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.

12. Chapter 12: The Adaptable Machine

Hope you like reading, because this is a long one!

---

Chapter 12 - The Adaptable Machine

—

The dead of night was not the best time in the world to be going scouting for potential hostiles. But as bad as things had gotten, it was certainly the safest - particularly when one needed to scout over the open water.

"There's another splash. And I see a figure."

"Mmph. Yeah, I see it. So I think I've counted five…"

"Hm? I got eight." Boltfalkemon looked over at Skydramon. "Are you sure about your number?"

"No." Skydramon rubbed his eyes. "Auuugh…how the hell do you do this? I can barely see a goddamn thing in this darkness!"

"I guess it's just good vision," Boltfalkemon said with a shrug and a smile. "Anyway, it's still tough even for me to tell, but I think whether it's five or eight, it's enough that we need to take action. But now comes the hard part…"

"How do we deal with it?" Skydramon folded his arms, scowling down at the lake. "Because none of us are water fighters, and I highly doubt they're gonna sprout wings and fly at us."

"We need to figure it out ASAP, because who knows what idiot is going to go out there thinking the water's safe? We have enough trouble from travelers wanting to run into a real live monster, and locals doing their sporting events thinking that they're safe because they're in numbers."

"Dammit. I wish people weren't such dinguses. Why does it seem like the whole world is trying to make it as hard as possible to save their asses from becoming mulch for Emperius's blood gardens?"

"I wish I knew. Come on, let's get down to safety and warmth, it's freaking torture out here."

—

Overcast skies, near freezing weather, a blowing wind that was eerie for how much it stood out against the silence. The joys of living in the northern part of the country in April. The snow may have been gone, but there were still those days that reminded one that winter's grip hadn't been totally excised.

Every day like this makes me pine for summer just a little bit more, pathed Reyn to Salmandmon as they walked towards their hideout. The wind blowing in his face was the worst part, he was pretty bundled up in a thick red jacket but his face was still exposed. I'm much happier when the sun's out and the air is nice and warm.

You'd be right at home in Northern Tetraquaz, replied Salmandmon, who was traveling nearby and more obscured than ever; his smoke screen seemed to be doing a better job of hiding him of late. It's mostly in the tropics of our world, so it's pretty much hot all the time. The only places with really cold weather or snow are places where it's deliberately generated. Which are mostly places where cold-loving digimon reside.

Really? Not even the mountains?

Oh, right, I guess those too. There aren't too many mountains in Northern Tetraquaz, though…that's more a thing in the southern part. Northern's got a lot more wasteland and desert, though there are jungles and forests here and there too, and some more unusual topography here and there too. But there's definitely a lot of pretty barren land...

Some kind of reason for that?

Well, rumor has it that a lot of the land was scoured from some conflict that took place centuries ago. Never really recovered from that. I don't know much in the way of details, though. I figure we have enough to deal with with current conflicts to spend too much time on the past.

Fair enough. I'm not exactly thinking it's a great time for history lessons either. They finally reached the building, Reyn looking around surreptitiously before opening the door and letting Salmandmon slip in. The lizard dropped his cover and they headed for the basement, where most everyone was gathered - only the usual suspects missing. It wasn't the warmest down there, but better than it could have been, thanks to the presence of a space heater connected to a portable power station. "Oh, good, it's working. Salmandmon was worried you'd ask him to blow fire on you all to keep you warm enough."

"Worried?" asked Iris pleadingly.

"Worried, excited, same diff."

"I'm not exactly dismissing the idea yet," grumbled Skylar, shivering a bit in his thin coat. Breezedramon wasn't beside him, instead being held inside Iris's coat as she shared heat with him. "Spring WAS here, it seems to have gone on holiday."

"I'm n-n-not build f-for the c-c-cold," chattered Breezedramon. "G-gonna turn into a d-d-drag-gonsic-c-cle."

"You'd think a guy who spends time up in the atmosphere like you would have better cold endurance," remarked Salmandmon.

"Shut it, Sal. J-just because y-you're a f-f-fire guy…"

"He does possess the maximally minimal personal thermoinsulation of the summary of ourselves," pointed out Blackcanismon. "Furthermore, I would venture his prototypical activities exclude sufficient altitude to experience significant temperature gradients."

"Did I ask, BC?" remarked Salmandmon, sticking his tongue out at the canine.

"You professed confusion, I provided clarity," riposted the canine smugly.

"You've got an odd definition of clarity." Reyn looked over towards the door to their holding room. "How are Tweedledee and Tweedledum holding up?"

"I heard that!" came a bratty voice from the other side.

"Shadowdramon's regained talking privileges," reported Shockavimon. "Which he's using fairly judiciously, surprisingly enough. Crestmon's still not being very talkative, and I'm starting to get the impression he very much wants to get back home."

"I'd love to provide, but we still haven't been able to find anyone willing to return voluntarily in the past few bouts. And even then, they have to be willing to stick around while we get them to them, and not cause trouble in the interim…" Salmandmon shook his head. "This would be a LOT easier if we could just shuttle 'em over ourselves."

There was some more idle chatter between the group while they waited for Isaac and Datacarnomon, who showed up a little while later. "DON'T start," Isaac growled to them all as he entered, looking to be in a rather foul mood.

"We wouldn't have to start if you would stop," huffed Skylar. "Breezedramon's barely staving off being an ice cube."

"You guys do NOT understand what my life is like. If you had my dad you'd be late all the time too. I swear to god, he must've interrogated me for like fifteen minutes! I just know he knows something's up, even if he doesn't know the truth he's got to be suspicious that I'm doing something by this point. I was this close to telling Datacarnomon to just go on without me!"

"I wish he could say he was exaggerating, but that was pretty close to the actual time," affirmed Datacarnomon.

"Why does he do that?" asked Breezedramon, much less chattery by now despite Skylar's claims.

"Hell if I know. He never seemed to do it with Ashley, but with me…almost every time, it's like he doesn't trust me or something! I mean, come on, I get top-notch grades, I've never smoked or done drugs or anything, I've never had a bad record anywhere…"

"He harbors monsters from another world, he fuses with said monster to take on other monsters…" Datacarnomon added cheekily.

"Oh, can it, tin can. The point is, he shouldn't do this kind of thing! I would've totally been on time if he hadn't kept me."

"Data?" Shockavimon said, shifting her attention to the robot.

"…Eh. Five minutes. Mayyyyybe…well, less than ten, anyway."

"Traitor," grumbled Isaac as the group laughed around them.

With that out of the way, they were able to get down to business. "Isaac was right, there's a number of digimon currently laying low in Lake Idle," explained Iris. "It wasn't easy to get an exact count, but our estimate is eight."

"The shapes didn't look too horrible, though I think there is a Seadramon among them…big, but not so tough as you could get," added Shockavimon.

"That's fantastic to hear," Derek remarked with oozing sarcasm. "Because we're so well equipped for water battles."

"Hey, at least it's Lake Idle and not the Militke River," Isaac pointed out. "Imagine if they had the freedom to travel wherever they wanted, including well out of the city."

"Please don't dampen my already dour mood by the prospect of worse. So, anyone want to offer any suggestions on how to deal with them?"

"I'm out," Salmandmon said. "Water is not my thing."

"Me either," agreed Reyn. "I've always hated swimming. And something tells me Burnreptimon will not cut it."

"You say that like any of the rest of us do," Breezedramon remarked. "I don't swim! I fly! Aerial arobiocriotactics all the way! No hydringalodungarymanteratics!"

"Does his interpreter want to chime in on that one?" Salmandmon asked cheekily towards Skylar.

Skylar's eyes narrowed at the lizard. "Hush, you. I wanted to posit that Boltfalkemon was the best option for this. Electrical attacks are probably the most effective when we're talking about water. And with her spread, she can probably hit everything."

"And obliterate the local ecology while I'm at it," pointed out Iris. "I'm not sure how much of it's still there period with those digimon swimming around, but we might at least TRY to leave some things alive in there."

Isaac had been quiet, but now he was smirking in that smug way he had. "You guys are making this too complicated. Leave it to me - I'll jump on in and bust some heads face-to-face!"

Everyone looked over at him, not particularly impressed. "Unless my memory has experienced a precipitous decline as of late, or Andrexmon has heretofore suddenly manifested underwater capabilities thusly concealed from our attentions, you are not appreciably less ill-suited for such an excursion," observed Blackcanismon impatiently. "If you insist upon sapping us of precious time, could you not generate a more plausible methodology?"

"Translation: either quit being stupid and make a serious contribulation or just shut up," said Skylar, almost menacingly.

"Sheeze, you guys forget so quickly, don't you?" Datacarnomon shook his head, grinning as he already knew where this was going. "We may not be suited now, but you're talking to the most versatile of us, and arguably the most powerful!"

"Hey, which of us got to advanced stage first?" countered Salmandmon.

"Technicalities. We'll reach that point ourselves."

"Who wants to loop us in now?" asked Shockavimon. "Advanced stage?"

"Oh, yeah, it felt weird applying digimon terms to something that's…not entirely digimon? So I figured basic stage and advanced stage made more sense, and we can create more if it becomes relevant. Plus it makes my memory banks nice and tidy."

"Because heaven forbid we should sully your memory banks," Blackcanismon said with an eye roll.

"Dang, I think that's the smallest letter average we've gotten out of you yet," chuckled Datacarnomon.

"I might remark," cut in Skylar with no shortage of annoyance, "that it might have been nice for you to let the REST of us know you'd accomplished that. And that your parents were fully in the know about us, for that matter."

"H-hey, you guys found out," Reyn replied nervously.

"Yes, only because Iris was fortunate enough to have been there, and to be much more forthcoming."

"Anyway!" Datacarnomon rescued Reyn from his uncomfortable situation. "We know Andrexmon's got great potential for tapping into digital infrastructure and using it to augment himself. So if Ike can write a program that equips us with aquatic optimizations, that should let us get down there and take care of some nasties! We might not be water natives, but I think that's probably as good as we're going to be able to get."

"Well…that COULD work," conceded Skylar. "But you'd be down there by yourself. We wouldn't really be able to help out at all. You think you can take on all of them like that?"

"I don't see why not," replied Isaac boldly. "We're pretty dang good at what we do, and we have supreme firepower. It'll be a piece of cake."

"Your confidence exceeds ours by a considerable margin," suggested Blackcanismon. "Nevertheless, I would profess greater comfort venturing our onshore support."

"It'll have to be at night anyway, so we might as well," agreed Derek.

"We'll check things out overhead, too," added Shockavimon. "Maybe we'll see something we missed before, and be able to warn you about it."

"Fine, fine. I suppose having us all out there won't be a bad idea, just in case one of those guys might try to be a pain. But I think it'll all go just fine, you leave it to us."

Don't think I've ever seen him so pumped up, pathed Salmandmon to Reyn.

He likes being able to do things no one else can, Reyn replied, holding back a snicker. Anything he can say he's the best at is something that makes him happy. But at least it works to our advantage this time.

—

It had been a busy day at the BICI, with people sifting through reports provided by the general population for another day straight. A very tired Emil, operating on limited sleep, had been following up on a few, which he was filing under 'useless' or 'fabrication.' Some people just wanted to feel important and made stuff up that didn't help them in the slightest, while others claimed to have seen something that could either be determined not to be a monster or wasn't conclusive but wasn't helpful. They'd had far too much of that and not enough legitimate reports…in fact, surprisingly few.

For all the cameras that are supposed to be trained all over the place, for all the fact that mobile phones can be used to take pictures or video at a moment's notice, I expected SOMETHING more than this. Especially with how often the monsters seemed to show up before…are they aware that they're being watched and just being more careful? How could they have found out? Unless it was because we confronted them…

"Agent Conover?" Emil snapped out of his thoughts and looked up. Agent Neal Collins had shown up at the doorway, wearing an expression Emil didn't like. "Do you…have a moment?"

"Maybe. If this is about the monsters…did you remember something more?"

"Not a memory, sir, but…new…information, maybe."

Emil cocked his head. "Maybe?"

"It's…confusing, sir. But it's my duty to report it."

"Very well, come on in, and close the door." Not ordinary practice for Emil, but with Agent Redford prowling around he didn't want to take chances; they were being very judicious in what they let slip through the filters to him, on account of the trust issues. "Have a seat, Collins. What's this all about?"

"Well, sir…" Agent Collins sat, his face still having a very inscrutable expression. "I…went back around the Keller neighborhood from several nights ago. I wanted to…I had to make sure no one had been hurt because of my…avoidance."

Emil sighed. "Neal, we've been over this. Your being alive to give us information was more valuable than a likely pointless engagement with a creature that was liable to leave you dead."

"I know you say that, sir, but it still weighs on me. If someone had died out there, when I had the chance to do something about it…" Agent Collins shook his head. "A-anyway, that…I didn't hear any reports of that, thankfully. But there…there was a close call."

"With the monster?"

"Yes…and this is what's got me so perplexed. I was talking to a family about it, and their kid comes running up…gotta be only about 10 or 11 at most, and he's all excited about the dinosaur monster. The parents are trying to get him to pipe down, but then I hear him say he MET it."

Emil's eyes widened. "Met it? As in…face-to-face?"

Agent Collins's expression darkened. "To hear him tell it, more like face-to-arm cannon. He was out at night, violating the curfew because he wanted to see what was going on…apparently surprised the creature."

"Jesus. I wouldn't want to surprise something that big and dangerous. But…he clearly survived the encounter if he could tell you about it."

"…He told me…that the creature warned him about being out at night when it was so dangerous, and said he needed to stay inside so that the bad monsters didn't get him. And then went on its way."

Emil blinked at this, almost certain that he had to be missing something due to the fatigue. "…Wait. What?"

"I swear I'm saying more or less what the kid was saying."

"No, hang on…sorry, I'm just…let me go over this again. You're telling me that a kid was told by a monster…and let's reiterate, a freaking mammoth cyborg dinosaur creature…to stay inside and avoid running into dangerous monsters."

"I get it, sir. It sounds like some kind of bizarre after school special cartoon. And I don't know what to make of it. What does it all mean?"

Emil's hands went to his head. "I haven't the slightest idea, Collins. If we're lucky, it means they at least have enough of a conscience not to blow up kids. But that might be way too far to extrapolate. I'll have to make a note about this, and discuss it further with agent Katran. He may have some insights that I'm too wiped out to come up with at the moment."

"Understood. Thank you, sir." Relief was not exactly the foremost emotion on Agent Collins' features, but he did seem a touch more relaxed as he left. Not so Emil, who sank his head into his hands, rubbing it fiercely. Great. Because that's totally what we needed. Another layer of absurdity on top of the ones we already have. I'm sort of hoping this kid just has a really wild imagination…

—

Okay, one regret…I really should have made that heating program work above water, too. Andrexmon's footfalls were heavy, but he was unconcerned - the boat launch was quite a distance away from any houses, and sheltered by trees so it couldn't be easily seen. And it was refreshingly empty, a good thing for them all - no one was doing any night boating that night. About the only thing that wasn't going their way was the air temperature, which was even lower than it had been during the day. He had planned for the water to be quite cold, and included a thermal support program that would heat up his body and help defray the chill…unfortunately, he'd only made plans to have it active underwater.

It was evident from his look that he was prepared for something very different from his norm. A full mask with hoses covered his face, providing him with the oxygen he would need, provided by a filtering machine that was attached to his chest. He'd also set up a propulsion system, consisting of a large jet mechanism on his back and smaller jets on his legs. It wasn't overly complicated, but it did the job…at least, he hoped, it wasn't like he could test it until he actually got into the water. But he had high confidence that it should work, that was what all the internals told him.

As he approached the dock, he could see three figures standing there, waiting for him, talking with looks that didn't seem pleasant. "Everything okay?"

"Fine," said Skydramon. "Just a nasty battle earlier. We needed him to call on Blazereptimon again…just makes me worried about what's all in store for us."

Andrexmon could believe that…he'd sent a message that there were signals again at the Jordan Air Field, and Burnreptimon and Skydramon were the only two able to answer the call. Apparently it had involved several Dokugumon, and a few too many KoDokugumon, which was not a pleasant numbers game. "None of them wanted to go quietly?"

"Nope. Total wipe. The little ones didn't feel too comfortable, to be honest…I know they weren't actually kids but it was hard not to see them like that compared to the big uglies. But no, they were SUPER cultish…sounded like they thought they'd be brought back to life even if they died."

"They'd better not, even if I wouldn't mind jumping in and giving them another messy death for round two," Boltfalkemon said sharply. "How are Reyn and Sal doing?"

"Fine, but tired. They were really glad they didn't have to be out here, I think they were looking forward to a good sleep. So am I, thankfully you got here early."

"Excuse me, I only said sometime around midnight, I told you I didn't know how long this would take," Andrexmon said testily.

"Around usually means within a few minutes of, not twenty," remarked Darkvargmon. "Dare I ask what the holdup was this time?"

"Jeez! You all act like it's like snapping your fingers, coming up with this stuff. I had to write this all from SCRATCH, and on short damn notice! And then of course I had to test it to make sure it actually worked, and it's not like I can just waltz out anytime and transform in my backyard!"

"I'm almost certain you did exactly that," riposted Skydramon.

"Well, yeah, but I had to wait for the right time! After everyone was in bed, you know, so that they didn't all see me turn into this. And the diagnostics weren't exactly quick or simple, I'm trusting this thing not to fill my lungs with water, I'd better be damn sure it's not throwing any errors!"

"You seemed so certain that it was no big deal earlier," Darkvargmon reminded him. "Perhaps a lesson in not overstating your capabilities a bit?"

"You wanna go for the dive, be my guest."

"How are you even able to talk like that?" asked Boltfalkemon. "It doesn't even look like your mouth can move."

"It doesn't HAVE to move. Cyborg, remember? I've got a VSU in there." That got a trio of completely blank looks. "Oh, for…Voice Synthesis Unit. Seriously, do I have to explain everything? It generates my speech without the need for physical mouth motion. Basically, I'm the world's best ventriloquist."

"And here I would've taken you more for the dummy," cracked Skydramon with a wide grin.

Andrexmon folded his arms, unamused. "Am I out here to bust heads or to practice your comedy routine?"

"Let's get to the head busting," Boltfalkemon replied before anyone else could distract them further. "I want to get out of this cold sooner rather than later. I don't know how you're standing this, Skyder, given how Skylar and Breezedramon were suffering earlier."

"Honestly, I feel okay," the dragon replied with a shrug. "Maybe better insulation. But yeah, I guess we shouldn't dally."

"Good, I'd much rather be shooting than yakking." Andrexmon reached over to his arm, and dislodged a couple of small devices, which he tossed to Boltfalkemon and Skydramon. "Comm units. I added them while I was working on the dive program. You'll get a direct feed to me through these, no risk of any intercept. You want one, Wolfy?"

"It would be nothing more than an inconvenience, I can't phase it through the shadows with me," replied the canid hybrid.

"Suit yourself. All right, let's get to it." With nods all around, Skydramon and Boltfalkemon took to the air, Darkvargmon phasing into the trees along the shoreline, leaving Andrexmon to take the long walk down the pier. At least, that was what they all expected…none of them were quite ready for the heavyweight creature to suddenly break into a run, stomping down that dock until he neared the water, and leaping up with all his might, only to fold his body and give a loud shout of "CANNONBALL!"

The shout and splash made plenty of ruckus, but Andrexmon didn't have time to think about that as he sank down to the bottom of the lake. Quickly he engaged his heating unit, feeling a lot of relief even quickly as warmth spread through his body. Then it was the oxygen filter system, as he stopped holding his breath and tried to test the ins and outs. Everything was green, he could breathe just fine, a little constricted from the water pressure but nothing troublesome. A quick test of his jets lifted him off the lakebed, and they were also working fine, pushing him through the water as intended, the smaller ones more for steering than propulsion.

Only then did he allow the screeching voice of Boltfalkemon to come through his head. "Are you mental?! What the hell is wrong with you? You're gonna draw the eyes of everyone on the damn lake!"

"No, I'm drawing the eyes of everyone IN the lake," Andrexmon fired back. "You think I wanna go hunting for these things in the middle of the darkness? If they know someone's here, they're gonna come to me, and I'll be able to take them down a hell of a lot faster! No one up above is gonna care, kids play in this lake after dark all the time! I've even heard Ashley talking about doing that once or twice!"

"Aren't there better ways to do that?" Skydramon said testily. "We're kinda exposed up here, maybe they won't see you underwater but they sure as hell could spot us!"

"Then fly higher! Now pipe down and track these bogies." Andrexmon shifted his visual register, trying to spot on infrared, looking for heat signatures; they were a bit washed out in the water, but he could see one coming towards him already. Shape looks like a Dolphmon…probably doesn't know what it's in for, so let's be quick. His arm shifted to the cannon attachment, which also had a subtle modification - the released shot had been tuned for lower water resistance and better coherence in the less permeable medium. Now was as good a test as any. "Dino Buster!"

The fired shots pumped out at high velocity, tearing through the water with much less difficulty than even Andrexmon expected. The Dolphmon hadn't been remotely ready for them, and let out a loud echoing screech as each shot impacted hard straight on its head, blasting it apart and making it fade into data. "Whoof…well, if they didn't hear me, they sure as heck heard THAT. You guys see any motion under there?"

"Oh, yeah, there's a whole lotta movement now," Boltfalkemon reported. "And a lot of it seems to be coming from something big close to you…Seadramon! Thought so!"

"Right, on it!" The jet flared to life, and Andrexmon burst forward, looking to meet the Seadramon head-on as he caught sight of a heat signature, washed out but still noticeable. Big, but low defenses. A charged Dino Buster would work, but that would reduce my mobility…maybe try to get up close…

"Ice Javelin!"

"Whoa!" Andrexmon had to suddenly roll out of the way as an icy attack nearly got to him. The Seadramon had approached from the side rather than from the front as he expected - it had to have been a different heat signature he saw. The Seadramon was coming at him quickly, darting through the water in an attempt to snap him up in its jaws. Thinking fast, Andrexmon switched to his claw arm and lit it up. As the Seadramon neared him, he dove down a little, then thrust his claw up, piercing the dragon's flesh and rending through it. The Seadramon's screech was wildly pained, but it had too much momentum to stop, and Andrexmon kept going until he'd split all the way along its body. The water clouded with blood as the Seadramon's voice faded away and the creature dissolved into data. Yikes…I'm glad that did the trick, because I'm not sure I could've given HIM a chance to bug out…I don't think they would've approved of me finishing the job when it clearly wasn't going anywhere.

"Are you all right down there?" Skydramon's voice cut in. "It got really quiet all of a sudden."

"Ah, yeah, fine. Just a bit of an ambush…uh, let me know what DIRECTION they're coming from next time, there's too many to just assume it's the only one I see."

"Sorry," apologized Boltfalkemon. "I think that was the biggest one, though, so the rest should at least be less of a mismatch."

"Good to hear. Good thing about watery digimon, a lot of them are NOT well-armored. This might be easier than I thought…"

—

Within about twenty minutes, Andrexmon was starting to wonder why he'd ever thought it would be an issue. The watery digimon came after him as expected, but their attacks were slow and uncoordinated - none of them seemed to have made any real effort to try to double-team him, and though a couple landed some blows on him, they lacked the punch needed to really put him in danger. Even with only limited experience moving around in this kind of environment, he was finding it pretty easy to avoid much of what they threw at him, and his counterattacks were quick and efficient, and devastating to his foes.

One by one they were dispatched. Two Mantaraymon, another Dolphmon, a Tobiumon, and a Seahomon, all falling to his blaster or his claws. And as Andrexmon faced down the eighth, he was pretty confident the fight was on its last legs. He was facing down a Sharkmon - a blue shark digimon with a quintet of cutting fins and a striped blue body. Andrexmon smirked behind his mask. "You wanna cut your losses, bozo? You can turn tail and run home right now."

"Pest! I'm gonna find out what a human tastes like! Maybe I'll compare them to you! Hydro Ripper!" The Sharkmon rushed at him, jaws wide open and glowing with a dangerous bright blue.

"Well, I tried." Andrexmon wasn't exactly upset as he zipped out of the way, the Sharkmon unable to course-correct enough and overrunning him. As he tried to swim back around, he was target practice for the cyborg, who fired off a partly-charged shot that ended up blasting right into that open mouth. One pained roar that got cut off was all Sharkmon was able to let out before he disappeared. Hot damn. My aim is so good I don't even have to be trying to hit the bullseye.

"Rex? All good down there?" Boltfalkemon's voice came through, settled down from earlier.

"Yep. No sweat. Those guys were definitely not Emperius's cream of the crop."

"Do you have to sound so smug about it?" asked Skydramon with a hint of annoyance.

"Hey, I just installed a mod I built from scratch and single-handedly wiped the floor with a bunch of digimon none of you guys could even touch. I think I've earned a little bit of smugness. Unless there's something else I have to be shooting at."

"I'm not seeing anything down there," reported Boltfalkemon.

"Nor am I," agreed Skydramon. "That was eight, just as you said. Dang, those eagle eyes of yours are pretty sharp."

"Well, I suppose that would make sense," the avian snickered. "Maybe we'll actually be able to get back and sleep at a semi-reasonable time."

"I'm not picking up anything more down here, either," Andrexmon signaled back. "Time to get back to shore. And back to the cold…ugh, I'm definitely not gonna be enjoying the chill of getting OUT of the water."

"Yeah, I'm starting to feel it, too," remarked Skydramon. "Let's get going-"

"Wait!" Boltfalkemon's sharp cry sent a jolt through both Skydramon and Andrexmon without even using her electricity.

"Wait what? What's going on?"

"I saw something move down there! I swear it was dormant just a minute ago!"

"Something else? Point me towards it!" Andrexmon said, looking around. "Are you sure? I'm not picking up any thermal signat-WHOA!" There was a sudden rush in the water nearby, and then Andrexmon was slammed in the side, thrown for a loop. "Oof! What the bloody hell?!"

"Jesus, it's huge!" Skydramon gaped as the water was suddenly roiling below. "How the hell did we not see that before?!"

"It had to have been dormant at the bottom of the lake!" exclaimed Boltfalkemon. "Andrexmon, look out!"

"Kinda know already! Dammit!" Andrexmon was trying to get away, but it seemed like the thing kept being able to hit him no matter which direction he tried to evade. His infrared vision was starting to show things, but now it was showing too much, he couldn't make out what it was. Blindly he tried firing his Dino Buster, but whatever was hitting didn't seem to be doing much, if it was hitting anything. "It's chaos down here! I'm getting out, before I get-Aaaaaagh!" Suddenly an electric jolt pulsed through the cyborg's body, stunning him and making him cry out in pain. That had hurt like hell, and completely disoriented him - leaving him entirely vulnerable to the next attack, a slash through his arm that had pain shooting through him and warning klaxons going off in his head. And if that wasn't bad enough, then he felt something wrap around him tight, and suddenly he was hurrying to the surface, and not voluntarily.

"Goddamn!" Both Boltfalkemon and Skydramon flew up higher as an enormous splash hit the surface of the lake, and a huge form rose out. "No way! Megaseadramon?"

"Look! Rex's in its tail!" The tail end of Megaseadramon was up above the water as well, with Andrexmon wrapped up tight, unable to mount a defense in his wounded state. He wasn't there for long, though, as Megaseadramon let out a languid cry and chucked the cyborg into the trees, before diving back down into the water with another massive splash. Both flying hybrids had to wait a few seconds to confirm that it wasn't about to come back up before bolting down to check on Andrexmon, desperately hoping that the worst hadn't happened…

They finally reached Andrexmon, who was laying unresponsive on the ground. Darkvargmon was already there, checking on him as best he could. "This isn't good…he's alive, but he took a nasty hit to the head when he got thrown here. And that arm wound looks bad…it must've caught that thing's horn."

"I'm amazed he's even alive," Skydramon said shakily. "It had Rex in its clutches…why didn't it finish him off? And it can't have not noticed us! How the hell are any of us not toast?!"

"…The cold!" It suddenly hit Boltfalkemon. "Rex said they weren't fighting very well down there, and something as big as Megaseadramon should have been visible through that infrared he said he was using…unless it was so cold that it was practically dormant! And it seemed tired when it came up…"

"Then we shouldn't press our luck," asserted Darkvargmon. "We need to get away fast, and we need to get Rex to safety…and maybe to help. As much as he's been hurt, I think we need to get him treatment."

"How?" asked Skydramon. "You wanna waltz into the ER like this?!"

"Not the ER, but the best substitute we have - Reyn's house. And that means you two are going to be playing air rescue - I can't take him through the shadows with me, and my Nightmare Tangle is going to have too many streetlights to fight."

"Great…I hope you know how to keep your speed in check, dragon boy," grumbled Boltfalkemon as she stepped up to Andrexmon's upper half.

"We are SO gonna get seen," groaned Skydramon. "And he looks like he weighs a ton!"

"Then I also hope you've been working on your upper body strength, because we don't have a choice! Wolf, can you go get in touch with Reyn and his folks? Get them ready for our arrival…or to go on a search if we don't."

"I'll keep an eye on you as best I can," Darkvargmon said with a nod. "And they'll be ready for you."

—

Unfortunately, it seemed even the two of them who didn't have to go through the mess at Lake Idle weren't exactly getting the most restful sleep. Certainly not as Reyn popped up, bleary-eyed, and gave a shove to Salmandmon, who was rudely knocked out of his own slumber. "Oof, hey…the hell's your problem?"

"Your DREAMS are the problem!" Reyn was a bit flushed and tense. He'd never have traded his connection with Salmandmon for anything, not for all the good it brought, but he was definitely finding that there was some drawback to shared dreams sometimes. "Would it kill you to dream about something else for once?"

"Tch, like I can help it! Maybe you shouldn't be such a prude, it's not like it's unnatural or anything."

"That doesn't mean I want to have it showed in my face or anything! It's awkward as all hell to be…looking at…that!"

"Oh, get over yourself. Maybe you should join in, you'd probably see the upside to them in a hurry."

"Gh! You…that…you'd better still be out of it, because if that was actually a SERIOUS suggestion-!"

Salmandmon let out a hiss. "I don't know what you want me to do! I don't freaking program my dreams! You're just gonna have to be mature about it, and it's not like it's not something that you won't eventually be doing in some way at some point anyway!"

"That doesn't mean I'm okay with it!"

"And how is that my problem? What, I'm just supposed to somehow shut off that drive just to-" Salmandmon froze, breath catching in his throat. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Reyn's anger rapidly shifted to fear. "Did you see something?!"

"I swore I heard a sound!" The lizard's head was darting around on full alert. "Oh, man…we are NOT ready for an ambush…"

"Well, isn't that a fine way to greet a friend." Both human and lizard jumped as Darkvargmon suddenly popped up into their visions. "Then again, I suppose it's also the truth in a way."

"Wolf!" Reyn barely kept from shouting at full volume. "Are you insane?! Don't pop into my room without warning like that! I swear, if you're pulling pranks on us…"

Darkvargmon raised an invisible eyebrow. "Goodness. I'm not the prank type of person, you know. And by the looks of it, you two weren't exactly mired in slumber."

"Well, we WERE, until Reyn had to go and wake me up," groused Salmandmon.

"If you could have better dreams we would still be out!"

"Hey, excuse me, those are great dreams! You just don't appreciate them yet."

"Ah, I see what's going on…" Darkvargmon chuckled a bit in spite of himself. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it's YOU of all folks that's encountering that particular pitfall. But I hope you're able to make yourselves decent on short notice, because I'm not here on a social call. We need your parents' expertise."

"Dammit." Immediately Reyn forgot all about his annoyance. "What happened?"

"An unfortunate encounter between Rex and a Megaseadramon. Air rescue team is on their way...in less-than-stellar time, unfortunately, as they are not exactly well-coordinated. At least they're moving…never have I been so grateful that physics works differently for digimon."

"Well, doesn't THAT sound lovely. Remind me not to call them for emergency rescue."

"What…ah, right," Darkvargmon chuckled. "Your fear of heights."

"Excuse me, it's NOT a fear of heights," huffed Reyn. "It's a fear of FALLING. Heights are fine, just getting down is the problem. Hoping that they don't actually drop him, how bad is it?"

"I can't say. Several injuries, but I can't tell how severe they really are."

"Crud. Mom's home tonight, she'll be able to help. And she works late shifts so she's used to being up at this time, she'll probably still be downstairs. Let's get going, hopefully it's not worse than it sounds." Reyn hopped out of bed, hurrying out of the room down the stairs.

Darkvargmon gave a look to Salmandmon, who hadn't moved. "You coming?"

"In a moment. Uhm…gotta get decent."

"Ah, right. Well, don't take too long. Not that you'll be doing much more than watching, but your presence may be useful anyway."

"Gee, thanks." Sal's sarcastic response got nothing more than a chuckle out of Darkvargmon, before the canine phased back out of the room. Leaving the lizard alone to collect himself…and give himself a little hell for his spat with Reyn just a minute before…

—

"This is insane. Complete, utter madness."

"You know, no one ASKED you to come down here." Reyn wasn't exactly being patient with his brother, who was glaring at the collection of creatures in the living room. Andrexmon was seated on the floor, getting some attention from Minerva, who was working on disinfecting and stitching up the gash on his head; he'd roused from unconsciousness, at least, which was the first bit of good news in a while. The underwater module was deactivated, making it easier for him to be examined; he still seemed somewhat out of it, but not so much that it was immediately concerning. Boltfalkemon, Skydramon, and Darkvargmon were all around as well, something that wasn't sitting too well with Wally.

"Those freaking stomps could have raised the dead. Why the hell wouldn't I want to figure out what was going on? Except for the fact that everyone's going completely insane and letting weird-ass creatures overrun this place."

"I guarantee you they were doing something more important than whatever it was you were planning on doing tomorrow," remarked Salmandmon, doing his best not to sound too biting and only half-succeeding. "Or have you forgotten that we're kinda fighting a war out there?"

"That doesn't mean I want this stuff shoved in my face," Wally replied testily.

"Then go back upstairs and go to sleep already. No one's keeping you down here."

"What if one of them attacks? How can I trust any of these things?"

"I guarantee you an attack is FAR more likely if you continue to stand down here irritating us while we're already stressed out," Darkvargmon cut in, with an acerbic look at Wally that made him jump a bit. "If you insist on offering nothing of value, please depart, with all due haste."

"…Grrr. Fine…" One last glare, and Wally finally headed upstairs, making rather a good bit of noise himself.

"He seems to be taking this well," quipped Boltfalkemon with an ocean of sarcasm.

"He's always been that way, more or less," said Skydramon tiredly.

"Not as bad as this. I get that he's stressed out, but he could choose his targets better."

"I don't know what's been on his mind lately," sighed Minerva as she finished up on Andrexmon's head, then went back to checking his arm; that wound had already been stitched up, though she didn't seem too satisfied with it. "I've been trying to talk to him but he isn't even opening up to me now, and usually I was the one he was most willing to talk to. Something is on his mind but he won't let us do anything about it…" A shake of her head, and then she let it drop. "At least you seem to be doing better."

"Not great, but definitely better," grunted Andrexmon. "I can't thank you enough, I really needed this."

"It's the least I can do to help you out for all you're doing for us. And it's an experience, too…I'm sure no one at the hospital can say they've applied first aid to a half-robotic dinosaur creature. And Jill says I never have any interesting stories to tell over lunch." She laughed quietly, but his expression turned down as she inspected the sutures on the arm wound. "But are you sure this is enough? This is quite a large laceration."

"It'll be enough. I just need something to help hold it together while auto-repair does its job, so I'm not bleeding all over the place. Wanna make sure it's really close to fully knit before I try to split."

"Why does that matter?" asked Skydramon. "I thought we recovered after we separated."

"I don't think that's the whole story...these forms heal up faster than most ordinary creatures, yeah, but…every time we split, I notice that I still remember where I got hit and I still feel it for a bit. I think we only partly recover after separating…minor wounds, typical bruises, things like that, they're mostly just aches, but I'm not convinced that a big open wound like this would go away so quietly. And I have no idea what kind of effect that would have on us, if it would recover properly in that state or what…I'd rather not run tests when I don't know what the answer's going to be. And same goes for large scars…if those showed up, what impact would they have?"

"I know this isn't helpful, but…those kinds of questions are definitely making me feel less comfortable," said Minerva worriedly.

"Trust me, same here," agreed Boltfalkemon. "I never thought deeply about that before, but now that he brings it up…there's still a lot we don't know about this combination thing we're doing. What caused it to happen, how injuries affect it, whether it's going to have long-term effects on us, things that I kind of wished I knew, and yet there's literally no way of knowing from anything other than experience, because we're unprecedented. And there are too many experiences we can't or don't want to risk having."

"Clearly we'll just have to avoid getting seriously injured ever," said Skydramon with a shrug. "Piece of cake, right?"

"Levity, well-intentioned though it is, is unfortunately not clearing the air here," Darkvargmon noted.

"I know, but what the heck do you say to something like that?"

"Let's try to focus on the positives here, guys," Salmandmon said. "Things didn't go as planned, but you're all alive, and you're gonna live again to fight another day. And while there's still one big ugly problem at the bottom of that lake, you took out the rest of them. That means that we can work on figuring out a plan to deal with that remaining digimon without having other distractions, minus the usual."

"That is true," agreed Darkvargmon. "Tonight was not altogether a disaster, merely suboptimal. We have the chance to regroup and…oh dear. I think we have another guest."

Reyn started. "Huh? Emperius?"

"No…closer to home. Much closer, in fact."

"WHOA!" The meaning behind that line was quickly clear as Cayden suddenly rushed down the stairs, nearly tripping before getting to the bottom. As soon as he reached, he made a beeline for Andrexmon, getting right up in his face as his eyes nearly split open in awe. "Dino robot! So coooool!"

"Easy, kid." Andrexmon leaned back a little, trying not to push Cayden with his metal arm. He chuckled a bit at the fawning boy. "Oh, right, you're the one that's ga-ga for dinosaurs, aren't you?"

The starry-eyed boy nearly squealed. "Wow! How did you know that?!"

"I know everything, kid. Except how to not get my a-uh, keister kicked by an overgrown sea snake. You're staying out of trouble, right? Staying away from all the nasty monsters?"

"Y-yeah…I'm trying to…but there was this mean one that came to our house…but my brother protected us and blew him apart!"

"Typical…doesn't even remember I was there," remarked Boltfalkemon.

"What are we, chopped liver?" griped Skydramon.

"Sorry, guys," Reyn cackled, unable to hold it in. "Face it, dinosaurs are just cooler than you."

"That's junk! Dragons are ALWAYS cool!"

"The existence of one of your constituents is proof in dispute of that," Darkvargmon jibed.

"Cayden, honey…" Minerva went over to the younger boy and began to usher him back towards the stairs. "He's been busy tonight and needs to rest. And you need to get back to sleep as well, I know you don't have school but you should still get up nice and early."

"Aw…why doesn't Reyn have to get up early?" pouted Cayden.

"Because my hot-foot doesn't work on him," cracked Salmandmon. "And I haven't figured out a better way to drag his butt outta bed without torching half the room."

"Do the words 'alarm clock' mean anything to you?" asked Boltfalkemon.

"Yeah, they mean 'Satan's biggest attack on humanity,'" grumped Reyn.

After a bit more prodding, Cayden eventually returned upstairs, settling things back down once again. Minerva headed back over to Andrexmon, giving the sutures one final look over. "Well…they look to be holding, at least. I'll have to trust you that your body will do most of the work…but it sounds like you need to stay like this for a while."

Andexmon nodded. "Yeah, I do…and I'm a little worried about whether that's gonna cause me issues. I can't go back home like this, there's no way I'll be able to sneak in this way. And of course, I left my light on…someone's gonna find out about that."

"That, at least, has been addressed," reported Darkvargmon. "I took the liberty of doing so while you were getting patched up."

"…I don't recall giving you permission for that."

"'Thank you, Darkvargmon, you did me a great service.' 'It was nothing, my cyborg comrade, anything to help keep things peaceful.'"

"I'd say don't put words in his mouth, but they don't even really come out of his mouth, do they?" snickered Boltfalkemon.

"If you need a place to stay, you can stay here," offered Minerva. "You're welcome to rest as long as you need to, or want to."

"Just so long as I don't have to give up my bed," cracked Reyn. "Not that your oversized frame would fit in it anyway. Don't think it'll fit the couch either, for that matter."

"Oversized frame…" Andrexmon let out a snort. "Whatever you say, short stuff. I'll be fine on the floor here. I can't stay too long anyway - I will have to get back before my folks wake up, because there's no way I'm sneaking in after they're out of bed. But a few hours to snooze here and let things mend would do me a world of good."

"I'll help out," added Darkvargmon. "I can keep watch on things and let you know if it looks like there's movement. We'll make sure you get back in one piece and without incident."

"Thanks…" the cyborg let out a sigh, not sounding too happy about things still. "And I shouldn't keep the rest of you, either…"

"Oh, yeah, we should probably head back and, uh, sleep like normal people," said Skydramon.

"As opposed to sleeping like abnormal people?" asked Boltfalkemon.

"Well, Wolfy IS here…"

"I may just rouse YOUR parents inconveniently," the wolf harrumphed.

—

Mercifully, the rest of the night passed uneventfully. Just as dawn was breaking, Isaac and Datacarnomon were sneaking down the road towards their house. They were a bit more exposed than was comfortable, but all the better to conserve what little energy they'd managed to recover. The few hours of sleep and recovery time had thankfully been as effective as they hoped, and they were left without major wounds to worry about when separating back into human and digimon again…though, neither one would have called themselves well-rested. And Darkvargmon was covering their return, making sure no one was awake or in the path of their return. Not that too many were active at this hour even in the best of times, but there was no point in not being as cautious as possible.

They reached the side door, and unlocked the door carefully. "Any activity inside, werewolf?"

"Must you continue to call me that?" asked Darkvargmon as he phased into view.

"You want me to go with 'Wolfy' instead?"

"…point taken. You should be good to go, so long as you don't make excessive amounts of noise. Which leads me to suggest carrying Data inside."

"Tch, you say that like I didn't carry him out. I'm well aware of how noisy he can be."

"I knew I should've invested in sonic dampeners," groused Datacarnomon. "Thanks for the cover, Darkvargmon. Hope your day's less eventful than our night."

"Every day makes me feel less and less like hope should be expent on that, but the sentiment is appreciated," replied Darkvargmon with a nod. "Get some rest and we'll talk on what to do next. Later." He disappeared again, and Isaac took Datacarnomon on his back and slipped inside.

It wasn't a totally soundless entry, but it didn't have to be, just so long as Isaac was quiet enough not to be noticeable. A few squeaks from the door and creaks from the floor weren't going to rouse anyone upstairs. Soon enough, he'd ascended the stairs and gotten back into his own room. Only then did he let Datacarnomon off of him and onto the floor again, sighing deeply. "Okay…well…at least THAT went well…" he muttered, not sounding as enthused by that as the words suggested.

"Hopefully that trend continues," said Datacarnomon. "You think you're gonna be able to sleep in without drawing any attention?"

"…Who's sleeping?"

"Uh? You're…not gonna try to sleep more?"

"That Scylla wannabe's still in there. I'm not gonna want to sleep until it's not." Isaac trudged over to his computer, waking it from sleep and flopping down in his chair. "I've got a few ideas in mind, and I want to make them happen before I lose them. Don't try to talk me out of this."

That was about the exact opposite of what Datacarnomon wanted to agree to at the moment, but he had a feeling that might not go over well. With a sigh, he resigned himself to the reality and crawled under the bed, figuring that at least one of them should try to get some extra shut-eye…though he doubted he was going to rest much easier than Isaac would have…

—

The weather, though significantly warmer, was not exactly bright and beautiful that day - it was overcast, looking like it might rain at any time. That hadn't stopped Reyn and Salmandmon from leaving the house that day though, unusually quiet between them as they walked side by side. The emptiness of the streets had convinced Salmandmon to take the risk of not even hiding behind his Smoke Screen - he knew there was a danger of being seen, but he was getting so annoyed with having to keep it up all the time that he just wanted one break from it. It seemed like there were few better times than with weather that encouraged people to stay inside, whatever they thought of the monster attacks.

The two traveled in silence for a while, not looking at each other apart from some awkward glances here and there. Finally, Salmandmon managed to speak up. "Uh…so…which one of us is apologizing first?"

Reyn started a bit, finally looking directly down at the lizard. "Uh? Wh…how did you know I was…"

"You have that look on your face. I've worn that one before."

"Oh…well…" Reyn coughed a bit. "I guess I'll go first, then…I'm sorry I was giving you crap about your dreams. It wasn't fair of me…I mean, they're dreams, you don't control them, whatever you're dreaming about is what you're gonna dream about. It's…awkward having that…shared experience in some of them, I guess, but that doesn't give me the right to snap at you about it. You weren't trying to do anything to me, it's just what happened. So, I'm sorry about getting angry at you."

"Apology accepted. And now it's my turn." Salmandmon took a deep breath and let it out in a burst of steam through his nose. "It might not have been fair, yeah, but I didn't respond well to it, either. I shouldn't have been…dismissive of your discomfort, or said stuff that was, uh, provocative. I might not be able to control it but I can control how I respond to your reactions, and I didn't do that well." The lizard closed his eyes. "I guess sometimes I have a hard time remembering that you and I, we're in different stages of life…even if were pretty close in years, we're different types of people who grow and develop at different rates and with different, uh, characteristics, I guess. You humans develop a lot more slowly than we do, so the way we respond to certain things isn't going to be the same just because we're close in 'age.' I really should be better at realizing that considering what insight I have into this world, but…I dunno, I guess I forget because of what we're doing together. You're taking on a responsibility that's…extremely adult even for our world, no matter what's going on you don't put kids into combat over there. I…guess I'm trying to tell myself constantly that you're not a kid so that I don't get sick over this."

"Sal…" Reyn didn't really know how to respond to that, but he was going to do his best. "You didn't force me into this. Or any of the rest of us. You didn't realize what was going to happen, and once we heard about what was up…none of us were really given that much choice, you can't have something like this and really say no to what it means, but we still chose to accept that and try to face it head-on. I'm not gonna lie, it's been stressful…but we're not like…well, my younger siblings. They don't really understand it, not entirely…I do get it, and so do the others."

"Yeah…I know. It's…you all are in…well, kind of an unfamiliar state. Digimon, once they've gotten to that key point where it all starts to click in the brain, they're just…there. It's like you flip a switch and they're adults. We don't really have digimon in a stage like you guys are in, where you're still developing but you have some of that savvy that adults do…I guess that's part of what's throwing me off, we don't really know how to relate to you because it's something that just doesn't exist over there. Even Data wouldn't know if there's no info to work with. So maybe we're overthinking it a bit…but at the same time, this still isn't something even your type of kid should be involved in. And it's…a bit tough feeling like the adult when I can't afford to be as responsible as I feel like I should be."

"…You're stressed out, too, aren't you?"

A slight, wry laugh from Salmandmon. "That's understating it pret-ty hard. But it's tougher for me, because…for whatever reason, they all see me as the leader, and that means I'm supposed to be the one stoking them all up. So I have to downplay my stress as much as I can so that they don't all get stressed out that I'm losing it. I don't really love it…I still don't know why they don't pick Data. He's a better tactician, and he has ways of compartmentalizing stress that I could only dream of. But, they don't see it that way, I guess, so…I've gotten good at hiding the stress, I guess. But that doesn't make it go away…"

"And when we're stressed out, we don't always have the best ways of acting and reacting towards each other," Reyn finished. "So we get snippy about things, we lose our cool, and we don't act the way we should."

"Yeah. And I'm sorry about that. Because you're right, I think a lot of it is just…that we're not in the best mindset, we're getting heated over things that shouldn't be a big deal. But…I'm still the adult here, and someone they look up to as a leader, for whatever reason, and that means I'm supposed to be more responsible one. And I wasn't."

Reyn smiled. "Hey, apology accepted. And don't worry about it…I think you do a good job, for what it's worth. You've done everything you can to help prepare me for what we've been up against, I'd say that's pretty responsible."

"Well, if I'm gonna be putting you guys through this, I'd better do everything I can." Salmandmon took another deep breath, but it came out a lot less tensely this time. "Thanks, Reyn. I hope I didn't make that too awkward…an apology like that isn't the easiest thing, but it's important."

"It was fine. I, uh, can't help but wonder how familiar you are with it, though…"

"Familiar enough to wish I wasn't. You only need to have to do it once to know how to work on one of those deep ones."

Reyn could see the troubled expression on Salmandmon's face. "…I know I shouldn't ask, so I'm not going to."

"Well…I can talk about it. It's not a happy thing, but it was also a complicated situation, and there's not much point in not being honest about it. It was a couple years back, and-" Sal's voice cut off, and his head whipped around. "REYN! DOWN!"

Reyn didn't think, he reacted, almost flinging himself onto the sidewalk - just in time to hear something fly over his head. In a rush, he shoved himself back to his feet, scrambling backwards next to Salmandmon, and in a hurry, they merged together, becoming Burnreptimon just as the attacker rose back to his feet.

"Damnation! Was hoping to get you before you pulled that stunt." The cursing creature was a bipedal saurian - Ceramon, the evolution of Crestmon. He stood a little taller than Burnreptimon, and also a good bit broader and more muscular - clearly a power fighter just by appearance. He bore the familiar ceratopsian crest, and the same three horns of his earlier form, but the ones over his eyes were short and stubby, while the one on his nose was long and pointed. His stacked chest had two belts looped crosswise over it, and he wore long, simple and slightly ragged pants.

"Trying to hunt me down and ambush me?" growled Burnreptimon fiercely. "Skullsatamon tried to do the same thing…didn't realize Emperius were all cowards who avoided direct battles now."

"A quick victory is a good victory, and what quicker than not giving the worm a chance to fight?" replied Ceramon. "But if you're that eager to die by my hand, I'll show you how much I outclass you directly!"

"You and all the others, right? Let's just cut to the chase! Pyre Rush!" Burnreptimon fired off his attack at Ceramon, expecting to score a direct hit - but Ceramon was quite a bit faster than he expected, ducking and rolling under the attack. As he set on his feet, he almost seemed to uncoil as he launched himself at Burnreptimon, delivering a vicious punch to the ribs just as the lizard cut his attack, tossing him backwards; he landed hard on the sidewalk, then jumped to his feet, panting and wincing. "Ow…"

"Heh heh…that was just a love tap compared to what I'm capable of," cackled Ceramon.

"If that's love, I don't want to know what hate feels like." Burnreptimon held back on the defensive; the Ceramon certainly wasn't Skullsatamon-level powerful, but he was skilled, and that was another dimension of danger. A thought occurred to him… "Just floating this, you wouldn't happen to have a comrade in red that you're familiar with, would you?"

Ceramon let out a quiet, quick laugh. "Oh, him? Did you roast him already?"

"Only a little. He seems to be eager to get back on his way home, and I know you assholes have the ability to make that happen. I'd be happy to trade him to you for a detente…

"Hah! That scared of me, are you?"

Burnreptimon clenched his jaw. "Fear has nothing to do with it…haven't had many chances to actually talk with you idiots lately, hard to ask questions when I have to keep torching you."

The look on Ceramon's face wasn't promising in the first place, but when he spoke, the contempt was almost liquid. "Too bad. You shoulda flambéd the pathetic little wuss bitch when you had the chance. Guess I'll have to finish the job for you…you've got him locked up? Perfect. I like easy targets."

The audacity of the dinosaur shocked Burnreptimon, but it was only moments before that shock turned to flaring anger. "You won't touch him, monster!" He charged forward, fists blazing and eyes red as he swung ferociously at Ceramon, who quickly parried his first attacks. Though getting singed here and there, he didn't seem to be severely bothered by the flames. Burnreptimon didn't care, though, intent on just putting him off-kilter so he could get some good shots in…except, that wasn't happening, Ceramon was backpedaling but still seemed to be controlling the pace, countering with his own punches and a kick here and there to force Burnreptimon back. It was frustrating the lizard badly, he was landing a couple of shots but at too great a distance to get enough force to really overpower Ceramon.

Just as he thought he was starting to get the edge, though, things went bad in a hurry. Ceramon suddenly shifted, and before Burnreptimon reacted, he got a palm strike to the snout. He let out a hissing cry as he staggered back, holding his nose briefly…then stumbled and jumped back as Ceramon charged forward with his own return salvo. His swings were slower, but definitely more powerful, too much force for Burnreptimon to easily block, so he had to focus on avoidance until he found an opening, or made one. He was starting to wish he'd pulled out the evolution, but then again, that would've given Ceramon plenty of time to line up a strike to hit him as soon as he was out of it…there didn't seem to be any good options here.

Finally, though, he had one lucky opening - Ceramon swing hard, overcommitting and losing balance as his fist just barely missed Burnreptimon's jaw. Quickly, Burnreptimon gave him a left hook followed by a Pyre Rush from his right, catching Ceramon's face in the flames and driving him back. The saurian growled a bit as he righted himself, but acted too slowly to keep Burnreptimon from taking back the momentum. Once again he came at Ceramon, driving him back again as he swung furiously, trying to get past his defenses. Unfortunately, his earlier successes hadn't seemed to throw Ceramon off nearly enough, as he quickly caught back up. "Hah, you're a persistent one, aren't you? Maybe I'll let you live for a bit after beating you to a pulp, give you a front-row seat to what I'm gonna do to these worthless humans. I wonder how long I can make one of them scream before their bodies give out?"

"Bastard!" Burnreptimon screeched as he saw red again, barely missing his swing to Ceramon's jaw. The saurian blocked high, and he saw an opening low, and lunged for it, trying to get a blazing fist to Ceramon's gut - but he wasn't ready for that broad knee to come up right under his jaw, making him stagger - and leaving him wide open for Ceramon's sudden spin, lashing his broad tail to clock the side of Burnreptimon's head and sending him sprawling. He was slower to rise this time, blood pounding in his ears as his vision blurred, the fuzzy image of Ceramon taunting him. Heaving hard, he rose back to his feet, trying to blink away the haze unsuccessfully.

"Heh, I expected more out of you than this," taunted Ceramon. "Not that I mind, laying down and dying like the world you can't protect is more than fitting for tainted scum like you. I'm going to enjoy making you suffer for all you've done to us…"

Burnreptimon's fury crested again, and he ran towards Ceramon, not thinking straight about his attack as he tried to knock the arrogant lizard's block off. His charge was far less effective than he would have wanted, though, and it was about to go from bad to worse. Ceramon grabbed his fist, then sidestepped, flinging Burnreptimon out in front of him and yanking his arm back. Before Burnreptimon could turn himself back around to face him, he screeched out as he felt something sharp impale the back of his shoulder - and then again as Ceramon yanked HARD, and he felt his shoulder painfully dislocate. He was shoved forward roughly, dislodging the horn from his body, allowing him to stagger forward, grabbing his extremely pained shoulder…and then sense caught up with him, and he turned just in time to see Ceramon winding up.

"Saurian Strike!"

The impact of the roundhouse kick hit Burnreptimon square in the ribs, sending him outright flying…and somehow the misfortune got even higher, as he found that there was a very handy house to stop his flight. He impacted hard against the side of the house, his left arm flying back and smashing out a window, causing him to develop several painful gashes on his one usable arm. He crumpled forward onto his knees, all his weight supported on his bleeding arm, every breath making his chest explode with pain…he wasn't even sure how he was still alive after that, it sure felt like he wasn't going to last much longer as it was, every part of him was burning up with pain and his body was only barely cooperating with him.

"Heh heh…end of the line, fire boy. Too bad, you could've saved yourself the trouble by letting me take your head off beforehand." Ceramon strode up to Burnreptimon, grinning down triumphantly at him…he couldn't look up to see it, but it was too obvious in his smug voice. "Just another minor obstacle Emperius overcame to fulfill their destiny. You should've known better than to think you could resist us…but I suppose this world is filled with weak fools...hm?"

Ceramon paused as he neared Burnreptimon, and the wounded lizard could just lift his head enough to find out why. His heart nearly stopped…there was a woman standing at the corner of the house, a middle-aged black woman staring at the scene in front of her. Panic seized him - she appeared to be unarmed, totally defenseless against the lunatic dinosaur that had just kicked his ass.

"Well, well…" Ceramon turned towards the woman, taking a step towards her menacingly. "The humans look as pathetic as rumored. And to think someone thought they might even remotely be a threat…maybe I oughta take a little time to see what you might be good for as a plaything. Heh, one toy they won't care if I play rough with, just as I like to-"

It was Ceramon's first real mistake, and his last. Perhaps he couldn't be blamed for thinking that Burnreptimon was out, the lizard looked a wreck and felt like a worse one…but desperation was a powerful motivator. He couldn't let Ceramon do whatever he was thinking of doing to that woman, not so long as he drew breath - summoning up every last bit of strength he could muster, he shoved himself upright and leapt at Ceramon, whose back was turned. Blazing fangs sank into the dinosaur's neck, blood spurting out fiercely as they embedded in deep, and Burnreptimon unleashed all the power he could muster in his Flare Fang to try to deliver an ambush killing blow, just as Ceramon had tried to do with him. Only his met with success, as Ceramon let out a horrific bellow as significant parts of his neck and spine were brutally incinerated. Burnreptimon didn't let up until he felt the flesh in his maw disintegrate into data, ending the threat before anything worse could happen…the taste of blood lingered on his tongue, though, something that wasn't going to be easily covered up.

He heard a gasp…the woman. She was staring at him now, and he was staring back at her, heaving, holding one limp arm with a bloody one, looking bruised and bleeding openly…he dully wondered if she was more shocked at what he was, what he'd done, or how he looked. And then some part of his brain told him that he didn't want to find out. He took a stumbling step back, then another…and then turned and took off, throwing discretion to the wind as he pushed his overtaxed body to run off to somewhere that might be safer than that. He heard a voice behind him, but didn't react to it, his vision blurring again as he tried to pull energy from anywhere he could to fuel his escape…with only a little bit spared for an important thought.

I lost control. I let him bait me. He used my anger against me…I can't…let that happen again…it almost killed me…next time it might not be 'almost.'

—

"I don't want your jailor charity anyway."

"…This isn't jailor charity, this is literally trying to keep you alive."

Shadowdramon scoffed. "I know what this is all about. You're trying to get something out of me by pretending you actually care about me, and trying to intimidate me by taking that form that's clearly designed to be able to hurt me, without giving me a real chance to fight against you. Well, do your worst, you can't get water out of a stone. Fight me properly if you want something from me."

Boltfalkemon was trying to remain patient, but it was challenging in the face of the obstinate little dragon. She'd only come to bring them food and water so that they weren't going to be suffering too much, and was only merged together because she'd had an unfortunate run-in with a Nohemon on the way there. Neither of which Shadowdramon had to know about, really, and she wasn't inclined to tell him too much with the way he was acting. "Look, if you want to volunteer anything that can help you get us out of our hair faster, I'm all ears. I'd rather we didn't have to be distracted by taking care of you."

"Tch, whatever. I told you already I don't know anything. And we'll hold out, we won't accept your attempts to sway us…oh, COME ON." Shadowdramon's frustration came as he saw Crestmon immediately digging into the offered provisions. "You are SUCH a pushover."

"I'm also hungry," came the short, stressed response. "They keep bringing us food whether we give them anything or not, they aren't trying to squeeze us."

"Rrgh…I just had to be stuck with YOU of all the troop. Talomon would've been fighting to the last…"

Boltfalkemon could sense there was little point in focusing on Shadowdramon, so she turned her attention to Crestmon, kneeling down next to him. "You're right, we're going to keep making sure you stay alive regardless of whether you tell us anything or not. But if there's anything you know that could help us, and yourself, we'd be happy to hear it."

Crestmon swallowed, then shook his head. "Sorry. We, uh…we weren't really…given a lot to go off of. The general who gave us orders…Kuzuhamon doesn't like our kind. We're variables, and there's some in Emperius who think that being variable is a sin…that we choose to take weak forms when we could be in powerful forms all the time if we wanted. I sort of think maybe she just sent us off just so we could be out of the way, and doesn't really care what happens to us."

"It was a TEST," Shadowdramon insisted. "A test of self-sufficiency! I'm sure she doesn't really hate us, she just wants to push us harder. Not like we've reached our full potential anyway, and everyone knows variables are stronger than statics when they have. Maybe one of us could've reached Ultimate if we hadn't had that stupid disruption, a powerful battle is good for that!"

Boltfalkemon tried not to pay too much attention to Shadowdramon directly, just filing away little bits of info here and there while continuing to speak to Crestmon. "You weren't given an objective or anything?"

"Just…dig in and wait for orders, and provide intel to those who come through. But I don't even know what kind of intel she wanted. Not that it matters, I'm not providing much anyway."

"Hm. That would make sense if Emperius was trying to be subtle or sneaky, but they really haven't been doing much of that so far…" As she mulled on that, she heard a loud noise from upstairs. "Uh-oh…what now?" Cautiously she stepped out; the door was open behind her, but both digimon were still restrained, she wasn't too worried about an escape, more so about an intrusion.

She got considerably more worried about something else when she saw Burnreptimon staggering down the stairs, bleeding and holding his right shoulder. "Holy crap! Are you okay?!"

"Mrrg…not…really…" Burnreptimon dropped to the ground pretty much immediately after he hit the bottom of the steps, Boltfalkemon rushing over to help before he did more damage. "Oof…I'm gonna…need some…help here…I think."

"You want me to get your parents?"

"NO. Absolutely not. Just…you saw the…first aid…kits I brought…right? Grab one…and some water…and start…following my…directions…"

—

"You're not going to like this…"

"I already don't like that you just popped up into my room without warning, werewolf," growled Isaac towards Darkvargmon. "Reyn's right, you really do just do it to mess with us."

"Call it practice keeping on your toes." Darkvargmon was clearly enjoying himself, though. "Data could have warned you."

"No, I couldn't have, I can't track you," replied the robot in annoyance. "And I don't like being ambushed, either. If you have something important to say, that'll draw enough attention on its own."

"Well, I do, in fact. Someone clearly noticed something last night, because agents were crawling all over the place when I last checked. I don't think there was anything out there that's particularly damning, and Megaseadramon certainly didn't seem interested in showing up, but I heard them talking about how something was seen in the water…"

"Great…" Isaac groaned, slumping back in his seat. "As if things weren't complicated enough…they didn't say they were going out there, did they?"

"Not at that point, and I didn't see any boats. I highly doubt they could transfer a warship to Lake Idle, though, and that seems to me to be the only thing that would be even remotely viable against our serpentine acquaintance. I'll be trying to get in touch with the others to let them know we have to start planning sooner rather than later, in case someone gets a crazy idea."

"Goody," sighed Datacarnomon. "Can we just start going around with neon signs on us saying 'We're trying to save your asses, please don't shoot us'? Maybe then they'd stop trying to kill us and stop trying to get themselves killed trying to work from a severe disadvantage."

"Sadly, sense is lacking in certain humans," replied Darkvargmon simply. "Including whoever blocked your communications. And I fear it might be too late for the BICI…they're the ones doing most of the investigating. If only there was someone there who was actually getting any positive information about us…but what are the chances of that happening?"

—

The scene was pretty chaotic when Emil got there, and that wasn't making him feel any easier about things. Already he wished Elliot was there, but they had to divide and conquer - Elliot was investigating a suspicious report near Lake Idle, leaving him as the only one to scramble to the sudden monster-related incident that had been called in just minutes ago. And the immediate impression of the scene was not a comforting one, with obvious signs of both scorch marks and blood visible pretty quickly, not to mention the rather large dent in the siding of the house and the broken window. There was no doubt about it, something had gone down here.

As he approached, he could hear something of a commotion from nearby. A middle-aged black woman was arguing with a rather exasperated-looking police officer. With no one else around other than officers, Emil had to presume she was the witness…they had had precious few actual interviews with witnesses to active events, less so when they had been personally involved. If she had something to offer, it could get them a lot closer to their goal. So he made his way over to them, trying to catch what they were saying.

"I'm telling you what happened! Why are you treating me like I'm making stuff up?"

"Ma'am, I'm just saying-"

"You're just saying I'm lying!"

"You're confused. It's a very stressful situation, you start feeling panic and hysteria, and you recall things that don't make sense."

"The only one not making sense here is you!"

"Ma'am…"

"You there!" Emil jumped a bit as the woman pointed at him, suddenly noticing he was approaching. "Maybe you'll listen to me! I saw what happened! I swear it! This guy doesn't even seem to care!"

"She's making a report that doesn't make any sense," insisted the officer.

"I'll be the judge of that," Emil replied shortly. "Go do something else." The officer shrugged and gave him a she's all yours look as he walked away, leaving the agent sighing as he pulled out his notebook and looked at the woman. "Sorry about that. We REALLY need to take a hard look at our police force…"

"I should say so! You'd think he'd care about a witness statement to something like this! I didn't get a big ol' bust in my siding and window to be called a liar!" She certainly didn't seem hysterical to Emil - intense, maybe, but completely in control.

"Why don't you tell me what you observed?"

"Well, it was like this. I was sitting inside watching TV, not planning to go out because, you know, it's dangerous out there right now. Then I start hearing shouting…a few different voices, I'm not sure how many were out there all at once. I was kind of curious, but also leery at the same time, you know, 'cus you said those monsters could talk, right?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Well, I was caught between trying to decide whether to go look or not when I heard a loud bang, and my window got busted up! One of their arms went right through it! So that's when I run outside, and I see two creatures! One of them is that red lizard one you guys were talking about, I know it was!"

That bit of news helped some excitement pierce through Emil's exhaustion. "It was? That could be big news, yes. What about the other one?"

"It was some dinosaur-looking thing. Not the one you guys were talking about before, though, no metal or anything, and it looked like a…a…shoot. What's that one that my nephew likes? The big one with the horns?"

"Uh…triceratops?" ventured Emil.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, that's the one! Though the one here had one way big horn, I think, but it looked kinda like that, except it stood on two legs. And it was MEAN, that one, it looked at me when I was out there, and I swear, you know how you can look at some people and see murder in their eyes? Well, yeah, you should know, you're one of those agents, you probably deal with them all the time."

"Let's, uh, focus on the monsters for the moment. Did you get attacked?"

"No, I didn't! A damn good thing too, because that thing probably coulda taken my head off. He sure as hell sounded like he would, he was threatening me with all sortsa nastiness, he didn't say what but you could just hear it in his voice, he wanted some damn victims! But that red one sure as heck took a beating, I dunno how it was still alive as bad as it looked! But the dinosaur thing got distracted by me, and then the red one, it…it just…it leapt up, bit the damn thing on the neck!"

Emil did a double take. "I'm…sorry? Did you say one monster attacked the other?!"

"It did! And it bit HARD, like I could see the blood coming out! And then a buncha fire came out of the red's mouth, and that dino thing let out a horrible sound and then…I swear, I'm not making this up, it just kinda…dissolved!"

"Dis…dissolved?" The color had drained from Emil's face. "What…are you saying?"

"Dissolved! Or something like that! It like turned into little bits of something that just blew away and disappeared! I swear, I have 20/20 vision, I have all my life, I'm not making any of this up, you'd see a damn body if that hadn't happened!"

Emil had to presume that was the truth, there was definitely no body and it was highly unlikely this woman would have had the strength to move a creature the size she was claiming. "What…what about the red lizard?"

"Well, that's the odd thing. It looked at me a few moments, and then it just took right off! Scooted down the road faster'n anything I could after taking a whuppin' like it did! I didn't try to follow it, so I don't know where it went, just that it went down that way. I mean, I think I coulda taken it the way it was, but I'm not glad I didn't have to try, you know?"

"I…I see. That…is quite the story, ma'am. You're sure about everything you just attested to?"

The woman huffed, folding her arms. "Of course I am! I just saw a helluva thing to see, you think I'd just yap about whatever? And who should I talk to about my window? Those aren't cheap, you know!"

Emil rubbed his head; of course she would have to bring that up. "Talk to your insurance company. I think monsters are probably covered under 'acts of god.' Even if this isn't the work of any god I know of."

"Sure as hell not! HEY! Watch where you're stepping! I put a lot of money into that garden!" The woman stomped off to deal with some straying officers, leaving Emil to review the notes, the story, and his aching head.

They were fighting. There's absolutely no other explanation. The fire lizard attacked another monster. Why? I thought these things were all supposed to be on the same side…something is definitely NOT lining up here. I really need to talk to Elliot about all this, and soon. If there's some kind of discord between some of these creatures, though…maybe there's something we can do with that.

—

"I REALLY don't know about this."

"I've seen my dad do it like three times. He taught me how. Just trust me."

"It doesn't seem like it would be enough."

"That's what I said. Dad said trying to jerk it back in like they do on TV is definitely NOT how it's supposed to work. He's reset more shoulders than I could count, so I'm going with him on this."

"Unn…okay…here goes." Boltfalkemon took hold of the wrist on his injured side, and started moving it up and down in a handshake motion while slowly moving the outstretched arm to a higher angle. Burnreptimon was staying still, controlling his breathing and willing the pain down; he was already somewhat patched up, the gouge from the horn attack wrapped up and gauzed while he tried to apply extra heat to staunch it further, and the gashes on his other arm wrapped up nice and tight, dealt with as best they could be. His body was still aching all over, though he hoped that would lessen as the painkillers kicked in…and that he wasn't going to be left with too many nasty bruises to remind him of this debacle.

Boltfalkemon continued to move his arm away until it was 90° away from his side, then kept moving it up and down in place while also rotating it a little. "Are you…really sure-"

"It's already getting better. Just keep at it…you can start moving it up, just not too far."

Boltfalkemon nodded and slowly angled his arm more towards his head, stopping partway up and continuing to rotate it. She was surprised how much better it looked already, it was a subtle enough change that she hadn't even seen it. "Is it…"

"Mmph…yeah. Still hurts like the dickens, but it's back in place." Burnreptimon slowly sat up, rubbing the shoulder with a pained hiss. "Next step is usually to sling it, but I think I'm gonna have to hope that it heals as quickly as the rest of me seems to. I'm definitely gonna avoid trying to do too much with it for a bit."

"So you're gonna hang down here for a while, then?"

"Yeah. Might be for the best anyway…"

"Burner…what attacked you?"

"It was a Ceramon. Nasty bastard…he was out for blood, bad as anything. And he was a lot tougher than I expected, too…I only won because he got distracted. Speaking of which, I definitely got seen."

"Cripes. Things haven't been going well for us, have they?" Boltfalkemon sighed, shaking her head. "You've been getting battered a lot, Andrexmon just got knocked out…"

"Yeah, I know. It's because they're hunting us. They know we're the threat, they've started to send in guys that are meant to put us down so they can attack freely. I think that's another reason that it's been so hard to get them to turn tail lately, too…the mons they're sending over are those who have a lot more bloodlust."

"That Nohemon I ran into earlier…it didn't even seem to hear what I said. I guess that's why."

"We need to make sure that warning gets out to everyone. They need to know that they have to be vigilant at all times when they're outside. Or even inside, not like they're going to treat houses as sacrosanct…they already clearly have a bead on me, might not be long before they've zeroed in on all five of us. But Ceramon went in for the quick kill…they're not messing around."

"Ah!" Both hybrids turned their heads towards the open prison door. They could barely see Crestmon in there, eyes wide. "Did…Did you say Ceramon?!"

"Yeah…oh…" Suddenly Burnreptimon remembered. "You…uh. You know…knew him, didn't you?"

Crestmon flinched at the change of tense. "I…yeah. He…he's…my brother."

Uh-oh. "Uhm…really. Yeah, I…got the sense that he was…familiar with you."

"…He didn't want to take me back, did he?"

"…Sorry. No, he didn't." Burnreptimon decided that it perhaps was wise not to divulge the full extent of what Ceramon had said about him.

Crestmon slumped back, sighing dismally. "I knew it…he…he was never that good to me, but he got even worse…after…"

"What happened?" asked Boltfalkemon.

"We have another brother…Wartriceramon. He's always been a power seeker…he, uh…he tainted himself with a virus just to strengthen himself. He was never friendly before, but that just made him even more vicious…and then, all of a sudden, he forced us to join Emperius with him. Well, uh…he forced me. Ceramon…he was happy to join, he thought it would get him as strong or stronger than Wartriceramon…I never really wanted to be there, though, it's full of creepy and hateful people…I just…they told me that I could suck it up or they'd be happy to show me what they did to weak people."

An uncomfortable silence lingered after that; even Shadowdramon apparently had sense enough to keep his mouth shut. Eventually Burnreptimon spoke, albeit hesitantly. "I'm sorry you've had to go through that…that's pretty low. I can't imagine turning on my own family like that. Even the ones I get annoyed with, I wouldn't do that to them…"

"It's…it's all right." Crestmon certainly didn't sound all right. "I always felt…they never thought much of me because I didn't…I never really wanted to be all that powerful. I think they thought I was wasting a gift because I'm variable…they thought they should have been instead if I wasn't going to use it. Wartriceramon in particular…you…you don't want to run into him. As bad as Ceramon must have been, he's way worse. And he's pissed that he wasn't made one of the generals, so he's even more violent lately…"

"I'm not sure how much choice we'll have to avoid him, but we'll definitely remember that," Boltfalkemon assured him. "And we'll get you out of that influence, too. You deserve better than that…you should definitely be allowed to live life the way you want it, not someone else."

Crestmon nodded morosely, saying nothing more. Burnreptimon felt that ugly heat rising in the pit of his gut again, but not so much that it could overcome the pain he was in. Emperius ruined the lives of more than just its targets, he was reminded once again…and the way things were going, trying to get people like Crestmon back to their own world was just seeming more and more unlikely with the technique they were relying on. I don't know how…but we're going to have to try to figure out how to built our own PTM unit here. We can't count on Emperius to send reluctant soldiers anymore, not when they have an axe to grind…

—

Datacarnomon was starting to get worried. Isaac had barely spoken two words since Darkvargmon had left; all he'd done was tap away at his keyboard, occasionally growl in frustration, and occasionally stand up to pace around before sitting back down. These were not the signs of someone at ease, not the sign of someone who felt good about how things were going…they were the signs of someone stuck on a problem they didn't know how to solve. He could tell because he'd been there more than a few times in his own life.

The problem was, he didn't know how to address it. He didn't really want to say anything, because he was quite worried it would be the WRONG thing and only make Isaac's mood worse. At the same time, the longer it went on, the more uncomfortable things were getting. He hadn't even eaten that day…Datacarnomon didn't know how long humans were supposed to go without eating, but he doubted it was supposed to be a full day, considering how often Isaac did it normally. This felt like a sticky situation he didn't know how to properly deal with…it didn't help that it was hard for him to know what level he should be relating to Isaac on on this. He's not quite a child, he's not an adult…I don't have an algorithm for this.

There reached a point, though, where he couldn't ignore it anymore…right about the point that Isaac's fist slammed onto the desk. "God dammit!"

Well, there was no doubting what that meant. "Isaac? Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay. We need to go take out that overgrown eel and I don't know how we're going to do it!" Isaac stood back up and started to pace again. "I've been trying to write something with the juice to bring it down, but everything I try to work with runs up against resource limitations! I tried optimizing some of the extant modules but there's not enough there to work with! There CAN'T be nothing that I can do to really give us a better shot!"

"Easy, Ike." Datacarnomon was really starting to wonder if giving Isaac access to those parameters was really a good idea…right now it seemed to be giving the human a lot more fits than help. "It's possible that there's something in there that you've overlooked, but it may just not be possible, either. We have operating limits we have to work within…maybe we should just set it aside for now and-"

"NO!" Datacarnomon jumped at the shout from Isaac. "We can't just do that! We have to finish that thing off TONIGHT! We don't have the time to be waiting around! I know I should be able to come up with something, some kind of ace in the hole! Like hell I can't! I'm not wrong! I know I'm not!"

Yeesh…I'm starting to think his whole thing about 'I'm okay with being wrong' wasn't exactly total honesty…maybe more with himself than with me even. "We don't need to have that much urgency, Ike. If things aren't working now, then we'll have to think about something else, and I'm sure if we confer with the others, we'll be able to-"

"We CAN'T! Didn't you hear Darkvargmon earlier? They're already looking at the lake! They could take boats out TOMORROW! And then the best we can hope for is that Megaseadramon decides to keep snoozing! But if he doesn't, they're gonna be literally eaten up before they can do a goddamn thing! You think they're gonna have any actual weapons out there?! It'll be carnage! And what if it doesn't stay asleep, there's bunches of houses all around the lake that it could destroy without needing to catch its goddamned breath!"

"Ike, please, I need you to-" Datacarnomon had to stop suddenly as the sound of footsteps became audible, quickly ducking behind the bed with a bit of a thump before the door opened. Isaac was left to face the guest alone - his mother Lilith, a tall, lean, raven-haired woman who looked far younger than her early 40s.

"Isaac! What is with all the racket? It's after 11 PM! I know you don't have school but your father's trying to sleep!"

"Uhhnnn…sorry, mom…I'm, uh…" Isaac scrambled for an excuse, before realizing that the truth was fine if he was vague. "…frustrated with this thing I'm trying to program. It's not doing what I want it to, and I'm…not really sure how to deal with it."

"Well, you need to be able to control yourself if you want to succeed in that line of work, whatever it is you want to do. You can't be flying off the handle, especially during quiet hours." Lilith folded her arms and looked severely at him. "I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, people don't want to work with people who are angry all the time. You need to be a little more responsible for your behavior, your father's already getting bothered by your responses when he asks you where you're going. It won't kill anyone for you to be a little more direct in your responses to him, your bosses won't be happy with evasive answers either."

"Yeah, mom…I know…sorry…"

"Well, be sorry, but be quiet. If I have to come in here again it'll be because you pulled me out of bed and trust me, I'll be MUCH unhappier if that happens. Maybe you should go to bed as well, it would have to be less frustrating than whatever you're doing." She stepped out, closing the door behind her, and her footsteps retreated away. Datacarnomon climbed back onto Isaac's bed, somewhat awed by what he'd just heard. Dang…Ike might be kinda high-strung, but I think I know where he gets it from.

"…Sorry you had to see that, Data," Isaac huffed quietly, folding his arms and looking away.

"You don't have to be sorry for ME," Datacarnomon replied, making sure to dim his volume setting. "They're both tight as hell on you. What's their deal?"

"I wish I knew. They seem to think I'm always just a few steps away from crashing and burning or something. It drives me nuts, they never seem to talk like this to Ashley. I mean, they aren't cruel, they just…always seem like they hold me to a higher standard. Even though I've never done anything really out of bounds…ugh, I can't think about this right now, there's too much else that's going wrong."

"Yeah, and that's where I get to apologize because I'm gonna be talking at you, too. Ike, I appreciate that you're taking this as seriously as you are, but…you're gonna burn yourself into nothing if you can't pull back a bit. Trust me, I've seen it in the KOL, new recruits that are gung-ho and try to get involved in everything, and they fall apart after a while because it's too much. You have to treat yourself right, too…not eating all day because you're too immersed in something isn't good for you."

"…" Isaac was quiet for a moment, letting out a bit a tight sigh. "I just…don't want to let a disaster happen because I didn't do something about it when I could. It's bad enough already…"

"Bad enough how?"

Another silence. "I get breaking news feeds to my e-mail…I've been trying not to focus on them because of everything, but…so far, they've…found eight people dead, under mysterious circumstances. Nothing's been said about what happened, but…"

"But you're pretty sure it's the work of digimon."

"How can it not be? It's all been within the last couple weeks, and anything that isn't a digimon attack, they've been making clear that it isn't. And we know we haven't been catching them all…who knows how many have shown up that we haven't been able to track, and then there's the ones that do but are gone by the time someone gets out there…those are bad enough. But we KNOW Megaseadramon is there, we KNOW he's close to properties where people live…how could I excuse myself if I just…let something happen?"

Datacarnomon nodded. "I understand…it's an ugly feeling knowing there's a threat out there. But Ike, I need you to realize…this deck is so goddamn stacked against us that even I wouldn't gamble on it. It's several miracles on top of one another that we've even managed to come through as well as we have. You've taken down violent digimon hell-bent on killing swathes of people, you've sent most of the threats we've faced to the grave or back safely to the other world, you've even written up ways to get around lots of our natural disadvantages mostly on your own, which is SUPER impressive. Because of you, this world's avoided the worst of what could have happened…but it's an unfortunate reality of this kind of thing, bad can't always be avoided. In my time at the KOL, we trained, we prepared, we did everything we could…and we still lost battles sometimes. We lost people even when we won battles. People we were trying to protect died. And sometimes we got ambushed…sometimes in the worst way. One of our subcommanders had a brother he brought in, someone he trusted and who was definitely strong enough to stand against Emperius…and the took a few partners out on a mission one day, then turned on them, executing them, and running off to Emperius. It was horrible, and there was nothing we could have done to predict it - he hadn't done anything unexpected up to then."

"Jesus…" Isaac's voice was a touch shaky. "That does sound awful."

"It was," agreed Datacarnomon grimly. "But that's war. It sucks, and sometimes it brings out the worst in people. What I'm trying to say is, we can do everything right and sometimes it's still going to go badly, we can win and it's not going to be perfect. We might not be able to save everyone. That doesn't mean we don't stop trying, but it means we have to be able to accept something short of perfection, because we're just not going to be perfect."

"…I guess you're right…I just…don't like the idea of coming up short when it really matters."

Or any other time, I think…but when it matters, it's definitely worse. "Neither do I. But things aren't just going to go our way all the time."

Isaac went quiet again, and then stood up. "We should probably get going. It won't be a good idea to be out there too late."

"Ike…are you sure?"

"I heard what you said…and I know you're right. But…in this case, it doesn't really matter, does it? We're the only ones who can engage Megaseadramon underwater, and letting him get above water isn't going to help. It's got to be us…and if it's got to be us, then we might as well try to go as fast as we can. Like you said, we might not be able to save everyone, but that doesn't mean we don't stop trying."

Hesitantly, Datacarnomon nodded. "You've got a point, I guess. Shouldn't we tell the others, though?"

"No. I don't want them out there. If we're successful, then they haven't missed anything…if we're not…I don't want them to watch us die out there."

Dire…but realistic. He could have said no, but Datacarnomon felt like it would have been a bad idea to…much as he accepted the realities of what they were up against, he also wanted to protect as many people as possible. And Salmandmon had always told him, sometimes it was important to trust feelings over thoughts, because feelings were where the determination to overcome the odds came from. "All right. Let's do our prep, then."

It wasn't much - Data downloading the updates from the computer, holding them to be activated when they formed Andrexmon. Isaac had little to do except wait and steel himself, and then make sure the coast was clear. Just to be sure, he let Datacarnomon get onto his back as they exited, keeping the robot from clanking too much on the floor. Their exodus was silent and successful, and out they went, into the backyard, to fuse together so they could teleport away.

"Last chance to get a good night's sleep," said Data.

"I won't sleep well until that thing is gone," replied Isaac. "Let's do this."

No more questioning - they combined together, forming their powerful hybrid form. Andrexmon stood there for a moment, running a couple internal checks on the updates in case anything was wrong…finding nothing, he activated his teleport module, and off they went, back to the boat dock. Unaware that the last phase of their departure had not been nearly so clandestine as the rest of it, as a fluttering curtain in the window betrayed activity they hadn't been aware of…

—

The night was slightly warmer, and much quieter. Neither one made Andrexmon feel too good; the cold had been what had kept Megaseadramon less active, and the quiet was just reminding him that he was alone out there, putting himself in danger. If what happened last night was repeated, there was no rescue to take him to somewhere safe…but he doubted that was going to be possible anyway. Megaseadramon wasn't going to let him off easy twice…he simply had to get that serpent first.

With his gear donned, he entered the water again - no big splash, this time he didn't want to alert anyone, anything that gave him the upper hand on Megaseadramon was invaluable. And he had precious little of that…he'd upped the power of his cannon, but it wasn't a huge boost, and there really wasn't all that much more that he could do without running up on Andrexmon's natural limitations. It seemed like the best chance he had was the element of surprise and targeting any weak points he could find, particularly the creature's mouth. But that mouth was going to mostly be pointed at him when attacking…the odds were stacked against him. And yet, he wasn't stopping, diving under and activating his heating program once again. His heart was thudding in his chest, he couldn't remember ever having been this scared in his life…

And it only got worse, as he switched to thermal mode and saw a long, large blob of heat below him. Damnation…it's not dormant anymore. I doubt it's going to be unaware of my approach…

An idea struck him. Megaseadramon would realize he was coming…but that didn't mean he couldn't at least try to get a quick shot in. He changed his Dino Buster, slowing down as he did, using its speed reduction as an asset rather than a liability, taking aim at a spot near what looked like the head of the creature. At full power, he let loose the blast, which tore through the water. Megaseadramon reacted, recognizing the attack and moving - but not fast enough, as the shot hit the side of the creature, making it screech out in pain. First blood! Now time to move fast!

Andrexmon dove down, trying to avoid being in direct line of fire of his mouth and horn, where the most dangerous attacks could be launched. His buster fired out shots as he moved, pelting that hide and pockmarking it with painful pits, doing damage but not enough of it. He needed to concentrate his fire in one spot, but the speedy movement of the sea creature was making that difficult, and his thermal vision didn't make it easy to find that original wound.

Rgh…if I could just focus my attacks on one location, I could do enough damage to tear its body apart…whoa! He swerved out of the way just as that big tail tried to swipe at him. Too close! But him being close might be what I need…yah! He heard a crackle just in time, and dove again to avoid the Thunder Javelin attack - and then had to weave twice more in quick succession, evading another body blow and a River of Power blast. Frustration was starting to build, he had to be too much on the defensive to keep doing damage, and his random buster firings weren't hitting paydirt. Dammit, I have to get close, to see where I've hit him! If I could get an Energy Claw in there…

It was dicey, but he had no choice. He swooped in close again, trying to prepare a vicious claw swipe at the wounded area. He thought he saw it, and closed in, Megaseadramon seemingly having stopped to try to find him…he pushed his speed as much as he could, trying to catch that spot before the reptile zeroed in on him. And then, just as he neared, that body section flung itself down, slamming onto Andrexmon and making his head spin. Before he could regain his senses, he felt something tight wrap around his body, and start squeezing hard. A cry escaped him as he felt the pressure surrounding him painfully. No! It was a trap! He was waiting for me…

Desperately he tried to push and kick away, but that coil of flesh wasn't budging. He switched back to cannon mode, trying to charge up and deliver a punishing blow, but a Thunder Javelin attack made him yell out in pain again, disrupting his charge and making his head reel. Pain was raging through him, he was finding it harder to breathe as the coils tightened, klaxons were buzzing in his skull as emergency warnings were being fed to him one after another, amplifying the reality of the peril he was already aware of. And even those were starting to fade into the background as his ears rang from another Thunder Javelin, the Megaseadramon taking full advantage of his helplessness.

I can't…no… Andrexmon was starting to lose his vision now, everything seemed to be swimming. He felt like he had perilously little energy left, and once that was gone, it was over. Maybe it was futile…but…he tried to shake it off, even a little bit, and gripped tight against the coils, putting all he had in the tank into trying to push away. Come on…come on…I can't…I can't just…give in… The flesh wasn't budging, but he sank his claws in to get a grip and pushed like he never had before. I have to…I won't…let this thing…beat me…I can…do better! I…am a robot! I can…make myself better! For everyone who lives around here…for the others…I have to…be…BETTER!

He wasn't even aware of the glow within his body, flaring up within the water and lighting up the body of Megaseadramon. The creature screeched louder as sharp claws pierced deeper and longer, particularly in that metal arm as new energy coursed through it. The body of the cyborg grew, topping out near ten feet in height and getting quite a bit more muscular, and the metal got bulkier, including a larger module on his right shoulder. And the metal flowed more over him, covering most of his chest and shoulders and his upper legs, as well as the right side of his head; where the metal didn't cover, the scale shimmered metallically, and there were patterns visible in the scales that resembled computer chip or board features. Even the hydro module had changed, the single back jet turning to two and the ones on his legs trebling and getting larger, and his movement through the water feeling freer and less encumbered.

With a roar, the creature let that renewed power surge through him and force apart those coils, making Megaseadramon wail in agony as the muscles were badly torn. It released him, but the damage was done, its movements hindered by the injury, letting the hybrid escape and his head clear. Whoa…holy crap…I evolved! I've become Mecharexmon! I can feel a huge amount of power here…there's more than enough for more advanced modules here! And more than enough in the base set to put an end to this bastard!

He surged towards Megaseadramon, switching to a new visual view, one that actually lit up the body of the serpent and showed him more of the visual, including the multiple areas of injury. Racing towards the open wound that he'd created the first time, he brought his arm up, letting the claws glow brightly. "Now it's your turn! Plasma Claw!" As he passed underneath, he ripped his claws through the flesh, sending a pulse of cutting energy inside. Blood sprayed out as the wound was widened, and another screech from the creature told him just how bad that had been for it.

As he swerved around, another Thunder Javelin hit him square, driving him back a bit. He clenched his jaw, it hurt, but not as bad as it had before. "All right, asshole, you wanna fight from afar? You got it!" He rushed away to avoid a Mega Ice Blast as it shot through the water, reconfiguring his arm to its cannon mode - now not one single opening, but a four-barreled one, each one glowing with deadly energy as he aimed it at the body of the creature. "You'll wish you'd never come here before you die! Saur Blaster!" Each barrel lit up and fired off, in an almost chaingun fashion, each opening launching one pulse and then waiting for the next three to come one after another from its neighbors. Each burst crashed against that scaly hide, doing quite a bit of damage wherever it hit, much closer to Andrexmon's partial charged shot than the uncharged one.

He wasn't done yet, though. As he passed over Megaseadramon, Mecharexmon's shoulder opened up, revealing another payload. "Swarm Missiles!" An octet of missiles launched out, swerving around a bit before zeroing in on Megaseadramon, impacting explosively all over the top of the creature and keeping it occupied with intense pain and many more visible wounds. The Megaseadramon tried to writhe out of the way, but it was no longer fast enough to avoid the devastation onslaught, and its movements seemed to be getting weaker by the moment.

Leaving that already nasty wound in its body an open target as Mecharexmon swing into position. "This is the end for you!" he shouted as he pointed his cannon at that lesion. The four ends began to glow brighter, all together, and Mecharexmon could feel a furious force building within that arm, almost frighteningly powerful. Using his other hand to stabilize, he eyed the aim with his enhanced sensors and unloaded, a long beam of energy blasting from the gun and crashing through that open wound. There was a burst of light and flesh as Megaseadramon's body was ripped in twain at the impact spot, and one final quavering screech was all the creature could manage before it dissipated into nothing, rendering the turbulent waters calm once again.

The rush of the evolution was fading, but not the rush of victory. It's done…it's over! He's gone for good! And I'm not picking anything else up in the water…wow, I can scan with a lot better fidelity like this! It's a shame I can't stay this way…but I'm gonna give Emperius some damn fits with THIS body! Just let them try to take me on!

The mood was spoiled a little, though, as he turned his sensors and attention above the water…and picked up a LOT more signal. Uh-oh…someone definitely noticed me. Looks like I'm gonna have to deal with some stuff…

Slowly Mecharexmon motored towards the docking area, keeping low and relying on his alternate vision schemes to make sense of what was going on. No way…there's gotta be like a dozen guys up there. At least four vehicles…that battle didn't take that long, they must've been close by, they were waiting for something to happen. Dammit, I should've realized…I can't get out here. Maybe I can go into one of the yards and teleport from there…they might see or hear me from a distance but I should be able to get away before they can do anything about it…

He was just about to start moving when he heard shouts and saw a commotion from above. At first he thought they'd spotted him, despite the darkness, but then he noticed everyone was moving away from him…he took a chance moved forward, and popped his head up underneath the dock so he could hear better.

"It freaking grabbed me! What the hell was that thing?!"

"I don't know! I looked all black, I couldn't make anything out!"

"AAAAGH! Something's trying to snare me now!"

"It's like a damn shadow tentacle! It's that dark mystery monster, it has to be!"

"Hurry, try to follow them, they've got to be coming from somewhere! Don't let any of them catch you, you don't know what they could do to you!"

The footsteps were retreating, and Mecharexmon was hearing quiet now. It seemed all the humans had hurried off, trying to pursue the shadow creature…the cyborg let out a snort. So much for out here all on my own…but I'd better take the opportunity while I've got it. He dove again, and then emerged next to the dock, moving as fast as he could to get out of the water and away from the idling cars, letting their engines hopefully cover up his steps as he made his escape. He didn't slow down until he reached the trees at the far side of the boat launch, and then only to get into them without knocking any of them over. Only when he felt he was fairly obscured did he crouch down and speak up. "Oy, werewolf. I know you're there. You're not gonna shock me this time."

"Yet again, Rex, I'm detecting a distinct lack of gratitude on your behalf." Darkvargmon appeared in front of Mecharexmon, sounding mildly amused rather than perturbed. "No appreciation for my timely intervention? They were certainly ready for you."

"Hrmph. I woulda just gone to the far side of the lake and ported out. No way they were gonna be able to come after me underwater."

"Well, now you didn't have to. I'm assuming, by the fact that you are considerably bulkier than normal and also still have all your pieces, that our unacceptably large aquatic threat is no more."

"That's an understatement," chuckled the cyborg. "Mecharexmon rules! I've got enough power in here to blow just about anything to smithereens. And check out the beefcake! Bet you wish you had muscles like this, shadow shrimp."

"Unless you're coming on to me, I think I'll pass. And if you are, I'll still have to disappoint you. Still, it's a good thing you've got the power you do…I can't imagine it would have ended well if you didn't."

"Well…it definitely wasn't going well until then. Why'd you come out here anyway? I never told you I was gonna do this."

Now it was Darkvargmon's turn to chuckle. "Did you really think any of us expected you not to come back out here to 'fix your mistake'? We know you well enough. I threw a couple Blasting Darkness charges out over the roiling water, hoping it would perhaps distract Megaseadramon a little. Not sure if it helped, but it was as much as I could do."

"Jeez…I didn't even notice. I guess I was too busy trying to zip around like my life depended on it…uh, well, thanks, I guess, for trying to help."

"No problem. But, for everyone's sake…please try to rein in your impulses a bit better. I know what drives you. Half of you can't accept that you don't have all the answers. The other half of you has insatiable urges to gamble even against long odds. That's a dangerous combination that can only inspire recklessness. And given the power you're packing, we need you to be around and able to take down the heavyweights that come our direction." Darkvargmon laid a hand on Mecharexmon's organic shoulder. "Past tensions or not, you're an indispensable part of us, Rex. Take that to heart, because you need to believe it more than anyone. You should probably scoot, they're not going to be distracted for much longer."

With that, Darkvargmon faded back into the darkness, and Mecharexmon found himself alone again. Probably not for long, so he readied his teleport module. Those words lingered on him, though. …He might have a point. Gambling isn't just a money thing…maybe I was too eager to take the chance tonight. That might be something 'we' have to talk about…we aren't going to make the best judgments if our impulses feed off of each other. Still…sometimes you've got to take chances, too, and we came out on top because of it…

He shook his head, pushing that aside for now. There would be time ahead to think about that more…and for now, he needed to vanish, and finally sleep well for at least one night.

---

This turned into one of the darker chapters, I think. A lot of serious peril, a lot of serious moods.

One of the biggest tonal shifts I found myself moving towards was the dynamic between human and digimon. In a fair bit of the standard media (at least in the period I was most actively watching), the digimon are essentially support personnel, and the old story played them mostly that way, the backstories notwithstanding. The remaster changes that considerably - here the digimon are meant to be the 'adults in the room', the battle-tested veterans who know what they're doing, looking after the humans while at the same time being reluctantly reliant on them to do much of anything. I've certainly made that more evident with some of the dynamics of the previous chapters, but I think this is the point where the tougher implications of that start to really sink in.

Another factor that I wanted to work in was the notion that not everything is going as smoothly as it might look like through the window. Not that things go very smoothly in this chapter, but there's a larger world out there, too…I'm not a big fan of writing scenes of gratuitous death, but the idea of a very small force not being able to catch everything, especially when they aren't trying to make a big show out of their appearance, makes it all the more reasonable that there should be some recognition that they can't stop all bad outcomes, and it should at least be present in the backdrop.

Anyway, yeah, this chapter got a big beef-up. Not least of which was in the side part with Burnreptimon and Ceramon, which ended up expanded threefold. And yes, I actually looked up how to deal with a dislocated shoulder, I wanted to make sure I had the best technique for that.

Custom mon behind-the-scenes:
-Ceramon is an evolution of Crestmon. Pretty much all that needs to be said.
-Sharkmon may be the least inspired name I've ever come up with, but so it goes, I reserved all the good ones for other variants. It was innovated originally without context to any particular work.

PROGRAMMING UPDATE:

Work continues apace on the writing. As of the time of this, I have the next year's worth of chapters fully written. Apart from spot touch-ups as I review them occasionally, they're ready to go. Their being spaced out over a year is so that I can work on finishing the next batch of them for the next year, as I still have a good bit to go on those ones. Of course, I'm not exclusively working on those, either - I'm trying to get done whatever my head decides it wants to work with when it hits on something, since anything I can prepare ahead of time is less I have to work on as the deadlines get closer. But I ideally would like to have a full year prepped ahead of the next year, so that I don't have a sense of pressure hanging on me to get something done in a rush.

Also, just to give you an idea of just where things have gone writing-wise: The first 20 chapters of the old work, unofficially "Part 1" of the work, clocked in at 162,013 words. The 12 chapters I've posted of this new one register at 162,102. We're only halfway done chapters-wise with the new "Part 1". Yeah...it's a lot. But I think if I can keep up around 250k a year, I'll be able to keep pace. That's doable.