Apologies for the short chapter. However, we are nearly done with the prologue of this story. Yes, I count these opening chapters as a prologue. Once that's done, more Oc's will appear. Also feel free to drop me a Pm/review telling me if you'd like to see anythingFor now though, enjoy the chapter.

She signed angrily.

"One more time, please, what did the Digimon look like?" Leya asked as patiently as possibly. She was stood in a clearing where they had been clear signs of battle, torn up dirt, burnt ground, data fragments slowly drifting away, and the bare remains of the cloud of dust from a fireball that had exploded in the sky. The sight of a fireball in the sky was too much to ignore this close to the city where she was based.

"It was a Devimon with four weird-"

"Not the Devimon. The one that helped you!" Leya was quickly losing her patience as the young man before her flinched. She had headed out with a small team to investigate, but only found four stranded Digidestined. Her eyes fell over several small black puddles of sludge with data slowly rising from them; a chill fell down her spine, something in her gut told her she had seen something similar before.

"Like a giant wolf, I mean huge, covered in red markings. I've never seen it before but I heard the guy call it, Strikemon, I think." The young man spoke quietly as he sank his head into his hands. Leya felt a pang of guilt for pushing him, he had after all been kidnapped and god knows what else. She walked away from the group of Digidestined she was in charge of, who were currently looking after the victims, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god." She whispered quietly to herself. Her heart was racing. Will had vanished months ago, no trace; no way of tracking him, even his Digivice signal had gone quiet. People had looked for him and his Digimon partner but nothing ever turned up and it had been months. She had been on the verge of giving up but no other Digidestined had a Strikemon for a partner.

"So he's here." Leya turned to face the large samurai figure in elegant armour as he walked towards her, his dragon tail slowly trailing behind him. The mega level of her Digimon partner.

"Yeah he is, Komodomon." Komdomon straightened up and folded his arms over his chest plate.

"So why hasn't he revealed himself?" The dragon samurai asked and it caused a pang of pain in Leya she wasn't expecting. It was a good question, if Will was back, why wasn't he talking to them? What had happened to him?

"I'm sure he has a reason. This isn't the first time he's just…vanished." She shut her eyes and willed herself not to lose her temper. She was grateful to now be taking on a wider variety of missions for Gennai and the sovereigns; someone had to take up the slack with Will gone. But with no one sure where he was, everyone's thoughts had turned to a more morbid reality without him.

"We could do with his help if he's nearby." Komodomon let a hand fall to the hilt of his sword as his mind drifted to thoughts of the recent encounters. Leya nodded, he wasn't wrong.

"We should get back." Leya shook her head, as much as she wanted to chase down Will, she had to get back to town. There was too much going on to focus on just one person.

Trace stalked his way through the settlement and almost instantly he could tell what type of place it was. The sound of his feet on the cobbled street echoed all around as he walked through the middle of the town without any issue. Every where he looked people and Digimon barely left the safety of their doorways, even the market stalls were left unattended. Trace was used to this in certain places especially as his partner was a Blackwargreymon, and their combined reputation was less than sweet.

"Why are they all staring?" Blackwargreymon growled. Kairi carried Lopmon in her arms but she could feel the eyes of everyone on them. She had a point. Typically in Digital towns like this most Digidestined and Digimon were welcoming of strangers, but here Trace felt the need to pull up the hood of his cloak, although he resisted.

"They're scared. Things have not been good for a while." Kairi lowered her eyes from those she was supposed to be helping.

"Where's the local patrol?" Trace asked bluntly. His eyes caught sight of a small market stall filled with various knives, small wrenches, a shield, a brick, and various other mismatched items, but no market vendor. The sign read "human lucky charms". Trace stifled a small laugh, the sign wasn't completely wrong.

"We don't have a regular patrol. Whoever can do it when they can." Kairi said it plainly and Trace could already tell this place didn't have enough people to defend it properly. Trace shook his head and his eyes caught sign of an overly large red barn that sat in the corner of the town. His eyes scanned it quickly and noticed several small areas of it that had been changed or improved.

"That's where Leya is set up, right?" Trace asked without thinking. Blackwargreymon locked eyes with a young man who simply stared back and frowned at the tall armoured dragon. Kairi simply nodded to answer. The further into the centre they went, the more noise Trace could hear. It had been eerily quiet when they first entered. Trace quickly changed course, moving towards a huge group of people and Digimon that had gathered. Trace quickly pushed his way through the crowd to find himself at the top of a huge castle wall that wasn't visible from the side of the town he entered on.

"What's going on?" Trace asked, although his voice was slightly lost amongst the constant murmuring of the crowd. A small Patamon floated down near his head.

"You must be the new guy." Patamon almost squeaked and Trace simply nodded as he continued to towards the front, he would never have guessed there were this many people in the town to begin with, from the crowd alone it seemed more of a city.

"The cannon is ready." Patamon said meekly. Trace paused and turned.

"Cannon?" He asked at a loss for words.

"Yeah. Belzeemon is here with his cannon because Leya wouldn't meet his demands, and now he's going to fire on the town. This is the end for us, even Leya isn't here." Patamon spoke quickly before flying away. Trace sighed angrily as he finally made his way to the front of the crowd and what he saw took his breath away. There was indeed a tall leather clad Digimon leading a large host of various Digimon but beside them was a huge futuristic pale steel cannon with a giant barrel, that was easily as tall as the wall. Trace's jaw fell open at the sheer size of it, it was easily as long as several cars lined up, and the barrel was pointed directly at the giant castle wall of the town. It was a huge distance away but from the size of the cannon, Trace knew it would have no issue reaching the town. Bleezemon held his hand, a signal that was familiar to anyone from any combat situation; various vents in the cannon were taking in huge quantities of data from the air.

"Shit!" Trace turned and raced through the crowd, amongst the murmurs he could hear quietly people whispering they were doomed and admitting their deepest regrets. Trace raced back as much as he could but he knew he wouldn't make it. Briefly Blackwargreymon came into his line of sight and the armoured dragon turned to face him. Blackwargreymon narrowed his eyes.

"Go! Up! There's an incoming barrage!" Trace yelled at the top of his lungs, unsure if he was heard. Without missing a beat Blackwargreymon took to the air as the sound of an explosion rocked and deafened the entire area along with the cry of everyone in the town. Traced turned to see a monstrously blue orbs racing towards the town at break neck speed. Blackwargreymon raced towards it and gracefully prepared his own giant red explosive orb mid flight and hurled it towards the projectile. In a small second before the two collided the blue monstrous orb split into two smaller, quicker projectiles. As Blackwargreymon's attack collided the noise was deafening and the light was blinding, the sheer force from the collision caused every pane of glass in the town to shatter at once as the two orbs merged into one single orb before exploding in a column of fire and smoke. Trace's eyes widened in terror as the newly split smaller orb shot towards Blackwargreymon who had no time to dodge it and could only pull out his shield in the nick of time. The orb crashed into the shield and the entire sky was engulfed in smoke and flame, accompanied with more cries from the town. The second explosion was even louder given how it close it was, with balls of flame falling from the sky. Trace watched with his eyes wide in horror as a small Blackagumon plummeted from the sky. Trace bolted forward, his ears ringing from the explosions as he pushed people away from him as he moved quickly. Trace leapt forward with his arms out, barely catching Blackagumon in time before they both crashed into what was left of a small half burnt market stall.

"That. That hurt." Blackagumon whimpered quietly. Trace looked around to see Kairi and Lopmon taking cover nearby. His heart was pounding hard; he hadn't seen something as powerful as that cannon since the Odaiba siege. Trace quickly looked around to see buildings on fire, glass scattered everywhere, and people and Digimon were hurt and running. He feared to think what a direct hit would have done.

"Well you know how to make an entrance." Trace turned to see Leya standing over him. With her were a number of other Digidestined who took off running to help others in the area. He caught his breath as best as he could and took the hand Leya was offering, allowing him to get to back on his feet with Blackagumon still in his arms.

"What the fuck is going on around here?"