Digimon: Symbiosis (Remastered)

by Dragon Champion Zero

Everything changed the night the sky lit up. Now, with everything in two worlds laying on the line, they'll have to join together to survive and overcome - in the most literal sense possible.

2. Chapter 2: Reunited, For The First Time

I took long enough getting this up. Will try to make it a touch earlier in the month next time.

---

Chapter 2: Reunited, For The First Time

Zetta Unit knew they were in for a serious challenge. A brand new world, populated by completely different creatures, with only bits of detail to go off of that they could only hope matched their unusual shared dreams. Who knew how they would react to them, or what it would take to get them ready for the upcoming likely challenges. It was not going to be life as usual, and they expected surprises to be around every corner.

They just hadn't anticipated that the first one would be them being spit out 200 feet in the air.

Four out of five plummeted like stones into the trees; only the dragon had managed to think fast enough to spread his wings and glide down more carefully. He was the only one of the group who had a safe landing, managing to slip into the trees without incident and get down to the others. "Hey! Jeez, are you guys all right?"

"Oof…I'll live, but I regret having pain sensors." The robot was rising up, shaking his head. "Yeowch. That was NOT the kind of entrance I was hoping for."

"Didja knock any screws loose, Data?"

"I sure hope not. Though screws might be the least of my worries. Is everyone else okay?"

"Ouch. I'm present." Shockavimon was getting to her feet. "Though maybe not entirely accounted for."

"Don't worry, I'll be accounted for you!" the dragon said chipperly, earning him a look from the bird. "Why didn't you fly?"

"I panicked! I wasn't expecting to be in midair! By the time I oriented myself I was already in the trees…thankfully they slowed me down. Where's Sal and BC? I don't see them."

The three looked around a bit, but it was their ears that alerted them more than their eyes. On the other side of the tree, they found a moaning, whimpering red lizard, clutching at his left leg. "Sal? Are you okay?" asked the bird.

"F…fine…" muttered the lizard through a clenched jaw, making it all too obvious that he wasn't.

"You're a lousy liar, Sal. C'mon, let's see what-Ah!" She recalled when she saw the long gash running along the inside of his leg - it extended from near the ankle all the way up partway up his thigh. "Guys, he's hurt bad! His leg must've caught a sharp branch as he fell!"

"I'm FINE!" growled the lizard, as he tried to rise up, but the shooting pain forced him back down. "Dammit…that hurts. I just need something to keep the weight off of it."

"You're bleeding kind of a lot, Sal!" said the dragon nervously.

"I've had worse, Breezy, and you've seen it. This'll heal up in a day or two."

"Not if you stress the wound," remarked the robot. "You're going to need to take it easy for now."

"Data-"

"No buts here, Sal. We can't afford for you to be in a weakened state for any longer than necessary. We still don't have any lay of the land here, and if we need to fight at all, we need all we can get. If you're damaged, it puts us at a disadvantage."

"Rgh…fine. But we can't stay here. Where's BC? He's big enough for me to lean on."

"I found him!" The dragon was shaking the canine, who hadn't fallen far away but had blended in well enough in the dark that he'd been hard to locate. "I'm trying to resursusursectionate him now!"

"We need to put a ten-letter rule on him," sighed the bird. "No words longer than ten letters."

"Good luck, I tried that before and he doesn't follow it," remarked the robot. "You know how it is, his mouth moves faster than his brain does. Or his tongue, apparently."

"Oof…I request…the cessation…of your enervation techniques…" the dog was finally coming around, though looking none too pleased about it. "If only to…relieve the impressive percussive chorale in my cranium…"

"Hey, welcome back to the world of concisenticiousnesses!" said the dragon, sounding happy and relieved.

"Please spare the babblemouth for the interim. My cognitive faculties remain moderately impaired."

"Uh? Well, I hope that means your body still works fine, at least. We need your help, Sal dissunderated his leg and you've gotta help carry him."

"Ugh…exquisite. Unconsciousness bore slight advantage in my preference." Still, he rose up and headed over towards the lizard, who was being carefully helped up. "Elucidate me as regarding our ultimate destination, please."

"I'm trying to scope out a secluded spot…" replied the robot, scanning around both visually and with his sensors. "I think I've got one as good as any. Follow me."

—

It was a rough first night all around for the newcomers to the world. Pain kept the lizard and canine from sleep, whether by the lizard's injured leg or the pounding headache that the canine bore. The rest were in better shape physically, but not mentally - being strangers in a strange world, not knowing if they would be found and in serious trouble before they even had a chance to do anything, created a considerable restlessness among them. As morning rolled around, none of them could claim to be fully refreshed, and it was pretty clear from their faces that they were a long ways from top form. Despite this, they tried not to let it show…all of them were used to not being at their best, and challenges didn't typically wait for them to be bright and perky.

"How's your leg, Sal?" asked the bird.

"Bleeding's stopped, but still hurts like a sonuvabitch. I don't think I should put it through too much."

"Oy, so you're gonna be a sitting duck out here," the dragon remarked with concern.

"Yeah, but I can at least walk. I'll hide in the plants and keep my Smoke Screen up."

"That had BETTER be what you do," said the bird. "I know how you are, you act like sitting still will kill you. In this case, it might be the opposite, so don't push your luck."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll just be bored out of my skull all day, what's the big deal." The lizard sounded far less than enthusiastic.

"Honestly, I'm hoping for a boring day," said the robot. "We need time to prepare and settle in. I think it would be best for us to scout around and get an idea of where we are. I'm hoping I can start on an internal map, so that I can help us navigate later. But that's gonna require me to actually be places. Shock, Breezy, I think you two might help us faster by scouting the air. Do you feel comfortable with that?"

"Sure!" piped up the dragon. "My Sky Masking should have me blending right in so long as I stay high enough!"

"Wish I was as confident," sighed the bird. "I've been working on that EM Field technique to hide myself, but it's not great. Still, I can fly around some, I'll just have to be more discreet about it."

"Won't be any different for me," agreed the robot. "My cloaking device is great when I'm still, but you can see movement in the space when I'm moving around. I'm hoping that they won't look too closely, though, and I'm good at being still when I need to be."

"How regrettable that your indetectability techniques are so disappointingly limited," remarked the canine. "Perhaps I shall achieve the greatest measure of success considering my Shadow Step renders me utterly unnoticeable to ocular detection."

"Yeah, except you can only stick to where there are shadows," pointed out the robot. "It's great that you'll be the hardest to spot, but you'll also have the most limited range."

"…Undoubtedly accurate. All advantages must possess collateral disadvantages, I suppose."

"We need a ten-letter limit for you, too," remarked the bird.

"And handicap my erudite vocabulary? Such cruelties you propose!"

The robot smirked at the bird. "He passed that one, you know."

"Shee…okay, fine, you're maddeningly yammery big or small. Let's just get going already. We'll meet back here at sundown, right? And DON'T get found out, whatever you do."

"Sounds good. Hopefully there won't be any issues, but I guess we'll find out." The canine, bird, and dragon all departed, while the robot gave the lizard one last lookover. "Nasty wound, that one. You'll want to limit pressure on that leg until it's knit better."

"Tell me something I don't know. Only question is whether my body'll let me."

"I'm sure it'll be excruciating staying nice and hidden while the rest of us are exposing ourselves. And don't say a word about my choice of terms there."

"Data, you can't open a door that big and expect me not to walk in."

"Pretend I put up a force field. Speaking of exposure, though…" the robot let out a conspiratorial snicker. "500 cred says Breeze gets made first."

The lizard rolled his eyes. "Good to know that even in a situation with this much pressure, you're still willing to lay money on your comrades' screw-ups."

"Gotta keep sane somehow. C'mon, deal?"

"Fine, deal, if only to keep you from trying to up the ante. You're not feeling more impulse than usual, are you?"

"Not really, but stressful situations…well, I just want to make sure I keep it controlled. You stay safe here, Sal."

"You guys too." The robot headed off, while the lizard hobbled over towards some thicker brush. He got down in it as much as possible and activated his stealth technique…which was not really anything particularly advanced, just a special smoke around him that made him less distinct. Pieces of his form could be seen through it, and the discoloration was enough that it would be noticeable out in the open, but hidden away, it was much harder to detect him. Now he just needed to try to keep from getting stir crazy.

—

Reyn thought he'd be sleeping in after the late night, but he was up as early as normal…which was still not super early for a Saturday. It was the start of a long weekend, one of those "workshop" weekends that came up in school now and then, which he was pretty sure were an excuse to give the teachers a 'day off' from the scourge of life that was the teenage generation. Still, he wasn't about to argue, a day off of school was a day off of school. But that didn't mean Reyn didn't have business on his mind, just a different kind of business.

"Morning, sleepyhead." His mother Minerva, a shorter woman who nonetheless looked like a more imposing presence than it seemed like she should, was at the sink washing some things up, while Reyn's siblings were all sitting at the table - Wally, the eldest at 23, looking somewhat grumpy as he looked at his phone, while his younger siblings Cayden and Alisin, 11 and 10 respectively, were eating brightly-colored cereals. Both younger siblings had appearances that made some wonder if they were twins, being close in size and both taking after their mother pretty well, having the same brown hair and blue eyes and general look to them. Reyn often wondered why he was such an anomaly - the best answer he got was 'genetics be weird, yo.'

Someone, however, was conspicuously absent. "Wait, don't tell me Dad's at a morning shift? He's almost always afternoon on weekends."

"They asked him to come in. It's apparently pretty busy in the emergency room…has been since last night."

"Oh, jeez. Was it that thing in the sky? Did it do something?"

"From what he was saying to me, it doesn't sound like it did any damage to anyone or anything. Seems like it's mostly panic, anxiety, hysteria, and hypochondria. I suppose that's why they called him and not me, I doubt anyone's suddenly looking for surgery as a result."

"That'd be a heck of a thing to inspire. Suddenly everyone wants their appendix out. No, they don't care if they had it out six years ago, it's gotta come out again. But man, I guess that's gonna be the talk of the town for a while…I can see why, it was pretty nuts."

"Too bad it didn't happen on a school day," grunted Wallace. "Then maybe they'da been so tied up in it that you wouldn't have had to learn anything."

"No, you see, I happen to like learning," replied Reyn with the sly grin of someone who knew full well what they were doing. "See, I happen to have something called 'future prospects,' which means if I learn enough I might not still be living with my parents when I'm 23."

"Cram it," growled Wally, while Cayden snorted and quickly tried to hide it. "It's not easy to find a steady job out there! Not like I wanna be stuck here."

"I imagine it's generally pretty hard to find a steady job when you stop showing up because you don't like it."

"He does have a point there, Wally," Minerva pointed out, gently but in that special Mom way that made clear note of her feelings on that. That got Wallace sulking, while Reyn was grinning broadly.

Over his own bowl of cereal, Reyn made sure he looped his mother in. "Hey, Mom, I'm gonna head over to Skylar's after breakfast. I wanna see if he knows anything about what happened."

"Now, hold on there, buster. We had a deal, remember? You can go to your late movie if you do your homework today."

"I will, I swear it! I just wanna pop in for a bit. I mean, if I'm thinking about that thing in the sky all day, how focused do you think I'm going to be?"

"…I probably shouldn't say you have a point, but…"

"Why're ya all getting all worked up about that stupid light show?" grumbled Wally. "It was just a big flash, nothing that special."

"The only reason you're saying that is because you showed about as much interest in it as your girlfriend did in the movie," remarked Reyn.

"Can it, pipsqueak. Stupid thing, ruined everything. It would've all been fine if she hadn't been distracted by that!"

"Dude, she literally never had interest from the start. And you wonder why you can't keep a girlfriend?"

"Boys, boys." Minerva gently broke up the repartee. "Let's not cut too deep here. Reyn, you can go over to Skylar's, but I want you back by 2 PM and doing your homework until it's done."

"That's fair, Mom, I doubt it'll take too long to hear him out. Thanks!" Reyn shot one more smirk at Wally. "Don't wanna waste too much time, since someone's already doing most of that for the family."

"You know those days when you were so shy you barely strung two words together?" remarked Wally with a healthy asperity. "I REALLY miss those days."

—

As Reyn arrived at the Jascalt house, it was quickly apparent that he wasn't the only one who had the same idea. Not that that was a surprise - it was well known within their circle of friends who you went to if you had questions about weather.

"Yes, he's quite popular today." Skylar's mother Corrine, a slightly heavyset, very dear woman with her blond hair in a tight bun who always seemed to have a smile on her face, said as she let him in. "Iris is already up there."

"So I'm #2? Insane popularity right there."

"Considering how often he gets more than one person in his room, I'd say it counts. I really appreciate it, though…he says he's treated pretty friendly in school, but he never seems to get that close to most of them. I imagine it's difficult after the move, he lost most of the base he had and that wasn't much in its own right, but I'd hoped he'd adjust faster…but I'm glad he's at least found a few who are close to him."

"Well, yeah, I guess it can be difficult when people, uh, don't quite get you." Something that was always a touch awkward for Reyn to talk about, given his own history…then again, that was part of why he'd struck up such a close friendship with Skylar. The two weren't exactly swimming in popularity - people treated them nicely enough, but there was always a bit of distance that came with having interests like they did, to say nothing of the things they weren't eager to be forthcoming about. Now if he could only get Skylar and Isaac on the same page…the two had a long-running animosity that he'd been trying to help smooth over, but it hadn't been going well. A shame, because he was pretty sure the two would pair well together if they didn't grate on each other so much, they were two of the smartest people he knew in his peer group. "But I think it's cool. Not everyone has a friend they can talk to about this kinda stuff."

"Very true. I'm glad someone else is interested, too…Oh, but I'm keeping you. Go up and see him!"

"Right away!" With a slight wave, Reyn headed up the stairs. He'd been there often enough before that it was no trouble finding the door to Skylar's room, entering and seeing the white-haired boy predictably on the computer.

"I know I've said this before, but you should really get out more."

"As if you're one to talk!" Iris was sitting on Skylar's bed, giving Reyn a look. "You're more of a lounge lizard than any of us!"

"Hey, I golf!"

"You golf maybe six times a year, that barely counts."

"Well, yeah, it's hard to get Mom and Dad to have enough time for it, and Wally can't stand it. But at least I'm not the one who looks like a vampire. Besides, he needs more meat on his bones, he's already a short stack."

Iris huffed. "Oh, and what does that make me, then?"

"You're a girl. Girls are shorter on average, that what they told us in health and wellness last year."

"Shorter doesn't mean they can't kick your ass, girl or boy."

"With him, I'm about as worried about that as I am my grandfather kicking my ass." Reyn glanced at Skylar again. "Which, also, you should probably get some color in your hair, too, you look way too much like him like that."

"I'll have you know that white hair is something considered very prestigious in some cultures," spoke up Skylar for the first time, though he didn't deviate from the computer screen.

"Maybe someday you'll visit one of them and you'll be made their king."

A snorting laugh from the white-haired one. "Better than your fate, mister Firehair. Redheads were thought to be witches in some other cultures."

"Let them try to burn me at the stake, then. I think they'll probably wish they'd never tried. Also, I'm guessing because you're not falling all over yourself in excitement and are stubbornly working on that computer that you have no better idea than anyone what the hell happened last night."

"Sadly, no, and not for lack of trying." Skylar finally swiveled his chair, looking at the pair and sighing. "Nothing I've seen matches what I wrote in my notes. There's lots of speculation on the internet about weather phenomena it could be, but I've looked at all the suggestions and none of it matches the descriptions. To be honest, I'm not sure anything I've ever read about could come close to accounting for the sheer light output of that thing."

"I was hoping you'd have something…" sighed Iris. "Honestly, it's kinda freaking me out. I don't really know why, but something about it…I dunno. All I know it that it wasn't lightning, and I think that's part of what's bothering me, because nothing else is supposed to be that bright at night."

"Were there any reports that it hurt anyone?" asked Reyn.

"Not that I found," said Skylar. "Some crackpot stuff making wild claims, but nothing in any serious outlet. But I get what you're feeling, Iris…I wouldn't say I'm freaked out, exactly, but…well, every time I look out at the sky, I get this, uh, weird feeling…like, somehow, it looks…different."

"Huh?" Reyn looked out the window. "I don't see anything different."

"I wouldn't expect you to - you don't look at the sky as much as I do. But it's not just…it's hard to explain, it's less something that you can see and more just…something that…I don't know, you pick up on, something like that. And for all I know that's just paranoia on my part."

"So all we know is that we know nothing," concluded Iris.

"Well, not exactly. We know what it ISN'T. Just not what it IS. I think it was from a Holmes story that they said that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever's left must be the truth, even if it's improbable. So…if it's not a known weather event, what's improbable but still possible?"

"An unknown weather event?" Reyn posited.

"Unknown, unprecedented, unindicated, and localized to one small part of the city for approximately 47 seconds? Weather doesn't do that."

"You're suggesting it's something else," ventured Iris. "Are we gonna start getting into sci-fi weirdness here? Because that's definitely not my area."

"Not mine either, really, but, well…" Skylar shrugged. "It looked like some kind of disruption in space, to me. Wormhole? Black hole? White hole? I don't know enough to say, but maybe there are experts who'll see something in chime in. It's something that I wouldn't have expected to be possible to just happen randomly, but right now I think anything weird is on the table until it's not."

"Ooh, maybe it's aliens!" cracked Reyn.

"Har har. I think if it was aliens we would have seen some evidence of that. Pretty sure they scoured around the spot where the thing appeared already and didn't find anything conclusive. Only thing anyone noticed was a charred piece of tree branch, but that hardly tells anyone anything."

"Charred piece of tree branch?" That perked Reyn up. "You think it was some kind of fire thing?"

Skylar paused a moment. "Hm. Well…maybe something fiery was involved, somehow. But even you wouldn't be able to tell what it was that created a burn just by looking at it or touching it."

"Hm, yeah, you're right, that's a bit TOO much."

"So I guess we have to still wait, huh?" concluded Iris. "Someone will have to figure something out…my dad says that people are coming in to investigate, but they haven't seen any clear reason to think it was a weapon or anything. But that could change, so I'll keep up with him."

Skylar nodded. "Might as well. About the only thing I feel confident in saying is that it didn't seem natural to me. But there's still plenty of mundane unnatural stuff that it could be…and I'm not sure I like all the prospects of that."

Reyn grinned. "More of a problem that our weather weirdo friend doesn't think it's weather. Now THAT'S scary."

Iris gave Reyn a look. "You don't get to call someone 'weird' when you keep a literal thermite reaction chamber IN YOUR BEDROOM."

Skylar's head jolted towards Reyn. "Are you insane?!"

"Hey! I only actually use it outside! Mom and Dad say that if I burn down their house I'm buying them a new one, I'm not gonna try to call their bluff on that."

—

Iris didn't like it either. And that was why she couldn't just let it sit.

Departing from Skylar's house, she knew there was another person she could go see. Well, two other people, but she doubted Derek would have too many insights - Iris figured he probably saw it, but doubted he would have any better idea what it was, since as bright as it was there was no way he had looked at it when it went off. But perhaps the other brainiac of their group would have something to say about it…

Some of them might not have been as eager to call themselves part of 'the group.' Iris knew full well that Skylar and Isaac were at odds, and Derek was more distant with all of them bar herself - which she understood, he was not exactly the most personable person, even though she knew he was quite nice underneath his exterior. Of course, she would know - her father and Derek's father had been friends for almost 25 years, college roommates who had stuck together and now even worked in the same place. They were employed as investigators and agents as part of a multilayer government organization, the Braun Interjurisdictional Center for Investigation, or BICI - it was a rare joint operation, with local and state and federal divisions and then agents like Emil Conover and Elliot Katran who filled more fluid roles. While there was plenty they couldn't talk about, Iris had gotten a more complete idea of what was going on over there as she got older, a lot of looking into rumors and reports of various levels of veracity, and a lot of people being brought in for questioning - and quite often not from Braun itself. No doubt there was a lot of bustle going on there with what had happened.

That close friendship had led to close family ties as well. And naturally, Iris and Derek had kept with that. Not a challenge when they were only a month apart in age, as well as only children in their respective families. It was probably a good thing that they had each other to emulate that brother-sister connection, she sometimes envied the larger families the others had, but at least she had Derek and he had her…even if some people had trouble seeing them as that kind of relationship, despite how often they tried to shoot down the scurrilous rumors. But while she was much more outgoing and warm in approach, Derek was…not, exactly. She knew he was mostly part of 'the group' just because she was, and she made an effort to help foster the connections between them, even if Derek wasn't as enthused.

But there was another reason she grouped the five of them together. The dreams.

It seemed absurd when they talked about it. Who else shared dreams like this? The same creatures, the same world, the same themes popping up over and over again…all of them from different perspectives, yet consistent perspectives within each one, and they KNEW each other in those dreams. Not by the same names, of course, but it had to be them, right? How was it possible? She knew that others didn't have experiences like this, it seemed to be unique to the five of them - but the fact that it was shared by the five of them was absurdity enough, and it was enough to convince Iris that there had to be a reason they were linked together like this.

And makes it kind of weird that, in a way, I almost kind of knew Reyn and Skylar before I even met them in person. And kind of Isaac, but he's been around Braun for longer.

Speaking of, she was nearing his house now…and getting a nice surprise, as she saw Derek standing out front. She hurried over and gave him a poke in the back - he was ever so attentive at night, but during the day, it was almost criminally easy to sneak up on him. "Good afternoon, Derek! So, how's the illness?"

Derek snorted and turned, looking down at her; similar in many ways though they were, the eight-inch height difference was a clear contrast. "Nothing good about the afternoon, especially not this one."

"Oh, don't be like that. It's not even your normal bedtime!"

"Don't start, please. The only reason I'm out here is because HE asked me."

"You should be honored! He hates asking for help, so clearly he has a great need for you!"

"More need than I have for him."

"Ah, he's not that bad."

Derek shook his head. "It's just his attitude. I get annoyed when people decide modesty is for chumps. Bragging doesn't endear you to anyone…there's a reason people don't like him in school. But he just won't admit that he'd be a lot less of a pariah if he'd tone it down a bit."

Iris couldn't argue that one. "It's just how he is, I guess. He's been better since Reyn befriended him, at least…but what's he after with you?"

"What else? The sky break last night."

"Sky break? That wasn't what Skylar and Reyn were calling it."

"Just what I'm calling it, because it looked to me for all the world like the goddamn sky was broken. Bot-boy apparently didn't see it, except on a crappy camera, so he wanted me to talk about it. I told him he'd be disappointed, but I guess he thought my account would be worth something."

"Huh…well, maybe I'll hang around a moment, then. I didn't see it either."

"You either? Does no one keep their windows open these days?"

"Hey, I was asleep!" Iris replied indignantly. "I only woke up a few seconds before it happened!" She looked around, and then lowered her voice. "I was having one of THOSE dreams again."

That caught Derek's interest. "You were? Anything you can remember?"

"Yeah, but not understand. Back in that building…you know, the one that they're usually at. Except they went somewhere else, and there was some kind of machine…and I kind of feel like there was a flash just when I woke up."

"Huh…maybe you had one of those sorts of premonition-type dreams and it just kind of invaded that one?"

"Who knows? It would be absurd to think they were connected." Absurd, yes…so why couldn't she get her mind off of it? Maybe just because she was woken up so abruptly right before the whole thing happened, her mind couldn't help but tie the two together. "Anyway, it wasn't much, and I don't remember having any more of them after that last night."

"Probably won't be long before it happens again anyway. Oh, hey, look who's here." Derek's voice got a bit darker as Isaac finally came out of the house. "And only fifteen minutes after you asked to meet me. And no doubt with some convenient excuse as to why you couldn't keep the time of your own meeting."

Isaac grunted and folded his arms; it wasn't meant to be an intimidating gesture, but at six and a half feet and over 200 pounds, a fair bit of that being muscle, it could come off that way. "Look, you know I lose track of time easily, and trying to read up on this stuff just sucks you in. Still, thanks for coming, I'm hoping you can help shed some light on this! Since I'm sure you were out wolfing it up last night."

"You really need to stop calling me a werewolf," drawled Derek. "I guarantee you, I do not sprout fur and howl at the moon."

"Course not, that would be too cliche!" Isaac did a bit of a double-take as he finally realized Iris was there. "Oh, hey, Iris! Sorry, don't have any wiring to do today, my mind's on other things."

Iris rolled his eyes quite obviously. "Nice to see you too, smart-ass. For someone who's so interested, you sure weren't johnny-on-the-spot to look at it, I hear."

"Hey, it's not like I planned this to happen! They don't schedule atmospheric anomalies!"

"Even if they did, you'd be late to it," remarked Derek, getting a snort of laughter out of Iris.

"Ah, shaddup. Why don't you tell me what you saw instead of making smart remarks?"

"The audience might prefer the smart remarks." Still, Derek launched into his description of what he saw, giving as much detail as he could, though he didn't think it was that much. Isaac was looking slightly down, eyes almost closed as he finished; Iris could tell something was churning in that head of his, but not what.

"Interesting…yeah, the timeline jibes with what the camera caught…you said it looked like some kind of waviness? And then the flash…you didn't happen to notice anything after the flash, did you?"

"No? I don't think I was really looking, though…I mean, I was looking where the thing was, but not for anything else."

"Dang. I thought maybe you might've seen something…the camera looks like it caught something falling afterwards. Some kinda debris or something maybe, it didn't get a good look at it. I thought maybe your werewolf vision might've caught it, but you might not've been at the right angle for it."

"It's not…oh, forget it. Sorry, but I didn't see anything. And I didn't go looking…went home right after it happened."

"You cut short a night walk?" Iris asked with a bit of an exaggerated tone.

"Ha ha. I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to worry Mom. Those stress migraines she gets can be pretty nasty…she doesn't usually get them from my going out at night anymore, but when something big happens, I figure it's just best to come back and make sure she knows I'm fine."

"Huh, and here I thought you didn't like doing any of that for your parents," remarked Isaac.

"Only Mom. Dad can go toss himself." Iris tried not to flinch hearing that. Derek's relationship with his parents was not exactly fantastic, and it was no surprise why…they were not as accepting of his proclivities as Iris was. They had in the past tried to stop him much more actively, but with how often he managed to elude them anyway, they had grown to just accepting that Derek went out, but that didn't meant that they liked it or approved of it. It was more of an issue with his dad, Elliot…it was hardly overstating it to say that Iris had a better relationship with the paternal Katran than Derek himself did. Still, it was always a little uncomfortable hearing about that.

"Right…well, I guess it doesn't give too much more info, but it's something. Sure as hell doesn't sound like a normal thing…hah, wonder if it's aliens?"

"I think we should let people investigate before we jump to ridiculous conclusions," remarked Derek with some asperity.

"Like you twos' folks? C'mon, the government would cover up aliens in a heartbeat, we can't trust them to tell the truth. I mean, hell, they don't tell the truth about a LOT of crap that wouldn't throw the whole perception of the universe into whack already."

"The moment you start getting political is the moment I start getting distance."

"Yeah, yeah, you've got a conflict of interest, I know."

"It's funny, though," noted Iris. "Reyn thought about aliens, too."

"Oh, you talked to him?"

"Yeah, I was over at Skylar's and he showed up."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Figures you'd go at weather boy. Did he have some contrived explanation about how it's some natural air current or something like that?"

"No, he doesn't know what it is. He's pretty sure it's NOT weather, as a matter of fact."

"Oh…well, crud, guess that doesn't mean I can show him up. Well, I'm gonna try to do more research and see if I can't get the answer before he does. Thanks for the info, though!"

"Yeah, sure, you're welcome." Not exactly the most passionate parting words from Derek, but Isaac paid them no mind as he went in. "And I'm going to go home and try to get some sleep."

Iris nodded. "You go ahead, I'm not heading back just yet."

"A'right. See you soon."

—

A lot was going through Iris's head as she walked, not really paying much attention to which way she was going. It wasn't like she didn't know this area of Braun by heart, anyway, she wasn't worried about getting lost…lost in thought was another question.

I don't know why this is bothering me so much. But it is. I need to try to figure out what it is.

She just had a feeling she couldn't shake. And it was the same feeling she'd had the previous night, after the light show had ended. What it was, she couldn't define, but it was like something was gnawing at the back of her mind, trying to call her attention to something. It was a feeling she'd had before, but not like this…sometimes she noticed something very subtle, a strange thought or feeling that usually came in response to some event in her life, sometimes helping her react better to it. But those were just light, almost imperceptible twinges, not like this…this was a firm hold, and it wasn't letting go.

I don't know why all this feels so…gripping. A strange distortion in the sky…okay, it's weird, but it shouldn't be doing THIS to me. I didn't even see it, other people who looked right at it don't get this feeling. And why can't I shake this feeling that it's related to the dream? It can't be. That's just a dream. A weird sort of dream-world that I share with other people, but still JUST a dream. No one else has thought like that. They just think it's aliens…and I don't know why I have trouble just thinking that's silly.

Answers were not coming to her…but something was. Suddenly she stopped. Her heart started to pound…some weird feeling was getting to her. She looked around a bit, but she couldn't see anyone around, not a single person. Well, although it was midday, she wasn't exactly in the busiest area of town, there were probably some inside. But that wasn't what had her attention.

I'm being watched. I know it.

She didn't know WHY she knew it. She just knew it. But who? And why? And…where? There was no one around. Someone hiding behind a tree? But the trees there weren't exactly thick, it wouldn't be easy for a person to hide behind them.

Iris was nervous. She was not one who liked confrontation with strangers…friends, sure, they were familiar and she trusted them, but strangers were a different story. She wanted to hope they were as nervous as she was…so maybe trying to intimidate them, as much as she could, would help. "Hey…who's there? I know you're watching me…that's kind of a creepy thing to do, don't you think?"

—

I must be mad. Absolutely bonkers mad.

The bird knew she was supposed to stay out of sight. It was too early to engage, they had to know more about this world before they started actively getting involved. Approaching the wrong person could get them captured, injured, or deleted before they even had a hope of spreading the warning. And yet, the moment she laid eyes on the human girl, she couldn't even think of staying away.

Because it was HER. The one from the dream.

Barmy as hell. From thunderbird to cuckoo-clock.

It couldn't be. It was patently absurd. And yet she was 130% convinced it was her. The sheer impossibility wasn't affecting her feelings one whit. So, naturally, she'd been spending the last ten minutes stalking her like some kind of creep. Which the girl had suddenly, and vocally, pointed out in rather direct fashion. That voice…it's exactly the same. I know it is. What the absolute hell is going on here?

One thing was for sure: she wasn't going to get answers like this. And with no one else around, as far as she could tell, she decided she needed to try. "H-hello?"

The girl jumped. "Wh…where…a-are you up in the tree?"

"Yes. I…I'm trying to not be seen…but…I…uh…" Great job, you probably sound even creepier now. Why not just out yourself and save yourself the embarrassment?

"You're trying not to be seen? Why?" The girl's voice had a nervousness to it, understandably so. The bird took a deep breath; this wasn't going to work, she had to be more direct.

"It's a long story…but, uh…I need to talk to you. Face-to-face. Will you let me…Iris?"

—

Iris didn't have any idea what was going on. But she did know one thing:

That voice was FAR too familiar.

"…Okay. I'll…let you talk to me. But you have to come down from the tree."

"…All right." Apprehensively, the bird dropped her half-baked cloaking (which hadn't been working all that great in the first place, she'd discovered) and slowly flapped down, trying to stay in line with the tree trunk to provide a little measure of protection. Iris's eyes widened as she saw the sight…it was an impossibility, straight out of her dreams. An avian creature, a few inches short of three feet tall, with arms doubling as wings, covered almost totally in bright-yellow plumage and with bright green eyes, with an eagle-like head with two longer feathers in a V-shape coming up from the front.

"Y…you…you're…Shockavimon!"

"Yes…um…please try to keep it down."

"Ah, okay…" Iris lowered her voice, trying to process everything with her head whirling and her heart racing. Because it was HER. The bird from her dreams, that had been with her as long as she could remember. Standing there right in front of her. And suddenly the number of questions had risen exponentially. "You…you're real? You're actually real?"

"Yeah…I'm, uh, saying the same thing about you right about now."

"What? Wait, hang on. You…don't tell me you…dream about me, too?"

"Too? Wait, what…" The mutual confusion was just getting more and more intense by the second. "…This is…way too crazy. What's going on here?"

Iris rubbed her head. "I really, really have no idea. The whole world feels like it just flipped upside down. I don't know what to think about anything anymore…"

Shockavimon took a look around. "I…there's a lot I don't know either…but I think we can talk it out…I…I NEED to talk it out with you. But not here…is there anywhere else we can go that's more, uh, protected? I…kind of don't want to be seen by anyone else yet."

Everything going through Iris's head was leaving her wondering what in the world she had gotten herself into. But at the moment, there was one thing that was standing out…that feeling of something gnawing at the back of her head had disappeared. And that was enough to tell her what to do. "How well can you stay hidden?"

"Uh…not great. My EM Field kinda sucks. But I can kinda make it harder to see me."

"Do you think you can follow me to my house? I think I'll be able to get you inside my room, it looks over the back yard and there are trees to go through."

"I can certainly try. Thank you, Iris."

"Don't mention it…I think we're a long ways from the end of this, anyway." Something was definitely telling Iris it was just the start.

—

Hah, this is a breeze. The sky here is way more peaceful than back there! The dragon was probably more relaxed than any of his compatriots, but that was par for the course.

To be sure, it wasn't completely lacking in activity, but mostly it was small birds that neither posed a threat or took an interest in the dragon. And he likewise didn't care about them, beyond making sure he avoided them. The ones he might have worried about discovering him weren't noticing him at all, thanks to his special sky camouflage - a subtle field that allowed him to blend even more into the blue than he normally did. Highly effective when used in the right place…the only drawback being that it was only useful when he was shaded against the sky, and completely ineffective against any other backdrop. But considering he was scouting from a relatively high altitude, he had nothing to fear for the moment.

He knew he should have been scoping things out, but mostly he had ended up just flying lazy circles around, trying to get a general sense of the layout of things. Most of it didn't mean much to him anyhow, just buildings with no defining features that he could recognize and virtually indistinguishable humans walking the streets below. It sort of had him wondering what the point was, there didn't seem to be much use to his being up there at all, but he kept at it, wanting to at least do something until he had to go back down.

It took him a bit to catch on that something was up with himself. He'd zoned out so much that he almost started to fall asleep, and only the sudden descent of a few feet kicked his mind back into gear, snapping him awake and righting himself in the sky. Phew, that was a bit close…I guess I really didn't get enough sleep last night… As he shook off the cobwebs, something clicked in his brain. Wait, wasn't I already up here? Have I just been circling the same area for the past however long?

It seemed entirely pointless to do so, and the dragon knew he should go somewhere else…except, there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head that he didn't want to. He wasn't really sure what it was, but something about putting distance between himself and where he was gave him this slightly wrong feeling. …Maybe I'm picking up on something? But what would I be picking up on here? I don't even know this world.

As he scrutinized the ground, though, even that assessment was being called into question. …The heck? Is that…wait. Why does THAT house look familiar? Am I imagining things? The more he looked at it, the more he descended, almost without realizing it…and even when he did, he couldn't bring himself to stop. It was like he was being pulled towards the house, some force compelling him in spite of the clear risk. Now he wasn't even high enough for his camouflage to work, though luckily there didn't seem to be any humans outside right in the vicinity.

Maybe it's something inside…a quick peek couldn't hurt, right? His mind agreed with him, even if it probably shouldn't have.

He slowed and flapped as quietly as he could towards the window, making sure not to glide - he'd smacked into enough walls in errant judgments to risk THAT. When he was thinking about it, anyway. Carefully, he tried to land on the sill, clawed toes holding to the wood as his fingers grabbed the window frame. Anyone looking at the window could very clearly see him, but no one was at the moment…but the dragon was finding caution taking a back seat to fascination. No way! This is…that place I'm always seeing in those dreams! All those posters of tornadoes and such! The atmosphere charts and all that! The massive boatload of books that makes my head hurt just THINKING about having to read them! Is this really real?

As he gandered around through the window, his eyes fell on the sight of a human at the computer, faced away from him without even noticing his presence. And that was what really floored the dragon - he knew that human, too, he was absolutely, entirely without doubt. And so shocked was he by this realization that he almost lost his balance, grip slipping from the frame as he teetered back. Only a flap of his wings saved him from a fall - but also sent him against the window glass with a loud bang. "Ow! Sonuvabitch!"

It took him a beat to realize he'd said that out loud.

—

Rarely in his life had Skylar been so thoroughly engrossed in something. Even when it came to more 'normal' weather phenomena, and anyone who knew him would know he could talk and study for hours about that sort of thing. But this mystery had him so totally caught up that he was oblivious to just about anything - including a creature landing on his window sill.

At least, until it banged loudly against the window. That caught his attention in a hurry, though he froze up for a moment just in the shock. As soon as he'd caught himself, though, his head jerked up and he whipped around, just in time to see something dropping down - something that at first glance, made him think he was seeing things. Because it looked like nothing he ever had seen before…at least, not while awake…but far TOO much like something he'd 'seen' in his dreams.

I gotta be imagining things. Maybe all this stuff is making me go loopy. But still…there WAS something out there…

He got up and stepped over, and it didn't even take long before he could tell there was still something there - mainly by the just-visible sight of blue clawed digits gripping the sill. Now his heart was starting to pump fast, that color was something he knew too well. It can't be, it's literally impossible. But…Reyn DID always tell me it was silly to think anything was literally impossible…

Up went the window, and Skylar stuck his head down, looking down at what was hanging there. If he jaw hadn't been attached, it would've dropped right onto the dragon's head; the creature was hanging, in rather silly fashion, off of the windowsill, not doing a very good job of hiding from him. And immediately, everything was lining up - the sky-blue scaled body that looked just a little bit too long to walk gracefully, especially with the somewhat short limbs and long tail, the comically oversized wings that made flying and gliding a cinch, that wide-eyed look in eyes set above a distinctly draconic snout, and that color, the color of sky, a color he'd been enchanted by for years.

"…You…you're…Breezedramon, aren't you?"

"Uwah! You know who I am? Wait, but I know who you are, too!"

"You do? Uh, what's my name, then?"

"It's, uh…it's, uh…Sky! Yeah! That's it!"

Skylar blinked. "Well…I suppose that's close enough. Do you need some help?"

"No! I'm fine! I got this!" Breezedramon's legs kicked wildly as he tried to use his slightly stubby arms to pull himself up. "…Uhm…maybe a LITTLE help…"

Skylar wasn't quite sure what was putting him at such ease with seeing a literal creature of his dreams right in front of him. It might have been the innate familiarity with him, it might have been an odd sense of peace and trust that was coming from who really knew where. Or it might have been that he currently looked incredibly silly. Either way, it convinced him to grab the dragon's arms and help pull him into his room - though Breezedramon ended up overshooting a bit and carrying Skylar backwards to the floor with a thump. "Ack! Hey, careful!"

"Ah, sorry! You make a good cushion, though!"

"Oof. I'd really rather NOT be one, so if you don't mind…"

Breezedramon finally clambered off, smiling brightly up at Skylar as he finally managed to get upright and brush himself off. "Wow. This is crazy! I can't believe I'm actually meeting you! I never knew you actually existed except in my dreams! What a crazy cointendistance!"

"A…what?"

"You know! That thing where the things happen and it's just kinda that they happen!"

Skylar looked blankly down at Breezedramon. "…That's right. You, uh…you have a bit of a speech impediment, don't you?"

"Hey!" Breezedramon put his hands on his hips, looking huffy. "It's not a speech impandimantonet! It's just hard to say big words! I don't know how BC does it all the time!"

"Whoever that is, he probably doesn't add six irrelevant syllables to every word."

"Hey, don't you start now! Talking about irremalovolent sibalamibabbles and all that!"

"Okay, okay…you really are just a regular goofball, aren't you?"

"Aw, man…" Breezedramon sighed. "Even in a whole new world, they still call me that! I don't see how I'm that much of a goofball! I mean, yeah, I try to be happy and all, but that can't be the same thing, right?"

"I think there's more to it than that. But really, I'm more interested in other questions. That thing in the sky last night, did you have something to do with it?"

Breezedramon cocked his head. "Thing in the sky? Wait, yeah, maybe! I mean, there was a really bright flash and a fwoosh when we came through! Is that what you're talking about?"

Skylar nodded. "Well, that seems to line up…now I need to know what 'came through' means. And 'we,' for that matter. Are there more of you out there?"

"Ah! Uh, nope, just me, hahahaha, I must've just screwed up my words again!"

"Really…" Skylar wasn't so sure he believed that, but he decided to let it go for now. "And I suppose you're going to tell me next that you just made a cosmic joyride and just happened to land here by accident?"

"…Uh…yes?"

"Fine. If you're going to be that way, I suppose I'll have to limit my questioning to the phenomenon of our shared dreams. Because this is something I need to know quite a bit more about, as soon as possible." Skylar adjusted his glasses, giving them a bit of a glint as he looked down at the suddenly nervous dragon. "There are too many things I want to know about what I've dreamed about! And I need to know what you've dreamed about me! There's no way you just ended up here by accident!"

"Okay, okay!" yelped Breezedramon. "You're scary when you go into uber-nerd mode!"

"Oh, come on, I'm hardly uber. Just a nerd. C'mon, I need to write this down so that I can make observations and try to understand the connections."

Definitely uber-nerd, thought Breezedramon.

—

It didn't take long before the lizard had come to the conclusion that exsanguination would probably have been better than the terminal boredom he was experiencing. Being unable to go anywhere or even move around was an utter trial to him, but he knew his leg wasn't going to fix itself quickly enough to let him go out and about. And for the sake of his comrades not being distracted by him, he had been determined to stick to his word that he'd stay put and hidden, despite his urges. It had been working - a few humans passing nearby, but none giving his bush a second look - he was hidden well enough, and could stay that way indefinitely.

He didn't. But he could have. And probably should have.

It was a feeling in his head that wasn't going away. He followed it almost on impulse, not really knowing why, but he trusted his instincts and if they were telling him something was up, he believed them. It wasn't a fast-paced movement, more of a limp and hobble where he did his best to minimize how much he used his injured leg, wincing at the pain every time he touched soil with it. But he was plenty tough even in this form, a little wound like that wasn't going to stop him…not without him pushing it to the limit, anyway.

There were places where it was a lot harder to stay hidden…how he managed it, he didn't really know. His smokescreen was somewhat effective but far from perfect, but it seemed there weren't too many humans wandering around that day. Part of him wondered if their unexpectedly spectacular entrance hadn't spooked some of them…which had its ups and downs. But more and more his mind was occupied by something else that was hard to fathom.

Namely, he knew this area. He'd seen it before. And in particular, he'd seen that red brick house that he couldn't stop fixating on once it came into view.

No freaking way. It can't be…that's the one from the dream. This whole place is from the dream. But how? I knew I was having dreams about the human world, but…from this exact place? It can't be real. I gotta know more.

It was a mistake, of course, but the lizard was prepared to make it, damn the consequences. Though, he couldn't just walk in, that would probably cause a lot of problems…his eyes were drawn to a second-floor window. Something in there was calling to him, he didn't know what, but he had to go see.

Welp. Guess I'm climbing.

This was a supremely bad idea on one bum leg, but he was doing it anyway. He got to the building, and then pressed himself against the wall and began to climb. Slowly, carefully putting pressure on his hands and toes to keep them stable. His Smoke Screen was up, but his color was also close enough that he blended in pretty well, so he wasn't as worried about being spotted at the moment…more concerning was that he kept himself stable as he climbed, particularly on his wounded leg. The pain spiked every time he had to lift his other foot, and he could swear he could feel the gash threatening to reopen every time…he was about a foot from the window when a sudden flare of pain shot through him, forcing him to bite back a pained cry, and he felt wetness dripping down again. Dammit…I'm almost there, I can do this!

Somehow he managed to get to the window. The glass part was open, but there was a screen in the way…nothing that his claws couldn't make short work of. After tearing a hole open, he heaved himself in, only too late realizing he was trying to land more on his left leg. Another shooting pain as he landed, and he felt the wound open more…how he was managing to hold in his voice at this point was beyond him, but he was hissing and steaming mighty hard.

But it was worth it, because what was inside was far too wild. As he took a look around, he recognized a lot of things…the furniture, the color scheme, the layout, it was all way too reminiscent of the dreams he'd had. He'd been in this place all the time. It even had some of the more appealing embellishments, including the matchstick jar and the many candles placed all over…and the weird thing in the corner that he remembered the dream person taking outside and using to make some kind of furiously hot stuff that he REALLY wanted to know more about.

…And then there was the carpet he was currently bleeding on. Oof…I don't think that'll leave a good first impression. Who puts stuff like this inside? Real grass is so much better…

His attention was drawn by a sudden sound of footsteps drawing closer. Oh, crap. I'm an intruder, they aren't gonna be happy! I need to try to get out… He leapt up, grabbing the top of the desk next to the window and pulling himself up a bit, hoping to get out the window and back against the wall. Too late, he realized his was his injured leg he was trying to use to bear his weight - he had just enough time to curse the infuriatingly inconvenient injury before another flare of pain caused him to lose his grip on the desk. His head rapped against the wood, and he was out before he hit the floor.

—

"How's the homework coming?"

"It's…coming."

Reyn's father Treylor gave his son a look and a slight chuckle. Tall, with dark hair long enough to be tied back in a ponytail, he was one of those types that always seemed to have a good humor about him. "That's not exactly a great confidence-inspiring answer, you know."

"I know. Sorry, it's just…distraction. I'm having trouble focusing today. Maybe it's that thing in the sky from last night, but it feels like something's been buzzing in my brain." Reyn gulped down some water. "I do think I'm close to being done, it's just, uh, not going as quick as it could be."

"Well, I suppose distraction's better than some of the things I was seeing in the ER. I get that it's a rare event, but you'd think we could handle it better than this. Only actual injuries were from people who hurt themselves trying to get away from something…even then, it was just panic."

"Lucky they have brave ER doctors who don't get spooked by things like that, so they can help the citizens who do."

Treylor snickered. "I call them kitizens. Because when you get down to it a lot of them turn into kittens at the slightest mishap."

Reyn rolled his eyes. "Do I have to get out the Dad Joke jar again?"

"Why, did you already empty it? What are you spending that fortune on, anyway?"

Reyn was about to respond to that when he heard a thump from upstairs. He shouted up there, "Oy! Cayden, play gentle!"

"Wasn't me!" came a muffled reply.

Reyn huffed a bit. "I swear, if he's in my room…he knows he's not supposed to go in there!"

"Relax, Reyn, I'm sure it's nothing," said Treylor. "He and Alisin were playing together last I saw."

"That still sounded like it was coming from my room." Reyn set down his water and headed up to check it out. He didn't like his siblings going into his room…though, he had a good reason for that, there was a considerably larger-than-advisable number of flame-producing things in there, and he knew full well that the rest of his family did not share his heat resistance.

As he neared the door, he heard another loud thud and thump from inside. "Oh, for the love of-" Annoyed, he threw open the door to tell Cayden off…and saw no Cayden in there. But as he scanned around, he did see something - a strange, red reptilian creature laying on the floor under the window, a shade over three feet tall, with sharp claws on each digit of his fingers and toes and a long tail. His mind froze.

That…it…it can't be…there's no way…Salmandmon?!

His brain stuck in neutral for a good several seconds…until the fact of the lizard's motionlessness kicked it back into gear. He rushed over, and it didn't take long to ascertain the damage - the blood on the carpet, the long wound in the creature's leg, and a smaller cut bleeding slightly from his head. The injuries registered immediately as serious - and before he could even start to second-guess himself, Reyn was shouting. "DAD! I need you up here, RIGHT NOW!"

—

Salmandmon's gradual return to consciousness was escorted by a killer headache and blurry vision. Through the haze, though, he thought he recognized a figure above him…and a hand coming near him. No thought registered, it was simply the automatic response of a trained brain, rapidly identifying only one thing: Danger!

All that provoked but one weak jet of flame from his mouth. Well, he tried.

The hand didn't even move away, taking the flame without issue and then clamping down on Salmandmon's mouth. He started to squirm, but another hand gently held him in place. "Easy, easy. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Reyn!" gasped a young voice from nearby, though Salmandmon couldn't see it.

"Don't worry, Alisin, he's not going to hurt me." Reyn doubted that the rest of them would be so comfortable with that assertion…but he wasn't afraid at all. After all, it wasn't a stretch to say that he knew Salmandmon as well as any of the rest of the people he'd lived his life with. He slowly released the lizard's jaws and stroked the side of his face. "Hey, welcome back. You feeling any better?"

"Ungh…what…" Salmandmon's eyes were clearing a bit, enough for him to get a clear look at the face in front of him. And for a moment, all his eyes did were blink, until something clicked…and then suddenly he was gripping his makeshift bed, trying to back away. "What…no…wait…what? You…you can't…there's no way…"

"Whoa, whoa, hey, hey, calm down. You're still hurt." Reyn took hold again and brought Salmandmon back down, the lizard still shaking. "Look, I, uh, I don't know what's going on, completely, but…trust me, whatever you're thinking right now, I'm pretty sure it's true."

"That…what…" Salmandmon tilted his head. Nearby was a larger human with longer hair in a ponytail, looking at him quizzically and with concern. Huddled a bit further away were two smaller ones who were staring at him apprehensively. "Why…why are you…all so…familiar? How…how can that be?"

"I'm sorry…do you…know us?" asked Treylor.

"I…n-no, I…I can't…but…I…"

"Dad, let's, uh, hold off on too many questions for the moment. He's still hurt, and probably needs a bit of time."

"Wait, I'm, I'm not that…uh? My leg? I can't…" Salmandmon tilted himself up, looking at his left leg where the wound was. He couldn't feel much for some reason, but there were some black things sticking out around the wound. He stared at it for a moment, not comprehending. "…The hell'd you do to my leg?"

"That was a pretty nasty gash you had there," said Treylor, somehow maintaining a decent level of professionalism in the face of a talking lizard creature. "I had to stitch it shut to help with the bleeding. I'm not sure how it worked, though, the heat you give off, I thought they'd fall apart…glad it did, though, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to staples."

"Stitch? W-wait…you…SEWED the wound shut?"

"Yeah, he did," said Reyn. "I mean, it's a pretty big wound…"

"That…is that why I can't feel it?"

"No, that's the local anesthetic," Treylor replied.

"Anawhatsit?"

"It, uh, it makes it so you can't feel the area for a little while."

"…Oh! A numbing agent. Why didn't you say so?"

"He did," chuckled Reyn. "Okay, I'm gonna guess you're not familiar with our kind of doctoring, judging by all this."

"Hell no. Sounds weird. Sewing wounds shut? Sounds kinda barbaric to me." Salmandmon gingerly ran a finger over the stitched-up wound. "Then again…hard to argue with results."

"I'll take that as a compliment on the whole," laughed Treylor. "And Dave says I never have any interesting stories to share in the break room."

Reyn looked up, a little bit anxious. "I might have to ask you to keep this one on the down low, Dad, at least for a little bit."

"Well, it might be a bit late for that, I already texted your mother."

"Nnh! Well, I guess Mom would probably find out anyway-"

"My word!" Almost on cue, all eyes went to the door, where Minerva had rushed in. Another face Salmandmon recognized all too well. "What in the world is going on here?"

"The picture didn't say enough?" joked Treylor.

"Well, it said enough to get me running back here…" Minerva stepped forward leaning down over the nervous reptile. "Well…how's he doing?"

"You guys…are taking this WAY better than I thought you would," remarked Salmandmon. "And I'm still scared as heck."

"I think I need to take care of that." Reyn wrapped his arms around Salmandmon, lifting him up carefully. And slowly. "Whoof…you're heavier than you look, you know that?"

"Oy!"

"Reyn…" Treylor looked at his son curiously, and Reyn could hardly blame him. "Do you…have some idea what's going on here? Do you know what…er, who this is?"

"It's, uh…it's kind of a really long story," said Reyn. "I, uh…I'll tell you what I know, but…I think I need to talk with him alone, first, because there's still a lot that I don't know, either. Are you okay waiting until tomorrow? I, uh…I can promise you he's not gonna hurt anyone."

"Well, he does still need to rest…" Treylor's brow furrowed, but he nodded. "I suppose it's fair enough to give him a bit of time."

"I'm still not sure what's going on, but…well, he IS injured." Minerva's features softened a bit. "But do be careful, Reyn."

"I will, Mom. I promise." With a nod, Reyn took Salmandmon upstairs, the reptile still trying to process everything that was going on. He held tight to Reyn, feeling a bit foolish being carted around like this, but his leg probably wasn't going to cooperate anyway. As they got to the top, he could see the two smaller kids creep up, and heard an admonishment to let him rest…he could hardly blame their curiosity, though. THEY hadn't seen HIM before. Probably.

Once inside the room, Reyn set Salmandmon gently down on the bed, then sat down beside him. "So…you…know who I am, right?"

"…Yeah, I do. Reynard Kessilik. You're a human."

"Yeah. Feel free to just call me Reyn. And you're…Salmandmon. You're…well, a Salmandmon. Not the most original name, you know that?"

"Tch. Digimon don't tend to need names like that…when you call to one, they know you're calling to them. But you can call me Sal, too, if you need to."

"Digimon? So…I'm guessing that's those other creatures?"

"Other…how…wait…" A dawning bit of comprehension was coming through to Salmandmon. "Are…are you…this is probably gonna sound really weird, but…do you…dream about me?"

Reyn nodded. "And you dream about me."

"Well. Okay. I think I've gone crazy, but in a completely different way than I thought. What the actual HELL."

"I'm just as floored as you are. Maybe more so because I walked in on you bleeding out on my floor. By the way, carpet cleaner does NOT take care of singe holes, just so you know."

"Oh…uh…oops?" Salmandmon let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry, wasn't really planning on that…"

"It's okay, I've put a few of them in myself. Just try not to do it again. So, uh…that thing last night…was that…you?"

"Yeah. Me and…" Salmandmon hesitated, but at this point secrecy was already pretty much out the window. "…some others."

"Others? Wait…it wouldn't, uh…happen to be those others you hang out with all the time, would it?"

"Jeez. Well, I guess you saw a lot in those dreams. Yeah, it's them. And they're probably flipping out over me right now…" Salmandmon winced as he looked out the window; it was definitely late enough that one of them would have had to have gotten back. "I'm gonna be in some deep trouble with them, I was supposed to stay safe and hidden…I just had this…urge I had to follow. And…huh…now that I'm here, it's kinda gone."

"I don't really get it, but I'm guessing there's a whole lot more to this story."

"…Uh, Reyn…please don't take this the wrong way, but…I really don't want to get you involved in it."

"Huh?" Reyn looked at Salmandmon, who was suddenly apprehensive.

"It's…there's something…it's hard to explain without explaining it…but…it's important. And it's…kinda dangerous. And…I feel a weird connection to you that I don't understand, and…well, that makes me even more nervous about what might happen, because I didn't expect anything like this over here. So…I can talk to you about a lot of things…but I don't want to get you involved on this. Okay?"

"…I don't really understand, but…I don't want to force you, either. But we're definitely gonna have to talk about this dream business, because that's too much."

"Yeah, that should be fine." Salmandmon took a breath and let it out. He was all sorts of out of sorts…clearly because he hadn't been able to move around. And he still couldn't with the damned leg wound. "Can we do it while doing something, though? I'm in desperate need of something to do, I hate sitting still."

"Oh…uh, huh. Not sure…I have some things, I guess, but I'm not sure if they'd interest you. What do you like to do when you're not climbing the walls of strange houses and nearly getting yourself killed?"

Salmandmon grinned in spite of himself. I like this guy. He's got a bit of snark to him. "Usually I do some kind of athletic thing, but, well, not happening right now."

"No kidding. How'd you even walk on that thing?"

"Poorly. I climbed even worse, though."

Reyn chuckled. "I guess I can't argue that…well, I don't really have anything like that in here, not my thing. But since you can't do it anyway…uh, you ever play video games?"

A wide grin spread across the reptile's face. "Hell, no…I own people at video games."

The sudden assertiveness caught Reyn off guard, but then he smiled. "Hm. So it's like that, is it? Guess we'll just have to test that. You're on!"

For the first time since the inauspicious start, Salmandmon was starting to feel good again. If this is as bad as it's gonna go, maybe we'll be all right…clearly some humans can deal with us just fine.

—

Well…this has clearly all gone to hell.

The robot was back at the meeting spot, as he was supposed to be. If only everyone else had gotten the memo. Even the people who were supposed to not have left were gone.

That's what I get for counting on organics for reliability, I guess. Precision is hard when you don't have a built-in clock.

Still, it had him worried. What could have pulled them all away like that? He didn't know, but he had a feeling…there had been something pulling at his mind all day, and pulling him towards one particular area. He'd been staying away ever since he mapped it out, but now he wondered if the others hadn't felt that same pull and had gone there. So he turned and headed out towards it, hoping that he wasn't walking into a trap…or, if he was, that he could break out of it and free the others in the meantime.

It was a dicey trip, but that was nothing new. The cloaking device was far too movement-sensitive, and he'd had a few close calls already that day. But when he was still, it worked perfectly, so long as he wasn't in the path of where things were generally moving. He'd spent a lot of time in empty yards rather than on sidewalks and roads, avoiding places with animals (while registering their signals in his internal database, letting him get a better differentiation of the life signs around this world), and just generally taking it slowly and cautiously. The result was that he'd gotten what he felt was a decent start on a map, if only limited in scope. Every little bit helped.

But nothing had struck him quite like this one house…he'd already flagged it in his internal map, making it easy to get back to even if he didn't have that pull. It was a house that didn't look particularly unusual in any way, but every time the robot looked at it it triggered something in his memory…something that felt outright impossible, yet there was no alternative explanation that he could come up with that would explain the insanely powerful sense of déjà vu he'd been getting from it.

I don't see how it's possible, but if it's getting to me that much, it has to be something worth looking into. My instincts are usually pretty sound.

So it was that he found himself out there once more, and feeling even more familiarity than before now that he was paying more attention to it. A relatively large house, simply gray, a couple of devices of some sort on the roof, it was hardly distinct from its neighbors but for the robot it was night and day. The pull was strong, taking him across the road carefully and into the yard, where he could stay hidden better. He approached slowly, trying to feel around for a better bead on the pull…whatever it was that was nagging at him, it was something that demanded relief, refused to relent until he actually sated it. As much for why it was there as what it was - he didn't like having things left unanswered.

A scope around the perimeter told him that whatever it was that had his interest was inside. He quickly scanned for life, and found one human in one room…somehow, the room that he was feeling the strongest pull. Coincidence? I don't know…hm. No digimon signs around. The others must not be feeling what I'm feeling. Wonder if it's mechanically inclined? Only one way to find out…I don't think this is a trap, the humans don't just have random digimon traps laying around, they don't even know about us.

The only way to get in now would be to draw the human outside. So that was what he did, taking a shot at a few things nearby, dialing the power down to just make noise rather than do damage. It took a bit, but the repeated application of noise yielded success, the human moving and then heading to the side door. The robot set himself nearby, then slipped in while the door was open, as the human was wandering out to look at the commotion. He didn't pay too much attention to the human himself, more interested in the room…

At least, until he was inside, and then felt the pull more outside. Wait…is it the human? Why would I be…well, no, maybe it's something he's carrying. I should still go to the room, he'll probably end up back there but I'm pretty sure I can take one human if I need to.

He stepped carefully for a bit, trying to keep from clanking too much and alerting the human to his infiltration. The carpeted steps were a lot more welcome, even if they were a bit of a climb for someone his size. Soon enough, though, he was at the top, and banked a right and into the open doorway. He was there...now all that remained was to figure out why.

Quickly, though, the robot was finding himself distracted. Mainly by the fact that he had this room almost burned into his memory. It looked like a fairly normal bedroom in the most basic sense…but then were all the things that made it unique. The bits of metal, wiring, and other detritus scattered around, along with larger pieces. A welding torch sitting on a shelf to the side. Circuit boards and coils of wire piled in a box in the corner. A bevy of machines housed on shelves over a pretty shiny computer. Plans and specs hanging on the walls. One in particular caught the robot's eye, hanging over the back of the bed, and he clambered up onto the bed to get a closer look.

No…no way…

The specs were remarkably well-drawn, making it easy to see what was on there. The image of a robot, reptilian in countenance, resembling something like a carnosaurian dinosaur, marked as having a roughly 35-inch height, with a sleek design much more akin to a natural creature than a machine. Question marks in the hands and chest area, with notes about potential weapons that were somewhat vague, and in the head for facial motions that seemed almost impossible for a metallic being. A battalion of wishes for capabilities listed down the side, with marks as to where some of those would be housed. And at the top, in bold and underlined, a single word: [DATACARNOMON]

Holy crap. It's me!

—

Isaac didn't know what was going on all of a sudden. He'd split his time between researching the sky anomaly and trying to work on some robotics, tinkering with one that he'd been building for the past week - a rudimentary robot that he could use for some yard work tasks, ideally, though he doubted it would get that far. Sometimes he did proof-of-concept works just to give himself an edge when he finally felt like he could get to the next level with them.

But today wasn't really going great. It had started when his older sister Ashley had invited him to a party. Very much not his thing, but she'd been trying to push him.

"You need to get out more, bro. You spend all your time in your room! It's not good for someone to isolate themselves like that."

"I got out for a few minutes earlier, I'm good."

"C'mon, it's not gonna kill you to hang around with people for a while! Some of 'em might even take interest in your weird obsession!"

"Ashley, I'm gonna know literally no one there. Go party with them and leave me to enjoy things my way, okay?"

"Suit yourself, little bro, but you're gonna wanna learn those social skills sometime. Schmoozing is how you get funding for the big projects!"

What annoyed Isaac most about Ashley was how often she was right. Of course he'd need resources if he really wanted to take off to the next level, and that would require getting to know people, getting to be friendly with them, and getting into their pockets. But he figured he was just a few years away from that, minimum…why not enjoy being a recluse while he could?

It was just him in the house that evening, his parents having gone out to see a friend. Normally, something that didn't bother Isaac in the slightest, in fact he preferred it that way…but something just wasn't right. His focus was unusually fractured, he found himself feeling bothered by a feeling he couldn't quite place. And on top of that, he was getting jumpy at unknown noises, something that usually didn't happen to him to any degree. It just felt like he was startled by things that wouldn't normally startle him.

I can't be THAT jumpy about the whole anomaly thing, can I? I don't really think there are aliens running around or anything…so why do I not feel at ease?

There was no clear answer, but there WAS a loud sound outside that made him jump and almost break something off of the bot he was working on. Shaking his head, he stood up and headed downstairs, then outside. Maybe there's something out there…an animal or something. We've had dogs get in the yard before. If I know what it is, it doesn't bother me anymore.

A sound perspective, if only he had actually found anything outside. The back yard was empty, almost eerily so. He looked around a bit, trying to see if he could see anything that might have blown over, even though there was no significant wind. But then things got weird…he could see a mark on the neighbor's fencepost, it looked like something had hit it and left some kind of odd mark on it, almost like a burn of some sort but not dark enough to be a flame. There was also a bottle on the grass, knocked off of an outdoor table his father had been at recently; the bottle also looked marred, even though it was still intact, no cracks or breaks.

What the heck would make a mark like that? That's so weird…well, maybe it was an animal of some kind. It might just be total coincidence…yeah, that doesn't really settle my head at all, but I'm not gonna find answers out here now. Maybe it's time to put the cameras out again…

It didn't really resolve anything, but Isaac returned to his room anyway, hoping that the exploration would at least settle his head and let him get back to work. It was harder than ever, though…his head seemed even more preoccupied, and he couldn't keep his mind on the robot, giving him extra frustration. He was just starting to wonder if he needed to shift back to researching the anomaly again, just to see if that would help him get his head right, when he picked up on something - a soft, metallic hissing sound from nearby, one that didn't match anything he was familiar with.

Suddenly he had the odd feeling that he was being watched. "Is…someone here?"

"Finally!" Isaac jumped - he hadn't actually expected a response! Certainly not from an oddly synthetic-sounding - and even more oddly familiar - voice. "I've been trying to get your attention for like 15 minutes! You really get in the zone, don't you, Ike?"

"Wh…what…" Isaac looked around, seeing no one. "Ashley, I swear to god if that's you…"

"If you're mistaking my voice for someone else's, you might wanna get your hearing checked!" Isaac stared over at the bed - the voice was coming from under there. Now he was very confused, it wasn't exactly a high bed and he didn't know many people who could fit under there. "You mind if I come out? It's a bit tight down here!"

"I…what? Who are you? How did you get in here? And how…first off, how do you know my name, and second, I haven't been called 'Ike' by anyone in years. How'd you even find out about that?"

"Let's just say you might wanna be prepared for a shock." And with that, the robot pulled himself out from under the bed, squirming out from the tight space and leaving Isaac a gaping statue on the floor. He picked himself up and dusted himself off a bit. "Blech. You ever clean under there? Thought I might get deleted by dust bunnies, they were swarming me so bad."

"Y…you…n-no way!"

"Yeah, way. Datacarnomon, in the…heh, well, I don't think 'flesh' is the right word, but trying to adapt the idioms for robots doesn't generally make them sound very clever." Datacarnomon glanced up at the specs above the bed, then back at Isaac. "Gotta say, that's a damn fine work up there. Almost a perfect likeness of me, and it's got a good rundown of a lot of the basic functions. Bit lacking in the armaments department, though."

"That's because I haven't figured out how they can work yet." The response was so automatic that Isaac didn't even realize he'd said it until after he'd finished. And then come the sledgehammer. Hold up…did…did my robot design…just get critiqued…by the robot that I'd designed? Oh, dear, head explody time…

"Well, something tells me you'll be able to figure it out in time. Seeing as you're well on your way already." Datacarnomon grinned up at Isaac - and the boy couldn't help but marvel at just how expressive he was, it was almost like the metal flexed to make the facial expressions work, just like he'd dreamed. "Your mind is totally blown right now, isn't it? I don't even have to run a diagnostic to figure THAT one out."

"Y-yeah, a little bit! What the hell's going on? Where did you come from? Are you…are you from the future?"

"Future? Nah! Just a little place called the digital world. Where all us digimon come from. But you knew that, didn't you? I have a guess that you might know a lot of things that you thought were just fantasies…I know I'm in the same boat. Dreams, every few days or so, about you and everything around here…I thought they were just fictions of my mind, but they were actually happening, weren't they? I remember some of those things you made, while you were making them, and some of the accidents you had…and how badly I wanted to tell you that you were doing some things wrong, and then sometimes it seemed like you'd suddenly just do them right like I thought you should."

Isaac blinked. "Have…have you…been in my head all this time? Was that why I couldn't focus?"

"Maybe…you know, something was pulling me here, and I think it was you. Maybe you're in my head, too."

"But…how? I never…I wasn't trying to…"

"Neither was I. But hey, as long as we're in each other's heads, let's see if we can't make this bot of yours work. I'm the experienced one but I think you'll pick up on it pretty quickly. Also, I might be asking to stay the night here, rather than try to spend a cold night out on my own out there."

By all rights, Isaac should have been completely weirded out by the idea…except, he was Isaac, and the prospect of getting a robotics tutorial by an actual hyper-advanced robot was almost like Christmas times ten. "If you wanna help me with this stuff, you can stay literally as long as you want!"

"Sounds like a deal to me! Let's get cracking!"

—

Perhaps the culpability lies within myself far my failure to ascertain the precise definition of 'sundown.' The canine stared rather dismally into the empty space where he had been expected to meet back up with his compatriots. He had timed his return with the appearance of stars in the night sky, but only now was it occurring to him that 'sundown' meant different things to some people. Why, he could hardly fathom, even if the actual orb had sunk over the horizon a lit-up sky wasn't exactly 'down' in his definition.

He sniffed around a bit, hoping to be able to pick up the scents of his allies and figure out where they might have gone. But this was a concerning bust - only two of them had much presence at all, meaning the others probably hadn't even come back. And the directions of travel of the two he did pick up were completely different from each other, suggesting that they hadn't gone the same way, and quite possibly not even at the same time.

I suppose this requires my ambulations to continue. Detestable as isolation is in circumstances of unfamiliarity, my discretion will be facilitated by the nocturnal ambiance. In darkness like this, his shadow step was radically more effective, able to keep him hidden from just about anything so long as he avoided especially bright light sources. He'd come across a number of them in his initial foray, all deactivated thanks to being during the daylight, but he had made note of them as areas to avoid during the night.

He was in a better state physically than he had been before, at least…though, for a rather embarrassing reason: he'd picked a quiet spot to rest and had ended up dozing off. Owing to his nature, sleep was not precisely a necessary requirement for him - he could go without indefinitely with no real drawback, with all things being equal. But sleep was still refreshing for him, letting his body recover and recharge faster than during a waking state, and it was still something he considered an enjoyable activity, so he usually did do so when he felt like it. But it wasn't common for him to accidentally fall asleep, and he felt rather bad about it given that he was supposed to be helping their group orient themselves in this new location. Still, it HAD helped him shake off the lingering remnants of the headache he'd had since their unfortunate entry, so he was trying to look at the positives.

Said positives were few and far between in general, though. With even one other person, he would have felt more at ease…as it was, his typical controlled manner was threatening to unravel. He didn't want to go trying to track them down without knowing what he was getting into, especially the ones he couldn't follow at all - it was hard to detect a trail high up in the air when one didn't possess wings. He figured that the best thing for him to do would be to accomplish the goal he'd been tasked with earlier, just a little delayed, and try to see if he could pick up any familiar scents in the meantime; perhaps he would be lucky enough to stumble across one of them.

Off he went, traveling through the darkness, essentially invisible from human eyes. Said invisibility would have been marred by a good flashlight, unfortunately, but it seemed that very few humans were out and about - something that did not particularly surprise him, he had never gotten the impression that most were creatures of the night. Save for the one that he dreamed about, of course, but he was certain that was simply a fiction his own mind invented to put him in a familiar environment during his dreams. Very few of the rest of them seemed so inclined.

With no real direction to his wanderings, the canine didn't really realize he was making a very direct line for something until he found himself nearly walking out into the shine of a streetlight. He hastened back to stay obscured, but the impulse to continue was unusually strong…like a pull in the back of his head to get him going somewhere. Curious…such compulsions are unlike my previous experiences. Perhaps I suffered further injury than I believed…

Still, he lacked a good reason NOT to see where they led him. So he bore on, only diverting to make sure he kept himself hidden, and only chancing light when he could tell was no one around to spot him. And the more he followed it, the more sure he was that he NEEDED to follow it…though he had no idea where it would lead him. And when he finally found what it was he was being pressed to find, he was in no way ready for it.

—

It was a quiet night. Derek liked those. Quiet nights were good nights as far as he was concerned.

It hadn't started off that way. He'd gotten a bit of heat from his father about going out after what had happened the previous night. Derek's response had been flip, saying someone needed to keep an eye out for another one, and that had led to a brief lecture about responsibility and caution. He'd mostly tuned it out, having heard it numerous times before, and the tension had almost been thick enough to touch by the time he left.

Unfortunately, that was about average for his life. Elliot Katran was a suspicious man by nature, something that served him well in his line of work, and Derek had never been able to put him at ease with his preference for the night. While over time his mother Myra had at least come to terms with it - she still worried about Derek, fearing for his safety but realizing she couldn't hold him back - Elliot still resisted, tried to get him to be more 'normal,' and got frustrated with him when he put up defiance. It didn't seem to matter that Derek was perfectly well-behaved in other ways, had never been in serious trouble at school and got good grades and even helped out around the house on the nights where he was awake but didn't go out walking; his habits were peculiar, and that was enough to flag him as trouble.

Laying on his back, staring at the night sky, helped to relax him. The infinity of stars above cleared his head a bit, put things in perspective. There were people who had it far worse than him…at least Elliot never hit him, and he hadn't gotten in any real trouble for what he did since about six years prior, when they had tried to lock him in at night for a brief and unsuccessful period. It had been around that time that he started to understand just what their problem was…thanks to the person he was closest to in this world. His relationship with his parents, and his father especially, might have been strained, but it wasn't abusive, and he had that to be thankful for, at the very minimum.

Not that he didn't wish it was better, still…

He tried to shake that out of his mind. A mind that was not as peaceful as it usually was tonight…night walks were meant to be head-clearing for him, but it felt like his just got fuzzier the more he was out tonight. "Ugh…what I wouldn't give to just…go out into that void for a while and just be surrounded by nothing but stars," he mumbled to himself. "Maybe that'd clear my head up…"

"Regrettably, the expansive vacuum tends towards inhospitability to naught but the exceedingly benadapted organisms. Nevertheless, the desire is entirely understandable."

"You said it…wait…" Derek sat up, looking around. "What did you say? Wait, WHO said that?"

"'Twas I…I beseech your forgiveness, sir, but…your countenance bespeaks an uncanny resemblance to an individual from my oeniornations. Additionally, I have identified a considerable yet inscrutable attraction towards your presence that I desire greater understanding of."

Derek was barely keeping pace with everything that was being said, every other word seeming to be almost unnecessarily complex. And yet, that reminded him of something rather unusually familiar…The dream dog? It's…so similar to the way it speaks…and the way it sounds…but how can that be possible? Is someone playing a prank on me?

But that felt impossible, he was always acutely aware of other presences around him at night, and there was nothing there…

No. Not nothing. Something…but not something I know as well. He focused his eyes towards a spot in space not far from him. Visually he couldn't see anything, but…somehow, his mind was telling him there was a form there, even sort of outlining it. It wasn't quite where the voice had come from, but it was slowly moving towards him. "…I know you're there. Show yourself, please."

The figure paused. "Remarkable…observing my movements despite my typically efficacious obfuscative abilities. Undoubtedly you possess an unparalleled degree of detective competence." Almost like magic, suddenly the figure revealed itself - a canine looking similar to a German Shepherd in appearance, if just slightly larger than one, with dark fur speckled with tinges of brightness and eyes almost like the stars Derek had been pining for, a visage so familiar to Derek that he found himself speechless for several seconds.

When he did regain his words, they were very limited in number. "…Blackcanismon."

"Indeed. And I venture your appellation to be Derek. Am I mistaken?"

"…No. You're not. But…holy crap. How did…" Derek shifted and leaned forward, and Blackcanismon stepped towards his outstretched hand, letting him touch his fur - unexpectedly soft and cool to the touch, but at the moment Derek was more focused on the fact that he WAS touching something real. "You're really real…where did you come from?"

"The tale surrounding my impromptu presence here is currently not something I am comfortable elaborating on at the current point of our communion," Blackcanismon replied. "Some measure of secrecy is of the utmost importance. Rest assured that it would be inconceivable to me to commit atrocities upon you or the populace in its entirety. For the nonce, I merely desire interpretation of the intangible connection interlocking our existences."

"That's, uh…you're a bit hard to keep up with sometimes, you know that?"

"Indubitably, my cultivated linguistic manner possesses a tendency to be obfuscative in itself. Nonetheless, it has garnered a bevy of praises for its creativity and melodiousness."

"I'll take your word for it…if I can carry it." Derek shook his head a bit, rubbing his eyes just to ensure he wasn't seeing things. The shock he thought he would have felt at something like this was oddly muted…maybe it was just the fact that Blackcanismon had been a part of his life for so long, even at times a refuge from the things he had to deal with when he was awake, that it felt more like meeting an old friend than a literal dream creature. "Okay, I…think you're saying you don't want to tell me much about why you're here. That's only got me more curious, but given you can talk rings around me, I don't think you'll tell me anything you don't want me to hear. Can you at least tell me when?"

"Certainly. Naught but a single terrestrial revolution has elapsed since my arrival."

"…One day. Wait. That flash in the sky last night…was that you?"

"…Well. How regrettable. My fervent desires were that such outrageous luminosity was merely a personal perceptual idiosyncrasy. Our arrival was so thunderously heralded, then?"

"It would have been impossible not to see it, everyone's been buzzing about it all day…wait. 'Our'?"

Blackcanismon's eyes widened a bit, before narrowing as the canine let out a sigh. "It seems your reverence for my verbal capacities may be entirely unmerited, Derek."

Derek grinned a bit. "I won't count on that slip happening twice. So you're in a group then?"

"…Currently, our collective is…concerningly dissociated. My wanderings were intended to explore and identify locations with potential to be concealing them, but the inscrutable compulsion towards your presence rather waylaid that intention."

"So you're all split up…well, I mean, I wouldn't mind keeping you company. But if you're going to be wandering around, you're in real risk of trouble."

Blackcansimon nodded. "We anticipated difficulties relating to the populace of this organic terrestria. Our intentions were to investigate our immediate surroundings prior to initiating contact…I fear perhaps the scuttling of those propositions."

It was taking some time, but Derek was at least starting to get a feel for how to process Blackcanismon's way of speaking. Probably because he'd heard it often enough…in dreams he wasn't really trying to remember or follow along with anything, but just having been exposed to it for so long gave him a start. "If you felt some draw, maybe your companions did, too?"

"Exceedingly possible."

"I guess. But there's more trouble than that. You…look pretty distinctive, but you still look close enough to a dog you might find here to be mistaken for one. And the dogcatchers around here are notorious for how strict they are. Strays and runaways are snatched up way fast…"

That got Blackcanismon looking nervous. "Mercy…An untenable imprisonment! Either required to endure capture as a rudimentary animal or profess my intelligence and weather the crisis of involuntary exposure of my true capabilities! I was unaware of such a disastrous potential complication!"

"Hey, hey! It's okay. You might be able to use that to your advantage, too." Derek stroked Blackcanismon's head to try to comfort him. "Listen, you need to look for your friends, right? And I have to think they're around the city, I doubt they'd have gone that far on their own. If you posed as an ordinary dog, you wouldn't need to hide yourself. We could walk around all over the place, try to find where they are and what happened to them. All you'd need is to be willing to pose as if someone was in control of you."

"…I understand your proposition. Concealment by camouflage, allowing far superior motility to shadow-stepping. And presumably, your reference to 'we' is indicative of your participation in this ruse?"

"Hey, if there's anything I can do to help my dream dog, why not? This isn't a chance just anyone gets…plus, I don't think I'd mind having a nightwalking companion for a little while. It'd be nice to be around someone who appreciates it like I do."

Blackcanismon nodded. "The proposition sounds acceptable. However, I must preemptively alert you to my considerable lack of thespian expertise."

"Well, let's work on getting the story straight now, then. No rush, right? We've got all night."

"Indeed. My eternal appreciation to your timely incidence in my life, Derek."

A rare smile graced Derek's lips. "Let's maybe make it work out before we get too far…but thanks."

The two began to hash out their ruse under the light of the moon, a plan to help Blackcanismon find his companions…unaware that the four had already found their own, the inexplicable draw bringing them together in a remarkably quick span of time. It would be only the first surprise of many that awaited them all…

---

When I said longer, I MEANT longer.

The flow of the old chapter makes my head hurt. Why did I think that jumping around like that was a good idea? Not that there isn't going to be jumping around here and there, it's sort of inevitable with a multifaceted perspective, but that doesn't mean I have to make the problem worse. The movement of this one is a lot smoother, and also a fair bit more elaborate. (If you can call 75% upsized 'fair bit'.)

A little behind-the-scenes: I've created a fair number of custom digimon for this story, and for other stories that I had ideas for and even worked on a bit, but which never actually saw the light of day. Out of these five, four were very specifically created for this work; the one exception was Breezedramon, who originally came into existence as part of a multitude of ideas for draconic digimon when I was mulling some early story ideas. The personality is very much unique to this story, though. I'll remark more on the ideas I had for creatures as they come up.