Mike falls asleep in Vancouver after a long day of filming Santa's Little Helper.

He wakes up in the Digital World. Scrambling and struggling until he's somewhat on his feet once more, he looks around desperately, expecting to find the others also waking up in such a state. But no, he's alone, with nothing but his Digivice nearby. Scooping it up, he frees Monodramon, who appears as confused as he feels, and they look around for answers. "I'm not sure what we're doing here," he tells his partner. "We were in Vancouver last I knew..."

"Me too," Monodramon frowns. "This is... strange..."

"To say the least," Mike sighs. He's about to suggest they walk off, look for Luke or anyone else who may know what's going on, when there's a sizzle in the air and he tenses up, looking around.

"Mike!" Monodramon cries, abruptly tackling him and sending him hard to the ground as a massive ball of flame crash into the ground where he'd just been standing. Monodramon gets up quickly and rushes off, Mike struggling to breathe.

He looks up in time to see paws, engulfed in flames, stabbing through Monodramon's armored body and sending him crashing back into the dirt. "MONODRAMON!" he cries, suddenly distracted by the assailant- a vicious looking dinosaur with a bright red body and black stripes across its arms and legs. He scrambles back but there's very few places to actually go when orange eyes, devoid of all emotions, are locked on him. He swallows hard, missing the others, when...

"No!" Monodramon somehow regroups and tackles the strange creature, sending him to the ground and the two brawl, claws slashing and risking many fatal blows as Mike stands helplessly, watching on. Guilmon X Antibody is down, snarling and trying to get into position attack Monodramon, when he opens his jaws wide, preparing to delete the other Digimon, but there's a flash of white and he stops short, blinking in confusion. "Mike move!" he orders his partner through gritted teeth.

"No," Mike says, staring at Guilmon. "You're not like the others," he tells him. "What happened to you isn't natural." He hesitates and looks over at Monodramon. "Maybe we can help him...?"

"How?" his partner demands, not understanding what Mike means. "I don't understand, Mike. Of course he's like the others, he attacked us for nothing. That's not normal."

"I just... feel it, somehow. He's not... he's not corrupted like the Digimon we've dealt with up to now. I don't know how to explain it, I just know..." Guilmon looks less than pleased with this determination of his character, claws lighting up with fresh flames as he storms towards Mike and Monodramon but, before either can do anything, there's a blinding flash of light and Mike swallows hard as he tracks it with his eyes, immediately drawn towards it. There's a small crater in some rocks not that far away and he digs his hand into it, ignoring the ingrained fear that his hand might get stuck inside of it, fingers brushing against something hard and sharp. He holds onto it, however, and pulls it free after wriggling more of his hand inside.

He's just pulled it out when realization of what it is washes over him- a digimental like what had saved them all back on earth all of those months ago when Wade's partner had accomplished reaching the Nefertimon level. He swallows hard and turns sharply to look at Monodramon, his eyes lighting up when it grows bright in his hands, working together with his Digivice to propel his partner into a new Digivolution.

Data streaming away, he reforms into a short pink creature with ears that span almost all of his body and seem to end in hearts, his body mostly white, except for his ears and wings, with red gloves and boots. "Monodramon armor digivolve to... Pucchimon," he cries out. "The fairy of mercy!" Mike's lips part in shock as Pucchimon, already so different in demeanor from Monodramon, turns towards him. "It's going to be ok, Mike. I understand what you mean now," he says soothingly. Sidestepping another flame attack from Guilmon, Pucchimon turns and faces him. "Everything will be fine now," he tells the other Digimon. "I understand now." Holding his gloved paw out towards the advancing creature once more, he seems to almost be singing as he calls out, "Heartner Beam!" Hearts blast from his hand and circle the Digimon before impacting with him, Mike bracing himself for the digimon's verbal response to such a painful looking attack.

Instead... instead... when he cries out, it seems more of emotional pain than physical and Mike shudders at the pure turmoil in that sound. "What's happening?" he whispers, wanting nothing more than to cover his ears and not have to hear this.

"I'm purifying him," Pucchimon explains quietly, voice barely audible over the Digimon's cries. "He's been injected with X Antibody, like you figured, and it made him aggressive to the point of bloodlust. This will, hopefully, fix him, rid him of the toxin."

"We've dealt with X Antibody Digimon before, but I'm not sure what it is," Mike tells his partner lowly.

"Good question," the fairy digimon says with a soft sigh. "I'm not sure myself... perhaps Luke will know more." They fall silent when Guilmon collapses, his body shorting out a few times before stabilizing, his skin turning a lighter shade of red, other minor changes happening to his form as the drug leaves his system. "He should be fine now."

But before they can celebrate this victory, a gold ball flutters in front of Mike and he swallows, staring at it. Drawn to it like he had been with the digimental, he reaches out and wraps his fingers around it, his surroundings immediately disappearing. Everything is dark, quiet, and he starts to panic, thinking he'd died, but then there's a slow growing golden gleam somewhere in the distance and he swallows.

"Do not worry," a voice, echoing slightly, greets him. "You are safe. I assure you, I'm not here to harm you. I have been watching you and the other Digidestined since the moment you were brought to the Digiworld. The others are clearly lacking, but since seeing you with Pucchimon and what you have done for Guilmon, my best option is obvious. I am Shakamon and I have been waiting for this moment for a long time."

Mike gapes, trying to speak, but nothing comes out when he tries. He finally quiets, flummoxed by this, and listens for more to be said.

"I will be seeing you soon, Mike Mizanin."

And just like that, it's all over. He's waking up reaching out for something that's not there anymore, his alarm clock buzzing relentlessly from next to the bed. "What the hell?I" If not for the digimental sitting serenely by his digivice, he'd have no doubt that this had been a dream. When he touches it, it forms another bright flash of light before floating into the digivice as if it'd always belonged there.

"Great! How am I supposed to focus on Santa's Little Helpers now?!"