With the speed of their movement towards the assumed location of Dynasmon, Examon and Dorugoramon hadn’t noticed Parasimon’s disappearance from their midst until the Knight was too far from them for their senses to place him in the thick fog. When they arrived at the docks with very little to greet them, they decided it was time to talk strategy. 

“Nothing on your end?” Examon kept his shield engaged, conscious and cautious of the dark shape in the sky behind the veil of smoke and fog. Dorugoramon’s senses were far keener than his when it came to tracking and placing targets and allies, so he settled for covering them whilst she tried to suss out their surroundings for anything of interest.

A soft growl echoed inside the metal maws of Dorugoramon as her head slowly swung from side to side alongside her tail. “Nada,” the dragon replied, clearly not liking their current position, but unable to sense anything that would give them any opening. “Nothing but saltwater, singed metal, and this stupid fog as far as I can-” In a tense second, both head and tail stopped cold. Nothing but the sound of gently scraped asphalt as the metallic dragon slowly inched forward. “I smell dirt… A familiar dirt…” A small snarl as she slowly turned her head right. “Warm dirt… Might be that rat brat.”

“WarCapidramon?” Examon wasn’t able to place the sounds as Dorugoramon was, but he decided to trust her instincts. “Well, Parasimon mentioned he’d heard him up and around, so let’s hope as much.” In any case, if they moved back out, chances are they’d find the others along the way. He had some misgivings about Parasimon’s state of mind after their last conversation, with how he’d disappeared right after his willingness to die had been questioned. But as with Dorugoramon’s instincts, Examon chose to have faith in the other Knight. He’d made it this far, he was sure he’d be fine. Perhaps he’d even have picked up one or two stragglers along the way.

“Agreed. Any ally we can regroup with will give us just the slightest edge.” Dorugoramon didn’t hold the strongest hope to begin with, but she refused to give the dastardly abomination even the slightest victory, petty as it sounded. A quick sniff, then a soft growl later, she turned to Examon, a look of worry in her gleaming eyes. “Something doesn’t smell that right though… It’s hard to explain, but this smell is similar to how I smell when you found me: a chilling smell that pushes all clear thoughts to the back.”

“... You think he and Jordan could have Dark Digivolved as well?” That possibility weighed pretty heavily on Examon’s mind as it emerged. He’d sensed them in the fight with Millenniummon earlier, but hadn’t had the chance to dwell on their appearance, so could he and Siggy have lost track of them whilst they’d focused on Dorugoramon? Had they also witnessed Dirk’s-

“You know what, it doesn’t matter.” With everything going on, it was best not to dwell on that. They were alive, and if Dorugoramon and Zei could have been pulled from their feral state with relative ease, perhaps the same could be done for them. “What do you think would be the fastest way to get to them? Whatever state they’re in, we can figure out how to deal with it and help them when we find them.”

Neither her nor Zei knew the Digimon or his partner all that well, but she knew they had to act fast. “We fly there. I can track down the scent while you keep an eye out for our backs. Not really the safest option, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?”

“Right.” And with that, Examon spread his wings, withdrawing the shimmering orange veil of Avalon and then manifesting it anew to enclose him and Dorugoramon. “Worst case scenario… I’m sure we can deal with him without causing anyone any permanent harm. I just hope we’re not already too late.”

Dorugoramon opened her maw for a moment, then closed it without another word. She couldn’t think of anything that could alleviate Examon’s worry in the slightest, so not saying anything to exacerbate it was the next best thing.