt the guns into useless blobs of molten metal and tossed them to the ground. "You could hurt someone with them."
"You monster!" Even unarmed, the officer didn't back down. "I will take you into custody! Even if I have to do it with my bare hands!"
"Save it," replied Burnreptimon as he killed the flames around him. "I've got bigger fish to fry, as well as bigger monsters. You're not worth the time to care about." With that, he turned on his heel and sprinted off, ignoring the obscenities hurled by the officer as he tried and failed to keep up. This time, he didn't stop running until he reached safe haven.
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Bolteaglemon and Skydramon had split off in order to divide their pursuers; as the only flying members of the group, they were the ones who really had to contend with the helicopters.
Bolteaglemon was having trouble escaping the searchlight. She was a fast flier, but the the helicopter easily had her beat, and she couldn't shake it. She had to act fast if she wanted to get away.
"I gotta destroy that light!" she said to herself. "Spark-no, I can't do that! I just want to wreck the light, not the copter!"
She had little choice. She swung up towards the helicopter, and noticed that it stopped trying to pursue her and was trying to back off. She reached it before it could get away, and slammed her fist into the light. This caused the helicopter to wobble somewhat, but the light remained functional despite her efforts - the casing was stronger than she expected. Still, the move had disoriented the helicopter and the pilots enough that she got a chance to dive down into the trees, away from the searching beam.
No more flying, but she was okay with that; at least the light wouldn't be able to find her. She ran through the trees as fast as she could, though the form wasn't exactly well-suited to ground travel. She kept low, tried to stay quiet, and always alert. The last thing she wanted to do was run into someone.
As she came to the edge of the tree lines, something stepped in front of her. With a squawk, she reacted. "Static Cracker!"
She didn't really try to attack, but the contact was enough. The figure in front of her took the electrical jolt, and crumpled to the ground. Only now did she see who it was; a human police officer.
"Oh, no..." She kneeled down. The human was not conscious, but a quick check indicated that he had a pulse, albeit erratic, and was breathing. She hadn't killed him. "Oh, thank God..." she sighed with relief. Still, she was worried; she had just shocked the guy, and she worried that there might be lingering effects. She couldn't leave him there. But at the same time, she couldn't risk being discovered.
Her dilemma was resolved when she saw the object on his belt. A radio transmitter. That would have to do. She took it from his belt and spoke into it. "Hello?"
There was a moment of silence before a response. "Who is this? Identify yourself!"
"No time. Listen, an officer is down. He suffered a moderate electrical shock that knocked him unconscious. He needs attention immediately. His location is at the edge of the trees near the old fields. Please hurry."
The voice repeated itself, "Identify yourself immediately!" but Bolteaglemon ignored it now. She was ready to get up and go when she heard the officer moan. He was waking up. He gave her a look, and his eyes opened wide and he started to squirm.
"No, stay down. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to injure you. But I've called for support for you, and they should be on their way. Just stay down until help arrives, okay?"
The man nodded, still in too much of a daze to recognize that he was talking to something that wasn't human. The helicopters were gone, so Bolteaglemon decided not to waste more time and risk more people running into her. She stepped over the man, exited the trees, and took off into the air to get to their meeting place.
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Skydramon had fared better against his helicopter. It too was keeping track of him with its searchlight, and he was unable to fly fast enough to escape. Soon, he grew impatient with having to deal with that.
"I hope that light is vulnerable up there," he said to himself. "Twister Orb!" He fired his attack right at the light of the helicopter. It struck home, shattering the casing and the bulb and disabling the searchlight. The helicopter wobbled dangerously, but managed to regain its stability. "Hoo yeah! Take that!" he cackled triumphantly. "I'm outta here!" He rushed away from the helicopter, which broke off its pursuit, being unable to reliably detect its quarry.
He had intended to fly all the way to their meeting place, but he reconsidered and decided against it; though it was dark, there was a chance that they could see him descend if they were nearby. He decided to walk it out from nearby.
He landed in an area that seemed to be empty about a mile and a half away from the meeting point. He hadn't gone three steps, though, before he heard the click of a pistol behind him. Dammit, he thought as he turned around. It didn't look like a police officer, so he guessed it was one of the government agents that had been hanging around. This could be trouble if I don't play it carefully... "You're not gonna shoot me now, are you?"
"Only if you make me." He kept his gun pointed at Skydramon. "I'm ready to at any moment. All I need is to feel threatened."
"Funny. If that's all you need, why aren't you firing now?" It was a bold statement, perhaps too bold, but he needed to keep the agent talking while he thought something out, and something like that was more likely to get a response.
"I have my reasons."
"Oh? And what are those?"
"You talk too much. If you have to know, we've got orders to catch you alive. If I shot and killed you now, I'd be in as much trouble as I could imagine."
"Captured alive?" His curiosity got the better of him. "Why's that?"
"Why else? They have some insane desire to learn about you. Think there's something about you that's different from the others, and they want to know what it is so they can use it."
Skydramon spied an opening there, and quickly made a decision. Maybe I can talk him to distraction and give myself a chance to get away. He probably doesn't expect me to be so intelligent... "Sounds like you don't agree, do you? Think it's useless to learn about us?"
The agent gave Skydramon a strange look, and Skydramon worried that he wouldn't bite. Then, cautiously, he responded, "What's the point? You're monsters. You have nothing to give us alive that you couldn't give us dead. They're just distracting everyone from what's important."
Thinking fast, Skydramon quickly organized a long response. "Are you sure about that? No knowledge is completely useless. Firstly, even if it doesn't get to the heart of the matter, some information can lead to more important information. Second, perhaps you don't know all the information you might need, and tangential information is where you find it. Thirdly, perhaps you might gather information on an unrelated subject that turns out to be extremely important. So perhaps, through this extra information, you may find a weakness...perhaps information on who should be captured and who you shouldn't bother with...you may even find the key to why these creatures are here in the first place. Never underestimate the power of any information."
The agent looked completely bewildered at the sudden torrent of speech, a point in Skydramon's favor. "But...what good is it if it's not related? It would be more useful to find what's most pertinent first! We could buy ourselves time-"
"The most relevant information is not always the most obvious nor the most accessible. Sometimes, indirect routes are the best bet for gathering information. Take this situation. As you said before, we don't intend to reveal any important information about ourselves. However-" Skydramon suddenly made his move, dashing forward before the agent could react and knocking the gun out of his hands. The agent dove for it, but Skydramon beat him and snatched it out of his reach. Startled, the agent backed away, and Skydramon smirked at him. With a flourish, he tossed the gun into the air and ripped through it with his Aero Nail. The pieces falling to the ground had about the expected effect on the agent, who turned pale and started shaking.
"Relax, tough guy, I'm just making sure you can't come after me. Like I said, we don't intend to reveal any of our own secrets...but, you can learn stuff about us nonetheless. Like, say, that we're never unarmed, despite what you might think, and that we're not just mindless beasts with an appetite for destruction. A few small facts can tell you a lot about a person, you know."
"Y...you expect me to buy that?"
Skydramon shrugged. "Can't help you with everything. Now, if you excuse me, I have an engagement that I cannot afford to blow off. Tah." And with that, Skydramon took off, looking for a better place to land and make his walk to their rendezvous point.
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Andrexmon took refuge in one of the few larger groves of trees within the city limits. He had initially been nervous because this grove was surrounded by houses on two sides, and it occurred to him that the pursuit might be stronger if he remained closer to the buildings. However, he soon found that the opposite was true; there was no foot pursuit after him. This was a good thing; he wasn't too slow, but he was definitely a larger target, and he certainly didn't want to have to take a bullet.
Soon he came to the eastern edge of the grove, where he could see the yards of a few houses extending towards the trees. He kept somewhat within the trees, following the border south, where he knew he could emerge more safely.
He felt he was getting close when he heard a noise near where he was walking. Knowing that there were agents around, his first thought was that it was one of them, so he swung around and leveled his arm, converted to cannon form, at the area of the disturbance. There was a moment of standoffish silence.
"Stand up...slowly...and keep your hands visible," growled Andrexmon fiercely. "Make no sudden moves, and don't try to run at me or away from me."
A trembling figure rose from a bush at the edge of the forest. Andrexmon was shocked; it was just an young boy, probably not much older then ten. "P-p-p-please...don't hurt me..." said the boy timidly, obviously in tears.
"Jeez, kid, you scared the hell out of me," sighed Andrexmon, lowering his arm. "I thought you were someone who might attack me. What the hell are you doing out here? Haven't you been paying attention to the news? It's dangerous enough out here during the day, much less in the middle of the night."
The boy didn't respond. Perhaps it was just fear, or perhaps it was the mind-blowing effect from being chastised by a monster about being outside when it was dangerous. This was lost on Andrexmon, however.
"Do you live in this house?" he asked, pointing the the closest house to their area. The boy nodded. "All right. You should head inside and get to bed. Don't come out wandering at night again, okay?"
"You...you aren't gonna hurt me?"
"Kid..." Andrexmon crouched down to be closer to eye level with the boy. "There are a lot of monsters that will appear around here who will want to hurt you. I am not one of those monsters. If I had been, I wouldn't have hesitated before firing into that bush. But don't tempt fate any more, okay?"
"O...okay..."
"Good." Andrexmon left the boy there in wonder and relief, feeling a bit relieved himself. It wasn't an agent after all...still, he wasn't completely out of the woods, so he paid a lot of attention to his surroundings as he made his way to the meeting location.
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Two agents and a police officer met up together in a deeper section of the woods. "Did you catch sight of anything?" asked the officer.
"I saw a big, lumbering thing that looked like a dinosaur, except it was partially metal," said one of the agents, looking like he was about to lose it at any moment. "I won't be able to sleep sober for a month. How'd you do?"
"I was lucky. Didn't see a thing," said the second agent.
"Same here," said the officer. "I think we'd be best off heading back."
Darkwolfmon looked on from the shadows. The second agent was the one who had been harassing them on Saturday night. He'd learned that his name was Lexis Redford. Darkwolfmon had a mind to screw around with the agent tonight; after all, he would be safe from the shadows.
Pity, Agent Redford, he thought malevolently. You'll probably never know what hit you, never realize who it was that scared you out of your wits tonight...
Unfortunately, his payback would have to wait. Agent Redford turned and greeted another person who had just entered. "Agent Katran...decided to join us, did you?"
Darkwolfmon cursed to himself as Elliot entered his field of vision. Dammit, it would figure as much that I would get unlucky like this...consider yourself lucky, Agent Redford. I'm not going to risk attacking with him around.
"I've been working harder than you have, Redford. Just because you're from DC doesn't mean you and your buddies can just sit around trying to look important while the rest of us do the work."
Agent Redford raised a placating hand. "We are merely exercising due caution. We discourage charging in to attack unknown threats."
"Well, unless you start pitching ideas that will get us somewhere, you're going to have to deal with it. We are still in charge here, as I'm sure you are well aware. Now, have any of you seen anything?"
"Sir!" the other agent called to Elliot. "I got a look at one of them! The large one, he went through the trees here a while before! He looked...jeez, like something out of a science-fiction movie or something! Some kind of dinosaur with robotic parts or something!"
"Did you try to stop him?"
"I'm...I'm sorry, sir. It was so big...I'm sorry, I lost my nerve..."
"Don't worry about it. If it was a robot of some kind it might not have been easily taken down by our handguns...just try to get a good picture for the artists, if you can. Come on, we're moving out, we've lost track of all of them."
Darkwolfmon watched as the agents and officer left. Artist? That sounds like bad news...I hope no one got a look at me. I'll have to warn the others about this, we'll have to be even more on guard than normal after this. He phased through the shadows back to the rendezvous point.
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"Well, that was certainly a hair-raising experience," said Reyn as they split back into their natural forms. "How many of us got seen?"
"I heard my dad talking," said Derek. "Sounds like all of you except for Bolteaglemon were very clearly witnessed, and she was seen in previous events, so they have an idea of what she looks like. I may have gotten off safely, but I can't confirm that. And Dad said something about an artist. I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I have a pretty good idea."
"How did they see us?" protested Datacarnomon. "I checked to make sure there were no agents around! I would think that they'd have revealed themselves..."
"The authority that intended to accost you," explained Blackcanismon, "was suddenly affected by a case of the jitters. His nerve failed him, thus explaining his ability to remain invisible to your sight."
"Well, that sucks," complained Isaac. "I can't believe we didn't consider our sensors...that would have told us for sure. I think I still have to get used to being part robot in that form."
"Let's just hightail it home," suggested Skylar tiredly. "There's gonna be hell to pay if we're out here too late. I keep worrying my mom and dad because I'm gone all the time."
"All right, then. Are we meeting here again tomorrow?"
"I think it would be wise for us to keep a low profile," said Salmandmon. "They're going to be looking for us specifically, so we might be well served by staying close to home tomorrow."
"I'm fine with that," yawned Iris. "See you guys later."
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Not much to say about this one. It's shorter than most of the previous ones, but I didn't feel like it needed to be especially drawn out. Plus, it was pretty fun to write, and kind of sets the stage for the next arc of this story.
Thanks again to people who are submitting reviews!
The Silent Insomniac: Yeah, Reyn and Skylar aren't what I would call common, but they are real names. I actually know a Reyn, which probably is one reason it came to my mind here. Skylar, well, that was more for the subtle joke than anything. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and that I've got some elements that are less common - hopefully I can continue to keep you interested!
ambsos001: Glad you're enjoying it! If you can point to any specific areas where I've made grammar errors, feel free to do so, I'm always trying to make sure I catch as many mistakes as I can but sometimes they slip past. This is the most I've ever written for a single work, so it takes a lot of looking to catch everything I do! Probably good practice, though.
