Due to how busy my month has been, this is getting up later than I intended. But at least it's up before month's end.


Chapter 10 - Disconcerting Encounters

Late mornings in Braun had never been so quiet. The recent incidents had a lot of people staying inside, where it was at least safer if not guaranteed security. Few cars drove the roads, schools lay dormant, businesses were open but seeing little in the way of customers, and there was a dreary air that was not helped by the overcast skies of the day. But for some, it was far from a peaceful time, and a flurry of phone calls between a certain group had them bustling back to action.

"We picked up a signal using the extended scanner this morning. Looks like five of them, actually. If we all can get there this time, I think that'd be the best-case scenario."

"I think I'm in luck. Both my parents are out right now…I'll get in trouble if they catch me sneaking out, but it'll be worth it to make sure the city's safe. Where are we going?"

"That's the tricky part. They're all clustered in one spot - the Jordan Air Field."

"That's like ten miles away! It's going to take an age for some of us to get there!"

"I know that, but that's why we should meet at our usual base. I've been working on something for this sort of occasion - I've been modifying the teleport module and I should be able to get all of us there if we're all together."

"You mean that thing that's been on the fritz multiple times since you first made it? Maybe I should take my chances with flying."

"We have to check on our guests anyway. Who's bringing them food?"

"I still can't believe you actually captured digimon. This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen."

"So far it's better than the alternative. Neither one's been particularly talkative, but they haven't been able to break out so far. Now that they're locked down in suppression collars they're easier to rein in, but we're trying to keep them from moving around too much, I don't know how well that door'll hold up if they're really determined."

"I'm not sure how you expect them to get sent back, what digimon is going to wait around for long enough after we beat them to let us bring them to them to take them with?"

"We have to try, as long as they're at our mercy, it would be wrong to just kill them. And that's why I'm bringing them food, too, but you guys're gonna have to contribute to that, someone's going to catch on soon."

It was perhaps not the cleanest bit of call chaining and coordination, but it got the job done - everyone eventually arrived at their hideaway base, apparently without being detected by anyone who mattered. Unsurprisingly, Isaac and Datacarnomon were the last to arrive, though closer to punctual than Isaac's usual.

"Okay, you guys are right," griped Datacarnomon as they entered the basement. "This guy is a pain to get moving properly."

"I actually have stuff to do to get ready!" protested Isaac. "You just sit there being ready all the time! It's not that simple!"

"All of us have things to do to get ready," remarked Skylar stiffly. "And yet, four out of the five of us are fairly regularly on time, particularly for the things WE organize."

"You humans have too much compilifaricatrated stuff," Breezedramon chimed in exceedingly helpfully. "Sky does like a zillion things. Maybe you're just doing another zillion too many?"

"I venture, perhaps erroneously but I possess confidence not, that our machine-minded compatriot's temporal insensibility tribulations are generated by insufficient preparatory attention, conversely to the proclaimed excess of required activities," stated Blackcanismon with a hint of playful teasing.

"It's a lack of orderliness," said Iris. "You look at his room, you'll see what I mean. He's as scattered physically as he is mentally."

"You all suck," grumbled Isaac.

Reyn poked his head out the door. "If we've gotten it all out of our systems, Isaac, Data, I want you to come in here and check on these collars, just to be safe. Everything seems fine to me but I'm not a master at this sort of stuff."

Isaac, quite grateful for the reprieve, hurried over to their 'secure holding room' - perhaps a bit bold of a statement, but 'prison' felt a bit too heavy. Data followed behind, readying himself just in case things got messier, but Salmandmon already seemed to be attending to that. He was currently fitting the leg cuffs back onto Shadowdramon, who was scowling at every one of them, but currently kept from speaking by the band over his mouth. The pieces were quite impressive for such quick work - specially-designed cuffs to restrain the arms and the legs while also dampening the amount of force they could apply, a band wrapping around the snout of Shadowdramon and around the head of Crestmon to muffle their voices, and a collar around their necks that diminished their strength and blocked the use of their abilities, and giving their bodies a 'weight' that limited their movement and blocked Shadowdramon from flying. The latter was in anticipation of removing some of the restraints later on if the captives behaved themselves. Already Crestmon's muzzler was set aside, and the saurian digimon didn't seem too invested in making a whole lot of noise.

"This idiot's yapping got to me," Salmandmon remarked as he tapped Shadowdramon's muzzler. "When he threatened to bite, I slapped this back on in a hurry. At least got some food in him first, not that the ingrate appreciated it."

"Have you eaten as well?" Datacarnomon asked Crestmon as he checked the collar, making sure it was physically and mechanically sound as best he could.

"…Yes, I did…" Crestmon looked away, sounding somewhat morose and nervous.

"Lovely. Try not to look so down that we didn't delete you like heartless bastards. This might not be fun, but at least you'll probably live to get back to where you belong."

Crestmon didn't reply to that, leaving Datacarnomon to give the others a 'well, I tried' shrug. Meanwhile, Isaac worked on Shadowdramon's collar, being extra diligent as he guessed this was the more troublesome one. "Everything looks to be in order. Jeez, he's a pleasant one, isn't he?"

"He seemed to be the leader of that little group of rascals," said Reyn. "Or at least wannabe leader, it was a bit too chaotic to know if they all thought that way. He's plenty defiant, but I can't tell if he actually hates us or just wants a fight."

"I'd be happy to clock him a few times if that'd teach him a lesson," huffed Salmandmon. "But apparently we're being all noble and crap, so I'm holding it in."

"Way to sell it, bud. We all good?"

Isaac nodded. "Yep. Everything looks sound. Now we can really get down to business."

"I don't see why you're wasting time with this nonsense. It's not getting us any closer to solving this problem."

"Agent Redford, as I've told you multiple times, we're working on it."

"'Working on it' is not good enough, Agent Katran." Redford and Elliot were exchanging scowls that would have turned lesser men to stone. "When I got here, I was informed that you were the senior investigator here, and it was my expectation that you would be quick to put things together and get all the action in place that was needed to make things happen. Was I misled about that?"

Elliot was very much losing his patience. "Do you think this is some dime-store B-movie, Redford?! How many goddamn fantasy monsters have YOU dealt with in your time at the bureau? I have agents putting their lives on the line out here to get us even an inch closer to figuring out what the HELL is happening in our city, and I haven't seen YOU do much of anything other than talk on your phone with apparently very important strangers and complain about OUR lack of work! If you're that anxious for things to get done, let's hear a few suggestions that don't involve sending in a thousand DC boys who don't know the first thing about what's going on here!"

If looks could kill, Redford would have had more than one lethal weapon on him. "…Work faster, Katran. The FBI doesn't have a boatload of patience." He stalked out, leaving Elliot even more frustrated, and nearly bumped into Emil as he shoved the door open.

Emil looked behind himself at the retreating agent as he stepped in, raising his eyebrow. "Should I ask?"

"You can probably hazard a guess." Elliot thumped his coffee cup in the trash. "If I had a dollar for every feddie who waltzed in here thinking he owned the place, I could retire early. And Redford is worth at least ten for how useless he is."

"Do you have any idea who he's talking to all the time?"

"I wish. But it has to be someone back on his home planet, right?"

Emil gave Elliot a thin smile. "I know what you mean, but we might want to avoid that phrasing while we're dealing with THIS particular issue. I'm afraid of daring the universe at the moment."

That got a bit of a terse laugh out of Elliot, but he seemed to relax a bit. "Fair enough. No, I think we're both thinking the same thing…he has this narrative that he desperately wants to be true and is trying to make it happen."

"Yeah, the incompetent local fuzz get bailed out by the big damn heroes at the national level. Where are we in trying to make that not happen?"

"I've got the dossiers lined up in the conference room. There's still a lot that we don't know, but the visuals are something else. It's given us a few insights that I think will be helpful. And the incident a couple nights ago got us even closer. Maybe once we get something out here, this will finally break in our direction."

Jordan Air Field. Years ago it had been a hangar and airfield for small craft, but it hadn't been used as such for at least a decade following condemnation for contamination. While the city waited for their chance to secure funding for cleanup and redevelopment, the old hangar buildings stood dormant and unmaintained. Good news for the five who were just arriving, as there was much less risk of meaningful collateral damage...that was about the only silver lining, though, considering that they were up against a few more enemies than they would have liked at one time.

"Well, if that's teleportation working properly, I'm gonna prefer using my own two feet still," remarked Burnreptimon as they dusted themselves off and got their heads in order following their arrival. "That does NOT feel good coming in."

"It take a bit of getting used to," noted Andrexmon. "Wasn't so easy for me the first time, either. But if you do it more, it'll get easier."

"Yeah, I'ma pass," moaned Skydramon. "I don't wanna be trying to fly around while my head's spinning like this."

"So this is Jordan Air Field…I don't think I've ever actually been here, just heard about it." Boltfalkemon looked around. "Wide open space, a few scattered buildings…if it wasn't for the distance, I'd like just about all the battles to be held here."

"And the exposure," added Burnreptimon. "We're a ways away from most people's sights, but anything big is gonna easily be seen. Andrexmon, what's the sitrep?"

"Our five signals are still here. No sign of movement, and they're spread out. Either we're about to get the drop on them, or they're waiting for us. No prizes for guessing which one I'd rather be true."

"The one that's not going to be, I'm sure. I assume we're splitting up and taking them one-on-one?"

"Probably better than if they all decide to work together," Skydramon agreed. "Let's get to it, huh?"

"Hold a moment." All eyes went to Darkvargmon, who had been quiet up until then. "…Do you feel that?"

"Feel…what?"

"Concentrate. You'll notice it."

Confused, the others remained silent, trying to figure out what the heck Darkvargmon was talking about. But after several seconds of quiet, they started to notice it - a subtle sensation of something radiating through the air, faint but distinct once they were aware of it. "What…in the world is that?" asked Andrexmon. "I'm not picking up on anything on my sensors."

Darkvargmon shook his head. "You wouldn't. That's chaos energy. By design, it can't be measured, only felt."

"Chaos energy?" asked Burnreptimon. "You mean we're dealing with demons?"

"Yes, and not just regular demons. Giving off chaos energy means these demons are linked to a source of it. Your average demon digimon might use chaos energy but doesn't give off an aura like this…these ones have been on a chaos plane, absorbing it."

"Which means they might be stronger than normal, right?" surmised Boltfalkemon.

Darkvargmon nodded. "Exactly. So don't take them lightly. If you feel like you're not getting the upper hand, back away and regroup. This makes me nervous, I don't remember encountering demons which gave off this kind of energy among Emperius's ranks before."

"They're too damn full of surprises these days, if you ask me," grunted Andrexmon. "Let's move."

Five files, laid out next to each other on the table in the conference room. Innocent enough in appearance, but Emil knew they contained nightmares within. "Profiles on each one, and the drawings that were done…they're numbered #1-#5. Is there an order to them?"

"Order right now is based on when they were identified," said Elliot. "We thought about putting them in a threat-level order, but right now, all of them are considered basically beyond our threat-level scale entirely, so there wasn't much point trying to split hairs."

"Got it." Emil opened folder #1, and was immediately greeted with a stunning drawing of a yellow-feathered avian creature. "Gracious! This is incredible!"

"Cecily is a wonder-worker," agreed Elliot with a smile. "Braun PD pays her a pretty penny when they need a sketch artist. I hear she does art for a living, and makes some pretty good bank doing so. Almost makes me wonder what I'm doing here."

"Ell, you're my closest friend, but if you think you could do art for a living on YOUR talent…"

"Well, I wasn't going to go THAT far. Anyway, #1, our electric bird creature, first seen over Lennar Street. We've seen her the most often, but in other ways she's been pretty elusive in spite of that."

Emil looked up curiously. "Her?"

"Right, I'll explain that. She engaged one of the helicopters that night, apparently up close and personal. The spotlight casing was smashed. We saw traces of blood, but not enough to think it was a severe wound. Near as we can tell, she then descended down near Grittis Street. McGovern caught sight of her there, and moved to engage…except, he wasn't armed, so I don't know why he did."

"Knowing Bob, he likely just forgot he didn't have his gun on him," said Emil. "He always does say he's not a fan."

Elliot shrugged a little. "True, but on this job, he really should get used to it. He's been here long enough. Anyway, he paid the price for it, because he startled her, and…apparently, according to him, with just a touch of that clawed hand, he got a jolt like he's never felt before. Said it felt like he imagined a souped-up taser would have to feel like."

"With her HAND? Jesus. I know there were reports of electricity around this one, but…just being able to do that with a touch, that's beyond scary. How is Bob doing?"

"He came back in today, clean bill of health. Got a couple of marks but no serious damage. Now, here's where things get weird. Apparently, after the shock happened, our central station got a message over his radio from a female voice telling them that there had been an incident. But we're not sure who it could've been. There were no distinct footprints around except for the bird creature's and Bob's. We asked around but no one's speaking up about being up that night, so right now it's a bit of unsolved mystery."

"Huh…very strange. Another thing I'm wondering, if she had Bob down, why didn't she finish the job? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she didn't, but…"

"No, I get it. My best guess is that she thought she had already. Bob said that he was barely conscious, but he heard her speaking over him…maybe she thought his lack of response meant that he was dead or dying. Anyway, he swears it was a female voice, though he couldn't make out any of the words…that's why we're going with female for the creature. It's maybe being a bit presumptuous, we don't even know if these things have genders, but at this point, I'm going with what we know until we're given a good reason not to."

Emil nodded thoughtfully. "I guess it makes sense. He was that sure about the voice?"

"About the only thing he can swear to from after the shock. Even said it sounded almost familiar to him, somehow, though he thinks that's just because of how indistinct it was. Given that I'm fairly sure electric bird creatures didn't exist before a week or so ago, I doubt he could actually be familiar with it."

"Definitely not." A wry chuckle left Emil's mouth. "I'm going to have to make sure Iris doesn't hear about this one. She tends to get into things that are all about electricity…I already have enough trouble convincing her to stay inside. If she met this one, she might get the wrong idea about these things entirely."

All things considered, Boltfalkemon would very much have preferred to stay outside. But their quarries had decided to all hang out inside the hangars, so she would have to make do. At least they're big, fairly open buildings inside, but still, it's gonna be harder to move around in there…

In she went, through the regular doorway next to the large hangar doors that would have let airplanes in and out - and as she passed by, she noticed with some disconcert that they looked like they had been opened recently, by something with sharp claws. Not exactly putting her at ease, but she wasn't expecting them to be throwing her a birthday party anyway. The inside of the building was dark, only a few small windows providing light; she fumbled for a switch and found it, turning on some lights inside…but it was still rather dark, as most of the lights were occluded by a noxious pall, no doubt courtesy of their guest.

Said guest, however, was still visible…and Boltfalkemon was momentarily thrown. It was a nasty-looking devil dragon digimon, with a gnarly black body, some black belts over his limbs, and a wrap around one wrist, with fingers bearing long red claws and wings that looked tattered and torn. Devidramon…but…aren't they usually a few stories tall? This one's barely half again as tall as I am…not that I'm complaining, mind…

"…Ssssso…" Devidramon spoke, his voice raspy and hissy. "The ssssstrange onessss…they came asssss exsssspected…"

"You thought we wouldn't show up, when you showed your foul face around here?" snapped back Boltfalkemon.

"One never knowsssss…" cackled the Devidramon, somehow taking amusement out of that. "You intend to ssssstop me, then?"

"I'm going to do more than intend!" Boltfalkemon spread her wings, and flapped them forward, shooting her Spark Wave at Devidramon. The devil dragon took to the air, flying rather adeptly despite his wings seeming insufficient for the job, and getting away from most of the attack, a few shots grazing his legs but not seeming to do much.

"Ssssso impetuousssss…I like that." Devidramon smirked as Boltfalkemon took to the air as well, sparking as she faced him down. "Let'sssss sssssee what you're made of, birdy…Crimsssssson Nail!" He swooped at her, brandishing those dangerous claws as they glowed brightly with a baleful energy. He was faster than he looked, and Boltfalkemon had to scramble a bit to get out of the way as he swung and cleaved only air.

That gave her an opening, though, and she took it, diving into him with an electric charge. "Static Cracker!" Her momentum carried them both downwards onto the ground, getting a screech out of Devidramon as they hit. She leapt up quickly afterwards, narrowly avoiding another swipe from those vicious claws, and Devidramon followed her into the air again, panting some but clearly far from out.

"Not bad, birdy…you've got ssssspunk." Rarely had a compliment made her bristle so much - perhaps worst because it almost sounded genuine. "They sssssaid there wasssss sssssomething ssssspecial about you…perhapsssss I can sssssee it."

Who's 'they'? I can't imagine Emperius is handing out any credit to the likes of us… Boltfalkemon wasn't exactly eager to engage in repartee with this fiend, though, and instead launched another Spark Wave at Devidramon. This time, Devidramon didn't evade, but suddenly rushed through the attack, way faster than she was ready for. "Demonic Gale!"

No chance…Boltfalkemon swooped down under him, but there was no avoiding the trailing shockwave which rattled her body and send her thudding onto the ground. Better that than a direct hit, but she would be feeling that one for a bit. She heard Devidramon swooping back down towards her, and launched herself into him again, another Static Cracker hitting him bodily, his claws swiping behind her as he wasn't expecting her to make that particular move. That plus a kick sent Devidramon tumbling and her backwards, landing on her feet and panting hard…at least the devil seemed to be in similar shape, he wasn't in dire straits but he was clearly fatigued. "Curioussssss…your energy…the tasssssste…exsssssotic…"

"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" challenged Boltfalkemon.

"Hnhnhn…my massssstersssss were right…you are quite interessssssting creaturesssss…" Devidramon straightened up, grinning down at her in a disconcerting manner. "Ssssssomething about you…the chaosssss…it sssssseemssssss to be drawn to you."

Boltfalkemon blinked. "What? What do you mean? What chaos? What's Emperius so 'interested' in us for?"

"Now, who ssssssaid anything about Emperiusssss? You will find out, perhapssssss, when they are ready…"

Suddenly Devidramon began to glow, and the space around him distorted. Boltfalkemon started - there was no way, right? "What? Wait a second!" But it was too late, Devidramon vanished, headed back to wherever he came from. The hangar suddenly felt emptier…that weird energy presence, the chaos energy that Darkvargmon had been talking about, was gone, too. And Boltfalkemon found herself with more questions than answers.

"You know, Elliot, I've always thought of myself as someone open to possibilities. There's lots of strange things in this world and beyond, you can never say that something is outright impossible. But if you told me two weeks ago I was going to be looking at a drawing of an actual goddamn dragon, I would have needed to get you a psych eval."

"It's insane to think that this is what it's come to," agreed Elliot with a solemn nod. "But Constant Monster #2 doesn't seem to care how insane it is. This one was also spotted in the Lennar Street Incident, and seems to appear a fair bit with the bird. Might make sense, both of them fly."

"It's amazing that they do, they seem too big to be able to fly like that…but I remember the helicopter report, this one was absolutely zipping around according to them."

"Yes, and it had a very potent ranged attack, as well. It struck from afar and ruined the searchlight badly…I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that, myself. But it also swung up and attacked after that...we think it was targeting the night vision camera."

Emil took a sharp breath inward. "That…that is a scary thought. Forget that they would be smart enough to go for that, how would they even know that those existed?"

"Oh, if you're scared now, just read on about this one. It was sheer luck that we caught sight of it the way we did that night. It landed on the road near Petunia Place, almost right on top of Paul Dailey. He confronted it and held it at gunpoint."

"Jeez. I almost feel sorry for the monster now."

Elliot snorted a laugh. "Dailey is a pretty intense one, but I've seen his type before, once he ripens a bit he'll learn how to temper himself. It took a bit to get the whole story out of him, at first he was just talking about how the dragon used a ploy on him to disorient him, but with a bit more pushing I managed to get him to admit that he got distracted. But it's how he was distracted that worries me…Dailey said the dragon talked rings around him."

"Talked rings around him? How? Just talking fast, or…"

"Well, that too, Paul said he talked like he was on fast-forward. But it was what he was saying, too…he didn't go into much detail, even though I told him I wasn't going to judge him. A bit less green will take care of the pride issue, too, I hope. But he made it clear that this dragon was highly intelligent."

"God help us." Emil rubbed his head. "Advantages are everything when dealing with a threat, known or unknown. Even being on even ground is bad news when you're on the defensive. We already knew we were lacking on size, speed, or strength…if intelligence is another factor we don't have the edge on, then I'm not sure what's left."

"Human ingenuity, if we're lucky. But I'm not so sure about that, either. Paul said once the creature had him distracted, he was knocked over by a sudden gust of wind, and then the creature snatched his gun away from him."

"Wind? It was dead still out there that night."

"Yep. And the way Paul spoke, it sounded like the creature was taking credit for it. It might be like the bird, except instead of electricity, it channels wind. And more, judging by this…" Elliot held up a bag, showing Emil the fragments of Dailey's gun inside. Emil took a close look, and then recoiled.

"You can't be serious!"

"Dead serious. Paul said the claws cut clean through. And right after that, it gave off a warning, said we were in the middle of a calamity and that we'd regret coming after it, or something to that effect. Dailey seemed a little reluctant to talk about that much…he was nervous about something, for sure."

"Goodness, I can't imagine why." Emil shook his head. "Scary as he is, he's honestly kind of fascinating. I guess it's just a thing about dragons. Iris has a friend who'd probably be enthralled by him…she says he goes nuts about anything wind or weather-related."

"I imagine he'd want to stay away from this one," remarked Emil. "If those claws can do that to a metal weapon, I'd hate to see what happens when they come into contact with flesh."

"Oy! Evil demon creature! Come on out of here, don't hide away like a coward!"

Skydramon's goading wasn't having any effect - the outside of the hangar remained stubbornly digimon-free. He groaned a bit. "You're really gonna make me come in there…" he muttered under his breath. "Fine, just for that, I'm gonna go extra-hard on you…" With no help for it, he steeled himself and barged into the hangar, looking around for whatever threat was coming his way. It wasn't exactly brightly-lit, but there were quite a few windows around the top, allowing sunlight in.

Which, apparently, wasn't helping the temperature inside, as Skydramon was giving off shivers. "Brrr! The hell's going on, is this place refrigerated or something?" He looked around, and it didn't take long before he saw it - a bright white devil creature, with plenty of black belts and brown wraps around parts of its body, and wicked bull horns on its head. "Oh, well, I guess it is NOW. Don't you have better things to do with your time, IceDevimon?"

"I'd say I'm doing quite well for myself," replied the demon smugly. He was not quite as big as IceDevimon could get, but they had an annoying tendency to play around with their projected sizes…Skydramon would take it if he stayed only twice as tall as he himself was. "I drew in an annoying blue dragon to toy with, after all, I think that counts for something."

"You're gonna regret underestimating me!" fired back Skydramon boldly. "I'm no pushover, I've taken out a fair few of you goons!"

"So I've heard. Bold enough to come and try to face me alone…or stupid enough. Perhaps we'll see which!" IceDevimon raised his hand, smirking evilly as icy energy coalesced in it, surrounding the claws. "Have at you! Frozen Claw!" He leapt at Skydramon, lunging with the ice-covered claws; Skydramon shot into the air out of his reach, at least for the moment, but he knew he wouldn't get much respite.

"Eat my Twister Orb!" He hurled the windy orb at IceDevimon, smacking him an the head and making him roar out. That got a grin out of Skydramon, which fell quickly as IceDevimon looked back up at him, seeming less than put out.

"You'll have to do better than that. But I don't think you'll get the chance! Cold Breath!" A deep breath, and he blew out an icy gale that Skydramon could swear lowered the temperature another few degrees even as he avoided the brunt of it. He's trying to keep it cold to dull me down…I have to keep moving and stay warm!

"Icy Shower!" IceDevimon spread his wings, and multiple dangerous pointed icicles formed from them and fired out. Skydramon swooped around, doing his best to weave around them, but the seventh one clipped him and sent him skidding across the frozen floor, crashing into the wall of the hangar. He picked himself up, grimacing through the pain; one wing was feeling especially cold and sore, but it was still working at least.

"Hah hah hah! Is that the best I can expect out of you, foolish dragon?" taunted IceDevimon. "Perhaps you aren't so suited to fighting for this world after all…"

"Oh, bite me, you think you're a big deal just because you're a demon! You don't know how many of your kind I've put an end to over the years!" Technically that was Breezedramon, but Skydramon wasn't about to split hairs. Despite the tumble, he felt oddly quick to recover…the cold wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't affecting him like he thought it would. "And you're not even close to the strongest! I'll show you what you're messing with! Twister Orb!" He launched another orb, then another, and then flew back into the air and rushed towards IceDevimon while he was preoccupied with the projectiles.

Not preoccupied enough, it seemed, as IceDevimon let the second one hit him in order to lay out an attack at the charging dragon. "Frozen Claw!" He swung, but Skydramon was ready - just as he'd anticipated. His own claws glowed blue, and he swung under that slash and met the demon's arm with his own Aero Nail, ripping through ice and wraps and flesh and getting a pained roar out of the demon. It would have been much better if he'd been able to follow that up with a second to IceDevimon's torso, but the hangar wall was far too close and he was forced to swing away from it and IceDevimon.

Still, he could see IceDevimon holding his arm, and grinned down fiercely at the demon. "Not talking so tough now, are you? I'll do the same thing to your face if you want!"

"…Heh…" That wasn't the response Skydramon expected…the demon was still grinning. "I suppose there IS more to you than an overactive mouth. No wonder they had such a curiosity about you…you seem well suited to the chaos."

"The hell'reya talkin' about?" asked Skydramon, befuddled. "Curiosity? What, Emperius suddenly doesn't wanna kill us dead? You think I'm gonna believe that?"

"Oh, Emperius I'm quite sure wants your head on a pike. But I serve a different power, they're just a means to an end…and I think they'll be quite interested to hear what I have to report to them…"

Suddenly that distortion and glow rose around IceDevimon, and Skydramon started. "What? Hey, don't you dare bail on me! Twister Orb!" He launched the attack, but there was no chance, IceDevimon vanished well before it got there, and it merely impacted on the hangar wall with a loud crack. Skydramon landed, staring at the space that had been left behind by the disappearing devil.

You gotta be kidding me…he actually left? Like, not just in a 'we forced him to' way, he was clearly still fight-worthy…and what's with this 'different power' business? No one else we've run into has ever had designs on the human world…what's going on here?

"The new Jurassic Park movie clearly did NOT go the direction anyone was expecting." Emil shook his head as he looked at the dossier on Constant Monster #3. "This was the one that was first seen at Glikke Field, right?"

"Correct. Neal Collins caught sight of him moving through the trees near Keller Street, around the pond near there. He regrets not trying to confront the creature, but I think he made the right choice - if he had gotten killed, no one would have gotten a good look at this one. We didn't get any information on engagement, but honestly, I don't think I want engagement with him."

"Jesus, I can see why. Do kids still use the term 'ripped?' Because that's about all I can think of to describe that frame."

A shrug from Elliot. "You're asking the wrong guy. I'm more concerned about the metal. Particularly the metal arm. It's hard to tell exactly, but the way it looks and the way he was holding it in the pose Collins described…I don't know that I want to take the risk that it's NOT some kind of cannon weapon."

"So we're dealing with some kind of cyborg…wonder if that kid Iris was talking about would have any advice. She says he's a robots whiz."

"Iris seems to know an awful lot of people," remarked Elliot.

Emil returned with a wry smile. "You know her closest friends are also Derek's closest friends, right?"

"Are they? He doesn't really bring anyone around."

"He goes with them more than they go with him, but Iris pretty much loops him in with them all the time. That's what she tells me, anyway."

Elliot's brow furrowed a bit. "Hm. Well, regardless, I'd rather not get minors involved in this mess if we can help it, even if they are good with robots. This isn't just a regular robot anyhow. But it IS a menacing monster. So we're going to have to be very, very careful with how we approach this. I honestly think we have to get something out of one of the others before we even try, because as big and sturdy as he looks, I wouldn't trust service pistols to do much. Unless someone's in active danger, I'm telling people not to engage unless they're armed with rocket launchers."

Emil raised an eyebrow. "We have rocket launchers?"

"Nope."

No movement. There's no way they can't be hearing me, I'm not exactly a maestro of stealth. Andrexmon was standing in front of the smaller doorway, contemplating whether to use that or the much larger hangar door, which would probably be a better fit for his larger frame. But giving the demon inside an easy way out sounded like a less than wonderful idea to him, particularly with the others being occupied in their own matches…small door it was, whether he liked it or not. I would have expected them to try to ambush me, though…either they're stupid or they're confident, and I'm not sure I like either one of those prospects.

He opened the door and squeezed his way inside, closing it behind him. He didn't bother with lights, using visual enhancements to get through the darkness. Sitting right where his sensors told him it would be was the demon, looking at him - or so he presumed, her eyes were pretty well covered by those violet protrusions on her head. Much better to have her eyes on him than those many wicked-looking claws and blades on her legs. "Sangloupmon. A confined space doesn't seem like your ideal combat environment, if I'm being honest."

"Oh, a strategist, are you?" Sangloupmon's voice was even and slightly haughty, in that slick way of someone far too confident for Isaac's comfort. "Perhaps you should be more worried about yourself than me. After all, you might not have much time left to worry about anyone."

"Yeah, yeah, says you and every other Emperius goon that comes through thinking I'm an easy target." Andrexmon raised his cannon arm, pointing it at Sangloupmon - though aiming low, he wanted to avoid hitting the walls, there was a good chance he could do a good deal of damage and that would probably draw the wrong type of attention. "You might have noticed very few of them come back. There's a reason for that."

"Hmhmhm…fair enough. But remember, it only takes one victory for us…does your precious computer brain want to calculate the odds of your luck holding out as the days drag on?" Sangloupmon rose to all fours, bracing herself to break out into a run. "Perhaps a demonstration is in order!"

"Dino Buster!" Andrexmon fired first, putting Sangloupmon on the defensive and forcing her to run evasively rather than aggressively - he wanted to keep the pressure up to keep the much faster canid demon away from him, proximity was definitely not his ally in this fight. His shots weren't extremely fast, but advanced aiming algorithms were making up for that, making sure he fired just at the spots that kept Sangloupmon from being able to build up speed in any one direction. She was agile, no doubt about that, evading his shots by stopping short and twisting to run off in other directions; he made sure she couldn't run straight at him, moving only sparingly to keep from being too predictable.

Upping the pressure didn't seem to be changing much - his shots were getting more aggressive, but she was evading them by running or bouncing off of walls or jumping or flipping in the air. I probably shouldn't be so impressed, considering she's my enemy, but those are some pretty good moves…she's gonna make me work for my successes here. Guess I need to be thinking a few more moves ahead…she might have the moves, but she doesn't have a clockwork mind like mine.

He fired very deliberately, trying to work Sangloupmon into the corner of the hangar; the dirt was pockmarked with craters from his shots already, and she seemed to nearly stumble on one, but recovered well before Andrexmon could take advantage. But he didn't let that bother him, sticking to the plan…and the opportunity opened up, Sangloupmon hopping off of one wall onto another and then jumping onto the floor - right into the path of Andrexmon's next shot. She yelped as the shot connected with her chest directly, flinging her into the wall, which she bounced off of and hit the ground hard.

Andrexmon grinned - a direct hit, giving him the edge! He hastened to follow up, hurrying forward and firing at the prone demon…but she suddenly leapt up, surprisingly not as badly stunned as he'd thought, and a dark glow surrounded her before he could make up for that. "Black Mind!" Before Andrexmon could stop her, her form melted into the ground, disappearing from view. He looked around rapidly, trying to ping the demon on his sensors, but the signal was muddied, impossible to make out in the darkness. There's no way…dammit, I forgot she could do that! Did I just get played? Was she distracting me so she could get out and run free? Rgh, I need to get outside before-

He wasn't at all ready for Sangloupmon to appear behind him, leaping right out of his shadow, cast by the dim light of just a couple windows. "Drain Slash!" Andrexmon was thrown forward, the cutting sensation through his back leeching energy from his body, making it feel like a much harder impact than it looked. He hit the ground with a thud, growling in frustration, fighting the sudden rush of fatigue…though it passed rather quickly, more than he would have thought.

And a good thing, too, as Sangloupmon wasn't about to leave him alone, trying to pounce on him with another Drain Slash from those wicked claws. But Andrexmon had some wicked claws of his own, as well, and brandished them suddenly, whipping around after Sangloupmon had already committed to the attack. "Energy Claw!" His claws met hers, her only defense to keep him from disemboweling her, but it flung her into the wall again, and she was slower to rise this time, giving Andrexmon a chance to recover his position. Once again he took to his cannon, hoping to get her before she could get back on the defensive…

Suddenly Sangloupmon leapt to the far side of the hangar from him, now right in front of the hangar door. She stopped there, panting, but with a devious grin on her face. "Seems you've got me at a disadvantage here, robo-boy…c'mon, take a shot. Think you can predict where I'll go? Or will you tear these walls apart trying to take me down?" She cackled a bit at Andrexmon's snarl. "Oh, did you think I didn't notice? You were avoiding shooting at the walls…how cute, trying to prevent collateral damage."

"…Don't think I won't if I have to."

"Oh, you're a fun one. And a tough one, too…they don't usually get up so fast after my Drain Slash. It seems they were right about you."

"Huh? Right about what? And who's 'they'?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Heh heh heh, I wonder how much it'll keep your precious computer brain busy trying to figure out?"

Andrexmon started - Sangloupmon was glowing, the same glow he saw when one of their foes was bailing out. "Wh…you're not-! Don't you dare run off on me!" But Sangloupmon merely gave one more haughty laugh as she disappeared, vanishing like she'd never been there, only the dislodged dirt on the ground and a couple dents in the walls from where she'd hit to show that anything had happened.

She…left? Why? This is…I don't know what's going on anymore. We've made some mons run off, but I've never seen one actually abandon the middle of a serious fight, when she was clearly able to keep going…she wasn't even close to beaten, she could easily have sneak-attacked me a couple more times and kept it going…

He trudged towards the large hangar door, hefting it up rather than using the small one, since there was no real risk anymore. Sangloupmon was gone, that weird energy was gone, but Andrexmon still felt like he might have been the loser in that match - because her words were most definitely going to be occupying a LOT of processing cycles for a while…

"Constant Monster #4…are we sure this is one? I don't recall it from the incidents we covered." Emil looked over the drawing of the red reptilian creature. "Or wait…was this from one of the other reports?"

"Right." Elliot thumbed through a couple of papers in the file and pulled one out. "This one was caught on camera making another monster disappear. We didn't get much information on the one that disappeared but the few details didn't match any from these files. This lent credence to the idea that these 'Constant Monsters' might be summoning the other ones, and then removing them later."

"Do we have any idea what this strategy is supposed to accomplish?"

"Not a clue yet, but that's why we're hoping to actually capture one of them and interrogate it more directly. This one might not be the one to catch, though. You ever heard of the mythological Salamander?"

"I think so. That's supposed to be some kind of fire spirit, in the shape of a reptile or something, right? Iris's friend was talking about that to me once. You know, the red-headed one?"

"Oh, yeah, the little firebug. That's one I remember Derek being around…hopefully without matches or lighters. Anyway, you remember right. That's what we've got here, if Rivier's account is to be believed."

"Tony Rivier…" Emil rubbed his head, looking rather weary. "I know we gave an all-hands order, but WHY was he out there? He's like a baby jackrabbit, he gets spooked by anything. He's primarily desk-duty for a reason."

Elliot shook his head. "He should have been excluded. I'm working on coordinating that with the supervisory team right now. Anyway, Rivier said the creature crossed their path more or less by accident while they were stationed near Stanton. He was there along with one of the members of the police force - guy by the name of Burt Cragland. Except don't bother looking for him because he's now an ex-member of the police force, and good riddance."

"I sense a story coming up."

"According to the account, Cragland immediately engaged in hostile fashion. Rivier said he made it pretty clear that he intended to deliberately defy the capture-alive order, and in fact attempted to do so. And then…get this. When the guy fired on our Salamander, he apparently protected himself with some kind of fiery barrier. He couldn't tell what happened exactly, but it sure didn't look like the bullets did much. It then struck as Cragland tried to reload, got his and Tony's weapons, and…" Elliot held up another bag with two guns, their barrels melted to useless blobs.

"Dear lord. A fire spirit indeed."

"That was pretty much it for Rivier's spirit, apparently, he says he had a bit of an out-of-body experience from there on. He saw Cragland then attempt to attack hand-to-hand, but…Rivier said the lizard moved almost like a martial arts expert, quick and efficient blows to put our ex-officer down for the count. Then it spoke a threat to him, and ran off. Sounds like the threat was pretty similar to the one the dragon gave to Dailey, but he was sketchy on the details on account of being so shellshocked."

"I'm not sure how comfortable I am with these monsters all being able to talk like this," Emil said with a frown. "Bad enough they're capable of commanding forces of nature, being human-level in mental state means they can engage us on their terms. On the other hand, basic creatures couldn't tell us anything about themselves if we managed to get one in custody, and we're desperately in need of knowledge."

"That's the double-edged sword, there," agreed Elliot darkly. "The fastest way to gain knowledge is through a transfer from them. Lacking that, we're having to use what slow ways we have accessible to us, and right now that's got us behind. I'm hoping that once we get the information out to people, we'll have an easier time tracking them and finally get the chance to engage one on OUR terms. Maybe then we can actually figure out a way to stop them from doing what they're doing. Or figure out their motivation…they have to be doing this for a reason. Maybe for someone who made THEM, though at this point we don't have any way to figure out if there is a higher link on the food chain."

"Too much of their behavior doesn't make enough sense. Three direct confrontations, they all have the edge, but they run away?" Emil shook his head. "Elliot, there's something we're missing here. I don't know what it is, but if I were coming into this three days ago, I would have been dreading bodies. Instead, we have two relatively clean disablings and three destroyed weapons, not to mention two helicopters that will be putting in hefty expense reports. But what we've seen suggests that they could have done a LOT more damage."

"I don't have answers, Emil, but I'm not counting on it being mercy. We've seen what some of those monsters have been willing to do, and they have to be coming from somewhere. These ones have been seen around them, and they stay while the others go…I don't know what to make of it."

"…Is it possible that they could be…creating them, somehow?"

Elliot bowed his head. "Maybe…it would explain why they seem to show up more often. It wouldn't explain why they're de-creating them, though. And it doesn't explain where they came from, either…maybe someone made them and taught them how to make others, and whoever did isn't ready to show their full hand yet. Until we know more, though, I'm trying to prepare for the worst."

Burnreptimon really did NOT want to be fighting indoors. The others might have had their own issues with the arena, but his were far worse - he was a walking arson case, and while in theory burning down a building might have been fun and compelling, it was far more likely to get their asses in hotter water than anything. The idea of having to use restraint when he might be in a life-or-death battle wasn't exactly his favorite, but there was no helping it, the demon just was not coming out.

Of course it's not. Why would it want to make this easy on anyone?

In he went, slamming the door behind him and staring down the creature he was supposed to be fighting…and he paused. Hanging from the ceiling, in more or less the center of the room, was something that looked like a cocoon with wiry tentacles tipped with claws. "Is this a damned joke? They sent a Chrysalimon to fight me?"

"Aw, iz the little lizard upzet?" Chrysalimon's voice had a buzzing quality to it, almost insectoid. It swayed a bit, flapping its clawed tentacles around. "You think I'll be an eazy target?"

"Uh, yeah? You can barely move. How did something like you ever make it onto Emperius? I could buy an Infermon, easily, but you?"

"Hee hee hee…maybe you'll need to try to beat the answers out of me. Go on, then, if you're that cocky!" Chrysalimon whipped its spiked tentacles at Burnreptimon. The lizard leapt out of the way, and countered with a controlled Pyre Rush that only just reached Chrysalimon. The flaming attack engulfed the immobile demon, but when the flames cleared, it was still swaying there, seemingly unfazed. "Ee hee hee hee! Iz that all you've got?"

"Oh, come on…you're an overgrown bug, bugs are supposed to be weak to fire," growled Burnreptimon.

"Zomeone needs to ztudy harder, then." Chrysalimon waved its tentacles tauntingly before launching them at Burnreptimon again, one of them nicking his arm and drawing a little blood. The wound barely registered to him, though, as he launched another Pyre Rush, and then another, bathing the demon in flames - ineffectually, it appeared. "Zeriouzly, it didn't work the firzt time, what makez you think it'll work the zecond?"

"I don't need commentary from you," Burnreptimon hissed back. Playing keep-away wasn't helping him, he needed to belt this bagworm like a piñata, but he didn't want to take any really nasty hits from those tentacles - they weren't particularly strong, but a gash in the wrong place could spell trouble. He decided to try another tack, taking a deep breath and channeling the fire in his mouth. "Flare Fang!" With some effort, he launched a ball of flame from his maw at Chrysalimon, a more concentrated attack that he actually had the time to pull off against the largely immobile opponent. However, despite the added force, it did little more than make Chrysalimon swing around more robustly.

"Wheee! Thiz iz fun! Keep it up, lizard, I haven't enjoyed myzelf thiz much zince before I evolved!"

Burnreptimon was seething now, first clenched hard. This annoying clown of a demon digimon was hardly even trying! Another tentacle swiped his way, and he snatched it up, taking another cut for his trouble (though the first seemed to have healed up already), but putting it out of commission with a flare of his hand, the blade falling to the ground and dissipating into data which was drawn into Chrysalimon. "You wanna rethink that, asshole?"

"Mmmm…nope!" The other tentacles flew at Burnreptimon, and this time he stood firm, grabbing at them and torching them one by one. All told, five others fell to his hand, and though he was fairly sliced up by them, the wounds were all shallow, and closing up quickly. Every ruined tentacle seemed to inflame him more…restraint was getting ever more difficult, he felt more wild than ever, heart pounding like lightning. What's going on? I'm not scared of this guy, I shouldn't be getting this much of a rush out of him…

"Zomeone'z a little antzy, iz he?" taunted Chrysalimon - despite being down all its offensive weapons, it seemed utterly unbothered. "You've got me where you want me, don't you? Have at it!"

"Freaking masochist…fine, let's see you handle this!" Another Pyre Rush, barely held back enough to avoid torching the hangar wall, and then another that Burnreptimon charged into himself to amp himself up further, even though it seemed excessive - he really wanted to put this idiot down. He leapt at Chrysalimon and swung, fist slamming hard into it and sending it swinging hard. As it swung back, he delivered a perfectly-timed flying roundhouse kick to hurl it harder, making it actually bump into the ceiling with the force he let loose. And as it came back down, he walloped it with his tail, sending it careening another direction, with the result being Chrysalimon whipping dangerously around the room; Burnreptimon dropped low now, making sure to avoid getting skewered by the spike on its abdomen. Surely that had to have shut the demon up…

But as it settled down, Burnreptimon's jaw dropped. Chrysalimon didn't look even remotely damaged! "Hee hee hee…haz the hothead blown off hiz zteam yet?"

"No…no way! What the hell?!"

"You haven't figured it out yet? Thiz zhell iz not juzt for zhow!"

"Freaking…okay, that's it!" Burnreptimon didn't know why he was getting so incensed, but he didn't question it as he leapt onto the wall, climbing up high on it, and then launching himself off of it onto the tentacles holding Chrysalimon to the ceiling. He roasted them like he had the others, causing him to plunge to the ground as they broke off, though he was ready and landed safely if a little roughly, narrowly avoiding dropping onto the demon and spearing himself on one of the pointy bits.

But now it was nothing more than a sitting duck, and he held nothing back. His flaming fists hammered the shell, he stomped hard on it, he grabbed it and slammed it into the ground, a display of savagery that seemed wildly excessive, and yet…no matter what he did, Chrysalimon was unharmed and unfazed, even laughing at the brutal beatdown that seemed far less brutal in result than in effort.

Finally, panting hard, Burnreptimon chucked the demon onto the ground. Steam was pouring off of his scales and smoke was leaking from the corners of his mouth, a testament to his loss of control. "Why…won't…you…DIE?!"

"Hee hee hee…what a performanze!" Chrysalimon of course wasn't answering directly. "I could feel the impactz getting harder and harder, and the flamez getting hotter and fierzer. A perfect tezt of your abilitiez…and your rezponzez, hee hee…"

"Test…of my…what?! What responses? What are you talking about? I swear, if this is some new Emperius shenanigan…"

"Hee hee hee…well, Emperiuz may have an interezt, but my mazterz are the only onez worthy of hearing it…it zeemz you have a home in the chaoz. Thiz will be mozt exziting to them…"

"What are you talking about? Hey!" Chrysalimon began glowing, and Burnreptimon tried to pounce on him, but he vanished, leaving the lizard to flop onto the dirt roughly. He picked himself up, muttering angrily. "Asshole bug demon…hrrrrgh…" His body was finally settling down, the strange pall in the air ebbing away. "What the hell kind of test was that? And who's interested in it? If it's not Emperius…who else IS there?"

No answers were coming in the hangar. He stomped out, hoping that someone else had learned something more useful than he had - the last thing they needed was another enemy to worry about.

Emil got a surprise when he opened the fifth folder. "There's…no drawing in here?"

"Correct. We haven't gotten a good look at Constant Monster #5, and to be honest, they're somewhat theoretical at this point. The potential is based off of a doorbell camera clip we received a few days ago. You can see two creatures in the distance, one of them looks like some kind of yeti or something, and the other is a being that seems to meld into the shadow. The yeti one vanishes, and the other one moves away, almost seems like it sinks into the darkness itself. We can't know for sure if this is one of the same kind, but given that it appears to be involved in the summoning and dismissal of a creature…" Elliot left that hanging, but Emil didn't really need anything more to be said.

"Vanishing into the shadows…that sounds like a bad horror flick. I hope you're wrong, but I get the feeling you might be on to something, even that little bit is behavior that seems a lot like our other problem creatures."

"And absurdly hard to catch, if it does in fact sink into shadow. I know it sounds rather far-fetched, but all of these creatures do and we directly engaged with three of them just a couple days ago. Right now, I'm not in a place to disbelieve anything I see or hear."

Emil nodded thoughtfully. "Right. We've got to start narrowing possibilities down, but we can only do that with what we know…when we're this in the dark, we can't discount anything." Emil let out a sigh. "If only we had cameras looking everywhere. Getting the community's help will certainly be a boon, but I'm worried about them putting themselves in harm's way trying to find them."

"I'm more worried about them taking out guns and going hunting," replied Elliot grimly. "We need answers before we start aiming for bodies. If we don't get some idea what we're dealing with, we can't stop it from happening again in the future. And I don't want to end up having five worse monsters replace these ones and summoning more massive creatures like the huge bird or the Glikke Field beast."

There was a silence between them as they contemplated that. Eventually Emil spoke back up. "How should we approach it, then?"

"There's risk to everything. But right now, I want to present it as 'we need to find where they're hiding so we can make sure there aren't more.' I think we can get the best compliance if people realize that these creatures are a danger beyond just their own appearance, and that there's a reason they need to be kept alive if possible. Warnings not to engage…well, they'll only go so far, but I think it's all the more we can do."

"So we get people trying to train cameras out on the streets to see if they can get any hits?"

Elliot shook his head. "Not just the streets. A couple of them can fly, too. And it doesn't even just have to be creature detection - have people looking out their windows, scanning around for evidence. These creatures MUST leave some kind of evidence behind. Footprints, bio-matter, anything we can get we can use to track them."

"Right, of course. And if there's more of those signs in one place…"

"Then we can close in on them and get one step closer to putting this whole mess behind us once and for all."

There was no entering through the door for Darkvargmon - why make an obvious indication of his entrance when he could just appear from the shadows? The essence of stealth seemed to be to his benefit, especially in a one-on-one fight…he wasn't made to do a lot of close-quarters combat, so getting the advantage in this fight was definitely vital to success. It wasn't as easy to focus, though, with how thick the chaos energy was around the area. I know what this feels like from some of the demons around Moonlighton…but it was never this heavy there, naturally. It's likely to have a detrimental effect on me, I need to be cautious.

"…I know you're there, you're not going to easily hide from me." Darkvargmon cursed inwardly - the demon had sniffed him out before he'd even arisen in the room. So much for stealth…he rose up, facing down the foe, which looked like some kind of badly-sewn stuffed animal creature with a lot of nasty-looking spikes on its body. Their voice was oddly child-like in tenor, though their manner of speech was decidedly more mature than that. "A denizen of the darkness coming to face me…I would have thought you'd be on our side."

"You would think very wrong, Porcupamon," snapped Darkvargmon sharply. "I would never align myself with the likes of Emperius. Their campaign of hate and death is the antithesis of what the world needs."

"What a misguided notion. The inevitable fate of all things is chaos. To fight it is to waste your life clinging to an order that will cease to exist after you do. Why not embrace the truth of things and live your life as it was meant to be, sating yourself with chaos?"

"I have more respect for my fellows than to buy into a twisted perspective like that. And if you think I won't put an end to you for threatening all that I care about, you're even more delusional than most. Nightmare Tangle!" Darkvargmon raised an arm, and a swarm of darkness tendrils rose up and grabbed onto Porcupamon.

At least, they did momentarily…until Porcupamon, almost casually, suddenly jutted metal spikes from all over their body. "Madness Broach!" Darkvargmon winced and flinched as the tendrils were torn apart - it wasn't painful, but he could feel the way they were sliced and skewered. Well…that didn't work. I'm not going to be able to restrain them…hopefully I'll be able to keep them from doing any such thing like that to my body.

"If that's the worst you can do, then I don't think Emperius or anyone else has anything to worry about." Porcupamon started towards Darkvargmon, their movements stumbling a bit as they turned towards him. "I'll show you what a mistake it is to oppose us…maybe you'll see the truth for yourself soon enough to save yourself. Slap And Rip!" They suddenly rushed at Darkvargmon, moving much faster in a straight line than they had turning around, waving clawed arms at him. Not fast enough to keep Darkvargmon from avoiding them, though, as he phased into the ground and reappeared behind Porcupamon. The demon puppet slowly began to turn again, their mobility clearly not good unless they could just run forward - information the wolf knew he needed to take advantage of.

"You shouldn't be overconfident, Porcupamon, that's how quite a few of our foes have met their end. Shadow Wave!" Darkwolfman raised his hand, which glowed with his dark energy; it fired out, enveloping Porcupamon and making them stagger a bit. He hadn't expected too much, demons were generally resistant to dark energy, but not immune - if he got in enough good shots he'd be able to make them suffer. The fact that his first strike had as much impact as it did was even a bit surprising, but then again, Porcupamon didn't exactly look like the hardiest soul.

Not that they were admitting to that. "That won't be nearly enough…you shouldn't treat me like I'm just a weak little plaything, I can handle much more than that." Porcupamon ran at Darkvargmon again, but by now the pattern was clear for him - Porcupamon had no ranged attacks, and he was much more comfortable at range. Sinking into the ground again, he popped up behind and away from the puppet, launching another Shadow Wave to make them stumble once again. This was going better than it really had any right to, he had expected a lot more from a demon capable of wielding this kind of chaos energy. Not that he was complaining, he'd take a breather of a fight any day…

"…I'll bet you think you've got me licked, don't you?" Darkvargmon's ears twitched…Porcupamon had a slight smugness in their voice that had him very much on guard. "A lot of digimon think the same way…that's why they aren't ready for what I can do when I really try. Harrowing Pins And Needles!" Suddenly pain flared in Darkvargmon's shadowy legs as he felt something spear into them that he couldn't see, holding him in place…and then Porcupamon raised one arm, and shadowy needles fired out from it, streaking through the air. He couldn't avoid all of them, managing to get down enough to just get caught on one shoulder and arm. He managed to sink into the darkness again, but he could only escape the grip of the attack, not the pain from where it had hit. That's not an attack I remember their kind having…ugh, I don't like when they throw curveballs like that.

"Don't think you're going to beat me just hiding away like that…you're going to have to face me sometime. And then you'll get to feel another proper pin…I'll have better aim this time." Porcupamon wasn't letting up, trying to goad Darkvargmon out again…the wolf wasn't biting, but the demon had a point, hiding wasn't going to get him a victory. He needed to get another attack off, but anything would leave him a bit of a sitting duck, able to be pinned in place…he needed to be able to attack without them being able to counterattack him…

Ah, yes…I need to think outside the box. At least, outside of one of them…

"This is getting old…admit defeat if you aren't going to try to challenge me," griped Porcupamon. "Maybe I should go hunting for one of the others instead, they'd have to give me a better fight than this."

The response came from a direction Porcupamon wasn't ready for - right above his head. "Hasn't anyone told you that all good things take time? But I'll be happy to send you to the proverbial hell if you're that eager. Blasting Darkness!" Porcupamon had just enough time to look up - a challenge in its own right, they weren't made for that - and see the orb of dark energy plummeting onto them. It blasted outwards next to them, knocking them to the ground on their back, and they were quite slow even trying to get up. They raised their hand towards the ceiling, but Darkvargmon wasn't about to wait around and get caught up again, disappearing and then reappearing behind Porcupamon again, in the area where they were least able to access. Another Shadow Wave knocked them down before they could fully rise up, sending them skidding forward. "You seemed confident you could take a lot of punishment before…how much more do you think you can really handle?"

"…More than you can deliver, despite your bravado." Porcupamon wasn't trying to rise up this time, just tilting their head towards Darkvargmon. "Though, I have to admit, you impressed me…I didn't expect your blows to amount to even this much. The chaos should have blunted them...interesting…"

"…I fail to see what about this is that interesting. Perhaps I'm merely more competent than you were ready for."

"Perhaps…but that wouldn't explain why your later attacks were stronger than your earlier ones."

"…What?"

"Heh, maybe you don't have as much figured out as you think you do. I think they'll be very intrigued by this…I wouldn't have expected it, myself, but they are the masters for a reason. Perhaps we shall meet again, and when we do, hopefully it will be with you on our side."

Darkvargmon growled again. "Did it not sink in that I said I wouldn't join Emperius? Do you think offering ten times will make me more likely to accept?"

"Heh…who said anything about Emperius?" Darkvargmon started, and by the time he processed that, the glow was already around Porcupamon. "Until next time, stranger…" The hybrid bristled a bit, but didn't bother trying to interrupt the demon's escape - them being gone was a success enough, as far as he was concerned, it put an end to the threat for the time being.

But there was something about them that didn't feel right. 'Who said anything about Emperius' indeed…it could be a bluff, but with demons, even a bluff tends to have meaning. We need to be on guard, someone's got some suspicion about us and I don't like that…we barely even know that much about ourselves, what could someone else be thinking about us?

Elliot closed the door to the conference room, the files gathered up in his arms. "I'll put these in a central location, but they're going to have to be under lock and key. I don't particularly trust Agent Redford not to swipe them and take us out of the loop. You and I are going to have to be the ones who add to them. I'll let you know once I've found a proper place for them."

Emil nodded. "And then what? What's the battle plan?"

"At the moment, getting the images out there is the most important thing. We're going to disseminate the drawings, but more than that, I've asked Rudy Panmechia to construct some 3D models. They should be done in a couple hours."

"A couple hours? My, but he works fast. Sometimes I wonder what he's doing here rather than at a big-shot tech company, he seems like he could do just about anything he wants."

"I don't know, but I dread the day we need four or five guys to replace him. Someone in payroll is going to have to figure out how to deal with THAT budget nightmare. Anyway, I'm hoping that the sketches plus the models provide enough reference that those four will be pretty easy to recognize. The fifth we don't have enough to go off of, but presuming they're all together, we might be able to catch up with them. But I've been going back and forth on whether to talk about what they're capable of…I worry that some people won't take it seriously if we try to tell them the lizard's some kind of fire beast, and will try to confront it thinking they have the edge."

Emil thought on that one for a moment. "…No, I think we should be up front with that. Remember the Lennar Street bird monster? It quite clearly was doing something supernatural. I think as many people who have seen that, they'll probably believe our other monsters have something extra to them. And it may help dissuade them from trying to attack, and just focus on reporting."

"Hm…I think you're right. All right, I'll make sure that gets out." Elliot sighed. "What I'd REALLY want is some way to actually neutralize those abilities they've shown. How they even work is beyond me, but how to make them NOT work would be more useful. I don't know how we're going to handle them still…they seem to be intimidated enough by guns at least, but I still don't feel we have the edge. This feels like it's going to get more dangerous before it gets better."

"Right. I don't feel safe about any of this." Emil's brow furrowed. "I wish I knew why Iris wasn't thinking the same way, though…"

"Ah, you know how teens are," Elliot replied dismissively. "Think they're invincible and all. I've never been able to convince Derek to behave more safely, even with that dog he found, so I'm sure it's the same with her."

"Maybe…" Emil wasn't so sure though. She's never been that forceful about leaving the house before…I wonder what could have gotten into her?

"…So it wasn't just me. They all just…abandoned the fight partway through." Andrexmon rubbed his head. "Ugh…this is the most bizarre encounter yet."

"At least they're gone, and without any real damage to speak of," sighed Boltfalkemon. "But yeah, something about this…didn't feel right. Why go to all this effort to goad us out here just to bail before after a few blows?"

"…Chrysalimon was talking about some kind of test," remarked Burnreptimon. "Of our abilities and our responses. I don't know what that means, though…even literally trying to beat it out of him wasn't working, that jerk probably could have laughed through a hydrogen bomb."

"I fear that their coyness doesn't exactly leave me feeling easy," added in Darkvargmon. "About their purpose, about the chaos, even about their allegiances…they had to have been with Emperius, PTMs aren't just anywhere, but they didn't have that…vibe, if you will."

"Whaddaya mean?" asked Skydramon.

"…it's hard to explain. They seemed…less interested in this world, and more interested in…well, US. Emperius hasn't had any reason to want to learn about us, they simply want us dead. So the question is, who DOES want to learn about us?"

Andrexmon folded his arms and bowed his head. "I can't imagine demons swearing themselves to any higher power than isn't other demons. But there hasn't been much in the way of organized demon activity in northern Tetraquaz in centuries…just small fry doing their thing. And if that's changing, it's about the last thing we need."

"I suppose there's no point in hoping it might not be a bad guy demon?" asked Skydramon. "Maybe someone looking to help out and having heard about us?"

"They wouldn't try to do it this way," replied Burnreptimon with a shake of his head. "Good demons tend to be very straightforward, very deliberately, to try to avoid misunderstandings. Wolf, you'd probably know best if there were any with any designs…"

"None that I could imagine - they tend to want to keep a lower profile, too…" Darkvargmon sounded even more troubled than the others.

"Wolf? Is something wrong?"

"It's…nothing. Nothing I can really pinpoint, anyway. I think it's just the confusion of everything muddying my head."

"I don't blame you, this whole thing is just weird," grumbled Boltfalkemon. "I don't think there's a lot of point in dwelling on it without more information, and until some more demons decide to come through, I doubt we're getting much of that. And honestly, I'd be okay if they just held all the way off, at the very least until we've dealt with Emperius. Not that I relish jumping from one conflict right into another, but better that than tripping over one in the middle of fighting another."

"Agreed," said Burnreptimon with finality. "Rex, why don't you warp us out of here, so we can rest up from that? I don't feel as tired as I thought, but that weird energy we were all in for a while, I don't really want to know what lasting impacts it could have if we push it."

Andrexmon nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm on board with that. Gather close, everyone, we're going back to base."

The rest crowded around the cyborg, huddling together and seeming eager to put the encounter behind them. Only Darkvargmon wasn't so hasty to, with something lingering on his mind. It's very strange…I don't feel like the chaos energy really helped them much. But it should have…they should have been significantly harder than they were, even if they were merely toying with us it sounds like we all landed impactful blows…well, perhaps we're getting stronger than we expected, or maybe they were weaker than expected, or…I suppose there are any number of reasons…

Yet, as his head fuzzed over in the midst of a teleport, none of them truly left him feeling satisfied…he hoped he wouldn't have to worry about it for a long time.


This is the first, but absolutely not the last, brand-new chapter in the story. It exists for the primary purpose of actually leading into something which…pretty much just happened out of the blue in the original. But you don't have to worry about that for a while.

Although it's a brand-new chapter, it does take a piece from an older chapter as filler. (And yes, it was very intentional to have the back and forth laid out that way.) The approach of things on this side follows the same general path, but I think the devil's in the details, and I hope that the details have been shored up enough to make it feel more sensible.

My writing program doesn't enjoy me writing out these speech quirks. It's got a fairly aggressive auto-correct that comes into conflict with a lot of my custom stuff. I've mulled turning it off, but it's also pretty good at catching the actual typos, and I make a fair few of those, so I'm not yet sold on the tradeoff.