Chapter 4: Light Out

It took a couple of minutes for Vera's sleep addled mind to identify what exactly had woken her up. She rubbed her eyes in attempt to clear her vision, which was pointless as the room around her was wrapped in darkness. As her mind began to boot up she finally registered the blaring alarms that echoed throughout the house, they were probably what woke her up. Vera laid back down, pulling her blanket above her head. Now that she had identified what had woken her up she could go back to sleep. Vera stopped as her brain processed her last thought, something wasn't quite right. Alarms.

"Shit!" Vera exclaimed as she rushed to get out of her bed. In her scramble to get out of bed she almost face planted on the floor when her feet weren't completely clear of the tangled mess of blankets. Her scrambling ensued as she threw some clothes on as she rushed to get her bedroom door. Stopping just long enough to grab her monochromatic blue digivice.

Vera practically flew out of her room, her feet barely touching the floor in her haste. She had to skid to a halt to nearly avoid her younger brother who had also just woken up. His half lidded eyes were still bleary with sleep.

"Whats going on?" he mumbled out.

"Don't know but I'm going to go find out. Get Chicchimon and head to the Union room. I'll meet you there." Vera's brother nodded his head in acknowledgment and went back into his room to get his partner. Vera proceeded to scramble out the front door.

"Monodramon!"

The purple dinosaur digimon jumped off the roof, "It's about time."

Vera would have said something snarky in return but they were short on time. Vera, with Monodramon, sprinted to the main part of the city, hoping that this was just a drill.

There was only one way to describe the state SunShine City was in—utter chaos.

Most of the lights that normally illuminated the squares and streets were dead. The few that were on gave off a the signature red glare of emergency lights, just enough so that those without good night vision could see a few feet in front of them. The Knightmon that normally gallantly guarded the gates in and out of the city where nowhere to be found. Rather digieggs stood ominously in place of the missing knight digimon. Tamers and digimon alike were running around in panic around the streets. Some tamers were holding on to digieggs, others in-training digimon. Coincidentally, no digimon around seemed to be higher than the rookie level.

Vera did her best to weave through the mayhem that was sweeping the area but the lack of any real light made it difficult. She was continually tripping over other people's legs and feet, slowing down her process to the union room. She silently hoped that her little brother would be able to get there without to much difficulty or harm. As she continued to make her way deeper into the city, the people and digimon became denser eventually forcing Vera to actually shove her way through, not that it worked very well.

After what seemed like an eternity she finally made it to the market square, which was incredibly close to the Union room. She tried to cut through the market only to be met with a barricade, blocking any further progress. Monodramon, who had momentarily disappeared when the barricade came into view, came up behind her.

"The way to Shine Square is clear, we can cut through there." Vera nodded in agreement seeing no way to effectively get past the barricade.

The path to Shine Square's entry way was far less packed than the way blocked by the barricade. As Vera made her way into Shine Square she noted the lack of light, it was significantly darker here than everywhere else. Vera could barely make out the shadowed shape of her partner digimon who was only standing less than a foot away from her. She continued throughout the room with her hands in front of her, making sure she didn't run into any walls or people. Surprisingly she managed to get through most of Shine Square without running into anything. Monodramon didn't have such luck.

A grunt and the sound of someone or some digimon hitting the ground resonated out from where Vera assumed Monodramon had been a second before.

"Hey are you alright?" Vera asked as she fumbled around the darkness trying to help the person or digimon back up. Her eyes had finally somewhat gotten used to the darkness around her and she was just able to make out a humanoid figure get back up off the ground.

"I'm fine." The person's voice, or what Vera assumed was a person, held a hint of annoyance but was mostly overshadowed by worry.

"I'm so sorry." Vera sputtered. "Monodramon, apologize."

Monodramon only gave a gruff grunt in response.

"It 's alright" the shadowy figure said, "but why are you heading this way, the Market is a much faster way to the Union room."

"It's blocked off." Monodramon responded curtly. "And if you'll excuse us Vera doesn't have time to be dawdling."

"Monodramon." Vera hissed.

"What, it's not like the city is having an emergency or anything."

Vera's voice rose with annoyance, "I swear—"

"I get it." The figure interrupted. "But if you don't mind, me and Liormon are going to follow you considering the way we were going to go is now blocked."

Vera let out a long breath before answering, "There shouldn't be a problem with that."

As soon as Vera entered the Union room the panic the citizens of SunShine city felt was made evident. People and digimon alike were mashed together, their voices high pitched and on the edge of hysteria.

From Vera's viewpoint her brother was nowhere in sight, either having blended in with the crowd or hadn't arrived yet due to the blockade. She looked behind her hoping to see her younger brother enter the room to no avail. She didn't even see the Liormon nor its partner. However, Monodramon was sticking closely to her side, evidently worried he might lose her in the crowded space. She was about to leave to go look for her brother but the second in command of light fang had taken charge of the center of the room. Her voice echoed throughout the Union room, silencing the previous roars of panic that encircled the crowd.

"As I'm sure most of you are aware of by now, this is not a drill or some cruel joke. We don't quite know what the cause of the blackout is yet, but I can assure you it's no trivial matter. What we do know is there was a large fluctuation in the outer firewalls code before the sudden shutdown." She paused, letting the information soak in.

Her digimon partner, Anubismon, continued. "Communication outside of the city has temporarily been cut off. We are unable receive or send messages but before communications was shut off we got multiple SOS signals coming throughout all over the digital word. Despite the current situation of SunShine City we can not ignore those that are in need of desperate help."

Litton continued where here partner left off, "But we cannot ignore the status of the city completely. Chief Glare has decided that those who specialize in coding will remain in the city. While others will be sent out on missions to the sources of some of the SOS signals. Due to the unknown source of these simultaneous attacks we are grouping members up into small teams to be safe. Chief Glare will be briefing those who are going out to the SOS signals individually. You are all dismissed."

Vera would have to put finding her brother on hold, there were far more important things to do at the moment.

A/N

And we finally get that last character introduction. Also new summery because why not.

I actually meant to get this out before Halloween but, you know, procrastination. More of I was avoiding the scene where Vera bumps into another character, as every time I wrote it it felt awkward and ooc. As a result the character role got cut shorter than I had originally planned for it to be. I do realize it's been months since the last chapter and I do apologize for that, we shall see if I can ever figure out how to get chapters out in a timely method.

Anyways, Question!

How is the story so far?