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Not very many things made by the human hand could harm Digimon in the Real World, for obvious reasons. When they were in the Digital World, a programmer could write programs that could potentially destroy them, but once they bioemerged, they were all but unstoppable by human hands. They were capable of moving at speeds where the human eye couldn't follow them, and once they got to even Rookie levels, they could kill humans without much of a hitch.

Then how was that guy capable of doing the things that he did? He had almost killed Luna the first time that they had seen him; the only thing that had saved her was her other form that the priest guy didn't seem to know anything about. He had been using guns that were somehow effective against Digimon, and could effectively fight them even in melee combat with only the use of a metal stick.

Obviously, the man had some kind of martial arts training and knew how to use a gun, but was that all you needed to take down a Digimon? Ezra found that hard to believe, having seen some of the more extreme things that Digimon could do. But still...that priest guy just had to be an ordinary man, right? Maybe if he had joined together and merged with another Digimon or something, this whole thing would have made more sense, but something like that seemed so far out of the question for someone that spent all of their time trying to bring Digimon their deaths that the thought itself was almost ridiculous.

"Luna, when you were fighting with that human, what did it feel like?"

"It felt ... " she paused and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"What was it like? Was it like when you were sparring with me?"

"No. It was like I was fighting another Digimon. Both times, I completely forgot that I wasn't fighting against another Digimon. I never knew that a human could be so strong."

"So his strength and everything, it was like he was actually a Digimon? It wasn't like he just had something on him that made him strong or something?"

"I do not know, Ezra. I have very little knowledge of the way that humans fight."

Ezra sighed a little. Whatever the truth was about this guy, it didn't bode well for the world of Digimon who wanted to live here in the Real World, and that was something that bothered him. To date, there were only a few Digimon that had been paired with tamers and contacted by the Department about their Digimon; the actual number of Digimon that entered into the Real World was much higher, but they had the misfortune to be killed before they could do anything with themselves. Sometimes it was other Digimon that killed them; that was always something that showed up in their data, and would happen every once in a while, but more often than not the signal would just disappear altogether. Those sites that were investigated showed signs of battle; holes and slashes in the wall, craters and the like where attacks missed, custom shell casings from .45 and .50 caliber pistols that they couldn't match to anything, and occasionally tattered pieces of clothing if they were lucky. They had still yet to find anything useful that they could use in an investigation.

"If I ever get my hands on him ..."

"That is highly doubtful. If I couldn't damage him, I would imagine that you would have quite a difficult time doing the same." Luna feapt down from her position on the windowsil and laid down on the small couch that had been placed in his office. It was ridiculously small for her, and it was almost amusing to watch her try to lay down on it; whenever she did, she had to lift her legs up and let them hang over the edge nearly up to her hips. Although it didn't look very comfortable, he couldn't imagine why she would do that unless it was.

"I know, Luna,"he sighed, somewhat exasperatively. Every time he looked at her he thought what it would be like if she was ever taken away from him. Constantly reminding himself that they were going to be married soon didn't help matters any. "It's just...whenever I look at you, I can't help but think about what might happen if something happened to you like what happened to that Digimon that we saw in the gym. I wouldn't know what to do without you."

"Don't dwell on it," she closed those beautiful bluish-white eyes of hers. "If something is destined to happen to me, then soething is destined to happen to me. Wishing against it is fruitless futility."

"... I love it when you talk like that. It makes me feel like all my hopes and dreams can come true," he grinned sarcastically, despite the seriousness of what they were talking about. It was like Luna was so serious that it made him have to be less so to compensate.

"Don't be like that, Ezra. I am being serious. That isn't the kind of thing that you should be worrying about."

"If that isn't what I should worry about, then what should I be worried about?"

"..." Luna didn't respond. He wasn't mad at Luna, and he didn't wan her to think that he was, but he was mad at how the Real World just didn't want to accept her. He was mad at whoever that lunatic was who had attacked her for not having enough tolerance to even wait to see if she had any interest in killing people before doing the same to her. He was mad because there wasn't anything he could do to give her any assurances that her life was going to be good and safe here.

"I'm sorry, Luna." He sighed a little. "This whole thing just makes me so ... angry."

"I understand." Her hands rested on his shoulders, which jumped him a little, considering he hadn't seen her move from the couch. "It must not be easy for you, Ezra. Whatever you're thinking, though, I assure you that I am more happy and at peace here with you than I ever was in the Digital World. The kind of things that you worry about on my behalf here can only begin to compare to some of the things that I had to deal with living with my clan."

Ezra sighed a little and closed his eyes. They had been through this conversation several times now, and it always ended this way. Then, a few hours later he would start having his doubts about whether or not she was really happy, and again she would assure him that it was fine and this was what she really wanted out of life, and the process would repeat itself over. Maybe he could just never give Luna the kind of life that he wanted to be able to give to her. His eyes were starting to feel a little heavy after all of the stress that he had been going through that didn't show any sign of easing up at any point in the near future; the multi-line phone that was sitting on his desk had just started to ring, and despite the fact that he had asked everyone who called him the most to try their best not to call him for the day. Sighing in exasperation, he watched the small blinking green light that indicated someone was waiting on the other end to talk to him. Reluctantly, he pressed down on the button that would turn on the speakerphone.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"We have a situation." The Director said; he was kind of surprised to hear the voice, but it wasn't the pleasant kind. It was the 'Damn it' kind of surprise that you don't really want to hear. "There's a helicopter outside waiting for you and your Digimon to take you to Washington. You'll get more information once you're on the flight." Ezra grinned momentarily as he thought about how Luna would react to being in flight before his mind wrapped itself around the potential seriousness of what might be going on; it wasn't just every day when someone was dragged to the capital by their boss.

"What does that mean?" Luna asked, looking at the phone from behind him curiously. Ezra suspected that she didn't really understand what phones were or what they were for.

"It means that we have to travel," he replied, simplifying it for her as much as he could. "They want us to talk to someone very important; presumably about either you or Digimon in general...why they want me to go, I don't know...I guess we'll figure that out once we get on the helicopter," he got up and walked over to the small coatrack that was sitting in the far corner of the room, picking up the sports jacket that was hanging off it and draping it around his shoulders. He had never been on a helicopter before, but he didn't imagine that it was going to be very warm.

As always, Luna followed him without him asking her or anything. He was starting to get the impression that she'd follow him wherever he went, regardless of where that was. His first instinct once he got on the elevator was to go downstairs, as that usually meant "outside" to him, but upon realizing that helicopters didn't usually land on the street, he pressed the button to the top floor, which he assumed would either bring him to the roof level itself or at least somewhere nearby.

* * * * * * *

Luna liked places that were high up; it probably stemmed from the childhood belief that most of the other Renamon in her clan had held, that "high places are safe places". When she was younger, she spent a lot of her time in the branches of one tree or another, sometimes dreaming about being able to climb something even taller. When she was pulled into the Real World, she thought that the things that the humans made were absolutely incredible, and whenever she wasn't with her new tamer/mate, she was spending her time jumping from building to building, debating which one of those tall, beautiful creations were her favorite. She still hadn't decided. She hadn't been on top of this one yet; whenever she was here, she was here with Ezra, not by herself.

A large, black...thing, she had absolutely no idea what it was or what to call it, was sitting on top of the building in the center of a small circle with a bit white H in the middle of it. Normally, Luna wasn't scared of hings just because they were bit; it was more he spinning blades that were on top of the thing that bothered her. Were they going to be getting inside that thing? It didn't look like it was very safe at all; in fact, if anything, it looked extremely unsafe.

"I know it doesn't look very safe, Luna, but humans use them all the time," he said when he noticed the surprised look on her face. Usually, when Ezra said reassuring like that it helped her get over whatever was bothering her, but this was just...no.

"..." she flattened her ears, afraid of the spinning blades sitting on top of the tub, and ducked into where a few other people were sitting. The fact that they were all sttrapped into and secured to their seats by some kind of little belt. After being led to a certain seat up against the front wall of the little room where the rest of the humans were by someone wearing copious amounts of ... accessories ... they strapped her in extremely tightly, to the point of being painful.

The 'helicopter', as Ezra called it, was not a very enjoyable experience. The ride was extremely uncomfortable, bumpy and otherwise unpleasant. For Ezra, it seemed like it was important, though, so she didn't complain about any of the misgivings that she was having about the whole thing. Even if she wanted to, there wasn't a lot of time in between when they got into the aircraft and when Ezra and the other human started talking.

"I don't know how much information you have on this yet, Agent Harlow, but you're in the unique position of being the only government employee with clearance high enough to have access to the material and to be a tamer, so you're really the only person that we have. You're in the unique position of being the only government employee who is a tamer and with clearance high enough to access secret material."

"I was just told that there was something that needed my attention; I have abolustely no idea what this is about," Ezra answered as the helicopter went higher and higher into the air. Thankfully there were doors on the side so they wren't exposed to the open air, but it still seemed like there was some air hissing in from somewhere--Luna really wasn't liking this.

"Well, as you know, there are a number of Digimon making their way into the Realf World. Most of the really young ones are are ignored or put back into the Digital World during times when the Department doesn't have anything else of importance to do. There more mature specimens who know that their presence isn't wanted within the Real World are either eliminated or returned to the Digital World, depending on the level of cooperation that they show. We have yet to come accross any Digimon who have any real desire in doing damage to the Real World, but that fear was the reason that the Department was created."

"So I'm guessing that something has, or I wouldn't be here."

"You're guessing right," the other human that was in the helicopter answered. "Thankfully, the Digimon in question hasn't appeared here in the United States. Npnetheless, however, our superiors in Washington are anxious about the matter and want someone with knowledge of Digimon to brief them on the matter. Since you're the only tamer that we have, we thought that you might be able to talk to them about what Digimon do."

Ezra sighed. Luna didn't see what the problem with doing something like that would be, but it seemed like it bothered him.

"So, what...? I'm supposed to go into a briefing room and tell some people that large Digimon are dangerous and that millions and millions of dollars should be spent on the Department to make sure that they don't make the world any more dangerous."

"No, I wasn't finished. If that's what they wanted, they would have sent someone other than yourself with more academic experience with Digimon. They want to know if a policy exchange regarding Digimon would be a good idea. One of the men you'll be speaking to is one of the men who was responsible for drafting some of the official government policy on Digimon when the need for the Department was first realized. Over the past few days, her daughter has become connected to a small Digimon not entirely unlike a very young, small version of your own Digimon, and this has made him rethink some of the policies regarding younger Digimon that the Department is bound by Congressional mandate to comply with; our policy, of course, is to return all Digimon that aren't specifically authorized to be here to the Digital World, but our workload would be considerabely lessened if we weren't charged with providing military escort back to the Digital World to every single young Digimon that wouldn't do anything other than steal food from farmers."

"Ah. I see. SO Luna and I are going to show them that Digimon can be friendly and nice, and that the taxpayers money shold be spent on bigger and better things to take care of larger and less ... good ... Digimon."

"Essentially, yes."

"I can do that."

"What do I have to do?" Luna asked.

"You don't have to do anything, Ezra answered before the other humans had a chance to say anything. "Just sit still and act like yourself; answer anything that anyone asks you, and if you can't, just tell me and we'll go from there." Luna blushed a little at the love that he showed for her. It wasn't everyday that you met someone that special that cared about you as much as he did. Even though the two of them were going to be married the next day, he didn't seem like he was showing any signs of being a future husband. It was all the same to her; in fact, she preferred it that way. He had the whole day off, though; so the two of them would be able to spend some time together at home, which would be nice. Luna was looking forward to that.

Ezra looked at her long enough to make her look back; she knew that he really liked the way her eyes looked, so she was happy to show them to him for as long as he wanted to look. After a few minutes of completely unbroken contact, Ezra said something to her while putting his hand on the side of her face and stroking her muzzle a little.

"When we got home tonight, I'd like to take a shower with you, Luna," he whispered to her in a voice that could only barely be heard above the noise that was produced by the helicopters; Luna blushed in response.

The helicopter landed at something called an airport, where they thankfully were able to get off the horrid uncomfortable thing and onto a regular plane, which was something she was more comfortable being on, although the initial sensation of the plane going up into the air made her feel like she was going to throw up. The two humans that were accompanying her and Ezra didn't speak very much to the two of them, but they communicated a great deal with each other; she didn't pay particular attention to whatever it was that they were talking about, but she was sure that it was some important human thing. In any case, she didn't really care what they were talking about as long as she was able to sit with Ezra. In the middle of the flight, one of the people on the plane that her tamer called 'stewardesses' came up and down the little aisles and offered them food and drinks. She accepted a cup and a can of coke, which she was familiar with from her time at Ezra's home.

The plane landed about an hour after that, and they got "whisked through security". After a ride in a car, they finally got o their final destination, which a large white building next to another, larger white building.

"You must be Agent Harlow," the man at the door said to Ezra after looking at a piece of paper that he had on a clipboard hanging from a small hook near his desk. Luna did her best to be inconspicuous as the four of them walked around the building follwing directions that the man at the door with the clipboard had given them. They were ushered through a few more hallways and security booths, eventually being left in a large briefing room very much like they one that had left earlier that morning; why that one wouldn't have been fine was well beyond her.

"I'm guessing this is where we're supposed to be?" Ezra asked, a little bit annoyed at the moving around that they had been subjected to all day long.

"Yes," an aide who was already in the room said. "The others will be here shortly; if you have a seat, I'll be happy to bring you and your Digimon something to drink."

When directed to by Ezra, she sat down in a seat next to him. She sat down and saw the computer screen that was in front of her; it had a lot of information that looked complicated and data that she didn't know anything about.

* * * * *

"Agent Harlow." An authoritve-sounding voice came from the door where they had come in. "I am Colonel Raymond. Coming in behind me is General Hayes and Secretary of Defense Matthew Shillaci." The two men that he was talking about was--one of them was wearing a military uniform, obviously the General, and he other was a man in a suit, who who was without a doubt the current Secretary of Defense. "Most of us have more than one meeting today regarding this subject matter, so let's get right down to business, shall we?" Everyone who wasn't already sitting down did so; A full-dress uniform aide, different from the one who had just left saying that he would bring them someting to drink a few minutes before, went into to another room and turned on some slides. The slides mostly pictures of and mathematical information about the incidents in Israel. The Digimon was fairly strong, judging by the damage that it had done and the amount of military force that was required to eliminate it--that had required two gunships and a squad of fighters to bring it down and separate its data. Ezra would have felt sorry for the thing if it wasn't for the people that had been killed during it's rampage.

"This Digimon appeared in Israel yesterday and went on a brief rampage of destruction until it was finally brought down with a combination of high-caliber gunship-based fire and missiles from fighters. We've requested this meeting with the Department so that we may ascertain how such a thing would be handled if it were to occur here and what kind of damage we could expect." The images went into slideshow mode alongside graphs comparing various elements of data that must have been of interest to some data-cruncher somewhere.

"Well, Mr. Secretary, we are already at capacity dealing with the numerous low-level Digimon that spring up here and there here in the Real World; in all honesty, if something of that magnitude were to show hostility here, it is unlikely that we alone would be able to properly handle it without substantial, costly assistance from regular military. If our operational procedures regarding small Digimon were delegated, perhaps, to local law enforcement who would then deposit said relatively weak Digimon to our field offices to return them to the Digital World there rather than having our agents constantly be seeking them out, we would probably be better prepared in the long run to deal with something like that."

"You think this is true, Agent Harlow?"

"Well...yes..." Ezra nodded after a moment spent trying to figure out why he would ask him a question like that; of course he was going to know the answer in advance, he was working for these people. Was he looking for someone who was willing to disagree with their superiors or something, or did he really just want Ezra's personal opinion, which was never what these sort of people mean when they say that they want your personal opinion.

"And your Digimon; why isn't she in the Digital World where your policies say she belongs, being the sort of dangerous creature that she is?" Luna looked at Ezra expectantly and somewhat timidly, obviously looking at him for guidance on whether or not she was supposed to be saying anything, and if so, what that something was. He reassured her by putting his hand on top f hers on her leg and squeezing it a little out of sight of everyone else. He was kind of hoping that this specific problem had already been resolved...

"We believe that having a Digimon in our employment would give us the edge hat we would need if something were to happen to us like happened to our counterparts overseas; while research is underway regarding more cost-effective lethal weapons against Digimon, the progress is slow and the technologies that have been developed are still in their very early stages, and at this point, nothing is as effective against a Digimon as another Digimon, no disrespect to the armed forces intended." One of the other people who had come with him replied with that answer as soon as the question was given; obviously, a few things had been planned in advance. The response, though, was obviously something they hadn't planned for, because they remained silent both during and after it was given.

"I wasn't asking you; I was asking her tamer," SecDef, as the briefings abbreviated his position, looked directly at him after the other two agents or whatever the hell those other two people the Department had sent with him were done speaking.

"With all due respect, I don't care about what you think of Luna," he answered quickly, before he had a chance to change his mind about what he was going to say. "Just because she's a Digimon, and because she happened to show up in tour world, you want to treat her like a criminal, like she's done something wrong, when she hasn't. She's done nothing but cooperate with everyone every step of the way, and yet there are still people like you who think that she's some kind of animal who doesn't deserve to be treated any better than something living at a zoo. And no, I don't think that we should be bothering with low-level Digimon who came here of their own free will. Most of the will have tamers someday in the near future, and even those that don't aren't automatically destructive to human society; just like people, there are good ones and there are bad ones, and you can't judge them simply based on them being not human. I don't even think we should be putting them back in the Digital World at all."

"It's not my place to make such drastic changes, Agent, even if I wanted to. You would have to pass a resolution through congress if you were to accomplish that."

"I think," The General, who had thus far remained silent through the meeting, "That the idea of delegating the handling of younger Digimon that wouldn't be a threat to anyone to local law enforcement; with proper training, I think they can handle more than most people give them credit for; I'm willing to endorse your plan," he affirmed; he guessed almost immediately that this was the guy that he had been told about earlier.

Ezra hated politics.