"Will you be keeping in touch?" Flame asked. Gennai shrugged.

"If possible, and necessary. But I'm sure you guys can survive on your own," he said with a smile.

Flame bowed his head. "Good luck."

"To us all," Gennai said, then opened his hand, releasing the stored energy. Gennai evaporated into nothingness right before Flame's eyes.

He turned to leave the room.

Flame found Kaida leaning against the outer door of the old hangar. It was the only piece of Chelone that still stuck out from under the ground, and Kaida loved coming here to stare out over the plane, and remember...

Flame slid up beside her. "I thought you were in bed," he said. She started, and looked at him. When she saw who it was, she relaxed.

"It's only you," she said, returning her focus to the desert outside. Flame chuckled.

"Only me, Kaida?" Flame asked with mock surprise. Kaida laughed and shook her head.

"You know I didn't mean it that way," she said.

Flame returned the smile. "I know, I know," he said, siding closer to her, and looked out over the desert for himself.

Kaida sighed. "I guess this is it."

"Yeah," Flame said.

"Do ... do you really think I'm up to this?" she asked, sounding unsure of herself. Flame looked down at her with surprise. She was keeping her gaze fixed on the horizon.

He put an arm around her. "If anything, you're more prepared than I am."

"You think so?" she asked, looking up at him. He nodded.

"You've got the headstart I never had. Everything I know, I taught myself, and it's taken me a lifetime. You have all of that within you, and you still have a lifetime to go."

She nodded, and looked back at the horizon. "I guess so."

He shook her gently. "Don't guess so - know so."

She grinned. "Yes, master," she said, making Flame chuckle.

"We're long past that, Kai," he said, using the diminutive of her name. He was the only one who was ever allowed to call her that - everyone else got a fiery stare, and often a slap. But it was not a priviledge he had earned. It was one she had given.

"Heh. Yeah," she said. Then she sighed again. "I guess I have to get some sleep."

"That would be a good idea," Flame said, then gave her a quick hug.

"Thanks," she said, smiling up at him before walking back into Chelone. Flame looked out over the plane again, laughed to himself at a private joke, then turned and walked into Chelone himself.

In a few hours, a few of them would move into the Southern Kingdom to check up on the Chelone anchor. Flame realised they might have to deactivate it, to prevent unauthorised access to the plane.

Jorcy was out at the volcano, attempting to trace the data trunk. When he was done, he would return with the results. Flame wondered how he was doing...

Jorcy had never been a technical person. Why Gennai had chosen him to do this was beyond him. He couldn't even figure out where to plug the damn thing in.

Gennai had given him a trace emitter. A box the size of a cigarette pack, with a cable running out. All he had to do was plug the cable into the highspeed trunk, and the tracer would do the rest.

Simple in theory, but he didn't seem to find the port. After a few minutes of searching, he gave up and sat back. The cable in the trunk glowed at him with remarkable indifference.

"Okay, dammit," Jorcy said, sticking his claws back down the hole to figure it out. He closed the lid of the trunk, and the port was staring him in the face. Grunting with disgust, he brought the tracer out of his pocket, lowered it in to the hole, and plugged it in.

A red light blinked on, there were three beeps, and the light switched off. His work here was done.

He stood, stretched, and prepared to jump out of the volcano floor. The sun was setting - it wasn't time to hang around. With a final look around, he tensed his legs, went HEAV for a split second, and leaped into the air. The jump carried him clear out of the mouth of the volcano, and several hundred yards towards the Chelone entrance point.

Jorcy would be back in a matter of minutes, but even he could not outrun the trace signal that was, even now, making it's way to the base of the mysterious, unknown force.

But Jorcy wasn't the only one aware of the signal.

"Incoming trace," Damian said, pulling himself up to the computer bank. Cindy was already in the room, and she looked over.

"Where's it coming from?"

"Volcano outpost three," Damian said.

"Goddammit," she cursed. "Can't that Cyberdramon doanything right?"

"Scan shows he just arrived at the volcano."

"Well, it's too late. Can you mess up the trace?"

"Yeah - already on it."

"Good."

With a few deft keystrokes, Damian spiked the connection. Then he opened several others, linked them together, and diverted the trace. He watched with a grin as the tracer ran right past the castle, heading for a random location off the shore of the Southern Kingdom.

"Diverted to a fishing village," he said, then closed the connection. Cindy walked over, chuckling.

"You really are a smart one," she said, ruffling his wavy hair. Damian shrugged.

"This is my game, after all."

"Indeed. Tell that Cyberdramon to make his way back."

"Will do."

Cindy nodded and left the control room. Damian got to work sending a message, then sat back, wondering what he could do next.

The tracer signal probably emanated from a mobile device, as there were no indications of activity in the volcano. He had only gotten the feed a few minutes ago - round about the time the trace started - and a thorough surface scan had shown nothing amiss.

It was probably a smaller device, plugged directly into the trunk. And that meant that it would be transmitting it's trace data to a nearby receiver. 'Nearby' could be several hundred miles, given the technology available in the Digital World.

He wondered if it would be possible to find out at which range the tracer box was transmitting. Maybe he could scan the area for any anomalies - such as the ones caused by receiving stations - and find out who was trying to trace them.

Damian shrugged to himself. It was worth a shot, he thought, and got to work.