There is a certain kind of darkness here. It suffuses everything and Mike finds it hard to pinpoint any particular place that it's coming from. He feels strangely sensitive to it all, intune to fluctuations of power, and it's obvious to him when something changes- shifts. "Follow me," he snaps at the others, walking quickly into the gloom. The further he walks, the more obvious all of the bad before them becomes and he holds his breath, not liking this at all. Even with four digimon at his back, and their partners, he feels extremely exposed and painfully alone.
It's not until he approaches the strange sensation that he realizes. The force is coming from Alberto Del Rio and Alicia Fox, Zack Ryder unconscious on the ground with a frantic Dolph Ziggler kneeling as close to him as he dares to get with the two evil beings glaring down at him. Alicia, he had known, would need dealt with... but now Alberto too...? He swallows hard and closes his eyes, peering over at his partner. "What do we do?" he mumbles, trying to get his thoughts together.
Shakamon had said it was to fall on him. He had to figure this out, he had to save the others. But how...
Alicia's laugh, hollow and dark, echoes around them and Mike stares at her as she points a finger at Monodramon, lifting him off of the ground and holding him in place. "You're done, Mike. It's over. You can't save anyone, you can't save yourself. You've failed this mission, you've failed your world and this one. It's time to say goodbye." Her fingers pluck together, nails just shy of clicking together when Mike lunges forward and tackles her, sensing that she's about to do something awful if he doesn't stop her.
"Digivolve, Monodramon!" he orders, holding his digivice and crest up. The pure light from his crest cuts through the darkness, blinds them all. He's still laying there when his partner's evolution ends, but things are different now. It's not Strikedramon or Cyberdramon behind him, it's not Pucchimon... No, this is a taller, humanoid type digimon with body armor and a sleak silver helmet covering his face.
"Justimon!" he cries out.
"Finally," Alicia breathes underneath Mike and, just like that, again the dynamics change. Something familiar escapes her and, the more Mike's vision clears, the easier he realizes what it is.
"Shakamon," he hisses out, swatting at the golden ball floating in front of him.
It hits the ground and forms into the hovering form of the digimon, who stares at him. "Yes. Congratulations, you have made it this far. Now... will you succeed or prove as worthless as the others before you?"
Mike stares at him. Looks around the desolate world. "What do you expect me to do?"
Shakamon mulls over this for a moment. "Many years ago, Hikari Yagami was the first Light Digidestined to arrive in this dimension. She and her fellow Digidestined succeeded here- to a point. But this place grows more and more volatile as the real world becomes more unstable. An unimaginable amount of evil will be unleashed upon both worlds if this continues. But I needed to know you could handle it, Mike Mizanin. Thus the tests I have put you and your fellow Digidestined through."
Mike frowns and looks down to find Alicia awake, Alberto back to himself, though blinking in confusion... and Zack slowly getting to his feet with help from Dolph, groggy but healed. "This was all a test?" He wants to be angry. He wants to yell and scream at Shakamon for everything, but he knows what Shakamon is talking about. He can feel the energy surrounding him, pulsing and threatening to bleed out of this dimension into the others. Shaking his head, he squares his shoulders. "What do we need to do then? Or is that a test too?"
Shakamon smirks at him before fading out of existence as quickly as he'd come.
"Of course," Mike releases a pained breath, turning to look at the others. Deciding to go by his instincts, he holds his digivice out, which is still thrumming with leftover power from Justimon's digivolution. The others follow suit, a circle of digivices held out as they wait for something, anything, to happen.
"Maybe we need to do something to activate our crests," Zack mumbles, shaking his like that would actually do something.
"How though?" Dolph mumbles, glancing at them. "I found my crest when I... when I was thinking about friendship." Zack peeks at him, remembering when he was in danger, how Dolph's crest had appeared in time for Wizardmon to digivolve to Wisemon and help save him. "So it's based on the attributes of the crest, how are we supposed to activate them here?"
Mike stares down at his crest, peers over his shoulder at Justimon. "Remember the moment your partners digivolved to ultimate," he says softly. "How it felt, how you felt." They're all staring at their digivices, about to do as suggested, when there's a strange flash of light.
Their number grows by four when Ricardo Rodriguez, CM Punk, AJ Lee and Seth Rollins appears behind them, their partners by their side. Everyone freezes in shock, staring at them. "We sensed you needed our help," Seth smirks as Dean gapes at him. "So here we are."
"I thought you were still in Australia, mi hermano!" Alberto chokes out, approaching Ricardo, who looks lost and confused in this grim dimension.
"No, El Patron," he says softly. "I just got back home in time to learn that we were needed." He stares at Seth, tilting his head in thanks before looking back at Alberto. "Where are we?"
"It is a long story, I'll explain as soon as we're out of here." He reaches out and cups Ricardo's fingers tightly around his digivice. "You haven't found your crest, as you weren't an active digidestined long enough, but I suppose you'll be help anyway." He winks at him. "We have to re-enforce this dimension, it is being overwhelmed by darkness and may start to affect the other worlds even more. I am guessing that everything that has been going on in the Digiworld is an echo effect of this world growing more unstable."
The twelve of them form a circle once more, Ricardo next to Alberto, Seth to the left of Dean, and AJ and Punk between Miz and Zack. It's awkward, it's quiet, all of them lost in thought, trying to make something, anything happen. Finally Mike's digivice lights back up, the others slowly following suit... and before long, the golden gleam spreads, strengthens and coats the horizon. It's a ridiculous amount of pressure, holding onto their digivices as the power flows through them, but they somehow succeed.
There's a squeech behind Mike and he grits his teeth, struggling not to break the connection, as Justimon lunges forward and slices through a horde of evil digimon converging on the powerful light. More and more evil creatures are attempting to attack, held back by the various digimon and the powerful light filling the area. Mike grips his digivice as long as he can, his hands growing numb, his knees wobbling. His energy is fading quickly and he breathes heavily, sweat dripping down his jaw until finally he can't take it any longer, the device slipping from trembling fingers.
Dropping to his knees, he gasps for air and looks up at the deeply golden skyline before falling forward, everything going dark for him.
"...going to be fine. He should wake up shortly, actually. It was just too much energy for him, because he was the conduit of all of the power from your digivices. His having the crest of light meant he had to be the one to blanket the Dark Ocean dimension with light energy, to barricade in the evil. Shakamon is confident what you all accomplished will help keep the worlds safer for the foreseeable future."
It's Luke's voice that cuts into Mike's sleep, a faint groan coming from his lips as he twists his head around, trying to avoid the sounds. A soft hand slips into his own and he opens his eyes to find Alicia staring down at him sadly. "I'm so sorry," she breathes out. "I didn't... I didn't mean to do anything."
"I know. It wasn't you," he tells her sleepily. "None of us blame you." She hugs him and he lightly kisses her temple before dropping back against the pillows. "So it's over?"
"Yes. Thanks to you, the evil is held back. Things should calm down in the digiworld now." She runs a finger along Mike's brow and smiles grimly at him. "We'll probably be needed now and again, but not with as much frequency. So that's good, right?"
He nods. "Yeah, that's good." He closes his eyes and sinks back into some much needed rest, releasing a breath. I'll actually kinda miss it... He smirks.
