Shinsuke listens to the ocean lap against the sand at his feet, a small smile on his face. He enjoys missions near the ocean, to an extent, picturing himself out there on a surfboard, catching waves. If only it didn't always lead to a mess of a battle, he thinks wistfully, as something within the depths shifts and bellows out a warning, splashing all of them with copious amounts of water.

If only it didn't always remind him of the Dark Ocean, its constant pull, calling him, pleading with him to return, to give in to its ways. To turn twisted and evil, and...

"Hey, Shinsuke," John pulls him out of his thoughts and Shinsuke turns to look at him, inclining his head thankfully. "You alright? There was a weird look on your face just now."

"Hai," he says, shaking his head and forcing these urges away, managing a strained sort of smile as he looks back at John. "I am fine. Just thinking."

Morrison nods, smiling faintly. "Mike was telling me something about a battle you guys went through recently," he says, and Shinsuke worries for a wild moment that the group regularly whispers about his time in the digital ocean, and what it could possibly mean. But John doesn't explain any further, and Shinsuke can't find the wherewithal to ask. "They can be pretty intense, sometimes, huh?"

"Yes, that is one word for them." Shinsuke smiles a little bit. "But through the pain we have all endured, they are quite rewarding as well. To save creatures, and see their faces when they get to return to some semblance of normalcy. It is all worth it."

John nods. "I can imagine," he says softly, resting a hand on Guilmon's head and picturing the next time they get to fight alongside each other again.

"Come," Shinsuke says, clapping him on the back and turning to head to where the others are standing. "Have you all noticed anything?" he asks, approaching them with his arms folded behind his back.

"No," Mike says with a shrug. "It's been pretty quiet once that Whamon swam away." He's still soaking wet, grumbling about it.

"He tried to warn you," Ziggler sniggers, looking much less fussed about how his hair is sticking to his forehead right now.

"Oh, ha-ha," Mike groans, rolling his eyes as he tries to press the water out of his clothes without leaving them too wrinkled.

"Let's explore a bit then," Shinsuke says, ignoring their petty squabbles and leading the way away from the body of water. There aren't really villages around here, but some Digimon live by their lonesome in scattered little huts along the sand, and when they walk by, various digimon poke their heads out and watch.

"Humans!" some whisper. "Do you think...?" "What could it mean?" "Should we fight them?"

Shinsuke listens to the whispers for a bit before stopping short and turning on his heel, approaching a Renamon who is leaning quietly against the side of a hut, watching them. "Hello," he greets her and she sighs, pulling away from the wall and standing tall and proud, blue eyes blazing as she watches him carefully.

"Hello."

"Our presence is making these digimon antsy, do you know why?" he wonders and she peers side to side at her neighbors.

"I have an idea," she hedges and, when he waits patiently for her to explain further, she exhales. "There are tales of a digimon around here who was scientifically modified to fuse together with a human. Unsure if it's true or not, but supposedly it's gone kinda insane recently and is destroying various areas. But I can't confirm this, most are just whispers."

"Fused together with a human," Shinsuke repeats. "Who would do such a thing?"

She stares at him. "I recognize you. You have been part of the digidestined a very long time. You know as much as some digimon hate humans, some humans see nothing but financial gain and power when they see things such as us. And we both know some humans have managed to come to the digiworld in the past without being welcomed here."

It's rare, but it's true, yes. Shinsuke exhales slowly and nods his thanks, bowing to her briefly before turning back to his friends. "We may have a problem." He relays to them the story and waits as the few people before him mutter among themselves.

"Damn, is that possible?" Morrison asks, looking pale beneath his tan.

"Just like in wrestling, never say never," Mike sighs grimly. "So what do we do?"

"We try to find this Digimon," Shinsuke says, already not liking any of this. The after that... part remains unspoken. "Come, let's go."

They walk through more of the huts, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious or out of the way, when something hisses at them. They all turn as one and looks at the Elecmon who keeps shifting around, glancing to either side of him, and then straight back at them. Shinsuke approaches him and he quickly mutters something to him, Shinsuke's eyes widening as he nods slowly.

"I see. Thank you." Standing straight once more, he returns to the others. "It's a digimon called Bio Coatlmon," he informs them, his hands tense at his side. "It's called Bio because it does indeed seem to be fused with a human."

"Well, shit," Morrison mutters, running a hand over his face. "How do we find him?"

Shinsuke looks even more grim as he leads them. The huts slowly start to dwindle away the further from the water they get, until they find themselves in a deserted area, only burnt remains of huts and other buildings scattered here and there. He closes his eyes and sighs slowly, walking forward to rest his hand on one of the walls.

"These poor Digimon, living in these conditions," Mike mumbles, wandering along the burnt rubble with Morrison by his side. "It must be so horrible, never a moment's peace because you don't know when this thing is going to attack."

"Which is why we're going to stop it," Shinsuke says. It means probably destroying the creature- killing the human within, but he doesn't really see any other option. The human's mind seems to have been warped and possibly just lost entirely thanks to the long term effects of the data, so Shinsuke isn't really sure what else they can do.

Mike, John, and Ziggler say very little as the group of them trudge forward and keep an eye out for anything suspicious or out of the way. John has just crept forward, nudging aside some crumbled rock, when he hears something- a loud, almost mechanical sound, and then- "JOHN!" Guilmon cries out, tackling him aside just in time to miss something hard impacting the ground where he'd just stood, electricity blasting right there with the speed and intensity to raze the ground.

"Oh shit," John breathes out as Mike runs to his side.

"Are you ok?!"

"Yeah," John mutters, grabbing his tag partner's extended hand and pulling himself back to his feet. "Thanks to Guilmon here." He runs his fingers over the digimon's head and smiles down at him, before looking up, turning in a slow circle. "Where did that come from?"

"Good question," Shinsuke mutters, eyes sharp as he turns in a slow circle. "I am not..." His words are overrun by another, similar blast not that far away and they all tense up, eyes shifting upwards to try to locate the cause. He catches a glimpse of something- bright, and fast, and his jaw tenses. "Bio Coatlmon," he breathes, and Morrison looks over at him.

"What was that?"

"The Digimon, Bio Coatlmon," Shinsuke repeats, eyes still gazing upwards. "It is very fast- hard to see. Be careful, everyone-" Another blast of electricity strikes not far from where they're standing and Shinsuke frowns, still struggling to catch sight of it again. "Coronamon," he exhales, and his partner immediately digivolves.

Apollomon is faster, his gaze sharper, and even he seems to be struggling, always a few seconds too late to catch sight of Bio Coatlmon. Justimon, Beelzebumon, they both have the same issue once they digivolve and the three mega level digimon hesitate, trying to make sense of what they're seeing- or not seeing.

"Dammit!" Beelzebumon grumbles when he misses again, his shots embedding in the ground uselessly. "Waste of good ammo."

"It is as if he laughs at us," Shinsuke says, dark eyes still searching, darting around rapidly. He sees another flash of white and tenses. "Move!" He lunges forward and pushes at Ziggler, feeling the sharp singe of electricity behind him, and when he turns instinctively to look, Bio Coatlmon is there, briefly, their eyes lock and then it's gone, but it's enough for Shinsuke to finally know what they're fighting.

Despite its form being digital, there's still a human glint to its gaze, and Shinsuke swallows, absolutely unnerved by such a thing. "How is it possible?" he murmurs, looking up at Apollomon, unable to imagine the mindset that would lead someone to make this decision, to be a pivotal part of another digimon's evolution, effectively losing a big piece of oneself in the process. Why would someone do that? Jealousy? Greed? Need for power that overwhelming?

More blasts of electricity slam into the ground around them, and Shinsuke closes his eyes, desperate for some way to locate the creature, try to put an end to this. "Come on," he mutters to himself, allowing his body to go slack, to let his arms rest at his hips, trying to focus with his other senses- hearing, smelling, feeling... the sharp twist of electricity curves over his mind, and he gasps, immediately turning. "Apollomon!"

Bio Coatlmon has barely landed, electricity blasting from its body, when Apollomon is on top of him, flame sizzling through the creature's electric attack, Apollomon raining punches down upon him. A cry of pain bursts from Bio Coatlmon as Apollomon's strikes land, and Shinsuke even has to pause at just how human it sounds. Apollomon hesitates only a second and it's enough, Bio Coatlmon disappearing once more.

"It really is human," John mutters and Shinsuke nods grimly.

"It is," he confirms lowly.

"When we delete Bio Coatlmon, that'll... kill the person within, won't it?" Mike asks slowly, not flinching when John looks over at him.

"More than likely, as it seems they've been as one form for a very long time," Shinsuke admits. Mike sighs and looks away, a heaviness to his gaze that ordinarily isn't there. "I wish there were another way, but it appears there is not."

The words have barely left his lips when another blast of electricity lands very, very close to where Ziggler is standing and he yelps, Beelzebumon immediately aiming his gun and landing a few rapid shots, Bio Coatlmon letting out another, pained yell before disappearing once more. "I think it's slowed down a little," Ziggler says breathlessly, hair looking even more frizzy than usual with the closeness of that attack. "We were actually able to see it that time."

"Apollomon's attack maybe damaged it enough," Shinsuke muses, looking over at his partner.

Justimon notices him next, lunging forward and striking Bio Coatlmon with an energy infused fist, watching him spiral away before regaining control of his body's momentum and moving at a speed that's almost visible until it's not, Bio Coatlmon once more disappearing from their sight. "He's definitely weakened," Mike confirms.

With weakness comes anger and sloppiness and Shinsuke isn't that surprised when Bio Coatlmon appears once more- wrapping himself around Apollomon and squeezing, more electricity streaking from his body as he prepares to attack. "NOW!" Shinsuke commands, and Justimon and Beelzebumon move forward as Apollomon engulfs his entire form in flames, causing Bio Coatlmon to release him in a roar of pure agony, flames still licking at his skin.

Beelzebumon aims his pistol once more, and Justimon throws another punch, and Bio Coatlmon panics, body twisting around itself as he tries to figure out what, who to attack first. Not that it matters because Apollomon lunges forward, spending the time that Bio Coatlmon was distracted by Beelzebumon and Justimon to form a massive ball of flames, and before Bio Coatlmon can even react, he sends it streaking down towards him.

Bio Coatlmon has no time to respond, is too weakened to move, and only manages to avoid the attack partially, the flames eating through a sizeable part of his serpent like body. His scream of agony is chilling, the digidestined frozen in place as data pours into the air, and drips of blood trail across the ground as Bio Coatlmon drops, limp, at their feet.

"Careful," Shinsuke tells the others simply, shaking his head when they try to move forward. He takes a deep breath and kneels down by the dying digimon, reaching out to stroke its face, perhaps offer a few moments of comfort in its final breaths. "What is your name?" he asks, wondering if it's even possible to reach the human within.

"Bio- Bi..." But the voice is shifting, growing faint and low, becoming a deep, almost melodic voice. A man's voice. "My name is Higeki. Higeki Futatabi." Noticing Shinsuke's frown, the person lets out a faint, sad chuckle. "Yes. Even my parents, perhaps, foresaw this ending for me at birth."

Shinsuke lowers his gaze and continues to touch the man, the digital side all but gone now as Coatlmon fades faster and faster. "Why would you agree to something like this?" he wonders, searching Higeki's eyes.

"I was dying," he explains in a low voice. "An incurable disease that I was born with. Then one day, I suppose the barrier between our two worlds had weakened for whatever reason and there Coatlmon was, in as much need of help as I was. So I agreed to give myself to him, to give him extra power. I barely remember what happened next, how we fused, but when I became aware again, we were one, and I was flying with him around this vast, beautiful world, and I felt so... complete, so strong."

"Why did you attack villages and hurt the residents within?" Shinsuke whispers, looking around at the destruction surrounding them- the wreckage of homes, the torn apart ground.

"Darkness," he says. "It came after us, perhaps it sensed we were different. I don't know. One day, everything was normal, and the next, it wasn't. I had no control, I could feel Coatlmon trying to fight but failing against the incessant power warping the core of his data. We didn't want to hurt anyone." His voice wavers, tears filling the wide blue eyes that still look so human. "Coatlmon is gone," he whispers, awe and pain filling his gaze as the digital form dissipates entirely and leaves just him, a fading human body that Shinsuke holds onto, memorizing his face, the color of his hair, trying to hold onto something, anything, that perhaps he could tell someone back on earth.

Higeki coughs, his hand fluttering against Shinsuke's arm. "My family," he breathes out, a sad kind of yearning in his voice. "I have been here for so long... They must have forgotten me by now."

Shinsuke hums, not quite ready to give up on his idea yet. "Not necessarily," he tells him. "Time is an odd construct in this world."

"Everything is- is an odd-" Higeki's voice weakens further and he gasps as his body grows even more translucent, Shinsuke leaning closer and holding onto him tighter. "Tha- thank you. Thank you for staying with me. I... I don't deserve your kindness," he murmurs.

Shinsuke exhales. "Yes you do," he says softly. "You weren't evil, you were merely controlled by outside forces."

"Coatlmon," Higeki whispers, his gaze wandering from Shinsuke's face. "Will I see him again, do you think? We were together for so long... he never held my weakness against me... He was... a true friend."

Before Shinsuke can answer, Higeki fades even more and Shinsuke is barely holding onto an outline of the man. "Yes," he breathes. "I'm sure you will see him once again."

What remains of Higeki smiles and then is gone, Shinsuke slowly letting his hands rest against the ground. John, Mike and Dolph hover nearby, but they all remain still, and silent, giving him a moment.

He closes his eyes and breathes in and out, digging his fingers into the dirt, before standing up. "Higeki," he whispers, imprinting the man's name and appearance to memory once more. A determined look on his face, he turns to the others. "Let's go home."

He has a fair amount of research ahead of him.