Everything is tense. Quiet. Seth is barely speaking. Dean is not there. TJ feels, somehow, like a child trapped between arguing parents, which he had enough of in his actual childhood, thank you very much. So he claps his hands together loudly and looks at all of the wrestlers. "Well, let's get this show on the road!" No one moves, some shoot frustrated looks at him, others seem to agree with him, but they all seem to be waiting for Seth to do something. "Oh come on, guys, we're supposed to be helping out around the Digiworld, not sitting near Luke's, pouting," he insists, and this gets more of a reaction as some of the other Digidestined actually glare at him. "Right?"

Seth turns and walks up to him. "We're waiting for Dean." TJ makes a displeased noise deep in his throat and Seth glares down at him. "If you don't like it, TJP, then you can go help the Digimon all you want. You have the same map system as the rest of us."

TJ quirks an eyebrow at him. "Ok, fine. Someone might as well get something done around here." He snaps his hoodie in place and walks off, standing straight and as tall as he can as he walks purposely across the land, Falcomon gliding after him before perching on his shoulder.

"TJ."

"Yeah, Falcomon?"

"We're heading towards the ice territories."

TJ groans. "Great," he mumbles, regretting his thin, baggy clothing even more now. He powers through, however, ignoring the cold and the sleet as it clings to his skin, takes his breath away. "Hanging in there, Falcomon?" He holds his breath until his partner makes a noise against his cheek, folding up on himself as he waits it out. TJ thinks he can tell when they're getting closer- the wind gets brisker, the ice blowing against them grows thicker, and all in all, he becomes more miserable, his eyes and nose running desperately. "Few... more... feet..." he tells himself, trudging through snow and ice in shoes definitely not made for such things, slipping and almost falling a million times.

They're just in a bit of a lull when- "ICE CRUSHER AVALANCHE!" The lull immediately disappears as a flood of ice chards cover them, freezing TJ so badly that he can't even move his mouth enough for his teeth to chatter. He does manage, at least, to lift his hand with the Digivice in it, and watch as Falcomon digivolves to Birdramon, which helps melt a fair amount of the ice around them. As soon as he can move again, TJ wraps his arms around himself and steps back to witness the battle properly get going. The Digimon they're against is a purple creature with horns and white wings and he notices some of the symbols look like an IceDevimon's, so he guesses that this is some strange alteration in that digivolution line, growing more and more intrigued by this world as time goes by.

It's not a difficult fight, nothing the digimon tries works against Birdramon, the ice immediately melting as soon as it touches her, and IceDevimon Daipenmon Enhancement Absorbent seems to except this as he instead seems to be drawing the digimon away by blasting nearby villages with his ice powers, distracting him by the ice slowly creeping towards houses and innocent digimon just living their lives. TJ about to yell a warning out to his partner, when the lifeless gaze of his red eyes lock on TJ. Birdramon is too far away to do anything, it all happens so fast, ice chards clinging to his skin, freezing into his hair, building up quickly and turning his skin into a full sheet of ice. He can't blink, he can't twitch his fingers, he can't move his feet. It hurts so bad, being frozen alive bit by bit like this, and he can't even say or do anything, just stand there and take it.

What a lame way to die, he thinks, closing his eyes and feeling a tear dry fruitlessly a couple inches down his cheek. His heart is slowing, he can barely breathe, and then- and then-

"Blazing Spheres!" Youkomon blasts onto the scene, fireballs crashing again and again and again into IceDevimon, his screams of pain echoing around them as his ice powers are melted and he collapses, Youkomon standing over him, patiently waiting.

"Finish it," Tamina says a moment later, standing next to TJ with a frozen. "Hurry up, we need you over here."

Youkomon nods, her tail lighting up as a dragon made entirely of flame bursts out and runs straight through IceDevimon, shattering him into pieces. Youkumon returns to TJ's side and carefully flutters fireballs around him, careful not to get too close to his skin. Birdramon returns then, and helps out where he can, but only Youkumon has the careful kind of control to do this without harming TJ more.

Once the ice is weak enough to break on its own, TJ falls to his knees and gasps, rubbing feeling back into his raw, trembling flesh. "Thank you," he says softly, looking up at Tamina.

"Next time," she tells him coolly, "be patient and stay with the group." Brushing her hair over her shoulder, she marches back the way she'd come, TJ's eyes fiixed on her back.

"Yes ma'am."