Beginning in The Not So Distant Past

All was quiet in the dorm rooms, so if one stopped to listen intently they would hear some humming from behind one of the doors. Moving closer would detect a rapid beeping noise, recognizable to most students as coming from one of the school-wide virtual pets. An ear placed in a choice position would also pick up rapid clicking noises.

Inside the room, a teenager lay lengthwise on his bed staring at the bright screen of a laptop computer. The lights were off, obscuring the room in darkness. Various objects were scattered around, and on top of a dresser was a half-finished pizza pop on a paper plate. The end table beside the bed held a lamp, an alarm clock, and a frantically vibrating virtual pet device. The boy had a spare period at the time, and was taking his time to play on the laptop. The small computer itself was sitting on an empty pizza box, along with the mouse the boy used for better control (who could use those laptop mouse pads for gaming anyways? It was infuriating). As the headphones worn by the young gamer were blaring music and sound effects, he was pleasantly oblivious of his pet program's beeping and buzzing.

With the lights out, it was of course impossible for the oblivious Richard Mayfield to know the power had just gone out. It was also impossible to hear the panicked screams and chaos outside. The dorm room appeared empty from a distance, so for the time being it was ignored by the attacking creatures, as Richard directed his avatar through rigorous level grinding in preparation for the fight with boss.

After some time, the greater number of students and faculty had either fled or been cut down, leaving the chaos outside greatly reduced. Richard's ears were starting to hurt from the constant assault of sound, and it was almost time for the next class, so he took off the headphones. Noticing now the beeping from the device nearby, he notified the rest of his party he was leaving.

_DthKiller_: I'm out guys, gotta get to class
zombiemechahitlr: cya DK
LK5000: bai

Logging off the game and shutting down the computer, Rich closed it and stowed it in his satchel beside the bed. Crawling over to the virtual pet, he tried in vain to turn on the lamp and see the dimly lit screen. He was reaching for the snooze button of his alarm clock, which made a little light turn on to illuminate the time, when he fell out of the bed, stunned by a tremendous roar that resounded across the campus. Hitting his head on the floor, he saw the dark room spinning around him. Holding his head, he groaned and sat up, "The **** was that?" the teen cussed foully, opening the blinds to look out the small window of his room. The campus was overrun with creatures of every shape and size imaginable, and Richie rubbed his eyes, taking another look. Still there. He really needed to see a psychiatrist. Glancing down at the virtual pet on his end table, he held it to the windowlight. The little squid thing was flipping out, and a message reading "Would you like to play a game?" took up most of the screen. Talk about SAW flashbacks. Richie shuddered and looked out the window. The creatures were still there, and... a few were moving towards his building. Had they seen him? The teen started to hyperventilate, looking around with his eyes eventually resting once more on the virtual pet. If there was one thing he had learned from video games, it was that pressing 'Yes' would somehow get him out of this. He reached out a shaking finger, holding onto the side of the end table for balance. There was a muffled crash from below as something broke into the building.
Now or never.

The quivering finger pressed in the button, confirming the selected 'Yes'. The device began to glow, lighting up the corners of the room untouched by the daylight with a bright orange. Some breaking sounds could be heard on the floor below, as Richie covered his eyes and backed up. A sphere of light rose up from the screen, forming into a creature of nightmares resembling the little squid pet. The teen backed up against the door as the thing started to cackle. Grabbing his satchel, Richard pulled his arm away as the think leapt down to where it was, staring up at him with giant dilated eyes. Opening the door, the teen dashed out of the frying pan and straight into the fire- literally, in fact! The stairwell door down the hall suddenly exploded in a burst of black flame. A small demon creature floated through, and Richard turned to flee down the hall only to see a dead end further back. Turning to face the monster, he saw the creature from his room had moved out into the hall, and was staring down the imp with an idiot grin on its face. It was carrying some sort of device with it.

Nobody moved for a moment, until Richie fell over. The teenager had finally fainted from the gravity of the situation. The imp was snapped out of its staring contest with the monster and shot a black fireball down the hall, "Night of Fire!" The odd entity laughed in response, bullets of energy shooting out of its mouth and down the hall, one of them colliding with the fireball and causing it to explode early, leaving scorch marks on the wall. The other two flew onwards, one crashing into the floor and blowing a hole in it to the floor below, the other hitting the imp and causing a small explosion of energy, knocking it backwards. Flying down the hallway, the virtual entity quickly closed the distance between itself and the recovering imp, but was cut off by a winged monster that emerged from the hole. Retreating, the friendly monster cackled despite being outnumbered, moving back towards its helpless partner and firing off another volley of explosive laughter. The enemies managed to evade the missiles of light themselves, but the explosions knocked the winged one around. The imp flew over the attacks, firing a fireball and landing a direct hit, causing its target to cringe and retreat faster.

Seeing as the fight was going nowhere good, Richie's partner reached the fallen human, then turned around and fired a blast of energy into the floor near the pair. Grabbing Richard by the arm, it dragged him down the hole and the two fell to the floor below. At the other end of the hall the pursuers flew down through their own hole. Another energy blast, and the pair descended further to the ground floor. Richie was dragged into a nearby room that looked like it had already been searched, and the door was closed behind. His Digimon waited a while, to see if the other monsters would find them. After a few minutes of silence, it decided things were safe and began looking through Richie's satchel. It swapped the D-Syn for a granola bar and ate the snack without even removing the wrapper. Not enough. It picked up a container of hair spray from the table in the room and examined it, before swallowing it whole and looking around for more food.

Another massive roar shook the area, and Richie stirred awake. His head hurt. Hell, his entire body hurt (the consequences of falling down two floors of the building). "Ugh, wh-" A large hand clamped over Richie's mouth, and he tried to scream, but was muffled. The creature muttered, "Ssshhh. They hear us, we die." That shut Richie up and it removed its hand. The human was struggling to take deep breaths and regain his composure, every fiber of his being urging him to scream. But he knew what the things said was true. It seemed to have saved him from the demon in the hallway.

"Wh-what are you?" Richard stuttered out quietly, leaning back on the room's bed. He pulled in his knees and curled up into a ball.

"Keramon," it answered simply, and from the look on its face it was holding back what would have been lethal laughter. Or maybe that was just how its face normally was.

"Right... right. Uh," truly at a loss for what to do, Richard just sat there dumbfounded, still hoping that he was dreaming. Everything seemed too vivid for it to be a dream though, including the pain. For the moment, the two waited out the storm, Keramon chancing a peek out the window shutters. There were less hostile Digimon around, but still enough that they couldn't chance making a break for it.

Setting itself back down on the floor, the creature grumbled, "I'm hungry." Richard's own stomach growled, and he remembered the pizza pop upstairs, wishing he had eaten it when he had the chance.

Samara growled.

"It's not dead! I'll go take care of it!" she said. She leapt out of Lucy's arms and charged to the window. The pup picked up a chair and smashed the window with it then leapt out.

"Wait!" Lucy shouted. A frown crept on his face. He ran out of the room, looking for a door to the outside. He soon found his way back out to the others. He spotted Samara charging at Skullgreymon. He shrieked and chased after her, thinking that she was being very dumb. Samara reached the big monster first, and punched it in the foot.

"Take this! Petit Punch!" she shouted as she slammed her fist into it. The thing, which had just hurled a boy at Day looked down at her. It lifted one bony foot and stomped at Samara. Lucy froze. For a fraction of a second, Samara could be seen bracing her paws against the things foot. A look of determination on her face. Then she was on the ground, yipping and barking at it.

"Ow! Let me up you overgrown bag of bones!" she shouted. Lucy picked up a rock. He ran toward Skullgreymon and without thinking, hurled it at the thing's head. A thunk could be heard, and the monster now looked at him. His eyes widened and he froze up.

"Luh-let her go!" Lucy said, his voice shaking. He wanted to run but something rooted him to the spot. Skullgreymon did just that. It removed the claw that was pinning Samara to the ground and swung it at Lucy, knocking him to the ground. Lucy gave a low groan and blacked out as he hit the ground.

(OOC: Feel free to bunny the knocked out Lucy for the time being.)

"Hmn, we could try to get to the cafeteria," Keramon suggested, contemplating the edibility of the pillow it had taken from the bed. Richie watched in stunned amazement as the Digimon actually took a bite of it like some sort of giant marshmallow the size of its own head.

Shaking his head, Richie frowned, "I am not going out there until they're all gone."

"Too much longer, and you're gonna start lookin' like food," joked the Digimon, cackling as quietly as it could make itself at the human's look of terror, "Kekekeke! Kidding, only kidding. Mostly. Maybe just a leg. Or arm, you can even pick."

"Wait, what about the pet thing? I left it upstairs though..." Richard asked, forming a semblance of a plan in his panicked mind. There was a feed function on it, maybe that still worked. Hopefully the demons had cleared out of the building. Keramon casually pointed at the satchel, and Richie looked inside, seeing some weird device. The same device Keramon had taken from the room before he fainted. Taking it out, Richard examined it, "Is this the virtual pet? It looks different."

"More or less," answered Keramon, finishing the pillow and beginning to go through the drawers. It took out a few pens and chewed the end of one curiously. Suddenly it stuffed them all in its mouth and swallowed them like candy.

'Good lord, how am I going to feed this thing?' thought the teen, pressing a few random buttons which changed the display on the front. When he hit the center button, there was a light similar to the one when he clicked 'Yes', and Keramon was drawn back inside. The homework it had been about to eat fluttered to the floor, and Richard grinned despite the situation, feeling a profound sense of victory. The boy was starting to feel like the protagonist of a game. Granted, it would be in the horror genre for him, but that was the first time he'd so much as smiled in almost a week. Quickly regaining his composure, Richard reminded himself he barely did anything, and that he was probably hallucinating all of this anyways. Right now, men were probably restraining him and dragging him away to the loony bin.

"So, planning on hitting that feed button sometime this week?" Keramon asked sarcastically. Richie obliged and tapped it a bunch of times. While Keramon was eating, Richie steeled his nerves and tried in vain to stop shaking. He slowly moved over to the window and peeked out window between the shutters. There were only a few presumably hostile Digimon outside, two of which were the attackers from the building. Richard of course only recognized the Impmon. The bat was flying into the main building, and the third one (a blob of slime) followed. Impmon remained, apparently keeping watch. Something elsewhere seemed to be drawing their attention.

The Digivice beeped, and Richie hit 'Feed' a few more times, fumbling with the doorknob and opening it slowly. Peeking out into the hallway, the boy saw that all seemed clear, exiting the room and shutting the door. He tiptoed over to the exit and got up against the wall next to the scorched remains of the door as he had seen in the Rainbow Six games. Leaning over, he looked out the opening and saw the Impmon glancing around. It hadn't seen him yet, and he ducked back into cover. Looking down at the Digivice he whispered, "You think you can take him?"

"Alone? Sure thing! The others come back? We're probably doomed," Keramon replied, munching down on the bland virtual food; that bar thing was so much better.

Taking a few deep breaths, Richard Mayfield flicked down his sunglass lenses to shield his poor nerd eyes from the rays, and stepped out into the opening. He held out the Digivice, "Uh, activate?" The imp looked over and there was an awkward moment where nothing happened. Richard stood there frozen in terror in the door frame, and the demon Digimon smirked haughtily, moving closer.

Richard fumbled around with his tongue, trying a few more phrases and resist the urge to panick, "Go go virtual pet? I choose you Keramon? Somebody help?!"

Katharina von Kuranse
Day One = Da Mon

*********************************

All was quiet until Kathy and Palmon were now faced to face with a new enemy...Skullgreymon. It was as terrible and vicious as it was powerful. However, Kathy's eyes beamed in excitment, as she also
put on a wide, open smile.

"A-a-a life form made out of periosteum, compact, cancellous, and marrow?! Impossible!" Kathy beamed. "Z'is...z'is is INCREDIBLE! THE SIGHT OF ALL SIGHTS FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES! Though if I may be regretful on saying z'is...the outer bone may lack in calcium, vitamin D, and zinc...those are the essientals needed for a more tougher layer of bone tissue--"

"Ummm..." Palmon began to wonder. "What the digi-is a peritoneum...? Spider food? The name given to the Lil'Koromon's puppet shows?"

"NIEN, NEIN!" Kathy snapped. "IT CAN ONLY BE THE MEMBRANE! It is a thin, dense membrane that contains nerves and blood vessels that nourish the bone! For you see, when the skeleton first forms, it is made of flexible cartilage, but within a few weeks it begins the process of ossification! Which z'at is when the cartilage is replaced by hard deposits of calcium phosphate and stretchy collagen, the two main components of bone. It takes about 20 years for this process to be complete--"

"LIL'KOROMON CAN'T WAIT 20 YEARS!" Palmon explained. "Come on, we have to hide and think of a plan! ...Where are your friends? We could fight together!"

"Z'ere is no time for lolly-gaging!" Kathy explained. "But very well, let us regroup with the others. Hm...I think I have got a plan for this -- but we may have to get large quantities of alcohol..."

"Um...what now?" Palmon explained.

"I shall explain later," Kathy explained as she began to jog backward. "Come, Palmon!"

"PLANT SHOCK!" Palmon cried, as she used the leaves she sprouted, to create some sort of smokescreen, so that the two could fall back and escape.

Bearmon examined the Digimon with a frown. "Strange... there aren't any external injuries... he's just out cold. Almost like..." He trailed off, not entirely sure he believed it. Day remained unconscious even as the other boy slammed next to them.

~~

X said nothing now, staring coldly at the Digimon. "X " the crisp voice of the commander echoed into the earpiece. "You and Alex need to hurry. THe authorities are on their way and you all need to be out of the war zone by then with the data. Ivy, Sheryl, and Nikolai are back at the base. Relay the situation."

"Day is down," he said curtly. "She bought time. We have multiple connected Emergences and a Level 3 Awakening."

"I see... wake Day up. Now."

"Are you out of your mind Wilson?" Xavier barked angrily, causing Alex to glare briefly, taking her eyes of her darting Digimon for a second. "Day is not only down she is damn near dead. You and your restriction put us through some serious shi-"

"Bark at me later," Wilson stated curtly. "Execute the Level Three and retreat. We need Day to accomplish that."

"Why you stupid old-" He was nearly knocked to the ground. "Sheesh Alex! Kill the skeleton not me!" He glared upward. "Actually better idea. Position swap!"

Alex scowled a little and nodded, XVmon beginning to fly rapidly around SkullGreymon's head. Lucemon soared to take the dragon's place. Alex smiled a bit, the expression dangerous. "Lucemon!" Lucemon paused from his moves to look down at her. "Enough playing."

"Mmkay," he agreed angellically. "This isn't very fun anyway." He closed his eyes and concentrated. Unfortunately, finely honed battle instict awoke in the Perfect level below.

"Dark Shot!" It fired the missle on its spine straight toward him. Alex and X snorted.

"Idiot," they agreed as the angel's eyes snapped open.

"You fool, " the boy said softly as his eyes seemed to blaze with power. "Grand Cross!" The spheres shot through the air and destroyed the missle almost effortlessly, moving forward to blast into SkullGreymon. It did not do enough damage but X took up support for a change.

"X Laser!" SkullGreymon roared again, panting for breath. Its data was beginning to lose its image, falling apart where it stood. X raised his D-Syn and the screen shined.

"We need one good shot," X muttered, then raised his voice. "All of you with well-off partners, fire in the hole! Now before his data repairs!"

~~

The police were slow but not that slow, their sirens wailing distantly from the rubble. Meanwhile, concerned parents and the news were already on the scene, unable to come forward due to fear and a strange bubble engulfing the broken building.

The commander sighed at the shrill noise. "Ivy commence gate."

"Attempting," the girl said softly, typing quickly. "The firewall's tricky."

"Hurry..." Renamon mumbled gently. "You can do this."

"Yes," Ivy agreed softly. "But will everyone still be alive?"

"We can hope," The commander said simply. He wasn't good at reassurance.

Richard remain standing there in the doorway of the dorm building, staring at the imp that was moving towards him with a fireball ready, seemingly enjoying the teen's look of terror. A voice spoke up from the Digivice, "Look out, there's one behind you!"

Jumping, Richard turned to face empty space. That had snapped him out of his stunned state, however, and he realized he had to move. Breaking into a spring, Richie dashed towards the stairwell, a fireball hitting the wall behind him as he turned the corner. The wall was now on fire. Great. Dashing up the stairs to the second floor as fast as he could, Richie turned into the second floor hallway, running towards the hole in the floor. A warning beeped from the device, and he began to zig-zag down the hall, avoiding a second fireball, but burning his arm. Sucking in air through his teeth, Richie jumped down the hole, landing hard on the floor below and hurting his leg. If not for the adrenaline rush he was on, the boy probably would have broken down crying. As it was, he wiped the vision-blurring tears out of his eyes and dashed towards the exit, breathing heavily from the physical exertion. Knowing full well he would be unable to outrun the imp at this rate, Rich made a beeline for the main school building once he got through the dorm exit. The only chance was to lose the pursuer in the building somewhere.

As Rich reached the door, a third fireball exploded next to his foot, causing him to jump. An ember caught his pant leg. Hopping on one foot, he reached down and patted the flame down before it could start spreading. Nearly falling over, Richie ducked into a side hall and into a classroom, quietly closing the door behind him. Crawling across the floor, the frightened teen hid under the teacher's desk. The adrenaline was wearing off now, and the run had done a number on his out of shape lungs. For a long time he just lay there on the floor, panting and trying to slow his heart before it exploded. There was a noise outside. Sirens? Crossing himself, Richard silently thanked God. Maybe he would make it out of this after all. His prayers were interrupted by the Digivice beeping, and he reflexively pressed Feed a few more times.

Haru flinched as another male was thrown and made impact with Day's already unconscious body. Not that the two could really express how it really felt, but the boy could guess what it felt like. And just imagining the pain of it made his brain play tricks on him. He imagined how it'd feel to be in that position (both being tossed and getting hit while already down), and it filled him with a mock sensation of pain. That's it; no more inner sympathy for anyone.

"All of you with well-off partners, fire in the hole! Now before his data repairs!" another male male roared out to everyone as another person (Male? Female? It was hard to distinguish from over here). Haru nodded as he turned to look at Luna. They had to go full-salvo quickly.

"Right. Luna, use Lop-Ear Ripple and trap that thing," Haru commanded, sounding grave but serious. Luna perked up and looked at him worriedly. She didn't look so confident.

"Y-y-you know I haven't got the kinks worked out on that one Hero-kun!" Luna protested weakly, her voice only epitomizing the doubt she had, "Lunie can't-- I'm not ready!"

"Loony can, and she must," argued Haru. He intentionally ignored her quick "Hero-kun" comment; either she hoped he'd get tripped up by her saying it again or she really didn't remember in that moment. Whatever the case, there were more important things to take care of. "Listen, Luna, even if you get a little disoriented after using it--"

"And dizzy," Luna added.

"... And dizzy," Haru repeated, resisting the urge to express his disbelief, "it's still your most powerful attack, and right now it looks like raw power is being called for.*yawn* Plus, you'll be able to trap SkullGreymon and make it difficult for him to just run (OOC: Haha, it's funny because he does run in the anime) away. That will give the others a guaranteed clean shot; if not helping to corrode the data further to his death *yawn*... I guess."

"But... I don't want to get dizzy..." Lunamon tried to counter-argue, but even found that a lacking defense.

"I have faith in you, Luna. You can do it. And..." reassured Haru, but having to sigh as he thought of something to add to the 'And,' "... if you do this you can have whatever you want for dinner tonight. There's a lot of things at the house I can prepare, including desserts--"

"Desserts?! You should have said that before! You should know your little sister loves her desserts!!" Luna gasped excitedly as she ran ahead of everyone with ears glowing, "I'll have this guy begging for mercy in no time! Lop-Ear Ripple! FOR DESSERTS!!!!" Haru laughed a small, slow, and incredulous laugh awkwardly to himself as his Digimon summoned the bubbles again. They spiraled out and created a vortex around the Ultimate-level Digimon. SkullGreymon roared as the bubbles pelted him and popped with the force of a small explosion all around his skeletal body.

"Well that was... easy," Haru said to himself hearing the faint voice of his Digimon a little ways away repeating "Desserts~!" continuously. He guessed that they weren't kidding when they said 'Child-level.' Running back into the fight, the boy stopped short of Lucy and picked... Lucy up. It was kinda hard to distinguish genders close up, too. Either way, this person was another KO'd comrade and needed to get out of the battlefield. As he picked Lucy up, he looked over at the puppy-like Digimon that was still up and about. "Hey there-- er, pup! I'm guessing this is your partner. I'm going to bring... *yawn* going over there to safety with the others with your partner! Stay and fight if you'd like, or come with me!" Smooth. With that, Haru carried Lucy back to the others. By that time Hiroshi was checking up on Samuel.

"Another one?!" Hiroshi exclaimed as he looked up to see Haru placing Lucy on the ground beside Samuel and Day, "He's dropping us like flies!"

"Technically with his size we could be considered flies to him," Haru commented, checking Lucy's vitals. Lucy was still with them, just unconscious.

"Always have to be the smartass, don't you?" Hiroshi grunted.

"Sometimes it's fun."

Samara groaned as the giant bony foot was lifted off of her. She rolled over on her stomach and crawled away, hearing someone flying around saying something about desserts. She looked up and saw some boy carrying Lucy away. She growled and was about to charge him until he called out to her. So, he was getting Lucy to safety? That was good.

"Take care of the kid! If you don't I'll take you out with my Petit Punches!" she shouted back, jumping away from the large thing behind her. She pulled herself up to her hind legs and gestured at it.

"I'm going to kick you butt for what you did to Lucy! Bone head! You're going down! RAWR!!!" Samara shouted out at Skullgreymon. She jumped up on the bony leg and scrambled up onto it's head. She slammed her paw into it with a triumphant yell. Skullgreymon merely roared in annoyance and dipped it's head, causing Samara to tumble to the ground.

"OOF!!!" she said. She leapt back and began howling at him.

Xavier didn't even notice Sammy coming closer, staring up at the fading monster. The Child level's bubbles were working for once. X knew that if it wasn't weakened from evolution and previous attacks they would be dead right now, no question. X glowered at the ground. He was going to kill Wilson for his damn restrictions. There had been way too many positive Emergences for his taste and the Awakening would not have happened if the stupid commander had let Day and Dorumon actually fight. But no, he didn't want more property damage. The school was freaking destroyed! This man really didn't know a thing about Digimon.

"Stop spacing out stupid," Alex suddenly snapped. "The police are almost here!!"

Xavier scowled."I have ears you know." SkullGreymon roared and struggled, causing Xavier to roll his eyes. "Fine, fine. Yeesh, Virans are in such a hurry to die..."

"Shut up and kill him!" Alex screeched, glowering at him. She shook her head. "Honestly, men... Lucemon!"

"Grand Cross!" Lucemon would not say anything to his tamer. He wouldn't, no matter how tempting the urge. SkullGreymon let out a feeble cry that must have meant to be a roar and Lucemon couldn't help but snicker. "Well that was scary," he called out playfully. SkullGreymon reached toward him with a claw and XV-mon knocked him aside. "Thanks!"

"No prob man," XV-mon replied happily, flying above his teammate. "X Laser!"

"Grand Cross!" The combined attacks sent the Perfect level flying into the debris, the crash mixing with a sickening crack of bone. Xavier grinned as the creature's data shattered at that moment, data flying quickly into the sky.

"Fina-lly," he muttered, glancing at the sky. This had to have been the last of them; the sky was brightening immensely to the correct shade of blue. He raised his D-Syn. "Data record." The screen flashed red and SkullGreymon's physical form vanished entirely, disappearing around his device. Alex glanced all around as the sun began to visibly shine. Xavier looked at the confused and injured people and smiled weakly. "Nice goin'" he commented with a weak grin. "Despite everythin'. Now, ya'll hear 'dem sirens?" He cocked his head to the right, hearing the whine distantly growing. "Yeah... I got orders not to get involved. Now, tell yer out cold buddies this and keep it in mind yerselves: nobody gonna believe you no way, no how. I know it."

"Yeah from me," Alex muttered as Xavier shushed her.

"So the best thing ya can do? Lie." He gave each of them a firm look as he picked up Day and Dorimon. "And tomorrow meet us around the front gate. I doubt we'll be havin' classes for a while. Later." He bolted off, XV-mon shrinking to land on his back. Alex snorted and followed him, shaking her head about his dumb speech.

Ten minutes later there was the sound of rapid footsteps and there were uniformed men rushing through the destruction. The enemy had disappeared apparently. "Attention students and faculty! Please direct our medical teams toward the worst injuries and allow yourselves to be examined by a doctor. Then yo uare required to submit for questioning. Please follow these commands quickly and carefully so everyone can be treated." The announcement rang through the destroyed the school.

When the two other Digimon rushed SkullGreymon and knocked him free of Lop-Ear Ripple, Luna slowly decelerated her spinning. Her repetitious "Desserts~!" grew less focused and weary in tone. She could hardly take a step to keep her balance without getting disoriented all over again. Haru casually walked over to his partner as her contours were easier to see. "Desserts~... Desserts... desserts... dess..." muttered the exhausted Digimon. She fell backwards into Haru's arms.

"Took those guys a while to get their hides in gear, but it looks like things are done here," Haru reassured his Digimon, patting the top of her head as he walked over to Hiroshi and the other injured people. For once, he didn't feel the urge to yawn in between his words. What was that about? "Rest for now, Luna. I'll get you home and we can see about dinner later." Hold on, wait!! Now he was considering letting a creature of unknown and remarkable power into his house like she was some kind of pet?! ... Oh well, it wasn't his home.

"Oi, Haru! Quit looking stupid and help me with these guys!" Hiroshi blurted as he picked Lucy up. Bearmon was trying to tend to Samuel, but the Child-level wasn't large enough to pick the teen up effectively. Haru huffed in defiance as he placed Luna on the ground and walked over to provide assistance. He managed to get the other boy up by throwing Samuel's arm behind his neck and forcing him up. But then the police sirens were as loud as they ever were; the police had finally made it. "Crap, Bearmon, to me!" Bearmon took the command obediently and ran with Hiroshi.

Haru thought that Hiroshi had the right idea at first. Avoiding confrontation with the law was the best way to avoid having to think of a good enough lie to explain what happened. But what about the creatures that didn't leave? If people saw them moving around-- "No!! Stop!!" Haru yelled to Hiroshi and Bearmon. Upon hearing the other teen, Hiroshi and Bearmon stopped short and almost feel to the ground with Lucy dragged down with them. At the same time, though, Haru coughed in pain as his throat felt dry and scratchy. His vocal chords weren't experienced enough to yell so loud.

"What?! What's your problem?!?" Hiroshi growled as he looked back at Haru trying to recover quickly to speak again. This time Haru was quicker with his words, and a lot more gentle with his volume.

"If they see our Digimon in action it'll be even harder to explain this crap! *yawn* Not to mention what force the cops may exert on them. Hide, act like a doll-- something to mask yourselves!"

"That's so dumb on so many... Bearmon!!" Hiroshi blurted as his Digimon sat on the ground and made a confident smirk. The bear-Digimon tried to speak through his teeth.

"I can't find a place to hide in time being out in the open like this..." Bearmon struggled to mutter. Hiroshi made one of his hands free enough to lightly slap his face.

"Haru? There you are," a male voice sounded behind Haru. Haru almost jumped in surprise, but he somehow managed to suppress his shock. Turning around, Haru saw a familiar face.

"Officer Cousland? *yawn* Of all the places..." Haru commented as he got clasped on the shoulder (Samuel's arm slightly struck) as a warm welcome, "So, you got the call?"

"We heard that there was a disturbance at the school, but that's an understatement," the police officer commented, then added, "What happened here?" Haru went silent for a second. What could be said? 'Well, Kathy was doing some sort of experiment in science class, and, well...' Was it really a smart idea to make an excuse that blamed Kathy? Well, it was possible... no, focus!! What else would make sense? A random bomber? Sure, that happens all the time at schools... right?

"Science experiment going cataclysmal-wrong... domestic terrorist... I don't know," Haru lied, yawning as he did, "Whatever happened, it looks like there aren't too many significantly-serious injuries to speak of." Officer Cousland nodded skeptically as he tried to break Haru's blank expression. Even after knowing the boy for years, it was difficult distinguishing lies from truth when he kept his calm demeanor.

"Alright... but what about that stuff in the sky? All of it just suddenly vanished," retorted Officer Cousland, "You're outside, so don't think you can say you didn't see it."

"... Sudden freak storm? Again, I don't know..." Haru defended, trying to use some semblance of innocence of some kind.

"Well, I guess that's what the investigators are here to find out," Officer Cousland sighed, "We were worried about you. You were supposed to call home about a half hour ago, and we almost thought--"

"Dammit! That's what I forgot!!" Haru blurted as he dropped Samuel to the ground and dashed for Luna. Picking his Digimon up, the boy ran for the barricade that other police officials were putting up and hurdled over them with ease. Like Officer Cousland, the other members of the police demanded that the boy return to the scene, but the boy seemed uninterested in complying. Almost immediately, Cousland's two-way was going off.

"Haru, you hypocrite!!" Hiroshi yelled as he saw Haru leave his sight.

"Cousland here... No, I haven't isolated the cause of the damage... Yes, the boy was on the scene... No, no, that was Haru. We were at his house earlier... Probably on his way home... Hold on, no need to get rash like that... Listen, just-- Listen. I've already got a statement from him. He's not sure what happened, but we may be looking at a domestic terrorist incident... Yes, his father and mother will be personally notified of his leaving the scene, but we should really let him be. He's still just a kid; possibly scared and confused. Maybe half his school has been leveled... Fine, Cousland out," the officer sighed as he spoke in to the two-way, then clipped it to his person again. He seemed to appear troubled, but exactly what wasn't certain. "Of all the punishments to give a kid..."

"Officer? Is Haru in trouble?" Hiroshi asked, keeping Lucy steady. Honestly, it sounded like he was kind of hopeful for the answer to be--

"None of your business, kid," the officer said shortly as he changed focus back to the investigation, "However, you can answer my questions. What happened here?"

"Er... what? Heheh, why ask me? You got what you needed out of Haru, right? I don't know any more than he does... well I do, academically, but the point is that I have no clue what happened," Hiroshi stammered with an awkward laugh.

"This seems like a pleasant vantage point." Louise smiled, standing at the windowpane of a section of the school building that had yet to be destroyed. She blinked at the skeletal aberration that appeared in place of the single-horned reptilian creature. "What is that monstrosity?" There was a decided lack of fear in her voice, Dracumon noted, and the vampiric Digimon raised an eyebrow at this.

"A powerful entity; I doubt any of the individuals present would be able to fight it in its normal state, except for maybe ..." Dracumon glanced surreptitiously at the winged seraphim surreptitiously, then at the mildly draconic bluish, furred creature that was scarcely more than a small shape on the ground below, viewed from their current height. "Hrm. I might be wrong ..." He watched calmly as the battle wore on, and increasing amounts of property was destroyed.

"..."

Time stretched on. Louise's sapphire orbs were perpetually focused on the mêlée below. She was not a worldwise person, Dracumon noted, and grinned; naïveté was not always bad, and that was certainly an interesting part of her character. However, it was probably not in either of their interests to stay here any longer; he could tell that the building would likely not last another five minutes.

"It would be better for us to abscond from the premises while we can, miss." Dracumon spoke in an even, cool voice. "The coalition forces of those humans and their companions seem to be doing well, but I can't say the same for this structure."

"Mm ... whatever seems to be best to you will be fine." Louise's smile was dazzlingly radiant, if brief. "How does one say that phrase, again? Lead ... the way, Dracumon." She stretched her arms a little, yawning, and turned away from the scene. "I was getting a little bored of all of that violent thrashing about, anyway; I think they're about finished dealing with it."

A few moments later, girl and digital organism emerged from a stairwell (whose steel door was, luckily, not destroyed, though the glass pane installed on it had long since shattered into pieces by the flurry of destructive activity) just in time to observe the sudden disappearance of the skeletal frame of the vanquished creature, the matter discorporating into tiny points of light that was absorbed into ... a device of some sort? Louise was not entirely sure; she trained her gaze furtively on the gathered group, humans and non-humans alike. It dawned on her, as she examined Dracumon out of her peripheral vision, that she would likely be labelled a part of the ragtag group that stood before her - eventually, if not soon, and sighed in resignation.

How tiresome.

[going to wait for a response to this; I've just noticed, after spending three hours dawdling around before finishing this post, that I've created a sort of time circumvention - I would, however, like to see if anyone would like to interact before ten minutes pass by and I get on with part 2]

Peeking out from under the desk he had hidden beneath, Rich saw the sky out the windows returning to normal. Thankfully, as he was on the other side of the school, the battle hadn't caused the building to collapse on him. crawling out and shakily standing up, the boy looked outside to see the various emergency vehicles that had arrived. Giving a sigh of relief, he walked over to the door using the desks for support, and opened it into the hallway. A beeping from his pocked drew his attention and he took out Keramon's pet device.

"I'm gonna be frank here in case your brain's still shaken up, 'kay?" the creature in the handheld device began. Richie sort of nodded, in shock now that his adrenaline rush was over. Keramon continued, "Telling the people out there about what happened? Bad idea. They'll drag you away wherever crazy people go."

"You... want me to lie?" asked Richie, taking in the request. Hearing the police enter the building, he started to move quietly as he could away from them, so he could have more time to convene with Keramon. Briefly, somewhere in his brain, Rich wondered why he was moving away from the police.

"Lie, blabber unintelligible nonsense and pretend-" there was a pause and the Digimon seemed to examine him from in the device, "- okay, pretending to be in shock wouldn't be the right description. You're lookin' pretty freaked."

"I'm a terrible liar," stated Richard blankly, turning into the ruins of the cafeteria and walking over to a busted vending machine, where he took out a bag of chips. The boy didn't seem to register, or really pay attention to the fact that there was a large hole in the wall leading outside.

"Oh, yeah, taunt me with your delicious human food. Thanks buddy."

Pressing the feed button a few times, Richard sat down at a table and simply grumbled something under his breath as he ate his chips. It was the only thing he'd eaten all day, since he had to ditch his pizza pop.

"Whatever. Point is you can't tell them monsters invaded the school. Hey? Are you even listening to me? Yo, Richie Rich. Liste-"

Richard held a hand over the device's speaker, "I heard you the first time, thanks, Navi." He paused for another bite of chips and continued with his mouth full, "Mn whaff thother sudents tell'm iwash monsers?" The hand lifted off of the speaker.

"Uh... new plan! We ditch that imp again and find whoever else clicked yes. And survived." That middle part took a moment to register in Richie's brain, and he fell out of his chair looking around for the imp. Keramon cackled, "There, that got the blood pumpin'! Now c'mon, let's move before the wee-wah people get to them first. Gogogo!"

"One of these days it'll really be there and I ain't going to look," getting off of the floor, Richie grabbed his chips and glanced at the hole in the wall, through which there were other people, and other creatures. Walking over to the hole, he stood there nervously for a few minutes, when it was too late. A police officer had already approached some of the others. What if they blabbed? How would he know, how would he keep the story straight? Panicked plans ran through his mind. The other monsters, they're with the kids? Like Keramon? They look like they're playing dead or something. A girl walked out onto the field nearby, with another impy thing floating beside her. It didn't look like it was making any attempts to hide.

Starting towards the two, Richie chickened out and turned back into the cafeteria. That think looked creepy, and he really wasn't good at talking to girls. Keramon was creepy too though, and he- it had saved him. Turning around towards the girl again, he ran over and started babbling, pointing over to the cop who was thankfully turned the other way, "Quick, quick, he can't see your... thing. This-" he held up the device. Keramon cackled and waved from inside. "Press the button in the middle, it puts him- her? It. It puts it back. Quick, before they see."

Samara leapt away as Skullgreymon was taken out. She grinned, but that grin faded after a moment.

"LUCY!!" Samara yelled, remembering her partner for the first time since the fight had begun. She sniffed the air, trying to find her companion. After a moment, she caught the scent and charged off in that direction.

~~~~~

Lucy slowly came to after a few moments. She felt like... Well, like someone had hit her in the head with some very large bones. As such, it took her a moment to figure out exactly where she was.

"Er... what? Heheh, why ask me? You got what you needed out of Haru, right? I don't know any more than he does... well I do, academically, but the point is that I have no clue what happened," someone near her said. Near as in, they were practically on top of her. Wait... It clicked in her mind where she was. Some weird boy was holding her. She looked up at him with a look of pure terror on her face before screaming at the top of her lungs and struggling as hard as she could. The noise she made left her slightly dizzy, but she tried to ignore it.

"Gah! Let me go! Samara! Help me!" Lucy shouted, not quite as loudly, but just as shrilly. She didn't understand what was going on, just that she had to get away from this person.

*** After the Battle, part 1 ***

Haru returned home panting for breath as he slammed the door behind him and rested his back against it. shoulders and arms hanging low, Lunamon was suspended only inches from the ground. She regained a certain consciousness on the way, but was instructed to look lifeless. As far as either of them could see, no one really looked at the two too strange; Haru just looked like a teenager running down the street with some plush doll in his arms. He'd lament the damage possibly done to social reputation, but he didn't have much to begin with. Besides, it appeared that he and Luna were going to be working together from now on. There are probably going to be a lot of moments where the same thing is going to happen...

"So... this is your home?" Luna asked, looking around the small foyer-like area. She also looked through both corridors leading into two different parts of the house. Curiosity was obvious in her countenance, but she wasn't yet stable enough to rely on her own feet. "It looks nice." Haru took in a few good breaths before actually replying.

"Well, it's the place I usually sleep at when the day is over," murmured Haru, trying to keep his voice low, "Now is not the time to talk, though. My father--"

"I HEARD you come in! No use trying to think I might have been fooled!!" A harsh voice thundered from the end of the left corridor. Haru flinched for a second as he heard the voice sound, Luna even did the same she was so surprised, but he stood up straight as he prepared himself. He casually started taking steps into the corridor. Luna was held firmly in locked arms.

"Who's that?" whispered Luna, a little nervous.

"My father; keep silent. He's one of the last people that should know about you or any other Digimon," Haru responded back. He didn't sound sarcastic, either. He sounded very serious; even out of the ordinary. Luna could feel the boy's heart punching against his ribs in a strong, hastened beat. There wasn't this much beating when they went up against SkullGreymon...!

"Haru..." Lunamon cooed, but didn't say another word as they entered the next room. The two reached a living room of sorts. It was at least four times larger than the foyer. Yet somehow it was poorly lit in comparison. Light was inhibited by blinds, but the intensity of the light outside was enough to make the room a distorted blend between semi-adequate lighting and partly-dim. There was a flat-screen television, and a large one at that (it was definitely out of place with the other parts of the room). It was muted and added a pale, harrowing glow to the man sitting on the couch. He himself seemed to be dour. The man made no notice of the boy who just came into the room, though.

"... I'm in the room, dad," Haru eventually spoke. His eyes rolled; he was usually forced to address his appearance whenever summoned before anything really happened. But if he tried to leave the resulting lecture was ruthless. The man let out a gruff scoff as he turned his head slightly to look at his son.

"Don't use that tone with me. Why are you home early? Deciding to cut again?" Haru's father asked, his voice coated in venom, "Or did they finally kick you out?"

"Half the school's obliterated, father," Haru insisted, the effort he was putting into not sounding smug or correcting radiated out of him.

"Right. You were supposed to call after first class, too. Must have felt real cool avoiding your responsibilities like that," his father continued, his eyes set on Luna. Luna did as previously instructed and looked like a lifeless doll. Even so, she found it very unnerving to have this man staring at her like that...

"Again, that's because of the mishap at school... *yawn* father," Haru stated.

"ENOUGH!!" his father bellowed, making Haru step back defensively. Perhaps he had been thinking it for a while in the back of his head, but the idea of having Luna sort things out a little was getting too tempting-- One... maybe ten... Lunar Claws would be enough. Sadly that would be too much to explain. "I don't care why you're home; you should still be working! Go study, get a job, do something with your life! You're on the road to nowhere, boy."

"Right, thanks," Haru said as he turned away and walked through the house. He made his way to his own room. It looked very different from the rest of the house. The walls were a sky-blue, and the carpeting was an emerald green (almost making it feel like they were outside) There was a smaller television on a wooden stand, and a half-made bed in the opposite corner of the room. Other than the bookshelf, desk and laptop, and alcove closet, however, there was quite a bit of empty space in the room. The floor had a couple things scattered across it, but the room itself was overall normal. Haru let out a deeper exhale when he silently closed his bedroom door and locked it.

"And I thought SkullGreymon was bad-- I can't shatter that guy into data!!" Luna gasped as she jumped from Haru's arms and onto his bed. Sitting down, she stared up at the shaken teen with a concerned look. "Haru? Hey, Earth to Haru!!" Haru yawned in response, but then looked much better. It was like the confrontation never happened.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Haru said as he walked from the door to the edge of the bed and sat on the ground near where Luna sat herself. He stared at a corner of the ceiling; the shadows of his eyes almost darkening in grim. "He's all talk, really. Loud. Nonsensical. Authoritative talk."

"... So you're really failing out of school?" Luna asked, this time not needing battle-high to get a little more serious than normal. Haru looked over at his Digimon. His facial expression didn't say anything at all.

"Yeah, I guess I could be," Haru sighed to himself as he got up, kicked his shoes off, and laid down on his bed behind Luna, "It's not like it's important; even if I get kicked out I can go to a different school."

"And what about Wes? And Kathy? Hiroshi, Bearmon, and Day, too?" Luna asked as she turned herself around.

"... If they still want to be friends they won't let the change in schools stop them from communicating with me," Haru suggested, yawning as he rubbed his eyes, "I need some sleep after today, though. Think you can wait for food until after a nap?"

"I can join you! I feel so tired after that fight with SkullGreymon!!" Luna encouraged the idea as she tackled Haru ("Oof!!"). She immediately rested her head over his heart and did her best to wrap her arms around his torso. She smiled to herself as she closed her eyes.

"I really couldn't tell--" Haru stated before noticing Luna. She really did just go to sleep there and then! Looks like there was little that he could do now. The boy sighed as he contemplated rolling over. It would be possible to just carefully turn over while keeping her in place relative to his body. If he knew how to summon her back into the device he might have done so. He didn't have much time to really think, though, because he himself felt the desperate urge to rest. Slowly he closed his eyes and relaxed himself. Almost immediately he went to sleep.


*** Hiroshi ***

"H-hey!! No, s-s-st-stop that!" Hiroshi told Lucy as the teen struggled in his hold. It was rather difficult keeping Lucy under control. He was about to explain that he was helping her, but a rogue flailing of the teen's arm hit the boy in the face numerous times. Getting increasingly annoyed as it happened, Hiroshi glared as he swung his arms out and let go. "Hot potato!!"

"Ugh!" Officer Cousland grunted as he got kicked in the shoulder as he instinctively leaned in to catch Lucy. This caused the two of them to fall to the ground beside each other. Meanwhile, Hiroshi was dragging Bearmon away to make his own escape. The officer murmured as he was about to pull out his two way and call for backup. "Damn kid..."

"Bearmon... Why are you so heavvv.... vvy..?! "Hiroshi grunted as he trudged along with Bearmon refusing to work with him. The Digimon scoffed.

"A heavy hitter has bulk to back up the punches. Maybe you should work out more," Bearmon protested as he looked at all the people coming in to check up on things, "None of them are looking at us now; use the middle button to place me back into the device." Hiroshi muttered something about "telling him sooner" as he took out his D-Syn and did as instructed. Bearmon quickly faded into chunks of data and flowed into the device. A succession of beeping let Hiroshi know it was a success.

X sat in the chair with an irritated expression. He was going to ream the commander, screw authority. He was late, so late! Day was more important than the man reading over a crappy report! The door opened and e rose to his feet with a snarl. "About time! What the hell did he say?"

Alex scowled. "He said cool your heels for one," she replied promptly, causing him to glare. "Hey, for once he did. Secondly," she paused to watch Lucemon float in, carrying papers. "According to Nikolai, Day's going to be out cold until at least tomorrow. Sheryl's with her now."

"Oh now she gets out of bed," he grumbled, but the words had no malice in them. There was way too much wrong with XXX for him to lose his temper over a minor detail. "Anything else or can I go and kick Wilson's dark skinned a**?"

"Yeah actually," Alex sat down next to him on his bed, her expression pensive. "There were way too many Emergences today. And an evolution... you and I both know that is not normal."

"No duh it's not normal, give the woman a bloody prize," Xavier snapped then softened at her glare. "Look, I know whatcha mean and until we know just where the emergences came from, we can sit on our heads for all we care. But I have one theory and nobody here is gonna like it."

"It's you," Alex quipped. "I don't like anything you say."

He rolled his eyes visibly. "I don't like you either. But... what's my issue with this is, I think we were set up."

"That whole thing was an ambush," Alex pointed out, causing X to groan.

"No you stupid idjit!" he sighed. "This whole thing in general... I mean... agh, you wouldn't get it. This many connections is way too planned... or way too desperate." He groaned to himself, feeling a sudden headache. Not remembering over half your life seriously sucked.

"Think about it later," Ryudamon mumbled. "Let's go see Day."

"Yeah, she's so much more fun when she's sleeping," Xavier cracked.

~~

Sheryl brushed her blonde curls from her face again. She made no sound, choosing to stroke her friend's hand instead. Dorimon was curled on Day's stomach, still out like his human. She watched Day sleep, the girl's expression blank. It was odd to see the girl wear anything other than a smile. It wasn't something Sheryl found nice in the slightest.

DAy suddenly made an odd noise and Sheryl swore the girl mumbled something. Did she say... Mom? Sheryl felt a hint of nausea and got up. She didn't want to know, she did not want to know.

As the blonde hurried away the lights flickered, as though drawn to her.

(Okay that's finally the end of episode one! Slow going huh? OKay the preview for 2 will be up in a few minutes! Also, if you didn't post at the end of episode one, you're going to have to tell what happened to your character when episode 2 starts. Also, omakes are a go! I may edit one in here later, I may not! We shall see! Thanks for your devotion!)