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.

7. Chapter 7: A Promise Of Unity And Honor

It took a bit too long, but I've finally made a crude image of the seal glyphs!
file/d/147CYrHM9kgdMtkc_1cDCq9cS3161T3V6/view?usp=share_link
The elemental associations are probably intuitive, but if you don't think so, it goes fire, electric, wind, metal, dark from left to right. One of these was significantly harder to draw than the others! They aren't super polished but they're good enough to give you the idea I was going for.

---

Chapter 7 - A Promise Of Unity And Honor

—

"What are we doing right now?"

Reyn had a bit of a chuckle at Iris's question. "Last I checked, we were playing four-player co-op of a Gauntlet Legends knock-off. Try to keep up, Iris, or the monsters will eat you."

Iris gave Reyn a look. "Smart-ass."

"Makes a good match for Sal," cracked Shockavimon. "Smart-ass and Hothead. Hey, that could be a serial show. Watch Smart-ass and Hothead get themselves into trouble constantly because of their lack of control! How do they manage to get out of it week after week?"

"The same way I'm gonna get YOU, loads of fire," snapped the lizard. "Maybe try helping me with these goblin-troll things instead of cracking jokes."

"But it's so much more entertaining cracking jokes and watching you get yourself into trouble because you're so impatient!"

"She has a point, Salmandmon," Reyn conceded. "You CAN do something other than run to the very edge of the screen all the time."

"Bah. You all need to keep up with me!"

"Getting back to my ACTUAL question…" Iris cut in before that diversion could go any further. "I'm well aware of what we're ACTUALLY doing. Especially since I was the one who suggested coming over for the night."

"I still can't believe your dad was okay with his 15-year-old daughter spending the night at the house of a 15-year-old boy," observed Reyn. "The way he gets with you, I would've thought even just the mention of it would've brought out chains big enough to tie up that Tuskmon you guys fought."

"He practically insisted on it," Iris giggled. "I guess the thought of me staying inside somewhere was a lot more of a concern than that little scenario. Though I think he also trusts your parents to keep things in control, and you to not cross any lines. You've never been like that anyway."

"Yeah, 'just friends' is just right for me. It's just the context of it, I figured he'd hesitate more with this than, say, going to a girls' night in slumber party somewhere."

"As if that would ever happen, I'd need girl friends first."

"Oh, yeah. You don't really get on with them, do you?"

Iris shrugged. "It's not that I've ever not WANTED to, I just…don't seem to really ever get beyond 'casual acquaintance.' Part of the problem may be that all my closer friends are guys, they may see me as more one of you than one of them, or they just might not be comfortable with that. I don't really know, it's hard to figure out sometimes."

"Harder to figure out than the fact that that's not a path you're trying to walk on?"

"What…oh, that's background. This stage really isn't easy to tell what's going on."

"What I can't believe is that I flew in and your parents barely even flinched," chimed in Shockavimon. "Makes me wish we could stay longer than a night, it's SO much less stressful being around humans who you don't have to hide from, not to mention treating me like a person."

"I seriously feel bad that you guys are having to play hide-and-seek even inside," Salmandmon said in a voice that wasn't exactly demonstrative of that sorrow. "Not that I don't get it, given what you've said, but it's so inconvenient. Makes me think we ought to start meeting here more often, give everyone a break from that."

"No way," Reyn shot that down in a hurry. "I mean, yeah, a break would be good, but definitely not here. Too many people around who could find out stuff we don't want them to know about. Mom and Dad may be cool with you guys, but they wouldn't be at all okay with finding out what we're doing."

"And your siblings?" asked Shockavimon.

"Wally doesn't like Sal, I don't think he'd be much keener on the rest of you. Alisin's been super shy over this whole thing, I think she's intimidated…though, she isn't much of a talker normally as it is. Cayden's kind of the same, he doesn't know what to make of it…although, we might have an issue if Datacarnomon comes in."

"Uh-oh. The run-away-screaming kind of trouble?"

Iris laughed. "No, the 'drag the awesome robot dinosaur into his room never to be seen again' kind of trouble. Kid is a dinosaur FIEND."

"That's even understating it," agreed Reyn. "He's been four different dinosaurs the last four Halloweens, he has more books and figures and stuffed animals of them than I can count, and he's been trying to convince Dad to paint their room with a dinosaur theme for a few years. Of course, he can't get his way on that because Alisin wants cats instead, she's almost as adoring of them as Cay is dinosaurs. So right now the room's theme is fish, because that's a neutral idea."

"Which I'm sure they both love," Salmandmon cracked. "Bet they wish they had their own rooms."

"They really should, but Wally's still taking up one. I think Mom and Dad expected him to be out by now, so it's kind of a tricky subject, they don't wanna make it seem like he's unwelcome but at the same time he's kind of creating an inconvenience."

"Which isn't that unusual for him, from what I've heard," Iris jibed.

"Don't let him hear you say that…or do, get him off my case for a bit. Speaking of get him off my case, Sal, would it kill you to actually ATTACK the mini-boss rather than sit on your ass over there?"

"Have you seen my health?" snickered Sal. "It literally might."

—

"Heading out, Derek?"

Curses. I was hoping he'd still be at the office. Derek stopped and looked over at Elliot, who was fixing himself some coffee. "Yeah, I am." He held his tongue, though the temptation to push things further was pretty awful; some days it was all he could do to keep from daring Elliot to make a big deal over it. But for Blackcanismon's sake, he really didn't want to rock any more boats than necessary; the canine digimon was already fighting hard enough to not look extremely uncomfortable.

Elliot's gaze did linger on them for a bit. "Are you sure that's a smart idea? It's been pretty crazy out there recently."

"I'll be fine. I always keep my eyes open. And anything that causes trouble out there is going to be big enough to cause a mass panic anyway, right?"

"…I'm not sure I'd make that assumption."

"Come on. Giant bird, giant dinosaur. I'm not gonna be any safer in the house if Godzilla comes stomping around Braun, right?"

Elliot's brow furrowed, but he appeared not to have a good answer to that. "…Fine. But if you see ANYTHING, come straight back. Your mother will be in agony if there's another report and you're not safely inside."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not gonna stay out there if I see something." Derek couldn't remember the last time he'd told THAT blatant a lie, much less with a straight face. Something about his father made it a lot easier for him to be dishonest.

"…Right, then. Enjoy." Elliot finally broke his gaze, and Derek had to fight to not hurry out. It was only when he was outside that he managed to relax a little bit.

In the totality of my personal experience, I've scarcely encountered more uncomfortable interactions than between yourself and your sire, Blackcanismon remarked through their mental link as they got some distance from the house. The compulsion to intervene is disconcertingly impressive.

Don't bother, I guarantee you're not going to make anything better, came Derek's tense reply. It's not like he'd listen anyway. He's just trying to find another excuse to 'normalize' me. Best to just keep doing what you're doing, and trying to avoid his suspicions. The longer he doesn't realize you're not what you look like, the better.

Indubitably. 'Twould be folly of the apex degree. Additional evasiveness may perhaps be preferable, however.

Trust me, same. Hopefully these monster attacks will keep him busier…

—

Elliot stared at the door for a good bit after the departure of Derek and the dog. Though it wasn't the door that was on his mind.

That dog…it bothers me.

He had tried to ignore it. Derek coming home with a strange dog wasn't ideal, but he was trying to find out where it was supposed to go…presumably. Even if he wasn't, though, the dog being safe was better than it being out in the middle of the city. If he wasn't being honest about that search, no doubt Elliot could take charge of that himself, but right now there were more important things to worry about.

But still…a breed he didn't recognize. An appearance which was far from normal, with fur and eyes that looked like a starry night sky. Behavior which seemed far too controlled and automatic for a dog. The suspicious timing of its appearance. Most people would have said to let it go - it didn't eat much, it didn't bark, it wasn't aggressive or violent, it was as perfectly behaved as a dog could be, and if it wasn't trouble, surely he could focus his mind on what was actually trouble these days, and there was plenty of that to go around.

But Elliot Katran was not a man who just let things go.

—

"But okay, seriously, why are we sitting around playing video games while the others are actually doing things?" Iris continued, somewhat testily thanks to all the distractions. "I feel like we're slacking off when we could be doing a whole lot more to help out."

"How's the mouth doing on that gift horse, Iris?" Reyn snarked.

"Oh, hush. It's a serious question!"

"The heck is a gift horse?" asked Shockavimon. "Also, little help here, please? I'm kinda being swarmed."

"You need a little intro to animal types while I'm saving your tail?" teased Salmandmon. "So Unimon, Pegasusmon, Indiramon-"

"I KNOW what a horse is, ass."

"No, that's a donkey."

"Oh, shut up. What SPECIFICALLY is a 'gift horse?' Is it some weird kind of horse that they have over here? I mean, they're all weird since they don't talk, but you know, other than that."

"It's literally 'gift' as in, you know, a gift," explained Reyn.

"Oh, so it's like if someone gave someone else a reckdan as a present or something," Salmandmon remarked.

"Who would give a reckdan as a gift?" Shockavimon inquired dubiously. "Those stubborn beasts are more like a curse than anything, I'd give one to someone I DON'T like."

"Well, I mean, they ARE good meat…"

"Yeah, I'll let other people prepare that meat, thanks. I still don't understand the gift horse idea, or why anyone should care about its mouth, unless horses are more prone to biting over here than they are over there."

"Yeah, you'd kinda want to check a reckdan's mouth to make sure its teeth are dulled. But I think it's like one of those, uh, whaddayacallem phrases. Sort of like 'when a feast is held in your honor, don't criticize the chef.' Or something. Though I'd probably have a hard time holding my tongue if they didn't cook my reckdan properly."

"Do you have ANY idea what they're talking about?" Iris asked Reyn desperately.

"Nothing related to your question, that's for sure." Reyn was barely holding back laughter. "I'm guessing reckdans are animals like horses or something. I suppose those horse digimon Sal mentioned probably wouldn't appreciate an idiom like that."

"Idiom!" exclaimed Salmandmon. "That's the word I couldn't remember!"

"You'd think you'd remember that one, given that it's close to 'idiot' and you use that one constantly," jibed Shockavimon. "I dunno WHAT other digimon would think of human idioms, though. It probably depends on what kind, and whether the idiom was, uh…not-so-flattering or not."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Maybe one will appear and we can ask them politely before they try to kill us. Which, I'm not trying to say I WANT that to happen, but couldn't we be doing something more than this to try to make sure we're ready if it does? And Sal, would you stop attacking those statues, they're just decoration."

"But those ones we fought before weren't!" protested the lizard.

"Yeah, I know, they're inconsistent, it's meant to be that way. Wait until they start moving, you're gonna miss the enemies right in front of us!"

"All right, all right, sorry. This game is weird. Erm, yeah, anyway, look, you shouldn't worry about that too much. Over in our world, we have a saying: the torch that burns constantly is the one that burns to nothing first."

"No, that's YOUR saying because everything has to be about fire for you," jumped in Shockavimon. "The ACTUAL saying is 'A flashlight that's always on runs its batteries dry before one that's only on when it needs to be.'"

"You just like that one because it's electric-based!"

"It's also the one most people use, unlike your bastardization."

"Pah, at least you can visualize a torch burning down! How can you tell the difference between a drained battery and a full one? They look exactly the same!"

"Tch, yeah, people are TOTALLY visualizing torches anywhere these days, they're so common and not at all extremely outdated technology. When was the last time you saw a torch that wasn't used purely for the aesthetic?"

"I'll have you know that there are torches that are just as good as other lights out there." Salmandmon stuck his tongue out at Shockavimon. "They've been coming up with torches that stay lit even under heavy wind or rain, and are specially designed so they don't run out of fuel ever! Better than your stinkin' batteries!"

"Oh, really? So a torch that burns constantly ISN'T the one that burns to nothing first then?"

"That…uh…well…shut up!"

"You are NEVER getting an answer to your question," Reyn cackled madly.

"No kidding," groaned Iris.

—

"I know I said I was going to do the writing, but you sure as heck seem to be doing a whole lot of nothing over there."

"Yeah, well, what it looks like and what it IS are two different things, so hush. I let you take the writing because I had other things that I could do with this time."

Skylar didn't particularly like that response; he would have preferred to just be out of Isaac's place entirely if they weren't needed to collaborate. Just his luck that Isaac was the only one with the security set up for the e-mail they were using. "If you're doing such important stuff, then you wouldn't mind telling me what that is."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "If you HAVE to know, I'm working on a module for Andrexmon. Trying to enhance his capabilities, provide him some extra edges in battle, that sort of thing."

"…And how, exactly, are you planning to actually use them? I know you have a ton of crap strewn around your room but I doubt you can actually use it to build anything for him."

"Hey, watch it. I don't call your weather books and stuff crap."

"Uh, yes, you do, quite routinely I might add."

"You just did earlier today!" added Breezedramon, who was sitting against Skylar and watching him type, and occasionally making the most supremely unhelpful suggestions.

"Tch, whatever. Look, I don't HAVE to build it. Andrexmon can connect to the system, and I'm pretty sure he can pull out the information and integrate it into his system."

"…You can't be serious. That's just computer code!"

"More serious than you think," Datacarnomon jumped in. "It's…almost scary how well your digital architecture takes to us. And I get the feeling it takes to Andrexmon even better than me, but it pretty quickly let me in and let me do a lot more with it than I expected it to. If I knew it was going to be as accessible as this…well, forget me, imagine if Emperius knew it would be as easy as this, the lack of understanding is probably the only reason they aren't in even more of a hurry to take over."

"Wait, Data, are you saying you've been making modiferaffirmicantertimations to yourself?" asked Breezedramon.

"Nothing too major," the robot replied. "There's only so much I can do to myself, due to energy considerations…I don't have that much free capacity to add to my arsenal…not much I can do about that." The last bit had a tightness to it that was evident in the robot's voice, but when he resumed, he'd cast it off. "Anyway, uh, I've mostly been trying to improve my cloaking device and improve the interfaces, though I've been experimenting with a low-grade added function…nothing too major, it's not gonna turn the tides, but it could be useful. But Andrexmon has a lot more capacity for additional functions…I'm leaving most of the writing of that to Ike since he's better at working with those machines, but I'm giving him my help here and there."

"Oh, you mean like I am right now?"

"Calling what you're doing 'helping' is being incredibly generous," huffed Skylar.

"But I'm trying to spice up your writing a bit! It's drier than Sal's breath."

"Why does everyone have this obsession with flair? We're writing a brief on a potential world-ending event, who cares if it's got flourish?"

"Dude, your writing is ALWAYS dry," Isaac remarked. "Like, okay, maybe you've got a bit of a point in this situation, but your essays are the same way. I know for a fact you constantly get marked off on style issues, it's one of the few things you DO lose points on."

"Better than substance issues, mister 'I can't help but go off on diatribes.'"

"Pft. They just don't appreciate the parallels I'm trying to draw. If they opened their minds a bit they'd see I had a point. But I always get top marks on style, and teachers even remark that my essays are some of the best reads they have, even if they don't always see eye-to-eye with my ideas. Meanwhile, there are rumors that teachers sometimes actually fall asleep reading yours."

"That was one time. And the lights were off because there was a video on."

"One time during class. They aren't always grading during class."

"Guys?" Datacarnomon butted in. "Maybe not the most important thing to bicker about right now?"

Skylar looked as if he didn't want to let it go, but a look from Breezedramon convinced him to hold his tongue. "Fine. But I'm just trying to get across the information. Spending time wondering HOW to say it is pointless, and takes up time."

Isaac gave another eye roll, fortunately directed at his computer screen rather than Skylar. "No one's going to be reading this until the morning anyway, you don't have to rush it THAT much. And it's not like you have anywhere to be."

"You don't think they have late-night staff at the FBI or CIA?"

"Who are reading the e-mail lines? Not a chance."

"He's got a point," agreed Datacarnomon. "But let ME help out with it, then. I know how to get to the point too, but I can still figure out some ways to add style that don't interfere with the point. I had to learn that myself after spending my formative years among robots, it wasn't exactly an emphasis with them either."

"…Well…I suppose that's fine," Skylar conceded. "C'mere, let me show you what I've got…"

—

"Sorry, Iris, I know we're getting distracted." Salmandmon gave Shockavimon a shove, the bird laughing at him. "Right now, there's not really anything FOR us to do, so the best thing we can do for ourselves is to take some time to relax and recharge. The…details of the saying aside, the point is that you don't want to be constantly on alert, because that's super draining. It's always good, if you can afford to, to take some time to recharge your batteries and refuel your torches, because if you don't, you could run dry in a key moment."

"Which is, of course, super ironic coming from a guy who spends 75% of his free time exercising," chimed in Shockavimon.

"Hey! Exercise is one of those things that recharges me! Maybe you oughta try doing more of it, you might feel the same way!"

"You have my full permission to ignore him," remarked Reyn.

"As if I needed it," riposted Shockavimon.

"I guess that's true…" Iris still sounded a bit hesitant. "Still, it feels weird that we're doing that and the others aren't given that benefit."

Salmandmon shrugged. "Well, not everyone can necessarily rest at the same time every time, either. But that's the thing, we do it now so they can do it later. Think of it this way, if everyone's in relaxation mode at the same time, then we all have to scramble when something comes up. But if Derek and BC are vigilant now, when he's the most in his element, we can take over later while he's recharging. That way at least some of us are keeping up with things at all times. And if we all need to be doing things together, this kind of rotation should make sure that we all have enough in reserve to tap into it."

"I'll take your word for it." Iris shook her head. "It's all still kind of overwhelming to me…you all have a way better grasp of this stuff than I do. Makes it feel hard for me to know where or how I fit in...I feel like I haven't really even figured out my role in it all yet."

"That's perfectly fine," Shockavimon said reassuringly. "This is all really new for you, and it takes time to get a bead on your own strengths and weaknesses. You don't have to know what you bring to the table right away, it usually becomes clear as time goes on. You DO, however, have to pay attention to when the boss is whaling on you for the last ten seconds so I don't have to come save you again."

"Oh! Wait…I've been looking at the wrong character. Whoops, I guess I lost focus a bit."

"This is why heavy topics should wait until AFTER the video games end," cracked Reyn.

"That's easy for you to say, mister 'I'd find a way to take it easy during the apocalypse.' You might want to be a little LESS laid back and think about some of these serious matters."

"Help me force him to exercise, that'll help," joked Salmandmon. "Or get him up an hour earlier, dude sleeps like Breezy babbles."

"11 AM is a perfectly reasonable time to start the day and I refuse to accept otherwise," Reyn responded indignantly.

"I don't know how you've survived school up until now," Iris laughed. "No wonder I'm never able to get a hold of you until the afternoons on weekends. You'd better hope Emperius are late risers too."

"I'll give him a jolt, that's usually good at waking people up early." Shockavimon pumped a wing as the screen flashed in their victory. "Woo! Boss down! That took way longer than I thought it would!"

"I think the bosses scale with the number of players." Reyn set his controller down. "You guys wanna switch it up a bit? I've got an idea in mind - two-on-two in a shooter or fighter, practicing using our mind links to communicate and coordinate with each other."

"Figures - you get a gift and immediately waste time using it for trivial garbage," Salmandmon said, in an obviously non-serious tone.

"Hey, video games are serious business! Maybe not as serious as monster busting, but practice here will help us step it up there, right?"

"Let's go for it," agreed Iris. "You need a break from getting your butt kicked by Salmandmon, so you can get your butt kicked by us instead."

"Hey, I was thumping him before you came over, I swear it!"

"Yeah, by playing a game where you decided to conveniently not explain the controls or anything," fired back Salmandmon. "But I'm definitely in, because I'm tired of all this goody-goody co-op nonsense. I wanna sink my teeth into some real prey!"

"You know the rules, Sal, no biting other players," Shockavimon reminded him.

"…I'm suddenly disturbed by the lack of joking tone in that line," noted Iris with some concern.

"It'll be fine, just put Reyn on the other side of him. Then he'll only bite if he gets annoyed at his partner."

"That was ONE TIME," the lizard spat hotly.

—

"…Why do you have a map up?"

"I'm trying to read your letter, distracting me isn't going to help with that."

"I know that, but you said you were working on a module. What kind of module requires a map? I thought you said Andrexmon had one already."

Isaac let out a long-suffering sigh. "That's not for a module. I've been scoping out meeting locations for us. Data provided some information input and I was pinning information to some prospective buildings. There's a few places we can go that were can all meet up, and get our merged forms properly introduced to each other."

Skylar's reaction to that was befuddlement. "Why? Can't we just talk about them between each other? Is a Discord call beyond the abilities of that obscene rig?"

"You can't SERIOUSLY be suggesting we talk about this stuff online. I don't care what platform it is, I don't trust it to be THAT secure. Besides that, it's going to require us to be combined, and I don't know about you, but I don't fancy my odds of staying discreet as Andrexmon in the middle of my room."

"Why does it have to be our combined forms?" asked Breezedramon.

"Because you talking about Skydramon is not the same thing as us talking TO Skydramon," replied Datacarnomon. "Trust me, there's a BIG difference. The more Ike talked about it the more I realized that he had a point about it."

"It can't be that big!" the dragon countered. "I mean, it's silly to just do it for some kinda soliperdifiterarity! We already know we're all in it together!"

"Look, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time trying to argue it, because I don't think I'm going to convince you," Isaac said with an air of finality. "What I'm going to say is that everyone else has agreed to it already, so you're outvoted, so just show up when we've figured out the details and you'll figure it out, okay?"

Not what Skylar wanted to hear, but he could tell there wasn't much he could say about that. "Guh. Fine. I feel like I should've been in on things, though."

"Well, it was my idea, and you're the last person I tend to want to talk to, so…"

"We're definitely gonna have to work on that," Datacarnomon said.

"Agreed," chimed in Breezedramon. "Commutermintifincuritation is extrumitantently impertentorpent. …DON'T say it."

"Wasn't gonna say a word." Isaac's voice was trembling with restrained laughter. "Hoo…well, dang, that letter actually reads pretty good. Data must've done a world of good on it."

"Gee, thanks, my hard work feels so appreciated," Skylar snipped with a good deal of asperity.

"I didn't do THAT much," Datacarnomon jumped in before things could escalate. "It really wasn't that bad to begin with. Definitely, uh, on the stiff side, but Sky's got granulars down to a tee. I just applied a few lessons I learned when I started talking to more, uh, discerning audiences."

"Hey, whatever works. Hopefully this one will get through. I really would have hoped to have heard something back by now…uff. Guess we just gotta have all the patience we can."

"Not something I have in large supply," said Skylar tiredly. "I'm heading home. Let me know if you hear back from them…if we've got an open line of communication I do NOT want to miss that opportunity."

"Trust me, if I do, you and everyone else will know right away."

—

"I regret ever inviting you over."

"I DID say I was gonna shock you, it's not my fault you didn't listen." Shockavimon looked thoroughly unrepentant.

"I didn't think you were being SERIOUS." Reyn was showing why he was not a morning person, being rather grouchy due to the early wake-up…which wasn't particularly early by objective measures, but was for him. "If I wanted that kind of wake-up I'd get one of those shocking alarm clocks. I dunno what war criminal came up with THAT idea…"

"My dad was thinking about getting me one of those at one point," Iris said. "Well, he wanted one for both of us, really, thought it was a brilliant idea. I had to give him a bit of a reminder demonstration why I was a particularly bad candidate for that."

"Maybe I'll come up with one that burns you. See how miss Shocks-A-Lot likes having her fingers burned."

"Fingers?" Shockavimon asked with a snort.

"Well…uh, you know. Your, uh, wing-finger things. Wingers?"

"…I'll pay you money never to say that again."

"Good luck getting it here, I don't think their banks'll take our credit chips," cracked Salmandmon. "Anyway, she doesn't need an alarm clock, she has me. I'm really good at getting people up."

"You're really good at giving a hot-foot to anyone who doesn't get up, you mean," the bird replied with a hint of annoyance.

"Hey, it does the trick, doesn't it? Too bad Reyn's not gonna react to it, I just have to be annoying as hell to get him out of bed."

"You do far too good a job of that, by the way," remarked the boy testily.

"I was taught by a master, what can I say?"

"Breezedramon?"

"No, the Kaiser," sighed Shockavimon. "I respect the guy, but holy hell, does he know how to play the annoying sibling role like he was born for it."

"He's incredible," Salmandmon stated firmly. "I don't think I've ever known anyone who could be so at home both being professional and casual. He does his job with as much decorum as, say, the heads of the KOL, but when he turns it off you get to really see the personal side of him. I probably know it better than just about anyone, since I knew him before he became Kaiser."

"Should I ask if it's just a coincidence that he's 'the Kaiser' and he's named Kaiserhuanglongmon?" asked Iris.

"Nah. He took on a unique evolution when he took the position. Central's leader can be called pretty much anything they want, it's not like the title carries that much power with it. He just liked 'Kaiser' so that's what he settled on."

"I was gonna say, would be pretty suspicious if the guy just happened to be named that before he actually had the title…" Reyn was going to ask more about that, but his phone started buzzing, and when he saw that it was Isaac, he quickly grabbed it and turned it on speaker. "What's up, Isaac?"

"You, apparently, which is a new one."

"Blame Shockavimon."

"I warned him ahead of time!" Shockavimon cut in.

"That was your only mistake," laughed Isaac.

"If you're delaying telling us about another intruder because you wanna get shots at me, I'm going to be even less happy," snapped Reyn.

"Thankfully, Data's reporting nothing that he can see. But he did see something else that you might want to know about - a good meeting spot. It's probably as good as we're ever going to be able to find, actually. A nice, relatively central location, and indoors to boot. And get this: basement area."

"Oh, wow. That's a lucky find. What's the catch?"

"What makes you think there's a catch?"

"Because we can't be that lucky to just have a totally perfect meeting spot that fits exactly all of our needs without any drawbacks," said Iris.

"Sheesh, buncha negative nancies over there. Okay, there MAY be a couple issues. First, and this'd be true of pretty much any indoors area worth looking at, we're technically breaking and entering. Data picked the lock, we're probably not gonna be able to lock it back up very easily, but it's more just a meeting spot than anything, so I don't think we'll need to store anything in there that's really, you know, worth anything. If someone catches just one of us and not the digimon, we can probably get away with saying it was already open, and I don't think they'll do anything more than just tell us to stop."

"I'm not super fond of that, but it's pretty much that or be out in the open where any of us could be seen," sighed Reyn. "What else?"

"Well, I can't guarantee there won't be neighbors. It's the old Chip's corner store, the one that closed down last year."

"Wait, what?" exclaimed Iris. "There's like three other businesses on that stretch!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know! But right now, maps says they're closed, and Data said he didn't see any activity. There's no indication of why, so I think they might just be shuttered because of the attacks, so it's possible that they might open back up at some point here. But look, this is the best we're gonna get, the other places that Data looked at weren't good for one reason or another. I thought maybe one of those burned houses on Aspen might be possible, but Data wouldn't even step foot in them."

Salmandmon snorted. "Of course he wouldn't. Going inside a place that's already burned down is a bad idea. I oughta know, seeing as I've burned a few places down in my time."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was thinking we could meet up there, say around 2:00? My parents are heading out and I might actually be able to get out without being grilled about where I'm going. I'm starting to run out of good lies."

"I don't see any reason why that shouldn't work," agreed Reyn. "Unless someone else here has an objection to make."

"No objections here," said Iris.

"Unless another nasty comes through, I don't think we've got anything else to do," Shockavimon added.

"Sounds good! All right, I gotta let the others know, but you shouldn't hear back from me unless the time has to change. It'll be good to get this all knocked out and get all of us on the same page! Catch ya then!" The line went dead, and Reyn hung up.

"Does anyone else feel like this is sort of an odd thing to be doing?" asked Salmandmon. "Feels like it's a weird ask we're getting here. 'Hey, let's all meet, even though we know each other.' No one finds that weird?"

"I'm not totally sure I get it," admitted Reyn. "But I trust Isaac. He always has a good reason for thinking what he does, and while some people might…disagree with his approaches on things, no one can deny that he's got a pretty brilliant mind."

"So does Skylar, and he thinks this is all ridiculous," pointed out Iris.

"Yeah, but you know Skylar. Smart as he is, he's, uh…socially-challenged. More than any of the rest of us."

"The fact that you know Derek and still say that…"

"Eh, Derek's thing is…different. Like, he just…uh…"

Iris smirked. "Hates people?"

Reyn winced a bit. "I wasn't gonna go QUITE that far, but, uh, yeah, he's pretty cold towards everyone except the few people he's gotten to know well. Some of the few people he's gotten to know well. Sometimes. But Skylar, uh, he just, well, doesn't seem to…get it? I don't know how to explain it, really. It's like, in school, he…more or less gets along with people, but he doesn't really ever…connect to them? Like, they think he's kind of weird, and he doesn't even really…notice, I guess?"

"Huh…well, now that you mention it, I guess he does come off that way. Hm…" Iris trailed off in thought, but when she spoke again, the thread was left hanging. "Well, I guess you've got a point, this does seem more like a get-together than anything. And I guess even if I don't totally get this, we DO need a meeting place, anyway."

"Definitely, and if it's not here, then a creepy abandoned store with a not-at-all suspicious basement is perfect!" declared Salmandmon.

"Why must you put things like that?" groaned Shockavimon.

"Amusement. It's fine. Ghosts don't exist in this world. Probably."

"Reyn, smack him for me."

Reyn shook his head. "No way, he apparently bites. I like having fingers. I guess we've got something to do today, then."

"Can we leave a bit early and swing by my place?" asked Iris. "I want to just bring something to make sure we have some light, just in case."

"Why the detour?" asked Salmandmon, waving his arm around the room. "There's plenty of things that create lots of light in here!"

"Sal, we're trying to NOT burn the place down," remarked Shockavimon.

"C'moooooon. I'm careful at least occasionally! Besides, Reyn'll keep things in check, too!"

Before Reyn could say a word, Iris spoke up. "Uh-uh. Nope. The kid who said he can spend an hour just watching a candle burn and has fond memories of the appearance of buildings going up in flames is NOT gonna be carrying open flames into anywhere I want to get out of alive at some point."

"Excuse you, I'm only MILDLY pyromaniacal," Reyn asserted in offense.

"And you now have a portable fire dispenser at your side. We're bringing something NON-combustible."

"Fiiiiiiine…"

—

It didn't seem like a local corner store in the middle of a well-populated city, on a fairly well-traveled road by car and foot no less, would have any trouble staying in business. And had things gone normally for Chip's, it likely would still have been; unfortunately, the economics rarely accounted for sinister machinations. The owner had brought his nephew in to help manage as he was getting up there in years, and over the span of a couple years the nephew had embezzled tens of thousands out of the business, fudging numbers and using hired accomplices to keep his uncle none the wiser. It had finally blown up, the nephew was in prison for a good decade or more, and the owner hadn't either the finances or the energy to try to salvage things. Many had been disappointed to see it go, and it was sort of an eerie fixture on that corner, not even the signage had come down, just an empty shell of what once had been.

Now, that shell was finally serving a new purpose: meeting place for the digimon and their partners. It wasn't the shortest of treks for everyone, but as short as they were going to get without making it untenably long for anyone else. The more important thing was making sure the digimon were able to stay out of sight on the way there, which meant that the most direct route was not the most ideal one - the main road was straight out, too open and exposed for their shaky camouflage. That left looping around a block or so and approaching from the back. While that exposed them to a few more houses, there were also more places to take cover, as well as less vehicle traffic to try to work around. Not that there was much of it, the recent attacks were keeping a lot of people inside, but it wasn't completely dead. Thankfully, the same couldn't be said of the other nearby businesses, which all were shuttered and dark. That at least eliminated one complication for the moment - and if the situation changed, they could still look into other options.

Thanks to their detour, Reyn, Salmandmon, Iris, and Shockavimon were not the first to arrive, as they could hear upon entering the door. The vibe of the inside was slightly creepy - only lit by natural light from the windows, largely empty shelves with lots of dust having collected, some detritus on the floors that seemed to have been left there from the final days of the shutdown. It was far from the most welcoming place they could have chosen, it seemed…

"Okay, I'ma say it: this is NOT my aesthetic," remarked Salmandmon as they looked around. "Feels like something straight out of a ghost town. And I've been in a couple more of those than I'd like to remember."

"Do I want to know the story behind that?" asked Reyn.

"Well, they weren't FRESH ghost towns. Not that fresh, anyway. It was mostly to hunt down jerkwads hiding there so they could plot and stuff."

"I hope the electricity works…" muttered Iris. She had a pair of nicely crafted electric lamps in her arms, small but hopefully effective enough. "I don't like the thought of trying to drag a generator here or anything like that."

"Wouldn't they turn it off if the building wasn't in use?" asked Shockavimon.

"I think the buildings here are all supposed to be sort of connected, so they might not. But it's still possible, yeah. Oof, it's also NOT warm in here, I probably should've expected that. Hopefully that'll at least keep the bugs down, I do NOT want to run into any of those in the dark. Bad enough when they're in the light."

"Hey, are you guys gonna actually come down here or what?" That was Skylar's voice, from an open door behind the counter. It looked plenty dark down there, but a flashlight beam was shining up at them. "Come on, I'm getting unnerved down here, being alone with Derek in the dark is creepy."

"You're just saying that because you need that stupid beam to figure out where you are and I can find my way around just fine," came a quieter reply that was no doubt from Derek.

"Yes, that is precisely why I'm saying that. Also, Breezedramon might decide to fly into me, unless he spontaneously learns echolocation."

"How would I spontamatonataminousally learn ecocomatamonitration? That's bat stuff! I'm a dragon!"

"That's the point! GAH! Watch where you're flying!"

"Iris, we gotta get the lamps down there before they kill each other," snickered Shockavimon.

"On it. Reyn, if you don't mind."

Reyn scoffed. "Oh, NOW I can be a source of light? After you told me no matches or torches or anything fun?"

Iris rolled her eyes. "Use your cell phone, call the wahmbulance if you have to, and then use the flashlight on it so I don't go headfirst down these stairs."

Salmandmon chuckled. "You know, all I have to do is open my mouth-"

"And then I will shock it closed," warned Shockavimon.

Grumbling aside, Reyn did light the way for Iris, and then kept it that way as they looked around the basement for a place to try the lamps. It wasn't exactly a homely area, even more barren than the store above, with a few different doors along the walls, including one that looked as if it went into a cooler or freezer of some sort. It was at least spacious enough to fit all of them, but the lack of natural light meant that they would be pretty reliant on what they could bring in.

The darkness, fortunately, was dispelled as Iris clicked one of the lamps on, bringing a relatively effective illumination to the basement. "Yes! It worked! I guess we can be a LITTLE lucky."

"Thank goodness for that," groaned Skylar. "I wasn't looking forward to having Reyn's idea of lighting be what we needed to rely on. I'd rather escape this place without severe burns, thank you."

"Excuse me!" Reyn snapped in annoyance. "Electricity can TOTALLY cause severe burns. They can be even worse because the electricity often travels through the inside of the body, so you can't actually see all the damage that's being done! You'll see that spot where it went in but not necessarily the whole path!"

Derek snorted with laughter. "Thank you very much for that health class lecture, Dr. Kessilik."

"I told you, I'm NOT gonna be a doctor. Just because I KNOW stuff doesn't mean it's what I want to do! It's way too stressful and busy, I'd much rather do something that's a lot more, uh…relaxed."

"He was totally about to say 'chill,'" remarked Breezedramon with a cackle.

"Quiet, you."

"I shall concur on the motion for silence, this cerulean reptilian paraphasiac has been infiltrating my acoustic organs ceaselessly," remarked Blackcanismon with a long-suffering sigh.

"Maybe you need to stop saying so many big words so I can talk back to you," replied Breezedramon huffily. "I know you can do it!"

"Modifying my linguistic normalcies solely for your accommodation is a patent imbalance of compromise. Apropos of nothing, shall I presume the singular exemplar of tardiness is the typical tidsoptomist?"

"When I get home, I'm looking up thesaurus apps," said Derek with barely-repressed laughter. "WHAT is that word you just threw out?"

"If it means 'guy who's always late,' it's perfect and I'm stealing it," said Skylar with a wide grin.

"Essentially, a habitual overestimator of chronological availability," the canine arguably clarified. "His certainty of timeliness is maximal, nevertheless his practice is invariably impunctuality. Which registers to myself as a significant likelihood, as Isaac impresses upon me a gargantuan degree of self-certainty."

"I wouldn't call myself 'impressed,' but yeah, he always talks like he's real sure of himself," agreed Salmandmon. "Which has its ups and downs."

"You'd know," needled Shockavimon.

"Of course I'd know, you all MAKE me have to be like that. The door's WIDE open for Data to be voted team leader."

Reyn rubbed his head. "Sheeze. Just all oozing patience here. It's only been, what, five days? This is all off to a GREAT start…this is why I don't get up early, nothing good ever happens on an early morning."

"I'm guessing there's gonna be a lot of late mornings that go just as poorly," Iris said with an eye roll.

—

"Oy! You didn't all get started without me, did you?" Isaac was thudding down the stairs, Datacarnomon just behind him, clanking a little too loudly for comfort.

"Seeing as you're the one who has all the ideas for what we're doing here, we couldn't really do so," Skylar said stiffly. "Even if we did have to wait…almost twenty minutes. What happened to 'I won't have any trouble getting out of the house'?"

"I didn't have any trouble getting out of the house!" protested Isaac.

"Yeah, he just had trouble getting his butt in gear to do so," remarked Datacarnomon with a smirk.

Isaac scowled at him. "It's your fault! You just had to point out that coding issue."

"I said we could take care of it later! But no, you were all 'I'm not gonna let myself forget about it, let's take care of it now, we have plenty of time!' I can literally set up alert reminders IN MY MIND, listen to me when I say we can handle it later!"

"I thought we had plenty of time! It was just one little change, how was I to know it was gonna start a chain-reaction?"

"Isaac, you're the one who tells ME all the time that everything you type creates at least twenty other associated bugs," remarked Reyn. "You're the only one of us who SHOULD know that."

"You were right, BC, that word is PERFECT for him," giggled Shockavimon.

"My expansive vocabulary possesses some marginal measure of usefulness," Blackcanismon replied rather proudly.

"I don't even wanna know what word that is," Isaac said bluntly. "What matters is that we're all here safely, so we can do what we need to do."

"Yeah, I'm still not sure I've got the sense of 'need' here," remarked Breezedramon.

"I think that's a feeling exclusive to him," agreed Derek. "But I don't see the harm in it, either. We needed a place to get together, and we needed another opportunity to get together, so as long as this accomplishes both of those, what's the harm?"

"Besides, it might not be bad to just, you know, get more used to this whole merging thing," agreed Shockavimon. "I've done it a couple times now but it's still kind of throwing me for a loop."

"Those aren't the things I have issues with…" Skylar said.

"Let's just get down to it," Reyn said before more objections could be voiced. "Maybe it'll be easier to understand in the moment than it is now. Unless you had something special planned, Isaac?"

Isaac shook his head. "Nope, shouldn't require anything. Just the other us! So let's hop to it!"

Despite the varying degrees of uncertainty and reluctance, all five pairs got up and got together. The basement was enveloped in bright light as the combinations flared up, and died down only gradually as each pair became one at different rates. Andrexmon seemed to be the last one, thumping on the ground and looking like he took up way too much space down there. From there he could see Burnreptimon, Skydramon, and Boltfalkemon…but he was definitely short one. "Oy! Where's the werewolf?"

"Where do you think I am?" The voice came from behind Andrexmon, causing the cyborg to wheel around, lose balance, and thump down on his butt. He glowered at the shadowy canine clearly laughing at him. "Goodness, for a lummox you sure do startle easy."

"That was NOT funny! Don't ambush me like that!"

"This is gonna be a thing, isn't it?" Boltfalkemon asked.

"He did it to me TWICE the first time," Burnreptimon grumbled.

"Lovely. Because spooking someone who could atomize you and half the building in one shot is SUCH a great idea."

"I daresay I could survive a shot," Darkvargmon replied, still mirthful as Andrexmon got back to his feet. "Though I will gladly not try to prove that. Also, goodness, but you all are SUCH an eyesore when you do that. Such bright flashy lights, I'm surprised you couldn't be seen from orbit."

"It WAS pretty bright," agreed Burnreptimon. "Was the first time I ever saw it from that end, I had no idea it was that noticeable."

"How'd yours get done so fast?" asked Skydramon.

"I think it gets faster the more you do it. I've felt less of a 'gap' over time, it's just a couple seconds for me now, so you'll probably get there soon enough."

"That would make sense, I guess," agreed Boltfalkemon. "Well, we're here now, so we might as well do this thing."

"Yeah, right." Andrexmon shifted back around to face the others, Darkvargmon also phasing back to the other side of the room. "While I'm getting everyone registered in my sensor banks, what we should do is talk about what we understand innately about ourselves, our battle capabilities, our strengths and weaknesses. That way we're all on the same page and have a better idea of how to fight together with each other, because we're gonna have to be doing probably a lot of that before all is said and done."

"Does anyone else still feel like this is silly?" asked Skydramon. "I don't feel like we needed to meet like this, didn't need to form up, anything like that. We could've just talked!"

"Talking doesn't update my databases," rumbled Andrexmon.

"Oh, so this was all for you, then?"

"It's for all of us. Maybe pipe down and listen to us talk, and then you'll understand why I thought this was useful."

Skydramon looked over at Burnreptimon. "C'mon! Tell me I'm not crazy here!"

Burnreptimon folded his arms and looked at the dragon. "Skydramon. Think back to when you were separated. How good a sense did you have of your abilities in merged form?"

"Well, I…I…uh…" Skydramon paused, deflating a bit. "…Not really much."

"Exactly. I was questioning it too, until I merged again, and then I understood. Our separate selves can talk about what we can do, but they don't UNDERSTAND them like we do. Even the digimon don't truly understand them, because fundamentally, we're not entirely digimon…only our own selves have that sense of ourselves."

"And here I thought Andrexmon was merely talking out of his cannon," quipped Darkvargmon.

"Watch your tongue or it'll be talking to you very loudly," growled the cyborg.

"I feel like we absorb more the more we merge, though," observed Boltfalkemon. "So we might come to understand it better eventually. But not soon enough, since we have battles to fight. So let's get down to it."

"I'll go ahead and start." Burnreptimon nodded to them all. "Being fire elemental, I have some pretty potent techniques, but they're all pretty close-quarters. My Pyre Rush is the main thing I can do with range, but it's still stronger closer to me, and gets more spread out the farther away it is. If I really focus, I can unleash a fireball with my Flare Fang, but that's not too easy in the heat of the moment, and especially one-on-one. So this is something to think about…if I'm fighting someone close up, you probably want to watch how close you get."

"What about that Heat Field technique?" asked Boltfalkemon. "That melted Frigimon's fist pretty quick."

"Right…it's a shield technique more than an attack, it surrounds me with an aura of intense heat. It's both a thermal and a disruptor field…it's not just a ball of fire, but it destabilizes things that get into it. It's best against projectiles, though - Frigimon was affected by the heat, but other bodies won't react so strongly. Solid projectiles vulnerable to burning should be fairly good, but energy projectiles can get through the heat more easily, unless they're heat-sensitive. The more powerful they are, the harder to disrupt…I could probably stop Datacarnomon's shots easily, but Andrexmon's are no guarantee, definitely not his charge shot. Also, it doesn't protect anyone inside regardless of their allegiance, so I can't use it to just jump in and shield you while standing over you, unless you enjoy being char-grilled."

"Okay, THAT'S a good thing to know," admitted Skydramon. "Keep our distance or you can't protect yourself."

"Right. But in close quarters, I've got the edge, with the way I'm built. And I can charge myself up a little with Pyre Rush in a pinch - it's not a big boost but it speeds me up and gives me a bit more punch for a bit. So spaces where there isn't a lot of ability to move around are where I'm best."

"The opposite of myself," said Boltfalkemon. "I want to be in the open sky where I can move freely. And my Spark Wave is built for this - it has a wide spread that flies out in front of me. If we end up in a case where we have a numbers issue, I've got the best tool for the job."

"Is it okay if I don't want there to be numbers issues?" asked Andrexmon.

"I'm not going to be blaming you. I can also do something closer up with my Static Cracker, charging electricity in my body and using it to power a physical blow, though it's not my favorite way of dealing with things. It's best if I can use a full tackle, which still is better in open spaces where I can build up some speed. The more force I apply, the better the charge works. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be using it against anything more solid than Aquilamon…trying to fly into something harder than feathers and flesh would probably end badly."

Burnreptimon snickered. "What, it's not enough of a violation of physics to survive thumping into bird meat at eighty miles an hour?"

"You violate all the physics, don't even start," riposted Boltfalkemon, sticking her tongue out at him. "I have a shield, too, Thunder Guard. It's an electric barrier that's a pretty effective blockade. Only issue is that it's not a full surround like Burnreptimon's, it's only a spherical cap in the direction of my choice, and it's not something I can move around with. And I can't attack behind it, it'll absorb my electricity as well."

"But you can leap in front of one of us to save our hides," mused Darkvargmon.

"Maybe. I don't know exactly how strong it is. But anyway, that covers me."

"Okay, I'll go next, then, since I'm the other air counterpart," said Skydramon. "Hi! I'm Skydramon! I rawr in the air and make things fall down!"

"I know you think this is silly, but do you have to ACT silly?" snorted Burnreptimon.

"Just getting it out of my system. Anyway, Boltfalkemon has the spread, I have the power! Aero Nail is a really nasty attack which claws at the enemy with my wind-charged claws. And if I need to go from afar, my Twister Orb delivers a concentrated punch of wind energy right on 'em! It's got a deliberate homing property, too - it'll zero in on exactly who I want it to, even if there are other targets around! But someone who gets right in the way can still block it, but that's their problem."

"It's our problem if they decide to dip down behind us, so try to be careful where you throw it still," admonished Boltfalkemon. "Especially around me, since I'll be in the air with you most of the time!"

"Yeah, yeah. You'll at least get to make more use of my Force Gale! I can kick up a powerful gust of wind that we can speed ourselves up with! Or slow down or throw off enemies, too! I, uh, guess it's not really much as an attack, but creating openings is as good as doing damage, right?"

"Only if damage is actually done in those openings," said Andrexmon. "And that's where I can come in. You want to smack something from afar with raw power, you've got the mon for the job. My Dino Buster fires some powerful energy bursts that pummel weaker enemies like nobody's business. And when I charge it up, I can unleash a much stronger blast that can fell even some pretty titanic dudes! Just make sure to keep me covered, I can't move as fast while charging."

"You can't move fast period," remarked Skydramon. "You're the biggest lug of all of us."

"…Okay, I can't argue that, but RUDE. If someone comes up on me, my cannon arm can turn into a claw arm, and my Energy Claw is pretty nasty, too. But I'd rather stay away if that's all right, hitting stuff from afar is way better. But that's not all I can do…I'm working on maximizing my versatility with stuff I call Andro Attachments. These are programs I can write up on a computer outside my merged form, then download and manifest as new abilities in this body! I can create a whole bunch of different programs, and hopefully use them to make sure I cover every situation!"

"So you've tapped into the power that Emperius seeks…that's actually rather impressive in such a short amount of time," marveled Darkvargmon.

"Of course he'd want to use it to be Mega Man," Boltfalkemon said with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey, Mega Man only WISHES he could have this kinda gross muscle on him." Andrexmon flexed his non-metal arm; it was indeed quite bulky and impressive. "Listen, if we ever encounter a challenge where moving a weight is an issue, call me, trust me, I'll do it faster than all the rest of you combined."

"I daresay that might be jumping the gun a bit," chimed in Darkvargmon. "After all, my Nightmare Tangle is pretty effective at grabbing and moving enemies against their will. The tendrils are pure darkness, so their durability may be limited, but I can put forth a fair number of them, and their damage is immaterial. I daresay I could put you in a pretty effective hold, Andrexmon."

"I'm gonna test that at some point and show you how wrong you are," countered the cyborg gruffly.

"Of course, that's far from the only thing I can do. My Shadow Wave unleashes a dark wave of energy that spreads slightly over the distance it covers, hitting a relatively concentrated area. And I can unleash a sort of noxious grenade with my Blasting Darkness. And considering I can use these both along with my Nightmare Tangle, I'd say I can do a pretty good job of sweeping things up."

"True, but I can't help but notice that you're the smallest one of all of us," remarked Burnreptimon. "A good blow might hurt you more than any of the rest of us."

"Indeed. But I don't take blows much. If I can find a shadow, I can phase into it and be untouchable. Plus, I can reappear in any other nearby shadow I want, whether it's contiguous or not. So I'd say I'm also the most evasive of all of us."

"Not confident enough to not ask about me shielding you, though," cracked Boltfalkemon.

"…It may be wise to account for all possibilities, I mean…" There was a chorus of snickers as Darkvargmon looked away, a bit embarrassed.

—

With the formalities out of the way, the atmosphere got a bit more relaxed. The five of them continued to chat and banter with each other in that basement, the camaraderie progressing as smoothly as one might expect given the relationships between their components. And Burnreptimon was starting to understand a lot better why the idea had been proposed.

Isaac was right, this was important. Doing this another way, we probably could have figured out what we all are - but this way gives us insight into WHO we are. That's something that's not as simple, not for something like us, where we're two things and also a third thing at the same time.

Of course, discussions of their nature were inevitably going to come up, and Andrexmon put forth a good one. "Have you guys figured out how we should be defining ourselves? Like, when talking about the parts of us. Burnreptimon was right, it's kind of confusing in my brain, I feel like I've got three identities at once going on here."

"I know, right?" Burnreptimon shook his head. "I'm not sure I'm any closer to a good answer. I thought about just using 'we' but I think that makes it harder to figure out where everything's actually coming from."

Skydramon scowled. "Oh, it really sucks! It's like, hey, guess what, we're not just two people, we're actually three, and not all of them actually exist at the same time! Why can't it just be natural? Why is it I can know exactly what my name is and exactly what I can do, but I can't figure out how to think of myself?"

"It does feel like a pretty weird gap," admitted Andrexmon. "Maybe…well, because we've got a fairly 'digimon' phenotype, we have traits like that, intrinsic understanding of our capabilities, but something nebulous like 'identity' isn't really tied to to the core data, so we aren't as easily able to figure that out. That's the best answer I can come up with on short notice anyway. I've been trying to process it ever since the first event, though it was hard before…uh…"

"Before you were you?" suggested Boltfalkemon.

"See, uh, yeah, that was what I was going to say, and then I thought it sounded ridiculous."

"I think you're overthinking it," Darkvargmon stated rather cleanly. "Which wouldn't surprise me given the essences of you."

"What you call 'overthinking' I call 'thinking,'" Andrexmon replied huffily. "Why do you think it's so easy?"

"Because I've been listening to you. You already know the answer, you're just unaware of it."

"The heck're ya talking about?" Skydramon asked blankly.

"Did you hear what Andrexmon was saying?" Boltfalkemon motioned towards the confused cyborg. "'That's the best answer I can come up with, I've been trying to process it…' Even though he clearly had to be talking about Isaac and Datacarnomon, he was still talking as if it was himself. And even back the first time, Burnreptimon talked about Reyn's parents as his own. The answer just seems to be right there if you think about it - the parts of us ARE us, and there's no point in trying to split them out."

Darkvargmon nodded. "She's correct. I understood the confusion immediately after I first came to be, but also quickly figured out that anything that comes from Derek or Blackcanismon comes to me as if it was from myself. Those feelings might as well be my own, so I should treat them as my own."

"I…guess that makes sense," Andrexmon said hesitantly. "I suppose I did sort of default to that, though it's a bit weird to think about."

"Well, if you guys are all doing it that way, I don't think it makes sense to do it any other way," agreed Skydramon.

Burnreptimon's arms were folded, and he had a somewhat sour look on his face. "I don't know if I'm comfortable with that."

"Why not?" asked Boltfalkemon.

"…It's hard to explain. I'm just not."

"You're not, or one part of you isn't?" pointed out Darkvargmon.

"…Part of me. Dammit."

"I don't get it," Skydramon said, befuddled.

"He says he's not comfortable with it, but he's doing the same thing we all are," explained Andrexmon.

"Let's talk about something else," Burnreptimon said suddenly, and then pushed on before anyone else could object. "Like, how we're going to approach this whole mess. Emperius is going to be sending more troops after us, we don't know how they're going to ramp it up but we know they're going to. So we've got a problem, and that's stealth versus battle-readiness."

Andrexmon nodded. "Scoping things out in this form is just an invitation to get caught. Right now, we need to save it for actual combat. We're liable to get exposure for that as is, but at least then not all the attention will be on us."

"But if we're separated, we're vulnerable if someone from Emperius gets the drop on us!" pointed out Skydramon. "And I can only be stealthy if I'm flying high enough as it is! I don't know if it's really that good to be split up all the time!"

"It would be easier if they knew about us and could trust us…" Burnreptimon let out a sigh. "Would be REALLY convenient if a way of making that happen would fall into our laps right about now!"

"Uh…what are you doing, Burner?"

"Hmph. Figured I might as well try to pull another miracle out of my ass, guess that only happens once. Wait, did you just call me 'Burner?'"

"Sure! You know how much of a mouthful it is to say 'Burnreptimon' all the time? Maybe BC can do it, Wolfy can probably tell ya, but faster is easier!"

"I should've known this would happen," snickered Andrexmon. "Lemme guess, I'm 'Rexy?'"

"Yep! And Boltfalkemon is Bolty! And, uh, calling me 'Sky' might be confusing, so…Skyder? Eh, that should work."

"And that's NOT confusing?" snorted Burnreptimon. "Sounds way too close to Skylar as far as I'm concerned. And entirely unnecessary at that."

"Remember who we're talking about here," Andrexmon remarked amusedly. "Breezy gave us all those nicknames in the first place because he almost always tripped up over our given ones. You snarked about that, too, but within a year we were all using them regularly. Skyder doesn't seem to have the chaos tongue, but he's got plenty of that personality in him."

"Tch, you're already falling in line with this?"

"I would have preferred something a touch more inspired than 'Wolfy,' but I suppose the decision is out of my hands," remarked Darkvargmon.

"Oh, hey, he speaks," Andrexmon snarked. "What are you doing over there? You've been staring at the wall for a long time."

"No, I'm staring THROUGH the wall. There's a difference."

"Shouldn't be anything in there but dirt, bud. We're underground, remember?"

"You've been awfully quiet too, Bolty," Skydramon pointed out. "Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong…just…I had something nagging at my brain, and I think I figured out what it is." Boltfalkemon held up her hand, showing them the back of it. "Did you guys ever notice that those seal glyphs are on all of us?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah. On the backs of your hands, too. Even Darkvargmon's, though they're hard to see because of that whole 'formless' thing."

The others looked at her blankly, and then looked at the backs of their hands. Sure enough, it was easy to see the glyphs that had represented the digimon's evolution seals on each hand on all of them. Skydramon was the first to speak up. "The hell is that there for?"

"Beats the heck outta me," replied Burnreptimon, running a finger over the one on him. "I don't feel anything from it, though, not like Salmandmon does. I'm not sure it's even active."

"That's why I didn't notice before," explained Boltfalkemon. "The glyphs are there, but I don't think the effects are. But why one and not the other?"

"Maybe it helps make sure that it stays in place even when we separate?" Andrexmon ventured. "Though that would be a weird and completely undesirable function. Wonder if we could do something about that."

"Visual markings are rarely superfluous for digimon," mused Darkvargmon. "They must exist for a specific purpose. But I cannot say what that would be."

"I get a weird feeling looking at 'em," muttered Skydramon. "Can we not focus on the weird things for now? At least until someone figures something else out. We've got enough to worry about right now!"

"I daresay more than you know."

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" growled Burnreptimon. "You've noticed something, haven't you?"

"I've noticed that my Nightmare Tangle is a surprisingly effective extension of my senses, and has a rather remarkable range. Also, we have company. They're close to Shunka Elementary…good thing no one's there at the moment."

"How bad is it?" asked Andrexmon.

"Numbers-wise, favorable, only two of them…but one is a Flymon. That screeching drone it makes will get far too much attention. The other is a perturbed-looking Veedramon…hm, most of those Emperius goons have been rather excited, he's a break from the norm. They're dormant now, but who knows how long that will last."

"Then we have to get going," insisted Burnreptimon. "We can't waste time, if they get the chance to do whatever they're here for it'll all go to hell in a hurry."

"You want to go like this?" hissed Skydramon. "Weren't we just talking about stealth?"

"Stealth is a luxury we don't have," said Darkvargmon. "They are quite a ways away, and I don't know how long they'll be keeping quiet. Walking as humans, it would be a good hour before we got there. My shadow travel can reduce that to just a few minutes…Bolt and Skyder can fly there probably similarly quickly."

"I'm actually pretty fast myself, the main thing will be avoiding being seen," said Burnreptimon. "Not sure what we can do about you, though, Rex."

"Not much…" Andrexmon rose up, looking annoyed. "Guess I've got no choice…wanted to test it more first, but…"

"Test what?"

"You remember how I mentioned Andro Attachments? I've already written one…a teleport module. Guy my size, I'm not always gonna be able to find hiding places, so I wanted something to make a quick exit. Though I haven't actually used it yet…"

"Worst case scenario is it doesn't work, right?" asked Boltfalkemon.

"Trust me, that's far from the worst-case scenario. But I'm gonna try it."

Burnreptimon nodded. "Then let's go. Avoid exposure as much as you can, and let's give these guys an introduction they'll never forget."

—

It was a dicey trip, but one that Burnreptimon realized they needed to make. They weren't always going to have the opportunity to travel in a more clandestine form, they needed to get used to it and figure out the strategies for doing so with a minimum of risk. He'd already had this experience once the first time he'd come about - actually twice, though the second time had the cover of darkness aiding him. The cold and cloudy day was probably helping to keep people inside as much as the threat of monster attacks, but every house had plenty of windows, so he kept low and moved quickly. Whenever he could find a decent amount of cover, he used that to chart his next move, sprinting from spot to spot.

Darkvargmon showed up here and there to direct him to the right location, though he already had a general idea where to go. Shunka Elementary might have been more familiar to some of their group, but by the time he'd gotten here he was already past those years; still, he'd been around the area enough to have passed by a few times. With his vague memories and Darkvargmon's guidance, he managed to get to a rendezvous point Darkvargmon had set up for them near the location of the bogies.

A little on the late side, it seemed, if the others were to be believed. "Jeez, finally! What took you so long?" asked Skydramon impatiently.

"I'm sorry, mister 'I'm a speed demon flier,' not all of us get your advantages. I had to make sure I wasn't spotted by half the neighborhood on my way. Wait, did Andrexmon seriously get here before me?"

"Only mostly in one piece." Andrexmon looked rather ill, but otherwise fine. "Turns out rapidly teleporting isn't a good way to settle your stomach. It worked, though, it wasn't too loud and moved me faster than I could ever walk. But I definitely need to increase the range."

"That's a matter for another time," stated Darkvargmon urgently. "They're about to start moving. We need to strike now, or our choices of battlefield get considerably less convenient." He pointed towards the trees at the edge of the school ground. "They're laying low in there, but the Flymon appears ready to take off, and the Veedramon probably won't be far behind. We need to try to catch them before they leave. I can try to slow down one or both of them with my Nightmare Tangle, but it'll be harder to get a faster flier like Flymon."

"Skyder and I'll take on the Flymon," declared Boltfalkemon.

Burnreptimon nodded. "As would make sense. Rex, ready that cannon of yours, Veedramon's definitely going to take some abuse before we get him under control, and I'm not sure I'll pack quite enough punch to subdue him on my own."

"Of course. I'm ready to show my stuff. Let's get to it!"

The five of them split into two clusters and raced towards the point where Flymon and Veedramon were breaking out of the bushes, ready to enact whatever sinister plan they had in mind. That plan was quickly waylaid as they were suddenly set upon by the group, scrambling to take defensive action. "What the hell?! Where did they all come from?!" Veedramon cried out, sounding panicked.

"Who cares?!" screeched Flymon viciously. "They're the tainted ones! Slaughter them to the end!"

"You gotta be crazy, they outnumber us!"

"They contaminated themselves with weakness, they're nothing next to a true digimon! Do your job!" Flymon buzzed up to engage Skydramon and Boltfalkemon, leaving Veedramon nervously facing down Burnreptimon and Andrexmon. Darkvargmon had vanished into the shadows, eyeing up both fights to see where his assistance was most needed.

Flymon wasn't wasting any time being a problem - as soon as she was up in line of sight of the two aerial fighters she buzzed her wings loudly, making an awful screeching noise that was making everyone have to cover their ears. "Gah! That's awful!" yelped Skydramon, though it couldn't cut through the piercing screech.

Boltfalkemon didn't like it any better, but she had a trick for solving that - she didn't need her hands for all her attacks. "Let's try to get some quiet around here. Spark Wave!" She flapped her wings and let loose a barrage of bolts, which Flymon wasn't ready for. The sparking attack hit her square, making her screech out again, but at least that wasn't on the same level as her abominable wings, which stopped their sonic onslaught as Flymon tried to right herself.

Skydramon didn't waste time, following up with one of his own attacks. "Twister Orb!" He formed and hurled the orb, but Flymon was ready this time and rose up, avoiding the initial flight of the orb. It swung back around in a wide arc to try to catch her from behind, but she looped around it, avoiding it a second time as it dissipated harmlessly. "Hey! No fair!"

"Annoying aberrations! You'll never best a pure digimon by sullying yourselves with humans!" Flymon swooped at them, forcing Boltfalkemon and Skydramon to break apart and evade. But avoiding the dive wasn't enough, as the air was clouded with a noxious dust. "Let's see how you fare with my Poison Powder in the air!"

"Guh!" Boltfalkemon gagged as she inhaled some of it, and immediately felt a bit dizzy and ill. "We can't let her spread this stuff all over…"

Skydramon hadn't avoided getting some of it in his system either. "Yech, it's awful…I'm getting it out of here! Force Gale!" The rush of wind blew the powder away, towards the elementary school - it wasn't going to be good anywhere, but with no one there for the moment, it was safer than casting it over the houses and hoping for the best. I hope it breaks down on its own, though…

Down below, things were faring rather differently. Veedramon's V-Nova Blast surged out of his mouth, with Burnreptimon leaping forward and taking the brunt of it to keep it from doing any collateral damage. He barreled forward through the fiery attack to sock Veedramon in the jaw, interrupting the attack and making the dragon stagger. He followed that up with a Pyre Rush that enveloped Veedramon, but then got played by his own game - Veedramon surged through the fire and delivered a Hammer Punch to Burnreptimon's chest that sent him flying backwards and tumbling over the ground. He was slow to rise, winded from the impact - that had hit pretty directly.

Veedramon didn't follow up, though, staying back and giving Andrexmon an opening. "Dino Buster!" Veedramon roared out as he was pelted with the powerful pellets, his hide getting pockmarked with impact marks. A half-dozen of these got through before he counter-attacked, slashing his claws forward to activate his Cutter Shoot, the blades flying directly at Andrexmon and hitting square - he blocked with his arms, but got a few gashes for his trouble. That wasn't the real problem, though - the real problem was the V-Nova Blast Veedramon was about to unleash in his direction, and he wasn't nearly as heat-resistant.

"Blasting Darkness!" From the bushes behind the skirmish, a dark mass flew out, striking Veedramon in the back of the head and exploding outwards, making the dragon stumble and stagger forward, cutting off the attack before it could be fired out. He wheeled around and unleashed another wave of Cutter Shoot into the foliage, sending leaves flying. A loud "Yeowch!" rang out from there, and Darkvargmon appeared next to Andrexmon, holding his shoulder. "Well, THAT was unpleasant."

"There's ANOTHER one of you?" Veedramon exclaimed, sounding panicked again. "How the hell many of you guys are there?"

"Does he seem…off to you?" Andrexmon rumbled as quietly as he could.

Darkvargmon nodded. "Something about his behavior strikes me as unusual…he's been oddly defensive, as opposed to his comrade's bloodthirst."

"Ain't gonna help him much…but he's still just as dangerous if he's hitting us with that stuff. We need to down him, pronto."

"Agreed. We should-AGH!" Darkvargmon slammed his hands over his ears as that screech rang out again, Veedramon doing the same while Andrexmon tuned down his audio reception. At least it was mutually disruptive…

Skydramon and Boltfalkemon weren't enjoying it any more than the rest, especially not the way things were going. The poison had slowed them down, making it easier for Flymon to get the edge, and she was firing her Deadly Sting at them while trying to distract them with her sonic screech. And it was working, the two were able to evade the shots but not orient themselves well enough for a counterattack, especially not with Flymon flitting around quite quickly…despite having the numbers advantage, Boltfalkemon and Skydramon were feeling a bit on their heels.

Finally, Boltfalkemon had had enough and took a chance. She sighted Flymon and surged forward with her Static Cracker. She saw Flymon launch out her Deadly Sting, but she couldn't take the chance of dodging and prolonging that noise any longer…she batted the stinger away with a forearm, but she felt that point graze her, the noxious toxin certainly at least getting into her a bit. It worked, though - Flymon didn't have time to avoid her, and she collided with her and let loose a powerful shock, stopping the drone once again. She had to retreat after that, though, feeling woozy and her right arm feeling numb and unpleasantly tingly.

"Bolty! Are you okay?" Skydramon asked anxiously, swooping up to her.

"I've been better…I'm not out of it yet, but we can't keep doing this…we need to double-team her."

"Right! You draw her attention, I'll go in for the kill!"

"Okay, but make it quick." Boltfalkemon flapped forward, sending a Spark Wave at Flymon, who avoided it while Skydramon took off away from the two of them. She hoped Skydramon wasn't going to go too far trying to make himself scarce, she wasn't sure she had that much longer to hold out against Flymon with the way she was feeling from the attacks and the drone.

"Hah! Maybe you should've run away too, birdy!" Flymon fired more stingers at her, which she was easily able to avoid, but they were starting to get closer to her. "You never should have tried to stand up to a real digimon! You freaks are nothing more than pretenders!"

"Big words coming from flying vermin," shot back Boltfalkemon. "You're worse than those Roachmon we slaughtered, just a big disgusting bug that should end up on the underside of someone's shoe."

"Wh-what?!" Flymon's screech was far more genuinely offended than she had ever expected. "How DARE you sully my name by putting it below ROACHMON! Die painfully, bitch! Deadly Sting!"

Boltfalkemon was close enough now that evasion wouldn't be a guarantee…she steeled herself and pulled out her risky gambit. "Thunder Guard!" The arc of electricity flared to life a short ways in front of her, meeting the stingers head on, the two clashing with a bright surge…and she breathed a sigh of relief as hers won, the stinger vanishing and her wall holding. It would have been bad news if that hadn't worked…

"What?! Impossible! You can't best MY attacks!" Flymon readied another, but she never got it off - she had stayed in one place too long, and Skydramon was taking advantage, screaming past with his claws lit up. He slashed with all he had - not at Flymon's body, but at her wings, shredding them with brutal effectiveness. Flymon screeched loudly once more as she plunged towards the ground, but didn't get there as Skydramon swooped around and clawed behind her head with another Aero Nail, putting an end to the giant insect.

Veedramon's campaign was starting to fare poorly as well. He was able to recover from the loud buzzing only to find himself caught up in Darkvargmon's Nightmare Tangle, the tendrils lashing to him and holding him while Andrexmon fired off more Dino Buster shots. For a moment, he stopped struggling, and Andrexmon thought he had his shot and started charging up…but then, the dragon roared and pulled hard, breaking free of the Nightmare Tangle, tearing a couple of the tendrils apart as they vanished in wisps of darkness. Andrexmon heard Darkvargmon grunt as the tendrils receded. "You all right? Don't tell me that does damage to you…"

"No damage to me, but it certainly doesn't feel comfortable. And it does inhibit the attack…I don't think I'll be able to bind him again for you."

"Crud." Andrexmon canceled the charge, but fired off another couple of regular shots, knocking Veedramon back. He still seemed reluctant to charge in, despite Darkvargmon adding in a Shadow Wave…he just seemed to be blocking everything, or trying to, letting his arms bear the brunt of the shots, though they were starting to look pretty badly scorched.

None of them were paying attention to Burnreptimon. It had taken a bit for the reptile to shake off the hard punch to the torso, but he had, and he was pissed. Now back on his feet, he was seeing red, and the Veedramon was not ready for him. He blitzed behind the dragon while he was preoccupied with Andrexmon and Darkvargmon, then without warning leapt up and latched onto Veedramon's shoulder. "Flare Fang!" An anguished roar rattled the air as the blazing heat seared the dragon's shoulder, and Burnreptimon could taste a weird tang of blood mixed with charred flesh…it was oddly slightly less off-putting than the one he'd gotten from Ogremon, perhaps just by being less foul of a creature.

He didn't get to taste it for long, though, as Veedramon flailed around and sent him sprawling once again by banging him off with his elbow. Another rough blow, but not nearly as bad as the square punch, and Burnreptimon was up again more quickly this time. He didn't need to be, though - his distraction had proved effective, as Andrexmon had time to charge forward and deliver an Energy Claw to Veedramon's other arm, unleashing a bloody spray and getting another pained roar from the dragon. Darkvargmon finished things off by popping up in front of Veedramon and letting loose another Blasting Darkness, which was threw the off-kilter beast to the ground, heaving hard and leaking blood from several open wounds…right about the time Boltfalkemon and Skydramon came down from above, having dispatched Flymon.

"You two all right?" Andrexmon asked. "You look like you've been through the wringer, Bolt."

"I won't be unhappy to not have to face any of those again for a long time," Boltfalkemon said tiredly. "I'll live, though…wouldn't mind something to take the edge off this stupid poison, though."

"Looks like you guys handled this asshole all right," Skydramon huffed, readying his Aero Nail. "Want me to do the honors? It'll be quieter than your cannon."

"NO!" All five were startled by the sudden panicked shout from Veedramon, strained but desperate. "P-please, don't! I…I'm sorry! I won't do any more! J-just don't kill me, please!"

"It's a little late to be talking mercy," growled Andrexmon.

"I'm sorry! I…I didn't want to come here! She made me! She didn't give me a choice! I'll leave quietly, I promise!"

"It seems to me that you should have considered the consequences of your actions far before you were coerced into this in the first place," said Darkvargmon dangerously. "Considering the nature of your allegiances, mercy isn't something we're inclined to provide-"

"Enough." Burnreptimon interrupted Darkvargmon forcefully, causing them all to look over to him as he stepped over to Veedramon, trying to look more imposing than he felt - with the adrenaline abating, he was feeling the blows a bit more. Still, he got up close, smacking a hand down on Veedramon and looking at him with glinting eyes, making Veedramon cringe and withdraw a bit. "Explain."

"I…I didn't...she outranked me. She had…favor with Emperius more than I did…I didn't want to go with her, I just…I just wanted to get stronger! I didn't wanna invade some stupid other world! I don't care about humans, I just…I just want to go home!"

"…Can you?"

"U-huh?"

"Can you?" Burnreptimon hissed darkly. "Can you go home? Back to the digital world?"

"Y-yeh…I can…I…th-they gave me a charge…when I got through…I swear I'm telling the truth…"

"…Two conditions. You stay away from this world, and you stay away from Emperius. For GOOD. And if you don't, don't think we won't hunt you down and finish the job. Got it?" The cowed Veedramon nodded hurriedly, and Burnreptimon straightened himself up and pulled back. "Fine. Then go. And do something better with your life."

"Th…thank you…" Silence met that, and Veedramon didn't wait for more. His body started to glow, an odd light appearing in the air above him. Before their eyes, the dragon's form was enveloped and drawn in a spiraling fashion up around the light, a whooshing sound accompanying the disappearance. After every trace of Veedramon had been drawn up and into the aether, the light vanished, winking out with only a little puff of steam-like miasma dissipating into the air to indicate it had ever been there.

Dead silence lingered over them for a moment, before Darkvargmon broke the silence, turning towards Burnreptimon. "What the HELL, Burner?!"

"What the hell what?" the reptile replied back brusquely.

"Why did you do that?" Skydramon challenged, sounding angry. "You just let him go back to Emperius!"

"No, I let him go back to the digital world. I very much doubt he'll be back to Emperius."

"How can you be so sure?!"

"Skyder, easy!" Andrexmon growled. "I want to know what's going on, too, but yelling at him isn't the way to go about things!"

"Thanks, Rex." Burnreptimon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I did it for two reasons. The first was to see what he was going to do. You saw that, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Boltfalkemon said shakily. "He had a way to go back. Emperius…their PTM's more advanced than ours is. Even if that's the only new thing they can do with it yet, that's BIG. It means they've been working on it longer than we thought…"

"Among other things," agreed Burnreptimon. "Knowing that was kind of important. If he had been bluffing, then we would have had another question to deal with, but he wasn't. So now that we know that…I need you to all be with me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Darkvargmon.

"Emperius…they are an organization of uncompromising fanatics, bent on seizing power at any cost and insensitive to the idea of mercy or compassion unless it serves their personal benefit." Burnreptimon looked at each one of them. "I want us to make a pact, right now, that we won't be that way."

"I'm…not really sure I like what you're implying," Andrexmon rumbled, eying the lizard suspiciously.

"I'm sure you don't, but this is important. We're a very small, very desperate team against a force that's larger than any of us can easily conceive of. It would be all too easy for any of us to shut down against them, treat them as a shapeless, formless enemy, where our only goal is their utter destruction. But we can't let ourselves do that. As tempting as it would be, as much as we might feel like it's an onerous burden, we treat them like people, because they ARE people. And because the whole idea we're fighting against is that some people aren't worth being treated as people just because they decide it should be that way. And if we let ourselves fall into that, then we risk losing sight of what our real cause is - and put them at risk instead."

"I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but I hope you're not suggesting that we constantly look to be pulling our punches," said Darkvargmon stiffly. "That could end up putting us in far deeper danger than we can afford."

"Not at all," replied the lizard, shaking his head. "While they're fighting us, fight like your life depends on it, because it likely does. You're right, Wolf, we can't afford to be afraid to kill, and if we end up not getting the chance to show mercy, then that's the reality of our fight, and there's nothing we can do about it. But we have to be afraid to stop caring. Remember the Knight's Code that we all agreed to - our digimon halves, anyway. 'A disabled combatant should never be executed without a chance to repent.' If they still try to lash out even after we give them the chance, that's the choice they made, but if they choose to run, we make sure they get that chance."

"I get what you're saying…but…" Boltfalkemon's brow furrowed. "Back then, we had a lot more help, a lot more support…are you sure we can-"

"We can, and we will. Guys, I need you to remember what's going on here. Emperius has never been without its reluctant warriors. They've been forcing some digimon to fight with them for years, or be annihilated by them. They might have changed their tactics somewhat, but there's no way that's stopped entirely. And there may be others who are among them who've started to doubt…that happened a number of times back before their resurgence, you all know a few of our allies who used to be with them. I don't know what was the case with the Veedramon, but his heart wasn't in it, you could tell."

"You could?" asked Skydramon.

"…It wasn't exactly that hard to tell, really," Andrexmon said. "But I think I get it now. There are people we might fight against who aren't really the kinds of lunatics that make up the worst of them. Who were forced into it, or suckered into it, or might be rethinking things but can't safely escape. Giving them a chance to get out of this, it would be as much rescuing them as anyone else put at risk by Emperius. But if we just shut down our brains and blast them to smithereens…"

"…We risk committing the same atrocities." Darkvargmon sighed, rubbing his head. "Burner, it terrifically annoys me how much sense you're making. It complicates things enormously."

"Yeah, well, it's always harder when you're trying to be the good guys." Burnreptimon looked around at them. "If it helps at all, I think there's a good chance that the vast majority of those we let go won't be back with Emperius. Even for those who do still buy in, would you want to go back to a group like them and tell them that you couldn't cut it in the human world?"

"They DO tend to turn on people who show too much weakness," conceded Skydramon. "All right, all right. You've talked me into it. But if they try to fake me out, they're getting an Aero Nail to the throat."

"Of course. It's an offer, if they don't take it then it's withdrawn. We shouldn't have to get close to them to let them bail out, so don't let them get close enough to ambush you if you can help it."

"I can't argue with the logic," Andrexmon agreed. "I'll agree to this, it'll probably help me feel better about this whole mess anyway."

"Thinking about even getting in the same universe as Emperius's thinking gives me the creepy shivers," added Boltfalkemon. "We don't think like them, and we don't have to act like them. We can respect their lives and still drop them if they make us."

"I don't know that I'm as merciful as the rest of you, but for the sake of camaraderie, I'll do my best," rounded out Darkvargmon. "I suppose this means I should practice some more to make sure I get good at restraint, I feel there's a good chance it'll be needed."

"Thank you, everyone," Burnreptimon said with a nod. "We'll do this and do it as right as we can. We'll show Emperius we won't have to descend to their level to be strong. They think cruelty and callousness is a sign of being powerful…they're wrong. And they'll see it, whether they accept it or not."

"A bold statement, but perhaps we should rein in our confidence until we're in a better state."

"Guys?" Andrexmon stiffened up a bit. "There's a bunch of vehicles coming our way. We'd better split, literally and figuratively!"

"Right! Scatter everyone! We'll meet back up again soon!" The five warriors took off in different directions, leaving nothing but the signs of conflict in the field for the investigators. The next challenge for them, and they knew it, was managing this side of the equation - fighting Emperius, even under their newly-agreed terms, was straightforward enough, but how would they manage the pursuit of the ones who didn't even realize they were trying to protect them?

---

Ah, cheats for my sake. The shorthands are really just a convenient way for me to not have to write out these long names quite as many times (there is still quite a lot of that, believe me). But I think they also help a bit with consistency of conceptual identity, given that there's a decent bit of form shifting.

The setting for the meeting place was changed from the original, mainly because the more I thought about it the worse the original idea sounded. And it was also unsuitable for something else that's going to happen later. I made a nod to it, at least, but I'm happier with this.

The whole 'introduce yourselves' idea is a bit of a goofy sequence, but intentionally so. It's intended to give off the impression that they still don't really entirely know what to make of themselves, but they're doing their best given the circumstances. It's also a relatively concrete way to establish the characters a bit more, as apart from Darkvargmon, their styles stay pretty static even with changed forms.

The goofiness earlier in the chapter…that was just me enjoying myself a bit too much. Honestly, character interplay is easily my favorite part of writing, and this was an opportunity to have so much more of it. And I guarantee this won't be the last time you see idiom idiocy.