Symbiosis

by Dragon Champion Zero

When digimon start to invade the city of Braun, it's up to five teens and their new, yet somehow familiar, friends to come together as the last line of defense. Chapter 55 uploaded

37. Chapter 36: Loose Ends

I'm pretty sure this is my biggest chapter to date. Hope that doesn't mean a drop in quality. Enjoy!

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Chapter 36: Loose Ends

"Unbelievable...how did this happen?"

"I wish I knew, Commander. The scouts couldn't exactly blend in and get information from random passers-by. But it appears to be the whole truth."

"And the tainted ones are nowhere to be found?"

"That is what they have said. It appears almost certain that they are in this world, but their precise locations are still beyond our grasp. For all we know, they could be anywhere in the entire digital world."

Havocravenmon let out a dark sigh. "Unbelievable..."

"I believe you've already said that, Commander."

"And I'm saying it again. I'm beginning to believe Craniummon gravely misjudged the humans. He said repeatedly that it would be a simple task to overcome them..." The birdling shook his head. "This is not what I call a simple task."

"Their resistance is fiercer than we imagined. However, I'm sure if our entire efforts were pushed onto them, we could overcome their defenses. Once the weapon is finished, we could launch a full-scale attack-"

"No."

"...Sir?"

"We've been undermining ourselves with this fool's errand. It's done nothing but sap us of manpower and distract us from out goals. We need to refocus ourselves on what should have been our primary mission from the start. Let's focus on this world before some other."

"Sir, while I understand your thinking, I must advise you that simply pulling out entirely is its own mistake. They will almost certainly not be content to wait around, just as the tainted ones were not. If we give them an opening to attack us, they may do so."

"Hm...you have a point. But still, the human world doesn't offer us enough to make it our primary focus. We need to recoup our losses, and we can only do that here. Our names are poison on North Tetraquaz because of Libertius, and recruitment is at its lowest in a long time. We need to expand, and we need to do it before an attack comes our way to stop us." After a moment, he hit upon an idea. "That means from their end, too...so our imperative should be minimal commitment, just enough to keep them apprehensive."

"So you believe we should limit our efforts there to sporadic assaults."

"Right. Send only enough to keep them on the defensive, and scouts to keep tabs on what they can do. Regulars who are familiar with the process should go and make quick hits, then return as soon as possible to minimize casualties. I don't want any suicide attacks, we just want them to think they can't spare any extra efforts on taking the force to us. Once we have established our dominance here, we can return to them. I don't like giving them extra time to prepare, but if we can win here our strength should overcome them, regardless of their...admittedly remarkable ingenuity."

"You may wish to be cautious expressing such sentiments around some of the people here."

"I know, but I'm not deluded. Ignoring that the enemy has skills of merit is only asking for defeat...if the majority of Emperius wasn't so convinced of their divinity, maybe they'd realize that. Hmph...if there's one thing I want my leadership to do, it's break them of their illusion of invulnerability. Even if providence is on our side, it won't fight our battles for us."

"Excellently put, commander. What are your plans, then?"

Havocravenmon thought a moment. "We need to expand our sphere of influence...Southern Tetraquaz has been mired in conflict for years. There must be many who are disillusioned with the way things are...we can offer them something better. Having the weapon finished will be huge, it should give us much more freedom. We'll be able to recruit from numbers who haven't heard of us, instead of trying to cull a few new members here and there from the groups that have rejected us here."

"Do you want to make a move on the Kaiser?"

"Not unless he moves to actively oppose us. He already doesn't think highly of us, but we haven't acted like a direct threat to him since I took over, and I think he's still regarding us with easy eyes. I don't want to lose that...we just finished off Libertius, and I don't want to have to deal with a whole new army, especially with the tainted ones lying in wait somewhere."

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Morning in Rinikua saw Reyn, Skylar, Salmandmon, and Breezedramon in a room in the inn, working on their next move. Trying to figure out a plan of action was proving to be more of a hassle than they had anticipated.

"All I'm saying is that we should start in the most obvious places. And that would be where the Catalysts are. Even if they passed by days ago, someone should remember them. And if not, well, it's not like we're worse off than we started."

"You make it sound so simple. I mean, the Catalysts are generally more accessible than they used to be, but a lot of them are still way out of the way. It could take us days to even reach them. There's got to be a better option."

"Well, I'd love to hear you come up with it, bonfire breath."

"That's a pretty weak attempt at a slam, Sky," Reyn said lazily.

"You stop talking unless it's something useful. This would go a lot faster if everyone contributed. Right now I'm the one doing all the heavy thinking."

"Well, you're so good at it I just figured I'd get in the way."

"Nice try. Now come on, what else are we supposed to do? We haven't got any kind of lead except that they would obviously have been going for some place where the Catalysts were being housed. Doesn't it make sense to at least give it a shot?"

"Well, you heard what Salmandmon said. That could take more time than would be reasonable. I think it'd be better to just search nearby areas. I mean, they wouldn't stay next to the Catalysts for long, right?"

"That could be miles of area to search. Even if they came and went in different directions, that leaves a bunch of area they might never have set foot in."

"And it'd still probably be faster than trying to get to the Catalysts themselves," Salmandmon countered. "I'm not just saying that to be difficult, you know. I think I know this place slightly better than you do."

Skylar grumbled but was forced to concede that point. "Fine. Tell me we can limit it at least a little bit, though."

"I'm not sure how much you want to try limiting. Remember, we still have no idea where they might have come from or gone, it could be just about anywhere."

"Well, is there any place where there might be some kind of artificial limiter? Like, say, a military compound or something? If there was a Catalyst stored in something like that we might be better off just searching in the perimeter of that."

"That's reaching a bit. I guess maybe a couple areas qualify. The Twilight Peninsula doesn't have a lot of towns or cities or anything...probably Moonlighton would be the place to look. The problem is, I don't know that they'd even let us in."

"Well, why the hell not?"

"They don't tend to trust non-dark types very much. B.C.'s told me about it before. The town is founded entirely on dark-type digimon who've been ostracized or scorned for being dark types by the rest of the world. And supposedly a few demons, too, though that would surprise me, they aren't exactly known for being trustworthy."

"Gee, I wonder why they wouldn't think much of you."

"Well, sorry, but when the majority of them actively try to perpetuate the stereotype, it's a lot safer to assume the worst than not. The bad ones can and will kill you for their own gain, even if they don't need to. If there are demons at Moonlighton, they're probably just as much there to stay away from other demons as non-demons. But anyway, they've got protective measures to keep out anyone they don't trust, and even if we got past those, we'd probably be run out before we could say hello."

"We could try Mechalopolis, but that probably wouldn't be much better," Breezedramon chimed in. "They've got more guns than any place I've seen in any world! Splegondiferous huge ones at that! Oh, and a whole bunch of other weapons, too. And they really, really, really don't like organics for some reason."

"I dunno why that is," Salmandmon added. "Data said it didn't used to be like that, but he won't say much more about it."

"I think he had some trouble there a while back, so that's why he doesn't like to say stuff about it. But man, a lotta people are scared silly that they're gonna start a war any day now."

"Well, maybe we should mount our own campaign on Mechalopolis. Yeah, they've got weapons galore, but we've got a pretty significant amount of firepower ourselves. We could blow a lot of stuff to smithereens, and if Isaac and Data were nearby, we'd get their attention pretty quick. Maybe cut a path to the Catalyst for them, even."

"Isn't that the kind of thing we normally defend people against?"

"This is different. They're xenophobes who are a potential threat to everyone. I don't think a little bit of preemptiveness is a bad idea."

"Well, yeah, I guess, but they can't all be bad, either."

"It's not like I'm suggesting genocide. I just think we could clean the place up a bit."

"Jeez, listen to you two!" Reyn interjected. "We're supposed to be trying to take on Emperius, not piss off even more people! What you're suggesting is insane, and there's no way it won't cause more problems than it solves!"

"Reyn plays party pooper, as usual," Skylar cracked with a mischievous grin.

"Oh, shut it, you know it's bonkers. All I'm saying is that we really should be staying away from easily avoidable conflict. We haven't exactly been treading carefully as it is, the last thing we need is to be looking for trouble."

A sudden loud commotion sprang up outside the building. They felt the room shudder as a blast of something went off not far away. A few seconds later, there was a shout from outside the door.

"Warning! A group of bandits is assaulting Rinikua! They are well-organized and fairly strong! Those who wish to offer assistance, it will not be turned down...if you don't, please stay inside your rooms until this has been taken care of!"

Reyn and Skylar exchanged looks - Reyn one of frustration and Skylar an even bigger grin. "You're absolutely right, Reyn. Why bother looking for trouble when it does such a fantastic job of finding us?"

"Shut up and prepare for battle."

Before long, Pyrekomodomon and Stormdramon were back in action, charging out from the inn to meet the threat head-on. The town itself was fairly clear, with only a couple of skirmishes going on. Down one road, there was a pair squaring off. The attacker was a spherical-bodied digimon, Mamemon; the defender was a tall humanoid armored knight digimon with a poleax, Palisademon. They had been going at it for a good minute, and both seemed to have been dealt a few blows.

"Had enough yet?" Mamemon challenged.

"I'll have enough when I toss you out of this town!" Palisademon countered.

"Big talk, but you haven't backed it up yet! You best run off home to mommy and daddy before you get hurt!"

"I've faced tougher bandits than you!"

"Really? Then let's see you take this! Smirk Bomb!" Mamemon launched a boxing-glove-shaped projectile at the Palisademon, who braced himself for the impact. It never came, as a small fireball met it in mid-flight and blew it up safely away from anyone. Mamemon turned to rage at the intruder, but quickly cooled off at the sight of the reptile in front of him. Pyrekomodomon was low to the ground, glaring viciously down at the spherical bandit, fangs bared, saliva dripping from the corners of his maw.

"Ah...buh...eh heh...uh, well, I, uh, maybe, uh, ya know, thinking maybe, ah, sorry, wasn'ttryingtocausetroubleI'lljustgonowkay?" Mamemon tore off like a shot, the battle all but forgotten as he tried to do everything in his power not to piss off the fiery beast. Pyrekomodomon straightened up and shook his head. "What a wuss. He sounded like you for a moment, Stormdramon."

"Whaddayamean?"

"Eh, never mind. Hey, Palisademon, you okay?"

"I'm...fine, thanks..." The knight seemed a little unnerved by Pyrekomodomon's display as well. "You're...you're on our side, right?"

"Relax, we're with you. And I'm not about to go berserker on you or something, I just figured a good death glare might settle this quickly."

"The drool was a nice touch, by the way!" Stormdramon added.

"Thanks. Palisademon, keep watch over the interior. We'll head out and face down the guys behind this."

"Okay. Thank you so much. Good luck."

The two kept going, passing by a couple more fights which didn't seem to require any intervention. A Prairiemon was being knocked head over heels by a Mummymon in a clearly one-sided match-up. A wounded blue Coredramon had a Kabukimon on the ropes, with the latter, looking about ready to run herself. Above them, a Devidramon was being tossed about by a Galedramon.

"Now that takes me back," Stormdramon said wistfully, looking at the long-bodied blue wind dragon let loose spheres of wind energy at the retreating demon dragon.

"We'll have time for nostalgia later," Pyrekomodomon said gruffly. "I think we've finally met our personal welcoming committee." Standing in front of them near the edge of town were a Mojyamon and a Centarumon. The metal on his gauntlets burst into flames as he blitzed the two, the tips melting into sharp claw-like points. With a vicious snarl, he sent Mojyamon flying with a violent upwards slash, sending a spray of blood all over, the creature eventually landing hard several dozen feet away. Without even missing a beat, Pyrekomodomon pivoted on his foot and rocketed a left hook right into Centarumon's forehip, throwing his front half a full 90° around, the centaur digimon barely keeping himself upright. In one more fluid motion, the fiery reptile reversed direction and let loose a vicious roundhouse kick at a Cerberumon who had attempted to ambush him from behind, followed by an Infernal Fang to the flung canine, who could do nothing but take the full force of it.

A loud roar of pain came from above as a red Veedramon, trying to strike at Pyrekomodomon from above, was blasted by Stormdramon's Storm Ray. Spinning in the air, he righted himself only to be nabbed by Stromdramon. "Nyaha, time for a nice ride! Shuttle Slam!" Before the Veedramon could react, Stormdramon pulled him upwards, looped around, then careened towards the ground with his prey in front of him. In mere seconds, the two slammed the ground hard, Veedramon taking all the force of the impact, Stormdramon swooping away like nothing had happened. Mercifully, the red dragon lost consciousness immediately, offering him brief respite from the immense pain he would no doubt feel for weeks.

Another airborne enemy, a BlackPegasusmon, went for Pyrekomodomon while Stormdramon was occupied. Pyrekomodomon made an impressive leap for the flying equine, but it swooped up away from his trajectory; undaunted, spun in midair and unleashed a burst of heat to propel himself at Blackpegasusmon, catching him by surprise and clocking him on the head before gravity pulled him back to the ground. It was enough to knock him senseless, and before he could recover, Pyrekomodomon landed, leapt to right underneath him, and with a resounding yell of "Vulcan Pillar!" slammed a fist into the ground, sending a column of flame rocketing straight up into the air. Blackpegasusmon could not get out of the way in time, and was completely torched; he fell like a stone, caught in one hand by Pyrekomodomon just before hitting, the reptile simply tossing him away behind him. "Too easy."

An Asuramon and a Grapleomon tried to charge in along the ground, only to be intercepted by Stormdramon. "Hurricane Blast!" He launched a lateral cyclone along the road, nailing both of the oncoming attackers and tossing them backwards into a heap. Without wasting a breath, he grabbed his halberd and took off along the ground. "Whirling Cleaver!" At high speed, he went into a chaotic spin, his halberd whipping around unpredictably as he bowled towards Asuramon and Grapleomon. Asuramon managed to barely avoid the attack, while Grapleomon was caught and sliced and diced several times before being knocked away. Both tore off, not willing to risk life and limb against a superior foe.

Stormdramon landed and laughed wildly. "Damn, this is fun! These guys aren't any match for us!"

"Get a hold of yourself," Pyrekomodomon hissed. "There's more outside Rinikua. We can celebrate once we've driven them off."

"Ah, lighten up, ya rock in the magma! This'll be a cinch!" He charged off past the edge of town, quickly followed by Pyrekomodomon. It didn't take long for them to spot more enemies; just beyond the buildings was a kitsune digimon railing at some of the retreating digimon for being cowards. She was a Frostaumon, a variant of Taumon that was all white and had ice crystals dancing around her. She turned, looking ready to snap at the newcomers who she thought were more bandits running away, but her rage quickly turned to shock as she laid eyes on Pyrekomodomon. "Y-you!"

Pyrekomodomon raised an eyeridge. "Me? Do I know you?"

"You're the one that killed Zerodramon!"

"Oh, him. Yeah, he decided being char-broiled form the inside out was better than backing off. Friend'a yours?"

"You bastard! I was his second-in-command! Because of you, the Frigid Souls disbanded! Everything we had worked for, everything I had worked for, gone in the blink of an eye! I swear, I'm going to make you pay!"

"Really?" Pyrekomodomon asked, unconvinced.

"Don't dismiss me! I'm more powerful than I look!"

"Yeah, are you more powerful than Zerodramon? Jeez, I wonder what you guys are even thinking sometimes."

"I think she wants a shot at you, dude," Stormdramon chuckled. "There's a few more guys over a ways, mind if I go play with them for a while?"

"Knock yourself out."

"Cool! See ya!" Stormdramon launched himself towards a group of digimon as Pyrekomodomon squared off against Frostaumon. his approach didn't go unnoticed, as several digimon turned to see him and freaked out.

"B-Boltleomon! One of them is coming this way!"

"He's gonna kill us all! AAAAHHHH!"

Boltleomon turned to face Stormdramon as the rest of the bandits beat a hasty retreat. Instead of being more of a golden color like a regular Leomon, his fur was a bright, startling yellow, occasionally sparking and arcing with electrical jolts. He had a small dagger drawn and was holding it in a threatening stance. "You wish to challenge me?"

"Heck yeah! You're causing trouble, so I'm just gonna stop it here, okay?"

"You certainly seem a upbeat fell-nznzt!" Boltleomon jolted suddenly, almost like an instantaneous seizure, before just as suddenly normalizing. "That will not last long after facing me."

"You all right, there?"

"Why does everyone insist on ask-azngng!-ing me that? I am perfectly normal." Boltleomon looked hard at Stormdramon. "Hm...I have heard rumors about an armored wind dr-ntzgn!-agon such as yourself. They say you liberated Oroetem from the likes of ztngt!-Shinduramon."

"Oh, yeah! That was me all right!"

The lion's eyes narrowed. "Then it seems I have some business with you of my own. You got in the way of my own ambi-ngzngt!-tions."

"Uh, are you sure you're all-"

"I am FINE! You should worry about yourself! I was supposed to take Shinduramon's place as the ruler of Oroetem! I wanted to be in charge there! You took-nzgt! my chance away from me!"

"Dude, you really thought Shinduramon would ever actually give up power to you? He wanted it all for himself!"

"He would have ceded it to me. I am sure of it. But thanks to you, now that will never happen! Now look at me, re-zngt!-duced to a lowly bandit, scrounging off of what I can steal, having to fight for every credit! You, you will feel-ngztnt my pain!"

"Well, if you say so, but I'm gonna be a harder fight than you think!"

"I doubt that! Thunder Beast!" Boltleomon wasted no time, launching a wave of electricity reminiscent of a roaring lion at Stormdramon. The dragon just cackled and swooped above it, then countered with a Storm Ray that Boltleomon dodged in the nick of time. With a roar, he attacked again. "Raging Bolt!" From the sky above, bolts of lightning surged down at the ground all around them. Stormdramon got lower to the ground, shooting around to try to outlast the attack without getting hit. His luck was with him as none of the bolts struck him, and before Boltleomon could re-initiate his attack, he grabbed him by the arm, swung upwards, flipped head over heels, and flung Boltleomon at the ground, the leonine unable to do a thing as he crashed into the ground. He got up shakily, battered but not ready to give up the fight.

Meanwhile, Frostaumon was having her own struggles against Pyrekomodomon. "Ice Spell!" She launched glinting paper seals of ice at Pyrekomodomon, who almost lazily raised his Blazing Guardian to snuff them out before they even got to touch him. He then bounded forward and lashed out at Frostaumon, delivering a body punch that sent her flying. She hit the ground hard and took her time getting to her feet. From her cloak she produced a large paintbrush, which she raised and swung through the air, creating a strange symbol. "Talisman of Frost!"

Pyrekomodomon watched as the symbol glowed and fired something at him. "Neat trick...let's see how it fares against this! Searing Wave!" He drew his hands back and launched them forward, unleashing a massive fire wave that met the icy attack in mid-flight. The fiery blast easily overpowered the cold energy, engulfing it and killing it and continuing on to Frostaumon. She quickly raised her hands. "Guardian Sign!" A protective shield formed in front of her, blocking out most of the Searing Wave; however, it failed to block out Pyrekomodomon, who come up almost as soon as the fire wave ended and crashed through the shield to claw at her with his flaming gauntlets. It was a quick one-two-three as he slashed downward with his left, down-across with his right, and used the momentum from the second to spin into a tail slam that sent her flying for a second time. This time she was unable to rise fully to her feet, instead staying down on one knee.

Boltleomon had tried once again to hit Stormdramon with his Raging Bolt, but even after two strikes Stormdramon was only slightly fazed. "Nyahahaha! Is that all ya got? Shinduramon could hit harder than that!" He landed on the ground and grabbed his halberd. "I'll show ya a real attack! Cyclone Pillar!" He swung upwards then downwards, unleashing a rapidly-rotating slashing wind column that whipped along the ground towards Boltleomon. He tried to jump out of the way, but the heavy winds around the attack actually caused him to be sucked into the meat of the cyclone, whereupon he was rapidly slashed and buffeted by the swirling tower. Eventually it dissipated, leaving behind only a battered, bloodied, and defeated Boltleomon.

"Ngh...I...can see why...Shinduramon...fell to-ngztg! you..." Boltleomon managed to huff out, barely able to prop himself up with an arm let alone stand.

"Yeah, you didn't really stand a chance," Stormdramon replied immodestly. "Now are ya gonna give this up or do I have to get even rougher?"

"...Well, it depends...this is a...joint ent-bztntgnt!-erprise...although it...appears my...partner is unli-gnzntg!-kely...to continue herself..."

Pyrekomodomon folded his arms and stared down Frostaumon. "Give it up. You have to know you can't beat me now. Your magic can't overpower my heat, and you aren't a close-quarters fighter. I have all the edges I need to destroy you. Maybe you'll be smarter than Zerodramon was."

"Damn you!" Frostaumon shouted back desperately. "You...think you can just get away with this? You ruined my life! You ruined all our lives!"

"Cry me a friggin' river."

"Are you really that soulless? You don't even care that you made all of us miserable, that you destroyed what some of us had spent our entire lives on? You think you're some kind of hero, but do you have any idea what the consequences of your actions are?"

Pyrekomodomon gave her a heated glare. "If you wanted to sway me with some impassioned speech, maybe you shouldn't have been trying to destroy the world by plunging it into an eternal ice age. Did you think about the consequences of YOUR actions? You would have destroyed a whole hell of a lot more than I did."

"That's...that's...that's, it's different-"

"No, it's not. Now, you can either shut the hell up about your ruined life and go away to make something better of it, or I can ensure you don't have to worry about it because you won't have a life to be ruined anymore. I don't really care either way, it won't be that hard to turn you to ash."

She was clearly furious, but Frostaumon gave in to reason. "...Fine...we'll leave this place quietly. But don't think you've seen the last of me! Someday, sometime, I'll see to it that I have my revenge on you!"

"Yeah, yeah. Grab your buddy and split already."

After a fair amount of fussing, the two managed to be on their way, Boltleomon needing to hold onto Frostaumon for support. Stormdramon bounded around Pyrekomodomon, clearly still full of energy after the brawl. "Man, that was awesome! I could get used to this!"

"You are like a little five-year-old kid I know," Pyrekomodomon muttered, shaking his head. "C'mon, we've got business to take care of."

"Okayokayokay! Hey, whaddaya think they're gonna do with the bandits who couldn't escape because we smacked 'em down so bad?"

"If they're lucky they'll be treated and jailed before I can eviscerate them. Attacking a city, they should be lucky they're still alive."

"Yeah, but ya gotta feel sorry for some of them, kinda, I mean, don'tcha think? I mean, some'a them are only doing this because theycan'tgetabreakinlifeandtheydon''thaveanytalent-" Pyrekomodomon growled quietly as he tried to tune out Stormdramon's steadily accelerating prattle as they walked back to the inn.

(==========)

"This is ridiculous! We should be going after the humans, not sitting back and letting them build their arsenal!"

Havocravenmon sighed at the incensed Blackwargreymon, one of the newer members of his council of generals; after the deaths of Marsmon and Suijinmon, he'd had to look long and hard within the ranks of Emperius for suitable replacements. Even now, he wasn't certain he'd found them. I'm starting to wonder whether he's cut out for this...he's gonna have to control that temper of his if he wants to stay on my council. "Look, I don't like it any more than you do. But we can't fight six different battles at once, especially ones that we keep losing. If all goes well, our gun-and-run strategy will at least disrupt their production."

"Why can't we just walk in and blow them to smithereens?"

"Were you not listening to what the Commander just said?" Kuzuhamon's voice almost made visible gashes in the air. "We have to assert our proper priorities. The human world can wait. Frankly, I don't see why you're so obsessed with it."

"They've been nothing but trouble! And they're going to keep being trouble for us if we don't take them down now!"

"We've got trouble on all fronts, Blackwargreymon," Havocravenmon replied. "You can't just have a tunnel vision view of the world. Being part of Emperius leadership requires a level head and a broad awareness."

Blackwargreymon scowled, but sat down and voiced no more objections. Satisfied, Havocravenmon turned to the rest of the council. "Any other points anyone wants to make?"

Not a sound from the other members of the council. Kuzuhamon, whom he knew would riddle any idea of his with holes if she found critical flaws, simply sat back and remained silent. Havocravenmon appreciated her terseness, even if it always stung when directed at him; unlike d'Arcmon's ceaseless derision, she wasn't constantly out to get him, and was ready with improvements whenever she spotted problems. Her sharp demeanor was just how she was.

Duftmon, as usual, appeared uncertain. Always fervently loyal to Havocravenmon, sometimes to a fault; Havocravenmon sometimes felt he stayed himself when it would have better served them all for him to speak up. The ill-advised attack on the human world was one of those occasions; he knew now that he should never have allowed so many to mount an assault when they had such a poorly-understood enemy opposing them. Kuzuhamon had said as much, but Duftmon had sided with him, only afterwards privately admitting he had his doubts. Still, in spite of that, it was good to know he had someone to count on to ensure an order was carried out.

He didn't expect much from Carcharomon, who he doubted had paid full attention at any point. The powerful shark had little in the way of attention, especially to strategy or forethought, and small wonder, given his nature. He was restless, wild, and could fly off the handle with such ferocity that it made Blackwargreymon at his worst look positively comatose. But he was a staunch loyalist to Havocravenmon, carrying out his duties without argument, and his strength made him a truly valuable ally.

The other newcomer to the council, Zeedramon, was as quiet and contemplative as usual. Havocravenmon still didn't quite know what to make of the dragon; his power was unquestionable, for sure, but otherwise he was rather an enigma. He spoke fairly infrequently, and when he did, it was very pointed and almost broken; often, it seemed like he was just there, almost as a passive observer rather than a decision maker. It was another choice Havocravenmon wasn't certain would work out, but the options had been limited, and of all of the possibilities, Zeedramon possessed the one he wanted the most: a belief, like his own, that relying on destiny was for fools.

With that matter apparently settled, Havocravenmon moved on. "So, that will be the approach to the humans. Now, to an equally-important matter: recruitment. We've been running dry here, and I'm of the mind that we need to move on."

"Quite," Duftmon said. "With Libertius out of the way, nothing's keeping us tied down here. And we've spent so much time in Northern Tetraquaz that we've rather exhausted most of the sources of recruitment. Moving to the southern land would definitely provide us with more ample opportunity to increase our ranks."

"And what of our influence in Northern Tetraquaz, if we all but abandoned this area?" Kuzuhamon riposted. "What do we stand to lose if we turn our attentions elsewhere?"

"Well, we can't just sit here the whole time if we want to achieve our goal of becoming the predominant force in the digital world. We have to move on at some point."

"Just move on? Leave behind everything we've worked at already? It's nonsense. We should stay here and just extend a few courtesies around. That would be effective enough."

"Or we could just leave a few smoking craters in the ground. They'd keep us in mind a lot if we did that," suggested Blackwargreymon.

"Gah, it's always 'destroy destroy destroy' with you, isn't it?" Carcharomon grunted.

"You're one to talk, berserker."

"At least I have the sense to tone it down when I'm out of my rage states."

"Let's not get into a brawl here," Havocravenmon interceded. "I don't think we're going to be thought of very highly if we're causing random mayhem. Remember, that's part of what got Emperius on a lot of people's bad sides in the first place. We stand a better shot of recruiting if we show them we want to use our power to improve digimon overall."

"I still think it's ridiculous to leave behind Northern Tetraquaz. Losing ground here means we just struggle to get back to where we started."

"What ground?" Zeedramon spoke suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"We have no ground. Emperius is hated here. We have no influence beyond our own force. We lose little if we leave. And perhaps gain. Let their memories of us fade. We return later, perhaps they hate us less then. Maybe we land more recruits."

"...You may be right. But I think a mass exodus like this is going to be noticed."

"So we wait yet. The project is almost finished. We take it, all of Emperius, and fly south. It's embroiled in wars. People are suffering, angry, desperate. They want power to solve their problems. We show them the path of power, choose the stronger side, crush the weaker ones. We end the war, take the strong ones in. Those caught in the middle, perhaps they appreciate us, choose to join. Word gets around. We look better. Perhaps our enemies even have a tougher time finding support. They may choose to leave altogether if the tide turns against them."

"A solid argument," Havocravenmon said. It hadn't occurred to him that they could use the war to their advantage in that particular way. This might work out better than I had worried it would after all. "Does anyone want to offer any dispute?"

Silence around the table. Havocravenmon nodded. "Then we'll settle on that plan of action. Now, on a related note, we should discuss preparations for the move. Most of it has been worked out, but let's make sure we haven't run into any complications."

(==========)

Bolteaglemon never felt better than when she was flying. It was something else, swooping through the air with the greatest of ease, able to see for miles in every direction, feeling the calming breeze of the passing air massage her all over. Not to mention being much faster than walking - even if she didn't have the jets of her blue dragon counterpart's higher forms, she still moved at a much quicker clip than if she'd been forced to trudge on foot.

The one and only drawback she could think of was that it was somewhat more tiring than walking. She'd been flying nearly all morning since leaving the Thunder Shrine, and she was beginning to feel fatigue set in; it didn't help that it was a bright, sunny, and warm day, which only sped up the process. Rather than exhaust herself entirely, she set down on a large rock, taking a few minutes to relax and recharge. She stared off into the distance, marveling at how distinct the perspective was from when she was high up above.

It's really different down here...everything seems so much bigger, so much more imposing. Like you're surrounded by everything, rather than separated from it. No wonder humans have dreamed about getting into the air for so long...they must have realized on some level that it feels so much more safer and cathartic to be up above everything.

She stretched out a little on the rock, feeling the mild aches in her muscles dissipate. The area around her was pretty quiet, not much in the way of wildlife or other digimon - a perfect spot to rest, or so she had thought.

She heard the sound just a moment before it was upon her. With a surprised yell, she rolled off the rock and landed on her feet as the ambusher spun around to face her. "What the hell?"

"Damn you!"

"Machgaogamon? What are you doing here?"

"What do you think? I'm here to make you pay for what you did to me!" The canid warrior shot towards her again, and she leapt up and took flight, giving her a little distance between herself and Machgaogamon.

"What are you talking about!"

"Barred from competition for a year! My career is ruined! And it's all your fault! You're the one who screwed me over!"

"You're the one who cheated!"

"I'd never have gotten caught if you'd just laid down and gave up like you were supposed to! And you're not even a digimon! They've all been talking, saying that you were some kind of human and digimon combined!"

"So? Nothing in the rules about that, and I doubt it gave me any kind of unfair advantage given what kind of competition I was up against. There is something in the rules about not wearing crap you're not supposed to have, and you did get an unfair advantage. You've got no right yelling at me for your own failing."

"Shut up! I'm gonna make sure you end up like you should have in that match - and this time, there's no system that's gonna keep you alive!"

"...You really are a nutcase. I beat you once before, and now I'm not only stronger, but I can actually fly here. You really want to try my patience?"

"Oh, you talk so big, but I had you on the ropes until you pulled that little stunt of yours!" Machgaogamon jumped up at her, and she swung away and flew upwards higher.

"Guess I am gonna have to hand you your ass. All right, here goes!" She quickly evolved up to Thundergarudamon, then swooped down to meet him head-on. He jumped up to try to hit her again, and this time was met with a kick to the jaw that knocked him backwards and caused him to botch his landing. "Yeouch!"

"Serves ya right, ya dumb dog," she taunted.

"Eat me, bitch!" Machgaogamon shook off the blow and jumped at her again. This time, Thundergarudamon raised her hands and created a ball of electricity between them. "Lightning Bomb!" She hurled the ball down at Machgaogamon, who had no means of moving out of the way. The ball hit him square, expanding rapidly as it surged through him. He howled in pain and anger as he once again hit the ground.

"You know, this isn't really too difficult for me, you realize that?"

"Shut up! Come down here and fight like you mean it!"

"You're trying to kill me. Why should I make it any easier for you?"

"This isn't a real fight! You're just too chicken to face me on the right level!"

Thundergarudamon shook her head. "This isn't arena combat anymore, you moron. This is real life. In real life, you don't always fight face-to-face on ground level. I've got no reason to indulge you. You want to see eye-to-eye, sprout some wings."

"Gah! You drive me crazy! You just wait, I'm gonna follow you until you get down low enough for me to hit you, and then you're gonna really pay!"

"Hm, that doesn't sound very appealing to me. How about this, I'll blast you from up above until you can't move, then leave you for scavengers or bandits to find. How about that?"

"You don't scare me! I know you're just up there because you're not strong enough to beat me! You're bluffing!"

Thundergarudamon smirked. "I think that's my cue to prove otherwise." She spread her wings wide, charging them with electricity. "Fury Bolt!"

The powerful bolts of lightning surged towards the ground. Machgaogamon yelped and quickly made to dodge, but even his enhanced speed didn't help him enough as he was jolted by the edge of the attack. Thundergarudamon wasn't done; she swooped down a little closer to the dazed canid and let loose with another attack. "Electron Web!"

More lightning shot from her wings; this time, it was in tighter streams which hit Machgaogamon but didn't disappear; instead, they wrapped around him, binding him and continuously sending their charge through him. He howled a little in pain, finding himself having a tough time breaking free. Thundergarudamon didn't give him a chance, she dove at him, body crackling with electricity. "And now the main course! Coulomb Blitz!"

She tackled him at full speed, leading with her shoulder, sending a powerful charge from herself into Machgaogamon on contact. He yelped in agony as the combined physical blow and electrical surge tore through him; he hit the ground and tumbled limply, his nerves temporarily fried from the shocks.

Thundergarudamon landed in front of him, hands on her hips. "I think that's enough of a demonstration, don't you?" His only response was pathetic whimpering. "Aw, what's the matter, can't talk right now? About time, you talked more than enough before. Now time for you to listen, you idiot. Even if you'd managed to beat me in the match, you would have been tossed out once I told them about the band. You won't ever be a real winner if you don't play the game the way it's supposed to be played. Maybe next time, actually train hard and do things the right way, and you might have a chance. Oh, and if you don't want to play by the rules in the ring, you don't get the right to bitch about someone not playing by your rules out of the ring. Understood?"

Machgaogamon didn't respond, but she didn't really care. She had had enough of him and just wanted to put him out of her mind. She reverted to Bolteaglemon form and took off again, using the remaining adrenaline in her system to counter her fatigue long enough to get him out of sight. Yeah...there's no doubt about it, flying really is the best way to go.

(==========)

"What's this I hear about abandoning the assault on the human world?"

It would have to be d'Arcmon, Havocravenmon thought as he tensed up at the familiar voice behind him. I doubt it's any use trying to reason with her, but what else can I do? "We're not abandoning it, d'Arcmon, as I'm sure you full well know. We're simply putting our focus on the avenues that are most likely to benefit us more quickly."

As expected, d'Arcmon wasn't satisfied with that answer in the least. "We have a goal to achieve over there, one we should be able to achieve with less trouble than our victory over here, and you're pulling the plug? This is why you're a lousy leader, you pull out when victory is right within our grasp!"

"Victory is not even remotely within our grasp. You haven't heard what I have, d'Arcmon. They have exceeded expectations yet again, and made our campaign over there even more dangerous. Continuing such a folly would drain us even more."

"Who cares? If they lose to humans they weren't worthy of Emperius anyway! Only the strongest belong here, and those who lose clearly aren't strong!"

Havocravenmon was getting tired of this. "Has it possibly occurred to you that there are strong digimon out there that aren't on our side? That perhaps the humans have defenses capable of standing against our strength that, thanks to those tainted ones, they have had the chance to prepare?"

d'Arcmon had to pause as her argument was shattered, but was far from giving up. "It's your fault. You should have had the tainted ones killed."

"What do yo think I was trying to do with all those warriors, d'Arcmon? Throw them a party? Do you still not realize that they're a threat?"

"They should have been a minor inconvenience. If I was the leader of Emperius, they would be dead by now!"

"Oh? And what exactly would you have done?"

"That's none of your business! I'm not going to give you my ideas just so you can take credit for them!"

"In other words, you haven't the slightest damned clue."

"I have plenty of ideas! Just because you can't think of them doesn't mean they don't exist! It just means that you're not intelligent enough or clever enough to come up with what I can come up with! And you wouldn't appreciate them anyway! You never did, not when I tried so very hard to help Craniummon!"

"You called that helping? Half the time your suggestion was 'why don't we just kill them,' which was in fact what we were looking for ideas on how to do. And when you actually gave it the thought to go beyond that, your proposals were ridiculously simplistic and easily thwarted. Let's not forget the infamous 'land mines against the air brigade' suggestion."

"I told you, I misheard something!"

"Which is why you stubbornly insisted on it even after I voiced my objections to the idea and Craniummon corrected your misconceptions."

"Craniummon misunderstood me, and you were just out to make me look bad!"

"As if I needed the help. If your current ideas are anything like your earlier ones, go ahead and keep them to yourself. I want something that actually has a chance of working."

"Pah! As if anything you've ever come up with has helped us in any way!"

"And whose ideas do you think led to the capture of Libertius and the defeat of our fiercest opponents?"

"I could have done that better than you did. And that alleged defeat just created the tainted ones."

"Which I could no more have foreseen than yourself or anyone else. In fact, you believed the scouts were lying when they first reported it, claiming that such a thing was beyond possibility and they were just trying to make excuses for failing in the human world."

"Well, you just have an answer for everything, don't you? You continue to screw up over and over again, but there's always an excuse at hand, just so you can keep pretending you're not an incompetent fool who fails at everything he does!"

"I'm going to take that as a sign that you've run out of arguments. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got things to do. Why don't you slink off and reload for the next time you feel the need to have a pointless tirade against me?"

If looks could kill, d'Arcmon would have probably halved the population of Northern Tetraquaz with the glare she gave Havocravenmon. But she had no more words, and simply marched off without a sound. It was quite a relief to Havocravenmon; dealing with her was always one of the most stressful parts of his life as Emperius' leader.

There is just nothing I can do with her. She's not particularly strong, she isn't bright enough to be of any use in strategizing, and her entire life seems to revolve around ruining me. Is it even any use allowing her to stay? Not that I'd be likely to force her to leave, unless I had her killed...but I doubt that would reflect well upon me as a commander. Gah, I hate when I don't know what to do. Maybe she'll just flip out and leave on her own...maybe that's the best I can hope for.

(==========)

"Ike...Iiiiiike...you wanna re-establish your connection to the server, buddy?"

Isaac snapped out of his trance and looked down at his partner. "Sorry, Data. This room is just so cool, I can't help but wonder how it all works."

"Well, you'll have time for that later. C'mon, Mekitsumon's asking for us. Some kind of weirdness that we might be able to help out with."

"Weirdness, huh? Never a dull moment in this world." The two left their accommodations and soon met up with the robotic fox, who was directing various projects, including the dismantling of the geodesic dome Raidenmon had erected.

"I know it wasn't exactly a nice symbol, but did it have to go away?" Isaac asked. "I thought it looked kinda cool."

Mekitsumon looked back behind him. "Oh, hey, you two. Yeah, I'll admit it was impressive but it was a memory hog. We need the space for something useful, and it's just such a drag inside. But that's kind of why I asked you two to come here. I know it's gotta be a pain for you, since I know you've got your own stuff going on, but if you're willing to stick around just a little bit longer, we could really use the help."

"Hey, I'm not in any rush. This place is awesome."

"Glad you think so. It is pretty sweet. Anyway, right now there's some craziness going on inside the dome. It's pretty well-contained right now since we erected the electrobarriers, but I'd rather not count on anything."

"What kind of craziness?" Datacarnomon asked.

"Some robotic digimon are wreaking havoc on the stuff inside. It's not stuff we intended to save anyway, but it's the principle of the matter. We don't want them causing any damage to places that are important, or to other people in the city for that matter. So we want to try to stop them."

"Of course. Some of Raidenmon's cronies don't want to give up, huh?"

"Well, that's where the tricky part comes in. We're not convinced they're doing this of their free will."

"Really? Why not?"

"Well, for starters, they aren't behaving like robots trying to carry out Raidenmon's mission. They're pretty much attacking indiscriminately, and what few words we can get out of them are more the machinations of random madness than Raidenmon's particular lunacy. We think they might have been infected with a virus or something that was set to go off if he was destroyed."

"Seems like an odd failsafe for a guy so convinced of his own superiority."

"Maybe one of his lackeys programmed it. Either way, we're trying to subdue them with as little damage as possible. If they can be fixed, we want to fix them rather than scrap them."

Isaac nodded. "Sounds fair. But I can see why that would need some extra manpower. It's one thing to be blasting them to pieces, but this is a tall order."

"Right. We've gotten most of the prisoners out of the hypostatic cells, but they're not in much shape to fight. It's tough coming out of those, and the only remedy is time to readjust to a normal time flow. We've got as many others as we could get on the job, but every little bit helps."

"Gotcha. We'll try to help out as best we can."

"Excellent. I've ordered the go-ahead to create an opening in the electrobarriers when you get to the dome. They'll know it's you, so you should be able to just go on through."

"Right. Thanks, Mekitsumon."

"Hey, the thanks is all yours, for helping us out."

"No problem. Always glad to lend a hand." Especially since not everyone in this place has one, he pathed to Datacarnomon.

Cheap shot, the robo dino pathed back with a snort of laughter.

It was as easy as Mekitsumon had suggested, as the Mekanorimon guard they met (who Isaac thought might have been the one he stunned at the jail when he'd first arrived) went to work on the barrier the moment it saw them. In mere seconds there was a small hole for them to walk through, and they wasted no time getting through so the barrier could be completed again.

The dome was a lot lighter now that a good portion of the top had been removed. They couldn't see anything in particular upon entry, but there was enough noise around that they had no shortage of ideas of where to look. "Guess he wasn't exaggerating when he said there was craziness," Isaac remarked as they started walking towards one of the sources of the noise. "These guys must be going nuts in here. Who knows what they're doing to the buildings and stuff."

"Probably nothing that wasn't going to happen to them anyway," Datacarnomon said. "Still, it'd be a shame if they got to something that mattered. I'm just wondering what the heck is wrong with them."

"Maybe they need a sample to look at. Drat, if I'd thought of that when we were talking to Mekitsumon I'd have asked him. Hey, you think you can reach him through networking or something?"

"It's possible, but maybe there's someone in here we can ask instead." Datacarnomon went quiet for a moment. "...Hey, there is! Chaosdramon's not too far away, we're going almost right towards him!"

"Excellent! Maybe he can help!" The two picked up the pace and in a couple minutes were within sight of Chaosdramon. He was facing down a robot that looked like a giant block with four legs and four arms, two each in the front of its body and the back of its body, with two dark glass half-spheres visible on the front of the block. Isaac didn't recognize it right away, but he tapped in to Datacarnomon's data bank quickly and identified it as Megabytemon.

Chaosdramon appeared to be fairly frustrated as two of the arms pushed him backwards. "Gragh! Hold still, you bucket of bolts! I'm trying to help you!"

The Megabytemon didn't even respond as if it registered what Chaosdramon was saying. It stepped forward, two slots opening on its body and producing a missile each. "Bit Missile initiated. Commencing launch."

Isaac and Datacarnomon readied their weapons, but Chaosdramon signaled them to hold their fire. The missiles launched at Chaosdramon, each impacting with a direct hit, but not leaving so much as a scratch on his armor. He then lunged again, while Megabytemon was reloading, trying to grab the robot and claw at the top of it. "Dammit, c'mon!"

"Hey, can we help out?" Datacarnomon asked.

"It's fine, I can handle this...I just...can't quite...get this..." Megabytemon began trying to push away again, and Chaosdramon had to do a robot impression of a bear hug to keep from being pushed away. "Rgh, why couldn't I have been designed with claws that were more dextrous?"

"If it's dexterity you want, I might be able to manage," Isaac offered. "What's the target?"

"There's some kind of weird chip or something on top of him. Damned if I know what it does, but I know it's not standard spec, so I'm trying to get it off."

"Weird chip, huh? Lemme have a look, I might be able to get it."

"All right, but be careful, it looks like it's embedded pretty good."

"Heck, I might have something for that, too. Just hold him still for me, okay?"

Chaosdramon nodded and restrained the Megabytemon, now using his wrapped arms to his advantage, pulling the robot towards him and off its legs. The heavy robot struggled fiercely, but he was no match for Chaosdramon's raw strength, and he clamped down to ensure that the bot couldn't move more than a few microns.

With the robot immobilized, Isaac got in close and flipped up the laser cutter in his arm. The chip wasn't hard to spot; it was small enough that being reasonably far away would render it basically invisible, but close up it stood out markedly against the flat gray metal. True to Chaosdramon's word, it refused to budge under his fingernails, so he turned to the laser. With just a thought it burst to life, and in just a few seconds, he'd disconnected the chip from the robot's hull.

"Now this is definitely more what it was meant for," Isaac cracked with a grin, holding up the chip to examine it.

"That is some arm you've got there," Chaosdramon said, sounding impressed.

"Yeah, well, there's nothing in there quite as powerful as you, but there's something to be said for versatility."

"Lacking one, the other is a decent recourse. Ah, excellent, I think he's coming back to normal function."

The Megabytemon had indeed settled down, and Chaosdramon released him. It buzzed and whirred in relief. "Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was a goner! Damn Raidenmon!"

"So it was Raidenmon who did this to you?" Chaosdramon asked.

"Me and a whole bunch of other robots! I thought maybe if he was destroyed it would have prevented it from being activated, but I guess not!"

"Do you know what this thing is about?" asked Isaac. "It sounds like you're saying it wasn't put into place as a failsafe if he was destroyed.

"I wish it was that simple! Those little chips were insurance, but not in the event of his death! See, the thing that most people don't know was that Raidenmon was planning to wage war against the rest of the world. He was going on and on about how they didn't deserve to live, how they were completely inferior to robots in every way! That's part of why he built all this stuff, it was far more than needed to keep just passing organics out...he wanted a stronghold for taking on their armies! And he was trying to mass-produce robots to attack them!"

"Whoa...you mean all this wasn't about just subjugating Mechalopolis, it was about taking on everyone else in the freaking world?" Datacarnomon exclaimed.

"Yeah! That's why he was so hard on the cyborgs and everyone, because he thought they'd sympathize with the organics rather than the robots when it came down to it! What he didn't expect was that most of us were freaked out by it, too! When we didn't react like war against the organics was the greatest thing ever he went ballistic, that's what started that robot mass-production - he just wanted obedient slaves to do his bidding! And for the rest of us, he put these chips on us so we couldn't get the word out! It we were outside his contact range more than 12 hours, we'd go haywire and start attacking indiscriminately! Even if we tried reaching the organics, we'd probably be seen as defective and they'd have to take us down lest we kill them!"

"So it would end with them dead or you dead, and none the wiser about the war," Chaosdramon concluded. "I'd heard rumors, but I was never sure that he was really working towards that end...I guess this proves it. He was a worse monster than I ever imagined, and I imagined some pretty awful stuff. So are all those chips external?"

"Yeah, he wanted the visual feedback that they were still on and active. You have no idea how annoying all those extra wires are, especially ones going right to your hull."

"I might know the feeling a little better than you think," Isaac said with a grin. "You go get that dealt with, we'll work on the others that are afflicted with those chips."

"How many more do you think there are?" Datacarnomon asked.

"Dozens, possibly," Megabytemon replied ruefully. "Not many managed to escape having one of them installed."

"So we have our work cut out for us," Isaac said. "Maybe we need to recruit some more help, some guys who have the weight to hold down robots and others who can finesse the chips off of them."

"Sounds like a lot of work, but I guess it can't be helped. I'll send out a network transmission calling for volunteers, hopefully we'll get enough to not make this take forever." Datacarnomon went quiet as he started sending out the message, but he'd only gotten partway through when there was a loud crash in another area of the dome.

"Whoa!" Isaac shouted as he felt the ground rumble slightly. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but I'm getting a signal of something BIG off to the northwest!" Chaosdramon reported. "We can't let anyone more in here until we get rid of it, it's not safe!"

"Right! Ike, let's make ourselves useful!"

A minute later, Chaosdramon and Cyberrexmon were in the source area of the crash. It was all too easy to see what had caused it, since it was far more massive than either of the two of them. It stood open treaded legs, its arms had huge laser cannons, its body was a hulking mass of metal, and it had one eye in the center of its small head.

"It looks like a Cycloptitanmon, but as a robot," Cyberrexmon said. "Raidenmon must have been having it built before he was destroyed."

"I don't think we're going to be able to save this one," Chaosdramon said ruefully. "If it could even be saved in the first place...it might be like all the other builds of Raidenmon, a mindless drone."

"Mindless drone or not, the electrobarriers don't stand a chance against it. We have to destroy it fast!"

"Right!" The two began blasting with their powerful cannons. However, despite each one being remarkably powerful, the shots were dissipating harmlessly against the hull. The metal behemoth began moving forward, very slowly but surely. The arms raised up, pointed at Chaosdramon and Cyberrexmon, and fired large energy blasts at the two. Neither one was able to avoid the completely, evading the initial pulse but being tossed aside by the radiated energy on impact with the ground. Quickly they picked themselves up, and retreated from the advancing titanic automaton.

"Our cannons didn't even touch it," Chaosdramon growled. "It must have some kind of hyperprotective shielding, like the buildings in Mechalopolis! That's about the only thing my cannon doesn't get through!"

"It can't be completely encased, otherwise the internal components would overheat," Cyberrexmon said. "There's gotta be a weak point in that thing."

"It would have to be the openings. The eye and the cannons in its hands!"

"Then let's give it a shot!" They went on the offensive again, shooting at the body to draw the titan's attention. It didn't take long before the hands went up again, ready to fire. Wasting no time, Chaosdramon and Cyberrexmon fired charged shots into the openings for the laser blasters. There was a loud blast, then a crackling sound as the cannons emitted a shower of sparks.

"Did it work?"

"I don't know...it's still moving forward, but it's not firing at us..."

"The cannons look disabled. At least we're safe."

"Don't count them out entirely, they might be engaging in self-repair. We have to try for the eye, fast, before we're targets again."

Chaosdramon and Cyberrexmon charged their cannons again, and let loose with powerful blasts right at the distant eye. Their aim was true, but when the beams hit, they careened off the eye and sailed off into the ceiling, bringing down part of the geodesic dome.

"You gotta be kidding me, the eye is protected too?" Chaosdramon said in disbelief.

"It's not the same type of protection, though, it's reflective rather than dissipating. It may be the material it's made of...it might require a more solid projectile rather than an energy blast."

"Damn, Raidenmon didn't want to make things easy. Do we have anything like that? Wait, you have that rail gun, would that work?"

"It might not do enough damage, that thing is way more massive than even Raidenmon and I'm pretty far away, the shots are going to lose a lot of momentum. But...I've got something else in my arsenal that just might do the trick."

Cyberrexmon bent down and put on hand on the ground, raising his back up as high as he could. His back opened up, and a rather large missile emerged from the opening. Chaosdramon's eyes widened. "Is that...is that a cruise missile?"

"Yep...this baby is the Tomahawk Rex. Capable of an explosive output of up to 30 megatons, though I'm dialing it back considerably for this, about .1% of maximum output. If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will." He quickly calculated the trajectory and set the guidance protocols; everything was clear and he had enough time to escape from the titan's inexorable advance should something go wrong. "All right, here goes! Launching Tomahawk Rex!"

The missile flared to life, shuddered once, then blasted off with a loud FWOOSH, moving at high speed right at the robotic titan's eye. Cyberrexmon made a couple very minute adjustments through the guidance system - it was all he could do, the missile was moving fast and at its target in just a few seconds. It was a good move, though, as the missile broke through the reflective coating of the eye just in the lower right side, barely avoiding the hull. The explosion blew open the titan's head, sending pieces flying everywhere. The treads stopped, and the arms fell to the titan's side.

"It's dead..." Chaosdramon made a sound much like a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness...that could have caused a lot of damage."

"Yeah, no kidding. That was probably one of the machines Raidenmon was planning to use in his war. I wondered what he was thinking he could do against so many powerful digimon, even creating his own robots there are limits."

"We were really lucky that we were able to stop him when we did..." Chaosdramon shook his head. "I can't believe I actually worked for that nightmare at one point. What the hell was I thinking?"

"I'm just glad you came around at the right time. Well, I guess we'd better get back to the job we were doing in the first place."

"Oh, yeah. Jeez, this is just turning into a fun little day, isn't it?"

(==========)

"So, yeah, some Beelzemon guy told me all about this place. I think it's great! Perfect for showing those idiots what's what, you know? Of course, I'm stronger than pretty much anyone I know, even Megas can't hold a candle to me..."

The Algomon blathered on, oblivious to the fact that Havocravenmon's eyes were glazing over. He'd heard it countless times before - new recruits eager for a quick jump to the higher ranks giving him their life story, as if they imagined he'd care or be impressed in any way. He imagined all the feats given were wildly exaggerated - they usually were, since the prevailing impression was that strength equaled superiority and thus stronger digimon were inevitably leaders rather than followers.

Of course, that was the challenge, since that was the ideal Emperius had been founded upon, and that Havocravenmon believed. Craniummon had instituted it and glorified it, not a surirpse given his approach to Emperius in general. Havocravenmon, however, found himself straying from that when dealing with ranking; he'd seen enough in his time in charge to realize that mere power wasn't enough to take care of the threats they faced in their campaign. It was reflected in his council: it wasn't just strength that decided who was there, but also the right mentality, and not a complete shortage of brains to boot. It flew in the face of what Emperius and himself stood for, and indeed he had passed up candidates that were stronger than any currently on the council, but whom Havocravenmon could not feel he could rely on. His personal justification was that he would fix that oversight once they'd won, but since most of Emperius had it in their minds that they already had won, it was hardly an effective argument. So to others, he spoke of some kind of hidden strength that wasn't normally demonstrated.

"...oh, and one time I kicked a Dinorexmon's ass so hard he was wiling to bow down and call me his new master, so I think I should be given a pretty high position here, because you know you don't want me on your bad side...hey, are you listening to me?"

An inflated sense of strength and self-importance was not particularly endearing to Havocravenmon, and it seemed more and more of their recruits were like that these days. Of course, the likely reason was that most of the continent had been scoured already, and few who would join them hadn't done so already. That was why he was itching to move on to another location, and why he'd commissioned the project that would allow them to do so. The few who still trickled in were wooed mainly by the idea of being unable to lose, and it meant that they got more people who weren't particularly capable but believed or pretended they were. And after a time, it started to get tiresome.

"You're starting out at the bottom like anyone else."

"What? That's not fair! I'm super-strong! I could defeat any one of you here, actually, all of you here!"

"You want to know how many times I've heard some variation of that mantra from new recruits? It's in the triple-digits. The number who have been able to back it up I can count on one hand. If you were me, do you think you'd start believing it every time?"

The Algomon paused. "Er...well, maybe not everyone, but I'd sure believe me! I mean, because I'm clearly just that good, you know? Everyone says I'm the best, you calling all of them liars?"

"So far all you've done is talk. If you want me to buy it, you'll have to demonstrate it. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be several of our top warriors willing to put their reputations on the line."

"Oh, yeah! You just know they'll be begging me for forgiveness afterwards!"

When he gets his ass handed to him, I wonder how creative his excuses will be. "You should take this far more seriously. It's your life on the line out there, you know. If you can't back up your attitude, you won't last long."

"What are you talking about? We're gonna win! There's no way we can lose! That's what Beelzemon said!"

Havocravenmon scowled at the Algomon. "First off, what makes you think we won't have to work to achieve what we're working towards? The idea that we've already won is lunacy, spread by those who want others to do the work for them and then take the credit and glory. We've got a lot of enemies who would like nothing more than to take us down, and they aren't any slouches themselves."

"But...but Beelzemon said-"

"I heard what you said he said. You'd best forget it now, rather than learn the hard way later on. But even if we were destined for victory as a whole, we've had many die in its name already. Even destined victory doesn't mean easy victory - a great many lives will be lost in the process. Yours included if you talk a better battle than you fight."

"Oh...uh, well, you won't have to worry about that from me! Maybe some other posers can't handle the heat when it comes down to it, but I'm the best there ever was, and I'll prove it to you as many times as you need, though I'm guessing just once will be enough once you know what I'm capable of!"

Havocravenmon sat back. "Very well then. Go out to the proving grounds, center of the compound with the large combat ring. I'll have your first competitor out there to see what you can do!"

"All right! I'm gonna be in charge here! This is gonna be great!" Algomon tore out of the room in a rush, the automatic doors only barely able to open in time for his exodus. Havocravenmon just shook his head. Honestly, I don't know what some of them see in themselves.

"Your orders, Commander?" Phantomon appeared from behind the wall.

"He wants to be put through his paces...who am I to deny him? I know Blackwargreymon has been itching for some action lately, I think he would be a good start."

"I agree entirely, Commander," Phantomon replied, amusement evident in his voice. "I shall relay the message to him immediately."

"Thanks. And Phantomon...tell him not to worry about going easy."

"Certainly." Phantomon phased through the walls once again, and Havocravenmon smiled for the first time in a while. It gets irritating sometimes, but there are some perks to being in charge...

(==========)

Derek quietly closed the door to Ebondramon's recuperation room in Reichmon's manor. "He seems to be doing a lot better already," he said to Phelesmon.

"Yes, he is, which is why I would rather we kept this quiet. I don't want to cause him any stress if I can avoid it."

"Yeah, we understand. So what's the problem?"

"We've received a couple reports of unfamiliar presences in the forest not too far from Moonlighton. They just came in, from two different sources, and the indication is that they may be moving towards the town."

"Did there not exist mechanisms for the exclusion of undesirable characters?" asked Blackcanismon. "I distinctly recall protective measures serving as guardian to Moonlighton."

"There are barriers and such that are supposed to keep the Twilight Peninsula isolated from those who would do us harm. But...lately, we've been seeing them come in more frequently. I think either one of our barriers is on the fritz or they've found a way to circumvent it. It's hard to tell unless we're actively watching it...I think we're going to have to station some people out there to try to find the problem, but if it's caused by deliberate action it could be very difficult to nail down."

"If they know you're watching, they're not going to give away their secret."

"Precisely. Not only that, but it might incite them to move en masse. I would recommend just replacing the barriers entirely, but that would leave us vulnerable during the process."

"A regrettable reality. You wish to request our assistance in alleviating the current threat?"

"If at all possible. I wouldn't ask this of you, except we're trying to keep it quiet as much as possible. Right now the only ones who know there are potential threats out there are myself, Reichmon, the two who warned me, and you two. I'd like that to be the fullest extent if we can help it."

"Are you sure you don't want to warn everyone? If there are more than the two of them it could get ugly if they get close to Moonlighton."

"I know, but after everyone heard about Crescemon, they became very on-edge. The last thing I want to do is make that worse. Especially if, by some unpleasant surprise, the strangers turned out to simply be innocent wanderers who got lost. I'm not hopeful that that's the case, but it is a possibility, and in the state we're in right now, that might not come out until it was too late. So many here have bad histories with digimon in the greater lands, and that combined with the current nerves..."

"Unquestionably. Our assistance is proffered forthwith. Those brigands shall scarce intrude further upon the confines of Twilight Peninsula before their forcible removal is implemented."

"Thank you. There are only two of them, by the count of both of our reporters. They believe one is a Silphymon and the other is a Tyilinmon."

Derek nodded. "All right, I think we should be able to handle that. Good to know what we're up against for once. We'll be back in a while, if anything comes up we'll make sure to sound the alarm, but only if absolutely necessary."

"You have my gratitude. Be safe, you two."

Derek and Blackcansimon wasted no time, quickly making their way to the edge of Moonlighton. "Man, I sure hope they do something abuot that barrier soon. If it's got problems, they should probably just scrap it and start over, rather than wait to see if they can find them. Who knows how many people might get through in the meantime. It could be chaos."

"Certainly an undesirable situation, no doubt demanding attention on myriad fronts. I profess I possess doubts about the insistence upon suspicion, however. What capacity have we to proclaim an initial assumption of malicious intentions upon ourselves by unknown strangers?"

"I dunno. Do they have names ending in 'mon?'"

"...Such pessimism, Derek."

"After hearing about everything that these people have been through it's completely warranted. Come on, let's make sure they don't have a chance to cause any trouble."

The two merged together, and soon Onyxvargmon was stalking through the forest, all senses attuned to his surroundings in an effort to detect the invaders. It was about twenty minutes out before he began to hear their approach. He found a good spot to engage and crouched down in the brush to wait.

He didn't have to wait long. The two digimon, a Silphymon and Tyilinmon as suspected, soon entered his line of sight. Immediately he stepped out, swords in hand and held defensively. "Stop right there."

"What the?" Tyilinmon jumped back and braced himself as if expecting a charge. "There's one!"

"You!" Silphymon yelped, raising her fists. "What do you think you're doing? Are you protecting that town of monsters? Why would you keep them from meeting their justice?"

"Oh, for the love of...I've had just about enough of you freaks and your vendetta against these people. They're just trying to live their lives, why can't you leave them alone?"

"Leave them alone? They're murderers!" Tyilinmon snapped.

"Right. Of who, exactly?"

"Our wonderful, dear Crescemon!" Silphymon cried. "So good and pure, killed by these thugs! Cut down in his prime! He deserved a far better fate!"

"No, he didn't," Onyxvargmon snarled. "He was a creep that senselessly hounded an Ebondramon for no good reason, trying to kill him just because he was a dark digimon. And he was going to kill as many others in Moonlighton as he could once he was done."

"Such lies! Wonderful, noble Crescemon wouldn't do such a thing! It's those monsters in that town of darkness, those darklings and demons, hateful horrible beings of death and destruction, they pride themselves and the havoc they create! They murdered Crescemon out of anger and hatred!"

"I can assure you they didn't. I killed Crescemon, in order to protect an innocent life from being taken. And given that he attacked me pretty much on sight, I presume that the malice was much more on his part than anyone else's."

"You killed Crescemon?" Tyilinmon gasped. "You must be brought to justice for your crimes! You have done a great evil upon this world!"

"I thought your kind were pacifists? How could you support the kind of mass slaughter Crescemon was planning?"

"I may dislike violence, but I am no fool! When it must be brought as the solution to a problem, I will not stand in the way of what needs to be done for the good of this world. Crescemon was doing right in his crusade against evil!"

"He tortured an Ebondramon nearly to death!"

"That was an evil creature!" Silphymon shouted.

"He never harmed a soul!"

"The evil was in his heart! You could see it if you weren't blinded by the evil in your own heart! It is what makes a dark digimon, you know! The evil stains their bodies and makes them black as night!"

Onyxvargmon could scarce believe what he was hearing. "You're as sickening as Crescemon was! How can you believe this garbage?"

"I won't hear any soft-hearted denials from you, evil one!" Tyilinmon glowed brightly, wings raised and spread. "Perhaps I can save you from the darkness within! Wave of Reform!" He flapped his wings, sending a bright wave of light over the area. Onyxvargmon braced himself, but it passed over harmlessly, swooping past without doing much more than rustling his fur.

"Uh...was that supposed to be an attack?"

"It was supposed to lead you back to the path of goodness," Tyilinmon said ruefully. "But clearly, the darkness in your heart is too strong to be swayed by even my potent energy."

"Or maybe I'm just not evil? Did that ever cross your mind?"

"Not in the slightest!"

"Gee, I wish I could say I was shocked."

"If you will not reform, we have no choice but to destroy you!" Silphymon formed a ball of energy in her hands. "Let this be your fate! Static Force!" She fired the ball from her hands right at Onyxvargmon. He brought up both blades to block it, then with a swing sent it flying in the opposite direction, nailing Silphymon in the chest. She was thrown back into a tree, stunned momentarily.

"Wind Cutter Sword!" Tyilinmon tried to charge him from the side, but Onyxvargmon deftly swung to the side, away from the charge, and raised his hand as Tyilinmon tried to stop his momentum. "Sable Ray!" A dark beam launched from his hand and cut through the darkness, slamming into Tyilinmon's side. He was knocked roughly away and fell to his side.

"Astral Laser!" Silphymon was back up, but Onyxvargmon was more than ready, evading the duplicate launched at him and countering with another Sable Ray. Silphymon managed to get out of the way in time, only to be met with another attack. "Regaling Shade!" A blaze of dark energy surged through the area, raging around and through Silphymon. She could do nothing to block or mitigate the attack as it tore through her. For good measure, Onyxvargmon turned and launched an Umbra Swarm at Tyilinmon, who had just about recovered himself. The projectiles swarmed him and battered him until he could take no more. He fell again, breathing hard and not able to rise.

"Are you quite finished?" Onyxvargmon asked, dismissing his swords for the moment.

"You...how could you beat us..." Silphymon moaned painfully. "We're so good and pure...we can't lose to someone like you..."

"You people just don't get it. Forget it, I'm not even going to bother trying. You want to live on, it's as simple as this: tell me how you got in."

"We would never reveal that to you!" Tyilinmon gasped. "That is our only recourse to providing justice..."

"Too bad. I guess that means I have to find someone to threaten with a horse's head, then." He made one of his swords appear out of the air and started towards Tyilinmon.

"Wait!"

Silphymon's cry halted Onyxvargmon's advance. He turned and looked at her. "Yes?"

"We...we exploited a weakness in the barrier...there's a spot that overloads when a lot of energy hits it...it causes it to go down for a little bit, so we can get through!"

"Silphymon!"

Onyxvargmon nodded, and let the sword disappear again. "Now, see? It was that easy. Now I'm going to see your way out of here, and if I catch you in here again you won't get the benefit of a third chance. I'm sure you can find better things to do than harass people."

"This...don't think we're just going to let you get away with this!" Tyilinmon forced out.

"You might want to hold off on trying to save face until you're a ways away. I can call my sword back at any time, and don't think I need it for the rest of my arsenal."

"Tyilinmon, please, we can't lose you, too," Silphymon begged. "We can try again, but not if you're dead!"

"Rgh...very well, I suppose my options are quite limited at this point."

(==========)

Mmmnh...brutal day... The lights in Havocravenmon's room were greatly dimmed; a haze was in the air, thanks to the light smoke from the paxi cylinder in the corner. The frustration of the trials and tribulations of the waking hours were slowly melting away, leaving him with a feeling of calmness and tranquility.

"Commander, may I report?" It was Phantomon again. Havocravenmon opened one eye to the slightly foggy figure of his deputy commander.

"Go ahead, Phantomon. How is progress coming?"

"Completion should be no more than a few days away. We should be able to begin moving ourselves in within the next two."

"Excellent. It won't be long before we're more capable than ever before. Hopefully it will be enough to stand against even those hybrids. At least without anyone else to back them up...if we can't even repel a mere group of five it's our own failing."

"I have the utmost confidence in our ability to turn such a small group away, even if they are individually strong."

"Glad to hear it. What of the fallback?"

"It is still some ways away from completion, but more and more time can be dedicated to it with each passing day. It should not be long before we can put it into action."

"Great to hear. If everything goes well we might be able to make a fleet of them...extra mobility is hardly worth passing up. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Anything else?"

"Nothing of note. Rest well, commander."

"Thank you." Havocravenmon closed his eye and sighed quietly. Despite everything that had happened recently, he was starting to feel more like things were on the right track. We might yet be able to make this happen...all we need is the patience and wisdom to act properly, and we will overcome all to take our rightful place as masters of this world.

(==========)

(==========)

I know this isn't exactly a story-progressing chapter. I made it for two reasons. First, I wanted a little focus on Emperius, because they need some development. This chapter introduces the council of generals, a concept which was mentioned in an earlier segment but which I didn't have any particular intention of bringing into the spotlight until recently. I think it'll bring something more to the story to have them. Second, I had a bunch of ideas for chapters that never worked out because they were too short to actually comprise chapters of their own. But I didn't want to discard them entirely. This format worked pretty well for it.

The coming chapters will kick of the next segment of this story, which I am quite excited to be getting to. There are a lot of ideas in here which were formed a long while back, and I've had to sit on them until it came to be their time. Well, that's this next arc. I hope they live up to your expectations.

Of course, for that to happen, they have to be written. I guess I'd better get to that, huh?