"Did you hear that Enzo and Cass' partners jogress digivolved?" Impmon asks, trying to get Dolph's attention. Zack is injured so he's basically alone, no one else on the Smackdown side of things liking him enough to keep him company.
"No," he says slowly, glancing down at his partner. "They alright?" He's aware that it takes drastic things for a team to actually hit that level, so he can only imagine the danger they were in.
"Yeah, the whole Raw group got battered but they're alright." They continue walking until Impmon stops short. "Hang on."
"What?" Before Dolph can say anything else, the ground begins to rattle... "Earthquake?" he asks, stumbling and falling back onto his ass as Impmon struggles to see what's going on as well.
"No, I don't think so," he mumbles. "It's something else, it's something-"
Just then something dark and shadowy bursts past Impmon and ghosts through Dolph, biting him. "Ow!"
"I know what that is," Impmon says, brows furrowing. "Aegiochusmon!"
As if summoned by his call, a plant creature with thorns bursting from each arm lands between Impmon and Dolph, smirking. "You called, Impmon?"
"What did you just do to my partner?" he demands, teeth gritting as she laughs at him.
"You know what I did. Would you like me to do the same to you?"
"No, I would like you to stop this."
"I have asked you for help in the past, now perhaps I've forced your hand. Will you do what I requested of you?" When he still hesitates, she whips him with the thorn protusions from her arms and Impmon hisses at her.
"Fine! I'll do it, I will." With little communication with Dolph, he digivolves to Wizardmon and blasts her with magical flames, frying her slowly. She absorbs it and spreads her thorny arms out, letting them get eaten away by the heat as well.
"Thank you," she breathes. "As soon as I am... purified, your partner will be fine again..."
Wizardmon nods and feeds more flame into the connection, causing her to shatter into bright red pieces of data. As soon as she's gone, he drops to his knees by Dolph and grips his arm, looking at the bite on his upper arm. "The pain's fading," he offers, opening his eyes a slit and peering at Wizardmon. "What was with her?"
"A former friend of mine," he says regretfully. "She was in pain and I refused to help her, so she turned dark and I never saw her again until now. I'm not sure how she found me, but I was one of the few digimon with control over fire, so I suppose she still trusted me enough to at least purify her." He runs a finger over the fading bite marks from the ghost and exhales. "You're fine now, but I am so sorry you were dragged into all of this."
"Don't worry about it, I knew you had my back. Just like she knew you had hers."
Wizardmon exhales. "Maybe if I had had her back sooner, she wouldn't have been so desperate..." Dedigivolving back to Impmon, he falls in step with Dolph as they try to catch back up with the rest of the team.
