Alicia Fox peeks over at Miz as they walk side by side through a jungle, heading for the nearest distress beacon on their Digivices. Palmon and Monodramon are walking quietly nearby, all of them focused on what's ahead. It's weird, only being the two of them, and she wonders what Luke is up to when Palmon twists her green arm around Alicia's leg, stopping her short. "I smell smoke," she says, dark eyes locked in the distance.

Alicia and Mike turn sharply and look, realizing what she means. The trees are burning, wilting, as fire licks towards them. Neither of their Digimon have any sort of control over water, causing both of them to hesitate as they ponder what to do. "Never thought I'd wish Seth or Wade were here, but here we are," Mike comments, holding his Digivice out to Monodramon. Alicia follows suit and before long Kiwimon and Strikedramon stand, ready for a fight when there's a bloodcurdling scream that causes them all to flinch... before a dark shadow appears out of the burning trees and starts flittering around Kiwimon and Strikedramon. "What is that?!" Alicia cries out, watching as it swoops in, attacks, and swoops out. Data begins raining across the ground in cruel puddles and she begins to worry as Kiwimon struggles just to stand after a couple strikes by the shadowy creature.

"It's a spirit," Strikedramon's just explained when he takes a shot clear across the head, draining more data from him and leaving him unconscious on the ground.

"STRIKEDRAMON!" Mike cries out, trying to run to his partner but Alicia grabs him, digging her nails into his arm. "Let go!"

"No," she snaps back at him. "That thing... could kill one of us if we got too close. It's already draining our partners of data. We have to be smart about this!" She's struggling to think, her Digivice held tightly. "Kiwimon! Digivolve!" The spirit continues to circle but the light from the Digivolution seems to work at holding it at bay until Lilimon appears, fluttering around prettily. She swats it away from Strikedramon's limp form and Alicia nods, breathing a little easier.

"FLOWER CANNON!" Lilimon holds her hands together and blasts the spirit with solar energy, destroying it, and then Mike runs over to Strikedramon, holding him. "We're not done," the ultimate digimon comments, her beady eyes peering around. "I sense the creature who summoned the spirit... they're watching us..."

"That's comforting," Alicia sighs, leaning down to check on Strikedramon, who is finally starting to stir under Mike's hand. She's just touched him when...

"Alicia!" There's a flash of heat, a blast of light, and Alicia finds herself laying on the ground, Mike covering her with his body. "Stay down," he tells her, teeth gritted. "They're throwing fireballs now..." She sees it streaking through the sky while laying there, and releases a ragged breath, struggling to spot Lilimon from her sprawled position.

The flashes of light, she figures, has to be from Lilimon's flower cannon, but she's a plant type Digimon- very little defense against flames... "Lilimon!" she cries out, trying to squirm out from under Mike. "Let me go! I need to make sure she's going to be ok."

But Mike doesn't move, staring down at her. "All you'll do is distract her and get you both killed. Please, stop fighting me, I'm just giving her her best chance at winning by keeping you safe..." Alicia goes still then and he watches as tears pour down her face. "Shakamon, where the hell are you now?"

"What was that?" she sniffs, but he shakes his head and they resume listening to the battle raging on out of their sight. It only seems like seconds when there's a crash of a body against the ground not far from where they're laying, with force enough to shake Strikedramon where he's laying. "Lilimon!"

But no, it's not her partner sprawled out a few feet away- it's another Kyubimon, the graceful fox laying there twitching as it struggles to its feet once more. But Lilimon is faster, stronger, and quickly has it drowning in pink dust that appears to be draining it of strength. When it can just barely make it to its feet, legs shaking under its weight, she holds her hands out to it and waves them in a circle, a wreath surrounding Kyubimon's throat. Strangely enough, it helps. The digimon stops writhing around, laying calmly down for a few minutes.

Mike rolls off of Alicia and they stand, approaching the Digimon hesitantly. "You fixed her," Alicia says in awe, staring down at the creature. "Why do we get so many Kyubimon affected by this darkness anyway?"

"They're a mythical creature," Lilimon says somberly. "Taomon, not to mention Sakuyamon after her, is an impressively powerful Digimon that many of us have been in awe of since young. So of course their kind is targetted a lot. Anyone would want to control them."

Alicia shakes her head, leaning down to stroke Kyubimon's muzzle, abruptly missing AJ. "Well, at least she seems ok now."

"It won't last," Lilimon says tiredly. "My power isn't infinite, her data's still compromised. As soon as my wreath disappears, she will return to the destructive creature she was a few minutes ago." She stares at Alicia, who looks suddenly stricken. "You know what that means."

"Yes," she says through frozen lips. "We can't let her remain like this."

"Sadly," Lilimon confirms reluctantly. "She'll be reborn as pure as she was before her data was compromised, I promise, Alicia."

"Then do it," she urges her, rubbing her fingers through Kyubimon's soft, peach fur once more before standing up and walking away so she doesn't have to watch while Flower Cannon puts an end to the poor digimon's suffering. Mike walks up behind her and she closes her eyes. "We need to find the cause behind this... Luke said it was something that just started getting worse, right? There has to be a reason..."

Mike watches her for a moment. "Alright," he says quietly. "We'll go talk to Luke about what he thinks, if he can give us any clues to why and how this is happening."

When Lilimon returns to them, dedigivolving back to Palmon, Alicia hugs her tightly. "We're going to fix this," she declares. "We're going to make your world better, Palmon. I promise."