"Have you heard from him?" Ziggler asks, surveying the group of Digidestined and very, very young digimon before them, all looking wide eyed and confused as they examine the world before them. He doesn't have much hope with the two of them trying to help the new members before them survive, but maybe if Nakamura would actually pull through and assist since Luke seems to think he has some experience in this whole digidestined mess... well...
But his hopes are dashed when Owens shakes his head. "You're the one on his ass every Tuesday night, you tell me."
"I try to talk to him and he just smirks at me and leaves me behind after some stilted English. I don't know, man. I've tried everything short of being, you know, nice." The two of them shudder at the thought of it and Dolph digs his fingers into his pockets. "I wish kid was off the injured list already, he's really good at being stupidly charming and making people listen to him."
"Well, we can't fall back on your bestie this time," Owens says with more than a little disdain. "I guess we're stuck with you." He claps a condescending hand on Dolph's back and turns to look over at the others. "In other words, we're screwed."
Before Dolph can respond, his digivice lights up in his hand and he stares down at it, brows furrowing. "Hey, Owens-" There's a rapid, angry, red dot spreading along the map around them, a nonstop cry for help that only seems to be moving with each second. "What the hell? Is my thing broken?"
"Mine's doing the same thing," Kevin says, frowning. "What is going on?" He's just barely spat the words out when a monstrous wind blows over them, sending most of them cowering down as they struggle not to get blown away. "Holy shit!" Kevin looks up just in time to see a wall of flames erupt before him, scrambling away. "Bearmon!"
"Impmon!" Dolph calls out too, crawling forward and grabbing at James, Carmella and Tamina from where they're sprawled out a few feet ahead of him. "Are you guys ok?!"
"Ye- yes," Carmella chokes out. "Jimmy, are you-?"
"I- I'm ok," he says, trembling. "Tamina?"
"Fine," she responds, looking dirty and a bit scratched up after tackling the other two down and protecting them with her body but all in all, alright. "What was that?"
Owens is surveying the rest of the area, checking in on Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, who are slowly regrouping. "It was a fire Digimon, I didn't get a good look at it, just a flash of pink before it was gone."
"Pink? So maybe it wasn't anything serious-" but just as soon as Dolph says it, more flames erupt between the two groups, Carmella and James yelling and panicking while Owens grabs Jason and Chad, pulling them further away from the danger.
A large, pink dragon type creature lands before them, eyes flashing angrily as he stomps on the ground, roaring viciously.
"What is that?!" Tamina yells over the noise, gripping James and Carmella protectively while her own partner chatters with the other baby digimon clustered around, trying to make themselves as small as possible while they're unable to defend themselves properly.
"Holydramon," Dolph says. "But he looks... different..."
Roaring loud enough to rock the entire world around them, he dives forward, black claws swiping at them all, and Owens backs up, pushing Jason and Chad out of the way as well. Ziggler is doing his best to keep James, Carmella and Tamina moving out of the line of fire as well, which isn't working too well with both members of Carmellsworth frozen in fear and Tamina not doing much better. Tiring of being on defense, they try again. "Digivolve!"
Gryzmon and even Beelzebumon look pitiful next to Holydramon X-Antibody's rage, Gryzmon batted away within moments, skidding against the ground and dedigivolving back to his baby form, a small creature covered in blue and white fur. Beelzebumon holds on a little longer, shooting at the dragon with his pistols, but the digimon barely flinches before sending a line of fire at him, engulfing him almost fully before he screams in pain and collapses, dedigivolving back to Yaamon.
Dolph swallows hard, scrambling forward and collecting his partner as soon as the fire eases off, staring up at Holydramon, who is much, much too close for his likeness right now. "What do we do?" he demands, hugging his partner close.
Holydramon X-Antibody sniffs disdainfully before leaning down to look Dolph right in the eye, his warm breath against Dolph's face only adding to Dolph's stress as he considers his life ending right here, right now. "Dammit-"
Holydramon is clearly rearing up to attack when-
"SUNFIRE PUNCH!" Holydramon is thrown back by a massive, flame-enshrouded creature with massive paws and a furry mane that whips around Dolph, the aftershocks of the heat brushing against his skin as he gapes on in awe. There's a device on the creature's shoulder, collecting solar energy, which seems to feed into its flames, and even Holydramon falters when he sees his new opponent.
"Where did he come from?!" James yells out and Dolph shakes his head, having no good answer for that.
The latecomer stands up straight and looks over his shoulder at them for a mere second, a smirk on his beast-like face before he forces his fists out, more flames shooting out around him. "SOLBLASTER!" More flames, more heat, an orb forming over his head from the solar energy before slamming forward, impacting with Holydramon and digging into his vulnerable flesh until he screams, the energy burning straight through him and leaving him hovering there, data slowly streaming from the wound as he deletes before them, agonized bellows echoing through the late afternoon sky.
As the last of his data disappears, Tamina tugs Carmella and James to their feet, leaning down to scoop their partners up and handing them around. James hugging Choromon close while Carmella tickles Nyokimon along her body, exhaling shakily. Across the way, Jason and Chad are reuniting with their partners as well, while Kevin and Dolph examine their partners for any serious wounds. Other than looking melancholy at being beaten so easily, all seems fine, so they turn their attention back to the stray digimon. "Hey, who are you?"
He smirks. "Apollomon." He turns and walks off, dedigivolving as he goes into a smaller beast still covered in flames. The Digidestined all watch on in confusion as he pauses by a rock formation, someone tall and familiar coming out from the side of it.
"No way," Ziggler mumbles, eyes narrowing as he takes in the unmistakeable form of Shinsuke Nakamura from where he's resting his hand atop the creature's head, seemingly unbothered by the flames pulsing out of his head.
Nakamura looks up and smirks at them, not moving towards them as he talks in low Japanese to his partner.
"How the hell did he even get here?" Owens grouses. "We all have to go as a group, and he can just come and go as he pleases?"
"Apparently so," Dolph grumbles. "I hate him."
Nakamura, however, is the pure sign of nonchalance as he lifts a hand and waves at them, teeth flashing in the sun overhead as he grins toothily, turning to leave.
"Oh my God, would you go stop him?" Owens demands, pushing Dolph forward. "We need him, he's got this insane strong digimon and we can't even keep ours from dedigivolving to baby level. Move it!"
Dolph closes his eyes, his pride taking a huge hit as he follows through, chasing Nakamura to the digiport. "Hey! Stop! Shinsuke!" he says it mockingly, unable to help it, and Nakamura turns, tilts his head curiously while Dolph leans over and plants his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath after running this distance to grab him before he disappears into the portal. "Look, I don't like you, you don't like me, but we need you. We all could've died there, and then what? Clearly you can come and go whenever you want, if it doesn't work, you can just leave us behind, but come on, man. This is as close to begging as I'm going to get."
Nakamura speaks in Japanese to Coronamon a few moments longer before shrugging, casting his eyes skyward. "Why not," he says slowly. "I've always enjoyed... a challenge." His smirk infuriates Ziggler, but some of the stress leaves him as they walk side by side back to the group of digidestined.
"Told you I could get him to come around," Ziggler boasts to Owens, who rolls his eyes.
"Of course you did."
