It is excessively hot here. Zack Ryder finds himself drenched in sweat as soon as he'd taken a step on this island. He's tempted to take his shirt off just to try to feel the wind on his skin, but he assumes the others would not like that much, so he refrains. Even so, the heat makes him lag behind, just barely keeping the others within view while Patamon rests on his shoulder, adding to his discomfort. "Aw come on, bro, can't you walk on your own or fly or something? It's too hot for this!" he complains to his partner, who looks at him curiously before taking to the air briefly before flopping down at Zack's feet and starting to walk normally.
He's just turned a corner to get the others in sight again when... he stops short, the heat creeping even higher, and he can feel the soles of his shoes bubbling. "Uhhhhh, Patamon?!" he demands, relieved that his partner is in the air again, staring on in horror next to him. The ground before them is pure lava. "I can't-" His feet are burning, there's no way, but thankfully Patamon can digivolve, and does.
Seraphimon moves quickly, hoisting Zack up and flying him to safety, setting him down on a hilly little cliff away from the streams of lava, before returning to face off with the creature who made sure to separate them from the other digidestined- Ancient Volcamon. "You again," he says coolly, flinching when another flood of lava is shot straight at him, only just managing to avoid the attack before swooping in and slashing at him with his sword, which digs through Lord Volcamon's body, revealing that it's little more than lava that pieces itself back together rather quickly. Stymied briefly, Seraphimon drifts out of range of another attack and struggles to think.
"Seraphimon!" Zack calls out, digivice in hand. His partner glances at him but ultimately keeps his focus on the evil creature before them. Before anything else could be said, Ancient Volcamon rears back, the volcano-like structure on his back abruptly erupting, giving him force and power as he blasts forward and punches Seraphimon, sending him careening back into the hill Zack's perched precariously on. "Crap!" Zack cries out as the rocks shift beneath his feet.
Seraphimon struggles back to his feet, winded and more than a little covered in soot, when AncientVolcamon rushes at them again, more flames pouring from its volcano towards both Seraphimon and Zack. The angel digimon moves quickly, taking as much of the flames as he can to protect Zack. "No!" he cries out, voice sounding funny as his powers begin to fail him and his body shivers and shimmers.
"Seraphimon!" Zack yells out, gripping his digivice as he holds it up, hoping for some miracle- anything to stop this- when there's a loud sound like an explosion very near to Zack's head and the flames overwhelming Seraphimon suddenly stop. He jumps and freezes, fearful that the next blast would shoot through him or through Seraphimon and end everything... but no, he's still staring ahead, eyes locked on a suddenly struggling AncientVolcamon, and someone lands smoothly next to him. He swallows and turns his head enough to see. "Dolph?"
"Hey kid."
Zack closes his eyes as Beelzebumon flies forward, yelling some strange combination of words. Between his claws and Seraphimon's sword, they make relatively quick work of AncientVolcamon, already weakened from Beelzebumon's shot straight through his chest that had caved in the core of his volcano. "You came," he mumbles, opening his eyes and looking over.
"Course I did," Dolph shrugs, acting like the last few weeks of hearing nothing from him hadn't affected the Smackdown digidestined team. Hadn't affected Zack.
It's tempting to punch him, to yell at him, to really lay into him for abandoning them when they needed him the most, but instead Zack just exhales hard and throws his arms around his jerk of a best friend, waiting him out until he relaxes and hugs back. "Thanks for the save, bro."
