Mercurymon's name is courtesy of OnixflametheBlue! Check out his stuff guys! Warning for more allusions to abuse and a mind suffering from the effects of it. Also brief mention to drug use and sensory overload.

Chapter Twenty: Ducks Going in a Row

I thanked the deities and the Holy Beasts that I am in the right boots to run on sand because otherwise I would probably be so far past six feet under I would be past hell. I ran to find Gao, who was sniffing torn up purple jackets and a couple of hair clips. Well, if they weren't dead, they were in deep shit, let us put it that way. I kept up my run, feeling Luna swear against the sand more than hearing it. I reflexively reached out and patted their heads after I stopped to breathe. "Find the trail?"

"Barely," admitted the dog, looking around. "It's relatively recent but the wet sand is making this more difficult than I anticipated." He pointed with his nose and I scratched one ear. He made a noise of delight, tail wagging. Killed the mood of possibly dead higher-ups but he liked his ear scratches. Most dogs did. Then he was off like a shot, running through the sand with me on his heels. I barely stopped to evolve Luna once. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do it again. At this rate though, she had to do it. Whatever killed Bronze or higher Tamers was at least a Perfect level.

We kept running. I barely stopped myself from tripping over a box. I let out a swear word and looked down at the orange box. Gao stopped, nearly dancing with Alec close at hand. Of course he was excited. Alec had been wanting a good fight since we had found him suddenly an AeroV-dramon on the beach below my house. He had looked so damn smug about it too. Not that we had any idea if he could fly or not but that didn't stop the guy from getting excited.

I knelt, my fingers curling over the lid of the box. I couldn't quite explain why., but I had a sudden urge to pry that thing open as soon as possible.

"Sir?" Gao called warily.

"One sec!" I reached into the little thing. I had to wonder how much stuff got dropped by dead Tamers or things like that over the years. Not that CITY was all that old, it was younger than basically almost every country I knew about on Earth and probably a lot I didn't. Still, there were a lot of dead people in the Digital World. Humans supposedly lived here after all. I didn't remember meeting too many.

I lifted what looked to me like a giant chicken egg out of the box. Well, except the egg looked like it was on fire. And there was a giant horn sticking out of it. Ow. Maybe I could stab whoever took Sukekiyo and Kakumi with it so they wouldn't squish me.

Luna hopped down to pick me up. Apparently I was taking too long. "A Digimental thingie?" she asked as she hopped.

"You know, a former member of the Olympus Twelve should not use 'thingie' in conversation," I told her, sucking said 'thingie' into my Digivice. "I'm the uneducated heathen. I should sound stupid."

"Piss off," she grumbled at me. "We aren't exactly expecting to trip over Digimentals. That's the second one you've gotten." She caught up to Gao, who I let become MachGaogamon, if only to hide Alec, punching dragon extraordinaire, in his fist. "Hell, the first one was a mission reward."

"Well apparently that means I can just trip over them, huh?" I couldn't help the sass. It was just how we rolled. She scowled at me again and kept jumping. I hoped this wouldn't be the time I chose to develop motion sickness. This was not the time, guys.

Saying that should have sealed my fate, but the smell of blood almost did it instead. I shut my eyes at the dizziness making my head start to pound. The rusty red stained the sand, but when I squinted my eyes open to see, it didn't seem enough to be a death sentence.

Still… the smell. I covered my nose and mouth. They all looked at me, all my Digimon.

Damn it. The love and concern hurt as much as the stench.

"'S nothin," I said after a minute. "My nose was actin' funny, that's all." I uncovered it, and everything was fine. Even the thick blood stench was fine. I was used to it again. "Let's keep going."

Luna picked me up again, and jumped. Still, I could feel it, their gentle eyes.

Damn me for teaching my kids to care.

At the sounds of yelling, I made Luna stop and put me down. "Go in," I told her. Doru pulled herself from the Digivice to nuzzle my face. I pet her without thinking. Her ears went back, like Dad said Mom's used to do, when they were in love. When Mom knew how to love, her ears would go back and she would lean in real close to him and make noises like a cat. Dad said that when I was a baby, she would make those noises for me all of the time. I wouldn't stop crying if she didn't, he would say.

I do the same thing when he hugs me now, he says. Or with Yuki. Yuki didn't do it, but then, she didn't look like Mom the way I did. A little albino girl, she was the least like her.

I have her hair. I have her face. I have her eyes. All I have from Dad is the dexterity. Mom was a klutz. That was why sometimes, the pain would be worse. Because sometimes she wouldn't mean it.

I pet Doru a little more softly, feeding the power into her fur.

It didn't change me being punished though. Nothing could do that. And I had needed to be punished. I still do, I think. For now, though, I have to make up for mistakes, and that means another fight. A fight against something strong.

I'm probably fucked.

Doru shifted beneath my hand and I pulled away as evolution turned her red and metallic and, to me, at least, beautiful. She set me against her neck. "Uncle Danger would think I look cool, huh?" she said to me. "You got me to evolve so fast, Sayo!"

I smiled and pressed my hands back into her fur. "Yeah," I agreed. "He'd think you're great."

Because you are, I thought to myself. You all are.

Doru took to the air, above the trees that Gao was easily dodging. I didn't have to look to see Alec was probably going to puke. Well, there was nothing like flying to teach someone how to do it. I caught sight of the light of evolution. A Dinobeemon shrank down into an XV-mon and Stingmon. I heard Alec scoff.

"Amateurs."

"Jealous," I countered and Luna snorted. "Get ready to dive. Alec."

"You got it, Ma." He crouched. "'Ey, Gao, boost me up."

Gao sweatdropped. "You took Mother's idea of me punching her into a guy way too far."

I tried not to look smug as Alec flipped into the air, glowing with more power that I had coiled around my fist. Then he dove, big, blue and red wings opened wide to catch the air as he punched a Fugamon in the face. Wait, hold on.

"It cannot just be a pair of Fugamon that tripped up these guys," I muttered as I jumped off of Doru. Kakumi saw me, or well, I saw her. She squeaked when I made a small pit in the sand when I landed. I looked up at her and Sukekiyo, both of whom quite bluntly, looked like shit. Apparently it wouldn't be the first time. Oh wait that was shit-faced, my bad. "I swear if you tell me some Fugamon got two recent Silver graduates in a bad way then I will kill you both right here and now." I wasn't kidding about that. At this point, it would be a mercy kill.

Kakumi pushed her orange hair back into its current haphazard ponytail. "If it was just the Fugamon, we would have been home sipping orange juice." She flicked one of the ears on my hats. "No, we've got someone much better in our sights… or we hopefully do if your idiot didn't startle him off."

I scowled. "You both are stinking of blood. If whoever you're going after doesn't smell you, I'm-ow!." Sukekiyo had shut me up with a noogie. Jerk. "Not the time," I squeaked, trying to protect my head from his knuckles.

He grinned at me. "Always the time. Now, shape up. We've got a doozy of a guy coming out. A Kowloon Company elite. Like that skull dinosaur you punched in the face."

"No one is going to let me live that one down, are they?" I grumbled and waved my hand. Alec shot off, going to hide as best as his hulking form could. It beat trying to let him back in and out of the digivice. Seriously. I sobered. This guy might have seen Yuki for a business transaction. Any info at this point sounded good, especially now that I had help to beat it out of them.

Then, something rocketed from what my eyes and ears said the wind, and a dude dressed quite a bit like a monkey, crouched there in front of us. Large ass dagger in hand, gloved fists surrounded with power, I really thought I was looking at a Daimon dude as a Digimon.

Luna's eyes went wide from behind me. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Him?"

I glanced at her. "You know him?" Granted, Luna was about as open as about her past as a college textbook was for me in general so I should not have been surprised.

"He's one of the Olympus Twelve, like me," she explained, glaring daggers at the monkey man. "Like I am. He's a walking symbol of the Zodiac, what the fuck is he doing here..." She leaped up and for the second time in my life with her, I felt my Soul pulse, spiraling around her to make a woman who had traded hands for scythes. Not that that wasn't cool but what was she doing?

"Mercerymon!" She yelled up at him. She was tall, but she wasn't that tall. "Herjin, what the hell is going on here?"

He twitched and turned around. He lifted his dagger and I tensed up. Then it lowered, his golden eyes narrowing at the sight of her. "Artemis… what are you doing here?"

Sukekiyo looked at me and I shrugged. Luna had gone by Luna ever since I had called her that for the first time. She hated her other name, so I didn't use it.

Luna didn't really react, lifting her head to glower at him. "Buddy, you're asking me this. I have a job to do. I can be here. You're the one getting chased by Union Tamers for suspicious dealings with Kowloon Company."

He grunted at her, still not relaxing. Smart 'mon. "Well… it's complicated. I do more than keep the Digital World safe."

"Yes you hack it and run the world like it's your own personal Olympus special, I know." Her voice was Login Mountain and I remembered in that instant she was the source of my sarcasm. "Spill and we'll be less likely to get their commander down here to practice interrogation. I heard tell that she doesn't bore easily.'

The three of us winced in unison. "Did she just threaten this guy with Julia's weapons cabinet?" Kakumi whispered in my ear. I nodded. She paled. "Your partner's crazy."

"Which one?" I deadpanned, shivering at the idea.

Herjin scoffed. "You work for Union? You?" He looked ready to laugh. "Of course. Have to stay on the beaten path."

Luna shrugged. "I have to stay with what matters to me. Now, spill."

He took a step back. "Afraid I can't. Respect to the client."

"Fuck that." She raised her hands.

I groaned as softly as possible. Were we about to have some Olympians square off? I was not prepared for this.

A/N: So uh... this is halfway done. Dang. Go me. And considering the ending is stuck on the document, maybe I can get some stuff done and finish this out before the end of the year? I hope so. Cause sheesh. It's a fun ride. Anyway, please drop a review! I hope this still tickles your fancy!