Heath Slater groans softly. Eyes flutter open when, followed by a much louder, pained groan, he slams them shut once more. Everything's too bright, too loud. He grimaces and rolls over, this only making everything worse as the sun seems to shine right in his eyes. "Ugh, dammit," he sighs, dropping an arm over his face to block it all out.
"Oh, hey, let me help," a highpitched voice gasps, causing him to jerk as shadows fall over his face, more sufficiently protecting him from the elements as he struggles to shake off the lethargy and sit up. "Hey, it's- it's ok, Heath," a bizarre looking creature with three horns tells him, eyes widening as he scrambles away. "I'm a friend, I promise. My name is Lopmon."
"Lop- Lopmon?" he repeats, his accent thicker than usual as he fights to wake up. "Wh- what are you?"
"I'm a Digimon," is the response. "And I'm your partner." Heath blinks on dumbly as dark eyes watch him, Lopmon attempting to explain his world, himself, and what he means by partner.
Heath stands with the others, listening to Luke as he explains their latest mission. "... There have been random data fluctuations around the different zones. Our investigations have shown that it's originating from the Virus Sector. We need you to go figure out the cause and fix it."
Seth is hurting, this is clear, and Wade's mind is elsewhere, on his title win. Mike looks worn out from filming and AJ barely looks at any of them, still far away in her time off. Ricardo and Del Rio both seem elsewhere as well. Heath looks around the group with a frown, not liking how distracted they all seem. He too has other things to think about but right here, right now, he doesn't see the point of dwelling on anything else when there's a fight of unknown severity ahead. Turning his attention to the portal, he watches the swirling lights and flashes surround him until they finally arrive in the Virus sector, Seth unable to hide the moan that is forced from his lips when he lands heavily on the other side, the others following him in.
Heath's confidence in this mission is even more shaken as they traipse through to where the dot on the map is indicating they should try first. It seems a bust, everything calm and quiet, so they try another, and another, and another. Nothing is succeeded at except exhausting each of them further. They're all annoyed, about to give up, when the next dot directs them to what appears to be an abandoned building, tall and imposing. Heath looks up at it, a shiver of dread passing through him. "This is it," he mutters, Lopmon nodding unhappily next to him, sensing the pure evil inside as well.
The group of them enter, listening intently for any hint of where their target might be located... when the lights flicker and die away, all of them freezing. A second later, it clicks back on, but- "BRO!" Zack cries, turning and diving instinctively as the floor disappears beneath Ziggler, falling into darkness with Impmon by his side. But the broski grabs him and holds on, Dolph only just grabbing onto the tips of his partner's fingers, until the others spring to life, moving to help drag the man and Impmon up.
"Thanks," he pants, slapping Zack on the back before he bends over and struggles to breathe, feeling nauseous and weak at the close call. "Damn... what was that..."
"A defense mechanism?" Heath suggests. When the others look over at him, he flushes. "He senses someone enter, so he erases part of the building so no one can get through safely?"
"This world is one big death trap, isn't it?" Wade mutters, his blue eyes scanning the floor as he watches for another part of it to crumble into nothingness. No one says anything, slowly walking through the building to look for the possible cause of the data failures.
Heath's just walked past a room when there's a flash of light that causes him to pause, looking over into the open doorway with wide eyes. "NO!" Lopmon cries, lunging forward to tackle him as strings of energy slam through, engulfing anything in its path. "Heath, are- are you ok?" He looks as pale and sick as Dolph had minutes earlier, staring down at his partner.
"I, I think so," he mumbles, sitting up and hugging Lopmon close to him. "What- what's going on?"
"It's Datamon," Lopmon breathes into his collar in some terrified awe at the realization. "He- he's a ... he's a very strong Digimon, he can... he sends viruses at other Digimon and sometimes it's enough to delete on contact. I know you're human, but if it had hit you..." Heath rests his chin on top of the Digimon's head, deftly avoiding the triple horns on his forehead as he thinks over what he'd just said, trying to comfort him. "I don't know how we can beat him..."
"We'll manage, we always do," Heath vows to him, glancing around to find the others are hiding around the doorway, careful not to make the same mistake Heath had. Lopmon looks far from convinced but Heath tries to hold onto his hope for their successful resolution of everything going on. This quickly disappears, however, when the doorway protecting them suddenly disappears, Ricardo almost falling into the room where the Digimon is hiding... when a hand grips his shoulder, pulling him back to safety in the gloomy hallway.
He looks up in shock to find that his rescuer is Del Rio, eyes wide on his pale face. Alberto ignores him beyond this, however, pushing him towards Veemon, Gabumon glancing into the room. "Blue Blaster!" he calls out, shooting blue flame into the room to try to smoke out the Digimon inside, or overheat whatever is causing all of the data fluctuations.
"Digital Bomb!" comes a gravelly yell, more flashing lights and streams of corrupted data pouring out of the room towards them. There's no avoiding it, it strikes all of the Digimon and causes most of them to scream in pain as their bodies glitch, become destabilized.
"No!" Alicia gasps, clinging to Palmon as she shudders and squirms in Alicia's arms. "Hang on, hang on-"
Gabumon had taken the worst of it, his eyes locked on Del Rio's face as he tries not to fade away completely. "I'm sorry," he chokes out, each word a struggle.
Before he can respond, Lunamon and Betamon take their places in front of the others, exchanging quick nods. "Tear Shoot!" "Electric Shock!" While Lunamon forms her water ball, Elecmon shoots off electricity into the room, trying to keep her safe from the other Digimon until she's ready to go. Finally, she slings in her own attack and there's a deep, ground-rattling explosion as the electricity and water work together to short-cirquit the machines inside, a loud, terrible scream echoing through out the building that comes from Datamon, there being no possible question over the voice's origin.
As flames shoot up higher and higher, the Digidestined with weakened partners look around desperately for a way to get them outside without destabilizing the little bit of data left that's holding them together. "What do we do?" Alicia whimpers, leaning over her partner protectively.
"Put 'em in the Digivices!" Heath calls out, already doing so for Lopmon. "It, it should keep them in one piece until we can figure out what to do. Luke can help... I hope..." This seems like a surprisingly decent idea to all of the Digidestined so they follow suit until all of the Digimon are safely stored, the ten men and women forming a line until they all feel warm air on their skin, sunshine in their eyes once more.
When they arrive back at the Data sector, Luke is waiting for them, taking their devices with care. "Yes," he agrees soberly. "I will do my best to restore them. It will take a few days, however. I will contact you when they are fine once more"
"Thank you," they echo in similar subdued fashion befores finding their way to the Digiport, which Ophanimon opens for them carefully, due to their Digivices being back with Luke. "Thank you," Heath and a few others mutter to her, all of them visibly relieved to return to earth, try to move past this horrifying moment.
