I Need A Hero (Hunt)

Location: a conference room in AEGIS HQ. At a size of twenty strong, Silence just couldn't fit in a teen's bedroom anymore. Thank God Sophie had gone and given a residence to the army, because there were certain personalities that certainly didn't have the temperament for civilian living. "Come on, let's get this going already!" Angel groaned while spinning around in her chair much faster than any human could without getting insufferably dizzy.

"Not until we finish the first order of business," the General replied. It made sense in his mind that this top-secret organization might have taken its security obligations seriously enough to spy on its own agents and staff. That's what he would have done, anyway. That was the reason Commandramon was scrutinizing every potted plant, Tadayoshi was flipping through every book, and Renamon was keeping watch to make sure no one's eyes would wander too far and wonder just why Silence was scrutinizing the space like executing a search warrant. The answer? They were sweeping for bugs.

Either Sophie really was the honest type, or she was so good that her bugs couldn't be found. In either case, the all clear was promptly given, at which point the bugsweepers promptly returned to their seats. The General took his rightful place at the head of the table and the captain his own at Tadayoshi's right hand. The Spymaster, his direct left. The Missimon all crammed into one seat beside the captain, and the MetalKoromon levitated a little over a the table itself so that there was room for the BlackTerriermon Angel to take the remaining reasonbly close seat next to Renamon. At this point, Tadayoshi started the business of this meeting. "Thanks for being patient, guys. Now I know it's exhausting, but I trust that everyone has at least one candidate to suggest?"

The fact that Tadayoshi intended to expand his army was not much of a secret. Anyone who wanted to serve in AEGIS employ, after all, had to be interviewed and vetted. That wasn't what Silence was trying to cover up.

The MetalKoromon were extremely impressive. The General had expected them to submit one candidate as a group, but they actually each suggested one as individuals, totaling eight. "Oh... wow. OK, this is a bit much, but more options is better, right? OK, let's start sorting through these." Physical limitations meant the MetalKoromon were, unlike the others, unable to compile a physical paper file for the group to scrutinize, but they were able to perfectly memorize all the relevant data in their personal memory banks and share that data with Tadayoshi's Loader just like they communicated as normal.

Unfortunately, some of the names had to be rejected for their species alone. It felt like 'racism' in a sense, but there were just some insurmountable barriers. For example, the MetalKoromon forgot that champions and ultimates were just out of the question; prior attempts to fuse with them failed, which made the General theorize that there were limits to the compatibility of fusion and that those limits were more likely to be tested the higher a difference between the partners was in terms of evolutionary level. It made a bit of sense; the thought of many super mega digimon fusing together sent shivers down his spine.

Still, there were some promising prospects. "Team, let's think about this one here: Owen, Gaomon. On paper he looks about perfect: former DWR soldier, current 7/71st Recon leader. That Gatomon Skye might be a preexisting connection to him, and we could use that. Spends his idle time teaching other rookies combat and survival skills, and Gulf uses the phrase 'impeccable moral fiber' in their psych profile.'" How did they get this information? Simple. The team scoured the digital world, working in the shadows, observing from afar anyone in a major settlement that had some sort of name for themselves. "I almost think we should stop looking at the rest right now."

"I don't think so," Renamon scoffed.

"The point is he'd never join us. He has no reason to." Tadayoshi frowned. He hadn't considered that and considered it a failure that he hadn't. Shoot, what an otherwise ideal candidate, too!

"Maybe Gulf is right about one thing: a strong ethical code should be a selling point. Let's prioritize possibilities who demonstrate that. How can we keep up our side business if we can't trust who we work with?" That was the big secret: to stay sharp, generate a little income, and keep doing a little good outside the limited scope of AEGIS work, Silence was doing secret mercenary jobs in the digital world.

"Welp! Guess ya don't need me!" Angel theatrically threw up her hands, her ears, and the file she was holding up in the air, scattering the papers around the room, and stood up.

"Ya said ya wanted tough people who could fight! No one told me that had to be frickin' boy scouts, too!" Out of curiosity, Tadayoshi gathered what he could from Angel's flying file. He caught it belonged to a Psychemon... and that almost the entire rest of the file was her criminal record. That was all he saw before Angel went and stormed out of the room.

That was enough for Tadyoshi. "You might be right, captain." Tadayoshi sighed and held his hand in his forehead while he recovered from Angel's display of melodrama. "Renamon, you seem like a good judge for this stuff. What do you think?" Renamon just smirked and slapped her file folder down in front of Tadayoshi, making him open it himself. "Jetmon, no unique name. Village of Beginnings?" Tadayoshi raised an eyebrow. "That's an odd place to look."

"She would if her wingmen would follow her." Another folder. Apparently Renamon was submitting two candidates. "That's Jekyll and Hyde, two Rocketmon brothers. She's not just their commander - she's their best friend. Wherever she goes, they'll go - and vice versa. We can tun them all by turning one. Three Birdramon, one stone."

"Right. No offense meant." The General took a look down the table at the rest of the team. "What do you think of the Jetmon squadron, then? Anyone think they have a better one?" The Missimon shut their file folder and pulled it off the table. Hagurumon just shook their head. Commandramon had enough confidence to think about his pick and continue flipping through his file folder. In the end, though, he closed it without a word. "Commandramon?"

Tadayoshi knew it took some real convincing to make those two agree on anything, but this was one time when Renamon's unique skill set truly came in handy. "Well, Renamon? I guess that's why you'e the spymaster here." The vixen arrogantly leaned back in her chair and smirked. "I guess that's it. Once we're off duty we'll go to the Village of Beginnings and approach them. Renamon, stay behind; finding out you lied to them won't be well received. And, uh..." Tadayoshi hesitated at the next bit. "Let's leave Angel, too. I don't think she appeals well to the orderly soldier types."

"No," Commandramon agreed, "She does not."

---

It turned out Silence didn't even have to approach the Village proper in order to introduce themselves. On a bright sunny day like that one, the group were able to see clear as day as a patrol flew over their heads even if they were two quiet to hear. "Top?" That was all the soldier lizard needed as a command. He peered through a rifle scope that had to be very long in order to magnify far enough for a good view on their tails. The others - Tadayoshi, Hagurumon, Bonnie, Connie, Tawny, Lonnie, Ronnie, Sid, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Gulf, and Hotel - could only wait on

"I guess that just leaves the question of how to say hello." Then the jet went and did something odd: she banked and led her wingmen on a half-loop that ended with each of them flipping in order to go straight back the way they came. "Is that normal?"

"Now." Well, at least there was plenty of it; these woodlands of the East were chock teaming with thick trees. The team scattered, and the missiles each looked like they were just going to hit the ground and explode, uncomfortably close but completely harmless. However, each missile made a jerk motion inches over dirt and changed direction agilely enough to not only gain altitude but fly around Commandramon's cover tree and strike him. "Agh!"

"-jerkface!" All of the Missimon began to charge their internal engines for a counterattack, but they were stopped in time to prevent it.

"Hold! No one attacks!" the captain ordered his squad. As the Jetmon and company flew overhead or another pass, the captain, while nursing burns in each side, tried to call to the squadron, "Hold your fire! There's a human down here!" The squadron must have taken that to heart and so didn't attack on their next pass but did circle overhead. "General, your Loader." Tadayoshi already understood what Commandramon intended. Tadayoshi lobbed his loader across the way to Commandramon, who was able to catch it in two paws because while it was in the air he had slid his rifle in the middle of everyone but also out of everybody's reach. That meant those with weapons were all visibly disarmed, and while maybe there was still the chance unarmed attacks were possible it at least served as a symbol of surrender.

Apparently that was good enough for Jetmon, but not by much. Her two mates continued to circle overhead, but she flew low enough to land on a branch overhead and perch on it, missile launchers still trained on the mercenary group. "What do you think you're doing approaching in force and aiming at us?"

"He just wanted-" It wasn't like Hagurumon to be so bold to speak up. "-to see who was over us! He was never going to sh-shoot." Apparent that was where their courage ended; they shied back behind a tree.

"We're friends," Tadayoshi tried to insist as he came out into plain view with his hands visible, "I'm sure there's been one bad human over the course of digital history, but digivices tend to choose good people, don't they? That's the trend I've seen, and that, ma'am, is my Xros Loader in my captain's paws, very far out of my reach and not a threat to anyone." Jetmon glanced to confirm, indeed, that was the truth. "Now with your permission, I'll reach into my pocket very, very slowly and show you something else."

It was his AEGIS badge, which the young General only retrieved with two fingers and while turned away from Jetmon so she could see everything. In answer, she whistled and summoned the two Rocketmon to hover by her sides. "What business do the human authorities have here?" Tadayoshi had banked on AEGIS' good reputation compared to DATS to earn him some points, and it seemed to work.

"Well... you three are our business, actually." Yoshi gulped. "You know how a Xros Army works, right? We choose our own. Your names came to us through the steak vine, and, well... we're recruiting you. Have you ever felt like you could do more good somewhere other than a place that hasn't been attacked in decades and may not be again in our lifetimes?"

Jetmon glanced at her two companions, then at everyone in the army who had come. She seemed to scrutinize them for the longest time before finally speaking, "...We still have patrol. You have sixty seconds."

---

Word Count: 2,162

Acquired: Xros partners Jetmon; Jekyll and Hyde