Deon sat on the floor, flipping through the pages of a large tome. Dust surrounded him as he sat in the library situated right on the outskirts of town, completely opposite to where they came into the village from.

A pile of fruit and meat sat next to him untouched.

He was more excited to be here than he'd been in years. The monotonousness of life back home was aggravating. Learning about math, geography, history... all that stuff bored him to death, and not only because he knew all of it already. His parents early in life had impressed upon him further education, and so all he really knew was study and study. It had gotten to the point that everything he'd be learning in class he would have learned a year before, if not more.

This though. This was different. This was fascinating . The last couple of days he had spent holed up in the library filled him with ample opportunity to learn about something he knew nothing about. He looked at Veemon, snoozing by a bookshelf at the back; both the lifeforms and the world were an aggregation of data from the real world given shape. He felt giddy just thinking about it.

Deon carefully turned the page, the ancient papyrus feeling rough on his fingers and the smell of old paper intoxicating. Today he had thought to look into the meteors Jijimon had touched on - errant data unable to find form , he had mentioned. He could find nothing in the history books he had skimmed through so far; this seemed to be a brand new phenomenon. His brain worked in overdrive, something it had not done in quite some time. If the world was data, and data crashed into it... argh , how was this even remotely connected to the real world? Other than the fact it's data.

In the past, the "Digital Worlds" as he now called them, had never touched so no one had bothered to research the boundaries. Or, at least no one deemed it important enough to scribe into any book in this library. Was Jijimon even right about that? Or was it just an assumption? Deon continued to think, the consistency of Veemon's soft snoring helping him keep his mind from scattering all over the place.

Suddenly he was brought out of his thoughts by the sounds of a loud bell coming from the center of the village. Deon closed the book. What was that? Cautiously he got up and walked towards the door. Just as he opened it he heard numerous loud crashes from outside. "Veemon!" He yelled, opening the door while his blue partner jumped up, and saw white balls falling from a dark sky fast approaching.

—

"BIYOMON DIGIVOLVE" Senna screamed as her partner grew and grabbed her shoulders with hooked talons, soaring off the building they had been hanging out on. She heard a loud thud and turned her head, eyes opening in terror; there was a large dent where she had just been sitting. Not moments ago she was staring at the darkening sky. She had heard bells, and suddenly the sky itself had started falling with no time to recover from her shock and clamber down to safety.

As Senna dangled from Valemon's tight grip, the large bird soared, chains jangling as she weaved around the falling ice. She suddenly turned and flew upside down, her back parallel with the ground. Having done a 180, Senna found herself laying on her partner's stomach, her feet inches from Valemon’s head. Senna's own head was almost at the tip of the Digimon’s tail and staring at the dirt path zooming by under her. The bird’s talons gripping Senna's shoulder was the only thing keeping the young girl from sliding off onto the ground herself.

Allowing herself to look back, she was just able to make out her partner's mouth from behind her own legs, gathering energy. Why... Senna strained her neck to chance a look upwards, and saw large chunks of ice falling towards the school with the children paralyzed with fear below. Garurumon was shooting blue flames, unable to get them all.

Valemon shot forth a beam of light towards the falling ice, drawing a neat horizontal line through all the large chunks and exploding them into vapor, the water soaking the babies and children below. Senna breathed a sigh of relief as Garurumon ushered them inside the building with a nod of thanks. "Senna, turn around." Valemon spoke to her in a clear voice through the brief respite.

"O-ok." Senna squeaked, precariously spinning her body as Valemon helped keep her steady with her talons. She gulped as she managed to lay her face on her partner's chest, grabbing her tightly around the neck, all while seeing the ground speed by from behind Valemon's head.

Valemon nodded. "Don't let go." Senna had no intention of doing that . Her stomach lurched as Valemon spun back around and launched towards the sky, not finding the opportunity to get her somewhere safe amidst the falling ice.

—

Tavaras rushed out of the lunch room, holding a half eaten piece of meat still on the bone.

"What the hell is goi-" He cut off as saw the apocalypse happening in front of him. Hail was falling everywhere, mostly bouncing harmlessly into the ground or off the tree stumps they used as buildings. His eyes widened as he saw Valemon in the distance, spinning and dancing around the falling rocks while shooting down larger ones with quick bursts of her Energy Ray. For some reason Senna was clutching the large bird tightly, screaming.

Tavaras instinctively jumped back into the building as a large hail stone the size of a basketball lodged itself just in front of where he was standing, landing straight on his ass. "You okay?" Dorumon asked, concerned.

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"Yeah... just. Shit we gotta help out." Tavaras's mind raced. They were trapped inside; the hail stones were getting larger and more frequent and not even Dorugamon would be able to get airborne in time to manage the kind of maneuvering Valemon was doing.

"FUCK!" He punched the floor beside him, helpless. They wouldn't be able to get a good angle from where they were to help Senna. "Where is everyone else?" He muttered to himself. He knew Edward would be in their room, and Deon was likely in the library. Tyrannomon and his other new friends back in the forest would be able to take care of themselves.

Senna was accounted for; Valemon would be able to protect her more than anyone else.

That left Imogen. Tavaras gulped; he only hoped young girl would be able to save herself, because he nor anyone else would be able to help.

—

Imogen winced as water vapor and small chunks of ice fell over her. She was running back to the village while carrying Gummymon, hunched over to protect the baby. Palmon and Floramon ran beside her, carrying Tanamon and Yokomon respectively. All they had to do was make it into a house and they'd be safe.

Their guardian, Gargomon, followed close behind, occasionally shooting larger hail stones with his machine gun arms while laughing.

Gargomon [https://wikimon.net/images/0/02/Galgomon.jpg]

"I can do this all day!" The jeans-wearing rabbit Digimon shouted to the sky, countless green bullets shooting from his hands while his large ears flopped with the recoil.

"Ah!" Imogen turned, hearing a small shout, and saw Floramon and Yokomon on the ground having tripped over a root. As Imogen turned around to help her friend up, she heard something concerning.

"Oh shit." Gargomon mumbled, his shots concentrated on one spot. Imogen turned her head to look at what the trigger-happy bunny was staring at, and to her horror saw an icy rock the size of a car hurtling towards them. The small bullets did little more than tear small insignificant chunks off the rock. Imogen held her body over Floramon and the two babies, and closed her eyes tightly.

Tears brimmed through her closed eyes. Was this it? Would she never see her beloved siblings again? Would she allow these innocent children to die like this?

"POISON IVY" Imogen felt vines wrap around her shoulders, as Palmon pulled her and Gummymon away from the immediate danger.

Time slowed down as she opened her eyes and saw Floramon and Yokomon still laying there, and Gargomon mere steps from them still desperately trying to shoot the rock down, sweat dripping down his face.

"NOO!" Imogen yelled in desperation. "CHRYSALIMON!!"

Suddenly it was as if a lock opened in her mind. Chrysalimon. That was the name of her partner. Her protector. The purple cocoon responded to Imogen's will, quickly planting itself alongside Gargomon and lashed out with all six bladed tendrils. No fear. Not this time. This time she will protect them all.

All six blades pierced the rock, shattering it to dozens of smaller pieces.

"Yes!!" Gargomon shouted, laughing while shooting down the remaining chunks heading towards himself and Floramon, while the remainder hit the ground around them or bounced harmlessly off the armoured cocoon.

Imogen breathed a sigh of relief and wiped her eyes as they rushed towards the nearest building. Safe for now, but the danger was not yet over.

—

Deon stood at the doorway beside Veemon, nervously watching Valemon dance through the sky whilst being pelted by the smaller hailstones. As much as he wanted to help, there was no way the two of them were going to make it anywhere through this hailstorm; they were large enough to kill him in an instant and frequent enough there would be no hope of dodging them on the ground. There were small shots of fire and other projectiles being shot by some of the other Digimon from the safety of the doors and windows, but as much as they were trying to help, Valemon and Senna were all but on their own.

His heart beat fast as he saw a rock the size of a city bus heading towards his sky-borne friends. Valemon glanced down and shot an Energy Ray at their impending doom. Why wasn't she moving? Valemon could easily avoid that one... Oh no. Something of that size would be able to do massive damage to a building; Valemon was trying her hardest to cut it down!

"Come on, just move out of the way Senna..." Deon muttered, tapping his foot with the anxiety of the moment. No; he could see the bird getting tired as she tried again, even with a stream of blue fire helping her. Deon's heart sank - though it had only been a few days, he had found himself admiring Senna's infectiously optimistic personality and Biyomon's caring nature.

Suddenly he heard the whine of a missile, and to Deon's relief the rock exploded into tiny bits. Metalgreymon soared into the village, tattered wings carrying the massive beast. Valemon glowed as she sank back down to the ground, the large Perfect level Digimon giving her the respite she needed to get her and Senna to safety.

Metalgreymon roared and flew around the village, using his metal arm to cut down the dangerous hailstones. Weregarurumon joined in, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, kicking and punching with a ferocious fury. Even still, Deon's nervousness stayed as the hail got increasingly larger and frequent. He heard a loud thud on top of the library, and felt it shake as a large rock hit his own shelter.

It was followed quickly by another and another; this was getting ridiculously dangerous, even inside.

"CHERRY BOMB" Deon heard countless explosions as Cherrymon stepped in front of the library. "I'm glad a human such as yourself is taking such a keen interest in learning about our world." The giant tree said in a soft mentoring voice, glancing back at Deon. "Please go further inside. We will protect this village."

—

Senna huddled inside the school next to the crying children as Garurumon paced side to side closer to the doorway, the staunch guardian refusing to let any harm come to them. Little toys and blankets were scattered about the room as the children used them to try and comfort themselves. She held an injured Biyomon in her lap, stroking her feathers. The pink bird was barely conscious.

Metalgreymon had come not a moment too soon.

"How long does this usually last?" She asked Garurumon. The wolf shook his head. "This is new. It's always been lightning and meteors." He growled. "The last one was only a few days ago though and would have ended by now. Before that? Months ago."

Senna looked down. What was happening? Silence filled the room for several minutes, only broken by the constant battering of small hailstones against the colourfully painted walls and the occasional explosion from one of the three Perfect level Digimon destroying a larger rock.

A short while later, as quickly as it had begun, the sun broke through the sky and the battering stopped.

Senna looked through the door for what seemed like longer than the minute it was, her dark eyes staring at the rays of the sun and savoring the silence, then broke down into tears.