Ricardo Rodriguez groans softly, his head spinning as he struggles to sit up, reorient himself. He's pretty well intuned with the world around him, and this feels like nothing he's ever experienced so far. There's just a weird tension in the air that he's never felt before. He rubs blurrily at his eyes, trying to figure out what happened, why he's outside when, last he remembered, he was training at the performance center.

"This is definitely not that," he grunts, brushing off his forearms and trying again to figure out where he's at. His surroundings don't even resemble any place in Florida he's ever been and he swallows harshly, growing more and more uncomfortable the more time passes. He's just made it to his feet when he hears a strange voice. Turning slowly, he finds a blue creature with wide eyes staring up at him.

"Hello," the small beast, who barely comes up to his knee says, smiling slightly. He looks like a dragon, a sharp yellow V between his eyes. Ricardo stares at him for a long, quiet moment, reflecting on how similar the creature is to things he's drawn over the years, and this causes him to shift nervously. "Um, my name is Veemon. I'm a Digimon, and this is the Digital World. You're my partner."

Ricardo glances around, taking it all in slowly. It's like an anime come to life, and he's not sure what to think about it. A dream? Maybe I smacked my head while training? What's going on? But Veemon approaches and rests his arm on Ricardo's, his warmth surprising the former ring announcer as he looks back down at him. He feels real though... C'mon, Ricardo, everything you see every day, and you're not going to believe in this? "My partner for what?" he asks, kneeling down next to the little guy.

Veemon's responding grin is so bright and cheerful that Ricardo can't help but smile as well, the last of his reservations drifting away.

Things are tense as they travel through the Digital World this day. The group of them had slowly begun to find their way, learning the ways of the Digital World, details about the different zones, and how best to fix various situations they find themselves in, but all of the ease they'd gained is gone now, in wake of what Seth Rollins had done. None trust him, all keeping a close eye on him as they progress on to the Vaccine Zone. The Digimon clearly don't understand what's going on, but not a word is spoken as they walk towards the sea, Wade keeping an eye on the dot listed on his Digivice.

Ricardo is dazed for a moment by how pretty the sea is, looking down at it, when the water parts and wide green eyes stare up at him, startling him as he leaps backwards, taking a deep breath before he ventures forward. "Hello?"

The green eyes blink and he realizes that they're connected to a small, white seal-like creature with purple stripes and dots all over its body, large claws giving Ricardo pause. "Hello," he greets him, climbing up onto the sand. "My name is Gomamon. You are humans." Ricardo nods as he continues to examine them. "Digidestined?"

"Yes," Seth speaks up, all of their focus turning back on him, the tension once more ramping up. "What's going on?"

Gomamon clearly senses the sharp change in their attitude, but he shakes it off, his own needs more pressing than whatever issues the people before him may be going through at the moment. "There is a clan of us Gomamon... we live in peace in the water, playing and helping out our fellow aquatic creatures. But things changed; a darkness took over the sea and my fellows began to turn evil. I hid, it didn't affect me, and they're all gone now." His green eyes look sad and dull. "I'm all alone, but I sense that they will return and try to turn me as well. I'm not sure what to do."

Ricardo swallows, sympathetic towards the small creature. "What can we do to help you?"

Gomamon stares up at him. "Help me to find my brethern? To save them from whatever darkness has possessed them?"

The group of humans and their partners exchange glances, none of them exactly eager to include Seth in this decision, but in the end, it's unanimous. "Tell us how to help and we will," he says simply, some of the darkness that had followed him from Raw to Smackdown in his clipped words, but he doesn't waver from a determination to see this through, to most of their relief.

Gomamon quietly turns back to the water. "We need a way to find where the others have gone," he says quietly. "Perhaps if your Digivices can direct us-"

"They don't work that way," Ricardo interjects slowly. "They're set in advance to show us where the mission we need to focus on is at. It can't just... find any Digimon like that."

"I see. Perhaps if we go to nearby villages and ask, someone will have seen something..." He muses it over as the Digidestined trail close to the sea, trying to plan a good strategy in finding them and helping them.

"What's wrong, Lunamon?" Wade's thick accent breaks into all of their thoughts, however, everyone's eyes turning towards the wispy Digimon whose antennae is twitching, her eyes wide with fear.

"Something's not right here," she mutters from her place on Wade's shoulder. "Not right at all... the sea is... the sea is sad..." She shudders. "Wade, please-"

But before she can say anything else, an attack is called out, none of them having even a second to prepare when a flood of fishes come from the sea and wash over them, leaving them gasping and choking at the tidal wave of water that pours over them with terrifying force, all of them knocked off of their feet. Shouts and cries rent the air, but there's no stopping it, the force of the water and the slippery fish make it impossible to control their forward momentum, all of them washing out to sea in a blink of an eye.

Ricardo struggles to the top, gagging out water as he fights off the lingering grasp of the flopping fish, brushing the hair out of his eyes as he tries to look around for the others- for Veemon, for anyone who could make sense of what just happened. But what he sees turns his stomach, leaves him struggling even harder to get away.

"It's unfortunate," Gomamon says simply, staring down at him from where he's currently standing on the beach, watching him struggle to stay afloat as the fish fight against his every movement. "I suppose you humans think you are helping the Digital World, but in the end, you are just adding to its inhabitants' weakness and inability to handle their own problems. No matter how many attempts are made to help us, only we can help ourselves. So, sorry to say, you all have to go."

Ricardo blinks the water out of his eyes, peering at the Digimon who had joined Gomamon in the last few minutes. There is a strange Digimon with a pure metallic ball for a body, its arms and legs covered in flame designs, and two whips ending in spikes floating on either side of its body. Next to them is plant type creature that almost resembles Alicia's Palmon, with noted differences. Purple protrusions flit from her back, looking like spiked wings, and her flower is much larger, with numerous colors.

But the third new Digimon is what truly gives Ricardo pause. It towers over everything, its body covered in metal armor, huge claws and teeth all that Ricardo can focus on as he tries to make sense of the dinosaur like creature he's looking at, swallowing heavily. "Where is everyone?" he whispers, suddenly fearing that he's the only one who's survived this long, the fish only now drifting away, losing interest in him for whatever reason. But perhaps the better question would be, what is it with this week and betrayal? he thinks, staring once more into Gomamon's eyes and wondering why exactly he'd felt a connection with the trecherous Digimon. "What do I do now?"

Gomamon's eyes are cold and unyielding as he stares down at him. "Die?" Turning to his fellow Digimon, he nods. "It's time."

All Ricardo can do is watch, horrified, as the four Digimon converge upon the part of the sea where he and the other Digidestined had been sucked in.