Shinsuke. Aiden. Ziggler. Miz. Morrison. Tamina. Luke breathes in relief when he sees them come through, never sure week by week who he's going to see thanks to the issues Earth is facing right now. He bows his head to them. "Thank you for coming." He looks tired, worried. "I'm afraid to say all of that is going on on Earth is starting to affect our world."

"No kidding," Ziggler exhales, clearly not in the mood for Luke's dialogue. "Can we just get on with this already? Where do we need to go, what do we need to do?"

Luke doesn't seem thrilled with his impatience, but he lets it slide, aware that everyone is on edge right now. "There's a village on the other side of the digiworld, a portal is already set up to take you there. I'm not sure what you'll be facing there, the alert was very abrupt. It may have been cut off before the full message could be relayed."

"That sounds bad," Morrison mumbles, and Miz nods quietly, looking over at him. He has yet to find his digimon partner, which leaves him oddly vulnerable and adrift in comparison to the rest of them, despite his prowess with his digivice in certain circumstances saving their asses quite a few times already.

I'll take care of him, Miz vows to himself. He'll be ok. We'll find his partner. Everything will work out.

It has to. There's no other way. Especially with how dire things are becoming around the world right now.

"What if..." John feels Mike's worried gaze on him and meet his gaze anxiously. "What if we don't find my partner? What if this legitimately is all there is for me?" he asks, flicking at the tag hanging around his neck.

"I refuse to believe that," Mike says firmly. "Every Digidestined has a partner, I'm not sure what's happened to yours, but we'll find them. Don't worry."

John's smile is small, weary, but it holds as they walk side by side back to the digiport to head on to the next village in need. They're about to enter through it when Monodramon tugs on John's pants, a resolute look on his face. "Yeah?" John asks him, blinking in surprise, as he hasn't conversed much with Mike's partners, or any of the other digimon, in all honesty. "What's up?"

Monodramon hesitates and then thumps himself on the chest, standing up straight and proud. "I'll be your pseudo-partner until you find your own!" He looks a little embarrassed as soon as he finishes speaking. "You and Mike are best friends, so I feel like that makes sense."

John's smile grows as he kneels down to look at Monodramon easier, smoothing a hand down his nose. "Hey, man, thanks. That means a lot. I'd be honored." He glances up at Mike, who nods, with a trembling kind of grin on his face.

This settled, they head through the digiport, Monodramon clearly pleased with everything as he stands between Mike and John. When they arrive, however, everyone's smiles disappear. There's nothing left before them- everything from buildings to hills are razed, flattened by something large and destructive. "What the hell?" Mike whispers, his wide, blue eyes flickering back and forth from one scene of destruction to the next. "What... what happened?"

"Good question." Shinsuke steps forward and rests his hand on a pile of cement and wood, staring down at the ground around it. "It looks like... tire tracks. Or... train tracks."

Aiden kneels down too, pressing his hand against a series of indents where it looks like something gored the buildings, large holes pounded into the walls. "These look like... spikes did this, gouged straight through? Maybe?" he questions, sounding a little breathless as he takes it all in.

"I think so," Mike murmurs, glancing sideways at Monodramon, who nods in confirmation. "Geez, what could've done all of this? Are there train type digimon?"

"A couple," Shinsuke says. "I just cannot think of any that would be in this part of the digiworld and capable of doing this so seamlessly without tracks..."

They're still mulling this over, surrounding Shinsuke as he stands lost in thought, when there's a weird noise behind them. "Ground is not level! Must make ground level to ease travel!"

They all turn quickly and gape as a locomotive type digimon comes barreling at them, a crazed look in its black eyes. "SMOOTH! Must make everything smooth!" it continues to rant as the digidestined scatter and it rides over what remains of houses already destroyed at such a high speed that everything has to yield before it, getting pushed aside like it weighs nothing. "Holy shit," Mike mutters, gripping John's sleeve as they gape at the creature.

"You can say that again," John breathes out.

"Holy shit!" They have to move, fast, again, as the creature turns with a speed and accuracy a train shouldn't be able to do, and speeds right for them, its grill withstanding the sudden force as it runs through a small hill and leaves nothing but deeply impacted dirt in its wake. "What is this thing?! Trains shouldn't be able to do that!"

"It's Resshamon," Shinsuke says slowly, watching him. "You're right, he shouldn't be able to do this." Coronamon lunges forward, Apollomon appearing and bracing for another of Resshamon's runs. "Don't try to stop him, he's much too fast and destructive."

Apollomon doesn't seem pleased with this instruction, but he abides by it, falling back and watching closely as Resshamon remains distracted from them by slamming through more hills and mountains until the area is nothing but flat lands as far as they can see. "He's trying to ease his own travel for some reason," Mike mumbles. "But why is he even here? There are no tracks, not that that seems to matter to him..."

"I have no answers, but we can't allow this to continue," Shinsuke says, motioning to Apollomon, who lunges forward, flames dancing along his body as he rushes to meet Resshamon head on.

Beelzebumon and Justimon linger overhead, partially to keep an eye on the digidestined, partially to figure out a gameplan just in case. Taomon and Revivemon stand with their partners, watchful and anxious as Apollomon sends flames cascasing towards Resshamon.

"No, no! I cannot allow you to ruin my progress!" Resshamon cries, dodging the flames quickly and watching them sizzle out in the dirt, with nothing to ignite further. "Train digimon will soon be able to go anywhere they desire, like me! The entire world will change when that happens! It must- it must!" He suddenly barrels forward, and Apollomon screams out in pain as Resshamon somehow lunges off of the ground and slams up into him, sending him clean out of the sky and sprawling out on the ground below, flickering and destabilized from that one, solid hit.

"APOLLOMON!" Shinsuke yells out, jaw dropping at the pure brutality of the hit that logically shouldn't have been able to happen. His horror grows when his partner tries to force himself upright and Shinsuke sees the damage done to his chest, Resshamon's spike nearly gorging straight through him at impact. "STAY DOWN!" He rushes forward and kneels by his partner, ignoring Resshamon looming nearby. "Please, please-" He touches him, cradling his face in his hands. "Dedigivolve, Apollomon. Please-" His digivice flashes, guiding his partner through the pain and shock of such a brutal attack, and within a few seconds, Shinsuke is cradling a crying Mokumon in his arms, standing up to glower at Resshamon. "What are you? Creatures such as you shouldn't have these abilities."

Resshamon cackles with dark, piercing laughter. "You know what I am. I am the manifestation of the real world's darkest fears. As hatred and division grows on earth, creatures like me grow more powerful. It's quite the beautiful cycle, really." He rolls towards Shinsuke, grill flapping in time with his vicious laughs. "We gain all of these new abilities. It's actually really amazing what some of us are realizing we can do."

Shinsuke breathes in and out sharply, glaring at him. "We won't let you win. Any of you."

Resshamon laughs even harder at this, getting closer to Shinsuke, who still holds his ground. "And how exactly will you stop us?" he wonders.

"Shinsuke! Get out of there!" Aiden yells, turning to look at the others. "What is he doing?!"

No one has an easy answer for him, standing frozen and watching their leader as Shinsuke stares at him. "We will find a way. We always do. Your strength has nothing on our will."

Resshamon cackles even harder at this, and Shinsuke glances past the digimon to look at them, something in his eyes, expressed on his face that Mike can't quite grasp as he turns his focus back onto Resshamon. "He wants us to do something," John breathes. "But what?"

Aiden reaches out, ghosts his hand along Revivemon's spiked skin, before looking around at Taomon, Beelzebumon, Justimon, trying to figure something out- some combination of attack, or...

"I have an idea," Tamina says suddenly, surprising all of them. "Aiden, I'm going to need your help with this." This only startles everyone more.

Shinsuke is still staring at Resshamon when Taomon puts her plan into motion, a large ying yang symbol appearing on the ground, lighting up the area and turning all focus onto herself. She works quickly before Resshamon could shake off his surprise at something happening on his land and attack, a shield appearing atop the symbol and sprawling as high as it can. "This should hold for a bit," she says, sounding proud of herself.

Resshamon seethes as soon as he realizes that this shield blocks his path, undoes all of the careful deconstruction he achieved to make things as smooth as possible. "NO! You've ruined it!" he roars, slamming forward once more. He's barely touched the symbol, however, trying to ram into the shield and take it down, when Taomon's long sleeved arms swipe through the air, and blinding thunder streaks through the symbol, tearing through him, shattering parts of his metal and singing his spikes, burning through his grille and leaving him struggling just to breathe as it diminishes. "How... how is this possible?" he asks, slumping down against where the symbol had just been. "I... I'm indestructible, there's no way-"

"No one is ever indestructible," Revivemon tells him, almost sounding sympathetic as he approaches. "Something happened to you. I'm unsure what, but perhaps I can figure it out." His eyes flash as he stares at Resshamon, searching for something... and seemingly finding it as the both of them begin to glow so bright that the others all have to look away, shielding their eyes until the light fades away. "I knew there was a piece of your original data still trapped in there," he breathes out, watching as Resshamon's eyes flicker for a moments before settling back on pure red, the creature blinking uncertainly.

"What- what..." He gasps, casting horrified looks around at the destruction surrounding them. "Did... Did I do this?" he whispers. "Oh my God... I, I did, didn't I?"

"It wasn't you," Revivemon informs him kindly. "You were possessed by something dark and twisted. But there was still parts of you in there, just lost. I was able to bring them out, and return you to your previous self."

Tears begin dripping down Resshamon's face. "Thank you," he breathes out. "Thank you so much." He stares despondently at the village in shambles before them and only cries harder. "How, how did I even get here... why... why did this happen?"

No one has easy answers for him, uncomfortably aware that he's just one of many whose lives have been taken over like this. Shinsuke uses his digivice to guide Resshamon back through the dirt on temporary tracks held together by pure energy until they find actual tracks a few miles south, and Shinsuke kneels next to him, resting a hand on his face. "Live your life as well as you can," he tells him. "And try to find some comfort in knowing none of this was you."

Resshamon nods, tears dried now, but still looking miserable. "Thank you. All of you. I... don't want to imagine the destruction I would've caused if you hadn't... figured it out."

"It is our duty," Shinsuke tells him before standing upright once more. The digidestined and their partners cluster together, watching quietly as Resshamon lets off a shrill whistle before taking his leave, going down the tracks at a much more bearable speed now.

"Think he'll be alright?" Tamina mumbles after a few moments of silence.

"I think so," Aiden says, stroking Pekomon's forehead. "Don't you think so, Pekomon?"

"Yes, yes!" he exclaims, waving his arms enthusiastically.

"I hope so." Shinsuke watches the last of what they can see of Resshamon disappear into the distance before turning to the group with a small smile on his face. "Let's go home."