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.

16. Chapter 16: Abundant Revelations

This slightly delayed upload brought to you by travel. That shouldn't be an issue for a bit, so hopefully I'll be getting this up closer to the center of the month for the foreseeable future.

---

Chapter 16 - Abundant Revelations

—

"If there's one faint silver lining to this whole craziness, it's that my professional life has gotten infinitely more interesting." Minerva wiped her brow as she turned to Iris, Reyn, Shockavimon, and Salmandmon. "This…Felismon, she seems to be recovering all right. I'm not entirely sure what the problem was, but I'm guessing it was one I'd consider 'exotic,' am I right?"

"You can say that again," Shockavimon said with a shudder. "Even I'D call it exotic, as well as a few other things."

"Are you all all right? I heard you talking, it sounded like an unpleasant encounter."

"We're fine, but thanks for your concern," replied Salmandmon. It was a bit of a front - he knew it could've gone very badly if not for the timely appearance of Ionfalkemon - but expressing that would not put Minerva at ease in the slightest. "Just a bit tired, but not nearly as bad as we've had in other encounters."

"Uh…mom?" Reyn was looking over at the makeshift beds. "Why's Alisin laying next to Felismon?"

Minerva looked back, seeing her daughter leaning on the bed, stroking Felismon's fur. "Well…you know how she is about cats. And I figured a bit of contact might do her some good, she seemed to respond positively when Alisin was petting her."

"You, uh…DO know that we don't know how she's going to react when she wakes up, right?"

"Dude, Reyn, your kid brother is currently sleeping arm-in-arm with a guy who tried to disembowel me just days ago," remarked Salmandmon, motioning to where Cayden and Talomon were on the floor, sleeping very cutely just as Salmandmon described. "I think maybe their loyalties have shifted JUST a little."

"She WAS calling out to me for help," Iris pointed out. "I can't imagine she could be that vicious towards us after we actually did save her."

Reyn shrugged, conceding. "I guess you're right…I just worry. Cats are a force of nature, it's hard to predict them."

"Force of nature?"

"Yeah. Cats happen to people, like earthquakes or tornadoes. Don't you read all those 'how I became a cat owner' stories? Like 80% of them is just 'a cat appeared in my general vicinity and plopped down, now I have a cat.' They're basically act of god in animal form."

"I wish I could say he was being silly, but at least three of my co-workers had cats happen to them," Minerva said with a quiet laugh.

Shockavimon shook her head. "Your world is weird."

"We've barely even started," agreed Reyn. "One of these days maybe we'll have time to go over the even weirder stuff. But I think the only thing I have time for now is sleep."

"Well, you'll have to adjust your schedule then." The form of Darkvargmon suddenly appeared, making everyone jump. "I'm afraid you'll need to put up with a little bit more before you can meet your bed."

"Is it THAT hard to warn us before popping in like that?" snapped Shockavimon.

"Consider it a nice jolt of awakeness that you're going to want. Because you're going to want to be fully aware for this…it's a fundamental game-changer."

That did get their attention. "Is that in a good way or a bad way?" asked Salmandmon nervously.

"Hopefully good, but the jury is still out. Let's get somewhere where we can contact Skylar and Isaac as well, they need to hear this ASAP."

"How do we know they aren't already asleep?" asked Iris.

"Hm, I may have seen to that already."

"You're making tons of friends tonight," cracked Reyn with a slight grin.

"Bud, you do not even know."

—

A few minutes later, everyone was gathered up in Reyn's room, Derek and Blackcanismon having finally separated. Skylar and Isaac had been called, and both were indeed awake, albeit rather grumpy about it. Still, grumpiness took a back seat to other emotions when Derek spoke.

"We all need to go to the BICI tomorrow. All of us, including the digimon."

"…You wanna elaborate on that?" Isaac snapped. "Because that sounds pretty goddamn far from where we want to be EVER."

"Well, now that I have your attention, I can definitely elaborate. We're getting exposure, and it's theoretically not the bad kind."

"Is there a good kind of exposure for us?" asked Salmandmon. "Because so far, it hasn't been going well."

"Perhaps not as determinable as you presuppose, my conflagrant comrade," replied Blackcanismon. "Our appearance is upon invitation."

"Whoa, hold up!" jumped in Datacarnomon. "Someone there KNOWS about us?! How?!"

"Brilliant deductions, indubitably. The synthesis of multitudes of information was processed to a singular determination that resulted in our existences being elucidated. And fortuitously embellished a favorable impression, to wit."

"Us being found out doesn't sound fortutintidubiouses to me!" Breezedramon yapped.

"Are we sure we can trust this person that knows about us?" asked Iris.

Derek laughed a bit. "Well, you tell me, Iris. Do you trust your dad more than I trust mine?"

Iris's jaw dropped. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Serious as this is? Your dad probably stopped me from getting shot up like Swiss cheese tonight. He KNOWS, Iris, he knows damn near everything, at least everything that matters. And he wants to make our lives easier, and to do that, he wants all of us to be there so that everyone can start getting on the same page…at least, that's the plan. Trust me when I say I'm nervous, but if it means we don't have to be trying to skulk around in order to face off against the bad guys anymore…"

"How…the heck…did he find out?!" Shockavimon squawked. "I swear he never noticed a thing when I was in there!"

"We can figure that out tomorrow when we go there," replied Reyn.

"Reyn! Are you seriously suggesting we go along with this?" Skylar exclaimed. "We don't know what's going to happen!"

"Does it matter?" fired back the fire-haired boy. "Iris's dad knows about us. One person who's figured out the secret means it's no longer a secret. Our options are avoid it, and still have people hunting us down, or try to get ourselves known there and risk having people react badly, but have a chance to be able to open ourselves up and not be under constant pressure to hide anymore. Tell me, mister logic, which one sounds like the better option."

"…ghh. I hate it when you abuse my need for logic like that."

"Guys, I know this sounds a little iffy," Salmandmon added, "but this has been our goal from the start, remember? We needed to find people who might be allies so that we could prepare them for this fight. It's not exactly who we were targeting, but given how much luck we've had there, this seems like the best chance we're going to have for the time being."

"Yeah, Sal's right," agreed Datacarnomon. "I'm just a little leery because it's not exactly on our terms, but it's something."

"Are we absolutely sure this isn't a set-up?" Isaac asked cautiously. "Like, just to be sure."

"My dad would never set me up like this," asserted Iris. "His style has always been more treating me like glass, if he thought there was ANY reason I would be in danger, he would've said I can't be there. If he's open to me showing up, then he's absolutely legit."

"All right, I suppose that's as good a reason as any. I'm in. What time should we be there?"

"10:30 AM sharp," said Derek. "He'll be ready for us. I don't know what he's going to be ready for, exactly, but I presume he wants to somewhat control things so that they don't get out of hand."

"Got it. Now can I get back to sleep?"

"Sure. See you tomorrow." Isaac's phone hung up, and Derek let out a slight laugh. "All right, now that that's out of the way, the real time is 11:00 AM."

"You magnificent bastard," laughed Skylar. "He's going to be pissed."

"If he's late, he can't complain. If he's not, then no harm's been done. Really, we should have been doing this from the start."

"I don't approve of this," Reyn remarked with a frown.

"You can disapprove all you want, until you get him an alarm clock that actually works on him, this is totally the right thing to do," Salmandmon cackled.

"Agreed!" exclaimed Breezedramon. "Also, sleepy. Anything else sneaky we need to know?"

"Nope, all good. Catch you two tomorrow." The other line hung up, and Derek looked up at Reyn and Iris tiredly. "And now's the time I ask if I can crash here, because there's no way in hell I can go back home at the moment."

"You want to sleep during the night?" asked Reyn in shock.

"This period of awareness has been excruciating, to understate the matter," sighed Blackcanismon. "Slumber unquestionably seems appropriate, particularly owing to our excursion on the morrow…my prediction is rather significant intensity, towards unknown purposes."

"Derek…" Iris was rather quiet when she said it. "When you said my dad knew…I know Elliot's been working with him. Does…he know, too?"

Derek gave her a hollow look. "I…don't want to talk about that tonight, if that's all right."

"Oof…" Salmandmon could read between the lines loud and clear. "Yeah, let's…make sure you have a safe place to stay. And you too, BC."

"I kind of think I should stay, too," said Iris. "Even though he knows now, I'm still not sure I'm ready to have that whole talk. It's probably better done tomorrow."

"I'm sure Mom'll be fine with that," Reyn assured them. "Hope you all can fit in my room, because we've kind of got a lot of guests at the moment."

"Are you, uh…really okay with that?" asked Derek nervously.

"Of course. Don't worry about it at all." Reyn said it with an insistence that got Salmandmon's attention - almost like there was something unsaid underneath the surface there. It had him curious, but this didn't see like the time to dig in deeper - not when they had a big day tomorrow.

—

It was another overcast day, though at least a touch warmer than the previous day. The extra warmth wasn't bringing out many people, though, fresh off of another appearance of giant flying creatures from the unknown. Thus, even downtown Braun was remarkably empty, most businesses closed and employees absent…with one significant exception. A rather tall building with an older and darker facade, a distinctive location amongst the rest, bustling with activity more than ever: the Braun Interjurisdictional Center for Investigation. All sorts of rumors about what kinds of shenanigans might have been going on in there flew around the city now and then, and rarely did anyone get a straight answer about them. One thing was for sure: there was an interesting history in there that was known to naught but a scant few people.

That interesting history, though, could hardly compare to an infinitely more interesting present. And it was about to get even more so with the group approaching the building now, only half of which were human. Most of them were traveling together, but as they arrived, there was one notable exception, who was standing there looking extremely annoyed. "You ALL suck. But you in particular, werewolf."

"You had to know that one of us would think about doing that, given your history," remarked Derek unapologetically.

"I was on time for once! I even blew off my dad, which I'm gonna catch hell for later! And getting hounded by Data to make sure, at that!"

"I'd be annoyed, but…Ike, I kinda agree with him," sighed Datacarnomon. "Your history doesn't speak well of you, and as important as this was, early was better than late. Still, I was a BIT nervous that maybe you all had been ambushed or something, some kind of message would've been appreciated."

Reyn nodded at that. "Sorry…you're right, we should've sent something. I guess we were all just kind of preoccupied."

"You think YOU'RE nervous?" Breezedramon exclaimed. "I feel like I'm about to disingretangerantiterate from being so scared! You'd think facing down huge monsters would prepare me for this…"

"It's different here," sighed Salmandmon. "This is…a lot of unknowns, and for once, our familiar approach of just fighting our way through isn't an option. I'm not even sure how we start. Is it better to hide away until we're alone? Do we show ourselves early on? Do we merge and then show up? What's even the right decision?"

"Were you to possess foreknowledge of the ostensible ideal approach, I would be thusly required to profess the maximal magnitude of indignation for your incapability of revealing such insightfulness towards up previously," grumbled Blackcanismon.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you didn't sleep well, don't take it out on me."

"…Let's go in like this." All eyes turned towards Iris, somewhat surprised. "You guys don't look nearly as threatening like this, and people here know me at least a little, so that will have to help. Let me take care of things from there."

"…Well, I'm not gonna say no to that," agreed Shockavimon. "Lead the way, Iris."

Both of them were leading the way, as it was, though it wasn't by much. Through the first door was a small entryway chamber, and then the next brought them into the lobby. Being one of the few places in Braun that was actually active, there were a fair number of people milling around in there, chatting amongst each other in small groups…at least, until the door opened and everything fell dead silent at the sudden appearance of five teenagers and five bizarre creatures that looked something and yet also nothing like the ones that had been spread all over the news. The group stopped just through the door, nervously looking around at all the staring eyes.

I'm starting to wonder if this was a mistake, Salmandmon pathed nervously to Reyn.

Just stay calm…I trust Iris.

If you say so.

Iris was looking plenty nervous, too, but she swallowed and took a deep breath to calm herself. "Uh…hey. I'm, uh, looking for my dad, he was supposed to meet us here." The response to that wasn't quite what she had hoped for - suddenly just about everyone who'd been in the lobby crowded around them, chattering excitedly.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Are THOSE the things that they've been talking about? They can't be, they're way too small!"

"What are they doing with KIDS?"

"Isn't that Conover's daughter? How'd she get mixed up in this?"

"This is what we're supposed to be afraid of? They're like half our size, they can't be that dangerous!"

"Cute puppy!"

"Excuse me…EXCUSE ME!" A loud voice from behind the group caused them to suddenly scatter a bit, as Emil hurried up to the commotion. He looked around with an irritated expression. "Do you mind? We've got things to do here! And don't you all have work to be doing?" That entreaty didn't really stop everyone from staring, but they at least had stopped crowding the teens and the digimon. Satisfied enough, Emil stepped forward and give Iris a hug. "Are you all right, sweetheart? I hope nothing's wrong, I was worried when you texted last night-"

"It's all right, Dad. I just…needed some time to process things."

"All right…I understand. I suppose there's a lot to process about all of this…" Emil stepped back and looked at the bunch. "And…yes, this is just about what I thought I might see…and yet it's still somehow hard to believe. Are you all all right?"

"Yeah, more or less…" Skylar didn't look all right, he looked paler than ever. "At least now that we're not being hounded like that…"

"I'm sorry about that. I said I wanted the lobby cleared, but I don't think anyone took that seriously. Come on, let's get up to the lab level, there's something I want to do before we get too far into things." Emil motioned for them to follow, and they did, a very unusual procession that was still turning eyes in the lobby, and no doubt would be no matter where they went…

—

The chatter about the appearance of the strange creatures spread quickly around the building. Most of the reactions were raw confusion, with some total shock mixed in. The reaction of white-hot anger was limited to only one individual, though, who quickly secluded himself in the office he was currently occupying and got on the phone.

"What is it, Redford?"

"It's bad news, Wheeler. A bunch of kids and monsters just waltzed right into the building today. And someone welcomed them. The well's being poisoned as we speak."

"Damnation. We can't let this slip through our fingers, Redford. Can you run interference?"

"Not without drawing suspicion. Which means there's only one measure left…"

"…Declare them compromised and move in. General Sykes has things in position. This time tomorrow, we'll be able to move in and crush these creatures and anyone who supports them. They'll be done for, no matter the cost. We shouldn't have any problem, we managed to secure a stockpile of our secret weapon…they won't know what hit them, and neither will any of the other freaks who slip in. Good on you for letting me know."

"I'm happy to have helped. If you don't mind, sir, I'd like latitude to try to thin the herd a bit. If I get the chance, I want to peg one of those things myself."

"Just so long as there's at least one left for me to get that Pulitzer-winning shot. And make sure you avoid the kids, it would be bad optics to have one of them go down."

"Of course. I have just the one in mind, too…a good way to send a message to someone who's been a thorn in my side for too long here…"

—

"I definitely appreciate the hospitality you're showing us, Mr. Conover…but, I'm not really sure why you were so interested in getting a DNA sample." Salmandmon was rubbing his arm where he'd let a bit of his blood be drawn by what looked like an extremely over-excited technician.

"I'd rather not say anything until we see the results, in case we're entirely off-base," replied Emil. "Rudy's assured me he can get the results within hours, so it shouldn't be too long before my hunch is confirmed or discredited."

"Hours, huh?" Datacarnomon sounded intrigued, but also amused. "Where I come from, core data analyses could probably be done in seconds."

"Where YOU come from is a dystopian hell-hole, so I think that offsets the technological benefit," remarked Shockavimon.

"Hey, Mechalopolis isn't THAT bad…well…I mean, it's gotten worse in recent years, true…"

"I sense there's a story here that I'm not familiar with," said Emil with a bit of a chuckle. "But if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to try to stick to the most relevant ones here…something tells me that's already going to be a lot to take in. And then I have to get you caught up on our side as well."

"If we have time to kill, then I guess that's gonna be an effective murder weapon," remarked Isaac. "I remember when they went over all the details with us, we must've been out there three, four hours straight. Jeez, I can't believe that was only, like, a few weeks ago…it feels like it's been forever."

"And with everything that's happened since then needing to be added in as well," agreed Reyn. "We should probably try to streamline it as much as possible so we're not getting Mr. Conover more lost than found."

"I suppose that means I'm up," Datacarnomon said. "Strap yourself in, this is gonna be a journey…"

And so the regaling began. The group went over everything - from a rudimentary rundown of digimon and the digital world, the conflict that was spilling over, their organization and what they were doing there, their arrival and the unexpected draw to their partners, along with the odd coincidences of their dream connections, and of course the discovery of their ability to merge together, even as mysterious as that remained to them all. They further ran down the events and activities they'd been up to during the intervening time from their perspective, including the multiple close calls and impediments they'd faced from human interference. In turn, Emil described their own investigation, and the details he'd learned that had eventually led to his putting all the clues together.

"I cannot BELIEVE we just got caught on one random camera!" Salmandmon lamented. "You throw caution to the wind ONE damn time…"

"I'm gonna take blame for that," confessed Reyn. "I should've realized that was a possibility. I didn't even think about doorbell cameras…"

"Why the hell are there so many cameras in your world?! People in our world can theoretically blow you up with their THOUGHTS, and we don't have cameras all over the place!"

"Speak for yourself, they're everywhere in Mechalopolis," pointed out Datacarnomon.

"And verily, we have ascertained the appropriate descriptor of your particular originating location as a, if I may reiterate my colleague's fine words, 'dystopian hell-hole,'" snarked Blackcanismon.

"I'd say more about you being less than cautious, but I get it," said Skylar a bit wearily. "Trying to hide away all the time is outright exhausting. I was probably close to taking a few unnecessensernary chances myself. I mean, the sky clearly hasn't fallen because Benny and Kirsten know about Breezedramon, even though that really oughta have done me in hard."

"So these…digimon aren't a total secret, then?" asked Emil.

"Not for lack of trying," sighed Isaac. "Well, except in Reyn's case, at least. Otherwise it's just nosy siblings. But we all wanted to try to be careful, because…I mean, creatures from another world, most people aren't gonna react well. Particularly when they're the bearers of bad news."

"Understandable…I'm rather disturbed that you ended up being blocked when trying to contact the federal agencies." Emil frowned a bit, a hand on his chin. "We've even been asking them to pass along any information they might be getting that even might be useful, but if they've had anything to say, our contact hasn't been giving us any…"

"Your contact?" Derek sat up. "Please tell me you had one other than Lexis Redford."

"How…oh, right. That…is an unfortunate concern. I may have to make some calls…"

"Someone wanna loop me in on this?" asked Breezedramon, looking utterly blank.

"I don't think this is something we need to get involved with," Skylar said, patting the dragon's head.

"I would like to know, though…" continued Emil as he flipped to a new notebook page, "If your goal was to try to get in touch with someone to warn them…why not us? I know our clout isn't close to what we'd need to mount a proper defense, but we have some pull, and we have contacts."

"I believe, sir, that you have experienced one particularly compelling rationale regarding our particular reticence towards approaching Derek's patronage on this consideration," replied Blackcanismon with the barest hint of terseness, and not directed at Emil himself.

"…Y-yes…that…is unfortunate. But…" Emil turned to Iris, who hadn't been saying much. "Iris…I know I'm not, uh, always on the same page as you, either…I try to be, but, well…but I…would like to think that if you'd told me about Shockavimon, I would have listened to you."

"Dad…" Iris took a breath. "By the time we figured out what was actually going on…we already knew that we were going to have to stand up to it ourselves. I even thought about that then, but…I couldn't take the chance that you'd try to stop me from going out there when we couldn't afford it. Or the chance that I'd want to listen to you when you did. I know how you get when it comes to me…you never want me to be at risk, always wanted safety over everything else. If I couldn't be there to help…"

Emil was quiet for a bit at that, looking down and away. "Iris…hn…I wish I could say you weren't right about that…but I can't. Your mother always said I go too far with that…I guess…I just have always been afraid of losing you to something…I suppose this job doesn't help matters, I see a lot of the bad of the world…it can skew my vision, I guess."

"It's partly my fault, too," Shockavimon spoke up, rather suddenly. "I discouraged her when she suggested it, because I wasn't convinced I could really trust you…I shouldn't have done that, I let some of my own paranoia cloud my judgment. You're a better guy than I gave you credit for."

"I…appreciate that, Shockavimon. I hope I can keep living up to that." Emil gave his head a quick shake, then looked up again. "In any event…at this point I obviously can't tell you not to do anything, no matter how nervous it might make me…we don't have much in the way of options as it is, and it's pretty clear you can handle yourselves just fine. Just, uh, promise me you'll always try to be as careful as you can, all things considered…"

"Of course, dad, as much as possible," responded Iris with a nod.

"Well, now that that's out of the way," Skylar jumped in, getting a glare from Iris at the seeming obliviousness of the moment, "I think we're going to have to talk about trying to take advantage of some of those contacts you mentioned. Anything that can prepare this world better for an all-out attack would be a good thing, because I'm not sure if we have a lot of time before that happens."

"Er, yes, yes." Emil was suddenly businesslike again. "I'll definitely have to prepare something and make sure we arrange for a defense. There's no doubt we'll have to call in a lot of resources from higher up…I don't like what we're potentially facing, this city could suffer a lot before it's all said and done. I wonder if we shouldn't have an evacuation order…mph, that's not my decision to make. But while we're working on that, things need to be made easier for you, don't they?"

"That would be super nice!" affirmed Breezedramon. "If we could fly around and do our reconnoisycanternansesses and get to battles without worrying about being seen, it'd be a whole lot better!"

"Uh…yes, I'm sure it would." Iris suppressed a giggle at her father's blank look, clearly not making sense of Breezedramon's stumbling. Though it also made her think a bit. Huh…did Skylar stumble over something earlier, too? Well, he does look pretty tired…

"I think we really do need that help more than anything at the moment," agreed Reyn. "The biggest problem for us has been getting around safely. And considering the whole city knows what we look like, and currently probably thinks we're part of the problem…"

"Ah, yes, that would be the case…" Emil thought for a moment. "On the other hand…that also might work to your benefit. Everyone knowing what you look like means that if we can get the message out there that you're part of the solution rather than the problem, they'll know what to avoid being afraid of. It will mean having to reshape the narrative, but in a situation this fluid and this early, it might be easier now than it would be in a month or even another week. And that's a good lead-in to my next thought…we can start doing that, right here and now, and it might be especially effective here."

"Hang on…" Salmandmon suddenly rose up. "You're not suggesting…"

"I am. I think everyone here in the BICI could stand to meet you…all of the you, that is."

"You want us to show them everything?" asked Isaac dubiously. "Are you sure that's not gonna backfire on us hard? I mean, let's be real, some of these guys have already seen us, and not in the best of situations!"

Emil nodded. "Trust me, I'm well aware of that. But they'll all be seeing you without weapons at the ready, and more importantly, they'll get to talk to you and learn about you and what's been going on…no one else here really has the full story, and I think coming from you it'll mean more than coming from me. Knowing what you are will also help…people don't know that you're all fighting together, in the most literal sense, and I think them knowing that there are also humans under there will be reassuring to them even if they're leery about the digimon. With people here on your side, we'll have a better chance of getting the word out properly to the rest of the city."

"Which means seeing us combine in action…" Skylar frowned. "Feels like being put on display."

"Sometimes being on display is a good thing," remarked Salmandmon. "I think it's wild that it's even being suggested, but…honestly, it's probably the best case we can make for ourselves."

"Don't worry, Sky, you won't be on your own!" Breezedramon reassured the white-haired boy. "And I'm good at getting eyes on me! I can even do some trick flying if you need it!"

"I've seen your 'trick flying.' I'd prefer you in one piece."

"Hey!"

"The suggestion is commendable," agreed Blackcanismon. "An unfeigned revelation of the impartial reality will at minimum convey understanding of the situation, if not enthusiastic acceptance. The latter may be overly ambitious for the nonce, all things considered."

"Seeing us apart is probably a good idea, too," Derek added. "Five minutes with Blackcanismon will have to convince anyone he's too cultured to be an enemy, even if they can't understand half of what he's actually saying."

"Cultured…right," snorted Datacarnomon. "Sure, if cultured means they'll want him to shut up after about ten words most likely."

"We've still got time to burn anyway, so we might as well," said Shockavimon. "Especially if it makes our jobs easier. And then maybe certain folks won't have to be worried about walking around completely exposed."

"Hey, my cosmic blunder helped us get to this point, at least!" protested Salmandmon.

"It sounds like everyone's on board, more or less," declared Emil, standing up. "Let's go set up some rooms for you, and get some people around. Hopefully by the time we've got to move on, we'll have gotten a good chunk of the building on your side."

—

"This definitely feels weird…" muttered Iris as they prepared for their next visitor. "I'm starting to see what Skylar was talking about, it feels like we're a sideshow act."

"It feels like this could be done a different way, yeah," agreed Shockavimon. "But I get the feeling that this probably wasn't extensively planned out or anything…your dad just figured out the whole thing yesterday, I'm guessing that doesn't leave a lot of time to write a script, organize recording equipment, and all that jazz."

"True. And these are the people who'll probably be reported to about any monster stuff, so it makes sense that THEY would need to know us better than anyone…still, I'm not gonna say I'll miss it once we're done here."

"Same. At least it's not fighting off digimon, though. After that experience with Ashinkaimon yesterday, I don't mind a bit of a break."

"Don't remind me. Oop, I hear someone coming." Iris and Shockavimon stood as the door opened, but then both felt their hearts leap as they saw who it was. "Bob!"

"Well, now, good to see you, little lady." Agent McGovern was smiling, though he looked fairly confused as well. "Though I can't say I was expecting the rather large bird. Your dad did say he had a surprise for me, I guess this was it."

"Surprise for all of us, I think," replied Iris, trying to settle herself down. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting to see you…I probably should've been, I guess…"

"Are you doing all right?" Shockavimon asked anxiously.

Bob looked even a bit more perplexed to hear that. "Hm? I'm doing just fine, for someone my age at least. Can't say I was expecting you to be taking an interest in my health, though...then again, I wasn't expecting you at all, so I guess today's full of surprises."

"More than you know," replied Iris. "We've saved the biggest one for last, though. Shockavimon?"

Shockavimon was sure she hadn't been as nervous about merging even the first time as she was now. "All right…I guess we should…" The two touched hand to wing, and in moments the form of Boltfalkemon appeared in the room in front of Agent McGovern. Bob's jaw dropped, looking on in stunned silence as the brilliant figure of the electric avian stood in front of him once more…the memories of the encounter were still quite fresh in both their minds, and Boltfalkemon was getting ever more anxious how Bob would react to her.

What she didn't expect was for him to break out in a booming laugh, which almost startled her when it happened. "I'll be damned…I'll be damned. If it ain't always the last one you'd expect…"

"I promise this will be a lot less stressful of a meeting than our last, Bob," said Boltfalkemon, her voice tinged with palpable relief - this definitely was not as badly as it could have gone. "And I really am sorry about that."

"Oh, I can't blame you too much for that…I should know better than to sneak up on monsters at this point in my life." Bob had settled down a bit, though he was still grinning widely. "But you know, I just had this feeling…something about your voice, I just felt like it was familiar somehow. I guess now I know why. It's really the two of you at once, huh?"

Boltfalkemon nodded. "It's a little more complicated than that, but close enough."

"Ah, everything these days is more complicated. Now I see why Emil was so eager to get us to see all of you. Guess there's a lot more to the story than I heard about, isn't there?"

"You have no idea…but I'll be happy to give you a taste of it…"

—

"You know, I like the idea of having the spotlight on me, but I'd kinda prefer it more on my own terms," grumbled Isaac as he paced around a bit. "Especially when I'm more in my element. Right now it feels too much like an obligation."

"Oh no, how dare it feel like something it is," cracked Datacarnomon.

"You're not helping."

"Of course I'm not, that wouldn't be amusing. But you gotta admit, this is something we're doing because we have to, not because we want to so much. Remember when we were talking voluntary revelation being a last resort? Turns out we bypassed all the other ones."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "You're going to run that metaphor straight into the ground, huh?"

"Never waste a good metaphor, use every part of it until it's all gone. It could be worse, I could be like most of my brethren and constantly be making computer and robot references about everything."

Isaac slowly looked over at Datacarnomon, smirking. "…Hm. And exactly how long were you doing that after you left your hometown?"

Datacarnomon looked away, a bit embarrassed. "Maybe a few…years…aaaanyway, someone's coming again!"

"At least it's someone we don't have to run away from or shoot at." Isaac straightened up as the door opened, and they faced yet another agent. "Nice to meet you! Isaac Wherrels, and this guy here is Datacarnomon."

"Oh! Uh…that…is…a robot…" The agent couldn't tear his eyes off of Datacarnomon. "Er, sorry. Neal Collins…I wasn't expecting a robot."

"No one here expects robots," remarked Datacarnomon. "I don't know why they would, robots in your world are super primitive, most of them aren't just walking around."

"You talk, too? Goodness."

"I do a lot of things. Most of which you're not gonna have time to see, some of which you'd probably rather not." The robot grinned up at Neal, who was staring more than ever.

"How…in the world do you move like that? It's like the metal just…bends like it's alive, almost!"

Datacarnomon looked over at Isaac. "Uh…Ike? Do they not have flex metals over here?"

"Not in the sense of yours, I don't think," replied Isaac. "That's probably a special property of digimon, unless you somehow can teach us how to make them."

"Well, not ALL of us, for sure, but even those that don't still know about it…uh, anyway, we should probably show him that other 'special thing.'"

"Anything to avoid getting to the awkward topics, huh?" Isaac snickered.

Neal was looking back and forth between the two, completely befuddled. "I'm sorry, is…is there something I'm missing here?"

"You'll catch on in a moment." With a nod to each other, the two melded together and fused into the form of Andrexmon, thumping onto the floor in front of Agent Collins, who yelped and scrambled backwards, falling over onto his rear in shock.

"Oh, come on, I'm not that scary…well, okay, yeah, I probably am." Andrexmon let out a growling laugh, offering his metal arm out to Neal. "Don't worry, I don't bite unless I'm given a good reason to."

It took a moment, but Neal hesitantly took hold of that big metal hand, which easily pulled him back up. "Y-you…you're…you're that…that one I…that I saw that night…"

"Huh? You saw me? Oh, wait…yeah, Darkvargmon said someone got a good look at me that night." Andrexmon rubbed his head. "I mighta been a bit distracted, so I didn't notice you…trying not to make that mistake again, though! It probably ended better for both of us that way, though."

Neal was still looking the hybrid up and down, seeming to scarcely believe what he was seeing. "This…this is crazy…are you…are you really that, that kid and that robot?"

"Look, I don't blame you for being a bit wowed by that, trust me, it took me a bit to get used to the idea of this stuff too. All you need to know, though, is that I'm on your side. I know that might be a new thing for you to think, but it'll be a heck of a load off my tail if you can scoot that along, yeah?"

The almost vacant look in Neal's face was not sitting too well with Andrexmon; a couple of the people he'd seen already seemed not to be taking well to him, and all of them seemed to have that cowed expression. He didn't want to get testy with them, which would probably only worsen things, but it was hard not to feel a little frustrated…but before he could say anything else, Agent Collins stammered out something else. "That…you…did you…actually run into a kid out there that night?"

Uh-oh. "Uh…one mighta gotten the drop on me a bit…I swear I didn't touch him, probably scared the piss outta him but I didn't do a thing to hurt him."

"…I know…He seemed…really excited over having met you…" Neal seemed to finally be calming down a bit. "All this time…I was terrified that I might have destroyed someone's life by letting you go without trying to stop you…but…you really…aren't one of the bad ones, are you?"

"…You know, I know that feeling a bit, myself. That's one reason I'm so determined to make sure this all ends in victory for us." Andrexmon nodded with a bit of resoluteness in his expression. "And for all the guys I've seen who don't seem to care if they're right or wrong…seems like you're one of the good ones, too."

—

"All of this would probably feel a lot more momentous and meaningful if we weren't just standing and talking the whole time," remarked Salmandmon, who was, ever predictably, doing push-ups on the wall while waiting for their next visitor. "This woulda been a whole lot more exciting if a digimon popped through the barrier and we had to fuse up and show off our stuff in action, but no, it's just 'hey, nice to meet you, oh by the way we turn into this bizarre hybrid creature, also we're defending your entire world from evil maniacs, bring your friend by to say hi!'"

"All things told, I think I'd rather have the controlled environment of this place over a chaotic battle scene," replied Reyn. "Also, my dad always likes to say, 'weapons fight wars, but diplomats end them.'"

"Yeah? Okay, but name me five of your war heroes, and five of your diplomats."

"…Okay, point taken. Battle draws eyes, battle gets remembered. Still, that also means people are in danger, and I think one day where people aren't in danger isn't too much to ask, is it?"

"Emperius might think so. And I might start to as well if they don't freaking hurry up already! I shouldn't be reaching triple digits in push-aways between visitors."

"There's an easy way to not do that, you know."

"Yes, it's called 'be a boring lump who just LEANS against a perfectly good exercise wall. You were doing it too for a while, don't try to tell me you don't feel impatient."

"I can control myself a little better than you can, bud." Reyn planned to say more, but the door opened, relieving him of the need. "Oh, hey, visitor! Salmandmon, knock it off and say hi already."

"Okay, okay! Sheeze, right as I was about to hit two hundo, too." Salmandmon pushed off the wall into a double backflip, landing deftly on the floor, and grinned up at the new arrival. "Hey there! I'm Salmandmon…and you have the look of someone who's NOT seeing me for the first time."

"Huh?" Reyn looked at the agent; he was no expert, but he definitely was getting a sense of what Salmandmon was talking about, his shock was like seeing someone he knew rather than not knowing what he was seeing. And he was realizing, a moment later, that his own expression might be the same, because this guy was familiar.

"I, uh…you might be right about that…" The agent's voice was dreadfully nervous. "Sorry, my name's Tony Rivier…I, uh…I didn't realize I was going to be actually seeing you up close like this…"

"Up close? Waaaait a minute…were you the guy who caught us on camera?"

"I, uh, was given the footage, at least…" Tony was looking between the two of them, with a look that spoke like he wasn't that far from fainting. "Seeing you two like that…it was crazy. I never could have imagined someone seeing the monsters as…normal."

"Hey, where I'm from, you'd be the weirdo, bub," Salmandmon huffed, folding his arms.

Reyn was a bit more preoccupied with trying to place the agent's face…and finally he did. "You…you were out there, that night. Weren't you?"

"Huh?" Now it was Salmandmon's turn as confusion as he looked between the two humans. "Wait, what? Reyn, is this THAT guy?"

"I…what…how would you know about that? Unless…" Tony looked at Salmandmon curiously. "You…wouldn't happen to have a big brother or something like that?"

"…Yeah, I'd say this safely falls in the 'or something' category. Reyn?"

"Thinking like you." Reyn looked at Tony as he stepped closer to the lizard digimon. "The way you look, you actually might want to sit down for this." The two glowed bright red, melded together, and the form of Burnreptimon landed in front of Tony…and then, almost as quickly, leapt forward to catch the human as he nearly fell back in a dead faint.

"God dammit, I warned you…hey, snap out of it!" Burnreptimon brought Tony down gently to the ground, trying to rouse him with gentle taps. He put his clawed fingers on the human's neck, trying to feel for a pulse, then quickly pulled away when he heard Tony gasp a bit and wake back up very suddenly. "Hey, easy! You okay?"

"Ah…you…you're…" Tony still only looked about half-there, staring wild-eyed at Burnreptimon. "That night…that creature…"

"Yeah, yeah, your memory's clearly fine. That asshole cop had better NOT be the next guy in." He pulled back a bit as Tony was sitting up under his own power. "Okay, but what were YOU doing out there? You clearly are NOT the type to be doing monster hunting."

"I…I really should've ignored that directive…" Tony rubbed his face, looking at Burnreptimon with a very clear, heavy anxiety. "You're…they brought you in here…no, you came in yourself…why?"

"Because, we're trying to show you the truth. And avoid getting shot at some more, at least by you guys. You remember what I said that night?"

"…That we were all in trouble…if we didn't look for allies. Are…are you saying…you're…the allies?"

"…You know, looking back on it, I probably coulda been a WHOLE lot clearer than that. I guess that idiot officer just got me too riled up. But yeah…we're trying to help you guys out. So if you could be aiming those guns in a direction other than where we are, it'd probably work out really well for both of us."

"Y-yes…I, uh, think I will not be pointing my gun at anything for a good long time."

"That sounds like the best plan to me," agreed Burnreptimon. Maybe it would have been better to have the weapon pointed at the other enemies instead, but something told him this guy probably wasn't the right person to be doing that, either.

—

"I know I really shouldn't be inviting trouble, but…PLEASE let a digimon attack right now."

"Skyyyy!" Breezedramon chastised the human as he flapped overhead. "This isn't THAT bad!"

"This is all of the bad. It's all of the bad on top of more of the bad." The human was laying on the ground, arms over his head. "I hate every second of this more than I've hated just about anything in my life."

"We're just talking to people!"

"We are EXHIBITS on DISPLAY. Their EYES are focused on US and nothing else. I would sooner walk into Emperius's home base with nothing more than a thin stick and dare to take them all on."

Breezedramon cocked his head. "Why does it bother you so much? I mean it, I don't get it at all. You don't seem to have trouble with being out in public or anything like that!"

"Public is perfectly fine. Public has lots of things to look at, including monsters trying to blow them all up that draw a LOT more attention. And even if they're looking at me, it's not a problem if I don't KNOW they're looking at me. Knowing I'm the show, though…it is THE WORST."

"Really? You don't seem to get all flustateroraconterated when Emperius guys focus all their attention on you."

"…Well, I will NOW. Thanks, Breezedramon."

"Happy to help!" Skylar groaned as Breezedramon utterly missed the sarcasm. But the sound of the door opening forced him to rise up and play the part again. Of course, it didn't help that he immediately recognized the face of the person who'd entered…

Not that Paul Dailey recognized him, or seemed to be caring. "Don't know what the point of this nonsense is. Not sure why we're supposed to suddenly get buddy-buddy with monsters now…" Paul's voice trailed off as he looked between the two of them. "Tch. When they said there was a dragon in here, I had something else in mind, not small and cute."

"Hey!" Breezedramon yapped. "I mean, yeah, I'm totally adorable, but I can rawr pretty hard too!"

"You are not 'rawring' in a way that will make anyone intimidated, least of all those giant bird or dragon monsters that've shown up," replied Paul huffily. "Conover can't seriously be telling us these creatures are supposed to be the ones we should be taking an interest in. Even if you ARE supposed to be friendlier, I doubt a few nibbles are going to throw off anything we've seen out there."

"You might be regretting thinking so little of us soon," said Skylar impatiently. "And I thought your attitude was pretty lousy before…"

"I don't recall asking you…wait. What do you mean 'before?' I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, you've never seen US before, but you've seen US before!" declared Breezedramon.

"Yes, I'm sure that will clear up everything in his head, Breezedramon," remarked Skylar with an eye roll.

"So let's show him then, that'll make it all elucimadiferturated!" Skylar had no problem with that - at least as Skydramon the anxiety of being center stage was somewhat muted. The blue glow surrounded them, and they fused together, the lean body of Skydramon taking shape once more. The small, enclosed room hardly seemed his ideal environment, but he was making do.

Especially with the satisfying reaction he got, as Paul staggered back into the back wall of the room. "Jesus FUCK!"

"Hey there! Miss me?"

"You…are you kidding me right now? Th-this is a prank, right? Did Conover put you up to this? Is this hazing the rookie day or something?"

"Special effects only WISHES it could be as real as this," cackled Skydramon. "Oh, sorry about your gun, by the way, I really wasn't feeling like putting holes in these wings, or any other part of me for that matter."

"What…what the holy hell are you?!"

"Didn't you see what just happened? I turned from a human and a little digimon into, well, me! Not the most normal thing in either world, really, but hey, I'm not complaining, since I've been able to put a buncha Emperius dickwads on ice."

Paul's eyes looked wide enough to explode out of his skull, and his jaw was hanging open like it had busted a hinge. "This…this is madness, this is absolutely crazy! How are you...YOU? What the hell is going on here?! Monsters wasn't enough, now we have freaking instant hybrids? And with KIDS no less?!"

"Look, guy, I don't have all the answers. But I have some of them, and you still haven't asked the most important question!"

"The…what? What on earth is the most important question to YOU?"

Skydramon scoffed. "Seriously? I'm right in front of your freaking face, and I'm not attacking you. And I already lectured you a bunch that night about this, too! Think outside of your narrow mindset for a moment! Why would they be having you all come to see me? I may be a novelty, but do you really think you all have time for novelties? There has to be a reason for all this production! And doing so in a way that makes sure that you can't actually harm us, on top of that!"

Paul seemed not able to put it all together for a bit, only finally getting a bit of dawning after a lot of stammering. "They…what…are…that…are they…do they…not WANT us to do anything to you?"

"Well, it's progress, at least. Let's see if we can't get you all the way to the right mindset before I'm done with you! But try not to take forever, I've apparently got to do this a bunch more times today…"

—

"I'm not going to pretend I'm terribly fond of the odd looks, constant explanations, and all the people who still look uneasy, even when I'm not the first of us they've seen," said Derek. "But I think it's gone about as well as it could go, for something that was kind of spur-of-the-moment."

"I figured the sooner the better…waiting to prepare something more formal would probably just prolong the trouble you all would have," Emil explained. "And I wasn't keen on the idea of waiting for another creature to strike to demonstrate…that's a rather distracting event, and I'm not sure they would have taken the right idea from it. After all, we didn't really 'get' the whole division even when we saw Iris and Skylar…er, I mean, Boltfalkemon and Skydramon, fighting that big bird creature."

"The challenges of our nomenclature will doubtlessly be substantial to overcome," Blackcanismon chuckled. "Such idiosyncrasies are definitively unnatural to your existence, despite the ordinariness they possess for ours."

"You can say that again…I'm still getting used to the fact that your, uh, combined form takes different names for different…levels. Oof, I do NOT have a good grasp of all this stuff yet."

"Honestly, the only reason we caught on as quickly as we did was seeing snapshots of their world in our dreams for all our lives," Derek said understandingly. "And even then, we still needed a LOT of explanation to really make sense of it all. If we're lucky, though, we'll have to explain it a bunch more times to a bunch more people, so maybe we'll get good at it."

"I surmise you intended to insinuate that Datacarnomon would acquire the proficiency, considering the assignment is ultimately delegated towards himself," remarked Blackcanismon cheekily.

"Hey, we're starting to understand! Maybe we'll even be able to explain the important points before long. He'll just need to, uh, answer the more in-depth questions."

"I suppose it probably wasn't easy for you, though, either," Emil said thoughtfully. "You probably had a steep learning curve too…to hear you say it, this world wasn't that much more familiar to you than yours is to us."

Blackcanismon nodded. "Our collective experience permitted us to weather the inconsistencies relatively effectively. Nevertheless, there are a multitude of confusions and misunderstandings and novelties we have encountered during this excursion. And regrettably, we lack the luxury of accommodating at a leisurely pace."

"I suppose there's something to be said for being used to facing tricky situations…" The door opened, and Emil looked over, wondering who among them had come around this time…and immediately, the subject of 'tricky situations' was rendered extremely appropriate. Elliot was standing in the doorway, getting an immediate defensive reaction from Derek and Blackcanismon as they stood up and backed away. The man's gaze was sunken and weary, the look of someone who hadn't slept a wink in far too long, lacking the firmness it usually had. His clothes were unkempt, appeared like they hadn't been changed from the events of the previous night.

"Emil." Even his voice sounded off, hollow and heavy. "…If you would…I would like some time alone here."

"Elliot…" Emil didn't sound exactly at ease with that, but a long, hard look at Elliot seemed to affirm that he was unarmed. He looked over at Derek. "…It's up to you."

"…Fine." Derek wasn't sure how he felt about it either, but he wasn't really sure what saying no would accomplish, either. At the very least, if he had to, he could say his piece and put things to rest for good.

With a nod, and a last look at Elliot, Emil rose and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Elliot slowly took a seat in one of the chairs, slumping into it like he'd been needing to sit for days. His head rose, and he looked at Derek and Blackcanismon, or almost past them. "…Show me. Please."

"…Show you?"

"…I need…to see. That the last…day or so wasn't just…a bizarre fever dream."

Derek and Blackcanismon exchanged looks. Despite the considerable ruckus so recently, he suddenly professes disbelief? the canine pathed to the human.

He doesn't look like he usually does…maybe he's doubting reality itself by this point. I suppose we might as well, though.

So agreed, the two came together, the dark glow surrounding them, and soon enough, the nebulous figure of Darkvargmon had taken shape in the room. Elliot's reaction was remarkably subdued; his eyes widened a bit at the view of it happening right in front of him, but otherwise his face remained unchanged.

"This is what you wanted to see, right? Confirmation of the truth." Darkvargmon's voice had an edge to it. "Doubt no more. It's not changing whether you do or not."

"…No. I suppose it's not." Elliot leaned forward, rubbing his eyes. "…I never imagined…seeing myself where I was yesterday. Doing what I was doing. Always…always told myself, I wouldn't ever go that far. Wouldn't ever let it get to the point where I was the danger. And then…I went and did it anyway. God…how can I ever look her in the eyes again…"

"You might want to start with something a little more outwardly-focused than that, if you wish to soften my feelings towards you," said Darkvargmon with a touch of asperity.

"…I suppose you're right. You…deserve an apology. And more, I suppose…but…I'm sorry. For what I did."

A starting point…it was more than Darkvargmon, or his constituents, would have dared hope for. "I will need more, I think, to feel truly ready to start down the road to forgiveness. It's good that you are willing to bare yourself here, and necessary. But this is the culmination of a long history of trouble…and a real change is needed to repair those badly-frayed bonds."

"I guess I deserve that…" Elliot sighed. "I don't understand, how it all went so wrong…"

"I do, and I also know why you don't. Elliot. You do not listen. You do not hear what you don't want to hear. A decision you make is a decision that must be set, no matter what else challenges it. The whole mess from last night…I don't know what went on before you confronted me, but Emil made all the connections to realize the truth. The man you work alongside regularly…surely he must have said things that should have had you questioning what you thought you knew. Yet your response was that of someone who had already made all the decisions he thought he needed to make. And that is but a microcosm of your conflict with Derek…the fact that you are tenaciously insistent on clinging to your image for how you want him to be, without listening and hearing who he IS, is why you have struggled for so long to find accord with him. You spent all your time thinking about the considerations for yourself, for your worries and concerns, but spared no thought for his."

"…I…see…" Elliot took this in rather heavily. He didn't say anything for a good long while, and when he did speak again, he was somehow even more subdued. "I guess…I let it affect me more than I was willing to accept…"

"…Let it affect you?"

"Derek…was never meant to be our only child. We had planned on having a larger family…at least, that was what we had talked about. But everything that happened during the pregnancy…Myra said…they had told her that another one might kill her. The first one came closer than we would have liked itself. That was it for our family…and I…suppose I started to lose sight of things. It seems strange to think about, that I cared so much that I only had one child…I don't at all think I would have considered any of them expendable, or any such thing. But somehow, the idea that this was my chance at fatherhood, I couldn't lose it…it made me think that I had to do whatever I could to keep him safe. And…perhaps my idea of safe was…more extreme. With everything I've seen here…it's hard not to jump at shadows."

"Emil made mention of something similar earlier," Darkvargmon said quietly. "I suppose a constant view into the unsavory side of the world doesn't make for the most relaxed perspective."

Elliot nodded. "And…it was hard for me to accept that I could be wrong about that…when I was the one who saw more than anyone else did. So everything…everything had to be normal. Everything had to be right. Anything that wasn't, it was dangerous. I…never really gave any thought to how to deal with it if my son didn't fit that definition of normal. I just…wanted to make it happen. And I thought, as long as I was keeping him safe, I was in the right…but last night…I wasn't keeping him safe. I was the one putting him in danger. And I…couldn't get it off my mind, that I had betrayed my own oath, and…done it so easily. And it led to a lot of things…like wondering if this was really the first time, or just the first I could see. And wondering where else I had gone wrong, and how…"

"…It's not too late to learn. Not too late to change. And if you can…it will get better. Not right away. But something meaningful can be built over time…and perhaps you'll find that it was what you were always looking for, and could have had, if you hadn't been in your own way."

"…That's the most I can hope for. And I realize I have to…earn it. But…hearing that there is hope there…I hope it gives me the strength I need to make that chance. For all of us." Elliot bowed his head once again. "Thank you…if it's all right…I'd like to have some time now with my son…and…his friend."

—

Didn't they say that that thing they wanted to show us was ready? Salmandmon wondered as he and Reyn sat in the hallway; the two were eating snacks from the vending machine, while waiting on the next phase of their visit there. They were sticking to mental chat just in case anything came up that they would have preferred wasn't overheard. What's all the holdup?

Apparently Derek's dad came by. He and Derek and Blackcanismon are still talking…I guess everyone figured it was better to wait for him than leave him out of the loop. Reyn watched a couple employees pass by, giving them both odd looks as they did - but not unfriendly ones, thankfully. I guess they still have some getting used to us to do, but the lack of open hostility has been pretty encouraging.

I could do without the look of 'what's that curiosity,' but I guess that's gonna take more time…well, we are the first friendly digimon they've ever seen. I guess humans in our world would probably get the same kinds of looks.

I can only HOPE they just get looks. I can imagine a Tuskmon screaming in terror and stomping one of us flat like an elephant to a mouse. Not that there aren't a few people in the world I might be okay with seeing that happen to…

For all we're different, we're also a lot of the same, came the amused reply. Hey, do you mind if I ask a question?

Never minded before, go ahead.

Well, last night. There was a…weird moment between you and Derek. And I don't want to be rude or anything, but it was just kinda curious because I don't remember ever seeing him or you like that before, and…well, I know I might be paranoid, but if it's something that could, uh, be a thing in the coming days…

Reyn was confused for a moment, until he thought back to the previous night. Oh, that…don't worry about it. It's nothing, just stuff in the past. I guess he still thinks about it, though.

If he thinks about it, it's not entirely in the past. But I get the sense that there's a story there.

Yeah, okay, I guess there is. It's really not as bad as all that, but I'll come out and say it…Derek and I didn't start off on the right foot. But to understand it, I kinda have to go back a bit further…

~~~3 years ago~~~

Friendship was always something I had difficulties with. Moving around so many times makes it hard to keep connections…but, on the other hand, usually it was my losing those connections that prompted the moves. Getting called a freak, a psycho, a weirdo, and getting alienated by people I thought I was close to…it hurt a lot. Though, not every loss was their fault, either…because of everything that happened, and my fears about it happening again, I didn't always relate to people well. That had its own consequences.

Things didn't start off well immediately in Braun, either, but they got better pretty quickly. Meeting Iris was the big turnaround point…she was super nice to me from the start, and when we learned that we were kind of kindred spirits in a way, it really gave me some extra confidence that this was one person who wasn't going to judge me badly for how I was. A few months later I met Isaac through school, and we ended up becoming friends as well...and with him, I found that my quirk wasn't just not a concern, it was actually kind of an asset. He liked to make robots, but he couldn't really do much with metal then, because his parents were not keen on him doing any welding. But that was no issue for me, so I was able to help him take another step forward in his own interests…he really appreciated that.

So I had two friends, which was two more than I'd left most places with. And it was helping me feel a little more comfortable with myself. I had always been very shy, very quiet, scared to call attention to myself…these bonds I made helped me feel better about myself, and it was helping me get a little less avoidant. I don't think I'd ever call myself a social butterfly, but I was getting closer to acting like, you know, a NORMAL person. But then came a bit of a threat to that.

I knew of Derek pretty soon after I met Iris. Of course, they'd grown up together, so they were incredibly close, and it wasn't uncommon to see Derek doing things Iris was doing. And when she roped me in as well, I did my best to be nice to him. But…it wasn't exactly a returned gesture. He was pretty cold to me, didn't seem to enjoy having me around. Iris was pushing him to be nicer here and there, but when he ever was, it was clearly just a front - I knew what fake friendliness looked like by that point. He wasn't actively bullying me or pushing me around in any way, though, so I didn't really know how to respond to it. I just tried to ignore it for the most part, but that didn't really help anything, it was just…all I really knew. Confrontation was never something that had ended well for me.

And then one day, I was going over to see Iris. I saw her and Derek in her yard, and he was getting testy with her. I…well, I hung back and started to listen in, because I got nervous whenever anyone else was in a bad mood. But I'm glad I did, because they were arguing about me. Iris was getting on his case about how he was treating me, saying that I'd been nothing but nice and he was being a brat. And Derek was getting angrier, until he starting asking why I had to be involved in everything and why couldn't it just be the two of them like it used to, and why he always had to be saddled with that freaky little firebug.

As you can guess, that hit pretty hard. And suddenly, I didn't feel much like playing anymore. I took off…I don't remember if Iris called after me or not, but she knew I'd heard what had been said. But I didn't hear her if she did, I was too busy crying. Not exactly the most mature response for a twelve-year-old, I guess, but this was something I'd been through too much and it really opened up old wounds. I was reminded of all the people who'd gone at me, who'd called me nasty things, who'd pushed me away and treated me like dirt…I couldn't really push all those thoughts away, so I responded how I always had, with tears.

A lot of what happened after that is pretty hazy, but what I remember clearly next was running into Isaac somewhere. I think he might've been looking for me, though not because of this, probably just for help with another project…either way, he never got around to asking about that, since he was more concerned with what was wrong. I didn't name names, but I told him the gist of what happened…his response is one I remember pretty well.

"Man, who gives a rip what they say? You're cool and your fire thing's cool. People who name call are usually just bitter or jealous about something and can't get over themselves. I get called stuff all the time, but it's because I'm smarter than they are and do better in class. The best thing to do is just not care about that stuff, it makes them look worse than you do."

He said some other stuff too, but it was that part that stuck with me more than anything over time. Because I was well aware a lot of people didn't particularly like Isaac, but he stood up to them, and I really don't think I ever saw anyone get the better of him when they tried to tear him down. It was harder for me to be able to adopt that kind of attitude, but it helped to know that I wasn't the only one out there who dealt with that kind of thing, and to have a friend who'd been there to help me through it…to say nothing of the fact that he stood up for me for what I'd been slighted over, which helped salve the wound. It was when I realized things could be different this time, that I wasn't going to lose everything like before.

I told myself I was just going to ignore Derek, and maybe try to find Iris more when he wasn't around. But that didn't last long - he approached me a couple days later on his own. And of course, I reacted to this with all the grace and maturity you'd expect from a wounded twelve-year-old.

"What do you want? Come here to stomp on the freaky little firebug?" Yeah…that's about what you'd expect.

"That's not…look…I, uh…I came to apologize…I shouldn't have said that. It was wrong."

It sounded like an apology, in everything except tone. I knew forced apologies pretty well by that point, too. "Iris made you come over here, didn't she?"

"No! I just…she didn't MAKE me do anything…"

"Uh huh…" No, she didn't MAKE you do anything, Derek, but she told you there would be consequences if you didn't. Most fake apologies are the same. "If you're only doing it because she made you, that's not an apology at all."

"C'mon, at least hear me out. I really was out of line…I know that I shouldn't be saying that kind of thing, I was just angry. I mean, it's not like everyone doesn't think I'm weird, too."

"Yeah? Well, why do I make you so angry, anyway? Never doing anything to you, trying to be nice to be met with you always trying to push me away, what about me ticks you off that much?"

Derek wasn't quick to respond this time. "It's nothing…you wouldn't understand it anyway."

I didn't really like that response, as you can probably guess. But before I could say anything, I thought back to what they'd been arguing about…and then I realized I DID understand, much more than he could ever know. "It's not really about me at all, is it? It's about Iris."

"I dunno what you mean."

"The heck you don't. Do you spend time with anyone else, ever?"

"…That's none of your business."

"Right now it IS my business, because you're supposed to be apologizing, right?" This was new territory for me, I didn't have any attitude whatsoever most of my previous life…that's what being angry rather than sad gets you, I guess.

Derek didn't look like he was really enjoying this, but he answered anyway. "I…guess I don't, really."

"You're just angry because you want to spend time with her, and you think I'm stealing that from you. It's stupid. She's not pushing you away, she wants you to be there too. At least she does until you act like a brat. You can't try to keep her all for yourself, Derek. She doesn't want that. And if you try to make her choose between you and all her other friends…it's like a game of tug-of-war. She's the rope, you're on one side, and all of them are on the other side. And they always win, because that's how it's supposed to work. The person who tries to be the only one loses."

"That's…I don't…what do you even know about that?" Derek was trying to be defiant, but I saw it in his eyes. That fear…he knew it, even if he didn't want to accept it. But I knew how to make that happen.

"I know because I made the same mistake. I had a friend, last place I lived…he was THE friend. The only one I had, the only one I could seem to make. And I always wanted to do things with him, but I didn't want to do things with his other friends, because they didn't like me. And I tried to pull him away from them more, but he wasn't happy about that…one day I told him he had to pick between me and them. And that was how I lost him. I was stupid to think I could ever beat out everyone else he got along with…but I was too stupid to see how stupid I was, too."

I could tell it hit home with him…his look had changed completely. It kind of helped defuse my own anger, too, because I could see myself in him…it kind of woke me up that all that stuff before hadn't really helped much.

"The only way to win in this kinda thing is not to be on the other side…it's to be on the same side as everyone else. Because then you're not fighting or forcing, you're just…being a friend."

"…I'm sorry." It's hard to explain just how different the same words can sound. It couldn't have been more different than when he'd first started talking to me. "I…I was angry because of that. I guess I wanted to just…felt like I was losing her because she wanted to do things with others. But I shouldn't be forcing her to do that kinda stuff either…it's not really any good when it's forced, is it?"

"No…but you don't have to. I see how close you two are, you're way closer to her than I am, you don't need to fight for her attention…the only way you'd 'lose' her is if you made it happen yourself, like I did."

"Yeah…I don't want that." Derek doesn't smile much, but I got one there. "Thanks, Reyn…I guess I was wrong about you. You're not so bad after all."

~~~Present Day~~~

That was a big turning point in my life, Reyn pathed with a sigh; bittersweet memories to bring up, since it involved a lot of hard things to think about, but important ones nonetheless. It was the first time I'd really stood my ground against someone…and the first time I realized that things that I'd learned and experienced could really be applied to others. I mean, I always heard about 'walk a mile in someone else's shoes' but it didn't really sink in until then that I could actually, well, teach someone about something and help them out. I turned Derek from an enemy into a friend, and it got me feeling a lot more like I could stand up for myself…and the more I did, the more I started to be more relaxed, less shy, and be willing to speak up and speak out.

To your brother's endless chagrin, no doubt, cracked Salmandmon. What's that 'walk a mile in someone else's shoes' business about, though? That's a weird way of talking about that sort of thing.

Uh…yeah, considering you've probably never worn shoes in your life, I guess that might not be the best way to describe that. Wait, there have to be digimon that wear shoes or boots or something like that. I'm pretty sure Skullsatamon was before we flambéd him.

Yeah, but do you think I'M wearing any of those?

Hm, point…

"Oy! Reyn!" Both looked up as Isaac poked his head out from the stairwell. "Derek's done with his thing, and that tech's getting antsy up there. Let's get a move on!"

"On my way!" Both hopped up, eager to be moving on. Though Salmandmon definitely was left with lingering thoughts about what he'd learned about Reyn…and, though he might have questioned the idioms, he had a feeling he might relate better to what the boy had been through than Reyn ever would have suspected…

—

As it happened, Reyn and Derek arrived at the door at about the same time. Reyn could see a weariness in the taller boy's eyes, though he seemed a bit more relaxed than usual even despite this. "Hey…how'd it go?"

"…You heard, huh?"

"They didn't exactly keep it a secret."

"Hm, I suppose not." Derek let out a sigh, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. "…It's a start. The first step in a long process, probably. But…for the first time in ages…I felt like he was actually listening to me. If that's a sign of things to come, then there's hope. And right now, that's what I'm focusing on."

Reyn nodded. "I see. I won't pry into it, but…you can talk to me, if you need to."

"Thanks. We shouldn't keep the others waiting." They entered with their partners, to a large tech room with some rather sizable computers in the back. The others were already milling around, all looking to be in various states of weariness; the constant demonstrations had definitely had an effect on them all.

"About time," Skylar huffed. "I thought you might have started taking on the habits of a certain other someone."

"You just can't ever stop taking shots at me, can you?" griped Isaac.

"We aren't even late," Salmandmon added. "We came up as soon as we were told things were ready. You've just been waiting in here while we went and noshed. You probably oughta do that, you look like you could use a few calories."

"He only can if you didn't clean out the entire vending machine," cracked Shockavimon.

"Hey! I only had six candy bars!"

"Only because I didn't have any more money on me," remarked Reyn. "Seriously, where the heck do you put all that food?"

"You know how an incinerator leaves pretty much no traces of what you put in it? It's like that," the lizard snorted slightly indignantly. "Weren't we supposed to be looking at something? Where even are those dudes?"

"Sorry, sorry!" Reyn and Salmandmon rushed out of the way as the tech suddenly barreled into the room. "So sorry! Just got a call that I had to take. Business never stops, even for monster attacks! Ah, goodness, didn't mean to keep our symbiotes waiting!"

"Our what now?" asked Datacarnomon.

"All in good time, sir!" Rudy snatched a pile of papers off of the printer. "Let me try to catch you up to speed! My name's Rudy Panmechia, and I do the high-level data and evidence analysis for the BICI, as well as putting together whatever I need to to support our agents in their work. So you remember that we took some samples from you earlier?"

"That episode would be challenging to banish from our recollections," remarked Blackcanismon.

"I suppose it would be! Well, the purpose of that was to run some DNA analyses. Hardcore, in-depth analyses, as a matter of fact! I'm amazed at what this beast of a computer can do, it really is an incredible piece of hardware, beyond anything you could ever find on the market or even assemble on your own for a reasonable price-"

"Rudy, Rudy…" Emil had stepped into the room, reining in the tech before he could diatribe too much further. "I know you're enthralled by our master system, but I don't think this is the audience for it."

"He sounds a lot like Hoothead, doesn't he?" snickered Breezedramon to Datacarnomon.

"And clearly needs a handler just as much," the robot chuckled back.

"Yes, yes, I suppose not…anyway!" Rudy handed out the papers to the pairs, which contained a whole lot of blocks of text and not much more. "We had already ascertained the digital nature of you digimon from earlier samples that had been acquired, an incredibly fascinating and unique discovery that I suspect you all already knew about. What you might not have known is that when I made an attempt to look in further depth into your DNA, I found that it had an unusual property to it! You might notice it in the first box example!"

"…What the heck are all of these little letters?" asked Salmandmon.

"Those are the nucleotide bases of organic DNA, or at least a representation of them," Skylar said. "A, C, T, G. Though technically there's supposed to be a U in there somewhere, I think."

"Only in RNA, so that's not a factor here," chimed in Isaac. Skylar gave Isaac a bit of a look, which only got a smug grin in reply.

"Notwithstanding this diatribe of edification, I struggle to ascertain the importance of such knowledge," Blackcanismon said as he struggled with his papers, Derek doing his best to help.

"That's where you take a look at the boxes!" Rudy's eyes were twinkling; he really did seem like a kid at Christmas. "You'll notice that the binary follows particular patterns that are represented with regularity - a couple of them are marked in such a way! And if you take a look, you'll notice the same markings in the translation!"

"Trans…WAIT a second!" Datacarnomon shouted. "You can't be serious right now! There's no way! Are you trying to seriously tell me you can TRANSLATE our DNA to yours?"

"Exactly! The figures don't lie, and I did extensive validation! It failed to yield any discrepancies that I could find whatsoever! The connection is remarkable!"

"Holy crap…" Salmandmon was marveling as he looked back and forth, noting the obvious connections. "I can't believe this was never examined! This might be the craziest thing yet pointing to the validation of Origin Resonance Theory!"

"Are you STILL on that?" Shockavimon asked in disbelief. "Seriously, what is your fascination with that whole thing? You know there's no way to ever prove it, right?"

"It's COOL," fired back the lizard. "And it doesn't HAVE to be proven, if there's enough right about it. You can't tell me this is just some kind of weird cosmic coincidence!"

"It's nonsense is what it is!" exclaimed Datacarnomon. "It's not reasonable to say that our DNA can be translated and yet we can look and exist so differently from each other! It just doesn't make any sense that way!"

"If I may…" all eyes turned towards Rudy, who looked like he'd just had an epiphany of some sort. "I daresay it could very well make sense! After all, DNA is incredibly important, but itself is only a template…there are many processes that go into translating it to the components of cells, tissues, organs, and the like! I would posit that just because the textual representation can be translated doesn't mean that everything is processed precisely the same way - for one thing, the way your proteins are read out might be completely different, meaning that even equivalent sequences could have dramatically different outputs! And considering the dramatically variable physiology of digimon, extending even to the nature of your existences - such as, for instance, one of you being an outright robot - I'd say it could extend even farther than that!"

"That…actually sounds very reasonable," replied Datacarnomon. "You are…I think I might like you."

"Yeah, but now I wanna know, so what?" piped up Breezedramon. "Yeah, you got all these numbers to turn into letters, but why'd you need to sample all of us for that? And why's it so important anyway? Not like these nucleminotabitines really mean anything to us, right?"

"That's where the second box sequence comes in! If you'll glance lower on that page and on the next couple, I did a deep dive into sequencing for all of you! I didn't run the full genetic profile, that would have taken too long, but running five independent sample points was enough to convince me of what I was seeing, and I'm almost certain it will extrapolate!"

The papers were shuffled around, and the declarations were met with confusion. "What are you talking about, exactly?" asked Iris. "I just see two boxes with letters in them…and it looks like you goofed, they're just copies of each other."

"Ah, look again! Specifically at the top where it indicates the profile source!"

"You can't just tell us?" Iris rolled her eyes, but looked…and then stopped. "Wait…this is my…"

"Why are both of us on these?" asked Reyn, looking back and forth between the boxes. "This is me and Salmandmon…wait, hold on. What?"

But it was Isaac and Datacarnomon who were the first to actually process what they were seeing, and both sets of eyes went wide. "Waaaait a second!" Isaac almost shouted. "Rudy, this had better not be a prank!"

"I wouldn't prank over something so important!" replied the tech eagerly. "And certainly wouldn't spend hours setting it up on company time! They don't like when state employees do that."

"You can't…you can't be serious!" Datacarnomon cried out. "They're the same! They're identical! How is that even possible?!"

Derek's eyes widened, and he suddenly jerked his head around to Emil. "That's what Dad was flipping out over, wasn't it?! He somehow got Blackcanismon's…sample or whatever and they found out it matched me?!"

Emil nodded. "Yes, that's exactly right. It was a stunner for us, too…but when I put together what was going on, I had a hunch…and I'm guessing that everyone's finding that to be just what I was suspecting."

"What the hell is going on here?" Reyn asked in wonder. He wasn't too overly familiar with the details of DNA, but he knew enough to know that people didn't have the exact same. "You're telling me Salmandmon and I, it's…just…a perfect match?"

"Perfect match?" Salmandmon echoed. "Data, does that ever happen?"

"No, never!" replied the robot shakily. "And it sure as hell isn't supposed to happen between organics and goddamn robots! And I thought this day couldn't get any weirder than it already was…"

"Emil told me about what you reported to him about your unusual experiences," continued Rudy. "Beyond the combining, you have the synchronous elemental connections, the inexplicable connection that draws you to each other, and the developed telepathic connections, and the ability to influence each other on a metaphysical level…it's led to me hypothesize that what each of you pairs of human and digimon are experiencing is the result of a highly intrinsic connection that manifests in a mutually beneficial coexistence - in other words, a symbiotic relationship! By coming together, the two of you are each providing material benefits to the survival of the other, up to and including a juncture of your very physical beings! And much more thorough than, say, a shark and a remora."

"Symbiotic…" Reyn exchanged faraway looks with Salmandmon. "That is so crazy…but…I guess everything about this has been crazy, so maybe it's just completely in line with the trends."

"Anyone who tries to tell me this isn't the ultimate example of Origin Resonance Theory is gonna get a hot-foot," exclaimed Salmandmon with wonder in his voice. "No wonder we felt such a powerful connection…it goes all the way to the fundamental core of our beings!"

"I wondered what it was that set him off so hard," muttered Derek. "But how did he even get something off of you?"

"My supposition regarding his procurement would be incidental acquisition of pelt emissions," Blackcanismon suggested. "Although it appears he dramatically misinterpreted the results of the initial analyses. Not entirely beyond understanding, I confess it defies credulity even now."

"This all feels like a dream," Iris said distantly, before looking down at Shockavimon. "Everything that's happened might be because we were just…meant to be together, huh?"

"Two halves of a whole, and only together can we reach our full potential," agreed the bird. "I never would have expected it in a million years, but…after all we've managed to do together, the proof is right there."

"My head's hurting trying to wrap my mind around this," Datacarnomon growled, one hand on his head. "You're ORGANIC. I'm MACHINE. Hell, they didn't even know machines had network attributors until recently, this is going to blow some fuses, particularly back in Mechalopolis. Actually, we might wanna keep this from them."

"I'm as floored as you are, bud," Isaac affirmed, "but I don't think Rudy would have given us something he wasn't sure about. Maybe the 'how' isn't so important here, though…I mean, the fact that we can, if everything that's happened is because of that, is more important than wondering how it could have happened."

"Sky, I'm still confused," Breezedramon said, looking at the white-haired boy blankly. "Is he trying to say we're the same person?"

"It…not quite," replied Skylar with a slightly strained tone. "But we're definitely unusual in how…compatible we are. I'd wonder if all digimon were like this, but something tells me this wouldn't be a good test to try to run at this point."

"Something tells me that if all digimon were like this, this whole invasion thing wouldn't be happening in the first place," ventured Emil. "The attachment you all demonstrated was incredible…you all talked about feeling like you'd known each other for years despite having never physically met, and immediately feeling that connection between you, even enough to drive you to find each other. The hatred those from Emperius have for us, it doesn't sound like they have any such connection at all…"

"That's a good point," agreed Salmandmon. "I don't know why it's just the five of us, apparently, but I don't think it's likely that we'll be seeing any reinforcements any time soon."

"Dang, that woulda been nice," sighed Shockavimon.

"Anyway…I find this connection fascinating, and it makes me wonder if we shouldn't try to explore it further," continued Emil. "I would be curious to have Rudy try to draw up some tests that he could use to try to find out more about just what this link does. It could yield some important insights that might help you out in future confrontations-"

"Dad, I'm gonna stop you right there," Iris said suddenly, standing up and walking over to her father. "I think it's great that you're as interested in this and that you were willing to keep an open mind about this whole situation, it's made things so much better for us, you don't even know. That said, I NEED A BREAK."

"A-heh…" Emil let out a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Yes, I, uh, think we might've been pushing you all a bit more than you were prepared for…well, I mean, it would probably take some time for Rudy to put together any sort of testing scheme anyway, so that sounds like a perfect time for you to all spend some time recharging and come back when, uh…"

"When I'm in a better mood?" Iris said knowingly.

"You said it, I didn't," Emil replied with a wink. "Perhaps it doesn't have to be today, even, but I would like to discuss some other things with you before you all go your separate ways. Still, I think you've been cooped up long enough, it would be good to let you all have some time to yourselves a bit. After all, you're all processing some important new revelations yourselves…perhaps would you be okay with meeting back here in an hour or so?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," agreed Isaac. "I'm gonna stay here, though…I want to see if I can get Data interfaced with this computer here so that he can use it to scan for any potential new arrivals we need to deal with. Reyn, Sal, do you mind at least staying in the building just in case we make any unpleasant discoveries?"

"Sure, wouldn't be a bad idea," agreed Reyn.

"Hey, I can keep myself occupied anywhere," Salmandmon snickered.

"I'll probably be staying in the building as well," said Derek. "I've got lots to think about, and under the bright sun isn't exactly where I do my best thinking."

"Well, you all can stay shut in, I need some fresh air," Skylar countered. "And Breezedramon looks like he's about to start bouncing off of walls in boredom, so I'd rather find him a place with less hard things to run into."

"Yeah…wait, hey!" Breezedramon gave Skylar an angry look. "Don't TELL them that!"

"As if we don't already know you do it, goofball," Shockavimon teased.

Iris gave her father a hug. "We'll go out for a walk, too. We won't go too far, I just need to get my head cleared a bit."

"All right." Emil hugged her back, looking down at her with just a hint of anxiety. "I know you'll be with Shockavimon, and you two together can do some impressive things…but I still worry about you, so try to be as safe as you can be out there, all right?"

"Of course, Dad." After parting, she looked aver at Shockavimon, who was flapping over. "I don't think I need to ask if you're ready."

"Nope. Let's get out there."

Iris nodded, then glanced up at Isaac and Reyn one last time just in case they were going to ask anything of them. Isaac seemed to already be examining the computer, which Datacarnomon was almost salivating over. "Dang, this thing's gotta have half the power of Skynet. Reyn, betcha ten bucks Data finds something that's been hiding from us if he scans with this computer's help."

"No way," Reyn shot that down immediately. "I know Murphy's Law too well, I'd rather keep my money."

"Murphy's Law?" asked Salmandmon.

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And Murphy was an optimist."

"Tch, some optimist. Still, I don't think he was wrong, if this whole thing's anything to go by, anyway."

Iris rolled her eyes, but was glad to just be able to walk out without any other worries. As she descended the stairs, though, a thought occurred to her. Huh…since when does Isaac make bets? I thought he said he hated them…wonder if Datacarnomon's rubbing off on him a little bit.

—

For once, Shockavimon wasn't hiding herself as they walked, though it didn't seem like there were too many people to see her anyway. Everything seemed to be quiet in the city today, fewer people out than ever…the Airdramon attack had probably driven most of them back inside, just as the Aquilamon attack had kept them in for a couple days. They made their way to a plaza with a running fountain, a place where people could walk around and congregate; it was as empty as anywhere else, making it feel a little eerie, but at the moment, Iris and Shockavimon didn't mind the silence.

"What a day it's been…" sighed Iris, letting some tension out of her. "Showing ourselves to so many people, learning about a connection I never would have imagined…just when you think this whole ordeal's shown all it's got to show, another reveal's made. What else is coming that I'm not ready for?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Shockavimon, "but it's a good bet I won't be ready for it either. This was about as far from what I could have imagined when we made the trip over here. I thought we'd be spending days on our own, trying to carve out a little spot hidden away somewhere that we could use as a base while we tried to get the lay of the land and find out who we needed to talk to about this whole mess. They say a plan never survives first contact with the enemy, but that one didn't even survive first contact with a friend."

"No kidding…hey, Shockavimon? Why did you…jump in like that, when Dad and I were talking earlier?"

"What do you mean?"

"When he asked why we didn't say anything to him. I wasn't…intending to suggest you'd said anything to me about it. I mean, I know you did, but that wasn't why I was reluctant to tell him. It wasn't your fault, but it seemed like you wanted to…well, I don't know how to put it without it sounding weird, but take blame for it, I guess."

Shockavimon bowed her head. "That wasn't exactly what I was thinking, but…well, I do wonder sometimes if I'm not too quick to find fault with myself. Still pieces of that damaged mindset that are hard to get rid of…but…well, one of those is the mistrust, too. I know it's not healthy to be that leery of everyone, and…I shouldn't have been trying to tell you how to respond to someone you very obviously know better than I do. I should have listened rather than pushing my opinion. This isn't the first time I've done that, and…well, that snap judgment, it kinda tends to be wrong more often than not."

"Oh…I guess I see. But, I don't think you were out of line." Iris shook her head slowly. "I think, sometimes, the people we know best are the ones we're most likely to misjudge…because we know them well enough that we want to think better of them than they are. Regardless of how good or bad we should think of them, anyway. I think having that outside perspective can be good sometimes…you don't know him that well, so what you know is what you see."

"I guess sometimes it's good to have two ways of seeing things, huh?"

"Yeah. Two different things coming together can give you a better view. Like us, right?"

"Right. And it's amazing how far we've come in such a short amount of time. Though I guess that's partly what pressure makes happen…jeez. This whole thing has been such a crash course. It wasn't like this at all back with the KOL, we had time to prepare and we were as proactive as we were reactive…here, we can't be anything BUT reactive, it feels like."

Iris giggled a bit. "I know it's weird, but it's…kind of relieving, a bit, that you get overwhelmed by some parts of this, too. I mean, I appreciate your experience, it's probably been what's really made me able to trust you when you say I can do these sorts of things, but I feel less bad about how out of my element I am when I hear that you are, too."

Shackavimon couldn't help but grin. "I'm glad for anything that helps, really. I don't know if I'm always doing a good enough job of helping you through that part of things…I guess I forget sometimes your stage of life when we're taking on these challenges together. You seem…older than you are, honestly. Though that goes for all of you guys, it's incredible how well you've handled everything. I wonder if that isn't another little influence we have as part of this connection…don't know how we'd find out, though."

"Maybe. But I'm glad we have it…this all has been hard enough as it is, if I didn't feel like I was hanging in there…" Iris's voice trailed off, and she suddenly stopped.

"Iris? What…" Shockavimon started, and then she felt it - a chill that made the feathers on the back on her neck stand up. Both of the turned around at the same time, to the approach of four men, one of whom had a rather sinister smirk on his face. All four were armed, but only the frontmost one with the smirk had his in his hand. "Who are you?"

"I don't answer to monsters," replied the man fiercely, in a tone that instantly set off Shockavimon's warning bells. "You, girl…you're Conover's daughter, aren't you?"

"…You're…I thought I saw you when Dad was taking us in." Iris did not like the vibes she was getting from him. "But you're not from here, are you?"

"Astute girly…makes me wonder why you're looped in with these things. The name's Lexis Redford, and I'm with the FBI - and soon I'll be the one in charge of it. But there's a few things that stand in our way…these little creeps that blight our wonderful world."

"H-hang on!" Shockavimon protested. "We've been trying to help out! Ask anyone in the building now! Ask Mr. Conover!"

Redford's expression darkened, making the smirk look even more twisted. "I'm not interested in asking him anything. That man has been nothing more than the worst thorn in my side. And here I thought it would be Katran that would muck everything up, but no, it had to be him, poking his nose in and suggesting that monsters were the ones saving us. But now I see…he wants to protect his precious daughter more than anything. Finding out I came at him directly, I can't wait to see the sick look on his face."

"What…what's going on? Why are you doing this?!" Iris was feeling panic rise. "We're trying to stop digimon from attacking this world! Why would you want to get in the way of that?!"

"Heh heh…a kid like you just doesn't understand how you get ahead in the world. Can you imagine the following you'd get if people found out you'd stopped an existential threat to the entire planet? That sort of attention isn't something you can just get anywhere, and opportunities don't come up every day. Definitely not ones that haven't come up ever before. The heroism we show in ending the threat will be enough to convince anyone that we should be the only ones they need to listen to…unless they hear that some foolish monsters have been fighting off the other ones. If word gets out that that's happening, then we can't gain anything from it. So we need to put an end to this little farce so we can ensure only the people who matter get the credit for it."

Shockavimon's stomach was churning as she heard this. "You…you're deranged! We're trying to stop Emperius, they've been coming and they're going to keep coming, and they're not going to stop for anything! If you kill us, nothing will stand in their way of wiping out all of humanity!"

"Tch, even if I believed your empty threat, by the time they actually do come, we'll be ready for them. After all, only the best and brightest will be in charge, the ones who finished off the threat of the monsters before…" Redford's malicious grin almost glowed with malevolence as he raised the gun at Shockavimon. "If we beat them once, we can beat them again."

"No! Don't you dare!" cried Iris.

"Get away from us!" Shockavimon yelled.

"Your contribution to President Wheeler's campaign is appreciated…more appreciation than you deserve, monster." The shot rang out, just as Shockavimon was starting to dive away. It hit her in the upper chest, sending blood flying from the exit wound, and she fell back to the backdrop of Iris's scream. Raw terror coursed through the girl as she looked upon her fallen partner, unable to believe what was happening…that after all this time, it was one of their own betraying them that was going to be their downfall.

Redford had lowered the pistol, gazing triumphantly on the scene…but that look soured shortly. "Hmph. I must not have gotten her cleanly…she hasn't disappeared yet. My aim's getting sloppy."

Iris saw the gun go back up…suddenly, almost like it wasn't even her, she rushed in front of Shockavimon. "Get away from her! Get away from her RIGHT NOW!"

"Better get out of the way, girlie, or I might just rethink my boss's order not to leave a human body around," Redford warned harshly, not bothering to divert the direction of the pistol. "No one's going to stand in the way of my rightful place in power, especially not a little girl playing with creatures she doesn't understand. GET OUT OF MY WAY." Redford took a step forward, intending to intimidate Iris into moving…none of them expected what happened next.

All of it going through Iris's mind…fear, anger, sadness, all blending together in a sickening inner whirlwind in her mind…the worst of it focused on the man in front of her, callously trying to murder her partner and friend…something deep within her burned fiercely, a heat in her core that she was only half aware of. She didn't notice the rising of her hair, the cracking of the air around her, the energy building inside her, all she knew was that Redford was trying to finish the job and she wouldn't let him. And with one fluid move, she brought her hand up. "I SAID GET AWAY!"

The burst of crackling lightning from her hand was a raw power she had never felt in her life, at least not in her own, solitary life. It surged out, crashing into Redford's chest, the man's eyes widening just a moment before it hit and then even further when it did, lifting him off his feet and throwing him back several yards. He hit the surface of the plaza hard, ragdolling a bit before coming to a stop, convulsing and gasping, his expression blank and empty.

For a moment, Iris stood frozen, hardly daring to believe what had just happened. It hadn't even been volitional, she'd just…felt the charge inside her and let loose. But there was no doubt what it had been…electricity, by her own hand. A power she definitely did NOT have even a few days ago. And the raw force it had…to throw a grown man that far, affect him that badly, it was not just a parlor trick, that had been a straight-up attack…

But a moan from behind her erased all her attention to that for the moment. She whipped around and dropped over Shockavimon; she was bleeding, in obvious pain, but not gone yet. And she remembered what Derek had mentioned, when Salmandmon had been wounded and Reyn had done something to help him…she leaned over Shockavimon, ignoring the blood staining her shirt as she wrapped her arms around the fallen bird, tears beading in her eyes as she focused hard, trying to will her energy into Shockavimon, to save her before it was too late…she could feel the warmth suddenly flowing through her, different from what she'd just let loose, pushing into Shockavimon and connecting the bird to her…she could only pray that she wasn't too late…

It was draining, but it was working…she could feel the strength returning to Shockavimon's body. Shockavimon's own vision was clearing, her breathing was slowing from the harsh gasps to something more stable as she felt the pain in her chest recede, the blood stop flowing…she angled her head up, seeing Iris holding her. "Iris…you…"

"Shockavimon…" Iris's voice was listless, tears in her eyes as she hugged Shockavimon tight. "You're…you're okay…"

"Y-yeah…I…I am…thank you…" Shockavimon made to return the embrace, but a loud pair of voices behind them shattered the moment.

"DON'T MOVE!"

Startled, Iris nearly fell over, and jerked her head back over her shoulder. In the mess of everything, she'd entirely forgotten that there were three other men there. One of them was looking over Redford, while the other two had guns trained on her and Shockavimon. "What the hell did you do, what the HELL DID YOU DO?!" one of the men roared, his gun shaking in his grasp.

"You're in BIG trouble, girl, you just attacked a federal official!" shouted the other, much steadier and sharper.

Fear was beginning to return as the predominant emotion, as both of them realized how vulnerable they were. Those two didn't seem to have much in the way of restraint, and Iris was too drained to be able to do much more at the moment, having put her all into restoring Shockavimon, who didn't fancy her odds against two of them. It looked no less dreadful than when it started, the odds of their survival looking grimmer by the moment…

"PUT. THE GUNS. DOWN." A deep, powerful, booming voice startled all the men into looking their direction. Iris scarcely dared to believe it - standing in front of half a dozen other agents with their weapons trained on the attackers was Bob McGovern, his own service pistol drawn and steady. "Don't make me repeat myself. I don't like being that loud, if I have to get that loud again it won't be pretty."

All three men slowly, reluctantly relinquished their weapons. Three of the agents stepped forward to take them and take control of the men, two others went to check on Redford, and Bob and the last came over to Iris and Shockavimon. "Are you all right, you two?"

"I…I think so…" Iris's voice was shaky and weak. "Thank you, Bob…"

"It's my pleasure, little lady. Consider it a little bit of repayment for you looking after me out there that night." He looked back over his shoulder with a scowl on his face. "Never did trust that slimeball…I had an ugly feeling when I saw him slip out after you, glad I listened to it. Did he hurt either of you?"

"He shot me!" Shockavimon replied with a tremor. "Iris helped me out, but…what the hell is going on? Why would he do that?!"

"I only have thoughts, not answers, but maybe we'll hear them from one of his cronies. Let's get you two back to safety."

—

The day had already been surreal enough; Iris really wished it would stop trying to top itself.

She had recovered a little bit as they walked slowly back to the BICI, escorted by Bob and one other agent; the rest had remained back with the attackers, but a couple cars whipping past them in their direction suggesting they wouldn't have to be out there too much longer. Not long after that, Breezedramon swooped in - he'd heard the shot, and had flown up to assess things and come down towards them when he saw the commotion. Immediately he took on the role of scout, swooping forward on their path to make sure no other nefarious forces lay in wait to try to ambush them. Mercifully, their path remained clear, and they arrived at the BICI just as Skylar was hustling up, looking incredibly relieved to see the two of them shaken but stable, though not seeming to quite realize that that didn't mean they hadn't been through a thing.

Once inside, Bob had taken over briefing some of the others in there while Skylar helped Iris back upstairs to the lab room. It had gone from peaceful to frantic once Iris had said she was attacked by one of their own - and even more frantic when Emil suddenly barged in, trotting and agonizing over Iris until she pushed him off and convinced him that Shockavimon had been the one who'd taken the worst of it. Only then could the story start to really get out.

"That's insane!" yelled Salmandmon angrily. "I can't believe a human actually shot you even knowing what you were doing! What the hell is wrong with him?!"

"Lexis Redford…" There was an edge to Emil's voice that was doubly disturbing for how infrequently it was ever heard. "We knew he wasn't trustworthy, but I never expected…unbelievable. Wanting to take credit for stopping the attacks? He hasn't done a goddamn thing the whole time he's been here!"

"It was terrifying hearing him say that…" agreed Iris; her voice was still a little shaky, but better than it had been. "He said…we were contributing to…President Wheeler's campaign."

"I'm sorry, what?" hissed Reyn. "Last I checked, he wasn't the president, and shouldn't be allowed within a thousand miles of that office."

"And since when has that stopped other idiots who shouldn't have been there?" growled Isaac. "What the hell kind of stunt is he trying to pull?"

"I wish I didn't have an answer for that, but I think I might." All eyes turned towards the lab doorway, where Elliot had stepped in; he still looked not entirely fresh, but he'd cleaned himself up a bit since his talks with Derek. It didn't seem to have done much for his mood, though, with the dour expression on his face. "It seems our 'federal support' might never have been support at all. Emil…you remember how often he was on the phone, talking to someone he wouldn't tell us about?"

Emil's face went pale. "…Oh, no."

"Turns out, he's been feeding information directly to Jonah Wheeler this entire time. I've got a bad feeling that there's been something going on that's been piling on the trouble…and I'll probably know more soon, because I got something off of the bug I put in his office. I just need Rudy to decrypt it."

"That's not everything, though…" Iris spoke up again. "When he shot Shockavimon, he was angry that he didn't finish it. And when he tried to again…" She did her best to describe the experience she had, the sudden release of the electricity...and then realized, seeing the blank faces, that she could do one better. Staying calm and focusing a bit, she held out her hand…everyone's eyes widened in awe as a sparking ball of electricity formed in it.

"No…freaking…way…" Isaac said, gaping.

"That's wicked!" Breezedramon exclaimed.

"But…how?!" asked Derek, aghast.

"Absolutely fascinating!" Of course, it had to be Rudy interjecting and making everyone jump. "This would appear to me to be a manifestation of another benefit of your symbiotic connection to your partner! Shockavimon can generate electricity at will, and this capacity must have arisen in you as well!"

"Why just her, though?" asked Datacarnomon, still in disbelief. "None of the rest of them has shown anything of the sort!"

"But…we wouldn't necessarily know it, would we?" The others looked at Skylar, who was looking contemplatively at the lightning ball. "It wasn't until Reyn and Salmandmon accidentally discovered their telepathy that we realized we were capable of it. And the energy transfer thing, that was spur-of-the-moment as well, yet several of us have done that as well since. Perhaps we've all developed this recently, but it's never come out that we've felt the need to channel it, so we haven't actually done so."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second…" Reyn suddenly stood up, stepping away from the others. They watched as he looked at the far wall, his eyes almost boring into it, raising his hand up and gritting his teeth. For a moment, nothing appeared to happen…and then, without warning, a blazing orb of fire gradually grew in front of his hand. The swirling flames remained there, held in place until Reyn made a slight motion and it suddenly rocketed forward, smacking into the wall and leaving a scorch mark.

"Reynard Kessilik!" Elliot snapped. "Warn us before you do something like that! And don't shoot things like that at the walls!"

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away!" Reyn looked at his hand, starry-eyed. "Jesus hell, this is like everything I've ever dreamed of…"

"Great, the pyro can make fire at will," sighed Skylar. "What can POSSIBLY go wrong with that?"

"Justifiable reservations aside, this constitutes an exemplary development!" exclaimed Blackcanismon in wonder. "The capacity to effectively defend yourselves outside of our unification state is extraordinarily advantageous! My greatest concern was the potential for directed assault against our individual selves, as a mechanism to disrupt our capacity to mount an effective defense…"

"I have to agree," Emil said with a nod. "If you're capable of doing things like this…at the very least, I might not know what digimon might be capable of, but any further incidents of THIS kind should be much more manageable. And I have to imagine you'll be able to do a lot more with it if you take some time to practice…SAFELY," he added as he saw Reyn's expression light up. "Not inside, for one thing, and I would recommend doing so in a place where you won't destroy things that shouldn't be destroyed."

"Don't worry, I'll keep my eye on him," Salmandmon said with a grin.

"Because the pyromaniac with pyrokinesis will most assuredly be restrained by Zetta Unit's resident conflagrant cranium," snarked Blackcanismon.

"Man, this is so lame…" Isaac grumbled. "I'm not gonna be able to have anything like that…"

"I'm sure between us we can figure something out, Ike," Datacarnomon reassured his partner. "We might be able to make you something that can compete or outclass any of them! Especially if we can make use of this beast of a computer here!"

"I guess…though I don't know how keen Rudy'll be to have to share his baby for longer…"

"It's a disaster!" Rudy's sudden shout drew everyone's attention - he sounded as distressed as they'd ever heard him. "A catastrophe of epic proportions!"

"Okay, you CAN just say no, I won't be offended," Isaac snapped testily.

"Not that! Elliot, that data you sent me…"

Elliot didn't need to hear more, hurrying over. "Let's hear it."

"S-sir, it's not secure-"

"Right now this is relevant to everyone in this room. Whatever Redford was involved with, that attack made clear it's targeted at them more than anyone. They need to know as much as we do."

Rudy didn't look comfortable with that, but didn't object further, playing the audio over speaker for them all to hear. The contents were limited, containing only the last call between Redford and Wheeler, but that was enough for everyone to get a nice healthy pang of anxiety over what was being discussed.

"Okay, I never thought anyone could piss me off as much as Emperius does, but these assholes are getting damn close," growled Salmandmon.

"They're going to siege Braun to attack us?!" Skylar looked like he might faint. "They could tear this entire city apart!"

"Wait, hang on, I thought you guys said there was someone else in charge of the military," Datacarnomon said. "Why is this guy suddenly in charge?"

"He's not," replied Elliot darkly. "But he's angling to be. I've never met a more craven power seeker than Jonah Wheeler. He's spent years sucking up to whoever he sees the winds turning towards - and he reads the room too damn well for my comfort - and gives them enough dirt that they buy into him and reward him for it. But for him to pull a stunt like this, something that's practically a coup, it means he's going all in, thinking that a bold move against the monster attacks will win him the adulation he needs to get to the top. And he must have promised Redford a sweet position to do his dirty work over here."

"He did!" Iris exclaimed. "He said he was going to be in charge of the FBI!"

"But he couldn't command a military unit in defiance of the president…unless they were already in his pocket," mused Emil. "He mentioned a General Sykes, that must be who he's convinced to get involved in this insane plan."

"If it's insane, that fits Sykes perfectly," Isaac stated contemptuously. "He wants to fight a war so bad I'd suspect he'd start one himself if he could get away with it. If anyone would turn on the country for self-aggrandizement, it'd be a sword-swinging lunatic like him."

"Excuse me, swords are exemplary armaments," huffed Blackcanismon indignantly. "Please refrain from denigrating our fusion's equipment of choice."

"Our situation's a tiny bit different," said Derek. "But setting that aside, I don't like the sound of that one bit. It sounds like he enjoys the thought of a nasty fight…"

Isaac nodded. "Too much. Lots of people think he's cracked, but he's got a few devoted followers who love everything he stands for…good money says that's who'll be marching into Braun tomorrow, right in lockstep with him."

"All to hunt us…" Shockavimon said glumly.

"This is crazy!" shouted Breezedramon angrily. "Don't they understand we're trying to help them?! That we're trying to save their asses from being oblimeratimaturniterated?!"

"They don't care," Elliot declared stiffly. "I know this type of person…I've had to lock too many of them up not to know what they're all about. They care about nothing except their own status, and they'll do whatever it takes to try to raise that status, no matter what the cost is to others. Some people see a disaster and their only thought is how they can profit off of it…and apparently these ones are going one step further and making sure they don't have competition in their bid for glory. Blatant, disgusting opportunism…it explains a lot of Redford's behavior, though. He always wanted to act like he was taking everything over, despite not actually doing much…it must have been about controlling the message, ensuring that we looked incapable and they could swoop in when the time was right."

"And he was furious when I suggested that the monsters weren't all on the same side, during the interrogation with that Goblimon creature," added Emil. "Now I get why…he knew that if they weren't the 'heroes,' their whole plan fell apart. I wonder if they haven't been doing something to keep the President out of the loop, too…"

"Wait, you have a Goblimon here?" Salmandmon asked. "He might know something about Emperius's plans! Let me have some time with him, I'm good at getting info out of these guys! Everyone knows I'm good at turning up the heat!"

"Yeah, literally," added Shockavimon with an eye roll. "Getting them delirious with heatstroke isn't exactly high-quality interrogation technique."

Elliot shook his head. "Sadly, I don't think that's going to be happening. I wanted to ask him a few more questions of my own, after finally getting and, hrm, accepting the whole story…but when I got to the room we'd been keeping him in, he was gone."

"Gone?" Emil half-shouted. "Did he escape? Or did someone help him?"

"I almost wish that was the case. But the restraints were still attached. And…there was a distinct blood spatter on the floor. Given what we've heard about how these digimon die, I can only assume that it was an execution. And no prizes for guessing who's at the top of the list of suspects."

"Redford…" Reyn's hands were gripped tight enough to almost break something. "I don't care how bad they are, killing someone at your mercy like that is just monstrous. Iris, whatever you did to that guy, it was less than he deserved."

"Much as I agree with that, we don't have time to think about that right now," urged Derek. "We've got military forces invading Braun by tomorrow morning, if we're lucky and Wheeler doesn't move things up since we mucked up his underling's plan. We need a plan of action, and fast."

Emil shook his head. "We can't afford to lose you…even if we've been lucky so far, I don't think it's going to stay that way. We need you to be able to handle the attacks coming through from Emperius more than anything…we're going to have to get you out of here so that you can be safe."

"No." Salmandmon's resolute voice caught everyone off-guard. "We can't do that. You heard what he said. 'No matter the cost.' No amount of pleading is going to convince him that we've bugged out unless he actually finds us out there. I don't know him, but I know what type of person that is…he won't be satisfied until the entire city is razed to rubble, and no amount of death will be too much to sacrifice for his thirst for power. It'd be the Gradwen Massacre all over again, except larger by a couple orders of magnitude. And if he doesn't find us, he'll expand his scope of destruction until someone stops him…if that's even possible by then. I WON'T throw these people into the thresher."

"Then…what are you going to do?"

"We do what we always do." The reptile's eyes had a furious fire in them that the rest of Zetta Unit knew too well. "We stand, and we fight."

"Admirable as that courage is, they'll use that to smear you," Elliot reminded him. "All the blood you shed will be used to turn everyone else against you."

"Then we shed as little blood as possible. We play defense. Disarm them, disable them, drive them back, whatever it takes, buying as much time as we can for whoever's higher up the food chain to rope them back in. We know they're going to target you guys here in this building…we don't let them get here. Whatever power we have, we channel it towards stopping their advance. And we don't just let them wreck the city or hurt anyone here while they're coming for us…with their attention on us, we can keep them from doing too much collateral damage."

"He's right," agreed Reyn, looking as serious as anyone had ever seen him. "We can't run and sacrifice innocent people to these madmen. We have to take it to them. They have no idea what they're up against…we'll show them just how unprepared they are for what's coming. Maybe it'll send a message to the sane ones, too."

"Are…are you really ready to take on some of your own?" asked Emil shakily.

"…I've been bracing myself for this for a while. Ever since I first merged with Salmandmon, I knew it might came down to this. At the end of the day, though, the only difference between an evil human and an evil digimon is what kind of creature they are. If they want to attack, destroy, and kill, they need to be stopped."

"He's right," agreed Derek. "We don't have time for a moral crisis. We need to defuse this before Emperius escalates, and that could happen at any moment."

"We can do this," Shockavimon declared. "Our electricity can do the trick against any boots on the ground. The right level of shock can stun without putting them at serious risk, and our spread can hit a lot of them at once. Plus we should be able to block gunfire if we're being careful."

"They're probably going to have planes," suggested Skylar. "Jetdramon is probably the only one suited to challenging them. If we can keep them from being able to provide support to the ground, that should reduce a lot of the danger to the people here."

"Any heavy vehicles are probably going to be for us to deal with," Isaac chimed in. "The only way we're going to disable those without massive carnage is with enough raw power."

"Darkvargmon's capabilities are extremely suitable to remote offensives," offered Blackcanismon. "We shall strike precisely from the shadows, and run reconnaissance to detect locations requiring attention and facilitate communication between our allied forces."

"And that leaves us," Salmandmon stated determinedly. "We'll be wild cards. Engaging wherever we can, supporting the rest, and leaving ourselves ready to jump into anything unexpected. The numbers game isn't fun, but they're less ready for what we are and what we can do than even Emperius was, we'll use that element to turn the tide in our favor."

"Well." Elliot rubbed his head. "I can see why you lot have been able to keep us at bay. You're remarkably well-organized."

"We've been through some stuff," Breezedramon remarked, batting his chest. "They've been picking up on it super well, though! I never thought young humans would be able to handle this sorta thing! Course it helps that Sky's a genius and all!"

"Which means we should do our part, as well," said Emil. "We'll get as many of our people here to protect whoever we can, and try to contact anyone we know at the federal level to get some intervention. And if anything comes through the wire we'll try to get into contact with you so that you can adjust accordingly."

"Then it's settled," Salmandmon finished with a nod. "And we need to get ourselves as prepared as we can be. And you guys can do one other thing: try to get word out to everyone what's going on and to either evacuate or bunker down, so that they aren't putting themselves in danger."

"We'll loop the mayor and council in, I have no doubt they'll make the order," Elliot assured him. "You all get as much rest and prep as you can. I don't care who's putting it in danger, we're not giving up this world without a fight."

---

My first goal with this chapter was to take out the very explicit rehashing that was never necessary in the first place. You'd think that'd make things end up shorter, but nooooo…

Okay, no, I'd picked up on the trend for the rewrite at this point, it was going to be bigger, I just didn't expect THIS much bigger. Those mini-scenes ended up being a bit less mini than I thought. Still, I wanted to do a better job showing the acclimation process, and also make sure Elliot didn't just show up out of nowhere and no one cared after what happened just hours before. Really, the reason this got chunky was because I was doing more showing rather than telling, which more than made up for having less RE-telling.

Speaking of telling, villains who talk too much. I could have cut that down, but come on, this is a time-honored tradition at this point. Besides, if I'm gonna have a fanatical eugenicist militia as my main villains group, I've kind of already thrown subtlety out the window.