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.

21. Chapter 21: Desperate Times

Here comes the next chapter, and if you thought the day was over...well, the night is part of the day.

---

Chapter 21 - Desperate Times

—

Jetdramon still wasn't used to having so many eyes on him. But at least these ones weren't looking at him like a target. He tried not to pay too much mind to the soldiers who were still sweeping around the BICI, looking for any stragglers from the treasonous unit that had attacked the city. For that reason alone, he didn't want to be a distraction - the last thing they needed was an ambush from someone that wanted to carry out the orders of those depraved lunatics.

In he went, and quickly up to the lab, where Blazereptimon and Ebonvargmon were waiting. "I just caught sight of them. They're on their way over here, and they're all safe. Friendlies are escorting them."

"Thank goodness. It means a little bit of a break at least." Blazereptimon let out a long sigh. "And that we won't have to try to tell the whole story ourselves…I really didn't want to be without Data there."

"Agreed, it will be far less confusing if he's around," Ebonvargmon said with a nod. "But knowing that they're safe is much more important…if something had happened to them…"

"Something almost did, and we need to make sure it never gets that close to that bad again. But at least for the moment that won't involve combat." Blazereptimon shifted back down to Burnreptimon, and then split apart back into Reyn and Salmandmon. Ebonvargmon followed suit, reverting to Darkvargmon and then separating back to Derek and Blackcanismon as well.

Jetdramon was about to do the same when Rudy spoke up. "That form alteration is absolutely fascinating…it's incredible what you all can do, what a novel ability! But I'm curious…why do you change forms before splitting apart like that? It seems like an unnecessary step."

The five of them exchanged glances; they hadn't even really thought about that before. "I…don't…know?" Reyn said slowly.

"I didn't even really think about it," agreed Salmandmon. "It just…it was like automatic."

"I can only presume the existence of some flavor of subconscious prioritization," Blackcanismon said pensively. "Our psychology determined that it should follow a particular process without deviation. But what purpose would that necessarily serve, indeed?"

"Well…why don't I try not doing that and see what happens?" offered Jetdramon.

"…Are you sure this is a good time to be experimenting?" asked Derek.

"I'll be careful! I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Please tell me you didn't actually just say those words," groaned Salmandmon. "Guys, let's maybe evacuate the building…or the city…or the planet…"

Jetdramon scoffed. "Oh, stop it. Look, either nothing's gonna happen or I won't split, it'll be fine."

"We might as well let him give it a try, it's probably going to be on all our minds now if he doesn't," concluded Reyn with a shrug.

Salmandmon's brow furrowed. "I guess…I still don't know that I like it…"

"Relax. Just give me a moment." Jetdramon closed his eyes, and the others saw his body take on a strange glow, not dissimilar from when he normally separated…at least, not at first. But it was quickly apparent that it wasn't consuming him entirely, not like a normal separation…and it only got more disconcerting when they felt an odd vibration in the air, making the hairs on the back of their necks stand up (for those who had them, at least). Suddenly, the glow ebbed away, and Jetdramon remained there, panting and shaking a bit. "Whoo…ho, boy…okay, we are NOT doing that again…"

"What…happened?" Salmandmon asked nervously. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Feel a little weird, but it's going away…but, yeah, something did NOT feel right about that, and my mind was screaming at me not to do it. It felt like I was going to tear myself apart…it's so weirdly different from when I'm Skydramon, I just…it felt like I couldn't separate the same way, not safely…"

"Remarkable…absolutely remarkable…" Rudy was muttering again, shaking a little bit himself. "That was almost terrifying, for such an otherwise simple thing! I would never have suspected it without seeing it myself…"

"I mean, I don't think we'd ever have thought about it if you hadn't pointed it out," remarked Reyn. "Jeez, add that to the list of mysteries…"

"Perhaps not as mysterious as you think!"

"…You wanna take a crack at an explanation, be my guest, but we barely know anything about this ourselves."

"I suppose my explanation would hinge on a particular observation…" Rudy rubbed his chin, looking between the three. "You've mentioned before that your synthesis leads to a state where your minds partially combine, and partially enter a less prominent state. By any chance…have you noticed that the unified mind gets more intense when you ascend to a higher state?"

"Hey, yeah!" Jetrdramon said suddenly. "You're right! I didn't even really think about that, but now that you mention it, I feel less of Sky and Breezy in me like this than I do as Skydramon! They aren't gone, but they're…quieter, I guess?"

"I…guess I didn't really notice that," mumbled Reyn.

"I daresay the phenomenon he proposes is legitimate," stated Blackcanismon. "Perhaps another instance of personal naturality of experience overriding conscious observation. Though how a relative naïf to such experiences would cogitate such a hypothesis is beyond my imagination."

"This dude clearly has some brain chops," chuckled Salmandmon. "Wild…but what does that mean? You said you had an idea that hinged on that."

"Well, it IS just an idea, but I think it has some merit, all things considered!" Rudy nodded, beaming. "I think it's entirely likely that what you're experiencing is, in fact, a more thorough fusion between the two of you! As the physical form gets more powerful, so too does the linking between the two of you…which is cause and which is effect would be difficult to say, but they seem to be co-incident! And if the bonds are tighter and stronger, then I imagine the required energy to separate them is far greater!"

"So the base form is the only 'easy' form for separation," mused Derek. "Well, that's…potentially inconvenient, but useful to know."

"…Perchance…" Blackcanismon's expression suddenly took an anxious turn. "When you profess a magnitudinal embellishment of required energy for physical deunification…the aforementioned phenomenon would necessitate an expression of said energy, or am I misconceiving the ramifications?"

"Expression of…w-wait." Salmandmon's eyes widened. "You're not saying…it'd be like a BOMB?!"

"Oh, we are DEFINITELY not doing that!" exclaimed Reyn. "Holy hell! That sounds like it'd probably take us out in an instant!"

"Goodness…" Rudy had paled a bit at the ramifications. "I…am suddenly very happy to learn that you can abort that sort of thing! I didn't even realize how close we came to…"

"Okay, that is NOT something I want to think about right now, we just got out of near-death situations!" Jetdramon shifted down to Skydramon suddenly, and then separated back into Breezedramon and Skylar, thankfully safely.

"Well, knowing now is better than finding out in the worst possible way…" Reyn rubbed his head, letting out a shaky breath. "Yeah, we'd better make sure the others know that ASAP. And one of you had better remember, because I REALLY don't want to have a…moment on something like that."

"I'm glad you're at least getting to be self-aware on that," grunted Skylar. "Now you just need to put it into better practice."

"We'll make sure they know!" Breezedramon asserted. "I wouldn't want them to randomly oblimeraterminterate a whole huge chunk of city because they didn't realize what would happen!"

"I'm a little more worried about what they'd do to themselves, Breezy, but that too."

—

Iris had barely set foot in the BICI when she was grabbed and wrung into her father's arms. "Iris! I'm so glad you're okay! I was so scared for you-"

"Ack! Dad!"

"Are you hurt? They didn't do anything to you, did they? Did you have any trouble getting out? I don't know a whole lot about that path, but I thought it was the best chance-"

"Dad!" Iris managed to loosen herself from Emil's grip, though not pulling away entirely, and trying to ignore Shockavimon's giggling off to the side. "I was more worried about YOU! Those creeps sounded like they would shoot up an orphanage if they could get away with it!"

"Ah…well, it was, uhm, not comfortable AT ALL confronting them…but for your sake, Iris…"

"Let's avoid too many noble sacrifices, it thins out the numbers of the good guys way too rapidly," said Datacarnomon as he and Isaac brought up the rear. "It's good to see you're all right, and that the building's still standing. I guess things turned around just in time, huh?"

"Y-yes, that would be a considerable understatement. I, ah, should let you get back to the others…I know there's some business you're all supposed to take care of soon. President Herrera should be coming by shortly, as soon as she's laid out the city's defenses."

"Wait, she's HERE?!" Isaac's jaw dropped. "In the middle of the freaking combat zone?"

"Try not to sound TOO shocked that a politician would actually do something," remarked Iris with a bit of asperity. "Especially if you're coming face to face with her."

"Commanders SHOULD be in the combat zones," added Shockavimon. "Maybe not necessarily on the front lines, depending on their role in the battle, but you can't get a good lay of the land from far away. Sal always wanted to be right there, so he could make sure he knew what was going on and adapt when it mattered."

"We'd better get prepared if that's what we're going to be doing," concluded Datacarnomon. "C'mon, let's connect with the others. Uh, the building has been cleared, right?"

Emil nodded. "We've done a thorough sweep, but only two of them actually came in all the way - the rest were there as pressure, but didn't have a chance to do worse." He looked over to Iris. "Iris…I'm really glad you're all right."

"Same to you, Dad," Iris said, with a genuine smile. "But lighter grip next time, or I may have to give you a little jolt to get you to ease off."

"Aheh…duly noted."

—

The lab was getting a bit crowded again, but there were no complaints this time around - having them all there meant a lot more than physical comfort at the moment. Though the choice of activity was rather odd to Iris and Isaac.

"Someone wanna explain to me why we're watching videos online?" asked Isaac rather brusquely. "We don't have anything better to do with our time?"

"You'll see if you actually watch it," snipped Skylar. "Pipe down and take a look."

With a sigh, Isaac crowded in, Iris joining on the other side. Neither of them were sure what this was supposed to accomplish, until they saw what was on there - somewhat obscured but clear enough that it was their battle against Ashinkaimon a few nights ago. A lot of it was captured on there, by a somewhat unsteady hand but far from impossible to tell what was going on.

"You have GOT to be kidding me. Who was out THERE?!" gasped Iris.

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Reyn. "We might have been able to find out if SOMEONE was using their sensors."

"Mecharexmon didn't want distractions!" protested Isaac. "It was freaking Ashinkaimon! He was tuned to that signal alone!"

"How in the world do you two have so much trouble remembering to use those extra senses of yours in that form?" asked Salmandmon.

"I wish I could tell you," grumbled Datacarnomon. "You'd THINK it'd be second nature…"

"This is just one of many," Derek explained. "A fair number in combat or driving away an attacker, some of them not. Some of them you barely can tell what's going on, but there are some close-ups, too…enough that you can clearly tell what's going on, like when we were bullying that Allomon into retreat. No audio, but the footage shows you threatening him…in context, it's pretty clear what's going on. It turns out, all this time we thought we were being at least somewhat stealthy, usually we weren't even close."

"You mean we were being caught on cameras all the time?" Shockavimon asked. "Sal was right, this world is cracked with cameras."

"But if we were being caught day after day, then why no confrontations?!" demanded Datacarnomon. "How is it we barely ran across any human trying to stop us?"

"Because they knew which side we were on," said Skylar tiredly. "Check out the comments on these videos…you get your usual trolling idiots here and there, but most of them are cheering for us. And apparently, someone up top was putting in effort to promote anything that supported us…most of the city was letting us do our thing without our even knowing about it. Which is another thing I wish I'd known about."

"No kidding…I would've been a lot less worried about drawing attention if I knew there was already so much on us." Isaac scowled at the monitor. "I'm an idiot…I should've thought of looking into this. How the hell did I not think about social media? I mean, not that my parents would let me have an account on anything, but I could've set up a trawler, tried to figure out what people were thinking about this whole mess…"

"To be fair, we were all a little bit preoccupied," sighed Reyn. "Spending so much time in battle, preparing for battle, coordinating with each other, and trying to hide away…and honestly, I didn't WANT to even try to look for stuff on it, not when I was sure it was going to be full of people not having a damned clue. I only ever really go to YouTube anyway, and usually just to listen to music…haven't felt like doing that a lot recently."

"And we wouldn't have known about any of this either," added Breezedramon. "Though I guess maybe we should've asked about it…"

"Staying away was something I did deliberately," added Derek. "I didn't want to risk any secrets getting exposed, even to just the few people who follow my music uploads. You never know what could accidentally slip out…I did a poor enough job of that with Dad."

"I'd deny that, but it would be a lie." They turned to look towards the doorway, where Elliot was coming in. "I see you're catching up with what apparently everyone else in the world already knows."

"And you didn't?" asked Salmandmon dubiously.

"We should've. But social media is a very sticky thing with our line of work…all the sites are normally blocked in the BICI, you're only seeing this because I had Rudy disable all those blocks for the moment. And sometimes we're asked to step up security…when Lexis Redford came in, saying that 'orders from above' demanded a complete moratorium on ALL social media contact, on or off the clock, we didn't even question it. No doubt he wanted to ensure that they could control the narrative…well, they did, but not in the way that he anticipated."

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that," Isaac conceded. "Who does that leave? I know my parents don't do jack with social media, they're too old-fashioned and not great with computers as it is."

"My parents are too busy for that, too," agreed Reyn. "Cayden and Alisin are too young, and Wally…well, he barely likes even knowing Salmandmon exists, he wasn't going to be looking for anything like that."

"Yeah, I remember Kirsten saying she hadn't been on the computer in a while a few days back…" Skylar shook his head. "Apparently too stressed out by that, but not stressed out enough to not go breaking Shadowdramon and Crestmon out of containment. Go figure."

"…That really only leaves one question mark," Datacarnomon said slightly nervously.

Isaac's expression darkened. "Ashley…guh."

"What about her?" asked Iris.

"She knew. I'm SURE she knew. I'll bet she knew from the moment they first showed Andrexmon's image that it was me. She was already hiding it from me since I know she saw us combine together, why wouldn't she be hiding it from before that?"

"Do I want to know what's going on?" asked Breezedramon.

"I'm thinking probably not," Shockavimon replied.

"The magnitude of absurdity of this entire situation…" Blackcanismon shook his head. "This relentless campaign of subterfuge, undermined without our knowledge at every turn…our approach has been unacceptably substandard, I fear."

"I'll take your being good at monster busting over being good at public relations any day," Elliot asserted. "It won't be an issue anymore, though. Now that we all know the score, there won't be any more hiding in shadows. Particularly with the military in place, this is now an open-combat situation from everyone's perspective. Now my hope is that it won't get worse."

"I'd love to try to reassure you, but…" Salmandmon trailed off.

"Then I'm glad the bulk of it is out of my hands. Speaking of, President Herrera's on her way. You should probably get ready, she's going to have a lot of questions."

"Then we're just going to have to have as many answers as we can," acknowledged Datacarnomon. "I don't need to see any more of this, let's focus on finally getting things going our way at least a little bit. There is one thing we need to do, though, and that's scan for danger."

"Aw, man, haven't we had enough danger for today?" griped Breezedramon.

"Enough for about eight todays, at least, but somehow I doubt Emperius would care. Better we know than don't."

"Agreed," groaned Iris. "Even if I feel like I'm gonna keel over as it is."

The rest moved aside so that Datacarnomon could do his thing, waiting nervously for the displayed map to reveal its secrets. None of them wanted more fighting at this point, it had been a pretty miserable day as it was, but by this point they were well aware than their wants were hardly a factor in what reality decided was going to happen…and a bevy of groans arose as they saw several pings on the map, indicators of digimon in the area. And while several of them were clustered at their building - the allied ones who had arrived with Iris and Isaac - there were also a scattered few out and about in the city.

"Of course…I was hoping those had been cleared out. Well, at least there aren't many of them." It was a pretty tarnished silver lining and Datacarnomon knew it even as he said it. "They're pretty scattered around, though. Don't wanna make it easy to go after them, huh…"

"I'm almost tempted to say leave them, but I know we can't really do that," sighed Derek. "What should be our approach, then?"

"…Wait a second." All eyes turned to Reyn. "Data…you said you can scan for specific signals, right?"

"Uh? Y-yeah, I can, but I don't really think trying to hunt and peck through my database is really a good use of our time."

"What if you don't have to hunt and peck?"

"…It'll have to re-run the scan, but that shouldn't take long. What are you getting at?"

"Hey, yeah!" Salmandmon exclaimed. "Data, run one for Paledramon!"

"Paledramon?" asked Shockavimon.

"When we were out in that mess earlier, we ran into a Paledramon who was under attack by a Flaremon. We saved them and found out they weren't really there by choice, and they were going to find a place to hunker down because they didn't get a return-trip charge."

Datacarnomon scoffed. "Them too? Emperius might need to tune up their PTM, sounds like shoddy work."

"To hear Paledramon tell it, it was deliberately a one-way trip. They were either going to be victorious or not coming back."

"Ouch…okay, that's even worse. Scanning up, and…bingo!" A lone signal was showing now, in a location a fair distance away. "Yeah, you know, Surfimon might show up too!"

"Wait, Surfimon?" exclaimed Salmandmon. "He's here?"

"Yeah, he was part of the whole thing that Commandramon was doing as well. Though he got sent in the later wave. No one else in the plan made it through, apparently."

"I shall enthusiastically report a brace of individuals to potentially delineate as well," chimed in Blackcanismon. "Strikedramon and Leomon were unwilling conscripts who opportunistically attempted to escape Emperius's oversight and exact revenge against them forthwith. We encountered them in that chaotic operation, they absconded to destinations unknown, but perchance…"

"I'm working on it! Gotta go one at a time, just to make sure we don't get confused…" All three subsequent scans yielded eventual success - Surfimon was still in the vicinity of the Militke River, and Strikedramon and Leomon seemed to be in the same location in a neighborhood to the south.

"So there are some out there who aren't necessarily against us," concluded Skylar. "Well, that's good, but…there were at least a couple that weren't among that number. How do we figure out at a moment's notice whether they're one of the not-bad guys or…well, you know?"

"That's a good point, we can't be running specific scans every time," agreed Isaac. "I guess even you have to have one now and then."

"I'm REALLY not in the mood for that kinda needling," Reyn cut in before Skylar could respond to that. "Focus on the problem. What's the best way to fix this?"

"Invariably, the ideal scenario would require their signals to be dismissible from consideration," mused Blackcanismon. "…Perchance…corralling them in a singular location, already rife with indicators…"

"Bring them to the BICI?" Shockavimon ventured. "I kinda like that idea, except for the whole 'going out to get them' thing. We're both super tired and about to be super busy as well."

"Then we'll delegate," declared Salmandmon. "Who're the fastest from the others on our side?"

"If I had to venture, Elecmon and Talomon's evolutions would be the speediest," reported Datacarnomon. "And I might be able to send a signal out to Surfimon just from here…"

"Don't. We still have unknown bogeys, and if there are any other mechanical digimon among them, they could intercept and give us a whole lot of hell we don't need to invite. Ebondramon can fly, that's probably a leg up on anyone else."

"Fair. You think they'll go for it?"

"To make sure that everyone they're trying to protect can be kept safer?" pointed out Shockavimon. "They'll probably jump at the idea."

Reyn nodded. "Let's get them to it, then. I want to see what we have left to worry about. And while we're on the way, Isaac, you might want to explain what the hell is up with your arm."

Isaac grinned. "The same thing that's up with your fireballs, except better."

"Oh, good, then you won't be whining anymore," remarked Skylar tersely.

"Oy, now is NOT the time to start anything, either of you," hissed Salmandmon. "Be on your best behavior for the commander." Both of them clammed up, though a look was exchanged between them before Reyn got in their way and separated them. We've GOT to get them to get along somehow…

—

To a lot of people, particularly at younger ages, the head of a country could seem almost like a mythical figure. Even if you saw them all over the place, the idea that you could actually MEET one seemed almost laughable. Surely they had to be incredibly busy, only able to meet with other people of the same stature, right? For the bunch of humans, even the politically-curmudgeonly Isaac, it was surreal actually being face-to-face with President Herrera - and even more so that THEY were the ones who were extraordinary in comparison.

Thankfully, the digimon had no such qualms - none of them seemed intimidated by the situation. And they were more than eager to take the lead and give her the low-down, leaving the humans to only make scattered inputs as warranted. It was much more concise than the previous rundowns, with much less on the nature of digimon and a much tighter focus on the immediate crisis.

And President Herrera listened to it all raptly and solemnly, until she was all caught up. "…It's certainly one thing to read about it, another to hear it described in detail like this. The magnitude of this is hard to imagine. And yet this also makes clear how much worse it COULD have been…if you hadn't arrived when you had, we would have been utterly unprepared for such an onslaught, and they might have done exactly what they intended to. Far better that I should have to imagine it than face it as a reality."

"And who knows how much closer it was than any of us realized, too," added Reyn grimly. "We had a lot of close calls…it's hard to think about that in the moment, but when I remember all those times I was in over my head, beaten up and barely staying upright…"

"And with what had to seem like the whole world against you on top of that. A whole ocean away, it feels a lot more like a dream or a story, it's hard to grasp the full magnitude of it, especially with so many confusing reports coming in. I'm afraid that the support we provided to you was quite substandard...no thanks to the shenanigans that came up stateside."

"Not to be rude, but…why didn't you return sooner, then?" asked Isaac.

"That's your 'not rude'?" Shockavimon remarked tersely.

Herrera shook her head. "No, that's a perfectly valid question. Allow me to explain…I was not supposed to be overseas nearly as long as I was. It was expected that I would return on the 10th of April. When that invading digimon appeared on the 7th, I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to stay away until they had more clarity on the situation. There was a considerable amount of fear that my life would be in jeopardy if I returned, and given the unfortunate passing of the vice president last year, there was a real concern that it could spark a crisis of leadership if that happened."

"I don't think they would have known to target you…digimon don't know a whole lot about this world, and Emperius probably less than anyone because of how little they care," mused Skylar.

"True, but at the time of the decision, very little was known about what was happening. They wanted to play it as safe as possible. So I was stationed at an embassy until such time as they were confident I could return safely. I continued to do my duties from there, while the situation was monitored and our contacts in Braun could provide more information as they gathered it. It was a reasonable plan on paper…none of us were prepared for a Department of Defense-sized complication."

"How did that guy come up with such a shady plan so quickly?" asked Breezedramon with disgust.

"Almost certainly it wasn't something spur-of-the-moment. I suspect he's been wanting to make some kind of move against me for a while now, and was just waiting for the opportunity." Herrera shook her head. "I'm not the kind of person who prefers to think of people as tools…but Jonah…he was a useful tool. It certainly wasn't his charm or personality that caught my attention, and we disagreed on many political stances - and that was before I heard about what he was saying while I was gone, which he probably knew to hide very well because I wouldn't have allowed it for a second. But he knew a lot of people, he was adept at networking and made connections. He was the kind of person who liked to be in a position of power…then again, that's hardly an anomaly in DC. I figured if he was kept happy in a high place, it would be easier to make use of his connections and try to build a stronger across-the-aisle coalition, to actually get things done in a more efficient way. Had I known where it would lead, I would have definitely done things differently…but life doesn't typically offer that sort of foresight."

"Not for lack of trying," sighed Datacarnomon. "We've been trying to do predictive future modeling for ages…problem is, any time you don't account for every major prior, you get an actual result which matches no prediction at all. How the hell do you account for something you never could have known about?"

"Wheeler must have been trying to work on something that could allow him to take advantage of a crisis if it should pop up, regardless of what that crisis was," mulled Derek. "Redford was on board with him early…he was here even before Aquilamon popped up. I'll bet he was there just in case this was their opportunity, and once they found out it was and the nature of it became clear, then he could work on the details."

Herrera nodded. "I daresay you've got the general idea. And it couldn't have fallen in his lap more conveniently - while I was overseas and there wasn't any real active authority looking over his shoulder at the moment. His plan was simple but devious - direct all information received through a special channel to keep it out of my hands, and have one of his cronies feed me false information about the situation so that I would have no idea what he was trying to do. It might have worked, too, if not for one of my most trusted aides sensing something shady. She used her own connections to set up an information relay so that everything that was coming in from some sources could get to me…unfortunately, I was blind to everything at the BICI because Redford had a direct line to Wheeler, and there was an I/O lockdown so I couldn't get anything TO them, either. The next effort was to try to get the public to see what was actually going on with the monster attacks, and highlight that there were people standing in opposition to them. My hope was that that information would reach the appropriate people through word of mouth…it doesn't appear that ended up working."

"It seems like it caught just about everyone BUT the people directly involved," grumbled Reyn. "That's kind of on us, though, we probably should have had, you know, ANY thought about what other people might be seeing about us."

"One could forgive you for being preoccupied. It was always my intention to escalate, but the problem was, without solid information, the plan of action was hard to define. The creatures, as reported, were unlike anything we've ever faced before, and I was highly reluctant to throw military personnel and equipment at something that unknown, as were they reluctant to act blindly as well. We were trying to gather what we could from what pieces were sent to us, but those eventually stopped coming in - someone working for Jonah walled you off, leaving us with only what we had. I had some very terse discussions with my generals, they were not at all eager to face these things, but eventually there had to be a mobilization - we couldn't just let things fall apart because we didn't know what was going on, and it seemed like the situation was escalating. We had everything on standby, ready for the order to go out…and then I received a call very early this morning that General Sykes had gone rogue and taken divisions under him into Braun on a manhunt." The president shook her head grimly. "I knew it had to have been Wheeler, he was cozy with Sykes in a way few others could be. Very dedicated, but very intense, and thirsty for more combat than is healthy…but for all that he'd talked, he'd never actually gone out of line like this before. It could only have been because he was given a reason to, and Jonah would have been the one to do it."

"You think he'd been planning something like that already?" asked Salmandmon.

"I doubt Wheeler had been actively planning that element, but having someone in his pocket was probably a good insurance policy for him. Once I heard about that, I knew I had to take much more direct action. I was in the air within the hour, brought in as fast as I could be and as close to Braun as I could be. Stepping in personally was a risky decision, but fortunately, there are a good many good people around me eager to mind my safety. There were people watching the movements in Braun, trying to pin down Wheeler so that I could confront him directly, but there were multiple delays due to the appearance of that invasion force, we were held back until they were cleared out and then I could go in…I wasn't prepared to see you there in that moment, but I'm glad I wasn't any slower getting there."

"I must profess my enthusiastic agreement regarding that declaration," Blackcanismon chimed in. "The ringleaders of that insidious undermining operation have exhibited treachery even we have scantly encountered, outside of a singular regrettable incident. Hopefully the retribution is enacted with due celerity and severity."

"I have every mind to make sure they face the consequences of their actions. But with them contained, my foremost focus is protecting people from the more monumental threat. Given everything that you've told me, I could hardly believe that what happened earlier is the end of things."

"Not even close," Salmandmon affirmed grimly. "We don't know how many Emperius has in their ranks now…they rebuilt under our noses and we weren't at all ready for what they had for us. But if they were willing to spare a couple hundred, they must have at least a few thousand - considering they think humans are a much lesser threat than other digimon, they would keep the vast majority of their forces over there where they'd think the resistance is fiercer. But having failed this time, their next invading force will likely be bigger and stronger…"

Herrera's brow furrowed. "Unpleasant to hear, but I'd rather know than not. What can we do about them?"

"More than they probably think," said Datacarnomon. "They underestimate humans because humans don't have abilities like ours, but seeing the weapons you guys can bring out, you're definitely not defenseless. But there are plenty of digimon who are big enough, or hardy enough, that your weapons might not do the trick. It'd be good to assess what you can and can't handle, but the challenge for that is that there's a lot of variables there…"

"'What we can handle' is a broad scope as it is. Our country alone theoretically has the firepower to overwhelm any threat our own world can put at us. However, meeting any threat with that level of firepower-"

"-means that most of it probably doesn't just hit your enemies," finished Salmandmon. "And this is one of your own cities, I doubt you'd be keen on leveling it without a care…at least you'd BETTER not be, I've seen my share of callous commanders in my time."

"Thankfully, I'm not of Jonah's ilk. Given the size of some of these creatures, though, I doubt that we're going to be able to avoid all collateral damage. We'll put priority on removing as many people as possible from Braun, and establish an exclusion zone around the city - if that hole is getting larger, or one of them decides to book it from the central battlefield, we need to be prepared with defenses out there as well. Buildings can be rebuilt, but lives can't be returned from the grave. But we're not going to turn Braun into a crater unless it's literally the only way to save everything else, and even if that does, we're going to preserve as much of it as we can before then."

"That makes accounting for what kind of weapons systems you've got, and what capabilities they have, and what potential problems they have, all the more important," agreed Datacarnomon. "And going over what you could be coming up against is just as important…we'll have to try to figure out what weaknesses you can exploit, if there are any."

"Agreed…what we can mobilize matters as well. Our weapons aren't all concentrated in one place, we'll have to see what we can get and when." Herrera bowed her head in thought. "Thankfully, this incident has probably put everyone on high notice…I have to imagine they won't be surprised to hear orders come in. And they're probably plenty eager to make sure they don't step out of line like they saw their fellows do…"

At that moment there was a knock at the door. Everyone looked up to see Agent Collins sticking his head in. "Apologies for the interruption, but you wanted me to let you know if the runners got back…"

"Ah, right. We need to know what's going on with that, too." Shockavimon stood up. "And the sooner the better, because we still need to make sure this place is actually safe."

"Are you sure we should just be interrupting like this?" asked Iris.

"It's no problem," Herrera stated before Shockavimon could. "I should have a quick chat with some folks to help outline our capabilities anyway, and if there are any more issues in Braun right at this moment, better they be known than unknown."

"An accelerated resolution is preferable in every capacity save for our thoroughly exhausted stamina reserves," sighed Blackcanismon. "Perchance fortune bestows beneficent graciousness upon ourselves, that our thoroughness henceforth was satisfactory."

The president gave Blackcanismon a wry grin. "And here I was told that there wasn't going to be a language barrier."

"You didn't get enough of that from Breezedramon earlier?" cracked Isaac.

"I daresay that was less language and more mechanics."

"Whaddaya mean?" Breezedramon asked blankly. "My tongue isn't mechanamanatanticantal! It'd probably work a lot better if it was!"

"I'll explain that to you later, bud," Skylar said as he patted Breezedramon on the head. "Let's get as much of a break as we're gonna get for now."

—

"Hey, these digs aren't bad…maybe needs another coat of armor, but it's nice inside." Strikedramon stretched somewhat casually as he looked around the area.

"Strikedramon, I'm certain we're not here to admire the decor," stated Leomon a bit stiffly. "Though I'm not sure WHY we're here, exactly."

"We can help with that." Reyn and Salmandmon were the first ones to greet them, giving a nod to Entruenmon as they did. "Thanks a ton, Entruenmon. You didn't have any trouble, did you?"

"Not at all." Entruenmon seemed to be in a bit of a daze. "Actually, so little I still wonder what's going on. You're not gonna believe where I found them…"

"Oh, is it story time? I could use one that isn't one I have to tell, we've been talking waaaaaay too much lately." Salmandmon rubbed his head in a sort of exaggerated way. "I won't mind listening for a bit, might be good for waiting for the others to get here too."

"We have others we're waiting for?" Strikedramon grinned. "Sweet, I wouldn't mind having a few more people to talk to. Since we had to leave our conversation partner and all."

"Conversation partner?" Reyn asked curiously.

"We were fighting against some of the forces Emperius sent out with us," explained Leomon. "Although I'm fairly certain that you and your crew took care of most of them, there were several that fell to our hands. The last one was a Tuwarmon that was attempted to assault one of the houses out there…it was unpleasant to hear what kind of carnage he wanted to wreak, but we put an end to that."

"Apparently all that ruckus got someone's attention, though," cackled Strikedramon. "'Cuz we heard the door open after we iced Tuwarmon, and this human came out…wrinkly lady who spoke like a Jijimon, she musta been eight hundred years old or something!"

"Much as I'm sure some wish they could, humans don't last that long," remarked Reyn. "Also, don't say that to their faces."

"He did not, thankfully," sighed Leomon with a slight shake of his head. "But this woman was…remarkably unafraid of us. Apparently saw us save her from the menacing one…and she invited us in for tea."

Reyn blinked. "…Invited you in…for tea."

Salmandmon threw up his hands. "That's it. I officially don't get humans."

"I admit to being rather…confused about it as well, but it was a very polite invitation…it would have been dishonorable to turn it down."

"She had a pretty cushy place, not gonna lie," Strikedramon snickered. "Tea wasn't bad, either, though it ain't really my thing. We weren't planning on staying as long as we did, but we had a, uh, bit of trouble with some human soldiers coming by…"

"Oh, jeez…" Salmandmon winced. "It must've been the second wave after we cleared out the Emperius invasion…they must've been sweeping the city looking for stragglers, thinking they could take credit. How bad was it?"

"I thought it was going to be quite bad, from the way they were speaking about us," Leomon said with a bow of his head. "It was quite a different reception…but our host made a rather…emphatic case for their departure."

Reyn's eyes widened. "The OLD LADY got them to scamper? Are you serious?!"

"He's never NOT serious, my bud needs to lighten up a bit," jibed Strikedramon. "But yeah, she went off on 'em! Told them they were intruding and weren't invited, and that we were nice young men who had helped her out, and gave him some whacks with an umbrella! They weren't too happy about that…what'd they mean when they said 'old bat?'"

"It meant, uh, that they weren't too happy about that," Reyn replied carefully. "I wouldn't have thought that would be enough to get them to beat it, though…maybe they were going to come back with reinforcements. It's lucky that that whole thing was defused before they had the chance…"

"We were concerned, but she insisted that we stay until things calmed down," continued Leomon. "I was worried that they might come back as well…but then Entruenmon here came and let us know that we were wanted. Is there a fight that we're needed for?"

"I'm dead certain that there's plenty of fighting left to come in this whole mess," Salmandmon assured the leonine warrior. "But thankfully, right now we're just trying to make sure we've accounted for all the friendlies. Someone MIGHT be left out there but we're not sure at the moment."

Strikedramon nodded. "Gotcha. This seems like a better place to lay low anyway. More room to move around, less fancy stuff to break. And seems like there's a buncha people here we can try to connect with, too! It'll be easier to arrange a good bout'a kickass with more folks in the mix."

"We will take ALL of the kickass we can scrounge up," Reyn agreed. Having the military on their side now was one thing, but more digimon who knew much more about what they were up against felt almost more important.

—

"Someone deal with him before he turns me to dust, or the other way around." That was how Ebondramon announced his return, and he was clearly in a surly mood as he escorted Surfimon into the building.

"I SAID I was sorry!" protested the cyborg shark.

"I take it it wasn't an uneventful retrieval, then?" asked Isaac.

The dragon growled. "He attacked me!"

"I thought you were still on their side!" Surfimon insisted.

"You thought I would just come calling around for you like an idiot because I wanted to attack you?"

"Well…I mean…you kinda did that A LOT back in the other world…"

"Did you tell him you were trying to get him to a safe spot?" Skylar asked Ebondramon.

"I…I was gonna do that AFTER I found him…"

"You gotta be more careful!" exclaimed Breezedramon. "Especially when guys might not know you've changed sides. Commutermintifincuritation is extrumitantently impertentorpent. …DON'T say it."

"You tax my restraint beyond measure, Breezedramon." Ebondramon was barely able to keep it together, snorts of laughter escaping him, but it at least seemed to ease his tension somewhat.

"I'm glad to see you're all right, Surfimon," said Datacarnomon with evident relief. "Any allies we can secure here are worth a lot. Did you get anyone after you after the digimon were cleared out?"

Surfimon nodded. "Yeah, and it was NOT fun. Had a bunch of humans shooting at me. They couldn't get through my armor, thankfully, but I was freaking out there for a moment, because they weren't listening when I was telling them I was on their side. They musta just been spooked because of all the guys who came through, huh?"

"Sadly, not as simple as that," Isaac huffed. "But thankfully, the guys making more trouble for us have been corralled and the ones here now won't try to do that. Well, after they get briefed on you, anyway."

"Good, I'd rather not have to hide under the water again. Especially that water. Do you guys have any idea what's going on with that river? It's kinda grody if you ask me."

"An observation already made, to be sure, but not our top priority at the moment," asserted Datacarnomon. "Fighting environmental contamination has to come second to fighting Emperius. On that front, if there's anything you know about what any of their further plans are, that would be fantastic insight to have."

Surfimon shook his head. "Afraid there's not much I can do to help there. There's…not a whole lot of clear planning going on with this. That whole offensive earlier was the first time there'd been something clearly organized…I think the lack of information had them struggling to figure out how to approach it at all. Pretty much the only thing they knew for a while was that they wanted to be going after you all…"

"Dang…that's probably the biggest reason we're still around."

"And our taking out their early scouts probably delayed them figuring out what they needed to figure out," added Isaac. "They seemed like small battles to start, but they might've been the difference between that whole big offensive coming out today and two weeks ago when we wouldn't have stood a chance."

"I'm absolutely sure it did," agreed Surfimon. "And hopefully this will set them back further. But I doubt it'll be enough to stop them from trying…"

"No kidding. We're gonna have to figure out how to keep pace with them…" Something that Isaac was feeling a bit of dread over. Because he remembered some of the figures he dreamt about, and how terrifyingly powerful they were…he didn't know if any of the ones he knew were part of Emperius, but they had to have some on the same level. What WERE they going to do about them?

—

Raptormon's talons clicked on the floor as he stalked into the building. "You HAD to send me…mighta wanted to warn me that I was terrifying to most humans! The only ones I've come across weren't nearly as scared of me as I wanted them to be!"

"Wait, you encountered a human out there?" asked Derek.

"Yeah, with this big wuss." Raptormon motioned behind him as Paledramon stepped in nervously. And indeed, there was a human with him, clearly dressed in a soldier's uniform, looking just as nervous - especially as he laid eyes on Iris and Shockavimon.

"Okay, I certainly wasn't expecting this…" Iris looked between the icy dragon and the human. "Reyn told us about what happened when he ran into you out there, Paledramon, you're gonna have to fill in the blanks."

"Uh…sorry, but…I don't know who you're talking about?" Paledramon asked in confusion.

"Blazereptimon," Shockavimon jumped in. "Big fire lizard, apparently beat down a Flaremon?"

"Oh! Him, yeah…wait…h-hang on a second. Where's the bigger ones of you? The ones they wanted me to fight against?"

"Currently laying in dormancy on account of being divided into separate components," stated Blackcanismon. "The figures embodying the lamentations of Emperius are symbiotic unisons of ourselves and our human compatriots."

Paledramon's eyes widened. "W-wait…you…they meant…they meant ACTUALLY combining? Like for real?"

The soldier looked like he was about to faint as well, speaking up for the first time. "All this time, those ones…they had HUMANS as part of them? Oh, no no no…I knew this was a bad idea, I should have done something to get out of this…"

"Were you with the ones who came in this morning?" Derek asked cautiously.

The soldier nodded glumly. "I was…part of General Sykes' offensive. I didn't really want to be…I mean, I wasn't, uh, exactly…on the side of the monsters, I was terrified of them and I thought…w-well, that's not important. But I, uh, also was terrified at the thought of trying to face them…they could do things I could only see as weird fantasy stuff. But I was pushed into it, on threat of being court-martialed if I tried to refuse an order…I…I didn't realize that the order didn't…come from P-president Herrera, or I would've…but I did, I went out there…a-and…I saw…y-you…"

"You saw Ionfalkemon out there," Iris ventured. "And…perhaps took a rather nasty shock from us?"

"It felt…wild. I couldn't believe that something could just…MAKE electricity like that. I mean, I know there's electric eels but that's…that's different, that's not…SHOOTING lightning. And after I went down…I knew I couldn't do this, it was too much. Once I was able to, I ran…away from the unit and towards anywhere that didn't seem like there was anything going on. I just wanted to be anywhere where there weren't monsters, I'd figure out anything else after that. And I lost my weapon too, so I just wanted to hide…I thought maybe it was over when things went quiet for a while…"

"But thus arrived Emperius's offensive," filled in Blackcanismon. "Most certainly you were cognizant of the conflagration, even if secreted away. Escape was unadvisable in such a scenario, with potentially hundreds of malefactors in simultaneous action."

"Uh…y-yeah, I, I think…er, I mean, I had to wait, until it got quieter…even then, I didn't know if it was really, uh, safe, but I wanted to get further away…but while I was running, I was, uh, looking around me and behind me a lot, thinking that something was behind me…and…"

"And we, uh…kind of ran into each other," finished Paledramon. "I wasn't really paying attention either…I was scared someone mighta seen that I disavowed Emperius and they would try to hunt me down and finish what Flaremon started…so I was, uh, looking behind me more than in front of me. And nearly had a heart attack when I bumped into something in front of me…even more so when it was a human."

"I think we both yelled 'don't hurt me' at the same time," confessed the red-faced soldier.

"I almost wish I could've been there and seen that, I could have used the bit of levity," sighed Shockavimon. "I'm surprised you didn't run away from him, though…Paledramon, I get, you were unarmed and hardly a threat, but Paledramon still is."

"I…I almost did…but then I heard on my radio that they were going to start moving in again…and I knew if they found me I'd be in huge trouble…some of them even talked about shooting anyone who was a traitor…and, well, he…he hadn't ATTACKED me…"

"He wanted to hide, I wanted to hide…I guess I said if we hid together I could help if someone came after us…" Paledramon looked rather awkward. "I guess I didn't want to be alone, even if it was someone I didn't know, he was…probably the least dangerous person I could imagine at the moment. So we hid away. And, you know, it's not easy to keep totally quiet when you're nervous, so we got to talking…"

"No doubt the discussion ventured into the mutually empathetic territory of the unwilling and uneager conscript into a brouhaha you desired no part of." Blackcanismon shook his head. "Indubitably, universal topography can be discovered even across the chasmous infinity of the planes."

"And so I'm guessing you two stayed hidden together until you were both spooked by Raptormon," assumed Derek.

"I even SAID I wasn't there to hurt them!" hissed Raptormon irritably.

"Here I thought you would've been taking pride in putting on a terrifying image," Shockavimon remarked cheekily.

"I want my ENEMIES to be terrified! I want my allies to be JEALOUS! There's a difference!"

"I'm sure we're all very jealous of your something-or-other, Raptormon," said Iris, patting the dinosaur on the head. "Thank you for all your help, we really do appreciate it."

"Humph…" Raptormon's face darkened, as he folded his arms and looked away. "I-it's not like I'm doing it just because YOU want me to. I'm just…you know. I'll get bored if I just do NOTHING."

"I daresay his opacity lingers within the negatives," Blackcanismon said with a chuckle. "Paledramon, if you could collect yourself among your peers, it would be enormously beneficial for our future defensive endeavors. And regarding your military compatriot, declaring yourself in the allegiance of the virtuous side would doubtlessly go a considerable distance in exonerating yourself of your earlier participation in the troublesome offensive against us, and perhaps grant you inviolable exodus from this magnitudinous situation."

The soldier just blinked blankly, then looked at Derek. "Is…are you sure he's a monster?"

"Only to your language centers," replied Derek with a snicker.

—

"…We're down to two." Datacarnomon pored over the map carefully, but the two light spots were all that remained that weren't in the vicinity of the BICI. "That's all I'm picking up. They aren't accounted for, we don't know who or what they are, but the numbers game is in our favor, and even better, they seem to be fairly stationary."

"They're over at Jordan Air Field," observed Derek. "I think that's the one place none of us went earlier…we might have to take a jaunt over there and take care of that before we're done tonight."

"Are you sure we have to?" Skylar sighed wearily. "We've already had to do so much today, and I might not be in good enough shape for another fight so quickly. "If they're just chilling, maybe we can try to get the drop on them tomorrow. We might even be able to convince them not to cause trouble for us."

"It's not that I don't understand wishful thinking, but…"

"At this point, it might NOT be a bad idea to not poke any more sleeping dragons," said Salmandmon. "Fatigue's one of those things that can get you if you're not careful, and I think we're all feeling it at this point. But without knowing more, we might be taking too much of a risk."

"Why don't I try to fly over and see if I can see anything?" offered Breezedramon. "That impressinglamentadent lady doesn't seem to understand me very well anyway."

"Which makes her a mortal being like everyone else," remarked Iris.

"Jokes aside, that's a good idea," added Shockavimon. "Any information on what's going on over there is good information to have. We can work on talking with the leadership here and try to get things coordinated while you find out whether we need to act."

"Leave it to me!" Breezedramon thumped his chest boldly. "I'll find out everything you need to know!"

"I'd have more confidence in that if your night vision wasn't so lousy," Datacarnomon snarked wearily. "But at least try to figure out if we need to find more fight in us."

"Tch, I'll show you!" Breezedramon flapped out through the window, intent on making sure that he didn't let any of them down. It was just one task! It couldn't be that hard…and it was one he was perfectly suited for as well. Up high in the air, no one would see him in this darkness…well, he'd have a hard time seeing things, probably, but surely he'd be able to see SOMETHING. And something was better than nothing, right?

The air field wasn't extremely close by, but he only needed to fly a few minutes if he stayed up high. He'd be able to see something from afar, whether there was movement was really the most important part. It was entirely possible that whoever had come through was sleeping or something, or laying in wait for an ambush that they wouldn't be able to complete now that they knew about their presence. He just needed to look for it…and figure out how to squint his eyes just right so he didn't get tempted to shut them, because he was a LOT more tired than he was willing to let on to the others…

Wait…I think…

It was hard to tell, because it was so dark out there, but he was pretty sure he saw something move. What it was, he couldn't tell, but it was in the right area…whoever it was maybe wasn't asleep after all. Dang. Guess we're gonna have to go take a peek over there after all…huh? What-

Breezedramon didn't finish that thought as the area over there suddenly lit up bright - courtesy of a hangar building being blasted to smithereens by a fiery column and explosion. His eyes went saucer-wide as he caught the barest glimpse of who had done it…and then he turned tail, off like a shot for the BICI building, panic gripping him as he tried to relay anything to Skylar.

Because if he wasn't wrong…they were in TROUBLE.

—

Back in the conference room, things were all business. And not exactly pleasant business, but sometimes unpleasant was still necessary.

"A lot of conventional munitions, huh?" Datacarnomon was poring over a quick listing of types of weaponry that President Herrera had gotten for them. "And nuclear weapons…I think we probably want to steer clear of those, that's collateral damage out the ass."

"Oy, Data!" hissed Salmandmon.

"Uh? Oh, sorry! I, uh…sorry, fatigue gets my filters a bit loose."

"I'd say the descriptor is accurate, for what it's worth," replied Herrera. "And I'm leery about using them too, but they ARE part of the arsenal. If they have to be used as a desperation measure…"

"I'd STRONGLY discourage that," disputed Salmandmon. "If they were established on this world and attacking from a central point, maybe, but when they're stationed on another world, safe from harm while they can plan around that, you're not doing nearly enough to justify the fallout. Plus, there are ways to deal with radiation in our world, they might be able to carve out a safe space within the red zone and set themselves up better…"

"Goodness. All right, that's as convincing as it gets to me. But that does mean the weapons with the highest raw power aren't going to be available to us. Are we going to be able to handle it with what else you see on there?"

"It's possible…" Datacarnomon scanned over the list again. "I know it sounds unimpressive compared to what we can do naturally, but conventional munitions aren't just child's play to us, either. Explosive blasts are plenty dangerous even to digimon, and elemental resistance doesn't really come into play…not many digimon are naturally resistant against these, but some of them can be pretty heavily armored, so they'll be tougher. But even armored digimon have weak points."

"Physical projectiles possess considerable merit, additionally," added Blackcanismon. "The vast multitude of our repertoires are founded in energetic emissions, dramatically simpler to nullify or mitigate. Mundane their existence may be, but effectiveness cares not."

"I can confirm bullets like that work…a little TOO much close experience with that one," sighed Shockavimon. "But you'll need bigger or more of them against larger creatures."

"They've got some pretty snazzy machine guns, trust me," Datacarnomon offered. "Those could be pretty effective even against some bigger digimon. None of this is going to be a cakewalk, but I think there's at least the potential for a capable defense against a wide range of threats. I think our biggest concern is just raw power…some digimon can endure a lot of punishment, even if they fall eventually it can be a drain on resources, and I'm guessing it takes time to make any of this stuff."

"Procurement is going to be imperative, then." The president wrote that down. "Mobilizing our resources will be all the more important…I'll need to make sure we arrange for transportation and manpower as soon as possible. We may want to loop in our allies on this…they might want to be prepared if this escalates, even if I hope it doesn't come to that."

Off to the side, Isaac let out a slight grunt. "Anyone else feel useless over here, or is it just me?"

"This isn't something we're really that familiar with, it's best to leave it to them," replied Reyn reassuringly. "Besides, any chance to get a bit of a rest in body and mind is something we can't really complain about, can we?"

"You should be more than familiar with his expertise in complaining by now," remarked Skylar with an eye roll.

"I'd rather have some idea about what they can do than not," Derek sighed. "Even if it a lot of it sounds daunting…at least there's something there."

"I guess you're right," conceded Isaac. "I just wish I could actually DO something more than just listen. All this stuff today has me antsy, the longer we let this go on the more trouble it's going to make…"

"I know what you mean," agreed Iris. "Waiting around for what was going to happen earlier…as much as I didn't want it to happen, I almost wanted it to just because it was better to get out there and attack than wait for them to get ready and throw themselves in with every advantage. I feel like the longer we're in this, the more I just want to not let them sit and prepare…"

Isaac looked over at Iris with a raised eyebrow. "Not something I woulda expected to hear from you before someone like Derek."

"Don't imagine that I don't agree with her," Derek stated glibly.

"Wasn't trying to imply that, just saying-" Isaac stopped as they all heard it, a blast and a rumble that shook the building a bit. All discussion ceased immediately. "…What on earth was that?"

"It sounded like an explosion." Reyn stood up suddenly, taking a tense breath in. "That's not a sound I'd want to hear on a normal day, much less today…"

"Best-case scenario is that it was some unexploded ordinance," said Isaac tightly. "But I'm not sure our luck is that good…"

"Gh! Shut up a second!" Skylar hissed loudly. "What…Breezedramon's trying to get something to me…I can't make it out, though, he's so riled up that literally EVERYTHING is coming out Breezy-speak."

"Maximal chaostongue is an extremely sporadic phenomenon," said Blackcanismon with a slight growl. "And previous associations with its occurrence have been invariably unpleasant."

"That doesn't bode well." Herrera's expression tightened down into a scowl. "I trust your instincts on this more than I trust anything else. What do you think he could've seen?"

Salmandmon inhaled sharply. "…I have an idea…but I hope I'm wrong…"

"Guys! Someone get a window open!" Skylar's order was immediately fulfilled by Isaac, and just in time as Breezedramon swooped in at top speed, crashing into Skylar and knocking him into the table. "OOF! Breezedramon! Careful!"

"There's no time, there's no time!" Breezedramon barely seemed to register the hit, popping back up frantically. "They blew up a building! They just…it went up in a huge blast of fire!"

"Please tell me it wasn't a city building!" Salmandmon yelled.

"I-it wasn't…it was one of the hangars! But…but it's who did it! I saw them! I saw Marsmon and Suijinmon!"

That hit a lot harder to the digimon than the humans. "What?! Marsmon and Suijinmon?!" Datacarnomon roared. "Are you sure?!"

"I-I-I'm almost certain! It was far away, but it was so bright, like daylight around that building!"

"As if things couldn't get worse…" breathed Shockavimon.

"Dammit…" Salmandmon was steaming. "I know what this is. They're sending a message…they want us to come to face them right now. And they're making a big show out of what they can do…and what they'll start doing if we don't respond ASAP, and they won't be focusing on empty buildings."

"What…are we up against?" Reyn didn't recognize the names right off, but whether it was because of the alarm from the digimon or just a sense he was starting to pick up, it sounded BAD.

"…They're Mega-level digimon. The highest natural class you can get. And that's the last thing I wanted to see here…because I don't know that we've got the power to take them down."

"They're…that bad?" Even President Herrera seemed to be feeling the dread at hearing that.

"Yeah. And we don't have a choice. We have to try to stop them…or else…"

"Is there anything we can do to even the odds?" asked Derek nervously.

"A forlorn beseechment towards providence seems equivalently plausible to any concept I could fathom," said Blackcanismon darkly.

"We need to try," asserted Reyn. "We can't let them rampage over the city…maybe we'll figure something out while we're up against them. That's what it took before…"

"I'm getting tired of having to hope for miracles," Iris muttered.

"You and me both," agreed Shockavimon.

Suddenly, Isaac felt his phone buzz. He pulled out out, and scowled at the notification, swiping it open. "And of course, when it rains it pours…"

"What now?" Datacarnomon asked heavily.

"Rudy just texted me. Commandramon's not feeling great…he wants us there to help administer a new program, the machine isn't set up for it."

"Of all the times…" grumbled Reyn, facepalming. "This day just does not want to end."

"It can't be helped," Salmandmon conceded. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"I don't think it should be too long…well, I hope not, at least."

"You know this stuff better than we do, I trust your judgment. Go help Rudy, and join up when you're done. You've got the teleport module, you should be able to get to us quickly enough when you're done. The rest of us…well, we'll try to hold the fort while you're busy."

"Sal…are you sure?" asked Datacarnomon.

"Only thing I'm sure of at this moment. Go help him. The rest of us…pull on whatever you've got left in the tank, because we're gonna need everything and then some. And, uh, Madam President…" Salmandmon turned to President Herrera. "Whatever you guys can do to prepare, prepare. I don't know if anything is going to be enough, but it's better than doing nothing."

Herrera bowed her head. "Dire. But I understand. I'll have everything we have on standby. Godspeed, all of you."

—

It wasn't the easiest trip for anyone, and not just because of the danger looming at their destination. The day of combat and other excitement had been wearing on them all, and even though they'd had a period of rest, it hadn't been nearly enough to get them back to their best. Which, to Salmandmon, meant that Blazereptimon and Ebonvargmon running the whole way to Jordan Air Field from where they were was a bad idea, liable to tax their already depleted energy reserves to a degree they absolutely couldn't afford. It wasn't as bad for Ionfalkemon or Jetdramon, being built for flight it didn't take so much out of them…which meant that the reptile's plan for the most productive way to get there involved the two of them carrying Reyn, Salmandmon, Derek, and Blackcanismon up to near the engagement point.

Naturally, this was not received well by any of the parties involved.

"F-fly?! Are you mad?!"

"We've never carried anyone before, is this really the right time to be trying that out?"

"Don't you have any idea how much this will slow Jetdramon down?"

"Exactly how, considering my markedly inferior capacity for physical digital manipulation, am I expected to properly secure positioning upon an airborne comrade lacking sufficient restraint?"

Also naturally, Salmandmon had the last word. Which was how they found themselves approaching the engagement point with Jetdramon forced to carry Reyn on his back, the human gripping around his neck rather uncomfortably tightly, while Salmandmon was on top of Reyn and clinging to him, and with Derek riding on the back of Ionfalkemon, who was carrying Blackcanismon in her arms. They hadn't gone high into the air, wanting to keep a low profile, especially when Salmandmon reminding them that Suijinmon had anti-air attacks at their disposal, something that had nearly gotten Reyn bolting before they could even take off. And none of them looked particularly comfortable even as they landed, just a short distance from the air field territory.

"Never…again…" heaved Reyn, on his knees after finally getting dislodged from Jetdramon.

"C'mon, it can't have been THAT bad!" growled Jetdramon. "I flew straight and everything!"

"That was NOT straight, bud," sighed Salmandmon. "Just because the swerves were small doesn't mean they weren't there. Also, if that's 'dialed WAY back' speed I think you need to recalibrate your dial."

"I don't think we were really built with carrying others in mind," grumbled Ionfalkemon as she let her passengers loose. "That didn't feel comfortable at all, it felt like extra pressure on my wings every time I tried to flap."

"Yeah, no offense, but it didn't feel very easy to be back there either," agreed Derek. "Let's try to make that unnecessary in the future."

"Wholeheartedly in agreement," Blackcanismon rounded out. "Perhaps, though, said future requires securing against the imminent onslaught."

"No question about that," agreed Salmandmon. "These guys aren't going to be any joke. Don't pull any punches against them, we can't afford to hold back even a little bit. Jetdramon, Ionfalkemon, Suijinmon's going to be aiming for you, keep your eyes open and don't let anything get to you! We on the ground need to watch out for Marsmon, he's brutally strong and seriously fast, we need to try to double-team him and see if we can get him off-balance!"

"Right…let's get to it then." Reyn sounded tense but determined as he voiced his resolve before joining with Salmandmon. Derek and Blackcanismon likewise joined, and they both took on their stronger forms before hurrying over the grass and across the road. The burning building provided a rather nasty backdrop to what was to come, still brightly lit with flames; fortunately the hangar wasn't close enough to the others to be an imminent threat of spreading to them, but there were digimon more than happy to pick up the slack.

And as they neared, they saw the ones in question, just who they were dealing with. A red robotic digimon with four legs and two arms, and powerful shoulder-mounted cannons and missiles banks, and a bipedal feline digimon with heavy gauntlets and flaming arms. Suijinmon and Marsmon, just like he said… thought Blazereptimon grimly. I'd almost hoped he had been mistaken…

"…Tch, only four of them?" Marsmon didn't sound happy not to have the full retinue. "Suijinmon! Where's the fifth hiding?"

"Only four are within the vicinity," reported back Suijinmon, in a voice that was even and emotionless, even though it didn't sound as synthetic as one would imagine. "The fifth can be dispatched following the termination of the current opposition."

"We're NOT gonna let that happen!" spat Blazereptimon as he fired up a Blaze Stoker.

"Hah, you tainted ones may think you're all that because you beat a bunch of worthless grunts, but you haven't faced a REAL test yet!" fired back Marsmon. "The weak fools who tried to challenge you before are nothing compared to the apex of the digital world's power! That's why Havocravenmon sent us - to make sure you were put down and our road to victory was finally clear!"

Ebonvargmon recoiled visibly. "…Did…you say Havocravenmon?"

Blazereptimon looked over at his comrade. "Wolf? You know who they're talking about?"

"The glory of our new leader will be complete! He brought us from our lowest to our greatest triumph, and in his name, we will realize our ultimate dream! We are more powerful than your pitiful resistance could possibly imagine! In your last moments, you'll know the true power of Emperius and how useless you were!" Marsmon launched himself towards Blazereptimon, who ducked and rolled just before that fist impacted hard into the ground - the ringing sound of that gauntlet make his heart skip a beat, that would have been a devastating blow, and it seemed almost effortless!

He moved to engage, just as Ebonvargmon did, but Suijinmon's voice cut in. "Die painfully. Infinity Cannon." The cannons on Suijinmon's shoulders flared to life, blasting into the fray, and Blazereptimon and Ebonvargmon were forced to get away, leaving Marsmon a wide-open window to ready his next attack.

The cannon fire only ceased when Ionfalkemon swooped in. "Dervish Bolt!" Suijinmon didn't even try to avoid, taking the full electrical attack, but didn't even seem fazed as it turned towards her and Jetdramon. "What? That…that did so little…"

"Less than 1% impediment to my system performance. I shall deliver far greater damage to you. Infinity Cannon." Suijinmon started firing again, and Ionfalkemon took off, trying to outpace the cannons - Suijinmon couldn't turn very quickly, that was the one advantage they had, but she had spotted the missiles loaded under the cannons - potent surface-to-air missiles that would likely be used to cover for that weakness. And she wasn't sure she could outfly those even at her best…

Jetdramon might have had a chance, but he didn't want to take it, instead opting to try to catch both the Megas off-guard with a strafing run. "Jet Stream!" He launched the attack as he swooped overhead, but the brief impact on Suijinmon was as ineffective as Ionfalkemon's attack, and Marsmon simply ran towards Ebonvargmon to avoid it. The canine had little chance to react as that blistering rush reached him and swung; he just managed to bring his sword up to block the strike, but that fist drove through, and he was thrown back and landed on the ground in a heap, his blade shattered and his chest in a lot of pain.

Marsmon started towards Ebonvargmon again while the canine was still trying to recover, but was waylaid by Blazereptimon, who leapt in trying to slam his fist into the olympian's chest. He was swatted away, but it did the trick, getting Marsmon's attention purely on him; unfortunately, this wasn't exactly improving his prospects, as a follow-up Solar Wave did little to faze the feline. "Hah! Was that supposed to be a fire attack? Useless!"

"Kinda my whole arsenal, unfortunately…" muttered Blazereptimon. He needed to get in and hit hard, but he wasn't sure he could hit hard enough for that powerful body to really be harmed by it…still, with few other options, he rushed in again, trying a more controlled strike and weaving around the swings of Marsmon. Even though his fists landed a few times, it felt like he was punching a wall and it was reacting just about as much. And it felt like Marsmon was getting closer to locking in on him with each swing…

Jetdramon was trying to help from above, but even his potent attacks weren't really fazing Suijinmon, and it was hard to strike at Marsmon with Blazereptimon so close by. Ionfalkemon might have had it even worse, as Suijinmon seemed determined to get her down - the robot was tracking her more than anyone else, and her counterattacks weren't doing anything useful. She had her spear in her hand, but she couldn't sight a good opening in the armor to aim for, and didn't think she could get it through that thick armor just as it was…

Suijinmon locked in again, but this time had a different attack in mind for her. "Your destruction is at hand. Shattering SAMs." The missiles housed under the cannons suddenly fired off, and flew straight for Ionfalkemon. She yelped and took off, but her worst fears were confirmed, they were faster than she was! She pumped her wings a few times to try to accelerate as they zeroed in…in desperation she swung around and hurled her spear at the trailing missiles. One was hit directly, the other was caught in the electrical wake, and both were destroyed…

But the moment of relief was ruined when Suijinmon fired again, its Infinity Cannon ringing out and blasting her squarely in the side. She screeched and fell, hitting the ground hard and laying there, unable to rise.

"Bolty!" Jetdramon cried out. He started to swing down, but stopped dead when Suijinmon turned back on him, launching another pair of Shattering SAMs right at him. Cursing, he shot up and off, trying to lose the missiles, but finding they were quite a bit more adept at following him than the ones from the jets earlier.

Marsmon finally caught Blazereptimon with a fist and sent him sprawling. The lizard was slower to rise than before, and feeling the effects of the Blaze Stoker wearing off, just what he didn't need. "That was pathetic, lizard," taunted Marsmon cockily. "Clearly, all we needed to do was send some REAL power after you, that would have put you down nice and quick."

"I'm not…done yet!" Blazereptimon wasn't sure what else he had, but he had to keep up the attack, couldn't let him go after either of his downed comrades. He rushed forth again, but Marsmon flared up with a powerful rush of heat, and there was no time to react.

"Mugenhadou!" Faster than Blazereptimon could react, Marsmon surged forward, slamming his fist directly into Blazereptimon. This was followed by another, and another, and a final one that sent the reptile flying through the air and slamming into the ground, rolling and tumbling until he too came to a stop, down for the count.

"Dammit, no!" Jetdramon could see the perilous state of things on the ground in the brief glimpses he had. The missiles finally petered out, giving him a chance to zoom back down and engage again…but Marsmon was expecting that, and before Jetdramon knew what was happening, he slammed his fist into the ground, unleashing the last burst of his Mugenhadou, a column of flame that enveloped Jetdramon as he howled out in pain. And just to add to the punishment, Suijinmon had an easy target for its Infinity Cannon, blasting the dragon out of the air properly; he too hit the ground with a thud, twitching as he laid there.

Only one of them had managed to even get back up…Ebonvargmon, an arm over his chest, was upright on shaky legs, eyes widened as he saw the two turning on him. "N-no…it…it can't…"

"Too bad for you, pup," laughed Marsmon cruelly. "I'd say run while you have the chance, but you'd be a fool to think we'd let you get away."

"Your resistance has been an impediment to Emperius for longer than should have been allowed," Suijinmon stated with that hollow mechanical coldness. "We shall not fail to eliminate you and create the world that must be created. There can be no other result."

Ebonvargmon swallowed, trying to slowly step back as Marsmon approached imperiously. He was trying to muster something, anything, but his blade still wasn't ready to go again, and he couldn't imagine any of his other attacks would do a thing, not when the rest hadn't had any success. Is…is this really it? Is this how it ends? Please…no…

"What, no last words?" Marsmon's eye glinted maliciously. "And you were supposedly the eloquent one. So be it…the only ones that will be remembered are the victor's!" He jumped forward, a flaming fist poised to strike…

From behind and just off-angle from Ebonvargmon, a ferocious energy blast hit Marsmon square, throwing him backwards a good twenty or thirty yards. The wolf whipped around, to the sight of Mecharexmon tromping up behind him, weapon leveled at the foes. "Are you okay, Wolf?"

"Rex…they're…"

"Yeah, I can tell." Mecharexmon's cannon shifted at the end, as Marsmon started to rise up and Suijinmon turned to face him down. Without fanfare, he let loose another blast, this one quite different - instead of a shot, it was a wide flashy wave that covered both Marsmon and Suijinmon. They seemed unaffected by it, though, and Marsmon started to laugh.

"What was that supposed to be? I thought you had some punch to you with that shot, but if that's all you've got, you're as useless as the rest of the lot! I'll show you true…power?" Just as Marsmon was about to start forward, he paused, looking at his inert hands and then the rest of himself. There was a soft glow covering him from head to toe. "Oh, you CAN'T be serious!"

"…An ability seal? That is most inconvenient." Suijinmon didn't need to look at its glow, the machine clearly already getting the appropriate feedback.

"I'm gonna make it a lot more than inconvenient for you," growled Mecharexmon as his cannon shifted back. "Saur Blaster!" His chain gun cannon fired off, pelting Marsmon and Suijinmon with shots - they were weathering them, but clearly getting marked up, and that was convincing them to pull back.

Marsmon spat towards Mecharexmon, getting behind Suijinmon to protect himself from the onslaught. "Damned cyborg! We'll make you pay for this…don't think you've won, this seal won't last that long!"

Suijinmon nodded stiffly. "We shall return once the seal is gone. You will have no more capability of defeating us than you had before." They retreated into the trees, Suijinmon covering Marsmon until they were out of range. Mecharexmon didn't pursue, lowering his cannon; even sealed, they both could have easily outpaced him if they tried to race, and there were more pressing concerns - namely his downed comrades.

Ebonvargmon raced over to Ionfalkemon, helping her to a sitting position. "Bolt! Please tell me you're all right!"

"Ugh…I…would not…call any of this all right…" Ionfalkemon was awake, though clearly not in fighting shape; she had scorch marks on her side where the cannon had hit, and was otherwise a mess from the hard fall. "I'm surprised I'm still alive after that…"

"I'm surprised…ANY of us…are alive…" Blazereptimon was staggering over towards them, holding his gut and limping badly; blood was trickling out of the corners of his mouth, hissing and steaming into the air. "We got trucked BAD…you showed up…inna nicka time, Rex…guh…that was…worse than Veedramon…and Skullsatamon…put together…"

"Wish I could say I was surprised." Mercharexmon was helping Jetdramon to his feet, the dragon putting a lot of weight on the cyborg. "C'mon, Skyder, let's get you over with the rest of us, I can help out with this."

"Uaahhhh…c-careful…" Jetdramon was stumbling a lot even with Mecharexmon's help, head spinning badly and body badly burned and scuffed up. "So dizzy…"

Ebondramon helped Ionfalkemon up as well, and they all huddled close together as Mecharexmon beckoned them to. Once in close quarters, Mecharexmon began to glow, a bright, yet gentle green glow that seemed almost eerie in the dying light of the fire. The same glow began to arise in the others, and gradually they felt the pain ebbing away from the various wounds on their bodies - which themselves were becoming less obvious, at least for the ones that were visible. As the glow died down, they were all able to straighten up again, testing their movements; the exhaustion was clearly not gone, but they seemed to at least be fighting fit again. "Whoa…that was…" Jetdramon marveled.

"A healing program?" Ebonvargmon asked in wonder. "Rex, I daresay you've outdone yourself."

"Well, someone's gotta do it. How're you feeling?"

"About as good as when we started, at least." Blazereptimon bent his leg gingerly, feeling no more pain from it. "Apart from being even more wiped out…too bad it doesn't fix that. When did you come up with this?"

"I've been working on it since Megaseadramon. I…remembered our conversation about how we weren't sure what would happen if we separated while seriously injured, and figured the best way to avoid that was to have something that could knit us up faster. So I came up with this rapid repair program…it's sort of a process that restores the body to its 'normal' state, best I could come up with on short notice. I'm glad it worked…I never really had a chance to test it."

"I seem to remember a conversation about untested technology not that long ago," Ionfalkemon remarked.

Mecharexmon nodded. "And I haven't forgotten, which is why I was trying to drive them off before trying it. If that hadn't worked…well, I'd rather not think about that, things are messy enough as it is."

"No kidding," agreed Jetdramon. "That was awful! We barely scratched them and it took everything we had…"

"And they're far from done," sighed Blazereptimon, wiping the blood away from his mouth. "Now they know we aren't strong enough to take them down in a straight fight, they'll probably come at us next, or make us pay if we try to avoid them. Rex, that ability seal…"

Mecharexmon shook his head. "Same constraints as the usual…without a direct physical application, it only can do so much. There's a refractory period for the effects on a digimon…I wouldn't count on it working on them again before tomorrow evening, and probably for far less time. They'll have plenty of time in between to do untold damage." They all glanced over at the burning wreckage of the hangar. "They were able to do that without much effort…they could probably raze Braun to the ground within a day if they really wanted to."

"The military's not remotely ready for this," Ebonvargmon stated grimly. "The full force won't be here for a few days at least, and what they have here isn't enough for this, even if they use the equipment that didn't get damaged when they tried to come after us. And who knows if that'll even be enough…"

"And even with the seals, we'd still have to actually beat them," added Ionfalkemon. "Marsmon we might be able to take down if we're lucky, but Suijinmon is too durable…and they aren't just going to wait around and let us attack. They'll make sure they can take us down when they let us reach them again…"

"Yeah…it's bad." Mecharexmon bowed his head. "I don't know what we're going to do…they're too far above us, we don't have anything we can use to even the playing field. If only I had something stronger in my arsenal…"

"…No. That's not true." All eyes turned to Blazereptimon; his eyes were closed and his head was bowed pensively. "We DO have something, at least potentially."

"What? Since when?" asked Ionfalkemon.

"We've had it since they brought it here earlier today." The reptile lifted his head, a steely yet grim expression on his face. "The Data Fracture Bombs. From what Redford said in that phone call, there's no way they only had a couple. We need to find them and use them on Marsmon and Suijinmon."

"WHAT?!" Jetdramon shouted out too loudly. "Are you crazy?! Those things that you said were a crime against all that was good and decent?! You want to USE them?!"

"Yeah, I do," growled Blazereptimon back. "Because we're dead if we don't. And if we're dead, so is everyone else on this world, and who knows how many back in the digital world. If there's even a chance that they'll even soften those two bastards up, we NEED to use them, as soon as possible."

"If their bodies start to destabilize, that likely WOULD lower their defenses…" muttered Mecharexmon. "Nasty as they are, I can see his point…and I don't have any better ideas."

"I can handle being a little nasty towards them," huffed Ebonvargmon. "They'd kill us and everyone around here in an instant. Mercy is wasted on them."

"Do you even know what you're saying?!" Jetdramon exclaimed, aghast. "These are like the worst of every banned weapon on our entire world! They're a menace, they're tools of torture!"

"There's no denying that," agreed Ionfalkemon. "But…I don't know if we can do what we need to do without them. We're not on their level, and we've been run down beyond belief today as it is…and something tells me we aren't going to have a lot of time to try to come up with something else. How long is that seal going to last, Rex?"

"At their level? Probably an hour, maybe an hour and a half tops. And if there's any way they aren't going to come out swinging the moment they're free of it, I sure as hell can't sim it. I don't see any way out of it - we need to end them tonight, or else that's probably the fat lady belting out a game over jingle."

"This is all madness! I can't believe you're all thinking about using those things!" Jetdramon threw his hands up in the air. "I can't support this, you're all lunatics!"

"Well, you're gonna have to get used to it in a hurry," countered Blazereptimon sharply. "Because you're going to be the one getting and dropping them."

"WHAT?! NO WAY!"

"Yes way. You're the fastest of us, which means you can get to them the fastest - and we need to figure out where they even are, so speed is even more important. And you being able to zip through the air and drop it without warning is going to make it most likely that they won't be ready for them when they activate, so they can't try to avoid them. You're our bomber, Jetdramon."

"I won't do it!" spat back the dragon. "Forget it! These things are horrible, just because they might be useful doesn't mean it's okay to-ACK!" Whatever more he wanted to say was cut off by Blazereptimon stepping forward and grabbing him by the throat, lifting him up as his eyes glittered with fiery wrath.

"Burner!" cried out Ionfalkemon.

The reptile paid her no attention, his searing glare burning into Jetdramon's soul as his eyes glowed viciously red. "If you had any BETTER ideas, you'd be actually speaking UP about them, rather than yapping like a chihuahua. Let me make something clear to you: THIS. IS. LIFE. OR. DEATH. AND. NOT. JUST. OUR. DEATH. You can see exactly what they can do to a building without even a HINT of effort. They'll do that to populated buildings just to get our ATTENTION, and they won't bat a SINGLE GODDAMN EYE because human lives have no value to them. Your feelings are IRRELEVANT. We're doing this, because we don't get the option of being nice and neat and clean anymore. And you're GOING to get those bombs and drop them, unless you want to PERSONALLY watch everyone in this city DIE because you couldn't do what it took when it MATTERED!"

On that last word, Blazereptimon shoved Jetdramon and let go of his neck, the dragon panting and rubbing where that fiery grip had held him; it was hard to tell in the light whether there was a burn mark there or not. Unapologetic, Blazereptimon looked around at the others, who all looked varying degrees of uncomfortable; the glow had faded from his eyes by this point, but they looked hardly any less forceful. "Any other objections?"

"Only towards that display," said Ebonvargmon. "That seemed entirely over the line, and out of character for you. Are you all right, Burner?"

"I'm fine. We have a job to do, that's all we can think about. We don't have much time before things get bad again. So here's what's going to happen. Jetdramon is going to go get two DFBs, ready to drop them. I trust he's going to do his job."

A pointed look at Jetdramon, who had a dour expression on his face, but nodded reluctantly. "…I'll do it. I…I promise."

"Good. The rest of us are going to find whatever way we can to charge ourselves up so that we can hold them at bay and deliver the blows we need to to take them down. I don't care what it takes, use whatever means you can. And Rex, I want you coming up with a means of splitting the two of them apart. I like two-on-one better than four-on-two, if they can't cover for each other that gives us a better edge even if the math seems the same."

"Easier said than done, but I'll do my best," agreed Mecharexmon.

"I know you will. And I'd like to ask you a favor and give me a teleport towards my place. Any extra time I can buy myself to prepare…"

"Got it. Anyone else want a lift?"

"I know where I'm going already, and I'd rather fly," Ionfalkemon said.

"Where I'm going, you won't be able to," chimed in Ebonvargmon.

"Right…" Blazereptimon looked around. "Let's meet near our base in an hour. We'll need to figure out where to go from there, but I don't want us to risk running into them when we're not ready. Move out!" On that command, Jetdramon and Ionfalkemon took off, Ebonvargmon shifted to Darkvargmon and sank into the shadows, and Mecharexmon took hold of Blazereptimon and teleported him away. Their mission clear…success, far less so.

---

Back in the original, I think I mentioned how this chapter and the next were originally two, then combined into one. Well, guess what happened?

It's probably reaching that, in an age of social media, everyone important could truly be that out of the loop…but I did my best. At least I considered it this time around. And while we're on the subject of "at least I considered it this time around," an explanation for the absence/presence and actions of the authorities. I don't know how realistic this is, either, but it's something more than the previous approach of not even bothering.

This chapter has a HUGE difference, one that looks like a small difference at first: having the name of Havocravenmon actually be known. In the original story, the main characters didn't have any idea who was leading Emperius until…well, parts that I never actually got to finishing. Which I realized on re-reading was both unlikely and a bad idea. Especially because the audience DID know, having been shown scenes involving him. I needed it to be introduced much earlier, and this was where that started, though it picks up much more in a little bit.

Also, things get a little bit heated for a moment. How appropriate that it's the fire lizard making them that way. This isn't merely happy coincidence - there's a point to these things, which will become clearer in due time.