Chapter 106: Hunting Part 5

Hi there. I hope that everyone is well and safe. This month has unfortunately been another difficult one for me and I'm hoping things get better soon.

Many thanks to Gadget30thAnniversery for your review of the previous chapter. I really appreciate your regular feedback and it means a lot to me.

Right, it's time to pick up where the previous chapter left off …

Davis felt his butt hit the floor in the Digidestineds' office as the light from the digiport faded away around him. They'd used another gateway to get back to base from the Digital World after their battle with Metalseadramon. A sigh escaped his lips as he picked himself up and got to his feet. He was extremely grateful that they could use the portals in this way otherwise things could have gotten terrible very quickly.

His eyes glanced around the room and fixed onto Cody, who was with Tai and Noriko. Davis was glad that his friend had managed to get back safely after leaving before them. Armadillomon was resting in Cody's chair after taking the brunt of that shot from Metalseadramon and it was a relief to see that he was ok too.

"Cody has just filled me in on what happened." Tai captured his younger counterpart's attention. "I'm glad you've all made it back safely."

"It was a close one," Davis sighed again and ruffled his hair. "It was too close."

"Metalseadramon was just lying there, waiting for us." The worry in Yolei's tone was impossible to miss. "He set a trap and we flew straight into it."

"We all agreed that we'd go and confirm what the source of dark energy was," the younger goggle-head pointed out. "We knew it might be risky."

"I know," the purple-haired teen replied as she took her seat. "But I didn't expect him to know exactly where we were and to have a trap so perfectly set out."

Ken let out a long breath. "None of us knew that. I have an extra sense and I couldn't tell if it was Metalseadramon or a strong group of evil Digimon and Deep Ones. I couldn't tell that it was a trap."

"It seems like he knows how we're targeting his forces and avoiding him," Tai thought aloud as he ran his hand through his wild hair. "Then he used that to trick us and bait us in."

Cody nodded. "It definitely looks that way."

"It also looks like Metalseadramon has managed to get enough evil Digimon together in one group to give off the same levels of dark energy that he emits." Ken rubbed his chin as he analysed the situation. "He then had them fly around Tokyo so that we didn't know if it was him in the city or out in Chiba. I assume he knew that we'd get curious and take a look."

"Then he used whatever way he has of seeing through our barriers to find us," Keiko added as she laced her fingers with Davis'. He gave her hand a gentle and reassuring squeeze to make sure that she knew that he understood her concerns because, given everything that had happened to her, the teen boy knew that it must have been a very scary moment for his girlfriend. "It's a good job Imperialdramon is a mega level, otherwise I'd hate to know how things would have turned out."

"Veemon and Wormmon are as tough as they come," Davis replied with a smile. "They've been through much worse and it'll take much more than that to beat them."

His girlfriend nodded and smiled back. "Yeah, they're really strong."

"I'll contact Kari," Tai announced as he put his finger to his earpiece. "I get them to come back to base."

"They don't have to come back." Davis stopped him. "I know what happened was a very close call for us, but we did find out where Metalseadramon was. That means Kari and the others are free to attack any bad guys in Tokyo and that they don't have to worry about them."

Tai pursed his lips for a moment before he nodded. "I'll let them decide."

"Ok, thanks for explaining the situation, Tai." Kari frowned as she turned to face the other Digidestined with her. They now knew what had happened to their friends less than ten minutes ago and that they had a choice to make. "What do we do? Do we stay out and ambush more of Dragomon's forces or should we head back to base?"

The only sound was Megakabuterimon's wings as he flew them towards their next ambush target. Kari could understand why nobody wanted to give her an answer because what happened to Davis' team meant that there could still be an issue with the barrier and things might go wrong for them too. However, it also meant that they didn't need to be concerned about Metalseadramon for the moment because he was still in Chiba and at least a couple of hours away from them.

"TK and I can track where Metalseadramon is and how close he might get to us," she added as she gave her husband's hand a gentle squeeze. "We can make sure that we're far enough away from him so that he's not going to be an issue."

"It's a tough one to call," Matt sighed. "We're safe right now though."

"I have an answer that might help you." Davis' voice left the groups' earpieces. "How about you go and beat a whole bunch of bad guys as a message from us to them for what just happened? Kick their butts for me!"

The group laughed and Kari could feel her tension ebb away. The others seemed to relax too as the younger of the goggle-heads had made their answer an easy one. She shared a glanced with TK, who nodded and gave her a smile.

"We will do, Davis," TK replied for them. "We'll give them an ass kicking like they've never had before."

Davis cheered over their comms along with some of the others back at base. "Go and get them, dude!"

"We'll keep tracking Metalseadramon and come back once we think he's getting too close," Kari confirmed for the others. "We can go over the full details of what happened in our debriefing."

"Ok," Tai replied through their earpieces. "Happy hunting."

"See ya in a few hours." Kari pressed the button on her comms that swapped it back so that she could speak to just the group with her. The others did the same as they shared a few more glances with each other. She unclipped her digivice from her belt. "Let's get as many bad guys as we possibly can in the time we've got. Let's teach them a lesson."

"Heaven's Charm!"

Kari watched as Angewomon formed pink energy around her hands before she released it in the shape of a large pink cross. The attack cascaded straight at the remaining Deep Ones, exploding as it hit the road and vaporised the dark creatures. Other blasts echoed through the streets as the Chosen Digimon funnelled the bad guys towards Magnaangemon and his Gate of Destiny.

This had been the fifth ambush that they'd performed since getting the message from Tai and Davis about what had happened, and everything had been going smoothly. Kari could sense that Metalseadramon was heading for them but he was still too far away and they had plenty of time to take out even more of Dragomon's forces. She, like the other Digidestined, were determined to make a statement back to their foes whilst ensuring that they were safe and that they made no mistakes.

Kari watched as the Deep Ones were ripped off the floor and pulled straight into the Gate of Destiney. Lillymon fired a sphere of green energy at the only remaining Gesomon, turning it to data so that all of the Chosen Digimon could focus on the shadow creatures. They made quick work of their enemies before the explosions ended and the battlefield fell silent. The doors of the Gate of Destiny closed after the final Deep Ones were pulled inside and the Digimon flew towards the rendezvous point.

"Are there any more bad guys that we can target before we move on to another area?" Matt asked as he glanced over at TK and Kari. "We've got plenty of time left, right?"

Kari closed her eyes and focused on her extra sense. As normal, all of Dragomon's forces in the area were coming for them, so they had quite a few groups that they could target next if they were going to stay around where they were. There was one particular group though that did concern Kari more than the others.

"There are some flying Digimon coming towards us," she replied as she reopened her eyes before pointing in their direction. "Do you want to handle those or should we move on to another part of the city?"

"Those flying Digimon would be perfect." Matt grinned before he cupped his hands around his mouth to shout to his partner. "Metalgarurumon, we're going to ambush those flying Digimon that are nearby. Get inside the barrier but don't de-digivolve."

The Chosen Digimon did as they were instructed, joining their partners and Megakabuterimon inside the barrier before heading towards their next target. They arced around so that they could ambush the evil Digimon from the side and catch them completely unaware. Everyone was being as quiet as they could be as they started making their way closer to their targets.

Kari focused on the Pteramon and Skullbaluchimon that made up the squadron that they were about to ambush. None of them seemed to have any idea that the Digidestined had moved and were now targeting them. She'd carefully watched all of the bad guys that they'd attacked during the day and none of them had reacted in the way that Metalseadramon had a few days ago when he seemed to know where they were. It suggested to Kari that it might only be Metalseadramon who could find them at the moment.

"Get ready. Our rendezvous point is the fire station down to our right," Matt informed the Chosen Digimon as they closed in on their foes. He waited a few more moments before finally giving them the command that they were waiting for. "Go!"

The Chosen Digimon flew out of the barrier and readied their attacks as Megakabuterimon turned towards their meeting spot. Kari noticed that the evil monsters had finally reacted, turning their heads and looking in the direction of the powerful Digimon coming for them. The Chosen fired their attacks, scoring direct hits and wiping out a huge amount of the squadron in one go.

Kari watched as Angewomon's arrow struck the dark core of a Skullbaluchimon, making it writhe in pain before it turned to dust. Her partner followed it up with another arrow that took out a second of the ghostly-skeleton tigers that they were facing. Magnaangemon dealt with a few of them too as Metalgarurumon fired salvo after salvo of rockets at their enemies.

Lillymon and Garudamon launched their attacks at the Pteramon on the edge of the flock, stopping them from escaping or retaliating. Explosions echoed through the Tokyo sky as the Chosen Digimon rained attacks down onto their targets, creating a dust cloud around them. It wasn't long before Kari couldn't sense any darkness coming from that squadron and the dust settled to reveal that the evil monsters had been defeated.

"Where should we head next?" Izzy asked as the Digidestined focused on Kari and TK. "It might be a good idea to move on now if a lot of Dragomon's forces are heading this way."

Kari closed her eyes and used her sixth sense to see where they'd likely have more success ambushing their enemies. "If we head southwards, we'll find an area where there are a few groups that we can defeat rather easily. It's the opposite direction to Metalseadramon and it'll also keep us away from that powerful group of evil Digimon that were acting as his decoys."

"We didn't make a single sound," Davis sighed as he emphasised the point after he and Ken finished giving Izzy and the others a detailed explanation of what had happened to them. "We flew up to Metalseadramon and he still found us even though we were being quiet."

Izzy pursed his lips and thought over the new information that he'd been given about the day's unfortunate events. It was very unsettling that Metalseadramon had found a way to find them and negate their barriers. He was still certain that the barriers were working correctly and, therefore, making the Chosen invisible to their enemies. It was definitely stopping their foes from sensing the spore inside Ken and the light energy being emitted by TK and Kari.

"We were still able to sneak up on Dragomon's forces and perform ambushes like normal," Kari informed the others as they continued their debriefing. "None of them noticed us until our Digimon left the barrier. It seems like only Metalseadramon has found a way to find us at the moment."

"It definitely can't be his ability to sense light and dark energy," Ken chipped in with his theory on what happened. "This base would be overrun right now if he could sense that energy because he'd sense us through the barrier around here that's keeping us hidden."

Izzy placed his finger and thumb to his chin. "He must be using at least one of his other senses to find us. That's the only logical explanation for it. That's the only way he could have found us the other day and the only way that he could have found you earlier."

Tai focused on their resident genius. "What other senses could he be using?"

"I'm still certain that he heard us a few days ago when Megakabuterimon sped up during our escape." The redhead replied to their leader. "Although, that doesn't appear to be the case for what happened today, so he must have found another way to know where we are. As for what that might be, I'm not sure and I don't want to conduct any tests to find out. Anything that we would have to do would be too risky."

The elder goggle-head nodded. "I agree. We don't want to be taking any risks and testing theories, especially after the near miss Davis and the others just had."

"What could he be using to find us then?" Mimi asked nobody in particular. "Is he able to smell us with that big nose of his?"

The rest of the room fell silent for a moment before Yolei spoke up. "Don't snakes see infra-red or something like that? They can see infra-red and see the heat coming from other living creatures, right? Metalseadramon is very snake-like, so maybe he can sense that?"

"Certain sharks have electro-perception," Joe added as he adjusted his glasses. "That means that they can sense the natural electricity given off by living creatures. Certain other marine creatures have this ability too, so it could be possible that marine Digimon like Metalseadramon are able to use it. Megaseadramon has an electric attack, so it might be possible that the Seadramon digivolution line has an affinity for electricity and an ability to sense it."

"Sharks can also smell blood from a long way away," Ken added as he gazed at Mimi. "That means it could be possible that he can actually smell us, like you suggested, and that's how he tracked us when we got close. Some marine creatures have excellent hearing too, so maybe he can hear things that we can't."

"Is it possible that he has all of these senses?" Davis asked aloud to nobody in particular. "Maybe he combined them all to find us?"

"It is possible," Izzy sighed before pausing for a moment. "However, why has he only just recently been able to find us? We've been able to get really close to him several times before without any issues."

"It suggests that he has learnt that a particular thing from one or two senses tells him we're there. It's probable that he uses those senses less regularly or they are less effective in air," Ken thought aloud, building off his friends' theories. "I guess that means it's less likely that he can see infra-red to hunt us down and that it is more likely to be one of the other possible senses he's using."

Matt sighed. "But we have no idea which one or ones."

"Exactly," Izzy nodded. "And we have no way of testing which one or ones it might be. It could even be a completely different sense he's using that we don't even know about. We didn't know that it was possible to sense digital energy like Kari's light until we first went to the Digital World, so it is entirely possible that there are other senses that we don't know about."

"Would it be any good if we ask Michael for help?" Mimi suggested as she glanced at her boyfriend. "His Betamon digivolves to Seadramon. Maybe they can tell us if Seadramon and any of his digivolution lines have any special senses?"

His eyebrows rose and he nodded again. "It's worth a try. I'll send him an email once we've finished our debriefing. I'll check with Gennai too to see if he might know how Metalseadramon could be tracking us. After all, Gennai knows much more about Digimon than we do."

"If we do find out what sense Metalseadramon is using to track us, do you think we can use the barriers to stop him again?" Keiko asked as she glanced between the red-haired teen and Ken. "It can stop any sense, right?"

"It could be possible but we won't know until we find out what sense he's using," Ken replied for them. "If he can hear us from a long way away, that means we definitely won't be able to stop him because that would also stop us from speaking to our Digimon when they're performing ambushes."

"There are too many variables to know for sure right now," Izzy sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. He didn't like not having all of the information because it stopped him from being able to come up with a solution. "We're going to have to do what research that we can and just be careful on our patrols in the meantime."

"I want to quickly move things on now. We're going to have to take a vote here," Tai took over and steered the conversation in the direction that he wanted it to go in. "Do you think that it is safe for us to continue our ambushes and scouting patrols? Raise your hand if you think that it is still safe."

Izzy rubbed his chin for a moment before raising his hand. As long as they used common sense and didn't take too many risks, they could mitigate any of the issues that they had just discussed. The teen genius glanced around the room at his friends to see what they thought. Some of their hands were already up whilst others were carefully thinking it over.

He watched as Keiko slowly raised her hand alongside Davis, who had already put his hand up, before Ken and Cody placed their hands more confidently in the air. Yolei, TK and Kari had already put their hands up before Izzy had even started looking, just like Davis, Matt and all of their Digimon had too. Mimi put her hand up as well once her boyfriend had put his up, suggesting that she was waiting for his opinion before casting her vote.

Sora, Noriko and Joe raised their hands next after putting some thought into it, leaving Tai and Hiroshi as the only ones left. Hiroshi slowly and somewhat reluctantly put his hand up before sighing. Izzy couldn't blame the younger teen for being frightened of Metalseadramon after what had happened to him and his friends, so it made sense that he'd be the last one apart from one other person.

Tai quickly put his uninjured hand in the air too after checking what everyone else had decided. "Ok, we all agree to continue the patrols."

"We can still do them safely at the moment," Kari chipped in. "We just need to be careful."

"This means that we'll have to change our tactics for now. You can't get close to Metalseadramon in the way that you've tried recently," Tai informed the others as he glanced around the office. "You must make sure that you stay completely clear of Metalseadramon or any force that you think might be him."

"We will, Tai." TK gave his brother-in-law a nod. "Kari and I will make sure that we keep our distance and we'll make sure that we have plenty of time to escape from each ambush."

"I'll make sure that the group with myself and Davis is safe too," Ken added as he and his best friend shared a glace. "We definitely don't want a repeat of today."

"Good." Tai nodded. "When you go out on your patrols tomorrow, remember to not do anything risky. If there was ever a time for us to not take any risks, it's now."

I had to heavily edit one of the scenes in this chapter because I wasn't happy with it. Can you tell which one it is? I also cut a few things out of one scene because it repeated a lot of the things that were discussed in the final part of this chapter. Hopefully it is still ok and please let me know if it isn't.

How do you think Metalseadramon is finding the Digidestined and their Digimon? Do you think it's one of the senses that they discussed or do you think it's something else?

On a different note, this month marks 10 years since I published the first chapter of Better the Devil You Know. I can't believe it was that long ago and that I've been working on this series in some form for that length of time.

Please can you let me know your thoughts on these things and this chapter as a whole by posting a review? :D

Stay well and stay safe! :D