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.

9. Chapter 9: Attack Of The Swarm

Same idea as before, but a couple of new faces. Mostly for the purpose of having a few more interactions. Also, mind that there is some fairly bloody combat, and that's not going to be the last time.

---

Chapter 9 - Attack Of The Swarm

—

"All set?"

"Ready when you are."

"Right, I'm activating the receiver now. Let me know if you see anything."

"…Hah! Wicked! I can see everything!"

Isaac grinned and gave Datacarnomon a fist bump. "I knew it! And people just throw away these old satellite dishes like they were nothing!"

"Well, they don't have a handy-dandy digimon to take advantage of them, do they? Hang on, let me see if I can get the display on your monitor…" After a few seconds, Isaac's screen flashed and showed a large, basic topographical map. It was hard to know exactly what the extent was, but it was a range far larger than anything even Andrexmon had natively. "Bingo. You should be able to see what I look at when I try to do long-range detection."

"You've got this good of a map already?"

"I downloaded one off of your internet, and analyzed another mapping tool for some additional information. Figured I'd need something to help give me a head start…huh?"

"What's up?" Isaac looked at the screen, then at Datacarnomon. "I don't see anything."

"Uh…keep your eyes fixed in this spot here." Datacarnomon pointed to a spot on the screen.

"Huh…that's near our high school. Oh, hey, isn't that the Trine Nature Walk?" Isaac watched the area carefully, but it seemed to be completely blank…until suddenly, after about a minute, he saw a red blip appear, briefly, and then disappear. "What the heck is that?"

"I'm not sure. I've got the detector flag to pop up anything digimon, so I couldn't narrow it down. But those signals SHOULD be static, not appearing and disappearing. It's possible that the set-up's wonky, but…I don't think that's the case. Which has me wondering what the case is."

"Possible false positive?"

"I'm not sure what would cause that. But I can't rule it out. Still, I think we're going to need to investigate."

"Hm. We're going to need to check it out. I'll have to ring up the others, and-"

"Isaac!" Isaac flinched as he heard the call of his mother Lilith's voice. "We're leaving in half an hour! Make sure you're ready!"

"Oh, crud, I forgot…" Isaac let out a sigh. "Of course, that stupid play."

"That's not cancelled like everything else?" asked Datacarnomon.

"It's an hour away, there's no monster attacks outside of Braun yet so other places are pretty much keeping on keeping on. Guess we're gonna have to fob this off on someone else."

"Maybe I can go with them instead?" suggested Datacarnomon. "I mean, I'm not gonna be much use sitting back here and doing nothing. And with the improvements I've made to my cloaking device programming, I should be at less risk of being caught now."

"Yeah…it's early enough that I think we could still buzz Derek. Reyn's probably still asleep, he loves lounging around in the mornings. Hopefully he's not caught up with anything…"

—

I cannot profess significant comfort in such immediate activities as you're proposing, considering the difficulties we encountered during the previous nocturnal period.

Yeah, but we still have to keep our eyes out for enemies. And Shockavimon and Breezedramon are relatively safer than some of us. Maybe Isaac'll figure his thing out soon, but until he does…

Understanding is more copious than confidence, is merely my contribution. It certainly is a substandard situation to be ensnared within.

Derek gave a shrug. Can't deny that, but this has been an issue since the start. Life goes on even if we have this on our plates, and since we're trying to play the role of secret guardians, we have to keep up the image. I'm just dreading when they start sending more at us, at some point this is gonna be blown all the way open… Derek heard a knock at the door, and suppressed a groan. Probably Dad. Act doggish.

Blackcanismon dropped his head onto the bedclothes and pretended to be trying to sleep as Elliot walked in. He always felt nervous around the man, perhaps partly because of how tense it got between him and Derek…something about Elliot just put him off, and he wasn't sure what, but he figured his instincts were on point. And it didn't help that the first thing out of Elliot's mouth was "Are you sure that animal should be on the furniture?"

"It's fine, Dad. Shadow doesn't really shed that much, and he's well-behaved enough."

"Hm, I suppose you're right…at least about the second part." Elliot sat down and stroked Blackcanismon's fur, the digimon attempting to play the role of base canine and push into the petting despite his misgivings. "I don't think I've ever seen a dog so quiet and well-behaved. You still haven't found the owner?"

"No. I've been looking all over for Lost Dog signs, but the only ones I've seen are ones that don't fit his description. But they have to be around here somewhere." Derek was starting to regret this angle of the ruse - it was only going to start to look suspicious over time - but it was too late to try to change the story now.

"Well, don't stop looking, I'm sure they want him back." Elliot looked over at Derek with a frown. "But…on that note. Are you sure you should be taking Shadow out on walks with you at night like you are? It's dangerous out there at night, and if he gets hurt…"

Derek tightened a bit; of course, just about everything was an angle towards reining in his night activities. Even though theoretically Elliot had a point, Derek doubted his concern was so much for the dog's safety as it was getting his way. "I've got to get him exercise somehow. We're staying to places I know are safe."

"Nowhere out there is safe, Derek. We just had an encounter last night with some…frightening creatures."

"Okay, Dad. If you did, you did. But answer me this: how many of those creatures showed up during the broad daylight?"

Elliot had to pause at that one. "…Well. I guess…"

"You've talked about at least four instances, I've heard you. It sounds to me like there's no perfectly safe time to be out, so as long as I'm being vigilant and keeping my distance, it shouldn't matter when I walk Shadow, right?"

The look on Elliot's face told Derek he had a victory once again, at least on that angle. "Well, that only makes me wonder if you should be going out at all, really. Your mother's worried about you, too."

Yeah, and I'm sure you care oh so much about that and not about trying to coerce me into 'your' schedule. "The monsters haven't attacked any people yet - we'd've heard about it if they had. And they've been showing up since, what, the 5th? And I haven't run into any of them out there."

Elliot gave him a strange look. "You mean the 7th?"

Now he was kicking himself, Derek knew he'd slipped, and he knew his dad wouldn't let that go, even if he acted like it. He just had to try to recover. "I mean…that thing in the sky happened in the 5th, right? Or maybe super late on the 4th. But that has to be related, doesn't it? You can't tell me those were just coincidences."

"I see…I don't think we've proven a connection yet, but I can't imagine it would be a likely coincidence. Regardless, though, it only takes one bad encounter for things to go terribly wrong. I'd hate to see you or this adorable animal hurt because you thought you could push your luck further than you really could."

Quite the dramatic performance, he delivers, snarked Blackcanismon through the mental link.

You can say that again. "Look, Dad, I'm not gonna be stupid. If things start to change, then I'll be hunkering down as fast as anyone. But you're always saying you aren't going to live your life too afraid of everything to do anything…I don't think I should have to, either."

"…I suppose I do say that. But this isn't just 'everything.' This is a very particular something that…I don't even know what it is, really. But I know it's bad news. And if it wasn't for the fact that I'm trying to help everyone by going out and doing my job, even I'd be staying out of this one."

If only you knew. "Then let me help be another pair of eyes. If I see something, I can let you know about it. That'll help you get closer to the truth, right? And if things get dicey, I won't go pushing my luck."

"I suppose that's the best compromise I can hope for." Elliot rose up. "Keep on eye on your mother for me…I have the feeling I'll be working rather long over these coming days, and I know she worries about both of us."

"Gotcha, dad. See you later."

"…You too, Derek." Elliot finally stepped out, shutting the door behind him. Derek slumped back and let out a long sigh. Another day, another attempted guilt trip.

You disbelieve his concern regarding your protection?

He does this all the time. Tries to say he's worried about me, but really just wants me to conform. Every time I suggest something that would let me still be me, he doesn't accept it…a couple times I've suggested doing exactly what he wants, and you see the look on his face like he's sure he's gotten me to play ball, and it annoys the hell out of me. Derek drew in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. Still…I wonder if we should try to tell him about all of this. If he listened, he could get the heat off of us…

My personal opinion is towards the negatory in that regard, Blackcanismon stated firmly. I cannot profess a great degree of trustworthiness towards his attitudes.

Yeah, that's my fear, too. If he doesn't believe us… Derek wasn't sure what would happen from there, but couldn't imagine it being good. But he didn't have to think on it too much longer, as his cell phone started to ring. He snatched it up and turned it on. "Isaac? What's up? …Oh. Well, you're probably not going to like what I have to say, then…"

—

Elliot closed the door and started down the stairs, his mind racing with suspicions. He knew something was up with Derek, even if not specifically what. It was impossible to get things out of him sometimes, he always remained so standoffish and cool towards Elliot. Something he would chalk up to teen angst if it hadn't been ongoing since well before he was a teenager.

But what Derek had said about the timeline...Elliot knew the sky anomaly was involved, even if there was no discernible connection he wasn't at all going to chalk it up to mere coincidence. But despite this, there hadn't been any confirmed discoveries of monsters before Monday. Sure, there was one suspicious incident on Sunday, but no monsters had been found there and no one was sure exactly what the story was. That Derek would point to Saturday when no one else was aware of it...and he also recalled that Derek said he had found the dog Saturday evening. A dog from apparently nowhere with peculiar behavior...

He shook his head. Too many suspicions, but he had to either get Derek on his side before he acted or trap him more conclusively in the lie, otherwise there was likely to be trouble. And he'd dealt with enough trouble with his son over the years to want to invite more at such a critical juncture.

Looking down idly, he noticed a number of stray hairs on his pant leg. Hm...must have been left there by the dog...so much for not shedding...

And then an idea struck him. He went downstairs, got a piece of masking tape, and pulled some of the hairs off of his leg with it. He looked carefully at the hairs; it had been a long time since his days in a biology lab, but he was fairly sure that they could get DNA from some of them, if there was DNA to be gotten. Maybe I can't figure out where this dog came from...but I wonder if Rudy could, he thought as he finally left for work.

—

If there was one thing Reyn hated in the mornings, it was being woken up before he was ready. So the ringing of his cell phone jarring him out of sleep was not something he was enjoying in the slightest. Sleepily he pawed for it on his nightstand, ignoring the sounds of grunting and puffing from Salmandmon as the lizard was killing time yet again waiting for him to get up. "Isaac, this had better be good, or your remaining hours will be nasty and short."

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," came the glib reply. "Listen, it's not good, but it needs attention all the same. Data and I have been working on a digimon detection system, using a satellite dish to expand our detection range. We think it's working, but there's a weird signal up by our high school. You know the Trine Nature Walk? That's where they were showing up. It needs to be checked out so we can verify what's going on and see if it's a faulty signal or if something's actually there."

"…Great. Were you looking for my permission or something? Don't you get enough of that from your dad?"

"Har de har. Listen, I need you to take Datacarnomon up there. Dad's dragging me somewhere today, and no, I can't get out of it."

Reyn groaned. "Of course. Heaven forbid we be able to save the entire damn world on our own time. You couldn't have asked Derek? I'm sure he's up right now, and probably eager to have a reason to be out of the house."

"I did. He's going to be joining you with Breezedramon and Shockavimon."

Reyn blinked, then sat up. "Seriously? The hell's going on?"

"Apparently Skylar's dad is taking him to a birthday thing for his aunt. And Iris got into a row with her dad, he's been really pushing her to stay inside and it apparently got really heated. Long and short of it is that she's not going anywhere today."

"Gah…I guess we'd better hope it's nothing too serious. All right, I guess there's no helping it. I'll be on my way soon as I can."

"Thanks! Data'll be heading out in a minute here, I'll text you where he can meet you. You're probably gonna have to walk it, though."

"Well, at least I don't have anything else to do today. Bye, Isaac." Reyn hung up the phone, groaned, and pulled himself out of bed, scowling at the minute reptile doing sit-ups near his bed. "Do you ever turn off?"

"You might wanna try it, you'll probably be able to wake up more easily," countered Salmandmon, not breaking stride. "I gotta kill time somehow waiting for you to get going! Maybe I should set up more of those calls, that seemed to get your butt in gear in a hurry."

"Do that and you'll find out just how much I don't like getting my sleep messed with. I assume you were paying attention?"

"Much as I could be, only hearing one side of the conversation." Salmandmon finally stopped his sit-ups and stretched as he stood. "Guessing we're being asked to do some hunting?"

"Possible something near our high school. Except Derek and I are the only ones who're gonna be available…your whole gang's apparently getting our full attention today, lucky us."

"Oh, that's actually pretty convenient. I've been wanting to have a chat with them anyway. Just among us mons, if you can avoid feeling too devastated."

Reyn snorted. "I'm so wounded. Trying to keep secrets from us?"

"Nah, just stuff that wouldn't be relevant to you. Has to do with stuff back before we came here…just some things I've been thinking about recently, and want to run by them. So I'm hoping after we're done checking out whatever we're checking out, we can stick around."

"As long as you don't make too much noise and call everyone's attention to us, sure, probably."

As soon as Reyn got dressed, the two were on their way downstairs. Just as they reached the bottom, though, they could see Minerva standing up from the kitchen table to meet them. Uh-oh…I have a feeling I know what's coming, Reyn pathed to Salmandmon.

Yeah, even I know that look. "Hey, Mrs. Kessilik, what's up?"

"Are you two planning on heading out?" Minerva said it in a way that she already knew what the answer was, so there was no point in trying to pretend otherwise.

Reyn nodded. "Yeah, we were…is something wrong?"

"Well, it's just…are you sure you have to go out today?"

"What's this about all of a sudden?"

"Reyn…I know you're a pretty responsible young man, but…things feel like they're getting crazier out there. I've heard rumors that there's been more sightings of those digimon creatures around…and given what your friend there told us about them, it's got me worried about you going off on your own all the time. I'm worried that you're going to get yourself hurt."

Think you can talk your way outta that one? cracked Salmandmon through their mental connection.

You're not helping. "Mom, I know things are a bit nuts out there, but I'm not being careless. We're staying away from anything that looks suspicious. Besides, there haven't been that many outright attacks on people."

"I know, but just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it's not going to. And Salmandmon…I thought I remembered you saying you were trying to keep a low profile, but you've been going out day after day. Honestly, strange as it sounds, I'm a little worried about you, too. I don't know what would happen if the wrong person saw you."

Your turn, snarked Reyn.

Jeez, your mom knows how to turn the screws, huh? "I appreciate the concern, Mrs. Kessilik. I just, you know…I'm not used to sitting inside cooped up all the time. I need to get out and stretch my legs. But I find it just as important as you do that Reyn stays safe, and the last thing I want is for him to be attacked by anything, so I'm trying to be as vigilant as possible for his sake."

"Well…I do appreciate that." Minerva sighed a bit. "I don't suppose it's going to change your mind much, though…"

"We'll be careful, Mom," Reyn assured her. "We won't be outside the whole time anyway, we're just going over to Isaac's place. He's got some more welding that he wants help with."

"Oh? Hmhm…you know, most mothers would be more concerned rather than less when they heard that their little boy was playing with some pretty intense fire. But I suppose most mothers don't have a fireproof child." Minerva gave them a strained smile. "Well, just be sure to keep yourselves safe, no matter what you're doing."

"Promise we'll do our best, Mom."

"I'll keep a good eye out for him, ma'am."

"Thank you. Well, I guess I shouldn't keep you then." She sat back down at the table, and Reyn and Salmandmon took that as their opening to escape. Though, neither one felt particularly good about it as they headed out. Well, that sucked. I hate lying to her… Reyn pathed glumly to Salmandmon. She's already stressed out because of work, feels like I'm just piling it on now.

It doesn't feel good trying to play innocent to her, no. But would you want to tell her the truth instead?

That would just make it worse. At least this way she doesn't think we're putting ourselves in deliberate trouble.

—

Back inside, Treylor popped his head into the kitchen. "Did I just hear them leave?"

"You did," replied Minerva with a sigh. "I said my piece, but I didn't really expect it to change anything…you were right, they were pretty intent on getting out there. He said he was going to a friend's house to help him out…part of me wants to believe it."

"I had a feeling." Treylor took a seat at the table himself, taking a deep drink of his coffee. "But we both know it's not true, right?"

"No…not after what Salmandmon told us about what was happening over there and how it was starting to overflow into our world. I don't want to believe that they're off doing dangerous things, but…whatever creatures are getting over here are being stopped somehow. And I don't know how it can't be involving them in some way, more than they say it is…" Minerva shook her head. "And part of me isn't sure I want to really know the whole story."

"No, I get that for sure. I'd like to be able to step up and say 'stop putting yourself at risk, whatever you're doing is too much for someone your age.' If I thought it would help, maybe…but he's already been sneaking out here and there anyway, I doubt we could stop him even if we tried. Whatever he's doing, he's really determined to see it through."

"…Why does it have to be him? It feels like he's being asked to carry a burden that should be on someone else."

"I don't know. There must be a reason, but if I knew what it was…" Treylor gave a slight shrug. "But whatever it is, it seems to be doing the trick…there hasn't been another one as bad as that big bird since. And that's the other problem, isn't it? We tell him to stop, and there's no one else taking up that mantle."

"I know that…it just stresses me out more, though. It feels like it could all go horribly wrong in a moment…and if it does, then…"

"We have to trust him, dear." Treylor scooted over and put his hands on hers. "He's a smart kid, he's never been reckless. Whatever he's doing, he wouldn't be doing it if he didn't think he could. And Salmandmon, he may be small but he's a tough little guy, and you can tell how deeply he cares for Reyn. I think he's just as determined to keep them safe."

"Maybe…mm…this wasn't really what I had in mind when I said, all those years ago, that I hoped my shy, sad little boy would grow into himself someday. I suppose all we can do is be there for him, huh?"

"Right. When he needs us, we can do what we can, and hope that it's enough."

—

The roads were eerily deserted for the time of day, a function of just how different things were thanks to the monster attacks. In a way, it was helpful for Reyn and Salmandmon, who didn't have to be quite as hidden as normal, though Salmandmon was still screening himself here and there when they were more exposed. It also meant they could talk like normal rather than just through their mental connection, something they were still getting used to.

"Why the sudden interest in my hands?"

"Well, because I want to know a bit more about how you climb walls. Plus, I think Burnreptimon has the same qualities, so I kinda want to know more."

Salmandmon shrugged. "I'm not really sure how I do it, to be honest. I just know I can. My fingers and toes are just nice and clingy when I want them to be, is all."

"Well, I was asking Skylar about it, and he started going off on a huge tangent about spatulas and wall forces and things like that, and I stopped being able to follow him. But the gist of it was that I wondered if it was like how our geckos do it or something. Can I see them? Your hands, I mean."

Salmandmon gave him an odd look, but said "Sure, I guess…not sure you'll see that much, but I don't suppose it can hurt at all." He held out his hands palms up, showing the somewhat furrowed and layered skin on his fingers, which he could flex out and flatten at will - when flattened, he couldn't climb, but he had better dexterity with objects he held. Reyn ran a finger over them curiously, and Salmandmon twitched. "Hey, that tickles."

"Sorry. It's pretty neat, though. I'm not sure how much I buy what Sky was saying, he was talking about teeny tiny hairs and stuff. I don't see any, but maybe they're just so small I can't?"

"Tiny hairs? Really? I don't think that could hold me up."

"Well, who knows, but Sky doesn't usually start talking about stuff like this unless he knows it's true. He's kind of an uber-nerd, if you haven't already guessed."

"I think I caught on to that one," chuckled Salmandmon. "Seems so weird that he and Breezy are a pair, Breezy gets so bored trying to read anything. Well, maybe we can talk with him about it sometime, see if he can explain it better. I think you're right about Burnreptimon having the same thing, though, but I'm not sure it matters much here, we can pretty much jump on anything if we need to get up higher."

"I'd rather NOT be jumping around too much, thanks."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because what goes up must come down, and the feeling of coming down uncontrolled is NOT comfortable to me," stated Reyn with a grimace.

Salmandmon cocked his head. "Really? You're afraid of heights?"

"No, I'm afraid of FALLING. There's a difference. Heights just tend to happen to be where most falling happens from. But I figure if we're climbing down something, it's probably a lot more comfortable than just dropping down."

"If you say so…but I think it's gonna be Burnreptimon's call, not yours."

"Joy…oh, yeah, that reminds me of another thing I remember from Burnreptimon. Does he have, like, another eyelid?"

"Well, yeah, of course he does. Why wouldn't he?"

Reyn gave Salmandmon a strange look. "You, uh…you think everyone has two eyelids, there, buddy?"

Salmandmon did a bit of a double-take. "Huh? You mean other people only have one?"

"Yeah. I mean, humans for sure, I can't speak for digimon but I know humans and most other animals only have one. There's a few animals out there with two, but they're way in the minority."

"That's so weird. How do you keep smoke and ash and stuff from getting into your eyes without closing them?"

The human snickered. "That's kind of a 'you' problem more than anything, Sal. Most of us aren't constantly creating fire from our bodies."

"…Huh. It never really occurred to me…I guess maybe lots of other digimon might not have them if that's the case. I just kind of assumed it was just universal."

"You know what they about assuming, Sal." Both Reyn and Salmandmon jumped a bit at the voice behind them, whipping around to see no one there until Datacarnomon dropped his cloaking with a snicker. "Also, you two are about as conspicuous as it gets out here. Didja forget you could put up a smokescreen, Sal?"

"Not funny, Data! Don't spook me like that!" hissed Salmandmon.

"Hey, if you're not being careful, it's what you get-whoop! Humans coming!" Datacarnomon vanished again, and Salmandmon quickly put up his smoke screen and got up against the fence of the house they were near - not a moment too soon, as a couple of twenty-something girls turned the corner and walked towards them, yakking away between each other and paying Reyn no mind as they passed. Reyn waited until they turned again and were out of sight before giving the signal that all was clear, allowing the digimon to come out again. "Phew…yeah, that's why you can't be too careful."

"I guess there are still some people out here not bothered by the threat of a monster attack," sighed Reyn.

"I don't know if they're bold or stupid," remarked Salmandmon tersely. "Maybe both. You'd think they'd at least carry something around to defend themselves with. And you just know they're also the ones who don't appreciate everything we're going through just to keep them alive."

"Easy, there, hothead," Datacarnomon chided. "Maybe don't invent more enemies than we already have, particularly out of the people we're trying to protect."

"Mmph. Yeah, I know, just annoys me."

"To be fair, I'm not exactly armed, either," Reyn pointed out.

"You've got me. Though you could stand to work on the 'carrying around' part."

"Yeah, dream on, buddy. Maybe stop wearing yourself out every morning, you won't need to be."

"Oh, how bad is he these days?" asked Datacarnomon knowingly. "Little gym nut was always overdoing it waiting for us to all get going in the mornings back with the KOL."

Sal stuck out his tongue at the robot. "It's not my fault you all are slow as hell! I've gotta do something waiting for you!"

"Yeah, yeah. C'mon, let's get going, from what I hear this is gonna take long enough as it is."

—

"I know this is weird to say, but I really wish I could be out there rather than where I'm going."

Breezedramon snickered. "I thought you didn't like danger!"

Skylar shook his head. "I don't, but I like it less when I can't do anything about it, I'm finding. Fine time for a birthday party…I don't know why I have to be there, I know it's Mom's sister but you'd think her going would be enough."

"Aw, I think you should see her! You should value these moments while you can! 'Cuz things can get crazy in an instant."

"Yeah, I guess…you gonna be okay out there on your own, Breezedramon?"

"I'll be fine, Sky! Maybe I don't know the city very well, but it can't be that hard to find them, especially from above!"

Skylar nodded, adjusting his glasses as he did. "I hope not. There shouldn't be too many people out there as it is. I just wish I could go with, but I doubt there's anything I could say to get Dad to let me out of this."

Breezedramon shrugged dismissively. "It's okay! I think it's good practice anyway, we should be learning how to do what we can when things are inconbanivantentinent. I should be scouting more as it is!"

"I worry about you scouting out there on your own. You'd be fine if the other digimon were on the ground, but if they're in the air, they're gonna be coming after you, and there's not a lot of places to hide up there."

"Well…maybe. But I'm fast and tricky! I could get away!"

"All the same, let's-" Skylar clammed up as he heard footsteps. Make like a toy, Breezedramon!

Instantly Breezedramon slumped over and acted like a doll, just in time as the door opened and Kirsten, Skylar's sister, entered inside. "Skylar! Dad's getting impatient, he says he wanted to be on the road five minutes ago. What's the hold-up?"

"I'm just about ready, Kirsten. And haven't I told you not to barge into my room?"

"Yeah, well, Dad's wants outdo yours right now. Who were you talking to in here?"

"I was on the phone, and it's none of your business." Skylar snatched said phone off his desk and shoved it into his pocket. "Right, let's get this over with."

"You could stand not to be a pill about it. Aunt Gracie hasn't seen us in months, and she's been worried about Mom since this stuff started."

"It's not her…I'm just annoyed that Dad's still trying to act like everything's normal out there. It's not, and he knows it."

Kirsten sighed at that. "Honestly, this time I can't blame him. Lord knows I'd rather believe that myself…maybe just getting away for a bit will be good for us, help us think it really is all normal for a bit before we have to come back to the idea of freaking giant monsters invading the city."

Maybe for YOU it will… thought Skylar grimly. "I still don't see why a call over the computer wouldn't accomplish the same thing of reassuring her."

"C'mon, Skylar, it's not going to kill you to have face-to-face contact with family. Besides, you never know when they're going to poof into thin air, or maybe just not exist at all."

The white-haired boy rolled his eyes. "Are you still on that? You not being able to find anything for your genealogy project doesn't mean Dad's family doesn't exist. You probably just did something wrong."

"You always say that," replied Kirsten with obvious asperity.

"Yes, but this time I actually mean it. He can't have spawned out of the aether, that was proven to be hokum centuries ago. And even if they all died in some horrible accident there'd still be a record of them having existed. The most likely explanation is user error."

"Yeah, well, I went over everything I could and everything I did worked just fine for Mom's side. So you tell me where the error is."

"Right now, the error is in getting into a small vehicle that would easily be dwarfed by one of those monsters." Skylar passed by Kirsten as he exited his room, rubbing his head. "I can't imagine a place I'd rather be in less, if something DID happen, than trapped inside a car."

"Well, you can tell Dad that yourself, I'm sure he'll be totally receptive to it." No response from Skylar as he headed down the stairs. Kirsten took one last look inside his room, eyeing the bed. The blue dragon was on it, laying as still as possible. She gazed at it a few more seconds, then shut the door.

…How in the world did he ever get away with saying that was a stuffed animal? It doesn't even look remotely like one. I don't know what the hell Skylar's up to, but I sure hope he knows what he's doing…it is kinda cute, though. I guess as long as it isn't causing any trouble, no point in saying anything about it…for now.

—

"Are you sure you're okay with this, Iris?" Shockavimon almost hated to even ask about it, given how testy Iris was at the moment; she hadn't seen her partner in this kind of mood since she'd gotten here.

"Not really, but how I feel isn't changing anything right now." Iris pushed herself up to a sitting position on her bed, scowling at nothing in particular. "Don't blame yourself, though, this was bound to happen sooner or later. I wish he'd stop treating me like I was made of glass or something…"

"I don't think there's anything malicious about it…"

"There's not, but that doesn't make it easier. He's ALWAYS like this. Mom, too, but not as bad as Dad. I know he loves me and cares for me, but he's too stifling! I remember a few years back when I wanted to try out soccer, and he kept grinding at me until I gave up on it because he was too afraid of me getting hurt. And he does that with almost every new interest I have unless there's virtually no way for me to get hurt by it…the only thing he doesn't bug me about anymore is the electricity thing, and that's only because he figured out that somehow it didn't actually do anything to me."

"I mean…to be fair…you ARE going out and facing life-or-death combat. Not that he knows that, but still…"

"Yeah, I know." Iris let out a sigh and a quiet, wry laugh. "Never thought I'd see the day where I was pissed off about NOT being able to put myself directly in harm's way. But when the stakes are this high…I don't know. Maybe we SHOULD tell him, even if Reyn thinks it's a bad idea."

Shockvaimon winced at the suggestion, but tried not to let it show. "It's your decision, Iris…he's your father. But if my advice means anything, I don't think it would have the effect you'd be hoping for."

"Hnnn…yeah, you're probably right. I just don't know what I can do to keep him off my back so that we can do this thing that we need to do. All this secrecy is getting more and more troublesome…I can't help but think about all the disasters that could happen just because I couldn't get out from Dad's cage."

"I get that for sure. We pretty much never had to do anything like this at the KOL, we'd sometimes need to use stealth but not to this degree. Emperius certainly wasn't subtle about the way they did things…not until the end, anyway. I'm not used to all this having to fly around under cover either. But as long as we can afford to do that, it's a good thing…I'm more dreading the day when Emperius decides to escalate, and secrecy stops being a luxury we can afford. I really wish something was getting through to your people…every day we don't hear anything back is another day lost in preparation."

"A ticking time bomb with no visible timer…" Iris shook her head, closing her eyes tight. "It's stressing me out even thinking about it. Almost makes me wish we could spend more time as Boltfalkemon, at least then we're taking action…oh…I'm keeping you, aren't I?"

"I can catch up if I have to."

"No, go ahead and get on out there. Talking here isn't going to do much for either of us at the moment." Iris managed to give a slight smile to Shockavimon. "One of us shouldn't have to feel cooped up, at least. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine…just gonna blow off some steam until I can get out of the house again."

"All right. I'll see you when I get back, hopefully with nothing new to report." Shockavimon took off out the window, cloaking herself as best she could. Iris laid back down on her bed, sighing deeply. I wouldn't feel so bothered by this if there was something more I could do while being stuck here…never thought I'd be envying Isaac.

—

"Jeez…why do some of these houses have huge walls around them?" asked Salmandmon as they approached their rendezvous point with Derek. He and Blackcanismon were already in sight, in the shadow of a large fence around one corner yard. "What are they trying to keep out?"

"Might be what they're trying to keep in," remarked Reyn. "Maybe some of them have dogs or kids they don't want running into the road or something. But they probably don't mind keeping out other people either."

"Defensive perimeters aren't that uncommon where we come from, but they're usually limited to combat organizations, not regular folk," remarked Datacarnomon from behind them, though at the moment it seemed more like a disembodied voice than anything. "But I suppose when your people don't have the natural abilities we do, you use other means of protecting yourself."

"I can't imagine a fence like that would stop many digimon anyway." One more street crossing and they were able to meet up with Derek and Blackcanismon. "Good to see one more of us made it out here. Whatever's out there had better not be much trouble or we're gonna be the ones in trouble."

"It would be nice if we had more details, but apparently the capacity for threat detection only goes so far," replied Derek coolly.

"Hey!" Everyone jumped at Datacarnomon's protest, mainly because they couldn't see him. "I'm doing the best I can! You rather I try to apply hundreds of different pins trying to find the exact one that matches? You think we've got hours each time?"

"Kindly refrain from exuberant outbursts under the influence of invisibility!" growled Blackcanismon.

"Oh, right, sorry…though, you're one to talk, mister 'I'ma pop up and scare my allies randomly.'" Datacarnomon dropped the cloak, ignoring the looks he was getting. "But yeah, I can't waste a ton of time trying to pull from databases trying to identify exactly what type of creature wants to kill us on this specific day. I can't just run a list, changing the pin on a sensor map is pretty time consuming, it has to re-register the signals every time. And this one might not even be real for all I know, with how weird it was behaving."

"I guess not everything can be convenient," remarked Salmandmon. "I thought we were supposed to have everyone out here, though, I don't see our two aerial allies anywhere."

"They should be here any moment…I think I might see Shockavimon, or what's supposed to be her stealth thing." Derek pointed to the sky, where a not-too-subtle wavering of space was moving their direction. "What in the world is that?"

"It's supposed to be some kind of light-bending technique," explained Datacarnomon. "Since light's electromagnetic waves, she figured she'd be able to pick up on it. I think she still needs more practice with it, but honestly it looks better than it used to."

"So does your cloaking, for that matter," pointed out Salmandmon. "It doesn't look like you're having much trouble hiding at all."

"I had some time to work on optimization. I think we're starting to get the idea of tapping into this world's digital infrastructure, at least as far as mechanical beings go. Interfacing is a lot simpler than I anticipated. Doesn't hurt that Ike's a genius, either."

"Sorry to keep you guys!" Shockavimon flapped down, panting a bit. "Iris was kinda upset she couldn't come out with us, I needed to make sure she was doing all right. Wait, are we still missing someone?"

"Gangway!" Reyn had to suddenly scramble out of the way as Breezedramon swooped in far too quickly, flapping hard to try to slow himself down before he overshot the entire city block. "Sorry! I overencompterasterated trying to catch up!"

"Well, this is off to a great start already," cracked Reyn. "Nothing suspicious about the two of us walking for almost another hour towards the closed high school with a weird dog, a bunch of hard-to-see fog, and several odd light-bending things hovering around us, right?"

"I'm honestly shocked we haven't been found out already," droned Derek. "We really have to figure out some kind of plan to reveal ourselves on our own terms, because I doubt we have that much time left to do so."

"That'll be on the table the next time all of us are able to talk together. All right, let's get going…we've got a long trek, try to stay as inconspicuous as possible. And quiet, for that matter, even if they can't see you they could still hear you."

"What do you take us for?" giggled Shockavimon. "We know the score here. Just stay silent and we'll be golden."

"But you're already golden!" piped up Breezedramon, earning him a playful smack from the bird.

—

It was not as uneventful a trek as the group would have hoped. There seemed to be more people out and about that day than there had been in most previous days, with several walkers crossing paths with all of them on the long walk to the high school grounds. Perhaps part of it was the fact that there hadn't been any very public monster appearances in a while - what there had been was mostly late at night and mostly addressed quickly, so not a lot of time for things to spread - so perhaps some people had gotten the idea that it was safe again for the moment. This was not considered an auspicious sign by any of them, the relative lack of outdoors activity had been something that was working to their benefit, and suddenly it seemed like that might not be as viable.

Particularly because most of them were being troublesomely attentive. Clearly, they weren't completely at ease with the idea of their safety, because most of them, at least, were paying a lot more attention to their surroundings. And that meant a lot of close calls. Even Derek and Blackcanismon weren't immune to it, with one passerby asking a lot of questions about that 'extremely strange dog' that Derek was fumbling around for answers on before finally getting to the 'I don't ask questions I just pet the dog' stance - hardly satisfying for the stranger, but it at least got him going along his way. Salmandmon wasn't getting it much better, as there were several people who seemed to notice something around where he was, forcing him to try to hide away more when he could even while he was cloaked. Datacarnomon's improved cloaking was helping him more, but even that wasn't perfect, as a couple of people had thought they'd seen some of the motion trail he was leaving, forcing Reyn to intervene and say he didn't see anything to throw them off. Being up in the air wasn't much better, as Shockavimon was finding out - she was having to move in bursts between trees where she could, due to her shaky cloaking making her a more visible target and people's eyes clearly not missing the sky - Aquilamon was clearly lingering in their heads. The only one who didn't get obviously noticed was Breezedramon, who was hanging out higher and was well-masked against the mostly cloudless blue sky.

All in all, no one was disappointed when they finally made it to the Trine Nature Walk, where there was sure to be a lack of human activity. A thickly-wooded patch of land on the grounds of Braun Eastern High School, it was named for a long-time natural studies teacher who had pushed for the land to be preserved for natural studies courses rather than bulldozed and developed as had been the initial intention. Said teacher was no longer among the faculty or among the living, but his legacy persisted, and plenty of students said they got more out of having it than just studying in the classrooms the whole time. Yet there were still a few who said there should be a football field there instead…not everyone had the same priorities, clearly. Neither Reyn nor Derek had ever done much in the area, so they were going in pretty blind, but apart from potentially digimon, there couldn't be much in there that was a surprise.

Once they were along the paths, the digimon were able to come out of hiding, and looked quite happy to be so. "Maaaaan…the way people were acting, you'd think no monsters had been seen in a year," griped Salmandmon. "We've GOTTA get better at cloaking ourselves. Reyn, you're totally helping me practice my Smoke Screen when we get back."

"Bad idea," Reyn said immediately. "I can see through it no problem."

"…Wait, what? Since when?!"

"Since always. You're clear as day through it to me."

"Before you flip out and think you're not hiding at all, let me assure you that Reyn's the only one who gets it that easy," Derek jumped in. "I can barely see you, maybe sometimes a faint outline but for the most part you're obscure. The air around you isn't exactly totally still, though."

"I think our partners might all be good at seeing through our masks," remarked Shockavimon. "Iris tells me she can barely see any difference with my EM Field, though she can tell when I'm using it because she picks up on the electric energy."

"Derek was singularly hypercapable of distinguishing my presence during a Shadowstepping endeavor," Blackcanismon added.

"Hm, yeah, I hadn't thought about that…I guess maybe that connection we have lets us see through that kind of thing," mused Derek. "At least it's just us, I can't imagine that would be a problem. Except for training on getting better at it, I suppose."

Salmandmon huffed in irritation. "Bah. And here I was hoping to have a reason to get Reyn up early."

"Why would it require getting me up early?" Reyn asked tersely.

"I'd think of a reason!"

"You guys need to pipe down, we're in possible enemy territory right now," warned Datacarnomon. "And I'm having a hell of a time trying to get a bead on it."

"Should I scout ahead?" asked Breezedramon.

"No, not yet. I need to actually pick up the signal…rgh, if I can. Maybe it really was a false alarm…"

"Our luck isn't that good," countered Shockavimon. "What was it you were seeing?"

"That's the thing, I don't know…it was spotty to begin with. Something was showing up around here, but it was going in and out. That's why I wasn't sure what to make of it. If it's NOT a digimon, I need to figure out what it is that could be making a signal that my sensors are interpreting as something like that, because the last thing we need is unknown false alarms."

"I can think of roughly six-hundred things just off the top of my head that are closer to last," Salmandmon remarked. "Hell, false signals is a good scenario if we can figure out what's causing it, it means one less thing that could potentially kill us and everyone around us."

"Okay, point. Let's just be ready, in case it is…" From there things quieted down, the group traveling in relative silence, not masking the sounds of their footsteps but keeping the chatter to a minimum. Vigilance was high, but there was a lot that could be hiding things…the trees were pretty thick, and there were some dense bushes and other foliage around that would have provided good cover as well. The longer they traveled without any sign from Datacarnomon, the more nervous everyone got - there had to be something that he had picked up, and it shouldn't have been this hard for him to recapture…

Suddenly Blackcanismon slowed, growling. "Scents…"

"Huh?" Breezedramon asked.

"I'm detecting an olfactory anomaly. Aberrant relative to the background…"

"Wait…there was just something…" Datacarnomon stopped as well. "What…I've lost it again…but it was nearby, that was definitely a signal! Come on, show back up, I know it was close, I just need to triangulate…"

"Forget triangulation, we need to fan out!" urged Shockavimon. "It's around here, it's trying to hide, we need to flush it out!"

Before that could happen, though, there was a sudden shout from nearby. "NOW! Go, go, go!" The startled digimon and humans wheeled towards the source of the voice - and the sudden onslaught that followed was something none of them were ready for. A veritable pack of digimon, all smaller but hardly looking non-threatening, were charging at them! There seemed like little to no time to react as the group bore down on them…

"Inverse Flash!" Suddenly the world around them went dark, their visions distorting for a brief moment as the objects around took bizarre colors. And then they were righted again, leaving everyone to try to shake off the effects, except for Blackcanismon, the source of the strike. It had disrupted the attack, though, the pack of enemies slowed down long enough for them to mount a counterattack.

"Get your heads in the game!" came a shout from the same voice as the initial command. Leaping into the middle of the gang was a dark dragon digimon, about three feet tall, with short horns, a rounded snout, black wings and scales apart from a white underbelly, and a sword not dissimilar to a Leomon's dagger in his hand. "Don't let them get the better of you! We have the numbers advantage, get them before they can do anything funny!"

Shadowdramon… Salmandmon clenched his jaw as the opposing leader rallied the troops back. Precious little time to assess the situation…they were definitely outnumbered, and not by a small amount. Just from what he could see, there was a Tentomon, Gazimon, Palmon, Demidevimon, Gabumon, Goblimon, Biyomon, Elecmon, Veemon, Dorumon, Felismon, Talomon, and Crestmon. Almost three to one outnumbered, and they had two vulnerable humans with them…they needed to turn the tides, and fast! "Scatter!" he shouted as the attackers leapt back into action, breaking away from the group with Reyn quickly following behind, hoping to draw a number of them off - if they could get smaller groups of them fighting, it was better than a big massive group targeting their much smaller one.

Which didn't mean it was good…Talomon, Veemon, and Dorumon broke after him, and instantly went on the offensive, rushing at him and Reyn. He didn't have time to assess how the others were faring, he needed to protect Reyn immediately! "Burner Breath!" He launched his fiery salvo at Talomon and Veemon, but they quickly split and flanked him, requiring him to scramble to avoid their attacks as they lunged for him. He pitched forward and rolled, avoiding their attacks but leaving space between him and Reyn that he didn't want.

And for good reason, as Reyn was suddenly accosted by Dorumon. "Dash Metal!" she shouted, opening her mouth and firing a metal sphere that he dove to avoid. He scrambled back to his feet to try scampering back towards the group, but there was no group anymore - everyone had scattered just as Salmandmon had ordered, and were now desperately trying to deal with their own sets of bogies, two or three at a time. He couldn't see Derek or Blackcanismon anywhere, he could only hear Datacarnomon, and Shockavimon and Breezedramon were whipping through the trees in disarray. This is bad, this is really bad, I need to merge with Sal fast!

But that wasn't happening either - Dorumon was making sure to keep him scrambling, not letting him get close to his partner - and Salmandmon was struggling to get away from Talomon and Veemon as well. Talomon, a green raptor digimon with slightly oversized hands and feet which bore wickedly sharp claws, was pursuing Salmandmon relentlessly, trying to land Swipe Kicks on him, while Veemon was trying to tackle him from a different direction. Both were moving more quickly than Salmandmon could track, each one keeping him from focusing on the other to get off a proper counterstrike, and he couldn't just fire off indiscriminately - there was a forest around that was surely easy to set aflame. Panic was starting to set in for Reyn, who felt entirely useless - he wasn't ready to try to fight even one of the smaller creatures on his own, what could he possibly do against them?

And Salmandmon was feeling the pressure now, as he could tell Reyn was barely holding out just trying to keep away from Dorumon. He tried to swing out and launch a Burner Breath to at least get her to back off, but trying to divide his attention three ways proved a major mistake - before he could launch the attack, he was rammed from behind by the Veemon, knocked forward into the waiting strike of Talomon. A cry rang through the trees as a trio of gashes was driven along his stomach, steaming blood flying through the air. He sank down, gasping hard, head spinning, stunned and winded and in significant pain.

"Sal!" Reyn almost forgot about Dorumon, with the sight of his partner taking some serious and scary-looking blows. He rushed forward, shoving Talomon out of the way, the raptor not at all ready for him and going sprawling, and grabbed Salmandmon bodily, trying to pick him up and get him out of harm's way. Which was perhaps not the wisest of decisions, as Veemon hurled himself at the pair of them, and Reyn fell backwards in a desperate attempt to avoid him, causing him to just sail over them. But it put him on his backside, and with a very annoyed Talomon coming for him, he didn't have the time to get up and get away…

"Starlight Strike!" A ball of darkness struck Talomon square, flinging him backwards head over heels. Another one collided with Dorumon, who was preparing to fire off another attack to Reyn's right. Blackcanismon leapt forward in front of him, growling as he readied a few more of his dark shots, rotating in the air over him. "Get back and take cover!" he barked, about the shortest Reyn had ever heard him be, and he didn't linger on that as he hurried to his feet. Salmandmon was in his arms, moaning in pain, and the wounds across his stomach were bleeding pretty badly…Reyn positioned his arms to try to come across them and press down on them as much as he could to try to staunch the bleeding. There was no way they were going to be able to get him to care this time, they were too far away from that…

Shockavimon. Maybe she can cauterize them, electricity can do that. They're pretty big for electrocautery, but she's got a lot of voltage. It was desperate, but all Reyn could think of, and what he focused on as he retreated from the attackers, hoping Blackcanismon could handle them.

Trying to get help from Shockavimon was going to be challenge enough on its own, though, given what she was up against. He ran towards her, but stopped and jumped back as whipping vines came his way, Palmon nearly catching him. She pulled them back for a second attack, but didn't get it off in time as Breezedramon swooped down. "Gale Tackle!" The direct blow threw Palmon away a bit, but Breezedramon couldn't follow up, having to swing back up and avoid an electric strike from Elecmon; he hurled a Wind Sphere at the orange mon, who managed to barely get away from the bright blue orb of energy in time. It was enough room for Reyn to at least run forward, to a place where there was a little less chaos, but not much.

Shockavimon was trying to fend off Demidevimon and Tentomon, while Gabumon was harassing her from below. "Shockavimon! Sal's hurt bad!" gasped Reyn - he didn't like the idea of giving them the idea of turning to target him, but there was little else he could do.

Of course, it had the effect he was afraid of - Tentomon suddenly turned towards him, buzzing sinisterly. "Easy prey! I'm on it! Super Shocker!" Reyn froze as the attack was fired off at him, but Shockavimon swung down and absorbed it, barely fazed by it. "Gah! Get out of my way, bird!"

"I've got her! Blue Blaster!" Gabumon fired off at her again, and she swooped out of the way once more, firing off a Feather Bolt at him and making him stagger. She continued to try to wall off Tentomon, but Demidevimon was making that harder, as he was trying to get around and hurl a Demi Dart at Salmandmon or Reyn, whichever he could hit.

"Reyn, take cover!" Shockavimon snapped, blocking another Super Shocker from Tentomon. "I can't do anything about Sal right now!"

"I need your electricity! You can close up his wounds!"

"What the hell are you-agh!" Shockavimon was suddenly snared by vines, Palmon coming back into the fray. It turned out to be a bad idea, though. "Get off me, you dumb flower! Static Burst!" She discharged her electricity through her body, causing it to travel through the vines and strike Palmon harshly. She cried out and let go, sinking to the ground and smoking a bit. "Just go, Reyn! Anywhere safe is better than this right now!"

Reyn didn't have any other options, not with several digimon around clearly trying to give him trouble. He took off in a different direction, trying to crash through the brush and make it harder to chase after him, but he was far from out of the woods - a dart stabbed into a tree not far from him as he ran, and he looked over his shoulder to see Demidevimon in pursuit. The sinister devil digimon was catching up to him fast, much faster than Reyn was, particularly considering the weight he was carrying. And he was readying another dart one that Reyn didn't think he'd be able to avoid given the vanishingly small leeway he had…

"Homing Missile!" The mechanical voice called out, and suddenly Demidevimon was frantically trying to flap away, to no avail as the missile struck him square. With a cry he dissipated, the dart falling harmlessly to the ground and bursting into data as well. Reyn looked around to see Datacarnomon hurrying towards him as fast as he could go, pursued by Gazimon, Felismon, and Crestmon. "Reyn! Sal! What's going on?"

"He's hurt!"

"Take him somewhere else! This is too crazy!"

"I don't think so!" Felismon suddenly leapt at Reyn and Salmandmon - a golden-furred quadrupedal feline, with a white-furred collar and more white tufty fur around her limbs, and a solid ball on the end of her tail, she was both bigger and more threatening than most cats Reyn had encountered, and he already didn't particularly agree with them. "Cat Claw!" She rolled out into a somersaulting slash at Reyn, who hit the ground, flinging himself backwards to avoid landing on Salmandmon. It was not a pleasant landing, hard and painful, but he was lucky that he didn't land on anything more than grass. Felismon couldn't correct and went flying over, but she was hardly out of it, and there were other threats as well.

"Oy, Crestmon! Go for that metal lunkhead!" hissed Gazimon.

Crestmon - a bipedal ceratopsian digimon, broad-bodied with three short horns on his head, a deep green color pretty much all over - didn't look even remotely enthusiastic about it, but he complied, charging forward at Datacarnomon. "Dino Tackle!" He threw himself at Datacarnomon, trying a flying shoulder tackle, but Datacarnomon was ready and grabbed him, using his own momentum to swing him around and throw him at Gazimon, who got bowled over by the flying saurian. Datacarnomon then whipped around and fired off his Dino Shooter at Felismon, waylaying her follow-up attack.

Somehow, Reyn managed to haul himself up and get himself next to a tree, slumping next to it and panting hard. He hurt all over, he hadn't taken any direct attacks but hurling himself around had taken enough of a toll, and he was running out of breath. Breezedramon and Shockavimon were flying over to play support, but it didn't feel like enough, especially since most of the digimon opposing them still seemed to be fighting…and worse, he still hadn't seen any sign of Derek anywhere, and there were still digimon he hadn't been able to account for, though he couldn't remember which ones. As scared as he was, he was wrestling with the idea of telling them to run and hide, and leave him…he couldn't leave Salmandmon, no matter what, even if this seemed like it was going to be it.

"Ungh…" That voice came from right in front of him. Finally, Salmandmon was stirring in his arms. "Wh…what the hell…happened…"

"Don't try to talk, you're hurt," Reyn muttered.

"What…R-reyn, you're bleeding…"

"I…what?" Reyn looked down, he didn't feel like he was…there was definitely a lot of blood on his arms, but… "Sal…that's your blood, not mine…"

"Oh…" Sal grunted painfully, then started to pant hard. "Well…good…I'm glad it's not yours…Reyn, you…you gotta get out of here…let them go after me and run…while you can…"

Reyn squeezed his eyes shut tight. I can't do that…I can't leave him like this…I'd never forgive myself…ngh, why…why can't I do anything? Why can't I do something to help him…if I could just help you, make you feel better…I'd do it in a heartbeat…please, let there be something I can do, I don't know what, I just…I need to do something… The chaos around him was getting louder, more attacks were being flung nearby, he wasn't sure whether they were getting close or not. He was too focused on Salmandmon, on trying to hope for something, holding the bleeding lizard tightly against him. Maybe he was asking too much, but he wanted to do something for Salmandmon, anything to keep the worst from happening…

Suddenly he noticed an odd heat in his core…he wasn't sure what it was, but he felt…something about it. Like he could push it, extend it towards Salmandmon…Reyn didn't question this, he didn't understand it at all, it wasn't like the merging, it felt different, but it was something more than the nothing he had been doing…he reached out, felt it touch something in the lizard, and kept pushing…that heat was being drained right out of him, he felt himself get more weary, his energy running dry fast, but he kept at it, until he felt that connection break, too weak to be maintained anymore…

—

Salmandmon didn't know what was happening even as it happened. One moment he was feeling woozy from blood loss and pain, the next it felt like his inner fire was suddenly being stoked like mad. The gashes in his stomach were rapidly sealing up, fast enough that he could feel it, almost like someone had used QuicKnit on him, except that didn't give him a rush like this one. The pain was vanishing, he suddenly felt more energized than he could remember in a long time.

The other thing he noticed was Reyn's grip falling away from him. He turned around, eyes widening as he saw Reyn's listless expression. "Reyn! What…?"

"Ah…" Reyn had a very weary, faint smile on his face. "You're…okay…go get 'em…" And then he slumped over onto the ground, passed out. Salmandmon felt panic strike him - Reyn hadn't ever looked like that, he didn't like the looks of it at all! But a stray attack hit up near his head, an the whipped around - there were a good ten digimon in the fray, against only three of their own - with Blackcanismon hurrying back with three more digimon in pursuit - and they looked to be in real trouble. That overcharged fire in him suddenly boiled, the heat flaring up around him. He'd already fallen short once protecting Reyn, that wasn't going to happen again!

He stood and stepped forward, channeling that energy into a spot in the middle of the fracas. The air suddenly warped and reddened in a growing sphere, causing a couple of the digimon near it to skid to a halt. They didn't know what it was, but it looked menacing enough to be immediately registered as a threat - but not quickly enough to be properly reacted to, as Salmandmon swung his arm fiercely. "Blast Point!"

What came out exceeded even Salmandmon's expectations - an enormous flare of heat bursting out in the middle of the air, sending most of the group of foes flying off into nowhere. The Palmon was engulfed and deleted, and the Tentomon was flung into a branch and impaled to lead to his demise as well; the Gazimon was thrown into a tree and fell motionless, and the Gabumon went sprawling along the ground and laid there stunned. Talomon, Dorumon, and Veemon skidded to a halt just before reaching ground zero, shocked, while a few others who managed to weather the blow were suddenly finding themselves on their heels.

"No way!" shouted Veemon in shock. "You were down! You were DOWN!"

"Yeah, well, I'm back up. And I'm gonna repay the favor!" Salmandmon charged forward, closing on the backpedaling Veemon in a hurry, unleashing a charged up Burner Breath that enveloped the small dragon and dropped him with an agonized cry. Dorumon and Talomon didn't bother trying to follow up, instead turning tail and running fast into the trees. Salmandmon wanted to go after them, but he couldn't leave Reyn…instead he turned and joined the others, who suddenly had the advantage with quite a few of the enemies down or missing.

"What the hell just happened?!" cried out a panicked Biyomon as she tried to attack Breezedramon, her Spiral Twister dodged by the blue dragon as she tried to flap back out of the way.

"I don't know!" Felismon panted. "Where's Shadowdramon?!"

"Concern yourself with the immediate!" snarled Blackcanismon as he leapt forward. "Black Slasher!" He swung darkness-charged claws at Felismon, who barely countered with her Cat Claw, the moment of impact sending both of them flying backwards. She landed harder than Blackcanismon did, but hopped back up quickly.

"This isn't good…I'm outta here!" She turned tail and hurried off into the woods, quickly being followed by Elecmon.

"Don't abandon me! Hey!" Biymon tried to follow up, but Breezedramon's Gale Tackle took her down, and they hit the ground hard, the avian laying there twitching as the dragon hopped off of her. For the first time in too long, the forest was quiet…no one else seemed to be around to carry on the fight. Salmandmon wasn't going to be comfortable with just hoping for that, though, as he dragged Veemon by the tail back towards the final site of the fracas. Particularly with Reyn still down, and him not sure what had happened to put him that way.

"What the hell just happened…" Shockavimon said shakily. "I thought we might actually be done for, and then…"

"Sal, that was a stupimondiferous explosion!" exclaimed Breezedramon. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"…Later. We need to take stock now." Salmandmon looked around. "There were fourteen of them…I remember that clearly. I only see four. We need to figure out what happened to the rest."

"I've got death signatures for three of them," reported Datacarnomon. "Tentomon, Demidevimon, Palmon."

"Four here on the ground," Shockavimon continued. "Gazimon, Veemon, Biyomon, Gabumon. They seem like they're alive, but not doing much at the moment - and they'd better not if they know what's good for them," she added harshly at the Biyomon she was standing over.

"I determined a quartet of abscondees," Blackcanismon chimed in. "Dorumon, Talomon, Felismon, and Elecmon escaped our assaults. Ostensibly they vacated the jurisdiction entirely…an unfortunate complication, but preferable to alternative outcomes which appeared dramatically more plausible merely minutes heretofore."

"That Shadamodoramontadadomon, though…blah, I'm just calling him Shady. I dunno what happened to him," Breezedramon said as he scratched his head. "Or Crestmon or Goblimon, either…they were around here somewhere, but I lost track of them. And no one else's said anything about them, so…"

"So we have to be watchful, just in case." Salmandmon looked around, trying to see if he could see any of them in the immediate vicinity. Aside from the downed ones, though, he wasn't picking up on anything. "They might've run off, too…might be for the best if they did, obvious problems with that aside. But I've got a bigger issue…where's Derek?"

"I'm probably the best one to answer that question." All eyes turned towards the woods just behind and to the right of where Reyn was, where Derek was staggering towards them, a cut over his eyebrow and a limp in his walk. "That's an experience I hope I won't have to repeat any time soon."

"Ah! Derek, you're exsanguinating!" barked Blackcanismon as he dashed over to his partner. "And your gait is discordant! Did their assailments connect with you?"

"No, and thank goodness for that. Blame the roots and branches for this. At least I'm in better shape than he is." Derek made his way over to Reyn and pulled him up to a sitting position against the tree; the redhead still looked listless and exhausted, but unhurt. "What happened to him?"

"I'm not…entirely sure," replied Salmandmon. "But…I think he did something for me…that got me back into fighting shape."

"…What? How?" asked Datacarnomon.

"As much as I know you hate this answer, both of those are 'I don't know.' All I know is that I was just about done for until he did something to me and then…well, I felt like I could've tangled with a Wargreymon and won. Which probably is a lot more illusion than reality, but it was a HUGE rush. But it clearly took a lot out of him to do that…"

"No kidding," stated Derek, walking towards them after making sure Reyn was propped up. "He seems fine, though, just tired. Maybe we'll have to let him rest up a bit before we go anywhere."

"I think that's probably something we should ALL do," agreed Shockavimon. "Much as I hate to let them regroup, I'm beat. Plus, we need to figure out how to deal with these ones."

"Oh, right." Salmandmon scowled down at Veemon, who was rousing but wasn't going to be doing much with as scorched as he was. Datacarnomon was dragging Gazimon back towards them, while Gabumon was leaning on him, walking very gingerly and wincing with each step, a strained neck and back ensuring he wasn't about to start the fight back up. "Hff…you'd better believe I'm pissed enough about this to not feel particularly long on mercy, so don't test me. You guys get one chance - go back to the digital world, abandon Emperius, and find something better to do with your lives. Refuse, and your lives won't be long enough to do anything better with them."

"…That…is going to be a problem," said the Gabumon hesitantly.

"The proposal submitted unto yourselves contains an objectively correct response," Blackcanismon stated tersely. "Your declaration fails to achieve that merit."

"It's not that…it's…I don't think we can."

"You can't?" asked Datacarnomon. "Why not? I thought Emperius had it all set up where you can get that charge that lets you return. All the rest of them have, that we've been able to confront anyway."

"Yeah, well, something went wrong with us," muttered Veemon angrily. "We didn't get that. And not only that, we got stuck in these stupid base forms…we woulda had you if we coulda used our REAL power…"

"Wait, you guys are variable?!" Breezedramon's eyes opened wide, and suddenly the implications were hitting home for all of them - they had REALLY dodged a disaster there today, and not by much.

"The block on our bodies…we weren't ready for that," sighed Gabumon. "I don't know how long it's supposed to last…they never said anything about it. I'm not sure they even knew, we're the first variables to go through…I thought it would be enough, humans aren't supposed to be that strong, and we were supposed to outnumber you easy, as long as you didn't pull those tricks off…"

"You're not doing yourself any favors," hissed Salmandmon.

"Does it matter? We can't go back. You might as well just kill us and be done with it."

Salmandmon clenched his jaw. Their pact, and their Knight's Code, wouldn't have been in line with that…but he couldn't just leave them to hang around, either. The idea that maybe it was better to finish them off was wrestling with his conscience…but before he had to make the decision, Biyomon spoke up. "W-wait…I…I have a charge. I can…I can take them."

"You what?" Gabumon asked in shock. "You said you didn't!"

"…I didn't want to tell anyone. I didn't want them to think I was a coward who was planning to bail on everyone…"

"Why'd you get one and the rest of us not?" griped Veemon.

"I was nervous about the transfer…I had them walk me through it, and got the charge on the way. I don't know why they didn't give the rest of you one, they said that was standard…"

"You all can talk about this later," Shockavimon declared. "If you can go back, now's the time to do it. Take your buddies and beat it."

Biyomon looked hesitant. "But…the others…"

"Will either find their way back somehow or die trying to make our lives miserable," growled Datacarnomon. "We're not throwing a party for them trying to get them back here."

"Let's just go, Biyomon," said Gabumon tiredly. "It's not worth it."

That didn't seem to sit well with the bird, but she nodded reluctantly. The four miscreants were gathered together, Gazimon still unconscious and held close by Gabumon and Veemon, as Biyomon activated her charge. Within seconds, the four of them had vanished, resolving one part of the problem. Though the rest of it was still lingering over the heads of the defenders.

"Well, that was messier than I'd hoped for…" Derek rubbed his head and sighed. "But at least for the moment we've dealt with the worst of it. Now we have to go try to find the ones who escaped…"

"That's probably not gonna be a 'today' thing, I think," said Shockavimon. "They could go literally anywhere, and without any leads, I don't fancy our chances of finding them even from the air. If they're struggling to evolve, though, they're probably not going to be deliberately causing much trouble for a while…Rookies can do some damage, but they're also the most vulnerable. They're probably going to lay low until they're able to get back to their real strength again…jeez, we were so close to a really bad end there."

"We were close enough until Sal cooked 'em good," remarked Breezedramon. "That was a huge Blast Point! I didn't think you could do 'em that big!"

"Thank Reyn for that," the lizard replied with a bit of an edge. "He saved my bacon AND supercharged me. But I'm worried that he can't even stand now."

"Hey…I could stand…probably…"

"You're awake!" Salmandmon rushed over to Reyn; the firehaired boy still looked pretty wiped out, but otherwise in good spirits. "What did you do? How did you do that? I didn't even know you COULD do that!"

"Well, it's not part of our standard skill set, that's for sure," replied Reyn somewhat listlessly. "I'm not sure what happened exactly…I just…had this…weird feeling when I was trying to think of a way to help you…and I just, uh, did what I felt like I could."

"…That sounds like an energy transfer of some kind," mused Datacarnomon. "Digimon can learn how to do that, but it's not a common technique to learn, because of how risky it is. Usually they rely on other types of recovery techniques or supplies instead. But I can't imagine humans being able to do something like that…"

"There's a good reason for that," agreed Derek. "But I'm going with the usual answer…anything strange is probably because we're doing that whole merging thing."

"Ah, yeah…that's probably a safe assumption. Jeez, we might only have scratched the surface of what this fusion thing makes possible…I don't often feel like I'm scrambling to try to catch up on things, but this has me feeling like I've got a big exam and I missed all the lessons."

"Indubitably, we lack a satisfactory instructor on the matter…this educational institution is untenably subpar and I shall be submitting my complaints towards the administration," Blackcanismon joked.

"If you actually find someone, let me know, I've got a few choice words I want to give to them, too."

Salmandmon wasn't in as jokey a mood as he hugged Reyn tight. "I'm glad you're okay…I was worried after what happened, I didn't know if you were actually gonna be all right. You looked so faint…"

"I was worried about YOU, bud…" replied Reyn, with a serious weight to his voice that wasn't all fatigue. "I thought that might be it for you. I almost wish I could've been actually in the fray and doing something useful…you guys were really outnumbered there."

"We were…and that really wasn't a good situation. We gotta be more careful, I guess…this is the first real group they sent in, we should've expected that that would happen sooner or later. We might have to think more about how we approach battles, we can't afford to lose any of us…"

"Uh…guys?" All eyes turned towards Breezedramon, who was hovering a short ways into the trees. "I think, uh, we might have a bit of an issue here…"

"What's going on?" asked Shockavimon nervously.

"You know how they took back the ones we knocked out? I think they missed a couple."

"Oh, dammit…" There was a sudden scramble towards where Breezedramon was flying. With effort and a bit of help from Salmandmon, Reyn managed to get to his feet and follow them. As they arrived, they saw the group looking over two downed digimon, Shadowdramon and Crestmon. Both were unresponsive, but seemed to be alive and not in danger of perishing any time soon.

"Messier than I hoped for, indeed," sighed Derek. "Well, at least we found two of the stragglers."

"I was really kinda hoping they'd bit it in the blast," Breezedramon sighed. "Well, Shady here at least, he was making things hard for everyone. Kinda a brat if you ask me."

"What do you want to bet their return trip doesn't work either?" groaned Shockavimon.

"Two thousand credits," Datacarnomon said immediately.

"Shut it, Data. You know you're not allowed to make literal bets out of rhetorical lines."

"Ostensibly he should not be establishing additional gambles in totality," agreed Blackcanismon.

"You guys are killing me here," protested the robot. "I've been good lately! Well, mostly."

"Not the time, guys," Salmandmon interjected. "We need to figure out how to deal with these guys. If they can't get back to the digital world, we have to keep them from causing trouble."

"How about stowing them away in our hideaway?" suggested Shockavimon. "Keep them down there until we can get someone to take them back? We can put them in one of the rooms behind the heavy doors."

"How do we keep them from breaking out, though?" Breezedramon pointed out. "Those doors might hold up to them just pounding on it, but probably not if they use attacks."

"Ike and I can probably whip up some suppression gear," offered Datacarnomon. "Keep them from attacking or moving around too much. Actually, we can probably set some up for all the stragglers, in case we manage to subdue them."

"Inconvenient, but I confess I can innovate no suitable alternative," Blackcanismon said with resignation. "However, I despair of their remaining compliant until such point in temporal distance that the aforementioned equipment is prepared."

"Yeah, I doubt they'll be down for that long," agreed Derek. "And if we're taking them back, we need to figure that out as well - I don't think we're going to be able to hide them if we're toting them along. Especially if they decide to break out their most threatening stuff, and especially considering that Reyn looks like he's about to keel over just from them looking at him the wrong way."

"Feel like it, too," affirmed Reyn.

Datacarnomon nodded. "Understandable. Well, I can try something that might help. I wrote up and installed a quick little ability seal program as an experiment…it's untested, since I didn't really have time to, but if it works, it'll probably buy us enough time to get them restrained."

"Excuse me?" Salmandmon spoke up testily. "You had this on you the whole time and you didn't, say, try to use it during a battle where we were outnumbered three to one?!"

Datacarnomon gave Salmandmon a look that was remarkably effective for a creature with blank panel eyes. "Sal. Just to make clear…are you saying you wanted me to try to throw out an UNTESTED, EXPERIMENTAL program in the middle of a melee that was already not going well for us?"

"…Objection withdrawn," Salmandmon said reluctantly.

"As it should be. Now then…" Datacarnomon turned towards the two downed mons, raising his arm up. Rather than letting loose regular shots, the barrels of his shooters glowed, and then launched out a light ball that flashed through the area, making the others avert their eyes. The flashbang-like effect rapidly retreated, and a light glow covered Shadowdramon and Crestmon. "Hah! Success!" Datacarnomon pumped his fist triumphantly…but that moment was quickly dampened as his internal status monitor flashed some warnings at him. "…Aaaand we're all sealed. Crud. That wasn't supposed to happen."

"I was gonna say…" grumped Shockavimon, the glow clearly on her and the others as well. "Smooth move. How're we supposed to get back undetected if we can't use our cloaking tech? I mean, not that mine works great, but it's better than being a giant yellow eyesore in the middle of the sky!"

"In fairness, ours should wear off quickly, since we're not unconscious or anything. We'll just need to wait a bit."

"Boy, I sure am glad no one was suggesting we use this in the middle of a huge battle or anything!" Breezedramon exclaimed loudly. "That woulda been a REALLY dumb idea!"

"All right, all right…" grumbled Salmandmon. "I SAID I was wrong…"

"Datacarnomon, am I to imagine you neglected to implement an exception within your nascent program to exclude your comrades from target consideration?" Blackcanismon queried with a healthy lick of asperity.

"Of course not, BC," replied Datacarnomon testily. "I put an exception in right away. It just didn't WORK. Clearly I made a mistake somewhere, which, you know, is something I would have found out if I'd had time to test it before."

"How do you miswrite something like that?" asked Shockavimon.

"Look, computer programming is a very intricate, delicate operation of creating hundreds of bugs and wrangling them into place until you accidentally get a working function. I can't help it if a bug occasionally escapes its kennel, that's what they do."

"Look, at least they've been sealed, right?" Salmandmon pointed out. "That was the goal, and as far as that went, it worked."

Derek nodded in agreement. "Right, that should help, at least. But we still have to secure them somehow until we get more permanent stuff, and preferably sooner rather than later, because I see sharp claws and horns and I'd rather not be on the wrong end of them."

"I think I have an idea," said Reyn. "Though, you're gonna have to do the leg work because I'm still pretty wiped."

"Well, it had better not be too difficult, then. What's your thought?"

"You know that outdoor equipment shack that the gym teachers store some of their stuff in? I'm pretty sure I remember seeing some jump ropes and tug-of-war ropes in there. Either one of those might work."

"Oh, really? You think we can get in?"

"I don't know if it's locked or not, but even if it is, I'm pretty sure Darkvargmon won't be stopped."

"Good point. All right, let's get to it before they wake up. You guys make sure they don't go anywhere."

—

The denouement was thankfully uneventful. Darkvargmon was able to get everything needed out of the shack and get it locked back up like no one had ever been there. It wasn't exactly a great feeling taking them without permission, but he would return them once they had other restraints in place. Once they were back, they were able to get both creatures nice and thoroughly tied up, mostly securing them just as they were starting to rouse. Crestmon mostly seemed to be resigned to the bonds, while Shadowdramon was struggling and glaring at them but unable to escape.

"Once Ike's back, we'll get something prepped to lock them down for longer, and hopefully some better ways of restraining them," reported Datacarnomon as he joined the other digimon in a group away from the two humans and captives. "For now, it seems to be working well, they're definitely sealed and that rope's plenty strong."

"You sure it's okay leaving Reyn and Derek to watch them alone?" asked Shockavimon.

"At the moment, there's not much the two can do to them. And the threat of swift deletion if they try should be pretty effective - they know we can do worse to them than what we did. We still have the issue of carrying them back to base, though."

"Reyn and I talked that out," said Salmandmon. "There's really only one option, and that's Burnreptimon. It's not exactly safe or secretive, but it's not like we haven't already been seen…so long as they don't know where we end up, we should be fine."

"If you say so…at least it's a plan, we don't have one for the ones who got away. That's a bunch of mons who could pop up again at any time to make things difficult for us."

"We'll have to hunt around for them," said Breezedramon. "Or have Data ping them!"

"Pinging might not work so well." Datacarnomon held out a small device. "I found a few of these on the ground here and there. They're basically personal sensor jammers, they scramble the signal around you so that mons like myself can't pick them up. A couple of them aren't working properly, though…I think that's why I was seeing such sporadic signals, it was a sign that some of them were on the fritz."

"Dang. Guess we should've figured they'd use their own cloaking eventually, huh?"

"Why would we?" said Salmandmon heavily. "We thought Emperius was going to be as unsubtle as ever in their campaign here. But they haven't been playing to expectations, again, and we've been caught off-guard, again. And that's part of what I wanted to talk about with you guys. Because I think there's more to what's been going on than meets the eye, and I wanted to see if you thought the same."

"What do you mean, Sal?" asked Shockavimon.

"This has been bugging me for a while now. It goes all the way back to that last battle. Do you remember what we were told about it?"

"My recollection indicates that a contingent of Emperius warriors had gathered under the jurisdiction of a battery of generals attempting to revitalize the movement," Blackcanismon put forth. "The presentation was indicative of a potential 'last stand' scenario."

"Right. The notion we were given was that a few high-rankers were rallying the forces to start things back up, and we had a chance to go deliver the killing blow. We'd already taken down a lot of their forces in the previous year's clash where I torched Craniummon, and we'd been whittling away at remnants during the entire interim…it seemed to make sense. It's been so chaotic since then, so we really haven't had time to dwell on it, but…did you guys ever wonder HOW our intel got it so wrong?"

Silence from the others as they looked at each other; it was pretty clear that they hadn't been thinking about that, but now that it was brought up… "Do we know where the report came from?" asked Datacarnomon.

"I don't know anything specifically, but at the time, we weren't using a lot of outside support services. Everything had been pretty well-established, we'd had most of the year to work on our infrastructure."

"But if it didn't come from outside…" Shockavimon trailed off.

"There's more, too. The fact that they'd been able to hide from us for a whole year apart from a few strike forces that showed up here and there…and with the numbers they had, they had to be recruiting in the shadows, despite our efforts to root them out. How specifically we were targeted…they had no specific reason to believe we would show up. Maybe they just assumed it, but I wonder if the report wasn't tailored to make sure we did, because they wanted to get us out of the way. And then finding out Emperius not only had working PTM tech, but actually improved on ours…they were ready to go as soon as they had taken out the biggest thorn in their sides."

"It…all sounds too coindicindefundamental, doesn't it?" Breezedramon said suspiciously.

"Yeah, it does. Guys, I think we were sabotaged. We had a mole, maybe more than one but at least one, and they were working overtime for a year to mislead us and lead us into a sense of complacency, all while they were helping Emperius regroup after their previous routing. They had to be feeding them information about the PTM, letting them develop it at a faster pace than ours was and giving them chances to improve on it, in preparation for their attack here. And worst of all…Shockavimon, when that Frigimon found us…"

"He wasn't even remotely surprised to see us." Shockavimon's eyes widened. "They already expected us to be here."

"The mole had to have come back and found out. And we have no idea who it could have been…" Salmandmon's jaw clenched. "Can't believe I never suspected it before…"

"I would suggest culpability lies with alternative sources compared to yourself, Sal," stated Blackcanismon, growling menacingly. "And said rapscallions will experience the bitterest of vengeance at my behest, for the suffering at minimum of a stalwart friend."

"But the KOL probably has no idea, either, then, right?" Breezedramon asked anxiously. "They could be sitting ducks waiting for the mole to strike again!"

"If we never suspected, they probably didn't either," agreed Datacarnomon. "Which means…"

"Which means we can't trust anyone who comes through, even if they say they're an ally," finished Salmandmon. "Even if it seems like the KOL sends reinforcements tomorrow, saying they learned about Emperius's campaign and decided they needed to back us up…right now, we're in a position where there's only five people in two worlds we can really trust to be on our side."

"Our humans," Shockavimon said heavily.

"You wanted to tell us this in case we saw someone come through who was an ally of ours at some point in the past, right?" suggested Datacarnomon. "That they would try to lure us in using a familiar face that was ready to betray us at any point."

"Exactly," Salmandmon confirmed with a grim nod. "And honestly, there was a time not too long back that I'm sure I would've been suckered right in. I would've given anything to have a few more guys here to help shore up our defenses. But now? I dread seeing anyone come through. Everyone has to be an enemy until they aren't. The only thing we have going in our favor - the ONLY thing - is that they're still underestimating us. And that's bought us some time…but it's not going to be long enough to carry us all the way, especially if they keep sending groups like today. This was meant to be a devastating ambush force…they almost were even without their full power, but if they had been able to lay low…we can't hope that they won't try something like this again soon."

"And we've seen jack squat from our efforts to get in touch with people," sighed Datacarnomon. "I thought once Aquilamon blew everything open we'd start to get more response, but they aren't even sending form letters back anymore. This world isn't even close to ready for anything…what happens when they start sending stronger guys than they have been?" That last line left a long, heavy silence around the group, mulling over the prospect of a gloomy-looking future…

…until Blackcanismon spoke up. "We possess but a singular illumination of hope, obscured in the shroud of uncertainty. That our capacities can potentially be further amplified by a phenomenon we are intimately familiar with, but our human counterparts merely consider trivial knowledge."

"…BC…are you saying…evolution?" asked Salmandmon.

"Is that even possible?" Breezedramon yapped. "I mean, our combined forms even have the seals on them!"

"Undeniably so, yet perhaps you recollect our conflagrant compatriot's observation regarding those troublesome brandings while hybridized. They decidedly were devoid of their originating effect."

"That's true," mulled Datacarnomon. "And he's right, they do feel different there. But that doesn't necessarily mean much…but then again, I never actually gave any thought to the idea of evolving our hybrid forms. Do you think it's even possible?"

"And even if it is, how do we make it happen?" Shockavimon pointed out. "It's not like we have access to the Catalysts here. We don't know what it would take."

Salmandmon bowed his head. "We'll have to see if we can find out. Because BC's right…I think that's literally our only hope. With no one else to count on, and this side still more or less oblivious, if we want to survive this, we need more power. And that might be the only way we're going to get that power. Unless there's another magic method we're not aware of yet, but I don't know if we've got the time to figure that out."

"Man…" Breezedramon moaned in frustration. "Every day feels like the impredamitaments are bigger and harder to fly over. How do we keep our buddies in good spirits when it gets harder for US every day?"

"We have to try…because it's all we've got. We've found hope in tight spaces here before, guys. Cling to it as hard as you can, because that's all that's going to get us through this. Remember what they all said…they were willing to go down swinging. We have to be, too, no matter what."

---

Chaotic scenes are always so hard to write. Whenever the action is moving faster than word speed, that's when conveyance is trickiest. So naturally there's a million of them in this work, which means I'm going to have my struggles. However, there's precisely zero chance I'm going to learn how to animate any time in the next milennium, or be able to afford a crew to, so I use what tools I can.

I'm sort of only paying lip service to the issue of life complications getting in the way of the defense campaign, but honestly, I don't think spending more time on that would be terribly interesting. Just imagine that it's a thing that happens a fair bit in the unseen clashes.

I think this is the first time I bring in custom digimon outside of the main character set. Most of these weren't created specifically for this, but for other works I was working on back in the day that were abandoned due to Symbiosis being the one that had the most legs. Here's a little behind-the-scenes:
-Shadowdramon was meant to be part of the core of an Adventures-based fanfic. I doubt this will ever come to fruition now because I find it easier to use my own characters and not have to reference canon too much, but it had a fair bit of development in its time. Shadowdramon's personality here is actually fairly close to how he was conceived in that story, although more of that will come out in time.
-Crestmon and Talomon were in the core of another original work which was more on the mature side. Incidentally, Breezedramon himself was first used with this one, albeit minus most of the quirks which made him who he is in this story.
-Felismon didn't get used anywhere itself but was made to justify its evolutions, which showed up as antagonists of the day in spots in each of these. Also, as a rather blatant cats-and-dogs counterpart to Canismon.