Zack sighs as Dolph loses out on another night's sleep, trying to figure out a way to fix what they've done to the Digiworld's oceans. "Bro, come on," he beseeches him. "You gotta rest, or you're gonna hurt yourself... or someone else." His hand is warm on the back of Dolph's neck as he massages the tense muscles there lightly. "Try? For me, at least?"
Dolph groans, shaking his head. "There has to be something we can do," he mumbles. "Something..."
Zack sighs, accepting that nothing will get this off of Dolph's mind. "Alright, let's see. We're not enough to open a portal, but Ambrose is probably awake still. Let's find him and get a portal open, maybe you and I can figure something out."
Dean is sitting at the hotel bar when they head downstairs, Zack dropping his laptop in front of him. "Hey, bro, we need your help here. Do you have your digivice?"
"I think," he mumbles, pulling it out and staring at it blurrily. "What's going on?"
"Dolph wants to check something out, figured you could help us keep a portal open," Zack explains, locating the digiport and holding his digivice up. Dolph and Dean follow suit and Dean blinks at it as Zack and Dolph fall in, the portal closing behind them. He hums and goes back to his drink, oblivious of the bartender's confused stare.
-x
Dolph and Zack look around before finding their way back to the ocean. It's darker now, but they keep a decent distance from the surf just in case. It's clear even now where the data is infecting the waters and, while Dolph wanders around, looking, Zack stares down at his reflection. They're unaware of a couple of digimon approaching on the other side, lost in their own thoughts.
Kumamon sighs in relief as he kneels down and drinks from the water, eyes slipping closed as he finds some comfort in the cool liquid. At least until his awareness starts to fade and he grits his teeth, feeling a strange sensation creep through him. He stands for a moment before turning towards the unaware Kumamon behind him, becoming a thick icicile and slamming through him, deleting him immediately. He returns to his average form and looks around, breathing loudly. He spots the humans off to the side and approaches them, lunging forward and shooting ice bullets at them, hitting Impmon first and freezing him to the ground.
Dolph turns just in time to take the blasts straight to his face and chest, falling to his knees. "Kid," he grits out, staring blankly at Kumamon as he approaches, shaking his gun at Dolph.
Immediately Zack's head snaps up and he looks at them. "Bro?" he rushes forward and looks up at Patamon. "Go!" He quickly digivolves to Darcmon and swipes at the digimon with his sword. "Are you ok?" he demands, kneeling by Dolph and trying to support him.
"Don't delete him," Dolph hisses out, gripping at Zack with a shivering hand. "I don't want to add to the... I don't..."
Zack looks up, watching the digimon fight back and forth, sword and ice blaster going back and forth. "I'm not sure we're gonna have a choice, bro," he says, leaning closer and trying to warm him up.
"No," he groans out, gritting his teeth and tugging at Zack's collar. "Kid..."
"Sorry," Zack mumbles, nodding at Darcmon in silent acceptance of what he might need to do. "It comes down to saving us, or saving him, I'm choosing us." Dolph groans but keeps quiet as the battle continues on, ice streaming around them.
Kumamon tries to punch at Darcmon with an ice encrusted fist but Darcmon meets him with a sword, slicing through the ice and slowly shattering his body. Kumamon looks confused but then tries to do the same with his other fist, just to have the same result. His body falls into snowy piles as he deletes, staring around balefully. Dolph groans once he's no more, burying his face in Zack's shoulder.
"Come on, bro," Zack whispers. "Let's get you up, we'll go home and I promise, we'll try to figure this out in the morning." He barely pays attention to Luke once he gets Dolph up and moving, relieved to land back out of the laptop, finding Dean unconscious at the bar with the bartender looking far from pleased when he turns around and stares at them suspiciously. "It's ok, we'll take care of it," Zack tells him, pulling Dean's phone out and finding an unfamiliar number. "Someone at the bar needs you, come do something," Zack says before hanging up.
He settles Dolph at the bar and orders him something warm, relieved when the bartender fills the glass without much fuss. As Dolph sips it slowly, Zack waits until Seth finally makes his way down, looking far from pleased but waving them off once he's arrived, dragging Dean up and unceremoniously dragging him towards the elevator. "Come on, bro," he sighs, paying the bar tab and getting Dolph to their own room with a fair amount of struggle. Once Dolph takes a shower and changes his clothes, they settle in and Zack runs a towel through Dolph's hair. "How are you feeling?"
Dolph just shakes his head and rolls away, grunting. "Will we ever be able to figure out all of the problems in the digiworld? Or is it just going to be an uphill battle where we keep getting knocked down no matter what we do?"
"I don't know," Zack says honestly. "But we're doing good, bro. You can tell every time we look at the villagers we've saved. They'd be worse off without us, and that's the important thing, right?"
"I guess," Dolph mumbles. "I'm still cold."
Zack sighs and rolls over, wrapping an arm around him. "Just get some sleep, bro. We'll figure it out tomorrow with the others."
Dolph grips Zack's arm and nods, knowing that it's not Zack's fault that his attempt at fixing things had only made it all so much worse. "Thanks, kid."
"You know I'm always here for you, bro," he mumbles, already half-dozing.
