It's hard not being employed. Putting aside the nonsense about his children and the pool and possible head injuries and whatever else, wrestling is in Heath Slater's blood. It's been his passion for well over a decade by now. Even when he'd get his ass kicked, there was enough of a thrill to it, each rare win fueling him on, that he could've never imaged leaving it behind.
Until the night of the draft, when he'd been left in the dark, all alone and angry. Which means he's also not a Digidestined anymore, or at least not an active one. He still has his digivice, he still has Lopmon, but he can't access a digiport easily, he can't leave with the others. So he's stuck on earth while they go and save both of the worlds. Or so he thinks, anyway, until Summerslam weekend happens and he's sitting outside of the arena hosting NXT Takeover, listening to the crowd cheer and boo, yell out their displeasure and happiness with this occurrence or that one. It eases a little of his agonized thoughts at still not getting a serviceable contract to either Raw or Smackdown, knowing that at least somewhere, fans are enjoying themselves.
His thoughts quickly divulge again, however, when his digivice goes off. It's The Miz, of all people, and he grimaces, staring at the glitchy hologram of the egotistical man coming from his device. "Hullo?"
"Slater, you have to listen to me, it's coming to earth and it's bad and we can't do anything to stop it. We're going to send you as much data as we can to help you digivolve in the real world, It's all up to you, we're all toast back here- you need to-" After a beam of pure energy strikes his digivice, Mike's voice cuts out, comes back faintly for a minute saying something about Lopmon before fading into pure static, the image lost. Heath stares at the blank space before looking back at the arena, suddenly frightened. He gets Lopmon out and urges him quietly to digivolve, hands clenching into fists as he stands and waits for some sign of what had Miz so damn freaked out.
Moosemon is far from inconspicous, of course, but he keeps to the shadows and waits with Heath, who is growing worried that perhaps they need to evolve further, but not sure they can here, how much power they have left. Finally he urges his partner on and watches as Mammothmon forms before him, Heath breathing a little easier at the dominating shadow of his partner. Still, this is worrisome too because if someone should notice, if someone should alert the police... but that quickly fails to matter as there's an explosion behind Heath and his eyes bug out as he slowly turns to find an awful looking Digimon plowing through a local business.
The winged dragon hybrid who looks a little like a Greymon roars, people quickly responding to this noise and either screaming or, for the more brave/stupid ones, approaching to figure out what that was. By the time they get close enough to see, they freeze in place and Heath swallows as the pedestrians make what is already an impossible situation even worse. "Go," he orders Mammothmon tensely and, while his partner tries to distract the evil digimon who had somehow cut into earth, Heath tries to round up the people and get them to safety, his words not enough to break through the haze they're all in. It's only when he realizes that a metallic claw is approaching the crowd does he move, diving forward and grabbing a little girl close to the forefront of it all, pushing her out of the way.
The pain that follows is mind-numbing, awful, and he screams gutturally, sure that he's about to die right here, still hearing the audience inside of the building a few feet away. He gags and struggles not to throw up as blood pools under him from a slice along his lower abdomen. A grazing blow, yes, but a fatally deep one. Scrabbling in the dirt and blood, Heath finds his digivice and lifts it up, blood smearing over the glass as he stares at it vacantly, then over at Mammothmon. "Gotta do it, man. You gotta digivolve to Mega. I know you ain't done it before, but... we gotta save these people." He's sweaty, he's breathless, he's dying, but all he can think about is the poor little girl a few feet away, staring at him with red rimmed eyes, hugging a teddy bear for all she's worth. Her parents are probably in this crowd, and he can't think about another family getting separated. About his own kids about to be fatherless.
Where the energy comes from, he's not sure, his vision is wavering and spotted as Mammothmon digivolves to sleek, winged, beautiful Duftmon, skin bronzed and hair blond, a sword held in one hand. He's much smaller than Megadramon, but something about the digivolution and seeing his partner dying gives him the strength to fight, and to win. It Heath it feels like a lifetime as more blood pours from his side but Duftmon parries his claw with his sword and lifts it up, yelling something into the night before swinging his sword, painting an arc of something into the air which then solidifies and slams straight into Megadramon, deleting him instantaneously. Immediately, Duftmon flies over and lays a hand on Heath's shoulder, lips moving but no sounds reaching Heath's ears.
Everything goes dark.
-x
It is most certainly not a hospital Heath wakes up in, it's quiet and calm and he thinks he recognizes the smell of the blanket spread over him. "Wade?" he mumbles, opening his eyes wearily.
"Well, look who's back in the world of the living," Wade says blandly, resting a hand on Heath's arm when he begins to struggle to sit up. "No, stay still. You almost bloody died yesterday. Let me look at you first." His hand is warm, gentle, against Heath's skin and Heath leans into it more than he'd ever be willing to admit. "Seems you're going to make it," Wade sighs softly, settling down next to him and preparing a plate full of something that smells really good.
When he starts to feed Heath, Heath's about to protest vehemently, but he can barely lift his arm and he realizes he's never felt so weak before in all of his life. "Wha' happened?" he manages to get out before Wade can push another bite on him.
"You almost bled out when a digimon broke through the data stream and entered the real world," Wade mumbles, his dark blue eyes locked on the spoon he's using to push vegetables into Heath's mouth. "He was... somethin', some sort of altered digimon, could do that kind of thing. Altered the stream so no one else could come through, and sensed Mammothmon and attacked but you were trying to save people and he sliced you up really good."
Heath exhales, his hand sprawling out where Wade's had just been, feeling the bandages and stitches there. "I was bleeding out," he reiterates to himself. "How the hell did I survive long enough to get here?"
Wade looks strange as he shifts uncomfortably. "I sensed something was wrong, I had Lunamon digivolve and go to you. Shakamon ended up teleporting us both to your side, and then proceeded to shield you until the others came. Shakamon also erased the crowd's memories so they won't remember a moment of what they saw."
"How was I healed?" Heath murmurs, feeling a little stronger now after Wade helps him to drink down almost half of a glass of water.
"I was pacing around, I was afraid," he admits. "Even in the shield, you were still bleeding. I could see it, I could smell it. Then I just... I was fed up and I walked over and through the shield like it was nothing, and kneeled by you. My digivice was in the hand I was trying to use to slow the bleeding down with and the next thing I knew, this bright light shone from it and began to stitch your wound up. By the time the others arrived, you were breathing better and had started to gain some color back, so we brought you here."
"You saved my life twice," Heath murmurs, startled by this realization. His teeth flash as he grins and reaches over, hugging Wade as best as he can. "Guess even though you're not workin' for the WWE anymore, you still got my back."
Wade sighs, patting his back. "Always."
