"So we have three groups of Digidestined now," Seth muses, his gloved hand swiping in the air as he goes through the files that Luke had sent him of his choice for NXT Digidestined, his digivice displaying each person Luke had chose for this new group. "Interesting. Well, things have been pretty bad lately, so hopefully this will make that easier on all of us."

"Here's hopin'," AJ sighs, brushing his hair out of his eyes and looking at the list as well, a mixture of apathy and relief in his gaze. "It's been such a damned mess lately."

"Yes, it has been," Seth agrees. "Well, on we go." Switching screens to the map, they look on helplessly at the massive amount of red dots scattered around the land. "Shit."

"Not right away, apparently," AJ mumbles, as disheartened as Seth feels right now.

"You know what, you pick one this time," he says, brandishing the map at AJ. "Whichever one you want."

AJ frowns at him, then runs his finger over the map, randomly spinning it around before magnifying one particular area. "Here," he finally decides, pointing at one dot out of the dozens surrounding it. "I pick this one."

Seth examines it for a second, then nods. "Alright, guys, you heard the man, let's go do this thing."

Asuka hums and dances to herself, following the others to the digiport, and AJ rolls his eyes at her before pressing his digivice to the monitor. "Digiport activated!" he calls out, the old familiar flush of cool air against their skin before they drift into data, reforming as their human selves on the other side.

It's a quiet enough walk forward, the group heading towards a sedate body of water and the flashing dot nearby. "What do you think it'll be this time?" Lana wonders, flipping her hair over her shoulder and pursing her lips as Seth glances back at her. "Water, ground, lightning-"

Seth looks around the area and shrugs. "Maybe either water or air," he muses. "This is an open enough area that either could survive here well enough."

She looks around and nods, continuing to follow them towards the area on the map. They've almost made it when there's a loud squeaking noise that attracts all of their attention, Lana and Asuka both making soft little gasping noises as a group of baby digimon suddenly crowd them.

"Oh no," Seth mutters. "Must be a nursery village around here." When he notices the curious glances tossed his way, he explains, "Sometimes certain villages are designated just for baby digimon, especially if there are a lot of orphans at any one time." He's kneeling down to look closer at the tiny, bird like Digimon, who are basically just shapeless little round creatures with beaks, and two feathers poking out of its tails, when Lana squeals and grabs one, hugging it close. "I wouldn't do that if I were-"

He doesn't warn her in time as the Pinamon grows flushed with anger and suddenly blasts lightning all over the place, zapping her a good one. "AHhh!" she cries out, dropping him. He lands safely enough, making angry little noises as he adjusts his tail feathers, glaring up at her every now and again. "Why are you mad at me! I'm the one who just got electrocuted here!" she snaps at him.

Seth huffs out a muffled laugh before approaching. "Pinamon hate having their tail feathers touched. Don't ya, little guy?" he wonders, kneeling down next to him. When he makes a huffy little noise, Seth reaches out and gently strokes his forehead, Pinamon seeming more open to this touch.

Lana rolls her eyes. "Yeah, how the hell was I supposed to know that?" she snaps, turning with a huff and marching away as Seth smiles at the digimon.

"Don't worry, we've all wanted to electrocute her now and again," he whispers to Pinamon. "So what's going on?" He turns his focus onto the group as a whole and frowns, reaching out to pet this baby digimon and that one, not liking the look of fear and loss on all of their faces. "Did something happen to your village?"

"Not something," a new voice greets them. "Someone." Seth immediately gets to his feet but before something can be done, he's blasted off of his feet and sent back a fair distance, hitting the ground hard and blinking dazedly.

The baby digimon are raising a big fuss not that far away, but his entire body is throbbing and he can't move. Not even to look up and see if the other digidestined are ok, if they're-

-then Lotusmon hovers over him a brief moment and he exhales, slumping back against the grass and biting his lip as he tries to follow the sounds of battle not that far away. His head is spinning, and his body is not really responsive, and he's relieved Asuka is here, at least, because he has no idea where Betamon is, if the baby digimon are ok, and... much of anything else.

AJ eventually makes it over to him and crouches down by his prone form, a concerned look on his face. "Hey, man," he says, an oddly kind tone to his voice. "Take it easy, alright? Just... don't move too much." Seth breathes shallowly and AJ nods, pulling his shirt back and glancing closer at his skin before looking away with a grimace. "Betamon's over here too, looks like he's in rough shape too."

Seth fumbles, reaches out to find his partner and graze his knuckles over his forehead, breathing shallowly as tears fill his eyes. "This is really bad, huh?" Seth exhales, hating how low and weak his voice sounds.

"Kind of," AJ admits, glancing around until he spots Stingmon not that far away, flying around on the outskirts of the battle, hoping for an opportunity to surge forward and swipe at the attacking digimon.

"Who is it?" Seth breathes, wondering about the attack that had done this to him.

"It's like... Regalecusmon?" AJ says, pronouncing it slowly. "Like, it's a water creature, kinda looks human but it has a pincer for one hand, and its tail protrudes from the back of its skull. It's messed up. Its pincer is what did this." He motions to Seth's injuries. "Kinda blasted plasma or something at you, and blew everything away. It was really disturbing to watch."

"Oh," Seth mutters, his eyes slipping closed.

"Hey, no," AJ snaps, reaching out and lightly slapping Seth in the face. "Stay awake, man. I ain't gonna be responsible if something happens here."

Seth exhales shakily and forces his eyes open. "Ok, yeah." He coughs lightly. "Of course I gotta stay conscious for your sake."

"Damn straight," AJ smirks, brushing some of the hair out of Seth's face. "We'll get you out of here, don't worry." Seth doesn't respond and AJ hesitantly turns his focus back onto the battle.

Asuka and Lana are doing what they can to encourage their partners, Bastemon and Lotusmon moving as quickly as possible to avoid both Regalecusmon's sword and his pincer. Stingmon is nearby as well, but considering how underpowered he is compared to the other two, he keeps his distance, a frustrated air about him. "Hold steady, girls!" AJ calls over to them, but the lull in fighting is only temporary as Regalecusmon lunges forward, his sudden burst of speed surprising all of them, and slashes his sword directly between the two female digimon, lightning crackling down in a clean arc following the path of the sword.

Bastemon shifts to avoid the sword, just to get struck by residual energy from the lightning, and Lotusmon moves to try to help her, just for Regalecusmon to slice his sword in her direction, catching her right in the chest. "NO!" Asuka yells, hands pressed over her mouth as she watches on in horror, her partner dedigivolving back to Calumon and laying there limply, entirely vulnerable to the sword still hovering over her. "CALUMON!"

Bastemon moves, stands between Calumon and Regalecusmon, and starts to dance. It's a risk, she knows, it puts her too close- but she has to do something, so she keeps eye contact as best as she can with Regalecusmon, hoping that this is affecting him, somehow... but then there's one clean slice of his sword and she's down, gasping for air against the floor before dedigivolving back to Gatomon.

"Gatomon!" Lana cries out, both women desperately to run to their partners and pull them to safety, but unable to move out of fear as Regalecusmon leers down at them. "Please..."

AJ grits his teeth and glances over at Stingmon, who definitely has no chance against Regalecusmon if the higher leveled forms of Bastemon and Lotusmon were so easily defeated. "Why ... why are we so limited right now?" He hits the ground with a trembling fist and pulls away. "Hold on, Seth. I'll... I'll figure something out." He gets to his feet and marches, resolutely, towards where Stingmon is hovering, hoping for some answer. "Stingmon, can you fight?"

"I can," his partner says doubtfully. "But AJ, it won't last long- his power far exceeds mine."

AJ nods, already aware of that. "Yeah. But we have to do something." He bites his lip and stares up at Stingmon. "If we had any other option, you know I wouldn't even consider this, right? But it'll be a way to stall until we can maybe get ahold of Luke and get some help here." He's already typing a message on his digivice, hoping that maybe Luke can figure out a way to get one of his friends to help- Seraphimon, or one of the other mega level digimon who's assisted in the past. Looking up, he exhales shakily. "Just... just try, ok?"

The guilt and disgust in himself is overwhelming as Stingmon nods and flies up and over, attracting Regalecusmon's attention. He sneers at the champion level digimon before waving his pincer at him- but instead of slinging him away like he'd done Seth, he grasps the digimon out of thin air and holds him close. "It's really offensive," he tells him as Stingmon struggles and gasps out in pain. "I mean, the other two weren't great, but at least they had some fight in them, some determination. You are just some lowly insect that will soon be squashed under my foot." He laughs viciously and Stingmon cries out in pain as the pincer around him tightens, slowly biting into his exoskeleton.

AJ watches on in horror as his partner gasps and chokes for air, trying to fight back Regalecusmon's grip but unable to do anything to stop the slow waves of agony as his body is sliced into little by little. "No," he cries out as data starts to drift around him, his vision murky. "AJ- I... I'm so sorry-"

AJ grits his teeth and ignores the danger, dashing forward. "Stingmon! Stingmon!" He waits until he thinks his partner is looking towards him. "You have nothing to apologize for! This is all on me!" He digs his nails into his palms and trembles as he looks up at his dying partner. "I've always been so distracted with things goin' on with myself and my career- I never focused on you! Everyone else gets to digivolve and find these new forms of strength but something is wrong, I never bothered to find that new level of strength to ease your path! I'm the one who's really sorry, especially now that you're paying for my selfishness! I don't deserve your forgiveness!"

Stingmon is hard to see now, the data clouding the air around him thick and concentrated in that area, and AJ has the horrible sense that Regalecusmon is planning on absorbing his partner's data, maybe, but he twitches and lifts his head weakly. "Yes, you do," he gasps. "You... you realize the problem, at least. I wish... I wish we had the time to fix it..." He lifts his arm towards AJ, fingers outstretched towards him. "I enjoyed being your partner... I wish... I wish I was stronger..."

AJ snaps, "NO!" but before he can move or do anything else, a blinding light glows between them and time seems to stop as something begins to form, twisting in slow circles before him. He gapes at the now-familiar shape and grasps desperately at it, a strange warmth flooding from his fingertips down through his veins. "St- Stingmon," he chokes out, looking up in time to see his partner glowing as well, breaking free from Regalecusmon and dropping a few feet before the glow from AJ's digivice and the power from the newly received Crest trembling in his hand meet against Stingmon, tearing what's left of his data away and reforming him.

He looks different, shimmering with a kind of prism that seems to shift every time he moves, taller and leaner and with a bright red spear held tightly in hand. "JewelBeemon," he intones quietly, red eyes peering around before re-focusing on Regalecusmon. "Now where did we leave off?" he asks, taking to the sky and diving at the evil creature.

Regalecusmon meets him halfway, roaring out in anger before slashing his sword at him. JewelBeemon dodges it this time and raises up his spear, twisting it around before lunging forward and aiming right at Regalecusmon. Another dodge and he turns sharply, trying still to catch Regalecusmon with it, just to have to move aside again as he slams his pincer towards him. The appendage still extended, JewelBeemon takes his chance and impales Regalecusmon in the arm with it, cutting straight through and tearing his weapon out with a viciousness, watching with some pride as the pincer deletes entirely, Regalecusmon screaming out in fury and pain.

His attacks become more desperate and sloppy from here, JewelBeemon almost amused as he dodges and dances around the manic creature. "Sorry, you're not getting me that easily ever again," JewelBeemon tells him, spinning his spear around before slashing forward with it and impaling an advancing Regalecusmon straight in the chest with it. He chokes and gags as he continues to stumble forward, JewelBeemon careful to press forward as his remaining momentum sends it in deeper, until it pierces straight through the other side, a flood of data spilling out across the ground.

"Oh damn," AJ breathes out, seeing this. "JewelBeemon!"

JewelBeemon silently acknowledges him, gripping the spear and pulling it out slowly, watching as Regalecusmon roars and thrashes in pain, his movements weakening as he struggles to lift his sword, get off one last, potentially life saving attack- but it's too late. The spear tears free and data rains down around them, JewelBeemon staring down at Regalecusmon. "It's not much fun when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?" he wonders, holding his spear up once more towards Regalecusmon's throat. "It would be merciful to finish you off now." He sighs and watches as Regalecusmon continues trying to lift his sword. "Farewell."

He slices forward with his spear and watches as one last flash of pain crosses Regalecusmon's expression before he shatters into data and scatters in the wind.

Dedigivolving, Modoki Betamon turns away from the fight and approaches the others, relieved to see Gatomon and Calumon both slowly coming to, Asuka and Lana cooing and whispering to their partners. The real worry now is Seth and Betamon, AJ kneeling once more by them. Modoki Betamon exhales slowly and rolls Betamon over, easing him upright. "Hey, twin," he says. "You know, Seth needs you right now, he's injured pretty badly." He glances over as Lana and Asuka join them, Lana staying back with a horrified look on her face, Asuka immediately leaning down to try to help AJ figure out what to do with Seth to get him safely back to Luke's. "I finally digivolved again. It was pretty awesome. I wish you could've seen it."

He glances down as Betamon twitches under his hand and nods. "Yeah, you're coming around, aren't you?" There's a commotion behind him and he looks up as AJ gingerly lifts Seth up, using all of his upperbody strength to keep ahold of the man.

"Modoki Betamon! Let's go," AJ calls, Lana kneeling down and smiling shakily at him before she wraps her arms around Betamon's limp form, hoisting him up and walking off with him secure next to Gatomon.

"Alright," Modoki Betamon murmurs, glancing once more at the place where he'd almost died and ultimately digivolved to a new power he thought he'd never experience. "Here we go then."

Later, once Luke confirms that Seth and Betamon both will be ok given time to rest and recuperate, AJ and Modoki Betamon are relaxing by the lake, AJ's gaze locked on his new crest and tag. "I think it's of altruism," AJ offers after some quiet pondering. "Or something along those lines." Ordinarily, he'd ask Luke or maybe Seth, but with everything going on, now doesn't feel like the time.

"Maybe benevolence," Modoki Betamon suggests.

AJ's eyes light up. "Ya know, I like that one."

Modoki Betamon grins at his partner. "So do I."